Part of what’s fun about of writing these daily essays is finding the right picture to publish alongside.
In a world of Facebook and Twitter and Instagram posts, of 24-hour news channels, it’s easy to forget that with a simple online search, we can look at hundreds of classic paintings.
Thirty years ago, these works were only accessible to a handful of connoisseurs with the means to travel around the world and visit the (sometimes private) galleries that hosted them. A book filled with replicas of a fraction of these works would be very expensive – too expensive for someone who merely wished to dabble, to enjoy.
We’re ever drowning in a flood of new information, new works, new products. The new, after all, is what sells. It is very difficult to make a profit by maintaining a free online art gallery with thousands of works. Keeping a Facebook page dedicated to the beauty of classical art doesn’t get the likes flowing.
But still, these two things exist; and many more like them.
A more beautiful life is within reach of anyone with an internet connection.
This is something worth being thankful for.
Painting: Minerva and the Nine Muses, by Hendrick van Balen.