“The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use”

— John Ruskin

Lecture IV
Lectures on Art (1870)
Context: The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full of truth, or full of use; and that, however pleasant, wonderful, or impressive it may be in itself, it must yet be of inferior kind, and tend to deeper inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main objects, — either to state a true thing, or to adorn a serviceable one.

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John Ruskin 133

English writer and art critic 1819–1900

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