This may belong in IMHO, I dunno. We’ll try it here.
Who would you say is the greatest artist in the various disciplines? By that I dont mean your favourite, but the one person who has most influenced the genre throughout history. Discussion/objection is welcome.
My votes: Playwright: Shakespeare Composer: J.S. Bach Novelist: ummm, maybe Leo Tolstoy? CompLit people, help me out! Poet: I want to say Shakespeare again, just because Im a theatre person and Shakespeare is a god, but I dont know if double nominations should be allowed. I also dont know how influential or innovative he really was, other than revamping the sonnet. Maybe Chaucer or Dante would be a better choice. Painter: Here’s where I get really vague…da Vinci? Michaelangelo? I know so little about the visual arts I cant make an educated judgement. Sculptor: Michaelangelo again? Film Director: Havent a clue. Cecil B. De Mille? Fritz Lang? D.W. Griffith? Franco Zeffirelli? Architecht: Im including this one because it’s one of the French “seven arts”. But I havent the foggiest who to mention. Whoever-it-was who came up with Gothic architecture, if I had to pick. But I dont think that was one person, was it? Do we even know their name?
Did I miss any arts? Choreography is the one that springs to mind, but we dont really have a record of history’s great choreographers, other than the relatively modern ones. I guess Laban or Martha Graham.
Most folks think of Michaelangelo for sculptor, and no doubt he was among the greatest. One that isn’t mentioned often, but whom I consider to be at least his equal is Bernini. Bernini’s David is a prime example of his mastery of the medium.
The linked photo doesn’t do the statue justice. I was transfixed at the Ufizzi in Florence by this depiction of David poised to sling the stone at Goliath. If you look at the sling and imagine the amount of effort and stress that went into carving that single element out of marble, you will get an inkling of what I’m talking about.
Photographers: Edward S. Curtis, for his Native American work; Ansel Adams and Sydney Laurence for their landscapes; Alfred Steiglitz for his cityscapes.
Poet: Yeats, Sandburg, Frost, Burns, Robert Service
O.k, after some discussion with my SO, here are our picks:
Playwright: I think it’s a testament to Shakespeare’s genius that it’s hard to picture anyone else’s name here.
Composer: Mozart
Novelist: Well, Cervantes wrote the first ever novel- Don Quixote, but Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is considered the pinnical of the art form. You could also make a case for Dickens
Poet: Hmm, a tricky one. I’m going with Keats, or maybe Wordsworth.
Painter: Maybe Michelangelo. Titian seems to be well thought of amongst artists. Of the modern painters Cezanne (much more influential than Van Gogh or Monet- he got there first) or, Picasso- the indisputed giant of 20th Century art.
Sculptor: Again, only one name really springs to mind- Michelangelo
Film Director: Hitchcock, Chaplin, Eisenstein.
Architect: According to the SO, the master’s of old arctitecture’s names are lost to antiquity pretty much, so we’ve got Bruneleschi in the 16th century- the re-inventor of the dome apparently- see the Duomo in Florence, or moving into the modern era- Ludwig Mies van de Roye- the sublime German pavillion in Barcelona, and coiner of the phrase “Less is more”
‘Greatest’ doesn’t really mean anything, but this is a fun game so long as you don’t take it too seriously.
Classical Composer (general): Bach in terms of adding up points for genius and achievement and popularity.
Classical Composer (opera): Wagner for those who can take it and Verdi for normal people.
Novelist: In terms of influence and legacy I’d say it pretty much has to be Henry Fielding, even though I’m not a great fan. He more or less invented the novel as we know it. However, I don’t think he was the greatest exponent. That honour probably goes to Austen, Hardy or Dickens.
Poet: Personally, I’d nominate my favourite, Keats. Pushkin probably should be in with a shout. But in terms of influence and legacy it’s got to be Chaucer.
Playwright: Shakespeare? Don’t make me laugh. He was prolific, and we have more of his stuff preserved than anyone else’s of that time, so it’s easy to build a course syllabus around his work. But the greatest? Rubbish. When he’s good he’s very good, but most of the time WS is pretty ordinary, and his work was for his audiences what soap operas are today. In terms of influence and legacy, it’s probably the various un-named sources of the Italian commedia dell’arte. In terms of genius and achievement, Chekhov or Sam Beckett.
Sculptor: Michaelangelo.
Painter: Not my personal favourite, but probably Picasso.