Molly's European Travels

       The piece of art I have chosen to write this blog post on is “Landscape in a Park” by Eugène-Louis Lami. This beautiful painting is located in the Gulbenkian museum. One of the first things I noticed about this painting was how whimsical the trees look. I feel like I can see them moving as a cool breeze blows through them. Another thing that stood out to me was the colors the artist used. The colors almost feel muted and it gives the painting a memory-like quality. This definitely looks and feels like an impressionist painting to me. Something that adds to my suspicions of this is the outfits the ladies down by the water are wearing. I have seen hundreds of impressionist paintings on this trip and the clothing worn by women looks the same way it does in this painting.       The Gulbenkian museum is the home of Calouste Gulbenkian's personal art collection. My professors told me that Calouste was a very wealthy man that would buy the best of...

       I had the privilege of going to Quinta da Regaleira today! Ever since I came to Portugal last year and was unable to find the time to go, I have been so disappointed. But now I don’t have to be disappointed anymore! I thought it was just one building so I was surprised to find out that there are multiple buildings on a large plot of land. The buildings and structures gave me gothic vibes and low key fairytale vibes. The forest surrounding the paths was the perfect green to offset the stone structures. My favorite part was the network of caves and passages under the ground. Marie and I went in one and it was pitch black. It felt like the perfect setting for a horror movie. The inside of the buildings were also pretty cool to see and not really what I was expecting. The mansion was much more inviting than I had pictured and had the classic Portuguese tiles in it. It was a very cool experience to walk around this place!      The history of Quinta d...

     O n our first day in Portugal we visited the famous Descubridores monument. On my trip to Portugal last year I remember seeing this monument but I never went up close to it. I was shocked at the scale of the men on the side. I bet that I am the same length as one of the mens calves. One of the professors said the statues are that big because they are supposed to be “larger than life”. This idea and style is used in fascist buildings/statues/monuments, so it makes sense that this was used. All the statues had immense amounts of details on them. One statue in particular, a knight, had such fine detail in his armor it must have taken the artist a long time. Something I noticed that made me laugh was that the majority of the statues all had the same ugly hairstyle. Only a few of the statues don’t have this hideous hair style, so you have to rely on the clothing and what they are holding in order to tell who they are.       This monument was built in r...

     I chose to do my Portugal women of choice blog on Queen Maria ll. When Dr. Hegstrom was telling the class about her all I could think was that I am very glad that I did not have her life. She only lived to be 34, maybe this will happen to me too though, only time will tell. Something I know will not happen to me is becoming the queen of Portugal. She was only 7 years old when her father gave her this title. Along with this title, she was engaged to her uncle. Luckily, she did not have to marry him because he turned out to be a terrible person who wanted to run the country in a terrible way. Maria ends up becoming the Queen after a civil war at only 15 years old. Besides being queen, Maria was a mother. She had 13 children and motherhood is what ended up killing her when she died in childbirth. As someone whose greatest wish in life is to be a mother I find it devastating when a woman dies this way. I really enjoyed getting to learn who Queen Maria ll was.  ...

     This blog post is about the incredible Fado singer, Amalia Rodrigues . This week we were able to visit her house and I was able to learn a lot of fun facts about her from our tour guide. One of my favorite facts I learned about her is that she loved perfume! I am addicted to perfume so this really resonated with me. I think it is cool that I was able to find a similarity with her. Amalia became someone I strive to be. From the stories our guide told us, I can tell that she was a very kind woman. Apparently, you could knock on her door, say you loved her and she would invite you up! She would host people all night and wanted people to feel welcome. One more thing that I loved learning about her was that she grew up fairly poor. She wasn’t able to move into her beautiful home until she was 36. Knowing this about her can serve as an inspiration to others. She worked hard to get where she did, which is very admirable.       Amalia  is known as ...

     I loved getting to visit the Toledo cathedral! Its full name is the Santa Iglesia Catedral Primada de Toledo. It was a huge cathedral, maybe the largest I have ever been in. The exterior of the building is quite exquisite. The cathedral was made in a gothic style. It has very tall towers that seem to touch the sky. The exterior of the building contains so many fine details it makes it hard to look away from. You could spend hours looking at every carving and statue on the exterior.  On the inside you can see the classic gothic pointed arches in the ceiling structure. There is also some amazing stained glass on the inside. The stained glass in churches and cathedrals is always my favorite thing.       This cathedral contains a rich history. This cathedral is actually a Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Romans started construction on the cathedral in 1227. The fact that this cathedral is still standing is amazing and serves as a great way to learn...

I know this is not a very good pic but this is us in front of the Museum. We were unable to take pics inside.       I am choosing to write this blog post on the painting titled las meninas by Diego Velázquez. I had the privilege of studying this painting in art history so it was super cool to see it in real life! The scale of the painting was much larger than I expected. The figures are rather life-like in size. It makes the illusion that we are a part of the painting much more real. I love the different layers of the painting. The little girl and her ladies in waiting are in the foreground of the painting. Diego is a layer away from them. The mirror of the king and queen is in the layer before the background, and then in the background there is another person who I can not make out. The composition of this painting and its use of layers makes it so interesting to look at.       I think this painting is important historically and culturally. I thi...