West Halls

As i walked out of Sparks building at 8:50 AM after my morning Psychology class, I ventured across the street to a set of stairs with three arched openings lying just ahead of them. The Gothic looking architecture captured my attention right away. As i walked through the center arch, I saw an assortment of trees, bushes, and flowers. They lit up the entire area, especially the flowering bush in the middle of a little plaza which was placed right in front of where I was standing. There were beautiful buildings surrounding me, the one in front of me containing the same three arches as the one I had just walked through. To my far left was a building with five elegant columns in the entrance. The rich smell of fresh grass and the sound of birds chirping in the distance complemented everything my eyes were taking in and created a scene of tranquility in my mind. The arches, columned buildings, and the calmness reminded me of Princeton University, the university in the town I live in, which also attracted me to this place. I felt I had discovered an oasis in a place that was so new to me. I had found a place that reminded me of home. I followed the paved walkway into the Waring commons and had the best breakfast I've had at Penn State since I've been here! I can't wait to go back.

My Trip To The Art Museum

Before my trip to the Palmer Museum of art, I had already started to imagine what type of art would catch my eye. I always spend the majority of my time looking at paintings in art museums because for some reason, three-dimensional art just doesn't do anything for me. It is beautiful, but in my opinion, paintings are so much more expressive. For this reason, I did not need to look far. I strolled into the second gallery of the museum and one painting in particular caught my eye. It's called The Brazen Serpent by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti. This piece was painted in 1736 with oil paints on a canvas. It was remarkable. The characters were all looking in the same direction at a serpent coiled around what looked like a tree or a cactus. This tree's formation was that of a cross, a huge indicator that this is a religious work of art, more specifically Christian. Each person in this painting has a look on their face of complete anguish and horror as they look at the serpent. They seem to be on their knees or bowing down to the serpent and there are two people in the front of the painting who look dead or at least injured. I can infer that the serpent caused their death because of the fear in the eyes of the people looking up at it. There is one man in the middle of the painting, who is also the only person standing up. He is the only one who isn't staring at the serpent but instead he is looking at two women and speaking to them with an air of tranquility. This portrait seems to be created at a time where religion dominated the lives of everyone in society. The fact that the serpent is residing on the cross-shaped plant, could be a sign from God telling the people that they have done something wrong. It is very possible that they would think of this snake as a sign. This shows how much of an impact religion and faith have on a community especially hundreds of years ago when the ideas of religion were even more popular than they are today. This painting has many appeals, a major one being the pathos appeal. The looks on everybody's faces is what drew me to this painting in the first place. They all seem to be in so much emotional pain (some even physical), that I could not help but stop, look at the painting, and almost immediately sympathize with these people in the painting. My instinct was to help them because of the suffering it seems they are going through. Ferretti is also a very credible artist, which works in his favor. He went to the Academia Del Disegno where he worked and taught art students. He traveled back and forth from Bologna to Florence, and created many wonderful masterpieces. His most important work was the decoration of the ceiling in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. The image of the cross is an example of logos appeal, because it is an internationally known symbol for Christianity. As soon as I saw the painting, I knew there was religious meaning behind it. I think this piece is making the claim that religion and faith have an enormous impact on people, even more so in the 18th century. The invisible bind between God and his people has the power to dictate a person's life, in this case, make them small and miserable. Even though this serpent probably just happened to bite someone and then climb onto the "cross", I believe that people were terrified of it because they thought of it as a bad sign from God.
I enjoyed the Palmer Museum of Art. It is quaint, but fascinating with its diverse forms of art. I am not much of a museum goer at heart, but I still go to many art museums when I travel, especially because my sister majored in art history! I will definitely take her to this museum when she visits Penn State. However, I don't think it will be a regular occurrence to see me at the art museum.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=the+brazen+serpent+ferretti&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=h6I&sa=N&pwst=1&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1154&bih=614&tbm=isch&tbnid=WJkBbknA_hvvLM:&imgrefurl=http://arthistoryreference.com/a1/36355.htm&docid=pIPjxTRDUSMjJM&w=68&h=110&ei=XDpmToCvIY7E0AG0rpjzCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&dur=1528&page=1&tbnh=97&tbnw=60&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=83&ty=46&vpx=272&vpy=159&hovh=97&hovw=60