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.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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