Color contributes to beauty, but it is not beauty. Color should have a minor part in the consideration of beauty, because it is not color but the structure that constitutes its essence.
Interpretation
Color adds to beauty, but it should not be the main focus; the true essence of beauty lies in structure.
In this quote, Winckelmann emphasizes that while color can enhance aesthetic appeal, it is the underlying structure that defines true beauty. He argues for a deeper understanding of beauty that goes beyond the superficial attributes of color, pointing to the importance of form and composition in art and aesthetics.
In practice
An art critique discussing the principles of classical beauty in a gallery.
Grace can never properly be said to exist without beauty; for it is only in the elegant proportions of beautiful forms that can be found that harmonious variety of line and motion which is the essence and charm of grace.
don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.
The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.
The men resent a woman getting any honour in what they consider is essentially their field. Men painters mostly despise women painters. So I have decided to stop squirming, to throw any honour in with Canada and women.
We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
The seeming significance of nature's appearances, their unchanging strangeness to the senses, and the thrilling response which they awaken in the mind of man . . . If we could only write near enough to the facts, and yet with no pedestrian calm, but ardently, we might transfer the glamour of reality direct upon our pages.
The thing a drama school can't give you is instinct. It can sharpen instinct but that can't be taught, and you have to have intuition. It's an essential ingredient.
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