mod 9 video reviews 4/5/19

Questions and Topics for Your Blog Posting:

1. Explain why you selected each of the TWO videos you choose from the selection listed above.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance- I chose the video on Leonardo da Vinci because I have always found him to be a fascinating person, and I love learning about the Renaissance period in history. I have always found interesting how diverse his interests and contributions to society were, from painting/sculpting to science, he was kind of all over the place in terms of what he contributed to the world. 

Velazquez- I chose this video because I knew relatively little about Spanish artists, and wanted to learn more. 

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance- In this film I learned about the intense connection that da Vinci had as a child between his curiosity of the outside world and his passion for drawing and creating. These gifts of his were noticeable at a very young age and stayed with him throughout his life, allowing him to achieve the things that he had. His fascination with body language and facial gestures or "language of the soul" was very interesting to learn about. I did not realize he did so much work as an engineer building instruments and machines. Something that I found beautiful was his consistent theme of the similarities between the world and man (i.e. - rivers representing blood vessels.).

Velazquez- In this film, I realized how sort of simple Velazquez was; he loved painting, his king, and his wife. Because of the simplicity of his life, he was able to dedicate most of his efforts to painting. It was interesting how he was not at all interested in myth or the metaphysical. Instead, he was interested in the physical things of this world and this is reflected in his paintings. It was interesting how many horses were in his paintings and how much he enjoyed incorporating nature into his art as well. A lot of his paintings had backgrounds that seem to fade away.

I learned about how Velazquez was sometimes considered a realist but was really more of an idealist. His paintings were often somewhat abstract. The movement in his paintings is spiritual rather than physical. It was interesting to learn about how he tried to bring out beauty in the deformities of his subjects. 

2. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

These videos relate to the readings in the text in that both artists sought an idealized beauty in their respective works, common in renaissance period artworks. Both artists studied for at least some time in Italy, which was the central hub of painting and art during this time. Both artists focused on the beauty of the human face and body, which was common for artists duing this time. 

3. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to the understanding of the readings and art concepts?

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance- The video on da Vinci was very informative and did a good job of explaining the talents and contributions of Leonardo da Vinci. The video was put together well and narrated in a clear and precise manner. The content was interesting and made me want to keep watching it. I felt like the 53 minutes went by really quickly because it was so interesting. 

Velazquez- The Velazquez video was also very interesting, although I feel like it could've been longer, actually. It was a little bit of an older video, and it would be nice to have some more recent takes on his work talked about in the video. This video did make me want to research Velazquez more on my own, along with other Spanish artists in general.