Video Review: Medieval Art and Architecture

More Human than Human:

·         Why do images have such a prominent and powerful part in our lives?

·         Images of the human body completely dominate our world. In the real world and the art world, the obsession with the human image is apparent. There are a great range of human images created by artists but they all share the character trait of remaining unrealistic looking. This goes back to ancient times when our ancestors first started depicting the human body in image.

·         The Venus of Willandorph is one of the earliest known sculptures depicting the human body. Barely ten cm high, only her fertile aspects are detailed, giving us clues about the way culture was for the nomad who created her over 25,000 years ago. This is proof that unrealistic images of the human bodies existed and were deliberate.

·         The brains of ancient humans can possibly explain the reason for this unrealistic emphasis or lack of emphasis on certain parts of the unrealistic image of Venus. – seagulls were used in this research to explain her shape. (The red stripe experiment- what the brain sees and makes connections with doesn’t have to be a realistic image.)

·         Weather changes lead to the Nile River culture and society. Stable agricultural existence creates settlement and social order. Even though the Egyptians didn’t have exaggerated images, they were still highly unrealistic. Egyptians used proportion and shapes and emphasize all parts of the body equally. They show each part of the body from its clearest angel.

·         Ancient art can tell us so much about a culture, values, society, or in the case of the nomads how their brains were wired.

·         Exaggeration in art wasn’t stopped when humans gained the ability to create realism. The reality is, we humans don’t want to create reality but rather a perfected or exaggerated form of this. The instinct to create the extremes of human qualities is seemingly inherent as it is still so prevent today. This has seeped into how we view, and how we literally exaggerate our qualities today that are considered attractive.

This video relates to the text because we read about the Venus of Willendorph and why her characteristics were so exaggerated and unrealistic. Now I know it had more to do with just the value of fertility and is actually quite possibly due to the way the brain works in a natural responses to exaggerated stimuli.

This video was really interesting, I never gave much thought to how almost all of the human bodies depicted in images or art we see are exaggerated of perfected forms of reality. I also never gave much thought to the fact that when I put on my make-up in the morning I am being a product of this inherent need to intensify the qualities on myself deemed and targeted as attractive by society. An age old and partly biological concept actually technically determines the literal image of humans today, not just the created one, a fascinating concept.

Art and Life in The Middle Ages:

·         The will of Geoffrey Luttrell  - burial, money to the poor. Knight who died in 1935. Sum of money for monks to pray for him. He left a Prayer book containing song of prayer in Latin- this is called a Psaltar.

·         The pages crammed with pictures, there were also monsters all over the pages. Wonderful creatures of imagination but what are they doing in a prayer book.

·          Scribe writes, several artists create the images.

·         Early art depicted images of daily life on the farm; the weather appears cold based on the clothing. The clothing appears finer than what peasants would actually be wearing, perhaps the artist wanted to display the wealth within the entire community.

·         We learn a lot about life in the early middle ages from the pictures drawn during that time. We can see how life on the farm was, who had various jobs, and what animals were domesticated for different tasks.

·         The times appear barbaric and somewhat violent at times. The Psalter also describes the many festivals and the mediaeval feasts that occurred.

·         The art of music is depicted in the musical church scenes. These musicians could be linked to the final song in the Psalter. This song is about praising the lord with music.

·          Jousting and sports were both described in detail and one man appears Arabic indicating this might be an illustration during the crusades.

·         Many peculiarities become present in these pictures, what is a monk doing with a crossbow? Are these boats going off to battle during the crusades? Why does a row boat row in the opposite direction that men pull it with rope?

·         Scenes of the birth, life, and death of Christ are depicted in the Psalter.

This film relates to the text because we are always reading about how art and drawings can tell us more about a culture. This Psalter is so rich with art and culture that it gives us so many clues about a previous time in history, just like other historical artworks noted in the text.

I chose to watch this movie because it reminded me of the medieval museum I recently wen to see here so I wanted to learn more about it. I enjoyed this film because it discussed how one book centuries old serves as a looking glass to the medieval time period.

A World Inscribed: The Illuminated Manuscript

·         Monks used to create all religious texts and books by hand, few people know how to read and write. It was the monk’s job to spread the word of god but spreading this quickly was hard with this long, labor intensive, tedious process.

·         Conditions of winter made it even harder to reproduce religious texts, making the idea of spreading and preserving the word even harder.

·         Scribes would often write in the margins their personal thoughts. Monks wrote their complaints since they were under an oath of silence and some other s wrote of personal experiences or fictitious stories.

·         Each strike of a letter for the monks supposedly forgives a sin.

·         Bookmaking was changed forever by the printing press, which within 50 years of its invention replaced scribes.

·         The work, devotion, humor, ill temper, and personalities of monks, scribes, and illuminators are still celebrated in these age old texts.

This book relates to the text because the text illustrates how Christianity influenced art in the Middle Ages. This film went more in dept about the art of manuscript, I give them so much more credit now!

I chose this film because I didn’t know much about Manuscripts and it was one of the links that instantly worked for me. I liked video because it was interesting, and funny. I like how the illuminators mocked the scribes who made mistakes.  I also can’t believe all the work that went into ONE book. From the actual construction of the book to the writings and pictures… I thought my homework was tedious.

Gothic Art and Architecture:

·         Although the fifteenth century was a really bloody time, there was also great beauty and growth in the Gothic art.

·         The wealth of that time period, similar to today, allowed people to indulge in luxury purchases such as art works.

·         Art became directly correlated to nobility in England more so for the king than for anyone else. It was expected that a king would establish an art collection that would compete with the monarchs of other countries. Each king had their own style of collection and of course tried to out-do previous collections. This idea of collecting art was also practiced among lower classes.

·         The influence of Christianity at the time caused a boom in gothic architecture because the house of God had to be superior to that of any mortal.

·         Much of Gothic art was destroyed in a transition of artistic emphasis. Plates were melted down, windows painted over, and through acts such of these much of an invaluable tradition was erased.

This film relates to the text because Gothic art and architecture is explored in fifteen. How it came about and how it was so different from previous art forms came into much more detail in the film. The film also talked a lot more about the Christian influences behind it.

I chose this film because I’ve always wondered how gothic art came about and why it disintegrated. I thought the part about kings competing with each other was pretty funny and I can see that character trait still present in humans today with many other things like cars and homes.