[Republicanprofessor]

Here we go again. Let me know how you react to these ideas and artworks and which other works you like from these periods.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art Appreciation/Education ping.

Let me know if you want on or off this list.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping list, in case some of you are not on the other ping list.

Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off this art ping list.

I'm always interested in the dialogue that emerges from these threads as much as from my original post, so let's have at it.

[Eepsy]

What the last two images you show lack, what is present in the more abstract Christian images, is a demonstration of skill. The modern abstractions, regardless of how much skill someone with an art degree might read into them, or even how much skill they actually took to create, they do not give that immediate sense of rarity, of preciousness that the obviously skilled art shown prior evokes even to the untrained eye.

The modern art world today strikes me, a layman, as very schizophrenic. Abstract art tries to communicate something meaningful to me, but fails, because it lacks skill. Realistic art can be quite technically skillful, but is too often hollow, from lack of meaning and robotic composition.

The early Christian and the Greco-Roman Realism pictured above demonstrate both skill and a purity of idea and intent that I find sadly lacking in most art today.

[Sloth]

What strikes me about the Egyptian sculpture is not how unrealistic they are compared to later Greek ones, but how much *more* realistic they are than the contemporary Egyptian graphic art. Sculpture like that would seem to require a good understanding of 3-dimensional space, yet their murals and such insist on using this unrealistic lateral POV with no perspective (such as in the bas relief of Akhenaton you posted). Do you have any thoughts on the relationship between realistic depth in sculpture vs. 2-dimensional representations, and why the Egyptians eschewed perspective?

P.S., the last two 'Christian abstract' pieces look like worthless tripe.

[LexBaird]

The Book of Kells page that you show isn't really an abstract. Rather, it is the Chi Ro page, containing the greek letters. It is the beginning of the Christmas story from St. Matthew. The Lindisfarne Gospels also has one.

Also, the St. John Carpet cross page is one of four, IIRC, which are dividing pages preceding the Gospels.

The Irish Gospels did not shy away from depictions of humans, with depictions of the Saints with their symbols, like St. Luke and a winged bull.

[LexBaird]

Three of them are very Christian in orientation but are also very abstract. Does that make them less effective? Abstraction is thus not blasphemous; and in this case physical realism would be sinful.

I don't think that the manuscript illuminations are so much abstractions as they are codes. They are packed with referential symbolism. Many of the elements are traditional shorthand for Saintly aspects or story points. They were more in the line of illustrations of concepts.

Granted, the lines and perspectives are much flattened, but not appreciatively more so than the mosaics of Pompeii or Hellenistic vase decorations, for example. As Sam Cree pointed out, it is easier to see realistic proportion and perspective in sculpture, and here you are comparing apples to oranges.

[TradicalRC]

Now, I’m curious as to how Freepers respond to these abstract images. Three of them are very Christian in orientation but are also very abstract. Does that make them less effective?

I would point out that the difference between the early Christian abstractions and the contemorary ones is the use of content: the early Christian art evokes concepts of spirituality, virtue and Heaven. The modern abstractions by contrast seem to emphasize pure form and act on the perceptual rather than the conceptual level.

I will continue with your lecture series as the days and weeks pass, thank you.

[SunkenCiv]

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[eleni121]

Greek ping!