No perfect ideals are attainable. That is why they are ideals, or goals. That is why the great masterpieces of art are so few.
Without the gradation made possible by our imperfect world, including our imperfect minds, we would not notice such differences, and it would be impossible for us to appreciate art at all.
So there would be no art, not to speak of “great” art, -which requires artists to aim at “perfection”- and only imperfect people in an imperfect world can possibly imagine what that could mean.
- Christopher I. Beckwith, “Greek Buddha”