THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART
BY
H. TAINE
PROFESSOR OF ÆSTHETICS AND OF THE HISTORY OF ART IN THE
ÉCOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS, PARIS.
TRANSLATED BY
JOHN DURAND
_Second Edition, Thoroughly Revised by the Translator_
NEW YORK
HOLT & WILLIAMS
1873
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
The now famous name of Taine was first introduced to the American
public by the issue, in 1865, of a small imported edition of this
work. That edition has long been out of print here and in Europe. That
the book is now re-issued may be subject of special satisfaction to
those who already possess the Author's "_Ideal in Art_" "_Art in the
Netherlands_" and "_Art in Greece_" as this work (now published in a
style uniform with others named) is properly the forerunner of them
all; containing, as it does, the principles laid down in the Author's
first course of lectures, and constantly referred to in the later
courses which now form the books before alluded to.
In preparing this edition for the press, the translator, by bringing
to bear the experience gained in the later works, has made it a great
improvement on the previous edition.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The translation herewith presented to the reader consists of a course
of Lectures delivered during the winter of 1864, before the Students of
Art of the _École des Beaux Arts_ at Paris, by H. Taine, _Professeur
d'Esthétique et d' Histoire de l'Art_ in that institution.
These lectures, as a system of Æsthetics, consist of an application of
the experimental method to art, in the same manner as it is applied
to the sciences. Whatever utility the system possesses is due to this
principle. The author undertakes to explain art by social influences
and other causes; humanity at different times and places, climate,
and other conditions, furnish the facts on which the theory rests. The
artistic development of any age or people is made intelligible through
a series of historical inductions terminating in a few inferential
laws, constituting what the title of the book declares it to be--_the
philosophy of art._
Such a system seems to possess many advantages. Among others, it
tends to emancipate the student of art, as well as the amateur, from
metaphysical and visionary theories growing out of false theories and
traditional misconceptions; he is not misled by an exclusive adherence
to particular schools, masters, or epochs. It also tends to render
criticism less capricious, and therefore less injurious; dictating no
conventional standard of judgment, it promotes a spirit of charity
towards all works. As there is no attempt to do more than explain art
according to natural laws, the reader must judge whether, like all
systems assuming to bring order out of confusion, this one fulfils its
mission.
Readers familiar with M. Taine's able and original work on English
literature _(Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise)_ will recognize
in the following pages the same theory applied to art as is therein
applied to literature.
J. D.
LONDON, _November 9,_ 1865.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Since the publication of the first edition of the "_Philosophy of Art_"
seven years ago, in London, its author has become deservedly popular,
and especially in this country. His writings are sought for, read and
translated both in England and on the continent of Europe, and it would
be but refining gold to say aught in his praise. Like every man of
genius he has, as time moves on, improved in his order of thought and
in his wonderfully artistic style. His latest work, "_On Intelligence_"
ranks him as high among thinkers, as his former works among men of
letters.
The present edition is a careful revision of the former one, and
amounts, indeed, to a new translation. Were either to be compared
with the original, no change of sense could probably be detected. The
present edition, however, being much more literal, the translator
considers it an improvement, and hopes that it will be found more
worthy of its gifted author, the publishers, his indulgent critics, and
the public generally.
J. D.
SOUTH ORANGE, N. J. _January,_ 1873.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
ON THE NATURE OF THE WORK OF ART.
§ I.
Object of this Study--The Method employed--The search for Aggregates on
which the Work of Art depends.
First Aggregate, the Entire Production of the Artist--Second Aggregate,
the School to which he belongs; examples, Shakespeare, Rubens. Third
Aggregate, Contemporary Society; examples, Greece, Spain, in the
Sixteenth Century.
Conditions determining appearance and character of Works of Art;
examples, Greek Tragedy, Gothic Architecture, Dutch Painting, French
Tragedy--Comparison of Climate and Natural Productions with a Moral
Temperature, and its effect--Application of this method to Italian Art.
Objects and method of Æsthetics--Opposition of the Historic and
Dogmatic Methods--Laws--Sympathy for all Schools--The Analogy between
Æsthetics and Botany, and between the Natural and the Moral Sciences 19
§ II.
What is the Object of Art--The Research Experimental and not
Ideal--Comparisons and Eliminations of Works of Art sufficient.
Division of the Arts into two groups--On the one hand, Painting,
Sculpture and Poesy; and, on the other, Architecture and Music.
First group--Imitation apparently the end of Art--Reasons for this
derived from ordinary experience, and from the lives of great men;
Michael Angelo, Corneille--Reasons derived from the History of Art and
Literature; Pompeii and Ravenna--Classic Style under Louis XIV., and
Academic Style under Louis XV 39
§ III.
Exact Imitation not the end of Art--Illustrations derived from
Casting, Photography, and Stenography--Comparison between Denner
and Van Dyck--Certain Arts purposely Inexact--Comparison between
Antique Statues and Draped Figures in the Churches of Naples and
Spain--Comparison between Prose and Verse--The Two Iphigenias of Goethe
§ IV.
Relationships of Parts the true object of Imitation--Illustrations
derived from Drawing and Literature . . 58
§ V.
A Work of Art not confined to Imitating Relationships of
Parts--Modification of the Principle in the greatest Schools; Michael
Angelo, Rubens--The Medici Tomb--The 'Kermesse.'
Definition of Essential Character: Examples of the Lion and the
Netherlands.
Importance of Essential Character; Nature imperfectly expressing it,
Art supplies her place--Flanders in the time of Rubens, and Italy in
the time of Raphael.
Artistic Imagination--Spontaneous Impressions, and their power of
Transformation.
Retrospect; successive steps of the Method, and Definition of a Work of
Art 62
§ VI.
Two Parts in this Definition--How Music and Architecture enter into
it--Opposition of the first and second group of Arts--The first copies
Organic and Moral Dependencies; the second combines Mathematical
Dependencies.
Mathematical Relationships perceived by the sense of sight--Different
classes of these Relationships--Principle of Architecture.
Mathematical Relationships perceived by the sense of Hearing--Different
classes of these Relationships--Principle of Music--The second
Principle of Music, Analogy of the Sound and the Cry--Music, on this
side, enters into the first group of Arts.
The definition given is applicable to all the Arts 83
§ VII.
The Value of Art in Human Life--Selfish Acts for the preservation
of the Individual--Social Acts tending to preserve the
Species--Disinterested Acts having for object the contemplation of
Causes and Essentials--Two ways for attaining this end; Science and
Art--Advantages of Art 89