School of Athens : The Art of Copying || हिन्दी #schoolofathens #raphael

In the beginning of human civilization, some hunters decided to write their own stories. On walls, on stones. The stories that they have lived. This was the first idea that we call the replication of daily life. The first copy on the wall. For the first time, the fiction that was seen and felt was removed. Art is a fictional place which only exists in the mind of an artist. And what audience sees as art is a by-product of its translation. But how does the artist make that fictional place? By copying from nature. Art copies life and life copies art. And both copy each other until they forget who is copying whom. The game of imitation and the dance of copying is an amalgamation of nature and human imagination. Now that dialogue has become a part of her life. Repeating this statement, Art imitates life. Life imitates art. Until both forget who is copying who. This circle is completed with this line written by Oscar Wilde. Life imitates art. Far more than art imitates life. Life copies more than art, instead of art copying life. Hi, I am Akash Rajput and this is All About Story. And we are going to talk about Art of Imitation or Copying in context of painting School of Athens by Raphael. In the start of 16th century, Vatican City, Raphael made a painting named School of Athens. There are dozens of geniuses in this painting. But in the center of this painting, there are two allegorical figures. One is Plato and the other is Aristotle. There is an argument going on between the two. Argument about the ground purpose of art. Two philosophers discussing about nature of art. Plato stated, Why do artists copy from nature? No matter how much you copy, you will not be able to make it better than the original. The ideal situation where every copy is a cheap reproduction of the original. Plato is rigid on this point. Whereas Aristotle argues against it. Yes, you are right. But copying is a pleasure. Copying gives birth to art. And it has its own place. For example, when you go to a cinema hall, you see a scene that makes you cry. That scene is not with you, but you can still feel it. Aristotle corrects what he has said. You don't want your favorite character to get stabbed in the film. You don't want that tragedy to be with you. When actors play the role of a poor person in a film, they don't become poor. They are acting. In reality, being poor and acting as a poor person are two different things. Because after acting, they will go back to the life they came from. How many people are inspired by Vincent van Gogh's life? There must be thousands of artists. But how many actually have the courage to live his life? Plato says, The ideal is absolute. If you can make a copy of it, then you won't even be able to get close to it. Aristotle's words are also correct here. The emotions that remain suppressed in us, we live them through art. Because they resonate with us. And then we feel catharsis. You hear that song again and again, which reaches close to your heart. You repeat it. You make a copy of it in your mind. This is one of the primary purpose of copying or imitation. As I stated, Art is a fictional place. In painting, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Michelangelo are present together. Which is historically inaccurate. Their time zones are very different. We also get Euclid there, who initially developed the concept of golden ratio. Among all this, there is also Raphael's self-portrait. He sees himself somewhere between all the geniuses. Raphael has copied Leonardo a lot in his life. That's why Plato's figure is in Leonardo's get-up. This painting can be a homage to Da Vinci, by Raphael. He actually considered Da Vinci his guru. Every artist starts learning by copying. But in order to be unique, you have to push yourself to zenith of imagination. And the only difference between you and me is our imaginative experience. In the core of aesthetics, copying is a main subject. You cannot make something from nothing. Artists copy nature so that they can recreate things from imagination. And nature gives us raw material. Even in painting, there is a reference to copying. Pythagoras and Archimedes. On their side, Anaximander is copying Pythagoras. A master learns by copying another master. Your ultimate desire is to copy someone or copy something leads you to create art. Because humans are inherently mimetic. But there is a difference between western approach and eastern approach. Copying is a bit different in eastern philosophy. Bodhisattva Padampani. The most famous gesture of Buddha whose drawing we get from Ajanta cave. Fingers, eyes and coins. Everything is inspired by nature. Whereas in western philosophy, arguments start with copying nature. Whereas in eastern philosophy, or Indian philosophy, it says to take inspiration from nature and copy it. The ornamentation of imitation is in the core of Indian philosophy. Both philosophies are correct and we can learn from both. In this imitation game, there is also a Darwinian and Oscar Wilde approach. It is a bit absurd, but can be considered. In the book, Decay of Lying by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde writes, Nature cannot imagine. It sounds weird to hear, but it can also be true. And neither does it favor anyone. It only throws dice. This is the reason how many species have been created and destroyed on earth. Creation and recreation continues. But then humans came. Homo sapiens. We have a gift of imagination. We made architectures which nature could never make. We made roads, we made paintings, we made sculptures. Nature cannot make any part of this. That is why it uses humans so that it can reshape itself. This can be a cosmic behavior of this world. In the end of this video, what is the clear answer for copying? Is it bad to copy? I would say no. When I started, I copied. This is the first painting which I copied when I was in 10th grade. This was the first oil painting of my artistic career. The original painting was made by Chaman Kiran. I just copied it under the guidance of my first art teacher, Devicharan Verma. And then I didn't know how far I would go. After doing this, I made another copy of the same artist and this continued. That year, I made many copies and without drawing, I used to paint directly on black surface. Today, I can make original works which make my identity. But I started with copying and I made as many copies as I could without thinking that they can take me somewhere. In between copying things and trying to be unique, there is no clear separation. Our art is ultimately the reflection of ourselves. If you can't see your reflection in your art, it means you still have a lot to discover. A whole new path is still undiscovered. And as Andrei Tarkovsky famously stated, There are shortcomings in the world and that's why there is an art. This world is imperfect and that's why art exists. Art symbolizes our meaning of existence.