i74 77z£ Work of Art as Significant part ii
Remains,—‘Art standeth firmly fixed in Nature, and whoso
can rend her forth thence, he only possesseth her,’1 It
would be impossible to express more tersely and with more
truth the essential principle of the imitative arts. The
phrase is a text upon which the whole history of these arts
is a commentary. Ever since painting and sculpture,
ceasing to be merely ‘ decorative,’ became arts of expression
dealing in independence with their themes, their exponents
have been, consciously or unconsciously, struggling to accom-
plish what Diirer calls the ‘rending forth’ of Art from Nature.
Nature to so many has remained closed and silent, and to so
few has yielded up her intimate secret of beauty ! Yet the
artist does well to be unwearied in his importunity, for to
win even a little is a priceless gain, and a piece of art that
in any way reveals the hidden significance of Nature’s loveli-
ness has gifted the world with a new and lasting delight.
§ 113. The Language of Art.
The painter who can accomplish this has learned to use
the '■language of Art? ‘Art is a language,’ exclaimed
Jean Frangois Millet, ‘and language is made to express
thought.’ Now the artist can ‘think’ without a process of
reasoning, and become eloquent without using any form of
words. This is true of painting as of the other arts. Alfred
Stevens says in one place : ‘ In the art of painting one must
before everything be a painter : the thinker only comes
in afterwards,’ but in. another : ‘ A true painter is a thinker
all the time.’ He protests that ‘A sparkle of light thrown
on an accessory by a Dutch or Flemish painter, is more
than a skilful stroke of the brush, it is a touch of mind.’2
Again, Eugene Fromentin—whose book upon the painting
1 Cambridge, University Press, 1889, p. 182.
2 Impressions, etc, Nos. LXIII. CCV. CXXIX.