"The Price of Art"

"Information preserved about the lives of the Dutch painters is sparse. They belong to that species of artists who leave works behind them, not complaints and laments. Really there are no dramatic stories, unhealthy blushing, or sensational scandals. Their entirely earthly existence can be summarized in a few dates: birth, qualifications as a master, marriage, children’s baptism, and finally death.
They can only be envied. Whatever their greatness and miseries, the disillusionments and failures of their careers, their role in society and place on earth were not questioned, their profession universally recognized and as evident as the profession of butcher, tailor or baker. The question why art exists did not occur to anyone, because a world without paintings was simply inconceivable.
It is we who are poor, very poor. A major part of contemporary art declares itself on the side of chaos, gesticulates in a void, or tells the story of its own barren soul.
The old masters – all of them without exception – could repeat after Racine, “We work to please the public” Which means they believed in the purposefulness of their work and the possibility of interhuman communication. They affirmed visible reality with an inspired scrupulousness and childish seriousness, as if the order of the world and the revolution of the stars, the permanence of the firmament, depended on it."

Zbigniew Herbert, Still Life with a Bridle
(Translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter)