Directed blog entry for week1

In many Flemish works, artists used elements in their art that would be familiar to the spectator so that the spectator could identify more closely with the subject matter

I see this kind of phenomenon happening in the Indian Classical music scene these days. Carnatic music is one of the two styles of Indian classical music, the other being Hindustani music. The popularity of this music seems to be coming down among the youth these days. They are being influenced by the western music a lot. The styles and the modern outlook of the western music and the related videos seems to be appealing to the younger generations compared to the classical music.

But now the classical music enthusiasts are spreading the popularity by introducing western beats into Carnatic music. This fusion is slowly catching up and more and more people are beginning to appreciate the music and also trying to listen to the original versions of the songs.
Initially I did not like the idea of fusion, but now looking at how it is brining the current generations towards the classical music, I commend the idea.

The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck.

Hello! Thanks for taking time to read my blog. This is related to the Art course that I am currently doing. This is an interesting course and the text book that we use is amazing; particularly the pictures in the book. If not for the excellent pictures of the art, the course would be like a history course where we would have to just memorize some facts and that’s about it. I spend more time seeing the pictures than I do reading about them.

Anyways, I would like to write about an art that I studied about this week- The Annunciation by Jan van Eyck. I feel it is an amazing piece of art which made me say Wow!!, the moment I saw it. My attention was first drawn towards the robes in the picture. They are just wonderful and they look so real that if we cover the picture and just see only the part with robes, we can easily mistake it for a photograph. The folds, the design, the border – everything is just so detailed and looks so real. Then the floor in the painting is also very good. The three dimensional perspective of the room is very impressive. The details on the floor are simply wonderful – made we wonder how long it might have taken the artist to render such details in such realistic manner. Then there are the stained-glass windows- particularly the light coming through them, the shades of the objects beyond the windows as seen through the three lower windows; everything is just so excellent in details, that anyone would easily mistake them for photographs. To sum up, I was so thrilled when I saw this picture. I recommend everyone to take time and see this picture and I am sure that you will also enjoy it as much as I did.

Cheers everyone!