Running Head: CULTURAL EVENT REPORT

Cultural Event Report Kevin L. Taylor Professor Amy Rofail HUM 112 September 7, 2012

CULTURAL EVENT REPORT Cultural Event Report 1. Clearly identify the event location, date attended, the attendees and your initial reaction upon arriving at the event. This event took place at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Newyork city on September 7. Id also like to mention that I attended this event alone. Upon arrival, it occurred to me that this

would be a whole new experience for me. I imagined that it would be an experience that I would never forget. It was a long trip, but as soon as I arrived at the museum I was impressed by how fancy the building structure was. The museum was much larger than I expected it to be, and I knew from that point on there would be a seemingly endless variety of displays to look at. From the moment that I walked through the door, my initial impression lead me to believe that there was a lot to see. The visual experience was like no other that Ive witnessed before. There were more tourists and visitors there than what I expected to be there. It became very obvious that the Metropolitan Museum of art was nothing short of historic and visually attractive. 2. Provide specific information and a description of at least two (2) pieces. One of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts current exhibitions that caught my eye was The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini. This exhibition was on display for another 9 days, so I saw it as one of the exclusives. It has been said that the Renaissance witnessed the rediscovery of the individual. In keeping with this notion, early Renaissance Italy also hosted the first great age of portraiture in Europe. Portraiture assumed a new importance, whether it was to record the features of a family member for future generations, celebrate a prince or warrior, extol the beauty of a woman, or make possible the exchange of a likeness among

CULTURAL EVENT REPORT friends. This exhibition will bring together approximately 160 works by artists including Donatello, Filippo, Lippi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini and Antonello da Messina, and in media ranging from painting and manuscript illumination to marble sculpture and bronze medals, testifying to the new vogue or and uses of portraiture in fifteenth-century Italy. During the early Renaissance, artists working in Florence, Venice and the courts of Italy created magnificent portrayals of the people around them from

heads of state and church to patrons, scholars, poets and artists concentrating for the first time on producing recognizable likenesses and expressions of personality. The rapid development of portraiture was linked closely to Renaissance society and politics, ideals of the individual, and concepts of beauty. The object may have been to commemorate a significant event, a marriage, death, the accession to a position of power or it may have been to record the features of an esteemed member of the family for future generations. This particular portrait titled Antonio del Pollaiuolo "Portrait of a Lady depicts and image of a pale-skinned young woman with blonde hair wearing a tilted cap of some sort upon her head facing a westward direction. She wore a colorful patterned dress which was gold, red, black and green. The background appears to be a blue sky setting from the view of a balcony. The second exhibition that interested me was the portrait of Rembrandt and Degas as young men. Self-portraits made by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917) at the start of their illustrious careers are seen side by side, for the first time, in an exhibition that highlights the Dutch masters guiding influence on the young French Impressionist and offers an intimate look at their unique kinship. Rembrandt van Rijns portrait was on the left and Edgar Degass portrait was on the right. Rembrandts portrait was etched and Degass portrait was sketched in red chalk on laid paper, but both portraits appear to have been sketched in pencil. The level of detail in both portraits were

CULTURAL EVENT REPORT impressively intricate, especially the portrait of Rembrandt. 3. Provide a summary of the event and describe your overall reaction after attending the event. The event was unlike any other experience that I can remember, and its definitely not an experience that I will forget anytime soon. The visual observation of the museum kept me interested in viewing as many exhibitions as possible. Some portraits and artwork stood out to me more than others. One of the main portraits that stood out in mind was Portrait of a Lady, which was one of the 160 portraits from the Donatello to Bellini collection. This portrait and a number of others reminded me of the importance of Renaissance art. Next, the portraits of

Rembrandt and Degas caught my attention as well. These were two portraits that were done in a simple but detailed format. They did not need a lot of color and background detail to stand out as great work and talent by the artist. The two portraits were side by side as if they were one. I left the event feeling like Ive accomplished a goal of witnessing a unique experience.

CULTURAL EVENT REPORT References (2012). Retrieved September 7, 2012. From http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/rembrandt-and-degas (2012). Retrieved September 7, 2012. From

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/the-renaissance-portrait-from-donatello-tobellini (2012). Retrieved September 7, 2012. From http://www.galleristny.com/2012/01/reality-show%E2%80%98the-renaissance-portrait-from-donatello-to-bellini%E2%80%99-at-themetropolitan-museum-of-art/