[Note: for this online edition I have moved the Table of Contents to the beginning ofthe text. Also I have made one spelling change: irrevelant circumstance toirrelevant circumstance.]
THE GATE OF APPRECIATION
Studies in the Relation of Art to Life
BY
CARLETON NOYES
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1907
COPYRIGHT 1907 BY CARLETON NOYES
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published April 1907
TO
MY FATHER
AND THE MEMORY OF
MY MOTHER
"Only themselves understand themselves and the like of themselves,
As souls only understand souls."
CONTENTS
| Preface | i | |
| I. | The Impulse to Expression | i |
| II. | The Attitude of Response | 23 |
| III. | Technique and the Layman | 44 |
| IV. | The Value of the Medium | 87 |
| V. | The Background of Art | 105 |
| VI. | The Service of Criticism | 137 |
| VII. | Beauty and Common Life | 165 |
| VIII. | The Arts of Form | 201 |
| IX. | Representation | 221 |
| X. | The Personal Estimate | 254 |
PREFACE
IN the daily life of the ordinary man, a life crowded with diverse interests andincreasingly complex demands, some few moments of a busy week or month or year areaccorded to an interest in art. Whatever may be his vocation, the man feels instinctivelythat in his total scheme of life books, pictures, music have somewhere a place. In hisown business or profession he is an expert, a man of special training; and intelligentlyhe does not aspire to a complete understanding of a subject which lies beyond hisprovince. In the same spirit in which he is a master of his own craft, he is content toleave expert knowledge of art to the expert, to the artist and to the connoisseur. Forhis part as a layman he remains frankly and happily on the outside. But he feels none theless that art has an interest and a meaning even for him. Though he does not practice anyart himself, he knows that he enjoys fine things, a beautiful room, noble buildings,books and plays, statues, pictures, music; and he believes that in his own fashion he isable to appreciate art, I venture to think that he is right.
There is a case for the outsider in ref