And from there- what constitutes вЂњthe exceptionalвЂќ? The obvious answer is: skill, imagination, and morale. Within the world of oil painting comes the comparison of вЂњthe averageвЂќ versus вЂњthe exceptionalвЂќ artists. Artists where considered agents and laborers at one point- expendable and paid to paint exactly and solely what their patrons mandated. Painting or art as a commodity has been held higher than all other possessions and finery like clothes, plates, cutlery, furnitureвЂ¦etc because of its ability вЂњto speak to the soulвЂќ. Art, rather than music or literature, is also expected to be on display. You can display them and reap the praise and accolades that come from having such good taste as to own such finery. You can own paintings in a different way than you can own poems and music. The textures and objects that the spectator can associate with touch are superior and more meaningful than symbols like a skull, for example. The vivid and highly realistic textures that are often on display in oil painting also promote this obsession with вЂњowningвЂќ. Until then, oil painting was the most superior medium in which to create visual images. It used to be the principle source of visual imagery until photography (specifically color photography) replaced it. Oil painting as a popular art form lasted from about 1500 to 1900.

This ties in with BergerвЂ™s earlier analysis on rarity and what exact variable gives art and paintings their вЂњvalueвЂќ. With the advent of oil painting вЂњartвЂќ itself became more of an object and something you were able to own. As life got better people learned to value material objects more and more which was paralleled in popular and contemporary art. This development in art mirrored what was going on socially, agriculturally, and technologically in Europe at the time. The move away from religious art to humanist celebrations of the triumphs of mankind also gave way to the glorification of the вЂњpossessionвЂќ. The concept of reinforcing the importance of objects and materialism through oil painting is explored in Chapter five of Ways of Seeing.

John berger ways of seeing summary