*weekend roman seminar #2. Art History with a special emphasis on architecture, sculpture and two dimensional art.
Ever since I was a little kid I have always been enthralled by art. Every type of art that I was exposed to fascinated me. It always amazed me how these modern day Gods could turn something as finite as a single sheet of paper into anything. How a mere idea could be transformed into something tangible. Since making that realization I have made art my true obsession, never leaving my house without a pen and a sketch book. Tirelessly drawing anything and everything I saw, hoping one day I could truly bring my ideas into being. That is why I was truly euphoric when i discovered that today I would be able to study one of the worlds most artistically influential cultures in the world. I was like a kid in a candy store, not knowing what sumptuous treat i wanted to sink my art loving teeth into first.Luckily enough my instructor for today was none other than Mrs. Wendi Everett , a persons who's passion for all things art nearly rivals my own.
What we were attempting to do was try and cover all the major fields of artistic expression(architectural,sculpture and 2-D) without over whelming anyone with too much information.Art covered everything from the mysterious culture of the Etruscan's, to the shift from realistic art honoring gods to that of symbolic art worshiping Christianity. Out of all the breath taking master pieces we viewed today, what I found most interesting was not the intentional work but all of the unintentional mistakes that go into them.
A perfect example of this is that of the Greeks influence over all things Roman. Greek culture prided itself in representing perfection. We see this in their depiction of the perfect human being, with rippling muscles,exact bone structure and flawless features. In Roman art we see a slight shift from this Greek ideal to more realistic art. However what made this really fascinating to me was that the Roman's weren't able to escape completely unscathed from their Greek muses. Up until this day I had always wondered why artist who were so meticulous with every detail from the shading of a robe to the perspective of a rat resting in a corner could depict the female form as if it were a silicon filled barbie doll. To my chagrin it wasn't that these brilliant men damned the laws of gravity but simply that they were working off of an overly idealist Greek model of what a women should look like. This was really significant to me because of how it parallels today's culture of trying to eliminate any imperfection for this ideal of how we are supposed to look. Hopefully,for future artist at least, if a dystopian children of men type future awaits us more than a people magazine will be left behind to represent our culture.
My highlight for the day was being able to talk about the film Food Inc,while simultaneously stuffing a powdered donut in my mouth. It was something poetic about the contradiction.
Dennis Johnson
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