In the 18th century, the Earth’s population was only 10% of what it is now, totaling 700 million people, with ~87 percent of them being illiterate. From the remaining 91 million, we received thousands of artists and musicians, whose level no one can reach now in the 21st century, with five billion educated people, the internet, 3D printers, AutoCAD, and ubiquitous art schools, are we getting something entirely different?
The illustration accompanying the post is “Liberation from Spells”, 1757, by Francesco Quirolo. Files, chisels, drills, saw, scraper, a large block of marble, and no room for error. The Russian internet claims it’s made of pumice, but oddly, reliable sources everywhere mention marble. In any case, it looks very impressive.
Interestingly, why with a tenfold increase in population, talents in a certain area, present both “here and there”, not only did not grow proportionally, but even seemed to have vanished. Perhaps I am mistaken and there are many? Other than Bruno Walpot, I can’t recall anyone, but then again, I’m not particularly knowledgeable in the subject.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 