The true test of all the arts, is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind. (Joshua Reynolds)

The true test of all the arts, is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind.

Joshua Reynolds

Related topics

art copy effect end mind nature pleasing produce production test arts

Related quotes

Don't copy nature too closely. Art is an abstraction; as you dream amide nature, extrapolate art from it and concentrate on what you will create as a result. View quote
Paul Gauguin
The arts objectify subjective reality, and subjectify outward experience of nature. Art education is the education of feeling, and a society that neglects it gives itself up to formless emotion. Bad art is corruption of feeling. View quote
Susanne Langer
To select, combine and concentrate that which is beautiful in nature and admirable in art is as much the business of the landscape painter in his line as in the other departments of art. View quote
J. M. W. Turner
The perfect detective story cannot be written. The type of mind which can evolve the perfect problem is not the type of mind that can produce an artistic job of writing. View quote
Raymond Chandler
Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet - the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies. View quote
Michel de Montaigne