The original of the article is published in: "Nargis" magazine, 2020 (Septeber).
IN 356 B.C. IN THE GREAT GREEK CITY OF EPHESUS, A TERRIBLE COMMOTION REIGNED. AN AWFUL THING HAD HAPPENED: THE TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS ARTEMIS HAD BURNT DOWN, REVERED AS ONE OF THE WONDERS OF THE WORLD. THE SHOCKED CITIZENS WERE CIRCULATING RUMOURS: A YOUNG MAN NAMED HEROSTRATUS HAD SET FIRE TO THE TEMPLE. BUT THE MOST STRIKING THING IN THIS STORY WAS THE CONFESSION OF HEROSTRATUS: HE SET FIRE TO A WONDERFUL TEMPLE...
SO THAT HIS NAME WOULD REMAIN IN MEMORY FOR GENERATIONS. THE INFURIATED JUDGES
SENTENCED HIM TO A PAINFUL DEATH. IT WAS ALSO STRICTLY FORBIDDEN TO MENTION THE NAME OF HEROSTRATUS. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS LED TO THE OPPOSITE RESULT: THE VERDICT ANNOUNCED BY THE HERALDS IN ALL MAJOR CITIES OF HELLAS RESULTED IN THE ARSONIST OF A WONDERFUL TEMPLE FILLED WITH PRICELESS WORKS OF ART GAINING THE POSTHUMOUS GLORY HE SO DESIRED.
A human being is a strange creature, working purposefully and creatively, erecting beautiful temples and buildings, writing wonderful poems and painting brilliant pictures. But there is something in the depths of our subliminal consciousness requiring the liberation of the soul through an act of unrestrained violence and the destruction of all that has been created and nurtured.
Undoubtedly, the craving for sophisticated destruction in humans has its roots in nature. Nazcan boobies live in a world of violence. The adult birds walk along the beach, looking for nestlings left unattended. Then they start pecking at them, sometimes demonstrating signs of sexual abuse. Adult boobies who were abused in their youth often become cruel aggressors. Bottlenose dolphins sometimes kill and torture porpoises, just for fun. Having caught a mouse or a bird, sweet little cats often brutally torture their prey for a long time before killing it. Finally, apes are also capable of downright insane behaviour, similar to that of humans.
Since distant antiquity, the joy of creativity in humans has been associated with destruction. A considerable amount of rock art of ancient people bears traces of deliberate damage. Perhaps these injuries symbolise some magical rituals. But the true purpose of such ancient vandalism is still unclear.
Mankind owes the dubious honour of aestheticising destruction to ancient civilization. Roman Emperor Nero was a great connoisseur of the fine art. Son of the dissolute senator Domitius Ahenobarbus, he inherited his father's bad heredity and his mother Agrippina the Younger exerted the worst influence on the character of the future emperor. The famous French historian Ernest Renan writes in The Antichrist:
— One of the features of Nero’s character was his inability to resist the fixed idea of a crime. The burning of Troy which he had acted out since his infancy, took possession of him in a terrible manner.
Once Nero, consumed with a desire to achieve the impossible of his whims and desires, cried out with the greatest sorrow:
— Happy Priam, who could see with his own eyes his empire and his country perish at the same time!
On another occasion, having quoted a Greek verse from the Bellerophon by Euripides:
“When I am dead, the earth and the fire can mingle together!”, Nero responded “Oh, no, but while I am living!”
The maniacal idea of destruction made Nero give the order to destroy Rome. This order led to the destruction of the most magnificent buildings in the city. Meanwhile, the crowned degenerate was performing an elegy about the death of Troy
against the background of a grandiose conflagration. At the same time, the insane emperor bombastically played the lyre. Many historians have questioned this ominous episode. But the general atmosphere of depravity of imperial Roman society suggests that the episode with the deliberate burning of Rome is quite consistent with his mores.
Petronius the Arbiter, one of Nero's drinking companions, became famous for his enchanting manifestation of the act of destruction of beauty. After receiving a death sentence from the tyrant, he smashed a valuable ancient vase so that Nero would not have it.
The fall of ancient civilization put an end to such experiments. For painting took long, painful years, several centuries, Europeans were busy surviving. The masterpieces of past centuries were not destroyed by vandals as a result of their
perverse nature.
The Germans were practical people and valued beauty in the form of a silver bar more than a statue of Aphrodite. Therefore, the vandals did not quite deserve their notoriety. People of the Renaissance and Enlightenment period loved beauty too much. Most masterpieces were lost as a result of hostilities and looting. Only the twentieth century again realised the problem of the destruction of works of art.
On 13th January 1913 in the Tretyakov Gallery, a psychopath cut the famous painting of Ilya Repin Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16th November 1581. The painting was saved with great difficulty.
After that, the dam seemed to burst: new acts of vandalism rained down in turbid waves. In 1914, at the London National Gallery, Suffragist Mary Richardson damaged Velasquez's painting Venus with a Mirror in several places. On 5th June 1985 in the Hermitage, Rembrandt's painting Danae was attacked by a madman who poured sulphuric acid on the canvas and stabbed it twice. The most important parts were burned by the acid. The restoration of the painting took long, painful years.
In 1956, in the Louvre, a young visitor, in a fit of frenzied anger, threw a stone into the world-famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci La Gioconda and injured the beauty's left elbow. Poor Mona Lisa was attacked several more times. In 1974, a Japanese tourist threw a bottle of paint at her.
Fortunately, the protective glass saved the masterpiece. The attempt to destroy the famous painting by a Russian tourist who threw a ceramic mug at her turned out to be truly symbolic. The screen again protected the masterpiece. The woman was sent to the police. She said the reason for the barbaric trick was the refusal to obtain French citizenship. So she decided to take revenge on Gioconda personally!
Alas, the list of attempts is very long. O tempora, o mores! Obviously, the fall of civilization awakens the lowest feelings in its former citizens. Only this can explain the destruction of Palmyra by a gang of religious extremists. And if her
guardian pounces on beauty, why should outsiders feel sorry for her? Obviously, it was these feelings that drove a black immigrant from Africa, who staged arson in Nantes Cathedral this year. The fire burned down an ancient organ. The authorities refused to grant him asylum. This is very similar to the story of the Russian tourist. Like this valiant woman, the African decided to take revenge not on people, but on the defenseless cathedral.
But is it only the weakening of morality that can lead to such low deeds? Educated vandals often cite their particular vision of the world. Such was the emperor Nero and his followers. The true cause of destruction is rooted in the depths of the human soul.
In 1974, Serbian artist Marina Abramovich staged a unique sixhour performance in Naples. She stood motionless in front of a table on which various objects were laid out: a rose, a feather, perfume, honey, bread, grapes, wine, scissors, a scalpel, nails, a metal bar and a gun... A notice was posted next to it. The audience was informed that the artist had renounced her human essence for six hours and become an object. People could do whatever they wanted with her. At first, the visitors were gentle and caring. They were giving her flowers and perfume. But gradually people went into a rage. The woman's defenselessness awakened the worst instincts in them. They began to carve the victim's body and cut her hair. One of her tormentors took a gun and aimed at her head.
Suddenly, six hours later, Marina Abramovich moved towards the audience. All fled, seized with horror at the sight of the unfortunate woman, who was walking towards them, doused in blood.
Who knows what the vandals of all ages and peoples would do if buildings, paintings and statues, which they so mercilessly were destroying, would find a soul, speak and leave their places?