I'm a Philistine when it comes to Fine Art. I sort of vaguely know what I vaguely like, but that's about as far as it goes. Jimmy is quite into Art but is no more knowledgeable than me.
This needs remedying. As it happens last week, on five consecutive nights Artsworld showed all nine episodes of Art of the Western World, a programme first aired back in the 1980s, hosted by Michael Wood - him of the tight trousers. I thought I'll tape and keep those and slowly we can educate ourselves.
We watched the first one yesterday. It covered the period of the Ancient Greeks and the Roman Empire. Quite a sweep, really. In a sense it was quite interesting, seeing how all those classical columns and pillars have influenced so much in the way of architecture more or less to the modern day. And they showed all these statues. Sure, they explained that they were probably originally coloured and the colours have faded over the millennia. But I just can't get excited about acres and acres of marble. About three years ago Mother dragged me off to the British Museum to look at the Elgin Marbles. I was bored shitless.
On this programme they showed the Pantheon in Rome. I remember going to Rome in 1992 with Mother. But actually, I don't remember a lot of it. Jimmy said, of the Pantheon, "You've been there?". My reply, a cautious "Probably...".
I don't think that Rome made a very big impact on me. And it wasn't like I was a child - I was a twenty four year old graduate and part-qualified accountant. Maybe I should return to Rome one day. But not before I have revisited Florence and visited Milano and Venice.
I don't even have a blog category for Art...
