“Art’s duality is a fatal result of man’s. Consider, if you will, the eternally subsisting part as the soul of art, and the mutable element as its body. That is why Stendhal – an impertinent, teasing, even a disagreeable critic, but one whose impertinences are often a useful spur to reflection – approached the truth more closely than many others when he said that “Beauty is but the promise of happiness.”
“This definition doubtless overshoots the mark; it makes Beauty far too subject to the infinitely variable ideal of Happiness. It strips Beauty too nearly of its aristocratic quality. But it has the great merit of making a decisive break with academic error.”
Charles Baudelaire, Peintre de la vie moderne, 1863
“This definition doubtless overshoots the mark; it makes Beauty far too subject to the infinitely variable ideal of Happiness. It strips Beauty too nearly of its aristocratic quality. But it has the great merit of making a decisive break with academic error.”
Charles Baudelaire, Peintre de la vie moderne, 1863
No comments:
Post a Comment