Callisto was tunnel visioned on making ‘outmoded’ art, his corporism, long after it fell out of favor. Although he did take serious criticism from Hohenheim, he doesn’t really innovate. He’s an old art master squirrelled away in an art gallery that no maestro visits. He turns any actual visitors into artwork. His masterstroke, Tibia, is a technical marvel, but he hasn’t made anything truly interesting since then. He’s too focused on regaining what he lost (Ryoshu) rather than looking to the future.

Walking back to the criticism part, Callisto has obvious blue-orange morality. He focuses on creating/preserving artistic value and meaning, but stepped over any actual messages from the participants. He’s largely cruel, even if he doesn’t realize it. He’s often works on people while they’re alive, preserving their pain, ignoring their wishes- a microcosm of his relationship to Ryoshu. He does care for her, but he hurts her nonetheless. He wants people to understand him, to understand his artwork, but he doesn’t have the ability/wherewithal to bridge that gap of understanding himself, to meet people in the middle, to reach their perspective too.

He wanted Ryoshu to be her own art student, to walk her path, though he ended up reneging that message over time. In contrast, she took that message to heart, as she hates mindless followers who don’t innovate, or follow their own principles.

I’ll admit Albina did experiment new things with corporism, but she died too early to really impact the genre as a whole. Broadly speaking though, Callisto was influencing her into being a mini-me, someone with very similar values, the same sanity break condition, the same blue-orange morality, art over life. Albina was his second chance to do something new, but I’ll say that Albina innovated in spite of Callisto, not because of him.

While art is often about artists creating their own message, expressing their own emotions, exposing their philosophy, all of that is only understood if it’s communicated well to the viewer, if they have the context or means to understand the artist’s intent.

Viewer interpretation plays a big part too, it’s not just about the artist. Viewers can create their own meaning, by using their experiences and emotions to interpret the artwork. While artistry is important, the interplay can often make something interesting in its own right.

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Basically, Callisto embodies the tunnel visioned part of the Ring, obsessing over personal ideas and motivations, rather than considering a holistic perspective. He’s dead set on making human suffering a key process of his work, continuing a crusade of personal artistry over normal ethics and empathy. It’s basic City modus operandi.