A Victim of Progress
As my father has so graciously pointed out, today is an important day in history. He recently wrote in my comments section,
"Today is the anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelsons' sea battle that destroyed Napoleon and the vastly greater Spanish fleet. Nelson stole an ancient Greek idea...fireships, and using this and the tides he arguably changed the world.
Many have asked what the name of Raoul's blog was about. Recall that he lived in England for a time. No doubt on a museum tour he saw a fabulous painting by JMW Turner about a ship from the battle being towed into port for destruction. The ship is the name of this blog: wondrous art.D&M"
And Dad is absolutely correct. I took the name of this blog from my favorite painting, "The Fighting Temeraire being towed out to be broken apart," by JMW Turner, by far my favorite painter.
When I was studying in England during a summer program, one of the classes I had to take was History of British art. To make a long story short, I had to fumble about in the National Gallery and gather information on various and sundry British artists. I stumbled across Turner's work, and fell in love almost immediately... particularly when I laid eyes upon this specific painting.
The beauty and tragedy of the piece is that such an important part of British history (the Temeraire was the pivotal ship in the battle of Trafalgar... if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, go google it and find out) is essentially being broken apart for firewood during a time in which the majestic and powerful ships of the sea were being replaced with smaller, steam powered vessels (much like the tugboat that's leading the Temeraire to it's demise in the painting).
In our society, we are constantly pushed to contribute to the progress of the human race. Old ideas are tossed out the instant something new and supposedly better is posited or produced for mass consumption. Our technology advances so quickly that a computer built six months ago can already be considered outdated. We are viciously advancing towards what we believe is a better society, a better way of thinking, and ultimately a better way of life. You know... progress.
Sadly, many important and beautiful things are sacrificed in the name of this "progress." Morality. Dignity. Modesty. History. Salience. Intelligence. Wit. Depth. Faith. Hope. Love. All of them, in one way or another, have been called outmoded, outdated, reactionary, or irrelevant by proponents of modern thought and it's constant march towards the next bigger and better thing.
Turner's painting perfectly captures all of these thoughts with the simple, haunting image of a majestic ship being towed off to it's destruction by a corroded little tugboat upon a polluted Themes river with London's industrial skyline in the background. Appropriately, the sun is setting in the coal-smoke darkened sky.
In our quest to better ourselves, have the things that make human beings human become victims of progress? Are we hollow husks of past glory being towed down a polluted river to our own destruction by the very things we built to better ourselves? May such thoughts disturb you as they did me the day I first layed eyes on Turner's painting.
"Today is the anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelsons' sea battle that destroyed Napoleon and the vastly greater Spanish fleet. Nelson stole an ancient Greek idea...fireships, and using this and the tides he arguably changed the world.
Many have asked what the name of Raoul's blog was about. Recall that he lived in England for a time. No doubt on a museum tour he saw a fabulous painting by JMW Turner about a ship from the battle being towed into port for destruction. The ship is the name of this blog: wondrous art.D&M"
And Dad is absolutely correct. I took the name of this blog from my favorite painting, "The Fighting Temeraire being towed out to be broken apart," by JMW Turner, by far my favorite painter.
When I was studying in England during a summer program, one of the classes I had to take was History of British art. To make a long story short, I had to fumble about in the National Gallery and gather information on various and sundry British artists. I stumbled across Turner's work, and fell in love almost immediately... particularly when I laid eyes upon this specific painting.
The beauty and tragedy of the piece is that such an important part of British history (the Temeraire was the pivotal ship in the battle of Trafalgar... if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, go google it and find out) is essentially being broken apart for firewood during a time in which the majestic and powerful ships of the sea were being replaced with smaller, steam powered vessels (much like the tugboat that's leading the Temeraire to it's demise in the painting).
In our society, we are constantly pushed to contribute to the progress of the human race. Old ideas are tossed out the instant something new and supposedly better is posited or produced for mass consumption. Our technology advances so quickly that a computer built six months ago can already be considered outdated. We are viciously advancing towards what we believe is a better society, a better way of thinking, and ultimately a better way of life. You know... progress.
Sadly, many important and beautiful things are sacrificed in the name of this "progress." Morality. Dignity. Modesty. History. Salience. Intelligence. Wit. Depth. Faith. Hope. Love. All of them, in one way or another, have been called outmoded, outdated, reactionary, or irrelevant by proponents of modern thought and it's constant march towards the next bigger and better thing.
Turner's painting perfectly captures all of these thoughts with the simple, haunting image of a majestic ship being towed off to it's destruction by a corroded little tugboat upon a polluted Themes river with London's industrial skyline in the background. Appropriately, the sun is setting in the coal-smoke darkened sky.
In our quest to better ourselves, have the things that make human beings human become victims of progress? Are we hollow husks of past glory being towed down a polluted river to our own destruction by the very things we built to better ourselves? May such thoughts disturb you as they did me the day I first layed eyes on Turner's painting.
posted by Raoul The Destroyer at 3:45 PM
2 Comments:
And I would just like to add that I gave "the boy" a copy of the painting to hang in his living room. Aren't I a thought-provoking gift giver! :)
Love that picture! I remember it over Pablo's computer in KS. I hope you've gotten that REALLY framed by now kiddo :-D
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