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November 04, 2003
look what happened to Ingres
For four hundred years, give or take a lunch break, painters strove for perfection. They wanted to achieve the perfect painting, the perfect portrait, the perfect likeness. They got very good at drawing, they got very good at colouring in. They developed oil painting [Jan van Eyck had a lot to do with that part], they used lenses and mirrors and employed all the tricks of the trade. But for years they were frustrated by the tell tale signs of the brush mark. Perfection was denied them.
Then along comes Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and within twenty years - BINGO! no brush marks. And were the people thrilled? No they weren't. "What is this, Mr. Ingres?" they would say, or: "Qu'est que c'est, M. Ingres?" to be more accurate. "What no brush strokes?" [do your own translation] "but this is not possible, you cannot have painted this - it must be the work of the devil!" So instead of being heralded he was hounded.
If that wasn't bad enough, Fox-Talbot was already hanging about his Abbey with a Box Brownie and the next thing you know you're in Photoshop clicking the 'brush stroke' button. Now where's the sense in that?
Posted by john at November 4, 2003 09:05 AM
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