Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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In Reply to: In the Name of the Rose posted by Nikki Davis on December 15, 1998 at 12:33:45:
Today we watched a video on Florance and it's beautiful artwork. They showed "The David" several times. That was a totally NUDE male. Was that offensive? No, it was art. And why was it created? To show how incredibly awesome the human body is. It is art.
This video is also a form of art, though very different. The sex scene was necessary to the work as a whole, because it showed the graphic nature of that lifestyle. There is historical proof that this was not just made up for viewer ratings. It was important to show how the cultures lived. It may not have been pretty to look at, but it should have made you open your eyes against that type of a society. It wasn't encouraging that type of sexual behavior or abuse of women, but it was showing things as they were.
Our soceity has become very close minded when it comes to nudity. The artwork we were looking at was simply amazing today. It showed some very detailed things, but they all were very symbolic of their times, much like "Name of the Rose."
As it was briefly mentioned in the video, some of the great paintings were almost destroyed when some people came along years after their original paintings were created and painted leaves over the private parts of the human body. It took years to restore the paintings to their original state. They were painted in the nude for a specific purpose, to show the beauty and passion of the times.
Our society needs to lighten up and accept nudity a bit more so that we can fully appreciate all forms of artwork.
Holly