The attempt to reconcile the artistic_ with the true—art with nature—has given birth to a peculiar school, in whose productions a restraint is put upon the 'flights of pure imagination, and which claims the merit of informing the mind as to the realities of the world, while gratifyinm the various emotions of taste. Instead of the tales of Fairyland, the Arabian Nights, and the Romances of Chivalry, we have the modern novelist, with his pictures of living men and manners. In painting, we have natural scenery, build ings, men, and animals represented with scrupulous exactness. The sculptor and the painter exercise the. vocation of producing portraits that shall hand down to future ages the precise lineaments of the men and women of their generation; hence, the study of nature has become an element hi artistic education; and the artist often speaks as if the exhibition of truth were his leading purpose. It is probably this endeavor to subject the imagination more strictly to the conditions of truth and reality, that has caused the singular inversion whereby the definition of science is made the definition of art.
But while fidelity, in the imitative class of arts, is to be looked upon, in the first instance, as avoiding a stumbling-block rather than constituting a charm, there are still certain ways wherein we derive from it a sort of pleasure that may be called festhetic. We feel drawn by fellow-feeling towards one who has attended to the same objects as ourselves, or who has seized'aud put into vivid prominence what we have felt without ever having expressed. The coincidence of mind with mind is always productive of the agreeable effect of mutual sympathy, and, in some circumstances, there is an additional effect of pleasing surprise. Thus, when an artist not merely produces in his picture those features of the original that strike every one, but includes all the minuter objects that escape the notice of generality, we sympathize with his attention, we admire his powers of observation, and become, as it were, his pupils, in extending our study and knowledge of nature and life. We feel a pungent surprise at discovering, for the first time, what has been before our eyes; and so the minute school of artists labor at this species of effects. Moreover, we are brought. forward as judges of the execution of a distinct purpose; we have to see whether lie that is bent on imitation does his work well or ill; and if our verdict is favorable, our admiration is excited accordingly. There is, too, a certain exciting effect in the reproduction of some appearance in a foreign material, as when a plain surface is made to yield the impression of solid effect, and canvas or stone imitates living humanity. Finally, the sentiment of reality and truth, as opposed to fiction or falsehood, appealing to our practical urgencies, disposes us to assign a value to every work in which truth is strongly aimed at, and to derive an additional satisfaction when fidelity of is induced upon the charms peculiar to A. Thus imitation—
which, properly is a mere accident attaching to sculpture, painting, and poetry, and has no place in music or architecture—may become the center of a small group of agreeable or acceptable effects. These effects are the more prized, that we have been surfeited with the purely aesthetic ideals. We turn refreshed from the middle-age romance to the graphic novel of our own time.
Besides being a source of pleasure, art is frequently spoken of as having an elevating and refining influence on the mind and character; for which reason it is considered a proper object of public encouragement in civilized communities. This circumstance is owing to the higher nature of artistic pleasure as above described, the taste for which helps to rescue mankind from the exclusive dominion of sensual and selfish enjoyments. At the same time, we must admit that the devotion to art may be itself excessive, and have the effect of withdrawing men too much from the urgency of practical life, render ing them a prey to political despotism, as well as indifferent to moral principles. Instances are not wanting to justify this remark.
See Dugald Stewart's ,Phiksophica/ Essays, Part II., and Bain on the Emotions and the llqn r. 24/.
ART, TIrsrony or. The history of the origin and development, growth and decline of beautiful artistic forms, constitutes a portion of the history of civilization. As regards each particular people, the history of their efforts to conceive and express absolute per fection, or what is commonly called ideal beauty, in form and color, is, with the single exception of the history of their speculative opinions, the most reliable test of the stage of progress which they have attained. Nor is it as an indication of their command over Physical nature, of the abundance of their external resources, or even of their intellectual activity alone, that the history of the art of a people is thus important. It determines their moral, and even, in a certain sense, their religious position, for the inseparable con nection between the beautiful and the good is in no way more clearly manifested than in the fact that the first inroads of demoralization and social disorder are invariably indi cated Eby a diminution in the strength and purity of artistic forms. It has been usual to include under the term history of art merely the history of the arts of form, including architecture, but excluding, ofcourse, poetry and music, though these latter; again, are generally included when we speak of the line arts. See ART.