PAINTING - GREAT WORKS OF ART

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The subject we are going to talk about today is painting. We are going to talk about great painting. We are going to talk about examples of great painting. We put this up to set models for art. Models for what people can do in terms of the creation of great art.


THE DEGENERATION OF ART IN THE MODERN WORLD

In today's world, particularly since the end of the 19th century, there has been a degeneration of art as the power of soulless plutocrats has grown. When I went to school, we were told about how silly the landscape paintings were of Bierstadt and Church, these amazing masterpieces, and how wonderful the scribblings of the Impressionists were, and how scribblings like those of Picasso were so wonderful and so on and so forth. This is just one more example of failed thinking and a failed society. The landscape paintings of people like Church and Bierstadt were breathtaking masterpieces. And no, the Impressionists were not geniuses. With the Impressionists you have this growing degeneration of art which can be seen as a psychological illness where images of reality become fuzzy and confused in the mind of the person perceiving them.


 THE NEED TO RETURN TO REAL WORKS OF GREAT ART

That's one of the reasons why we have done this lecture, is to set examples of great art so people can be inspired and move forward. That's an extremely important point. Now, we put a couple of the paintings on the website to help people understand more about what we're discussing. We certainly don't suggest this is the ultimate scientific collection of the greatest paintings in the world. It is a collection of paintings that we think are great, but there are many others. And in fact, once you get beyond the degeneration that started in the 19th century, the late 19th century, the whole world of painting is amazing. There are amazing masterpieces from all over the world. So the good news is that the problem started with the Impressionists and other stuff at the end of the 19th century. Before that are amazing examples of great art.


NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS

The first picture will talk about is one of the most interesting pictures in the history of art, which is Napoleon crossing the Alps. There has been a lot of commentary about this picture and many people see it as a transition from Classicism in French painting to Romanticism. It's almost like a precursor of Nietzsche, of man turned into Superman, man turned into a living God. The history of the painting itself is very interesting because there are about three or four different versions of this. It is important to understand that painters such as Jacques-Louis David did not operate all by themselves. They had studios of people working for them. Unfortunately, the people who worked for him are probably never going to get the credit that they deserve, and David certainly deserves the credit for the creativity. But this is truly one of the great masterpieces of art and one of the great masterpieces of political art.


THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

The next painting is one of the most famous paintings in the entire world history of art, which is the School of Athens by Raphael. Now again, Raphael operated in a context of studios. He didn't paint everything all by himself anymore than Michelangelo painted the whole Sistine Chapel by himself. Obviously he did not. I can get into a whole lot of commentary about the School of Athens, because it's been covered by so many other people, but there is a basic philosophical point here, which may or may not be accurate. But the point is that Plato is pointing to the heavens and Aristotle is holding out his hand, pointing to the earth, showing, or trying to show, a dialectic between two of the greatest philosophers of Greece. Indeed, two of the greatest philosophers of all time.

But this is a true classic of art. A true masterpiece in any sane person's view of art.


THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH

Now the next painting is Bruegel's 'Triumph of Death,' and he certainly saw a lot of death in the religious wars in the low countries, which is where he got a lot of the ideas for this macabre work. But it's an inspiring work. It's a reminder that death can come from any direction and you should make the most of your life. If you look closely, it's a fascinating painting. There also different vignettes of death showing up in people's lives. This is probably the greatest painting in my view of the triumph of death in the entire history of art.


COTOPAXI

Now the next painting is part of a series of paintings that Church did on his trip to Latin America.

It's the great volcano Cotopaxi and there is a series of different versions of this truly breathtaking view of nature.

Church was one of the greatest painters of the 19th century and I strongly recommend everyone to go look at his works,

which you can find by looking up on the Internet.


ASIAN ART

The next painting is from the Ming Dynasty in China. It's a beautiful landscape painting.

And the landscape paintings of China are really amazing in that they have a kind of timeless atmosphere of stillness and beauty and majesty.

The next painting we believe is more recent, in China.

The painting after that is from Japan.

The famous painting of the wave.

Japan has a marvelous style of landscape painting and people should definitely look into that and study that.


SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ART

So now for art in the modern world. And we don't mean "modern art" in the classic sense, but we simply mean art that is contemporary.

The world of science fiction art is really brilliant. 'The Death Dealer' by Frank Frazetta is incredible. It's very inspiring.

The next painting is from Boris Pelayo and Julie Bell and they are also great science fiction painters and we strongly recommend their work.


ANCIENT ART

The final painting is from thousands and thousands of years ago.

It's the judgment of the dead. That is Osiris sitting on his throne. On the right there are timeless themes about judgment day and eternal realities.


CONCLUSION

There is much more on this subject that cannot be done justice in just a short essay like this,

but people have asked us to put up some examples of things we liked and to explain why we like them and that is what we have done.


LINKS

Visions for Artists

What is the purpose of great art?

The Power of Art

The role of art in the revelation of truth.

The Rebirth of the Spirit

The power of nature and the truth emerges via great art.

The Power To Create

How to be creative.

Truth and Lies about Art

The degeneration of art at the hands of the plutocrats.