These effects, found by chance perhaps in the
first instance, would later be striven for consciously. In this way,
through some grace of line, or symmetry of form, or harmony of color,
the statue or picture would acquire a power to please quite independent
of any ulterior use or purpose; once more, it would become alive and
of value on its own account.
We shall begin our study of the representative arts with drawing and
painting--representation in two dimensions--not because they preceded
sculpture historically, but because, being more complex arts, a solution
of the problems which they raise makes a subsequent survey of the
similar problems of the simpler art relatively easy.
The media of pictorial expression are color and line, and expression
is attained through them in a twofold fashion. In a picture, every
element of color or line is expressive directly, just as color and
line, of some vague feeling or mood, and, in addition, chiefly through
its resemblance, represents some action or object. The former kind of
expression is indispensable. No matter how realistic the imitation,
unless the picture thrill like music, through its mere colors or lines,
it is aesthetically relatively ineffective. It is not sufficient that
the picture move us through the vicarious presence on the canvas of
a moving object; it must stir us in a more immediate fashion through
the direct appeal of sense. For example, a picture which presents us
with a semblance of the sea will hold us through the power which the
sea has over us; but it will not hold us so fast as a picture of the
same subject which, in addition, grips us through its greens and blues
and wavy lines.
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