Key Problems & Greatness / Elvis, Leonardo etc

Sometimes Key Problems start in a field (eg the greatest theoretical crisis in “all the history of physics”, the conflict between Newton and Maxwell re the “electrodynamics of moving bodies”, peaked between 1895 and 1905, a conflict which Einstein resolved with his theory of relativity). Sometimes they start in a field and become national media events long before any resolution is found (eg, rumors were rife all over the British Isles that Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, had penned an infamous tract on evolution long before Darwin’s first edition hit the press in 1859). Sometimes the key problems relate to much wider ideological crises in the society, and find their solution in one of more fields such as art, film, music, politics etc (eg Marilyn providing a solution to the female identity crisis on early 1950s; or Lincoln being reconstructed as a “national idol” – “the Great Emancipator”, the “people’s President”, etc – in the early 1900s in order to stave off a crisis in American capitalism).

In any case the argument re ‘greatness’ is simply that every generation in every field/ society produces its own 'greats', ie those whose productions/ image (and hence associated values) are seen to solve key problems currently challenging the field/ society. It is not difficult to see where these generational problems come from. A couple of examples should suffice.

In America in the early 1950s, white, urban teens became the first generation since the 1920s with money and time to spend. Needless to say they were looking for something a bit more upbeat than Perry Como and the Lennon Sisters to give voice to their feelings. And they started finding it in the likes of Amos Milburn, and Junior Walker, and Big Boy Crudup, in the Negro R & B artists of Chicago and LA, of New York and Cleveland and Houston; in R & B artistis whose "vocal styles were harsh", songs were "explicit", and rhythms were emphatic". In the R & B music whose "prevailing emotion was excitement". But they needed something more than this. What they needed was a "personal version of this style", a "sound that suggested a young white man celebrating freedom, singing high and clear, varying his rhythmic emphasis with confidence and inventiveness, his singing matched by the urgent rhythm of the bass and guitar; a young white man breathless and impatient, ready to do anything, go anywhere, pausing long enough for apologies and even regrets and recriminations, but then hustling on towards the new". What they needed was an Elvis.

Likewise back in the late 1400s Leonardo's generation was facing problems of their own. In Florence, Venice, Milan and Padua, and the other city states of Italy, public art was practically the mass media of the day. "Pictures, statues, and beautiful buildings" were all part of the "everyday life of ordinary people". As Michelangelo put it, a statue "would be judged by the light of the public square". In fact when it came to art, "nothing seemed impossible". The society was out to recapture the "grandeur that was Rome", the grandeur that was theirs long ago, before the invasions of the barbaric Goths and Vandals. This was the rebirth, the Renaissance of Italy, and Italian artists were going to prove once again that they were the "centre of the civilized world".

Beyond the issue of national identity, there was also a major artistic problem to be solved. The 'greats' of previous generations - from Giotto right up through Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Botticelli - despite their momentous creations, still had not achieved a sense of "spontaneity" - that "spontaneity which enables the artist to enhance his work by adding a pervasive beauty to what is merely artistically correct". What was missing was that "lightness of touch", that use of "finer points", through which "charming and graceful facility is suggested rather than revealed in living subjects". This is the problem Leonardo finally solved, perhaps most impressively over the four years he spent on his portrait of Francesco del Giocondo's wife. A portrait with a "smile so pleasing that it seemed divine rather than human", a portrait so real that "those who saw it were amazed to find that it was as alive as" Mona Lisa herself. It was a problem Leonardo addressed in all his work, from the dewdrops dripping off the flowers in his Madonna, to the "tormented anxiety" of the apostles in the Last Supper, to the very texture of the tablecloth itself. "Spontaneity" was the key artistic problem of Leonardo's generation, and he was the one who solved it.

And there was one final problem for Leonardo's generation… continues in Arrival

…Leonardo, Elvis; Marilyn, Einstein, Darwin – the same analysis applies. Those who solve the key problems of their generation become the ‘greats’ of that generation, and often – revised as needs be – of future generations as well. Not suprisingly, those who solve key problems of a field/society – ie those who become ‘great’ -- force others to rethink, re-evaluate, and rework their approach to related problems within the field/society. Such creations and the problems relevant to them can of course relate primarily to ways of understanding and dealing with 'physical reality' (eg Newton, Einstein in physics; Bill Russell, Michael Jordan in basketball) or 'social reality' (eg, Jesus, Kant, Elvis, Madonna). In every case the creations of the 'great' will affect both physical and social reality (eg, think of Galileo, Michelangelo, Darwin, Picasso, or Muhammad Ali).

The information and quotes used in this section come mostly from Pais (1983) re Einstein; Eiseley (1961) re Darwin; Schwartz (1990) re Lincoln; Gillett (1984) re Elvis; Gombrich (1981), Kroeber (1944), & Vasari (1987) re Leonardo; Albert (1990 & 1975) re definition of greatness; and Festinger (1950 & 1954) re physical and social reality.

Re references cited above, see Sources.