I too wonder how this kind of information was disseminated back when. It leads me to believe that it is possible to come to proper conclusions while stewing along in one's own soup. I also wonder if these genius painters would have been better, or worse, had they had the benefit of so much information. In our age we have the benefit of almost ALL that has ever gone before us, and yet there is not a Rembrandt or a Beethoven on every corner.
It makes no sense that painters and musicians from hundreds of years ago would be so much better than anyone living today. They had so little to draw on and we have everything. I tend to conclude that it is a combination of three factors: a purely genius mind, combined with an appreciative and supportive social culture, and the absence of our distracting modern life. I think there are the genius minds living today, but the other two factors detract from the sum of the parts.
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I wonder if there is anything about Rembrandt that was not said before.
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I doubt it Ant. It is Rembrandt that will continue to speak. People like me can only post his paintings in a convenient place.
And lest we begin to take ourselves too seriously, here is a drawing by Claude Monet: Petit Pantheon Theatral 1860. I think I can make out Leon Russell down at the bottom, Golda Meir, and possibly Richard Nixon, but the others escape me.