This instalment concludes this brief series on the essence of art, in particular visual art. These form an introduction to further lectures by Hazrat Inayat Khan on art and spirituality, some of which will be posted in the Inner Call. The previous post in this series is here.

The only explanation that one can give from the mystical point of view about the secret of line is that the effect of a certain line brings the inner and the outer planes of the human being into such a condition that, while he looks at the line, he is, so to speak, under the spell of that line. This can be understood through the secret of concentration: that every object man thinks about, even if only for a moment, has an effect upon his whole being.

There is a harmony of lines, and this is even more difficult and complex to understand than harmony of color, for the harmony of lines reaches deeper than the harmony of color. If a room is beautifully furnished with costly furniture, but these things are not kept in harmony according to the science of lines, we feel a kind of confusion in the room. It is the same with clothes. A dress may be very costly or beautiful in color, but if it lacks line, it lacks real beauty. Therefore, in art, line is the principal thing. It is the secret of art and of its charm, and only the artist who has conceived the beauty of line can express it in his art.

One aspect of art is shown when the artist tries to copy exactly what he sees. An artist is contemplative, and it is not a small thing to be able to copy the object exactly. Then the success of this artist is assured, because with all man’s cravings for something new, what he really wants is something he has already seen. Is it not wonderful, is it not a great thing to be able to copy nature as it is, to produce in the soul of man that, which exists in nature?

A further aspect of art is the improvement on nature that the artist makes by exaggeration. The benefit of this art is more through attraction than impression. No doubt in this form of art the artist can fulfill his soul’s purpose, but at the same time he may get far away from nature; and the further he goes the more he destroys the beauty of art, for nature and art must go hand in hand.

Art has still another aspect, and that is symbolism. Symbolism has not come from the human intellect, for it is born of intuition. The finer the soul, the better it is equipped in some way or other to understand symbolical ideas. A fine soul always dreams symbolical dreams and, when the soul becomes finer still, it can interpret the dream, understanding the meaning of symbolism. The artist who produces in his art a symbolical idea has learned it from what he has seen in nature and has interpreted it in his art. This is real inspiration. The finer the artist is, the finer the symbols he produces.

In every work of art one can observe three factors: its surface, its length and width, and its depth. However, I do not mean this in the literal sense of these words. The surface is what the picture itself is, the length and the width are the story that it tells, and the depth is the meaning that it reveals. Therefore, the best way of studying and appreciating the works of an artist is to take these three elements into consideration. Art is a very vast subject.