Machiavelli and Shakespeare

Can we find any Machiavellian ideas about power in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

The Seventh Seal

For those of you who found Dante's Inferno interesting, I recommend you watch "the Seventh Seal", directed by Ingmar Bergman. It's a Swedish film from '57, which follows a knight as he returns from the Crusades, struggling with his weakness of faith and avoiding Death (literally, watch it, you'll know what I mean).

PBS documentary on the De Medici Family

Please watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FFDJK8jmms&feature=related

My Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

My Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

My Visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The museum had many interesting pieces and a lot of information to retain so much that I decided to focus on one area in which we covered in class cuneiform writing. The large statues where amazing and beneath them writings, one would think that the Sumerians had to be gifted to write so intricately. The art of cuneiform writing started around the 34^th century and was described as a unique form of writing. The markings were made by pressing the edge of a reed stylus into soft clay forming the different strokes in many directions. This technique was also discussed in our reading of ancient Mesopotamia. The actual writing seemed like patterns on stone it was really artistic and I found it to be amusing that the people at that time could do such intricate work with out all the modern machines and short cuts that we now have to do our artistry.

There was one piece that had a god with wings; he seemed to be writing on the wall. His physical appearance was strong and as I looked down I saw cuneiform markings running through his lower torso. It stood there as large as a “God”, his presents was felt as soon as I walked into the room.

There was another sculpture. It was an eagle with a human body as well and he too was writing on the wall this sparked my curiosity, but I was unable to find any information on these pieces in the museum. I took these photos to share with you all for it did interest me. My interpretation is that the cuneiform writing was written to tell a story one that I could not read.

My trip the museum made cuneiform writing come to life it was no longer on paper but written in clay. I enjoyed my experience and do intend to go have a full trip viewing other artistries and snippets of history.

This Saturday I decided to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History. This was my second time going there so I knew my way around. I was interesting to see the Renaissance paintings because to me they look like there are alive. I think that they are so carefully painted, that it looks like you could walk right through the partings. I took an Art History class two semesters ago and the only paintings that fascinated me were the Renaissance paintings. They are painted so carefully and detailed and you can see each emotion and action that the artist is trying to show his audience. One thing that the Renaissance paintings have in common is that they all are paintings of Madonna and baby Jesus. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

This painting is from Hans Memling

The Title: is Virgin Merry and Child with Saints Catharine of Alezandra and Barbara.

This painting is made with oil on wood.

As you can see it shows Virgin Merry holding baby Jesus in her hands. Also around her are the

Saints celebrating the birth of Jesus. I like this picture because i could really see the emotions on the characters faces and how they all are looking down at the new born.

As you can see this painting is also of Virgin Merry and Baby Jesus. This painting is unique compared to the others because it is divided into three parts. Each part has its own meaning Also we can see how carefully it is detailed.

This painting is by Jean Bellegambe


Title: The Le Cellier Altarpiece


It is Oil on Wood

Here Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is placed in the center. This shows that they are the most importen people in this painting. Saint Bernard, a reformer of the Cistercain order are a fervent proponent of the cult of Mary gather with his family around the throne of the Virgin.




Finally, my favorite piece is the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints.


This painting is by Raphael

Title: Madonna and Child Enthrone with Saints Oil on Wood



This painting was painted in the 1504. The Surface is very smooth. The figures are placed in a pyramid shape, with Madonna's face in the center. This painting is very special because Raphael uses the 1 point perspective on the stair case. This means its perceived by the eye. Basically Raphael made it look like a 3D painting. The 1 point perspective was very famous in the Renaissance era. Also on the top we have the angel looking down on Virgin Merry and baby Jesus. It is a symbol of protection.









As I have said before in the Renaissance era most of the paintings were with Virgin Merry and baby Jesus. As I walked in the Renaissance hall that was the only face that i saw around. I really enjoyed this trip to the MET because it gave me the chance to really look at these paintings and see what the artist wants us to focus on. Even though my Saturday was gone, I had a pretty good day.

Met Visit- Renaissance

I can't even count the number of times I have been to the Met. Even though every time I go it is always too crowded, I really enjoy going. Renaissance art is always part my trips to the famous museum.

If any of you have studied at least the littlest bit of art history, or any history, you should know that the Renaissance, or the rebirth, have many paintings on nature. One of my favorite paintings is "The Four Seasons" by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. (Sorry for such a crummy picture, I was taking it with my phone)

I love how the facial features are defined by fruits and flowers. Perhaps it is spring. I also find it amusing that the face is supposed to be that of an elderly person. I do not know if it is an old man or woman, but it can be either. Mother Nature or Father Time.

Another thing topic that Renaissance artist loved to paint was Ancient Greek and Roman gods and goddess. They were fascinated with these gods. Another amusing, yet a bit disgusting work of art is titled "Venus and Cupid" by Lorenzo Lotto. (I didn't take this picture because my phone died. Just my luck. But I did see it and it's quite a large painting.)

Yes, that's right, the little brat is peeing on his Mom. How adorable.

This last painting is just of a boy. It called "Boy with a Greyhound" by Paolo Veronesa. The only reason I picked it is because it is what I would probably think Hamlet would look like. The various Renaissance artist did paint a lot about literature, but since Hamlet was written during this time there wouldn't be any paintings about the characters from the play. (I asked one of the guards about Ophelia.)

Religion is a very obvious art topic in the Renaissance, and Jesus is cool and all, but kind of a boring subject. No offense dude. I do love the Renaissance though. If you look at paintings before the time and compare it to this movement it is amazing how wonderfully and even magically advanced the artist became. This art aperiod and its works definitely should have a spot on your Met museum "To See" list.

Reimagining Dante's Inferno

Please pick up one or several scenes in which Dante describes eternal suffering. After you explain how the contrapasso operates, imagine a fictional scenario of infernal suffering that would reflect our 21st century anxieties.
Any funny visions of our contemporary Hell :--)?

Museum Report - Indian Art

I am not what you would call an art lover but I do appreciate the arts that surround each culture. This was my second time to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a great museum that is very large and full of different exhibits that change frequently.


Beautiful day shot of the outside of the Met before it started to rain.


Once you enter the Indian art exhibit you first see these tiny artifacts.



There wasn't a description on them, so I am sorry I cannot explain what these artifacts are. What I find fascinating is that these small artifacts are highly detailed. I start to notice that Indian art focuses a lot on details from the facial features to the body elements.




Krishna fighting a horse demon.

This is a large piece of art showing Krishna jamming his elbow into the horse demon's mouth. The body below Krishna shows the death of the horse demon.










As you walk deeper into the exhibit the art pieces get larger. What definitely caught my eye was the giant statue of the four armed Vishnu


standing at nine feet tall. His role is to preserve the world-- he would be called upon to descend down to Earth to combat great evil.

The next piece that I found interesting was this Shiva being portrayed as the Lord of Dance.

At first I did not notice the hands until I read the plaque. It says this one image depicts Shiva's role as creator, preserver, and destroyer.


This is called Buddha in Meditation. There were various Buddha's displayed however this was the only one that stood out with its copper material.



After walking through the Indian art exhibit, I noticed that all their art is very detail oriented. I also noticed that a majority of the sculptures have a similar emotion on their face no matter if the figure is in a fighting, dancing, or meditating stance. They all seem to have a similar happy smile on their face in every sculpture. The only artifacts that showed a different emotion was that in the first picture seen above. There wasn't a plaque with a name for these artifacts so my attempt at Googling for an answer failed.

Plagiarism -- Reminder

This is Baruch's policy regarding academic dishonesty. Please make sure that you look over it when working on your final paper. Since I have discovered instances of plagiarism in the midterm paper, this should be a priority to everyone who does not want to fail the class :--)

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html

DANTE on the web/ Canto 1-5

Among the numerous internet resources on Dante Aligheri, this is one that might be helpful to you:

http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_main.html

Pick a visual illustration of Canto 1 -5 (there are several) and comment on the artist ability to visualize the symbolism and the emotional intensity of the poem's beginning.

My Blogs

As I mentioned in class, I have a blog onto which I post some of my poetry. If anyone is interested, the link is as follows: pitbullintime.tumblr.com; it originally started out as a photo blog, so don't be surprised to find a few photos up there as well, and be aware that all and any material I write is as it comes. Feedback is accepted, and if you wish to present your opinion please be constructive.

I also recently created a commercial photo blog documenting night-life events and parties, the link for which is shotbylex.tumblr.com.

Taoism and Confucianism

For those of you who want to find out more about Chinese ethical philosophy, this entry includes wonderful scholarly accounts of Confucianism and Taoism:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-chinese/

Please use this background to reflect on the poetry of Tu Fu, who is regarded as a representative of Confucianism.

Museum Report

Since I have never been to museum, I was not enthusiastic about it. Last week, I went to visit Metropolitan Museum. Before I went to museum I search information about Tu Fu lifetime. I found Tu Fu (China) the writer of poems that we are going to read this week was from Tang dynasty. In that era, the government gave priority to Confucian literature taking civil service examination and should be success in exam. While I was in museum, I was able to explore a lot of new things about the Chinese art and history. I was surprised that the trip to the museum turned out to be amazing experience.



Buddha, probably Amitabha,
Tang dynasty (618-907), early 7 century

In the museum, I saw a lot of sculpture of Buddha they were fascinating and beautiful. Among them, sculpture of Buddha with missing both hands was eye catching. It was different from other sculptures and it was from Tang dynasty. According to the description on the side of sculpture, it is the meditation position of Buddha. Amitabha means infinite light or knowledge Buddha gained through the mediation.




Stele With the Bodhisattvas,Tang dynasty(618-907)

I saw a huge limestone with figures Buddha. The limestone represents devotion of people in Buddhism in that time period.



Mirror back, Tang dynasty (618–906), 8th century

When I saw this piece, I was so confused with a lot of questions. Then I read the description on the side of this piece of art. I found it is called mirror back. It is made up of silver. It reminds me Achilles shield in Iliad as it is also beautifully crafted but with birds, animals, and flowery patterns.



Astor Court

The most beautiful, traditional Chinese garden. It represents Chinese cultural and architectural value with the importance of rock and bamboo. It is not from Tang dynasty, but this is most beautiful things that I found in the museum.

Finally, I have realized the trip to metropolitan museum is worthy. Now I understand, why professor want us to visit museum. I have discovered difference between looking in internet and being there. I was able to observed myself the great beauty and art of work of Chinese culture. It help to explored more knowledge of that time period and their social and culture value. Each pieces I saw in the museum emphasized relation of human to the nature and religion in tang dynasty. This week we are going to read about the poems of Tu Fu as the tang period was “civilization or the golden age of literature” (2).


Works cited:
1.“Tang dynasty.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. April 8, 2010. Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia. Online.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty>
2.“Poems of Tang Dynasty, poests in Tang, History of Ancient China.” History of China. 2007. http://www.history-of-china.com › Tang Dynasties

A Thousand and One Nights

Clip from Discovery Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhnISVeztpY&feature=related

Please watch the rest of this documentary at home.

1.What did you learn about the cultural background of the 1001 Nights from this documentary? Give one example.

2.One of the scholars interviewed in this clip claims that this is a "book like no other, it's an assemblage of tales of magic, of wonder, of piety, of mysticism, of eroticism, and of comedy." Please comment on this statement, based on what you've read so far. Give examples that illustrate the combination of at least two of these features.

MUSEUM REPORT

Right before starting to read Dante's Inferno I took a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in search of art and painting that took place around the same time that the book was written. after searching information on Dante's Inferno I found out that it was written during the 1300's and the story starts the night before Good Friday and continues on until the Wednesday after Easter Sunday, in which it narrates the passage of a man through Hell, Purgatory and finally Paradise. The Inferno is the first part of his well known epic the Divine Comedy.

While I was at the museum I found different pieces of art ranging from sculptures to painting and even home accessories, and the one common thing found among all of them was that they all share the topic of religion as being their main theme. The first picture posted is an altarpiece that depicts the life of Christ, Saint John the Baptist and of Saint John the Evangelist. I also included a photo of a textile fragment that shows eagles, clouds and sunrays which I took into my own interpretation as being a representation of heaven, which for aa catholic person means paradise.

There is also a picture of a hangind lapm whose outline is made out of prophets and saints and once again I realized that the topic surrounding all these artifacts are religious figures. These are all objects that make part of an everyday life of a regular human being and to what I was able to observe they are all directly connected to religion that can greatly influence people and what they do.

The final point that I want to make was that realizing that all this objects and Dante's Inferno are direclty related to religion and the path of a man in order to reach a final place at the always wanted Paradise, makes me realize that it is religion and what we believe will get us to that place that rules all our acts in the present, we act in the way in which religion and our morals makes us believe is good in order to be able to reach Paradise without getting stucked in hell.