Outside the European Tradition #3

Select and fully identity two works of art that visually convey a narrative. One of your choices must be from beyond the European tradition. Identify the subject of each narrative and discuss the means used to convey the narrative.


In a funeral banner that was discovered at the tomb of the Marquise of Dai in 1972 is a narrative that encompasses nearly all of the aspects of death and the afterlife. At the top of the T-shaped banner is heaven, where dragons and immortal beings congregate below two orbs that represent the sun and the raven. At the bottom of the T is the underworld, which is also joined by a scene of the funeral of Marquise Dai. In the center is a figural form of Marquise Dai who is awaiting her ascent to heaven. All of the scenes are combined together through the use of dragons whose tails reach down towards the underworld and whose heads reach upwards towards heaven.



In Masaccio’s Tribute Money, a seldom-represented narrative from Matthew is portrayed. As Christ and his disciples try to enter the city of Capernaum, they are stopped at the entrance and told they must pay a tax before they can enter. As the story goes, Christ tells Peter to go to the shore of Lake Galilee and take the money from the mouth of a fish, which will be used to pay the tax. In Masaccio’s painting, three different aspects of this story are portrayed at the same time. In the center, Christ and his disciples are seen congregating and trying to figure out what to do. On the left side of the frame the viewer can see Peter who is taking the coin from the mouth of a fish. On the right side of the frame Peter is paying the tax collector. In total, Peter is shown three times in the same painting. Many think that this painting may be a stab on the income tax that was being implemented in Florence during this time period.

Outside the European Tradition #2

Select and fully identify two examples of sacred spaces from different cultures, one of which must be from beyond the European tradition. Discuss how each space accommodates both religious beliefs and practices within its culture.


The Fougang Si Pagoda in Yingxian, China is a Buddhist pagoda that also happens to be the tallest wooden building in the world. Many pagodas housed relics such as statues of Buddha and sacred images and texts, all of which provided a place for devotion to Buddha. Unlike Christianity, which focuses on large gathering spaces for many people to congregate together, Buddhists built more intimate facilities for meditation and other such practices. They were not focused on the socialization aspect of religion, but the meditative. Nevertheless, this Buddhist pagoda is of monumental scale, which shows that the Chinese still wanted to create a building that would be impressive to their god. With this pagoda they accomplished a large scale monument for their god that also suited the meditative activities they wanted to perform inside of it.


Florence Cathedral, which was the center for all of the most important religious practices in Florence during the 14th c., was built by Arnolfo Di Cambio in 1296. It was built with the idea that it would be able to hold all 100,000 citizens of Florence during this time period. Although this was never fully achieved, what was accomplished was an extremely beautiful and elaborate place of worship for the citizens of Florence. Florence Cathedral is the epitome of what Christians in this time period wanted to achieve with their churches. Unlike the meditative focus of Buddhism, Christianity focuses much more on congregation, which is only possible in a church of gargantuan proportions. Also, the bigger the church the more impressive. Not only were they trying to make God happy through this beautiful space of worship, they were also trying to make outsiders look at Florence with greater admiration because of this great church.

Outside the European Tradition #1

Select and fully identify two works of art that depict one or more women. The works must come from two different cultures, one of which must be from beyond the European tradition. Explain how each work reveals its culture’s attitude about women.


Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes is a painting that depicts exactly what the title ensues. Taking inspiration from Caravaggio, Gentileschi uses tenebrism and dark subject matter to portray a heroic female, which was a common topic among Gentileschi’s paintings. Gentileschi herself was an incredibly renowned artist and the first woman to be admitted to Florence’s Accademia del Disegno. The combination of these two aspects shows the rise that women were experiencing throughout the 17th c. Woman were no longer just slaves to their husbands, but people that could begin to make a difference in society. Just the fact that a painting that portrays a woman killing a man could be so highly accepted shows that woman’s social status’s were changing dramatically during this time period.



Gu Kaizhi’s Lady Feng and the Bear is a piece of art that portrays Lady Feng saving the emperor’s life from the ravaging bear that is trying to kill him. Lady Feng saving her emperor is all encompassing of what Confucian behavior would entail, which was a major religion of China during this time period (4th c.). In Confucianism, the women are completely indebted to their husbands. They are to do whatever is in the best interest of the husband and must do anything to make sure he is safe.
Just as this piece of art shows, women in China during this time period abided by this type of thinking. Instead of living a life of their own, they were helping the men live the best life possible.

Snow Day!

Nashville loves its snow. That’s why whenever they even get a hint of a mixed flurry, all schools shut down. Recently, we had a catastrophe in the eyes of most Nashville citizens, a whole…. inch…. of snow. Well of course this means that there’s no possible way for me to get out of the house and out into civilization. So what did I do with my day off of school? I read my art history textbook for five hours! Two chapters and 16 pages of notes later, I was finished with 300 years of art history. Through my five-hour trudge through the difficult realm of the history of art, I became enlightened by the works of Van Eyck and Weyden while my friends were ruining their brain cells by playing in the snow. Through all of this enlightenment, my favorite piece of art was the Les Trés Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Sumptuous Hours of the Duke of Berry).

A book of hours is a book used for reciting prayers. It usually consisted of things such as an illustrated calendar, penitential Psalms, and devotional prayers. The most famous part about this book of hours is its calendar that represents the 12 months with alternating scenes of nobility and peasantry and seasonal tasks. January shows the Duke at a dinner festival, almost appearing Godlike because of the fire that illuminates as a halo around his head. October depicts the labors of a sower, harrower, and washerwoman. Instead of being unhappy about their work though, they seem happy to be doing such work for the Duke. This book of hours shows an increased interest in naturalism as well as narrowing the gap between the integration of religious and secular themes.

My main attraction to this piece of art is how much work was put into something for one person. These incredibly detailed pictures were put together all for the personal use of the Duke. It’s also interesting that this book of hours portrays the donor in such a high light. I guess the Duke needed his self-confidence boosted? Nevertheless, I love the concept of this exquisite book that is used for one’s own personal and private prayers and I wish that I could see what the pictures that go with the other 10 months look like.

Dave Matthews

Anyone that knows me well is very aware of my obsession with Dave Matthews. I can probably name every album and every song on the spot without any help. It’s a sickness, I know. Last time I counted I was able to play 43 Dave Matthews songs on guitar. Nevertheless, the point is… I recently found out that Dave is also a talented artist as well. I was browsing around at guitar center last week and found a signature Dave Matthews Taylor 914ce that I played for probably nearly an hour. The neck had an intricate design done by Dave in honor of Leroi Moore, who was the saxophonist for the band before he passed in 2008. Through further investigation, I found more piece of art done by Dave Matthews.

My favorite is definitely the cover art for DMB’s most recent CD, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King. The work depicts a large festival going on in downtown New Orleans. It is very Mardi Gras-ish with the people on top of the float wearing masks and many people in the crowd wearing beads. This Mardi Gras theme is also continued with the use of much purple and green throughout the drawing. My favorite part about the piece is the gigantic face of Leroi Moore plastered right in the center with “The Groogrux King” (a nickname given to him by the band) pieced around it. If you’re a DMB nerd like myself and have caught yourself watching concerts on DVD in your bed at night, you can see the personality of Leroi coming out through this drawn face. Intense and always having a good time was the way that he spent his time on stage.

I was very surprised when I found out this unknown talent of Dave Matthews, unknown to me at least. I’ve always just thought of him as a man that puts down all his thoughts on paper and then puts on the best concerts you will ever see. It’s cool to see a second way in which he lets his emotions out. In a way, it makes me want to become an artist as well. I think I’ll pass though. I can’t urge on this obsession any further than it has already gotten. I think I’ll just stick to learning all of his songs on guitar.

The Floor Scrapers

I recently visited the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to hear an art lecture on impressionism, which actually ended up being an hour-long talk about how fashion influenced the paintings of those times. Not very interesting to me… but… informative. The best thing that came out of the night was getting to actually see the impressionist paintings that the Frist had to display. With nearly a 100 paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Morisot, etc… the one that caught my eye the most was an exquisite piece of work by Gustave Caillebotte entitled “The Floor Scraper.”

Caillebotte was inspired by laborers working on his home to begin working on this piece of art that portrays three men scraping up the wood off of a hard wood floor. The accurate portrayal of the men’s muscles and torsos along with the depiction of the working class during this time period show that Gustave was a realist. His primary focus in his artwork was to show things as they would really be seen in the real world. What attracted me to this painting while walking through the exhibit was not the accurate depiction of the people though, but how Gustave is able to paint the scraps of wood that have already been torn up. It is almost as if you can see each individual scrap among the hundreds that are piled upon each other. The pristine detail in this painting truly makes it a masterpiece.

It amazes me how people are able to paint things that look so realistic. As I walked through the hallways of paintings that night, I had to look closely at some of them to make sure they were not actually photographs. The fine detail that is put in to these pieces of art makes them appear as if you are staring at real life. Some of the paintings are so overtly large that it makes me wonder just how long the artist spent on it to get it finished. I know that I would have nowhere near a sufficient amount of patience to be an artist. Nevertheless, I recommend everyone go down to the First Center to partake in the joy that I found while looking through all of these paintings. No one will be disappointed with what they see.

Day After Day

Music is art right? I would say so. Music has the ability to paint a picture in the mind of the listener similar to that of an artwork and even bring out the same emotions that a beautiful piece of art by Manet might be able to (recently I was so taken by Manet's art that I was yelled at by a crazy Russian woman for getting too close to one of his paintings). Anyways... the following is a song that I just spent the last two hours working on instead of doing homework like a good student would do. My dad was telling me earlier about how Nancy Pelosi likes to fly around in a 200 person private jet instead of flying like us normal people do. Whether that is actually true or it is just my dad's extreme conservative mindset at play, it definitely got me thinking. I thought I'd write a song about American wealth/greed/selfishness/etc.... So... here it is.

Day After Day

How can we live in so much vain?
Stumble over these losses, treasures taken away
Living only for material things
Taking all that we can, leave the rest to wait and pray

Cause the land of the blessed has become the land of myself
Tied up in our possessions, looking only for the help
Of false love that lies within and tears at the health
Of you, me, she, he, and everyone else
Oh you tell me you care and you tell me you’ll help
But we only wait for the love of somebody else
Don’t sell yourself for gold cause it all will just pass
Be happy from what you gain and don’t ever look back
Cause what we take from the earth in the end will just fade
But what we give back to others will live on day after day

So how will this world move on?
When one by one selfish love grows strong
And now that we’ve come this far
Even the best of the best are just holdin’ on
Its not this world, its this way that we live
But it seems the more that we try the worse that it gets
So we wait
For real love to be reborn

Take all that you have and embed it in glass
Find false comfort in hiding and let the guilt run right past
But we can all see its there, so what will you say
That you’re saving up your grace to share another day
Well what reward does that give you? Lonely is all that you’ll be
It’ll kick in like a bullet no matter how hard you don’t want to believe
Well maybe if we could switch lives for a day
Then we’d really find out what we want our lives to say
Well I’ll be sorry if I’m wrong, but we all want the same
For our love to shine bright and live on day after day

Chorus

Well for the love of God, lets find His love
Send out to the world what we took from above
Tell them were sorry for the wait, loves train was on delay
But now that she has made it, she’ll live on day after day
Repeat x1

End on Chorus