Ch. 13, Renaissance Men

Alexia here to report!  Hello classmates, I'm here with some information

on the greatest artists of the renaissance era, though one could consider Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo to still be master artists in even today's world.

Even in preschool, I knew his name and I knew the Mona Lisa, her printed image hanging in the classroom for me to stare at while I tried to understand how such a strange-looking woman with no eyebrows could be so famous. As time went on and the understanding grew with my love of the arts, I began to revere Leonardo Da Vinci as a genius with so much more than his hands.

Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci was acclaimed to be the embodiment of the renaissance, being talented in painting, math, anatomy, music, early science, sculpting, architecture, writing, engineering, and so much more. His journals had in-depth and anatomically correct sketches of the inside of the human body with such minute details they appeared to be the illustrations right from a text-book. He could craft any fine instrument and also be able to play it, and could conceptualize technological ideas that only became real in the last century like the parachute or helicopter. His finished art that remains today is world re-known, such as the "Mona Lisa" and his commissioned piece "The Last Supper." Even his unfinished work and his journals tour museums around the globe.

Michelangelo was the only man who could be considered a rival  to Leonardo's work in the Renaissance era. 
Though also multi-talented, his preferred art expression was sculpting, creating one of his most famous pieces, the Pieta, at only age twenty two. But the sculptor's most famous piece of art was not a sculpture or relief, but his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine chapel which took him forty years to complete. Michelangelo was gifted also in both poetry and architecture. 




                                Click here for a video tour of the inside of the sistine chapel!

                                 Click here to view more of Da Vinci's art and inventions


 

Moses- Chapter 5

Around 1200 B.C. many Jews were living in Egypt, at that time Jews were enslaved and used to build pyramids and other structures for the Pharaohs.  Jews at that time were mistreated, and around the time Moses was born, the Pharaoh had ordered to have every Jew boy killed.  Moses’ mother at the time decided to put him in a basket and let him flow away to safety in the Nile River; as this happened his own little sister was watching him float away.

That same afternoon while the daughter’s pharaoh was bathing in the Nile River, she saw pass by the basket and picked up; when she saw the little baby, she knew he was a Jewish baby and that he was supposed to be killed, but right away she took him with her, and called him Moses, which means “Saved”.  Afterwards Moses was brought back to his family to be taken care of.  As years passes Moses grew, and still Jews were being exploited; one day in particular Moses was taken back when he saw an Egyptian hit a Jewish man.  Moses without hesitating hit the Egyptian to defend the other man, but actually ended up killing him.  Moses scared about what had happened, runs away from Egypt, and stops around Libya.  There he became a shepherd and lived his life, until one day a sign was given to him from God, to liberate the children of Israel and unite them under one religion. Eventually he went back to Egypt and informed all the Hebrews to plan an escape from Egypt.  Moses did talk to the Pharaoh about letting his people leave, but the Pharaoh refused and with that nine horrible plagues were casted upon the Egyptian population; The plague, which was the killing of the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, finally got the Pharaoh to change his mind and let the Hebrews leave. Leaving was not that easy because at the last minute the Pharaoh did change his mind and sent his guards to kill all the slaves, but thanks to a miraculous event granted to Moses through God, he was able to finally lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and in a safe place.

Since I was young this story really has amazed me, Moses had to go through many challenges and hardships, but he was able to lead a group of people out to safety and convert them to Judaism.  Also I think it’s interesting how Moses is a part all the three main religions of today’s World; Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  This shows that in the end we all come from the same background and our ideas originate from the same source. (Francesca Di leo)

Francis Of Assisi

In reading Chapter #12, I really enjoyed the small section on Francis of Assisi.

  This triggered me to research more about him. 

His real name is Giovanni Bernadone, but he was nicknamed Francesco from his father.  

Growing up in a catholic church and going to CCD

every Wednesday, I learned so much about the the church and the saints. 

St. Francis was always my favorite.

  I really just remember him for being the patron of animals,

but as I was reading up more about him, I discovered he has

so much more to his life than just animals.  He grew up in a very rich family 

and enjoyed the spoiled life, but when he started traveling he realized possessions were nothing.  He once met a homeless man and traded cloths with him.  His sympathized with lepers, which was so uncommon for fear of the unknown.  He also gave up all his possessions to become a monk. His father beat him and even disowned Francis because of  his decisions to give up all of his possessions. Francis believed he heard God call to him and tell him to rebuild a church, so he went and he took textiles from his father’s store, sold them,

and used the money to reconstruct a church, in fact he was responsible for reconstructing

many churches in his time.  He also is known for establishing the Franciscan Order. 

One amazing story about Francis and his animals is about a wolf.

Francis had such a tender heart for all animals and nature.

A wolf had been attacking local herds of sheep, Francis claimed if the people would just feed this

“ Brother Wolf” then he wouldn’t be so tempted to attack there flocks.

 It is said in the early legends that many animals flocked to him the 

friendly as well as the fierce animals.  

Overall, St. Francis stuck out among all the other saints as my favorite and most memorable.

More on the life of St. Francis

Blessings for St. Francis & animals

Group #3

Margaret Leonetti

Machu Picchu

When discussing the Inca civilization in class the one thing that stuck out to me was the Machu Picchu.  The Machu Picchu is a town built by the Incas, in the Andes Mountains.  This city was built around 1450 and it is recorded to be 2,430 meters above sea level.  This itself is so fascinating because the Incas did not have tools yet like civilization now.  They didn’t even have the wheel so no wagon or carts would be available to assist in the heavy lifting.  They built this town on pure physical labor. 
Mainly they carved houses out of the gray granite of the mountain top. 

The Incas were very precise with there building and technique, because this town still stands today.  
The town of Manchu Picchu was surrounded by agriculture and natural springs, so the people in the town were able to survive just by there natural surroundings.

Some believe this city was built possibly
for a a place of religious retreat, but it is not really documented specifically why it was built. 
I think it could of been a safe haven for some people. Possibly some people didn’t get along with 
their neighbors and decided to take it upon themselves to move away. 
This town was also located on the top of this mountain, so it served as a place for an astronomical observatory.  

This city was abandoned a little after Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquisters 
destroyed most of the Inca civilization.
Fortunately, this city was overlooked because of it location, and it can still be seen today by the public.


GROUP#3 Margaret Leonetti

For more info on Machu Picchu click here

and here

Early Japanese Civilization

 Hey guys, is Francisco Hernandez and  today it’s a pleasure to talk about Japan’s early civilization! The Early Japanese Civilization doesn’t have much written records of the earliest times. However, the little much we know about it is very impressing. First, I like how the field of archeology was shock when they found out the fact that Japan’s civilizations were the first ones to create pottery. I guess that as Japan being an island isolated from most of the worlds civilizations, people thought that they didn’t have enough resources, idea or influences of others masterpiece civilizations like Roman, Greek, Indian etc. to be the first ones to create the amazing art of pottery. The first constructed pottery were made from clay and later on impressed with ropes or cords which gave birth to the Jomon era. In this era beautiful amazing and awesome pottery was created. 

          Also, I respect the early Japanese civilization because they went against the fact that we all believed about hunting-gathering people, which is that they do not have time to do 

anything else other than hunt and move from place to place.However, the early inhabitants of Japan created pottery while still in a hunting-gathering phase, which is very impressing. In addition to the Japanese creating the first pottery, how impressing is that the civilization of this little land mass surrounded by water also created the world’s first novel called The Tale of Genji.     

 This novel being the most enduring and influential of all works

of Japanese literature, was created by a woman, which really caught 

my attention because it shows that both sexes were equal not like in most

civilization at the time and even now that the woman is always metaphorically behind and under the man. Altogether, I really enjoy reading how impressing the Japanese civilization is, I hope you guys did too. 

  .

Chapter 8- Early Chinese Civilization

Reading about the wonderful country that China is so fascinating! When you think of China you don’t usually think of their many centuries of struggles that they have had with different leaders that have come into the nation and try to dominant and enforce rules that were in most situations cruel and unfair.  The invasion of The Qin Dynasty is legendary that even till this day it has marked the way China is today. Although there was much political insatiability due to the unorganized ruling of the Zhou; Qin dynasty was quick to take over in 221 BCE. Qin dynasty was all about enforcing the rules efficiently and making sure the country was unaffiliated with any other.  In the time that Qin dynasty was in power the rulers created a central bureaucracy and divided the country into administrative units. Also standardizing the writing system including currency, weights, and measures which is something thanks to the Qin dynasty is still what we efficiently use today in are century. Like every country there was some good and some bad, Qin dynasty made it fair to everyone regardless if you were poor or rich it was mandatory that you had to pay taxes. Now does Qin dynasty sound so bad now? Probably not, but Like I just said there is always two faces to every coin.  Qin dynasty created The Great Wall in thoughts of creating a border to block any other countries from invading but as time progressed they wanted to my make sure their own people would not over rule them. They started to take away things such as their free speech and destroying anything that had to do with literary and philosophical texts.  It was not a long after that they were over-thrown, but if you think about it don’t you think without the Qin dynasty China wouldn’t be what it is today? –Diana Mozombite    

Chapter 7- Indian Civilization

 Hello humanity bloggers! My name is Diana Mozombite, Have you ever thought and wondered for a moment where Buddhism comes from and how this fat man in the image came to be? I can tell you, he was not at all what we see him like today. The legendary Buddha lived from 563- 483 BC with the name of Siddhartha Gautama Sakya he was also how ever known as Sakyamuni meaning “the sage or silent one of the Sakya.” Since the day he was born it was said that one day he would be destined to be a king or the world redeemer.  Sakyamuni was a prince a kingdom in the foothills of the Himalayas and his father was the King who was extremely over protective. His father had arranged strict orders in his kingdom for his son be kept out of sight from anyone sick, old and maimed so it would not frighten the young prince about the ugly truth of the real world. As he grew up he wanted to experience what the world is really like. Which eventually caused him to flee out of his kingdom because of his father’s overbearing shield that he had over him.  Sakyamuni walked to the countryside and mediated with six ascetics until he realized that asceticism would not led him to salvation. He eventually determined that there must be some path that he needs to take in order to reach the path of enlightenment. He sat under a papal tree and mediated for forty-nine days and nights until finally the night of the full moon he had achieved enlightenment, which also comes to say was Sakyamuni first sermon at Deer Park in India that embraced for the first time the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.  Reading about Buddha is truly an interesting story from young prince who originally knew nothing about life to knowing the meaning of what life should be like.