Art History 2019

When reading chapter 11 I did not know a lot of the information. I learned a lot. During this time the roman empire was declining. Islamic art is a lot of religious art because they had to live the way their God did you practically lived your religion. You had to live by the rules and that was that no exceptions. The Koran state that it forbids the figurative representation of Allah or his prophets so majority of all the paintings include abstract geometric and floral patterns.Something that stuck out  to me was that all of their pieces of art that has different patterns to it. It kind of shows their art is what is in churches and  different places to worship. One thing that surprised me is that they believed that sculptures were a work done by satan. When reading about the mosque they built I just thought that was so cool. It was the way people could worship and be themselves when they were their. It was just fascinating that they built those by hand. One of my favorite parts of this mosque is the prayer wall. It may sound weird but I think it is one of the coolest things they have in this whole building.

When reading about Northern Europe art it was interesting to me to find out they did not create any art work of any kind during that time period because they were being invaded so much. They did though create a new invention of art. It was used by made out of metal brought by the invaders that were coming to their land. One of the most interesting things that they have created is the cover of the purse. It was made out of gold and I protected everything that needed to be kept safe when needed.

Another thing that I found kind of interesting is the Manuscript Illumination. The lion is meant to scare off invaders is what i’m thinking when people invade he will hopefully attack. No one wants invaders anywhere.    

When looking and reading through this chapter another thing that caught my eye was the Palace Chapel. This palace was built by Charlemagne. He made this palace bigger than any other one around. It doubled in size from what they were used to. I had 4 big main sections. When I look at the picture it kind of reminds me of standing at the bottom of the capitol building in DC and looking up at how magnificent everything is.

    I've always been interested in this era it just is so cool to learn and read about. I remember some of this art work from when I was in middle school learning about them. I never really thought of artwork ever being interesting but after reading and learning more about this it has made me change my mind.

One thing that really caught my eye was the public baths. At first I was like a public place to take a bath but then after reading it, I understood it is just a hang out place. In our time it would be like a YMCA. Its were people could socialize, they can play sports and can be with people and get energy out. Something interesting I found out is that their are public baths in every roman city. It would be very interesting if we had YMCA’s in every city. I feel like it would be a good thing to have as well because people need to get out more.

Another thing that caught my eye was that they built the colosseum. It would have taken a long time to do that. It was known as the outdoor theater. It surprises me that when they built things they used a lot of marble. They used marble when they had the resources. When they did not have that they used yellow Lyme stone. Which is interesting to me because when looking at that I totally thought it was bricks of some sort. This was built for one main reason it was built for  men and animals to fight it out. It would be an easy clean for the blood and everything. To me it sounds really gross and unappealing to see men and animals fight. After looking at this for a little while the inside looks like what Wells Fargo Arena looks like in Des Monies. The reason for this is because when you look it cover the floor up with another floor and that is what the arena does. The bottom is actually a cold ground which is weird to me but makes sense.

When reading about the sculpture types the one that stuck out to me most was the bust ones, also known as portraits. They are usually of famous women and are only from the shoulders up. It is remembrance of the famous who have died. When looking at them you can tell they are made out of marable. When carving these statues they have to work hard and know what they are doing. It would take a lot of patience make one of these. I do not think I could make one of these because i’m  not patient enough.

Chapter 5 was very interesting and it had my attention the whole time. I learned a lot of new information that I did not previously know. I remember working and learning about this in middle school.

    Mummification caught my attention right away. For them death was a transition period, for their after life. They needed to have the body physically preserved. Before they get rapped in the lineen it is like they are made into human jerky. I never knew that they rapped them up in lineen which makes sense to me know. One thing that was confusing for me was why they would need to take their organs out. I would have never guessed that is how they did it. Something I thought was pretty amazing is that they took all the organs out except one, they kept the heart because they thought it the source of all knowledge. I’m am glad that got to learn more about this.

    Hatshepsut is very fascinating. It was an amazing thing that she got to be queen of Egypt. The house she lived in is called the funerary temple. When I look at this temple it reminds me of like a mansion. It is crazy to think that is made of sand stone and rock. This is set up in a way of three large terraces. They are all connected by a ramp and it just looks freaking amazing.

I somewhat remember talking about the pyramids in middle school and high school I just don’t really remember much about them. They made slaves build the pyramids which would take a very long time. It kind of is crazy to think of wear they would get the stone that they build the pyramids with. I would have never thought of them having to go to the nile river and getting the stones from their. It just amazes me on how huge theses things are. To create these pyramids you would need to be good at math and with numbers. It is crazy to think that if you messed up once that you would have a lopsided pyramid.  There  is so much going on in and outside of the pyramids. They also made several pyramids they must have gotten better each time they did it. The reason I say that is because every pyramid they made made got more complex.  There was a reason for them to create the pyramids, it wasn't just for fun. It surprises me that they work so hard and put so much work into one of these pyramids to just buried there king inside. It is just one king not multiple. Pyramids are cool and interest me a little bit and I am excited I got to learn more about them in this chapter.

Chapter 4 was interesting because it talked about a lot of different art from a lot of different time periods. It showed us the original art form that time period. Some of the art was so old that it dated back to B.C. time period.  I remember talking about some of these topics in high school.

One thing that caught my eye going through this chapter is that everything they did was made out of clay. They slept on clay and wrote on clay. They was like what they used to survive. It would not be comfortable to sleep or even sit on clay. They would not be able to use whatever they had until it was dry and hard.

I think it is kind of interesting that they just buried their loved ones under their houses. It amazes me the things that people did before us. They probably had nowhere else to take their bodies so it was just normal for them. I wonder if they feel closer with their family member because they were right under them.     

Could you imagine having your house connected to someone else's. When I read about this I thought it was crazy. You would not have your own freedom. People could hear what you do at all times. At first I thought it kind of was like living in an apartment in ways, but when you think about it it really won’t be. It kind of reminds me of a huge building just with a lot of rooms. I don’t think I could have lived there .

  The Sargon 1 caught my attention. It had so much detail. I think it is crazy that, that would be considered a self portrait. I would say that would be a head statue of him. It was also very interesting to me that they used stones to create the features in the face.

The Hittites war god is probably one of my favorite pieces out of this whole chapter. It is pretty amazing that they could create the rock art they did back then. It makes me wonder if the people who created Mount Rushmore, could  have created that monument the way the people back in the day did. The reason this is my favorite is because you can see all the details of everything. I this the best part of it is the legs you can see the the calves popping out, which makes it look like a human even more.

When I was reading about the iranian art the wild goat I was caught off guard. At first I did not see the curved triangles. To be completely honest I didn’t even know there were triangles in this piece at all.  We then went looking for triangles after a while we found some. It took some time but I started to see  what they were talking about and ended up thinking it was pretty creative.

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

Have you ever been to a cave? If so have you seen art or different pictures on the stones in the cave? For this blog, I have decided to research more about Cave paintings which are also known as cave art. Around 40,000 to 14,000 years ago, people first saw these painting in European caves and shelters. There are many more places that you can find cave art such as Italy and Germany. There are around 400 places that you could go see cave paintings.

One thing that I found interesting was that the meanings of some of these cave paintings are for religious meaning. This hits me in a good way because I am a very religious person, and I wanted to learn a lot about this. I thought it was cool because they made pictures of jesus and christian symbols such as the fish and the cross.    

The only thing that cave people painted were animals. They were the predator animals that they painted. Some of those animals were lions, bears, and more. They also painted the game animals. Many symbols were also drawn quite frequently. That was their primary way of communicating most times.

There are three stages of cave painting. First off, they need to get the outline of the animal or symbol they are creating. They can do this in many ways such as applying a sharp stone to the rock they are using. They also use charcoal to make the outline in black so they can see it. Second off, they draw and complete the drawing with detail in a red color. They would need to be precise and make sure everything is perfect. This part will be one of the most important. The third part of this project is the animals will be shaded with black or another pigment that someone could find. This process takes a long time. These people had to be very patient and creative to try to get what they needed, done.   

In my opinion, Venus of Willendorf represents a mother who is pregnant and carrying her child. One of the reasons I think this is, is because she looks like she is with child due to her round, and protruding stomach. She also looks like she would be a great mom even without a real description of her body.  

I feel like cave paintings are a good way for people to understand what people did back then. They learn about how you can use the resources you have around you to make something creative. People nowadays think they need to go out and buy new things to make art, and cave paintings can show them they don’t have to. Just have a creative mind and that's all you need.

When I read this chapter I was confused but learned a lot from it. I did not know that there was a language that artists spoke. I never thought of that before. Which was kind of interesting to me. I know understand why they need to have that to communicate with others on what they are trying to express. I also learned about lines, it caught my interest on how to make three- dimensional shapes. I will be trying that out even though i am not good at art. One thing that had always confused me was why there needed to be a color scheme to things. During this chapter I kind of found out why and if there really needed to be one. You use the different colors when you want something to pop out or you want something to fade and maybe not want people to see it.

I believe there are many values of art. For some people it is a way to destress and relax. Let's face it life gets tough and people need a way to relax and that is someone's way of relaxing. For others it may be their profession. They paint and do art as a career. People buy their painting or sculptures. Something I see that is cool is that in the town where I live we have made sculptures of our mascot and people from out of town have asked if they could buy them or we could make them one. So art can also be used for a career and you can help someone out in a way you may never know. Another way people value art is it can be someone's voice. People who can not communicate well with others can get her point across this way. This way people can hear them even when they are not speaking. I see many values of art and all of them are good reasons to be creative with what you do.

While reading the article one thing that I thought was cool was that she was excited about her daughters art skills when she was a child in like preschool. Yes most parents are excited about the art work, but she is like studying it.  I think it is cool how she learned so much about the kids and their development with art and just moving in general. When she said it was dense at time she was not wrong. I still am a bit confused by this but, I did learn some valuable things. Everyone has a different outlook on what they are going to do with their artwork. Some just go in and start dudulling and some take time and prepare what they are going to do. Me personally I just right in, I never know what i'm going to end up with at the end. She talks about how the first tools were stones and then bones. I think it is kind of crazy how people could just go and use stones as their utensils.