theoryofliteratu00inwell

128 Theory of Literature
precepts and practice of antiquity. Likewise painting, before the
excavation of the frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum, can
scarcely be described as influenced by classical painting in spite of
the frequent reference to classical theories and Greek painters
like Apelles and some remote pictorial traditions which must
have descended from antiquity through the Middle Ages. Sculp-
ture and architecture, however, were to an extent far exceeding
the other arts, including literature, determined by classical mod-
els and their derivatives. Thus theories and conscious intentions
mean something very different in the various arts and say little
or nothing about the concrete results of an artist's activity: his
work and its specific content and form.
How indecisive for specific exegesis the approach through the
author's intention may be, can best be observed in the rare cases
when artist and poet are identical. For example, a comparison of
the poetry and the paintings of Blake, or of Rossetti, will show
that the character—not merely the technical quality—of their
painting and poetry is very different, even divergent. A gro-
tesque little animal is supposed to illustrate "Tiger! Tiger!
Burning bright." W. M. Thackeray illustrated Vanity Fair, but
his smirky caricature of Becky Sharp has hardly anything to do
with the complex character in the novel. In structure and quality
there is little comparison between Michelangelo's Sonnets and
his sculpture and paintings, though we can find the same Neo-
Platonic ideas in all and may discover some psychological simi-
larities. 10 This shows that the "medium" of a work of art (an un-
fortunate question-begging term) is not merely a technical ob-
stacle to be overcome by the artist in order to express his personality,
but a factor preformed by tradition and having a pow-
erful determining character which shapes and modifies the ap-
proach and expression of the individual artist. The artist does
not conceive in general mental terms but in terms of concrete
material ; and the concrete medium has its own history, frequently
very different from that of any other medium.
More valuable than the approach through the artist's inten-
tions and theories is a comparison of the arts on the basis of their
common social and cultural background. Certainly it is possible
to describe the common temporal, local, or social nourishing soil
of the arts and literature and thus to point to common influences