My thoughts on art (ARTF200X )

  Title: View of Haarlem from the Northwest, with the Bleaching Fields in the Foreground Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael Circa: 1650 - 1682  Location: Haarlem, North Holland, Amsterdam Image hosted by: Rijks Museum     I came across this picture from the lecture videos, and I fell in love with it. My favorite aspect of  View of Haarlem from the Northwest, with the Bleaching Fields in the Foreground,  is the composition of the clouds. They appear to be drifting across the sky. This movement creates a beautiful contrast of light and dark on the horizon below. The clouds also play with that same contrast where the bright blue sky is more visible from behind the lighter clouds and then moving to a cluster of gray clouds blocking out the same bright blue sky on the left. Moving from the sky down to the fields and the city in the distance, the clouds have created an interesting pattern of light breaking up the heavy dark tones. As I look upon the fields, my eyes start to dart from one patch of l

  Dome of Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore Location: Florence, Italy Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi Construction: Between 1420 and 1436 Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash          I have chosen to look at the Dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and its ties to the Italian Renaissance. The dome of this cathedral was built more than a century after the cathedral's construction had begun. Arnolfo di Cambio was the first architect hired to build this cathedral and the first stone was laid in 1296. Cathedrals such as this were being built due to an idea from the middle ages. Cities in Italy would build cathedrals larger than the previous to compete with another in terms of wealth or standing. This cathedral in particular was built to compete with those built in Pisa (1093) and Siena (1260). While the cathedral may have begun as a contest of sorts from the middle ages, the dome itself is heavily influenced instead, by the Renaissance movement.      When I look upon this