Jonathan's Art Gallery
It is not difficult to find art anywhere in Italy. In fact, the entire Country is viewed by many as one big piece of art. Throughout the small villages and major cities there are works of art on every street of every corner. Even the buildings exhibited good examples of works of art. Most of the art that I chose to focus on during the trip were the statues throughout different areas of Italy. Because of the intricate detail of these statues the artist clearly wanted to make them as realistic as possible. Specifically on the statue of David the sculptor was very thorough in making his physical form very accurate to that of a male figure. On the statue’s arms and hands the veins are seen just underneath the skin. Although the statue is made of stone the depiction of this image is almost unbelievable because of how realistic it appears. Because of the intricacy of this image the idea the artist is conveying is that the human body is a work of art in itself.
Similarly, the statue of Perseus exhibited these qualities as well. While looking at this work of art I was reminded of several times in my life where I had to overcome difficult obstacles. This came to mind because of the obstacle that Perseus himself had to overcome to kill Medusa in the ancient story. Although it was a work of fiction the outcome of the story illustrates an inspiring message.
The statue of Caesar Augustus was especially interesting. During the tour of the Vatican Museum where the statue is located the tour guide mentioned that the statue is colored by the codes of pigment of the barely visible remainder of the ancient paint on the original statue. This paint was so worn that the statue itself looked as though it had never been painted. Furthermore, with the focus of the trip is on Shakespeare I decided that the tapestry of Julius Caesar’s assassination would be a great addition to this collection. Although it is difficult to see in the picture this tapestry illustrates a great visualization of how Julius Caesar was thought to be murdered in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.