29. On Truth and Veracity of Works of Art

There is an interesting essay by Goethe on this subject in the form of a conversation. In it, the question: "What kind of truth should one demand from works of art?" is dealt with in an exhaustive manner. What is said there outweighs volumes that have been written on this subject in more recent times. Since there is currently both lively interest and great confusion about the question, it may be appropriate here to recall the main ideas of Goethe's discussion.

It begins with the description of the "theater within the theater". "In a German theater, an oval, somewhat amphitheatrical building was presented, in whose boxes many spectators are painted, as if they were taking part in what is going on below. Some of the real spectators on the first floor and in the boxes were dissatisfied with this and resented the fact that something so untrue and improbable was being put upon them. On this occasion, a conversation took place, the approximate content of which is recorded here."

The conversation takes place between an artist's lawyer, who believes he has solved his problem with the painted spectators, and a spectator who is not satisfied with such painted spectators because he demands the truth of nature. This spectator wants "at least everything to seem true and real". "Why would the decorator take the trouble to draw all the lines most exactly according to the rules of perspective, to paint all the objects in the most perfect position? Why study the costume? Why would it cost so much to remain faithful to it in order to transport me back to those times? Why do they praise most the actor who expresses their feelings most truly, who comes closest to the truth in speech, posture and gestures, who deceives me into believing that I am seeing not an imitation but the thing itself?"

The artist's advocate now draws the spectator's attention to the extent to which all this does not entitle him to say that in the "theater he does not have to have the people and events before him in such a way that they seem true to him; rather, he must claim that at no moment does he have the sensation of seeing truth, but an appearance, albeit an appearance of the true.

At first, the audience believes that the lawyer is playing a pun. Goethe finely lets the lawyer reply to this: "And I may add that, when we speak of the effects of our spirit, no words are delicate and subtle enough, and that puns of this kind themselves indicate a need of the spirit, which, since we cannot express what is going on in us outright, seeks to operate through opposites, to answer the question from two sides and thus, as it were, to grasp the matter in the middle."

People who are only accustomed to living in the crude concepts that everyday life generates often see unnecessary verbiage in the delicate, conceptual distinctions that must be made by those who want to grasp the subtle, infinitely complicated relationships of reality. It is true that words can be used to argue excellently, that words can be used to prepare a system, but it is not always the fault of the one who prepares the system that there is no concept in the word. Often the person who hears the words cannot connect the concept with the word heard. It often seems strange when people complain that they cannot think of anything when they hear the words of this or that philosopher. They always think it's the philosopher's fault - often it's the readers' fault, who just can't think anything, while the philosopher has thought a lot.

There is a big difference between "seeming true" and "having the appearance of truth". The theatrical representation is, of course, appearance. One can now be of the opinion that the appearance must have such a form that it feigns reality. Or one can be convinced that appearance should sincerely show: I am not reality; I am appearance. If appearance has this sincerity, then it cannot take its laws from reality, it must have its own laws, which are not the same as those of reality. Whoever wants an artistic appearance that imitates reality will say: in a theatrical representation everything must proceed as it would have proceeded in reality if the same events had taken place. On the other hand, those who want an artistic appearance that sincerely presents itself as an appearance will say: in a theatrical representation, some things must proceed differently than they would in reality; the laws according to which the dramatic processes are connected are different from those according to which the real ones are connected.

Those who are of such a conviction must therefore admit that there are laws in art for the connection of facts for which there is no corresponding model in nature. Such laws are conveyed by the imagination. It does not create according to nature, it creates a higher truth of art alongside the truth of nature.

Goethe has the "artist's advocate" express this conviction. He claims "that the truth of art and the truth of nature are completely different, and that the artist should by no means strive, nor should he, for his work to actually appear as a work of nature".

Only those artists who lack imagination, who therefore cannot create anything that is true to art, but who must borrow from nature if they want to create anything at all, will want to deliver truth to nature in their works. And only those viewers will demand the truth of nature in works of art who do not have enough aesthetic culture to demand a special truth of art alongside the truth of nature. They only know the true that they experience every day. And when they are confronted with art, they ask: does this artificiality correspond to what we know as reality? People with an aesthetic culture know another truth than that of common reality. They seek this other truth in art.

Goethe has his "artist's advocate" explain the difference between a person with aesthetic culture and one without it with a very crude but excellent example. "A great naturalist had a monkey among his pets, which he once lost and found after a long search in the library. There the animal was sitting on the ground with the copper of an unbound work of natural history scattered around him. Astonished by this eager study of his domestic friend, the master approached and saw to his astonishment and annoyance that the sniveling monkey had eaten out all the beetles he had found depicted here and there."

The monkey only knows naturally real beetles, and the way it behaves towards such naturally real beetles in everyday life is that it eats them. He does not encounter reality in the pictures, but only appearance. He does not take the appearance as appearance. For he could not relate to an appearance. He takes the appearance as reality and relates to it as to a reality.

In the case of this monkey, those people who take an artistic appearance as a reality. When they see a robbery scene or a love scene on stage, they want exactly the same thing from this robbery or love scene as from the corresponding scenes in reality.

The "spectator" in Goethe's conversation is brought to a purer view of artistic enjoyment by the example of the monkey and says: "Should not the uneducated lover demand that a work of art be natural in order to be able to enjoy it in a natural, often crude and mean way?" - The work of art wants to be enjoyed in a higher way than the natural work. And anyone who has not imbibed this higher kind of enjoyment through aesthetic culture is like the monkey that eats the painted beetles instead of looking at them and acquiring scientific knowledge through their contemplation. The "Lawyer" puts it in these words: "A perfect work of art is a work of the human spirit, and in this sense also a work of nature. But by combining the scattered objects into one and incorporating even the most commonplace in their meaning and dignity, it is above nature. It wants to be grasped by a spirit that has arisen and formed harmoniously, and this spirit finds what is excellent, what is complete in itself, according to its nature. The common lover has no concept of this; he treats a work of art like an object he finds in the marketplace: but the true lover sees not only the truth of the imitation, but also the merits of the selected, the spiritual richness of the composition, the supernatural of the small world of art; he feels that he must elevate himself to the status of an artist in order to enjoy the work, he feels that he must gather himself from his scattered life, dwell with the work of art, look at it repeatedly and thereby give himself a higher existence."

Art, which strives for mere natural truth, an ape-like imitation of common everyday reality, is refuted the moment one feels within oneself the possibility of giving oneself the "higher existence" demanded above. Basically, only everyone can feel this possibility in themselves. Therefore, there can be no general, convincing refutation of naturalism. Anyone who only knows the common, everyday reality will always remain a naturalist. Those who discover in themselves the ability to look beyond the natural world to a particular artistic world will perceive naturalism as the aesthetic world view of artistically narrow-minded people.

Once you have realized this, you will not fight against naturalism with logical or other weapons. For such a battle would be like trying to prove to a monkey that painted beetles are not for eating but for looking at. Even if one were to go so far as to make the monkey understand that he should not eat painted beetles, he would never understand one thing, namely what painted beetles are for, since one is not allowed to eat them. It is the same with the aesthetically uneducated. It may be possible to bring him to the realization that a work of art is not to be treated in the same way as an object found in the marketplace. But since he only understands such a relationship as he can gain to the objects of the market, he will not understand what works of art are actually there for.

This is roughly the content of the Goethe conversation mentioned above. You can see that it deals in a noble manner with questions that many people today are subjecting to renewed scrutiny. The examination of these and many other things would not be necessary if one were to take the trouble to delve into the thoughts of those who have approached these matters in connection with a uniquely high culture.