As it
is, you are true only on your middle plane. Your outlines are false;
they do not round upon themselves; they suggest nothing behind them.
There is truth here," said the old man, pointing to the bosom of the
saint; "and here," showing the spot where the shoulder ended against
the background; "but there," he added, returning to the throat, "it is
all false. Do not inquire into the why and wherefore. I should fill
you with despair."
The old man sat down on a stool and held his head in his hands for
some minutes in silence.
"Master," said Porbus at length, "I studied that throat from the nude;
but, to our sorrow, there are effects in nature which become false or
impossible when placed on canvas."
"The mission of art is not to copy nature, but to represent it. You
are not an abject copyist, but a poet," cried the old man, hastily
interrupting Porbus with a despotic gesture. "If it were not so, a
sculptor could reach the height of his art by merely moulding a woman.
Try to mould the hand of your mistress, and see what you will get,
--ghastly articulations, without the slightest resemblance to her
living hand; you must have recourse to the chisel of a man who, without
servilely copying that hand, can give it movement and life. It is our
mission to seize the mind, soul, countenance of things and beings.
Effects! effects! what are they? the mere accidents of the life, and
not the life itself. A hand,--since I have taken that as an example,
--a hand is not merely a part of the body, it is far more; it expresses
and carries on a thought which we must seize and render.
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