đź“š A Giacometti Portrait, James Lord: Quotes: Heighten the illusory quality, come closer to the effect of life
The bust was one of the more exaggerated and distorted of the innumerable versions of Diego’s head that Alberto has done. To compare with it, he brought out two other busts which he had recently sculpted from life.
“Which do you prefer?” he asked me.
“The last,” I replied without hesitation, “the one from memory.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because it makes the other two, though they were done from life, look dead.”
“Exactly. It’s strange, isn’t it? It’s because in the busts from life everything is false.”
“But why should that be?”
“Because the element of illusion in the busts from life is not great enough. It’s the same thing that makes a Cycladic head so much more alive and convicing than a Roman portrait bust. To make a head really lifelike is impossible, and the more you struggle to make it lifelike the less like life it becomes. But since a work of art is an illusion anyway, if you heighten the illusory quality, then you come closer to the effect of life.”
“But how do you do that?” I asked.
“That’s the whole drama,” he answered.
(Page 110.)