太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > essays and lectures >

第17节

essays and lectures-第17节

小说: essays and lectures 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




for those red scenes by Seine and Loire was paved by that critical

spirit of Germany and England which accustomed men to bring all

things to the test of reason or utility or both; while the

discontent of the people in the streets of Paris was the echo that

followed the life of Emile and of Werther。  For Rousseau; by silent

lake and mountain; had called humanity back to the golden age that

still lies before us and preached a return to nature; in passionate

eloquence whose music still lingers about our keen northern air。

And Goethe and Scott had brought romance back again from the prison

she had lain in for so many centuries … and what is romance but

humanity?



Yet in the womb of the Revolution itself; and in the storm and

terror of that wild time; tendencies were hidden away that the

artistic Renaissance bent to her own service when the time came … a

scientific tendency first; which has borne in our own day a brood

of somewhat noisy Titans; yet in the sphere of poetry has not been

unproductive of good。  I do not mean merely in its adding to

enthusiasm that intellectual basis which in its strength; or that

more obvious influence about which Wordsworth was thinking when he

said very nobly that poetry was merely the impassioned expression

in the face of science; and that when science would put on a form

of flesh and blood the poet would lend his divine spirit to aid the

transfiguration。  Nor do I dwell much on the great cosmical emotion

and deep pantheism of science to which Shelley has given its first

and Swinburne its latest glory of song; but rather on its influence

on the artistic spirit in preserving that close observation and the

sense of limitation as well as of clearness of vision which are the

characteristics of the real artist。



The great and golden rule of art as well as of life; wrote William

Blake; is that the more distinct; sharp and defined the boundary

line; the more perfect is the work of art; and the less keen and

sharp the greater is the evidence of weak imitation; plagiarism and

bungling。  'Great inventors in all ages knew this … Michael Angelo

and Albert Durer are known by this and by this alone'; and another

time he wrote; with all the simple directness of nineteenth…century

prose; 'to generalise is to be an idiot。'



And this love of definite conception; this clearness of vision;

this artistic sense of limit; is the characteristic of all great

work and poetry; of the vision of Homer as of the vision of Dante;

of Keats and William Morris as of Chaucer and Theocritus。  It lies

at the base of all noble; realistic and romantic work as opposed to

the colourless and empty abstractions of our own eighteenth…century

poets and of the classical dramatists of France; or of the vague

spiritualities of the German sentimental school:  opposed; too; to

that spirit of transcendentalism which also was root and flower

itself of the great Revolution; underlying the impassioned

contemplation of Wordsworth and giving wings and fire to the eagle…

like flight of Shelley; and which in the sphere of philosophy;

though displaced by the materialism and positiveness of our day;

bequeathed two great schools of thought; the school of Newman to

Oxford; the school of Emerson to America。  Yet is this spirit of

transcendentalism alien to the spirit of art。  For the artist can

accept no sphere of life in exchange for life itself。  For him

there is no escape from the bondage of the earth:  there is not

even the desire of escape。



He is indeed the only true realist:  symbolism; which is the

essence of the transcendental spirit; is alien to him。  The

metaphysical mind of Asia will create for itself the monstrous;

many…breasted idol of Ephesus; but to the Greek; pure artist; that

work is most instinct with spiritual life which conforms most

clearly to the perfect facts of physical life。



'The storm of revolution;' as Andre Chenier said; 'blows out the

torch of poetry。'  It is not for some little time that the real

influence of such a wild cataclysm of things is felt:  at first the

desire for equality seems to have produced personalities of more

giant and Titan stature than the world had ever known before。  Men

heard the lyre of Byron and the legions of Napoleon; it was a

period of measureless passions and of measureless despair;

ambition; discontent; were the chords of life and art; the age was

an age of revolt:  a phase through which the human spirit must

pass; but one in which it cannot rest。  For the aim of culture is

not rebellion but peace; the valley perilous where ignorant armies

clash by night being no dwelling…place meet for her to whom the

gods have assigned the fresh uplands and sunny heights and clear;

untroubled air。



And soon that desire for perfection; which lay at the base of the

Revolution; found in a young English poet its most complete and

flawless realisation。



Phidias and the achievements of Greek art are foreshadowed in

Homer:  Dante prefigures for us the passion and colour and

intensity of Italian painting:  the modern love of landscape dates

from Rousseau; and it is in Keats that one discerns the beginning

of the artistic renaissance of England。



Byron was a rebel and Shelley a dreamer; but in the calmness and

clearness of his vision; his perfect self…control; his unerring

sense of beauty and his recognition of a separate realm for the

imagination; Keats was the pure and serene artist; the forerunner

of the pre…Raphaelite school; and so of the great romantic movement

of which I am to speak。



Blake had indeed; before him; claimed for art a lofty; spiritual

mission; and had striven to raise design to the ideal level of

poetry and music; but the remoteness of his vision both in painting

and poetry and the incompleteness of his technical powers had been

adverse to any real influence。  It is in Keats that the artistic

spirit of this century first found its absolute incarnation。



And these pre…Raphaelites; what were they?  If you ask nine…tenths

of the British public what is the meaning of the word aesthetics;

they will tell you it is the French for affectation or the German

for a dado; and if you inquire about the pre…Raphaelites you will

hear something about an eccentric lot of young men to whom a sort

of divine crookedness and holy awkwardness in drawing were the

chief objects of art。  To know nothing about their great men is one

of the necessary elements of English education。



As regards the pre…Raphaelites the story is simple enough。  In the

year 1847 a number of young men in London; poets and painters;

passionate admirers of Keats all of them; formed the habit of

meeting together for discussions on art; the result of such

discussions being that the English Philistine public was roused

suddenly from its ordinary apathy by hearing that there was in its

midst a body of young men who had determined to revolutionise

English painting and poetry。  They called themselves the pre…

Raphaelite Brotherhood。



In England; then as now; it was enough for a man to try and produce

any serious beautiful work to lose all his rights as a citizen; and

besides this; the pre…Raphaelite Brotherhood … among whom the names

of Dante Rossetti; Holman Hunt and Millais will be familiar to you

… had on their side three things that the English public never

forgives:  youth; power and enthusiasm。



Satire; always as sterile as it in shameful and as impotent as it

is insolent; paid them that usual homage which mediocrity pays to

genius … doing; here as always; infinite harm to the public;

blinding them to what is beautiful; teaching them that irreverence

which is the source of all vileness and narrowness of life; but

harming the artist not at all; rather confirming him in the perfect

rightness of his work and ambition。  For to disagree with three…

fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first

elements of sanity; one of the deepest consolations in all moments

of spiritual doubt。



As regards the ideas these young men brought to the regeneration of

English art; we may see at the base of their artistic creations a

desire for a deeper spiritual value to be given to art as well as a

more decorative value。



Pre…Raphaelites they called themselves; not that they imitated the

early Italian masters at all; but that in their work; as opposed to

the facile abstractions of Raphael; they found a stronger realism

of imagination; a more careful realism of technique; a vision at

once more fervent and more vivid; an individuality more intimate

and more intense。



For it is not enough that a work of art should conform to the

aesthetic demands of its age:  there must be also about it; if it

is to affect us with any permanent delight; the impress of a

distinct individuality; an individuality remote from that of

ordinary men; and coming near to us only by virtue of a certain

newness and wonder in the work; 

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的