Reprising this on why some cultures become great explorers and others stay home: the role of metaphysics. “And as for trying to sail down the west African coast, everyone knew that as soon as you passed the Canary Islands you would be in the Mare Tenebroso, the Sea of Darkness: ‘In the medieval imagination [writes […]
On the dangers of exploration — medieval version Read More »
Carrying on the fun Renaissance debate about which art form is the best. Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, revenge-killer, likely a rapist, and party animal. Check out his Autobiography for all the energetic and sordid true-confessions details. It was he who did the bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, now in the
What is the best art medium? — Sculpture version Read More »
Wall Street Journal art critic Terry Teachout asks: “Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” As examples, Teachout quotes one of thousands of sentences from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake like this one: “It is the circumconversioning of antelithual paganelles by a huggerknut cramwell energuman, or the caecodedition of an absquelitteris puttagonnianne to the
Is modern art too complicated for us? Read More »
Friedrich Nietzsche“From High Mountains: Aftersong” O noon of life! O time to celebrate!O summer garden!Restlessly happy and expectant, standing,Watching all day and night, for friends I wait: Where are you, friends? Come! It is time! It’s late! The glacier’s gray adorned itself for youToday with roses,The brook seeks you, and full of longing risesThe wind,
Nietzsche’s poem “From High Mountains” Read More »
From the still-hilarious files. Changing times. Rembrandt van Rijn (1653) and Michael Crawford (1992).
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, Then and Now Read More »
Reprising this amusing jibe at the great conductor Herbert von Karajan, whose perfectionism and sometimes-authoritarian leadership style could cause enmity. “St. Peter calls upon Freud and tells him that God is evidently in need of psychiatric help. ‘I should be glad to help, but tell me, what seem to be His symptoms?’ asked Freud. ‘God
Humor: Herbert von Karajan and God Read More »
For comparison purposes, two artists’ views: Related:
Two portraits of Charles Read More »
From Jack D. Flam’s Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship (2003): ‘Picasso characterized the arbitrariness of representation in his Cubist paintings as resulting from his desire for “a greater plasticity.” Rendering an object as a square or a cube, he said, was not a negation, for “reality was no longer in
Artistic representation: Picasso versus Matisse Read More »