Painting

                This week we read Alberti's book "On Painting". In this book he tells us everything that goes into painting and his opinion of it. He thought that all paintings should have three things: a noble subject, few figures with graceful poses, and a small palette of colors. He felt that there were only four true genre of colors: fire which is red, earth which is ash, air which is blue-gray, and water which is green. Which if you didn't notice are the four basic elements. He also said that "the aim of the painter is to obtain praise, favor, and good-will for his work much more than riches". To do all of these things he says that a painter has to be a good man well versed in the liberal arts. We find out later in the book exactly how highly he thinks of painting when he says that painters are creators, which is comparing them to God.  I liked this reading a lot better than last weeks since I could actually read the book without getting to the next page and being completely lost.
          We also looked at a bunch of paintings this week during class. I liked how the painters would paint in a countryside or style of architecture to make the picture seem like it took place in that country. It was also interesting to learn about all the different characteristics of the painters themselves, like how Da Vinci had a short attention span and Michelangelo was the opposite and would spend all his time on the project until it was finished. I enjoyed hearing these because I have always seen and heard a lot about the paintings, but have never really learned anything about the people that painted them.

The Black Death

When I used to think about the Bubonic Plague I never really understood what the people went through. I guess I probably will never understand since I didn’t go through it, but I now have a better understanding since I read Boccaccio’s Introduction to the Decameron. Throughout his piece he tells about how the plague was affecting everyone’s lives and how they dealt with it. It can’t be easy to confront something that makes people die all around you, but then again most of the people didn’t confront the plague. Most of them either ran or locked themselves up away from the world. The ones that did confront it chose to live their lives by their own rules by going from house to house drinking and partying. There were only a few that actually helped care for the sick and bury them, though in most cases the sick died alone without anyone with them. At one point during the plague the church even refused to perform burial rights. I know that I can’t really judge any of these people since I’ve never had to go through that so I don’t know what I would have done, but I hope that I would have at least tried to do something to help.

During class we watched a video that also showed what happened during the plague. Not only did the sick die during the plague, but even some of the people who weren’t sick were killed during the plague. I know that last bit sounds kind of confusing, but bear with me and I will explain. The video showed people massing together and going after certain groups of people because they thought that those people were the ones that caused the plague. This is what scares me the most about the human race; when something bad happens and people can’t explain it they start blaming each other. Just imagine being one of the people who was targeted. Not only would you have to worry about getting sick, but you would also have to defend yourself against everyone else.