[odessacubbage]

next to none of the artwork produced from the medieval times through the 1900s was ever intended for a general audience, it was either commissioned to the tastes of a patron (usually the church or or a wealthy aristocrat) or was produced for the salons of high society, and by extension, the critics. outside of civic works or those dedicated to kings and empires, the entire idea of art as a trust to be kept for the people is a relatively modern invention. art for popular consumption exists in the form of mass media and commercial art and, broadly speaking, this is where the working artists who are interested in representational beauty and -tonality still reside.