Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Shoulda, coulda, woulda went to Ringling
I took a trip to the Ringling Museum of Art last weekend and I must admit, it was inspirational. John Ringling is best known for his part in creating the world's most famous circus, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. What many people do not know is that he and his wife were incredibly active patrons of the arts. Their passion for the arts grew to the point that they established the museum and The Ringling School of Art and Design on a large stretch of land in Sarasota. As a would be artist, seeing works by the likes of Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Van Dyck, and El Greco is always a thrill. Seeing 200, 300, and 400 year old paintings is an amazing experience, as you realize just how potentially long a created image might remain viable, given the proper care and materials. You also come to understand how large some painters were working during the Baroque and subsequent periods.
Rubens' wall paintings, completed by a team of assistants under his direction for Church commissions, are HUGE! I'm not sure of the actual dimensions, but one of the Ringling's gallery rooms features several Rubens works that have to be at least 15' tall and nearly as wide. It's amazing to see paintings that size framed and hung together in a single space. Filling the walls of a cathedral with images this size seems reasonable compared to some of the private commissions by other artists hanging in the Ringling's galleries. There are portraits which have to be 10' top to bottom and side-to-side. When I think of the structure one would have to build to make such a painting reasonable to own and it seems absurd. Then, like today, extravagance and gluttony were all the rage and it shows in the art of the time.
Old masters worked on grand scales. Michelangelo labored on the Sistine Chapel and chiseled The David (a life-sized model of which resides in the Ringling museum's central courtyard), each taking four years to complete. Titian, Rubens, and their artistic successors created giant canvases that seem almost ridiculously large to me. The cost of the canvas alone would have been prohibitive under the best circumstances. Add to that the expense of paint and frame and you have a massive amount of money committed to a single piece. In an era of opulence, spending astronomical sums of money on art was a more common occurrence. These days, the best hope of getting a grant is by creating public art, which often times is met by skepticism, if not outright disdain, but most of the general public.
Being an artist in an era when art was revered and admired must have been much more fun than being an artist in a time when art is marginalized or even dismissed entirely. In a time when people once referred to the likes of Britney Spears and Basquiat as "artists", the word is more an insult or slir than it is a compliment.
Labels: art
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Isnt it awesome? I volunteered there in the art library when I was a grad student. Such a cool experience!