There was an article in New Yorker recently about greek statues, suggesting they were originally painted bright colors. Minuscule grains of pigment were scrapped from tiny pits in the marble, and analyzed high-tech. It’s become particularly important these days, some people extra sensitive because the marble with the paint worn away is white, white, and just another example, they go on. Seems more likely that for the victorians, monochrome was the most they could tolerate, such sexually obsessed people they could be aroused by the loosening of a shoe, and those statues were way too real already.
Of all ancient artists, it was the greeks who most perfected ‘realism,’ the faithful depiction of muscle, flesh, and form, and sometimes they even went beyond that. Consider the Parthenon, what’s left of it, where all the straight lines are actually imperceptible curves. In a hundred and fifty feet of base there’s a deviancy of about an inch and a quarter, and the columns exhibit only the slightest bulge, so why is that? Seems the greeks were compensating for the distortion inherent in the 35mm lens at the front of our eye, something we never notice because the brain makes adjustments.
Maybe the Parthenon was all painted, figures included, but it’s a range of possibility too big to think about. It’s obvious already they were way smarter than us, we’ll only be leaving junk behind, and how they went about using color in and on their temples is something we’ll never know by buzzing atoms. Let’s just consider it as white, the way we found it. The Parthenon from a distance, atop the acropolis, must have given the impression of platonic perfection, of being impossibly ‘real,’ the entire edifice tuned to correct for the imperfection in our sense of vision. It’s an uncanny level of genius our own civic designers will never approach, and an open and enduring questioning of reality that giant atom smashers will never address.
Did they make great art because they suddenly became smart, or did making and living with art eventually make them all smarter -- it’s difficult to say. With no more technology than prophetic trances, they pretty much maxed-out human potential in a general population, in part sustained by the labor of others, and no one has ever come close since. Some might claim they received help from ancient aliens, but isn’t it nicer to suppose they did it by themselves, by singing, and acting, and making art?
Here the center cannot hold, and everything flies apart, who disputes? Chasing dollars cheapens art as it cheapens life, but as individuals we’re free as we dare to be in our own little patch, since unless we’re famous, no one cares. Greek art belongs to another age, but using art the way they seemed to might come in handy these days, as an influence on how we see and think, and on how we live our lives. It’s just a small part of our reality, really, the art on our wall, but it's something we can control ourselves. Pick the art that leads the direction you want to go, and hang it where you’ll see it everyday. You’ll probably never notice how the world changes.
Of all ancient artists, it was the greeks who most perfected ‘realism,’ the faithful depiction of muscle, flesh, and form, and sometimes they even went beyond that. Consider the Parthenon, what’s left of it, where all the straight lines are actually imperceptible curves. In a hundred and fifty feet of base there’s a deviancy of about an inch and a quarter, and the columns exhibit only the slightest bulge, so why is that? Seems the greeks were compensating for the distortion inherent in the 35mm lens at the front of our eye, something we never notice because the brain makes adjustments.
Maybe the Parthenon was all painted, figures included, but it’s a range of possibility too big to think about. It’s obvious already they were way smarter than us, we’ll only be leaving junk behind, and how they went about using color in and on their temples is something we’ll never know by buzzing atoms. Let’s just consider it as white, the way we found it. The Parthenon from a distance, atop the acropolis, must have given the impression of platonic perfection, of being impossibly ‘real,’ the entire edifice tuned to correct for the imperfection in our sense of vision. It’s an uncanny level of genius our own civic designers will never approach, and an open and enduring questioning of reality that giant atom smashers will never address.
Did they make great art because they suddenly became smart, or did making and living with art eventually make them all smarter -- it’s difficult to say. With no more technology than prophetic trances, they pretty much maxed-out human potential in a general population, in part sustained by the labor of others, and no one has ever come close since. Some might claim they received help from ancient aliens, but isn’t it nicer to suppose they did it by themselves, by singing, and acting, and making art?
Here the center cannot hold, and everything flies apart, who disputes? Chasing dollars cheapens art as it cheapens life, but as individuals we’re free as we dare to be in our own little patch, since unless we’re famous, no one cares. Greek art belongs to another age, but using art the way they seemed to might come in handy these days, as an influence on how we see and think, and on how we live our lives. It’s just a small part of our reality, really, the art on our wall, but it's something we can control ourselves. Pick the art that leads the direction you want to go, and hang it where you’ll see it everyday. You’ll probably never notice how the world changes.
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