For good or
evil, the artist has eyes and hands, which are perhaps more
artistic than his intentions and refuse to aim at photography
alone. Many genuine artists, who cannot be content with a mere
inventory of material objects, seek to express the objects by
what was once called "idealization," then "selection," and which
tomorrow will again be called something different.
[Footnote: The motive of idealization is so to beautify the
organic form as to bring out its harmony and rouse poetic
feeling. "Selection" aims not so much at beautification as at
emphasizing the character of the object, by the omission of non-
essentials. The desire of the future will be purely the
expression of the inner meaning. The organic form no longer
serves as direct object, but as the human words in which a divine
message must be written, in order for it to be comprehensible to
human minds.]
The impossibility and, in art, the uselessness of attempting to
copy an object exactly, the desire to give the object full
expression, are the impulses which drive the artist away from
"literal" colouring to purely artistic aims. And that brings us
to the question of composition.
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