After spending 4 months in Italy amongst throngs of tourists, I found it amazingly disheartening what the vast majority of people know of art. I am not an art history major, or claim to know a lot about it. I still find the ignorance of the American people appalling (being that those were the only tourists I could understand in Italy). The tour guides seem to feed on this and encourage it even. In the Vatican museum the tour guide kept on "pushing" the Sistine Chapel. We briefly talked about other things while ever taking the shortest route to the Sistine Chapel. Everything revolved around the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's genius. This is all that most people wanted to see. Americans seemed to want a fast tour hitting only what they knew about, which as I stated earlier, is not much. People know the Sistine Chapel but they only know the "Creation of Man" panel which is 1 of 7 down the middle. I also find it disturbing that there are large naked people in the borders who are nearly as large as Adam. I feel like Adam should be more important and thus more prominent. Instead naked people strewn about. And very muscular, even the women.
It seems that today's popular culture has a huge influence on what people actually know about "great art." Michelangelo was an amazing artist. This is well known. However, I think his fame is not all deserved. I think that much of his fame has nothing to do with his art. Rather, his inherent popularity is due to his crabby personality and his fun loving teenage mutant ninja turtle counterpart who is in fact a "party dude". Yes, I just said that. The public likes that Michelangelo was selfish. Didn't seem to care about others. He was moody and needed to do things his way. He didn't trust others with his pieces of marble and was picky about everything. I need to start being an arrogant asshole just so people respect my work more. That just might work hmmmmm. . . . The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have more to do with making Michelangelo famous than his art. That is what I'm saying. Everyone knows Leonardo da Vinci. Amazing artist, the epitome of a Renaissance man, right? What has he done? Do you know any works besides the Mona Lisa? I'd say the general public does not. I doubt that more than half of the population can name a Raphael painting. However, if you asked them who was prolific during the Renaissance who would they name? Yeah, I think they would name the ninja turtles. Don't get me wrong, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael were all amazing artists. I just find it sad that people don't realize the real reason they are famous. Secondly, I'd like to just say that Michelangelo is a bit overrated. I have a personal vendetta about people/teams who are loved by everybody i.e. the Yankees and the Lakers. Something about the public loving them makes me not like them. The public knows Michelangelo so they love him. Eh, he's pretty good, but because everybody else loves him, I feel obligated to dislike him. His David has funny proportions. But its not about the proportions, its about the feeling, what he meant, what he symbolizes yada yada yada. Yeah, I've heard it all. I'm still a fan of Polykleitos, his Spear Bearer, and his 1/7 ratio or whatever he uses. He may be mathematical, but his Canon is just that. A Canon to follow because of how good it is.
Another example of pop culture coloring public perception is the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. Again both bring to light art and artists and that the public now know about. People know Bernini now. I have to say, Bernini was an amazing guy. His works in the Villa Borghese were on point. Quite literally my favorite sculptor. I find it strange that almost nobody can name what he did besides the 4 rivers fountain in Piazza Navona in Rome (because of the novels). I find it funny because while he came up with the design, he did not actually execute any of the four rivers. He left those up to the likes of Claude Poussin and others who get no publicity for it. Pop culture and the dreaded media influence people like you wouldn't believe.
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