Video Reviews

1. Explain why you selected each of the three videos you choose from the selection listed above.
2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
3. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

1) I selected these three videos from the choices:

Cataclysm: The Black Death Visits Tuscany because it sounded like it would have an interesting story behind it.

The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure because when I read it I figured it would be about sculptures and I think that the Greeks added so much detail to their work

Beyond the Classical: Byzantine and Later Greek Art I didn't have a specific reason to as why I chose this one, I just picked it to have a third choice!

2) Catacylsm: The Plague is carried from China to Europe. Florentine banks collapse in mid-thirteenth century. The plague reaches Tuscany in 1348. Death is everywhere. The Plague lasts seven months and kills up to one-half of Europe's population. 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. 

 

Greek Art and the Human Figure: 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. Greek artists depicted balance and movement in the fifth century statue of Nike and the fourth century state of Hermes, a god in an everyday, human pose with his divine nature still intact. 

 

Byzantine: The next step in the development of Greek art was influenced by other countries, especially Italy. This art focused on form and movement, as seen by Damaskinos' "Last Supper" and El Greco's work. In the 18th and 19th centuries, intellects like Lord Byron followed the footsteps of the Renaissance. Modern Europe adopted the ancient styles, as seen in the London Royal Exchange and British Museum. Neoclassic architecture mimicked Greek rationality and blended the myth and reality of the ancient world, as seen in the sculptures and frescoes in the Academy, including the Myth of Prometheus fresco. 

 

More Human than Human: Whatever their use and wherever they appear, the world's most popular images of the human body share one common feature: none of the images actually resembles a real human being. Human ancestors' brains may have been pre-programmed to exaggerate features of the female figure that were of greatest importance. 

 

3) These videos relate to our readings. In our readings we read about sculptures and watching how different cultures focused on different aspects of the human was interesting. Also we read the history of the Byzantine but the readings don't go as in-depth as the videos. 

 

4)  I enjoy the films because they do add more in-depth than what we learned. I liked learning about sculptures this time around and I  enjoyed learning more about the Greeks and their sculptings. I knew they exaggerated parts because they were big on the perfect image but it was better to learn the facts.