Well, the best laid plans of mice and men…don’t always work out, do they? I did devote Saturday to reading as planned, but my plan to catch up on posting on Sunday night during the Oscars didn’t quite work out as my internet wasn’t working. Or to be more specific, Ryan was sucking the life out of the internet by playing World of Warcraft and there was none left for my laptop. Oh well. I am a little disappointed this kept me from participating in the Persephone Weekend, although I did read a Persephone. I’ll just post about it sometime this week.
As for the project books I’m reading, I stayed on track with The Story of Art and the Bible and read Love’s Labour’s Lost by Shakespeare. I have several Shakespeare posts I need to catch up on, especially since I’m planning to read two more plays this week.
The Story of Art chapter 2 focused on the “art of eternity” – art from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. I was familiar with some of the topics addressed in this chapter, but was impressed at Gombrich’s ability to still make the information interesting and new while also giving a great overview and new perspective on some things. For example, I knew that a lot of ancient Egyptian art was created for religious purposes, and that the drawings of many soldiers and servants in the pyramids were there to help the dead through their afterlife. (I’m glad they stopped sacrificing people to bury with the dead pharaohs and turned to drawings instead!) What I hadn’t thought of before was how this affected their style.
Egyptian art is very flat and sometimes the perspective is odd. For example, you often see people drawn with their face in profile with an eye facing forward, the chest facing forward, the legs turned sideways in a walking motion, and arms sticking out to both sides. Since they believed that the pictures were necessary for the person to help the pharaoh in the afterlife, every body part must be drawn in the best way possible. The chest is best seen from the front, but the head is best viewed from the profile, so they do both. The holds true for landscapes as well. A drawing of a pond will show it from overhead, but the fish and birds will be drawn sideways instead of as though you’re looking down on them. The things I found odd about their artwork now makes more sense and gives me a greater appreciation of what they were trying to accomplish.
This week’s Bible reading was from Exodus 1-20, which focuses on Moses. I’m still in familiar territory as God calls Moses to lead the people out of Egypt and gives him the 10 Commandments. Reading about Moses always makes me laugh. He tries so hard to get out of being the chosen one to lead the people out of Egypt. He’s not good enough, he’s not a good speaker, surely God can find someone else, right? He’s full of excuses. Finally God agrees to speak to Moses, who will in turn speak to his brother who will speak to the people. That kind of cracks me up. It’s like a game of telephone. Maybe that’s why God decided to write down the 10 Commandments and communicate them clearly.
Another Shakespeare play down! I read Love’s Labour’s Lost over the weekend and will post my thoughts on it this week.
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