ABSTRACT
There are doubtless works of art, even great works of art, which have material counterparts that are beautiful, and they are beautiful in ways in which certain natural objects would be counted as beautiful—gemstones, birds, sunsets—things to which persons of any degree of aesthetic sensitivity might spontaneously respond. Imagine now our sensitive barbarians sweeping across the civilized world, conquering and destroying like Huns. As barbarians reserve the fairest maidens for their violent beds, students may imagine these sparing for their curious delectation just those works of art which happen to have beautiful material counterparts. The author places a surface painted, though not grounded, in red lead: a mere artifact he exhibits as something whose philosophical interest consists solely in the fact that it is not a work of art, and that its only art-historical interest is the fact that students are considering it at all: It is just a thing, with paint upon it.
