 A second key feature of Maritain’s views on art is that art is related to freedom; his views here not only reflect his metaphysics, but bear on his political philosophy. Artistic activity is, for Maritain, part of the basic drive in humans to create and make. This requires freedom—and, thus, the artist must be free. Indeed, for Maritain, freedom is a fundamental characteristic of the human person. But this freedom is not absolute. Maritain reminds his readers that freedom is not license to do whatever one chooses. Freedom in all its forms is ultimately subject to truth and, for the artist, it is also subject to “the spiritual conditions of honest work” (Art and Scholasticism, 1920 [1962: 4]). Maritain would say that artistic activity is analogous to divine free creative activity (see his letters to Cocteau); it is “the highest natural resemblance to God’s activity” (Art and Faith, 1926 [1948: 89]). 