ABSTRACT
In a famous book, The Mirror and the Lamp M. H. Abrams distinguishes theories of art and criticism. Some of our oldest theories of art define and value art in terms of relationship of mimesis which obtains between works of art and the universe, the world to which it relates. This is a major element of classicism. Romanticism is, then, a critical watershed as a permanent possibility of artistic orientation, an orientation which emphasizes and values the work of art as expressive of the artist's mind. In romanticism as a movement, poetry as the expression of emotion is categorically contrasted with science as representation of reality. Romanticism as a movement implied and articulated significantly fresh evaluative criteria for art, notably sincerity and spontaneity. There is an enormous shift in arts education away from the orientations and values of romanticism, or, more specifically, self-expression, as is evidenced in Peter Abbs' contribution to this series in Living Powers and A Is for Aesthetic.
