From the passing of the Age
The word age has a multitude of meanings. It can refer to the amount of time something has spent in existance, or to something which has been around for many years. It can mean a seperation of time for man, or the seperation of time itself.
When we speak of the ages of man, one is generally referring to Shakespeare's seven ages of man. They are, in order:
Infant,
Childhood,
Lover,
Soldier,
Justice,
Old Age,
Serenity,
With each age one moves progressively away from dependence and into wisdom, from simple desires to complex desires, and from easy living to a life of challenge.
These ages, very similarly, can be applied to a society or culture. Generally, however, when one speaks of the ages of a culture they are fewer. One of the most common presentations was done by Thomas Cole, in his famous Course of Empire paintings. From the Pastoral state, to a great empire, and then to destruction, but from destruction comes a new pastoral state.
The idea of ages of man or of empire is very mythic, stemming both from the idea of regeneration and the cyclical nature of reality, but also from the mythic tendency to divinde things. In most myth the powers of the world are not one God, but rather a collection of Gods, each with their own realm. Journeys are not simple, instead taking place in a dozen steps across a variety of landscape.
We often spend time looking for the divinding line between ages. Yeats said it occurred every two thousand years, with a woman and a bird (the problem I have with this is that it requires some sort of external power to make sure that the woman and the bird end up together at the right time, something I find a little tenious, as there is no evidence of this specific power). Others seperate ages by the types of tools used, thus paleolithic and neolithic, iron and bronze.
Whatever we believe, every age tells a story, and every story fills an age, and then some.
When we speak of the ages of man, one is generally referring to Shakespeare's seven ages of man. They are, in order:
Infant,
Childhood,
Lover,
Soldier,
Justice,
Old Age,
Serenity,
With each age one moves progressively away from dependence and into wisdom, from simple desires to complex desires, and from easy living to a life of challenge.
These ages, very similarly, can be applied to a society or culture. Generally, however, when one speaks of the ages of a culture they are fewer. One of the most common presentations was done by Thomas Cole, in his famous Course of Empire paintings. From the Pastoral state, to a great empire, and then to destruction, but from destruction comes a new pastoral state.
The idea of ages of man or of empire is very mythic, stemming both from the idea of regeneration and the cyclical nature of reality, but also from the mythic tendency to divinde things. In most myth the powers of the world are not one God, but rather a collection of Gods, each with their own realm. Journeys are not simple, instead taking place in a dozen steps across a variety of landscape.
We often spend time looking for the divinding line between ages. Yeats said it occurred every two thousand years, with a woman and a bird (the problem I have with this is that it requires some sort of external power to make sure that the woman and the bird end up together at the right time, something I find a little tenious, as there is no evidence of this specific power). Others seperate ages by the types of tools used, thus paleolithic and neolithic, iron and bronze.
Whatever we believe, every age tells a story, and every story fills an age, and then some.
posted by J.M.R. Burgard | 5:05 PM
1 Comments:
Interesting series of paintings, but frankly a little frustrating because as the stages progress the perspectives change slightly, and while the pointed bluff remains a constant, buildings and other landmarks seem to spontaneously generate and vanish (compare the last two; the supposed ruins of the civilization are not in the same places and/or are sized differently than the buildings they were supposed to be).
This nitpick brought to you by you friendly local Amateur Art Critic With Too Much Time On Her Hands
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