Kenneth Clark: “Facts become art through love, which unifies them and lifts them to a higher plane of reality.”
Almost right, that.
Right on the link between artifice (poetry, courtesy, ornamentation) and love. Right too on the unifying metaphoricity of art. Right too on the link of fact and art.
Not quite right, it seems, on two points. First, on the (perhaps) implied positivism of the use of “facts,” for we never encounter bare facts (facts barren of love and artifice) , facts are themselves God’s poesis , and art itself is supremely factual ( factum , made). Second, on the “elevation” to a “higher plane.” That’s too allegorical, whereas I’d want to say art is typological.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Letters
We welcome letters to the editor. Letters appear two issues after the article to which they are…
Visiting an Armenian Archbishop in Prison
On February 3, I stood in a poorly lit meeting room in the National Security Services building…
Christians Are Reclaiming Marriage to Protect Children
Gay marriage did not merely redefine an institution. It created child victims. After ten years, a coalition…
