A ridiculous and abused excerpt from Ruskin. Anyone who knows much about art learns rather quickly that totalizing presumptions and efforts to index the traits of 'great art' are open invitations to embarrassing contradiction. Renaissance theorist and architect Leon Alberti defined beauty in art as perfection is all parts so that nothing can be changed except for the worse. Northern Renaissance painting developed an exquisitely uniform attention to detail in all parts of a composition as a way to lead the viewer into deeper and deeper perception of reality as if moving into it over time. (See S. Alpers for a cogent argument distinguishing Northern art codes from Italian art codes). Ruskin's romantic view stems from a popular notion about the immediacy incompleteness that has roots in the ancient idea that it is a good way to engage the viewer, especially in portraiture, to suggest rather than show in order to allow the viewer to see (project) what is already believed. What is recognized today as a fundamental of psychological perception was well-understood long before in folk-science. Faced with vague suggestions as to what a person (or self) looks like the viewer 'completes and corrects' the image by projecting subjectivity. That is one mode of deductive practice. It has no inherent link to 'greatness' which of course is a cultural-political value, open to constant change.
The issue is not if a particular approach to art process is a trait of greatness. That's really a circular argument because one needs to know what greatness consists of before naming its separate elements. If 'greatness' consists of immediacy of apprehension and psychological completion then a diverse pattern of 'finished and unfinished' shapes will do the job if and only if it's already agreed that certain elements (reflecting a cultural-political code) are great and others are not. At issue is what kinds of perception are structured by different processes. I would prefer that Mr. Berg give some attention to smart interpretation of the various quotes he selects or paraphrases over what seem to be selections chosen to support his own unrefective views with decontextualized -- and therefore irrelevant -- quotes taken from celebrity authors. I've read a lot of Ruskin's writing on art and some of it is very insightful and useful. But he fell victim to his own genius and like a mad scientist he rearranged the facts of observation to fit his predetermined taste...and fascination for the pre-impressionism of Turner. That's fine for a critic making poetic interpretations but it is deadly and stupid as science or philosophy. Mr. Berg always responds to any comment with yet another insipidly annoying quotation of of context, pretending, always, to presume that the author's fame or worthiness will justify whatever foolish role he demands of them. wc ----- Original Message ---- From: joseph berg <[email protected]> To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, June 17, 2012 1:23:07 AM Subject: "For what Ruskin said of the difference between a great painter, like Tintoretto, and a low painter, like Teniers, holds for every manifestation of life: the inferior painter, not recognizing the difference between high and low, between what is inten *"For what Ruskin said of the difference* between a great painter, like Tintoretto, and a low painter, like Teniers, holds for every manifestation of life: the inferior painter, not recognizing the difference between high and low, *between what is intensely moving and what is emotionally inert, gives every part of his painting the same refinement of finish, the same care of detail. The great painter, on the other hand, knows that life is too short to treat every part of it with equal care: so he concentrates on the passages of maximum significane and treats hastily, even contemptuously, the minor passages: his shortcuts and simplifications are an effort to give a better account of what matters. This reduction of essentials is the main art of life."* "Conduct of Life" (1951,Mumford) http://books.google.com/books?id=YQmxAAAAIAAJ&q=%22essentials+is+the+main+art+of+life%22&dq=%22essentials+is+the+main+art+of+life%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nXbdT4_ZH6fN6QGkiaWrCw&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAA
