DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43161#0017
9
acquired taste will create a relish for higher excellencies, enabling him
“ To snatch, a grace beyond the reach of art.”
It is not meant to decry or discountenance rules: much always depends upon
them : they are the scaffolding by which to raise the fabric. “ Could we, indeed,
teach taste or genius by rules, they would be, as has been remarked, no longer
taste and genius.” Feeling and principles must co-operate and proceed hand-
in-hand : the union of both is necessary to that superiority which neither of
them, unaided by the other, can ever produce.
Definitions are said to be always dangerous, but if the remark may be
hazarded, taste seems to be the power or faculty of distinguishing beauty from
deformity, in art and Nature. It is the preference which a rightly constituted
mind gives, as it were, intuitively, to one object, or colour, or composition, above
another. This preference, or selection of the graceful and beautiful from the
bald and defective, may be called the art of seeing Nature; as the peculiar
attributes of excellence must be felt, and cannot be acquired by mere perseverance
in drawing, or even by a thorough acquaintance with the rules of art. Nor is
taste attained by the bare examination of Nature, or studying theories of art.
Works of talent must not be overlooked, but carefully studied; the eye and
the judgment must be exercised by repeatedly inspecting the best specimens of
the best masters, and cultivating an intimate acquaintance with their excellencies,
by which discipline, the mind becomes elevated to a high state of refinement.
Such as are well instructed in the school of great names, and most conversant
with their productions, learn to think something like them, and feel a kindling
of that fire which pre-eminently distinguishes them from others *
Taste is, probably, in some degree constitutional, and common to all; but is it not generally the
progressive, though, perhaps, imperceptible result of experience? By comparison alone do we ever
arrive at the knowledge of what is accurate and most perfect in its kind.
C
acquired taste will create a relish for higher excellencies, enabling him
“ To snatch, a grace beyond the reach of art.”
It is not meant to decry or discountenance rules: much always depends upon
them : they are the scaffolding by which to raise the fabric. “ Could we, indeed,
teach taste or genius by rules, they would be, as has been remarked, no longer
taste and genius.” Feeling and principles must co-operate and proceed hand-
in-hand : the union of both is necessary to that superiority which neither of
them, unaided by the other, can ever produce.
Definitions are said to be always dangerous, but if the remark may be
hazarded, taste seems to be the power or faculty of distinguishing beauty from
deformity, in art and Nature. It is the preference which a rightly constituted
mind gives, as it were, intuitively, to one object, or colour, or composition, above
another. This preference, or selection of the graceful and beautiful from the
bald and defective, may be called the art of seeing Nature; as the peculiar
attributes of excellence must be felt, and cannot be acquired by mere perseverance
in drawing, or even by a thorough acquaintance with the rules of art. Nor is
taste attained by the bare examination of Nature, or studying theories of art.
Works of talent must not be overlooked, but carefully studied; the eye and
the judgment must be exercised by repeatedly inspecting the best specimens of
the best masters, and cultivating an intimate acquaintance with their excellencies,
by which discipline, the mind becomes elevated to a high state of refinement.
Such as are well instructed in the school of great names, and most conversant
with their productions, learn to think something like them, and feel a kindling
of that fire which pre-eminently distinguishes them from others *
Taste is, probably, in some degree constitutional, and common to all; but is it not generally the
progressive, though, perhaps, imperceptible result of experience? By comparison alone do we ever
arrive at the knowledge of what is accurate and most perfect in its kind.
C