THE MODEL 



I ATTEMPTED in the preceding essay to show that figurative 

 art implies a certain relation between realism and idealism, 

 which varies according to the volition of the artist. In other 

 words, the artist cannot avoid modifying his imitation of the 

 chosen object by the infusion of his own subjective quality : 

 but he is at liberty to reduce this subjective element to a 

 minimum, or, on the other hand, to regard it as his chief 

 concern. 



Human art is unable to reproduce nature, except upon such 

 terms as these. It cannot draw as accurately as the sun does 

 by means of the photographic camera. It cannot render 

 dialogue with the fidelity of a phonograph. At the same 

 time it is obliged to import something which external nature 

 does not possess, something which belongs exclusively to the 

 spirit of man, in all its transcripts from the world around us. 



To say that art is superior to nature would be an imperti- 

 nence. Yet art has a sphere separate from and beyond 

 nature, which belongs to ideas, to emotions, to sentiments, to 

 the region of the human spirit. This sphere is not alien to 

 nature : indeed it is the highest thing known to us in the 

 universe ; being, as it is, the specific property of man, who is 

 himself a part of nature. 



II 



Those who have attentively studied a fine nude model, 

 observing the gradations of colour, the play of light and shade 

 and shadow upon the surface of the flesh, attending to the 



