ARS POET'ICA (The Poetic Art). A discus sion of dramatic poetry by Horace, called also EPISTLE TO THE Pisos. in it Horace develops the laws of dramatic composition, and adds sug gestions and comments from his own experience.
ART (Lat. ars). Broadly speaking, the word art stands for any object produced by the mind and hand of min; that which is not imme diately a product of nature; that which is arti ficial, which is opposed to the natural, in the creation of which human skill has intervened. The shaft of a tree is natural ; shaped as a ship's mast, and perhaps further ornamented, it has entered a low grade of art, the material grade, and has become useful. In the present discussion the word art is used in the sense of fine art, as opposed to the useful and industrial arts, and its end, unlike, those, is to give pleasure. The kind of pleasure must, however, be somewhat closely defined, for its range and quality are not without certain limitations. For perhaps greater clearness it may be well to contrast the province of 'rine art' with examples of other pleasure giving activities of the human mind, and of the lesser industrial arts. The appliances of science, light-producing, heat-producing, sound-transpo•t ing agencies, the results of meehanieal or indus trial arts, contribute to the pleasure, comfort, and sociability of life; but they are the result of applied and scientific principles and of the exact sciences, and for their appreciation do not call for that particular quality of pleasurable mental effort which the contemplation, and knowledge, and enjoyment of pure beauty exacts end affords. There are many pleasures of which our human economy is susceptible, but which may not be ranked among the pleasures of art (see _ESTHETICS) ; for the word art under this head is confined more strictly to its expression in painting and sculpture.
Art is perhaps entitled to be deemed the highest factor in civilized life, because it is the most unselfish. Sight is the sense it appeals to chiefly, but it is only that through this sense it may reach the mind; so it is a mistake to think that seulpture and painting end with vis ual enjoyment merely. There are higher and less high emotions to which art appeals, and it is the perceptible exercise of rare judgment and of taste that stamps a so-called work of art 'fine.' There are pictures existing, and examples even of musical composition, betraying a mind of such puerile character that the fact that they have been produced in obedience to the technical exac tions of these respective arts in no way warrants them in being called line.' Fine art. consists not merely in technical address; and yet there is a certain perfection of virtuosity so intelligent, displaying such a rectitude of taste, and sneh a refined instinct for the fitness of things. that it is pleasure-giving to the degree of becoming :es thetic. Through "the happy and dexterous way in which a thing slight in itself is handled" it may become an object of 'line art.' Material subjects also may serve as acceptable themes for the tine arts, if treated with such fitness that they do not offend the wsthetie sense. Veronese apotheosized the subject of feasting. a low and material theme in itself. His, or any painter's,
success in problems of this kind is a sign of the artist. True artists perceive the limitations of t heir art and never overstep them and, indeed, fine art has to-day become synonymous with the exercise of line taste in many della rtments of mental effort and individual handicraft.
it is very evident that the production of a work of high art which requires great abstraction of mind could never have occurred in the early and savage period of the human rare. That was a period of self-preservation and a fight for mere existence. As time went on and life became more complex, there was leisure for the mind to em ploy itself in other matters; and with the com plete emancipation of the human intellect, such as exists to-day. there has come an imperative demand for expression in it that is as potent as that of uttered speech—the beautiful and universal language of art. In painting, its vocabulary is form and color; but these, in fine art, must he so used as to express the ideas and emotions excited in the artist by tlfings seen. Imitation merely will not do this. so the artist must make use of seen things to denote certain attitudes of mind and emotions of the south. A work of art must not so far stray from truthful representation as to irritate the mind of the beholder by its offenses against structural truth. but, on the other hand, art is not achieved through strict imitation. Art is many-sided— the cesthetic sensibilities are touched in such a variety of ways that it is somewhat difficult to fix definitely the channels through which painting and sculpture may legitimately reach the human mind and still rest within the limitations that these mediums exact on the part of the producer. It is certain, however, that the beholder of a painting or statue should receive the impression of .,a mind employing the materials of a particular craft with perfect control and judgment. of a mind dominated by such taste that the language —that is to say, the medium used—is made to voice ideas that are better expressed by such means than by any other. llcnee, the objection to so-called 'literary' art, or 'story-telling' art, in pigment and in clay. Subjects which arc more effectively rendered through verbal form. and which, to be understood pictorially, require a page of explanatory notes. are not so pleasure giving, in the graphic arts. as those which imme diately strike the mind, through the eye, by their elevation of sentiment and the opportunity they afford the artist for nohle lines and charming qualities of paint. Both these arts ;tre, as has been said. imitative; but the true artist recog nizes in the exercise of his craft to what point his imitation of nature may legitimately carry him. This knowledge may be revealed to him by the consideration of the class of emotions it is his intention to excite. Consult: Barris. Throry of the Arts (London, IS1?91 Frothingham. in American Journal of A relocoloyy. vol. IX. ( SB4 Taint.. Uri arcs on ri New fork. 11499 ) ; La nge, Das These?? der Kunst (Berlin, 1901) ; von lin nowski. Selain ferisrhe Kunst (Leipzig, 1902) ; Noyes. The En joyment of ...I rt (Boston. 1903) . See also the Biblioyraphy of .ESTIIETICS.