Seldom Is A Gothic Head More Beautiful

Our Characteristic Response To The Mutilated Statue, The Bronze Dug Up From The Earth, Is Revealing. It Is Not That We Prefer Time-worn Bas-reliefs, Or Rusted Statuettes As Such, Nor Is It The Vestiges Of Death That Grip Us In Them, But Those Of Life. Mutilation Is The Scar Left By The Struggle With Time, And A Reminder Of It - Time Which Is As Much A Part Of Ancient Works Of Art As The Material They Are Made Of, And Thrusts Up Through The Fissures, From A Dark Underworld, Where All Is At Once Chaos And Determinism.

In Ceasing To Subordinate Creative Power To Any Supreme Value, Modern Art Has Brought Home To Us The Presence Of That Creative Power Throughout The Whole History Of Art.

A Large Share Of Our Art Heritage Is Now Derived From Peoples Whose Idea Of Art Was Quite Other Than Ours, And Even From Peoples To Whom The Very Idea Of Art Meant Nothing.

The Ordinary Man Puts Up A Struggle Against All That Is Not Himself, Whereas It Is Against Himself, In A Limited But All-essential Field, That The Artist Has To Battle.

Man Knows That The World Is Not Made On A Human Scale; And He Wishes That It Were.