Who can say that Winckelmann had not penetrated into the highest
beauty? But with him it appeared in its dissevered elements only: on
the one side as beauty in idea, and flowing out from the soul; on the
other, as beauty of forms.
But what is the efficient link that connects the two? Or by what power
is the soul created together with the body, at once and as if with one
breath? If this lies not within the power of Art, as of Nature,
then it can create nothing whatever. This vital connecting link,
Winckelmann did not determine; he did not teach how, from the idea,
forms can be produced. Thus Art went over to that method which we
would call the retrograde, since it strives from the form to come
at the essence. But not thus is the Unlimited reached; it is not
attainable by mere enhancement of the Limited. Hence, such works as
have had their beginning in form, with all elaborateness on that side,
show, in token of their origin, an incurable want at the very point
where we expect the consummate, the essential, the final. The miracle
by which the Limited should be raised to the Unlimited, the human
become divine, is wanting; the magic circle is drawn, but the spirit
that it should inclose, appears not, being disobedient to the call of
him who thought a creation possible through mere form.
* * * * *
Nature meets us everywhere, at first with reserve, and in form more or
less severe.
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