Roman&Christian

1. The Roman work that I will discuss will be the Column of Trajan. The column narrates the Dacian campaigns of both 102-103 and 105-106. There are over 2,500 figures linked because of the architecture and then of course the recurring figure of Trajan. I feel like this piece of architecture shows the personality of the roman culture, showing how they view Rome and how they view their opponents. The tower portrays how strong, efficient, and able the Roman’s army is while their enemies are, while worthy opponents, are not as good as them, obviously because if they had not defeated them they wouldn’t have this column. One thing I’ve noticed personally from Roman art is that it depicts successful leaders and never shows anything that might even give the idea of a failure.

2. The Christian work that I will discuss is the Virgin of Vladimir. I chose this piece because it depicts the feeling of the time, at least for me. The feeling I get is that the Christians are looking for something solid to base their faith in, something that will show love for them because the rulers and culture around them can’t. The colors are much brighter than other pictures I’ve seen of portraits, possibly because its been remade a few times. I chose this painting because I feel like it shows the shift that the world is taking, that people are starting to thing more about the spiritually than about the political.

3. A similarity that I see in both of the traditions is the architecture. Both cultures focus heavily on the buildings they create to show their generation and their future generations what is important to them and what they believe in. Both cultures built their buildings for things that were important, like battles won, or religious stories told. A difference is in the amount of portraits that I’ve seen. There are many busts and sculptures in the Roman tradition while in the Christian culture there are paintings and elaborately creating paintings on the walls and ceilings of the buildings. Just like in the pieces I chose, the painting from the Christian time is more personal while the column in the Roman times is about a countries battle led by Trajan.

The Nashville Parthenon

"Pericles had a vision for Athens, and “he became a patron of philosophy and the arts,” so he put a lot of emphasis on the visual arts in hopes to create a “physical setting which would symbolize and be a part of Athens greatness” (Pollitt pg. 65)." - Julie H.

"Which means “to think of sculptures not only as hard, ‘real” objects known by touch and by measurement but also as impressions as something which is in the process of change, a part of the flux of experience, bounded not by solidity and ‘hard edges’ but by flickering shadows and almost undiscernable transitions” (Pollit pg. 69)."- Kate H.

"According to Pericles in his funeral oration, he wants to give merit to the “greatness of Athens,” and how he wants to show the rest of the Greece that Athens is, “ contending for a higher prize than those who enjoy none of these privileges.”"- Emily G.

Psykter pottery blog

This week I chose a piece of pottery entitled Psykter and is attributed to Oltos from Athens. Oltos is assumed to have done over 150 piece of pottery and two of his works have actually been signed by him. He was also a master at the relief line and his simple style is very popular. This piece was built for the purpose of cooling wine and depicts athletes training in the gym with their teachers. There are many different types of athletes from disk throwers, to their teachers, to a flute player accompanying the exercises. The most noticeable thing stylistically is that each figure is separate from the others and is adjusted to fit the curving of the vase.

Egypt Today

Link: http://prezi.com/30hvlce-yfdi/copy-of-art-history-egypt-today/

Why Art?

http://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/why-art/

In this article Makoto Fujimura is talking about why everything we seem to do revolves around art. His examples are types like when we brag about our children being in a play, or on a quiet Sunday afternoon we listen to quiet music or the type of restaurants we visit for brunch. Because Makoto believes art is all around us, it becomes more of a question of which art do we chose to immerse ourselves in? I think this idea relates to the ancient times that we have studied where art was such an integral part of life that it wasn't even seen the way we view art now. I agree with him when he says that because art is such an involved part of our lives that we just only need to decide what art and completely dedicate ourselves to it.

Pottery in Archaic Greece

This week for my blog entry I have chosen to discuss the third slide of our archaic section, The pottery is depicting a funerary procession. The decisions the artist made on who to include are related to who was important the time this pot was built. The style of the story drawn on the pot is very similar to ancient Egyptian art and the styles of the way the people are drawn are still very minimalist and look unnatural. The texture of the pot looks to be smooth, but that could be deceiving, parts of the artwork, like the legs of the horse, could be deeply carved in and cause rivets over the pot and ruin the idea of a smooth outside texture. The colors are very few and look to be natural colors that would’ve been easily in demand archaic Greece.

The artwork from this time period is very reminiscent and similar to that of ancient Egyptian artwork in the sense that it copies their ‘storyboard’ style. The procession wraps around the entire pot and has two levels to the tale, although it seems that to show the importance of the death, the people following the procession are on the top level while the animals are on the bottom with smaller people that are not as important. This is a depiction of a funerary procession, which was very common in archaic and classic Greece when a political figure or leader died. The Greek were very fond of their leaders and these processions were elaborate and respectful to the leaders and what they achieved in their lifetime.

Downtown Presbyterian Church

Today I'm going to discuss my visit to the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. This is a rare church in my experience because I have never seen a church presented in this way. The site, I don't think had much affect on the feel of the building because currently it is set in a modern city, and, when one isn't paying attention, it looks just like any other building downtown. I felt like the space was very open mainly in the sanctuary, which is similar to my experience in many christian places of worship. I felt like the light was very warm and inviting, there were a few dark places in corners where no one would really ever be. The decoration is where the building begins to separate itself from common church decorations. This church is based off of many ancient Egypt places of worship, there are pillars ornately drawn on the walls as if to make you feel like you're inside a temple in ancient Egypt looking out into the desert. The people who created this building also found a way to incorporate modern culture, the stained glass window, with Egypt, depictions of papyrus and the sun. The building, on the outside looks as if it just another stone building in the same drab gray color of the buildings downtown, but once you step inside, there are wooden chairs, and stone walls. The colors are bright reds and yellows, unlike a normal place of worship in christian culture which would have dull colors even for something extravagant. The colors are representative of Egyptian culture and the bright colors they used to draw attention. I feel that if a person never walked inside the Downtown Presbyterian Church they would feel that it followed the rhythm of all the buildings downtown and it doesn't really stand out, I know that for my group, before we had been inside, we couldn't even find the building because it followed the same color scheme as the rest of that part of downtown. The distinctive features are the pillars and the decorations inside the building, the ornate design is what everyone will remember because it is so different and unlike anything we are used to seeing these days.