History of art . fe, littleby little, through progressive generalizations whichare forever broadening, or which start out anew onother bases. In China the symbol governs life andshuts it in from every side. The ever-changing reality which the Occidentaldesires, the idealistic conquest which tempts him, andmans attempt to rise toward harmony, intelligence,and morality seem to remain unsuspected by theChinese. He has found, at least he thinks he has found,his mode of social relationships. Why should hechange? When we denounce his absence of ideahsm,j>erhaps we are only saying that his old ide
History of art . fe, littleby little, through progressive generalizations whichare forever broadening, or which start out anew onother bases. In China the symbol governs life andshuts it in from every side. The ever-changing reality which the Occidentaldesires, the idealistic conquest which tempts him, andmans attempt to rise toward harmony, intelligence,and morality seem to remain unsuspected by theChinese. He has found, at least he thinks he has found,his mode of social relationships. Why should hechange? When we denounce his absence of ideahsm,j>erhaps we are only saying that his old ideal realizedits promises long ago and that he enjoys the uniqueprivilege of maintaining himself in the moral citadelof which he has been able to gain possession, while,around him, everything ebbs away, decomposes, andre-forms itself. However that may be, we shall neversee him approach form with the desire to make itexpress the adaptation by the human being of hisintellect and his senses to surrounding nature. That. Buddhist Art (Wei) (v Century, second half). Kwan-Yn, softstone. {Charles Vignier Collection.) 60 MEDIAEVAL ART is what the whole of ancient art and the whole ofRenaissance art did, but when the Chinese turns toform, it is with the will to draw from it a tangiblesymbol of his moral adaptation. He will always aimat moral expression, and will do so without requiringthe world to furnish him with other elements thanthose which he knows in advance he will find in it; hewill require no new revelations from the gestureswhich translate it. Morality will be crystallized in thesentences that guide him. He has only to treat natureas a dictionary whose pages he will turn until he findsthe physiognomies and the forms which, in their com-bination, are the proper ones to fix the teachings ofthe sages. The agitation of the senses no longer comesupon him save by surprise—when he studies the ele-ments of the plastic transposition too closely, and hisscience of form, detached wholly f
Size: 1306px × 1914px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
