SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS

“You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not rightly understand.”

—Leonardo da Vinci, Leonardo da Vinci’s Note-Books, arranged by Edward McCurdy, p. 58.

Dealing, as this course does, with the material of four great arts, there is no limit to the work the student may do in connection with it. The most significant point is to recognize that a little first-hand study of works of art is worth more than a vast amount of reading of criticism and theory of art. The best preparation for the course is to select a few works of art in each of the four fields and study them carefully; analyzing rigorously the effect each produces on the student’s senses, emotions and intellect; seeking to discover the means by which that effect is produced; and endeavoring to define what part or aspect of man’s life and reaction on Nature finds expression and interpretation in each artistic creation studied. The student must formulate his own questioning and work with a mind consistently active, not passive.

This is merely demanding in the field of the arts the same direct inductive study of the material given, that is universally recognized to-day as the only sound method in every field of science. It is surprising how a little of such study will clarify the field of art. Works drop quickly into place, each is understood in relation to others and to the common background of human experience in both significance and beauty. This intellectual result is, however, not all; indeed, it is the less important consequence of the work. The great gain is in deepened appreciation. The student turns to fresh works of art with a multiplied power to respond to the appeal of each masterpiece. Thus is his life widened and deepened in relation to man and Nature, and blessed with the joy that beauty gives.

The reading of such books as are given in the following list should be subordinated to the work above outlined, and should be used to clarify and stimulate the student’s own thinking, following the direct study of the works of art themselves.

The material in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics, giving as it does brief but complete works of art selected from widely different men and epochs should be used throughout the course to represent the art of poetry. Where a gallery of painting and sculpture is not accessible to the student, photographic reproductions (obtainable to-day at insignificant price) of the works mentioned in the outlines and lists of topics should be obtained and carefully studied. In music the student should utilize with loving care such opportunities as he can find or make available.