Module 9 - Video Response

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

     I chose the videos The Drawings of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance mainly because those were the two artists that I have heard something about prior to this class. When I first began taking this class I did not know much about art in any aspect and I have learned a great deal of information from all of the text readings, videos, and projects. Those two artists Michelangelo and da Vinci are names in history that everyone has heard before they just don't necessary know why they are important or what kind of art they made. Personally, I knew that those two men were extremely famous artists but I did not know the names of their masterpieces or where they are located around the world and that's exactly why I chose the two videos that I did.

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

     The Drawings of Michelangelo- This video compares Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings to his finished masterworks—but viewing them together is virtually impossible in a museum setting. The video takes the time to closely look at the artist’s pencil and charcoal works with the painting, sculpture, and architecture that grew out of them. Studying drawings at the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and other renowned institutions, the program presents detailed analysis of the Pieta, the colossal David, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Last Judgment, the Medici tomb, and St. Peter’s Basilica. It also provides insight into Michelangelo’s tools, techniques, stylistic evolution, and sexuality.

     Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance- This video surveys the life and work of the perennially fascinating genius Leonardo da Vinci, from his birth in Tuscany to his final years in Cloux. Painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and student of anatomy, physiology, botany, architecture, hydrodynamics, aeronautics, and other disciplines, he was the quintessential "Renaissance man." The video talks about how Leonardo makes millions of drawings and sketches for every work that he does and then shakes off the extra things in his art that are not needed anymore as he progresses.

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

     The videos relate to the text because our text dealt with Mannerism and how it grew out of possibilities suggested by the work of High Renaissance artists, especially Michelangelo, who influence on the next generation was enormous. Out text had different pieces of Michelangelo's work and it's relevance during the Renaissance period and that's exactly what the video was describing. The video about da Vinci is related to the text particularly for the same reason dealing with the Renaissance period.  The text says, Renaissance peoples obligation to God was thur not to tremble and submit but, rather, to soar, striving to realize their full intellectual and creative potential. The implications of these ideas for art were tremendous. Artists became newly interested in observing the natural world, and they worked to reproduce it as accurately as possible. Studying the effects of light, they developed the technique of chiaroscuro; noting that distant objects appeared smaller than near ones, they developed the system of linear perspective; seeing how detail and color blurred with distance, they developed the principles of atmospheric perspective. The video gives an in depth example of this through da Vinci's life in the video.

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

     I believe that although the videos taught me exactly what I was expecting to learn about dealing with Michelangelo and da Vinci, they were very dry videos that were difficult for me to get through. Seeing multiple works from each artist helped me understand the Renaissance period in terms of art work and how it was represented. The only negative that I have about the videos is there was too much music playing in between sections on the narrator. I know the director of this video did this to give the audience time to really focus on each piece of art and analyze it but it did not help keep my interest in the video at all.