get to know the world

I read the journal article " Caravaggio and Vasari's Lives" wrote by Sharon Gregory. IN this article, Gregory first summarized Caravaggio's biography and highlighted why Caravaggio is different compared to the contemporary High Renaissance artists. Then, Gregory discussed Caravaggio’s intense realism and tenebrism artistic style by listing his artworks, lastly, Sharon Gregory expressed her opinion that Caravaggio was, instead, competing on his own terms with artists whose fame was assuredl to this end, he responded to passages in Vasari’s Lives. ( Gregory 172).                                                                                                                          ...

In Martin Conway's article 'A portrait of Henry VIII," it described a portrait of the King of England Henry VIII as: "No other example of this type of portrait of the King is Known, so far as I have been able to discover (Conway 42)." It matched with my semester theme which is art is one of the most important humanity.  Henry VIII (28 June 1491 -28 Jan 1547) was King of England. He reigned 38 years in England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He was well educated and had earned a lot of title when he was young. However, he was never expected to become king because his older brother Arthur was the successor of the Henry VII. However, Arthur dead so Henry became the successor of their father, Henry VII. In 1509, Henry VII died and Henry VIII succeeded him as king. During Henry VIII's 38 years reign, people liked him. Per the six wives of Henry VIII wrote by Dr. David Starkey, he stated that Henry VIII was ...

In the book of Hamlet, written by English writer William Shakespeare . It is a story about Hamlet, the prince of Denmark returned back home due to his father, the King of Denmark, was dead. His uncle Claudius became the new King and marry to the old Queen. The old King became a ghost and told Hamlet the truth of his death and wanted Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius.                                  A scene from Hamlet, the ghost is telling Hamlet about his murder (Act I Scene 4) Hamlet started to act crazy and broke up with his girlfriend Ophelia  to confirm that Claudius is the murderer. He confirmed that Claudius is the killer of his father; but he accidentally killed Ophelia's father Polonius. Claudius exiled Hamlet to go to England. At the meanwhile Ophelia suicide because of her father was killed by her lover Hamlet, and Hamlet was exiled.  When Hamlet sneak back to Denmark, he got cha...

Albert Durer (1471-1528) was one of the most influential artists in German Renaissance. He was specialized in woodcut printmaking and engraving. In this blog, we will first discuss Albert Durer's career, then we will discuss his contemporaries artist Raphael (1483-1520) from Italy and  Matthias Grunewald (1470-1528) from German. Lastly, we will summarize how Albert Durer impact the Northern Renaissance. Like  Cunningham  said: Durer was strongly influenced by Italian artistic styles and , through Italian models, by Classical ideas. ( Cunningham  335).                                        Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Self-Portrait, c. 1500 Durer visited Italy twice and he learned the new technique of linear perspective there. Also, Italian Renaissance humanism had impacted on Durer. He  developed his idea of woodcuts and engraving.  Cunningham ...

I read the article " The 2014 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture:"Certain of Death": Michelangelo's late life and art", written by William E. Wallace. In his article, Wallace discussed Michelangelo Burnarroti 's final 18 years from age 71 to age 89. This is the least familiar part of Michelangelo's life. In our textbook, chapter 13, did not discuss too much Michangelo's later years. In the textbook, it was more about Michelangelo's earlier achievement such as the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the Medici Chapel, The New Saint Peter's plan. The later period artwork that was discussed in the textbook was the last judgement. However, In the article of " the 2014 Josephine waters Bennett Lecture:"certain of Death": Michelangel's late life and art." the author was mainly focus on michangelo's later year artworks and his changing style. Wallace made a great point by saying: "His late life was concerned...

According to Niccolo Machiavelli , "it is much safer to be feared than loved because...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails" (Machiavelli 166), In his book, The Prince , Machiavelli demonstrated his point of view about how to gather and maintain power by a political figure. In his book, he discussed the different types of states, armies, conduct of a prince, behavior of the prince and the current political situation in Italy. In the prince, Machiavelli also mentioned Medici Family in his book. One of the reason Machiavelli wrote the book was to impress Lorenzo De Medici. Machiavelli was intended to use this book as his cover letter to help Medici family to reconquer Florence. I really enjoy reading this book.  Niccolo Machavelli, May 1469-June 1527, Italian Renaissance writer, author of The Prince       ...

On 9/23/2020 3:30pm, there was a virtual event hosted by  Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series. I was lucky to find the recorded lecture on youtube, and listened the lecture taught by a noted critic Aruna D'Souza. The lecture was  about modern and contemporary art, intersectional feminisms, and how museums shape our views of each other and our world. In the lecture, D'Souza talked about the concepts that interrelated to empathy translation and visibility, to understand political transformation. First, she talked about a book named  sea of poppies , written by  amitav ghosh in 2008, as an example of proving her point that empathy is a base for understanding. Secondly, she mentioned an interview of  kameelah janan rasheed , D'Souza said: Resheed was cautioned about what is lost as historically white museum and other institutions try to make visible what they have been guilty of making invisible for so much of their histories. (D'Souza 20:40-...