DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0211
‘LECTURES ON ART.’
199
purpose against which there may be some rebellion even
in a mind never subject to the fashion of a now departing
day. Here, as before, such a mind may appeal, against
Ruskin’s phrase, to the separate art of music. “ To
make a beautiful thing ” is not, however, a sufficient
amendment of that phrase, in as much as “ the forma-
tion of an actually beautiful thing ” is involved by Ruskin
in the act of art. One thing is certain—that it is not
by way of dishonour to art that he would have art
subservient, but for the advantage of its essential vitality
and of its particular skill. Of vitality he is the best
judge in the world. Of human skill he charges the
whole world of these three hundred years past with
taking not too much but too little heed.
“ We have lost our delight in Skill; in that majesty
of it . . . which long ago I tried to express, under the
head of ‘ ideas of power.’ . . . All the joy and rever-
ence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man’s work
have ceased in us. We keep them yet a little in looking
at a honeycomb or a bird’s nest; we understand that
these differ, by divinity of skill, from a lump of wax or
a cluster of sticks.”
It is in the lecture on the relation of art to use,
moreover, that the reader finds this splendid passage on
Reynolds :—
“ He rejoices in showing you his skill; and those of
you who succeed in learning what painter’s work really
is, will one day rejoice also, even to laughter—that
highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in watch-
ing the fortitude and fire of a hand which strikes forth
199
purpose against which there may be some rebellion even
in a mind never subject to the fashion of a now departing
day. Here, as before, such a mind may appeal, against
Ruskin’s phrase, to the separate art of music. “ To
make a beautiful thing ” is not, however, a sufficient
amendment of that phrase, in as much as “ the forma-
tion of an actually beautiful thing ” is involved by Ruskin
in the act of art. One thing is certain—that it is not
by way of dishonour to art that he would have art
subservient, but for the advantage of its essential vitality
and of its particular skill. Of vitality he is the best
judge in the world. Of human skill he charges the
whole world of these three hundred years past with
taking not too much but too little heed.
“ We have lost our delight in Skill; in that majesty
of it . . . which long ago I tried to express, under the
head of ‘ ideas of power.’ . . . All the joy and rever-
ence we ought to feel in looking at a strong man’s work
have ceased in us. We keep them yet a little in looking
at a honeycomb or a bird’s nest; we understand that
these differ, by divinity of skill, from a lump of wax or
a cluster of sticks.”
It is in the lecture on the relation of art to use,
moreover, that the reader finds this splendid passage on
Reynolds :—
“ He rejoices in showing you his skill; and those of
you who succeed in learning what painter’s work really
is, will one day rejoice also, even to laughter—that
highest laughter which springs of pure delight, in watch-
ing the fortitude and fire of a hand which strikes forth