Museum Observation

Douglas Crimp begins his essay by delivering a story about a librarian, Julia Van Haaftan and how she was interested in the photography organization at the Art and Architecture Division of the New York Public Library. In addition, Crimp delivers his most enlightening and meaningful point by explaining how Julia Van Haaftan is also now a “director of the Photographic Collections Documentation Project”. She discovered several lost books and photographs, which she researched, re-categorizing, and placed them under the photography or art category in the photographic collection. I found this section of the essay entertaining because it demonstrates that the history books can get lost

When I was younger, I thought museums were boring and dull, filled with pointless, nonsensical art work that people just pretended to understand what the artists were thinking. I thought people interpreted imaginary meanings from the art that other people just followed and accepted because it was the “cool” thing to do. This is one of the main reasons I avoided going to museums that were art based. Once I got the opportunity to visit an art-based museum for myself, I actually enjoyed it. I began to build my admiration and appreciation of art from then on. I have had the opportunity to visit many museums but this was the first time I visited The Museum of Modern Art. I always saw MoMA related things around New York City but was never able to

Some of the other museums I have been to have included the South Florida Museum in downtown Bradenton, Florida and the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa right across the street from USF. These are very different from the Ringling because they focus on different types of things. The South Florida Museum is a natural history museum that hosts displays for the public that deals with Florida’s past human civilizations and animal life. It has its own manatee aquarium and planetarium and is very interactive for children. MOSI is more of a science, health, technology, robotics centered museum and works to combine fun with education. It also has its own space planetarium and an IMAX dome that plays different movies and has many things for kids to enjoy themselves while they learn about science. As you can notice these two museums are not at all like the Ringling. Therefore, the Ringling is the only museum of art that has cultivated my understanding, interpretation, and appreciation for European art and the decorative elements that it displays in its galleries. When you are there you truly feel as though the world’s treasures are there before you and you are standing in a palace. With its vast display of Baroque style art from the surrounding regions of Europe, to the decorative objects and Greco-Roma sculptures, and varying

I recently read your reaction to the new Getty Museum. I found that your opinions about J. Paul Getty’s museum align with my thoughts about the museum. You said the outer aesthetics of the museum provide people with a “heated art controversy.” You said that a museum must not portray a non-neutral or partial nature between the museum’s looks and its content. My perception of the museum falls under the relation between a statue and its pedestal. Most people observe and admire statues that sit atop a simple, uniform pedestal. But, when the pedestal receives a makeover making it highly glorified, the spotlight slightly shifts from the statue onto the pedestal. People don’t lose complete sight of the statue, but people still appreciate and admire

The Baroque style, used by Caravaggio, was the absolute opposite of any Renaissance painter that had lived before him and because of this; it was probably the reason why he became the most radical artist of his time. He deserted the rules that had guided a century of artists before him and because of his theatrical break in style from the Italian Renaissance; he carefully brings a completely distinct treatment of narrative. Caravaggio's action of form in his Conversion of St. Paul is extraordinarily different from Perugino's work of art. One of the choices he decided to use was instead of outlining Paul and his horse with lines, Caravaggio abandons this unique style and adds movement by using a painterly style in which he uses paint to create an image and not rigid outlines. He uses color and value to produce a unique form, causing a sense of movement in the figures. They are not locked in time like Perugino's figures and express the exact opposite message of classical, passive figures. These are strong, vibrant, and emotional figures. Perhaps the emotional aspect of the figures is created by Caravaggio's introduction of dramatic light and dark effects, termed tenebrism. This technique was a great breakthrough in art, which added great emotional effects and mystery to the art. Caravaggio doesn't light Paul with a clear even light like Perugino

I am also excited to be taking this class and learning about the museum basic, however I also believe that it will take a lot more than one class to really learn all we need to know. I which there were more than one class offered. Although, the readings are very interesting and packed with a lot of information, if we read them all. I say this because I struggle with keeping up with the readings on time so I fall behind and when I do catch up I realize how useful the information is. The AAM website and the pamphlet has a great deal of information on the preservation on caring for historic items. I also agree with you that more courses would help, however how do we squeeze them into a two year program. In this case I would say, choose our electives

This summer, the Smithsonian museum has appointed me to travel through history in their time machine to collect six artifacts for their latest exhibit, The History of Communication Technology. All of the artifacts need to be able to fit into one backpack, and reflect the time and place the object was from. The technology of communication represents the change as well as the continuity of how cultural ideas spread from one person to another throughout history. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to travel in a time machine to learn about the past of communication technology.

When you walk into the Toledo art museum you look around and see grand halls, stone pillars, and high ceilings. No room is the same they are unique to a specific gallery. The different galleries are advertised well some better than others. For example, the upcoming shoe exhibit is being advertised on the website under a few different links but I don’t remember the Asian exhibit being advertised at all. Unlike other exhibits its harder to find I walked past it a few times before actually finding it. The room is smaller in comparison to the majority of exhibits that are in the museum. the lighting is dimmer than some of the others. Everything was placed nicely and didn’t look cluttered. The different pieces very from sculptures, paintings, and

In this week’s assignment, a common theme highlights observation of child and teen in non-museum setting. Recording my observations when I got to observe many children with their parents I found that control of the child particularly from 4 to 6 years old within the public places one of the most difficult tests that are faced by parents, especially in malls where the children as soon as they enter the mall are accelerating their feet around and then catch or touch anything that is in front of them, even if it is something inappropriate for them. In this stage children are showing overactive and want to discover everything around them by catching and touching or observing things. According to Piaget, children are active in constructing their understanding of the world.

It is a split canvas that depicts a story of Virgin Mary that has no boundaries. In the top part of the painting Christ is crowning the Virgin as angel musician’s play their instruments among them, while in the lower portion of the painting, Apostles are arranged around the tomb, where flowers are in the place of the Virgin who has ascended to heaven. One of the Apostles that stand out is St Thomas who has a girdle which the Virgin had given to him as a gift. This delicate piece of artwork was painted for the Oddi Chapel within the church of S. Francesco al Prato. It was placed upon the church alter until 1797 when it was transferred to Paris after the French had confiscated it. Many years later the painting was returned to the city, Pius VII had it placed, instead of in its original setting, in the new Vatican Art

Thomas of Aquinas, epitomizes the values of delectore, movere and docere in order to create a religious conversion from the audience. This can be summed up as a paintings purpose is “to teach, to delight and to move” in order to generate a reaction from the viewer . Di Tito has painted the Dominican St Thomas kneeling in a religious exuberance in front of a crucified Jesus, surrounded by St Catherine of Alexandra who is an emblem of faith, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and St John. The painting depicts the miracle which occurred when Christ spoke to the St Thomas from a painting, which parallels with the similar experience the viewer has when observing this work of art . The depth and intensity of St. Thomas’s faith, allows for the image to disappear to be replaced by the real event. The idea of illusions come into play as the other figures in the painting seem to move out of the altarpiece painting and into physical space, playing with the idea of perspective manipulation . Di Tito’s style creates “no boundar[ies] between the spectators reality” and that of the painting creating a blurred line between the real and the visionary . This paintings portrays the transparency of a narrative (delectare), “purity of feeling” (movere), and the

Their heads are represented proportionally yet the body of the Virgin Mary is not it is much larger than Christ’s. The reason for this is most likely due to the fact that Christ is laying a crossed her lap, and needed to be supported appropriately. The drapery which appears from Virgin Mary’s lap down gives more dimension and makes Christ look like he belongs nestled in his mother’s lap. The line technique used throughout the sculpture adds to the flow of the sculpture. Virgin Mary’s one arm is rested underneath her son and the other is positioned away from him almost in a position as if she was praying or hoping someone was looking down upon them and the situation they were in. The way the Virgin Mary is looking down at her son makes a focal point from her to her son. When this sculpture is in place in St. Peter Basilica the light streams into the building from three large windows which hitting the sculpture just right will only add to focal points of the sculpture making them even more noticeable. This only draws more attention to her face, and the beautiful features she was given by the artist. Both of the figures have a somber look on their faces which represents the situation they are in. Being as Virgin Mary is now being faced with her child’s death as he is rested upon her

In this relief, we see it as Christ the child shares the viewer his joy of starting his new adventure as well as praising the purity of Virgin Mary. There are also three angels emerging from the cloud. In the Old Testament, angel’s functions refer to convey God’s will to mankind, which in this relief the angels reminds us of their role as “annunciators (ABRAHAM, 2: The three angels). They were the ones who carried messages from god and annunciated the birth of Christ. They are the witnesses of Christ the child coming to the human world as well as proof of Virgin Mary’s virtue of immaculate. In this relief, they are the guardian of the Virgin and child as well as admirers of Mary’s pure and virgin status. With their hands holding together in prayer, they show their blessings and caring to the mother and son as well as to the human world. In addition, unlike other Virgin Mary we see in churches’ altarpieces that are usually seated on throne, we also have Mary sitting humbly on the ground in this relief. According to Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, there is a popular theme of “Madonna of Humility” which its essential figure is that the Virgin is seated on the ground. The dictionary also states that artists set Virgin Mary on the ground to convey a medieval theology,

First, it is the perspectival depiction technic which Mantegna uses to portray Christ body. The painting appears with Christ body in the center lying on a marble slab with Virgin Mary and St.John by his side. From the viewer’s angle, one can see the anatomical details in Christ body especially his thorax. It is because Mantegna uses “foreshortens and dramatizes the recumbent [of Christ] figure” (). However, Christ’s feet are smaller in the size so that they cannot interfere the view of Christ body. If Mantegna draws Christ’s feet in proper size, it may cover much of the body. This painting is one of the most masterpiece as example for perspective technic. Even thought Mantegna uses foreshorten to make Christ’s body appearing shorten, the physical structure of his body is still represented accuracy.

In Raphael’s, Sistine Madonna, he was able to create a painting depicting a combination of material and worldly elements within the heavenly, in a perceived dramatic interaction. The stage is seen as the lid of Pope Julius II coffin, while the drawn apart curtains to display the divine action. Raphael also includes two little angels whose expressions are seen as boredom and impatience placed in the painting as for a little humor. But in comparison to the baby Christ, Raphael has baby Christ looking to be caught in the moment, very aware of its significance in the future, and what Christ needs accomplish in the present. Finally, for the Madonna, Raphael portrayed her differently than his usual depictions. The Madonna appears to be looking down and directly towards the viewer, applying a realistically emotion of self-conscious yet tragic and mystical but ecstatic imagery. Raphael successfully is able underline all those qualities by surrounding her frame with a visual light.