Anna's Study Abroad 2024

  Today we got to go to the imperial treasury, which was full of insanely expensive items. I am not going to lie and say I don’t like sparkly things, because gosh, it turns out that I really do. There was an opal necklace that was gorgeous and a whole entire narwhal tusk! This place really did have nearly every treasure from the Holy Roman Empire. The most important artifact would have to be the imperial crown. You can tell how old it is by the rough cut of the gemstones. This thing bounced around Europe, from ruler to ruler for nearly 1000 years, until it landed in Vienna. Here it marked the end of the empire when it was laid down at the Church of the Nine Choirs of Angels by Francis II. Having a collection of items like these was important because it showed wealth and power. Often such artifacts were obtained through production, trade, conquest, or by gift. So, thereby having these priceless pieces, the nation was demonstrating at least some kind of international involvement or i...

This is me next to a statue of Empress Elizabeth, also known as Sisi. She married emperor Frans Joseph at age 16, the story goes that he was going to marry her sister, until he saw her and changed his mind. He was quite smitten, but it sounds like she wasn’t. Apparently she was known as the most beautiful woman of her time. She was born in 1837 and lived a surprisingly carefree childhood that made adapting to the royal life quite hard for her. Although she didn’t love the royal life, to quote Mary Ann: “it loved her”. With her ankle length hair braided with diamond stars and impossibly tiny waist, the people adored their beautiful empress. She spent as much time as she could, away from it all and traveled extensively, her mother in law took over the main caring of her children and they had a tense relationship. When her son died by suicide she never recovered and while she was away traveling to escape again, she was stabbed to death in 1898 in Geneva by an Italian anarchist. So what d...

        This is me next to the auspicious portrait of Maria Theresia, also known as the mother in law of Europe. This nickname comes from the fact that she had sixteen children and married all of them off (at least the ones that lived to be old enough) to other countries in order to form political alliances and strengthen her empire. I love this fact because it sums up her ideology. At age twenty five when her father died, Maria assumed the throne and was immediately left with a hot mess to deal with. Her father had been losing wars on all sides, his widow took the remaining money from the treasury, and the government was unstable. She was thrown into the seven year war of Austrian succession. She fought battles, won, and slowly began to trust her advisors and establish her authority. She was pragmatic and wanted to help the people be happy so that their empire would flourish, her advisors, who were big into the enlightenment, helped her to make progressive chan...

  Today we went to the Belvedere Palace museum and the most featured artist was Klimt. His work tends to feature gilded aristocratic women with gold leaf, containing completed patterns. His women were confident, seductive, or dignified. There was one piece that was very different that caught my eye titled: “Mother With Two Children (family)”. This time the color and excitement is in the faces. It was made in 1909-1910. Rather than a bright metallic or patterned background, large swatches of black, blues, and browns create the background. This makes the bright faces of the exhausted, but pure family, stand out. Their skin is a creation of looser, colorful strokes. To me they seem opalescent, which helps to show the beauty of their humanity among darkness of poverty. I believe that this piece is important because it was different from Klimt’s usual work. He was the top aristocratic painter of the elite in Vienna and he was highly sought after. His subject matter was almost never thos...

This is me in the beautiful gardens that stretch the Quinta da Regaleira. Yep, we are in Sintra. It is the most beautiful estate with towers and tunnels and small, hidden pathways. The story goes, the rich baroness of Regaleira in the 19th Century owned the land and sold it to a man with a plan. This man 's name was António Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro . Him and his two friends designed the whole complex which reflected his esoteric interests. He was a member of the Knights Templar (later known as the Order of Christ ), he was interested in alchemy, he was a Freemason, and also a Catholic. Because of Henry the navigator's  relation to the Knights Templar, I found astrolabes carved into stone and worked into the carpet all over. I also found rope motifs. There of course was the Initiation well which you couldn’t miss. It was for Freemason ceremonies to move up in the ranks and had a symbolic meaning as people came from the dark depths to find the light. Antonio’s catholic side a...

     This is me in front of the National theater of Portugal. It is named for Queen Marie II. We had a quick discussion about her and learned from our professors some of the interesting background of how she became queen. So, in 1808 when Napoleon's troops were going into Portugal, the royal family got on a boat and sailed to Brazil. They even took the royal library and paintings with them and made the capital  Rio de Janeiro. They also needed a ruler in Lisbon so a decade or so later the Emperor of Brazil named his 7 year old daughter to be the queen of Portugal. She was supposed to marry her uncle who had to promise that he would lead a liberal government. But, As soon as he was there he claimed that he was the legitimate ruler and she wasn't the queen. People took sides and there was a little civil war. When she reached 15 she did  in fact become queen. She then married a guy who died but she was able to remarry a very liberal guy. She gave  birth to 13 ...

  This is Pallas Athena (1657) by the one and only Rembrandt, who might be my favorite Baroque painter of all time. It was surprising to not only find his work in this small museum, but also to discover that the figure is a woman. This painting depicts the Greek goddess Athena, who is the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. I want to talk about the lighting and color of this piece. First Rembrandt chose to use a lot of red and dark gold in this piece, which is not typical of artwork depicting women. These colors combined with the dark atmosphere and background create the feeling of being on a battle ground. It is raw and intense but very calculated with the lighting . The contrast of lighting leads our gaze directly to her illuminated face. Her expression is almost like a glare that speaks of confidence and intelligence. I love it because it is wildly different than typical depictions of women. This is culturally important because it was different than the norm. What I mean by t...

  This is me by the Descubridores Monument in Lisbon Portugal! Built under the rule of the Portuguese dictator Salazar, this is an example of fascist monumental sculpture. It demonstrates Portugal's power through displaying their success in exploration. The man at the head of the figures is Henry the navigator, who helped develop the Caravels (triangular shaped sails that allowed them to tack into the wind so that they could travel to places that were previously unacceptable by boat). All the other figures are important to the history of Portuguese travel and expansion. The most interesting part to me though, is the cross that is at the back of the monument. It not only represents a mast that the caved sail is connected to, It is also a sword. I found this very interesting in the sense that their exploration was really about power, force and might–not just curiosity. It could also show that they believed the backbone to their authority to travel and colonize, was their christianity...

  This is me in Amalia Rodrigues’ house next to this beautiful painting of her. She was the “Queen of Fado music” and the “Voice of Portugal. Her music was very patriotic in the sense that it highlighted the uniquely beautiful culture of Portugal. It instilled in the people a sense of pride. She was an icon not only in Portugal but also internationally. She sang in five languages (French, Italian, English, Spanish, and of course, Portuguese). Some quick facts are that she was born in 1920 during the time of the cherries and started her career in 1939. She won many awards such as the city of Paris silver medal of honor in 1959 and toured all over the world. The people of Japan especially loved her. She also had a cute parrot that we met as well! She died quite recently at age 79 in 1999. I thought that she was pretty impressive because she just seemed to have a lot of talent and personality and I love that people recognized her for it. Her contribution is important in a number of wa...

  This is me at the royal library in El Escorial. Here, they have a document that was of particular interest to me! It was written by a Deaf woman named Teresa de Cartagena! So the story goes and from what I understood, there was an important, well educated family that had a daughter. At age eighteen she went deaf. Following that life changing experience, she wrote a treatise on how her deafness brought her closer to God. This capitalized on her Deaf “lens”.  People were shocked and It was so good, that people believed that a man had written it and the criticizing her for claiming it as her own. She wrote a second piece in response, arguing that if God could inspire men to write great works, he could just as easily inspire women to do the same. She used the verse in Genesis that talks about Eve being made as “an help meet”. To paraphrase she says: “who is stronger? The one who helps or the one needing the help?” That’s a Mike drop if I ever heard one. I especially love it beca...

  This is Guenica by Pablo Picasso. This vast painting that seems sucked of color and hope. The bleak image depicts multiple figures such as women in distress, a chaotic horse, and a bull. What each means has been debated but I especially wanted to focus on the woman in the left hand corner. She almost seems to be referencing the typical pose of Mary holding the christ child, but instead her baby is dead. Her head is tilted back in a wail of mourning and through this comparison, the viewer feels a sense of shock and wrongness. To me this represents that  something deeply wrong was happening in Spain that was going against the typical narrative. Instead of a happy baby we see a dead one. Instead of a prospering Spain, they are being crushed and conquered by Franco. Her sadness also represents the loss that all were experiencing in Spain at the time. This piece was part of an exposition that aimed to help get the second republic the support they needed to fight off Franco and hi...

This is me next to the statue of Concepcion Arenal. She was the first woman to graduate from law school in Spain. You might notice her more masculine clothing and this is because in order to graduate and even go to school in the first place, she had to dress in men’s clothing. This was only one of the obstacles that she had to face. She also had to be in a partitioned room all “for the sake of the men ''. But she made it through despite those obstacles and went on to make a difference. She became an inspector of prisons, she wrote articles and literature about needed reforms, and was especially concerned with how women were treated in prisons. To me I see her as a very impressive and inspiring woman. I feel that her contribution is important because she was able to advocate for people who couldn’t advocate for themselves, mostly those in prison. One prison even kicked her out because they didn’t like her suggestions. But she continued to write about these pressing problems. She...

          This is me at the Archeology Museum in Madrid! I knew very little about Spanish history before this trip so it was quite educational. I will cover more of the Hispanic Roman Era and a little past that. Basically, the Romans took over the Iberian peninsula. They brought in the road network which made it easier to govern the land and use its resources. Therefore, industries were developed to a much larger scale and city life became more standard. In this picture I am next to statues livia and Tiberius. Livia was the great matriarch of the Julio Claudian dynasty, wife of Agustin and mother of Tiberius. She had a lot of power and influence in regard to the state. Her son Tiberius later ruled as empower and her reinforced their territories. It was quite the empire while it lasted. It is also very important to note that the Romans also brought in Christianity. Later the Visigoths took over after the Romans and then the Moorish after that. The ...

This is me inside the Toledo Cathedral! I was blown away with how vast it was and how ornate and decorated it was from head to toe. I thought this section was especially Baroque because of the over the top amount of sculpture work, golden gilding, and dramatic movement. I especially love the “sun burst” that is entwined with angles. This leads our eye directly downward to the Madonna and the child. Marry stares reverently down at the Christ child and the overall atmosphere created by this huge wall is awe inspiring. This structure is a proper cathedral and housed the archbishop and also a cardinal, so according to the catholic tradition, it is supposed to be wildly austere. It gives the idea of “the heavenly” and tries to point out thoughts and feelings to Christ by placing him everywhere. It also shows the importance of Mary as well, which is especially important to this cathedral. This cathedral is important because it not only was the place for Catholics to worship, but also like I ...

This is me next to Rembrandt’s most famous painting: The Nightwatch. It depicts a militia and is done with Rembrandt’s unique style. The background, created by looser brushstrokes, is dark and unified, however he uses light to tell us where our focus should be. The two central figures and the young girl are all bathed in light. The lighting tells us that the men are clearly important people to the group, probably filling leadership positions, but the girl has a different story. She acts as a kind of mascot for the group and her cherubic face shows innocence which they protect. It is quite an inviting piece. I personally love the warm pallet used in this example of Rembrandt’s artwork. To me it makes the atmosphere feel more approachable and up beat. This is helped by the lively expressions and actions of the figures. I especially love how the loose stroke makes the piece seem almost smokey, this helps us to see that this is a celebration. This work of art is historically and artistical...

       This is me sitting next to Major Alida Bosshardt. Although this statue shows her as an elderly woman, her story started when she was still young. When Alida was 18 years old she felt very impressed to join the Salvation Army right. This was around the time of WWII and she helped to run an orphanage. We learned that since this part of the time was during the Nazi occupation, she helped Jewish families by keeping their kids safe by keeping documents out of Nazi hands. After the war she helped in the red light district to better the conditions for the women working there. She opened that area's first goodwill and became a much beloved member of the community. To me, her contribution is important because she went down into scary, darker paths to help those who needed it most. It sounded like she was a light who shed love instead of judgment. True service is all about caring for individuals and making a difference where we can. She is a great example of a woman t...

  When Anne was young their family fled from Germany to escape the anti semitism that was growing as the Nazi party gained political power. Sadly a few years later, this intolerance followed behind them. In Amsterdam, where their family had fled to, the Nazi’s took over and started enforcing restrictive laws and  carting people off to concentration camps. The Franks tried to leave but were denied. What they did was they decided to go into hiding in the annex of their company along with another jewish family and man. For two years they lived up there where Anne recorded all her experiences in her diary. Tragically they were eventually arrested and sent to concentration camps. All of them died except for Anne's father Otto. Going to this museum was both tragic, and sad, but also it made me think more deeply about religious intolerance and I am so grateful we went.  When we asked about Anne's contribution, our guide said that by publishing her diary, he hoped to educate the ...

Tonight I had one of the best meals I have ever had! We went to a Balinese food restaurant which was exciting because I had never had this type of food before. Let me describe it to you, we were given a large bowl of rice and were able to dish up on that. Then the servers placed four different curry-like dishes in front of us all with different colors, meats, and spices. Some were more warm flavors while others had a fresher, herby taste. Some were spicy and hot, while others were mild and sweet. They also served hard boiled eggs in a red tangy sauce and skewers covered in a dark thick peanut sauce. Is your mouth watering right now because mine is! It was such a fun meal and such a different style of eating.  The reason this food is so culturally important is because in the 17th-18th century the Dutch East India company essentially  took over east india. Certain islands are where they got new spices like pepper and nutmeg. They brought them back to Amsterdam and would make dis...

     Oh my goodness do you see this behind me?! This is the Ghent Altarpiece painted by two brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck. The colors are so vivid and deep. I especially love the depiction of Mary because of the beautiful blue shades of her dress. The border on her dress as well as her crown display ornate and highly detailed brushwork. I’m an artist myself and I can assure you that that is mad impressive. Mary herself is one of three figures that create a triangle with Jesus at the top.I love the way shape plays into this piece. We see the triangle again in the lowest panel. The lamb, representing Christ,  the top and the corners are created by the crowds. This is mirrored above in an inverted triangle. To me, this is saying that Christ is the focus.  From what we learned, This piece is highly significant. It was the birth of an age of artistic masterpieces. It was the first great oil painting and the first great panel painting. After seeing it, I understand...

This is me in front of the European Union Hemicycle. Here in Brussels is where the European Union Parliament meets to Negotiate and draft legislation. From what I understand, the other seat in Strasbourg is used to finalize the legislation. But I am sure they have other diverging responsibilities that we did not discuss. The European Union is made up of countries dedicated to working together. After the world wars, many European nations realized how much destruction can happen by war. It all started with ensuring peaceful cooperation and trade involving coal. Europe started to integrate more with the goal to maintain the peace between the countries through cooperation. Each country must apply, adopt the legislation, and then they will have a certain number of seats where citizen representatives will serve. Right now there are 705 seats in total. I believe this is so important because it unified a majority of europe. This union values human dignity, freedom, and democracy. They also m...

  This is me in front of Brussels’ Palais de Justice where the infamous Popelin affair took place. This was where Marie Popelin tried to sue/challenge the Belgium legal system. To give some background,  Marie Popelin was a woman born in the mid 1800s right outside of Brussels. She and her sister were educated uncommonly well and became teachers. She had a progressive mentor and she went on to run an all girls school but then later left. She felt that she needed a change and went to school to become a lawyer. Her application to the bar was refused on the basis of gender despite there being no laws against women being lawyers. She tried to sue Belgium, lost, appealed, and then lost again. This was known as the Popelin affair. From there she recognized that the legal system had problems that needed to be solved first. She became an influential suffragist.       Her contributions were important because she showed the flaws in the Belgium justice system, she cre...