Civilisation
Apollo of the Belvedere
The Great Temple
Jas.1:3
"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience."
"What
is civilisation ? I don't know. I can't define it in abstract terms -
yet. But I think I can recognise it when I see it ; and I am looking at
it now. Ruskin said : 'Great nations write their autobiographies in
three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and
the book of their art. Not one of these books.can be understood unless
we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the
last.' On the whole I think this is true. Writers and politicians may
come out with all sorts of edifying sentiments, but they are what is
known as declarations of intent. If I had to say which was telling the
truth about society, a speech by a Minister of Housing or the actual
buildings put up in his time, I should believe the buildings.
But
this doesn't mean that the history of civilisation is the history of
art far from it. Great works of art can be produced in barbarous
societies - in fact the very narrowness of primitive society gives their
ornamental art a peculiar concentration and vitality. At some time in
the ninth century one could have looked down the Seine and seen the prow
of a Viking ship coming up the river. Looked at today in the British
Museum it is a powerful work of art ; but to the mother of a farnily
trying to settle down in her little hut, it would have seemed less
agreeable --as menacing to her civilisation as the periscope of a
nuclear submarine.
An even more extreme example comes to my mind, an African mask that belonged to Roger Fry. I remember when he bought it and hanged it up, and we agreed that it had all the qualities of a great work of art. I fancy that most people, nowadays, would find it more moving than the HEAD of the Apollo of the Belvedere. Yet for four hundred years after it was discovered the Apollo was the most admired piece of sculpture in the world."~~~Kenneth Clark: CIVILISATION
An even more extreme example comes to my mind, an African mask that belonged to Roger Fry. I remember when he bought it and hanged it up, and we agreed that it had all the qualities of a great work of art. I fancy that most people, nowadays, would find it more moving than the HEAD of the Apollo of the Belvedere. Yet for four hundred years after it was discovered the Apollo was the most admired piece of sculpture in the world."~~~Kenneth Clark: CIVILISATION
Chess: "Civilisation" "Apollo of the Belvedere" "The Great Temple"
Posts
