Synthesis

I am surprised at how my opinions became stronger as the course went along. In the beginning I really stayed true to what I knew when I was writing my blogs. They were primarily about the art and the assignments in class. Towards the last two weeks of blog posts I started to expand into things we haven't seen, like Giotto's Lamentation, or things that inspired me outside of class like my discussion of the Roman nose and how women are treated in art history. I think this is because I wanted to apply what I was learning in class to the outside world. I wanted to use what I was learning in the classroom and apply it to what i was experiencing. I think this is evident in my blog about star gazing as well as my comparison of Siena and The Prince. I wish I would have done more blogs like the one I did on the Trevi Fountain. I think that would have pressed further my understanding of techniques used by renaissance artists. I also wish that I would have done at least one blog on the music that way I would have been more prepared for the third essay that is centered on that topic. I also wish that I would have used a more direct approach to the central concepts of the Renaissance. I think I would have remembered them better had I used a word for word use of each concept and their connections with certain pieces of work.

I acknowledged in my great expectations blog that what I thought would happen would really be subpar to the experiences I was going to have. I was correct in that assumption. Everything was much better than I could have ever dreamed it to be. It is difficult to explain, unless you've had the same experiences I've had. My happy art noise was let loose on multiple occasions. I was not disappointed by any piece we saw. I cannot say the same for the first time that I saw the Mona Lisa. So I think that is a small sort of accomplishment. I was impressed with all of the churches and guides that we had. But most importantly I was impressed with my instructors. I don't think that my experience could have been any better because of the professors and the other students in the class. It wouldn't have been the same, obviously, but I strongly believe that it would not have been so wonderful had one person been different. What i was most pleasantly surprised with were the two trips we took during class to Assisi and Urbino. I had not heard of the ladder and on the plane I learned from the couple I was sitting beside that Assisi was not that interesting of a place. They were wrong. I think I learned more on those trips in just the one day than I did on the weekend trips to Florence and Rome. I am also very pleased at how I was able to get a deeper understanding of texts I have already worked with. I have read Dante's Inferno in snippets in 4 different classes before this course. However, I still learned something new. I was able to look at the piece in a way I haven't before; the punishment aspect. I am glad that I have a background in Medieval and Renaissance literature before this course because I could expand on what I already comprehended and I was able to have a deeper connection with the texts. I am disappointed that Praise of Folly was cut from the syllabus. This is actually the second time in my academic career that the text has been removed from the assignment list and I am really getting antsy to read it.

I think that re-reading my blogs after coming back to the States was very helpful to my self-understanding. Separating myself from the assignments and the location allowed me to see the difference in my writing style in the beginning of the semester to the end of it. As for my self-understanding, I can definitely see that i started to focus more on my own thoughts and views rather than just an analysis of what the piece said. I was willing to look more into how i operate rather than just an impartial discussion of the work. For example, you cannot hear my voice in my first blog about Pico. It wasn't until later that I was comfortable saying "I think" openly and often in a blog. I took me a while to realize that I cannot be wrong in my opinions. I can be incorrect, and later have why I am confused explained to me, but I can’t be punished for my thoughts. I feel like sometimes my blog did not express the amount of confidence that I wanted it to. For example, the blog about the Courtier. I would have liked to have been more forceful with my beliefs on the perfect person. However, I feel that I just circumnavigated each adjective until it had the semblance of being a thought. I feel like I did the same thing in the final blog. I was not very confident in my thoughts on the use of the senses or reason. In the beginning I did not thing that I was mentioning anything in my blogs that were profound. I kept comparing myself to the great things that were said in class, and I did not think that anything I had to say was that deep. I still don’t know how much I brought to the intellectual table, but I do know that I can tell I learned a great deal while in Italy.