Observing the Trend towards Emotional Rendering and Its Damage to Works of Art

[PureInsight.org] I took an art
history class recently. During the three-hour lessons, the lecturer
played several reels of videotapes mainly narrating the works of art
from the Renaissance period to modern times. Besides watching the works
of art, the thing that attracted me the most was the narrators who
introduced the works. The manner in which they described the various
historical periods and the variations in their moods from the beginning
to the end were quite telling to me.



First of all, there was the Renaissance period. At that stage, the
works of art were highly influenced by Christianity in the West.
The  narrators expressed their feelings rather uniformly, with
natural disposition, faces showing warm and persuasive countenances, as
if they were innocent children and their spirits were very relaxed.



Later, during the Baroque period, the paintings still contained some
reflections from the Classical period, but in the latter part, there
were more leanings toward drama and exaggeration. The painters
emphasized evoking strong reactions from the audience.  The
expressions on the faces of the characters in the paintings no longer
were as tranquil as before. I felt that the painters were trying to
impose their strong feelings on and stir up the emotions of the
audience. I noticed that the narrators were also affected by the mood
of the paintings and no longer showed the joy and purity that they had
displayed when they introduced the works of Classical period painters.
The narrators lost their own abilities to think and express themselves,
and became heavily influenced by the painters.



In fact, it is a very dangerous signal. When people become too
sentimental, they lose the ability to reason properly. In the more
serious cases, people become overwhelmed by their emotions. If we were
to choose between joy and sentimentality, I am sure more people would
choose joy.  When people experience joy, they are relaxed and
feeling happy. Sentimentality is not derived from being moved by divine
purity.



Just think of it, if bad people understand this point and make
something appear sentimental, those who are easily influenced by
sentimentality might lose the ability to think for themselves. Wouldn't
it then be simple to take advantage of those people who are no longer
able to distinguish good from bad? In the late Baroque period, there
was a famous painter named Caravaggio (1573-1610). He was apprehended
on a murder charge, but his works of art are able to easily transmit
his feelings to those viewing his paintings.



At that time, as the influence of religion diminished, artworks became
based on the painters' own feelings. After a long time, people forgot
about the beauty of the Classical works and were trying to find their
way out through sentimentality. They were attempting to create better
and greater artworks, not realizing that sentimentality was the
greatest delimitation imposed on all the painters, delimiting the work
of all painters.



Translated from:

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/5/5/37411.html