1. Explain why you selected each of the three videos you choose from the selection listed above.

Late Gothic Art and Architecture: England, 1400-1547 – I was really interested in watching this video because there are certain elements of Gothic Art which fascinates me the most.

More Human Than Human – I chose this video because the title really seemed unique.

Cairo Museum – I chose to watch this video because of the title. Museums are really interesting places because they portray different and important pieces of history extremely well. 

2. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Late Gothic Art and Architecture: England, 1400-1547 – This video explored late Gothic Art of England within the time period between 1400 and 1547. One of the key concepts I learned was that the tombs, sculptures, and stained glass at St. Mary’s Warwick celebrate the life of the Earl of Warwick. I also learned about the greatest individual artist named Hans Holbein, who was German. Holbein made two visits in England to try his luck in court circles. 

Cairo Museum – The key concepts I learned from this video is the different pieces of historical aspects that the Cairo Museum in Egypt holds. For example, the video states that the museum is a world-renowned cultural center that is filled with some of the ancient world’s most precious artifacts. These artifacts include: the famed burial mask of King Tutankhamen and the Royal Mummies of Luxor. The collection within this museum is so large that it has traditionally shown only half of its holdings at any one time.

More Human Than Human - This program seeks to understand why unrealistic figures are so prominent throughout the evolution of painting and sculpture. One of the many key concepts I learned from this video was the first images of the human body. During the early 1900s, there were three Austrian archaeologists and they embarked on a journey to hope to make an important find. Later they visited the Danube River valley in 1908, and one of the men ended up finding a complete statue of a female figure. The statue was made 25,000 years earlier and they called her ‘The Venus of Willendorf’.

3. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
The videos give a more visual meaning to the readings in the text because the text is just a lot of words with several pictures. However, in the videos there are images and real life footage that are shown and also people who do commentary in the background, which makes the content more rich and better to learn from. 

4. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?
The videos were very informative and interesting to watch as they explored a variety of different aspects from different time periods of history. For example, the Gothic Art video was, I think, the most informative video out of them all because it explored into deep meanings within art works that was created during the middle ages. The other videos were also informative such as the ‘more human than human’ video, which a part of it talked about how the three archeologists found the statue of the female figure. I thought that was pretty scary because it proves the fact that there may many hidden figures all around the world from ancient times. The Ciao Museum video was my favorite because I love museums and I believe that they are informative in teaching us the important aspects of history. It is a museum that I would love to visit someday