My Classes

I know i have not made an update in a really long time. It appears that the internet is a bit better today so I think a post with just text will be okay. I will add picture later...promise.
I need to tell everyone about my classes and how much I love them. I am taking three art history classes: Rome and the Medieval world, Renaissance art in Rome, and Baroque art.

Medieval
My teacher is straight out of Harry Potter. Actually i can say that about a lot of art history teachers i have had. They are all very... i don't know how to describe it. They are just from a differentw orld... the wizard world I think. She wears very thick glasses so that when she is looking at you her eyes do not appear to ACTUALLY be looking at you. Her hair is very frizzy and if she were wearing a dark purple cloak and pointed hat she could be friends with Albus. hehe

I was most excited about taking this class because I had taken a class entitled Medieval Monasteries (which Tessa called Medieval Times) the quarter before coming. The class is okay... I thought it would have been better. Her lectures are not amazing, but the site visits are GREAT!!! I love it. We visit so many amazing churches: St. Paul outside the Wall, St. John the Lateran, the Sancta Sanctorium, Santa Maria Nova, Santa Maria Maggiore, and many others that I cannot really remember. It is just wonderful to have class inside the most beautiful churches that I have EVER seen! The cloisters are also just gorgeous with the most ornate columns that have mosaics.

I have a midterm in this class tomorrow... sigh. That is why I am distracting myself by writing in my blog. hehe I'm such a good student. I really need to study, but I still have two more classes to talk about, so on to the next one.

Renaissance
My teacher for this class is the cutest little leprechaun I have ever seen. He too could be straight out of HP. He is just a bit taller than I am. I have this urge to bring a green hat to class and ask him to wear it and do a little jig! He is my favorite art history professor that i have ever had. Everything he says is profound. i have never meet a person who is so passionate about his field. EVERYONE in the class wants to just take him home because he is so amazing. He really inspires the students to learn because he is so excited about what he is teaching. I fortunately have him for Barouqe as well. His class is difficult because there is a lot of work and reading, but he makes what we are learning so seem so significant for our well being that I am just so driven to learn everything I can about Renaissance and Baroque art!
In this class we visit the coolest churches and the readings on Michelangelo are so interesting. The site visits are cool too because we visit places that I walked past everyday for school. Going on site visits really makes me feel part of Rome because I know the history behind it. I just had the midterm in this class and I think I did pretty well because I studied so much for it. It is so fun because he just makes me want to learn. Gosh... I sound like such a nerd!

Baroque
I did not think I would like this class because I do not have a true love for baroque art, but this one is actually my favorite. Seriously, going on site visits with this class is amazing because Rome is a baroque city. Most of the things in Rome had been redone in the baroque era so a lot of what stands today is baroque. We have visited many famous churches and sites such as the Campidoglio, Il Gesu, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva etc. We have also seen a lot of Caravaggio paintings. The most recent site visit was to the Villa Borghese museum where we focused on Bernini's sculptures. This site viste was seriously moving. I know i sound strange right now, but really... Words cannot describe these sculptures. My favorites were "Pluto and Persephone" and "Apollo and Daphne." It was a total spiritual moment when my professor read Ovid's Metamorphoses about the story of Apollo and Daphne as we were looking at the sculpture. Wow... I sound like a snob (like i could be friends with Fraiser).

I seriously love my classes and I am totally in love with this city. I am seeing things in person that I have only seen on late night documentaries on KCET and in slides in my art history classes. My classes really make me realize that people back then had so much more depth as a society. Everyone would have known the story of Apollo and Daphne and would have read Ovid, Pliny the Elder, and Vergil. They would have also been able to recognize the neoplatonic symbolism in the Chigi chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo.

I think I am learning more here that I have ever learned in my whole entire academic career because the history that I am learning is so relevant here. I am able to walk down the street and recognize places/sites/ elements that I am studying. Every time I see a chruch that I have entered, my mind thinks about all of the historical facts I know about that place. studying art history here is awonderful way to totally feel connected to Rome.

Okay.... so now I must study.