"Because these Arts, in their highest province, are not addressed to the gross senses, but to the desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and pent up by the world which is about us."
— Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed by Thomas Cadell
Date
December 11, 1786; 1787
Metaphor
"Because these Arts, in their highest province, are not addressed to the gross senses, but to the desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and pent up by the world which is about us."
Metaphor in Context
Upon the whole, it seems to me, that the object and intention of all the Arts, is to supply the natural imperfection of things, and often to gratify the mind by realising, and embodying, what never existed but in the imagination.
It is allowed on all hands, that facts, and events, however they may bind the Historian, have no dominion over the Poet or the Painter. With us, History is made to bend and conform to this great Idea of Art. And why? Because these Arts, in their highest province, are not addressed to the gross senses, but to the desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and pent up by the world which is about us.
(p. 29)
It is allowed on all hands, that facts, and events, however they may bind the Historian, have no dominion over the Poet or the Painter. With us, History is made to bend and conform to this great Idea of Art. And why? Because these Arts, in their highest province, are not addressed to the gross senses, but to the desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and pent up by the world which is about us.
(p. 29)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
From 1769 to 1772 Reynolds' lectures were delivered annually, with each discourse published shortly after its delivery. After 1772, the lectures were delivered biennially. The first seven discourses were collected and published together in 1778. In 1797, the first collected edition of all fifteen appeared, with a second edition issued in 1798. See the ODNB.
Text from A Discourse Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the Prizes, December 11, 1786, by the President. (London: Printed by Thomas Cadell, 1787). <Link to ECCO>
Text from A Discourse Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the Prizes, December 11, 1786, by the President. (London: Printed by Thomas Cadell, 1787). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
07/25/2013
