How does art comfort humans?

This is a new book by Jeon Won-kyung, the author of 『Art, Making History』, which was praised for its profound perspective encompassing art and history, and 『Art Meets the City』, which explores the relationship between art and space.
As a series of art that elevates life, it provides a new answer to the question of whether art is something noble and distant in our complex reality where joy and pain, hope and helplessness intersect.
Through the vivid life stories of renowned artists such as Rubens, da Vinci, Botticelli, Klimt, and Picasso, it reminds us that art and reality are intimately intertwined and have taken root within us.
Each chapter in this book concludes with a list of classical music recommended by the author, allowing the message conveyed through famous paintings and stories to be preserved with a deeper and more profound resonance through a variety of music.
Sigong Art's trilogy of works of art, which explores the hidden depths of works of art through a broad humanistic perspective, has concluded its journey with the theme of art and humanity, following art and history and art and the city.

Art may seem to express a grand realm that ordinary people like us can never reach, but that is not the case.
If you look closely at operas hanging in magnificent art galleries or performed in splendid theaters, most of them deal with people's lives interpreted through the artist's eyes.
We can recall the fiery moment of first love through the gazes of the man and woman clashing in Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne," and we can see ourselves silently enduring our daily toil by looking at the usher in Hopper's "New York Cinema."
While listening to Orpheus singing “I have lost my Eurydice,” you may shed tears as if the bitter pain of heartbreak were happening right now, or you may recall the days of your childhood, as clear as glass, through the young girls in Sargent’s “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose.”
Through this process, we experience the special and intimate feeling that great works created long ago are connected to our lives, transcending the flow of time.
"Art, Speaks of Humanity" is a book written to remember the shining moments in our lives and to gain strength to live in reality from those moments, before commenting on or appreciating works of art.
---From "Entering"

Montmartre, where Toulouse-Lautrec stayed, was beautiful, but Picasso could not speak a word of French.
After months of frantic pilgrimages to art museums, Picasso returned home and immediately packed his bags and headed back to Paris.
Unable to overcome the pain of a heartbreak in the winter, his friend Casagemas accidentally committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol.
Picasso's Blue Period, symbolizing the young artist's frustrated dreams, anxiety, worries, poverty, and innocence, began with his friend's suicide.
Young Picasso was devastated by the loss of his only friend in a foreign land and did not know what to do.
The works painted during this period often feature poor musicians, old people, blind people, and street women.
---From "Youth: A Blessing or a Pain?"

In fact, since the Middle Ages, values ​​toward women have had a contradictory aspect.
From a Christian perspective, Eve, the first woman, was the 'gate leading to hell' for men.
However, the Virgin Mary, who is also a woman, is the symbol of salvation and the woman of heaven.
The church has been floundering, unable to find its center in its Janus-shaped view of women.
Between Eve, Adam's wife, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, who represents women? Depending on one's perspective, women could easily be transformed into both saints and witches.
---From "The Witch and the Femme Fatale: Who is the Really Bad Woman?"

In Johannes Vermeer's masterpiece, "The Milkmaid," the girl in the painting is wearing a blue apron and a yellow outer garment.
The apron is vividly painted in a deep blue color from lapis lazuli, the most expensive pigment.
This blue is a color that signifies nobility and purity, and was often used to paint the Virgin Mary's cloak.
Through the maid's blue apron, Vermeer subtly shows his belief that everyday labor is a sacred act.
The sight of the maid pouring milk while holding the milk jug with both hands and looking down is imbued with a pious air, as if she were praying.
---From "Labor and Vacation: Landscapes of Life in Art"

Culture tends to follow the movement of wealth.
In the late 1800s, the United States, as an emerging industrial nation, began actively importing European culture.
After steel magnate Andrew Carnegie opened Carnegie Hall in New York, he invited Russia's greatest composer, Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), to give a commemorative concert.
Tchaikovsky, who came to New York in April 1891, stayed in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia for two months, conducting four performances at Carnegie Hall and receiving a performance fee of $2,500, equivalent to 80 million won in today's money.
Tchaikovsky said in America, his first visit, that “the people are kind, generous, and honest.
New Yorkers in particular are friendlier than people in Paris or any other European city.
“If I had come here a little younger, I would have seriously considered staying here,” he wrote.

---From "Art and Economics: Which Works Sell for High Prices?"