The Dance of Life
Taeho Paik
May 19, 2003
Preamble
Having lived in Australia for many years, I got used to the idea that the human being was essentially a pragmatic creature. Not that this always agreed with my own more sentimental character but I did appreciate certain aspects of its English that reflected the Australian state of mind. One of my favourites was “let’s get down to brass tacks”. Brass tacks being what are used to hold sheets of carpet onto the wooden floorboards in traditional Australian houses, one can interpolate the metaphor as saying let’s cut through the verbiage and get down to what's really holding things together. Another popular phrase was that something was of “good value”, meaning that satisfaction was gained at minimum cost. So I thought we could use these expressions in introducing a practical tone to our hallowed subject by suggesting we get down to brass tacks about the value of Humanism. What holds it together and how is it useful in any way? Above all how can we get to it with minimum effort?
Well, in truth, earnest scholars have been giving their all in the pursuit of topics related to these questions for generations and it is not my place to say I can provide ready answers in a mere essay. However in dealing with aesthetic knowledge, it might be useful in any case to indicate a personal path towards finding satisfying answers within a more limited scope of discourse. That is, try to show in a small way how Humanism might be interpreted in actual works of art and how Humanist and theological learnings are essential in formulating worthy subject matter. As for minimising the effort, this is a practical necessity arising not from a lack of thirst for knowledge but the reality of the modern working life that does not permit sufficient time for languid aesthetic musings. In this apologetic context, I would nevertheless like to share with our readers a notable moment of clarity. Certain observations led to an intuition about where Humanist Art might get its drive and where then it might want to go. Let me refer to the following painting by Nicholas Poussin called in Italian, La Danza della Vita (The Dance of Life). In English, the official title is given as "The Dance to the Music of Time".
I must admit that, for me, clarifications seldom occur without some outside help. If you click on the arrow below, we will go to the next page where the same image is annotated with notes that I have copied and translated from a very useful Italian reference book that I once casually came across called Simboli e Allegorie. The contents of this book pointed out certain formal things which seemed to pave the way for deeper understanding of our artistic heritage. Please click: >>
