Lebanese Art

It seems that the measure of patriotism, for the overwhelming majority among us, is the extent of one's occupation with politics; everything else is counted among trivial, personal pursuits.

And since true national consciousness requires depth in grasping matters, and does not stop at their glittering surface, it has become the duty of thinkers to examine these subjects in the light of specialization, so that the causes of the renaissance may come comprehensive, and its elements strong and firmly rooted, taking in the apparent and the hidden alike — just as the builder attends both to the foundations buried in the depths and the columns towering in the air.

A goodly handful of Lebanese artists contributed, along with other men of letters and thinkers, in the last century, to the rise of the renaissance now in our hands, whose benefit has spread over the whole Arab East; yet no one would have remembered this group for good or ill, were it not that they have works here and there bearing their names and reminding us of them, so that we repeat: God rest their souls!...

And fate willed that they should leave behind them pupils who in their turn took up the torch of art to carry on that mission — the mission of thought and beauty — cooperating with its brothers in the world of culture, so that we might appear before the world as bearers of an intellectual mission, as we were in the distant past.

Perhaps it is well that we set forth something of the characteristics of this Lebanese art, especially since it lives among us, and that we say a quick word about it, about its tendencies and its aims and the factors that have influenced it. For art, in its reality, is us; it is a picture of us.

Lebanese art began as realist, and confined its activity to portraits and religious subjects. And here it is today freeing itself somewhat, after having cut its path toward life, the artist accepting all the diverse factors and differing influences that this life reflects upon him. On the whole it proceeds along the straight road of drawing inspiration from nature and interpreting it — that Lebanese nature which Providence has endowed with the most abundant share of beauty and splendor, and with floods of light that have made it unique of its kind in the world of lights and colors.

What calls for gladness is that art here has been distinguished by precision of drawing, which is the foundation of art and without which nothing of it stands right — it is to art what the foundation is to a building. It has likewise been distinguished by delicacy of composition, fineness of execution, and the choice of purely local subjects that harmonize with our natures and our traditions, and represent models of our houses, our villages, and our countrymen in their national dress, their faces tanned by the sun of the East. It has portrayed the wisdom of the elder and his dignity, the resolve of youth, the modesty of woman, the gentleness of childhood, and the tenderness of the mother, and it has clothed them all in their national dress, which carries their traditions and their history — and that is what art aims at, art of which the philosopher Taine says: "A nation that has no art has no history."

Light and colors are heaven's gift to this Arab East, setting it apart from the world in such a way that the stranger stands before it dazzled and enchanted.

The fine arts, as we know, are a part of culture. Shortly before the war they had begun to unfold in a progress that did not please certain interested parties, who set about denying the activity of this blessed movement and imposing methods that true art, nature, and taste disown — all this under a veil of charlatanry that worked upon some of those weak in artistic faith, so that feebleness took hold of them. When they painted a Lebanese scene it appeared strange, or a face, it came out foreign. They forgot that art is neither bought nor sold; it is a noble feeling springing from the pure soul, mingling with nature so that the two together may represent a true art of the soul's image and its stirrings — its mantle sincerity, its essence nature, its source faith.

How splendid is what da Vinci, the imam of art, said: "Nature is the one and only book that teaches us the truth of art."