blog




  • Essay / What I learned in the art appreciation course

    In this essay, I want to share what I learned in the art appreciation course. As our course is almost over, instead of using books and such, during this semester we have learned to appreciate art in various ways. Projects, such as class discussions, presentations, online work, and analysis of multiple works of art. However, the readings given by our teacher provided us with the basic knowledge and terminologies that we need to know to appreciate art. This is the basis required so that later we can know art in depth. Despite this typical learning method, we also visited museums, in fact, this gave us the opportunity to deepen what we learned from our teacher and the readings/journals she had given us, combined with how to use these new artistic concepts and analyze the meaning of a real work of art. Analyzing the artworks of Baroque and Renaissance has been fun but also sad because most of the artworks depict the struggle and hardships of the people of that era. The artworks are inspired by the wars and painful events that occur during this period. One of the paintings we analyzed during the Renaissance period is Girl with a Pearl Earring. The Girl with a Pearl Earring depicts a young woman seated in front of a dark background. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Although seemingly unimportant, this stark, shallow background contrasts beautifully with the character's cream-colored skin and translucent eyes, which are fixed on the viewer. In addition to a stunning blue and yellow turban, she also wears a large teardrop-shaped pearl earring. In the 17th century, the Netherlands experienced a period of artistic prosperity known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this era, enlightened artists found inspiration in Northern Renaissance painting techniques, resulting in masterpieces like Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. Another painting is The Rape and Massacre at Ermita, which shows how brutal the Japanese soldiers were towards the Filipinos. Women were raped and killed, men were massacred and some even reported babies being thrown into the air and impaled on bayonets. Not only does it describe the horror that the Filipinos were experiencing at that time and the cruelty of the soldiers towards them, but also how they forced their way into our country thinking that we were no better than them. This painting still lives its legacy so that our generation understands that history will haunt us forever. All the acts of bravery, the unheard groans and the spilled blood are those that we must not forget. As the eternal phrase goes, “problems of the past should not be problems of the present.” But not for Philippine history, because the lessons that will come from it will give birth to everything we have in society today. Today we enjoy the blessings of independence and democracy because the vicious conditions were overcome and fought by the people of our history and these heroes do not deserve to be forgotten. I think it is important that we know about these episodes that marked us today. What makes our country stronger and how we understand the true meaning of patriotism. Another topic is nudity in art. We chose an article and wrote a reflection on it. I chose The Nude in Art. To me there might be other reasons to depict nudity, 28(2), 233-248.