Medieval- Last Judgement

The Last Judgement, tympanum at west portal of Sainte-Foy Conques (Ca. 1065), compared with the Last Judgment, tympanum at Notre Dame de Paris (Ca. 1220).

Both of these sculptures on these buildings are depictions of the Last Judgement. Both of them are located at the west portal of the buildings. The center focus of each of the tympani are Jesus Christ. The tympanum on Conques was made during the Romanesque era during the 12th century. The other, was made in the Gothic era.

The Last Judgement tympanum of Conques shows Christ sitting in the center as the judge. He looks really serious about it, sitting on a throne with his right hand pointing up towards heaven and the people saved while his left hand is pointing down at hell and the people damned. It shows that if you're good then you get to enjoy the joys of heaven and if you are bad then you get to be tormented in hell. On the right of Christ, Mary and Peter and the other saints are standing. On Christs right, below Mary, Peter, and the saints, there is a covered area that looks like it is part of heaven also. The people are being saved and will get to go to Heaven.

On Christ's immediate left side, it shows all the people who are damned to hell. There are really creepy demons and there is a dragon-looking head that people are being shoved into, leading to hell. Right below that scene is hell. In hell, Satan is sitting with a lot of dead-looking people surrounding him.

The Last Judgement tympanum of west portal on Notre Dame de Paris shows Christ at the top and in the center with 2 angels on each side of him. He is sitting on a throne and the throne is placed right on top of a little town depiction. This probably represents him judging everyone in every little town. on his right side are what looks all the people being saved. They are standing next to an angel and are looking towards Christ. They are probably looking up representing that they have been following Christ and that's why they're going to heaven. On Christ's left, it shows all the people being led to hell. They are standing next to either a demon or the devil himself. The people below all of them look like they are waiting to be judged. They look scared and none of them are separated in any way-- they're just chilling. The entire scene is surrounded by angels watching whats going on. 

One thing thing that I think is interesting about both of these depictions of the Last Judgement and others that I've seen is that they usually have heaven on Christs right hand side and hell on is left hand side. I don't know if what the significance of this is but I don't think its coincidental. The tympani on from the Romanesque era is a little more dramatic looking than the one from the Gothic era. It seems much more harsh and dark. The one on Notre Dame is much lighter and less dramatic. It doesn't depict it as a good scene but it doesn't seem as brutal as the one on the Conques. 

Both of them show essentially the same thing, but analyzing both of them, I would think that people in the Gothic era are less expressive for some reason. It is a fairly symmetrical picture and I think that they cared more about what the building looked like and how well done it was instead of the actual depiction. The one from the Romanesque era, however, the artist and people from that time seemed truly scared for the Last Judgement. The picture was probably used on the building to scare people, entering the building, of sinning.

Women in China

The reading that I did for this post honestly made me really sad. In the America right now, I feel like women and men are fairly equal. There are definitely still places where men are treated inferior to women but for the most part, women are treated pretty good in America and other places around the world. It's so hard to imagine living in China during a time like the Han Dynasty. At this time they strongly believed in the Confucian principles such as men being superior to women and they also believed in respecting their elders. Because of their age and experience they were supposedly much wiser then younger people. They would arrange who their daughters would marry. In Lui Xijun's poem "Lament" she writes about how truly miserable she was in her situation. She was married off by her family to the King of the Wusun for political reasons. They sent her to a far away, remote place to go meet, marry, and start a life with him. He turned out to be an old, decrepit man. She hated her life and where she lived and what she had to eat to survive. All that she wanted was to be able to go home and have her old life back. In the end she said that she wished that she was a yellow snow-goose so she could fly home.

A woman named Ban Zhao wrote a "Lesson to Woman" in the late first century. She starts off by introducing herself as an "unworthy writer . . . unsophisticated, unenlightened, and by nature unintelligent." I couldn't believe that she was describing herself with such harsh terms. She went on to talk about how a woman's main purpose in life was to work and serve her husband. They had strict unspoken rules about being humble and yielding to and respecting others. They had to be virtuous and be careful of everything they said, or wore, or how they acted. The men were educated but the women didn't get the opportunity to receive an education. She did discuss, however, that men couldn't just disrespect their wife. They were a team--described as yin and yang. If a husband is unworthy then they didn't have the right to control their wife.

Another account of what it was like to be a woman during the Han Dynasty is shown in Fu Xuan's poem "To Be a Woman". This is weird to me because it is actually written by a man. The first line was really powerful to me, it says: "It is bitter to be a woman, the cheapest thing on earth." I don't think women at this time were abused or beaten as much as just made to feel like nothing; they feel cheap. Its makes me really glad that women are treated so much better and equal nowadays.

Antigone

In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, Antigone shows some heroic characteristics. Antigone is very strong in her beliefs of divine laws and is very loyal to the gods. When her brother dies, she makes it her life purpose to bury her brother. Creon, Antigone's uncle, is the ruler at the time and decrees that no one can mourn the death of Polynices and he cannot be buried. This was a terrible thing to command and Antigone just wanted to make things right for her brother so she did everything she could do to have him buried.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus went on a journey to obtain immortality. Antigone and Odysseus are similar in a lot of ways, they are both considered heroes in Greek culture because they were brave and they followed what they believed. They both fought for what they thought was right even though they faced hard things--even death. Many people were against them and didn't support them but they continued to do what they believed and both of them ended up dying because of it.

The main differences between Antigone and the Odyssey are Antigone is a play and the Odyssey is an epic and Odysseus went on a journey and had a lot of stops and trials along the way while didn't go on a journey; she just had a bunch of trials. And they both die but Antigone kills herself and Odysseus is killed. Also, Antigone takes place in Thebes and Odysseus is in the Agean sea most of the time.

Even though Antigone is considered a hero in Greek culture, I personally don't think she was that heroic. She did what she knew to be right but she didn't really do it for the right reasons. She did it more for selfish and prideful reasons rather than for the real good reasons that she should have. She tries to gain admiration and fame with the people and get praise from the gods. I still think she's heroic but she just is less of a hero then people think.

Laws

The Ten Commandments:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou salt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7.  Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shall not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet.

According to the Book of the Dead, Hunefer must declare at the Last Judgment that he is innocent of 42 sins, some of which are listed here:
I have not done crimes against people,
I have not mistreated cattle,
I have not sinned in the Place of Truth.
I have not known what should not be known,
I have not done any harm.
I did not begin a day by exacting more than my due,
My name did not reach the bark of the mighty ruler,
I have not blasphemed a god,
I have not robbed the poor.
I have not done what the god abhors,
I have not maligned a servant to his master.
I have not cased pain,
I have not caused tears.
I have not killed,
I have not ordered to kill,
I have not made anyone suffer.
I have not damaged the offerings in the temples,
I have not depleted the loaves of the gods,
I have not stolen the cakes of the dead....
I have not cheated in the field.
I have not added to the weight of the balance, ...
I have not taken milk from the mouth of children.

There is a definite connection between the laws in the Book of the Dead and the laws of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are more broad than the Book of the Dead but a lot of the laws in the Book of the Dead are covered in the Ten Commandments. An example of this is "I have not killed." (BoD) and "Thou shalt not kill" (TC). However, a lot of the laws in the Book of the Dead are kind of strange for this day in age. And many of them are so specific, its hard to believe the people didn't break them all the time! The laws that say "I have not caused pain, I have not caused tears." (BoD) are weird! I feel like its not that hard to cause pain or make someone cry (even though its not right to do that).

The Book of the Dead is just so much more specific and serious. It was clearly made for the specific time period and area. The Ten Commandments are much more universal and even though they were created thousands of years ago, they are still totally relevant today. Many religions and peoples still follow the Ten Commandments because they are good life guidelines and still apply to life now.

I haven't done much research on the Book of the Dead but I do know that it was used in Ancient Egypt around 50 BCE. During that time, they had kings and worshipped multiple gods. They had very strict laws and consequences for breaking the laws of the land. I think the laws are very detailed because everything back then was about detail and order. They had to follow certain steps to achieve things and one mess up and their life was over basically. It was just a very different time and place then the one that I am living in now so it makes sense that they would seem strange to me.

DocUT EXHALING MUSIC

Exhaling Music is an informative documentary on the composer Fred Jonny Berg. It is made to take the viewer inside the mind of a composer, musician, and artist. I think that the filmmaker chose to make this film to inform audiences of the amazing talent and hard work that goes on behind the scenes of their favorite musicians. It really makes me think of all the incredible work that goes into just one song. Even though this documentary is specifically about an orchestra and not necessarily the type of music I listen to, I can imagine a lot of work similarly goes on for the types of music I listen to--on a smaller scale, however.

The beginning of this documentary takes you inside the mid of Fred Jonny Berg. It's crazy because he is almost like a schizophrenic but instead of hearing voices, he hears music. He really does inhale and exhale music; melodies and songs are constantly running through his mind. The filmmaker had Fred explain what it was like to create and compose music and at one point he described it as, "turning your soul inside out and letting others step on it." Instead of the thoughts that average people have, he thinks in notes. So to create music, it is like him spilling his thoughts out onto a piece of paper for the world to see.

Fred Jonny Berg seems like he is struggling on the inside. He doesn't connect well with people and is just awkward when it comes to socializing. Even though he has such incredible amounts of talent, he still doesn't seem very happy. I think that a lot of times, people who have such talent in one area kind of struggle with the day to day things because they don't connect or think the same way that most people do. This documentary made me kind of sad for him because despite all the success, he seemed slightly depressed.

He received the privilege of having the conductor that he had admired for years, Vladmir Ashkinazy, to conduct an orchestra in a recording session. He seemed very excited and nervous but during the first day of recording, he still seemed like his uncomfortable/awkward self. The next day of recording, Vladmir came down with the flu and could not conduct. The only possible replacement was Fred. Despite never having conduct an orchestra, he decided that he was better than nothing. As soon as he got out of his comfort zone and started interacting with people as he was conducting, he seemed to have a different light about him. Even though he didn't know what he was doing, he seemed to be happier and to be having more fun. The piece that he had conducted turned out great but I think that more importantly, he tried something new and gained a whole new kind of life experience.

I'm pretty sure that the filmmaker was just trying to inform  the viewers of Fred Jonny Berg and his incredible work and talent. I, however, found a slightly different meaning. When Vladmir came down with the flu, it seemed like the worst possible scenario. But I personally believe that with every bad thing, there is something good and worthwhile that comes out of it. And in this situation, it forced Fred to try something new and have an exciting experience.

I really enjoyed this documentary and all that it has to offer. It really made me think about all the work that goes on behind the scenes of things. I also loved thinking about the life lessons that this documentary contains.

Humanities

My name is Alison Camille Witt. I was born and raised in Heber Valley, a small town in Northern Utah. It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful place in all of Utah! I really love it there so much but I was glad to get out and experience life in a totally new landscape. Growing up in a small town and living there for all of your life is difficult. It gets boring seeing the same scenery all the time and so I decided that for college I would switch up my scenery and move to the desert! I think Saint George is a whole new kind of beautiful and I already love living here. I am so excited to be attending Dixie State University and I think it has so many good things to offer. I have always wanted to go to a smaller university and live in place with warm weather so Dixie is perfect for me! I am planning on studying business with an emphasis on human resources. My goal is to one day be the HR director for a big company in a nice city.

One of the most important things to me is art; I love every form of art. I took a lot of art classes in high school and I hope to be able to take a lot in college. I have a passion for music, drawing and painting, and movies. I am excited to learn about the history of art and learn how to analyze art and get the most out of it as possible. I hope you enjoy following me through this journey to learn about the humanities.