The quarrel of old and new

Let's tackle our defining question through one of the most formidable clashes in history: the quarrel between classics and moderns in the early 20th century. The classics were primarily about their traditions; they had the advantage of a formidable workshop technique. The moderns had come out of their workshops to seek inspiration in nature; they felt a certain contempt for the technique as long as she did not submit to what they believed to be the truth. The opposition between these two streams was much more subtle and complex than it seems.

There is a tremendous struggle between truth and illusion. The classics practice a perfectly realistic and aesthetic illusion, while moderns drop out of reality, at the risk of shocking, to better account for it, with more truth than photography.