“When we have mastered the internal word, when we have vividly and clearly conceived a figure or a statue, when we have found a musical theme, expression is born and is complete, nothing more is needed. If, then, we open our mouth, and speak or sing,…what we do is to say aloud what we have already said within, to sing aloud what we have already sung within. If our hands strike the keyboard of the piano, if we take up pencil or chisel, such actions are willed” (they belong to the practical, not the esthetic, activity), “and what we are then doing is executing in great movements what we have already executed briefly and rapidly within.” –Benedetto Croce (Esthetic, pg. 50)
“Man is an artist as soon as he imagines, and long before he reasons.” –Croce
Now, Michelangelo said “One paints not with the hands, but with the brain” and DaVinci said, “The minds of men of lofty genius are most active in invention when they are doing the least external work.”
The essence of the esthetic activity lies in the motionless effort of the artist to conceive the perfect image that shall express the perfect subject he has in mind; a form of intuition that involves no mystic insight, but perfect sight, complete perception, and adequate imagination. The miracle of art lies not in the externalization but in the conception of the idea; externalization is a matter of mechanical technique and manual skill.
So, what is beauty? Croce answers that beauty is the mental formation of an image that catches the essence of the thing perceived. The beauty belongs, again, rather to the inward image than to the outward form in which it is embodied.
Beauty is adequate expression: and since there is no real expression that is not adequate.
Beauty therefore is expression. (Esthetic, pg. 79)
Excerpts taken from, “The Story of Philosophy”What do you think of these quotes, and this person?
Adding your reply:
Registration is required because of issues with spam. It is fast and free! This author would LOVE to get a comment from you, please join!
Please register or login to comment! It's totally free