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Gothic Art Chapter 13

Out of all the chapter, i was most excited about this topic. The word gothic has many different meanings but you can ask a group of people what type of picture the word “gothic” paints in their mind and I’m sure there will be similarities like darkness, black, and an eve presence. I never went through the “emo” phase or gothic phase in the teenage years as most people say you go through, but gothic influences have always caught my attention in art, film, and structures. I have always been a vampire fan even when I Was younger,watching the movie “the Little Vampire” the home that the characters stayed in were there’s great big stone homes that looked like castles. They had strep and pointy roofs with dark colored stained glass. Their clothing were these immaculate threaded gowns that had tiny details that made the gowns look like they have hemming of gold. The buttress piers i think are the location of the gargoyles you see on the movies when they play the intense piano music and have the wolf howling in the background. The cathedrals that were built with Gothic style are very neat with their vaulted ceilings. I love hearing acoustic versions of music in cathedrals because of the sound and would love to hear it in one of these cathedrals. When you think of gothic, it almost seems like that and a church shouldn’t be in the same object, but then I think that the evil perception that follows goth was all an interpretation from us as the viewers. Just like how people each have their different interpretation of a portrait of statue and have their own meaning for it, that is where the evil and scary views of “gothic” style may have come from.

I like this chapter because it shows the origin of gothic style and whole other view/meaning of it. The structures are beautiful and made up of so many different details such as the door jamb statues on page 210. When you look from afar oat the Chartres Cathedral, it would look like a great building, and you look closer and notice the portals above the doors that represent a the Second coming of Christ. It reminds me of that portrait that of that lady with and umbrella standing on the greenery with the small child next to her and people in the distance and when you look closer, you see that it is made up of these tiny different colored dots. Looking at these cathedrals, I want to travel so bad and see these structures in real life. I bet you can stand next to them and feel minuscule compared to the size. I like to know how things are made and build and the time that it took for them to create the massive steeples. I wonder what structures we have here in America that reflects the gothic style like Rome has apart from some church structures.

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Chapter 12 Romanesque Art

In Western Europe there came to be many styles of art coming together to make up what is called Romanesque art. As pilgrims traveled to Santiago de Compostela, Spain they left behind a pilgrimage road system; leaving behind churches, lodging, and monasteries. Architecture of these churches made possible for the growing number of pilgrims coming through the area. These churches had much focus on aesthetics which was likely guided from wealthy patrons or even the local religious Order. These churches showcased a belfry rising high above the roof and I think many churches we are familiar with today follow in that tradition. I was rather surprised to see such elaborate gold altarpieces used in this time.

I love how in the Romanesque churches they were able to create imagery from the Bible by incorporating tapestries, paintings, and sculptures. The relief sculptures at the main entrances are quite magnificent. The Last Judgment relief adorning the main entrance of Sainte-Foy, Conques amazes me with its intricacies and I can imagine a pilgrim gazing upon it being frightened of the section with Satan and the monster. Within this church one could see the reliquary statue of Sainte-Foyl, Conques which the head was possibly molded around the saint’s skull. This makes sense since we have learned in other chapters how funerary mask were made that way. Gislebertus work at Autun reminded me of Salvador Dali briefly because in his Last Judgement where it’s showing souls being weighed there are a couple characters with extremely long limbs like how Dali does in his paintings where a limp is extremely long and supported by a crutch.

Romanesque art also brought us illuminated manuscripts with large and creative first letters of the text. I had noticed many books over the years following suite with enlargement of the first letter on a page, but this makes a beautiful statement. In mural paintings, tapestries, and manuscripts I love the bold uses of color. For murals they used fresco secco that may have been dampened to get the plaster to absorb the paint better. The Norman invasion of England was told through a tapestry measuring over 230 feet long. Many dedicated individuals had to of helped in the completion of such a delicate embroidery process. I really enjoyed the story telling in the Romanesque art this week.

Pictured above Last Judgement by Gislebertus at Atun retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/renaud-camus/14595107682

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Yes, the imagery created from the Bible and put on the tapestries, paintings and sculptures is amazing. I was just writing in my own post, that these works of art are what really tell a story. People have less interest in reading, and more interest towards visually interesting things. So by looking at these works of art and deciphering them, they are probably even more fascinated by the story that’s told. We’re even like this now, that we would rather watch movies than read the books they’re based off of.

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It is quite amazing that through the travel of the pilgrims they were able to leave behind structures and churches that we now depend on to tell us about the past and understand their art and it’s meaning. I think it’s huge facinating they to them we were just continuing their pilgrims, not leaving a trail of opportunity to learn more about a civilization and it’s art.

The large letter start the paragraph of a new chapter was cool to learn the it was created with manuscripts. Finding the art in writing styles is really neat and i remember in the art classes we took in grade school, calligraphy was one of my favorite topics, but difficult as well.

Chapter 12

While reading this chapter, all I could think was that I wish I knew more about religion, took a class, or was more involved with the religious classes when I was younger because it would have been much more helpful understanding who these different people and saints are as well as what they stood for and what they did. But moving forward, I did not know that movements, and campaigns had so much to do with are and how certain cultures came together which led to a civilization and then they added their own touch of their culture to their land that they walked and founded, which was their art and art style. I did learn that from the information that was talking about the pilgrimages that the Christians would take part in heading to other churches.

Sainte-Foy on page 186, looks immaculate. It almost reminds me of a movie and it makes me think how these places are actually real structures, full of statues like the Reliquary statue. I thought it was interesting that Saint Faith willingly suffered through death just because she did not want to worship the gods. That is a strong lady and it surprises me that when people talk about women who were strong and stood up for their rights, that they don’t come back to Saint Faith and start with her since she was so long ago but also she died for her personal belief and reason.

The detailing in the “Last Judgement” is very intricate and I want to know how long it took someone to complete it. It has so many details, all the way down to the snake that winds around the legs of the people on the bottom of hells side and around the devils. I wasn’t really sure what they meant by they did flat art. The art that is in the pictures Is very 3D as well as having depths and small details that you wouldn’t be able to notice unless you looked close up.

While reading, just like with the Egyptian and Roman art, the book goes into talking about the direction of the feet and how the hips are positioned. It was talking about how Saint Matthews feet were flat and vertical and then they said that it showed how he has no support. Art and the way artist position their figures shows so so much more that what you actually see. I really like that about art and I am just discovering it. It’s literally a picture that you can look deeper than what the big picture is and pick out different things like what it is made up of, dots or shapes, if the figure is showing movement on how its hips and body is positioned, and also if they are leaning to a certain side. I didn’t ever pay attention to more than what the actual picture was until now.

Murals are so pretty, I really enjoy the murals that have Spanish influence. They are full of colors and different scenes. It’s sad that they cannot be conserved very well because even something as natural as lighting can affect them and cause the color to fade.

Chapter 11

Reading about the Middle Ages had many different points to the reading. It has information about the artwork and how it was looked at as evil and also the artwork in the structures that were built. There were many different interesting topics in the reading along with those points as well.

The first thing I came across was how the Islamic culture looked at scultpures as the work of satin. I was wondering what parts about the sculptures caused them to think of it as satin, was it the expression or that sculptures took on the figures of bodies. While i thought of that it made me connect that to the Amish culture and how they do not allow their dolls to have faces because they believe satin can find his way through it and also they do not allow themselves in photos because of the devil being able to possibly reach their souls.

The next thing that caught me was about the mosque. The height of the columns threw me because you walk into churches and structures from the past ages and the size and height is the first thing you notice, they seem like the go on forever. So to see that Córdoba had columns that were only 9ft tall was what threw me off. The color of the arches with red and white reminded me of a festival and in Spain, they have many of them so it does reflect its culture.

The metal work by Anglo-Saxon was really cool. It was a metal shell to a purse and i think of what purses are now and they are no where near having outer shells of metal. I really enjoy symmetrical work. In math classes that was always my favorite chapter. I think symmetrical artwork looks clean and very well organized. This purse cover that is so detailed out of metal is just that along with the colors, it’s a very pretty piece of art that I am happy they were able to conserve.

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Art history Chapter 10; Early Christian and Byzantine Art

For my research on a concurrent nonwestern art movement, I chose China. It is listed from 1-500 A.D. I have always been fascinated by China and their artwork. Whether it be their architecture, or the simplicity of their art, I have always been intrigued. In fact, just thinking about it makes me excited! For all of my posts, I have been interested in the cultures of the people, like the Ancient Egyptians, or the Ancient Greeks and Romans. But man, I would love to read more about the art history of Ancient China. Here’s what I learned though from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the Han Dynasty, (206 B.C - 220 A.D) China established a lasting model of imperial order among their nations that is still around to this day. These people even refer to themselves as the “Han people.”

I did some research on the Han people. They are in fact the most populous ethnic group in all of China. During the time of 206 B.C - 220 A.D, the Han people were forced south because of pressure from political turmoil, and during this time and for 300 years, the Chinese remained divided between the north and south, all the while picking up things such as Buddhism, painting and calligraphy. Within my research I found that Mahayana Buddhism is definitely a popular religion still to this day with the Han people. It is common within Ancient Chinese artwork to see statues of religion, or of Buddha. They used art materials such as gilt bronze and earthware to craft their art. The Han people were closely mixed with archaeology, biology and mythology, which can also be seen within their artwork. Their mythology can be seen in their art work of dragons (which I absolutely love). During this time they also began utilizing paper, which became a big deal during the third century A.D.

Okay, I am really excited about chapter 10. If you read the Bible, you can see that timelines add up, that being, when Early Christianity began influencing art and apostle Paul started teaching the Romans about Jesus Christ. While Christianity was spreading, it also had to stay an underground movement for three hundred years, because Christians were being persecuted. This was until Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, granting tolerance of all religions, which included Christianity. Somewhere in the Bible it is stated, “There is nothing new under the sun.” And that statement is the truest statement that I’ve ever heard. Even now, in today’s society are we always fighting for tolerance and equality of some sort. The fight is never ending, and this world will always seem unfair. But at that time, Constantine allowed for the tolerance of religion, which is interesting to me.

The Early Christian sarcophagus (Page 155 in the text) is very interesting to look at. We can see the detail and depth it takes, much like the art work we have seen beforehand in this art history book. It is also made out of marble, which was a common material used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. But the Christian influence on it is heavy, displaying people from the Bible and symbolism. (A Shepard representing Christ for example, and the dove, being the Holy Spirit.)

As I was reading about the Basilicas, or the beginning of the Christian churches, I was thinking to myself, “Okay, here is where we see evidence of Christians wanting to come together to worship and join in fellowship.” And the sentence right after confirmed that for me. Constantine was an active supporter of the churches being built. The churches were heavily influenced on architectural design, especially the Roman basilicas. These buildings were able to hold large amounts of people for Christian worship, and this just goes to show how fast Christianity was spreading during that time. The mosaics, frescoes, and marble columns were used to exalt God, and to teach and inspire worshipers. I love artwork in churches, we can see evidence with this as well that beautiful artwork stayed in churches ever since Christian influence overtook western art.

Christian mosaic was also made by adapting a Roman method, which was embedding tessarae. I am mesmerized by the mosaics on pages 160-163 of the texts. I can imagine how beautiful they must look in real life! I hope to see them one day. These mosaics are full of stories and symbolism. (The mosaic on page 170 is also magnificent. Such detail!)

Similarly to Near East and Egypt, we can see gold being used to symbolize royalty, or something grand. In the Hagia Sophia, we can see the gold roof, and it’s amazing. Through this artwork, we can see the influence of art through each time period, everyone taking something from each other to make art that is more and more grand. It makes me think on how far we’ve come, even now.

I can see the point that the Iconoclasts make. In fact, I can see it in my minds eye, people worshiping the art and it’s beauty rather than what it symbolizes. It makes me wonder just how much art we’ve lost that we could have had to this day. This was a very interesting chapter, it’s probably my favorite so far!

N.A (N.A.) China, 1-500 A.D Retrieved from: China, 1–500 A.D. | Chronology | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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I really liked what you had to say about what you researched and also about the artwork and the information about Christians and their history. I did not come from a religious background therefore i did not know much or understand much about who the certain people were and what they did. The tidbit where you say you think thank a lot of people worship the artwork rather than what it symbolizes i think may be a catch 22. We want people to look at art and it’s beauty and want to collect it keep it original, but if they don’t know the meaning behind the inspiration, how much of the art are you actually worshiping...just it’s face value.

I like what you had about the Han civilization and how it is the most populated. Chinese architecture is one of the most facinating kinds i believe. I watch a lot of shows and videos about architecture and how people decide to build their homes and buildings and what i have know is that the Chinese build there’s with a meaning behind the design, the way certain areas round or pertrude.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 was a fun chapter to read. There was a lot of connection that I could make to my personal life, where I grew up, and the places that I have visited.

In Dickeyville, we were not the home of any type of mascot or person, in Dickeyville, we were known as “The home of the Grotto.” I knew right away looking at the small photo in the left hand corner, what path that the reading was going to lead down.

The Grotto, if you have not visited, surround our Catholic church on main street. When I was young and my friends and I would ride our bikes around town, we would always ride up to the church and ride through the Grotto. The Grotto are these walls that stand about 8ft tall and create a path that you can walk through and the walls are made up of different colored stone, broken pieces of china dishes, cherubs and Christian figurines. In one section, there is a half dome that surrounds Mary and has steps leading up to the feet of her where you can worship and pray beneath her.

The walls of the basilica and the artwork that shows in the reading, behind the religious figures it shows bright colors representing the importance of the person as well as the representing the heavenly light in some. Behind the statue of Mary as the Grotto, the stones go from the center being the brightest, in yellow, to orange, and then to blue, it accentuates Mary in the middle of the work.

With Dickeyville being known for a religious attraction, many people around me as well as the friends that I grew up with either went to the catholic school, or during Wednesday nights, they would attend religion class, I never attended either so I was a bit foreign to any religion. The only time I attended church was for weddings or funerals. Learning about some of the Saints and who they were in this reading was new knowledge to me as well as how some of the artwork was interpreted.

During my first year at NICC, I made a few new friends and we were hanging around Dyersville waiting to meet up with some others for a party. I have always heard of the Basilica, but didn’t know what it was for, besides the pope, where it was and what it meant. While we were waiting, the friend I was with decided to show me around town so first we went to the Field of Dreams, also never been before, and then he thought of the Basilica. This was in the beginning of December so when we went into the Basilica, it was decorated with poinsettias and walking through the entryway, the small arches, and then it opened up, it was breathtaking. The artwork that lines the walls and ceiling, decorated with gold highlighting the religious figures, was definitely something I have never seen before and also beautiful, thinking about the time it took to create and the story behind them.

I looked at Ancient Greece, 391 A.D., and was searching about the Temple of Zeus and how it was destroyed and found out that a little after this time, the Olympic Games started. The Temple seemed like it took quite a bit of time to complete which sounds a lot like the buildings and arenas here in AZ. Although the way things are built has evolved, it does still take a long time to complete, not because the arrogance of people like the temple, but because they lose funding and cannot start back up until they collect more money. Some of the temple was taken away because people and civilians used it to build other structures. That ties into what the beginning of this class talked about, conserving artwork. Some people saw this great unfinished temple as just materials, something that they could take without any cost to finish there project, and it was not conserved. That happens a lot here in the now world. When you hike or drive through a national park, they tell you not to take a rock no matter how small, not only because that “small” rock, may be the only one holding the big rock, but because they are trying to preserve the natural habitat and art of the park. Think, if every single person that went through a national forest or went to enjoy a piece of artwork and took a little piece of it each time, it would diminish very quickly to where there is no longer anything to admire and share the history of certain cultures.

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Week 12

Moving on to Ancient Rome this week continued the naivete that I have about the art of these different times and how influential each was on the next. Roman art tended to be more historical than that of Ancient Greece even though many things were copied and adopted by the Romans. This flow of history is intriguing because I think that I have known dates and the history of Ancient Rome and Greece and some basic historical fact but even looking at the crossover of the two with a sprinkle of Etruscan influence actually gave me a better sense of the history of this time and geographical area than any history class has. I think that is a cool benefit that even if I can’t distinguish the art from one another I still have gained something from a art history class that I may not have understood otherwise. A large part of the chapter focused on the architecture of the ancient Romans and deservedly so. Arches, domes, and vaults were all developed by the Romans. This just puts into perspective how much influence the Romans had on this field. It is such a huge development that took into account the potential of concrete that was developed in the Ancient Near East. Moving on to domestic architecture of the time it baffles me that they had building codes, like that tenements could be no more than 5 stories high. Also having shops and store fronts on the ground floor with living quarters above reminds me of downtown Dubuque. I know that this layout had to have been developed somewhere but reading about it as something done in ancient Rome is somewhat mind-boggling. The villa is also something that stood out to me. I don’t have a weekend getaway outside of the city but some ancient Romans did. I find this pretty laughable. The scale of many of the developments of the ancient romans also put things into more perspective. Everyone has heard of the colosseum but the Markets of Trajan really stood out to me for the size and scope of the project. I would assume that would take years today and yet it was done 2,000 years ago. Colored marble was also very interesting to me as well. I work with white and rarely black marble but red, green and yellow marble sparked an interest for me. I found it interesting that the color choice would depend on the project, like red being reserved for rulers and white for skin tone or possibly black. The geology of the marble is interesting as well as where these different stones originate from, along with the etymology of the color purple. I also really liked Still Life from Herculaneum. I think it just showed something timeless about art, whether it be today or 2000 years ago a painting of fruit and a vase could be a go to for a painting. There was so much to cover in this chapter that I don’t think I could possibly hit on everything that is significant to this time period. The Romans built on so much of the work we have studied and took it to a much different place and seeing that timeline is fascinating.

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The way to tied it to Dubuque puts everything it to a much more personable perspective. I did not even think of that. Living in Arizona for close to a year now everything is completely different on the outside of the city, such as the layout, looking at downtown Phoenix and the city, i can compare that to the store front buildings as well. Phoenix is such a massive city that they decid to build up rather than put anymore. When you said you learned almost more here than actual history classes, shows that when we are able to explore places literally from the foundations, we show more interest and are able to take it in and keep it there for remeberance.

Also living back home i never had to witness HOA’s. Living here almost every community has an HOA and the codes are very strict. It did surprise me as well that they had them such a long time ago. Like I’ve said before though, there are much more aspects that we have brought forward to our time from them, than i thought. Almost every chapter that we have gone through has had some similarity to the next to where it was almost like a blood chain, a bit of relation that has floated through to each civilization, through the art. It’s quite mind boggling to think how some of the things we do know, have a “family history” themselves that dates back to such a long time ago.

Chapter 8

I really like that the main source of information about this civilization is from the tombs, in relation to how there was a lot of information found by the tombs in the Egyptian culture. The certain things that they took from other civilizations was interesting to me because it was something as little as the position that the sculptures were in and what they were doing. I understood that style was something that traveled from civilization to civilization, but I did not know that they paid attention to the position that they were putting their sculptures into until I started focusing on Ancient Greece because they started becoming less 2D like with the Egyptians. My first reaction when seeing their sculptures was style picked up from the Greeks but the temple reminded me of an Asian/ Chinese style.

It makes me a little curious about their acceptance of death. How they would identify the urns if they were male and female but also they made the urns into something that you were supposed to like the look of. Although it is a little odd to me, it is very creative. The thought of that being the resting place of a loved one from cremation does make is a little less depressing. I used to think that it was rude for people at funerals to laugh and I never understood why people did that, joke about life and laugh at the past, when it was such a sad time. When I got a little older my mother explained to me that it was the way that most people like to cope, instead of crying, they like thinking of the happy times and it helps their minds feel at peace during such a sad time and im starting to think that this was maybe their way of making light of a dark situation.

Looking at the sarcophagus’, I think they believed the afterlife to be a very relaxed after party. With the sculptures being relaxed, looking like they were making a toast, it was not an afterlife of seriousness. I like that idea because it is like the person is still there sending themselves off, celebrating with the people around them letting them know, they lived a good life and now it is time for them to go . It surprises me that the tombs they found were still in decent shape, it ties in with the articles, that since they were left in the elements of nature, they took care of themselves and did not have the elements from humans like fake light and unnatural temperature changes due to the amount of people around them.

With this civilizztion, you can most definitely see the Greek influence over anything. From the way they made the expressions and the hair of the sculptures, to the positions they would display them in on the tombs as well as the paintings. I am a fan of this civilization because of how I interpret their thinking of life and afterlife, and how they lay their people to rest.

Week 8

Ancient Greece has always been said to be the civilization that was the foundation for everything that we have now such as government money power and systems. Ancient Greece was the home of gods and goddesses, their beliefs and rituals were much different than the past civilizations that we had learned about. What i thought was the biggest difference between the Ancient Greece and other civilizations such as the Egyptians is that when one of them died, they did not preserve the body but instead created what we call Head stones now and created a resting space rather than offering them to the gods.

The art that the Greeks created was much more modern that than the past ones we have looked at and quite advanced. You can see how there is more detail in the physique of the statues and also the features such as the hair.

Ancient Greece apart from the Egyptians were the one civilization that I took interest in but also am most familiar with because of the classes that we took in high school and the certain studies that we focused on. The Greeks were discussed in our literature classes because of Odysseus and how he took part in the war against the Persians and created the Trojan horse that hundreds of warriors dropped from, to art classes looking at the structures they created and the paintings as well as the famous body sculptures that showed into detail the physique of a male and female. In social studies we discussed about how they were the foundation for governments, creating what we would call a trial now and having a jury. Ancient Greece proves to be a the beginning grounds of our practices today, although they did not start from scratch, taking few items and techniques from the pact civilizations, they took action with them. Because of their win against the Persians, i believe that created an ego that ignited them to have the feeling of “we can rule the world.” With that way of thinking, that’s what gave them the push i think to carry it out and why it has lasted for so long.

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Week 7

These two essays really made me think about how much we are missing out on because our western view doesn’t value certain other cultures. The first essay, Eastern Art through Western Eyes, made me think immediately to the fact that I have 5 Buddha figurines on my desk. The article stated that this representation is one of the few exceptions to the exclusions of art that we find today. I would have to say that I was unaware of how little Indian Art is represented. I have seen plenty of pictures of different deities and would recognize it instantly but even last semester when I went to the Dubuque Museum of Art for a project I saw many pieces other than the ones I was there to see but do not remember anything represented from this culture. The second essay by Cotter made me realize how little African art is represented unless it is contemporary. I think this will make me think twice before going to art museums. It may be the wrong approach but I think that I would be more likely to see an exhibit that is said to be underrepresented than I would seeing something that has plenty of representation. This goes directly into what I feel is my responsibility in viewing art. I see viewing art as being the consumer and I don’t buy certain products or go to certain stores because I see that as fueling unfair social practice and think it would be the same. I would be more likely to donate to a museum that is more inclusive. I think also the fact that some programs no longer even offer classes on Indian Art as an indicator of what we think we value while the second article said we are losing so much due to the foundational work not being done yet. It kind of makes me a little angry that there seems to be all the funding and education for western art and contemporary when we have seen how much we know about cultures through the art they produced.

The chapter on the Aegean was fascinating because there was so much going on. I was intrigued by the Cycladic idols because I think this is the first we have seen of marble statues. I find it fascinating because I work with marble and granite and to see art produced 5000 years ago with it is interesting because it is hard enough to work with having modern tools.

Thera was my next favorite thing to read about and it tied to the articles this week. An architect starting recovering artifacts in the 1960’s and found frescoes adorning the entire town. It was deemed worthwhile to find and preserve as this art that was buried under volcanic ash because it fits the western art narrative but then the funding and education isn’t there for non-western art. Extreme lengths are taken to find and preserve pieces from a culture that was buried between 1700 and 1500 B.C. What we value is shown by the work we put in to preserve and understand art from differing cultures.

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I can understand how you feel so strong about the idea of Indian art and the representation of different cultures that we and others around, miss the opportunity to figure out what their style is and what the inspiration and meanings are. I also think that a demand by consumers, sways the idea of what type of art is going be noticed or displayed. Sometimes, i think there is so much of a focus on the rarity and how much it is worth, that they lose focus on the actual meaning, culture, and story behind it.

Blog 7

In the beginning of the chapter, you learned that these civilizations had little to no concept of hand written language. Most of the researchers now are not able to interpret what the civilizations were about because of the lack of communication through handwriting. What we can go on is their work of art. They made the idols that were sculpted out of marble. Looking at this artwork and comparing it tot the others, i noticed that the lack of body detail was present on the idols compared to the sculptures of the Egyptians and other civilizations.

What was a different tone was the sculpture that was the lady holding the snakes. In one of the civilizations it referenced the Greek god Zues and his relations to the creation of a Minotaur. Here the lady holding snakes was a sign of fertility and positive meanings, but back with the age of the Greek gods and goddesses Medusa had a head full of snakes and turned people into stone when their eyes met. That connection led to to foreshadow that some of these civilizations may have stemmed from the world of the gods and goddesses.

As far as the essays, the only thing that sounded familiar was the goddess Durga. She stood as a warrior goddess that had many hands. Along with the other painting just as Japanese art, the sexual content took as a meaning to the portraits as much as the warrior and spiritual meaning. Nowadays when i look at art embrace the body’s physic, i think to it as how they expected he female body to be perceived at the time, and nudity i think stands as a meaning for confidence and beauty, but at certain era’s and common today, nudity is a means just for a sexual purpose.

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One of the handful of hikers to receive a permit to visit the Wave, Vemillion Cliffs National Monument

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Week 6

The art of Ancient Egypt had me interested from the beginning. I have been interested in this culture since elementary school. I thought this would be a lot of the same but I got so much more out of this chapter. With the development of writing and the length of this era there one can easily see the developments through the artworks provided. The first thing that really caught my eye was the book stated that between dynastic periods there was a revival in art. This made an imprint because when I have always thought of the pyramids and Egypt it never registered how long this period actually was. It made me think of the renaissance period and how Egypt had to have a lull to then have a revival. The pyramids also reminded me of the ziggurats we have previously seen. One was to be close to God while the other was to make it seem that the pharaohs were gods themselves. The ritualistic beauty of it to me was that we see death as something that cultures previous to this necessitate making artwork and now we see this culture take it a step further. The civilization was advancing and the artwork showed exactly that. Another important thing that I took from this chapter was the Egyptian Canon of Proportion. It’s easy to recognize pieces of art from this time period but I never understood why. This canon would be the reason why. All Egyptian art follows a certain set of rules that designates itself to be Egyptian. The size of the feet, the navel showing and the face in profile all work from this canon. It makes so much sense to see this and how the proportions are graphed out by size. Different cultures have different canons and it was eye opening to see it worked out this way. The pyramids gave way to tombs and rock cut temples and this is something that I think should be appreciated. Four burial chambers of King Tut’s tomb was found intact after many of the other burial sites had been plundered. There could be so much more information that we would have today had it not been for robbers. I think it shows why other sites we have seen at Lascaux take such extreme precautions to preserve art from a different time. Once we lose these pieces they will be gone forever. There is something about this that makes me think that even though artwork today can seem to be outrageously priced at times I think it isn’t too much. How can someone put a price on something that there is only one of? How valuable is invaluable? This chapter helped me to realize that art history is just a specific part of history itself and tells the tale of history through a different lens.

catelizfields-blog

I can relate with you on your thoughts of the Egyptians being an big interest and also remembering it being studied back in grade school/ junior high. I also had the connection of how much would we know and be able to see if it was for the robbers and the lack of preservation for their civilization and artwork. The pyramids have always been a fascination in how they were built and how the Egyptians themselves built them with just their hands and the few tools that were created at that time.

The structure of the bodies when they would draw them i think also stayed relatively the same throughout the time with the elongated feet, heads turned towards and the chest and naval facing the viewer. The way they drew their gods and kings also was common with the othe civilizationts that we read about in the first part of the unit. The head and feet were in the same direction as the chest and shoulders were broad facing the viewer.

Chapter 5

Egypt, like the instructor said, is one of the most familiar civilizations that we have talked about so far. I believe it was fifth grade when we went in depth about the Pharaohs of Eygpyt were the kings and they would dress with jewels when they would be buried in their sarcophagus.

Pyramids themselves are pieces of artwork. Still to this day I wonder how they were created by the slaves and laborers of Egypt.

Movies like the Mummy have brought these pyramids and the structures of the Sphinx to life. Even though it is Hollywood, it showed the parts of the pyramids that were used as burial grounds for the kings and their queens.

The Egyptians drawing of the men and rulers were very two dimensional. Along with the structures of the body in the past civilizations, how they draw them with their hips broad to the viewer with the feet and head in one direction, it shows a similarity between the civilizations that makes me wonder if they learned from each other, or if it came from a common denominator.

In the very first piece we ready about, with the organization trying to save the natural artwork and they ended up ruining it, with the travelers and known locations of pyramids and the Egyptians ruins, it surprises me that there are still the many artifacts and structures that we still have today.

Egyptians were known for the kings/gods/Pharaohs, and from learning in the part they were very open to making sacrifices towards the sun gods and rain gods when they were in drought. Creating the sarcophagus and also the statues of the kings may have led them to think if the preserve the gods and surround themselves with them, it may create a sense of peace and hope for the rain and for the sunny days.

blognicholeaclemen-blog

Chapter 4: The Ancient Near East

I remember learning about Mesopotamia in 7th grade geology class. There were four temples made which helped contribute to their choice form of religion. I feel religion plays a very large roll in early art due to the fact they thought of it as a tribute to the Gods, or worship toward their choice of Gods. Later in history some towns or cities devoted themselves to one God like in Athens Greece, and built most of the buildings to resemble the large monuments of their town’s God.

In 3500-3000 BC, cuneiform plays a strong roll in the advancement of civilizations. I feel this was the step to get the ball rolling for written history, a way to show evidence. This could have lead to the Egyptian’s hieroglyphics or even to the works of Homer. These clay tablets could have been forms of their records or stories, or anything they felt the need of importance to document like that. Whatever was written was important to them.

Other art that holds a strong connection with creation of new things are the ziggurats with the temples like the one pictured on page 42. The detail of the stairs and angles of the building all and to show how symbolic these building mean to their culture to honor their choice of religion. This also got me thinking of where would they have seen stairs before or how did they come up with the idea to use stairs? Why not ramps or slopes? I find this so intriguing over the little details. At some point in life, everything is new, who could think of something like that.

Babylon soon over took Mesopotamia and was ruled by Hammurabi. He is most famous for the Hammurabi Code which was scribed onto basalt stele which was about as strong as his rules were. Everyone knows the saying, an eye for an eye, which was one of the scary punishment he enforced.

This chapter felt more like a history book talking about the architecture which is its own form of art. This chapter to me, if I am being honest, was dull. Most of the art was the building and statues for the shrines to the Gods. I thought cuneiform would have been talked about more because it to me, plays a large roll in history itself and in the art. There is always a meaning or a message through art. The clay or mud-brick pottery that was to honor Gods, to hold water, or to be tribute. A lot of wars fighting for land altered the style of the art. Whenever someone would win, art was created to honor the leader who won, and sadly, if it was ever thought about, how much art or artifacts were destroyed?

If America was overruled, the people overtaking it would demolish Washington D.C.’s monuments depending on who it was, they could feel the need to demolish museums. Whenever there is a war, art is the strongest emotional remembrance. Like 9-11 monument, who isn’t going to walk past it and not feel heart struck. The art of George Washington crossing the Delaware River is also a strong attachment to emotions.

Art through the Ancient Near East was mostly its extravagant buildings and shrines to their Gods, even some ties to writing and the connection of what those people thought was important that the felt the need to write it down or scribe and their ties to what life was like for them. History plays an important role in art, and so does war.

catelizfields-blog

Mesopotamia was the first place that i recognized in the reading as well because I remember learning about it in middle school. The buildings, and stone work showed many signs of power, war and gods. Like you said, land was always being fought over and when someone new would come in the art would change to their style. It makes me think what art and structures were standing in the place before these ones were put up by a new civilization. Along with your connection for our monuments here in the US, these monuments and structures have given us hope, and other people to, like the Statue of Liberty. To outsiders coming in she was the symbol for the “land of the free,” and for us she stands tall and proud, giving us confidence. The feeling that everyone had with the twin towers was devastating, and then rebuilding a new monument to remember the lost but also show that we were not going to give up, and to thank everyone that went out to help with the disaster, puts us into a retrospect of how the civilizations might have done things back on their era when they were under the threat of being taken over and having to rebuild their society, history, and art back up.

You're connections are very very good, it allows us to find a similarity to connect with and see what they might have thought about when it came to their art and history and what their sculptures stood for.

Chapter 4

This chapter has given me a lot of new destinations that I want to visit. The Neolithic Era was said to be where skills changed from hunting and gathering, to more of how to take care of the land and animals to be able to live off of them. With this change, it was easy to understand because in the Midwest, it is huge for farming and agriculture. Since they were able to learn about the irrigation and finding a control with a certain government outline and being able to have the civilians obtain jobs, that was how they starts to actually create a town and community. Agriculture is a major part of the community in the Midwest. Back when I lived in Wisconsin, majority of us were born into a farming family, or knew somebody that was. Everywhere you drive, you were surrounded by the fields of corn, hay, and beans, and it makes you realize how many jobs agriculture creates.

Mesopotamia, was the first civilization that I recognized while reading. The name was very familiar but I was not completely sure of what they were all about and what they were known for. I thought it was interesting how it was the land between two rivers which made It and easy target for war but also a good target for trading. I believe that it probably why they were taken over, because it was a good location for trade and then the civilizations that populates it could make a good coming.

The cylinder seals were really cool. Back in middle school for our art class we were given a rubbery square piece that we had to carve out certain designs, and then we would imprint them onto a piece of paper. We did that project because we were learning at the time how they created the prints with the raised designs. It was a bit difficult at first because you had to carve out the space you wanted to be imprinted, so it played a little mind game because to me I though you would want to carve out the minor details, so to see that they did this back then and how their impressions were made was really cool.

The most favorite piece and civilization that I saw was the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. I am currently reading a book for fun about the Babylon’s and how they created the concept of money, and this gate is beautiful. Back in my hometown, they have this little walk through area called the Grotto that is made of many different shells and rocks and then also glazed pieces like the ones found in this gate. The designs that they make from the bordered to the dragons and bulls in it are neat. I believe this gate symbolized a sense of power and peace along with royalty. My first thought when I saw it was that it was like the idea of “heaven’s gate.” Along with the gate as one of my favorite pieces seeing, I also liked the Audience Hall of Darius. It has a very Greek taste to it with the white stone and the warriors, it shows a very strong presence.

I have chosen the Venus figures as my research topic. In the book as well as the text read on the web, most of the figures only support the body parts of the breasts, stomach, and genitals of women. People have related the figures as a symbol of fertility. Other theories I have read are, examples of self portraits, their realistic picture of women, a real goddess, and also an early form of pornography. I believe that it is a symbol of fertility, but it also has much more of a meaning. Most of the sculptures do not have feet or hands. I believe this is a symbol of how women are not to work with their hands, no manual labor, and they do not have feet because it symbolizes how they are not to leave or move on from their life, they are solely in life to serve a man for please and reproduction, which I highly disagree with.

Chapter 3 Overview:

I thought it was interesting on the evolution of how art was created from when they started in the Stone Age with rocks and sticks and blood even, to now where we are printing 3D sculptures from a spool of fiber. Back in the stone age and prehistoric time, they are said to have made pigment out of plants and animal matter. I think that is very gory but quite impressive. The carvings and paintings that are found in caves are interesting, I love how it shows where they can see the motion in a drawing based how it was created, like the “Hall of Running Bulls.” Being able to show movement on a flat surface with color that was made from materials found from animals and plants was a creation then and had been the reason to evolution now.

Stonehenge:

This location has been on my bucket list since I saw it in the beginning of a movie. Some people look at it and think, whatever, it’s a bunch of rock standing up. I think of it a little deeper like how they got there, how did those massive things stand up? I am always curious as to what types of rituals or ceremonies where held here is any. I may think it looks like this beautiful place to visit, but little could I know, it was a place they may have done sacrifices. Astronomy and how the stars align are an interest of mine. The civilization is said to have used this as a possible sundial, which is incredible, and makes me wonder how they were to think like that. They are the real geniuses. They started with scratch, somehow managed to put all of these rock together and create a way to tell time based on the way the sun casted a shadow on them.

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