Download Full Version ebookmass - Visit ebookmass.

com

Practical Approaches to Applied Research and

Program Evaluation for Helping Professionals 1st
Edition, (Ebook PDF)

https://ebookmass.com/product/practical-approaches-to-
applied-research-and-program-evaluation-for-helping-
professionals-1st-edition-ebook-pdf/

OR CLICK HERE

DOWLOAD NOW

Discover More Ebook - Explore Now at ebookmass.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical

Guidelines – Ebook PDF Version

https://ebookmass.com/product/program-evaluation-alternative-
approaches-and-practical-guidelines-ebook-pdf-version/

ebookmass.com

Comparative Approaches to Program Planning – Ebook PDF

Version

https://ebookmass.com/product/comparative-approaches-to-program-
planning-ebook-pdf-version/

ebookmass.com

Health Program Planning and Evaluation 3rd Edition, (Ebook

PDF)

https://ebookmass.com/product/health-program-planning-and-
evaluation-3rd-edition-ebook-pdf/

ebookmass.com

Embodying Difference: Critical Phenomenology and

Narratives of Disability, Race, and Sexuality 1st Edition
Simon Dickel
https://ebookmass.com/product/embodying-difference-critical-
phenomenology-and-narratives-of-disability-race-and-sexuality-1st-
edition-simon-dickel/
ebookmass.com
The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American
People Volume 2 8th

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-unfinished-nation-a-concise-history-
of-the-american-people-volume-2-8th/

ebookmass.com

Japanese Superfoods : Learn the Secrets of Healthy Eating

and Longevity - the Japanese Way! Yumi Komatsudaira

https://ebookmass.com/product/japanese-superfoods-learn-the-secrets-
of-healthy-eating-and-longevity-the-japanese-way-yumi-komatsudaira/

ebookmass.com

Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet,

Insulin, and Successful Treatments Gary Taubes

https://ebookmass.com/product/rethinking-diabetes-what-science-
reveals-about-diet-insulin-and-successful-treatments-gary-taubes-2/

ebookmass.com

The Long Weekend Gilly Macmillan

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-long-weekend-gilly-macmillan-2/

ebookmass.com

ABCs of Electronics: An Easy Guide to Electronics

Engineering Farzin Asadi

https://ebookmass.com/product/abcs-of-electronics-an-easy-guide-to-
electronics-engineering-farzin-asadi/

ebookmass.com
Esplendor en la orilla Robyn Hill

https://ebookmass.com/product/esplendor-en-la-orilla-robyn-hill/

ebookmass.com
Practical Approaches to Applied
Research and Program Evaluation for
Helping Professionals

Practical Approaches to Applied Research and Program Evaluation for Helping

Professionals is a comprehensive textbook that presents master’s-level counseling
students with the skills and knowledge they need to successfully evaluate the effectiveness
of mental health services and programs.
Each chapter, aligned with 2016 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and
Related Educational Programs (CACREP) standards, guides counseling students
through study design and evaluation fundamentals that will help them understand
existing research and develop studies to best assess their own applied research questions.
Readers will learn the basics of research concepts as applied to evaluative tasks, the art
of matching evaluative methods to questions, specific considerations for practice-based
evaluative tasks, and practical statistical options matched to practice-based tasks.
Readers can also turn to the book’s companion website to access worksheets
for practitioner and student planning exercises, spreadsheets with formulas for basic
data analysis, a sample database, PowerPoint outlines, and discussion questions and
activities aligned with each chapter.

Casey A. Barrio Minton, PhD, NCC, is a professor of counselor education and program
coordinator for clinical mental health counseling at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. She is a past president of the Association for Assessment and Research in
Counseling, the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, and
Chi Sigma Iota International.

A. Stephen Lenz, PhD, LPC, NCC, is an associate professor of counselor education at

the University of Mississippi. He is a past president of the Association for Assessment
and Research in Counseling and editor of Counseling Outcome Research and
Evaluation.
Practical Approaches to
Applied Research and
Program Evaluation for
Helping Professionals

Casey A. Barrio Minton

A. Stephen Lenz
First published 2019
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Casey A. Barrio Minton and A. Stephen Lenz
The right of Casey A. Barrio Minton and A. Stephen Lenz to be identified as authors of this work has
been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-07038-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-07039-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10893-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon and Helvetica Neue
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Visit the eresources page: www.routledge.com/9781138070394
To you. Thank you for your curiosity, energy, and spirit.
Our profession and communities need them all.
Contents

Prefacexviii
Acknowledgmentsxx

Part I Embarking on an Inquiry 1

1 Where Science Meets Practice 3
Professional Identity and Foundations 3
The Era of Accountability 5
Evidence-Based Practice and Hierarchies of Evidence 6
How to Use This Book 10
Chapter Summary 11
Resources11
References11

2 Methodological Concepts 13
Theory, Concepts, Constructs, and Variables 14
Theory14
Concepts and Constructs 15
Variables15
Applications to Research and Program Evaluation 17
Population and Samples 17
Probability Sampling 18
Nonprobability Sampling 18
Applications to Research and Program Evaluation 19
Data Collection Protocols 20
Surveys and Instruments 20
Existing Records 22
Interviews23
Applications to Research and Program Evaluation 23
Interventions24
Applications to Research and Program Evaluation 24
viii Contents

Validity and Trustworthiness 24

Applications to Research and Program Evaluation 26
Chapter Summary 27
Resources27
References27

3 Measurement and Statistical Concepts 29

Levels of Variables 30
Descriptive Statistics 31
Using Distributions to Visualize Data 31
Measures of Central Tendency 32
Indices of Variability 33
Inferential Statistics 35
Hypothesis Testing 35
Inferential Statistics 36
Tests Regarding Mean Differences 36
Tests Regarding Relationships 39
Tests Regarding Prediction 40
Types of Significance 41
Chapter Summary 43
Resources43
References43

4 Strategies for Program Development, Scientific Inquiry,

and Program Evaluation 45
Developing Interventions and Programs 46
Clarifying the Broader Problem 46
Identifying the Goal of the Intervention or Program 46
Specifying Objectives 47
Describing the Nature of an Intervention or Program 47
Determining Your Framework 47
Identifying or Developing Culturally Responsive Techniques,
Procedures, Activities, and Equipment 47
Defining Roles and Activities of Those Involved 48
Considering Dosage–Impact Interactions 48
Connecting the Dots Through Logic Modeling 48
A Tale of Two Sciences: Research and Program Evaluation 50
The Scientific Method as a Fundamental Research Process 50
Making Observations 51
Ask a Question 51
Review the Literature 51
Develop a Research Question or Hypothesis 51
Test a Research Question or Hypothesis 51
 Contents ix

Analyze Data and Draw Conclusions 52

Communicate Results 52
Applied Research: A Practical Application for Counseling Professionals 52
Program Evaluation as a Science for Quality Improvement 53
CDC Framework for Evaluation in Public Health 53
Step 1: Engage Stakeholders 54
Step 2: Describe the Program 54
Step 3: Focus the Evaluation Design 55
Step 4: Gather Credible Evidence 55
Step 5: Justify Conclusions 55
Step 6: Ensure Use and Share Lessons 55
Standards Across Evaluations 55
Accountability Bridge Counseling Program Evaluation Model 56
Counseling Program Evaluation Cycle 56
The Accountability Bridge 56
Counseling Context Evaluation Cycle 56
Chapter Summary 57
Resources57
References58

Part II Using Research and Program Evaluation in Practice 59

5 The Matter of Question–Design Fit 61
Sourcing and Developing Quality Research and Evaluation Questions 62
Frameworks for Developing Functional Research and Evaluation Questions 62
PICO Framework 63
SPIDER Framework 63
VISTA Framework 63
Pairing Research and Evaluation Questions to Paradigms for Inquiry 63
Chapter Summary 66
Resources66
References67

6 Surveying Groups of People 68

Overview of Survey Research Methods 69
What Are Survey Methods? 69
When Are Survey Methods Indicated? 70
Meeting Policy or Program Needs 70
Evaluating Programs 70
Generating Research 71
Survey Research Process 71
Determining the Purpose and Focus of the Survey 72
Selecting or Designing a Survey 72
x Contents

Specifying Sampling Procedures 74

Administering the Survey 75
Types of Survey Designs 76
Needs Assessment 76
Core Features 76
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 76
Data Analysis and Interpretation 77
Process Evaluation 78
Core Features 78
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 78
Data Analysis and Interpretation 78
Satisfaction Estimation 79
Core Features 79
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 79
Data Analysis and Interpretation 80
Putting Findings in Context 81
Developing Impact Statements 82
Using Descriptive Statistics 82
Shaping Summative Findings 82
Displaying Results 82
Chapter Summary 85
Resources85
References85

7 Understanding Lived Experiences 87

Overview of Qualitative Research Designs 88
What Are Qualitative Designs? 88
When Are Qualitative Designs Indicated? 90
Needs Assessment 90
Process Evaluation 90
Giving Context to Quantitative Findings 91
Classic Types of Qualitative Research Designs 91
Phenomenology91
Grounded Theory 92
Narrative Inquiry 92
Ethnography92
Case Study 93
Qualitative Evaluation Process 93
Determining the Purpose and Focus of the Inquiry 93
Identifying Key Informants and Data Sources 93
Data Collection Procedures 94
Semi-Structured Interviews 94
Focus Groups 95
Document Review 96
 Contents xi

Data Management Strategy 97

Trustworthiness Protections 98
Ethical Protections 98
Qualitative Data Analysis 99
Thematic Analysis 99
Consensual Qualitative Research 100
Data Analysis Tools 101
Reporting Findings 101
Chapter Summary 104
Resources104
References104

8 Predicting Relationships Between Variables 106

Overview of Predictive Designs 107
What Are Predictive Designs? 107
When Are Predictive Studies Indicated? 108
Demonstrating Simple Links Between Two Variables 109
Testing Hypotheses About Clusters of Variables That
Predict a Phenomenon 109
Predicting the Occurrence of an Event Happening 109
Types of Predictive Designs 110
Bivariate: Correlations Between Two Variables 110
Core Features 110
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 110
Data Analysis and Interpretation 111
Multiple Variable: Predicting a Single Criterion With
Multiple Variables 113
Core Features 113
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 113
Data Analysis and Interpretation 113
Multiple Variable Predictive: Predicting an Event With
Multiple Variables 114
Core Features 114
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 114
Data Analysis and Interpretation 114
Putting Findings in Context 115
Developing General Impact Statements 116
Interpreting Significance 116
Shaping Summative Findings 116
Displaying Results 117
Chapter Summary 119
Resources120
References120
xii Contents

9 Evaluating Change Within an Individual 121

Overview of Single-Case Research Designs 123
What Are Single-Case Research Designs? 123
When Are Single-Case Research Designs Indicated? 123
Understanding the Efficacy of an Intervention 124
Establishing Preliminary Support for Novel Practices 124
Assessing Applications of Treatments With Low Incidence or
Understudied Groups 124
What Types of Questions Can Be Answered Using SCRDs? 124
Depicting Degree of Treatment Effect 125
Depicting Course of Treatment Effect 125
Types of Single-Case Research Designs 125
A-B Phase Contrasts 125
Core Features 125
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 126
Replication Designs 127
Core Features 127
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 127
Multiple-Baseline Designs 128
Core Features 128
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 128
Data Analyses and Interpretation 130
Visual Analyses 130
Level130
Variability130
Trend131
Immediacy of Effect 131
Overlap131
Consistency of Data Patterns Across Similar Phases 131
Estimates of Treatment Effect 131
Estimating Practical Significance Using Effect Sizes 132
Putting Findings in Context 133
Developing General Impact Statements 133
Reporting Course of Treatment Response 133
Reporting Measures of Treatment Effect 135
Shaping Summative Findings 136
Displaying Results 136
Chapter Summary 138
Resources138
References138

10 Measuring Change With a Single Group 140

Overview of Single-Group Methods 141
What Are Single-Group Studies? 141
When Are Single-Group Methods Indicated? 142
 Contents xiii

Measuring Improvement 142

Measuring Meaningful Improvement 142
Relating Improvement to Participant and Intervention or
Program Characteristics 143
Meeting a Criterion Representing Success 143
Understanding Readiness for More Complex Evaluations 144
Types of Single-Group Designs 144
Posttest-Only Designs 145
Core Features 145
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 145
Analysis and Interpretation 146
Pretest-Posttest Designs 146
Core Features 146
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 146
Data Analysis and Interpretation 146
Mixed Explanatory and Multimethod Designs 147
Core Features 147
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 147
Putting Findings Into Context 148
Developing General Impact Statements 149
Interpreting Significance 150
Shaping Summative Findings 150
Displaying Findings 150
Using Bar Graphs 150
Using Descriptive Statistics Tables 151
Chapter Summary 153
Resources153
References154

11 Evaluating Differences Between Groups 155

Overview of Between-Groups Designs 157
What Are Between-Groups Designs? 157
Comparisons Between Groups 158
Random Assignment of Participants 158
Manipulation of Independent Variable(s) 158
Control of Extraneous Variables 158
Systematic Measurement of Outcomes 159
When Are Between-Groups Designs Indicated? 159
Estimating Performance of Novel Interventions or Programs 159
Differential Performance of an Intervention or Program
Compared to an Existing Standard 160
Understanding Interactions Between Interventions, Outcomes,
and Other Important Variables 160
Types of Between-Groups Designs 161
Quasi-Experimental Designs 161
xiv Contents

Core Features 161

Intended Uses and Design Considerations 161
Data Analysis and Interpretation 162
Posttest-Only Experimental Designs 162
Core Features 162
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 163
Data Analysis and Interpretation 163
Experimental Designs 163
Core Features 163
Intended Uses and Design Considerations 163
Data Analysis and Interpretation 164
Putting Findings Into Context 164
Developing General Impact Statements 165
Interpreting Significance 166
Shaping Summative Findings 166
Displaying Results 166
Using Line Charts 169
Bar Graphs 169
Using Descriptive Statistics Tables 170
Chapter Summary 170
Resources170
References170

12 Combining Findings Across Studies or Sites 172

Overview of Meta-Analytic Designs 173
What Are Meta-Analytic Designs? 173
When Are Meta-Analytic Designs Indicated? 174
What Types of Questions Can Be Answered Using Meta-Analytic
Designs?175
Mean Effect Associated With an Intervention or Program 175
Relationships of Participant and Study Characteristics Associated
With Mean Effect 176
Predicting Future Effects for Similar Studies 176
Types of Meta-Analytic Methods 176
Computing Mean Effects and Precision 177
Estimating Heterogeneity 178
Differentiating Performance Based on Characteristics 178
Addressing the Effects of Publication Bias 179
Predicting Future Effects for Similar Studies 180
Putting Findings Into Context 180
Displaying Results 182
Summary Tables 182
Forest Plots 182
Chapter Summary 185
 Contents xv

Resources185
References185

Part III Putting Evaluation Practice Into Motion 187

13 Writing Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes 189
Understanding Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes 189
Tips for Writing Objectives and Outcomes 191
Chapter Summary 194
Resources194
References194

14 Using Literature to Support Practice 195

Evidence-Based Practice 196
Locating Resources Beyond the University Library 196
Best Practice Guidelines 197
Clearinghouses and Registries 198
Federal Resources 199
University Partnerships 199
Evaluating Resources in Context 201
Chapter Summary 202
References202

15 Selecting Assessment Measures 203

When Are Assessment Measures Used? 204
Evaluating Existing Measures 205
Identifying Existing Measures 207
Creating Unique Measures 209
Chapter Summary 210
Resources210

16 Managing Data 212

Levels of Data 213
Individual-Level Data 213
System-Level Data 214
Data From Special Studies or Activities 215
Creating a Data Management Plan 216
Practical Considerations 217
Software and Database Resources 217
Compliance217
Missing Data 218
Chapter Summary 219
xvi Contents

17 Reporting to Stakeholders 220

Introduction to Evaluation Reporting 220
Key Characteristics of Evaluation Reports 221
Reporting in Accurate, Even-Handed Ways 221
Accounting for Your Audience 221
Using Pluralistic Communication Strategies 222
Timing Your Reports 222
Making Appearance of Documents and Materials a Priority 222
Emphasizing Practical Effects and Social Implications 222
Fundamental Components of Evaluation Reports 223
Cover Page 223
Executive Summary 223
Overview of Program and Role of Evaluation 224
Evaluation Methodology 224
Findings and Impact 225
Conclusions and Recommendations 225
Appendices225
Chapter Summary 226
Resources226
References226

18 Closing the Loop 227

Revisiting the Purpose of Program Evaluation 227
Using Data to Make Program Decisions 228
Determining Necessary and Recommended Changes 229
Demonstrating Impact of Changes 231
Chapter Summary 232
References232

19 Sharing With Other Professionals 233

Presenting at Professional Meetings 233
Publishing in Various Sources 235
Peer-Reviewed Journals 235
Agency Reports 236
Web-Based Document Sharing 236
University and Organizational Partnerships 237
Chapter Summary 237
References237

20 Addressing Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Considerations 238

Ethical Principles and Standards 238
Legal Considerations 245
 Contents xvii

Common Rule 246

Other Legal Regulations 249
Cultural Considerations 249
Chapter Summary 251
Resources252
References252

Index253
Preface

We began this book with a passion for research, a firm belief in the power of mental
health professionals to do good work, and a sense we needed to bridge an ever-growing
gap between research and practice in our profession. We were tired of seeing students
and master’s-level professionals plugging through statistics and research coursework
they saw as a hurdle to jump over rather than a foundation on which to build years
of practice. We nodded on the inside when they asked when they would ever need to
hand-calculate a standard deviation or why they were learning one research method
each week, knowing they would never implement a true study in the real world of
master’s-level practice.
At the same time, we were inspired by life-changing, effective interventions and
programs we have seen implemented in communities. Yet we were concerned about
the long-term viability of these programs in the face of budget cuts and ever-growing
expectations to demonstrate effectiveness. We envisioned a world where master’s-level
practitioners wrap together art and science by bringing pieces of what we know about
research into their practices and programs. We wanted to design a starting place for
that conversion. So here we are.
In Part I, we highlight the importance of converging art, science, and practice. We
introduce methodological and statistical concepts you will need to understand in order
to navigate research literature, and we draw connections between those principles and
evaluation activities you may find yourself doing in your own practice. Part I closes
with attention to models for program development and systems of inquiry, with a spe-
cial focus on program evaluation paradigms most relevant to practice.
Part II includes coverage of various research designs with a special program evalu-
ation spin. In particular, we worked to illustrate how you might pull from these designs
to understand your own programs and practices. We provided examples from our own
clinical and educational experience, and we worked to make these principles come
alive as something that might matter to you. We also provided you with templates for
writing up results of your own projects.
Finally, we designed Part III to serve as a practical toolkit you will want to revisit
time and again. We provide no-nonsense, direct advice for writing objectives, using lit-
erature to support practice, selecting assessment measures, managing data, presenting
results, making changes based on data, and sharing findings with key stakeholders and
 Preface xix

peers. We close with reminders regarding some important ethical and cultural consid-
erations that will need attention throughout the process.
If you work through these pieces systematically, you should have a framework for
building strong programs, designing evaluations to help you understand work with
an individual or program, and analyzing data in ways that will help you understand
what is working and what needs to change. In so doing, you will enhance your ability
to advocate for those you serve through the development of strong, evidence-based,
culturally relevant programs. Additionally, you will be able to use data to advocate for
continued service and continually grow your potential.
Acknowledgments

To Leah, who was my most beautiful, indispensable obstacle to completing this project
and who fills every “lost” workday with wonder, joy, and a spark of hope for a more
perfect future.
To Joel, who has been unwavering in support of my professional development and
personal wellness and who will proudly promote this book without ever opening the
cover.
I am indebted to Jennifer M. Hightower for careful reading, editorial precision,
and student-focused feedback on the draft of this book. This work is stronger because
of you.
~ Casey

To Rachel and Hayes—you have painted this canvas with all the colors of love, home,
laughter, and encouragement. You are proof that life can be perpetually giving.
A special thank you to my team of Julia Dell’Aquila and Danielle Pester, who have
been a second set of eyes and representatives of students and practitioners to make sure
that chapter content never drifted too far from the practical.
~ Stephen

We had the distinctive honor of authoring this text. Our names are on the cover and the
chapters are nuanced with the tones of our writing styles, yet a great deal of acknowl-
edgment and gratitude belongs to our mentors, colleagues, and students who have
helped us forge these perspectives during the course of our careers. To y’all, thank you.
We have much respect for the Routledge family, especially Senior Editor Anna A.
Moore. Your perspectives, support, guidance, and calendar requests have been a gift
through this process.
Lastly, we send whole-hearted appreciation and gratitude for those students and
practitioners who are endeavoring in the applied research and evaluation projects that
have potential to shape our communities for the better. Your creativity and energies
are a gift. Thank you.
PART I
Embarking on an Inquiry
 1
CHAPTER
CHAPTER

Where Science Meets

Practice

This chapter introduces the importance of applied research and program evalua-
tion within counseling and related helping professions, with special attention to the
importance of evidence-informed practice and scientist-practitioner models in profes-
sions often focused on abstract human relationships. We discuss development of the
accountability era and introduce evidence-based practice and hierarchies of evidence
in an attempt to illustrate how research is important to practice and how practice is
important to research. The chapter concludes with an overview of this book, including
strategies for optimizing learning.

BOX 1.1 CACREP STANDARDS AND CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES

CACREP 2016 Standards

• 2.F.8.a the importance of research in advancing the counseling profession,
including how to critique research to inform counseling practice
• 2.F.8.b identification of evidence-based counseling practices
• 6.B.1.d evidence-based counseling practices
Chapter Learning Outcomes
• Deepen understanding regarding the important role of research and
program evaluation in ensuring ethical and effective practice
• Conceptualize hierarchies of evidence used to support evidence-based
practices

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND FOUNDATIONS

Professional counselors and related mental health professionals are charged with
facilitating healing and optimal functioning for the most vulnerable of populations.
Although the degree of focus may vary across professions and professionals, there is
widespread agreement that such relationships and processes must attend to both art
4 Embarking on an Inquiry

and science. Certainly, integration of science in practice involving complex human

experiences and relationships is an art.
Research and program evaluation have been of long-standing interest in mental
health professions. The earliest and most famous counseling theorists—players such
as Freud, Skinner, and Rogers—were scientists who developed and modified theories
based on rigorous inquiry. As theorists began building silos of research, other scholars
began considering common factors that cut across approaches in hopes they could help
us better understand how counseling works and, in turn, how counselors best engage
the science of counseling. Consider this excerpt from over 50 years ago:

The more we learn from our research, the more acutely aware we become of the lim-
itations and inadequacies of our current theoretical formulations. Individual schools
of counseling and psychotherapy cannot account for the multitude of variables which
in all probability ultimately will constitute the process of psychotherapeutic person-
ality change. However, these varied approaches have proved themselves to be of
research value in the past. Any attempted formulations in the future should, therefore,
leave themselves open to their potential contributions to research in the therapeutic
process. Indeed, common elements, stemming from, yet cutting across these various
theoretical approaches, have already demonstrated significant heuristic meaning.
(Truax & Carkhuff, 1964, p. 860)

More recently, scholars concluded:

Despite the field’s love affair with technique, nearly a half century of empirical inves-
tigation has revealed that the effectiveness of psychotherapy resides not in the
many variables that ostensibly distinguish one approach from another. Instead, the
success of treatment is principally found in the factors that all approaches share in
common.
(Duncan, Miller, Wampold, & Hubble, 2010, p. xxvii)

Research and program evaluation are foundational to the work of mental health
professionals. In professional counseling, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling
and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) includes research and program evalua-
tion as one of eight long-standing core curricular areas for master’s-level preparation.
The American Counseling Association (2014) Code of Ethics requires counselors to
work with clients to develop “counseling plans that offer reasonable promise of suc-
cess” (p. 4) and counselor educators to “promote the use of techniques/procedures/
modalities that are grounded in theory and/or have an empirical or scientific foun-
dation” (p. 14). Counseling psychologists have long held the scientist-practitioner or
“Boulder Model” of integrating science as practice as a critical component of their
professional identity (Vespia & Sauer, 2006), and American Psychological Associa-
tion (www.apa.org) accreditation standards require substantial attention to research.
APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2017) requires that
“psychologists’ work is based on established scientific and professional knowledge
of the discipline” (Standard 2.04). Finally, the Council on Social Work Education
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
eyes, a hollowness in the cheek, a pinched look in the nose and
mouth; or it may be he has a foxy eye, a puffed cheek, a flabby,
vicious-looking lip, and a sensual-looking hand. These may be the
very features that the imagination seizes upon and emphasizes.
Then when the painter takes up his brush he paints these features
strongly because they appeal to him strongly. And what is the result?
The look—perhaps in the one case scholarly and thoughtful, like Van
Dyck’s “Cornelius Van der Geest” (Plate 3), or in the other case
crafty-looking like Velasquez’s “Innocent X” (Plate 13)—the look that
betrays the character of the sitter appears in the picture, appears
more strongly emphasized than in the original; and all through the
proper exercise of the imagination.
The pictorial imagination almost always lays emphasis upon
prominent features, and may at times distort them without falsifying
them as art. The very first act, the seeing of things pictorially—that
is, as they would appear in a picture rather than as they appear in
real life—is necessarily a translation if not a free rendering. Everyone
knows that George Morland, who saw English tavern-life cut up into
beautiful pictures and hanging upon the walls, did not see accurately
or scientifically; but he certainly saw pictorially and imaginatively.
The actual would have left us cold, where the imaginative excites
admiration.
We can see something akin to this even in the work of the camera.
The ordinary photograph of a flock of sheep is prosaic enough, but
we have all seen photographs of sheep taken when the camera was
a little “off-focus,” when some of the sheep at the side did not get
into the line of light and were somewhat distorted and magnified in
bulk. In this “off-focus” view the sheep immediately become pictorial
in appearance, and we notice how much like Millet’s sheep they
look. Of course the unusual appearance is caused by a perversion of
light in the camera, but I do not know that Millet’s sheep are not
caused by a perversion of sight in the man. Genius is supposed to
be closely allied to insanity; and imagination may be allied to
distortion.
Certainly there is in the pictorial view something of the distorted
view. A modern athlete in the gymnasium is a very different athlete
from those that writhe upon the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Did not
Michael Angelo’s imagination see the model abnormally, and thus
persuade his hand to emphasize all the powerful attributes? A
running horse as seen by the instantaneous camera is no doubt
accurate enough in all respects, save the sense of motion. He does
not run. The camera arrests his flight, holds him poised in air
momentarily. But Fromentin’s imagination, as shown in his pictures,
saw the horse running, saw him distorted, drawn out in body from
head to tail. You know from the report of the camera, again, how
human beings fall through the air in jumping, diving, plunging; but
what a different report you get from Tintoretto’s fall of the damned in
his “Last Judgment.” There is a tremendous rain of elongated bodies
falling from heaven to hell. The exaggeration of the imagination is
here most apparent, but the result is wonderfully effective. We are
made to feel that the bodies are really falling.
The reason for the pictorial distortion in the instances cited must
be obvious enough. There is no great attempt to present things
precisely as they are in nature. We have already arrived at the
conclusion that this would be impossible. The object presented to the
imagination is sought to be represented by the sign or symbol, and it
requires the radical translation, possibly the distortion of the sign or
symbol to show the imaginative conception. What was the actual
bulk of the battle-ship Téméraire I do not know, but I feel quite sure
that Turner in painting that vessel (Plate 11) saw it in exaggerated
proportions, saw it lifted high out of the water, its height additionally
emphasized by the smallness of the towing tug. In the same way
Claude and Poussin saw trees and groves of phenomenal height
and thickness (Plate 26), as Courbet saw sea waves of astounding
bulk, and Claude Monet saw exaggerated lights and colors upon the
towers of Rouen Cathedral. The exaggeration is quite within the
province of the imagination—quite necessary to all imaginative art. It
is more apparent in some painters than in others, and yet is not the
less existent in almost all pictorial expression. From the caricature of
the child to the conception of the skilled artist there is apparently only
a step. The boy in school who draws the face of a companion on the
fly-leaf of his book, giving it perverted features and a wide smile of
countenance, is distorting the sign to convey a certain ludicrous
impression; but the Egyptian sculptor who carved the mysterious
smile upon the face of the Sphinx—that face which under burning
suns and midnight stars has looked out across the silence for so
many centuries—was using the distorted sign, too, using it
imaginatively to tell people his idea of the majesty and serenity of the
sun-god Harmachis.
But however the imagination may distort, it cannot originate
anything entirely new nor create anything outside of human
experience. We are sometimes led to think, by the common use of
the word “imagination,” that it can

“Body forth the forms of things unknown,”

as Shakespeare has put it; but it must be apparent that “out of

nothing, nothing comes,” and that it is impossible to make a body
from things unknown. All the originality of all the great originals in the
world’s history goes no further than the dividing up or the adding to
of things already known. You may make a novel landscape perhaps
by shutting out the sky with a high sky-line, or you may make an
angel by adding bird wings to a human form; but you cannot make
an absolutely new form or create one thing that has not some basis
in human life or experience. To be sure, you may bring to mind the
image of a character in fiction or poetry—Sir Galahad or Roland of
Brittany or Amadis de Gaul, for instance—but after all your image is
based upon some previous memories of knights in armor. Just so
with the likeness of Christ. There is no authentic record of how he
looked, either in picture or worded description, and the type of Christ
which we accept to-day has been derived from Italian art, which in
turn received and blended together two types—one from the Eastern
Church at Constantinople and one from the Western Church at
Rome. As for the abnormal creations that seem at times quite
original—the witches of “Macbeth,” the fairies of “Midsummer Night’s
Dream,” the water babies of Kingsley, the elves and gnomes and
dwarfs of Grimm—they are all founded upon the distortion of the
human figure. The wonders of the “Thousand and One Nights,” the
City of Brass, the diamond windows, the hanging gardens, the genii
of the clouds, are not different as regards the manner of their
construction. Animal life too, is made monstrous by the quips of the
fancy, but again the dragons are all snake-formed and the goblins all
bat-winged; the centaur is a combination of man and horse, and
Ariosto’s hippogriff is the familiar winged Pegasus of Greece
translated into Italian.
 XII.—ANTONELLO DA MESSINA, Portrait of a Man. Louvre, Paris.

In the first exercise of the imagination (that is, by division) we shall

find that the mind conceives a part of an object, for instance, as of
sufficient value to stand by itself. This is separated from the whole,
magnified by emphasis, and finally handed forth as an entity—a new
creation, if you please. We can see this well exemplified in poetry,
where Keats, for instance, not wishing to describe the entire winter
landscape on the Eve of St. Agnes, isolates a few features of the
scene and makes them do service for all.

“Ah, bitter chill it was—

The owl for all his feathers was a-cold,
The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold.”

Here we have an owl, a hare, and a flock of sheep magnified out

of all proportion as regards their importance in the landscape, and
standing by themselves as symbols of a cold winter night. But the
suggestiveness of these features is very effective, very complete—
much more so than if an elaborate description had been given of
snow and icicle, moonlight and sleigh-bells. Claude Monet, when he
wishes to show a winter morning on the Seine, does it with very few
objects. There are silent ranks of trees, a foggy air congealed to
hoar-frost, the swollen river with floating ice crunching and jostling its
way; and that is all. But again what an effective winter morning! The
heat of summer he describes just as summarily by cutting off a
square of vivid sunshine falling on a wheatstack, exaggerating it in
brilliancy of color and light, and allowing it to stand in lieu of a whole
landscape. Corot is not different in thought and method. He throws
all his strength upon light along the hills of morning or evening, and
every detail of grass and tree and human being is sacrificed to it
(Plate 9).
There are many ways in which the dividing imagination deals with
the figure in painting. The model may be treated as part of a group,
as an object in landscape, as a whole-length portrait in a room, as a
knee-piece, as a half-length, as a bust, or as a head alone. Nothing
could be further removed from the actual than a man’s head shown
in profile on a coin, but what imaginative art the Greeks made of their
coinage! And what superb heads—superb in their character—the
Pisani put upon their medals! How well each head suggested the
whole man! And was there ever a more virile, living personality, ever
a man with a more lion-hearted look, than Antonello da Messina
pictured in the head and shoulders of that unknown Italian in the
Louvre (Plate 12)? Byron’s ghost portrait of Nimroud as he appears
to Sardanapalus in a dream is more colossal, but it is not more
intense or forceful than Antonello’s, save as language is always
more definite than pigment. Here it is:

“The features were a giant’s and the eye

Was still yet lighted; his long locks curled down
On his vast bust whence a huge quiver rose
With shaft-heads feathered from the eagle’s wing
That peeped up bristling through his serpent hair.”

To match in bulk such an imaginative picture, we should have to

go back to the great king-headed bulls that flank the portals of the
Assyrian palaces, or the colossal pharaonic figures in granite that
symbolize the Egyptian kings.
Sculpture affords many good illustrations of parts detached from
the whole and magnified by the imagination into separate creations.
The Colleoni statue at Venice comes to mind instantly. The great
commander and his horse have been taken out of battle and placed
upon a pedestal, yet, isolated as it is, how the statue tells the
irresistible strength, the pushing power of both man and horse! The
“Water Nymphs” of Jean Goujon are separated again in panels, they
tell no connected story; but the serpentine grace of the figures, the
rippling flow of the draperies, how inevitably they bring to mind the
native element, the home of the water people! The Greek youths that
ride along the Parthenon frieze, the wounded lionesses that roar
defiance from the Assyrian bas-reliefs, the Japanese fish that swim
in bronze, though cut off from their background or environment, yet
again how perfectly each suggests its habitat through the magnifying
imagination of the artist!
The combining imagination (the building up by additions which
enhance and enliven) is just the reverse of the process we have
been considering. It has to do with associations, with memories; and
the combination is brought about by images from hither and yon, that
gather and join in the mind. There is some confusion just here
between what is imagination in painting and what is mere
composition, which Mr. Ruskin has tried to clear up by asserting that
the former is intuitive and the latter is labored, that one works by
genius and the other by laws and principles. But the distinction itself
is somewhat labored, and in its practical working it seems to have
small basis in reality. A gathering together of antique pavements,
marble benches stained with iron rust, ideal figures clad in Greek
garments, with various museum bric-a-brac illustrative of Greek life,
such as we see in the pictures of Alma-Tadema, is certainly
composition. It may be good or bad composition, it may be academic
or naturalistic, it may have been put together laboriously, piece by
piece, or flashed together by a momentary lightning of the mind; but,
whatever the method or however brought about, one thing seems
very certain, and that is, the work, in the hands of Alma-Tadema,
contains not one spark of imagination. The same method of
combining in the mind or working on the canvas with Delacroix or
Turner or even J. S. Cotman would have almost certainly resulted in
the imaginative.
 XIII.—VELASQUEZ, Innocent X. Doria Gallery, Rome.

It is a fond fancy of Mr. Ruskin, and also of ourselves, that genius

despises laborious composition and does things with a sudden burst
of inspiration. We think, because the completed work looks easy or
reads easy, that it must have been done easily. But the geniuses of
the world have all put upon record their conviction that there is more
virtue in perspiration than in inspiration. The great poets, whether in
print or in paint, have spent their weeks and months—yes, years—
composing, adjusting, putting in, and taking out. They have known
what it was to “lick things into shape,” to labor and be baffled, to
despair and to hope anew. Goethe may have conceived “Faust”
intuitively, but it took him something like fifty years to record his
intuitions. He composed laboriously, and yet was no less a man of
superlative imagination. Listen a moment to his Prologue to “Faust”:
Raphael.

“The sun-orb sings in emulation

Mid brother-spheres his ancient round:
His path predestined through creation
He ends with step of thunder-sound.
The angels from his visage splendid
Draw power, whose measure none can say;
The lofty works, uncomprehended,
Are bright as on the earliest day.

Gabriel.

“And swift, and swift beyond conceiving,

The splendor of the world goes round,
Day’s Eden-brightness still relieving
The awful Night’s intense profound:
The ocean-tides in foam are breaking,
Against the rocks deep bases hurled,
And both, the spheric race partaking,
Eternal, swift, are onward whirled!

Michael.
 “And rival storms abroad are surging
From sea to land, from land to sea,
A chain of deepest action forging
Round all, in wrathful energy.
There flames a desolation, blazing
Before the Thunder’s crashing way;
Yet, Lord, thy messengers are praising
The gentle movement of thy Day.”[5]

5. The original German lies open before me, but I prefer to give the quotation in
a language which will not fail to be understood by all American readers. It is
Bayard Taylor’s translation, and so far as the imaginative conception is
concerned it reproduces the original fairly well.

Here is the imagination presenting us with a great cosmic picture

that in sublimity I venture to think has no superior in either poetry or
painting; yet it cannot be doubted that it was built up thought by
thought, line upon line; torn down perhaps a dozen times to be
modelled anew with something added or omitted. In other words it
has been composed, not flashed together by intuition.
The combining imagination in painting does not work differently
from this. The picture is built up; and memories often play a
prominent part in the process. One may mingle lines from Greece
with colors from Japan and an atmosphere from Holland if he will.
The result might be something heterogeneous and incongruous, but
it would nevertheless be a true enough display of the imagination.
But such a gathering from hither and yon, such a mingling of many
foreign elements, would not be necessary or essential or even usual
in art. Pictures are made in simpler ways. Here, for example, is a
sea-piece from the “Ancient Mariner,” imagined and composed
again, but brought together as a homogeneous whole.

“The western wave was all aflame,

The day was well-nigh done,
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright sun.”
 There the marine would seem to be quite complete, but Coleridge
has yet to heighten the effect of the sunset by introducing a memory
of an impression received perhaps in boyhood. His imagination,
having conjured up the image of the phantom ship, combines it with
the burning sunset:

“When that strange shape drove suddenly

Betwixt us and the sun.”

“And straight the sun was flecked with bars

(Heaven’s Mother send us grace!)
As if through a dungeon grate he peered
With broad and burning face.”

The introduction of the “dungeon grate” still further increases the

effect. We now have the flaming sky, the sea, and the skeleton ship
through which the sun mockingly peers, as through dungeon bars, at
the dying crew. The effect is weird, uncanny, unearthly, just what
Coleridge intended it should be. This, I should say, was the
imagination adding and combining. And so far as I can see it is also
the intelligent mind composing.
It would be difficult to find a parallel in painting to this picture from
the “Ancient Mariner.” One thinks at once of Turner’s “Ulysses and
Polyphemus” as resembling the Coleridge conception, because of
the sea and the sun; but the likeness is superficial. In the Turner the
spread of the sea, the golden waves in the foreground, the heave of
the mountains out of the water, the spectral figure on the mountain
top, the far distance of the ocean with the sun on the uttermost
verge, are all highly imaginative; but the real glory of the picture is its
decorative splendor rather than its expressive meaning. The
“Fighting Téméraire,” as we have already noted, is imaginative in the
magnitude of the bulk and there is something of the Coleridge effect
in the glare of the red setting sun that peers through clouds, taking
its farewell look at the old war-ship being towed to its last berth; but
the imagination is not so clear-cut here as with Coleridge (Plate 11).
 In some of Turner’s “Approaches to Venice” there is perhaps a
better example of the combining imagination, for Turner never
hesitated about “composing”—putting things into the picture that
were not there in reality; and in the Venetian pictures he sometimes
did this with startling results. I have in mind one of these pictures,
where Venice is seen a mile or more away; but the domes of the
Salute and the tops of the campaniles have been so shifted about to
suit Turner’s views of composition that I have never been able to
determine whether the city is seen from the east or the west. And
apparently Turner did not care anything about geography or
topography. His imagination brought up out of the blue-green sea a
city of palaces, builded of marble and hued like mother-of-pearl, with
distant towers shining in the sun—a fairy city floating upon the sea,
opalescent as a mirage, dream-like as an Eastern story, a glamour of
mingled color and light beneath a vast-reaching sky glowing with the
splendor of sun-shot clouds. It is most beautifully unreal, and yet by
dint of its great imagination and suggestion it is more Venetian than
Venice itself. It is that kind of distortion by the imagination which
sacrifices the form to gain the spirit of things.
Here at Venice one can see the work of the combining imagination
very well in some of the old Venetian pictures. Paolo Veronese, for
instance, has upon the ceiling of one of the rooms in the Ducal
Palace, a towering majestic figure, clad in silks and ermines,
crowned with pearls and sceptred with power, seated under a
gorgeous canopy in a chair of state, and representing the glory of
Venice. She is a magnificent type of womanhood, splendid enough in
herself to symbolize the splendor of Venice, but Paolo’s imagination
adds to her importance still further by placing her upon a portion of a
great globe representing the world, while below at her feet are two
superb figures representing Justice and Peace, offering the tributes
of the sword and the olive branch (Plate 14).
XIV.—PAOLO VERONESE, Venice Enthroned. Doge’s Palace, Venice.
 Another Venetian, Tintoretto, had possibly more imagination than
any other of his school—yes, any other Italian in art-history; and yet
it is not always possible to say just how his ideas originally took form.
No doubt he labored and composed and tried effects by putting
things in and taking them out. No doubt the “Ariadne and Bacchus,”
or the “Miracle of the Slave” (Plate 15) as we see it to-day, was the
third or fourth thought instead of the first; but there is no questioning
the exaltation of the final result. The subject of the Resurrection in
his day had become a tradition in painting, and was usually shown
as a square tomb of marble with a man rising from it between two
angels. This stereotyped tradition had been handed down for
centuries; but how greatly Tintoretto changed it and improved it in his
picture in the Scuola San Rocco! He imagined the side of a
mountain, a rock-cut tomb with angels pulling away the great door,
and as it slowly opens the blinding light within the tomb bursts forth,
and the figure of Christ rises swiftly, supported by the throbbing
wings of angels.
However this last-named picture was produced, by combination or
association, at least it is purely pictorial—that is, it deals with forms,
lights, and colors, things that can be seen. I hardly know what to
make of Mr. Ruskin’s remarks upon some of the other pictures by
Tintoretto, in the Scuola San Rocco. He seeks to exemplify the
painter’s ever-fertile imagination by pointing out, in the
“Annunciation,” that the corner-stone of the building is meant by
Tintoretto to be that of the old Hebrew Dispensation, which has been
retained by the builders as the corner-stone of the new Christian
Dispensation; and that, in the “Crucifixion,” the donkey at the back
eating the palm-branches recently thrown down before Christ upon
his entry into Jerusalem is a great piece of imaginative sarcasm. I
confess my inability to follow Mr. Ruskin just here, and I cannot
believe that Tintoretto meant anything of the sort about either the
corner-stone or the palm-branches. If he did, it was perhaps a
mistake. The motives would be more literary than pictorial. I think it
all exemplifies Mr. Ruskin’s imagination rather than Tintoretto’s, and
in either case it has little to do with imagination in painting as
generally understood among painters. Painting and the pictorial
conception, it must be repeated, have to do with forms and colors
seen by the eye or in the mind’s eye; they have very little to do with a
sarcasm or a Hebraic mystery.
There is still another phase of imagination which figures in
metaphysical text-books under the name of fancy. It is sometimes
called the passive imagination, apparently for no reason other than
distinction’s sake. It is supposed to be temporary and accidental in
its association of ideas and images, to be light, airy, capricious,
perhaps indefinite; whereas, imagination is said to be more sober,
serious, single in purpose, seeking unity of effect. The illustrations
usually cited are taken from Shakespeare. The “Midsummer Night’s
Dream” is said to be a product of fancy, while “Lear” or “Hamlet” is a
work of the imagination. But again I must confess my inability to
comprehend the distinction. The thought in the one case busies itself
with a light or gay theme, and in the other with a sober or tragic
theme; but the mental process would seem to be the same in either
case. The mind may grow happy over a birth or grieve over a death,
but one mind and one imagination would seem flexible enough to
comprehend them both. There is a difference in art between what is
called the serious and what is called the clever; but the imagination
has nothing to do with it. A figure of a soubrette dashed off in a
Parisian studio, and sent in a hurry to a Salon or Academy exhibition
as a “stunning thing,” may be clever. Mr. La Farge has defined such
cleverness as “intelligence working for the moment without a
background of previous thought or strong sentiment.” And this
definition suggests that the serious in art is just the opposite of the
clever. A figure by Millet, such as that of “The Sower,” is serious just
because the intelligence has been working upon it for many months.
But, in spite of calling a Jacquet soubrette fanciful and a Millet sower
imaginative, there would seem to be no difference in the mental
processes. The difference is one of subject, time, men, original
endowment; not a difference in the kind of thought.
The fantastic is also a product of the imagination, but it is a lighter,
more volatile and irresponsible expression than fancy. It is the
imagination just escaping from control, dominated by caprice and
leaning toward the bizarre. The griffins and the spouting dragons
along the gutters of the Gothic churches, and the boar-headed, bird-
footed devils of early art are perhaps fair illustrations of it. In modern
painting Blake and Monticelli came perilously near the fantastic in
some of their creations. Turner in his last years quite lost himself in
fantasy, and a number of the painters in France and England might
be named as illustrating the tendency to the bizarre. When the
bizarre is finally reached we may still recognize it as the working
imagination, but uncontrolled by reason. Our dreams which often
strike us as so absurd are good instances of the play of the
imagination unfettered by reason; and if our dream-land conceptions
could be reduced to art we would undoubtedly have what we have
called the bizarre. Caricature and the grotesque are different again.
They are conscious distortions, designed exaggerations of certain
features for effect. They are not ruled so much by either fancy or
caprice as by a sensible view of the extravagant.

XV.—TINTORETTO, Miracle of Slave. Academy, Venice.

 There is no metaphysical or æsthetic term to designate an
absence of the imagination, but possibly the words “baroque” or
“bombastic” will suggest the results in art. And there is no lack of
material to illustrate it. Unfortunately the master minds in both poetry
and painting have been few and far between. The names and works
that have come down to us from the past are the survivals from
many siftings; and the few geniuses of the present are perhaps still
obscured by the bombastic performances of smaller men. The
Robert Montgomerys and the Martin Farquhar Tuppers somehow
contrive to make a stir and delude the public into considering them
as great originals. They have not imagination of their own, so they
imitate the imaginative utterances and styles of others. Not one but
many styles of many men are thus brought together in a
conglomeration that may deceive the groundlings into thinking it
genuine poetry; but the judicious soon find out its true character. Of
course, all imitators try to imitate the inimitable individualities. The
Montgomerys and the Tuppers aspire to no less than Shakespeare
and Milton. Just so in pictorial art. Vasari, Guido, the Caracci
reached out for the imaginations of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and
Correggio. The result was the contorted bombastic art of the
Decadence than which nothing could be less imaginative and more
monstrous. The mind of a Michael Angelo of necessity distorted the
image in the first place and then a Salviati came along to distort the
distortion! The figure of a Madonna, for instance, is elongated by
Correggio for grace, and Parmigianino following after elongated the
elongation! This is what I have called the bombastic. It is indicative of
a lack of imagination. Modern painting is full of it. The attempts at the
heroic that overstep the sublime and fall into the ridiculous, the rant
and high-sounding utterances of the brush, the inflated figures of
allegory and the vacuous types of symbolism, are all illustrative of it.
But the bombastic and its companion evils in art need no further
consideration at this time. It is not my aim to illustrate the
deficiencies of painting, but to point out its higher beauties, and if the
reverse of the shield is occasionally shown it is but to illustrate and
emphasize the brighter side. Perhaps one may be pardoned for
thinking that sometimes the analysis of error is a potent factor in the
establishment of truth.
 CHAPTER IV

PICTORIAL POETRY

Time was, and not very long ago at that, when an argument for
poetic thought in art would have been considered superfluous.
Everyone was agreed that the higher aim of language was to convey
an idea, a feeling, or an emotion. That the language should be
beautiful in itself was an advantage, but there was never any doubt
that the thought expressed was greater than the manner of its
expression. To-day it would seem that we have changed all that. The
moderns are insisting that language is language for its own sake,
and art is art for art’s sake. They are, to a certain extent, right in their
contention; for there is great beauty in methods, materials and the
general decorative appearance.[6] But perhaps they insist too much.
We are not yet prepared to admit that because Tennyson’s poetry
sounds well, his thoughts have no value; nor, for all Tintoretto’s fine
form and color, can we believe his poetic imagination a wholly
unnecessary factor in his art.
6. I have stated the case for the decorative side and for the technical beauties
of painting in Art for Art’s Sake, New York, 1902.

The technical and the decorative beauties of painting, however

important they may be, are not necessarily the final aim of the
picture. In the hands of all the great painters of the world they have
been only a means to an end. The Michael Angelos, the
Rembrandts, the Raphaels, and the Titians have generally had an
ulterior meaning in their work. And by “meaning” I do not mean
anything very abstruse or metaphysical, nor am I thinking of anything
ethical, allegorical, or anecdotal. The idea which a picture may
contain is not necessarily one that points a moral, nor need it have
anything to do with heroic action or romantic sentiment or fictional
occurrence. There are many ideas, noble in themselves, that find
expression in literature better than in painting, and it is a sound rule
in all the arts that a conception which can be well told in one art has
no excuse for being badly told in another art. The materials and their
application to the best advantage are always to be regarded. Why
waste effort in cutting glass when you can blow it? Why chisel
curtains in marble when you can weave them in cloth? Why tell
sequential stories, moral, narrative, or historical, in paint when it can
be done more easily in writing? And why describe landscapes in
writing when you can do it so much better in painting? It is mere
consumption of energy and distortion of materials to write down the
colors of the sunset or to paint the history of Greece or Rome.

XVI.—DAUBIGNY, Spring. Louvre, Paris.

Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookmass.com