hey red, ive been asking on all your posts for weeks now, and i shall ask again today. 😅may i get the bacchae please? hell at this point ill take a history maker: euripedes blue help! red sensei pleasseeee
I just love that the intro is Blue justifying his choices of people to discuss with this series. It's great. It has the same energy as Red suddenly realizing that she could talk about Eclipses cause it's her Channel.
As someone that went to art school and is a professional illustrator, this is the best art history lesson I've heard, and this is awesome, but also a reflection on how terrible my art history classes were, and they were bad
Pro tip: don't read reviews of visual art in the New York Review of Books or the London Review of Books. They are full of meaningless bafflegab, and if they don't trigger you they will annoy and frustrate you.
Same here in part. Until Impressionism we did learn a lot of historical background like this, but by Modernism it was like all the articles knew were the author's own words and not how the history *they are in* shaped each thing even subconciously. Started to feel more like a class of how to write a gallery blurb under the piece.
@@FaelumbreProject That sounds better than what i did, we were shown and told to memorize a slide show and tested on that, to even think that was college level history?? There was no analysis, no thought, no conversation, no replication to learn the techniques, it was duller than my high school art history lessons
@@LujeAldwaldthis is so sad. Even my local community college did better than that. I didn’t care for the works we were asked to examine, but I did get to write a multipage paper on a sculptor (and his work) of my own choice. My instructor likely never wants to hear the artists name uttered ever again. 😂😂😂😂
Between Blue saying "My domain is endless and my authority is absolute", him emphasizing art as a means to understand the culture that created it, and literally being called blue, I think that he may be Grand Admiral Thrawn preparing to conquer Earth for the Chiss Ascendency. I for one welcome our new Chiss overlords
@@mialemon6186 Nah. We got to figure out Red's role in all this then make the buddy comedy series about the two of them. I'd vote for Red just being a math major that ended up finding Blue/Thrawn out in the woods and ending up roped into his schemes.
Blue is to history makers what the block mom is to the kids of the street: you can have drinks and treats until you become a reason that you should be kicked out.
Desolation is my second-favorite painting of all time, and there's an element that I'm surprised Blue didn't mention. Dotted across the landscape, the remnants of former civilizations don't just use a singular architectural style - there's Mycenaean, Athenian, Classic and late Roman, and other such Mediterranean influences spread across the canvas. This is not a single cycle - this is where it all ends. The birth and death and rise and fall and birth and death and rise and fall and birth and rise and fall - it always leads to this. Desolation.
"The kind of art that never lets go" Uh yeah new favorite historical painter unlocked. Ty Blue for unlocking a new part of the historical skill tree for me
I feel like I suddenly understand so much more about American painting, now. Were the later, embarrassing, Hudson River School allegory paintings, and the cringey old state seals, attempts to emulate Cole's nuanced and subtle allegories?
Hi Blue! We actually talked about the Oxbow as a historical document in my Forest ecology course in Grad School! Because of how detailed his paintings are we can use them to understand what forest structure in New England was like in early America.
I really like how the Old landscape slowly moves from its original location focusing more on the river in the Second Painting ( Since yanno rivers are centers of civilization and when a substantial amount of people appear the painting moves)
This series of paintings really seems to be one of the best case scenarios in terms of the effects of the Grand Tour. Here is a guy who, having travelled and seen historical places, realises that being able to see those physical places can create a different understanding to that given by reading history books. And it works so well. Recently I had an incredibly moving experience in relation to historical depiction. I was visiting a ruined priory, which I'd never heard about but happened to see on a map with a convenient bus route, and really just expected it to be an interesting location for a walk. There were information board in different sections of the ruins, each having an artist's depiction of what this place might have looked like 800 years ago - not just architecturally, but in use as a place of education, worship, and a communal home. Seeing these pictures, whilst standing in the ruins, overtaken with grass and flowers, made me cry for what was lost. I had never felt that before, and it made me viscerally understand the significance of the dissolution of the monasteries in a way that studying it three different times at school never had.
I've studied Cole for my Bachelor's thesis! Regarding the "split" landscape: it's more split into the Sublime and the Picturesque. The Sublime being awe-inducing, mighty and scary. The Picturesque being pretty, tame, etc. The Course of Empire is moreso an argument for a pastoral mode of living. On the painting showing this pastoral nature behind the mountain in the back another, higher mountain can be seen.
As someone who once wrote a college paper on the Course of Empire, this was uniquely fascinating to watch. First of all as a way to see all the things I missed during my (admittedly much less observant) college days, but also to truly appreciate how much work Thomas Cole put into these paintings. 13 years later they still haven't left my head, and it was a welcome surprise to learn more through this video.
That's such an aptly made connection! I even watched Red's recent video but I never would have noticed their thematic similarities until I read your comment!
Thomas Cole for years has been my favorite painter. His details and expanse of nature, man and ego and history always been breath taking. I was lucky when I was younger to see his artwork . And now to see him finally talked about by my favorite RUclips channel means so much.
Cole is my favorite painter and I've had opportunity to see a number of his works in person. What's truly amazing is how well he communicates scale. This seems like it should be trivial for any decent painter, but few ever get the proportion of human to nature right. Even Bierstadt, a more technically sound painter IMO, couldn't make the humans in his paintings "sit" the right way. They always stand out or are featured. The people in Cole's works are rarely the subject and even when they are (such as his Last of the Mohicans paintings) they're de-emphasized. Hell, even in Consummation and Destruction the people give way to the architecture. It's only through sheer numbers that they dominate the canvas. Which may have been the point.
I was not anticipating the realization of the foreshadowing of the empire's demise and the pain that brings to the people caught up in the destruction to be followed by "Damn, poor one out for Mario," but I absolutely love it
This was like when I go on museum toures with my art history major friend. They info dump all the small metaphores I otherwise would have missed. Or when you get an actual person as the guided tour at a museum since they have much more enthusiasum than a recording of some facts could have . This video really felt like a conversation. :) Thank you Blue for this
I’ve seen the painting ‘Destruction’ so many times, but I never knew it was supposed to be an imaginary event. I’d probably have said the sack of Rome if pressed to answer what I thought it was depicting.
I always knew that the painting was allegorical and not depicting Rome or Greece or any real Empire but I never noticed the Red vs Green foreshadowing and that the Fall was a civil war. Very cool.
Holy hell, Coles' "The Oxbow" actually seems to contain him making "the Oxbow". The man really was a master of his craft. (A non-statement but I stand by it.)
That's such a great point! In that way, "The Oxbow" is Thomas Cole's equivalent of Diego Velazquez’s "Las Meninas," as a great painting that shows the painter in the act of painting the painting the viewer is currently marveling at. A sort of Meta-Masterpiece if you will!
@@colinneagle4495 It does give this impression of looking through a window into the situation the composition is some how very alive. I think they theorized that Velazquez used a mirror for it. With the Oxbow I am impressed by the size of the detail and the fact it is still able to convey what he is painting, though I might be wrong in regard to what painting he is painting in the painting. Painting.
The part of the video visually describing the Course of Empires is some of the most evocative writing I've ever seen on this channel. I bet someone who's never seen the paintings could envision something very close to them just by your descriptions. Excellent work. And, semi-relatedly, giving me high hopes for the prosaic quality of the Veneziad!
How serendipitous! I'm currently listening to WAMC, the public radio station based in Albany that covers the Hudson Valley, interviewing staff from the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Apparently there's a new visitor's center and other renovations at Thomas Cole's estate in Catskill, NY, changes that better showcase the surrounding scenery of the Hudson River and Catskill Mtns.
I first heard about Thomas Cole as an art student, and I thought that he was under appreciated for an artist of his talent and influence, so I'm glad to hear that his artistic legacy is still being celebrated!
I really like both of you focusing on what you think is interesting, even if it might not quite fit in with what you might be expected to do. The videos are great and your passion shines through.
Thomas Cole told the story of every empire in five amazing works of art and those works allows to understand the rise and fall of empires Thomas Cole you sure were a madlad
It's so interesting to examine these works from the perspective of a guy who just arrived at the birth of the new Rome. The new nation thinks itself different, and predictably follows the exact same path, progressively paving over nature more and more, and eventually making it's great wealth through the subjugation of others. It makes one wonder how far away that desolation phase is for us...
_"eventually making it's great wealth through the subjugation of others"_ That's an oversimplification. The majority of the United States' wealth or prosperity wasn't plundered; it was created through ingenuity and cooperation. For just a few examples, consider Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates. Your statement also overlooks the sacrifices that the United States has made to end subjugation, both inside and outside its borders. The Civil War and World War II are the most significant examples of this.
@@mvmlego1212 You are correct that it is a simplification, because it was a remark on the person, not a class on global politics. Your additional beliefs about why it was incorrect are factually misguided though. The ways in which a society contrives it's social controls, the ways it conducts war, and the exact methods by which it enacts injustice on others to serve it's selfish goals change over time, but the basic patterns are all still there. I didn't say they "plundered" because that word more specifically refers to the old methods of extracting wealth from subjugating others, which as I said, have changed. If you think that market capitalism doesn't subjugate and exploit people in this country and others, then you are not yet at an education level concerning economics and anthropological concerns on globalization to comment on the subject. If you think that Bill Gates "earned" his wealth by simply being born smarter than everyone then the propaganda of US market capitalism has worked.
@@yeahbutwhy8788 The story with the US is a lot more subtle for sure. "Slavery" is "illegal", but people can be bound by the situation the system forces them into, generating tens of thousands for the company they work for and receiving only enough to keep them coming back for more. We had more free time as hunter gatherers and were sometimes better fed too, but that lifestyle doesn't make the machine spin, so it's being stamped out everywhere around the world. Cultures are dying because the concept of someone living their lives peacefully and freely doesn't suit the need to appease the great slot machine the US is to other countries. They don't "conquest", but they send troops across the ocean to fight proxy wars "on behalf" of other countries, who are now subjects in a proximal way. It's not an "empire", but it maintains control of countries through brute forcing (Japan), or the fear of retaliation (South Korea).
As much as I'd love to think that, the United States was made on slavery, subjugation, and genocide. You don't conquer a continent and become a world superpower without commiting some seriously fucked up acts. These aren't things of the past either, the US still exploits it's citizens and people all around the world. Yes, there was ingenuity and intelligence in the history and that's important to celebrate and remember, but it shouldn't blot out the atrocities. Remembering both is important if we want to be better in the future.@@mvmlego1212
Funny story - I learned about Thomas Cole from a practice SAT test’s reading section lol, where the passage author described Cole’s paintings so passionately and excitedly that I had to go look him up when I got home. He’s probably my favorite painter ever now, this Course of Empire series and particularly his Life of Man series (which you should totally check out because it’s incredible) are soo cool to me and strike that perfect balance of beautiful art and deep meaning
This is one of your best recent videos, and that's no small comparison. Starting with a single landscape, then exploring The Course of Empire, and ending on Cole's reflections on the politics of an expanding America really made your conclusion hit like a truck. Definitely a new favorite, and I can't wait to see more atypical historians show up in this series!
I think its interesting also how nature (Green) was taken over by the people (the red, the solider in red in the second painting) to the red in their hight of power but to have the green faction in the fourth painting appear to be wining against the red, as seen through the children in the third and the old men in the fourth. How in the end nature took its place back and was able to make the landscape green once again.
It really is spot-on to describe Thomas Cole's paintings as getting their hooks into your brain. The Course of Empire is a series which you never forget.
Many years ago, I took an interdisciplinary college course -- 9 semester units! -- that combined western civ 1, art history, and world literature. It was THE most interesting class I ever took in history, because it kept shifting around to look at stuff from a whole new perspective. Such as what we know of prehistory coming from prehistoric art such as venus figurines and bird sculptures, how medieval stained glass and signage icons were the literature of a mostly illiterate society, and how the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance reflected the Reformation and the the influx of classical Greek myths and Islamic influences. So it is not only perfectly sensible to look at a group of artists or a period of art to understand history, it is weird that this is not done far more often.
Seeing “The Oxbow” in this video brings back fond memories of a really awesome high school English class lesson where we were using what we had learned about Romanticism in literature like Frankenstein and applying it to Romantic paintings as a genre and analyzing how their symbolism and social commentary connected to what we were reading as well as how they evoked certain emotions in comparison to how Romantic writers did. Good stuff.
It makes sense that you would cover historical artists as well as writers, considering that so much art was used to convey ideas and stories for people who couldn't read or write. To leave them out would be to keep history incomplete. Definitely enjoyed this video, I'd never heard of Thomas Cole and now I'm off to learn more.
Excellent episode. The Amsterdam City Museum we visited this year began with paintings and had some good information from the curators about how art can inform history, but that one has to consider the artist's motivations and the patron's motivations. A painting of the city might look like a photo, but isn't one (and even a photographer makes decisions about what to photograph)
Feels like we’re getting spoiled hearing Blue discuss something as late as the 1800s and in America! He’s really stepping outside his preferred historical era and region of the world. Feels like Christmas in August.
I must have seen nearly everything you folks have put out over the last decade or so..... and this is def one of my favorites. I had never heard of Thomas Cole before but now I am incredibly moved by this series of paintings. Thank you for bringing us something very beautiful and illuminating to view and think on!
I felt genuine tears welling up at the description of Destruction, only to be whipped right back into laughing at a Nintendo reference. That was a bold choice of tonal whiplash, but at least for me it worked, so well done!
Watching this and seeing Cole's artwork, I got a sense of "I've seen these before" despite not having seen the paintings pictured. Then it hit me! I actually work at an art museum that DOES HAVE TWO OF COLE'S PAINTINGS! Specifically "The Garden of Eden" and "The Hunter's Return". Seeing his paintings in life and how detailed they are is pretty different than seeing them in books or videos like this one. Also because they are so finely detailed, it can make being a gallery attendant a little tricky because folks wanna get up SUPER close to see such details....
Thank you so much for making this video Blue! Thomas Cole has been one of my favorite artists ever since my AP art history class. Although I love his paintings I didn't know much about his life. So I'm very glad you expanded upon the details.
You made this Illustrator (someone who's painting influences trace to the same roots that'd influence the kind of neoclassical style this guy is using) very happy
Thomas Cole is my absolute favorite artist. And the Course of Empires are my favorite paintings. I have them decorating my bedroom. Thanks for doing this video, I didn’t noticed so many details you pointed out in the video.
Thomas Cole is currently my congressman. I had no idea he was such an accomplished artist. Okay, I'd never heard of this artist, and it's interesting that you took the time to memorialize him. He reminds me of Rudyard Kipling, the poet of Imperialism, who also at the peak of Jingoism wrote "Recessional," an ode about the collapse of British imperialism.
Fascinating. I’m not well schooled in art or art history, but I am quite stunned and intrigued by both the paintings and the evolving ‘story’ behind them. Thanks Blue!
I've been to art shows, and so little does anything for me. But THIS Does it for me. The Course of Empire Series is AWESOME. It stirs up that feeling of nostalgia for a time I've never experienced. Wonderful stuff.
I always wanted this painting series on my walls on the stairs, so that you can - while walking up - look at the different phases... thanks for this, love to know more about fascinating stuff! 😃
As an art historian who's used OS for years, I'm thrilled to have a splash of some artist analysis. I've always hoped for some art history videos! The Course of Empire series is STUNNING in person. If you ever catch them on exhibit, absolutely worth the trip.
(Basement level) Game writer here, and I very much appreciate someone putting some art history into perspective for me. Old landscape paintings usually don't do much for me, so this kind of point by point breakdown of *why* this guy was so rad and the story he's telling in these projects helps fill in the gaps that my weird visual processing just misses. Even if I can't make this kind of art myself, there's a nontrivial chance I could describe something with a similar progression now. (I'm aware with practice I technically could learn to draw, but I have other skills I'm more interested in honing.)
Just a few months ago I was at the national gallery and saw the Departure and Return, and also the Stages of life. The Return had held my attention for ages and it’s so cool that so soon after that for me I get to watch one of my favorite RUclips channels do something on this amazing artist. Truly striking work
Yes, I've seen those paintings at the National Gallery as well! I only wish that the "Course of Empire" paintings where at a larger museum that could perhaps better promote his work. As I recall, the series is in the collection of a small private museum. Selfishly perhaps, I like my favorite art and artists to be in big museums where more people can see and study them.
✨Space Cat, SPACE CAT! 🦁The LEO zodiac pin is now available in our merch store!
overlysarcastic.shop/
-B
Leocatra?
hey red, ive been asking on all your posts for weeks now, and i shall ask again today. 😅may i get the bacchae please? hell at this point ill take a history maker: euripedes blue help! red sensei pleasseeee
i was so excited to comment, and now o have a new hyperfixation
If you're still thinking about a meme series of them, maybe those should be gold trimmed.
I'm a Leo yeah
I just love that the intro is Blue justifying his choices of people to discuss with this series. It's great. It has the same energy as Red suddenly realizing that she could talk about Eclipses cause it's her Channel.
If it happened, its history, all you blue
And, if it didn’t, its mythology
There’s literally nothing you guys can’t talk about
@@tylerp.8352 red isn't myth, she's Fiction, blue is non fiction. Hence trope talks and domes.
So yeah they can talk about anything.
DOMES!?
where?
>.>
@@DanJones-np8xb Everybody scatter! They're after our domes!
History with Bob Ross confirmed? “Now beat the Barbarian right out of that brush!”
honestly if blue did a piece on the cultural impact on the PBS of that era I'd be 10000% there for that
“Everybody needs a friend, let’s paint a scantily clad woman right here.”
It's too close to modern history. Blue won't do it. He'd have to jump into a pile of Odysseies just to wash the taste out of his mouth.
Remember, there are no downfalls, only happy sackings.
@@ShanRenxin Sacks baaabbeee!
“…May my fears be foolish; a few years will tell.” Now isn’t that a sentiment that I hope for all of us. And I thought you said he wasn’t a writer!
This is the year of Blue finding an excuse to talk about whatever he wants. It’s a glorious year that the historians will write of forever. 💙😁
Or ... paint about it?
can't wait for an entire year of Venice
As someone that went to art school and is a professional illustrator, this is the best art history lesson I've heard, and this is awesome, but also a reflection on how terrible my art history classes were, and they were bad
Pro tip: don't read reviews of visual art in the New York Review of Books or the London Review of Books. They are full of meaningless bafflegab, and if they don't trigger you they will annoy and frustrate you.
Same here in part. Until Impressionism we did learn a lot of historical background like this, but by Modernism it was like all the articles knew were the author's own words and not how the history *they are in* shaped each thing even subconciously. Started to feel more like a class of how to write a gallery blurb under the piece.
@@FaelumbreProject That sounds better than what i did, we were shown and told to memorize a slide show and tested on that, to even think that was college level history?? There was no analysis, no thought, no conversation, no replication to learn the techniques, it was duller than my high school art history lessons
Not everybody is lucky enough to study at Verrocchio's.
@@LujeAldwaldthis is so sad. Even my local community college did better than that.
I didn’t care for the works we were asked to examine, but I did get to write a multipage paper on a sculptor (and his work) of my own choice.
My instructor likely never wants to hear the artists name uttered ever again. 😂😂😂😂
Between Blue saying "My domain is endless and my authority is absolute", him emphasizing art as a means to understand the culture that created it, and literally being called blue, I think that he may be Grand Admiral Thrawn preparing to conquer Earth for the Chiss Ascendency. I for one welcome our new Chiss overlords
He is a *Grand* Admiral for a reason
Now if only he can get a slick Netflix series about him buddying up with Vader, we’ll be solid. 😂
... excuse me, I have some investments to go make in a small planet in the Inner Rim...
@@mialemon6186 Nah. We got to figure out Red's role in all this then make the buddy comedy series about the two of them. I'd vote for Red just being a math major that ended up finding Blue/Thrawn out in the woods and ending up roped into his schemes.
@@marykateharmonSo...Pellaeon?
Other Historians: To be admitted to this club, you must specifically-
Blue: DOOR'S OPEN KIDS! GET IN HERE!
What gate keeping should be
eh, not really. plus, gatekeeping is good imo
@@forlornhope4712 How's it feel being a bloodstained fool?
@@StarshadowMelody There is something to be said for "everyone is welcome to come in, but if you make a mess of the place, you will be kicked out."
Blue is to history makers what the block mom is to the kids of the street: you can have drinks and treats until you become a reason that you should be kicked out.
Desolation is my second-favorite painting of all time, and there's an element that I'm surprised Blue didn't mention. Dotted across the landscape, the remnants of former civilizations don't just use a singular architectural style - there's Mycenaean, Athenian, Classic and late Roman, and other such Mediterranean influences spread across the canvas.
This is not a single cycle - this is where it all ends. The birth and death and rise and fall and birth and death and rise and fall and birth and rise and fall - it always leads to this.
Desolation.
What si your favorite painting?
What's the first?
"The kind of art that never lets go" Uh yeah new favorite historical painter unlocked. Ty Blue for unlocking a new part of the historical skill tree for me
Very true, most historical art I can agree is technically good and I'm sure it means stuff to people, but these paintings are beautiful and haunting.
I feel like I suddenly understand so much more about American painting, now. Were the later, embarrassing, Hudson River School allegory paintings, and the cringey old state seals, attempts to emulate Cole's nuanced and subtle allegories?
Hi Blue! We actually talked about the Oxbow as a historical document in my Forest ecology course in Grad School!
Because of how detailed his paintings are we can use them to understand what forest structure in New England was like in early America.
That is unbelievably cool. There's dedication to the craft and then there's *that*.
-B
I really like how the Old landscape slowly moves from its original location focusing more on the river in the Second Painting ( Since yanno rivers are centers of civilization and when a substantial amount of people appear the painting moves)
Desolation of Empire might be both the most peaceful and melancholy piece of art I've seen.
I used to look at paintings as "ooh pretty" but not much more. Blue finally gave me a deeper understanding of paintings. Thanks, blue!
It's the same with buildings for me, it's great innit?
There's a neat channel called Great Art Explained that you might find interesting.
This series of paintings really seems to be one of the best case scenarios in terms of the effects of the Grand Tour. Here is a guy who, having travelled and seen historical places, realises that being able to see those physical places can create a different understanding to that given by reading history books. And it works so well.
Recently I had an incredibly moving experience in relation to historical depiction. I was visiting a ruined priory, which I'd never heard about but happened to see on a map with a convenient bus route, and really just expected it to be an interesting location for a walk. There were information board in different sections of the ruins, each having an artist's depiction of what this place might have looked like 800 years ago - not just architecturally, but in use as a place of education, worship, and a communal home. Seeing these pictures, whilst standing in the ruins, overtaken with grass and flowers, made me cry for what was lost. I had never felt that before, and it made me viscerally understand the significance of the dissolution of the monasteries in a way that studying it three different times at school never had.
Blue after this video: “Now I know exactly how to defeat Thomas Cole in battle.”
The answer is you don't. The man killed Mario, you don't fuck with that.
Did we start making memes that Blue is fucking Grand Admiral Thrawn and nobody told me?
@@parkerdixon-word6295 not that I know of. But the fact that Blue is talking about a painter made it an easy connection to make.
I see your reference. It is a good one.
I've studied Cole for my Bachelor's thesis! Regarding the "split" landscape: it's more split into the Sublime and the Picturesque. The Sublime being awe-inducing, mighty and scary. The Picturesque being pretty, tame, etc.
The Course of Empire is moreso an argument for a pastoral mode of living. On the painting showing this pastoral nature behind the mountain in the back another, higher mountain can be seen.
That’s what I saw. The whole Roussseauian noble savage and tabula rasa thing that was pretty popular in the Age of Enlightenment.
I had no idea the fall painting was part of a 5 part series, that's neat
As someone who once wrote a college paper on the Course of Empire, this was uniquely fascinating to watch. First of all as a way to see all the things I missed during my (admittedly much less observant) college days, but also to truly appreciate how much work Thomas Cole put into these paintings. 13 years later they still haven't left my head, and it was a welcome surprise to learn more through this video.
Hang on... is this secretly a tie-in to Red's environmental storytelling video from last week?
That's such an aptly made connection! I even watched Red's recent video but I never would have noticed their thematic similarities until I read your comment!
@@colinneagle4495 All the Ghibli stuff really rewired their brains didnt it XD
"Pour one out for Mario" has no right to hit that hard.
Thomas Cole for years has been my favorite painter. His details and expanse of nature, man and ego and history always been breath taking. I was lucky when I was younger to see his artwork . And now to see him finally talked about by my favorite RUclips channel means so much.
Cole is my favorite painter and I've had opportunity to see a number of his works in person. What's truly amazing is how well he communicates scale. This seems like it should be trivial for any decent painter, but few ever get the proportion of human to nature right. Even Bierstadt, a more technically sound painter IMO, couldn't make the humans in his paintings "sit" the right way. They always stand out or are featured. The people in Cole's works are rarely the subject and even when they are (such as his Last of the Mohicans paintings) they're de-emphasized.
Hell, even in Consummation and Destruction the people give way to the architecture. It's only through sheer numbers that they dominate the canvas.
Which may have been the point.
I was not anticipating the realization of the foreshadowing of the empire's demise and the pain that brings to the people caught up in the destruction to be followed by "Damn, poor one out for Mario," but I absolutely love it
This was like when I go on museum toures with my art history major friend. They info dump all the small metaphores I otherwise would have missed. Or when you get an actual person as the guided tour at a museum since they have much more enthusiasum than a recording of some facts could have .
This video really felt like a conversation. :) Thank you Blue for this
The “Shadow of Cololosus” music for part 4 is a *chefs kiss* choice.
I’ve seen the painting ‘Destruction’ so many times, but I never knew it was supposed to be an imaginary event. I’d probably have said the sack of Rome if pressed to answer what I thought it was depicting.
Can't be Rome since Rome isn't a port... but yeah.
@@blacksage2375it doesn't need to be near the sea to be the port - lots of goods were and are travelling using riverine barges
I always knew that the painting was allegorical and not depicting Rome or Greece or any real Empire but I never noticed the Red vs Green foreshadowing and that the Fall was a civil war.
Very cool.
Reminds me of the sports conflict that almost overthrew Justinian.
Dang. "May my fears be foolish" is a great quote.
"Pour one out for Mario, damn." It's jokes like these, from both Blue and Red, that make this channel my favorite one on Yourube
You just name-dropped John Trumbull like it was nothing. I hope to see more about visual art and architecture in the future.
Thomas Cole is one of my favorite american artists. Thank you so much for talking about him and his work!
Genius move with the Copeland in the background. You're really showcasing the American innovation in the arts.
Cole seems to have been the forerunner to painting happy little trees
Holy hell, Coles' "The Oxbow" actually seems to contain him making "the Oxbow". The man really was a master of his craft. (A non-statement but I stand by it.)
That's such a great point! In that way, "The Oxbow" is Thomas Cole's equivalent of Diego Velazquez’s "Las Meninas," as a great painting that shows the painter in the act of painting the painting the viewer is currently marveling at. A sort of Meta-Masterpiece if you will!
@@colinneagle4495 It does give this impression of looking through a window into the situation the composition is some how very alive. I think they theorized that Velazquez used a mirror for it.
With the Oxbow I am impressed by the size of the detail and the fact it is still able to convey what he is painting, though I might be wrong in regard to what painting he is painting in the painting. Painting.
The part of the video visually describing the Course of Empires is some of the most evocative writing I've ever seen on this channel. I bet someone who's never seen the paintings could envision something very close to them just by your descriptions. Excellent work.
And, semi-relatedly, giving me high hopes for the prosaic quality of the Veneziad!
How serendipitous! I'm currently listening to WAMC, the public radio station based in Albany that covers the Hudson Valley, interviewing staff from the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Apparently there's a new visitor's center and other renovations at Thomas Cole's estate in Catskill, NY, changes that better showcase the surrounding scenery of the Hudson River and Catskill Mtns.
I first heard about Thomas Cole as an art student, and I thought that he was under appreciated for an artist of his talent and influence, so I'm glad to hear that his artistic legacy is still being celebrated!
Blue’s passionate description of the paintings is like poetry. I love this channel so much!
I really like both of you focusing on what you think is interesting, even if it might not quite fit in with what you might be expected to do.
The videos are great and your passion shines through.
Finding new people I had never heard about?! Sign me up!
Thomas Cole told the story of every empire in five amazing works of art and those works allows to understand the rise and fall of empires Thomas Cole you sure were a madlad
It's so interesting to examine these works from the perspective of a guy who just arrived at the birth of the new Rome. The new nation thinks itself different, and predictably follows the exact same path, progressively paving over nature more and more, and eventually making it's great wealth through the subjugation of others.
It makes one wonder how far away that desolation phase is for us...
As the man said, "My fears may be foolish... a few years will tell."
_"eventually making it's great wealth through the subjugation of others"_
That's an oversimplification. The majority of the United States' wealth or prosperity wasn't plundered; it was created through ingenuity and cooperation. For just a few examples, consider Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates.
Your statement also overlooks the sacrifices that the United States has made to end subjugation, both inside and outside its borders. The Civil War and World War II are the most significant examples of this.
@@mvmlego1212 You are correct that it is a simplification, because it was a remark on the person, not a class on global politics. Your additional beliefs about why it was incorrect are factually misguided though.
The ways in which a society contrives it's social controls, the ways it conducts war, and the exact methods by which it enacts injustice on others to serve it's selfish goals change over time, but the basic patterns are all still there. I didn't say they "plundered" because that word more specifically refers to the old methods of extracting wealth from subjugating others, which as I said, have changed.
If you think that market capitalism doesn't subjugate and exploit people in this country and others, then you are not yet at an education level concerning economics and anthropological concerns on globalization to comment on the subject. If you think that Bill Gates "earned" his wealth by simply being born smarter than everyone then the propaganda of US market capitalism has worked.
@@yeahbutwhy8788 The story with the US is a lot more subtle for sure. "Slavery" is "illegal", but people can be bound by the situation the system forces them into, generating tens of thousands for the company they work for and receiving only enough to keep them coming back for more. We had more free time as hunter gatherers and were sometimes better fed too, but that lifestyle doesn't make the machine spin, so it's being stamped out everywhere around the world. Cultures are dying because the concept of someone living their lives peacefully and freely doesn't suit the need to appease the great slot machine the US is to other countries.
They don't "conquest", but they send troops across the ocean to fight proxy wars "on behalf" of other countries, who are now subjects in a proximal way. It's not an "empire", but it maintains control of countries through brute forcing (Japan), or the fear of retaliation (South Korea).
As much as I'd love to think that, the United States was made on slavery, subjugation, and genocide. You don't conquer a continent and become a world superpower without commiting some seriously fucked up acts. These aren't things of the past either, the US still exploits it's citizens and people all around the world. Yes, there was ingenuity and intelligence in the history and that's important to celebrate and remember, but it shouldn't blot out the atrocities. Remembering both is important if we want to be better in the future.@@mvmlego1212
Blues Analysis and appreciation for the art has actually made me order my own set of prints to hang up cause they are so good
Funny story - I learned about Thomas Cole from a practice SAT test’s reading section lol, where the passage author described Cole’s paintings so passionately and excitedly that I had to go look him up when I got home.
He’s probably my favorite painter ever now, this Course of Empire series and particularly his Life of Man series (which you should totally check out because it’s incredible) are soo cool to me and strike that perfect balance of beautiful art and deep meaning
This is one of your best recent videos, and that's no small comparison. Starting with a single landscape, then exploring The Course of Empire, and ending on Cole's reflections on the politics of an expanding America really made your conclusion hit like a truck. Definitely a new favorite, and I can't wait to see more atypical historians show up in this series!
Never stop the art history! learning about art history as an art major has been one of my favorite things!
'Tis a good day when osp uploads a video about your favorite 19th century artist.
Thank you so much for focusing on visual history in your videos, Blue! As an art history student it really encourages me!
I think its interesting also how nature (Green) was taken over by the people (the red, the solider in red in the second painting) to the red in their hight of power but to have the green faction in the fourth painting appear to be wining against the red, as seen through the children in the third and the old men in the fourth. How in the end nature took its place back and was able to make the landscape green once again.
That would be a great subject of an art history paper about this series! I'd give that paper a A grade for sure!
3:24 ahhhhhh!! 😁 that’s my town!!! Northampton representing!!! So cool to get a spotlight in a History Makers episode
I love the Mount Holyoke shout out. I love hiking up there on Mountain Day
This has given me a new appreciation for Cole's art💙
It really is spot-on to describe Thomas Cole's paintings as getting their hooks into your brain. The Course of Empire is a series which you never forget.
Many years ago, I took an interdisciplinary college course -- 9 semester units! -- that combined western civ 1, art history, and world literature. It was THE most interesting class I ever took in history, because it kept shifting around to look at stuff from a whole new perspective. Such as what we know of prehistory coming from prehistoric art such as venus figurines and bird sculptures, how medieval stained glass and signage icons were the literature of a mostly illiterate society, and how the art and architecture of the Italian Renaissance reflected the Reformation and the the influx of classical Greek myths and Islamic influences. So it is not only perfectly sensible to look at a group of artists or a period of art to understand history, it is weird that this is not done far more often.
One of my all-time favourite painters.
Seeing “The Oxbow” in this video brings back fond memories of a really awesome high school English class lesson where we were using what we had learned about Romanticism in literature like Frankenstein and applying it to Romantic paintings as a genre and analyzing how their symbolism and social commentary connected to what we were reading as well as how they evoked certain emotions in comparison to how Romantic writers did. Good stuff.
Let’s do some Art History!!! I studied this guy in Art School!
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Blue!
My favorite painter for many years, wonderful video.
Thank you, Blue. I now have a favorite historical artist. I can’t wait to what other fun stuff, you have in store!
This was a marvelous video. Thank you, friend.
Oh, that's beautiful! And it conveys such an interesting point without words...
That's such a radical thing to convey in art, not just back then, but now as well
It makes sense that you would cover historical artists as well as writers, considering that so much art was used to convey ideas and stories for people who couldn't read or write. To leave them out would be to keep history incomplete.
Definitely enjoyed this video, I'd never heard of Thomas Cole and now I'm off to learn more.
This video really made me appreciate how beautiful it can be to analyse art and realize just how much thought an artist put into it.
Well, this is an interesting spin on the history makers series I wasn't expecting but I am certainly here for!
Excellent episode. The Amsterdam City Museum we visited this year began with paintings and had some good information from the curators about how art can inform history, but that one has to consider the artist's motivations and the patron's motivations. A painting of the city might look like a photo, but isn't one (and even a photographer makes decisions about what to photograph)
BLUE you can’t just make me really feel for those guys in the destruction painting and then hit me with ‘pour one out for mario’
9:10 “damn, poor one out for Mario” took me out 😂
Also I love this series so much! Each history maker you share is so unique in their own way 😊
Thank you blue, this was beautiful and informative, and reminded me that art is not just a piece of art, but also a possible view into the past.
I LOVE this new way of talking about history with you!!! I’m not saying you have to make more…but if you make more, I will definitely watch them;)
Blue your enthusiasm is wonderful and makes me want to check out Mr Cole’s work myself
Feels like we’re getting spoiled hearing Blue discuss something as late as the 1800s and in America! He’s really stepping outside his preferred historical era and region of the world. Feels like Christmas in August.
I'd seen Cole's Destruction painting before but I never knew it was part of a sequence for empire. Thanks for this.
I must have seen nearly everything you folks have put out over the last decade or so..... and this is def one of my favorites. I had never heard of Thomas Cole before but now I am incredibly moved by this series of paintings. Thank you for bringing us something very beautiful and illuminating to view and think on!
Blue this might be my favorite video of yours ever! Thank you for introducing us to such an amazing painter and historian.
I am a fan of 'The Course of Empire' and when i saw the title on my notifications, i immediately came. So glad it was covered
I felt genuine tears welling up at the description of Destruction, only to be whipped right back into laughing at a Nintendo reference. That was a bold choice of tonal whiplash, but at least for me it worked, so well done!
Watching this and seeing Cole's artwork, I got a sense of "I've seen these before" despite not having seen the paintings pictured. Then it hit me! I actually work at an art museum that DOES HAVE TWO OF COLE'S PAINTINGS! Specifically "The Garden of Eden" and "The Hunter's Return". Seeing his paintings in life and how detailed they are is pretty different than seeing them in books or videos like this one.
Also because they are so finely detailed, it can make being a gallery attendant a little tricky because folks wanna get up SUPER close to see such details....
I love everything about this video. Thomas Cole is one of my favorite painters.
Thank you so much for making this video Blue! Thomas Cole has been one of my favorite artists ever since my AP art history class. Although I love his paintings I didn't know much about his life. So I'm very glad you expanded upon the details.
You made this Illustrator (someone who's painting influences trace to the same roots that'd influence the kind of neoclassical style this guy is using) very happy
I had not heard of Cole before, so thanks, Blue for increasing my knowledge.
I love the Course of Empire and appreciate you drawing attention to it.
Thomas Cole is my absolute favorite artist. And the Course of Empires are my favorite paintings. I have them decorating my bedroom. Thanks for doing this video, I didn’t noticed so many details you pointed out in the video.
Thomas Cole is currently my congressman. I had no idea he was such an accomplished artist.
Okay, I'd never heard of this artist, and it's interesting that you took the time to memorialize him. He reminds me of Rudyard Kipling, the poet of Imperialism, who also at the peak of Jingoism wrote "Recessional," an ode about the collapse of British imperialism.
I have seen greatness, beautiful, thanks for sharing
I love this! More of this please!!!
Fascinating. I’m not well schooled in art or art history, but I am quite stunned and intrigued by both the paintings and the evolving ‘story’ behind them. Thanks Blue!
I've seen one or two of those paintings before but had no idea they were part of a five part series. That's an awesome new perspective.
Idk about everyone else, but I for one, am SO HERE for Blue’s Art History era
I've been to art shows, and so little does anything for me. But THIS Does it for me. The Course of Empire Series is AWESOME. It stirs up that feeling of nostalgia for a time I've never experienced. Wonderful stuff.
Thanks Blue! Found a new (to me) artist 😊
I always wanted this painting series on my walls on the stairs, so that you can - while walking up - look at the different phases... thanks for this, love to know more about fascinating stuff! 😃
As an art historian who's used OS for years, I'm thrilled to have a splash of some artist analysis. I've always hoped for some art history videos!
The Course of Empire series is STUNNING in person. If you ever catch them on exhibit, absolutely worth the trip.
These are my favorite paintings!
(Basement level) Game writer here, and I very much appreciate someone putting some art history into perspective for me. Old landscape paintings usually don't do much for me, so this kind of point by point breakdown of *why* this guy was so rad and the story he's telling in these projects helps fill in the gaps that my weird visual processing just misses. Even if I can't make this kind of art myself, there's a nontrivial chance I could describe something with a similar progression now.
(I'm aware with practice I technically could learn to draw, but I have other skills I'm more interested in honing.)
Just a few months ago I was at the national gallery and saw the Departure and Return, and also the Stages of life. The Return had held my attention for ages and it’s so cool that so soon after that for me I get to watch one of my favorite RUclips channels do something on this amazing artist. Truly striking work
Yes, I've seen those paintings at the National Gallery as well! I only wish that the "Course of Empire" paintings where at a larger museum that could perhaps better promote his work. As I recall, the series is in the collection of a small private museum. Selfishly perhaps, I like my favorite art and artists to be in big museums where more people can see and study them.
Both videos are great on their own, but this one and last week's Trope Talk about environmental storytelling fit so well together!
Suggestion:
Trope Talk: Human-Focused Adaptation