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Chapter 13 - Gothic Art

There is no question what the standout element of this chapter was for me: stained-glass windows. I have always loved stained glass windows. They seem so technologically advanced, like something that requires being laid out on a computer and created using lasers—the fact that they were made with elements available in the 13th century, created by hand, is astounding to me. I mentioned during the blog post I reblogged last chapter how I am so impressed by rock carvings, and how easy it must’ve been to make a mistake and chip too far and ruin an entire piece. Well this is glass we’re talking about here. People would build these incredibly intricate mosaics using the most fragile medium on earth. I just can’t help but to fixate on how delicately everything had to be treated in order to be assembled, and to that end, that something so fragile could be assembled in such a way that they have lasted for centuries. People are impressed that the pyramids are still around—I mean, this is art made out of glass that is still around 700+ years later. Absolutely incredible.

Most of the rest of this chapter focused on architecture, which is to be expected as that is basically what Gothic are is. I’ve mentioned several times than I’m fairly ambivalent about architecture, and I definitely found some of this chapter a bit difficult to get through. But I still can’t help but to be blown away by some of the cathedrals shown in this chapter. The picture of the Reims Cathedral in France on page 214 is absolutely mesmerizing. You look at how many tiny, intricate details they are, which would’ve already been impressive if it was just a normal-sized church. To have a structure with that much form and detail and embellishment and be as massive as it is is just breathtaking. The fact that there are people who just pass something like that every day on their way to work is so crazy to me. You hope they don’t take it for granted, but we know how stuff like that goes. You don’t appreciate stuff like that when it’s in your backyard.

I’ll close out this week’s blog post by talking about the two pictures on page 204. I’ve talked before about pictures that look too beautiful and too perfect to be photographs, and both of those shots apply. The ceilings in particular look like optical illusions. I had to look at the picture on the left in particular for a solid minute before I could even wrap my brain around exactly what I was looking at. I am completely infatuated with things like that. Part of me almost wouldn’t want to see such places in real life as I’d be afraid it would ruin the illusion (I was the kid who never wanted to know how magicians did their tricks and preferred to just enjoy the gimmick).

r0b0k0pp-blog

Chris,

It’s been a pleasure reading your blog posts this semester. I too, really enjoyed the stained-glass windows. However, I never really thought about how tedious the work must have been to put them all together until reading this chapter. I can’t even image how hard it must have been if an artist was almost finished and cracked a piece of the glass. I also think that if you ever get a chance to see something out of those illusion pictures you should. I think it would be well worth the risk.

Week 15: Gothic Art

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 15! This weeks blog post is a little bit bittersweet. We’ve reached the end of the line for Art History blog posts, so this will be the final blog post. But let’s not get caught up on that for now. This week we were tasked with reading chapter 13 in A History of Western Art. This chapter dealt with Gothic art. Let’s dive right in to the material!

I’d like to start off by explaining that Gothic art is completely different from the modern Gothic that most people are used to. When I was attempting to find a picture for this blog post, I started off by typing the word Gothic in a Google search.The first 50 pictures or so that pop up have nothing to do with Gothic art. The pictures that did pop up were dark and creepy. I think it’s pretty humorous that the Gothic art that we studied was based on light, while the pictures of modern Gothic were all darkness.

This chapter we learned about cathedrals. The Gothic style is unique because the purpose of making the cathedrals this way was to allow more light into the buildings. The use of rib vaults provided more space for windows when these cathedrals were being built. I found it interesting that the construction of the Gothic cathedrals was compared to an exoskeleton.

Onto my favorite part from this chapter, the stained-glass windows. As stated in previous blog posts, I was raised Catholic. I spent every Sunday morning in my church. At the time, I was a young boy, so I didn’t have the best attention span. I always found myself staring at the stained-glass windows and admiring their beauty. The stained-glass windows from my church were pretty similar to the ones pictures on page 202. Most of the windows had a religious scene that lit up the church with the morning sun. I was pretty amazed when I saw the picture of the rose window on page 213. I’ve never seen anything like it before. It’s another one of those things that I feel that I could look at it for hours and still not catch every detail.

The last artwork that I would like to discuss is the statues that sit outside of the cathedrals. I took a few minuets to look back at the previous chapters and sort-of compared the statues to the ones from our current chapter. The statues have really come along way! The faces have expressions, and each one is different. The Gothic statues aren’t all the same height either, they are all different sizes, making them appear more realistic.

Well bloggers, that’s all I have to report from week 15. As stated above, this is the final post for this semester. I’d like to thank everyone that read along and learned with me, and I hope you enjoyed reading my experiences with the text. After taking this class, I have learned to have more respect for art, and I hope to continue learning more about it. I hope everyone has a safe and good summer break. This is it bloggers. R0B0K0PP signing off!

the-caffeinatedmom-love-blog

Chapter 12: Romanesque Art

With the background of catholic schooling, I have heard of the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. As far as I can remember, pilgrimages to the shrine of the martyred apostle Saint James at Compostella, Galicia was not as pronounced as the other two and honestly I don’t think I had ever heard of this. Truthfully, this would have interested me at a younger age, because I liked his gospel over the other three. The fact that this location was where Christians resisted the Muslims would only enlighten my younger self.

During this time, we continue our fascination with the world of architecture. Like we discovered last week with Early Christian and Byzantine Art, building churches and religious buildings is a major thing. In this chapter, the Romanesque architecture is directed towards the capacity to hold the increased numbers due to the pilgrims. The other concern was the lighting and it’s decorativeness. With this in mind, the church along the pilgrimage for Saint “Faith” Foy (pictured above) allows for the large crowds as well as the facilitation of the clergy. Besides this, the story of Saint Faith is sad because her martyrdom happened when she was a child and because she didn’t want to participate in services to pagan gods. Because of this they built this church in her honor on top of her tomb and erected a statue of the saint to welcome pilgrims.

The illuminated manuscripts are interesting in the way that they are bright in color and lively in images. The fact that they started to be in the shapes of letters amuses me because in school we were taught to do this in my art classes. That and the look of Saint Matthew in the manuscript is almost cartoonish and animated in style. With that being said, so do the animals and humans in the letter L. The Letter T manuscript shows a different style, that is one of elegance and grace as well as more muted colors. In both cases, I think these are very interesting.

That brings us to the murals and the tapestries on the walls of the churches and chapels. The great thing I learned about the murals was the cooperative nature of their creation. The artists would travel from church to church along the pilgrimage and help on the different series that were in production. This is what makes these murals so interesting I think, because they would encompass the different artists styles. For example, in the fresco of “Mary and Christ with Two Angels” at the chapel of Castel Appiano there are styles showing the characteristics of the people featured and seems almost cartoonish, but the floral bordering shows more of a delicate and elegant. Then, there is the “Bayeux Tapestry” which is different in so many ways including the style and color choice. Where the fresco was bright with blues and greens, the tapestry is browns, blacks and reds in color. The other main difference is the style because it is a scene of fighting.

All in all, I am amazed that I was as interested in this chapter than I thought I would be. Beginning this chapter was difficult, but the content surprised me and I did enjoy this chapter.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hi there.

Like you, I have a Catholic background. I too had heard of the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome, but I can’t remember ever hearing about the pilgrimage to Saint Johns. I spent 10 years in Catholic school, and can’t recall ever learning about it. I was really amazed at how beautiful the church is. With all we’ve learned about art surrounding the Catholic faith, it makes me wonder what else they didn’t teach us in Catholic school.

Week 14: Romanesque Art

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 14! This week for Art History class we were tasked with reading chapter 12 in A History of Western Art. Chapter 12 discusses Romanesque Art, or Roman-like art. The Romanesque style has many different forms of art, so lets dive right into it!

At the start of the chapter, the book discusses that people were making religious pilgrimages. For Christians, people would travel to Jerusalem or Rome. However, these places became dangerous to travel to, and a third pilgrimage option arose in the eleventh century. This option was the shrine of Saint James, in Spain. Huge churches and monasteries were constructed to accommodate the large number of pilgrims.

My favorite part of this chapter came pretty early in the chapter. The image above is Sainte-Foy at Conques, it is also pictured on page 186 of the text. This large building is a church that was dedicated to Sainte Foy, or the Saint Faith. To me, this church is stunning. It was my favorite image from this chapter because it reminds me of a castle. I enjoy reading and playing games about knights and castles, and that’s what first came to mind when I saw this image. I also found it interesting that the ceilings of the church were crafted with stone. This made the church safer from fires, and gave the church good acoustics. I’ve sang in a church before, but I think singing in this church would be really fun!

Like the previous chapter, the Romanesque style also contained some manuscripts. I really enjoyed the manuscript on page 194. To me, it looks like a giant doodle, and I love to doodle! I’ve often found myself drawing similar lines and shapes like in this manuscript. I really like the inter winding lines. Mine never seem to pan out like this one, but I find it easy to relate to.

The last part of the chapter that I’d like to discuss is the Bayeux Tapestry. This is a tapestry that was embroidered by hand. The most fascinating part of this tapestry is the length. It’s 230 feet long! It includes 626 human figures, 731 animals, 376 boars, and 70 buildings or tress! The part that amazes me is that these images are pretty detailed. When I first read how large the tapestry was, I originally assumed that the images most have been plain or dull. However, that’s not the case. Although we don’t get to see the entire tapestry in the book, the images we do see are detailed and beautiful.

Well bloggers, that’s about all I have for this week. We covered Romanesque art this week, and saw some pretty interesting art. The architecture from this style is castle-like and beautiful. The manuscripts and tapestries were colorful and fluent. I love that each week we continue to see new art that is moving. It looks like next week we will be discussing Gothic art, so make sure to check back for my thoughts on that!

chrishodges

Week 13

The first thing that stuck me about this chapter is the picture of the Arches of the Great Mosque on page 172. It almost looks like an M.C. Escher painting, like there is some type of optical illusion or some impossible element to the picture that we should be looking for. I stared at that picture for a good 10 minutes, completely fascinated by it. I would love to visit it in person.

As it happens, a lot of the art from this period is so striking and flawless-looking that it’s hard to believe those are just photos and not paintings. The Odo of Metz from the interior of Charlemange’s chapel on page 179 is so beautiful, that, again, I couldn’t believe I was looking at a photograph.

I tend to have conflicted feelings about religion, but there’s no denying the beauty of ancient chapels. The ones in this chapter are some of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. If faith drives people to create such breathtaking art, it’s hard to find total fault with it.

Continuing with a topic I brought up last week, I’ve loved following the evolution of written records in this course, and it takes another interesting step in the middle ages. This chapter talks of manuscript illumination, which takes a segment of text and builds a piece of intricate art around it. The example the book shows is from the Book of Kells. The translated sentence, “Then they crucified Christ and, with him, two thieves” is turned into a beautiful mosaic where the words wrap around and form an image of their own, and the words are complemented by various artistic flourishes, dragons breathing fire, and people who look to be looking on a tragic event (in this case, a crucifixion). It is a powerful way to make a sentiment come to life.

We tend to scoff at images within “serious” books these days. The concept of a picture book is something we typically associate with children’s books. But as this chapter proves, when done well, images can enhance and deepen the written word. It makes me wonder if there is a way that there can be “adult picture books” in the style of these illuminated manuscripts, where the book itself might only have ten or so lines of text, but each line is accompanied by a beautiful piece of art, and the text itself is presented in an artistic way. Something like that might already exist, I don’t know, but if it doesn’t, I think it could be a really interesting thing to see.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hey Chris,

I found it funny that you mentioned staring at the Arches of the Great Mosque for 10 minutes, because I did the same thing. They are certainly beautiful and mesmerizing! It would be amazing to be able to see them in person.

As for the picture books, I feel like those already exist today. You stated earlier in your post that you couldn’t believe that you were looking at a picture of the artwork, isn’t that similar to what manuscripts taught? Our college text books might have more words than the manuscripts, but I find that the pictures teach us even more.

- Josh

Week 13: The Early Middle Ages

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back from week 13! This week for Art History class we were tasked with reading chapter 11 from A History of Western Art. This chapter focused on the early middle ages. Although it was a shorter chapter, it was still packed full of information.Let’s jump right into the discussion!

Chapter 11 begins by talking a little bit about the middle ages and it explains exactly what the middle ages were. The middle ages were the times following the fall of the Roman empire. The chapter focuses on a few different types of art. These types were Islamic, Northern European, and Ottonian.

I found the Islamic part of this chapter to be very interesting. The art from this time focused more on patterns and floral designs. The reason behind this is because the religion of Islam believed that people shouldn’t have idols. This meant that there were no sculptures, and the artwork didn’t focus on people. I find this interesting because the artwork is still very beautiful. The red and white stripes on the arches in image 11.2 make for a very interesting design.

The Northern European artwork focused mostly on metalwork and manuscripts. I really enjoyed the details that were put into the Sutton Hoo purse cover. To me, the cover looks like something we would find in today's world. The images on the cover are symmetrical, and contain many little details. They are placed over cloisonne enamel, which make the images really stand out.

The last section that this chapter covered was the Ottonian Period. The book only shows one piece of art from this period, the bronze doors. These doors were cast as one piece, and they depict stories from the old and new testaments of the bible. I can only imagine seeing these doors in person! I would probably look like a goof ball, standing in front of the doors admiring all of the different images!

My favorite part of this chapter was learning that Charlemagne, the Roman emperor, valued education. Since manuscripts were portable, Charlemagne used them to teach people. To me, this is huge. In previous chapters, we learned about rulers that seemed to only care about themselves. However, here, we see a leader that was concerned about his people. This era was a huge step forward in my opinion.

Well folks, that about wraps it up for this week. We learned a little bit about the Early Middle Ages this week. We covered Islamic, Northern European, and the Ottonian art. Of the three, my favorite would have to be the Islamic art. Those red and white arches were really stunning! We also learned about Charlemagne, and his value of education. Hopefully, we continue to see steps forward like this in the upcoming chapters! Looking forward, it looks like we will be learning about Romanesque art next week, so be sure to check back for that! As always, let me know what you enjoyed from this chapter! Until next time bloggers!

enchantingcollectorturtle-blog

Art History

The Early Christianity part of this week’s reading was a bit of a turn off for me. I use to practice until I lost my sister then all of that turned into a belief that I don’t believe in. Not to start a stir of religion, just what I believe. From what I have correlated between the reading in Chapter 10 and my own individual research Byzantine art is devoted to Christian art and revolves around the church. Typically, you would see small panel paintings done in encaustic paint - Byzantine-era artists excelled at fresco mural painting, as well as the illustration of gospel texts and other devotional manuscripts. Before Christianity could grow to be better and stronger a known artistic language of its own it was necessary that the pagan language of art, so carefully perfected by the Greeks, should disintegrate. In the Roman catacombs, a few tentative experiments in creating the new symbolism were made, but they are of little principle interest. This chapter was so in-depth about what early Christianity was. I realize that when you learn about art you should really get the back story and the whole reason it came to be. That is one of the reasons that I like Art History not only because of that but you get a little taste of the history around the world at the time too, if you haven’t noticed I am really about learning history. On page 159 in our book there is a design of a Dome, while looking at it, it made me think about where I have seen the style before. Just a little background I have never left the US so while I was thinking about it I remembered I was in a hotel type thing while I was in New Orleans and it looked exactly, if not to a T, like this design. This design is under the Justinian and Byzantine Style title heading in the book. I then remembered how I learned in a history class that later when the first settlers settled here they were very big into Christianity. Which made it all click as to why a style building like this would be smack dab in the middle of New Orleans. I know I have referenced this before in my post but although I am not big on being a believe I do think that this chapter was full of knowledge and did a good job going into depth on the Christianity and Byzantine Style. It really did grab my attention surprisingly. Finally, I want to comment on where I have seen the picture on page 161. Back when I was in High School and I took a class on older world history, this picture came up in the text when we were learning about Jerusalem. Never ever did I think I would see this image again so when I came across it in the reading my jaw dropped and it reminded me about the day in class when I had very first seen it.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hi there.

It sounds like we share a similar experience. I was raised to be a “believer”. However, around the time I turned 16 I just couldn’t believe any longer. I also think that it’s neat to get the backstory about the history around the art we are learning about. It sort-of paints a bigger picture for what the world was like when this art was being created. I feel like art and history kind-of go hand-in-hand. Good post!

Josh

Week 12: Early Christian and Byzantine Art

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 12! This week for Art History we were tasked with reading chapter 10 from A History of Western Art, as well as doing some research on some non-western art. This was our first chance at researching art outside of the west! As always, let’s start off by discussing chapter.

This weeks chapter was pretty interesting. The chapter started out by talking a little bit about Jesus. I found this pretty neat, because I was raised Catholic. On the very first page of this chapter it talks about how Christianity started out as a cult. I honestly laughed out loud when I first read this. This reminded me of a conversation that I had with my parents 13 years ago. I was 16 and going through my confirmation into the Catholic church. I explained to my parents that the whole thing felt like I was joining a cult. My parents were both raised Catholic, so hearing this sent them into a rage. They explained that I could believe whatever I wanted to believe...after I was 18 and out of their house.

Churches have always amazed me. I often found myself distracted by all of the art while I was attended church. I think that’s why I enjoyed the descriptions and pictures of San Vitale the most this chapter. The artwork is very detailed, and I feel as if I could look at it for hours and still not see every little thing in the artwork.

Onto my research for the week! The area that I chose to research was Japan. The time that I researched was between 1-500 A.D. During this time, large mounded tombs known as kofun were built. These tombs would contain treasures like bronze mirrors, weapons, and clay vessels. along with the dead, similar to that in Ancient Egypt. The mounds were surrounded by stones and were decorated with clay cylindrical pedestals. During this time, Japanese emissaries were sent to China to present the Chinese Han dynasty court with woven cloths, jade, pearls,bows and arrows, and even slaves. In return, the Japanese emissaries received silk, gold, swords, and bronze mirrors. These emissaries also traveled to places like western Korea.

During this time, high-fired gray pottery was introduced to Japan. This pottery was shown to Japan by Korea. The high-fired gray pottery is made using a potter’s wheel, and is fired in a single chamber kiln. The temperatures of the kiln can reach 1200 degrees Celsius. Also, the clay cylinders from the mounds evolved during this time. What was once a clay cylinder was now a clay shield or house. In the 5th century A.D. these cylinders were transformed again to represent humans and animals.

Well my blogging friends, that about wraps it up for week 12. Chapter 10 taught us about the early Christian and Byzantine art. My favorite part was the artwork in the San Vitale, but what was your favorite piece this week? I also leaned a little bit about the artwork from Japan during 1-500 A.D.. It’s interesting to see how they were different from the Early Christian art. Let’s find out what you thought about this chapter. and I’ll see ya next week!

keatonhermsen-blog

Week 11

This chapter was very informative and I enjoyed reading it a lot. My favorite chapters that we have discussed and read this semester are ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, and now ancient Rome. The pyramids and mummies of Egypt, the architecture and just Athens in general for Greece, and now the arches, domes, and vaults of ancient Rome.

Rome’s architecture was amazing to read about. I did not know that there was different types of architecture in Rome. Domestic architecture was interesting and it included Mount Vesuvius. Excavations of buried cities are still continuing to this day in Rome which absolutely blew my mind. This type of architecture was derived from Etruscan, who we just learned about last chapter, and Greek antecedents but did also have many characteristics of its own. Public buildings were very popular in Rome. This lead to two very amazing architectural types known as the forum and basilica. Basilica were huge roofed buildings and were most likely at the end of a forum. A forum is a square or rectangular open space that was bounded on three sides by colonnades and by a basilica. One thing I found very interesting were the public baths of ancient Rome. I would love to one day visit Rome, i say this about every place we read about almost, and not participate but just view the beauty of these amazing architectural masterpieces. The public baths were a cultural center. The public baths almost seem to be like a modern day YMCA but with a couple twists. You could swim, socialize, bathe, play ball, and go running in the public baths of Rome.

One place that has always caught my eye when I see Rome in movies or anywhere is the Colosseum. Greek had an outside theater I believe but this one in Rome just seems different to me. It is a huge amphitheater but some could think of it as a modern day sports arena, which we have all over the United States. Just the architecture and the beauty of the Colosseum catches your eye and makes you want to explore all around this amazing piece of art from the Romans. Roman aqueducts and bridges were amazing examples of the amazing engineering developments of the Romans and this time period. The Pont du Gard looks so beautiful in the textbook on page 136. The effort and beauty amaze me. One question that I have never have answered and always stumps me is how bridges are built. I live in Dubuque and cross the bridge to Illinois a fair amount and the architecture that went into building such an amazing piece of work fascinates me.

Rome, like I end all my blogs it seems like, would be a place I would enjoy so much to visit before I kick the bucket. Architecture always amazes me and the Romans were known for their divine architecture all throughout this beautiful city. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and I hope to hear from someone who re-blogs my post and hear what you thought of ancient Rome.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hi there!

I think that we have the same view on Rome. The whole time I was reading the chapter, I kept thinking to myself that I’d love to travel there someday. It would be amazing to be able to just take in all of the beautiful works. I like how you compare the baths to the YMCA, it’s a pretty close comparison. I remember spending days of my childhood swimming and just hanging out at the Y, and I imagine Romans had the same experience with the baths.

Week 11: Ancient Rome

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 11! This week for Art History we were tasked with reading chapter 9 from A History of Western Art. The chapter focuses on Ancient Rome and the different forms or art they created. I’ve always loved Roman architecture, so let’s dive into the chapter!

About 17 years ago, the movie Gladiator was released. I remember when I saw it for the first time. The Colosseum and all of the Roman architecture were amazing! Ever since then, I’ve wanted to learn more about the Romans, and this chapter gave me that chance.

The chapter begins by explaining a little bit about the Romans. The story is that two brothers founded the city, and one ended up killing the other and became Romes first king. I found this story to be a bit far fetched, but who knows, maybe it happened. The Romans were inspired by civilizations that we’ve previously discussed, like the Greeks and Etruscans.

As stated above, I found the architecture from Rome to be the most interesting. To me, it’s like they saw what the Greeks and Etruscans created, and then made those structures even better. An example of this would be the Roman temples and the Colosseum. Many of these structures are still present in Rome today. The reason for this is because the Romans started using concrete for their structures. My favorite architectural piece from Rome is the Colosseum. This work of art is very pleasing to my eye. The symmetry found within all of the columns is amazing! This is a place that I’d love to see in my lifetime.

The sculptures from Ancient Rome are also very beautiful. Image 9.31 on page 146 shows a bust of young woman. The details in the woman's hair are so strong that it almost looks like real hair. The hair has depth to it which creates really good contrasts to make it look realistic.

Another thing that I found interesting from the chapter was that the Romans used wax to cover their paintings. This method added a bit of shine to the paintings, but it also helped to preserve them. This is very innovative, because a lot of the paintings from Ancient Rome were affected by a volcanic eruption. The thin layer of wax helped to protect these paintings from the volcanic ash, allowing us to still see them today.

Well folks, that about wraps up week 11! This week we learned about Ancient Rome and all of the wonderful works of art that they created. My favorite piece was the Colosseum, but I want to know what your favorite work was! What did you enjoy about this chapter? Let me know, and I’ll see ya back here next week!

the-caffeinatedmom-love-blog

Chapter 8: The Etruscans

So, what I got out of this chapter is a little interesting on a personal level and not what I was expecting. Before I state it, I would like to say that I honestly had not heard about the Etruscans before Any who, my realization and understanding is that the Etruscans are the better less known or less public Greeks in almost every way. My problems that I became aware of last week with the Greeks have been resolved by the Etruscans. This intrigues me since the cultures are so closely related geometrically and in the measurement of time.

I wasn’t exactly a fan of the depiction of women and how they were treated in their cultures of the previous chapters. The Etruscan culture and how it is shows how women were treated is much more in line with how I believe women should be treated. This week we learned that the Etruscans respected their women and they were not held in a sort of servitude that the Greeks and Egyptians had. In their art, the Etruscans showed that women were closer to equals to men than any of the other cultures we had experienced up to this point. They were able to go out in public and partake in events like banquets that were seen as male-centric in the Greek culture.

I love seeing that women were also given their own art pieces that were probably used on a daily basis. I speak of the mirrors with the mythological scenes of empowerment that also have inscriptions on them, thus showing that not only women were more equal, but also literate

adding a layer of equality. Continuing with the message of strong women, I loved that the majority of Etruscan art that was of mythological scenes shows mainly the goddesses and that these goddesses weren’t just pretty but had strong and sometimes higher purposes and titles than the gods.

The Etruscan funerary art and culture is treated much like I believe should be for anyone, especially for myself when the day comes. Instead of completely mourning and being sad for the life lost, the Etruscans also celebrate the life of the deceased. In doing this, they have urns that show the likeness of the deceased as well as where they lived. Then, there are the sarcophagi that continue to celebrate the deceased by showing their likeness and even the relationships between husband and wife. The fact the the closeness of husband and wife was not something to be ashamed of or even looked down on, but celebrated just makes me smile. The tomb paintings also continued this idea of celebration with the occasional mourner of the deceased. Even this, I appreciate. I think that this is a much better way to go about the rituals of previous cultures. Close to how the Egyptians in the way that they are the same styles of doing things, but way different in how they were completed. The Egyptians were much more of a reverence for only the nobility, where these tombs were for the individual as well and they showed who they were as people instead of how they wanted to be seen by the public.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hi there!

I had a similar experience when opening up to this chapter in the book. I had never heard of this civilization before, but I’m glad that I got the chance to find out more about them. It was really nice to learn about a civilization that treated women equally. I also really liked the funeral art that the Etruscans made. When my grandpa passed away when I was younger, my dad told me not to cry, just to remember the happy times that we had with grandpa. I’ve looked at death that way ever since, and it’s really interesting to see an entire civilization with the same mindset.

Week 10: The Art of the Etruscans

Hello fellow bloggers, and welcome back for week 10! Last week, we took a break from the blogs in order to do some review. However, this week we are back at it again! This week we read chapter 8, The Art of the Etruscans, from A History of Western Art. Let’s get into the discussion!

Chapter 8 focuses on the Etruscans, a civilization from Eturia, what is now know as Tuscany. The Etruscans were inspired by the Greeks. However, they remained as separate city-states, never establishing an actual empire. The Etruscans were at their strongest from the 7th-5th century B.C. They had a fleet that controlled the western part of the Mediterranean sea.

The Etruscans had their own language, and they also practiced literature. However, much of the literature has been destroyed. What remains is mostly religious text and text from graves. I think it’s pretty neat that the Etruscans wrote from right to left. It would be incredibly hard for me to decipher something that was written that way!

Bronze was a industry that thrived in Etruria. Page 118 shows an image of a bronze sculptured wolf. The details in the wolf are very similar to details that we saw in Greece. The texture of the fur on the neck reminds me of the sculptures from the last chapter. I also enjoy the details within the face of the wolf. It’s clearly snarling at some unknown entity as it protects Romulus and Remus.

My favorite part from this chapter was learning how the Etruscans treated their women. Unlike previous chapters, women were treated with more respect. They weren’t shut up in their homes doing housework, they were with their men attending parties and banquets. Women in Etruria could gain wealth and power. They wore fine jewelry, and owned fancy mirrors. The mirrors were mostly bronze, and the artwork on them was amazing.

The Etruscans had some sort of belief in an afterlife. Much like the Egyptians, they were buried with items that they would have used in their everyday lives. Cremation was also popular among the Etruscans. They created very detailed cinerary containers that would hold their ashes. I enjoyed image 8.8 on page 122 of an urn that was in the shape of a hut. This person would have been buried in a container that resembled their home, so in death, they were home.

The last piece of artwork I’d like to discuss is the sarcophagus that’s pictured above. The Etruscans were very similar to the way that I am. They didn’t care that the torso just ended and bent. They cared about the flow of the piece. I really like this piece. The fact that the faces of the couple are smiling in death makes me think that they were a very happy couple.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. The Etruscans might not have been a huge empire, but they were very important to art history. They taught the Romans about their ways, and sort of linked Greece to Rome. What did you think about chapter 8? Was there something that I missed? What was your favorite part of the chapter?

Week 8: Ancient Greece

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 8! This week for Art History we are reading chapter 7 from A History of Western Art, as well as listening to a podcast about beautiy, published by the The Takeaway. This week was really interesting, and the art seems to be getting more and more beautiful each week.

Let’s start off with the podcast. The title of the podcast is, The Ancient Origins of Modern Beauty. In the podcast, David Konstan, a classicist, talks about beauty. The main thing that I took away from this podcast was how/why we define beauty. Konstan stated that in ancient Greece, the Greeks pondered on what makes something beautiful. The reason that they came up with is symmetry and proportion. This was interesting to me, because in past blog posts, I’ve discussed how I really enjoy the symmetry of the ancient architecture. This could explain why I find these works so beautiful. Another topic that the podcast covers is what beauty does, whether it makes us attracted to something or admire something. Konstan believes that beauty makes us attracted to something, and I have to agree with him. When I find something beautiful, I want to see more of it. It’s more than just admiring or thinking about it, I want to see it, touch it, and have it in my life.

After listening to the podcast, I dove right into chapter 7 on Ancient Greece. The chapter starts out like the previous ones, explaining the culture in Greece. The Greeks were very sophisticated. They had their own written language, government, and philosophy. It’s interesting that Thomas Jefferson was inspired by the Greeks when he wrote the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. This was also the first western era where artists began signing there works and keeping records of what they have worked on. That was a huge move for artists because even today we can look back at the records and see who worked on what.

I found mostly all of the artwork very beautiful from this chapter. My most favorite has to be the Poseidon or Zeus pictured above. To me, there’s a night and day difference between this sculpture and sculptures from previous chapters. The statue is incredibly detailed. However, I think the best part about the piece is the pose. It’s not just a frontal stance like in ancient Egypt. The statue looks like it’s standing in a battle pose, ready to attack.

This week was an important chapter. A lot of the things that we do today were based on Ancient Greece. We are able to look back at the works of artist and actually give credit to artist. We also learned a little bit about beauty, and what it really means. That’s all I have for this week, see ya next time bloggers!

kennoncassidy-blog

Week 7

Chapter 6 covers the Aegean, and right away I was lost. Who are the Aegean? I had never heard of them before taking this class, until I read on and discovered that they were a society of islands by Greece. In history class we neglected this specific culture and rounded them into Ancient Greece, but now I know that is not the case. For example, I remember seeing “Mask of Agamemmon” featured in the chapter for Ancient Greece when I was in 6th or 7th grade.

The very first thing I noticed about the Aegean was that their paintings were much more detailed and complex than any of the other previous cultures we have learned about, specifically the one on the bottom of page 75. There’s men on boats sailing away and a village or temple inside a mountain with what appears to be deer running on top of it. To the left of the temple looks to be a treasury room filled to the brim with gold and other precious metals. The art style of that culture is astounding to me personally, because not much is known about them as a people.

Does anyone else find it strange how many cultures have god/goddesses/deities which have body parts of animals? Like back to the last chapter in Ancient Egypt where their god Anubis has been depicted with the head of a jackal. It is a bit of a random question but I have continuously noted this similarity in many, if not all of the previous chapters.

I loved how Holland Cotter started his essay, Art View; Eastern Art Through Western Eyes, with quotes from Mark Twain’s visit to India. I liked it because Mark Twain was a prominent author in his time, and he was a prime example of ethnocentrism, which is when you judge another culture based on the standards of your own culture. Twain labeled India’s art as, ‘“Crude, misshapen and ugly”’ because he did not understand the history behind the art.

Due to these essays, it had made me really think about what my role is in art history, and I believe it is my job to keep an open mind when strolling through museums and not label art of any kind as ‘ugly’ or ‘crude’ like Mark Twain did in the first essay.

Museums house history of all kinds, not just art and bones, but the sentiments, uses, cultures and long dead civilizations that created those artifacts. However, we rarely get to see anything other than western art. That is an issue Cotter brought to my attention in his essay. Under Threat: The Shock of the Old. I have been to two of three museums in my life, and only in one of them do I remember seeing a section for Asian art. That was in the Smithsonian, and even then it was not nearly as large as the section for the Ice Age or the even the room full of outfits famous people have worn. As I sit here and reflect on this new, and slightly disturbing, information, I feel a bit ashamed at our lack of cultural diversity in our museums. Everyone knows about ancient Egypt and ancient Greece and about WWI and WWII, but we know virtually nothing about Africa’s history or even Asia’s history.

Cotter says, “as the field changes generational hands, it’s crucial… to start looking again for the new in traditional…” And I believe that ‘new’ needs to be history from the civilizations that have previously been ignored by Western museums.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Hi there!

I felt the same way about the Aegean when I saw the title for this chapter. I sat there staring at the name wondering who they were and where they came from. Even after reading the text, I don’t ever recall hearing about them before. However, I agree that the artwork here was much more detailed from previous chapters. As for the God/Goddess question, I have noticed the same thing, but I also know nothing about why they were merged with animals. I do know that these worships were done thousands of years ago. Maybe there really were half human half animal people? Maybe we just haven’t found the remains yet? Who knows!

Week 7: The Aegean

Hi there fellow bloggers and welcome back for week 7. This week for Art History class the task was reading chapter 6 out of A History of Western Art, and reading 2 articles from Holland Cotter. Chapter 6 deals with the Aegean civilization of Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean. The Cotter articles deal with non-western art in the western culture.

Let’s start off by discussing the contents of Chapter 6. The civilizations covered in this chapter were all located around the Aegean Sea. This is the area where a lot of myths and legends came from, for example, the Minotaur.These civilizations didn’t have a written language, so a lot of the information about the findings is purely speculation.

The first civilization the book covers is the Cycaldic. The art examples from the book came from the bronze age. The image above is Cycladic art. These are statues that were crafted from marble. I find it interesting that the poses of these statues sort-of resemble the statues from Egypt. They are all in a frontal pose with very stern poses. It’s also interesting that these statues were not able to stand on their own. The way that the feet were sculpted make it impossible for them to stand upright. That brings on the question, what were these statues used for? Maybe they were part of a ceremony or an offering.

Next on the list is the Minoan Civilization. This is another civilization that thrived in the bronze era. Most of the civilization was destroyed due to earthquakes and invasions. However, Sir Arthur Evans was able to excavate some of the remains. One of his findings was the Palace at Knossos. This palace was very large and was filled with many different rooms. The palace was a place that the Minoans did all of their worshiping, trading, and justice administering. The palace is thought to be the labyrinth from the myth about the Minotaur. I think the artwork from the Minoans is amazing. The images of the pottery on page 74 are very detailed and pleasing to the eye. I also enjoyed the Ship Fresco. To me, this fresco is the best piece we’ve seen so far in this book. It has great detail, and it really gives the viewer an idea of what the civilization was like.

Finally, we have the Mycenaean Civilization. The Mycenaeans were known for their megaron. The mearon was a very large throne room consisting of multiple rooms. The throne room was surrounded by pillars, and featured a hearth at the center. Like the Minoans, most of the worship, trading, and justice would have been done here. To me, the most interesting piece of art from this civilization is the dagger with lion hunt. I really enjoy the art of forging weapons. However, this dagger isn’t ordinary. It has an inlay of gold and silver that tell a story about a lion hunt. The dagger is only 24cm long, but the artist was still able to put great detail into the images.

The articles from Cotter were shocking. Both of them discuss how non-western art is is dwindling away. Cotter talks about how the field of Indian art is being removed from colleges and that the field is becoming less popular. The same goes for Africa and China. The older artwork from these places is at a stand-still, and there aren't many people researching or excavating for more. The articles talk about how here in the west, we are focusing more on modern art. Paying people more money to study art from today’s world instead of ancient artwork.

These articles taught me a lot. I had no idea about the decline in India art study, or about the focus on modern art. To me, that seems a bit backwards. Modern art is everywhere, and it will remain here for a long time. As the article explains, the ancient art works from India are deteriorating each and every day. If we don’t spend the time researching the older art, it could be lost forever. I think that reading these articles helped me to appreciate older artworks more. When I was younger, my family took a trip to the museums in Chicago. I remember seeing all of the ancient works of art and just walking past them, thinking that they were just a bunch of old junk. If I ever get a chance to go back, I’d love to spend some time examining the older artworks now that I can appreciate them more. I think that all of us as art students have the responsibility to relay this appreciation. We don’t necessarily have to teach our friends and family about everything we know about art, but we should inform them about the things we are learning.

jacobclefisch-blog

Chapter 5

Ancient Egypt to me has always been one of the most fascinating time periods. Being one of the most powerful and long-lasting civilizations, Ancient Egypt left its mark on the world with its great pyramids, temples, and innovation in painting.

Great pyramids were built to express the power of the pharaoh and served as a resting place for these great kings when they pass away. These massive burial chambers were designed with 3 or four-sided brick steps and required a massive amount of labor to construct. My personal favorite pyramid was the one constructed as the resting place for Khafre, ancient Egyptian king of 4th dynasty during the Old Kingdom. This pyramid was accompanied by a great road that is guarded by a colossal statue of Khafre himself, known as the Great Sphinx. The Great Sphinx took the form of the lion that traditionally guards temples and palaces. These great pharaohs chose lions because it is said to be believe that lions never sleep as they belonged with the sun as the eye of heaven. Another magnificent temple was the Rock-Cut Temple of Ramses II. This temple had 4 huge statues that looked like Ramses made from stone in the traditional royal pose seating outside the front of the temple.

Huts fulfilled the role of Egyptian temples in the Neolithic era and were proceeded by the standard Egyptian temple, the pylon temple. The pillars were designed with the vegetation of Egypt and represented the fertility of the Earth. These temples were created for places of worship and tribute. Rituals were conducted in attempts to connect man to God and designs of Ancient Gods were etched into the walls of the temples. The temple that most interested me was Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple because of the story of how Queen Hatshepsut became the first female king along with symbolizing the amount of power she possessed over her people. Her own vision and imagination is depicted throughout the temple. The queen proclaimed her divine right as the king and these great temples give us insight to her greatness.

Ancient Egypt was an innovator when it came to the use of synthetic pigments. They invented new colors such as earth tones and used eye catching greens, blues, and golden yellows. Unlike prehistoric paintings, Egyptians used pictures of Humans along with animals. Paintings often represented the Gods and deities from Ancient Egypt along with rituals and various other forms of ceremonies that were practiced inside temples. Some of my favorite art comes from Ancient Egypt, I just loved the way they expressed their imaginations and used their own creativity as ways to spread religion. Art was widely respected in Ancient Egypt and you can really see that from the pyramids to paintings inside temples.

r0b0k0pp-blog

Jacob,

Like you, I’m also fascinated with ancient Egypt. My favorite works from the period are the pyramids. The size, symmetry, and structure of them are beautiful to me. Also, it’s fun to watch shows like Ancient Aliens and hear experts talk about how they think they were built. You wrote about the pyramids, and temples, and the paintings, but are the pyramids your favorite works from the period as well?

Keep up the good work!

R0B0K0PP

Week 6: Ancient Egypt

Last week we took a break from the blogs to take a quiz. However, we are back for week 6! This week in Art History, the book took us to chapter 5, Ancient Egypt. I found this chapter challenging due to all of the different names that were really hard to pronounce. When I got past the names, I was able to enjoy the artwork from this period.

I really enjoyed the way this chapter opened up. It didn’t just jump right in and slam art down my throat. The chapter started off by explaining why and how the people of Egypt were even in that area, The Nile River. The Egyptian people settled near the Nile because it floods on a yearly bases. This made the grounds more fertile and farm-able.

The next portion of this chapter explained to me what a pharaoh was, and why they were so important to Egyptian art. The pharaoh was basically a king. However, the people of Egypt worshiped their pharaohs like they were gods. Because of this, most of the artwork from this period was of or for the pharaoh.

The art from this period starts off with the pyramids. The picture above is an example of the pyramids of Giza. The pyramids were huge! However, they were only used as burial sites for pharaohs. They had a basic entrance and tunnels that lead to chamber where the dead pharaoh would be placed.

Sculpture was also a form of art that the Egyptians were known for. The sculptures shown in the book show the pharaohs in strong, stiff, poses. I find it interesting that most of the sculptures shown had little to know negative space. The negative space was filled by headdresses and the stiff positions of the arms and legs.

This is era that we start to see more colors! The Egyptians were the first people to use synthetic pigments in their artwork. This means that we start to see colors like blue, green, and golden yellows. The colors add so much to the paintings of this era. Instead of seeing earthy tones like in the cave paintings, we start to see beautifully bright paintings.

I think that the most interesting work from this chapter is King Tutankhamon’s sarcophagus. The headpiece is absolutely stunning. The blues and golds in the headdress really pop out and make the piece look realistic. On top of the headpiece, the canopic coffinette relays the same image of King Tut, only smaller. The canopic coffinettes were used to store organs of the dead pharaoh. Even though they were smaller, the details are still amazing.

To me, this chapter was really interesting. The artwork keeps progressively getting better each chapter. The pyramids were huge, and their origins are still a mystery today. The statues and paintings were colorful and bold. The Egyptians really paid attention to detail in all of their works.

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