Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Easter/Passover!

One of my favorite things about art and art history is the intellectual side of the art. This includes everything from the science and math behind illusion and manipulation as well as the mass knowledge required to understand a variety of artworks.

During my time as an arts administration student, I have learned that my most valuable asset as an art critic is my brain and my pursuit of knowledge. I spend several hours a week trying to keep up on modern trends from resources such as Artsy as well as trying to understand the past through history. Whether it be art history, religious history, global history, or natural history, I can almost promise that regardless of what type of history you’re studying, you can find a piece of artwork that can be better understood with an understanding of that knowledge.

I took a philosophy course last semester which introduced me to the YouTube page Crash Course. Crash Course is an educational page that has dozens of relatively short clips that are relatable in terminology and an easy way to get quick information. They have a variety of subjects that change and grow throughout the year.

One of the most recent additions to the index of subjects is European History. On April 19, 2019, they published a brief history of the European Renaissance, but more specifically in Florence. I am currently at the end of an Italian Renaissance art history course, so of course I had to watch it. Although I have spent almost an entire semester learning about the Italian Renaissance within art history, I still learned a great deal that was not discussed in class but that I can still apply to what I have learned and will continue to learn about the Renaissance.

When I was in high school, I didn’t have half of the motivation to learn as I do now. I feel as though college has put in a state of being a permanent student. Thankfully, this state of mind isn’t going to cost as much as college does, but it just goes to show that there is so much out there and accessible to anyone with a computer. You don’t have to go to college to learn and you don’t have to be a student to research. It amazes me how much digital resources have been able to supplement my education, and I hope to see said resources continue to grow across the next few decades.

As always, thanks for the read!

I do not own the rights to the image used as the featured image. The image belongs to CITALIARESTAURO.COM and was taken from analysing-art-analysis.