But that's just the beginning of the troubles.With the Old Masters too often bogged down in thorny questions of genuineness, restorations and provenance -- was that last Leonardo a Leonardo any more, or at all? -- it's not easy to see that the problem is hardly a new one. For centuries, Raphael's Transfiguration was the most famous painting in the world, until the Mona Lisa dethroned it a hundred or so years ago, at least in part owing to similar concerns. At the same time Matisse, Picasso -- that one sure solved the muselessness problem, if only for himself! -- and Dalí blew up the arts, only to be jostled by the iconoclasts doing non-representational art.
And yet, and yet... You do feel a certain frisson in front of the Mona Lisa, even with the obligatory American teen girls jabbering 'Overrated!' next to you. Ladies, there's no rating other than that of recognition -- like for real. So who doesn't recognize La Gioconda? The great museums overwhelm, sure, but it's something special when you get lost in this or that artwork. Perhaps is's better for a single painting to reign over a picture gallery like the Sistine Madonna does in Dresden, with Liotard's Chocolate Girl there to, well, serve her chocolate!
I'm rambling a bit, so I'll stop. Now what do you think on the subject of painting?
