The Object of Appreciation

The pysical object, a piece of canvas hanging on the wall, for instance, is clearly not the object of our appreciation. It is simply the source of stimulation for an appreciative experience. It is, nevertheless, a very important object, for without it we could never obtain the experiences which we do appreciate. We call this physical object the physical work of art.

The physical work of art becomes a source of appreciation only when a spectator comes before it under suitable conditions of illumination and gets a perception of it. The first perception a spectator gets is the beginning of his appreciation of the picture. The object appreciated by the spectator in this perception is very different from the physical picture. For the object of the spectator's perception is an organization of colors, lines, shapes and representations of a woman and two children and a god, for example. What the spectator perceives is not the canvas and pigments but colors and shapes and a highly composed representation of a woman and her two children. The latter is the object of his perception. This object, which is the actual object of his contemplation and which he wishes to understand and appreciate fully, is the aesthetic work of art.

The aesthetic work of art is the direct object of perception and the physical work of art is not literally the object of his perception. But it is very important for his perceptions, because it is what guides the spectator in determining what is relevant or irrelevant.

Relevancy is one of the most important concepts in the appreciation of art. It is another way of saying what is in the work of art. Any detail has a place in an aesthetic work of art if it can be shown to be relevant to the perception of a physical work or art. The more highly organized a picture the more definitely we can confirm by this sort of internal verification what is in it, what constitutes its object structure as an aesthetic work of art. And once the principle of relevance is grasped, it will permit us to proceed to the hundreds of subtler details relevant to the picture, which it takes much more discrimination to perceive. From these details the picture gets its richness of delight and these are what we are seeking in this and other works of art.