In the video More Human than Human I learned alot about human psyche and how it relates to the ways we make and perceive art. I think it's fascinating that we are drawn to exagerrated images and we don't know why. I didn't realize that the Egyptians maintained the same human form drawings for 3000 years...that's mindboggling! The video related to the readings by talking about the Egyptians and the continuity in their artwork. Also the Greeks and their temples and sculptures were found in the readings and explained even more in the video We even have a picture of the Greek bronze Warrior sculpture,which was found by an Italian tourist, on page 335. Our book talks about the venus of Willendorf and what her purpose may have been and the video took it a step farther, trying to explain other reasons she may have been carved, such as our fascination with exagerrated features of the human form that may very well be hard-wired in our brains. I really enjoyed this video and learned more from this one than others I have watched. I only wish it would have been longer!
I chose Cataclysm: The Black Death visitsTuscany as my first video because I knew a little about the plague but wanted to know more about it and how it affected the art of the times. Until this video I never thought about the religious implications the Plague would have or that it would change the artists depictions of religion. It makes perfect sense now that these would have been the major outcomes of such a devastating event in such a religious era. It was interesting to learn that these two major cities had such an enormous uprising and even more dramatic fall due to debt incurred from just trying to maintain the growing population. Two of the artists talked about in the video are also mentioned in our readings; Duccio from Sienna and his contemporary from Florence Giotto. Our readings described their use of space in their paintings...the placement of the walls and people giving movement to the artwork. Duccio's use of architecture to dictate space rather than a backdrop and Giotto's faces full of emotion were the two major contributions given by these artists. Both were alive before the plague and the video gave us more information of their views through their artwork after it. I liked this video because it explained the artwork and how it had changed due to different events but it didn't focus only on the artwork produced but also why it was produced. I learned from this video that many inventions arose from the Renaissance period: modern cities, modern banks, universities, eyeglasses fireplaces and paved roads. I also learned that the vanishing point was developed in the 1400's...what that must have done to the artworld!
My second video is The Greek Awakening: Art from the 5th century BC. I have always admired the Greeks and all the accomplishments they created that we still implement today. This video touched on many of them...art, science, philosophy, math and politics. I was hoping this video would provide more information on the architecture of the Greeks because I knew from our readings that not many paintings during this period remain...and it did. I am sad, however, that there aren't many paintings to study. Although I am amazed by architecture I feel I learn more about a culture through it's paintings. I learned both from the readings and this video that Perikles basically turned Athens from a city of wood to a city of marble. What an enormous feat that must have been! And what a testament to Phidias, Pericles friend and overseer of the Acropolis' construction, that it still stands today. Both the video and our readings informed us that there are no straight lines in the Parthenon, though we can't tell by looking at it...they planned it that way. I enjoyed the indepth explanation of the sculptures around the frieze of the Parthenon. It is amazing how much thought went into what they placed where and for what reasons. I wouldn;t have known what a frieze was if I hadn't learned it in our readings! This video renewed my life-long dream to go to Greece! I loved how the people and their culture are portayed in the video...as alive and vibrant as those centuries earlier and just as integral to the history and future of Greece.
Cairo Museum is my third video. There wasn't much that related to the readings except a few explanations of what the art meant and where it was found. There was a mention of King Tutankhamun's tomb in the readings and more in-depth explanation on the video. 3500 objects were found in King Tutankhamun's tomb...wow. I did learn from the readings that his father tried to change the style of art in Egypt, as well as their religious beliefs, but this didn't last. This video was still extremely interesting to me, however. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to choose which artifacts to display, especially when choosing from 80,000 of them. The basement houses these artifacts...as many as are in the museum itself. one piece I really liked was an ivory carving of a gold fish that was used to mix cosmetics that dates back 3000 years. It is great to see the colors and gold and jewels they used. I would really love to visit this museum.
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