Age of the Enlightenment

It was a noticeable transition from the baroque period to the age of enlightenment as this period was highly concerned about social order. Basically, during this period everyone was expected to submit to the social order. Also it is crucial to point out that reason was extremely important and advocated throughout this period in western history. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Confessions’ was an interesting reading for me from this era as he documents his childhood experiences in this masterpiece. As an autobiography, it captured my attention because his work focused on himself and his personal feelings about various experiences he went through in his life. It was interesting to me to comprehend the author’s personal feelings put in his own words. As for the art work, I felt that the portrait of King Louis by Hyacinthe Rigaud to be extremely captivating because his posture was just really unusual. Also, his body was a little distorted to look at in the portrait. For the last discipline, I enjoyed listening to Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No.9’ and it stood out to me because it was the first symphony to use voices in it. The period trait that was expressed in the work of ‘Confessions’ was Directness /Accessibility and the theme in the literature was the concept of ‘self’. Because the author focuses on himself, his ideals, his philosophies and personal feelings about the things in the world. He doesn’t take anyone’s inputs but his own and explains his ideology to his readers through that. The period trait expressed in the portrait of King Louis was Critique of reason and the theme that spoke to it was the concept of ‘self’. He cared about himself as a ruler and did not give in to the opinions of his fellowmen. As for the music piece, the period trait that was expressed was rational humanism and the theme that spoke to the piece was the nature of reason as Beethoven was one of the prominent composers in his era to advocate reason into his profession. (336)

Teachings of the Baroque Era

It’s been roughly close to two years since I took HUMN 2001. I thoroughly enjoyed the class with Dr. Crippen who doesn’t teach here anymore. The most intriguing aspect of HUMN 2001 was that I had an opportunity to have a firm grasp on the fundamentals that the course had covered over the semester. For example, at that point I don’t think I was adventurous enough to look into what another religion was trying to convey to their fellowmen. I don’t think I would have developed an interest in learning about other religions if it weren’t for the humanities course. Also, the class served as an opportunity for students to not take things for granted by educating themselves on the literature, art and music works of each period. During the course of taking that class, I also had some troubles in reference to understanding the teachings of the renaissance period. I can honestly say that renaissance was my most difficult era to have a firm understanding of. As far as achieving success in HUMN 2002, I plan to broaden my horizons of understanding by enhancing my critical thinking skills and to convey my thoughts to the professors by writing effectively. Therefore, it is very important to keep up with the assigned readings throughout this semester. In reference to the era that we just talked about, I feel like the baroque music is highly ornate and comprised of enormous intensity in its composition. As far as the baroque literature and art, I feel like their main objective is to provoke emotions in the readers and to analyze them. One of the most prominent baroque epic, Paradise Lost exemplifies the complexity in literature employed in that era. It provokes significant thoughts in the readers as to why Satan possesses as the serpent and why he wants Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Carravaggio’ s David with head of Goliath was a powerful art for me as it stirred a scary reaction in me when I looked at it for the first time. As for baroque music, I really enjoyed listening to Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons as it was not only entertaining but also brought out the baroque period’s characteristic when the texture of each concerto was different for the four seasons. (384)