No, it didn’t. Art did not make us. We made art. Brilliant Isles is a brilliant book, and the BBC series of the same name may be a brilliant series. We can interpret previous eras through artistic output but no, we are not “made” by it.
Even the lucky few who got to see Spong Man in 5th century Norfolk, probably a handful of relatives at most, were not “made” by the hunching statuette urn. Certainly, nobody in Suffolk was.
Mr — or is it Ms, or He/She — Spong, the artefact that opens the book, reflects an early need to depict the human form and observe funeral rites and is important for that. Art, in all forms, influences profoundly and is a window on the soul of centuries-long gone, but don’t invest it with powers it simply does not have.
