4 Great Artists: Video Review

Explain why you selected each of the FOUR videos you chose from the selection listed above.
- I chose the video The Drawings of Michelangelo because Michelangelo has always fascinated me since I was younger. He was a genius and I always wanted to know more about him. I chose the video Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance because I love the work that Leonardo da Vinci has done. From the Mona Lisa to his inventions I consider, and many other people do as well, a mastermind. I chose the video Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master because the only thing I knew about Albrecht Dürer was the famous self portrait that he commissioned of himself so I wanted to know more. I chose the video Velázquez because I wanted to know more about the painter that painted himself in one of his paintings.

For each video list / discuss the key concepts you learned.
The video The Drawings of Michelangelo was about Michelangelo’s way of drawing and in the video it showed examples of his work and how he rendered them into his final pieces. The key concepts that I learned in that video was that Michelangelo went further with his drawings, his crosshatching was much denser and much more specific. All of his drawings were a stock of ideas that he used in other works of art. Michelangelo started with sketches for the Sistine Chapel and by looking at his drawings historians and artists are puzzled of the way the figures are positioned. The video Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance was about the life of Leonardo da Vinci, who was considered a “Renaissance Man”. The key concepts that I learned were that da Vinci’s teacher quit painting because he was embarrassed that Leonardo painted so much better then him. I was also surprised to learn that Leonardo thought of himself as an uneducated man, because as one can clearly see he was a brilliant man. In the video I learned that da Vinci was the one that said “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” The video Albrecht Dürer: Image of a Master was about the German artist Albrecht Dürer who introduced the world to the gothic art of Germany. The key concepts that I learned about him was that he carefully observed the process of aging; he painted his wife when she was young and then he painted her when she was older. I also learned that he traveled through Europe during his lifetime and became the first true landscape artist in Europe. In the video Velázquez it was about the painter and his life. The key concepts I learned in this video was that he had only one friend, King Philip the Fourth and Velázquez painted him through his life. I learned that Velázquez was a patient man that would paint slowly, and during his life his works matured. Velázquez would stop in the middle of paintings and then start back up again, he had little interest in color for his paintings, and he was more interested in the delicate and emotional scene of life.

How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
- The videos that I chose were about great Renaissance artists who each had something to offer the world. The readings also talk about the artists and how they change the art work during the Renaissance. Both the readings in the text and the videos each give great information about art in history.

What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?
- I liked the videos because I got to learn more about the artists that I have read about since I was in grade school. I think about watching a video just dedicated to them you learn more about them, inside and out. The videos add depth to my understanding of the readings and art concepts because in the reading I learned more of the art and in the videos I learned about the artists who created those art concepts.