Art and the Misbegotten
A Purple Passage (A socio-religious, psycho-philosophical, art-historical expose!)
In the beginning was the word, and the word was Art, and Art seeing that God was good didst venerate him. And Art begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and did call his name Duccio. All the days that Duccio lived were numbered seventy years. And he begat many sons, the eldest of whom was Giotto. And all the days that Giotto lived were seventy-one years and he did also bring forth issue and Art did smile upon his sons, Piero Della Francesca and Boticelli, whom in their turns did engender Michelangelo and Leonardo, and many less well-endowed progeny. And it came to pass that Art, now seeing the beauty of mankind, forsook its veneration of the omnipotent God and didst venerate Humanity.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Thus, God, recognising his redundancy, didst fuck off. But Humanity finding favour in the eyes of Art did prosper.
So Art, venerating man, begot and engendered many sons (and the very occasional daughter) each of whom did venerate man in their turn. Raphael didst know Michelangelo and he didst conceive and bore a school and they spoke of ‘Harmony’ and they venerated the ‘Ideal’ and thusly they engendered ‘Mannerism’. And Art, seeing that this was good, smiled upon Raphael, who begat a son called Titian. Likewise to him was borne a brother, and his name was Correggio. And the both did play with light.
Art saw fit to cause a division and to set an enmity between the schools of Parmigiano and Holbein. Sensing that competition was lucrative, Art didst encourage it. And so were engendered El Greco and Breughel, and both prospered. Art encouraged their difference due to the diversity of their produce. But, eventually, Art growing tired of excess did give preference, for a time, to the Northern School, which bore much fruit. Rubens didst conceive and brought forth Van Dyke who in turn did engender Frans Hals, the father of Rembrandt. But Rembrandt did venerate the formerly omnipotent (and previously made redundant) God of his ancestors and behold the wrath of Art fell upon him and he did perish in penury. Rembrandt begat a son, however, and called his name Vermeer.
Vermeer was a true son of Art and put no God before Art, and he did flourish.
However, Art, tiring of Northern Severity (and who could blame it?), did turn again to the South, where it engendered Bernini and Tiepelo. The South too did forsake its humanistic God and did engender the deity of ‘Decoration’. In this spirit Art prospered and engendered the brothers Watteau, Fragonard and Boucher, in the Gallic lands, and they didst attempt to re-create Eden by disporting themselves freely in elysian bowers. The brothers proved to be momentarily fertile and together venerated sensuality. Jacques Louis David issued forth having been begotten as an unforeseen by-product of Boucher’s decadence. David deciding that man could be excellent did idolise this possibility whilst rejecting man’s squalid ‘reality’. David was also fertile and did generate the ‘Hero’, and in doing so encouraged Art to venerate War. But Art, seeing that War was lucrative didst raise David to a position of great power….twice.
In the Hispanic Peninsula art didst visit Velasquez, as if in a shower of gold, and he did find himself with child. Goya issued forth from this lineage. But Goya, seeing that War was not good, did not believe in God, he did not believe in man, he did not believe in Art, and thus Art in a hissy fit didst frown upon Goya and didst smite him with impotence, saying : “Thou shall forever be onto me as a witness to the people, and they shall point, crying “Behold a Godless man” and your issue shall be as a manifestation of the impotence of a man without faith, and generations shall misunderstand and curse thee saying “ behold the unhappy composer of pictures” and many shall waste their time telling anecdotes about the deafness that I shall visit upon you, and thy name shall be numbered amongst the damned. Outside the schools and movements of Art shall thou be forever exiled, and the lot of the ‘Bachelor’ shall fall to thee”.
And Goya, going out alone, was smitten with a blight of compassion for all that he did see for at that time the peoples of his land were suffering a great travail visited upon them by the ‘Hero’ generated by David. Goya withdrew in solitude and didst spread his seed on the plaster walls of his house Thus doing, Goya exorcised his demons.
Art and the Misbegotten
A Purple Passage (A socio-religious, psycho-philosophical, art-historical expose!)
In the beginning was the word, and the word was Art, and Art seeing that God was good didst venerate him. And Art begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and did call his name Duccio. All the days that Duccio lived were numbered seventy years. And he begat many sons, the eldest of whom was Giotto. And all the days that Giotto lived were seventy-one years and he did also bring forth issue and Art did smile upon his sons, Piero Della Francesca and Boticelli, whom in their turns did engender Michelangelo and Leonardo, and many less well-endowed progeny. And it came to pass that Art, now seeing the beauty of mankind, forsook its veneration of the omnipotent God and didst venerate Humanity.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Thus, God, recognising his redundancy, didst fuck off. But Humanity finding favour in the eyes of Art did prosper.
So Art, venerating man, begot and engendered many sons (and the very occasional daughter) each of whom did venerate man in their turn. Raphael didst know Michelangelo and he didst conceive and bore a school and they spoke of ‘Harmony’ and they venerated the ‘Ideal’ and thusly they engendered ‘Mannerism’. And Art, seeing that this was good, smiled upon Raphael, who begat a son called Titian. Likewise to him was borne a brother, and his name was Correggio. And the both did play with light.
Art saw fit to cause a division and to set an enmity between the schools of Parmigiano and Holbein. Sensing that competition was lucrative, Art didst encourage it. And so were engendered El Greco and Breughel, and both prospered. Art encouraged their difference due to the diversity of their produce. But, eventually, Art growing tired of excess did give preference, for a time, to the Northern School, which bore much fruit. Rubens didst conceive and brought forth Van Dyke who in turn did engender Frans Hals, the father of Rembrandt. But Rembrandt did venerate the formerly omnipotent (and previously made redundant) God of his ancestors and behold the wrath of Art fell upon him and he did perish in penury. Rembrandt begat a son, however, and called his name Vermeer.
Vermeer was a true son of Art and put no God before Art, and he did flourish.
However, Art, tiring of Northern Severity (and who could blame it?), did turn again to the South, where it engendered Bernini and Tiepelo. The South too did forsake its humanistic God and did engender the deity of ‘Decoration’. In this spirit Art prospered and engendered the brothers Watteau, Fragonard and Boucher, in the Gallic lands, and they didst attempt to re-create Eden by disporting themselves freely in elysian bowers. The brothers proved to be momentarily fertile and together venerated sensuality. Jacques Louis David issued forth having been begotten as an unforeseen by-product of Boucher’s decadence. David deciding that man could be excellent did idolise this possibility whilst rejecting man’s squalid ‘reality’. David was also fertile and did generate the ‘Hero’, and in doing so encouraged Art to venerate War. But Art, seeing that War was lucrative didst raise David to a position of great power….twice.
In the Hispanic Peninsula art didst visit Velasquez, as if in a shower of gold, and he did find himself with child. Goya issued forth from this lineage. But Goya, seeing that War was not good, did not believe in God, he did not believe in man, he did not believe in Art, and thus Art in a hissy fit didst frown upon Goya and didst smite him with impotence, saying : “Thou shall forever be onto me as a witness to the people, and they shall point, crying “Behold a Godless man” and your issue shall be as a manifestation of the impotence of a man without faith, and generations shall misunderstand and curse thee saying “ behold the unhappy composer of pictures” and many shall waste their time telling anecdotes about the deafness that I shall visit upon you, and thy name shall be numbered amongst the damned. Outside the schools and movements of Art shall thou be forever exiled, and the lot of the ‘Bachelor’ shall fall to thee”.
And Goya, going out alone, was smitten with a blight of compassion for all that he did see for at that time the peoples of his land were suffering a great travail visited upon them by the ‘Hero’ generated by David. Goya withdrew in solitude and didst spread his seed on the plaster walls of his house Thus doing, Goya exorcised his demons.