438 AESTHETICS 



the way for many special investigations. It seeks the aesthetically 

 effective in the form, that is, in the relation of parts, which has 

 in principle nothing to do with the content of the object. Every 

 clearly perceptible unity in manifoldness is pleasing. As this ar- 

 rangement is independent of the material, the aesthetic represents 

 only a part of reality. 



In contrast thereto, illusionism sets the world of art as a whole over 

 against the whole of reality. Art, we are taught, presents neither a 

 new aspect of the given nor hidden truth, nor pure form; it is, on the 

 contrary, a world of appearance only, and is to be enjoyed without 

 regard to connections in life or any consequences. While we other- 

 wise consider objects as to how they serve our interests and as to their 

 place in the actual connection of all things, in the aesthetic experi- 

 ence this twofold relation is disregarded. Neither what things do 

 for us, nor what they do for each other, comes in question. Their 

 reality disappears, and the beautiful semblance comes to its own. 

 Konrad Lange has given to this theory especially in the line of 

 a subjective side, to be later mentioned - - its modern form. 



Of the nearly-related sensualism, the connoisseur Fiedler and the 

 sculptor Hildebrand are the recent exponents; Rutgers Marshall 

 and certain French scholars also lean that way. It is the arts which 

 fix the transitory element of the sense-image, hold fast the fleeting, 

 make immortal the perishable, and lend stability and permanence 

 to all pleasure that is bound up with perception. What does painting 

 accomplish? Arisen, as it has, out of the demands of the eye, its 

 sole task is to gain for the undefined form- and color-impressions 

 of reality a complete and stable existence. The same thing is true 

 of the other arts, for their respective sense-impressions. 



To sum up: If the transformation of reality is acknowledged as 

 a fundamental principle of art, it is also to be gramted that this takes 

 place in two directions:-- art is something at once more and less 

 than nature. Inasmuch as art pushes on to the vraie verite, and at 

 the same time disregards all that is not of the nature of semblance 

 or image, we take from it ideas whose quality enthralls and stimu- 

 lates us quite independently of their meaning. Art shows us the 

 hidden essence of the world and of life and at the same time the 

 outsides of things created for our pleasure; that is, the objects' 

 pure psychical value in the field of sense. It involves a lifting above 

 nature, and at the same time the rounding out and fulfillment of 

 sense. Through making of the object an image, it frees us from our 

 surrounding, yet leaves us at rest in it. 



We turn now to aesthetic subjectivism. Under this name we com- 

 prehend the essence of those theories which seek to solve the riddle 

 of the beautiful by a general characterization of the aesthetic atti- 

 tude. Many of these are near akin to the objectivistic theories; some, 



