First Sentence

"What ! Another history of art? Yes. Why not? The facts at every art historian's disposal are the same, but his selection of them and his interpretation of them must always depend on himself. I am certain that many of the facts that seem to me important are not quite the same as those that have seemed important to previous writers. And if some of them are the same, I am certain that the conclusions I shall draw from them will be different. The historian-critic sees art very much as the artist sees nature. No two artists see nature and no two critics see art from the same angle. Moreover, I have definite ideas as to the purpose to be served by a history of art. I suspect that out of a hundred people who know quite a lot about pictures and statues not half a dozen know what painting and sculpture really are. They think of the Mona Lisa and the Elgin Marbles as beautiful objects, things to be looked at and admired and perhaps (if art is their 'subject') studied. But they do not think of them as transmitters and of themselves as receivers. My hope in writing this book is to turn a few admirers into receivers: not to describe pictures and statues or to relate facts about them so much as to induce my readers to tune in to painting and sculpture in whatever form they may manifest themselves, at whatever period or in whatever country. And I can do so only by giving an account of the working of my own receiving set. I do not pretend that it is an exceptional receiving set. On some wave-lengths, I am ashamed to say, it gives me rather poor results. When that happens the reader will at once be aware that something has gone wrong. He will notice patches in this book in which the reception is dull and blurred. They may perhaps stimulate him to a higher pitch of sensitiveness than I am capable of myself. In that case even the dull patches will not have been written in vain. This is not a student's book. For persons with an appetite"