The Long Way Back to Ourselves

4.8

Art: Why Humans Make Images

This episode opens with a signed Greek vase from the sixth century BCE reading "Exekias made me and painted me," and you learn the rarity of a maker's name shows most images in history had no attributed author. It tests several explanations for humans' enormous effort on decoration, including Steven Pinker's claim that art is a byproduct comparable to cheesecake, and philosopher Denis Dutton's argument that costly, useless effort signals credibility. Dutton's misses hidden images no one will ever see. The episode traces how European art separated from craft and ritual between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, applying Walter Benjamin's concept of aura to explain why thousands queue to see a painting they already own at home in better resolution.