Only 3 works of art.

Imagine a world that's similar to ours, except with one difference: the great Sphinx of Giza, the Girl with the Pearl Earing, and the Carta Marina are literally the only art works in existence. How would that affect the long run for the development of humanity as we know it?

The short of it is that the people wouldn't be human. Art is an intrinsic part of being human. It implies abstract thinking and can help communicate ways of thinking and seeing the world we don't yet have words for. Pre-industrial humans made art of everything. From bits of pottery to frescos on the walls to decorations on weapons and tools, art was just something people did.

It's part of what makes us human.

edited 13th Oct '16 7:26:47 AM by Belisaurius

Man, that was beautiful. we also like to make music.

I count that as art.

I'm inclined to ask how those three works came to be made in the first place. For example, how do you get The Girl with the Pearl Earring without the various works and schools of art that contributed to the artist's artistic education?

Maybe the artist could be the official ur example of paintings.

It's problematic, too, in that I one could make the argument that architecture is art, too. In such a case, how the hell did the Sphinx get made? Without ever having created a large structure, or carved anything, they just create the Sphinx on their first try?

If you have it that the three works of art appeared out of nowhere, or in some otherwise mysterious fashion, fine (were the artists mystically or divinely inspired?). Everything builds on everything else, and nothing is created in a vacuum. Except you have it that these three works of art WERE created in a vacuum, so you've got to come up with some way around that.

So how did this work go without making cave paintings, the Venus of Willendorf or other stuff to get here?

Especially the Sphinx. In reality, it's not the only sphinx in Egypt. (There are multiple, and what makes the Giza Sphinx peculiar is all the others are in pairs, this one is not and nobody can figure out why.)

One solution I can think of is one where there's something, some great power, directly controlling all aspects of sentient life. The Great Power either prevents or allows Art, and so there's only three objects as a result.

Alternately, it's a sightless world (Land of the Blind-style) that has no particular need or use for visual art.

A world of extreme perfectionism, perhaps? Those three pieces have been judged the best in their categories, and thus none other need exist?

Or, simply, a culture that rejects art as idolatry (Handmaid's Tale). The Sphinx is seen as a historical artifact first and a work of art grudgingly, and the other two have been hidden.

Etc.

In that case, maybe that Devine hand could also determine the films, animation, comic books, stories, and musically acts that can stay based on whether or not they have their own TV Tropes page.