Status Updates From The Rape of the Masters: Ho...

“But notwithstanding the caloric ecstasy of some of Rubens's personages, we shouldn't discount the extraordinary elegance of some of his painting.” What if I told you it’s the fatness that makes Rubens worth looking at

“It used to be that we studied history, including art history, in order to broaden our horizons, to challenge our preconceptions, to get beyond the narrow confines of our present-day culture. That is, we endeavored as far as possible to put aside our contemporary values and prejudices in order to understand the (often very different) world of the past.” Now Roger certainly you don’t actually believe that?

“It is amusing to contemplate what Courbet would have thought of Professor Fried’s interpretation of his work.” Does Roger Kimball really think academics should be writing poetic odes to good art and laying them at the feet of artists like crowns of laurels? Is that what he thinks scholarship is for?

Quoting perfectly intelligible passages of theory and then saying “Now what do you suppose that means?” makes you look like an idiot, Roger