Chapter 45 beauty is the splendor of order

Perfect work is often a by-product of an artist's pursuit of precision and perfection in the details of life. The famous playwright Ibsen has a cleanliness habit, and his writing rooms are arranged in an orderly and spotless manner; he has clearly recorded his income and expenditure.He is also a famous re-writer, repeatedly revising and tearing up his original manuscripts to make them what he thinks is perfect.The manuscripts he sent to his publishers were re-transcribed to perfection. Composer Stravinsky could only compose music in a studio with proper equipment and tools.His writing desk is like a surgeon's operating table, on which are placed sequentially ink bottles of various colors, erasers of various shapes, iron rulers, knives, drawing tools, etc.Each score is written in various colors of ink blue, green, red and black, each color has its own special meaning and use.

Wagner also had ritual behavior when composing music.In the later years of his life he could not work unless he was surrounded by soft lines, colors and scents.He seemed to have a morbid sensitivity to touch and sight, and when he had trouble composing, he kept touching the hem of a soft curtain or doily until inspiration struck him.He wanted everything around him to be soft and sweet, and he couldn't bear the presence of hard books in the working room; and he wanted to draw the curtains so that his eyes would not look out at the path in the garden. There are quite a few artists with this obsessive character.Obsessive characters have a tendency to seek precision and perfection, which seems to explain the beauty of some artists' work.St. Thomas said: Beauty is the brilliance of order. An admirable work of art is seldom done hastily. It often requires the artist to retouch it again and again before it can reach the impeccable state.

In common people's perception, artists are often unkempt and their lives are messy. It seems that only in this way can they have more creativity, which is what is called brilliant.But judging from the lives and creations of Ibsen, Stravinsky and Wagner, it seems that orderly life is necessary to make the works shine with order.These artists with obsessive personality arrange the external world in an orderly manner, which is a constructive self-defense. Under this protection, he no longer gets distracted, so that the spiritual thoughts of the inner world can flow smoothly out.