The World as Will and Idea, Vol. I — Arthur Schopenhauer, trans. Haldane & Kemp
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (R. B. Haldane & J. Kemp). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
§ 48. Historicdl painting has for its principal object, besides beauty and grace, character.
By character we mean generally, the representation of will at the highest grade of its objectification, when the individual, as giving prominence to a particular side of the Idea of humanity, has special significance, and shows this not merely by his form, but makes it visible in his bearing and occupation, by action of every kind, and the modifications of knowing and willing that occasion and accompany it.
The Idea of man must be exhibited in these circumstances, and therefore the unfolding of its many-sidedness must be brought before our eyes by means of representative individuals, and these individuals can only be made visible in their significance through various scenes, events, and actions. This is the endless problem of the historical painter, and he solves it by placing before us scenes of life of every kind, of greater or less significance.
No individual and no action can be without significance ; in all and through all the Idea of man unfolds itself more and more. Therefore no event of human life is excluded from the sphere of painting.
It is thus a great injustice to the excellent painters of the Dutch school, to prize merely their technical skUl, and to look down upon them in other respects, because, for the most part, they represent objects of common life, whereas it is assumed that only the events of the history of the world, or the incidents of biblical story, have significance.
We ought first to bethink ourselves that the inward significance of an action is quite different from its outward significance, and that these are often separated from each other. The outward significance is the importance of an action in relation to its result for and in the actual world ; thus according to the principle of sufficient reason. The inward significance is the depth of the insight into the Idea of man which it reveals, in that it brings to light sides of that Idea which rarely appear, by making individuals who assert themselves distinctly and decidedly, disclose their peculiar characteristics by means of appropriately arranged circumstances. Only the inward significance concerns art; the outward belongs to history. They are both completely independent of each other ; they may appear together, but may each appear alone.
An action which is of the highest significance for history may in inward significance be a very ordinary and common one ; and conversely, a scene of ordinary daily life may be of great inward significance, if human individuals, and the inmost recesses of human action and will, appear in it in a clear and distinct light. Further, the outward and the inward significance of a scene may be equal and yet very different.
Thus, for example, it is all the same, as far as inward significance is concerned, whether ministers discuss the fate of countries and nations over a map, or boors wrangle in a beerhouse over cards and dice, just as it is all the same whether we play chess with golden or wooden pieces.
But apart from this, the scenes and events that make up the life of so many millions of men, their actions, their sorrows, their joys, are on that account important enough to be the object of art, and by their rich variety they must afford material enough for unfolding the many-sided Idea of man.
Indeed the very transitoriness of the moment which art has fixed in such a picture (now called genrepainting) excites a slight and peculiar sensation ; for to fix the fleeting, ever-changing world in the enduring picture of a single event, which yet represents the whole, is an achievement of the art of painting by which it seems to bring time itself to a standstill, for it raises the individual to the Idea of its species.
Finally, the histoncal'and outwardly "si^ificant subjects of painting have often the disadvantage that just what is significant in them cannot be presented to perception, but must be arrived at by thought. In this respect the nominal significance of the picture muot be distinguished from its real significance. The former is the outward significance, which, however, can only be reached as a conception ; the latter is that side of the Idea of man which is made visible to the onlooker in the picture.
For example, Moses found ^he Egyptian princess is the n^TnaT significance of a painting ; it represents ~k moment of the neatest importence in hjstoryY the real significance, on me other hand, that which is really given to the onlookerj is a foundling child rescued froin Its floating cradle by a great lady, ai^ incident which' may have happened more than once.
The costume alone ’ can 'here indicate the particular historical case to the learned ; but the costume is only of importance to the nominal signifiance, and is a matter of indifference to the real significance ; for the latter knows only the human being as such, not the arbitrary forms.
Subjects taken from history have no advantage over those which are taken from mere possibility, and which are therefore to be called, not individual, but merely general. For what is peculiarly significant in the former is not the individual, not the particular event as such, but the universal in it, the side of the Idea of humanity which expresses itself through it.
But, on the other hand, definite historical subjects are not on this account to be rejected, only the really artistic view of such subjects, both in the painter and in the beholder, is never directed to the individual particulars in them, which properly constitute the historical, but to the universal which expresses itself in them, to the Idea.
And only those historical subjects are to be chosen the chief point of which can actually be represented, and not merely arrived at by thought, otherwise the nominal significance is too remote from the real; what is merely thought in connection with the picture becomes of most importance, and interferes with what is perceived. If even on the stage it is not right that the chief incident of the plot should take place behind the
No commentary for this page under the selected tracks.
There is commentary on page 1.