Famous Works of Art and How they Got that Way - John B Nici

    This title was one that caught my eye a few months back that I had to at least break into to see if the content is as fascinating as the title itself. I love the cheeky-ness of it, and what it promises.
There's an unconventional approach to art history here as we talk not merely about the cultural significance of common place works of art, and the creative revolutions that occur in the wake of their popularity, but how said popularity occurred in the first place. The type of publicity a now famous work receives is always an interesting study, and to discover that some works fall out of fashion for a century or two, only to be catapulted back to super stardom by a timely exhibition in the twentieth century.
     One of my favorite bits was when Nici was discussing the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, which was funded by a wealthy British academic and instantly captured the imaginations of people the world over, with largely successful exhibitions all over the world. These exhibitions were not just among the scholars who had studied the Egyptians, but even mass amounts of the general public showed up to these things, including people who hardly ever attended or perhaps had never been to, a museum. That's the sweet spot right there. That's where I want my own work to be.
    At the time, (around the early 1920s) there wasn't as much information about the ancient Egyptian people as there is today, and what we have today is largely because of the tomb of King Tut. So by default, he has become the mascot for that civilization, since so much of his tomb was so well preserved. That's really the source of his popularity. I don't think he even did anything spectacular as Pharoah, there was no great expansion, innovation, boom in commerce, he's just the one who shines the brightest flashlight on this formerly dark patch of history. Nici describes it as some medium level U.S president being discovered, like Zachary Taylor or Martin Van Buren, thousands of years from now, and them using that tomb to discover the civilization that was America.
     But the greatest, most inspiring part for me, was a small gold ring that had sat in the Metropolitan Museum of Art just a year before the tomb was discovered, a ring that had no significance to anyone, but had the Pharoah's name inscribed upon it. Everyone who visited the museum of course passed by it casually, not looking at it twice, until the tomb was discovered a year later, and that ring got so much attention it had to be moved to another location in the museum for a special display case.
    I just love that story, the irony, and how people spend their lives thinking they know the world, and what they're looking at, like they've got it all figured out, and then something happens that changes what we take for granted and what we cherish. Ha!

   I was also introduced to another sculpture that I'd only vaguely heard of before, called the Apollo Belvedere. This is an ancient Greek statue who's origins are mysterious, as in they are not quite sure who made it, but it apparently was a very popular work of art up until the twentieth century when it fell out of fashion. I suppose as impressionism, post impressionism, and the modern art movement picked up full steam and inspired more and more generations of young people, the Apollo Belvedere started to look more old fashioned and overly academic, like some classical study that is a remnant of a former, outdated era.
    I will say, having looked at the reproduction in the book, I found the sculpture utterly fascinating. Sure, it looks generic and academic on the surface, but the presence it has, the charisma it exudes, is so far removed from the atmosphere of ancient Greek and Roman-Greek-inspired work. Knowing that it came from so long ago makes it more mysterious to the point of being haunting, that it has almost a Baroque and Rococco vibe to it.
    When I look at other Greek statues, like the ones on the Parthenon, or the Nike of Samothrace, (headless winged woman at the entrance to the Louvre) I get the traditional, more expected response from a sculpture of that era, but the Apollo Belvedere speaks its own language that we don't see coming into fashion until maybe after the European Renaissance. It was just some kooky, independent, outside thinker just doing his own thing, and that's my favorite type of work. I'm just looking into the imagination of some fearless individual, not afraid to let the work be its crazy, kooky little self, not caring about what others might expect, or what might gain approval from those who claim to have it all "solved." The opposite of the art school portfolio. (That's right, I said it.) I just think it might be due for a comeback.
      I have to also mention the story of Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" as he is my favorite painter, and I was shocked to discover that his popularity during the Renaissance vanished only shortly after his death. That's right, Sandro Botticelli of all people, who's work is now counted among the greats like Raphael and Michelangelo, he was obscure for a century or two before a traveling exhibition in the 1930s brought him back in style. That was a shocker.
    Throughout the 1700s and 1800s for some reason, he didn't click with people, Nici even talks about how when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy, and took the treasures and art that one takes as the spoils of war, he left the Botticelli pieces untouched. They weren't even worth plundering to him. Huh.
    It appears that it wasn't until the 1930s, when Benito Mussolini was in power, that he organized an exhibition of Italian work to travel around Europe and America as a diplomatic move to introduce their culture to other societies, (as they were looking to expand their axis powers, no doubt.)
  Anyway, Botticelli's Birth of Venus became the center point of the show, drawing in multitudes of crowds just to see it in person. It was a huge hit everywhere it went. And Viola! Botticelli gets the credit he deserves.
    These moments in history that shape the world that you yourself grew up in, the world that influences your thinking, and your lifestyle choices, are the reason to study history. You get to see how things got the way they are now, and hopefully be able to estimate how they will be a century from now.

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