Tutankhamen
Nov. 14th, 2007 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI hate gold.
No, that's too extreme. It has its uses- as adornment, detail, garnish, highlight. I don't grudge medieval angels and saints their haloes of gold leaf.
But it's so wrong as a material for sculpture. The way it throws light around, the way it shouts its colour. Texture, modelling and contour are obscured by all that surface noise.
The Greeks got it right- the metal you use for sculpture is bronze.
The Egyptian ruling classes had no taste. No spirituality, no inner life. Their art is about power and ownership- nothing else.
They thought they could take it with them.
Look at me in the Field of Reeds- throwing my weight around, flashing my gold.
No, that's too extreme. It has its uses- as adornment, detail, garnish, highlight. I don't grudge medieval angels and saints their haloes of gold leaf.
But it's so wrong as a material for sculpture. The way it throws light around, the way it shouts its colour. Texture, modelling and contour are obscured by all that surface noise.
The Greeks got it right- the metal you use for sculpture is bronze.
The Egyptian ruling classes had no taste. No spirituality, no inner life. Their art is about power and ownership- nothing else.
They thought they could take it with them.
Look at me in the Field of Reeds- throwing my weight around, flashing my gold.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-14 12:49 pm (UTC)I'm not terribly sympathetic towards gods in human form. I reckon they've been responsible for an awful lot of mischief down the years.