Beauty & Art - A Collection of Essays

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Vernon Lee. Beauty & Art - A Collection of Essays

BEAUTY & ART

Contents

Vernon Lee

THE USE. OF BEAUTY. 1909. I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X. PARENTHETICAL

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

A. PSYCHOLOGICAL. ART FANCY. 1881

A STUDY OF. ARTISTIC PERSONALITY. 1881

BEAUTY AND SANITY. 1909. I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

ART AND. USEFULNESS. 1909

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

TUSCAN SCULPTURE. 1895. I

II

III

THE BEAUTIFUL. AN INTRODUCTION. TO PSYCHOLOGICAL AESTHETICS. 1913. THE ADJECTIVE "BEAUTIFUL"

CONTEMPLATIVE SATISFACTION

ASPECTS VERSUS THINGS

SENSATIONS

PERCEPTION OF RELATIONS

ELEMENTS OF SHAPE

FACILITY AND DIFFICULTY OF GRASPING

SUBJECT AND OBJECT

EMPATHY

THE MOVEMENT OF LINES

THE CHARACTER OF SHAPES

FROM THE SHAPE TO THE THING

FROM THE THING TO THE SHAPE

THE AIMS OF ART

ATTENTION TO SHAPES

INFORMATION ABOUT THINGS

THE CO-OPERATION OF THINGS AND SHAPES

AESTHETIC RESPONSIVENESS

THE STORAGE AND TRANSFER OF EMOTION

AESTHETIC IRRADIATION AND PURIFICATION

CONCLUSION (EVOLUTIONAL)

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A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS

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If so many people prefer poor art to great, 'tis because they refuse to give, through inability or unwillingness, as much of their soul as great art requires for its enjoyment. And it is noticeable that busy men, coming to art for pleasure when they are too weary for looking, listening, or thinking, so often prefer the sensation-novel, the music-hall song, and such painting as is but a costlier kind of oleograph; treating all other art as humbug, and art in general as a trifle wherewith to wile away a lazy moment, a trifle about which every man can know what he likes best.

Thus it is that great art makes, by coincidence, the same demands as noble thinking and acting. For, even as all noble sports develop muscle, develop eye, skill, quickness and pluck in bodily movement, qualities which are valuable also in the practical business of life; so also the appreciation of noble kinds of art implies the acquisition of habits of accuracy, of patience, of respectfulness, and suspension of judgment, of preference of future good over present, of harmony and clearness, of sympathy (when we come to literary art), judgment and kindly fairness, which are all of them useful to our neighbours and ourselves in the many contingencies and obscurities of real life. Now this is not so with the pleasures of the senses: the pleasures of the senses do not increase by sharing, and sometimes cannot be shared at all; they are, moreover, evanescent, leaving us no richer; above all, they cultivate in ourselves qualities useful only for that particular enjoyment. Thus, a highly discriminating palate may have saved the life of animals and savages, but what can its subtleness do nowadays beyond making us into gormandisers and winebibbers, or, at best, into cooks and tasters for the service of gormandising and winebibbing persons?

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