Enlightenment

            In the 1940’s there were two writers by the names of Theodore Adorno and Max HorkHiemer. In their work they criticized the aims of the Enlightenment. They also made claims about the principles about the Enlightenment. One of their claims was “The Enlightenment disenchanted us from the world.” In this statement and many of their statements, I think it has merit. Depending on the circumstances. Overall I don’t know these writers but I agree with the statement that ‘The Enlightenment’ has disenchanted us from the world. I think that the time period was a time of exploring and engaging in the ideas that are out of the norm. This period of time was a chance for those people who weren’t the in “classic” frame to come out and experience a whole knew life and perspective. In a way, I think that there is value to myths and being enchanted. I think that it’s a way that people can communicate with the upper world/ lower worlds or heaven/hell. Yes, it may be irrational but I also think that these people didn’t know how to handle these enchanted people and they didn’t know how to react. So I think this period was a switch over to being more accepting and inviting to ‘not normal’ people. I also think that the ‘rule of reason’ can rob your life. If someone is constantly worrying and wondering and trying to reason everything, that they lose their life. The reasoning gets in the way of life experiences. Life experiences are how people gain knowledge and understand who they are. So if someone is reasoning through everything then do they really experience their lives? Do they know who they are? I don’t think they can without those crucial life lessons. We learn by what we do and we understand ourselves better through our mistakes so why waste our lives reasoning and wondering ‘if’. Lets just do and become people we are meant to be through our experiences.

Baroque Art

            I think our society is definitely more baroque. In class we talked about what baroque was and came up with a list. Some thing  on that list were “because I can”, a contrast between light and dark, “out of the ordinary”, and such. Our society is based off of that. Everywhere we look people are rebelling and doing things “because they can”. If you compared it to someone hair, the renaissance person would have a clean cut “normal” look. The baroque person would have blonde, black, and red hair, with a different style than anyone has ever seen before. We see this throughout our society.

  Our society revolves around people being themselves and allowing themselves to be who they want to be. That is what our country is focused on. I think this relates to Baroque Art because at the time they were rebelling against the “norm”.  If you look icons in the media, they do anything they can to be out of the ordinary and abnormal. Miley Cyrus just recently had an evolution and at the Baroque time the artists were being criticized by other artists and spectators. This is happening to Miley Cyrus as well. This is just an example of the comparisons of time periods with being or becoming Baroque. In music we see this as well. Artists are coming out with songs that are not normal. 

We can even relate Baroque Art to Science in our days. Scientists are constantly coming out with new medicines and new procedures. Cancer Research, Genetic changes, and much more can be considered rebellion and "out of the ordinary. 

Platonic Love

            The painting called “Primavera” is a representation of platonic love in many different ways. One of the ways platonic love is defined by Ben Jonson, an artist of that time, is “A spiritual coupling of two souls/ so much more excellent as it relates unto the body.” As our reading goes on to say that our soul is long lasting and could have a platonic relationship with the object our body would find after we die. This painting is a representation of platonic love because of the coupling of souls throughout the painting. On the far right of the painting Zephyrus, god of the west wind, tries to grab Chloris, the nymph of spring. In a way, I think this shows the coupling of seasons. It shows that the west winds or fall is grabbing onto spring, trying to reach it to pull the spring season into fall. In another comparison, Flora (the goddess of flowers) is standing next the Chloris. I find this interesting because spring is almost always associated with flowers because it is a time of things to bloom and colors to be added to a winter world. These are different ways that things are coupled together with platonic love.

            In this painting there are many angles. Whether it is a goddess reaching for a branch or one goddess reaching for another, it shows and demonstrates the science and math that can be categorized with renaissance art. Another generalization that can be connected is the highly symbolic rule. I think that each goddess was place where they are for a reason. Many comparisons can be made about this painting. Zephyrus is placed next to Chloris and I think this could be symbolic of winds bring season changes to the world.