The arts of Ancient Greece...?
“Man is the measure of all things”, bad and good things. That’s really true. Only human beings can express rational thoughts and irrational feelings through any form of art and science. Artistic creations show the culture of a population, what they know, what they feel, what they think, what level of civilization they have. And the arts of ancient Greece show well organized cities and people who loved the feeling for beauty, arts, poetry. I hope to be clear and apologize if I made any kind of mistakes. English is only my second language.
Is Odysseus a hero by modern standards?
No. And it's a good example of how heroes are not cross cultural. After all he does get all of his men killed, and does little to save them. And if he is 'trying' to get home to his wife, then why does he shack up with Crice for 'Years'! A modern hero would fight the cyclops, not just stand around as it killed and ate his men(true he does out smart it, but only after a lot of death). The Greeks understood that a lot of death just 'happened'. It was normal for a ship full of 100 men to die and only one person live. So the fact that Odysseus whole crew dies, would not bother them. But a modern hero must protect their friends and companions. Think of a movie like the Matrix, would Neo be a hero if everyone else was slaughtered?(How about Star Wars, would Luke make a good hero if everyone else had died?). The reason the Greeks liked Odysseus is that he was smart and clever. Much more so then a normal person. He was something to look up to, and wish they could be like that. A modern hero is almost always physical, think any action movie or even James Bond. No normal person will be as strong or tough as a modern fictional hero. But anyone can be smart and clever, and that is why the Greeks saw Odysseus as a hero.
How did the Renaissance art reflect humanist concerns?
One way was that Renaissance art used classical Greek culture as a subject such as Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" (about mythology) or Raphael's "The School of Athens" (about ancient Greek philosophers). Previously in the Middle Ages, these subjects were unheard of in European art. Starting in the 14th Century, humanist patrons of art began to commission artists to create works about these classical themes instead of the usual Christian subjects that had been the standard in medieval art. Another way humanism influenced Renaissance art was in how artists depicted the natural world. Naturalistic painting began to flourish with Giotto in the early 1300s; previously, in the Middle Ages, people were not depicted realistically because doing so was not a priority for medieval painters. They didn't see any special beauty in the human form. Humanists in the Early Renaissance, however, argued that the human body was a beautiful creation of God, so it should be respected. Afterwards, painters and sculptors began to study anatomy closely in order to properly portray the beauty of the body. Thus, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others were able to depict figures so accurately. This also ties in with the ancient Greeks' love of the ideal human form as it was presented in their sculpture.
What are some reasons that Plessy v. Ferguson was a bad decision by the Supreme Court?
A great place to start would be with the lone dissent in this case --by Justice John Marshall Harlan. For instance, here are a few key snippets [my summary in brackets]: [#1 - goes against equal rights guaranteed in the Constitution (esp. 14th amendment), and against personal liberty]: "such legislation as that here in question is inconsistent not only with that equality of rights which pertains to citizenship, national and state but with the personal liberty enjoyed by everyone within the United States...." [#2 - abridges the personal liberties of citizens] "The fundamental objection, therefore, to the statues is that it interferes with the personal freedom of citizens....If a white man and a black man choose to occupy the same public conveyance on a public highway, it is their right to do so, and no government, proceeding alone on grounds of race, can prevent it without infringing the personal liberty of each...." [#3 - is a 'badge of servitude', which would violate the 13th amendment] "The arbitrary separation of citizens on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the Constitution. It cannot be justified upon any legal grounds." [#4 - the effect of poisoning relations between the races] "What can more certainly arouse race hate, what more certainly create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races, than state enactments, which, in fact, proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens? That, as all will admit, is the real meaning of such legislation. . ."" See an overview of "Harlan's Great Dissent" : http://www.louisville.edu/library/law/ha... For the full text of his dissent.see: http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890...
How is Renaissance art different from Medieval art?
One of the major differences between medieval art and art from the High Renaissance is the way they approached the ancient Greco-Roman world. While the medieval is too expansive a term and may refer to the Romanesque, the Gothic, the Byzantine, or the myriad range of styles that came in the thousand-year period following 400AD, this art was decidedly Christian and dominated by concerns portrayed in the Bible. The High Renaissance Classicism of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century is remarkable for its attention to detail and naturalism, but most importantly, to its attention to antiquity.See, for example, this fresco (Sea of Galatea) by Raphael of Urbino, in Agostino Chigi’s villa in Trastevere in Rome, now called Villa Farnesina. Raphael’s depiction of the classical is important because this was the age of humanism — scholars went back to ancient texts and read them in their original Greek or Latin, instead of error-riddled translations made by their forebearers. This piqued a revival of the Classical, and was supported by the Della Rovere Pope (Sixtus IV and his nephew Julius II) and the Medici Popes (Leo X, Clemente VII, and to some extent Paul III, who was educated at the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent). The pagan was no longer antithetical to the Christian.While Medieval education was centered around the seven liberal arts, they made no such effort to espouse the humanities and invigorate them with new, focused scholarship. The end of the Medieval era was marked by the flight of the Papacy from Rome to Avignon, and the return of the Popes to Rome heralded the new Renaissance period, which meant there was a lot of construction and new ideas to build. The Renaissance is (arguably) said to have ended with the sack of Rome in 1527–8 by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who imprisoned Pope Clemente VII in the Castel San’Angelo, ten minutes walking from St. Peter’s.
What's the difference between Gothic and Romanesque architectures?
1. Gothic architecture had pointed arches in roof while Romanesque architecture had round arches.2. Gothic architecture had large windows and lot of stained glass while In Romanesque architecture the windows were small and less stained. And hence, the Gothic structures have bright light inside and are airy while the Romanesque structures are darker inside.Gothic architectureRomanesque Architecture3. Gothic Architecture has groin vaulted cathedrals while Romanesque has mostly barrel vaults and some groin vaults.A groin vault is formed by two barrel vaults intersecting at right angles. The result is four curving surfaces that draw the eye up and toward the center. The areas where the barrel vaults come together create ribs that add both strength and visual appeal.A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design.Groin VaultBarrel Vault4. Gothic Architecture has flying buttresses and few structure supports. Romanesque architecture has large pillars inside of the building.flying buttress Large pillars in Romanesque5. In Gothic architecture they have gargoyles (a gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between.) while in Romanesque very less decoration is on the exteriors.GargoylesRomanesque Architecture6. The Romanesque structures came with heavy frames. On the other hand, the Gothic structures had a slender skeleton.