Ingres’ writing is essentially about the timelessness of beauty. He says that “Everything has been done, everything has been discovered.” Well my friend I have bad news about the past 200 or so years… Could Ingres have imagined that a black man and white woman would be fighting to be leader of the world’s most powerful country- and that they would both have thousands if not millions of supporters? And what about Dippin’ Dots©?- no way he could wrap his 19th century brain around those.
As he continues, his ideas begin to make more sense to me, however: “Does nature change, do the light and air change, have the passions of the human heart changed since the time of Homer?” and “Shall we, by means of patience or of better eyeglasses, perceive in nature any new outlines, any new color, a new kind of modeling?” Perceptions of beauty to a degree may change- to the Victorians a chubby and pasty woman was beautiful, but in the early 90s supermodel Kate Moss was considered the pinnacle of female beauty. But when will the shades of crimson, peach and gold of the sun setting in a western sky dotted with cirrus clouds ever cease to be beautiful to behold? Short of the apocalypse, I would think never.
*Sa vie, ses travaux, sa doctrine, a’epres notes; manuscript et les letters du maitre, Paris: Henri Pion, 1870.
** Image source: Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment