“Human art can never rival mother nature in terms of either its awe-inspiring beauty or ultimate truth.” Do you agree?

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. That is what Michaelangelo, the creator of one of Man’s best artistic works, believed in. Mother nature, the muse of most, if not all artists, comes under the guise of mountains, waterfalls, beaches and most prominently, human beings themselves. And this is where the “divine perfection” which Michaelangelo speaks of comes in.

Human beings, a creation of mother nature, was the source of inspiration for the reknown artist. His more celebrated pieces such as the statue of David, and the pinnacle achievement, his magnificent fresco, The Creation of Adam, on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, were inspired by mother nature, by God. Does not the creation of Man, of Adam and Eve, arouse awe-inspiring beauty, and all these in the form of human art? Countless paintings and sculptures have been sketched and molded in the likeliness of Adam and Eve, Jesus and Virgin Mary, all the embodiment of beauty. It is in this form of inspiration, that mother nature would, more often that not, surpass human art in all its dimensions.

The ultimate truth, is the acknowledgement of irrefutable facts, of culture-free universality. By culture-free, we cannot take into account the role of Christianity or any other religion, ethnicity and custom. The existance of Adam and Eve were founded on the belief of God, a belief not shared by all who know of it.

Human art can come in the form of books, music, paintings, pictures, and sculptures. It is a well used cliché, that of a picture painting a thousand words, but how much of it is actually true? How much of it is merly a fantasy of the artist? Human art is an image of beauty, a copy of the original, of mother nature. It can easily be manipulated into something it is not. Take for example, the sky may be painted pink and the grass blue, to show the individuality of the artist and not to relay mother nature as it is. Where is the ultimate truth in this now? One can see in reality, a deserted and derelict mountain, and on canvas, conjure up a flourishing piece of land, with the power of one’s imagination. Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and many more after them have portrayed mother nature in ways impossible with veritable masterpieces such as “Starry Night” and “Guernica”. Unlike most of Van Gogh's works, “Starry Night” was painted from memory and not outdoors. “Guernica” depicts the consequences of the bombing of Guernica, where people, animals, and buildings were wrenched by the violence and chaos of the bombing. Looking at the piece of art however, one would not see the actual happenings of the bombing and its consequences but only abstracts of the event as intepreted by Picasso. These works were the artists’ view of mother nature, not the actual representation of it.

Mother nature on the other hand, represents all semblance of ultimate truth. For how can one deny the sun’s hues of red, orange and yellow, or the sparkle of yellow in the darkness of night. Mother nature is timeless, spaceless, in a world where art, human art, is bound by the reigns of culture, of society and of the individual.

Where human art is not bound by such restrictions, beauty and truth resides. Michaelangelo’s work in the Sistine Chapel is one such example. People of all walks of life, of various social standings, all stand in awe of his work. The beauty of such inspiration is not to be trifled with. Where others have failed, Michaelangelo’s art had succeeded in transcending the boundaries of what is expected, reaching into the recesses of people’s minds of what could not rival mother nature in its awe-inspiring beauty and ultimately, truth.