We have the pleasure to present to you some thoughts on what CLIMATE CHANGE could mean for the TRADING and CONSERVATION of LUXURY ARTS, LUXURY ANTIQUES, as well as AUCTIONS and PRIVATE SALES in the FINE ARTS, among others.
And for that we will do it in several parts, this is the third one.
.III.
POMPEII, HERCULANEUM and a few other small towns, were completely destroyed by the Vesuvius stratovolcano, just located near Naples in southern Italy in 79 AD ( Anno Domini ).
( confer here : ALEXANDRIA IS BURNING AGAIN n° 1 and ALEXANDRIA IS BURNING AGAIN n° 2 )
The archaeological excavations led to discoveries leading, surprises after surprises, to major scientific questions concerning the exceptional conservation of frescoes, statues and even papyrus, paradoxically protected by the extraordinarily thick gangue that had encased HERCULANEUM, POMPEII and some other small towns nearby, at the end of the huge explosion of the stratovolcano Vesuvius.
One question may arise from observing this absolutely magnificent conservation of all these artworks which is : what is an artwork in its deep structure to allow some of those artworks to survive throughout history at the whim of sometimes major upheavals in their environment ?
The artworks we are lucky enough to see today sometimes come from a very distant time in the past.
Different expressions of artworks can amaze or dazzle our eyes, for example :
.1. The painting.
When we have the chance to see a painting right in front of us, so close to us that we can take it and touch it, always very carefully, we enter into a complete and very particular dimension, where we are able to touch and connect with the time when the artist of this painting created this artwork and with the artist, by the different particles of his ( her ) metabolism, as his ( her ) permanent contact with the artwork, in its realization and development, has sometimes left in the deepest of the essential structure of the artwork.
This means that, when there is a contact with a painting, this contact allow to connect directly to the painter’s hand, by the particles of his ( her ) body that this painter left when he ( she ) made this artwork.
But how is it possible that this artwork was sometimes done in a very distant past, while being as resplendent as if it had been made three hours before ?
This is possible because the artwork is alive, the deep structure of the artwork is alive, it is composed by a multitude of living micro organisms, such as cells, bacteria or particles, sometimes so fine that the most advanced microscope cannot observe them, adding a deep mystery to an artwork.
All those little creatures, so small that the human eye does not allow to discern them from the magnificent harmony we see by the artwork itself, send to our knowledge a splendor and an ever unique beauty.
Unique, because the magnificent harmony that we are lucky enough to see was created at a unique moment, in a unique historical period, by an artist who is always unique, with an incredible collaboration from the shadow of all those little creatures, of which we can judge the competence and resilience, at the sight of the exhumed artworks from the archaeological excavations of POMPEII and HERCULANEUM.
This means that this unique artwork can communicate and invite on a very exceptional travel, not only in the history of art, but also in the history of the entire environmental context, that this artwork has crossed and lived.
It is always the hour to take the time to get in touch with a painting by opening eyes, ears and all the senses that this communication could amaze, to try to enter into this conversation so special with all the life, that is in a painting and which worked so hard until now and also nowadays to allow to see, today, such a magnificent result.
Then, it will be possible to hear or connect with the particles of the painter, so alive and so present in the deepest structure of the artwork, that the beauty of the artwork, so beautifully preserved, will allow to realize.
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© ISABELLE CLAUDINE FRANCOISE LARGENTON