This is my body
Painting will always be a temporary art. We have not one masterpiece of Classical painting and are left to account for the whole with a fraction of the part, and after a thousand years Medieval painting is rapidly turning back to dust. The Medieval mural a la fresco is one of the most unique forms of painting to ever exist. These paintings represent the low tide of Classical influence on European art since perhaps the Oriental phase of Greek pottery. After the Western mind was able to evolve past this style, largely in part thanks to advancements in stained glass, it has never looked back. The bodies are unnatural. Eyes protrude from the skull and limbs flail away from the body as if hardly connected by the sinews of flesh, but make no mistake - the painter of these murals was no amateur. It is hard for our photographic culture to understand that once upon a time Man looked to his art not to reflect him and his world, but to inspire thoughts of the world to come - paradise, or at least peace.
