THE LOST TRADITION
I
Many centuries ago the great art of painting was held in high honour by
mighty kings, and they made excellent artists rich and held them worthy,
accounting such inventiveness a creating power like God's. For the
imagination of a good painter is full of figures, and were it possible
for him to live for ever, he would always have from his inward ideas,
whereof Plato speaks, something new to set forth by the work of
his hand.
Many hundred years ago there were still some famous painters, such as
those named Phidias, Praxiteles, Apelles, Polycleitus, Parrhasius,
Lysippus, Protogenes, and the rest, some of whom wrote about their art
and very artfully described it and gave it plainly to light: but their
praise-worthy books are, so far, unknown to us, and perhaps have been
altogether lost by war, driving forth of the peoples, and alterations of
laws and beliefs--a loss much to be regretted by every wise man. It
often came to pass that noble "Ingenia" were destroyed by barbarous
oppressors of art; for if they saw figures traced in a few lines they
thought it nought but vain, devilish sorcery. And in destroying them
they attempted to honour God by something displeasing to Him; and to use
the language of men, God was angry with all destroyers of the works of
great mastership, which is only attained by much toil, labour, and
expenditure of time, and is bestowed by God alone. Often do I sorrow
because I must be robbed of the aforesaid masters' books of art; but the
enemies of art despise these things.
Pliny writeth that the old painters and sculptors--such as Apelles,
Protogenes, and the rest--told very artistically in writing how a
well-built man's figure might be measured out. Now it may well have come
to pass that these noble books were misunderstood and destroyed as
idolatrous in the early days of the Church. For they would have said
Jupiter should have such proportions, Apollo such others; Venus shall be
thus, Hercules thus; and so with all the rest. Had it, however, been my
fate to be there at the time, I would have said: "Oh dear, holy lords
and fathers, do not so lamentably destroy the nobly discovered arts,
which have been gotten by great toil and labour, only because of the
abuses made of them. For art is very hard, and we might and would use it
for the great honour and glory of God. For, even as the ancients used
the fairest figure of a man to represent their false god Apollo, we will
employ the same for Christ the Lord, who is fairest of all the earth;
and as they figured Venus as the loveliest of women, so will we in like
manner set down the same beauteous form for the most pure Virgin Mary,
the mother of God; and of Hercules will we make Samson, and thus will we
do with all the rest, for such books shall we get never more."
Wherefore, though that which is lost ariseth not again, yet a man may
strive after new lore; and for these reasons I have been moved to make
known my ideas here following, in order that others may ponder the
matter further, and may thus come to a new and better way and
foundation.
I certainly do not deny that, if the books of the ancients who wrote
about the art of painting still lay before our eyes, my design might be
open to the false interpretation that I thought to find out something
better than what was known unto them. These books, however, have been
totally lost in the lapse of time; so I cannot be justly blamed for
publishing my opinions and discoveries in writing, for that is exactly
what the ancients did. If other competent men are thereby induced to do
the like, our descendants have something which they may add to and
improve upon, and thus the art of painting may in time advance and reach
its perfection.
II
Whether we should exercise our intellects or logical sense alone upon
the records and remains of past ages, or whether they may not be better
employed for the exercise and edification of the imaginative faculties,
would seem to be a question which, though they did not perhaps in set
terms put to themselves, modern historians have very summarily answered;
and I think answered wrongly. The records of the past, the records even
of yesterday, are necessarily extremely incomplete; to make them at all
significant something must be added by the historian. The 'perception'
of probability is never exact; it varies with the mind between man and
man; in the same man even before and after different experiences, &c.
But even if the perception of the highest probability were practically
exact, it would never suffice; for, as Aristotle says, "it is probable
that many things should happen contrary to probability." From these
facts it follows that the man who has the most exhaustive knowledge of
what has actually survived, and what has been recorded, will not
necessarily form the truest judgment on a question of history; it might
always happen that the intuition of some unscholarly person was nearer
the truth; still no man could ever decide between the two, nor would any
sane man think it worth his while to take sides with either of them;
such questions are most useful when they are left open. This is the case
because the imagination is thus left freer to use such knowledge as it
has for the edification of the character; and that model for our example
or warning which the imagination constructs may always possibly be the
truth. According to the balance in it of apparent probability, with
edifying power it will beget conviction. Such a conviction may be doomed
to be superseded sooner or later; its value lies in its potency while it
lasts. The temper in which we look at our historical heritage is of more
importance to us now than the exactitude of our vision; for this latter
can never be proved, while the former approves itself by the fruit it
bears within us. It is better, more fruitful, to feel with Dürer about
the art of Ancient Greece than to know all that can be known of it
to-day and feel a great deal less. "Character calls forth character,"
said Goethe; we may add, "even from the grave." Now that the physical
miracle of the Resurrection has come to seem so unimportant and
uninteresting to educated men, it might be a wise economy to connect its
poetry with this experience, that great and creative characters can
raise men better worth knowing than Lazarus from the dead. Nietsche
thought that Shakespeare had brought Brutus back to life, (though he
knew very little of Roman history), and that Brutus was the Roman best
worth knowing. "Of all peoples, the Greeks dreamt the dream of life the
best," Goethe said; and again, "For all other arts we have to make some
allowance; to Greek art alone we are for ever debtors." To feel the
truth of these sayings with a passion similar to that shown in the
passages quoted above from Dürer, must surely be a great help to an
artist. Such a passion is an end in itself, or rather is the only means
by which we can win spiritual freedom from some of the heavier fetters
that modern life lays upon us. It freed Goethe even from Germany.