Questioning%20Reality

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Questioning Reality
Historical Analysis of Metaphysics Influence on
the Arts Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation

• Hieronymus Bosch and Salvador Dali Reflect Plato

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The Garden of Earthly Delights

Figure 1. Bosch, H. (Artist). (1504).
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The Garden of Earthly Delights

• Defining Characteristics
• Artist Hieronymus Bosch circa 1490-1516
• Triptych side panels represent the beginning of
  time and the end of time
• Presents a fantastical view of reality that calls
  into question the nature of reality itself

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The Persistence of Memory
Figure 2. Dali, S. (Artist). (1931).
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The Persistence of Memory

• Defining Characteristics
• Artist Salvador Dali, 1931
• Calls both reality and time into question
• According to the Museum of Modern Art
  (n.d.),Dalí painted this work with the most
  imperialist fury of precision, but only, he
  said, to systematize confusion and thus to help
  discredit completely the world of reality.

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Influence of Metaphysics

• Plato was one of the early philosophical voices
  that questioned reality.
• His cave allegory describes prisoners who have
  only seen shadows, which is reality to them . One
  prisoner breaks free and discovers the source of
  the shadowy images, realizing in the process that
  what he thought was real was actually an
  illusion. Plato asks us to examine whether we are
  existing in a cave of our own creation.
• Similarly, Bosch and Dali are questioning reality
  and asking us to do the same.

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References

• Bosch, H. (Artist). (1504).The Garden of Earthly
  Delights Painting. Retrieved from
  http//www.computus.org/journal/wp-content/uploads
  /2009/01/the-garden-of-earthly-delights.jpg
• Dali, S. (Artist). (1931). The Persistence of
  Memory Painting. Retrieved from
  http//www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_i
  d79018
• Museum of Modern Art. (n.d). The Collection.
  Retrieved from http//www.moma.org/collection/obje
  ct.php?object_id79018