"
Even with this there is not associated a melancholy feeling alone;
for, although the object was mistaken, yet there is evinced a
consciousness of purpose definite and most elevated; and again, we
must remember, as a great cause of this effect, that the Arts were,
for the most part, cleric, and not laic, or at least were under the
predominant influence of the clergy, who were the most important
patrons by far, and their houses the safest receptacles for the works
of the great painter.
The modern artist does not retire to monasteries, or practise
discipline; but he may show his participation in the same high
feeling by a firm attachment to truth in every point of
representation, which is the most just method. For how can good be
sought by evil means, or by falsehood, or by slight in any degree? By
a determination to represent the thing and the whole of the thing, by
training himself to the deepest observation of its fact and detail,
enabling himself to reproduce, as far as possible, nature herself,
the painter will best evince his share of faith.
It is by this attachment to truth in its most severe form that the
followers of the Arts have to show that they share in the peculiar
character of the present age,--a humility of knowledge, a diffidence
of attainment; for, as Emerson has well observed,
"The time is infected with Hamlet's unhappiness,--
'Sicklied o'er with the the pale cast of thought.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160