Faldoni, part 2788 - 2791

 2788. Many of his strips involve scenes which can be considered as miniature paintings. Since Li’l Abner’s series of images tells a narrative story, then the series has a lot in common with Medieval religious painting or the sort Faldoni and his contemporaries were doing. And so, exactly like Faldoni and the master painters of the past, so much work had to be done every day that apprentices were employed to do all of the busy work.

 

2789. In the comic strip Li’l Abner, the great complexity of the strip can be explained by the fact that Mr. Capp reserved for himself the important task of the faces of the characters, and everything else was often completed or even created by his assistants.

 

2790. Looked at in this way, it becomes clear, that the reason those old painters were able to craft their paintings to such perfection in the details, was because there was often a small army of servants doing everything from grinding the colors to filling in the endless details of the clothing, landscape and architectural backgrounds. Yes, the great art of the past that we admire and strikes us as so astounding in its minute execution, was made possible by servitude, pure and simple.

2791. From the pyramids of Egypt, to the Coliseum, from the wall paintings of Pompeii to the Sistine Chapel all the great art of the past was build upon a foundation of what can only be described as slavery, or indentured servitude.