Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Girl With A Pearl Earring Film Review
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Film Review
The film Girl with a Pearl Earring is a wonderful example of life during the Northern Renaissance in Delft Holland in the 17th century. What is poignant about this film is the fact that it captured the essence of how harsh life could be for people, especially women, during the 17th century. Although the film is based on the painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, it follows a young woman named Griet, Vermeer’s subject for the painting, struggling to keep her family above water.
In the beginning of the film we see Griet getting ready to leave her family to find work due to money troubles, but, apparently, there is much more involved with her departure. We see her father is ill, blind, as well as decrepit. It was not unusual at this time for a family member to be ill from some sort of virus or disease. The fact that the family is struggling due to the illness of a parent is a prime example of the atmosphere of the time. As a result of her father’s illness, Griet is hired to work out in the city as a housekeeper, which was very typical for this era. Many families struggled, therefore, sending out their children to work for wealthy families as a source of income was common.
Also, in the beginning of the film we see Griet's mother telling her to be weary of Catholic prayer. I thought that this was an important aspect because we see the segregation of religious beliefs between the Catholics and the Protestants. This scene showed the viewer what type of religious struggles were taking place in Northern Europe.
The image that this film creates is a dreary yet striking one because, instead of following the life of a lavish character living in the 17th century, it followed the life of a typical girl who is trying to make money in the city to help her family. Although we do see how people with money live, it is through her experiences that we get a real feel of every day life during the Renaissance. We see that from the moment Griet woke up she was constantly working. Also, as a housekeeper, Griet must deal with living under the rule of a master and a mistress, and, with that, she must know her place and act accordingly. Her sleeping quarters are awful and small. She works even during the coldest days. She takes care of household duties, such as washing the clothing, sweeping, making dinner and caring of the many children. She doesn't have any privacy. Basically, her life isn't her own. The film did a great job showing the hardships hired help went through.
The film reveals the relationship between artist and patron. Vermeer really didn’t have any say in the subject matter. Artistic freedom was minimal. Convention, technique, and subject were governed by certain rules. One expected a painting to maintain class schisms. Portraits usually were reserved for the higher class, and Girl with a Pearl Earring went against convention, and, since paintings carried great weight to the viewers in terms of how they represented certain aspects of society, Vermeer’s painting must have made most viewers feel uncomfortable with it. There was a brief mention in the film about the power an artist has to tap into the soul of a person. This was sometimes viewed as an intimate experience between artist and subject, which was the case when Vermeer’s wife observed the painting.
What was also interesting was the fact that the film showed that sanitation wasn't that important, or thought about. One of the maids tells Griet to use the water found in the canals. This was a funny example that shows us that sanitation was not on the top of their list.
Overall, the film really encapsulates living standards, conventions, and conditions of the 17th century. The way in which the filmmakers presented the 17th century didn't feel over done or commercial. I feel as though I have a better understanding of what life’s conditions must have been like for people struggling at that time.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Witch Trials in Europe
The Black Plague of the 14th century brought about a questioning of traditional Roman Catholic ideologies. Many wanted to understand and know the reasons why God would unleash such horrors upon the earth. In looking for the answers, people began to accuse their neighbors and relatives of using witchcraft and poisons to cause the death and famine around them. Anyone could be accused. If your neighbor thought you caused their crops to die, you could be tried and executed.
Accusations of witches began to increase in Europe during the mid 15th century up until the 17th century. Wide spread panic of witches led to many of those accused of witchcraft being burned at the steak, hunted down like animals, and mass trials. In the panic, even the Roman Catholic Church published Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) in 1485-86. Of the many being accused of witchcraft, about 75 to 80 percent of those convicted were female. Between the years of 1450 and 1750, 100,000 trials were held, and of those trials, about 60,000 executions took place. 48% of those executions occurred in Germany.
During the trails other women would testify against other women. Most of the time the women or man on trail would have little or no say in defending himself or herself. Other times a village would murder the accused even without a trial. In Italy witches were tried by various courts, including an ecclesiastical court for diabolism, municipal court for sorcery, and a secular court for magic. These trials were unfair and ridiculous because the accused had no chance to prove that they were innocent, and the methods the courts used to prove innocence either killed them or convicted them as witches.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Catastrophe
When thinking of the Renaissance, many people think of the elaborate architecture, a renewed sense for the arts, and Black Death. Chapter three deals with an interesting period during the Renaissance, a time when disaster struck repeatedly, pestilence was rampant, and people became desensitized to the death that surrounded them. Between the years 1347-1350 a dark ominous cloud covered all of Europe, the plague, or better known as Black Death.
The plague was unstoppable, especially because it did not discriminate against age, gender, creed, class or race. With the growth of towns, and ships coming steadily in and out of ports, the spread of diseases was inevitable. Zophy, the author, points out that contradictory to what scholars use to believe, that the Black Death was caused by the Bubonic plague, recent scholars have attributed many deaths to exposure to anthrax, or have theorized that it wasn’t spread through the fleas of rats. The causes are still unknown and are hypothesized and studied today. Although we may not know the exact causes of the Black Death, what is known, is that people were ignorant to scientific factors that started such epidemics. Instead, they turned to the Church and the heavens for the answers. As epidemics ripped though towns and villages, people began to move out, leaving the land empty.
Not only were epidemics a daily stressor, unbridled famine and revolts were also an every day fear in Europe. Some actually viewed the Black Death as God’s retribution. The Black Death also caused a questioning of the pecking order, because the Black Death was the fear of all. The peasant class began to attack the elites. All of Europe was feeling hostility from the surfs that inhabited their countries. Work was scarce, trade was meager due to fear of the plague spreading, and power was in the hands of few. People resorted to violence, conflict, and wars, some of which lasted for a hundred years, and some of which concerned internal affairs, such as the hundred Years’ War and War of the Roses.
The Hundred Years’ War was between two monarchies of Britain and France. According to Zophy, the period of the conflict actually was 116 years. During this time both France and Britain were deep in conquest of one anther. Both monarchies were looking to establish a strong hold over the other, but France would not be happy with a British monarch on the French throne. With the war underway, and neither side relenting, the war continued to devastate both countries.
At the same time a young girl named Joan of Arc came into the picture claming that she had a direct link with God. During this period many claimed that they had channeled the message of God. Joan was different; in fact, she disguised herself as a young man in order to get closer to the influential religious leaders of the time. She did, and the war headed into a new direction. Joan continued to lead the French to victory until her death. Even with Joan of Arc dead, the French armies continued on the road to victory.
Britain eventually lost the Hundred Years’ War and turned to sorting out affairs of the Crown. In 1455 discord began to amount between King Henry who represented the house of the red roses and Edward IV who represented the white roes. King Henry was blamed for the disgraceful loss of the war. Soon he and his wife would be overthrown and would flee to Scotland. Edward IV would rule England for the next twelve years until his death.
Chapter three was interesting because it illustrated the crucial state of affairs and events that made the Renaissance both legendary and infamous. Many of the changes that took place had lasting effects on all of Europe, from a women leading an army into victory, to kings being overthrown, and most importantly a questioning of religious beliefs. We may try to recreate such an atmosphere with Renaissance fairs or imagine what it must have been like to live in a time where wars and revolts were an everyday occurrence, God was present, death was close, and hunger part of life. The reality is the Renaissance will always be an appealing field of study because it was the period of disaster.
