Part 19 (1/2)

Iue sensory support; that is to say, it is not the unbridled divagation of the fancy aht, color, sounds and impressions; but it is a construction firmly allied to reality; and the more it holds fast to the forms of the external created world, the loftier will the value of its internal creations be Even in iination must be contained within limits which recall those of reality Man creates, but on the model of that divine creation in which he is materially and spiritually ihest order, such as the _Divina Commedia_, we admire the continual recurrence to the s which illustrate by coined:

As doves By fond desire invited, on ings And fir ho; Thus issued froh the ill air speeding

(Carey's translation of Dante's _Inferno_, Canto V)

And as a , 'scaped from sea to shore, Turns to the perilous aste, and stands At gaze; e'en sowith terror, turn'd to view the straits That none hath passed and lived

(Carey's translation of Dante's _Inferno_, Canto I)

As sheep that step from forth their fold by one Or pairs, or three at once;the eye and nose To ground, and what the fore round her if she stops, Si to advance the first Who of that fortunate creere at the head, Of ait

(Carey's translation of Dante's _Purgatorio_, Canto III)

As though translucent and s not so deep As that its bed is dark, the shape returns So faint of our impictured linea Comes to the eye; such saw I many a face All stretch'd to speak

(Carey's translation of Dante's _Paradiso_, Canto III)

Dante's metaphors are profuse and reat orator perpetually links the fruits of the iination with the observation of fact; and then we say that he is a genius, full of iht is clear and vital

”As a pack of hounds, after vainly pursuing a hare, returns intails, so on that tuo's stronghold” (Manzoni, _I proures; and it is this ive power to the creations of the inative writer should possess a rich store of perceptive observations, and the orous will be the fors, but we do not therefore say that they have a great deal of ”iulf between the delirious confusion of thought and the ination In the first case there is a total incapacity to perceive actual things correctly, and also to construct organically with the intelligence; in the second, the two things are co-existent as forms closely bound up one with the other

The value of iinative speech is deteres used should be _original_, that their author should hies, his own skillhim susceptible to their just and hares of others, he achieves nothing Hence it is necessary that every artist should be an observer; and so, speaking of the generality of intelligences, it ination it is necessary for every one first of all to put hiood in art The artist ”iure; he does not copy it, he ”creates” it But this creation is in fact the _fruit_ of the mind which is rooted in the observation of reality The painter and the sculptor are, _par excellence_, types of visual susceptibility to the for its har his powers of observation that the artist finally perfects hi a masterpiece The immortal art of Greece was above all an art based on observation; the scanty clothing which was the fashi+on of his day enabled the Greek artist to contemplate the human form freely; and the exquisite sensibility of his eye enabled hiuish the beautiful body froenius, he was able to create the ideal figure, conceived by the fusion of individual beauties chosen from details in the sensorial storehouse of the mind The artist, when he creates certainly does not coether the parts which are to form the whole as in a mosaic; in the ardor of inspiration he sees the coenius; but details he has accumulated have served to nourish it, as the blood nourishes the new man in the bosom of his mother

Raphael continually visited the Trastevere, a popular quarter where the most beautiful women in Rome were to be found, in order to seek the type of a Madonna It was here he became acquainted with the Fornarina and his models But when he painted the Madonna he reproduced ”the ielo would spend entire evenings gazing into space; and when they asked hi, he replied: ”I see a dome” It was after this form, so marvelously created within him, that the famous cupola of St

Peter's in Rome was fashi+oned But it could never have been born, even in the elo, if his architectural studies had not prepared the enius has ever been able to create the absolutely new We have only to think of certain forrotesque as the hu above the earth It seeel should still persist, and that no artist should have yet i ht, we have robust beings whose backs are furnished with colossal wings covered with heavy feathers Strange indeed is this fusion in a single creature of such incompatible natural features as hair and feathers, and this attribution to a hus, as to an insect This ”strange conception” continues to be so materialized, not certainly as an artistic idea, but as the result of poverty of language Indeed, we talk of angels ”flying” because our language is huels Few indeed are the artists who in pictures of the Annunciation represent the Angel as a luure

The more perfect the approximation to truth, the -room, some one pays us a compliment, if this is founded upon one of our real qualities, and touches it closely, we feel legitimate satisfaction, because what has been said is relevant, and we may conclude that the person _has observed us_ and feels a sincere adly think of such a person: He is subtle and intellectual; and we feel disposed to reciprocate his friendliness But if the compliment praises us for qualities we do not possess, or distorts or exaggerates our true attributes, we think with disgust: What a coarse creature! and feel even more coldly to him than before

Dante's sublime sonnet must certainly have touched the heart of Beatrice profoundly:

My lady looks so gentle and so pure When yielding salutation by the way, That the tongue treht to say, And the eyes, which fain would see, may not endure

And still, amid the praise she hears secure, She walks with hu a creature sent from Heaven, to stay On earth, and show a miracle made sure

She is so pleasant in the eyes of ain A sweetness which needs proof to know it by; And fro essence that is full of love, Saying for ever to the spirit: ”Sigh!”

(Rossetti's translation, Dante's _Vita nuova_, section XXVI)

A very different impression must have been made on the self-respect and delicate sensibility of a feminine soul by this other sonnet, which is clugerated ht Deal death to hireets you on your way; Love ht if what he does shall heal or slay