Yet all Greek sculpture was painted or treated with wax in such a manner the harshness of the stone was modified. The sensitive vision of the Greeks could not tolerate the cold, hard whiteness.
Much of our enjoyment of ancient sculpture is due to its discoloration, to what time and the elements have done to its surfaces.
Our appreciation of art will never be true until we can gaze with unprejudiced eye upon any combination of lines and colors the artist chooses to use.
So long as we demand that he shall use only those combinations we are accustomed to, just so long do we by our attitude check his development.
The average man is bewildered by the new and the strange; he is bewildered by new cities, new countries, new peoples, new pictures, new sculpture, new architecture, new music, new books, new ideas—because he is not used to them and does not understand them; he does not know whether to like them or not so he condemns them in order to make a pretense of knowing.
The rare man is not bewildered by the new and the strange at home or abroad, in art or life. He is interested and at once sets about learning and comprehending. He loves the new and the strange instinctively because they excite his curiosity and pique his intelligence. He loves to meet the new and the strange as an archeologist loves to find an inscription in an unknown tongue—for the hidden significance.
This chapter may be concluded appropriately by four warnings which Chinese wisdom pours into the ears of art students. Many of the modern painters should ponder these precepts.