ce
emanating from it which we do not altogether explain to ourselves.
Simply in its presence we feel that we are pleased. The fact, the
material which the artist uses, exists out there in nature. But the
beauty of the building, the majesty and power of the picture, the
charm of the poem,--this is the _art_ of the artist; and he wins his
effects by the way in which he handles his materials, by his
_technique._ Some knowledge of technique, therefore,--not the
artist's knowledge of it, but the ability to read the language of art as
the artist intends it to be read,--is necessary to appreciation.

The hut which the traveler through a wild country put together to
provide himself shelter against storm and the night was in essence a
work of art. The purpose of his effort was not the hut itself but
shelter, to accomplish which he used the hut as his means. The
emotion of which the work was the expression, in this case the
traveler's consciousness of his need, embodied itself in a concrete
form and made use of material. The hut which he conceived in
response to his need became for him the subject or motive of his
work. For the actual expression of his design he took advantage of
the qualities of his material, its capabilities to combine thus and so;
these inherent qualities were his medium. The material wood and
stone which he employed were the vehicle of his design. The way in
which he handled his vehicle toward the construction of the hut,
availing himself of the qualities and capabilities of his material,
might be called his technique.

The sight of some landscape wakens in the beholder a vivid and
definite emotion; he is moved by it to some form of expression. If he
is a painter he will express his emotion by means of a picture, which
involves in the making of it certain elements and certain processes.
The picture will present selected facts in the landscape; the
landscape, then, as constructed according to the design the painter
has conceived of it, becomes the motive or subject of his picture.
The particular aspects of the landscape which the picture records are
its color and its form. These qualities of color and form are the
painter's medium. An etching of the scene would use not color but
line to express the artist's emotion in its presence; so line is the
medium of etching. But "qualities" of objects are an abstraction
unless they are embodied in material. In order, therefore, to give his
medium actual embodiment th