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What is art?
In actual fact
there is nothing that responds to the name art. There are only artists: men who
once took coloured earth to trace as they were able the shape of a bison on the walls of a
cave – and who today buy
colours and design advertisements for the subway stations, and over the
centuries did many other things.
There is no wrong in calling all these activities art, providing we
bear in mind that this word can have many different meanings according to
the time and place and that we realise that there is no Art with a capital
“A” that today becomes ridiculous or frightful.
The pleasure of art
I don’t really believe that there are
wrong ways to enjoy a picture or a statue. One person will like a landscape
because it reminds him(her)
of his or her home; another admires a portrait because it reminds him/her
of a friend – there is
nothing wrong with this. All of us, when we look at a picture tend to
remember many things that can
influence our reactions. As long as these memories help us to enjoy
what we are looking at, why worry. But if these memories of little
importance become a prejudice, we should search in our mind to find out
why we have this aversion that can deprive us of a pleasure which we could have otherwise
enjoyed. There are mistaken
reasons for not enjoying a work of art.
Photographic
art
Many people want to see in pictures the things
that they really love. This is a natural preference. We all admire the beauties of
nature, and appreciate the artists, who with their works, have saved them
for us. Very often people want to admire the ability of the artist in a
representation of things as they are. They prefer pictures which are
“real”. I don’t deny that this important : patience and ability directed
to give a faithful representation of the world are certainly to be
admired. Great artists of the past have dedicated much effort in
works that accurately
reproduce every tiny detail;
now if an artist draws in his own fashion, he will be considered as
slipshod, unable to do any better. When it seems to us that a picture is
lacking in precision in details, we must always first ask ourselves
whether the artist had his reasons for changing the appearance of what he
saw; and secondly we should never condemn a work of art because it is
drawn incorrectly. We are all inclined to accept only the exact colours
and conventional shapes.
The originality of
painters
Now painters
feel as if on a discovery trip, they want a fresh view of the world,
different to every acknowledged notion, every prejudice regarding pink
skin, yellow and green apples. It is not easy to free oneself from these
preconceived ideas, but the artists who succeed in doing so often create
the most interesting works. It is they who teach us how to see new beauty in
nature, which we would never have dreamt of. If we continue to learn from
them, even to look out of the window can become an exciting adventure.
There is no greater impediment to enjoying artistic masterpieces than our
reluctance to overcome habits and prejudices. A painting that represents a
familiar subject in an unconventional manner is often condemned using the futile pretext that it doesn’t seem “exact”. The more often we see something represented in art, the
more firmly we are persuaded that it must always be represented in this
way.
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Caravaggio for example ….
Regarding biblical subjects, it is easy to raise a hornet’s nest: although
there is no description of the physical appearance of Jesus, although God
cannot be imagined under human form and although it is known that the
artists of the past were the first to create the images to which we have
become accustomed , many people still believe that to diverge form these
traditional forms is a blasphemy. In actual fact, it was generally the
artists immersed in the Holy Scriptures with the greatest devotion and
attention that attempted to create a completely new vision of the episodes
of the sacred writings. A typical “scandal” arose around Caravaggio, a
daring revolutionary Italian artist who lived around 1600. He was
commissioned to paint a picture of St. Matthew for the altar of a Roman
church : the saint was to be shown writing the Gospel , and to demonstrate
that the Gospels are the word of God, an inspiring angel was to be placed
near him. Caravaggio, who was a serious and uncompromising young artist,
tried to imagine the scene from the point of view of an old, poor workman, a
simple tax collector suddenly taken up with writing a book. As a result he
painted St. Matthew bald , with bare and dusty feet, who clumsily grabs the
enormous book and anxiously knits his brow in the unaccustomed effort of
writing. At his side the artist painted an adolescent angel, who seems to
have just arrived from above and who gently guides his hand as a teacher
would do with a child.
When Caravaggio handed over the picture to the church where it was to be
hung over the altar, this presumed lack of respect gave rise to scandal. The
picture was not accepted and Caravaggio had to start again. However, not
wanting to run further risks, he attained scrupulously to the most
conventional ideas regarding the appearance of an angel and a saint. The
result is certainly a good picture, because Caravaggio made every effort to
make it live and interesting, but we feel it less spontaneous and consistent
than the former one.
Perfection of the artist
It is fascinating to follow the artist in his effort to obtain perfect
balance. For example, one of the most famous Madonnas painted by Raphael :
“Madonna del Prato” (Madonna in the meadow) , is most certainly beautiful
and fascinating, the figures are admirably drawn and the expression of the
Virgin looking at the two children is unforgettable. But if we examine the
first drafts that Raphael made, we can understand the difficulty he had in
obtaining the exact relationship that would determine the maximum harmony of
the whole ensemble. To begin with he thought of depicting Jesus moving away
from his mother, with His gaze turned back toward her. Raphael tried putting
the head of the Virgin in several different positions to adjust it to the
movement of the child; then he decided to show the child in
perspective looking toward his mother. He then attempted another way,
introducing a young John the Baptist, but with the Child Jesus instead of
looking at him, looks toward a point outside the picture. He tried yet
another solution, but in the end seems to have lost patience after trying to
turn the head in many directions. In his sketch album there are several of
these sheets where he tried and tried again to give the best balance to the
three figures. But if we return again to the final version we note that in
the end he succeeded in his intent; everything now seems in the correct
position, and the equilibrium and harmony that Raphael obtained at the price
of much fatigue results so natural and spontaneous to pass almost
unobserved; yet is this harmony that makes the Madonna even more beautiful
and the children so delightful.
The “missing ” presence of rules in Art
In some periods artists and critics have tried to formulate the rules of
their art, but the result has always been that second-rate artists did not
gain anything when attempting to apply these rules, and the great masters
were able to break them and, in spite of this obtain an unimaginable
harmony. When the famous English painter Joshua Reynolds explained to the
students of the Royal Academy that light blue should never appear in the
foreground of a picture, but should be used for backgrounds and hills that
merge with the horizon, his rival Gainsborough, so it is said, wanting to
demonstrate that these academical rules are practically senseless , painted
the famous “Boy in blue”, whose clothes in the centre and in the foreground
form a perfect silhouette against the warm brown of the background. The
truth is, it is impossible to establish rules of this kind, because it is
never possible to know beforehand the effect that the artist wants to
achieve. Perhaps he will also use a jarring and discordant note , if he
finds it “right”. Since there are no rules to establish when a statue or a
painting is “right”, it is usually impossible to explain in words the exact
reason why we feel that we are in the presence of a masterpiece. But this
does not mean that one work is worth more than another, or that there may
not be difference in tastes. Difference of opinion and discussions, if
nothing else, invite us to look at the pictures, and the more we look,
the more details we find that first escaped our eye. Lets start by
developing our ability to capture this sense of harmony that every
generation of artists has striven to reach. The more we feel this harmony,
the more we shall have pleasure, and this is the most important thing.
The pleasure of admiring Art
There is no end to learning regarding art. There is always something new to
discover, every time we behold it before us. Masterpieces look different,
they seem to be inexhaustible and unpredictable just like human beings, they
form a moving world apart, with its strange laws and events. Nobody can
presume to know everything, because nobody ever will. Nothing is more
important than a clear mind to enjoy these works, to be able to gather every
hint and perceive every hidden harmony, a mind that above all is not filled
with high sounding words and hackneyed clichés. It is much better to know
nothing of art rather than that pseudo-culture that sprouts from snobbery.
It is a real danger: there are people, for example, who after learning the
simple basics of art and how great works can exist that are devoid of the
obvious requirements of beauty, expression or precision in design, become so
pig-headed to pride themselves that they only appreciate works which are not
pleasing to the eye and with inaccurate design.
These are people are plagued by the fear of being considered ignorant if
they confess that they like a work that is too nice or pathetic. This is how
snobbery is created, which wipes out the pure ability to enjoy art and
defines as “very interesting” that which they really find horrible. I don’t
want to cause a misunderstanding on this point, and rather than be
interpreted in such an uncritical way, I would prefer not to be believed.
A hint …
Force yourselves to look at a work of art with an open mind and take the
plunge into it in exploration It will certainly be an arduous task, but much
richer in satisfaction; and nobody can tell, after such a journey, what they
will take home with them!
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