As I was introduced to the history of art, I soon learned that there are three main ways in which art in the west was visible. Pictures are one of the three ways in which art was made back in the day. Personally I found very interesting the self-portraits that artists made. For instance, I was amazed by the creation of Leonardo ad Vinci, Mona Lisa, the art work that has a high intrinsic value. This picture created by the Italian artist gives me an impression of smartness by ad Vine’s side.
The detail he put in the picture is very thoughtful as many of us are unable to say if the woman in the stricture is smiling or not. Also another thing that caught my attention was if the woman in the picture is really a woman or if the person is really a man. Regardless of what the answer maybe for these questions I strongly believe that ad Vine’s work had a message that he was trying to communicate, yet it is impossible to find that out by fact. Going into depth on the history of art I was also impressed how art work can have different types of value.
At first I had the idea that art work value mater only if the piece of art was made out of expensive material, but studying the history of art I ad learned that art is not only evaluated by its material value, but also by intrinsic, religious, nationalistic, and psychological value. To me it is Just something unreal to imagine that something that was worth hundred dollars to be made can be worth now thousands of dollars because of its religious value or even intrinsic value. It can really be a billionaire business.
Even though it might be reckless from my side, I would rather have calculated a piece of art price by interpretative approaches such as formalism, iconography, Marxism, feminism, seismology biographical, construction, and psychoanalysis. Moving on to the language of art, it makes more sense to me how the formal elements when an artist combines them they can be arranged into a style. So basically art work has to follow certain elements in order to be considered good or great. Elements such as line, shape, space, color, light, and dark have to do with how great an art work can be.
Using those elements and analyzing the Mona Lisa makes me even look at it as a more amazing piece of art for its composition, and especially for the balance in symmetry on the person’s face. Looking at the time when people from the Stone Age created art, they leave me with a stunned sensation because even when they only had used stone as tools and weapons they were very creative to make art. A piece of art that I think is fascinating is the Venus of Wildflower because its artist used the carving technique on a limestone type of stone.
Considering carving on a stone is very hard, I think that is something that should be recognized and admire. The pigment on the Venus of Wildflower also makes me get fascinated by the color in which the artist tried to put on its art work. Imagining those artists were able to create color is something that absolutely makes me realize how advance those cultures were even though their development was not very recognized. As another example we can look at the French caves which also tells us how very creative and advanced these cultures were.
Keeping in mind that the caves’ paintings are big, and colored it confirms to me the advancement those cultures had in the past. Moving on to the Neolithic era the Cromwell Tanat not only grade my attention, out also made even quest now Tanat was possible made is Stonehenge. The megalithic structures are very big, and thou hesitating I wonder how it was possible for those rocks to get placed in the middle of what seems to be a grass field. I mean I understand team work can play a really high role in this Neolithic Cromwell, but let’s be more precise.
The stones are huge and tremendously heavy, there are horizontal stones placed on two vertical ones. I mean unless there was a gift from nature to find out these stones placed on the middle of a field, I certainly think there is something supernatural going on because the stones are big and heavy and they are placed on a circular shape, and to e is Just very hard to imagine that it was done by human beings. As the Neolithic era developed, and the transition was made from nomadic hunting to a settled life focus mainly on agriculture and animal herding, the social structures during this era were also modified.
The social structures helped out to make that transition possible; there were more organized structures that contributed to the rise of increasingly complex urban cultures. For instance, the Neolithic settlement, and one of the world’s oldest fortified sites, Jericho, is one of the marvels in which the human being started o cult to their dead ones. Even though to me is scary to cult my dead ones under the floors of my house, I find very interesting how the people from this area started to have a perspective of life after death.
Habitants near Mesopotamia had a difficult time making their land fertile, so as a consequence they learned irrigation system to make their land fertile, and therefore agriculture possible even though the conditions were tough. The advancement for the habitants of Mesopotamia was not only on agriculture, but also on the load-bearing construction. A good examples of this construction type is the Gujarat. This massive size buildings were mainly used to pray or kind of a religious cult temple.
As Mesopotamia believed that every city was under the protection of a god to whom the habitants must pray to and worship they built this building because they were convinced that the higher the temple or structure was the better chance they could be heard. To me it is fascinating how Mesopotamia built such as big structures to worship their gods. Even though there were not many tools available to build such an enormous structure somehow they figured out a way to construct these big buildings to honor their gods. What was even more impressing was the fact that they started to develop more engineering skills.
They figured out a way to make raining flow over the Gujarat of Our, which again it makes me wonder how sophisticated these civilizations actually were. The law code of Hamburg is somehow interesting to me because Mesopotamia intent to stabilize social order, instead of seeking equality for everyone. To me it is very interesting how they wanted steadiness and stability in the society they lived in. The criteria they applied to the ones who did not follow those laws were very smart. Basically they based their punishments depending of the severity of the crime.
In that way people were not sure of what the punishment was going to be. They were always uncertain of what the outcome might be if they were to disobey the law. The Hitters were Anatolian people who made a good impression on me for the organization in which they kept files. Alike the Mesopotamia these people, Hitters, kept records on cuneiform tablets, and were labeled as in modern libraries. The organization they had to keep records alive made me thought of how well organized tense people were. I nee monumental walls created Dye Helmets AT cleat, a Tortilla city, made also think of how well respected they were.
The fact they had lions carved off of stone made me admire them for the hard work they put into this task to create such an amazing sculpture. As studied in chapter four, the Assyrian were a group who took control over Babylon. The architectural piece of art that I want to mention is the Sister gate because to me it is really admirable how big the wall was as well as the detailed figures it has. The attention to detail it must have taken out of their constructors is something to really appreciate. The way in which they had to organize the building of this wall is something that is even fun and interesting to learn about.
Last but not least we have studied on chapter five the gift of the Nile which is now known as Egypt. As any other civilization, Egypt was controlled by Pharaohs or kings who had absolute power over the rest of the land and its people. Yet, there was a contrast between other civilizations and Egypt. The kings were considered gods which is very unique comparing it to other civilizations. I find this very unique and emblematic from this Egyptian culture; they obeyed and worshiped the king. It is almost impossible to not talk about pyramids when the Egyptian culture is being exposed.
The gigantic Egyptian pyramids have really astonished me for their architectural expression. They are amazingly big and imagining how the people from that era put up a lot of work leaves me breathless because I can see that they wanted to better themselves. Even though they did not have enough technological advances for their era, Egyptians were smart enough to make discoveries to use them as help for the building of their pyramids. The fact that Egyptian pyramids are still standing s unbelievable Just because they are hundreds of thousands of years old, and to these days they are still visible to the world.
Considering that they were made out of limestone, mud, and other types of stones is really impressive that to this day none of that has collapsed. Along with the pyramids, mommies are a big part of the Egyptians. The procedure they developed to preserve the human body, mummification, is also very emblematic part of the Egyptian culture. Lastly, I want to mention Tutankhamen tomb as one of the more fascinating way to give honor to a dead person. The belief they had on conserving the human body after dead was merely interesting as they did a sculpture of Tutankhamen face, and also put a lot of valuable metals inside his tomb.
At first, thinking about the idea of burying someone with a lot of gold and valuable objects was stupid to me, then once I figured that the reason they did it was to have them ready and prepared him for what they believed was the afterlife path was more understandable to me. What was very silly to read was that the guy who discovered Tutankhamen tomb died because of the mummy’s curse. I mean I understand the religious value and the meaningful aspects f the tomb, but why don’t come up with a scientific explanation to the fact that Carter’s patron died of an infection.
Now, I know a little bit about science and I think is enough to come up with an explanation of why carter’s patron died of an infection. If we keep in mind that the human body of this young pharaoh, Tutankhamen, was in a decompose state during a long time in a closed environment without oxygen or light to kill all the bacteria and mole accumulated throughout the years. We now can conclude that whenever Carter’s patron opened that tomb was like breathing on a Heimlich bomb environment.
There was a lot of bacteria and mole in that room that when ten door was opened everything was Threaten Dye tons guy won Tuna It an later on he had this infection on his system as a consequence from breathing all that crap. I really like the fact that Egyptians wanted to seek out for more than what they were given, the curiosity they had on finding out what was next after dead made me view the Egyptians as a really educated culture, and therefore I have given my respect to them for their extraordinary impact on architectural, and religious aspects of their culture.