40 AMES, PROCTOR AND AMES. 



of pictures of this type. Second, photographs taken with a lens which 

 approximately reproduces the characteristics of the retinal picture 

 are more pleasing than those taken with a corrected lens. Third, 

 photographs taken with corrected lenses are the most perfect repro- 

 duction of actuality which we have, much more accurate than can 

 probably ever be accomplished with brush or pencil, yet this type of 

 picture is admittedly a complete failure from an artistic point of view, 

 indeed its failure seems to be due to the fact that it does reproduce 

 actuality so accurately. 



The following three argumentative reasons are also given : 



First, the general accepted belief that artistic expressions are sub- 

 jective. The purpose of the great artist is to make others see nature 

 as he sees it. He could convey no more by reproducing actuality to 

 those who look at his picture than they would get by looking at the 

 scene itself. He has to put into his picture nature's impression on 

 himself, the beauty and the truth he sees. Second, the subtle varia- 

 tions and differences which cause him to see the scene beautifully are 

 alterations in his mental visual images due to personal psychological 

 factors. The depicting of such subtle differences could be much more 

 easily accomplished in a picture which in its general type was similar 

 to his subjective impression than one which was not. Third, the 

 purpose of art is to awaken subjective associative processes in those 

 who look at it. This is especially evident in portraiture. The natural 

 way to cause us to recall our mental visual images or start a train of 

 them in motion is to present to us a picture similar to them. 



When we look at a picture of this type we recognize that it is an 

 attempt to reproduce not actuality but our impression of actuality. 

 Where we see the objects farther away than the object in focus depicted 

 without much detail we do not think that they in fact did not have 

 detail in them or perhaps that an intervening mist existed which 

 obscured the detail but we know that such objects were farther away 

 than the object in focus. And similarly with the distortion of line on 

 the side of the field of view, we do not think that a building, for 

 instance, so depicted is in fact curved. We recognize that such is the 

 character of our subjective impression of a building on one side of our 

 field of view. That is we pass our fovea or the part of our eye that 

 gives us distinct vision over the picture and recognize its various parts 

 as being similar to our mental visual image, just as we can direct our 

 attention to various parts of such an image. 



There is possibly a third way to attempt to depict nature, which 

 may be considered a modification of the first method above described. 



