When you go to a museum, how awesome is it not to see all those old works of art painted or sculptured perhaps hundreds of years ago! As photography hadn’t been invented yet, the only way to immortalize or give shape to something was of course to paint or sculp it.
There is a very suitable Latin phrase for this:
“Ars longa, vita brevis”.
Dissected this would be: ars (art) longa (long), vita (life) brevis (short).
This aphorism is from the first two lines of the Aphorismi by the Greek physician Hippocrates (born 460 BC), expressing the long-lasting impact of art over the brevity of life.
There is something very relaxing about sitting down on a museum bench and watching at a large painting from a distance. No hurry to go anywhere, you can contemplate upon the meaning of the painting, the composition, the use of colours, the background of the time it was created with all the possible and probable cultural norms, or whatever else comes in mind.
Time stands still, and the artist’s message may come thru loud and clear, or remain in obscurity. No matter what, there it is. And will be, long after we are gone perhaps. To be admired, contemplated upon, awed, by another mind. Perhaps on that very same bench.