[lit-ideas] Re: Artistic World 3 Objects
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 25 May 2013 10:22:34 -0400 (EDT)
In a message dated 5/25/2013 9:12:49 A.M. UTC-02,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx quotes:
>>DEEP problems...
and writes:
"Talking of deep problems...(do you see what I did there?)
...Michelangelo’s David: (a) 100 foot tall version (b) 1 inch version (c)
version in black plastic (d) version in chrome (e) version in excrement (f)
version in gold (g) version in pink plaster (h) version in the form of a
hologram.
Seeker of deeper problems
London."
Indeed, perhaps 'deep' is JUST _not_ the right word to apply to something
as delightfully Greek as a 'Greek problem'.
-- Greek problema "a task, that which is proposed, a question;" also
"anything projecting, headland, promontory; fence, barrier;" also "a problem in
geometry," literally "thing put forward," from
"proballein", "propose," from pro "forward" (see pro-) + ballein "to throw"
(see ballistics).
The subject line is perhaps not general enough, in that D. McEvoy is
considering World 3 in general. I think the whole point of 'artistic' can only
complicate thing.
As it happens, I'm a Griceian instrumentalism:
Catherine Lord, A Gricean approach to aesthetic instrumentalism ...
philpapers.org/rec/LORAGA
Catherine Lord · British Journal of Aesthetics 25 (1):66-70 (1985) ... Part
I. Gricean Themes: Gricean and Confucian Pragmatics: A Contrastive
Analysis.
----
Plus, I follow Edward Lucie-Smith in his analysis of statements like,
"This is artistic"
in terms of utterer's intentions.
"Michelangelo’s David: (a) 100 foot tall version (b) 1 inch version (c)
version in black plastic (d) version in chrome (e) version in excrement (f)
version in gold (g) version in pink plaster (h) version in the form of a
hologram."
I think possibly the ONLY "Davide" that counts is the original one, as
planned for the Florence Cathedral. The scale needs to be as it is. The present
display is not the one that Buonarroti meant-nn (in Grice's sense of
'mean') so should not count.
I enjoyed reading the commentary on what Popper makes out of this.
From Wikipedia:
Buonarroti's "Davide" "is a 5.17-metre (17.0 ft) marble statue of a
standing male nude."
"The height of Buonarroti's "Davide" was recorded incorrectly and the
mistake proliferated through many art history publications."
"The accurate height was only determined in 1999 when a team from Stanford
University went to Firenze to try out a project on digitally imaging large
3D objects by photographing sculptures by Michelangelo."
"Against all Popperian predictions, the team -- comprised by various people
-- found that the statue was taller than any of the sources had indicated"
("but not taller than itself", as Russell would remark).
"The Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting
mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana,
had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures
for the buttresses of the cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore."
"It was Michelangelo, only twenty-six years old, who convinced the Operai
that he deserved the commission. On August 16, 1501, Michelangelo was given
the official contract to undertake this challenging new task.[8] He began
carving the statue early in the morning on Monday, September 13, a month
after he was awarded the contract. He would work on the massive biblical hero
for more than two years."
"On January 25, 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine
authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of
raising the more than 6-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral."
Note that the 'possibility' can be analysed along Popperian lines. It is
what Popper, I think, calls a "mere possibility". Yet, it was the possibility
that founded the 'project' as it were.
"In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo
Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which
embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to
move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop into the Piazza
della Signoria."
"Only in 1873 the statue of David was removed from the piazza, to protect
it from damage, and displayed in the Accademia Gallery, Florence."
And so on.
At this point we could analyse the meaning of "Davide" for _Firenze_ as a
city (alongside their patron icon, ERCOLE). Since the whole idea came from a
collective body:
"The Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting
mostly of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana".
It was THEM -- and not the alleged artist Buonarotti, who conceived the
idea -- which is an important point to consider when analysing, conceptually
and philosophically, the intricacies of 'aesthetic intentions' which should
explain so-called (by D. McEvoy) 'artistic' _objects d'art_.
And so on.
Cheers,
Speranza
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