13 2 Art object and material

Art (from Church Slavonic iskusstvo, Old Slavonic iskousъ — temptation, experience, test) is one of the most general categories of aesthetics, art history and artistic practice. Usually, art is understood as a figurative understanding of reality; the process and result of expressing the internal and external (in relation to the creator) world. Consequently, art is a creative activity that reflects the interests of not only the author himself, but also other people. “The general interest in life,” wrote Nikolai Chernyshevsky, “is the content of art.” Vladimir Nabokov defined the essence of the “magic called art” quite differently: “In the gamut of world measures there is a point where imagination and knowledge pass into each other, a point that is achieved by reducing large things and increasing small ones: the point of art.” However, such definitions mix concepts of different volumes and levels of content: art, artistry, reflection, imaginative thinking, creativity.

“Art is not a luxury.

This is the great joy of life,

its taste, its colors, its aroma…”

Alexander Benois

An object of art is understood as something that is embodied in the creative process in the figurative structure and content of a work of art. It cannot be considered in isolation from the specific object of art, which determines the meaningfulness of the object.

The structure of an object of art is complex. Its objective component is not nature, man or society in itself, but a more or less adequate reflection of them in the artist’s consciousness. The subjective component is certain social and personal attitudes, motives, passions, ideals. An object of art is not reduced to either an object of reflection or an a priori fiction of the artist’s soul — it is a result, a product of the interaction of the objective and subjective in the consciousness and experiences of the artist himself. An object of art understood in this way has an aesthetic essence.

THE MATERIAL OF ART (from Latin materialis — material) — in the broad sense of the word is everything from which a work of art is created. In such a general sense, the material of art (the universal source of its origin and construction) is “all life,” the whole multitude of really significant expressions of reality, nature, and society.

Firstly, these are clay, marble, metals, wood, dyes, light, man with his physical and spiritual ideals, words, sounds, various surfaces, light-sensitive processes, etc.
Secondly, any spiritual phenomena (events, social processes), phenomena of consciousness (ideals, representations, ideas, etc.) can act as materials of art.
Thirdly, a set of instrumental and tool means can also be attributed to the materials of art — musical instruments, printing presses, film cameras, etc.
All the aspects noted are essential for the embodiment of the author’s concept. For example, it is very important to consider the aesthetic possibilities of marble, metal or the external qualities of a person, etc.

The material of art changes in the process of development of production, technology, in the course of social changes, etc.

The subject of art consists in the development of history and reflects the level of mastering by mankind of relations with nature, within human associations, views on the value of man and the meaning of his life, etc. Therefore, the subject of art is reality in its most essential manifestations, which is concretized, acquires images in the spiritual world of man, that is, acts as a human image - to the extent of his humanity. In other words, the main subject of art is man as a subject of spiritual experience. Art unfolds the image of reality as an object and source of real existence of man - the subject of creativity. The world in the richness of its manifestations is the "material" for the realization of the formative ability of man, the highest personification of which is artistic formation. Reality is only an aesthetic background, in the space of which the spirit emanates character and methods of discovery. Art, collecting aesthetic (both positive and negative) manifestations of reality into an artistic whole, unfolds existence in the forms of artistic-figurative reality within the work as a spiritual whole. Let's say a landscape is depicted in a painting - this is not an "anatomical map" of nature, but an image that was fixed by the artist's consciousness and acquired independent vitality in the imagination and memory, personifying moods, experiences, reflections on the value of life, on the eternal and the mortal in it, etc. Images contain the natural and the social, the eternal and the transient, the subjective in vision and experience and the objective (real manifestations of life are a complex spiritual synthesis, capable of being embodied in musical sounds, in poetic language, in a pictorial work, etc.). However, each time it will be a synthesis of real defeats about the world of phenomena, comprehension of their expedient vitality in themselves and the material of formation, in which the image will live an independent life. Images in

expressions are not passive in the ways of their existence in the material of art, but actively influence the creation of the most convenient and appropriate artistic embodiment for themselves. In the imagination of the artist, they arise either as pictorial, or as poetic or musical images. Therefore, it is quite fair to believe that the subject of art is reality, but with indispensable reservations regarding the content of reality, namely: aesthetically mastered reality, in the world of personality it acquires an individualized image. It reflects the essence, the idea of ​​the universal in the fullness of the content of the latter. Thus, in experiencing the relationship to the world, humanity forms its image and embodies its own image in objects of indifference. Fitting into the figurative language of specific types of art, this synthesis creates a new type of reality - artistic reality.

Therefore, the subject of art is reality spiritualized by man. This is a world above his fluidity and chance. As such, it is an indispensable source of humanity's self-awareness of itself as the creative beginning of life.

In order to concretize the problem of the formation of an art object, let us consider the creation of relations between humanity and nature, as reflected in art. During the period of ancient civilizations, natural forces acquire concretization, appearing in the images of gods, who are given human features and human qualities. Thus, the entire cosmic world appeared as a whole, based on mutual connections and obligations. The supernatural (divine) properties provided to natural forces objectively determined the need for a person's attitude to them in the forms of inclination and veneration. Note that it is not nature in its value that is important here, which is unconditional, but nature in the images provided to it, which consolidate the aesthetic relations of man and natural forces. As its properties are learned, the relationship does not undergo qualitative changes, but is concretized by the awareness of the value of the expressive vitality of nature in its intrinsic value, that is, as an object of nutrition and harmonization of human feelings and reason. Relationships from mythology are transferred to the aesthetic level and are embodied in the artistic imagery of art. It is interesting to trace this phenomenon using the example of man's attitude to nature in the culture of the Chinese Middle Ages. The classical tradition of painting was formed here as early as the 4th century and reflects a thoughtful and respectful attitude to nature as a source of internal, purposeful and harmonious vitality. The artist Xie He (5th century) in his work "Notes on the Classification of Old Painting", relying on the previous tradition, distinguishes six basic principles of painting, among which he considers the most important to be "the sound of the spirit, the movement of life". Xie He's successor, Wang Wei (8th century), in his treatise "Secrets of Painting" details the concept of "spirit" in landscape painting, emphasizing the need to convey natural states, and not just describe landscapes. This tradition acquires philosophical depth in the treatise of Jing Hao (late 9th - early 10th centuries) "Notes on Brush Exercises". The author analyzes the fundamental concept of "spirit", applying the concept of "principle of spirit". He proves that the purpose of painting is not limited to truthfully conveying certain natural states. Even the beauty of what is depicted is not the final goal. Painting is intended to comprehend the truth in things, to understand the external beauty of things and to achieve it in art. However, he warns that "one should not take external beauty for reality... He who tries to express the spirit through external beauty loses the image. This is the death of the image" [15, p. 74]. What then is the truth in art, which is discussed in the treatise? The author formulates two basic principles of the vitality of the image as its spiritual prerequisites: "the principle of the spirit" and "the principle of the idea." The third, no less important, is the "principle of the brush", that is, the artistic-formative skill of the artist: the ability to embody in the matter of formation two ideal entities so skillfully that the work acquires a convincing life in itself. Let us dwell in more detail on the first two principles associated with the attitude to the subject of indifference. "The principle of the spirit means that the heart follows the movements of the brush and grasps images without hesitation ... The principle of the idea means that the unimportant is cut off, the essential is reached and attention is concentrated on the form of objects (italics by the author - V. M.)" [15, p. . 75]. We are talking about the "sound of the spirit" of the depicted objects. Let us note that here there is a deep mastery of the "spirit" of the natural world, that is, its aesthetic vitality as something valuable in itself, which is expressed in the attitude of man towards it. At the same time, there is a correlation between the spiritual world of man and natural life. The latter brings the ability to comprehend the natural world in its essential manifestations and to provide them with perfect life in images. Artistic skill is, thus, the source of man's creative connection with the world. Let us turn to another comparison, so that trace the changes in attitudes towards nature, and consequently, towards how it is seen as an object of art. In European spiritual experience, nature becomes an object of artistic representation only in the Renaissance. It owes this to the development of scientific knowledge, which gradually destroys religious and mythological ideas about the world and the value of life. The long dominance of religious consciousness, which contrasted the material and the ideal, the natural and the spiritual, consolidated the ignoring of the value of nature in the European consciousness of the Middle Ages. Culture failed to completely overcome alienation from nature in subsequent eras. In artistic depiction, it is only a background or arena for the development of mythological scenes and religious events, in particular the Gospel. Only romanticism brings a new personal perception of nature to European culture, seeing in its manifestations a source and means of clarifying one's own spiritual states. It is significant that the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci in his treatise "On Painting", paying great attention to the analysis of the advantages of painting over other forms of art (poetry, music), focuses mainly on its ability to convey depth, volume and sensory visibility of the subject of the image. His attention is focused on the "technical", that is, figurative-forming possibilities of painting, the laws of which he finds, creating the sciences of painting. In his aesthetics, the theory of perspective, drawing, light and shadow, color in painting, etc. is developed. The thoroughness of his scientific expositions was based on experience and experiments, extremely valuable for science and for the creative approach of artists to the artistic process. However, we will not find in his treatise that poeticization of nature, which is characteristic of Chinese theorists and practitioners of painting. For European culture, Leonardo's treatise convincingly proves, the characteristic emphasis is not on the subject of the image, but on the artist's skills in depicting the subject. Even when the concept of "spiritual" is used, it differs in content compared to the Eastern tradition. For example, studying shadow as a means of creating volume in figures and perspective in images, Leonardo da Vinci writes: "Shadow comes from two things that are not similar to each other, because one is corporeal, the other is spiritual. The corporeal is flesh, creates shadow, spiritual light. So, light and body are the causes of shadow (italics by the author - V. M.) "[9, p. 313]. In painting, as the above opinion shows, it is not the subject that is more important, but the method of depiction. That is, in artistic formation, attention is transferred to the activity of the subject of creative skills.

A kind of "summary" of the European understanding of the value of nature as an object of art are the words of F. Schelling: "Painting is exclusively schematic in landscape" [19, p. 272]. The explanation of this idea sounds unconvincing, since the argument put forward is that "formed is symbolized through the medium of form, there is formlessness." Since landscape is "somewhat limitless," the philosopher considers it legitimate to characterize this type of creativity as "schematic." The question arises: what in this case should be considered expressive manifestations of the vitality ("spirit") of natural species? And what does the formative creative spirit of the artist mean? As we see, an object of art in the experience of specific cultures and in the process of history arises as objective evidence of the level of their value orientations.

So, the concept of "object of art" should be understood as the entire wealth of experience of human relations with the world as they developed, objectified in practical activities, ideas, theories, value concepts. The ability to spiritualize them, creating an artistic whole - a work of art - is conditioned by the formative idea. It "collects" lives, reveals its internal core foundations and retains them during the development of the sensory wealth of images in a specific work of art.

The integrity of the being of the spirit, unalienated from the object, nourishes and develops its formative ability, is fixed by artistic and figurative language. A work of art is objectively defined in itself as a perfect life, the integrity of which is based on the principle of beauty. Beauty, as already noted, on the one hand, is a consequence of the expediency of artistic formation, thanks to the organizing power of reason. On the other hand, it is conditioned by the expedient vitality of the object. Thanks to such unity, the ideal and the real acquire organic integrity. "The indistinguishability of the ideal and the real as indistinguishability appears in the ideal world through art," asserts F. Schelling [19, p. 80]. Beauty is present where the special (real) has a universal valuable content, or otherwise, where the infinite (concepts) is contemplated as concrete. Thus, the objective condition of the vitality of a work is beauty as a sensory way of being of truth, and the spiritual basis is the convincing integrity of the being of an idea (the universal) in a special (perfect artistic image). Let's say in

painting the basis of the integrity of the image is a certain level of symbolization. The essence (idea) - the organizing principle of the spirit and its convincing artistic embodiment in the material of formation is the guarantee of a perfect work of art.

We have revealed the most general patterns of the life of art in two main dimensions. Firstly, as a type of spiritual experience in the dialectic of the particular and the general in a special sensory image of its being within the work as an ideal reality. Secondly, as a special type of formation, the purpose of which is beauty as an objective condition for the existence of truth in the sensory perceived forms of its being.

The basis for the existence of a work as an artistic reality is the material of formation and historically developed means that allow you to give life to objects of indifference in the figurative system of a particular type of art. Historically produced material of art is not only a means, but also a guarantee of the vitality of art as a spiritual whole. An artistic genius who has formed perfect images in his imagination can provide them with real life only by using artistic language. With its expressiveness and internal expediency, it will provide the subject with convincing internal vitality. The artistic persuasiveness of a work depends not even on the subject of the image, but on the idea that finds adequate embodiment in the material of art and expressive-pictorial means. The material of artistic formation in the development of history, preserving its original principles determined by the specificity of the art, experiences diversity and improvement. Its possibilities expand, since the experience of seeing, understanding phenomena and artistic formation of their image is improved. For example, in music, sound is the basis of musical imagery and expressiveness. Despite the fact that it is deprived of the meaningful concreteness of the word or the ability to reproduce the natural forms of sensually perceived pictures of reality, musical sound has an intonational nature. It is intonation that makes music the art of sounds, which have absorbed the rich experience of speech intonation and rhythmic movements. The means of expressiveness of music, providing artistic certainty to its forms and types, are melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, and the like. The intonational nature of music is clearly visible in its national coloring, which is created by the melodic and rhythmic structure.

Fine arts (painting, sculpture, graphics, monumental art) reflect the material and sensory properties of the real world in real space by their inherent means due to the volume, texture of objects, color and light, and the like. They not only record the sensory visibility of phenomena, but also convey the internal movement of subject images, the unfolding of their properties in space. Despite all the certainty of the material of art, each of its types has its own rich palette of expressive and visual means that form the diversity of their artistic language. (We will consider this issue in more detail in topic 15).

The dominance of one or another type of art, as well as the choice of material, are not arbitrary, but objectively predetermined. For example, the leading type of art in Ancient Greece of the classical era is sculpture, reflecting the worldview of the Greeks about the cosmos as a material and sensory reality. Its artistic embodiment is carried out in perfect plastic (sculptural) images of the gods of Olympus. The state of inner peace, which is reflected in the gracefulness of the posture, in the smooth harmony of the forms of the sculpture of Agesander "Venus de Milo", reveals the spirituality of beauty, the figure of the goddess radiates. Embodied in human form, it shows that it is quite appropriate for a divine being to present itself in a female image, or otherwise, that a person personifies the features of the divine. The perfect vitality of artistic images is a manifestation of the harmony of the inner world of a person, organized by the ideas of measure, harmony, proportionality, balance. Without artistic perfection, works cannot appear as the reality of art.

So, we come to another important conclusion: no matter what the work of art is about, no matter what kind or genre we choose, its subject is always a person, his inner world, creative essence. its image, embodied in sensually perceived forms, is defined as reality, valuable in itself, as an object of experience and comprehension, and therefore, as a direct source of exchange of human worlds. That is, art, each work of art as uniqueness, is called upon to testify to the life of the spirit in its direct development through objects of indifference. Through the nature of the attitude towards them, the level of perfection of the forming spirit is revealed.

The method of depiction, its object and material have not a random or arbitrary, but a lawful character

Let's say, the static nature of the inner world of a person, its content is not individualized, objectively predetermines the dominance of static sculptural images in the cultures of the early civilizations of the East (ancient Egyptian, Sumerian-Babylonian). The static nature of poses, fixed by the sculptural canon, also symbolizes the worldview of a person of that time: the dominance of the idea of ​​the inviolability of time, and then the immutability and omnipotence of the power of the pharaohs, granted by the gods. Noting the natural nature of the named trinity (the subject of the image, its idea and the material of formation), we will give another comparison. It proves that the differences in ideas about the value of a person and the meaning of his life determine the aesthetic qualities of works within the same type or genre of art. At the same time, the material weighs, serves to embody the images. For example, marble sculpture of the era of Greek antiquity differs from stone sculptures, characteristic of other cultures of the Ancient World, in the plasticity of images and the spirituality of images. After all, marble, enveloped in rays of light, begins to radiate it as if from within. The artistic perfection of the images convincingly reflects the idea of ​​​​human spirituality.

The harmony of the human body as its spiritualized perfection is embedded in the concept of rhythm, symmetry, measure. This phenomenon was called somatism, that is, the spirituality of human corporality. This is the radiation of the harmony of the spirit through the matter of life. At the same time, other cultures through sculptural images of figures convey the internal lack of ignition of the human spirit, that is, the unformedness of the human personality.

The level of artistic perfection of art appears, thus, as convincing evidence of the content of relationships, form an idea of ​​​​the value of life and the purpose of man. These patterns, discovered by G. Hegel ("Lectures on Esthetics"), made it possible to build the logic of the artistic life of mankind in the unity of idea and image, embodying their history in three main forms: symbolic, classical, romantic. Accordingly, the main types of artistic formation inherent in each of them were determined. (Various aspects of this pattern are analyzed in more detail in Lecture 14). Consequently, the level of artistic integrity of a work is objectively determined by the level of spiritual experience of humanity, which is a historical phenomenon and as such is found in the idea, material and formative skills. This aspect of its analysis reflects the objective determination of artistry by the level of the universality of the content of spiritual experience and the adequate means of artistic embodiment in the material of art produced in the development of history. The material of art is a concept that is not unambiguous in content. The classical tradition of its use is associated with the substantive layer of spiritual experience. F. Schelling applies it in relation to the subject of formation, and not the means: "the material of Greek mythology was nature" [19, p. 127]. He emphasizes that "mythology is a necessary condition and the first material of any art". That is, since the subject of art is an aesthetically obsessed object, and mythology arises as the first form of aesthetic knowledge of the natural world, art used its images as its "material". In modern aesthetic theory, the concept of "art object" has become more acceptable in the sphere of artistic experience. The concept of "material" is used in the meaning of "speech" to the primary element of a work as a guarantee of the reality of its life, that is, the sensually perceived reality of the existence of the spirit in the image. Outside the material of formation, a work remains only a concept, an intention. In accordance with the type of art, different materials are used to embody the creative concept of the artist: sound in music, color and line in painting, word in literature, movement in dance, hard materials (wood, stone, bronze) in sculpture, etc. Note that just as the subject of art is not any, but aesthetically mastered reality, so the material of art is not sounds, colors or movements as a physical reality, and aesthetically defined - musical sounds, artistic, poetic word in literature, the relationship of colors and light in painting, plastic movements in dance and the like. Let us dwell in more detail on the objective grounds for changing the concept of "material" of art. The shift in emphasis to the means of forming an image occurs no earlier than the subject of the image is established. The idea of ​​​​beauty as the formative basis of the spirit and its artistic embodiments, that is, as the essential basis of art, is already present in the cultures of the Ancient World. Embodied in artistic formation, it becomes the objective basis for the spirit's awareness of itself as a valuable asset of vitality. The regularity of this process in the dialectic of the particular and the general was first revealed by G. Vico ("Fundamentals of a new science about the general nature of nations"). The beginning of the universality of experience is associated with the mythological consciousness

Myths, notes G. Vico, referring to ancient Greek mythology, contain reflections of real relationships. They embody the history of the customs of the people of the Ancient World, recognized as valuable due to the fact that they were provided by the gods. Let us recall that classical aesthetic theory defines mythology as "a necessary condition and the first material for any art".

The question arises: why is mythology capable of being only the "material" of art, and not an artistic reality as such? Mythology personifies the aesthetic experience of man's relationship with the natural world, the laws of which are borrowed from the practice of relationships within communities and elevated to their proper level - to the ideal. At the same time, despite all its poetic nature, mythological consciousness does not rise to the level of art, since it is not organized into a spiritually defined integrity by an artistic idea and is not capable of putting its manifestations into individually defined unique images. Therefore, mythology is the "material" and "element" of poetry. In art, the universal acquires an individually defined life, and its ability to unfold into artistically convincing forms testifies to itself as a dialectical unity of idea and image.

It is interesting in this sense to trace the transition of mythological consciousness to artistic imagery in art. G. Hegel, referring to ancient Greek culture, compares early mythological ideas and late mythology. This allows us to trace the formation of a dialectical connection between the universal and the individual in the sense of experience. If in early mythology it fits into general mythological ideas about the world, then in late mythology, as experience is individualized within communities and its value is realized, it is contained in individualized images. Late mythology owes its poeticity to Homer and Hesiod, who systematized the divine hierarchy, individualized the images of gods and heroes and provided them with artistically expressive vitality, thanks to which art became the highest form in which people imagined gods and realized the truth, - notes G. Hegel. That is, the experience of relations with the world, which is capable of embodying the truth in the forms of beauty, realizes itself in the dialectic of the universal and the individual as artistically perfect. Sensory experience, elevated to the level of an idea and embodied in the individualized manifestations provided to its bearers in artistic formation, acquires truth in the forms of beauty. Thus, the subject of art is the world of human life in its value dimensions in accordance with the idea of ​​beauty.

The material of artistic formation is conditioned by the idea of ​​the work and the nature of its artistic embodiment. For example, the lyrical feelings of lovers in the sculpture of A. Canova "Cupid and Psyche" received the most adequate embodiment in marble.

This material, with its delicate color and plasticity of the depicted, is capable of conveying most convincingly the perfect beauty of the human body and the inner state of a person: the spiritual (marble) purity of feelings of lovers. Bronze as a material for sculpture serves to embody the ideas of grandeur and monumentality of images. Therefore, it is primarily a material for monumental sculpture. True, the possibilities of the sculptural material are very great - both the dramatic tension of feelings, and introspection, and the titanism of the images of Michelangelo's heroes are equally perfectly embodied in marble statues: "The Chained Slave", "The Rebellious Slave", "Pieta", "David" and others. Wood as a material for sculpture is usually used in folk art traditions.

So, a work of art as a spiritual whole is a consequence of the certainty of the idea and the means of its embodiment in the matter of artistic formation in a specific way - by providing vital fullness and internal expediency to each of the elements of the work as an artistic whole.