I have in mind Rodin's "Man and His Thought."
If the man were only represented fashioning the figure with his hands,
his hands guided by his thought; but the hands are inactive, and the
figure grows by thought alone! Or consider "The Hand of God" by the
same artist. To say that we are in the hands of God is a good
metaphorical way of expressing our dependence upon the Destiny that
shapes our ends; but it is another thing to exhibit us as actually
enfolded by a hand.
The more sensitive we are to the beauty of the body and of the mind,
so far as manifest through the body, the better content we shall be
with normal sculpture and the less urgently we shall demand symbolism.
Of course all statues may become symbolic, as all works of art may,
in the sense of possessing a universal meaning won by generalizing
their individual significance. Symbolic in this legitimate way were
the statues of the Greek gods; thus Aphrodite, who was lovely, became
Love, and Athena, who was wise, became Wisdom. But there is nothing
arbitrary in such symbolism.
CHAPTER XIII
BEAUTY IN THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS: ARCHITECTURE
In the arts which we have studied so far, beauty has been the sole or
chief end; in the industrial arts, beauty can be only a part of their
total meaning. No matter how much of an artist a builder or a potter
may be, he is necessarily controlled by the practical needs which
houses and pots subserve. This was the original condition of all
artists; for "in the beginning," before life's various aims were
distinguished and pursued in isolation, the beautiful was always married
to some other interest.
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