The representation of space, which painting alone of all the arts can
achieve, does not imply, however, a representation of the full plastic
quality of individual objects, which is the function of sculpture.
This, to be sure, can be done in painting, as the great
sculptor-painters of the Renaissance have shown; but it cannot be done
so well as in sculpture; and when done tends to interfere with other
things. It makes objects stand out too much by themselves, destroying
their felt unity with other elements on the canvas, so that when
provided with all the colors of life, they seem rather real than
painted, and look as if they wished to leave the world of
representation, where they belong, and touch hands with the spectator.
The depth and the extent of space, the distance and the distribution
of objects, light and shade and air, are all independent of the
plasticity of individual things, which tends to disappear in proportion
as they are emphasized. Only when attention is directed to the
individual object does its full plasticity appear; see it as an element
of the environing whole, and it flattens out to view.
There are, in fact, two ways of seeing, to each of which corresponds
a mode of painting. On the one hand, we may see distributively, holding
objects as individuals each in our attention, neglecting light and
space and air. Or else we may see synthetically, first the whole which
light and space and air compose, and then individual things as bearers
of these.
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