The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons
J. M. W. Turner
1835
Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Posted on 02/19/2008 6:10:07 PM PST by Pyro7480
Nice try but the Ark of the Covenant is not about art...
You will turn on your car radio only to hear of some new school shooting, and you won’t even be sure if this is the eighth or ninth such massacre in as many months. You will, however, be able to form a mental image of the alleged perpetrators, for you have seen the look and the fashions on your own block and maybe even within your own families: the chopped, colored hair, the mutilations, the tattoos, the rings in the nostrils and eyebrows, the baggy clothes, the backward baseball caps, the surly looks and the sullen grunts. You’ve even heard their music — God have mercy on us; we’ve all heard their music.
Not about people eh??? If they don't fit your perception of a 'beautiful people', they will kill you and your family...Evil uglies...
Yes indeed. Nothing here for me to get in a tizzy about.
Yes, I agree. And I do intend to build a model some day! I enjoy modelbuildng. Now, one must remember that it was considered an abomination when it was first built. It was panned an ugly expression of the modern industrial aesthetic.
“Your post assumes facts not in evidence.”
Not all all.
Save for a few leftover fans of Adam Ant, no men are wearing powdered wigs, kickers with silk stocking, greatcoats and tricorne hats these days. Many do, however, live in homes decorated with bombay chests, wainscoting, and crown moulding right out of Monticello, if not Versailles. And how many ladies wear petticoats, hoop skirts, and bloomers anymore?
Now, I ask you, if you go to your local car dealer, just how many new vehicles, other than a few trucks, have floor boards or suicide doors? Pontoon fenders and exposed exhaust pipes?
Just how many MP3 players can you find at Fry’s that are as big as a small safe, with an arched cathedral style cabinet, large bakelite knobs, and vacuum tubes inside?
It is readily demonstrable that style and design in almost every other area of human technology has changed radically over the last two thousand years. Except for architecture and decor. The same styling cues and motifs have been recycled ad nauseam, and not always with the greatest of dexterity.
Yes. I picked the most striking example of truth at the expense of beauty, — there are many others.
Very insightful. It's true that men like to look at pretty women - especially if there's an "artistic" excuse to show the women partly or totally undressed - but it's not exactly a deep truth!
Do the Uglybuck, do the Uglybuck
If you don't know how to do it, man, you're outta luck
Fortunately, there's enough people left with class, discriminating tastes and strength of character....and who bring up their children to chose beauty over the seductive enticements of the ugly.
Leni
Long but certainly worth the time. I’ll bet for those hearing him deliver this talk it did not seem long at all. Quite inspiring. And I loved his lovely conceit of the family forming it own little church.
How long does a set of clothes last?
How long does a house last?
If I want a set of clothes that looks roughly the same as that of a few "generations" of clothes ago, I can get that. And it's not uncommon for folks to want that. It's certainly available.
If I want a car that looks roughly the same as that of a few "generations" of cars ago, I pretty much can't get that.
If I want a house that looks roughly the same as that of a few "generations" of houses ago, I can get that. You seem surprised, or annoyed, that folks want it. Why?
If I had wanted to, I could have bough a house that was actually built in the 1700s. The market for such is very tight ... yet you're shocked (or nauseated, or whatever) that folks want to build houses which echo the actual colonial houses.
The continued popularity of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Classical, Folk, etc. music should be a clue to you.
The continued popularity of Iconography, Medieval, Renaissance, 17th & 18th Century painting should be a clue to you.
"Modern" isn't necessarily good (in fact, much of it is very bad.) Old isn't necessarily bad, and much of the "bad" has been left in the famous "ash heap of history".
Would you actually want to live in a house like "Falling Waters" ... relocated to, let's say, a 1/2 acre lot in Fairfax County, VA?
(Full Disclosure: Even in its actual location, I think Falling Waters" is incredibly ugly.
Lovely conceit?
Have you actually read the entire piece? The ugliness that he speaks of is not just involving architecture and physical space. He uses these to lead us along an examination of spiritual ugliness. A few posters here are getting themselves caught up in peripheral issues.
As for your disdainful assessment of the work duties of priests, I have to wonder how many you know personally. A parish priest is very much involved in payroll, insurance, utility bills, personnel considerations, and all sorts of other everyday issues that many small business must contend with.
BTW, is “quototidien” the same as “quotidian”, or is it elitist of me to ask?
Unless of course, your own daughter brings one home, parks his pentagram-tattooed butt on your sofa, and informs you he's about to become your son-in-law.
Then all bets are off, right dude?
Can you say "hypocrite"?
Give it up. You have a problem with anything Catholic.
For the record, it needs to be stated that the author here is not referring to those whom the world despises as ugly, or not beautiful. Those whom circumstance, genetics or accident has left bereft of what the world considers "beauty". The old, the handicapped, the deformed. That is a completely different issue.
However, it is certain that there are those who deliberately set out to make themselves repulsive to others and this is a different kettle of fish entirely. It's an "in your face" statement, a flip of the middle finger to respectable, sober people. A statement that they reject Christian values of decency. Hence the clothes with the vulgar messages, the offensive language, the studs, the occult symbols etc, etc. It is this ugliness to which the author refers. Ugliness which is calculated, contrived, orchestrated and a gesture of contempt.
But you knew that anyway, right?
You were just looking for a weapon du jour to trash something Catholic.
Although I decry the rampant ugliness pressing in on us from all directions, I remain the happy optomist and enjoy beauty in all things Heaven-made and man-made.
".....TO GIVE UNTO THEM BEAUTY FOR ASHES, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah, lxi.3, Holy Bible).
Leni
His conceit — his extended metaphor — of the family surrounding itself with beauty as a bulwark against the ugliness. He painted the picture quite well.
I don't understand the point of that question, or the next two. We are talking about style, not utility. Many brand new houses are built with old forms and surfaces, while except for a few “retro” designs, planes, trains, and automobiles are not. Clothing, while also recycling old ideas, generally does not try to copy antiquated technology.
I am not annoyed in the least that people want houses that look old. I myself am thinking very strongly about buying a 1950s era car. But that is specifically BECAUSE it’s old. I for one am glad that new cars don’t look like bullet nosed Studebakers.
If someone chooses to live in an old adobe, or a colonial or Victorian home, I say bravo! I can appreciate the fine design proportions and decoration inherent in a well executed structure of any era (while also recognizing their shortcomings in terms of modern technology). What I don’t understand is the emotional repulsion of modern design for many people, who cannot articulate their feelings beyond generalities that the architecture is “cold” or “ugly”.
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