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What makes a Masterpiece?
Kute Fine Art
Someone once asked me what makes a Masterpiece. I thought for a short while and decided that a Masterpiece is simply perfect in the same way a rose is perfect, nothing can be added to it nor anything done to improve it. Whilst at the time I was quite pleased with my response I now think the question deserves a more in depth answer. So why is the "Mona Lisa" considered a "Masterpiece" and my "Haystacks" are not? Well apart from the fact that Da Vinci is dead and I'm not, well not clinically anyway, how does a Masterpiece evolve?
You could ask ten different people what criteria they would consider and probably get ten different answers. However, I would suggest that one common answer would be that once you have encountered a masterpiece it stays with you for the rest of your life.
Masterpieces make us forget the artists, and instead direct our attention to the artists works. We may wonder how a particular work was executed, but for the time being we are somewhere else, so deep into this creation that our consciousness is taken over. Afterall, no one walks away from a Monet unaffected.
Although there are differentiating criteria on the exact elements involved in selecting a masterpiece, there are common qualities that every masterpiece shares. Some sort of feeling must be evoked, whether it's curiosity, awe, or contempt. There should be style, technique, balance, and harmony. It is helpful to discuss perspective and form, but still, this would not describe that elusive element essential to any moving work, and what about motive as another important factor?
Superlative craftsmanship, extraordinary design, great antiquity, rich materials, purity of form, artistic genius, originality, influence on other artists. It soon becomes evident that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to articulate a definition of masterpiece that could be accepted universally.
Most of us know when we have witnessed a masterpiece, even if we can't describe why. Seeing the seductive smile of the Mona Lisa, you can't help but wonder what she is thinking. You know you're in front of a one-of-a-kind, not to be replicated experience. It's just you and the masterpiece and the mystery. It grabs you.
But in today's age there are no rules. With mediums and styles as diverse as ever, anything goes. Artists have been as prolific in the last hundred years as they ever have. Having entered the new millennium, art is still challenging us to decide what is great and what is not, who is immortal and who is not.
The bottom line is - YOU DECIDE in your own mind - "Mona Lisa" or "Haystacks"?.
Chris Sabian is an artist with http://www.kutefineart.com and co-owner of http://www.paragonprints.co.uk and blogger http://chris-sabian.blogspot.com
Article submitted Monday, November 08, 2010 & read 88 times.
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