My 4 favorite pieces of Art from Art History by Riyan Patel

Hypostyle Hall

riyanp1 — 2024-12-13 03:27:29 UTC

This is a Hypostyle Hall located in the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It is used as a place of prayer. The hall is laid out like this to represent God through Infinity. The hall is made to look Infinite which is how God was seen. This means something to me simply due to the fact that people from such a long time ago represented something they found "cosmic" or "beyond human understanding" as Infinity. I am not religious but I have come to learn of all the facenating things people believed in and what caused them to believe it. Infinity for me is how I view the Universe. Not in a realistic way but more as in the same sense Islam viewed God. Science/Physics is one of my passions so seeing a physical area that tries to represent Infinity this well is amazing.

Roman Colosseum

riyanp1 — 2024-12-13 05:17:02 UTC

This is the Colosseum in Rome, it was used as an Arena where Gladiators fought. The Emperor would give a thumbs up or down for whether or not the Gladiator who won was liked or disliked by the audience. This place means something to me because I've been here. Although I did not get to go inside due to renovations, simply being in person in front of this absurdly massive structure made by people from far in the past was an experience in itself. It was scolding hot when I was there but walking through a Roman street and seeing the Colosseum from the complete opposite side of the street, still looking massive, gave me an idea of what Romans saw when they thrived here.

riyanp1 — 2024-12-13 07:02:07 UTC

This is Pisa, of course with the famous Leaning Tower in the back of the picture. This is another place I've been so I'm a bit bias when picking these out. Pisa is interesting because of its funny construction. While constructing the tower, while the first levels were only complete, the tower had already started leaning. The construction was quite creative, every section of the tower is a bit misaligned with the one under it, this was because while constructing they thought it would give off the illusion of being straight. It did not. There were many different methods people tried to get the tower to stop leaning, but every time they tried, they made it worse. Luckily on the last attempt before it was predicted to topple, large hollow rods were sent deep underground and pumped with a gas. Although I don't remember the specifics, this did stop the tower from falling. To this day the Leaning Tower of Pisa is an amazing historical attraction and the museum explaining the history was beautiful.

riyanp1 — 2024-12-13 08:15:19 UTC

Originally I wasn't going to do this piece, but as I was looking through all the slideshows for artwork that really spoke to me, this one caught my eye. This is a model of an Etruscan Temple, the descriptions of the entire thing left by famous Roman Architect Vitruvius (the name from the Lego Movie, this surprised me). I was intrigued by the design because it is similar to Japanese designs. Although it is not nearly as intricate as Japanese buildings, it still resembles one. Vitruvius was a Roman Architect and Engineer during the 1st century BCE. He was so famous even Leonardo Da Vinci was inspired to make the "Vitruvian Man" painting by him.