Module 9

Velázquez- I have heard of Velazquez before. I like to pick the videos that I think I will be interested in. I will not pay close attention if I am not interested in the film. The fact that the video was only 36 minutes was an added bonus! He was close friends with the King. He always thought the king was eloquent. He loved to paint and painted the King in a timeless way. "He didn't give a fig for eternity." He was a very educated painter.  Velazquez died in Madrid shortly after he returned. I feel like Velazquez was more of a Rococo painter. His pieces used more subtle colors and seemed more elegant and not dramatic. His paintings are massive like the Baroque style. This is confusing to me. The war painting he created was neutral. There was no clear indication who won in fact the battle faded off and we saw landscape in the background. He was an abstract painter. His paintings are beautiful. The video shows so many of his pieces. He does a lot of portraits and his characters seemed fixed or frozen. The movement was inner. Velazquez will not beautify a person. everything he painted was a reaction and reflection of himself. They keep referring to Baroque but looking at his work I see Rococo. He is sparing in his use of color. I thought this was a great informative video. 

I wanted to watch, The Night Watch,because that sounded interesting but it said it was no longer available so I chose Albrecht Durer: Image of a Master. I took German in high school and it is part of my heritage  I find it completely fascinating to learn more about Germany. The silver point drawing is cool. I have never seen anything like that before. Enjoyed painting hands. He carefully observed the process of aging. He was one of 18 siblings. His charcoal sketch of his mother makes her look crazy, really has a cruelty of showing age. i love the color he uses in his pieces. It is the opposite of  Velazquez who is sparing with color. Print making allowed him to make many copies and reach a larger audiance. One of the favorites was of the virgin Mary. This was an interesting video. It is not was I was hoping it was going to be. I liked seeing his paintings more that his wood prints.