FRICK COLLECTION

On one of my first conference trips away where I found myself in adult thoughts for the first time in ages, I visited the Frick Collection in NYC. I remember being slightly outraged that no children were allowed, because it was an exquisite art museum. I also remember feeling very uncultured, and I took meticulous notes (this was in the days where people still debated on which browser to use, instead of googling everything, and when my cell phone was still dumb) on the things I should have known, but now had to remember for the next time.

The biggest gap in my knowledge was in Greek and Roman mythology, but the art I was seeing was filled with it! Somehow many artists still puzzled me. If the story was religious, I might understand it. But the myths were something new, and I had a new vocabulary to learn.

The figures that strongly resonate with me are the 3 Graces, or Charities.  In Roman myth, they were the daughters of Zeus and Eurymone, companions to Venus according to Seneca. In Greek mythology, they were the daughters of Dionysis and Aphrodite. They were named, eldest to youngest: Aglaia (Beauty), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer). They represented charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility. I had seen them on a first century fresco at the ruins of Pompei, and fell in love with Botticelli at the Louvre in "Venus and 3 Graces" (my favourite painting in all of the world), and at the Uffizi with his painting "Primavera" or Spring.

So much of the art I had seen in Europe had been catholic, and I am not sure what was lost at the Bonfire of the Vanities, where objects like myth based art, books, and cosmetics were deemed to be occasions of sin, and on Mardi Gras in the 15th century, in the center of cultural Europe, these vanities were burned. Thankfully much survived.

Other classical ideas were brought to my attention at the Frick:
Francois Boucher listed ARTS AND SCIENCES to include:
singing and dancing
painting and sculpting
fowling and horticulture
fishing and hunting
architecture and chemistry
comedy and tragedy
astronomy and hydraulics
poetry and music

It was clear, I only had half the education I needed, and much harder to obtain as an adult.

The LIBERAL ARTS for a medieval Western University were discussed as including 7 categories, from the education of Greek teachers (Aristotle, Socrates), and then thanks to the Roman Empire (Seneca the younger).

The TRIVIUM:
Grammar
Rhetoric
Logic

The QUADRIVIUM:
Arithmetic
Astronomy
Music
Geometry

5th century Martianus Capella named these seven:
Grammar
Dialectic
Rhetoric
Geometry
Arithmetic
Astronomy
Music

I think that this was the first thought I had about constructing a curriculum to fill in the gaps I had. I feel privileged to have been educated in a public middle school in the 1980s (home ec and IA were vital classes), a Lutheran private high school where I studied 4 languages (not typical for Saskatchewan), and sciences leading to a medical degree (not much elective time, but I played intramural sports and attended church and grew in linguistics, and took time off to travel). In total I spent 21 years in school, and here I was feeling deficient!