The Adoration of the Golden Calfc. 1634
Oil on canvas, Iaid down on board, 154 x 214 cm
National Gallery, London
The Destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem1637
Oil on canvas, 147 x 198,5 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The Judgment of Solomon1649
Oil on canvas, 101 x 150 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Assumption of the Virgin1650
Oil on canvas, 57 x 40 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris
It's amazing how composed Mary is in that last picture. It's amazing to think that people had no "rich" media to immerse themselves within; no internet, no camera on their cellphones, no video ipods, flat-screens. Painting was it. These paintings are full of narrative much like films are today, rich in color like films and full of information and content. Today's media mix today grants us all this and more except one thing that somehow can't be taken from painting: stillness. Modern media hums but even modern paintings sit even. The temper of composure remains in painting, as well as much sculpture, but it's only painting that can force a direct relation to the richness of film. I suppose film makers operate more like sculptors, working in the 3rd, and their end result is paint like with the added layer of sound and the 4th dimension. A wonderfully rich conflation. But then why the current rise and interest in painting again? Does sound and time play itself out in the perception of painting somehow that other media don't? Or is the noiseless calm of painting somehow one of culture's last refuges from our deluge of news, information, entertainment, and social clatter?
Images: Web Gallery of Art
