单项选择题

When you first saw a piece of African art, it impressed you as a unit; you did not see it as a collection of shapes or forms. This, of Line course, means that the shapes and volumes within the sculpture itself were coordinated so successfully that the viewer was affected emo-tionally.It is entirely valid to ask how, from a purely artistic point of view, this unity was achieved.And we must also inquire whether there is a recurrent pattern or rules or a plastic language and vocabulary that is responsible for the powerful communication of emotion which the best African sculpture achieves. If there is such a pattern of rules, are these rules applied consciously or instinctively to obtain so many works of such high artistic quality It is obvious from the study of art history that an intense and unified emotional experi-ence, such as the Christian credo of the Byzantine or 12th or 13th century Europe,when espoused in art forms, gave great unity,coherence, and power to art. But such an inte-grated feeling was only the inspirational ele-ment for the artist, only the starting point of the creative act. The expression of this emo-tion and its realization in the work could be done only with discipline and thorough knowledge of the craft. And the African sculp-tor was a highly trained workman. He started his apprenticeship with a master when a child,and he learned the tribal styles and the use of tools and the nature of woods so thoroughly that his carving became what Boas calls "motor action." He carved automatically and instinctively.The information in the passage suggests that a mature African carver might best be compared to a（）

点击查看答案&解析