1. Explain why you selected each of the three videos you choose from the selection listed above.
I selected the Black Death in Tuscany because I was interested to watch how art was affected. And I chose the videos on Greece because I miss it there so much and love seeing the beauty of my favorite city in the world, my home.
2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
More Human than Human:
Art of everyday life has such a powerful meaning to us. When ancient’s artists created their world. It helped create ours by viewing their masterpieces. We so attracted to bodies that we do not all have, we are attracted to humans that do not look like us, no one walks around half naked like the billboards, but we wish we looked like them.
In the early 1900s a 25 thousand year old statue was found, the Venus of Willendorf. This 10cm statue is worth close to 60 million dollars. This is the first clue of why humans are so attracted to unrealistic images. Why is this fat woman so praised?
The Black Death Visits Tuscany:
Between 1200 and 1350 after the Roman Empire, Italy would never be the same. The renaissance was born and it was a new beginning. In the 1300s Tuscany was as its peak, roads buildings houses palaces and Cathedrals were built all over. More gold was in the hands of more people then ever in history. Florence and Sienna had been at war for more then 200 years and peace was finally in fight. The population was expanding, so was the city. The City walls still stand. Later the two rival cities began to compete with each other. However still standing is a cathedral in Sienna that is sill not finished, showing the lack of fortune. Debt took over the city, and it crumbled.
The Plague had traveled from China to Europe from fleas on merchants; death is the effect. Crisis has broken out in Florence when the banks closed. It soon reaches Tuscany and took over the city, half the population in Europe died.
The plague physically changed the cities in Europe and affected the arts. Emotions are taken out of paintings and images become must flatter. It seems that the skill of artists has moved backwards, more complex paintings were done hundreds of years before. Art because darker and reflects hell and sin.
The Greek Awakening:
Athens is the capital of Greece housing more then 4 million people, half of the population. It is said to be the largest village in Greece. Athens is the birthplace of the western civilization. The great awakening occurred. You don’t know whom you are until you know where you come from, and I come from Greece so I appreciate its beauty and how it has transformed the world. History comes from Greece and this is one thing that; I have been told by my father my entire life.
The Acropolis was built for the goddess Athena. Over three millions tourists a year come to visit from all over the world. 10 thousand people a day go to visit, I have had to honor of going several times. Athens was transformed from a city of wood to a city of Marble. The acropolis is the center view of Athens, you cannot go there without visiting this beautiful masterpiece.
Pollution is eating away at the Marble of the Parthenon. New Marble may be added to help support the structure. It is a symbol of humans and the western civilization.
Greek art and the Human Figure:
7th century b.c.e was when artists used their eyes to discover natural form and use realism to create these masterpieces. Greeks made the human body more beautiful and fit then ever. Humans were shown in 3D and in movement, they tried something that was never done before. Pottery is found everywhere, in the metro system in Athens you can view these findings, they are beautiful, every time I go to Greece there are more and more sculptures on display.
Greeks capture the perfect human. And now we are obsessed with that body.
3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
These videos relate to the text because they expand the description of these works of art, and seeing them and listening to the narrators help me to understand the history and the effects art has on the world and the creation of humans.
4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?
Every week I enjoy watching these videos because they help me understand the material. Hearing the narrators and looking at the art really brings the pieces to life, more so then looking at them in the book. Looking at the insides of cathedrals on video show the size and massiveness of the buildings. Also seeing the detail of the sculptures and beauty of the paintings and pottery are so much more visible and apparent.
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