The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

Painting, or art generally, as such, with all its technicalities, difficulties, and

particular ends, is nothing but a noble and expressive language, invaluable as

the vehicle of thought, but by itself nothing. He who has learned what is

commonly considered the whole art of painting, that is, the art of representing

any natural object faithfully, has as yet only learned the language by which

his thoughts are to be expressed. He has done just as much towards being that

which we ought to respect as a great painter, as a man who has learnt how to

express himself grammatically and melodiously has towards being a great poet.

The language is, indeed, more difficult of acquirement in the one case than

in the other, and possesses more power of delighting the sense, while it speaks

to the intellect; but it is, nevertheless, nothing more than language, and all

those excellences which are peculiar to the painter as such, are merely what

rhythm, melody, precision, and force are in the words of the orator and the

poet, necessary to their greatness, but not the tests of their greatness. It is not

by the mode of representing and saying, but by what is represented and said,

that the respective greatness either of the painter or the writer is to be finally

determined.

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'"S o that, if I say that the greatest picture is that which conveys to the

mind of the spectator the greatest number of the greatest ideas, I have a def

inition which will include as subjects of comparison every pleasure which art

is capable of conveying. If I were to say, on the contrary, that the best picture

was that which most closely imitated nature, I should assume that art could

only please by imitating nature; and I should cast out of the pale2 of criticism

those parts of works of art which are not imitative, that is to say, intrinsic

beauties of color and form, and those works of art wholly, which, like the

Arabesques of Raffaelle in the Loggias,3 are not imitative at all. Now, I want

1. From vol. 1, part 1, section 1, chap. 2. 1520), were decorative wall paintings that featured 2. Beyond the notice or attention. a complex pattern of leaves, animals, and human 3. The arabesques in the Loggia of the Vatican, figures. designed by the Italian painter Raphael (1483�

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MODERN PAINTERS / 1321

a definition of art wide enough to include all its varieties of aim. I do not say, therefore, that the art is greatest which gives most pleasure, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to teach, and not to please. I do not say that the art is greatest which teaches us most, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to please, and not to teach. I do not say that the art is greatest which imitates best, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to create and not to imitate. But I say that the art is greatest which conveys to the mind of the spectator, by any means whatsoever, the greatest number of the greatest ideas; and I call an idea great in proportion as it is received by a higher faculty of the mind, and as it more fully occupies, and in occupying, exercises and exalts, the faculty by which it is received.

If this, then, be the definition of great art, that of a great artist naturally follows. He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

["the slave ship"]4