#Culture_Crit

[thatshowthingstarted]

"The Release from Deception,"

Carved from a single block of marble, it depicts a fisherman being released from netting by an angel, allegorical to the man being liberated from his sins.

So intricate was the work that 18th-century philosopher Giangiuseppe Origlia described it as “the last and most trying test to which sculpture in marble can aspire.”

Queirolo worked alone on his magnum opus, without an assistant or even a workshop. Even other sculptors refused to touch the delicate net in case it broke into pieces in their hands.

The masterpiece is housed at the Sansevero Chapel in Naples, with several other miracles of marble. Namely, "The Veiled Christ" (1753) by Giuseppe Sanmartino and "The Veiled Truth" (1750) by Antonio Corradini.

Francesco Queirolo (1752-1759)

Credit: @Culture_Crit

[ivanseledkin]

RT @Culture_Crit: In your opinion, when did we peak?

[welele]

Someone explain this. pic.twitter.com/klNYnYht8b

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 16, 2023

¿Un partidillo de bádminton?

[orionsangel86]

How are you "old times were so much better" and ai is great at the same time?

https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1657503766030032896?s=20

Pick a.strugggle

Am I being punked?

Why am I getting such random anons? I dont even know what you're talking about and that links to an old tweet where the video has been deleted so it provides zero context.

If I get any more bullshit in my inbox that doesnt specifically relate to either:

1. A fandom I am actively involved in.

2. A message specifically related to something I have posted about recently (and if not recent please at least provide context to the post so I can remember).

3. To send me nice messages, praises, gifts, crabs, or just support in general.

Then I'm no longer answering and will instead delete the ask and/or block the asker.

You have been warned!

[chillaxconsciousness]

Bernini is #Overrated

enduring relevance & classical art

written by z0e ⋆˙⟡♡

After rea Rachelle Hampton’s article, The Black Feminists Who Saw the Alt-Right Threat Coming, her analysis of the complete failure of mainstream media to identify the rising threat of alt-right trolls and online extremism spread through blatant misinformation campaigns are unfortunately echoed through many other subsections of the internet. 

Last month, the section of Twitter I found myself a part of had one of Bernini’s iconic sculptures at the centre of mass debate. I found myself beginning to feel like the women from Hampton’s article–it was clearly a bait tweet, one that tries to make the viewer feel angry or inadequate for a reaction. It was when I realised that the tweet had over 500 million views that my attention was drawn in. @Culture_Crit tweeted “A 23 year old sculpted this. What’s your excuse?” paired with a picture of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture entitled The Rape of Proserpina. 

Upon first glance, one might simply disregard the tweet but as user @theobromic_ replies, “bernini was raised by an established sculptor acquainted with the pope himself and was brought to rome at age 8 to receive the best training one could ask for in renaissance italy, never needing to study or work in any other field” and makes an excellent point. The art world–which has been consistently gatekept by classism and money–marks its elitism through this type of socially manipulative behaviour in which glorification of the classical world becomes harmful. This projection of modern-day identity politics onto classical works is found at both ends of the political spectrum, but is used predominantly in right-leaning, trad-fascist online groups to promote an ‘idealised’ idea of a white-supremacist society. 

As Dr. Futo-Kennedy explains, there are structural elements within the field of classical studies to support and maintain whiteness, such as success in relation to language knowledge, the apologetic approach to slavery in the ancient world from a 19th-century European worldview, and the continued practice of using textbooks and dictionaries that were created during the 1800s where deeply rooted ideologies of European superiority become intertwined with the teaching of the subject. 

With a deeper glance into Culture_Crit’s profile, we begin to see these themes of white supremacy begin to surface. The January 12th tweet reflects more than just an expression of lost value in the creation of art, tweet after tweet expressing their hatred for modern art and architecture, promoting their lovingness to right-wing Christian ideologies and associating contemporary art with a diabolical left. Due to these foundations to the field being so deeply rooted in ideas of whiteness, these actions are continuously enabled. By guising their opinions as missing ‘what we once had’, Culture_Crit, like many others, is able to hide behind a false idea of cultural perseverance while promoting white supremecist ideologies. 

In a later post, Culture_Crit compares Giuseppe Sanmartino’s sculpture, Veiled Christ, to Duchamp’s Fountain, captioning it as “Art in a religious society [compared to] ‘Art’ in a Godless society.”

Known by some as the face of Dadaism, Duchamp’s anti-war sentiments expressed in his early modernist work clearly still baffles audiences today, but Culture_Crit’s tweet is more than just a critique of the technical aspects of modernist art. Fountain is a rejection of European values during the early 20th-century, and its traditions. The authority, violence, racism, nationalism and capitalist society is exactly what Duchamp wanted to reject, and is something that makes many like Culture_Crit uncomfortable. Art like Duchamp’s, and the thousands of artists that would come to follow, through their work challenge these systems and attempt to uproot these long-held beliefs by rattling the art world, which in turn affects all of the media we consume. 

When approaching Culture_Crit’s tweet through a critical lens, clear discrepancies begin to emerge. But this is not always the case with an online viewership. Very quickly and very easily can viewers be swept up into these deep spirals of hatred that initially mask themselves as valid sources of critique. 

works cited

brb z0e ⋆˙⟡♡

[msamba]

Culture Critic  | What are some perfectly preserved medieval towns that are like stepping back in time? Here are a few... 🧵

2. San Gimignano, Italy Medieval Italy is perhaps best known for its towers. San Gimignano once had over 70 of them, not 14. They were built in competitive spirit with one another – families that built the tallest won the greatest status. pic.twitter.com/vUqV00rdZT — Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 27, 2024

[cosmicculturevulture]

the double helix staircase...

Some more images of the masterpiece: pic.twitter.com/1TmTSZkzaq— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) November 15, 2023

[vivid-pink10]

@Culture_Crit on X (ex-Twitter)

That’s really great deco. 😲

It’s mysterious space.

By "Neo-Mayan" of San Francisco

[beautyofmoonandstars]

https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1641554460508925954

[welele]

Just checking in on modern art... pic.twitter.com/5iuAkFkKiT

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) June 20, 2023

[vivid-pink10]

@Culture_Crit on Twitter

Wooooow, that’s magnificent!

😍🤩🌿💖🫶✨

Mi piace così.