Jacques Maritain views the artist as nature’s pupil:
Artistic creation does not copy God’s creation, but continues it. And even as the trace and image of God appear in His creatures, so the human character is impressed upon the work of art, the full, sensitive and spiritual character not of the hands only but of the whole soul. Before the work of art passes by a transitive action from art into matter, the conception of art must itself have taken place within the soul by an immanent and vital action. . . .
If the artist studies and cherishes nature as much as and much more than the works of the masters, it is not to copy nature, but to base himself upon nature, and because it is not enough for him to be a pupil of the masters: he must be God’s pupil, for God knows the rules governing the making of works of beauty. Nature concerns the artist essentially, simply because it is a derivation from the divine art in things, ratio artis divinae indita rebus. The artist, whether he knows it or not, is consulting God when he looks at things. . . . (From Art and Scholasticism, Jacques Maritain, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930, p. 49)
For a brief biography of Jacques Maritain, click here.
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