Susanna and the Elders

Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi (1610) is a perfect example of a Renaissance painting. The artist painted with oil on canvas - which had just been introduced during the Renaissance. Also, being a woman, Gentileschi decided to portray this scene a little differently than the other artists at the time. This is an example of a Renaissance theme - new and innovative ideas. Artemisia painted this piece when she was only 17 years old, which is actually why I chose to analyze this particular painting. She was taught by her father, Orazio Gentileschi - who was also a rather successful painter during the Renaissance.

This piece depicts the religious story of Susanna - an innocent young wife, who is sexually harassed by the elders in her town. Artemisia decided to 'tell' this story from the point of view of Susanna - which was quite uncommon at the time. The woman is cowering frightfully in the piece, as the elders loom mischievously over her. This specific biblical story was painted by various artists, who usually displayed Susanna as being flirtatious and thereby saying that she was not harassed at all, instead that she willingly got herself into all these situations. Gentileschi though, who herself was surrounded with similar issues (she lived in a society were rape was not uncommon at all; Artemisia was raped by her own art teacher a few years later) 'understood' Susanna - and she succeeded to make the viewer feel bad for the woman. Artemisia was very talented, as the proportions of the figures in the painting are all very exact, and the detail is also incredible.


Parker, Christine. "Susanna and The Elders." The Life and Art of Artemisia Gentileschi. Christine Parker. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. <http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/susanna.html>.

Victim.

I witnessed the horror descend upon their faces as they realized what fate had in store for them.
I knew they were coming. I knew they would die. I heard their horses. I heard them cry.
I was collecting wood for the fire - and yet the flames before me seemed to be growing steadily.
Our huts - our sheep - our everything - converted into ashes in a matter of minutes.
I saw them burn - I smelled their flesh. They had no time - they had no chance.
They were my family. My sister, my brother, my father, my mother. They were my friends - and all I could do was watch.
These vandals - these men - they tore through flesh and blood like a starved pack of wolves.
I wanted to scream - I wanted to cry - but the tears wouldn't roll and the sound wouldn't come.
I knew I couldn't do it - I knew I couldn't live. My entire outlook on life was altered. I didn't want to live, I didn't want to stay.
My town - my people. They died and so would I.
Once everything became silent - once I was the only soul alive - I strode forward - with one thought in mind.
It took me but a few moments to get what I came to find.
The unfathomable pain swept through me and blinded my thoughts.
Then it ebbed - and I knew it wasn't far - I knew heaven would erase my scars.
I had to write this - I had to leave something behind.

Because no one else got the chance.

9/11.

9/11 - a date that will stir up feelings of terror and chaos forever. In one day - in one building - 2,996 lives were lost. So many families were robbed of their loved ones forever, not just from 9/11 but also from 'The War on Terror' that began not even a month after that fateful day.

9/11 affects us to this very day 10 years later. Every time you set foot in an airport you are subject to the strict laws that were introduced after 9/11. I believe we should be ready, or even willing, to go through these measures that have been set up for our safety. These measures that our governments spend incredible amounts of money on every year, just to protect us from something like 9/11 ever happening again. There is just one major fault in the system that leads me to believe that precisely that is the problem - the governments are focusing too much on what once happened rather than what could happen in the future. I just don't know to what extent I should trust them. The security companies creating these new methods seem to be sidetracked because their machines don't quite work the way they should. There have been numerous tests that prove how easy it is to smuggle a bomb into an airplane even with these technologically advanced machines such as body scanners. Body scanners don't, for example, scan your mouth, so who says a bomb cannot be transported that way? In another test someone put a water bottle in their bag as well as a bomb, the airport security watching the x-ray screen just noticed the water bottle, but didn't even see the real threat. (Liquids can no longer be taken into airplanes after an attempted attack on an airplane in 2006 were a terrorist tried to smuggle a liquid explosive on board.) My point is that the people working at the airports as well as the security companies are still paranoid that something like 9/11 or other terrorist attacks that might happen again - and with reason! I'm not saying they shouldn't - but they should also focus on possible new threats. 

The War on Terror. 5,491 more Americans killed. I feel that 2,996 lives lost were more than enough. On May 2, 2011 Osama Bin Laden - the leader of the Al - Qaeda - was killed by the CIA. He has been on the FBI most wanted list for 10 years now, and finally he has been eliminated. But then why is the War on Terror still going on? I understand that the troops cannot just leave Iraq from one day to the next, but why is the war in Afghanistan still raging? I think that it is hard to ever really succeed in a war that has no definite enemy. As I believe in the saying, 'War is not the answer', I think the American Government should start this next decade with a fresh outlook instead of being stuck in another war. 

9/11 will forever haunt our memories, and the innocent people killed that day should never be forgotten.

Dark or Not Quite...?

The Dark Ages, The Middle Ages, Medieval Times...whatever you call it, the fact is that this was a time in our history of no astonishing developments in neither science, nor art. The highly advanced inventions and monuments of the Romans were neglected - at times even taken apart for building their own simple structures - not exactly a society full of art appreciation.The people during this time used the remaining ounces of their creativity to design 'wonderful' new torture methods - which must be a sign of how deprived of the arts they had become. The general public was worked from sunrise to sunset. Due to the constant presence of brutal war lords, thousands of innocent people were slaughtered and many children were sold into slavery. Sounds like a pretty dreary world to live in. I agree with the historians that call these times The Dark Ages, because most people during this age seemed to live harsh lives filled with back-breaking labor, war and crime. Although Christianity did come to the aid of some people, giving them an education and therefore hope - 'a light at the end of the tunnel', the fact that this age took about a thousand years to finally come to an end leads me to believe that Christianity didn't do as much good as some historians claim. I feel that The Dark Ages is an appropriate name for this depressing time in our history.