FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108  
109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>   >|  
Starting from an undeniable law--that which regulates the constitution of man,--Delsarte applies it to aesthetics; he designates man as "the object of art," and groups in series the organic agents that co-operate in the manifestation of human thought, sentiment and passion; declaring the purpose of these manifestations, now become artistic, to be the amelioration of our being by throwing into relief and light the splendors of moral beauty and the horrors of vice. Delsarte defines art in several ways. He has been reproached for his over-amplitude of definition, and his development of it in a sense too metaphysical for a science which he himself calls "positive." I give here only such definitions as seem to me most clear and important. "Art is at once the knowledge, the possession and the free direction of the agents by virtue of which are revealed the life, soul and mind. It is the appropriation of the sign to the thing. It is the relation of the beauties scattered through nature to a superior type. It is not, therefore, the mere imitation of nature." The word _life_, in the sense employed above, is the equivalent of _sensation_, of _physical manifestations._ Man being the object of art, it is from the working of the various faculties of the human organism that Delsarte deduces the task of the artist; as from the knowledge of the essential modalities of the _ego_, he deduces his law of general aesthetics. Delsarte teaches, therefore, that man is a triplicity of persons; that is, he contains in his indestructible unity, three principles or aspects, which he calls _life, soul_ and _mind_; in other words, _physical, moral_ and _intellectual_ persons. In this statement this master agrees with the philosophers who give a triplicity of essential principles as the base of ontology. Pierre Leroux names them as follows: _sensation, sentiment, consciousness._ That which is personal to Delsarte is the derivation of the law of aesthetics from this conception of being. The primal faculties once ascertained, he devotes himself to an analysis of the organism; he describes the harmony of each of these faculties with the apparatus which serves it as agent for manifesting itself, and demonstrates the fitness of each organ for the task assigned it. The master establishes that the inflections of the voice betray more especially the sensitive nature; that gesture is the interpreter of emotion; that articulation--a special e
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108  
109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Delsarte

 

faculties

 

nature

 
aesthetics
 

triplicity

 

manifestations

 

principles

 

knowledge

 

persons

 
organism

object

 

physical

 

sensation

 
sentiment
 

essential

 

master

 

agents

 

deduces

 

statement

 

intellectual


modalities

 
artist
 
working
 

equivalent

 
general
 

teaches

 

indestructible

 

aspects

 

assigned

 

establishes


inflections

 
fitness
 

demonstrates

 

manifesting

 
betray
 
emotion
 

articulation

 

special

 
interpreter
 
gesture

sensitive

 

serves

 

apparatus

 

Leroux

 
Pierre
 
ontology
 
philosophers
 

consciousness

 
devotes
 

analysis