180 Metaphors for art

Classical art, in which form and content are perfectly conformed to each other, is the most beautiful, but romantic art is, nevertheless, higher and more significant.

It seems an odd turn in the kaleidoscope of Fortune that associates a Prime Minister of the Sandwich Islandswhere the only pictorial Art is a kind of illumination laboriously executed by the natives on each other's skins, thus forming a free peripatetic gallerywith a collection of pictures by early Italian masters.

When you have anything to say, art is a joy; when you haven't, it is a curse to yourself and to others.

* M. Taine's philosophy which regards the art of any people or period as the necessary result of the conditions of race, religion, civilization, and manners in the midst of which the art was producedand esteems a knowledge of these conditions as sufficient to account for the character of the art, seems to me to exclude many complex and mysterious influences, especially in individual cases, which must affect the work of the artists.

Accordingly, the art of cookery commences; and although the fruits of the earth, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, are still the only food of mankind, yet these are so prepared, improved, and dressed by skill and ingenuity, that they are the means of immeasurably extending the boundaries of human enjoyments.

The polite arts, which our author chiefly admired, were music and poetry; how far he excelled in the former, cannot be known, nor can we agree with his life-writer already mentioned, that he excelled in both.

But the art of reading is no test of intelligence, and the art of writing is no test of original skill.

"Where'er thou art are love and goodness, where'er thou art is nature too."

So, in high civilizations, especially material, Art is not only a fashion but a great enjoyment, a lofty study, and a theme of general criticism and constant conversation.

Such things are no doubt very excellent, but they do not promote intensity of feeling, fervour of mind; and as art is in itself an outcry against the animality of human existence, it would be well that the life of the artist should be a practical protest against the so-called decencies of life; and he can best protest by frequenting a tavern and cutting his club.

And even this is not sufficient; "for the gymnast, the ultimate aim of whose art is the beau idéal of humanity, must know what effects applied movements produce upon the corporeal and psychical condition of man; a knowledge which can be obtained only from the most careful and untiring examination.

Art, in so far as it is more divine, is more unattainable, more evanescent, more unsubstantial.

Verily art well named, lord Beltane, since in thee Pentavalon's winter is passed away and spring is comeO happy season of Beltane, O season of new beginnings and new hopes!

"Thou art young for thy vocationhere is gold.

Art itself is a sufficient refutation of the assertion that we know nothing of what lies behind the apparent.

" "Said he aught besideaught else, Roger?" "Aye, master, he bid me pray for thee, the which I have also done, though I had rather fight for thee; nathless the sweet saints have answered even my poor prayers, for behold, thou art alive and shall be well anon.

The Art of ancient Rome was a second-hand copy of the original and airy Greek,often clever, but never vivid and self-originating.

In his famous Inaugural of this series, he thus states what he considers the central truth of his teaching: "The art of any country is the exponent of its social and political virtues.

Whichever way the discussion sways as to the priority of eastern or western influences on Moroccan artwhether it came to her from Syria, and was thence passed on to Spain, or was first formed in Spain, and afterward modified by the Moroccan imaginationthere can at least be no doubt that Fazi art and culture, in their prime, are partly the reflection of European civilization.

It would seem to have been painted quite early in the last decade of the fifteenth century, when Bellini's art would still be the predominant influence over the young artist.

His art in bribing the ministers of the Great Mogul, and the shallowness of the water, that prevented large ships of war from approaching, were the principal causes of his safety.

But is it not also the child of Nature?of Nature and Art together?

"Thou art a youth of promise, and wilt well be a prop to our grandson's English throne.

If this is so, and thou art still a man, Be a Castilian now and join with us To serve thy country's cause as we it serve.

Art is the richest gift of heaven to earth.

180 Metaphors for  art