Someone once said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Someone also said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, the artist’s brush is more powerful than the pen and the sword. Throughout history artists have always been asking questions, looking for answers. They have never been satisfied with leaving things alone. It has always compelled them to be creative-to take nothing and make something out of it. They have been creating over and over again all of human’s imaginings. The artist has made the unseen seen and given visual image and form to humankind’s feelings and thoughts. Tv storyboard aim is to give audiences here at home and around the world more of the emotion, entertainment and enrichment we all crave.
The story of the artists began in the Altamira caves near Santander, Spain, sometime between 15000 and 8000 BC. This is where the first known painting was discovered. In the cave is a painting of a great Bison on the ceiling of a long, narrow corridor. However it does not stand alone, there is a whole herd of animals surging across the roof and overlapping each other. There are horses, boars and mammals depicted. Archeologists believe it was painted by our Paleolithic ancestors. However you wish to portray the prehistoric painting, you must admit it was done with passion. We may never know the significance of the cave paintings, but it seems as if they served some ritualistic purpose. Could they have been painted by the first priest-artists?
Oddly enough, a long time passes before painting rises to the quality of the cave art of the stone ages. It was the Egyptians and their love for the terrestrial world and belief that its pleasures could not possibly end with death that prompted the great art of the burial tombs. Was this art from the role of the priest-artist propagating a religious message?
Indeed, a priest-artist has always been a powerful instrument for survival of primitive people, calling on him to cure all the ills with his masks, fetishes and magic objects (all created art). He was also expected to avert disaster and attract luck, romance and whatever the tribe desired. Consider the Coatlique, the Aztec Goddess of Death, with its belt of skulls, its death-head face, and I am certain you will agree that it is one of the most horrendous image of terror ever created by an artist’s hand.
Artists have used their art in the function as protectors, teachers and profits for thousands of years. Consider the great masks and carved figures of Africa, or the peace and tranquility radiating for centuries from the Kuan of China. The shaman masks of Northwest America, of Japan and the Pacific islands are all examples of artists using their talent to propagate their beliefs.
During the Middle Ages, Christianity was the refuge and faith of millions of people. The artist poured his religious feelings into his art. The popular art of the time in the Holy Roman Empire were religious paintings, statues and stained glass windows. The church turned to the artists to reach masses of people. What would the world of Christianity be without the Madonnas of Fra Angelico, or the great characters of Michelangelo? It’s hard to imagine.
Emperors and popes enlisted the greatest artists of their time for projects during the heyday of the Renaissance. Popes Julius II and Paul III fought the Medici for the services of Michelangelo. Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire is said to have held the brushes for the artist, Titian, while sitting for his portrait.
In conclusion: Artists have played many magnificent roles on the stage of history. Powerful leaders have long recognized the power of the artist’s creativity, knowing the artist’s brush is mightier than the sword. Throughout history artists have assisted in helping the will and cause of religious leaders, popes, emperors, dictators and even governments to persuade the minds of the masses. In many cases, they were happy to do so.
Whatever the artists goals, however, they can not help themselves. They must create. They have no choice. They simply must take nothing and make something out of it. If their passion is a movement, they naturally will use their art to help propagate that movement. It is as simple as the belief by the magnificent artists of the Hudson River School who painted landscapes because they believed that depicting nature was God’s purest message to the world.
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