DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0062
SENSIBILITY
We seem, then, to have got some sort of solid ground for making the
distinction between the feeling expressed in the design and that ex-
pressed in the execution. We must always remember that, theoretically
at least, the design is conceived in terms of its appropriate texture and
that in a perfect work of art the texture is always supporting and carry-
ing out the design. But, as I say, we have enough grounds for making
the distinction; and, in the art of painting, we have an easy proof of the
possible separation of the two in the case of a copy. The copy may well
have exactly the design of the original. All that pertains to invention
and planning will be identical in the two. Only in the original the
execution will show the sensibility in texture of the creator, whereas in
the copy another man’s sensibility will have been substituted for it.
We assume in general, perhaps too rashly, that this will inflict serious
loss in the realization of the idea, but we ought to admit the possibility
of a copy being actually a better work of art than the original. This
would certainly occur if the sensibility for texture of the copyist happened
to be more fitted to express the design than that of the creator. I can,
I think, even point to such cases.
It is curious to note that the copy of a picture corresponds almost
exactly to the performance of a symphony. It is rather surprising to
reflect that in music we are almost always dealing with copies. The fact
that this rather shocks us shows how great a stress we lay in painting on
the artist’s sensibility of texture.
Let us try to get a little clearer on this question by taking a case
rather more complicated than that of the ruled and drawn straight line,
but still a very simple one. We will consider the printed page versus the
written page (2).
In print we have the expression of the sensibility of the designer of
the type in his choice of the proportions of each letter, and his sensi-
bility to their possible combinations. Then we have the sensibility of
the printer shown in the spacing of the words and lines. Our aesthetic
pleasure therefore comes from what we may call by analogy the
architectural feeling of the type-cutter and printer. In the formal
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We seem, then, to have got some sort of solid ground for making the
distinction between the feeling expressed in the design and that ex-
pressed in the execution. We must always remember that, theoretically
at least, the design is conceived in terms of its appropriate texture and
that in a perfect work of art the texture is always supporting and carry-
ing out the design. But, as I say, we have enough grounds for making
the distinction; and, in the art of painting, we have an easy proof of the
possible separation of the two in the case of a copy. The copy may well
have exactly the design of the original. All that pertains to invention
and planning will be identical in the two. Only in the original the
execution will show the sensibility in texture of the creator, whereas in
the copy another man’s sensibility will have been substituted for it.
We assume in general, perhaps too rashly, that this will inflict serious
loss in the realization of the idea, but we ought to admit the possibility
of a copy being actually a better work of art than the original. This
would certainly occur if the sensibility for texture of the copyist happened
to be more fitted to express the design than that of the creator. I can,
I think, even point to such cases.
It is curious to note that the copy of a picture corresponds almost
exactly to the performance of a symphony. It is rather surprising to
reflect that in music we are almost always dealing with copies. The fact
that this rather shocks us shows how great a stress we lay in painting on
the artist’s sensibility of texture.
Let us try to get a little clearer on this question by taking a case
rather more complicated than that of the ruled and drawn straight line,
but still a very simple one. We will consider the printed page versus the
written page (2).
In print we have the expression of the sensibility of the designer of
the type in his choice of the proportions of each letter, and his sensi-
bility to their possible combinations. Then we have the sensibility of
the printer shown in the spacing of the words and lines. Our aesthetic
pleasure therefore comes from what we may call by analogy the
architectural feeling of the type-cutter and printer. In the formal
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