ThenewseriesonRenaissancepainting,writtenandpresentedbyMatthewCollings,beginswithanartisticinvestigationintooneofthemostradiantandbeautifulimagesinallofarthistory,TheMadonnaoftheMeadow,paintedin1505byRaphael.Renaissancearthasbecomepartofthe21st-centuryheritageindustrybutwhenRaphaelwasalive,itwasastartlingnewformofvisualexpression,andRaphael'svibrant'realism'wasstrikingandfresh.Itbecamethemodelforwesternartforthenext400years,rightupuntilthebirthofModernism.Asmuchasitwasacultural'rToday we’re very uncertain about what it is that art is supposed to do. We don’t see that it comes from visual traditions that have built up over centuries, and we don’t realize that by junking those traditions in favor of a breathless, urgent sense of the right now, which is what our art mostly does, art gets weaker.Like God, politics, society, art is now a dubious thing for many people. And yet here is something that tells you about power, and not weakness, simply because of what has been done there. God, politics, society, feeling a bit solemn and deciding to go and see some Renaissance art, non of these are really the reason why art ever looks good. It’s what’s actually in the picture that does it.以上是结尾。所以现在，再回头看八年前GRE issue的一道题目（暴露年龄了！）："It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."