Freshman Seminar Fall 17 DFB

Lorenzo Castaldo

Fro 1000 DFB

My visit to the Met with my art class was the first time I was ever able to visit the museum. Seeing some of the artwork gave me the chills; The attention to detail, the immense sizing, the range of colors, the amount of effort and attention went into the artwork I was sometimes almost at a loss of words. One of my favorite exhibits I was able to experience actually happen to be neither Greek nor Egyptian but in fact Mexican. The artwork of the Mexican artist Cristobal de Villalpando often had me speechless. Some of the art was absolutely massive, sometimes taking up half of a wall. The Deluge was my favorite piece of work. Villalpando was able to speak tons through one painting, the dark oils used on copper paint a dark image with a dark mood. In addition to the dark coloring the detail on the faces of the people being depicted were able further express the darkness in the painting.

The museum visit also really opened my eyes to college and what it was and how much potential I was able to see when it came to knowledge. The majority of students who attended truly wanted to be there, they wanted to learn. The professor knew what she was talking about I was really able to feel her passion for art, she made me want to know more.

A couple of weeks ago, my Art History class went to visit the Metropolitan Museum of art. This was my third time visiting the museum, but I got to see parts of the museum that I didn’t get to see before. I have a genuine interest in Art History and I love learning about different types of Art and Artists from all over the world. Two of my favorite parts of this museum is the section with the Greek and Roman Sculptures. The way Greek Mythology was/is portrayed is astonishing. Even prior to visiting the MET ever, I already had a strong interest in Greek and Egyptian history, especially the history of King Tut. Although highly ranked and valued, even to this day, King Tut was most likely a product of incest, with a very unsightly gap between his teeth, abnormally wide hips for a man and a very twisted ankle. In short, he wouldn’t be considered the best looking man according to today’s beauty standards, yet he was practically worshiped.  In addition to King Tut, I really enjoyed the rest of the ancient Egyptian history exhibit. Seeing the mummies and analyzing how they went about preserving the dead for the “after life” was rather interesting and in a lot of ways presents similarities to the way we bury our dead. The Egyptians decorated the corpse with valuable jewelry and buried them in extremely elaborate tombs/pyramids that were seemingly physically impossible to construct given the technology they had thousands of years ago. These pyramids consisted of a number of paths and boobie traps to confuse thieves and whoever else tries to enter the pyramid. Another fact that interested me was the Overall, this exhibit was extremely interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed going through it.

Next we visited the Greek exhibit. In high school, I learned a lot of ancient Greek and Roman history and one thing I always found interesting was the fact that the Greeks believed in a number of Gods and Goddesses who each possessed a power or strength different from the next. Zeus was always my favorite God. He was the God of Gods and was undeniably powerful. Seeing how the Greeks and Romans portrayed his seemingly infinite strength with these enormous and intricate sculptures always amazes me. The extreme detail carved into huge stones that were so carefully preserved is beautiful. Another thing I appreciate about Greek history is that they always portrayed the women to be equally, if not, more powerful than the men. Women were always made to seem inferior to men throughout history and even today! So the fact that powerful women figures existed like Athena, the Goddess of wisdom, is astounding given the time period. Overall, I had a lot of fun at the museum and I hope we can go to another soon.

Visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art is something I do often, because museums are such calm places and just wandering around admiring the work is very stress relieving. So you can assume when I found out I was doing an assignment on one of my favorite museums in the city right before midterms week, I was excited. I visited the Egyptian and Greek part of the museum, on the first floor, which hold some of the most beautiful art in the museum. I saw pieces such as “Marble Statue of a Wounded Warrior”. “Marble Statue of a Kouros (Youth)”, “Fragments of a Marble Statue of the Duadpumenos (Youth Tying a Fillet Around His Head)”, and “Marble Statue of a Wounded Amazon” in the Greek exhibit, as well as pieces such as “Offering Bearer”, “Three Figures From the Tomb of Merti”, “Statue of King Mentuhotep II Standing in the Jubilee Garment”, “Merti and His Wife”, and “Isis-aphrodite”, in the Egyptian exhibit. I name these pieces because, aside from their beauty and how well crafted they are, they show two different worlds living in one.

I say these pieces represent two different worlds because comparing them side by side one can see a big difference between them. The Greeks, embraced nudity and the body and thoroughly incorporated it into their art, while the Egyptians did not. Now I bring this up because this is one thing that stood out to me. It stood out because viewing this art in today’s world, people would look at the Greek sculptures and say they’re beautiful and amazingly done, but then proceed to shame someone for exposing their nudity or doing similar art. Now this correlates to the Egyptian art as well because seeing how they’re clothed, makes me wonder if this was near the start of modesty in society. Many of the women as well as men in Egyptian art are fully clothed, which, to me, shows that art in that time focused on how the person looked while in Greek sculptures, the men and women weren’t clothed however they were doing an action or posing in an empowering way. This not only shows the modesty in the different cultures but also shows the values that were present in art at the time.

One thing Greek and Egyptian art had in common was sculptures of people in that time were created for them to be thought highly of, from the way they dressed to the way they were posed. The warriors in Greek Sculptures were shown to have strong bodies and even if they were wounded they posed as if they were still standing and not broken. The royalty of Egyptian had exquisite jewelry and clothing on them and they were given staffs and were posed in empowering ways.

This visit allowed me to further analyze art I otherwise would have simply viewed and thought no further of. It also helped me get a better insight into the history of art and how it’s affected society which I appreciate. Lastly, this trip reminded me of how much I love museums and has reminded me that I still can go to one, because it’s not only a stress reliever, but beautiful.

Having not visited a museum in ages, I was compellingly astonished during my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this past week. I had expected a mundane and boring day at the museum but I was quite wrong. The sheer amount of artwork and history present at the museum baffled my mind as I began asking myself questions such as how was all this art moved into the museum and how were all these paintings and sculptures created. One profound impression this visit to the museum left on me was the power of the aesthetically pleasing paintings and artwork. The paintings, particularly the paintings of the classical era, left a lasting impression on my portrayal and understanding of art and aesthetics. The proportions and emotions of the subjects thoroughly impressed me and made me wonder how such masterpieces were created. Similar thoughts appeared in my head throughout the day as I gained a deeper understanding of art and its impact on human civilization. I hope that one day I would be able to wield such aesthetic power and impact in whatever it is that I do. I would definitely revisit this museum next time and hopefully be able to learn even more about the world of aesthetically pleasing paintings.

On September 28, I had the honor to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art with most of my classmates from art class. Touring around the museum, I noticed that all of the collections from the Egyptian section are art pieces of the time period that I love. Even though many parts of the history that everyone knows of ancient Egypt are vague, to me it is filled with splendor and glory. Everything from the architectures, sculptures, paintings, and other arts are evidence of the history of the ancient Egyptian era where pharaohs existed and mummification was a way to bury the ones that have passed on as a way to resurrect in the afterlife. From an era long passed, the ancient Egyptians were one of the most advanced civilizations in the world. To be honest, I hate modern history, but history about ancient civilizations such as the Egyptian, Chinese, and Roman are always ones that I read up on the internet from time to time. Even though the museum has other collections of art of other civilizations and time period, I was the most fascinated by the Egyptian art that were shown. Overall, I had a great learning experience about the art of different civilizations and my fascination of ancient Egypt continues on.

Visiting the MET with my art history class was an interesting experience. I am really not a museum person. It didn’t help that the trip was pure chaos. 40 college students swarmed our professor like a colony of ants over spilled ice cream and all were attempting to decipher her commentary on the various pieces of centuries old artwork/sculptures. Hearing the professor amidst the numerous groups of loud tour guides and awe-ing tourists was a job not even Dumbo would have managed to do. After realizing listening to the professor just was not going to happen, I decided to try and create my own commentary. I began to take occasional breaks from the group to muse over pieces of art that caught my eye. I mainly took these breaks while the group was meandering through the sections of mummy tombs, as mummies are one of my phobias(courtesy to a scary episode of Scooby Doo I watched alone as a 5 year old). I realized that though there was a very important educational aspect to art, it was providing me a relief from my fear of mummies. I mused over the many different ways the art could have value in various individuals’s situations. Throughout my time at Baruch, the occasional visit to a museum would be beneficial for my mental health and also my physical health, because the amount of cardio you can get in just walking the endless halls is immense. But, my most important musing was that through my growing appreciation for the arts, is that I am being #CULTURED.

I go to the library a couple times a week. It might be for printing, finishing up an assignment, or studying. There is a small chatter in the front where people ask for help. However in the back it is quiet. I never been to a library where everyone respects the silence. It is quite nice and peaceful. The back desks are also something I do not see it often. There are barriers on each side so I could have some privacy. A small light is installed so I could see my work clearly. It was a bit luxurious for me because I have never been to a library like Baruch’s. The printing process was a bit hard to get used to. However one I got it it was fine. The 500 free prints are great. I borrowed a ebook textbook, however my professor had a no electronics policy so whenever we had to brink the book the class I would print out the pages in the library. The library is a great resource for studying and getting your materials.

I went to two museums using my college ID. One being the Art History trip along with majority of the class. It was interesting to see Egyptian art in real life rather than a screen in class. It was valuable to see the effects of time on the art works personally. As many of the sculptures were chipped and cracked. Some even had a laregly visible portion missing. I like the change in setting, like how they used a yellow-orangeish dim lighting to reflect the artwork, and also a way of trying to further preserve it from aging. I also went to the Intrepid Musuem for the college night. However it was not as interesting as I thought it would be. But in fact I got there quite early, and left only after 30 minutes, because it was moving along slowly. I do recognize the fact that more people came after I left, but I already explored the most of the museum after the 30 minutes. Overall, I realize I like art museums the most.