LucasOsty

[lucasosty-blog]

Week 12 Early Christian life and Byzantine

This week we covered chapter ten which is about Early Christianity and Byzantine Art. To begin we’ll talk about one of the biggest religions to the current time, but mostly on how it began. The beginning of Christianity began with the death of Jesus, somewhere outside the city of Jerusalem Jesus was crucified. But prior to his death, Jesus asked his disciples to continue the religion and host last suppers. Which were rituals were his disciples would perform ceremonies to pass around his “blood” and “body” which was just red wine and bread. But after Jesus passed the religion of Christianity had to operate in secrecy due to the Roman government not approving it. This was because of the ideology of Christianity, due to it not worshiping traditional gods at the time. Plus the Roman government didn't want a religion that inspired the lower class.

But in A.D 313 Constantine passed the Edict Of Milan which allowed all religions. After the passing of this law, Constantine founded a new capital called Byzantium. Which Christianity really established itself there, the reason this was able to happen was due to Constantine’s personal interest within Christianity. Before a battle, Constantine had a vision which he realized the true power of the cross, and after this Constantine was soon baptized.

Christian art had rough beginnings, due to the Roman government still persecuting other religions. So Christians found a way around this was by crafting their art within catacombs, they did this because the Romans considered catacombs to sacred to be interfered with. So this allowed the beginning of Christian art.

But once the Edict of Milan was passed Christians were allowed to build finally. Soon enough followers of Christianity began building basilicas, which were a bit different from opposing religions. While Christianity’s churches were built to hold people so they can worship together. But other Roman churches were usually built to hold a statue or something to honor a god. One of the most famous basilicas in Christianity would be St. Peter’s Basilica This church was named after Jesus’ first disciple. A lot of the small things that were built within basilicas had a reason behind them like apse, this part of the building was a semicircular part of the building with a dome roof also. Within these, they would have paintings of Christ and they would also hold legal preceding’s and also the altar would be there. During this time most Christians saw Christ as the judge during these preceding’s. Finally, they would also build these Basilicas in the shape of a cross or also known as a transept. But within the center of the basilica would rest St. Peters grave.

In the end, Christianity is a religion that runs deep with history and culture, and this is only a small part of thousands of years of work.

[lucasosty-blog]

Week 11- Ancient Rome

 In this weeks reading, we cover Ancient Rome one of the biggest ancient civilizations to ever be. Rome became this big due to the fact that they had political genius’ help running the country, and when Rome’s army went out to attack they would bring their religion, politics, laws, and the Latin language to help spread their ideology.

What Rome is best known for would be there architecture and art, a lot of their inspiration would come from Greece. While Greece took inspiration from their mythology of gods, Rome would use more history and have a story behind their art. But with this idea of having more of a history behind their art, they would also make wax masks and use them to collect an imprint of a deceased people so they could almost create a lifelike sculpture of the person. Even a lot of Roman families would have portraits of family members to create something similar to a family tree. As this reading goes on it really shows how important it was to the Roman people that they preserved their culture and history to the best of their ability.

But what Rome is most known for would be their architecture with monstrous buildings, The buildings they built really showed that they wanted to provide for the people of Rome and with such easy access to become a citizen of Rome, they had to so they could compete with the growing population. But with the large buildings, they always had more than one use, as a public bathing center would host a place to socialize, bath, run, and even saunas. But these buildings were nothing compared to other structures that were built, like the Collesuem. The point of the Colosseum would be to provide a place citizens could watch games such as combat between humans such as gladiator battles and they would even have humans fight animals and animals fight each other. But the sheer size of this building is astounding, once you see this building with your own eyes it really shows how talented and gifted these people were with being architects and engineers.

Another great show of Roman engineering would be aqueducts these bridge-like structures offered clean water from outside sources and helped provide water to farms also. But like all Roman buildings, these aqueducts seem almost perfectly made and just really help show how intelligent and talented these people were.

Finally, the religious buildings the Romans built would take a lot of inspiration from Greek and Etruscan civilizations. With pillars on the outside of buildings and frontal stairs to show a defined entrance, you can see the similarities between them. The most known Roman temple would be the pantheon. This building would be one of Romes most innovative builds yet with the outside resembling greek architecture but upon entry its circular which resembles Roman architecture. But the most captivating thing about this temple would be the oculus which is a circular hole in the round roof which helped provide lighting to those inside.

In the end, Rome was an amazing civilization which truly showed what humans are capable of achieving from politics to monstrous buildings, these people were true pioneers of architectural engineering and many other things.

[lucasosty-blog]

Week 8 Greece

In this weeks reading, we cover ancient Greece one of the most famous and sophisticated societies within history. With the beginning of a new type of governing instead of the classical ruling of a king, Greece would be divided into city-states with every adult male participating within the government the people who would be excluded from this governing would be slaves and women. But this wasn't the only thing new out of this society, most famously they're known for there philosophers people like Platos, Socrates, and Aristotle.

While Aristotle would be Plato's best student who had much-divided interest ranging from botany, physiology, metaphysics, politics, ethics, and poetry. Due to the writing abilities of the Greek people were able to have accurate and detailed accounts of famous events like the Trojan war and the Odyssey.

But like all ancient civilizations, the Greek people had their own set of gods, Usually, these are the set of gods people are most familiar with gods like Zeus, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, Hades, Apollo, and many more. They all had their own attributes that the people of Greece would pray towards whether that be the goddess of the hunt or to Demeter for agriculture.

With everything in Greece evolving we can also see growth within their art for the first time in history artist began signing their work, they also had many different styles of pottery and art the first kind dating from 1000-700 B.C that being the geometric style which would be these circular horizontal bordered pots. The next being the orientalizing style 700-600 B.C which the biggest difference in this one would be the paintings of the figures are a bit larger. With one of the last styles being the archaic style, This style promoted the artist to be more free with their designs but usually consisted of orange and black colors.

But the art the Greek people created does not stop there, also during this archaic period, we begin to see the rise of statues. To learn these skills the Greek people learned it from the Egyptians and molded it into their own style of sculpting. So this led to many sculptures of famous Greek gods. But the creativity of the Greek people did not stop there, One of the most famous buildings of this time would be the pantheon best known for how well proportioned and symmetrical it is. But to make it seem so well balanced the architects had to make all horizontal lines on the building curve towards the middle due to how the human eye perceives it, even all the columns lean inwards a bit so to the human eye it seems perfectly built. But besides the fact of the impeccable architecture, Reconstructions of the building show how well detailed and color the building was also. It goes to show that during this time people of any culture would go to great lengths to please their gods.

In the end, the Greek society shows a lot of similarities to other societies during this time but also have their own unique ideas and artistry.

[lucasosty-blog]

Week 4 near east

In this chapter, we begin to talk about the beginnings of art in the near east and the first documents of literature. “Within the near east, it produced the first known poetry, documented and written history, religious texts, and economic records.”(p.33). But these weren't the only things that were produced out of the near east, these people slowly grew apart from the traditional nomadic hunting to a more settled part of life. Like farming off the land and herding animals to rely on food. With this development of a city also came ritual beliefs. That the citizens would pray to gods like Inanna the goddess of fertility, love, and war. Even poems have been recovered showing them honoring her power. As an example from the book

“In the pure places of the steppe,

On the high roofs of the dwellings,

On the platforms of the city,

They make offerings to her:

Piles of incense like sweet-smelling cedar,

Fine sheep, fat sheep, long-haired sheep,

Butter, cheese, dates, fruits of all kinds.”(p.35)

This poem represents how the people of the near east would create poetry and writings to honor their gods and goddess’s in hope of a good growing season.

Another focus of this chapter is Mesopotamia also known as the center of the near east civilization. Within this area, they would build things called ‘ziggurats’ which was an elevated temple to honor gods. Because these people believed each city was under some form of protection from a god and they were tasked with honoring this god in return for protection.

Fast forwarding down the timeline between c.1900-539 b.c. the creation of Babylon begins which was the first dynasty during this time period. But with the creation of civilization came laws and these laws that were created are a tad absurd not all but some. Some laws that we can relate back to our daily lives would be, the Tallion law which is basically eye for an eye. But an absurd law that was used during this time period would be the idea that an accused adulterer would be thrown into the water and if they sank they were guilty.

In the end, the near east is such an interesting and unique civilization that we have so much more to learn from and see its impacts around the rest of the ancient world.

[lucasosty-blog]

week 3 prehistoric Europe

This weeks chapter was over prehistoric Europe discussing famous artworks ranging from c. 75,000 all the way to 1800 b.c. But I've decided to put my focus on one of the most unique and bizarre pieces of artwork, Stonehenge. This artwork has stunned millions of people across the world and has had people asking for generations on how in the hell did they make this? There are many theories as to how this was constructed but let's start from the beginning. The first obstacle to constructing this would be the fact that there are two different types Stonehenge is made out of sarsen and bluestone which is the more controversial piece due to the fact that getting these rocks to Stonehenge meant that they had to travel over 250 kilometers. So this leaves the first question, how? The three main theories are that people constructed a type of boat to help take it down the river, but the only problem with this is that these bluestones located at Stonehenge all weigh between 2 to 4 tons. So the odds of this are unlikely but still possible. But a natural look on this situation would be that these bluestones were moved by glaciers, but this theory is usually denied due to the fact that people want to believe the determination of imagination and creativity is what drove this project for the ancient people. The argument for this thought is that there is little to no evidence showing quarrying of these rocks that show a direct link to Stonehenge. I don't doubt that these quarries were used before but were they used for Stonehenge? But the counter-argument to this is that evidence has been found at these quarries of mining and the rocks from both sites do share similarities. The last piece of evidence found at these quarries is the fact that large wooden platforms and tools which are believed to help move the rocks to Stonehenge.

But on to the last is that the ancient people transported them over land using different tools and techniques. The only problem with this is how do you transport a few tons across a few hundred kilometers? You would have to deal with the terrain, bodies of water, weather, and animals. This theory may have the most evidence to back it but, it would most definitely be a dangerous path. But Stonehenge is to believe to be a religious ritual site. So seeing people go to these lengths for their religious beliefs doesn't surprise me at all.

In the end, the only way we can figure out the true meaning of Stonehenge is if we travel back in time. Till that day comes, if it comes, we're left interpreting what these mysterious people left behind.

[samjochum7-blog]

Week 2

As seen in chapter 2, we look at the language of art and how to all connects together.  It talks about how things such as composition, balance, lines, color use, to express different shades, perspectives, textures, light and color, and more. These are all things that in my opinion are the value in art.  They send off different messages which expresses why the masterpiece was put together. Art has been a major part of my life. I do not mean paintings or cave drawings or any of that nature.  Rather, I believe music has made a major impact on my life because it has so much meaning behind it.  It can give you mixed emotions and put you in a certain mood whether it be happy or sad.  It usually puts me in a relaxed or satisfied mood so that I feel better about myself and I am sure most can agree.  I listen to a lot of different varieties of music that like I said put me in a certain mood, and it has been a major part of my life. Music can set the mood for anything as well.  For example, if you are with a group of people whether it is for fun or serious, it can set the mood for that event or gathering.  I know with my friends we listen to a lot of rap music to get us hyped up or feel a certain way about something that happened, or something that is going on in our lives. Different companies use it for advertisement as well whether it’s enthusiastic or depressing.  For example, the animal abuse commercial induces depression and sadness due to the music they produce to sell you on donating.  Without the music, people might ignore it or just not think much of it.  

Dissanyake talks about a lot of different things that I believe are very important to let us, as humans question ourselves about the way life goes and how we should focus more on human nature and where we come from and rather technology and science and it is something that I think is very important for us.  She talks about how joie de faire stresses certain things socio culture and function, and that all of their works are admired for the natural beauty it persuades. This comes from touch, mold, and form that it gives off that is what it is known for.  I believe this is awesome because everything comes from it’s natural domain, which is something Dissanyake talks about when she first wrote this.  I know where she is coming from when she talks about all of this I challenge her to try to change people on their philosophy about depending on technology and science, because as I have said before, I firmly believe that we come from our own culture and that is what defines us instead of things such as social media and others, and reading this was very reassuring for myself because it is nice to see someone shares the same beliefs as myself.

[lucasosty-blog]

I couldn't agree more about how music can have such varying changes in our mood. And you make a great point talking about how music is used in the advertisement industry, its a great example showing the power music can have on just a thirty-second commercial.

I Totally agree that humans are distancing ourselves from culture a bit and replacing it with science and technology, because if you look it around its happening all the time with social media and just how we interact on a day to day basis its just becoming less personal. And a lot of this is caused by loss of culture.

[lucasosty-blog]

Week 2 Art History

1.

Personally, I love art I think its an amazing thing. Humans create it and it gives us this natural strive for beauty. And everything in our world has some form of artistic value, everything we experience from rain on a cold day to being at your favorite band's concert, it all has some form of artistic value to it. But when we experience these things they can change our emotions and go as far to influence who you are as a person. So to me, that's the value of art it defines human emotions.

2.

Art has played a huge role in my life, mostly movies, music, and books. But when I was younger I always liked watching crime shows like NCIS, criminal minds, and just any documentaries about anything down that ally. With those shows so much in my younger life, it influenced me to start reading a lot of mystery books. Besides from nonfiction books, mystery was the only genre I enjoyed. But thankfully when I was younger I was always able to go to the Mississippi river museum. Which helped spark an interest in history and science for myself. So with all these, it really helped motivate me to find other interest, from doing computer repairs to joining the robotics team those few artistical things really influenced me down the road. Even as I grew older I started playing baseball and I remember I had a picture of the iconic Norman Rockwell picture “The Dugout” hung up in my room and when I would play I would always think of that picture. But also around this time is when I started to watch horror movies and the great thing about the horror genre is that it's just completely different from all other genres and it feels like a breeze of fresh air. Because it goes against the idea of you need to feel comfortable when enjoying something. Plus it brings emotions other genres cant touch on as much as horrors like anxiety, fear, fright, and suspense. But in the end, Art has had a lot of direct and indirect impacts on my life and everyone's life.

3.

Mrs. Dissanayake starts off her book with a great point “There is an inherent pleasure in making”

And this couldn't be truer the whole point of art is for entertainment, to gain feedback and make something even more amazing. We as humans strive for accomplishment Mrs. Dissanayake talks about how seeing her daughter grow up from creating things from paper and glue to screenwriting plays just go to shows how it is our human instinct to create. But she makes another point that's interesting. That art is a behavior and she backs this claim by talking about how seventy thousand years ago people were elongating their skulls and this definitely isn't the only case of something like this. Things like scarification, elongating of the neck, piercings, and even tattoos. These things give us a reason as Mrs. Dissanayake said to “artify” to be different from each other and have uniqueness. In reality, these things have no medical purposes or no real gain except the gain to be unique. What she ultimately tries to get at in this book is that humans are naturally artistic animals and its just part of who we are.

[lucasosty-blog]

Interest in art | Art History week 1

1. My interest in art history is mostly in Roman architecture. Or anything to do with gothic art.

2. Currently taking classes at NICC than to transfer to Iowa State next fall.

3. European art but I'm sure we will cover that.

[lucasosty-blog]

Trevi Fountain Art |history week 1

My favorite piece of art would have to be the Trevi fountain. I enjoy the simplicity of it and how clean and amazing it looks.