Human Experience Essay

We've had a fantastic eight weeks of delving into the study of the human experience. The use of art, music, literature, history, language, philosophy, and religion to document our experience in the world is something man has always done, and it's something we still do today. Understanding our human experience allows us to feel connected to those that came before us and those that are yet to come.

As we've learned about the meaning, history, societal roles, and disciplines of each art form we've come to realize that they are connected because of our human experience, regardless of the time period, the people, or the culture, our experiences and the way we attempt to explain them connect us all.

Academic and artistic contributions made throughout
We watched as religion, art, language, and philosophy began to shape Mesopotamia into a more formal society, and we saw how Persian influence continued to build upon their ideas and progress.

In Greece and Rome we saw awe inspiring sculpture and architecture as man continued to seek new mediums to tell the story of his human experience.

The Middle Ages kept the Roman concepts moving forward as Romanesque and Gothic techniques once again expanded on the past and brought man into a new era of art, architecture, literature, music, performing arts, and thoughts on religion and philosophy. Dialect began to be important. Man took new avenues in his attempts to connect with his peers and express his views on the world around him.

The Renaissance was both a period of originality and rebirth that drew upon the ideas, arts, philosophies, and religions of former cultures as it strove to encompass the new developments of its society. It produced the four ideas that are still central to Western Civilization: secularism, humanism, individualism, and
The Arts weave politics, philosophy, culture, history, language, philosophy, and religion together to create a beautiful portrait of human imagination and purpose. We are able to better understand the world we live in by learning how art changes the world, and in turn changes the individual. As we watch, listen, learn, and create, our own talents grow. We are transformed by a legacy we all share that began before man could even utter an intelligible word.

In my paper I compared Dante's Divine Comedy with Michelangelo's Last Judgment. Both works attempted to illustrate a soul's journey to or away from God, and the inevitability of every man's eternal fate. The artists used theology, philosophy, allegory, themes, and symbolism that were meaningful to the current world-view of their time. Embracing the current movement of art and literature in their era, but influenced by the artistic ghosts of the past, each Italian master paints a picture of the afterlife and the importance of salvation-- Dante with words inspired by God, Michelangelo with art inspired by