Does Gold Or Silver Have Better Eye Appeal?

Aesthetically, there's bound to be something that attracks everyone out there and is used to justify one's like or dislike for everything for different reasons. Gender is but one contributing factor you've given for your own preference, the other suggesting REAL gold were in use in the painting. The same reasons wouldn't be enough for everyone to agree to any concensus, paticularly among those individuals who came to find the subject matter of women in controlled poses, groped in the European Baroque period or on screen in modern cinema covered in shiny metallic paint that is only golden in the imagination, to be acceptable. Real gold is still a chain binding the female form for some I would hazzard a guess.

As I mentioned earlier about gold in holy places, there's an enduring legacy of it's heavy application in such places (compared to silver), significant to say the least in the elongated form of the Sleeping Buddha of Wat Po in Bangkok, Thailand, for instance:




The high altar of the Cathedral of Seville is another such decadent place dripping with gold.

My overall point is that when we discuss precious metals eye appeal as this thread means to do in terms of coinage or bullion, when metals are applied decoratively (e.g. in art objects or ritual objects) and we are not talking about metals in a monetary sense, eye appeal takes on a whole other set of definitions, wholly subjective to the individual and none more right than the other. With coins/bullion we can attempt to be more objective and break down metals to their science, but still when the OP asks for "better" they are still limiting this to personal preference. To that (above in my earlier post) I sought more clarity and found it very difficult to separate the influence of an alloy's influence (copper in silver, silver in gold or copper in gold coins) and a coins size (dimensions) to any final determination, in such limited silver vs. gold decision. :smile

 

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For the benefit of others, you should know Rembrandt did excellent silver as well.

 

So have you been to Wat Po Krispy? Its one of my favorites in Bangkok. I have to admit, though, that the Jade Buddha is my favorite. I don't know why.

Did you hear about the Buddha that they found was solid gold? Centuries ago they covered it up so that it would not be attractive to thieves and bandits. Well, the monks kept the secret so well that eventually all knowledge that the Buddha in the Wat was really pure gold, so no one knew for about 800 years. About 10 years ago they were doing repairs and found out.

 

Not yet, Wat Po is on my bucket list... Perhaps the most similar such place that I have visited is Sanjūsangen-dō (temple) in Kyoto to see the Thousand Armed Kannon in the Hall of the Lotus King. This stuff is just mind boggling to see, enormous amounts of gilt gold statues stuffed to the ceilings in enormous wooden structures that have just been sitting there and gently tended to for ages!

Chris, you may like this quote about jade written by a famous Japanese author in a well known essay on aesthetics. The essay is ostensibly about 'light' and 'shadow' in traditional Japanese aesthetics. It was written back in the 1930s as Japanese culture had rapidly begun to modernize by then and many of the things the author tried to capture in words were culturally disappearing. This quote is a reflection about root sentiments in their culture that extends to the influence of the Chinese, as perceived by a Japanese writer then:

Written by Jun'ichiiro Tanizaki In Praise of Shadows [Leete's Island Books, 1977 - translation]

I hadn't heard that story, but it's a charming one, and sure to add to the longevity of this storied place, surely it will also keep attracting the curious.

 

Well let me know if you ever get an itch to scratch that bucket list item. I just bought my sister in laws condo in Bangkok, so have that and some houses in the north of thailand to stay in.

 

Thank you! I will keep that in mind. I have been a bit hesitant about travel to Thailand in the last several years not understanding much about the political protests and social issues at play as portrayed in the media. I would love to be a visitor though to that country though I doubt I could ever grasp their language to be anything but a visitor. Regardless, to my ears, its spoken sounds make me imagine flowers budding, blooming and twirling around. It sounds very pretty.

 

It is definitely a "to do", krispy. I went there 5 years ago on a General Tours tour and had a wonderful time. In addition to the historical, cultural and natural aspects, the Thai people are extremely gracious and friendly and, from a travel perspective, they really have the concept of hospitality down pat. I am going back this November with a couple of friends and we are including Angkor Wat in Cambodia and also Hanoi.

To **** with the media; it is mostly just "infotainment" anyway. Remember, media is the plural of medium and medium pretty well approximates the level of real truth in what they report.

 

Thanks, I agree about the distortion in the media, which is why I made sure to include them as the reason for my not understanding what's up there. Your impressions of the Thai peoples are what I have heard repeatedly elsewhere too. So I look forward to a future visit there. :smile