ИСКУССТВО

I don’t consider unnecessary arts to be arts. Why, for example, do we need the arts of cooking and seasoning food? No matter what. On the contrary, they are even useless, extremely harmful, because they damage the soul and body, easily accustoming them to voluptuousness, which is the mother of all illnesses and suffering. Besides these arts, I would not also call painting and the ability to draw patterns arts, because they only introduce unnecessary costs, while the necessary arts, which serve to support our life, must provide and prepare what we need. This is why God gave us wisdom, to invent ways to maintain our existence; But to depict animals on walls or on clothes, tell me, is it useful for anything? That is why a lot needs to be thrown out in the craft of shoemakers and weavers. They introduced a lot for show; what was needed was spoiled and artifice was added to art. The same thing happened with architecture. As long as it builds houses and not theaters, as long as it deals with what is necessary and not what is superfluous, I call it art. In the same way, the art of weaving, as long as it prepares what is needed for clothing, and does not imitate cobwebs, does not waste labor on works that are ridiculous and magnificent beyond measure - I call it art. I will not take away this name from the shoemaker's craft, as long as it is engaged in the preparation of shoes. But when it transforms men into women and through shoes gives them the appearance of pampered and weak, then I classify it as a harmful and unnecessary craft and can no longer call it art. I know that by doing such things I will seem petty to many, but that won’t stop me. The reason for all evil lies precisely in the fact that many consider such sins to be of little importance, and therefore do not pay attention to them. Another will say: what sin could be more unimportant than the fact that a person wears beautiful, light-colored boots that hug his feet, if only this can be called a sin? Do you want me to sharpen my tongue against him and show all his vileness? Will you listen to me without anger? However, even if you get angry, I don’t care much about it. You are guilty of this recklessness - you who do not consider this sin to be a sin and thereby force us to arm ourselves with reproof against such luxury (7). You might be interested in: