Introduction
We are all inclined to accept conventional forms or coulours as the only correct ones. But if we try to foget all we have heard about green grass, and blue skies, and look at the world as if we had just arrived from another planet on a voyage of discovery and were seeing it for the first time, we may find that things are apt to have the most surprising colors.
It is not easy to get rid of the preconceived ideas, but the arttist who succeed best in doing so often produce the most exciting works. It is they who teach us to see in nature new beauties of whose existence we have never dreamt. If we follow them and learn from them, even a glance out of our own window may become a thrilling adventure.
One never finishes learning about art. There are always new things to discover. Nothing is more important than just this, that to enjoy these works we must have a fresh mind, one which is ready to catch every hint and to respond to every hidden harmony: a mind, most of all, not cluttered up with long high- sounding words and ready made phrases. It is infinitely better not to know anything about art than to have the kind of half knowledge which makes for snobbishness...They are always haunted by the fear that hey might be considered uneducated if they confessed to liking a work which seems to obviously pleasant or moving.
It is not easy to get rid of the preconceived ideas, but the arttist who succeed best in doing so often produce the most exciting works. It is they who teach us to see in nature new beauties of whose existence we have never dreamt. If we follow them and learn from them, even a glance out of our own window may become a thrilling adventure.
One never finishes learning about art. There are always new things to discover. Nothing is more important than just this, that to enjoy these works we must have a fresh mind, one which is ready to catch every hint and to respond to every hidden harmony: a mind, most of all, not cluttered up with long high- sounding words and ready made phrases. It is infinitely better not to know anything about art than to have the kind of half knowledge which makes for snobbishness...They are always haunted by the fear that hey might be considered uneducated if they confessed to liking a work which seems to obviously pleasant or moving.
Strange Beginnings
Chapter 1
Prehistoric and primitive peoples; Ancient America.
Many of the artists works are meant to play a part in these stange rituals, and what matters then is not whether the sculpture or painting is beautiful by our standards, but whether it works, that is to say, whether it can perform the required magic.
Yet even with the prescribed rites and customs of our lives, there remains a certain element of choice and scope for taste and skill. Its principal features are laid down by custom (christmas trees)
But this proof of tribal skill should warn us against the belief that their work looks odd because they cannot do any better. It is not their standard of craftmanship which is different from ours, but their ideas.
We see how far the idea of "building up" a face out of given forms can lead away from our ideas of lifelike sculpture.
We may begin to understand how image-making in these early civilizations was not only connected with magic and religion but was also the first form of writing.
Prehistoric and primitive peoples; Ancient America.
Many of the artists works are meant to play a part in these stange rituals, and what matters then is not whether the sculpture or painting is beautiful by our standards, but whether it works, that is to say, whether it can perform the required magic.
Yet even with the prescribed rites and customs of our lives, there remains a certain element of choice and scope for taste and skill. Its principal features are laid down by custom (christmas trees)
But this proof of tribal skill should warn us against the belief that their work looks odd because they cannot do any better. It is not their standard of craftmanship which is different from ours, but their ideas.
We see how far the idea of "building up" a face out of given forms can lead away from our ideas of lifelike sculpture.
We may begin to understand how image-making in these early civilizations was not only connected with magic and religion but was also the first form of writing.
The Art of Eternity
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete
Egyptians believes that the body must be preserved if the soul is to live on in the beyond.
The sculptor is concerned only with essentials. The observation of nature, and the regularity of the whole, are so evenly balanced that they impress us as being lifelike and yet remote and enduring.
The word adorned it is true, may hardly fit an art which was meant to be seen by no one but the dead man's soul.
They are not meant to be enjoyed but to keep alive.
Egyptian painters had a very different way from ours of representing real life. Perhaps this is connected with the different purpose their painting had to serve. What mattered most was not prettiness but completeness.They drew from memory.
Everything had to be represented from its most characteristic angle.
It is not only his knowledge of forms and shapes that the artist embodies in his picture, but also his knoweldge of their significance.
For the Egyptian sense of order in every detail is so strong that any little variation seems to upset it entirely.
It was not only his great knowledge that guided the artist, but his eye for pattern.
He obeyed one law: "style". The rules which govern all Egyptian art give every individual work the effect of poise and austere harmony.
The main reason is probably that these people did not share the religious belief of the Egyptians that the human body and its likeness must be preserved if the soul is to continue.
Sumerians had a taste for symmetry and precision. They had to ensure that the image helped to keep the mighty alive.
Egyptians believes that the body must be preserved if the soul is to live on in the beyond.
The sculptor is concerned only with essentials. The observation of nature, and the regularity of the whole, are so evenly balanced that they impress us as being lifelike and yet remote and enduring.
The word adorned it is true, may hardly fit an art which was meant to be seen by no one but the dead man's soul.
They are not meant to be enjoyed but to keep alive.
Egyptian painters had a very different way from ours of representing real life. Perhaps this is connected with the different purpose their painting had to serve. What mattered most was not prettiness but completeness.They drew from memory.
Everything had to be represented from its most characteristic angle.
It is not only his knowledge of forms and shapes that the artist embodies in his picture, but also his knoweldge of their significance.
For the Egyptian sense of order in every detail is so strong that any little variation seems to upset it entirely.
It was not only his great knowledge that guided the artist, but his eye for pattern.
He obeyed one law: "style". The rules which govern all Egyptian art give every individual work the effect of poise and austere harmony.
The main reason is probably that these people did not share the religious belief of the Egyptians that the human body and its likeness must be preserved if the soul is to continue.
Sumerians had a taste for symmetry and precision. They had to ensure that the image helped to keep the mighty alive.
The Great Awakening
Greece, seventh to fifth century BC.
Spartans were known for their austerity. The astonishing thing in these temples, which so clearly imitate wooden structures, is the simplicity and harmony of the whole.
It almost seems as if they were living being who carried their load with ease.
First temples of stones were built in greece in the 6th century bc.
before that time artist strived for a particular kind of perfection, they had learned the art of their forefathers and to adhere striclty to the sacred rules they had learned.
He had decided to have a look for himself instead of following the old prescription.
how to represnt a particular body.
The sculptors in their workshops tried out new ideas and new ways of representing the human figure, and each innovation was eagerly taken up by others who added their own discoveries.
People in the Greek cities began to quesetion the old traditions and legend about the gods, and inquired without prejudice into the nature of things.
In the time of the Pheidas, had given the people of Greece a new conception of the divine.
He entreated Atlas, who bore the heavens on his shoulders, to do it for him and Atlas agreed on condition that Hercules would carry his burden in the meantime.
Straightforwards attitude.
It is the balance between an adherence to rules and a freedom within the rules which has made Greek art so much admired in later centuries. Aristst have returned to Greek art for guidance and for inspiration.
image of the human being., of wonderful simplicity and beauty.
Myron conquered movement, just as the painters of his time conquered space.
The artist has retained something of the wisdom of arrangement which Greek art derived from the Egyptians and from the training in geometrical patterns which had preceded the Great Awakening, It is this sureness of hand which makes every detail of the Parthenon fireze so lucid and right.
Every Greek work from that great period shows this wisdom and skill in the distribution of figures, but what the Greeks of the time valued even more was something else: the new- found freedom to represent the human body in any position or movement could be used to reflect the inner life of the figures represented.
They should represent workings of the soul, by accurately observing the way "feeling affect the body in action"
Greek artist had indeed mastered the means of conveying something of the unspoken feelings set up between people.
The Greek relief has shed all these awkward limitations, but it has retained the lucidity and beauty of the arrangement, which is no longer geomtrical and angular but free and relaxed.
Spartans were known for their austerity. The astonishing thing in these temples, which so clearly imitate wooden structures, is the simplicity and harmony of the whole.
It almost seems as if they were living being who carried their load with ease.
First temples of stones were built in greece in the 6th century bc.
before that time artist strived for a particular kind of perfection, they had learned the art of their forefathers and to adhere striclty to the sacred rules they had learned.
He had decided to have a look for himself instead of following the old prescription.
how to represnt a particular body.
The sculptors in their workshops tried out new ideas and new ways of representing the human figure, and each innovation was eagerly taken up by others who added their own discoveries.
People in the Greek cities began to quesetion the old traditions and legend about the gods, and inquired without prejudice into the nature of things.
In the time of the Pheidas, had given the people of Greece a new conception of the divine.
He entreated Atlas, who bore the heavens on his shoulders, to do it for him and Atlas agreed on condition that Hercules would carry his burden in the meantime.
Straightforwards attitude.
It is the balance between an adherence to rules and a freedom within the rules which has made Greek art so much admired in later centuries. Aristst have returned to Greek art for guidance and for inspiration.
image of the human being., of wonderful simplicity and beauty.
Myron conquered movement, just as the painters of his time conquered space.
The artist has retained something of the wisdom of arrangement which Greek art derived from the Egyptians and from the training in geometrical patterns which had preceded the Great Awakening, It is this sureness of hand which makes every detail of the Parthenon fireze so lucid and right.
Every Greek work from that great period shows this wisdom and skill in the distribution of figures, but what the Greeks of the time valued even more was something else: the new- found freedom to represent the human body in any position or movement could be used to reflect the inner life of the figures represented.
They should represent workings of the soul, by accurately observing the way "feeling affect the body in action"
Greek artist had indeed mastered the means of conveying something of the unspoken feelings set up between people.
The Greek relief has shed all these awkward limitations, but it has retained the lucidity and beauty of the arrangement, which is no longer geomtrical and angular but free and relaxed.
The Realm of Beauty
Greece and the Greek World,
fourth century BC to first century AD
Artist had become fully concious of their power and mastery and so had the public.
There is no doubt that the comparison and competition between these schools stimulated the artist to ever greater efforts, and helped to create that variety which we admire in the Greks.
The whole impression of these buildings with their finely wrought details is one of infinite grace and ease.
its sculptures and ornaments show the change of taste towards delicacy and refinement which is also reflected in the Ionic Style.
This very ease and virtuosity made him perhaps a little self-conscious.
The greeks criticized their form and conception, and praised their beauty as well as poems, and plays, to statues and paintings.
Greeks achieved this beauty through knowledge.
Portraits: method ever lead to the representation of ral individual human beings. until 4th century
It was the body and its movements which were used by these masters to express what Socrates had called "the workings of the soul", because they sensed that they play of features would distort and destroy the simple regularity of the head.
They learned how to seize the workings of the individual soul, and to make portraits in our sense of the word.
What remains from later periods gives us an impression of great magnificence and splendour.
Artist became interested in the problems of their craft for its own sake, and the problem of how to represent such a dramatic contest with all its movement, its expression and its tension. was just the type of task which would test an artist's skill.
Painters too were interested in the special problems of their craft rather than in their art serving a religious purpose.
The fact is that even Hellenistic artist did not know what we call the laws of perspective.
Artists drew distant things small, and near or important things large, but the law of refular diminuition of objects as they become more distant, the fixed framework in which we can represent a view, was not adopted by classical antiquity.
Knowledge of the characteristic outline of individual objects counts for as much as the actual impression received through the eye.
The Greeks went out on a voyage of discovery to add more and more features from observation to the traditional images of the world.
They always bear the stamp of the intellect which made them.
fourth century BC to first century AD
Artist had become fully concious of their power and mastery and so had the public.
There is no doubt that the comparison and competition between these schools stimulated the artist to ever greater efforts, and helped to create that variety which we admire in the Greks.
The whole impression of these buildings with their finely wrought details is one of infinite grace and ease.
its sculptures and ornaments show the change of taste towards delicacy and refinement which is also reflected in the Ionic Style.
This very ease and virtuosity made him perhaps a little self-conscious.
The greeks criticized their form and conception, and praised their beauty as well as poems, and plays, to statues and paintings.
Greeks achieved this beauty through knowledge.
Portraits: method ever lead to the representation of ral individual human beings. until 4th century
It was the body and its movements which were used by these masters to express what Socrates had called "the workings of the soul", because they sensed that they play of features would distort and destroy the simple regularity of the head.
They learned how to seize the workings of the individual soul, and to make portraits in our sense of the word.
What remains from later periods gives us an impression of great magnificence and splendour.
Artist became interested in the problems of their craft for its own sake, and the problem of how to represent such a dramatic contest with all its movement, its expression and its tension. was just the type of task which would test an artist's skill.
Painters too were interested in the special problems of their craft rather than in their art serving a religious purpose.
The fact is that even Hellenistic artist did not know what we call the laws of perspective.
Artists drew distant things small, and near or important things large, but the law of refular diminuition of objects as they become more distant, the fixed framework in which we can represent a view, was not adopted by classical antiquity.
Knowledge of the characteristic outline of individual objects counts for as much as the actual impression received through the eye.
The Greeks went out on a voyage of discovery to add more and more features from observation to the traditional images of the world.
They always bear the stamp of the intellect which made them.
World Conquerors
Romans, Buddhists, Jews and Christians.
first to fourth century AD
Pompeii, Roman town, contained many reflections of Hellenistic art.
Art remained unchanged while the Romans conquered the world and founded thier own empire on the ruins of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Art did change. when Rome became mistress of the world. They had to adapr their methods accordingly.
These ruins which made it impossible for later centuries to forget "the grandeur that was Rome"
the most important feature in Roman architecture, however, is the use of arches.
The Romans were a matter of fact people, and cared less for fancy goods.
Jewish law actually forbade the making of images for fear of idolatry.
Each tribe of Israel received its share of the miraculous water the artist has shown twelve rivulets, each flowing to a small figure standing before a tent, he used simple methods.
His main intention was to remind the beholder of the occasions when God manifested hIS POWER.
To indicate that Christ is enthroned above the heavens the sculptor has made His feet rest on the canopy of the firmament, held aloft by the ancient god of the sky.
Everything which was not strictly relevant was better left out. Once more ideas of clarity and simplicity began to outweight ideals of faithful imitation.
Their hand raised in prayer, seem to show that mankind had begun to concern irself with other things besides earthly beauty.
These figures seems to have a life on its own, and a very intense expression which is due to the firm marking of the features and the care bestowed on such traits as the part around the eyes and the furrows of the brow. They portray the people who witnessed, and finally accepted, the rise of Christianity, which meant the end of the ancient world.
first to fourth century AD
Pompeii, Roman town, contained many reflections of Hellenistic art.
Art remained unchanged while the Romans conquered the world and founded thier own empire on the ruins of the Hellenistic kingdoms. Art did change. when Rome became mistress of the world. They had to adapr their methods accordingly.
These ruins which made it impossible for later centuries to forget "the grandeur that was Rome"
the most important feature in Roman architecture, however, is the use of arches.
The Romans were a matter of fact people, and cared less for fancy goods.
Jewish law actually forbade the making of images for fear of idolatry.
Each tribe of Israel received its share of the miraculous water the artist has shown twelve rivulets, each flowing to a small figure standing before a tent, he used simple methods.
His main intention was to remind the beholder of the occasions when God manifested hIS POWER.
To indicate that Christ is enthroned above the heavens the sculptor has made His feet rest on the canopy of the firmament, held aloft by the ancient god of the sky.
Everything which was not strictly relevant was better left out. Once more ideas of clarity and simplicity began to outweight ideals of faithful imitation.
Their hand raised in prayer, seem to show that mankind had begun to concern irself with other things besides earthly beauty.
These figures seems to have a life on its own, and a very intense expression which is due to the firm marking of the features and the care bestowed on such traits as the part around the eyes and the furrows of the brow. They portray the people who witnessed, and finally accepted, the rise of Christianity, which meant the end of the ancient world.
A parting of Ways
Rome and Byzantium, fifth to thirteen century.
The places of worship could not be modelled on the ancient temples, for their function was entirely differnet.
basilicas ,royal halls.
To place a figure of God, or of one of His saints, on the altar seemed altogether out of the question. For how the poor pagans who had just been converted to the new faith grasp the difference between their old beliefs and the new message if they saw such statues in churches?
Painting can do for the illiterrate what writing does for those who can read"
To him it was not only a strange miracle which had happened a few hundred years before in Palestine. It was the symbol and token of Christ's abiding power which was embodied in the Church.
The question of the poper purpose of art in churches proved of immense importance for the whole history of Europe. Refused to accept the lead of the Latin Pope.
To them images were not just useful, they were holy.
Byzantine Church helped to preserve the ideas and achievement of Greek art in the tupes used for drapery, faces, or gestures.
The faithful assembled in the cathedral would find themselves face to face with the majestic figure of Christ, represented as the Ruler of the Universe, His right hand raised in blessing. below is the Holy Virgin, entrhoned like and Empress, flanked by two arcahngels and the solemn row of saints.
Images such as these, looking down on us from the golden, glimmering walls, seemed to be such perfect symbols of the Holy Truth that there appeared to be no need ever to depart from them.
The places of worship could not be modelled on the ancient temples, for their function was entirely differnet.
basilicas ,royal halls.
To place a figure of God, or of one of His saints, on the altar seemed altogether out of the question. For how the poor pagans who had just been converted to the new faith grasp the difference between their old beliefs and the new message if they saw such statues in churches?
Painting can do for the illiterrate what writing does for those who can read"
To him it was not only a strange miracle which had happened a few hundred years before in Palestine. It was the symbol and token of Christ's abiding power which was embodied in the Church.
The question of the poper purpose of art in churches proved of immense importance for the whole history of Europe. Refused to accept the lead of the Latin Pope.
To them images were not just useful, they were holy.
Byzantine Church helped to preserve the ideas and achievement of Greek art in the tupes used for drapery, faces, or gestures.
The faithful assembled in the cathedral would find themselves face to face with the majestic figure of Christ, represented as the Ruler of the Universe, His right hand raised in blessing. below is the Holy Virgin, entrhoned like and Empress, flanked by two arcahngels and the solemn row of saints.
Images such as these, looking down on us from the golden, glimmering walls, seemed to be such perfect symbols of the Holy Truth that there appeared to be no need ever to depart from them.