Renaissance Art and History- Blog #3

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Well for starters the Renaissance art here in Italy is beyond beautiful. Going on a tour to learn about the history of the paintings, sculptures, and the architecture has made me have a whole new level of appreciation for art. On yesterday's tour with Antonio the memorable thing that stuck out to me was the sculpture of Medusa. If anyone that knows me very well knows that I really like her base off her story, which not too many people really know about. Most people know her by the negatives, that she was a monster, and pure evil, which is all true. At the same time these same people don't even know why she was a monster or why she was so evil. She was such a monster because a curse was put on her that she had no control over. The curse was given to her out of jealousy, one of the seven deadly sins, which was given to her by a goddess named Athena. I don't want to be too much of a spoiler alert, but although this story of Medusa is a myth it can somehow be relatable. It is relatable in a sense that these type of situations occur all the time in everyday lives. For example as I was growing up I had another female tell me that she did not like me for absolutely no reason, and she does not like me. In elementary school another girl told someone else that was friends with me that she thought that I thought I was all that, in others words better than everyone else. Crazy thing is I never done anything to these girls, same with Medusa, she didn't do anything to Athena.

My perceptions and appreciation has changed drastically for the art of this time period. It has changed because the history on art was never explained to me in a way that is inspiring. I feel like in America the art is just not appreciated as much as it should be. You would think that it would be just as important in America because of so much art similarities the two country has. From the architecture designs to the runway fashion show, Italy has inspired the world with its beautiful art. Today we went on a tour at the Uffizi Museum to see paintings, sculptures, learn about the Medici family. During the Renaissance the Medici family ruled the city of Florence. The reason they were so important because they were a major factor into influencing the arts. We saw painting sculptures by many artist but the one that stuck out to me was a painting of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. You are probably wondering what is up with me with liking all these mythical things. It is definitely because I am very in toned with my imagination and it just takes me to place of a different understanding. The painting of Venus is called the La Primavera and it was a painting that reminded me of the season Spring. The goddess that has a flowery dress on that is suppose to be the representation of Spring is named Cloris. The guy in the red is named Mercury, the three women beside him dancing in a circle are called The Three Graces and are all sisters. The blue guy that Cloris is running from in the painting is called Zephyrus. If you look closely at the women you will notice that they look pregnant and that shows fertility will be in the future too. Spring time is one of my favorite seasons and this painting executed this very well. The painting was supposably made for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco as gift for his marriage. The painting was made in May, 1482 so the timing of this painting was perfect in my opinion. However, the meaning of the paintings is said to be unknown from the research I have done. Overall the whole experience of seeing these art pieces that are more than 700 years old with my own eyes was freaking amazing.

Another artist whose work was very beautiful to me was Michelangelo. For starters I am looking forward to seeing the sculpture of David! Words cannot express how excited I am to see this work of art. His paintings at the museum today were absolutely flawless. When our tour guide said that he was a perfectionist I definitely believe her on that. The paintings look like it was taken by a camera with beautiful details in them. The colors were so bright and just eye-catching and you can definitely tell he was a religious man. I honestly do not think any artist could compare to what he was doing in the Renaissance Era.

Today I walked a total of 12, 054 steps and yesterday January 8, 2018 I walked a total of 21,893 steps.

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