ninth post

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

I chose Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany, The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure, and The Birth of the Middle Ages. I picked all three of these videos because they all had interesting titles.


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

 In the More Human Than Human video I learned that Egyptians created images of the body in a consistent way for 3000 years because of their culture. "Culture is king" when it comes to artistic depiction of the human form.


In the Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany video, a key concept I learned was that 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.

A key concept I learned in the video The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure was that the Acropolis is a visual reminder of the politics, philosophy, art, and architecture of ancient Greece. Artists portrayed humans in a realistic way and were obsessed with perfection of the body.

The Birth of the Middle Ages video taught me that for 800 years, the Roman Empire was the center of the world, the focus and source of all political, military, and civil activity. Rome fell because of internal decay and external pressure from outsiders and invaders, in specific the Huns.

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

 The videos relate to the readings in the text because the videos and the text both talk about cultures mixing together, art in the Middle Ages, and different types of pottery painting styles for vases in Greece.

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

I think the films are interesting and help explain a lot of what we read in the books.  They give great examples of the different aspects of particular types of art, and explain in detail how that type of art came into light.