Naturalism and Medieval Art

Naturalism and Medieval Art

When I saw Bartolommeo Bulgarini’s The Crucifixion in the Smart Museum, one big question stuck out to me. Why does it look like that? The heads of the characters seem slightly out of proportion, lodged at awkward and unnatural angles; their hands are rendered in...
Dreams, Movies, Photography: Knowing the Unknowable

Dreams, Movies, Photography: Knowing the Unknowable

In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag describes a shift in how we perceive catastrophes:  “A catastrophe that is experienced will often seem eerily like its representation. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was described as “unreal,”...