124 REALISM AND IDEALISM 



1 Polygnotus painted men better than they are, Pauson worse 

 than they are, Dionysius as they are.' In other words, Poly- 

 gnotus was an idealist, Pauson a caricaturist, Dionysius a 

 realist. Once again, speaking more generally of painters, 

 Aristotle gives a clear account of idealists : * While making 

 men like men they paint them fairer.' l 



Now this distinction, which is based upon the fundamental 

 properties of human as distinguished from mechanical imita- 

 tion, has been fruitful of results both in the practice and the 

 theory of the art. Draughtsmen very soon discover that they 

 cannot wholly eliminate an idealistic or subjective element 

 from their work ; but they are able either to keep this in 

 abeyance or to emphasise it. They can swerve more to the 

 side of literal delineation, or more to the side of imaginative 

 selection. Theorists and writers upon art, noticing this power 

 of choice, have divided into hostile camps ; and the doctrines 

 of the schools have reacted upon practice. Notwithstanding 

 the impossibility of separating the twin-born factors of every 

 human imitative product, antagonistic standards of the Real 

 and the Ideal came thus into existence. The warfare of 

 opinion on this crucial point diverts practical artists from 

 consistently aiming at that just balance between the careful 

 study of nature and the effort to interpret nature, which is the 

 mark of supreme art. 



I will illustrate my meaning by referring to European art 

 in the last three centuries. When sculpture and painting 

 declined in Italy, after the death of Michel Angelo, artists 

 began to withdraw from the study of life. Theories were pro- 

 mulgated to the effect that nature hampers the freedom of 

 genius, and obscures the inspiration which illuminates the 

 artist's soul. It was maintained that he ought only to know 

 so much of nature as would save his work from monstrosity. 

 He was told that art bettered nature, and that the pains- 

 taking imitation of details lowered style. This led to super- 

 ficial, slovenly, conceited compositions being palmed off as 

 sublime. The frigid abstractions of the Bolognese Eclectics 

 passed for heroic, because they avoided literal painstaking 

 1 These passages will be found in cap. xxvi. and cap. ii. 



