THE WHITE-FACED DECTICUS: THE INSTRUMENT OF SOUND
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Art has three fields which it may cultivate in the realm of natural objects: form, colour and sound. The sculptor uses form and imitates its perfection in so far as the chisel is able to imitate life. The draughtsman, likewise a copyist, seeks in black and white to give the illusion of relief on a flat surface. To the difficulties of drawing the painter adds those of colour, which are no less great.
An inexhaustible model sits to all three. Rich though the painter’s palette be, it will always be inferior to that of reality. Nor will the sculptor’s chisel ever exhaust the treasures of the plastic art in nature. Form and colour, beauty of outline and play of light: these are all taught by the contemplation of actual things. They are imitated, they are combined according to our tastes, but they are not invented.