Today I watched yet another YouTube of the Vatican. It is the best I can do on my budget, although the idea to be surrounded by 1 million tourists is not my idea of fun, but when you go to such a place, it is probably the best you can hope for. You see, The sculptors who are shown all over Rome and the Vatican are beyond belief. People like Giovanni Pisano, Tino di Camaino, Nicola Pisano, Arnolfo di Cambio, Giacomo della Porta, Giuseppe de Fabris and many many others are ‘doomed’ to be ageless. We will admire these statues even when there is no longer a United States (ca 2043) these statues are beyond belief and as far as I can tell this skill is now lost to us for whatever reason. We see ‘art deco’, ‘Art Moderne’, ‘Modernism & the International Style’, they all have their own settings and interests and there is no objection to that and I do not downplay them, but the old skills of sculpting is more and more lost. Michelangelo Buonarroti (some Italian dude) made between 1498–1499 (that is over 525 years ago) Pietà.
In 500 years nothing ever came close to that sculpture. Why Not? We now have ,more advanced sculpting tools, as such there is a decent chance that these skills could optionally be matched. If Michelangelo could make excellence with inferior tools, what is stopping them from making equal if not superior sculptures with the tools they have now. Is the thought so weird that there is a chance for equality in sculpting now?
And people now get older (I mean they get to achieve excellence longer), but none of that is seemingly happening. Why not? Are our lives so ‘turbo charged’ that we cannot longer can tell what is important? Are we so enslaved by corporations that we are no longer able to create art? Not the art that Jugendstil inspired, but what it replaced. And as time went by other art styles impressed us and impressed advertisement. But the art of Rembrandt van Rijn seemingly got lost? Why?
And these question got to me as I was looking at the sculptures in a local church in Rome (aka the Vatican). That Basilica has over 100 works of art, optionally imported from all over the old world, but there you have it. And I merely wonder why that skill got lost, I refuse to believe that it is all due to the new technology is out these. My grandfather told me that the young are too dependent on new technology. So, I called him a hypocrite and unplugged his life support.
I think it is time that we start giving value to the skills we once had and some will achieve that, it could be for many reasons. Love of sculpting, or perhaps the setting that some people like the idea that their work is still admired after 500 years. Even now as we celebrate the knowledge of the original Tomb Raider video game (released in 1996) was developed by the British studio Core Design. But who still remembers Toby Gard who created Lara Croft (not these clones named Angelina Jolie, Alicia Vikander or Sophie Turner), the original. We give rise to short term gratification and a whole setting of ageless wonder is seemingly lost to all of us. Why?
I wonder about all this and for now I look at the YouTube videos of the Vatican again (and wonder where you can get a good Pizza there), just a few random thought obsessing my Brains at present. Have a great day.
