Week Seven: Hand Drawing

1. What was it like using your hand as subject matter for a drawing?

It wasn’t too bad because its so close to your body that your able to see a lot of the details in your hands so your able to get your drawings to appear somewhat in proportion.  Even though this is the case it is very hard to actually make your hand appear real in the drawing.  It will look similar to it, but to perfect this is another story.

2. What media did you select - pencil or charcoal? Why?

I selected pencil because It was what I had at my house.  Plus I have had a little experience drawing with pencil as opposed to almost no experience with charcoal so I picked the one which would deliver the best result, in my opinion.

3. How did it feel to create a drawing with your non-dominant hand?

I actually cheated a bit. I drew a rough outline with my left hand then filled in the details with my right.  I tried to draw with my non-dominant hand several times but it felt like I was back in grade school drawing although I am in college.  I really couldn’t come up with anything that I felt comfortable submitting so I just used my right hand to fill in the lines of detail.

4. Compare and contrast your final drawings. Do you think they are successful studies?

From this project I learned how hard It was to draw a human hand but it seems like the more lines, and details, you put into the palm and knuckle areas, the more realistic the hand becomes.  After doing this project I feel like if I had been knowledgeable in charcoal drawing, the shading that the charcoal provides would have given a more realistic drawing of my hands.

5. Would you consider using your non-dominant hand to create artwork in the future?

No, only if my right hand was broken and my life depended on creating a drawing.  Even then I still might use my right hand

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h355/donnjame/Hand%20Drawing/

Week Seven: Video Review

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Young Leonardo astonishes his family and friends by his precociousness and his desire for understanding. A great observer, his artistic sensitivities develop over time. He apprentices with Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.  Leonardo masters perspective and proportion of man and animals, becomes a good architect, and draws from life. He indulges in the "exploration of the true." Technical problems and philosophical considerations are intertwined in Leonardo's mind and work.  At the age of twenty, Leonardo is accepted into the painters' guild, and his creative imagination serves the pomp of the Medici court well. He caricatures the faces of the men involved in the slander against him.  Leonardo studies the machines of his day in order to improve them and to invent even more complex ones. As Leonardo's work progresses, he shakes off all the conventional representations of the subject of the adoration of the magi.  Lorenzo de Medici sends Leonardo to the court of Milan as a musician. When he arrives, he presents himself as a military engineer armed with intricate drawings of weapons and machinery. The "Virgin on the Rocks" is rich with symbolism.  Leonardo organizes entertainments and shows at the court of Milan and experiments with mechanical inventions and theatrical machinery. He soon becomes the court painter, begins his treatise on painting, and produces a four-volume treatise on flight.  Leonardo develops grand urban projects for the city of Milan, recently ravaged by plague. In his quest to understand the essence of Man, Leonardo carries out dissections of the human body and records his findings in intricate drawings.  Leonardo spends many hours, sometimes days, thinking about his painting without picking up a brush. To him, proportion and balance must flow from the artist's knowledge of his subjects. "Beauty and harmony are of the divine nature," writes Leonardo.  Venitian officials ask Leonardo to help them design defenses for the city. In French-occupied Milan, Leonardo da Vinci is appointed chief engineer in the service of Cesare Borgia.  Fifty years old, Leonardo returns to Florence in 1503. The public flocks to see his paintings in which they see earthly beings transformed into heavenly creatures such as the "Mona Lisa." In his capacity as an engineer, Leonardo designs an excavator large enough to build canals. Some of Leonardo's paintings from his later years are lost, while others exist only as copies.  In 1513, Leonardo moves to the Vatican, and then at the invitation of the king of France, he moves to Amboise in 1516 to become first painter, engineer, and architect to the King. Leonardo dies in 1519 at the age of sixty-seven.

The Drawings of Michelangelo

Art students can benefit greatly from comparing Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings to his finished masterworks—but viewing them together is virtually impossible in a museum setting. This program solves that problem, closely juxtaposing the artist’s pencil and charcoal works with the painting, sculpture, and architecture that grew out of them. Studying drawings at the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and other renowned institutions, the program presents detailed analysis of the Pieta, the colossal David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Last Judgment, the Medici tomb, and St. Peter’s Basilica. It also provides insight into Michelangelo’s tools, techniques, stylistic evolution, and sexuality.  Michelangelo's surviving drawings reveal his perfectionism and his techniques.  In a studio similar to the artist's workshop of Ghirlandaio, students sketch in the manner of Michelangelo. Though Michelangelo denied the influence of Ghirlandaio in his work, comparisons reveal the similarity between the two artists.  Michelangelo taught himself to sculpt. The "Pieta" is a signature piece for the great sculptor. His knowledge of human anatomy was staggering for the time. "David" is the first colossal marble sculpture to be carved in Italy since antiquity.  Examination of Michelangelo’s drawings reveals emphasis on the solar plexus of human figures. Closer examination of his figures show the almost impossibility of the torque of the artist's figures, and the unnatural emphasis of underlying structure.  In 1508, Angelo begins painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Many surviving drawings show the artist's preparation work for his greatest, but most difficult work.  In 1516, Michelangelo was called by the Medici pope to design the Medici family church of San Lorenzo, though it ultimately became a funerary chapel and family tomb. Many of his studies for the sculptures remain and are compared to the actual pieces.  The conflicting forces of Michelangelo's passionate response to the male form and his intensely felt Christian faith are the driving forces of his art.  Contemplating his own death, Michelangelo creates his crucifixion drawings, exploring his conflicting feelings of hope and dread.

La Primavera

 
For centuries, Botticelli's "La Primavera" is subject to numerous interpretations about its meaning. On display in the Uffizi Gallery, its size and grandeur command visitors' attention. Nine identifiable figures stand in a lush and fertile meadow.  Botticelli apprentices under Fra Filippo Lippi from whom he learned the art of depicting female movement through drapery techniques. Botticelli may have depicted his patron, Lorenzo II, in the figure of Mercury.  Though it is a secular painting, "La Primavera" evokes religious sentiments. Venus and Cupid can be seen in the same light as the Virgin and Child, the most popular painting motif of the time.  Historians speculate that the painting was originally commissioned for the marriage of Lorenzo's nephew and his young bride. It hung thereafter above their bed in a Florentine townhouse.  The theme of rape and violence is somewhat common in paintings commissioned for the newly married. "La Primavera" shows that adversity ends in a happy marriage, a suitable message for young married couples. Botticelli paints with egg tempura, a technique that gives his paintings their peculiar ethereal magic. The translucent qualities of tempura lend themselves to painting flesh tones. Lead white adds fine details and illusory qualities to his work. Critics propose that understanding the painting means finding the key that links all nine figures, a task that engages not only the eye, but the mind. The painting is aesthetically and intellectually beautiful.  Botanists identify the verdant features "La Primavera." The flowers are painted with photographic accuracy. An art historian explains which flowers are associated with marriage.  In 1743 the last Medici dies and bequeaths the painting to the city of Florence. When it is displayed in the early nineteenth century, it causes a sensation. Later, the Pre-Raphaelites impose their melancholy sensibilities on the painting.  Pre-Raphaelite Simeon Solomon's response to "La Primavera" has a strong sense of sadness in the expression of the artist's sexuality. This "apprehension" about sexuality culminates in the spectacle of Oscar Wilde. The growth of interest in "La Primavera" coincides with the earliest mass-produced art. Fine art reproductions are in high demand, especially "La Primavera" and its seductive overtones. The painting is also mocked in many ways.  Flora proves to be the most enigmatic figure in the painting. Though modeled after a beautiful Florentine, she also defies interpretation. Is she a fusion of the male and female characters in the painting?

Velazquez

Velazquez spends his life as a court painter to his friend King Phillip IV of Spain. His timeless paintings capture the moment as seen in his painting of Prince Don Carlos.  Velazquez is influenced by the Italian masters. Much of his work is based on an earlier age, and the work of another artist. "Surrender of Breda" is an example of Velazquez' "artlessness."  Dona Juana Pacheco remains at Velazquez side for life. Revelations of their private life are found in the few remaining possessions they left behind. His portrait of her is also called Sybil. Prince Baltazar Carlos on horseback reveals a childhood vulnerability and fundamental truth for which Velazquez is famous. He expresses abstract ideals in his paintings of the hunt.  Velazquez is an idealist from a vantage point above reality. He uses his mind's eye to capture the essence of a king personality characterized by stasis, but full of inner movement and emotion.  Velazquez paints the palace jesters for the pleasure of king, but reveals a grandeur locked in the body of a deformed person. He accomplishes this through the balance of light and color.  Velazquez paints these pictures of deformed individuals with great sympathy and insight that reveal an artistic and psychological breakthrough.  In the portrait of sculptor Juan Martinez Montanez, Velazquez paints with little interest in color. His few religious paintings outclass the religious painters with a simple message revealed in simple colors.  Paintings of the Villa Medici in Rome reveal a tactile reality and roots of Impressionism. Returning to Spain, Velazquez paints his finest works like "Las Meninas" and "Phillip IV." Las Hilanderas,  painted over a long period of time, is an interpretation of the myth of Minerva and Arachne. Velazquez is miraculous at painting the truth with his technical expertise.

Week Six: Video Review

1.      Explain why you selected each of the three videos you choose from the selection listed above.

I chose the film “The Birth of the Middle Ages” because I have always enjoyed that time period because of the tales of knights and the glory of castles(even though most smelled like human excrement).  I chose “Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany” because the black death is associated with the Middle Ages and during this time period a lot of people had denounced god because how could such a god bring such misery upon so many people.  Finally, I chose “The Greek Awakening: Art from the 5th Century BC” because this is another time period that I am fascinated with.

2.      For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

The Birth of Middle Ages-  

The 7th century heralded Islam as a relentless force in Europe. Islam's expansion during the 10th 11th centuries met little resistance. Descendants of warriors who fought against Islam collect venom from snakes living among the ruins of a fortress in Rajasthan.

Japan's feudalism extends to the mid-19th century. Ancient Zen monasteries still follow religious and military traditions. After its first contacts with European explorers in the 16th century, Japan closes its doors for the next three centuries.  As Rome fell and gloom descended, the civic organization, standards of law and ethics, and the glories of ancient learning disappeared into the Dark Ages (476-1000 A.D.).  In modern Pisa, participants re-enact a crucial historical battle called "The Battle of the Bridge." The Middle Ages is not a block of time, but an accretion of attitudes and events that were named and interpreted centuries later.  When the world did not end in the year 1000 as predicted, Europe exploded with life in the Renaissance--commerce grew, cities became powerful and productive, and art and architecture flourished.  For 800 years, the Roman Empire is the center of the world, the focus and source of all political, military, and civil activity.  Rome falls because of internal decay and external pressure from outsiders and invaders, particularly the Huns.  As the 5th century dawns, the Roman Empire is tottering.  Great Roman houses become fortifications and as they grow, the architecture of the Roman city gives way to fortified, medieval towns, symbols of the Middle Ages.  Fortified monasteries offer a measure of protection and hope during the Middle Ages.  Springing up all over Western Europe, monasteries become centers of work and prayer. In 530 A.D., Benedict founds the order of Benedictine monks.  Benedictine and Dominican monks dedicate their lives to preserving the knowledge and culture of classical antiquity. They laboriously copy the ancient books letter-by-letter. Monks from the East bring the Cyrillic alphabet and Christian unity to Eastern Europe.

Cataclysm: The Black Death-

Until 1348, people in Sienna and Florence enjoyed the richest, safest, and most comfortable lives in their history. But almost overnight, their certainty of life—and even any hope of a good death—was gone. This program assesses the aftermath of the ferocious damage unleashed by the bubonic plague on the two city-states. Historians Alexander Nagel and Nicholas Terpstra, from the University of Toronto, and professional artisans—chief among them, sculptor Marcello del Colle, from Opera del Duomo—comment on how dazzling works of architecture went unfinished, artisans became more intrigued with the divine world than the natural, and how from the ashes a new spiritual inquiry would spring, paving the way for the High Renaissance. (49 minutes).  In the first decades of 1300s, Tuscan society flourished. Sienna and Florence competed with each other in their architectural achievements. Business and multinational banking then failed. Florentines were wary of Sienna’s interest in real estate.  The Plague is carried from China to Europe. Florentine banks collapse in mid-thirteenth century. The plague reaches Tuscany in 1348. Death is everywhere. The Plague lasts seven months and kills up to one-half of Europe's population.  In "Decameron," Boccaccio describes the Black Plague. Many survivors move to the countryside to escape the harrowing scenes in the city. The Sienese build a small cathedral in thanks to the Virgin Mary when the Plague is over.  The plague physically changed cities. Christian mosaics depict heaven, hell, and other Christian motifs such as the second coming of Christ. The final judgment shows gruesome images of hell.  A good death in Medieval times was the focus of a good life. Care for the dead and dying held great meaning. Suspicions about the Plague fell upon Jews who were thought to be poisoning Christians. Consequences for the Jews were catastrophic.  Suspicion and fear ruled Europe. Cities no longer welcomed travelers or outsiders for fear of the Plague. The Christian view of God changes to the vengeful god of the Old Testament.  Flagellants travel throughout Europe to expiate their sins and bring an end to the pestilence.  Painting changed in significant ways after the Plague. Figures emerge flatter than in the previous century. Taddeo di Bartolo paints gruesome images of hell. Post-Plague art is less realistic than the earlier masters such as Giotto.  Giotto treats art as a service to mankind, depicting figures with human emotions that tell their stories. The great Renaissance painters depict three-dimensional depth with the use of the vanishing point.  The Cathedral Foundation for the Duomo spans five hundred years in Florence. Modern art restorers use Renaissance tools to repair great works of art. Many Renaissance crafts are alive and well in Florence today.  The Renaissance period left many legacies: rise of the modern city, modern banking, literature, arts, Arabic numerals, eyeglasses, charities, paved streets, and underground water systems.  A spirit of inquiry catalyzes new developments in government, the arts, and science. The greatest innovation after the Plague is a new way of thinking about ourselves. St. Francis of Assisi sees the greatness of god in nature. Naturalism changes the way we see the world.

The Greek Awakening: Art from the 5th Century BC-

During the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., a revolution occurred in Greece in the areas of art, theater, architecture, and philosophy.  Sculptures appeared more realistic and less stylistic.

Pericles, who ordered the construction of the Parthenon, took Athens from a city of wood to a city of marble.  Doric columns and perfect symmetry are "distilled perfection."  Time and pollutants have eaten away at the original marble of the Parthenon.  Workmen continue to restore the building. Ancient fragments are mixed with newly sculpted additions.  There was no building to compare to Pericles' Parthenon in ancient Greece.  A frieze ran along the top of the building. Many treasures of the Parthenon are now displayed in the British Museum.  Many of the pediment sculptures are in the British Museum and the Acropolis Museum, safe from pollution. The western and eastern pediments depict stories of the gods.  Modern-day Athens boasts some very fine architecture. The Greeks built huge theaters for dramatic presentations of comedies and tragedies. The theater at Epidavros is the largest of all.

3.      How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The videos bring a different aspect to the learning experience.  Some people learn better when they are visually stimulated and have auditory stimulation as well, while some people learn better through reading a book.   The videos also build upon what was already taught in the book.  While the subject is still the same the details used in the video presentations were for the most part different from what we had read in the text.

4.      What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I have said this before but I am not really a fan of these videos because they are very old and dull to watch.  While some people may argue that history doesn’t change to much so what was true 15 years ago is still true today may be correct, however with the new technology that is available to us I am surprised no one has created videos of this nature only with some added computer animation to make the videos a bit more flavorful.

Week six: Reviewing peers Artwork

2. When looking at Project #1: (Elements and Principles), did you agree with the element or principle the artist listed with the images? Did you see other elements and principles in the images?
(http://clare-castelletti.blogspot.com/2011/06/slideshow_11.html). Slide number 11 of your first project it does a good job at accomplishing your task.  I saw multiple elements and principles with this; through pattern, repetition and shapes.
(http://aed-200-adrienne.blogspot.com/)
For her project number one I did not see any project 1 listing
3. When looking at Project #2: Where there any images in the Peer Blogs the same as your own? If yes, what were they? Where the reasons the image was selected the same or different as your own?
-(http://clare-castelletti.blogspot.com/2011/06/slideshow_11.html)No, there were not any images that were the same as other students mostly due to the fact that I live four hours and thirty minutes away from buffalo.
(http://aed-200-adrienne.blogspot.com/ )
No, there were not any images that were the same as other students mostly due to the fact that I live four hours and thirty minutes away from buffalo.
4. Where there any images that your Peers selected that pique your interest now? If yes, what are they and what is your connection with them? What would you want to know about them?.
(http://clare-castelletti.blogspot.com/2011/06/slideshow_11.html).   For project number 1 Nothing here was of any interest of me because it seems as though she just casually glanced through her camera for photos that he/she already had and used them for a majority of the project.  Although I guess its possible for snow in june if you live in Alaska.
(http://aed-200-adrienne.blogspot.com/)
Again I could not find a project number 1 on his/her blog
5. What do you think about  the process of reading your peers reflection? Do you find this to be a valuable in your learning.
No I do not find them valuable.  Art, like music, is more of a taste than something that can be reviewed.  Of course there are simple things, like most pop songs recently with a steady house bass that everyone enjoys.  Does that make it a work of art; no it does not.  Great works of art will last hundreds of years.  Most of what is popular nowadays will not.  So having people I don’t know review my artwork has no impact on me.
6. Check your Blog and read comments posted by your Peers. Do you find their comments helpful?
To be honest im not entirely sure why we had to review each others projects.  Chances are that none of us in the class know as much about art as you.  So why would we have anything more than our honest opinions of whether or not something is “good” or not.  I don’t think anyone can successfully critique art when they have only dealt with it for a couple months.  This is just my opinion though.  So my answer is no, I don’t find my peers comments helpful.