DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0021
Introduction
11
Since a perfect standard of form can be attained only in a
highly developed and perfectly controlled technique there must be
an intimate relation between technique and a feeling for beauty.
It might be said that achievement is irrelevant as long as the
ideal of beauty for which the would-be artist strives is in existence,
although on account of imperfect technique he may be unable to
attain it. Alois Riegl expresses this idea by saying that the will to
produce an esthetic result is the essence of artistic work. The truth
of this assertion may be admitted and undoubtedly many individuals
strive for expression of an esthetic impulse without being able to
realize it. What they are striving for presupposes the existence of
an ideal form which the unskilled muscles are unable to express
adequately. The intuitive feeling for form must be present. So far
as our knowledge of the works of art of primitive people extends
the feeling for form is inextricably bound up with technical expe-
rience. Nature does not seem to present formal ideals,—that is
fixed types that are imitated,—except when a natural object is used
in daily life; when it is handled, perhaps modified, by technical
processes. It would seem that only in this way form impresses
itself upon the human mind. The very fact that the manufactures
of man in each and every part of the world have pronounced style
proves that a feeling for form develops with technical activities.
There is nothing to show that the mere contemplation of nature or
of natural objects develops a sense of fixed form. Neither have
we any proof that a definite stylistic form develops as a product
purely of the power of the imagination of the workman, unguided
by his technical experience which brings the form into his conscious-
ness. It is conceivable that elementary esthetic forms like symmetry
and rhythm, are not entirely dependent upon technical activities; but
these are common to all art styles; they are not specifically charac-
teristic of any particular region. Without stability of form of objects,
manufactured or in common use, there is no style; and stability of
form depends upon the development of a high technique, or in a
few cases on the constant use of the same kind of natural products.
11
Since a perfect standard of form can be attained only in a
highly developed and perfectly controlled technique there must be
an intimate relation between technique and a feeling for beauty.
It might be said that achievement is irrelevant as long as the
ideal of beauty for which the would-be artist strives is in existence,
although on account of imperfect technique he may be unable to
attain it. Alois Riegl expresses this idea by saying that the will to
produce an esthetic result is the essence of artistic work. The truth
of this assertion may be admitted and undoubtedly many individuals
strive for expression of an esthetic impulse without being able to
realize it. What they are striving for presupposes the existence of
an ideal form which the unskilled muscles are unable to express
adequately. The intuitive feeling for form must be present. So far
as our knowledge of the works of art of primitive people extends
the feeling for form is inextricably bound up with technical expe-
rience. Nature does not seem to present formal ideals,—that is
fixed types that are imitated,—except when a natural object is used
in daily life; when it is handled, perhaps modified, by technical
processes. It would seem that only in this way form impresses
itself upon the human mind. The very fact that the manufactures
of man in each and every part of the world have pronounced style
proves that a feeling for form develops with technical activities.
There is nothing to show that the mere contemplation of nature or
of natural objects develops a sense of fixed form. Neither have
we any proof that a definite stylistic form develops as a product
purely of the power of the imagination of the workman, unguided
by his technical experience which brings the form into his conscious-
ness. It is conceivable that elementary esthetic forms like symmetry
and rhythm, are not entirely dependent upon technical activities; but
these are common to all art styles; they are not specifically charac-
teristic of any particular region. Without stability of form of objects,
manufactured or in common use, there is no style; and stability of
form depends upon the development of a high technique, or in a
few cases on the constant use of the same kind of natural products.