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Art and Commerce .. _ _ _ ~h Life cannot be carried on without some science even if it is only that instinctive science which animals possess. But it can perfectly well be carried on without art. It is really very surprising, therefore, to note that, however near men may at times have come to such a condition, they have never, I believe, continued to exist without art of some kind. It must therefore correspond to some fundamental conformation of man's nature. Let us consider the life of man from this point of view and find out why, wherefore, and when he demands the assistance of this apparently non-essential activity. He can be born without the aid of art, but if he is born into a Christian community his godparents are likely to employ a silversmith on his behalf. He can be fed without the aid of art (it would be wrong here to talk of the art of cooking since the word art is here used in another sense. The word craft would be more appropriate). He can be clothed without art-but he has hardly ever consented to restrict himselfto the merely needful in clothing. Personal vanity at once makes appeal to some kind of an artist-an embroiderer or a jeweller. He can be sheltered without art-but again he is not content merely to be sheltered; again he wishes to express to the outside world that sense of his own importance of which he has continually to remind other people. Therefore he calls in an artist to make his house more magnificent, more attractive to the eye than the mere satisfaction of the need for shelter would imply. Then he belongs to some herd or other, some tribe or nation, and this herd will also have its collective vanity and sense ofimportance which again will find expression through works of art-commemorative statues, public buildings, and so forth. Our typical character, ifhe lives in a complicated and ancient civilisation like ours, and if he occupies a fairly high position, will become symbolic to some group or another, whether as father ofthe family, From Art and Commerce (Hogarth Press, 1926). The substance ofthis essay was originally delivered as a lecture to illustrate an exhibition of posters held in Oxford by the Arts League of Service. II2 Art and the Market or head of a business, or president of a club; and in all these situations the desire to eternalise his personality will lead to his again calling in an artist to paint or sculpt his portrait. Finally, he dies-and though he can accomplish this act and can even get buried without the artist's help-either he or his family will be likely to call in another artist to commemorate his virtues in a funeral monument. In fact, from the cradle to the grave our typical man, even supposing he himself has not the particular sensitiveness to beauty which incites people to care about works ofart, will buy and help buy in the course of his life a good many works of art. Now in all this account I have talked about artists and works of art as though we all knew exactly what we meant by these words. I have used the words in what one may call their official sense-the sense in which for purposes ofincome-tax Sir Edwin Landseer; Mr. Frith; Mr. x., RA.; Mr. Y., RA.; and Mr. Z., RA., for I do not wish to be personal, sign their declarations as "artists"-the sense in which the Albert and Edith Cavell Memorials are described as "works of art." But we all know that between the persons I have named and certain other gentlemen, also called artists, such as Giotto, Giorgione, Poussin, Daumier, there is so great a difference ofdegree that we may be excused for regarding them as distinct kinds. We all know that the Edith Cavell sculpture is not at all the same kind of thing as the Medici tombs or the Gattamelata statue. But we have no words to express these distinctions though we know them to be real. And, indeed, I find myself continually held up by the want of convenient symbols for these ideas. For the purposes of this essay the need of proper symbols becomes so pressing that I find myselfforced to invent them. We have a word, artifact' for any object made by man as opposed to objects of natural formation, but we...

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