Wedding of Mary and Joseph Essay Example for Free

Wedding of Mary and Joseph Essay Produced in the late seventeenth century, Wedding of Mary and Joseph is Peruvian painting of an unknown artist. An oil painting on canvas, Wedding of Mary and Joseph depicts the couple getting married before the high priest who is clothed in a â€Å"richly flower-patterned hooded mantle (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). † There are clergymen assisting the high priest. Joseph is carrying his staff which has flowers at the top. Moreover, both the bride and bridegroom have golden halos. Ann, the mother of Mary stands right behind the bride. By Ann’s side is a suitor of Mary who has been rejected by God’s command. The suitor is seen breaking his staff, which has not flowered like the staff of Joseph (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). The painting is enriched by â€Å"gold stamping,† which â€Å"unifies the composition (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). † There are Peruvian flowers as well as long tailed bird scattered on the ground where Mary and Joseph stand. This transfers the scene of the Bible from the Holy Land to Peru (â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph†). Furthermore, it describes an important movement in Peruvian art history by the name of Cusco School (Bennett). Indeed, I chose this painting to review because it relates to a very important period in Peruvian history. Spanish colonization had not only managed to transfer the Spanish Inquisition to the Spanish territories around the globe, but also brought European art into Peru (Bennett). The Spanish Inquisition had claimed many lives in Europe. In Peru, the Inquisition had centered on the discovery of people who were Jews by birth, but had claimed to have converted to Christianity. These people were suspected to have gone back from Catholicism to Judaism. Thus, the Peruvian Inquisition was about punishing the Jews or converted Catholics for apostasy (Lea). The Peruvian Inquisition had taken place in the seventeenth century. Seeing that the sociopolitical environment of Peru revolved around religious affairs at the time, it is not surprising that the Christian, Peruvian artists started a new art movement – the Cusco School – to create religious art in particular (Bennett). As a matter of fact, the Wedding of Mary and Joseph is a perfect example of Cusco art. The Cusco School happens to be the largest movement of art in the Peruvian art history. The movement was represented by â€Å"mestizo painters and sculptors who produced countless depictions of religious figures adorned in gold (Bennett). † The Spanish colonizers had used religious art to teach Christianity to the New World. Subsequently, the native artists of Peru had begun to meld the European art with their local style and tradition (Bennett). So, while the figures of Mary and Joseph in the Peruvian painting reveal the European, Christian influence on the Peruvian artist; the flowers and long tailed birds of Peru scattered on the ground show that the artist continues to love his land despite the colonization. The golden halos of the bride and the bridegroom are, of course, the signature of the Cusco School. Hence, the painting, Wedding of Mary and Joseph, reveals itself as an excellent tool to understand the culture of Peru with respect to Spanish colonization. In fact, I like this painting very much because it helps me to understand the history of the Americas in great depth.Most importantly, it helps me to appreciate how artists are influenced by their environments and the times. Works Cited Bennett, Caroline. â€Å"Art and Architecture. † Viva Travel Guides. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. vivatravelguides. com/south-america/peru/peru-overview/art-and-architecture/. Lea, Henry C. â€Å"Inquisition in 17th Century Peru: Cases of Portuguese Judaizers. † Modern History Sourcebook. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. fordham. edu/halsall/mod/17c-lea-limainquis. html. â€Å"Wedding of Mary and Joseph. † Brooklyn Museum. 3 Dec 2007. http://www. brooklynmuseum. org/research/luce/object. php? id=49368.

Americas Downward Spiral Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

America's Downward Spiral In recent years, the economy in the United States has been in what most would see as a recession. American people differ in the way they react to a recession. Some, such as Michael Moore, feel it becomes a downward spiral as big business and it’s stockholders gain more money and power, and it’s workers gain less money and stability. With a loss of stability for the American worker there is a fear of losing their health benefits, social security, pension plan, and most of all, their job. Moore’s reaction to this big business take over was to create several documentaries, Roger and Me, Pets or Meat: The Return to Flint, and The Big One. Along with Moore’s reaction to this recession there were several authors who printed pieces describing things such as; downward mobility, wilding, starvation, poverty, and homelessness. In Moore’s documentaries he targeted big tycoons such as Roger Smith of GM, Phil Knight of Nike, and companies like Johnson Controls. All of these companies have something in common, greed and money! He dug up the facts on all of th...

Esperanza of The House on Mango Street Essay

The House on Mango Street is a collection of musings of a young female named Esperanza. The main character and the direction of the stories is revealed in the first story. It is in The House on Mango Street that Sandra Cisnero sets Esperanza up as a young girl dreaming of a brighter future and yet floored on the realities of her situation. The first story introduces Esperanza as someone who plans on escaping the place where she is growing up. She is old enough to understand that the promises of her parents about the temporariness of their house are not going to be fulfilled any time soon. She is, however, young enough to believe that physically leaving Mango Street will mean a complete escape from the things that Mango Street and their house represent. The youthfulness of Esperanza is shown in Hairs where she describes her family and herself through a description of the type of hair each had. She tells about still being comforted by her mother’s presence beside her in their bed. It is also in this story that one understands Esperanza’s personality. She is free-spirited and hard to tame, like her hair. But she is clearly in the process of developing into a woman as she expresses her emotions for her mother’s hair – the hair of a truly ladylike woman. Esperanza is shown here to be in the transitional period of developing from a child into a complete lady. She most probably would be in her teenage years. The emotional and personal development of Esperanza is also seen in My Name. When she speaks of not wanting to be like her grandmother – a woman beside the window, trapped – she shows that she is already capable of deciding for herself the future she wants to have. She also shows her knowledge about the outside world when she speaks of the Chinese culture and its possible similarities with the Mexican culture. She also shows a deeper understanding of society when she explains how Chinese culture and Mexican culture do not want their women strong which is why they do not give them strong names. Her reference to women being suppressed and kept from being strong also shows that she is aware of this bias. She is clearly developing emotionally because she can formulate for herself judgments about the things that occur in the society she lives in. In this part of the stories, My Name, Esperanza demonstrates development from being the young girl who dreams of escaping her house because she wants more space to the teen who wants change because she no longer agrees with the things around her. She wants to change her name insisting that it does not refer to the â€Å"real her†. She wants a life that is different from her grandmother’s. The aspirations of Esperanza in this part have developed. From a house with more bedrooms and bathrooms, Esperanza now aspires for more abstract concepts – independence, choice, freedom. In the final parts of the stories, Esperanza seems to have finally developed into a wiser and more practical woman. She realizes that escaping Mango Street is not something she can do physically for the moment. She decides to write instead. This allows her release from the frustrations she feels for the place she lives in. Esperanza understands now that Mango Street is a part of her life and will continue to be so even after she leaves it. She seems to have made peace with herself and instead of continually trying to push for a way out, she now focuses on ways to improve herself. This is, according to her, the way to finally be able to leave Mango Street. Her wisdom is seen when she states that only in leaving Mango Street, improving herself somewhere else, and coming back to Mango Street can she truly be able to help those who do not have the ability to leave. Her goals are now realigned to include those in her community. Esperanza completes her journey from childhood to young adulthood in the pages of The House on Mango Street. She forms a clearer view of who she really is through her experiences in her house and grows emotionally as well. The maturity of Esperanza is seen not only in her thoughts but in the observations she has made from her neighborhood. She has learned from the lives of those around her and has grown from the lessons she gathered.

Reasons Of Rwandan Genocide - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1092 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/08/08 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Genocide Essay Did you like this example? The Rwandan Genocide   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Rwandan Genocide took place in 1994. It was a sort of war, mainly between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of Rwanda. There was also a third tribe, the Twa, but they did not have much of an effect on the war because they made up a very small part of the population, one even smaller than that of the Tutsi people. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Reasons Of Rwandan Genocide" essay for you Create order The Hutu were the majority in Rwanda, while the Tutsi were a small minority of the population. The Tutsi did not like the Hutu because in 1959 the Hutu forced around 300000 Tutsi to flee the country (Editors).   They had to move to Uganda, where they stayed for about 30 years. In 1990 however, they decided that they had had enough and they wanted to be back in their own country. The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led the invasion. The RPF consisted mostly of Tutsi refugees and their descendants. During these 30 years, hatred and anger were being built up inside the Tutsi that were forced to leave everything behind and migrate to strange lands they were not familiar with. This made them want to invade and take their lands back. Once they got to Rwanda, they were outnumbered and did not last very long (May). The Hutu then killed off most of the Tutsi that remained in Rwanda. The Rwandan Genocide was the result of racial discrimination imposed on by the Dutch, and by the the three tri bes in that region.   The primary cause of the Genocide was ethnic tension between the Tutsi, Twa, and Hutu tribes of Rwanda. One of the reasons for there being so much tension was that Rwanda had the highest population density in all of Africa, and was ranked highly in the world. When there is   high population density, people tend to be more annoyed with each other. This mainly affected the Hutu, who were the peasants (History). The higher class Tutsi were not as affected by this because they were rich and owned a lot of land. The Hutu on the other hand, were very distraught by this. At a certain point, they decided that they were done living like that under the Tutsi. This is when a rebellion broke out. The Hutu completely outnumbered the Tutsi and ultimately drove many of them out of the country, as many as 300,000. They were forced to seek refuge in Uganda. After 30 years of waiting, they came back to Rwanda to try and take it back as their own. The Tutsi were still greatly outnumbered and they end ed up taking the most casualties. The Rwandan Genocide was one of the bloodiest encounters in history. This was due to the astronomically high amount of deaths during such a short period of time. Around 800,000 people were murdered in a period of time as short as about 100 days (Rwandan Genocide: 100 Days of Slaughter.). Many Genocides have more deaths than this one, but they were throughout a more expansive period of time. If those other Genocides had gone on at the rate of the Rwandan Genocide, their deaths would have increased tenfold. The number of injured people was even greater than this, even impossible to calculate. Most of the victims were part of a group called the Tutsi, which were a minority in Rwanda at the time. They were murdered mostly by the Hutu tribe, which was the majority in east-central Africa. There were far too many of them, even though they were highly outclassed in just about every way possible by the Tutsi. In this situation, clearly quantity was more advantageous than quality. The sheer number advantage allowed the Hutu to obliterate the Tutsi. The Tutsi stood no chance and lost most of their people, and there was nothing they could about it. The majority of the forces that stopped the Genocide were from other countries. Since it looked like the Hutu was not going to stop hunting and murdering the Tutsi, outsiders had to step in to stop the madness. First of all, the French sent a couple thousand of their own troops to help out the Tutsi. They did this mainly because the Tutsi were their allies, and they know that they had a responsibility to aid them in this time when they were most needed. If they wanted to remain allied to the Tutsi they had to defend them. Even though the French did not do much, they definitely contributed to the ending of this tragic period of time. The French only actually fought in an area called the Humanitarian Zone. This zone was in the south-western part of Rwanda. French soldiers were able to save tens of thousands of Tutsi lives (Leila). The United Nations also sent about 5,000 troops once word had spread about the Genocide. It was voted by the security council that they should intervene to s top the fighting. They were not able to save any lives, however, because once they got there the Genocide had ended. Since Rwanda is such a small country, it took time for word to get out about what had been happening, which is why it took so long for other countries to respond. The only reason the French knew about it earlier was because they were allied with the Tutsi, so they were one of the first to be informed. If it had not been for the French, the casualties may have even risen to close to a million.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, the genocide in Rwanda was the result of discrimination between the three tribes that inhabited that area. The Rwandan Genocide ended up being one of the bloodiest genocides in history with over 800,000 casualties, and countless victims who were injured. This all happened within the short span of 100 days, which is what is incredible about this Genocide. It was primarily caused by ethnic tensions between the three tribes of that area, the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The tribes did not like each other, as one was basically enslaved to the other. The country was also very densely populated, which made it even more annoying for the people that lived there, and made it easier for them to get more agitated. The main forces that stopped the genocide were from other countries, but mainly the French. They were able to save tens of thousands of Tutsi lives. The United Nations also tried to intervene, but they were a few months too late (Editors). This gen ocide is a great example of what countries should not do if they want to keep peaceful and as happy as possible, for as long as possible.