itself." Such a single, particular, and selfsame thing the carpenter can manufacture. In contrast, the painter can bring the table into view only from one particular angle. What he pro-duces is consequently but one aspect, one way in which the table appears. If he depicts the table from the front, he cannot paint the rear of it. He produces the table always in only one view or φάντασμα (598 b). What defines the character of the painter as μιμητὴς is not only that he cannot at all produce any particular usable table, [189] but also that he cannot even bring that one particular table fully to the fore.

But μίμησις is the essence of all art. Hence a position of distance with respect to Being, to immediate and undistorted outward appearance, to the idea, is proper to art. In regard to the opening up of Being, that is, to the display of Being in the unconcealed, ἀληθεία, art is subordinate.

Where, then, according to Plato, does art stand in relation to truth (ἀλήθεια)? The answer (598 b): πόρρω ἄρα που τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἡ μιμητική ἐστιν. "So, then, art stands far removed from truth." What art produces is not the εἶδος as ἰδέα (φύσις,) but τοῦτο εἴδωλον, which is but the semblance of pure outward appearance. εἴδωλον means a little εἶδος, but not just in the sense of stature. In the way it shows and appears, the εἴδωλον is something slight. It is a mere residue of the genuine self-showing of beings, and even then in an alien domain, for example, color or some other material of portraiture. Such diminution of the way of pro-ducing is a darkening and distorting. τοῦτ᾽ ἄρα ἔσται καὶ ὁ τραγῳδοποιός, εἴπερ μιμητής ἐστι, τρίτος τις ἀπὸ βασιλέως καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας πεφυκώς, καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄλλοι μιμηταί (597 e). "Now, the tragedian will also be of such kind, if he is an 'artist,' removed three times, as it were, from the master who rules over the emergence of pure Being; according to his essence he will be reduced to third place with regard to truth (and to the grasp of it in pure discernment); and of such kind are the other 'artists' as well."

A statement by Erasmus which has been handed down to us is supposed to characterize the art of the painter Albrecht Dürer. The statement expresses a thought that obviously grew out of a personal conversation which that learned man had with the artist. The statement