Saturday 18 February 2006

Bernini: Pluto & Persephone



Bernini: 'Pluto & Persephone,' 1622. (By request)

You don't need to be an art critic to see what's going on here. Bernini's sculpture was raw, powerful, muscular and erotic -- and executed with the hand of a master. Imagine seeing this for the first time without benefit of all the visual ephemera of today's eyes, and yet fully acquainted with the expressive potential of the human form.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bloody amazing!
I was told by a young guy fresh out of school recently, topped up to the max with "self esteem" by his teachers that he was part of the "smartest, most talented generation ever to walk the earth".
I'd like to rub his nose in this.
Keith

Julian Pistorius said...

"They confound the radiance of the stars of heaven with the radiations which a duck's foot leaves in the mud."
-- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Keith, I thought you might appreciate these words. It makes me think of the muck which passes as music these days... and frankly, most of the excrement deemed art, in our time.

Cheers
Julian

Anonymous said...

The page is really interesting. This is the first time I have come in for a look. Well done! PC has a predilection for marble it seems.
My father studied in Vienna after the war. One day his tutor showed him a small alcove, badly lit, and asked him what he saw in there. It was a pillow. He was asked to describe it and how he felt about it. So,he describes this lovely fluffy pillow he can see with his own eyes.After my father did this, he was introduced to the pillow. It was made of stone.The moral is, never trust your senses, and never believe that the self-proclaimed 'artists'of the present will ever come close to what the artesans in the past achieved. Look at the marble. Who could do something like this now?

lindsay morris said...

Bumper sticker at Pinewoods camp:
"You're not getting older. The music DOES suck."