Musing on "World Heritage Sites"

I have been perusing two "coffee table" books I got for Christmas:
The World Heritage Sites of UNESCO The Treasures of Art and The World Heritage Sites of UNESCO: Nature Sanctuaries. both by Marco Cattaneo and Jasmina Trifoni. As the titles state, both books are devoted to sites granted World Heritage status by UNESCO. Both are beautiful, and would grace the coffee table in any living room.

The first thing to strike me is how much greater the natural sites are than the man made ones. The Grand Canyon or Yellowstone would dwarf any of the buildings and in my opinion are infinitely more beautiful than the man made sites.

I was struck that the man made sites were most often palaces built by the very powerful to awe and impress with their power or religious sites also built under the authority of the very powerful to awe and impress. All too often these are the visible remains of political or cultural systems that were repressive and repugnant to me.

I will admit that often these sites are also the products of geniuses who were entrusted with their design and construction. Perhaps my favorite is the Last Supper of da Vinci which was built in the dining hall of a monastery and was intended to provide an image to promote devotional reflection among the monks -- perhaps the least ostentatious intent.

Great art is produced by artists who have to eat and who need the materials with which to practice their craft, and therefore who need financial sponsorship. So if great art is being produced it is often done under the patronage of the politically powerful or the religiously powerful who can command the resources.

Still, how wonderful is the Mona Lisa produced for a private patron and kept by the artist or the work of van Gogh who produced for himself and was unable to sell his work during his lifetime.

The more democratic and egalitarian cultures in world history no doubt have produced art, but I suspect a lot of it is intangible or if tangible less substantial than the pyramids of Egypt or the cathedrals of Europe, and likely to have perished over time.

It is only in our own time that a reasonable fraction of the world's population (largely limited to rich countries) can afford to purchase works of art and provide a market in which artists can support themselves. How fortunate I have been to live at a time when Ansel Adams could produce original prints of his great photographs at a price I could afford.