Real, which would be mere imitation, and too definite a realization of the
Ideal, which would be too purely intellectual. It is through its very incom
pleteness that Art becomes complete in beauty, and so addresses itself, not
to the faculty of recognition nor to the faculty of reason, but to the aesthetic
sense alone, which, while accepting both reason and recognition as stages
of apprehension, subordinates them both to a pure synthetic impression of
the work of art as a whole, and, taking whatever alien emotional elements
the work may possess, uses their very complexity as a means by which a
richer unity may be added to the ultimate impression itself. You see, then,
how it is that the aesthetic critic rejects these obvious modes of art that
have but one message to deliver, and having delivered it become dumb and
sterile, and seeks rather for such modes as suggest reverie and mood, and
.
PREFACE TO THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY / 1697
by their imaginative beauty make all interpretations true, and no interpre
tation final. Some resemblance, no doubt, the creative work of the critic
will have to the work that has stirred him to creation, but it will be such
resemblance as exists, not between Nature and the mirror that the painter
of landscape or figure may be supposed to hold up to her, but between
Nature and the work of the decorative artist. Just as on the flowerless carpets
of Persia, tulip and rose blossom indeed and are lovely to look on, though
they are not reproduced in visible shape or line; just as the pearl and purple
of the sea shell is echoed in the church of St. Mark at Venice; just as the
vaulted ceiling of the wondrous chapel at Ravenna is made gorgeous by the
gold and green and sapphire of the peacock's tail, though the birds of Juno2
fly not across it; so the critic reproduces the work that he criticizes in a
mode that is never imitative, and part of whose charm may really consist in
the rejection of resemblance, and shows us in this way not merely the mean
ing but also the mystery of Reauty, and, by transforming each art into lit
erature, solves once for all the problem of Art's unity.
Rut I see it is time for supper. After we have discussed some Chambertin
and a few ortolans,' we will pass on to the question of the critic considered
in the light of the interpreter.
ERNEST
Ah! you admit, then, that the critic may occasionally be allowed to
see the object as in itself it really is.
GILBERT 1
am not quite sure. Perhaps I may admit it after supper. There is a
subtle influence in supper.
1890, 1891
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray
The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.
The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of auto
biography.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being
charming. This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the
