The Changing Purposes of Art

To understand our own ambitions, needs and uses for art we can look back.  We can uncover our contemporary purposes by discovering the role of art in history.  While we cannot be sure of the intentions of cave painters at Lascaux we can make educated attempts. We have more corroborating evidence for art made in Greco-Roman antiquity. For example, the middle-eastern Christian icon from 550 you see in my first example shows the  extreme value of Mary through her pictorial centrality, her gold halo, her blue lapis lazuli robe.  She is esteemed through materials and placement. We still use placement to direct attention and establish value.  Mary is further valued by her accompanying saints. (Notice the Byzantine style of portraiture, elongated face, dark almond shaped eyes, aquiline noses. This was a formula for all faces.) Later portraits, while not so stylized will also serve as instruments of flattery, instruments to elevate the power, influence, value, wealth, seductivity and taste of the sitter.   In this icon the purpose is straightforward,  Mary is the mother of Jesus and, Jesus is in the smack-dab-middle dressed entirely in gold. We know who is immeasurably valuable here. In the Renaissance Venetian painter, Giovanni Bellini’s portrait of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist the purposes are multiple ( see example 2)  The obvious purposeis to present an attractive scene which shows a pure Jesus ( this explains why both his skin and wrap are chaste, pure and white) and, modest Jesus has crossed arms covering his own nipples as he is humble and exposed before God (overhead) as he receives his baptism(ritual cleansing).  Those witnessing the baptism wear expensively colored ( carmine and lapis lazuli) garments as evidence of the value of the moment. John wears more humble green, the symbolic color for water.  The artist has other purposes of his own besides those of his client, the church and its patron.  First, he has his own aesthetic purpose of seeing how sensuous a figure he could render, a figure that would seduce the viewer( and himself) in a landscape of delicate light and infinite distance. These tender seductive qualities would help the artist with another of his purposes, to secure his reputation for excellence and generate future commissions.  Anyone might paint a baptism of Jesus but, where would you find such physical beauty and tenderness?  Later artists like Amadeo Modigliani grew up with this sort of religious imagery ( see example 3) Bellini’s covert personal purposes were obvious to Modigliani. By 1917 he was free from the client obligations ( and purposes) that had constrained Bellini. Modigliani could present his languid and sensuous forms in more seductive poses without the pretense of religious purpose( note the white wrap of modesty now lies underneath the figure). In fact, by the 20th century the clients’ desires and purposes had upended the old standards.  The church no longer played a significant role in the market for art.  Artists follow markets just as the rest of us must do. If you are interested in further reading on this subject I suggest ” Painting For Profit”( The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters) by Richard Spear and Philip Sohm. Many other authors have covered this territory as well  beginning with the ancient Roman, Pliny the Elder through contemporary thoughts on portraiture by John Berger