My art class is pretty dry. It is interesting stuff but not very fun. I like art but I don't know if I will be able to stay awake every class since it is our first one of the day. Today we learned about Velázquez. He was born in Sevilla and was a "barroco pintor". This barroco style uses the technique called claroscuro, which is using strong contrast between light and dark. Today we talked about the life of Velázquez and compared his painting of Christ to different paintings and depictions of Christ. Here is the painting by Velázquez.
Notice the differences....in this cuadro or painting there are four important differences.
1. Velázquez doesn't cross the feet of Jesus so there are four "clavos" or nails that are used to nail him on the cross.
2. There is a small amount of blood on Jesus, many paintings have blood streaming from his head and hands but in this painting there is only a small amount on his ribs. His entire body is very bright and the background (fondo) is very dark...demonstrating the claroscuro.
3. the writing above the cross, which usually is INRI, is written out fully (not abbreviated) and in three languages. Know which ones? It is written in greek, latin, and hebrew. Why would he do this you ask? Well Velázquez was a cocky guy. He knew he was smart and a good painter so he put three languages above the cross to show other artists that he was smarter than them because he knew three languages. yeah you thought it would have some special significance but nope...it is all just to help a guys ego out.
4. the last one is that Jesus rests on una tabula, or block of wood. Velázquez, as cocky as he was about his intelligence, was actually really smart so he took into account how Jesus if nailed on the cross would have slid down and off the cross from the weight of his body. He deduced that he would need to rest on something so he could be hung up for a long period of time. Interesting right?!
So that is what I learned in my art class today. Next class was culture! yay! My favorite! Today we finished up our sheet that was made up of cool facts we knew about Spain. There were 28 different things we had to figure out.
1. Una ciudad empiece por M que no sea Madrid ( name a city starting with M besides Madrid) = Marbella in the provience of Malaga.
2. Un escritor (writer)=Cervantes
3. Un cantante (singer) = Enrique Iglesias!! y David Bisbal...check out his song Ave María...it is soooo good!
4. Un pintor (painter) = Dalí
5. Un político (politician)= Zapatero
6. Un plato tipcio (typical plate) = paella (but only on the east coast of spain) every where lomo is a stable which is a pork sandwich (go figure haha)
7. Dos monumentos importantes (important monuments)= Sagrada Familia, Prado
8. Un museo (museum)= Reina Sofia
9. Novela (novel)= Don Quixote duh...haha
10. Una película (movie)= el laerinto del Fauno, Los otros, Volver
11. Una región donde se produce vino (where they produce wine)= EVERYWHERE!
12. Dónde se baila flamenco? (where do they dance flamenco) = the south
13. Quién es Adolfo Suárez? (who is..) = He was the first president after Franco and helped shape the democracy they have today in Spain...however now he has Alzheimer's and doesn't even remember being one of the greatest men in the history of spain...que lástima.
14. Cuantos lenguas oficiales en España? (how many official languages in Spain) = 4! español, gallego, catalán, vasco
15. Se favrican coches en España? ( do they make cars here)= surprisingly yes. there is one car company called Seat. each car they produce is named after a region in spain.
Those aren't all of them but they are the most interesting ones. Also we talked about last names in Spain. When a child is born they are given two apellidos (last names). The first one is the last name of their father and the second one is the last name of their father. For example the president of Spain at the moment is José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Rodriguez is his dad's last name and Zapatero is his mom's last name. He is called Señor Zapatero because it is more original and distinguishable than Rodriguez...which is like Smith in the US. When you have a kid their last name will be made up of their parent's fathers last names. I thought that was really interesting because no one ever changes their last name and everyone in a family has different last names except siblings.
Also in class we talked about Americans in Spain. If you are ever in Spain and someone calls you a Guiri...it is not a complement. It isn't a horrible word it is just a word to describe American tourists that are obvious to pick out in a crowd. So if you wear a baseball cap in Spain you will definitely be called one at least twice because people never wear baseball caps here...ever. haha.
In my third class we talked about our houses and how they are different here compared to our houses in Ann Arbor. We learned a lot of new vocabulary and have to make a presentation about our apartment in class on friday. Also today we got to pick out a "amigo clandestion" which is sort of like a secret santa. We each have someone from the class that we get to buy gifts for and write notes to for the duration of this semester. It is to help every one survive our study abroad experience. We can not reveal who we have to anyone and we have to be really secretive about it. I am excited about it! At the end we each have to guess who our person is. I do not know what to get my amigo so I have to think of some ideas today.
Later today I think I am just going to chill somewhere and ready a book or work on my presentation. Hasta Luego :)
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