Renaissance
Art, Politics, and Changing Perspectives
Although both Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" and Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delight" present a vision of the end of time, and the fate of sinners, Michelangelo's work is filled with beautiful images of God and God's creation of heaven as well as hell, while Bosch's grotesque images of the Northern Renaissance are horrifying without any alleviating, heartening perspective of the goodness of the creation of Man.
Thus, the same image, in this case that of judgment, can convey entirely different world perspectives, depending on that image's location in historical time and the view of the artist. Think of the fun 1980s teenage movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," where the innocent truants go to the World Trade Center Towers at the movie's climax, and look out at the world from above, feeling young and free, as if nothing can harm them. Today, the images of the Towers seem like images of tragedy, or even of human folly. Who could ever think that they could stand forever, now? When the Towers are shown in a movie theater, there is a hush throughout the audience.
Images of adolescent itself are no longer as carefree and fun as they were during the decade when Ferris Bueller was such a cultural icon. Today, the teens of television shows like the OC are cynical beyond their years, rather than careless about their future. Also, the image of the World Trade Towers has become a loaded cultural symbol for both liberals and conservatives. For liberals such as Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11, the Towers symbolize the Republican establishment's stupidity (as President Bush does not even react to the bombing while it happens, but continues reading a children's book) while for conservatives, the bombing of the Towers represents the failure of diversity and tolerance, and the need to return to the supposed true, core American values of Christianity and insularity. The Towers that once symbolized the New York skyline for all New Yorkers now divide Americans on the right and left.
