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[resident-artoast]

Blog Post Week 12

Early Christian and Byzantine Art is interesting because it focused on a singular god that did not require living sacrifices as many other worshiped gods had. The art from the Early Christian era took many aspects from previous eras of art. I hadn’t realized that Trees became a central motif  in Christian art but it makes sense. While I’m not religious, I find art of all kinds interesting so this era of art is no exception.

One way Early Christian art shows aspects of previous eras is the Basilicas they built as churches. Ancient Roman designs were used to create new buildings used to worship their God. Apses present in the churches held statues of Jesus Christ instead of the emperor as was custom before. I find it interesting that the cross, which was originally a sign of triumph for the Romans, was converted to represent the triumphs of Jesus. Despite the connotations the cross held in one of the civilizations, the Christians took the meaning of the cross and changed it to represent their own strength.

Byzantine Art is beautiful. My favorite from the reading is the Apse mosaics in San Vitale. I think mosaic paintings are interesting because of the work that must go into creating such a piece. I found this piece interesting because even though it was created after the Ancient Greek Art it does not hold the same values. The figures are completely frontal and lack the realism found in previous artwork. Similar to previous art, the Emperor of the time is depicted as being of higher authority and power than of his people. Justinian and his wife being shown to wear the same colors as Jesus in the mosaics makes them appear as divine beings.

While Early Christian and Byzantine Art is somewhat influenced by the previous Western Art, Art from Japan has different values and styles. While influences from Asia are present in Japanese art and life, they still created much different art than that in Greece and Rome at the time. Japan and China traded valuables between 57 AD and 107 AD. Around 300 AD Japan began building Sepulchral mounds, similar to tombs, and burying items and valuables with the dead just as civilizations from Asia did. Japan received influence from Korea in the late 300 AD and began creating grey pottery on a pottery wheel. The artwork available on metmuseum.org includes two jars that appear to be from this era. The jars are wider in the middle and have a tapered top to them. They were used for cooking but today the same design would likely be decorative.

The most interesting artwork to me depicted on the website is the helmet. The helmet dates back to the 5th century and is made of iron, copper, and gold. The design of the helmet was likely from Korea or China. Apparently, the helmet is special because it is made of different materials which was uncommon. I find the helmet interesting because of the two colors present. The helmet reminded me of Chinese artwork when I first saw it so when I found out it was likely influenced by another culture I wasn’t surprised. The Haniwa of a warrior also depicts the similar helmet which makes me believe that Japan placed value on warriors and protection.

Overall, I think that both art styles are beautiful yet extremely different. I like the mosaics and architecture of the Early Christian and Byzantine art, but the sculptures and three dimensional art created in Japan is also interesting. The restrictions put on the Byzantine art that prevented them from creating sculptures is unfortunate because we would likely have beautiful creations from that era otherwise. Japanese art and Early Christian art were created during the same time period and it is interesting that the two styles are so different from one another.

[mpeters33-blog]

This post has given me a better understanding of this chapter and how to get a better concept overall of what is going on. This post was very well written and I enjoyed reading every word of it. I like how you describe every little detail with such passion and how when I was reading it, it was like you were speaking directly to the audience. You have a very good idea of your own regarding this chapter and it is very unique. Your information was amazing and thank you so much for sharing.The Information that was on this blog was very unique and I look forward to your next posts.

[ericafrey-blog1]

Chapter 9 Week 11

For week 11, I was assigned to read Chapter 9 “Ancient Rome” in the “A History of Western Art” fifth edition textbook. I had never put much though in the language they would have spoken, but I found it interesting the Romans spoke mainly Latin.  I learned that Ancient Rome was founded April 21, 753 B.C. It was a roman legend that it was founded on that date by Romulus and Remus. Who were twin brothers, abandoned, and sent on the banks of the Tiber River and nursed by a she-wolf. Later, Romulus killed his brother Remus to be Rome’s First King.  However, another story by the Greeks is that it was founded by Trojan hero Aeneas, fleeing from the destruction from troy. The Greek’s and Romans came to an agreement that Aeneas was an ancestor of the twin brothers. In regards to art, Rome had local art styles and were influenced by the Greeks. For example, the way the Greek’s designed their sculptures, paintings, and architecture. It had a lot of influence on the art the roman culture created. The roman’s identified their own gods with Greek gods and adopted Greek iconography. They very much so copied the Greeks. However, Greek art was intended toward idealization. Whereas, as the textbook states Roman art was commemorative, narrative, and based on history rather than myth. The sculptures and paintings were said to have a two-fold function. Preserved by the person’s image and contributed to the history of a family. Roman’s illustrated historical event. This is where commemorating the actions of an individual comes from. The Romans used concrete for building and the Pantheon is a roman temple still standing today. The Pantheon, was built during the reign of Hadrian and dedicated to the five planetary gods which was known in the second century. – Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, Mercury and possibly the sun and moon. They did use marble like the Greeks, however it was less readily available and considered a luxury to the Romans. It was used for decoration, an outer layer, or over a core of another material. For their mixture of concrete they used mortar, gravel, rubble, and water. To shape the concrete they used wooden frames, sometimes wedge-shaped stones, tiles, and bricks forced in for either reinforcement or decoration.  Their architecture and style overall; has put great influence, as other ancient eras, to our world today.  The Colosseum, much like the theater in ancient Greece, is a massive amphitheater.  It is stated that was designed for gladiatorial contests and combats between man and animals, or between animals alone. The Colosseum is still standing today too and another huge tourists’ attraction. I find is absolutely fascinating they expressed their artwork and culture by building temples, buildings, paintings sculptures. I feel Ancient Rome was just the start of many great artists that were to come and have taught generations and has had a great impact on history.

[mpeters33-blog]

This post has given me a better understanding of this chapter and how to get a better concept overall of what is going on. This post was very well written and I enjoyed reading every word of it. I like how you describe every little detail with such passion and how when I was reading it, it was like you were speaking directly to the audience. You have a very good idea of your own regarding this chapter and it is very unique. Your information was amazing and thank you so much for sharing.The Information that was on this blog was very unique and I look forward to your next posts.

[sarahowearthistory-blog]

Week 8: Ancient Greece

After reading Chapter seven this week I have gained much knowledge about the art of Ancient Greece. The Greek’s art advanced greatly over time. I think it is rather interesting that they started with one style and then, moved to a completely different style by the end of their time.

The Greek’s started by making geometric pottery with meander patterns. Their shapes were usually amphora. They then started making archaic vases. These are rather intriguing to me. I think the black does a good job juxtaposing the other elements of the piece. Soon, the Greeks started incorporating the “trompe l’oeil”. They were one of the first people to start using this method or style. I thought the story of Apelles painting Alexander’s horses was rather interesting. The fact that he supposedly painted horses so realistic that other horses neighed at them means he must have been rather skilled as an artist. It is mostly likely a myth, but myths have to be formed off of some sort of base.

Next Greece moved into their Classical age. Something that caught my eye in this section was how the sculpture would only portray the men nude, and how women were not allowed to be shown nude. Their reasoning makes sense for their culture, but still it’s interesting. I also thought it was odd how they changed from naturalized art to idealized (It seems like a step back rather than forward, but they did start making a name for themselves in this era) In this change you can also tell that their techniques and skills have improved. They start carving out, and casting each part of the body in such a way that shows attention to detail.  During this time infamous architectural pieces began to emerge. Buildings such as the Parthenon have shaped much of what we see today in the United State’s political structures.

After this era, the Hellenistic era emerges. This era caused the spread of Greece’s culture and art. Their art became more violent and somber. An example of this can be seen in the Head of Alexander, from Pergamon. His facial expression looks worried rather than happy or expressionless. Sleeping Eros is also an example of this. He looks sad and depressed, but maybe he’s just tired.

After listening to the podcast I would have to agree that the Greek’s definitely had a way of capturing beauty. This can be seen especially in their Classical, and Hellenistic eras. The Classical era captured just that; classical beauty. It met the standards of beauty, but made in such a way that in my opinion, exceeded it. They were fine artists and it showed. The Hellenistic era was beautiful as well but a different kind. I think the Hellenistic era wasn’t necessarily trying to capture beauty in a so called beautiful state but more rather they captured the more somber times and through their art made them beautiful. I also thought it was interesting that people were and are physically attracted to statues. That was just something that caught my attention. I, myself have been fascinated by statues, but never attracted. The statues must be very symmetrical and proportional.

Overall, Ancient Greece advanced the standards of art for not only the future world of art, but also for themselves. They changed their artistic style multiple times throughout their rein, and are infamous for their art and for capturing beauty.

[mpeters33-blog]

This post has given me a better understanding of this chapter and how to get a better concept overall of what is going on. This post was very well written and I enjoyed reading every word of it. I like how you describe every little detail with such passion and how when I was reading it, it was like you were speaking directly to the audience. Your information was amazing and thank you so much for sharing.The Information that was on this blog was very unique and I look forward to your next posts. 

[mpeters33-blog]

chapter 11 week 13

Hello fellow readers and thank you for joining me on my blog today, I will be starting off my blog as the same as last time with giving a brief overview and then jumping right into it. I have now moved on to the next chapter in the art book for my art class and if you are following along you will notice and also probably already know without me having to say that we are already on chapter ten for this week’s blog. In this week’s blog I will be doing what I normally do with every single other blog when it comes to posting it will of course be the usual summarizing of the passage, chapter of the book and then adding along with that my insights and thoughts regarding the chapter and of course adding any new thoughts that pop up while reading the chapters, I also as you guys might already know really like to relate my own personal experiences along with the truth about today’s society back to the original context of the current chapter that I am reading. By doing this, this helps me grasp a better understanding of what was happening back then, in that specific time frame, depending on what the chapter is since they are all different for the most part, and also it really helps me understand why things have become the way they have no in this time frame and year. So I hope this summary is really helpful to you the reader as well and hope you enjoy it.

So to get started as far as the Islamic art goes it is very unique in ways that they were mainly religious paintings that consist of floral patterns and abstract geometry(page 171). To read a lot more into depth regarding their customs and rituals you should go check it out in the art book on page 171. So the Northern European art was a little bit different as they were mainly influenced by the Germanic tribes which altered how they portrayed their art pieces. So they pretty much invented purses and they pretty much consisted of coins and gold coins at that.

The Palace Chapel Is a royal chapel and its features are common with the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna(page 179). The details regarding this Church is astonishing and it reminds me of all the love and time and effort it took to build all of our Chapels and Churches. I love it so much. Manuscripts were invented to restore the antiquity within a culture this was a way of educating the society in a very unique way.

This chapter was a unique read. I have fully put all I have into this post and have really tried to help summarize at my best what this chapter, which was chapter ten and what its entirely meaning meant to me. So for the most part it is very safe to say that all of these that I have just listed above such as the Islamic Art and getting to learn more about their structure and cultures, the Northern European Art as well as getting to learn more regarding their culture and structures, The Palace Chapel, along with manuscripts, which have all really tied in very well to conclusion of this blog. Thank you for your view and hope it was helpful, please also leave any comment or question you may have regarding my post. Thank you and have a very blessed day.

[mpeters33-blog]

chapter 10 week 12

Hello fellow readers and thank you for joining me on my blog today, I have now moved on to the next chapter in the art book for my art class and if you are following along you will notice and also probably already know without me having to say that we are already on chapter ten for this week’s blog. In this week’s blog I will be doing what I normally do with every single other blog when it comes to posting it will of course be the usual summarizing of the passage, chapter of the book and then adding along with that my insights and thoughts regarding the chapter and of course adding any new thoughts that pop up while reading the chapters, I also as you guys might already know really like to relate my own personal experiences along with the truth about today’s society back to the original context of the current chapter that I am reading. By doing this, this helps me grasp a better understanding of what was happening back then, in that specific time frame, depending on what the chapter is since they are all different for the most part, and also it really helps me understand why things have become the way they have no in this time frame and year. So I hope this summary is really helpful to you the reader as well and hope you enjoy it.

So within the chapter it starts out with talking about Constantine and his relationship with Christianity. He had a very very strong relationship to this new religion Christianity and he wanted it to be known and he was very open about what kind of person it made him be and his outlook on life from this. To me that is what our population today is all about and not only the United States but also everyone around the world, we express who we are and we are not afraid to show it, we let what ever our religion may be we as humans let is determine what our outlook on life is and that is how it should be. What we decide is right and what is wrong and what we believe in is how we view life.

The divergence of east and west by this divergence there began a separation of cultures and how people went about their days. With this to me while reading I began to think about us as humans now we diverge and then go about our business sometimes we fall back to old habits but for the most part a lot of us are strong willed.Early Christian art began as part of a way to express their voices, and their cultures to anyone who wanted to see it. Centrally planned churches were then built for the usual ceremonies and baptisms like we do now at our churches we attend. This information was so lovely in ways that really helped me understand how things really began and how they continued and still continues to go on.

I have fully put all I have into this post and have really tried to help summarize at my best what this chapter, which was chapter ten and what its entirely meaning meant to me. So for the most part it is very safe to say that all of these that I have just listed above such as the centrally planned churches, the facts behind the Early Christian Art, also the facts behind the divergence of the east and west, which really helped with creating the difference in cultures which also helped with creating the difference in art so to speak, not to mention also having the information behind Constantine and Christianity have all really tied in very well to conclusion of this blog. Thank you for your view and hope it was helpful, please also leave any comment or question you may have regarding my post. Thank you and have a very blessed day.

[mpeters33-blog]

chapter 9 week 11

This week’s blog as we all know in our art class is reviewing what we read in chapter nine which was promptly over architecture and famous buildings and so on. As we mostly probably already know that the Romans are very gifted in building from concrete and making anything they set their minds to. It is very astonishing to me the work they do and the work that they create. The mind sets behind what ever the Romans are possible thinking have to be super strong and not to mention strong willed at that. They invent all different kinds of stuff that we now have read about and seen. To be honest I had no idea that the arches ,domes, and vaults, were part of the Ancient Romans pieces of art work, that part of this reading has really blown my mind and made me not only realize but highly appreciate what the Romans have gone through as far as the time it took to not only think about making these arches, domes , and vaults but putting in the effort into building these domes, arches, and vaults, essentially in a way we should all be thankful for the Romans for their brilliant ideas and fascinations over building things from concrete and being super good at it.

Domestic architecture which are the single and or multiple dwellings built back in the past in Ancient Rome. As the Romans had discovered their potential with the concrete and also with their potential in building architectures they then invented arches and domes and also not to forget the vaults these are illustrated in some of the pages throughout the book on page 127 to be exact so you should stop right here on what you are reading and go check that out right now then come back and continue to read you will not be disappointed in what you see, then when you come back comment on what you think about relating to the arches, domes, and vaults,  I want to know. A lot of us readers have heard at one point in time a little something about the incredible Julius Caesar, to be exact Julius Caesar was one of the greatest politician figures in his generation and if you would like to know a little more history behind Julius Caesar then you should go check out page 129 in the art book.

 As the public grew amongst the Roman population as did the need for space and not only private space but as well as public space. So with that increase need for public space the Romans came up with two new building promptly known as the forum and the basilica.(page 129). These buildings that were made really reminds me of a Walmart or a target here in the United States it reminds me that people where in need of the same thing so we built a bigger building to help everyone who needs the same thing they get to go to the same building. The chapels here in the United States where you would go for religious reasons is the same thing as the Temples in Rome. These are amzing and fascinating to me to be able to read about similarities amongst two different societies and as well as countries at that. A lot of things have been accomplished by the Romans and have made an everlasting impact on the world as a whole.

This was a very fun read and I hope you all enjoyed it. Please feel free to comment any new thoughts or questions regarding my post, thank you and have a very blessed day!   

[mpeters33-blog]

chapter 8 week 10 blog

This weeks blog is going to be over chapter eight from our reading textbook. As we all read and I am sure admired the culture of the Etruscans. In the reading I had noticed andI came across a few things such as qualities of these Etruscans that reminded me of the now called “thrift shoppers”I where they had recycled the vases and sculptures therefore anyone could have them and it was sort of an amazing process if you thinkI about it, it was truly the developing of thrifting now a days. To me this is where the idea came from where it all started from and it is fascinating to me.

The recycling of thei sculptures and pottery was not the only thing that was so I fascinating to the Greeks and also about the Greeks butI another amazing asset the GreeksI  had, and impressed everyone with actually left them astonished and at a loss of words was I their amazing architecture skills. They were mainlyI known by their amazing big tall buildings I and sculptures. The architecture to the Greeks was basically the McDonalds toI the United ] states of America, and if youI truly think about it what is the most likes about the Greeks and I better yetI what is the Greeks and also what is the united states of America most known for I think do not think too hard about it, In reality they kind of resemble each other in I a way I because each McDonald’s and also the Greeks architecture is what is mostly known for each.

Another thing that had surprised me was that the Greeks and how they represent their women, it is in a way the same as the women here in the United states. The women in Greece I versus the women in the United States connect in a way that both men in the United States and men in Greece will not have to understand. It said in the chapter 8 reading that women in Greece try and better themselves that are at the bottom and try to strive for the top which men in Greece do not particularly like, and then that women who are “rich” live a rather lavish life and care more about their appearance such as the jewelry they wear and only the expensive kind and then who they are married to, but as far as women in the United States go they are fairly similar they both like their own riches and rich man on top of that they want to be known for their appearance and the love their jewelry as the same as Greece women.

This was a fun blog to me because it really got my attention with certain things that I typically would not have though of like especially the women in Greece and how they really remind me of the women in the United States I hope you all enjoyed an cannot wait to hear from you guys and what your thoughts were.

[mpeters33-blog]

chapter 7 week 8 blog

So this weeks blog is regarding chapter seven and the podcast, for me I really enjoyed this read due to there is so many things regarding to the beauty of things such as art and what is considered “Good” and in the podcast there was a statement that says “what does beauty do” the response to this really blew my mind in a sense because it really put things into perspective the response being “beauty put the emphasis on attractiveness and desire”. After following this response they began to talk about that some art work has such beauty that people can end up developing a desire to be close and affiliate themselves with art pieces such as these, I cannot remember what the word was that they had called it, it was some kind of aphelia and this is where people would actually get to be so attracted to this art piece that some people would actually take it to further extremes to go as far as being intimate with these pieces, and being caught with them. That part really blew my mind because of how I guess I could not really understand how someone would be able to affiliate themselves to a sculpture, or statue in this such intimate ways. In a way that is sort of displeasing to such people passing by and noticing the interaction of a live human being trying to become intimae with such sculptures and statues, the thoughts that some people had to be thinking has me thinking what I would have done if I was the one to have saw this interaction going on myself. I honestly have no idea what I would have done if I saw such things as intimate interactions going on within a person and a sculpture or statue, to be honest I might be not necessarily disgusted but like maybe a little confused but actually really confused I would try to keep my thought to myself but it would definitely be an interesting sight to see. Also in my opinion I was trying to think of if such doings was in a way disrespectful to the art piece or if the artist would be flattered. I could not wrap my head around a good enough answer other than maybe there is just different artists who would react in different ways to it.

After reading through chapter seven and then after listening to the podcast all the way I began to research further and by that I began to dig deeper into my head and try and put together some things that I noticed or found interesting about both the chapter seven and the podcast. Both genuinely intrigued me in the fact that in the podcast and throughout chapter seven they talk about beauty and what is classified as beauty in the different levels of beauty, so it is interesting to me that in the podcast they said there was a book that was titles “survival of the prettiest” which they had also said that it had come from the ways that Greek’s view not only people but their sculptures. This was an interesting read and I hope you guys enjoyed this blog.

[sarahowearthistory-blog]

Week 6: Ancient Egypt

Just as the past civilization of Mesopotamia the Egyptians also highly valued their religion. In fact the Egyptians believed that their rulers or pharaohs were gods themselves. These beliefs can be seen throughout their art and the structures they would make for or of the pharaohs.

An example of this can be seen in “The Palette of Narmer.” This piece portrays the “links between divine and earthly power.”  Narmer was a significant pharoah for Ancient Egypt because he united Upper and Lower Egypt. The palette was designed in order to convey the pharaoh’s superiority. King Narmer is found in the center of the palette and is depicted to be threatening an assumed enemy. Their are dead enemies on the bottom with a servant holding his sandals, supposedly meaning that he is “standing on holy ground.” The king is also guarded by Horus and Hathor in this palette. This shows that the people trusted Narmer’s power and that they believed he was guarded by the gods.

During the time of the Old Kingdom the Egyptians started to build the infamous pyramids. These structures were made up of mastabas and were made for pharaohs as their place of burial. The Egyptians believed that the royal people were born from the sun god Re. The pyramids had a capstone, most likely gilded. This would have reflected the sun and could possibly be a connection to that belief.

Like Jericho the Egyptians also had rituals for the deceased. While Jericho would make a replica of the skull. Egyptians would take part in mummification. This included removal of internal organs with the exception of the heart. The organs were placed in separate jars and each one was thought to to guarded by one of Horus’s sons. The pharaohs would be bandaged and placed into their coffin. One rather extravagant coffin would be that of Tutankhamun. His rule proceeded the contraverstion reign of Akhenaten. When he died his coffin had a portrait mask made of solid gold. In it blue glass and lapis lazuli could also be found in this mask.

When making sculptures of the rulers the artists would follow certain “conventions”. The more important the person being depicted the more attentive would these depictions be to the conventions. This is another solid example of the importance of the pharaohs to the people of Ancient Egypt.

Besides their art some of the practices of the pharaohs and their family go to show how important their status is to them. One thing I found interesting while reading, was the extremes that they would go to in order to keep their royal blood “pure”. The pharaoh’s would only have children with people they were related to in order to achieve this. This usually led to them having children with their daughter’s or the most distant they would go is their cousins. We now know this can cause genetic mutations, so it would be interesting to see how that worked out for them.

Overall the civilization of Ancient Egypt highly valued their rulers and even thought of them as gods. This can be seen throughout their extensive amounts of monumental art depicting the pharaohs in harmony with the gods. The art of the Ancient Egyptians ultimately set up a platform for the art of the civilizations to come and greatly influenced the art of the Western world.

[mpeters33-blog]

I am very glad to have read your post it had helped me so much to understand so much better about this topic, I really respect your tips and ideas regarding these topics they are very detailed oriented and make a lot of sense once I step back and start really thinking about them they help me start piecing together many ideas myself that I have not thought about yet regarding these topics. Thank you for sharing I enjoyed this blog. 

[aubreecota-blog]

Week 4

As I was reading about the Neolithic Era, I found myself returning back to my thoughts about the first paragraph, in regards to the general location where the invention of writing occurred. I realized that I did not have the slightest idea about how sophisticated writing was originally created, but I did not think that communication in the form of writing went from pictures to words, then to honorable literature and epic poetry. In my mind, there should be a large gap between the first humans and historic poets. A gap that was not in any interest of mine to be filled with knowledge and answers. I had just assumed that when writing came along, humans were still producing incomplete and illiterate sentences out loud, but thinking back I realize that I had never really given much thought as to what that gap could be filled with. I now know that I stand incorrect, in reality, communities of this time had blueprints of what their cities were to be. These communities had structured plans on how to build their cities to be the strongest, safest, and most efficient that they thought was possible at that time in history. In the past I did not give them enough credit as they made their mark on the world in more ways than one, they were the start of many innovations that we still use and branch off of today. After reading the section on Mesopotamia, I also realized that these groups of people were far more intelligent than I assumed after reading about the Neolithic Era. The Mesopotamians experimented to find ways to make their land fertile and they built incredible temples which still stand today. Not only did they build them, they also added in religion and other beliefs to these incredible structures, which had been passed on from generation to generation. Religion played a huge role in the lives of everyone at this point in time. Every activity or task that was completed had to have some involvement with religion and their belief system. They believed mountains held the powers of nature, at this time they knew that mountains gave them water and thought this was a gift from the gods. Because of this, Mesopotamians would build imitation mountains, also known as ziggurats, for the god. For me, the most interesting sections were “Cylinder Seals,” and “From Pictures to Words.” These were the most interesting because they illustrated how written communication was kept, and they touched base on what the illustrations meant. These sections also briefly informed us how these scripts have helped archeologists understand and decipher the language of that period in history. It stuns me that we have found so many artifacts that were preserved to near perfection from this time, and they have been able to tell us so much about our own history. I found this chapter to be helpful in understanding how art and writing came to be, where it came from and to also fill knowledge gaps that I did not know existed in my mind.

[mpeters33-blog]

This post has given me a better understanding of this chapter and how to get a better concept overall of what is going on. This post was very well written and I enjoyed reading every word of it. I like how you describe every little detail with such passion and how when I was reading it, it was like you were speaking directly to the audience. You r information was amazing and thank you so much for sharing.

[sarahowearthistory-blog]

Week Three: Venus Figurines

Holloway, April. “23,000-Year-Old Statuette Found in France Adds to Mysterious Collection of Venus Figurines.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/23000-year-old-statuette-france-mysterious-collection-venus-020116.

One mystery archeologists have been trying to solve for many years is “Why were the Venus figurines created” These figurines have been found all over Europe and surrounding areas. Some  have been made close to 30,000 years apart. The archeologists have formed many theories about these figurines,  but they can’t be sure that they are correct. Some of these theories include; fertility, an icon or god, dolls, portraits, ideal beauty standards, or possibly even paleolithic pornograpgy. The theory most widely accepted is the theory that the figures represented fertility and femininity. I agree with this theory because of the rather accentuated breasts, stomach, and pubic area. These particular features are specific to the female gender hence why this theory would make sense. At the time these figures were being made the women would have been lean and muscular due to the evolution of natural selection, hence it is rather odd that these pieces are voluptuous. These pieces also seem to either lack a head arms and legs or they are extremely downplayed. This is also rather perplexing. When archaeologists discovered the  “Venus of Laussel”  they noticed remains of red ochre, which was most likely to symbolize blood or in this case menstruation. Another clue that leads to this belief is the fact that she was holding a horn with thirteen line carved into it. Archeologists believe that these lines may represent either the menstruation or lunar cycle. There are many indications that these figures were meant to be some sort of representation of the female anatomy or female fertility. The question is did they serve a purpose or were they just for decoration. As mentioned last week in “The Pleasure of Making” people in prehistoric times would make art that served a purpose. It would seem abnormal that these pieces were just for show. They had to have had some sort of purpose. Some of them were found with apertures in them so they could be strung into jewelry. One theory suggests that they may have been worn by pregnant women in order to aid as some sort of protection. Another suggests they were used for worshipping. This also seems probable due to the fact that they were made in an rather abstract or idealized fashion. I would assume that they represented fertility whether that be a fertility god or if they simply served to keep pregnant women safe. The true meaning behind these mysterious figures may never be certain but archeologist can keep forming theories to bring us closer to understanding more about the life of paleolithic people.

References:

Liew, Jessica. “Venus Figurine.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Feb. 2019, www.ancient.eu/Venus_Figurine/.

“Venus Figurines.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines.

[mpeters33-blog]

This blog is very interesting. I really enjoyed reading through this blog, all the information including into this blog was really intriguing. I did not really understand the meaning behind these whenever I had first seen them but then after reading this blog, I had gathered a better understanding regarding these pieces of art. This blog is very well detailed and very helpful with getting to know all the necessary information. The opening was really good as it gathered my attention and I was very interested in the following information.

[gwtwsince97-blog]

Blog 2

After reading the first two chapters of the book, as well as Ellen Dissanayake’s The Pleasure and Meaning of Making, I have a better idea of the importance of art, and how it plays a role in our everyday lives; it has truly shaped us as a society, as a culture, and as people in general. Symbols that we use, facial expressions that we make, colors that we associate with certain meanings or emotions, and many common phrases we say derive from art.  Art is a form of expression, and I believe art is anything that we create, whether it be pictures, sculptures, technology, buildings, literature, or movements (just to name a few). However, I do agree with Dissanayake that we typically only consider something a form of art when it’s made “artfully (rather than just making it)” (Dissanayake, p. 42).  

While art’s value can be materialistic, intrinsic, religious, nationalistic, psychological, or a combination of any or all those values, I think art’s true value depends on the time period and culture that it was made (p. 2-4). In the past, religion dominated art, and because art depicted holy or divine figures, gold was often used making art materialistic as well. In modern times, I think that traditional art forms are less prevalent-most likely because of technology, science, and mass production. Dassanayake says our kids “don’t learn to spin, weave, knit, and sew but buy their clothes” (Dassanayake, p. 45). She argues that art is a part of who we are as people, and that are biological makeup and movements back up the fact that we were designed to create. However, we learn through imitation, and as art becomes less necessary for our role models, it becomes more foreign to children. Both she and the book, use the example of building snowmen to exemplify our unintentional desire to create and build. In modern times (in America), I think that most art is created either for function, like architecture, or has psychological value because I believe that we need to express ourselves in some way, shape, or form, rather than religious or materialistic value.

I wouldn’t consider myself a very artistic person, at least in the traditional sense, meaning I’m not very talented at drawing, painting, or sculpting. However, I do love writing, reading poetry and literature, listening to music, and taking pictures, all of which are forms of art, though not as obvious. However, it wasn’t until these readings that I learned how prevalent art truly is in our everyday encounters. “The Language of Art” is full of symbols that we take for granted. For instance, a curved-up line on a face is associated with happiness, while a line curved downward is associated with sadness (p. 15). Lines, colors, and shapes help us to express and symbolize how we feel. We base these associations off our bodies, experiences in nature, our emotions, and purposefulness (p. 14).  Speaking, itself, is a form of art, and many of the common phrases or sayings that we use are significant because of the physical properties of color, such as referring to someone who is sad as being “blue,” or saying someone is “green with envy” (p. 19).

Works Cited

Dissanayake, Ellen. “THE PLEASURE AND MEANING OF MAKING.” Academia.edu - Share Research, www.academia.edu/8051818/THE_PLEASURE_AND_MEANING_OF_MAKING.

[mpeters33-blog]

This is very well written, I appreciated reading this blog because we can relate on a couple things you had said. You had some very good valid points and helped me understand a little more, and gather a little bit of a better understanding on the overall chapter and the reading. Thank you for your bog I enjoyed reading it and I really enjoyed the set up of your blog as well. Again veery well written, thank you.

[mpeters33-blog]

week 6 blog

Throughout chapter five I started learning more about the Ancient Egyptians instead of just mummies and The Great Pyramid of Giza. I learned more not only regarding the mummification, Kings, Gods, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, the temples, but also the sculptures and also paintings. All of this information is very interesting and very captivating and has me very excited to write about it.

During this chapter you have read about all of the above points listed and have got some sort of understanding easy enough for you to remember them. They all have very fascinating background information as far as who built them, when were they built, what they are made from, how long it took to make them, and how many people were involved with them, and most importantly the meaning behind them.

All of this really truly amazes me when reading through this chapter because when I look at all of these sculptures or the tombs all I can think about is how long it truly took someone to make those, the amount of talent and artistry that someone has that can produce such beautiful artwork that can last for years on end. If you can take a step back and just look through chapter five and not saying to sit down and reread the whole chapter but just seriously sit down and admire the work that they have accomplished it is truly remarkable and astonishes me to be able to think about how after all this time the pyramids and all that the Egyptian’s have created has lasted for so long and for all of those people who had sat down and taken the time out of their day to make all these sculptures is remarkable.

So just to give you guys a little more insight about the history of the Ancient Egyptians because after the chapter five reading I had started looking up a little bit more into detail the information I was interested in and really wanted to learn more about and I hope you guys enjoy it too. I will not state everything that I had listed above into further detail but I will just tell you about The Great Egyptian Pyramids, they are what really caught my eye do the how marvelous they are in my eyes, they amaze me and I hope you guys also find this information more interesting just like I did. The Egyptians had built the pyramids based on how good, and the values of their ruling Pharaoh were so that is why you have the “Great Pyramids” because they had made that out of respect of their current Pharaoh at the time. I found this information very interesting and I really enjoyed this opinion.

I have had so much fun reading this chapter and being able to reflect my opinions out to you guys to read has been interesting and fun at the same time. It is very amusing to me how a lot of these sculptures, pyramids, tombs, ect… from way back in the BC era is still being studied and fascinated over hundreds of thousands of years later.

here is a link to where I had received my information from regarding the additional research.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sphinx4.htm 

[mpeters33-blog]

week 4 blog

This week’s post is about chapter four “The Ancient Near East” where it states the first forms of writing, in the different agriculture sites along with different art pieces that tag along with the creation of the first forms of writing and the progress towards civilization. To get a better understanding of the reading afterwards I had decided to search up a summary of the chapter to make sure I was understanding it correctly and being capable to comprehend what I needed to in order to make this week’s blog. I had found a summary that pretty much thought a lot like I did so I will be making sure to reference this website as my blog goes on.

So to start this blog off I will be explaining the chapter in a way that I hope is most helpful to you guys reading it. As the chapter goes on I have comprehend that this was the era that the beginning of the very first “true” civilization was developed in the Neolithic era, with the Neolithic communities of the near and Far East. By growing into social complex cities this is where the invention of writing had allowed for the growth of knowledge as well among this very city. The foundation of cuneiform writing was developed in the Mesopotamian region. This Mesopotamian region was based upon region, this is where the culture of work and nature really took place and meant something to the village. (Cengage Leanring)

I have really enjoyed reading this chapter and getting a better understanding of how the creation of writing truly began and how the creation of the first civilizations occurred and how that also played a huge important role in the emergence of writing. For me when I was reading the chapter before this chapter I was thinking that when I was doing my research about cave paintings that the stone age people which had created those cave paintings and had used the multiple different signs, symbols, lines and dots, that those were kind of the “first” forms of writing. All of this is very interesting to me and after reading all about the actual ways of life was started it makes me appreciate a lot more about what we have now versus what life was like without all of these things we have now. All of this stuff that is possible and known now is all because of the events and moments from back in the day.

Do to this emergence of the the Mesopotamian civilization among them rose plenty more just like them such as the Egyptian civilization, which rose from the Nile Valley whose foundation was the Old Kingdom.(Cengage Learning) These traditions from the earliest civilizations had been passed down to the societies further down the road and eventually gave us what we have now. Near Eastern civilizations shared their myth-making world views which had helped many others then and now understand the universe and their societies. These civilizations had made many long lasting effects on this world and myths that will forever be in this universe’s history.

[mpeters33-blog]

week 3 blog

In this weeks blog I will be presenting to you guys the findings behind the monumental cave paintings. From my research I have found that so far regarding these cave paintings they were used in a sense of drawing and coloring that we do now a days. According to “visual arts cork” the paintings were used to symbolize their everyday life which are marked all the way back to the prehistoric (40,000-10,000 BCE).

Each painting had their very own unique qualities such as the history, origin characteristics, and overall meaning behind the paintings. Little did I know that these cave paintings are classified into three different stages when creating. The first being the overall outline of the image about to be drawn by using a charcoal or manganese, then second after the animal or whatever the painting was outlined like, typically they would draw animals, they would color it in with a red ochre or other pigments, then last but not least once the outline is created and then the inside of the online was filled in to its proper potential, the last step is to make the painting “pop” in a sense, as in make it stand out and grab the attention of the others passing by looking at it, they would shape the edges of the painting and make a sort of shadow to make the painting seem bigger in a sense and to make it more realistic.

According to the “visual arts cork” the stone age artists created a variety of abstract and figurative paintings. Which would depict hunting scenes, animals, normally bison, cattle, horse, fish, reptiles, so. on and so on. The really interesting thing that stood out to me was that there are no landscape painting in the prehistoric art. So to expand on that noting that has to do with rivers, or mountains, were nowhere to be found on these cave paintings. Another interesting thing about these cave paintings according to the same source, “visual arts cork” the appearance of human depictions were very rare, even when they were shown it would be depicted as a man body with a bird head, so there was hardly any painting of a true human head, body, face everything all at the same time in the same painting.

Some other interesting information regarding cave paintings according to the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island was the depictions of dots, lines, signs, and symbols on the walls that had very interesting meaning. There have been theories that cave painting signs and symbols were their form of communication with one another, there have been multiple paintings of the same symbols, lines, and dots, ect... that have been found in shelters, and other caves, so it is to believe that this was a certain form of communication.

This research has been taking my small amount of knowledge on cave paintings and turning it into a massive acknowledgment of the importance of cave paintings back in the prehistoric(40,000-10,000 BCE). I have such a different perspective on cave painting now and such a greater appreciation for them.

I have linked below the website regarding cave painting just in case anyone wanted to expand on the information behind cave paintings.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/cave-painting.htm

[mpeters33-blog]

week 2 blog

After reading chapter two, The Language of Art, and the article “The Pleasure and Meaning of Making”, by Dissanayake I have finally been able to comprehend how I truly feel regarding both of these readings. They both explain and go into further depth about art. Though both are different very readings they both have similar meanings behind them. For instance the chapter two reading holds information regarding the simple things in art like the lines, depth perception, texture, so on and so on, while the article talks about one specific artist creations, and how she maintains her mind while creating art.

I believe that both of these readings are very intriguing, the opinions expressed and the facts backed up made total sense to me. Take for example the chapter two reading expresses the different types of materials so to speak that are used within art. Do not get me wrong I understood that lines, texture, depth perception, space, colors, and so on are all used in the creation of art, but what I did not completely understand before is that the amount of definition and how much each one of these categories truly meant to the creation of art and how it would impact the art in the difference with and without them. 

The article “The Pleasure and Meaning of Making” by Dissanayake also taught me some things I did not know and things that I would not have thought about in the world of art. For instance she speaks about how she goes to three places when needing to construct good work. She states how within her work she “goes into the into three good places in order to get insight on who we are and what we need most to live a good life.” She first says she looks into what is known about our species and the evolution of our species, then from there she looks into the insight of the origin as an individual, and lastly she says she “finds it helpful to look how art and life interpenetrate in what are called premodern or traditional societies”. Both of these readings have taught me multiple things that I did not know before.

I agree with Dissanayake and her reasoning behind her article and do not have any challenges regarding herarticle, as art has directly influenced my life as an escape from the real world as kind of a getaway and one of the best stress relievers. Without reading chapter two and the article by Dissanayake my mindset would have been the exact same as before than when I began these readings. Not knowing these things I know now I would keep undermining the importance of the art and as well as the meaning is behind the art. I would not have gone about art the way both of these readings have explained and defined it, as they truly fascinate me in the reasoning they both put behind the readings and how much more sense things mean to me now after reading the chapter and the article.

[sarahowearthistory-blog]

This is my favorite piece of art because each time I look at it I am amazed that someone could sculpt such a piece. He is very smooth and and his body seems to be flowing from each part to the next rather elegantly. 

[mpeters33-blog]

I also appreciate the fact that someone was able to create such a beautiful piece of art. It always amazes me how someone can be so gifted and talented in such a degree. Beautiful piece of artwork to share with us thank you!