Friday, February 22, 2008

Roman Art

There's too many wonderful things to learn about and do! My latest obsession is Roman Art. I was very excited when I saw that an exhibit of Roman Art from the Louvre was coming to the Seattle Art Museum.

A few years ago I had the amazing experience of visiting some friends in England. It was a wonderful trip but I learned later what an opportunity I missed. I didn't spend any time learning about the art, history, architecture or other things I would be seeing in England before my trip. I was perfectly content with my experience at the time. It wasn't until I began to study art and history several months later that I realized how much art and history I had stood in front of without the ability to appreciate it. I was like a pig wallowing in creme brulee who couldn't tell the difference between it and Jello. I vowed to never make that mistake again.

So begins my study of Roman Art. I will be prepared when I come face to face with these treasures from the Louvre.

I started with a bunch of children's picture books on Roman Art, History, and Civilization. I've read through those and feel like I've got a basic understanding of things. Now I'm going to study the great Roman Classics. I'm getting my book titles from the list in the back of Mortimer J. Adler's classic work, How to Read a Book. The list is organized chronologically and includes what Adler considers to be the greatest books of the western world. He makes a compelling argument for reading and studying the books on this list. I hope to read them all. Right now I'm going to focus on the books written during and about the Roman Age. I'm beginning with Plutarch's Lives. I'll let you know how it goes...

4 comments:

Michael Family said...

Go Jen! I took AP European History in high school, and have always wanted to go to Europe since then, so I could see everything! I would definitely have to brush up on history before I went though. If I were in Seattle, I would love to go to the museum with you!

Jen said...

That's Awesome Marisa. Maybe the Louvre exhibit will come to you...It's traveling across the country. Wish you could go through it with me here!

Sea Star said...

I don't know much about Roman art, but I totally understand the regret of not knowing what you are looking at when you are seeing great works of art in person. I went to England and even France before I had really studied any art. When I finally went to italy after a bit of college I appreciated it more. Now I just need to get back to Europe. In the mean time I will content myself with studying from books which is sometimes just as good if not better. No people to fight with when you want to stare at something for a long time.

I need to look up museums around here and see what they are exhibiting.

Jen said...

Sarah, The Legion of Honor and the De Young were my favorite museums in San Fran. I saw an amazing Monet exhibit at the Palace about 2 years ago. They get some pretty good exhibits coming through. The SF MOMA is good for modern art too.

I just checked and the Legion has Dead Sea Scrolls right now. I saw that here. I really liked it.