358 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



and variety of elements which are reconciled and united in its idea. 

 Consider, for example, Raphael's Dispute of the Sacrament. Think of 

 the number and variety of the elements united in that great composition. 

 Such a design is an achievement representing intellectual power of the 

 very highest order. So we discover, as the principal factor in art, the 

 mind of the artist, and the measure of this is observed in his ability to see 

 in many things one idea, and to express in one idea many things. Beyond 

 this power of the mind to grasp and express many things in single ideas, 

 a power which we can analyze, understand, and appreciate, lies some- 

 thing which defies analysis, something which we may appreciate, but 

 which we cannot understand. This is the strictly personal element 

 which goes into the work of a man, whicli stamps it as his, which dis- 

 tinguishes it from the work of other men. This personal element, when 

 it is important, we call genius. The genius of the artist in his art is con- 

 stantly mistaken for the art itself. It seems to me that the genius of 

 the artist is something which lies beyond his art. His art is simply the 

 technique in which, and through which, his genius finds expression. In 

 speaking of art, therefore, I am speaking of the technique of expression 

 and nothing more than that. That is a matter of precise definition and 

 analysis. There is a passage of Plato in the Philebus (§ 55), where 

 Socrates says, " If arithmetic, mensuration, and weighing be taken from 

 any art, that which remains will not be much." In talking about art and 

 its principles, I mean art in this definite sense. There is a passage in 

 the eleventh canto of the Inferno of Dante which is significant in this 

 connection : "If you read your physics attentively [Dante refers here to 

 the physics of Aristotle], you will discover, after not many pages, how 

 your art follows that [physical science] just as far as it can, as the 

 disciple follows the master." 



There are many arts, the different modes and forms of expression : 

 gymnastics (including dancing) ; music, speech (including poetry) ; con- 

 struction (including architecture) ; modelling (including sculpture) ; and 

 painting (inchuling design). The particular art to which your attention 

 is called in this paper is the art of painting, in its highest form, Design. 

 Painting may be defined as expression by spots of paint, paint being in 

 this case any coloring material, no matter what it is, that may be used. 

 Design is painting with particular reference to the principles of art. We 

 have painting as Design and painting as Representation, which is the defi- 

 nition of visual impressions, a description of things seen, remembered, or 

 known, and we have Design in Representation. Design in which there 

 is no representation, or in which the elements of representation are not 



