The Three Angels
Appearing to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo,
(Italian, Venice 1727–1804 Venice).Tiepolo illustrated lofty ideals. The serene
subject-matter of his works elevates the mind. (Public Domain)
If you walked into most any art museum around the world, the
artworks are divided into the timeframe or movement in which they were created.
The earliest works of art would be statues and relics depicting a world of the
sacred. Icons of saints, deities, Gods, depictions of transcendental scenes and
figures dominate the ancient up to medieval halls and rooms.
The latter halls from the 19th century to the
present would house the Impressionist’s works, the modern movement and beyond.
The journey is one from the sacred and transcendental to the secular to the
profane.
The Early Years
Artists, architects, and the like throughout most of human
history created works that were dignified and beautiful. Umberto Eco, an
Italian Philosopher who delved into the purpose of beauty stated in his book, On Beauty: A History of a Western Idea,
“in various historical periods there was a close link between the Beautiful and
the Good.” Beautiful buildings and morally responsible paintings reaffirmed
that life was inherently good and there is purpose to our existence. Humans
weren’t seen as perfect, and nor were they meant to be, but there was an
inherent goodness that lingers in us that needs to be strengthened.
Hardship, as in the case of Michelangelo’s Pieta had illustrated the held belief in
suffering and its connection with redemption. Suffering in life had
traditionally been seen as a way to temper oneself. In however the sacred
teachings were interpreted or acted upon, they taught compassion, forgiveness,
the elevation of one’s character, and the beauty of creation.
Esteban Murillo, one of
the most famous Spanish artists in the 17
th century later had his
works fall out of fashion due to the soft and sentimental renderings of his
subjects as his critics leveled. His paintings give merit to the essence of the
subjects he painted and not on the temporal however.
Most of Murillo’s paintings were of a spiritual nature, but
he produced many portraits and often painted the orphaned and impoverished
children around him to shed light on their suffering and that of Spain
which had been beset by earthquakes, the plague, and war. A generation later, his
simple and meditative compositions were seen as an affront to the reality of
the world by his contemporaries.
His sense of aesthetics revolved around his values and
ideals as they do each of us. He painted his aesthetic sense of the world which
for every person is as complex and similar to their character and personality
which is shaped by their external world and their reaction to it. The entirety
of who he was then is evident in his paintings.
Our sense of what beauty is, is fundamentally who we are and
is a part of us. Beauty is nearly completely relative. You can shape that
perception and be shaped by it from others. What people value and how they
interact with the world can be easily altered as advertisers know, it just
takes an image. Murillo illustrated a calm and restful world. He cherished the
people he painted and tried to bring that out in them as well.
The new frontier of the United
States in the 18th century painted by the Hudson River School led by Thomas Cole gave our
surroundings an ethereal quality. His iconic works were distinctly American and
influenced our nation’s earliest perceptions of nature and a need to conserve
and value our natural heritage at a time of rapid industrialization. He
searched for the sublime in the vast frontier of the newly founded United States of America.
Thomas Cole’s paintings
gave rise to a discussion about the natural world that became part of our
conscience. Expression through aesthetics and the arts through fine art,
architecture and storytelling has been the definitive medium in which to mold a
culture. Our aesthetic values we display have a tremendous impact on others as
they have traditionally done in shaping different cultures through the ages. The natural world then became seen as a refuge
to reconnect with the sacred and something to preserve. He was the father of
the movement to protect our natural world.
The Holy Family,
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
(Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid), (Public Domain)
Down a Different Road
Across the sea in
France at the same time, however, a
shift in our intrinsic beliefs were taking place. New theories were being
penned that would alter the way people thought and how we would view the world.
Baron d'Holbach’s
work,
The System of Nature had been widely
discussed and accepted in the Salons of France and gained a following. The book
states that the world is an autonomous mechanism in which there is no Creator
or underlying purpose in one’s life. These newfound beliefs laid the foundation
for Marxism and modernism which took hold as a political force during the Paris
Commune uprising in 1871.
Many of the Impressionists at the time adopted these new
beliefs and shook off the restraints of morality as they saw life as simply to
fulfill one’s desires. Gustav Courbet, a Communard during the uprising, painted
scenes that provoked common decency, antagonized traditional values and scorned
the academies in France.
Courbet had been influential in persuading Napoleon III to open the Salon
des Refusés or “Salon of Rejects” to house the avant-garde works that were
dismissed in the academies.
The Impressionist style became mainstream shortly after with
it being the accepted and dominant art form in France. The artists delved
themselves into morose states and more nihilistic views on human nature. The
image of what an artist was and supposed to be became that of an unhinged
derelict popularized by the demeanor of Van Gogh and Picasso.
Many contemporary artists illustrate the negative aspects of
humanity which in turn strengthen those aspects in us. Francis Bacon, an
English artist who lived through the horrors of World War Two wanted to show
the ugliness of humanity. He made a living by stealing and spent much of his
time drinking. His behavior matched the modernist sensibilities and he quickly
gained fame in the art world. His works stand as some of the most disturbing
you would find in a museum today, yet they are some of the most celebrated by
the art establishment.
In most art education and in public schools today, you would
see modern and abstract art as the predominant style and movement in art hung
on the walls and taught in the curriculum. Amongst the books on the shelves,
volume after volume would be stacked in the corner written about Manet, Van
Gogh and Picasso, leading up to Gauguin and Warhol. For over a century and a
half, the art world has turned its back on decency and morality and it has even
dominated what is being taught in our schools and colleges.
Values that tie us together such as trust, loyalty, tolerance,
and compassion have been undone as we promote the profane as the greatest works
of art while casting aside those that truly made this world a more beautiful
place to dwell in.
The calm, rationality, and industry of the old masters gave
way to psychosis and a materialistic view of life that seeking pleasure is the
highest achievement of humanity. To better our society, we can paint images
that enhance the positive aspects of human nature. It is not about being
blindly optimistic, but to knowingly call on the compassion and rationality
that flickers in all of us and to feed its little flame. Buckminster Fuller, an
American Architect once stated, “The best way to predict the future is to
design it.”
