Works of Heartbreaking Genius

I found somewhere recently on the Web a proposed listing of the greatest artworks of the Twentieth Century.

This got me thinking—in my own readings and travels, what would I select for my own list of the greatest artworks of all time?

I use the term “art” in its broadest sense here—I’m thinking in terms of works of culture generally. In case of doubt, my criterion was: did it or could it bring tears to my eyes with the sheer beauty of the thing?

Of course, my list is only partial—I have only read, seen, and done so much, and must have missed some worthy things. And forgotten others.

Here’s my list:


The Book of Law

- The British parliamentary system
- The American Declaration of Independence
- The Ten Commandments
- The (US) Bill of Rights


Unclassified

- Chess
- Baseball
- tea


Stories—The Book of Myths

- Krsna Gopala cycle
- Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky
- Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
- Animal Farm, Orwell
- 1984, Orwell
- Shakespeare, MacBeth
- Shakespeare, The Tempest
- Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
- Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrranos
- Life of the Buddha
- Book of Genesis
- John 1


Wonders of the World:

- Jiu Hua Shan – one of the four sacred mountains of Chinese Buddhism. I expect the other three are as magnificent; this is the one I’ve seen.
- Kyoto, Japan.
- Sinulog (annual celebration of the Feast of the Child Jesus, Cebu, Philippines)
- Sigiri, Sri Lanka—for the architectural feat of the castle on top of a sheer mountain, plus the magnificent gardens, plus the Sigiri Maiden frescos, plus the poetry of the mirror wall.
- Sistine Chapel


Book of Wisdom:

- Analects, Confucius
- Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
- Anselm’s Ontological Proof of the Existence of God
- Plato’s cave analogy
- Pascal’s Wager
- Occam’s Razor
- Descartes’s Meditations
- Sermon on the Mount
- Catechism of the Catholic Church


Book of Songs:

- Ryme of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge
- Kublai Khan, Coleridge
- Frost at Midnight, Coleridge
- Li Bai, corpus
- Sailing to Byzantium, Yeats
- The Second Coming, Yeats
- The Circus Animals’ Desertion, Yeats
- Lapis Lazuli, Yeats
- Ash Wednesday, Eliot.
- Goodnight Irene, Huddy Ledbetter
- 1 Corinthians 13
- “Oh Westron wind, when wilt thou blow…”


Visual Arts:

- Michelangelo, Pieta
- Vermeer, Girl with Pearl Earring
- Blake’s miniatures
- Van Gogh, Starry Night


Music

- Beethoven, Ode to Joy
- Si Bheag, Si Mhor

Your results may vary.