Viewpoints
Opinion

Older Art Focused on the Beautiful, Modern Art Often Looks at the Disturbing

Older Art Focused on the Beautiful, Modern Art Often Looks at the Disturbing
"Virgin and Child" by Dierec Bouts circa 1455-1460. Metropolitan Museum of Art via Wikimedia Commons/public domain
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Commentary

Notwithstanding the recent disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are still very fortunate by the standards of all previously existing human populations. Those, however, aren’t the standards by which we judge our own condition. Instead, we compare it with some ideal normal, a perfection, which never has existed and never will exist.

Theodore Dalrymple
Theodore Dalrymple
Author
Theodore Dalrymple is a retired doctor. He is contributing editor of the City Journal of New York and the author of 30 books, including “Life at the Bottom.” His latest book is “Embargo and Other Stories.”
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