Within all great art is a WILD animal: tamed. Not with Mendelssohn, for example. All great art has man's primitive drives as its groundbass. They are not the melody (as they are with Wagner, perhaps) but they are what gives the melody its depth and power.

In this sense, Mendelssohn can be called a 'reproductive' artist. —

In the same sense: the house I built for Gretl is the product of a decidedly sensitive ear and good manners, an expression of great understanding (of a culture, etc.). But primordial life, wild life striving to erupt into the open — that is lacking. And so you could say it isn't healthy (Kierkegaard). (Hothouse plant.)