In Art history I have learned many new things about art that I never knew. This class has opened my eyes to see how big the world is and how much history it is behind everything. There is even a lot of history behind a simple painting. Before taking this class, I would have thought people just painted just for an image of beauty. However, through this class I learned there is more to art and that all paintings have a story behind it. Throughout the semester I learned about historical churches and centuries old art. I even learned about specific exhibits, and objects that were connected to silk road, Europe and the entire world. This was an experience that I’ll never forget because I gained so much information, that I never knew before. 

      The Prince Shōtoku image shows a japanese person standing wearing a robe, gold fancy shoes and accessories. He is dressed in a monk’s robe and he holds a censer. His hair is arranged in the two loops of a youth and frames boyish, idealized features. He has a gold item as well that looks very valuable in his hand .With the gold valuable item in his hand I can see him looking at it. I can see that this item has him focused. The date of the 14th century of the Prince Shotoku is also  Medium Hanging scroll,ink, color, and gold on silk with Dimensions of image  32 1/2 × 20 9/16 in. (82.6 × 52.2 cm).This imaginary portrait has a story behind it. The image legends about the life of Prince Shōtoku 574–622, the project of Buddhism in Japan. The painting shows him as an historical figure. When he was the age of sixteen, his father, Emperor Yōmei (518–587) was very ill. He prayed for his father to get better . The pose, which belongs to a category of portraiture known as kōyō-zō  appears in both paintings and sculptures of young Shōtoku, which make up nearly half his extant portraits. This connects with what I learned in class in lesson seven. In lesson seven I learned about Khotan, Silk princess painting made eighth century AD, from Chinese central Asia. The story of this is like a silk road cause she was able to bring silk to other lands which brought new material . It is similar because each painting has a story and each painting has a person of royalty in Asia, however one is prince and one is princess. The style both had the same is the expensive taste  both able to afford silk material .

Armor for the Italian Joust of Peace of Gaspare Sanseverino d’Aragona was created in the year of 1490 in a Missaglia workshop. Helmet is made of Steel, gold, copper alloy . The Dimensions 72 3/4 x 26 3/4 x 26 3/4 in. (185 x 68 x 68 cm) & The Date is 1490. The creation of the images showcase an armor that was in the color of silver and gold, with minimal details. The medium of the work was steel, gold, copper alloy. The culture and the geography of the work was made in Milan, Italy.  Looking at the photo you can tell the making of the armor was made out of steel. The purpose of making the armor was made for soldiers who were fighting in battles and needed protection, to prevent from getting wounds. The Missaglia workshop who created the majority of their armor workshop lasted for ninety-nine years. The start of creating the armor was from 1430-1529.  This is similar to lesson 9 learned in class . In lesson 9 The Reliquary includes part of a Roman statue or helmet and is encrusted with jewels and cameos donated by pilgrims and the faithful. The reliquary houses physical remains of a Christian child martyr.The reliquary’s home is a church in France that lies on the “Way of St. James”.   This is similar due to the helmet because this is included in both Armor for the Italian Joust of Peace of Gaspare Sanseverino d’Aragona and the reliquary. 

The image of the Holy Family with Shepherds shows a family of four taking care of a child. In the image it shows a woman who is breastfeeding her baby and a man who appears to be the father, waiting to feed the child. While the father has the food in his left hand, he also holds a candle in his right hand, so he concentrates on what he is doing. The Artist:Jacob Jordaens Flemish, Antwerp 1593–1678 , Antwerp Date 1616. It is a Medium Oil on canvas, transferred from wood. The Dimensions are 42 x 30 in. (106.7 x 76.2 cm). The story behind this image is the commercial center of the Spanish Netherlands, Jordaens catered to an international audience with Catholic devotional images such as this one, centered on the figure of the Virgin Mary. His use of depicting skin and flesh influenced Dutch artists like Hals. Despite his production of Catholic devotional images, Jordaens was taken after he died over the border into the Dutch Republic for a Protestant burial. This takes me back to lesson 10 where I learned about the history of group portraits, still life, genre, and landscape paintings. These styles are characteristic of art of the Dutch Republic during the seventeenth century. This has a connection to lesson 10 because both are paintings and includes the catholic religion. I also learned in class about The Elevation of the Cross by Rubens which was painted for the high altar of a Catholic church in Antwerp. This is another example of the importance of catholicism in art. Also, civic life in Dutch cities created a demand for large group portraits. So pieces from this time would have likely incorporated portraits and religion. Worldwide trade and banking produced a prosperous Dutch middle class that appreciated landscape and still life paintings. 

The Man’s coat is a long sleeve coat with a tan color.  Tribal print on coat to represent the culture of native Americans. Man’s coat Date 1820 , the Culture/ Naskapi, Native American . Native-tanned leather and pigment . The coat Dimensions:41 1/2 × 69 1/4 in. (105.4 × 175.9 cm). This tailored garment for a hunter represents a blending of Indigenous and European traditions. The fitted cut is of Innu clothing, while the flared skirt reflects French colonial influence. The garment also embodies an ancient Native belief, held across the vast Labrador Peninsula, that well-made hunters’ clothing honors the spirits of the animals and unites hunter and prey. A woman painted this coat’s intricate, geometric designs to please the caribou. The making of the garment has its inspiration from their own culture and European culture which is coming from France. The garment showcases different shades of red and brown geometric prints.  This has a connection to lesson 11 learned in class.  Native Americans’ arts have inspired art in the modern era. Native art has always been present,  for example the Navajo blanket from c.1865 combined materials and methods of two different cultures. This is connected based on the involvement of art from the native Americans.This also shows how two or more cultures or groups of people can be combined to create an art that represents both cultures. This is like the blending that happened on the silk roads.  

Jackson Pollock painting shows multiple colors in one painting . This image is Pollock’s Pasiphaë with a storm of swirling and angular lines and broken forms, all pressed up to the front of the picture plane . The painter  used the Surrealist technique which uses the artist’s unconscious to compose the image by creating dozens of colored drawings .The Artist:Jackson Pollock he is American, Cody, Wyoming 1912–1956 East Hampton, New York. The Date 1943. This a Medium:Oil on canvas with Dimensions:56-1/8 x 96 x 1-1/2 in. 142.6 x 243.8 x 3.8 cm.Pollock got the name of his piece after hearing the story of the Cretan princess Pasiphae, who gave birth to the half-man, half-bull Minotaur. This connects to lesson 13 that I learned in class. Lesson 13 includes Jacob Lawrence’s Great Migration series of paintings. They are more abstract than Grant Wood or Edward Hopper’s paintings in this lesson. They demonstrate knowledge of European modernism and abstraction. Pollock’s painting is similar because it is also abstract. Both have variety and out of the usual thing you would typically see . 

In conclusion the exhibition includes many valuable objects. Each object has history and meaning behind it. I have learned in art history class this semester that each object you see in exhibition has a valuable story behind it. Each and every piece can also connect to the lessons I have learned in class. For example many pieces relate to Early Renaissance art in Northern Europe, other pieces are highly influenced by modernism, surrealism, and many other eras and styles. Every piece of work can connect back to the earliest pieces of art from every part of the  world.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I,” October 2, 2019–January 5, 2020.

Walter Liedtke. “Frans Hals: Style and Substance.” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 69 (Summer 2011), p. 17, fig. 15 (color).

Karolien de Clippel and Filip Vermeylen in Frans Hals: Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian. Exh. cat., Frans Hals Museum. Haarlem, 2013, fig. 6 (color).

Nico Van Hout in Rubens: The Power of Transformation. Exh. cat., Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Munich, 2017, pp. 72, 77 n. 14.
Martin Gammon. Deaccessioning and Its Discontents: A Critical History. Cambridge, Mass., 2018, p. 215.