art

(Pictures from the New Orleans Museum of Art Sculpture Garden).

The nature of a work of art

is not to be a part, nor yet

a copy of the real world

(as we commonly understand

that phrase),

but a world in itself,

independent, complete, autonomous;

and to possess it fully

you must enter that world,

confirm to its laws,

and ignore for the time the beliefs,

aims, and particular conditions

which belong to you

in the other world of reality.

(Oxford lectures on poetry: Professor Bradley: 1901)