Holy Holy Holy.

   My parents and I went to England and Scotland back in 2008 for two weeks.  This is Dunfermline Abbey in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland. As I was thinking of different things to write about for the blog I couldn't think of anything interesting that was connected to the last four chapters of the book that we have gone over.  Then I went through my pictures on the computer and came across these.  When I look at these photos, I think of the many churches we looked at during our time of Romanesque Art (meaning manner or style of the Romans) last week.  In the first picture here we have the main entrance. Though not as grand as the one seen the other day, this does give it a very strong entrance to the Abbey and gives that portal effect.  It does have a different type of archivolt but still has the same idea. What I like about this is the different columns and how they have the different capital styles.  You can see both the Corinthian style and the Ionic style.   

Looking at the above image you get to see the massive columns, in the side aisle of the Abbey.  You can get a better look at them on the bottom photo and get to see the chevron pillars.  One thing I wish I did differently with the above photo is to have more of the ceiling in the photo to see the ribbed groin vaulting. 

Then when you come down to this bottom photo you can see the very obvious transverse arches.  What I love about this is the people in it.  Having them in the image gives you an idea of the massiveness of the room. 
  The last few photos are just to give you a look at the outside of the building. 

   The back-story of this Abbey is that this is where the great King Robert the Bruce of Scotland is buried.   You might have seen Brave Heart the movie with Mel Gibson?  They portray William Wallace as the lead character in that movie, but as all movies go about historical figures, they have misinterpreted.  Robert the Bruce really did most everything in the movie, not William Wallace.  As the Scottish national hero, his name is carved at the top of the turret.  The sides which are seen say "Bruce" and "King". The other two sides say "Robert" and "The".  So, the whole saying is "King Robert the Bruce".

Breath of the Mountain

   So I guess you can see that I like using pieces that I'm familiar with and that I have a connection to.  This piece hangs in my family's dinning room.  We have hosted international students from around the world that come and study at the University of Delaware. As a host family we have the responsibility to help an international student learn English and to show them the history and culture of the American people in this area. Many of the students like to give us a gift from their country.   This is from a Chinese student my parents had back in 1983.   This is actually a woven silk piece. The bottom photo is of the writing that is on the right of the picture.  It translates to "On top of Yellow Mountain".


    As you can guess this is not a piece from the time that we talked about in class. This would be sold to tourists over in China.  The reason I picked this is that it reminds me of the brevity breath we finished talking about in class last Tuesday.  I love this piece because  of that brevity and the life of nature that it has in it.  With the way the mist goes through the mountain and the closeness with the sky, it just makes you feel like you could touch the heavens if you were there. When looking at this you can also get this sence of a deep feeling that lies beyond the mountain. Which I think is captured brilliantly in this.