The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 5/Notes from Lectures and Discourses/On Art
ON ART
The secret of Greek Art is its imitation of nature even to the minutest
details; whereas the secret of Indian Art is to represent the ideal. The
energy of the Greek painter is spent in perhaps painting a piece of flesh,
and he is so successful that a dog is deluded into taking it to be a real
bit of meat and so goes to bite it. Now, what glory is there in merely
imitating nature? Why not place an actual bit of flesh before the dog?
The Indian tendency, on the other hand, to represent the ideal, the
supersensual, has become degraded into painting grotesque images. Now, true
Art can be compared to a lily which springs from the ground, takes its
nourishment from the ground, is in touch with the ground, and yet is quite
high above it. So Art must be in touch with nature — and wherever that touch
is gone, Art degenerates — yet it must be above nature.
Art is — representing the beautiful. There must be Art in everything.
The difference between architecture and building is that the former
expresses an idea, while the latter is merely a structure built on
economical principles. The value of matter depends solely on its capacities
of expressing ideas.
The artistic faculty was highly developed in our Lord Shri Ramakrishna, and
he used to say that without this faculty none can be truly spiritual.