his bowl or jug round rather than sharply
angular. A pattern for a carpet, to be woven by a system of little
squares into the fabric, will have regard for the conditions in which
it is to be rendered, and it will differ in the character of its lines and
masses from a pattern for a wall-paper, which may be printed from
blocks. The designer in stained glass will try less to make a picture
in the spirit of graphic representation than to produce an harmonious
color-pattern whose outlines will be guided and controlled by the
possibilities of the "leading" of the window. The true artist uses the
conditions and very limitations of his material as his opportunity.
The restraint imposed by the sonnet form is welcomed by the poet as
compelling a collectedness of thought and an intensity of expression
which his idea might not achieve if allowed to flow in freer channels.
The worker in iron has his triumphs; the goldsmith has his. The
limitations of each craft open to it effects which are denied to the
other. There is an art of confectionery and an art of sculpture. The
designer of frostings who has a right feeling for his art will not
emulate the sculptor and strive to model in the grand style; the
sculptor who tries to reproduce imitatively the textures of lace or
other fabrics and who exuberates in filigrees and fussinesses so far
departs from his art as to rival the confectioner. In the degree that a
painter tries to wrench his medium from its right use and function
and attempts to make his picture tell a story, which can better be told
in words, to that extent he is unfaithful to his art. Painting, working
as it does with color and form, should confine itself to the
expression of emotion and idea that can be rendered visible. On the
part of the appreciator, likewise, the emotion expressed in one kind
of medium is not to be translated into any other terms without a
difference. Every kind of material has its special value for
expression. The meaning of pictures, accordingly, is limited
precisely to the expressive power of color and form. The impression
which a picture makes upon the beholder maybe phrased by him in
words, which are his own means of expression; but he suggests the
import of the picture only incompletely. If I describe in words
Millet's painting of the "Sower" according to my understanding of it,
I am telling in my own terms what the picture means to me. What it
meant to Millet, the full and true significance of t