DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0020
10
Introduction
true of all products of industrial activity. The daubing of paint, the
whittling of wood or bone, the flaking of stone do not necessarily
lead to results that compel our admiration on account of their
beauty.
Nevertheless, all of them may assume esthetic values. Rhyth-
mical movements of the body or of objects, forms that appeal to
the eye, sequences of tones and forms of speech which please the
ear, produce artistic effects. Muscular, visual and auditory sensa-
tions are the materials that give us esthetic pleasure and that are
used in art.
We may also speak of impressions that appeal to the senses of
smell, taste and touch. A composition of scents, a gastronomical
repast may be called works of art provided they excite pleasurable
sensations.
What then gives to the sensation an esthetic value? When the
technical treatment has attained a certain standard of excellence,
when the control of the processes involved is such that certain
typical forms are produced, we call the process an art, and however
simple the forms may be, they may be judged from the point of
view of formal perfection; industrial pursuits such as cutting, carving,
moulding, weaving; as well as singing, dancing and cooking are
capable of attaining technical excellence and fixed forms. The judg-
ment of perfection of technical form is essentially an esthetic judg-
ment. It is hardly possible to state objectively just where the line
between artistic and pre-artistic forms should be drawn, because we
cannot determine just where the esthetic attitude sets in. It seems
certain, however, that wherever a definite type of movement, a
definite sequence of tones or a fixed form has developed it must
become a standard by which its perfection, that is, its beauty, is
measured.
Such types exist among mankind the world over, and we must
assume that if an unstandardized form should prove to possess an
esthetic appeal for a community it would readily be adopted. Fixity
of form seems to be most intimately connected with our ideas of beauty.
Introduction
true of all products of industrial activity. The daubing of paint, the
whittling of wood or bone, the flaking of stone do not necessarily
lead to results that compel our admiration on account of their
beauty.
Nevertheless, all of them may assume esthetic values. Rhyth-
mical movements of the body or of objects, forms that appeal to
the eye, sequences of tones and forms of speech which please the
ear, produce artistic effects. Muscular, visual and auditory sensa-
tions are the materials that give us esthetic pleasure and that are
used in art.
We may also speak of impressions that appeal to the senses of
smell, taste and touch. A composition of scents, a gastronomical
repast may be called works of art provided they excite pleasurable
sensations.
What then gives to the sensation an esthetic value? When the
technical treatment has attained a certain standard of excellence,
when the control of the processes involved is such that certain
typical forms are produced, we call the process an art, and however
simple the forms may be, they may be judged from the point of
view of formal perfection; industrial pursuits such as cutting, carving,
moulding, weaving; as well as singing, dancing and cooking are
capable of attaining technical excellence and fixed forms. The judg-
ment of perfection of technical form is essentially an esthetic judg-
ment. It is hardly possible to state objectively just where the line
between artistic and pre-artistic forms should be drawn, because we
cannot determine just where the esthetic attitude sets in. It seems
certain, however, that wherever a definite type of movement, a
definite sequence of tones or a fixed form has developed it must
become a standard by which its perfection, that is, its beauty, is
measured.
Such types exist among mankind the world over, and we must
assume that if an unstandardized form should prove to possess an
esthetic appeal for a community it would readily be adopted. Fixity
of form seems to be most intimately connected with our ideas of beauty.