Concerning the Spiritual in Art

gled triangle divided horizontally into unequal parts with the narrowest segmen

e second segment is tomorrow; what today can be understood only by the apex and to the rest of the tria

vast sorrow. Even those who are nearest to him in sympathy do not understand him. Angrily th

eached the limit; Beethoven is now ripe for an asylum." Of the opening phrase, on a reiterated "e," the Abbe Stadler sa

he once stood alone? Despite memorials and statues, are they really many who have risen

the triangle for baser reasons, are fully understood by their fellows and acclaimed for their genius. The greater the segment (which is the same as saying the lower it lies in the triangle) so the greater the number who understand the words of th

urls them suddenly into the depths ever lower and lower. Sienkiewicz, in one of his novels, compares the spiritual life to swimming; for the man who does not strive tirelessly, who does not fight continually against sinking, will mentally and morally go under. In this strait a man's talent (again in the biblical sense) becomes a curse-and not only the talent of the artist, but also of those who eat this poisoned food. The artist uses his strength to flatter h

ower segments of the triangle, and the whole seems motionless, or even to move down and backwards. Men attribute to these blind and dumb periods a special value, for they judge them by outward results, t

d knowledge and progress, cry in harsh chorus, without any to comfort them. The night of the spirit falls more and more darkly. Deeper becomes the misery of these b

ng nobler. Objects, the reproduction of which is considered her sole aim, remain monotonously the same. The question "what?" disappears from art

h, but only to be notorious for some small originality and consequently lauded by a small group of patrons and connoisseurs (which incidentally is also a very profitable business for him), there arise a crowd of gifted and skilful painters, so ea

ought their way to the top of the chaotic world of art and picture-making entrench themselves in the te

t for notoriety, the spiritual triangle, slowly but surel

and sees the dance round the golden calf. But h

hen this "how?" remains without any fruitful answer, there is always a possibility that the same "something" (which we call personality today) may be able to see in the objects about it not only what is pure

s we make between matter and spirit be nothing but relative modifications of one or the other? Thought which, although a product of the spirit, can be defined with positive science, is matter, but of fine and no

n to find the "what" she has lost, the "what" which will show the way to the spiritual food of the newly awakened spiritual life. This "what?" will no longer be the material, objec

RT CAN DIVINE, WHICH ONLY ART CAN EXPRESS BY T