DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.870#0013
Y
profession, nor is it consonant with the established courtesy of refined society, to express that dissent
in harsh and ungracious terms.
It is the interest of art to propitiate the gentler feelings of the mind by mild suggestion and
temperate representation, not to disgust and alienate by the impertinence of dictation, or the rancour
of malevolence.
That prejudices exist in all matters of taste cannot be denied, but it is no part of the pursuit
of truth and science to flatter prejudices, however ancient their origin, or exalted their station. The
human mind, in its perpetual search of novelty, but too often forsakes the plain and beaten path
of nature; disregarding truths the most obvious for the mistaken gratification of wandering in
the labyrinths of doubt and obscurity. Thus it is with art, and hence has arisen that pedantic
jargon of terms and rules adopted by those who, under the garb of scientific profundity, attempt
to conceal ignorance and inability, by throwing the veil of mystery over principles which are
naturally as clear and perceptible as the sun at noon-day. Hence also that unaccountable preference
which is sometimes bestowed on works that have no other claim to attention, than the incongruity
of their conception and the extravagance of their execution. Extravagance in design must ever
be a violation of nature, and will produce that singularity of style which, in the language of
art, is termed manner. But it is the peculiar excellence of these matchless relics, that they are so
chaste and so faithful to nature, that it needs but the Promethean fire to bring them into life and
motion; and so wholly devoid are they of manner, that at a first view they fail to strike the eye with
that wonder, which is generally excited by surveying works of an overcharged description ; and some
b 2
profession, nor is it consonant with the established courtesy of refined society, to express that dissent
in harsh and ungracious terms.
It is the interest of art to propitiate the gentler feelings of the mind by mild suggestion and
temperate representation, not to disgust and alienate by the impertinence of dictation, or the rancour
of malevolence.
That prejudices exist in all matters of taste cannot be denied, but it is no part of the pursuit
of truth and science to flatter prejudices, however ancient their origin, or exalted their station. The
human mind, in its perpetual search of novelty, but too often forsakes the plain and beaten path
of nature; disregarding truths the most obvious for the mistaken gratification of wandering in
the labyrinths of doubt and obscurity. Thus it is with art, and hence has arisen that pedantic
jargon of terms and rules adopted by those who, under the garb of scientific profundity, attempt
to conceal ignorance and inability, by throwing the veil of mystery over principles which are
naturally as clear and perceptible as the sun at noon-day. Hence also that unaccountable preference
which is sometimes bestowed on works that have no other claim to attention, than the incongruity
of their conception and the extravagance of their execution. Extravagance in design must ever
be a violation of nature, and will produce that singularity of style which, in the language of
art, is termed manner. But it is the peculiar excellence of these matchless relics, that they are so
chaste and so faithful to nature, that it needs but the Promethean fire to bring them into life and
motion; and so wholly devoid are they of manner, that at a first view they fail to strike the eye with
that wonder, which is generally excited by surveying works of an overcharged description ; and some
b 2