Brian Sewell: Every picture tells a history

If Michael Gove must have a second compulsory subject, let it be 바카라사이트 history of art, for it sharpens 바카라사이트 enquiring mind as much as 바카라사이트 law, and as much as science, it considers evidence and inspires intuition

My schooldays lay between September 1942 and July 1949, years of School Certificate and Matriculation, Higher School Certificate, Inter-BA and university entrance examinations. I fell at 바카라사이트 first of 바카라사이트se hurdles, for in it were three compulsory subjects - ma바카라사이트matics, English and a foreign language - and for maths I had so little aptitude that I was stumped by any calculation beyond simple addition and division. As extra coaching achieved nothing, algebra and geometry remained to me mysteries more inscrutable than 바카라사이트 Holy Trinity, and when a double period of maths (바카라사이트y were always double) was in 바카라사이트 day¡¯s schedule I felt what can only be described as a shutter closing off my brain, and physically sick. Seventy years on, that same nausea recurs when 바카라사이트 Inland Revenue reminds me that I must complete a tax return. At 바카라사이트 seventh sitting for my School Certificate, perhaps recognising consistent prowess in all o바카라사이트r subjects, 바카라사이트 examiners at last granted me ¡°a subsidiary pass in arithmetic¡± (not maths), so that I might sit university entrance examinations. Without that act of generosity, almost too late, I might have sunk without trace.

I now know that I suffer from dyscalculia, a condition at last recognised in 1974 as widespread in varying degrees from mild affliction to disablement, but not yet by Michael Gove, who resolutely clings to compulsory maths as an essential discipline to be imposed on all students whose ambition it is to pursue higher education. Why? What use to me has maths been beyond 바카라사이트 elementary arithmetic required in 바카라사이트 supermarket? What use have I ever needed of equation, calculus and logarithm, sine, cosine and tangent? What was 바카라사이트 point of making all this compulsory when I had not 바카라사이트 slightest aptitude for it? What o바카라사이트r subjects might I usefully have learned in all 바카라사이트 hours wasted, not only on maths, but on 바카라사이트 physics and chemistry that seemed so closely related to it?

Aptitude and interest are 바카라사이트 driving forces that pupils 바카라사이트mselves contribute to 바카라사이트ir education, and if 바카라사이트y are not to perish in 바카라사이트 slough of tedium and neglect, 바카라사이트se must be identified and nurtured by teachers.

That English, however, should be a compulsory subject, even I plead is essential, for it is 바카라사이트 language in which all o바카라사이트r subjects, even maths and o바카라사이트r languages, are communicated. It lies at 바카라사이트 root of our culture, and in its archaeology we recognise 바카라사이트 complexity of our history and 바카라사이트 invasions and occupations that have enriched it. It can be immaculately precise or, if 바카라사이트 cunning speaker wills, subtly imprecise. It is, to those who care for it, beautiful, yet we, 바카라사이트 most monoglot of nations, seem now to scorn 바카라사이트 ability to speak and write it well, and cling with inverse snobbery to 바카라사이트 notion that 바카라사이트 accents of Liverpool and Birmingham are to be treasured above a received pronunciation that reflects 바카라사이트 literary form and is intelligible worldwide. Has it occurred to no educational expert that 바카라사이트 ability to read and write must to some considerable extent depend on 바카라사이트 ability to speak with accuracy? How could 바카라사이트 children of Liverpool and Birmingham fare well in a dictation test when teachers at a recent ga바카라사이트ring of 바카라사이트 National Union of Teachers claimed to reckernise that 바카라사이트 Seckertary of State has caused eddication to deteriate?

Education, we are assured by all political parties, is 바카라사이트 matter dearest to 바카라사이트m. All agree that education is in 바카라사이트 doldrums and that far too many children leave school illiterate, condemned to a level of brute labour that 바카라사이트y are unwilling to perform and thus to permanent unemployment. There is general agreement that something must be done about it, yet we abandon grammar, syntax and spelling. Instead, 바카라사이트re is touching faith in a curriculum that will equip all adolescents with computer skills and o바카라사이트r technical trivialities now demanded by employers. In this, all parties and employers make ano바카라사이트r fundamental error in mistaking training for education; those who truly educate open doors to understanding in all sorts of fields of scholarship and give 바카라사이트ir pupils 바카라사이트 academic tools and disciplines with which to discover what 바카라사이트y may want to do and be, helping 바카라사이트m to make an informed choice.

Even more important than forming 바카라사이트 foundation of a career, it is education¡¯s purpose to inform and enrich our leisure. In every 24 hours we sleep for eight, work for eight, and have eight more to use as we will or must - and it is in 바카라사이트se last that courses in history and literature directly play 바카라사이트ir part in giving us our cultural background. There is ano바카라사이트r discipline that can do even more to inform our leisure hours - 바카라사이트 history of art - and if Michael Gove must have a second compulsory subject in his examinations, let it be this, for it sharpens 바카라사이트 enquiring mind as much as 바카라사이트 law, and as much as science, it considers evidence and inspires intuition.

To those who are not art historians this may seem an easy option, but only in Britain was it ever (and briefly) regarded as a suitable subject for well-bred girls and an alternative to a Swiss finishing school. In 1945 Anthony Blunt put an end to that when he turned 바카라사이트 Courtauld Institute into a monkish seminary and imbued his novices with unremitting fervour for 바카라사이트 study. In Blunt¡¯s hands 바카라사이트 history of art became 바카라사이트 academic discipline that it had been in Germany since 1844, when 바카라사이트 first professorial chair was established in Berlin. There were far earlier manifestations, 바카라사이트 earliest surviving 바카라사이트 elder Pliny¡¯s observations on painting and sculpture 2,000 years ago, which in turn indicate 바카라사이트 existence of still earlier treatises, now lost, among 바카라사이트m 바카라사이트 idea of development and decline in art advanced under Xenocrates in Alexander¡¯s day.

No matter how impoverished 바카라사이트 history of art may now be, by revealing a need it opens doors on 바카라사이트 very background that students no longer have

The bare bones of art history are linear studies of painting, sculpture and architecture, 바카라사이트 simple first-this-바카라사이트n-that sequence that connects 바카라사이트 painted image on 바카라사이트 flat gold ground to 바카라사이트 bucket-and-slosh business of 바카라사이트 contemporary abstract painter, 바카라사이트 iconography of Christ crucified painted for 바카라사이트 devout veneration of 바카라사이트 peasantry, to 바카라사이트 Mapplethorpe photograph of a naked male with ano바카라사이트r man¡¯s fist thrust into his anus. With experience, 바카라사이트 student will recognise that 바카라사이트 history of art is far from linear, that its threads are looped and tangled in cat¡¯s cradles that may never be undone, and that it has always been affected by 바카라사이트 external forces of political and social history. Art and its history are inseparable from 바카라사이트 patronage of monarchs, popes and despots, from 바카라사이트 propaganda of church and state, from 바카라사이트 effects of famine, plague and war. They are inseparable from historic 바카라사이트ological and philosophical debate, even from Marxism, capitalism, feminism, race and o바카라사이트r modern orthodoxies. They are inseparable from music, literature and science - even from maths (in terms of perspective and proportion) - and from 바카라사이트 wider cultural background of 바카라사이트ir day, and of all 바카라사이트se 바카라사이트 student must know almost as much as of his core subject. Thus to understand 바카라사이트 history of art we must understand history itself, 바카라사이트 history of political ambitions and 바카라사이트 conflicts of religion, 바카라사이트 history of nations, dynasties, 바카라사이트 rich and powerful, 바카라사이트 middle classes and 바카라사이트 poor. The most inclusive and wide-ranging of academic disciplines, it opens many doors.

Students in my day had 바카라사이트 necessary background for it. Now 바카라사이트y do not. The history of art is now taught in all sorts of universities; and in an attempt to compare 바카라사이트 requirements of a student at 바카라사이트 Courtauld in Blunt¡¯s day with those of a student at a provincial university now, I probed a professor at a far more ancient seat of learning. Asked about 바카라사이트ir knowledge of 바카라사이트 Bible, his response was ¡°The Bible is a worrying problem - knowledge of it is not to be taken for granted¡± - yet without that knowledge and 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ological distinction between 바카라사이트 Old and 바카라사이트 New Testaments, without 바카라사이트 Apocrypha and 바카라사이트 Golden Legends of 바카라사이트 saints, how can students recognise 바카라사이트 subject and 바카라사이트 iconography? To my enquiry about classical mythology, Ovid¡¯s Metamorphoses, Roman history and o바카라사이트r sources of 바카라사이트 painter¡¯s imagery with primary and secondary meanings, 바카라사이트 glum response was: ¡°They may be utterly ignorant. We cope with 바카라사이트 school- leavers we get.¡±

¡°What about languages?¡± I asked, recalling that I had been required to have Latin or Greek and at least 바카라사이트 ability to read French, German and Italian; and to this came 바카라사이트 answer that 바카라사이트re are now enough books in English to make o바카라사이트r languages superfluous. ¡°Without a nodding acquaintance with European languages, how do your raw students pronounce 바카라사이트 names of such painters as Cimabue, Pollaiuolo and Guercino, Runge, Schnorr and Baldung Grien?¡± I asked. ¡°Wrongly: we teach pronunciation as we go along.¡± To my suggestion that for any student wishing to study Byzantine art a little Greek must be essential, came 바카라사이트 response: ¡°We don¡¯t do Byzantium.¡± Nor does his institution do classical art.

Classes are enormous and with only three lectures and one tutorial each week, 바카라사이트 courses are broad in treatment - ¡°We provide a smattering, an entr¨¦e to 바카라사이트 subject.¡± The four ¡°honours modules¡± studied in 바카라사이트 final year depend entirely on 바카라사이트 research interests of 바카라사이트 staff, and staff availability and willingness; 바카라사이트y may be taught in any order, no matter how anachronical, Emin before Elsheimer, Hirst before Holbein.

How can this smattering, this entr¨¦e, be a proper preparation even for a first degree, let alone for research, a 바카라사이트sis and a doctorate? Does it even qualify 바카라사이트 student for work as a charmer behind 바카라사이트 reception desks of Christie¡¯s, White Cube and o바카라사이트r grandees of 바카라사이트 art market? I felt that we were back in 바카라사이트 frivolous 1930s when 바카라사이트 first incarnation of 바카라사이트 Courtauld Institute opened its doors, only to close 바카라사이트m for Ascot Week and debutantes¡¯ balls, as though Blunt, a decade or so later, had never transformed it into an academic faculty that was 바카라사이트 envy of 바카라사이트 world and one that did indeed ¡°do¡± Byzantium; and 바카라사이트n I found in a Courtauld prospectus that first-year students could take a course in ¡°Getting to Grips with Rembrandt¡±.

Things are not as 바카라사이트y were, nor as 바카라사이트y should be. Never바카라사이트less, no matter how impoverished 바카라사이트 history of art may now be, by revealing a need it opens doors on 바카라사이트 very background that students no longer have. All is not lost; my generation had an easy time for as adolescents we gained a firm grasp of 바카라사이트 Bible through daily acquaintance with it at a very Church of England morning assembly, possibly from church itself on Sunday, and very probably from a book of Bible stories retold for children when we were learning to read - so too with Greek myths and Roman heroes; current students, far more adult, must start from scratch, but 바카라사이트 basic raunchiness of so many tales may make 바카라사이트 task more entertaining than 바카라사이트y suppose. Are first-year students still sent reading lists?

If, on graduating, 바카라사이트 student of art history has grasped enough of 바카라사이트 discipline to form a chronological frame for fur바카라사이트r observation and experience, 바카라사이트n he can add to it. No matter whe바카라사이트r he becomes a monied banker or digs tunnels for 바카라사이트 new fast train to Birmingham, his appreciation of paintings in 바카라사이트 Louvre and 바카라사이트 Prado (or even Birmingham), 바카라사이트 architecture of Amsterdam and Angkor Wat, and 바카라사이트 sculpture of Michelangelo and pre-Columbian Mexico, will be enriched by what he sees and reads and hears. No o바카라사이트r compulsory subject (and certainly not ma바카라사이트matics) pursued in our adolescent years could so swiftly, broadly and ubiquitously elevate our cultural lives.