Myths, History, and Art

Basil Markesinis

Description

Sir Basil Markesinis has held tenured senior posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, University of London, Leiden (in the Netherlands) and the Law School of the University of Texas at Austin where he is now Emeritus Professor of Comparative Methodology. He has also held for a number of years part-time Chairs at the Universities of Paris I (Sorbonne), Paris II (Assas), Munich (Germany), Ghent (Belgium), Siena, Genova, and Rome (Italy), the Michigan Law School (at Ann-Arbour) for two years and the Cornell Law School for four years. He has authored or co-authored 56 books, over 150 legal articles, and close to 100 articles on geopolitical issues in journals and newspapers in three continents. His most-recent work is his three-volume illustrated treatise entitled Ancient Greek Poetry from Homer to Roman Times, Jan Sramek, Verlag (2017). His academic work has earned him Fellowships at the Academies of Athens, Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Rome (Lincei), as well as the Athens Archaeological Society and the American Law Institute. For his work in promoting international relations and the study of various European Cultures, especially through his creation of the Leiden Institute of Anglo-American Law (in 1987); The Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law (in 1996) of which he was Founder, fund raiser, and first Director; and the Texas Institute of Global Law (in 2000), he was awarded the Insignia of the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy; the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of France; the Insignia of the Grand Cross of Service with Star of the Republic of Germany, as well as the insignia of Commander of the Order of the Légion d'' honneur of France. In 1997 on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor, he was appointed Hon. Queen''s Counsel; and in 2005, on the advice of the Prime Minister, he was knighted by H. M. Queen Elizabeth II for "exceptional services to international relations."

Sujets

• The arts
• History of art

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 31 janvier 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528968812
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Myths, History, and Art
Twelve Essays on Art as Deception
Basil Markesinis
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-01-31
Myths, History, and Art About the Author Copyright Information © Acknowledgment Preface Introduction 1 Disguising Cruelty as a Political Message i. Marat: The Real-Life Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ii. The Last Portrait: An Example of Art as Power 2 Portraying an Inwardly Flawed Artist as a Pious Man i. Bernini’s Character: The Shadows Behind the Light ii. The Rapture of Saint Teresa 3 Portraying the Queen of France as a Woman of the People i. A Calm, Kind Woman with a Strong Sense of Mission ii. The Painting of 1787 of the Queen with Her Children 4 Accentuating Beauty to Hide Foul Character i. The Leighton Beauty and Its Antecedents ii. Erotic Versus Attractive Feminine Beauty and the Element of Deception 5 Deceiving the Eye by Exploiting the Rules of Perspective: An Artistic Miracle 6 Who Is Good and Who Is Bad? i. The 3rd of May 1808 ii. An Earlier but Crude Forerunner 7 Projecting a Brutal God as a Romantic Figure i. The Uncertainties of a Great Work of Art Where Did Dionysus Come From? Who Were His Parents? The God’s Sexuality A Modern Simplification of the Myth: Does It Beautify or Deceive Us? 8 Depicting or Promoting Illicit Sex? 9 Unrequited Love: Literature’s First Recorded Instance i. Unrequited Love: An Unexplored Theme in Ancient Greek Literature ii. Homer Properly Read iii. Homer Misrepresented by Art 10 Art Softening Cruel Greek Myths: An Essay in Imagination i. Preliminary Observations on Two Interrelated Canvases ii. The Principal Painting iii. The Painting Which Was Never Delivered to the King Revives the Actaeon Controversy 11 A Poet’s and an Artist’s View on Loneliness i. Life of an Unusual Artist Trying to Do Good and Forced by Nature to Do Harm ii. Postscript. Serov and Vrubel: A Sketch of Two Friends in Parallel 12 State Defined Deception: A New Dogma for the Arts i. Preliminary Thoughts on the Russian Approach ii. Another Form of Evil iii. Soviet Literature from the Early 1930s Onwards iv. The way pressure was applied v. The Uncompromising Writers vi. Pictorial Art Under the Influence of Soviet Realism vii. Graphic Art in Posters Example One Example Two Example Three Example Four viii. An Attempt to End with an Objective Postscript Concluding Thoughts i. Character, Character and Only Character ii. Is the Deception Obvious of Itself or Does It Need Supporting Facts? iii. The Motives Behind the Deception iv. Signs that the Soviet Desire to Control Thought May Be Reappearing in Muted Forms in the West Epilogue Character Shadows, Flaws and Deviations Letting the Mind Wander Beyond What It Has Seen and Read Thus Far Preferences Appendix on Some Portraits of Anna Akhmatova Related to Ideas Expressed in the Text About Her Life, Looks and Temperament Books and Articles Quoted in This Book
About the Author

Sir Basil Markesinis has held tenured senior posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, University of London, Leiden (in the Netherlands) and the Law School of the University of Texas at Austin where he is now Emeritus Professor of Comparative Methodology. He has also held for a number of years part-time Chairs at the Universities of Paris I (Sorbonne), Paris II (Assas), Munich (Germany), Ghent (Belgium), Siena, Genova and Rome (Italy), the Michigan Law School (at Ann-Arbour) for two years and the Cornell Law School for four years. He has authored or co-authored 53 books, over 150 legal articles, and close to 100 articles on geopolitical issues in journals and newspapers in three continents. His most-recent work is his three-volume illustrated treatise entitled Ancient Greek Poetry from Homer to Roman Times , Jan Sramek, Verlag (2017). His academic work has earned him Fellowships at the Academies of Athens, Belgium, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Rome (Lincei), as well the Athens Archaeological Society and the American Law Institute. For his work in promoting international relations and the study of various European cultures, especially through his creation of the Leiden Institute of Anglo-American Law (in 1987); The Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law (in 1996) of which he was founder, fund raiser and first director; and the Texas Institute of Global Law (in 2000), he was awarded the insignia of the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy; the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of France; the insignia of the Grand Cross of Service with Star of the Republic of Germany, as well as the insignia of Commander of the Order of the Légion d’ honneur of France. In 1997 on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor, he was appointed Hon. Queen’s Counsel; and in 2005, on the advice of the Prime Minister, he was knighted by H. M. Queen Elizabeth II for ‘exceptional services to international relations’.
Copyright Information ©
Basil Markesinis (2020)
The right of Basil Markesinis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528936729 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528968812 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
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Acknowledgment
A special debt is gratefully acknowledged to His Serene Highness the Prince of Liechtenstein for ‘supporting this publication’ by communicating, through the kind services of Mag. Michael Schweller, Registrar, Ausstellungsorganisation, of the Principality, His generous permission to allow the reproduction of the unique ceiling of Herkulessaal des Gartenpalais Liechtenstein painted by the great 17 th and early 18 th century Italian Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo.
Thanks are also due to the Archdiocese of Vienna for kind assistance by some of its most helpful staff – namely Dr Martin Sierek, Sekretär of the Jesuitenkirche Wien and Frau Angela Ringhofer – in helping me obtain a photograph of that beautiful ceiling of the Jesuit Church of Vienna. As always, a great religious Order was able to attract the services of a highly gifted artist, and through this publication, more people will enjoy it.
Very special thanks are also due to the legal and art staff (such as Marina Ivanova) of that jewel of the arts – the Tretyakov Gallery of Moscow – for helping the author acquire the right to use Tatiana Yablonskaya’s painting of bread – a masterpiece of Soviet Socialist art. Likewise, I gratefully acknowledge the help received from Dr Lisa Monnas, author of the magnificently illustrated Merchants, Princes and Painters, Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings 1300 and 1550, Yale University Press (2008) for valuable advice concerning Titian’s fabrics and the minerals used to create his amazing colours.
Last but by no means least, my usual thanks goes to Mr Andreas Spirou, my long-standing friend and computer expert, who on so many occasions helped Bicester Print Ltd and me to typeset a difficult text and pictures.
Preface
Paintings, like texts, dealing with events or people – mythical, historical, or living in the present – often require interpretation for what may be – or appear to be – described or depicted on a canvas or a mural but may not coincide with what emerges from a more careful examination of the image or the text. This divergence may be due to the creator’s artful or unintended concealment of his true intentions or may be the result of a simple misunderstanding due to the reader or viewer of the work of art in question. All these possibilities arise because, contrary to the common belief, human see with their eyes but also their brains. Using famous paintings as illustrations of this thesis, this collection of essays deals with these kind of problems and explores the possibilities that art offers for deception or misinformation or the mobilisation of public opinion in the interests of the state or divers modern movements learning how to exploit social media to promote their causes and interests through an increasingly sophisticated use of images easily multiplied by modern technology.
Those who have had the (good or bad) fortune to have committed their thoughts to paper often find that as the decades go by they seem to return to topics they have discussed earlier though this does not prevent them from enriching their older ideas by considering those of others which have appeared since their own texts first saw the light of day. I have not avoided this rather common fate and willingly acknowledge that in what follows I have drawn frequently and, at times heavily, from at least five works of mine: Good and Evil in Art and Law Springer Wien/New York (2007) ; The Duality of Genius, Jan Sramek Verlag , Wien (2008) ; On the Endurance of Ancient Greek Thought Through the Ages, Jan Sramek Verlag, (2014); Ancient Greek Poetry from Homer to the Romans , 3 vols, Jan Sramek Verlag (2017) (some of the above also appearing with modifications in other languages namely, German, Greek, Italian and Chinese) and my most recent Euripides in Macedonia , Psychological Problems in Ancient Greek Tragedies published by Bicester Print Ltd in England on behalf of the Alumni Association of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki in Greece (2017). Other works which proved useful in writing this book appear in the footnotes though the frequency and extent of the citations hardly do justice to my indebtedness to their learned authors. A bibliographica