414 
FLETCHER. 
Whether in art or literature, cultivation of the critical 
faculty demands long stud}', close observation, and famil¬ 
iarity with the best masters. It is not to the point to say 
that the critic cannot paint the picture, carve the statue, 
build the temple, or write the poem. If he could, there 
would be an end of criticism, and the world would be more 
full than now of crudities in art. 
It may be boldly said that a close study of the anatomy in 
a great work of art is a part of a fundamental error in art 
criticism, namely, the too minute consideration of the pro¬ 
cess of production rather than the appreciation of the life 
and harmony of the whole. The technique must not deprive 
us of the artistic illusion. It is in archaic art that we are 
impressed with the building up of the body. Flexibility is 
wanting, and it is in high art only that we find dynamics 
in place of statics. 
The influence of anatomy is of more importance to sculp¬ 
ture than to painting. In the latter a surface only is pre¬ 
sented, while in a statue the whole figure must be displayed. 
Clothing, which exhibits the most exquisite effects of the 
painter’s art, is stiff and ungainly in the dull marble, and 
has always been discarded as much as possible by the sculp¬ 
tor. Herr Teufelsdrockh could never have thought out his 
philosophy of clothes in a gallery of sculpture. 
Artistic anatomy in a master hand greatly assists the 
understanding of the story intended to be portrayed. It 
was said of a very famous picture that there was a story in 
every joint of the fingers of the principal figure. If a story 
is to be told, however, it should be recounted in poetry or 
prose. It has been shrewdly observed that if the famous 
Angelus of Millet were to be looked at hundreds of years 
hence, when church bells had long since been disused and 
w T ere forgotten—if that blessed time should ever arrive—no 
comprehension of the meaning of the painting would be 
possible. 
It is a noteworthy fact that the most persistent advocates 
of the essential ness of anatomy to art speak only, as a rule 
