Che cosa significa: "l'arte imita la natura"?

“Imitation of nature” can be understood according to three different meanings: 1. “technical simulation”, by means of which a special arrangement of natural items is supposed to fulfill human goals as perfectly as goals in nature; 2. “aesthetic simulation”, by means of which art produces a form of illusion which is not intended to delude, but for the enjoyment of its delusive effects; 3. “symbolization of nature”: in this case art aims at a presentation of the artificial product in such a way that a certain being-in-itself of things – which goes beyond mere utility and appearance – can manifest itself. In this third sense, art does not imitate natural objects, but shows natura naturans, whose goal does not only consist in affirming and achieving its own impetus, but also in self-transcending its own beginning. In imitating natura naturans, art becomes an endeavor to self-transcendence of man and his phenomenal world.