The relation of the work to us as persons must not enter into our awareness of it at all.

As soon as it does, that complete restfulness of the esthetic enjoyment is lost.

Then the object becomes simply a part of our practical surroundings.

The fundamental condition of art, therefore, is that we shall be distinctly conscious of the unreality of the artistic production, and that means that it must be absolutely separated from the real things and men, that it must be isolated and kept in its own sphere.

As soon as a work of art tempts us to take it as a piece of reality, it has been dragged into the sphere of our practical action, which means our desire to put ourselves into connection with it.