_Christian._ The artist is only a man, and living with other men in a
state of being called society; and,--though perhaps in a lesser
degree--he is as subject to its influences--its fashions and
customs--as they are. But in this respect his failings may be likened
to the dross which the purest metal in its molten state continually
throws up to its surface, but which is mere excrement, and so little
essential that it can be skimmed away: and, as the dross to the
metal, just so little essential are the archaisms you speak of to the
early art, and just so easily can they be cast aside. But bethink
you, Kosmon. Is Hellenic art without archaisms? And that feature of
it held to be its crowning perfection--its head--is not that a very
marked one? And, is it not so completely opposed to the artist's
experience in the forms of nature that--except in subjects from Greek
history and mythology--he dares not use it--at least without
modifying it so as to destroy its Hellenism?
_Sophon._ Then Hellenic Art is like a musical bell with a flaw in it;
before it can be serviceable it must be broken up and recast. If its
sum of beauty--its line of lines, the facial angle, must be
destroyed--as it undoubtedly must,--before it can be used for the
general purposes of art, then its claims over early mediaeval art, in
respect of form, are small indeed.
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