Final answer:
Emerson suggests that natural beauty inspires art and that art allows us to appreciate nature's beauty more deeply. Art provides a creative and human-constructed aesthetic experience, while reflecting truths about nature and human emotions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The relationship between nature and art as described by Ralph Waldo Emerson represents the idea that natural beauty is the inspiration for art and that art helps individuals to appreciate that natural beauty more fully. According to Emerson, artists select elements from nature to create harmonious and beautiful works, just as a musician creates harmony from individual notes. This relationship emphasizes the concept of aesthetics, or the study of the beautiful, which considers how people perceive and respond to both art and natural beauty.
While art can give us a type of aesthetic experience, it is based on the construction and creativity of humans, whereas the beauty found in nature is an 'original' form of beauty that artists often aim to capture or represent in their work. Furthermore, the true artist is seen as one who can invoke a profound emotional experience for the viewer by highlighting these truths of nature and human spirit.