Art and the Human Spirit A HANDBOOK OF EIGHT LECTURES BY EDWARD HOWARD QRIGGS OF CHOI LOS ART AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT The Meaning and Relations of Sculpture^ Painting^ Poetry and Music A Handbook of Eight Lectures By EDWARD HOWARD GRIGGS NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH 1908 COPYRIGHT, 1908 BY EDWARD HOWARD GRIGGS "I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven, and in their disciples and apostles; I believe in the Holy Ghost and the truth of Art one and indivisible; I believe that this art proceeds from God and dwells in the hearts of all enlightened men; I believe that whoever has revelled in the glorious joys of this high art must be forever devoted to it and can never repudiate it ; I believe that all may become blessed through this art, and that therefore it is permitted to any one to die of hunger for its sake; I believe that I shall become most happy through death; I believe that I have been on earth a discordant chord, that shall be made harmonious and clear by death. I believe in a last judgment, that shall fearfully damn all those who have dared on this earth to make profit out of this chaste and holy art who have disgraced it and dishonored it through badness of heart and the coarse instincts of sensuality; I believe that such men will be condemned to hear their own music through all eter- nity. I believe, on the other hand, that the true disciples of pure art will be glorified in a divine atmosphere of sun-illumined, fragrant con- cords, and united eternally with the divine source of all harmony. And may a merciful lot be granted ine ! Amen ! ' ' Wagner, in " An End in Paris," Art Life and Theories, p. 90. 2129919 INDEX PAGE Note: Spirit of the Course 7 1. The Expression and Interpretation of Human Life in Art . 9 2. The Primitive Sources of Art . . . . . .14 3. The Race, the Epoch and the Individual in Art . . .19 4. The Meaning and Function of Sculpture and Painting . . 24 5. The Meaning and Function of Music 29 6. The Meaning and Function of Poetry 35 7. Literature and Liberal Culture 40 8. Beauty and the Culture of the Spirit 45 Suggestions to Students 50 Book List .... . ,51 THERE is evident in our country to-day a great turning of energy to the higher interests of human life, especially to the fine arts. Apparently some part of the enthusiasm and youthful power that has built so wonderful a material civilization is now set free for the pursuit of beauty and wisdom. We send our students far and wide to the schools and galleries of the old world; we build art museums in all our cities, and cultivate music with a new earnestness. Unfortu- nately the noble promise in this awakening is hampered by grave mis- conceptions as to the meaning of art in relation to the human spirit. Widely, among high and low alike, art is regarded as a pleasant adorn- ment of life, worth seeking after the serious business of our existence is fulfilled, but quite dispensable meantime. Others well-meaning peo- ple hold art to be justified only by some obvious moral teaching it conveys. In reaction against this view and as a result of the difficult technical problems art presents, many artists fall into the equally unfortunate error of regarding art as primarily an exhibition of skill, interpreting "art for art's sake" to mean art for technique's sake. There is no hope of giving art the place it should occupy in our culture until these errors have been overcome. We must learn that art is serious business, that beauty is the most useful thing we know, and that art is not for adornment's sake, or preaching's sake, or art's sake, but that it is for life's sake. The aim of this course is, therefore, to consider as fully and search- ingly as possible the place and meaning of the fine arts in relation to the spirit of man. We shall study first the unity of the arts, their expression and interpretation in common of the universal elements of human experience. Then the historic sources of the arts and the great forces that determine the specific characteristics of a masterpiec will be studied. The heart of the course will be an effort to define the par- ticular meaning and function of each of the arts, the way in which it can express and interpret some phase of the common human life more effectively than any other. Finally, the work will close with a study of the ministry of the arts to man's spirit and their place in culture. If art is for life's sake for the appreciative student, even more is it so for the creative artist. If often the lesser men have lived to paint, or carve, or write, or sing, the great masters have ever found art a way of life, have painted, carved, written, sung, to live, that through creative expression in art they might grow up into the fullness of their own po- tential humanity. Thus it is necessary that every one should be an artist in this high sense of the word; and if that is impossible in what we call the fine arts, it is possible in the finest of all, the one supreme art of living. The need is, not that beauty should be added artificially to daily life, but that life itself, in work, relationship and environment, should be made a fine art. That this study may help a little to that end and so add something of the joy that comes from supreme beauty, redeeming the commonplace detail of life by clothing it with a trans- figuring atmosphere and exalting the spirit to a place where a serene vision of life in relation is possible, is the hope with which the work is undertaken. I. THE EXPRESSION AND INTERPRETA- TION OF HUMAN LIFE IN ART Art is the adequate and harmonious expression and interpretation of some phase of man's life in true relation to the whole. Edward Howard Griggs. Purpose of the course. To consider the whole meaning of the fine arts; the relations they sustain to each other; the sources from which they spring; their two-fold relation to the human spirit, as ex- pressing and interpreting life and as contributing to the higher culture of man. The need and value of such study to-day, especially in America. Popular superstitions in relation to art. Misconceptions met on the threshold of our study: (1) The notion that art is a dispensable luxury, to be cultivated as an adornment of life after our serious business is accomplished. Prevalence of this error in the mind of the general public; among those who regard themselves as polite society. The artist's bitter protest against this attitude in all epochs: compare Car- lyle; Goethe. (2) The notion prevailing in the minds of many good people that art is justified only by the moral lessons it teaches. Goethe's view that this destroys the artist's vocation. The ethical significance of true art organically in it, not tacked on in an ^Esop's fable moral at the end. (3) In reaction against the second error, one prevailing in the minds of many artists below the highest rank: the notion that art is for the sake merely of exhibiting technical skill in the mastery of difficulties. Causes of this error. Essential that these three misconceptions should be corrected before art can assume its rightful place in relation to our life. Our first ques- tions therefore: What is art, and what relation does it sustain to the spirit of man? Unity and variety in art. Bewildering diversity of works of art: compare in the same art; in different arts. Thus difficulty of gathering all in a common statement. Yet the fact that we may appreciate all, indicating a common basis. The arts, moreover, springing from one historical source; while possible for the most highly developed works 9 of art in different fields to produce the same dominant impression. Illustrate in the groups of men who are brothers across the centuries. The source of this unity in all art the expression everywhere of the same universal basis of human life. The simple, generic elements of life as always expressed in art through the medium of personality. Thus true art ever fresh and vital a new equation of old forces. Compare Homer's Odyssey and Stephen Phil- lip's Ulysses. Not all expression art. The conditioning principles of adequacy and harmony of expression distinguishing true art from what fails to rise to its plane. The further principle that the part must be treated in sound relation to the whole of human life. Compare in the portrayal of moral evil. What distinguishes Dante and Shakespeare from the vicious type of novel in such portrayal. Interpretation of life. All expression involving as well some measure of interpretation; that is, all art inevitably ideal as well as real in the presentation of life and nature. Compare even in amateur photography: how there is inevitably selection of material and point of view. Com- pare in the novel that attempts merely a realistic portraiture of life. How even the selection of the part of the material out of the whole and the adoption of a view-point in its treatment, bringing certain elements into the foreground and subordinating others in the background, means putting life and nature through the transmuting spectrum of the artist's spirit in expressing them. Further elements of idealism. Raising life to a higher plane of ex- pression than is usual in the real world: compare the characters ot Shakespeare; the paintings of Corot and Millet. The tendency in art to carry the laws of life out full circle, thus giv- ing an ethical completeness wanting in actual life. The addition of a unifying and interpreting atmosphere. Compare in Titian; Beethoven; Dante. The definition of art. Summing up of all the aspects developed in the relation of art to the human spirit: thus the inclusive definition. Hence the serious business of art. The relation of the beautiful to the useful. The meaning of art in the life of man. ILLUSTRATIONS "The useful encourages itself; for the multitude produce it, and no one can dispense with it: the beautiful must be encouraged; for few can set it forth, and many need it." Goethe, Wilhelm Meister, translated by Carlyle (A. C. McClurg & Co., 1890), vol. 2, p. 129. 10 " I do not object to a dramatic poet having a moral influence in view ; but when the point is to bring his subject clearly and effectively before his audience, his moral purpose proves of little use, and he needs much more a faculty for delineation and a familiarity with the stage to know what to do and what to leave undone. If there be a moral in the sub- ject, it will appear, and the poet has nothing to consider but the effective and artistic treatment of his subject. If the poet has as high a soul as Sophocles, his influence will always be moral, let him do what he will." Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann and Soret, p. 228. "The praiseworthy object of pursuing everywhere moral good as the supreme aim, which has already brought forth in art so much medioc- rity, has caused also in theory a similar prejudice. To assign to the fine arts a really elevated position, to conciliate for them the favour of the State, the veneration of all men, they are pushed beyond their true domain, and a vocation is imposed upon them contrary to their nature. It is supposed that a great service is awarded them by substituting for a frivolous aim, that of charming a moral aim ; and their influence upon morality, which is so apparent, necessarily militates in favour of this pretension." Schiller, Essays JSsthetical and Philosophical, pp. 361, 362. " Just as the sun cannot shed its light but to the eye that sees it, nor music sound but to the hearing ear, so the value of all masterly work in art and science is conditioned by the kinship and capacity of the mind to which it speaks. It is only such a mind as this that possesses the magic word to stir and call forth the spirits that lie hidden in great work. To the ordinary mind a masterpiece is a sealed cabinet of mystery, an unfamiliar musical instrument from which the player, however much he may flatter himself, can draw none but confused tones. How different a painting looks when seen in a good light, instead of in some dark cor- ner! Just in the same way, the impression made by a masterpiece varies with the capacity of the mind to understand it." Schopenhauer, The Art of Literature, p. 94. " From the combined effort of the two schools of criticism, guardians of public tranquillity, there results a salutary reaction. This reaction has already produced some specimens of poets, steady, well-bred, prudent, whose style always keeps good hours; who never indulge in an outing with those mad creatures, Ideas; who are never met at the corner of a wood, solus cum sold, with Reverie, that gypsy girl ; who are incapable of having relations either with Imagination, dangerous vaga- bond, or with the bacchante Inspiration, or with