The Allegory of Sight

The Allegory of Sight was painted in c. 1618 by Jan Brueghel the Elder. It was painted with oil on canvas. I think this Painting is a reflection of what was going on during the renaissance because during the renaissance there has a major shift in art. Art is shown through the paintings and sculptors all around the room. More styles and rules were made. More artists started experimenting with art. It also shows the development in technology through the telescope and different instruments all over the floor. During the renaissance many people explored many aspects of life. There were many more explorers that traveled around the world as shown in the globe. Both these help represent exploration in the renaissance. Overall this painting reflects the renaissance because it represents the development during the renaissance and it shows different parts that were developed.

Driving Forces of the Renaissance

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/images/Europe/factfile/Santamaria.jpg

I believe trading was the most crucial driving force in the renaissance. It was through trading where the Italians got most of their knowledge of medicine and most of their spices. Also explorers discovered new trading routes which led to new countries to take over. Overall trading was the most important because it helped share ideas from all over the world.

This I believe

After a fourteen-hour trip back from the U.K, my family and I finally got home. It was late and dark and I was really sleepy. 5 minutes later I had already fallen asleep (which was really unlike me). At 4:30 AM my mom came in my room to wake me up telling me to get dressed we were heading to the hospital. At the time I was too tired to understand what was happening and so I didn’t bother asking questions.

When we got to the hospital the doctors checked my dad and immediately rushed him to the emergency room. My dad is a twin and usually with twins one of them will have blood clots. All it took was a fourteen-hour plane ride to form 3 blood clots (two in his lungs and one in his left leg). I didn’t know till the morning that my dad could have died if we hadn’t gone to the hospital.

I lived in Singapore before Malaysia and I didn’t really have many real friends. My first real friend ever was Sarah Bell. When I first saw her she looked a lot like the school bully at my old school but since she lived right next door to me, I figured that if I didn’t go and say Hi to her or every morning would be really awkward. Soon we were sitting next to each other in the bus and having sleepovers every weekend. Five years later during the international fest Sarah came up to me and told me that she was moving. Although she still doesn’t know this, I had a huge stomach cramp for the rest of the week.

This weekend I was at Rachel’s house watching Zombieland (a movie where America gets taken over by zombies). One of the main characters was a really tough man whose son had been eaten by a zombie. Although he was really tough he had a soft spot for Twinkie’s (a soft cream-filled pastry which his son always loved). Since America had been taken over by zombies no one was there to make Twinkie’s. Every time he got to a stop he would search for Twinkie’s then he would savour them. This is why all this relates to my belief. Always savour the little things. Before you know it they could be gone, this I believe.

http://api.ning.com/files/*av2BEv7P*Wttguzf92dgVaIuUD9AheatN4rYauqYwDwYt6ImnpY3wtnyPNRZwZyEIACzmtVSurbM68by4tSzJZMVrOgcBcX/KT088EnjoyTheLittleThingsPosters.jpg

http://artfiles.art.com/5/p/LRG/15/1576/NQMDD00Z/charles-schulz-peanuts-celebrate-the-little-things.jpg

Should We Stand Up For Others?

What are the consequences of ' just accepting the situation in which you find yourself [so] everything will be so much easier'? (Boyne 53)Bruno's father to Bruno.

Hitler got into power through lies, the main lie being “the Jews are the reason we lost the Great War”. Obviously that was not true. People were too scared to face Hitler with him having the military and the government on his side. They thought that if you went against him you would get killed immediately, which would most likely happen to you. Hitler also lied about what was happening to the Jews. He didn’t tell people that they were going to be starved and tortured and forced into labor. He only told the Germans that they were going to be killed and that Germany would become a perfect, blonde and blue-eyed nation.

There were various people (like the people of Le Chambon, a small town in France) who would protect the Jews and take care of the so that they would live a normal life where they weren’t hated by people. There were also some brave people who would break into the concentration camps and release some of the Jewish people. Other groups such as the White Rose Movement would publicly go against the Nazi’s and hand out flyers and protest against Hitler and the genocide.

Just accepting the situation does not make things easier because is watching people die better than dying yourself? If I had a Jewish friend at that time in Germany I wouldn’t let them die because the rest of the country says they are animals. Killing innocent humans because they are different doesn’t make you and more human and just accepting the situation doesn’t help because it doesn’t help you to have people who are almost exactly the same as you. Personally I wouldn’t let myself accept the situation whether it’s a live or death situation.

Steve McCurry was born in Philadelphia in the year 1950. His work deals with the art of photography and most of his most famous pictures are about war children and poverty. He is well known for his masterpiece “Afghan Girl”. The photo was placed in with the top 100 photos in the world and was on the cover of the national geographic magazine.

The “Afghan Girl” was definitely the most famous and eye-catching photo but it wasn’t the only good one. The photo I chose really stood out for me because when I first saw it I felt a wave of happiness. That was because after seeing all the pictures of depression, I’ve realized this is one of the few Steve McCurry where all the people are smiling.

The main setting is in a small room with one door/window. You can tell that there is only one door/window because light is coming from one direction only. The walls are covered in plastic which states that the family can’t afford to buy a house that keeps the rain out.

In the center of the photo are two people in a white hammock. The smallest one seems to be about 3~4 years old and the other one seems to be his father. Even though they live in such a small and run-down house, they are still so happy.

The older man also makes the child look small and delicate because of the way the child is curled up in a ball and how the adult seems laid back and spread out along the hammock. This makes me wonder why most of us don’t appreciate what we have.

Over all, I think when McCurry took this picture his intention might have been to show people that no matter what situation you are in (unless you have to make a choice of life and death) you should always be able to find happiness.