The Michelangelo Portal

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The Michelangelo Portal
Personal Opinion by Teodora Zeyya, Teacher in
Drawing and Printmaking, National school of Arts
Dobri Hristov Varna, Bulgaria
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The Michelangelo Portal has proved to be an
excellent opportunity for the popularization of
fine art on one hand and the transnational
exchange of knowledge, ideas and professional
experience, on the other. I would like to take
the liberty of setting forth my personal
observations and impressions and pointing out
some of the most important advantages of the
portal in relevance to the presentation of art in
the perspective of multicultural collaboration
and education
1. The Importance of Multicultural Collaboration
? It suggests alternative ways of imagining
each countrys national art due to the better
understanding of the inevitable differences in
history, geographical situation (e.g. the change
of boundaries), which explains the different
influences on art tendencies, social factors,
peculiarities of national culture and traditions
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? Shapes different notions about the perception
of how to define what art is, what kind of social
strata it addresses in the different countries,
considered in the light of its interdependence
with historical background, specifics of
political factors and time line ? Results in the
formation of a new understanding of European art
in its entity, constituted of the different
accents contemporary artists, art teachers and
researchers put on their national art heritage
with respect to the various preconditions,
determinant for the direction of its progress,
together with their professional opinion for the
selected authors and artworks and last, but not
least, with their personal vision. ? Reveals the
different aesthetics and visual culture of the
participants
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2. The Online Courses ? All the courses are
well designed and comprehensive, they vary in
subject and accented aspects, amount of
information and approach to its presentation. I
myself was highly impressed by the explicitness
of structure, the elaborate and at the same time
clearly organized presentation of the English
art. The Polish course interested and excited
me to a great extent. One of the reasons for my
interest probably eventuates from Bulgarian and
Polish peoples shared Slavonic nature. This fact
furthers a number of similar occurrences with
respect to the way of life, national psychology
and even historical and social processes in both
countries, which inevitably results in some
relative closeness in their art as a combination
of traditions, tendencies, means of expression
and orientation. What fascinates me most about
the Polish course is that it accents on the
presentation of human form. The written material
itself is very interesting, comprehensive and
professionally elaborated.
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The Bulgarian course provides a considerable
amount of information, which, I believe, is due
to its authors desire to give our foreign
colleagues the opportunity to become better
acquainted with our national art. Regretfully,
Bulgarian art is not very popular on an
international scale. That is why I would like to
express my personal delight that our course is a
part of the Michelangelo Project and my
admirations to the people, who managed to develop
it with such professionalism. I am convinced that
the interest our course provoked in the rest of
the participants (my opinion is based mostly on
the wonderful comments of our foreign
colleagues), is the greatest possible compliment
for its creators.
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? The artists presented on the Michelangelo
Portal are wonderfully selected not only
according to their quality as creators and
importance of the role they have played in the
formation of the national art of their country,
but because their masterpieces reveal different
characteristic features of art in a certain
period of its development, the historical and
social factors that reflected it in that period
and their personal understanding and attitude to
these factors. The selection of artworks is also
very good, the reproductions chosen are the most
indicative in order to form a correct idea about
the creative work and conceptions of their
authors
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? All the online courses have a great potential
of practical application, to a great extent due
to the various interactive activities,
visualizations, examples and exercises, which are
most certain to prove very efficient for our
teaching classes. In this reference I would like
to mention modules 2 in both the Italian and
German courses. In addition to its interesting
and comprehensive material in module 1, the
Italian course impresses with the representation
of space in the interactive overview, the
innovative approach to the video visualizations
and the participation of students in the Light
and Dark exercise.
Besides its clearly organized structure,
professional elaboration of artists selection
and overall presentation, the German course is
distinguished by the provided examples of
teaching units. What fascinates me very much is
the idea of bringing forward the particularly
interesting, comprehensive and precise
information about different techniques, which
could also be very useful in school classes.
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3. The Art Sources The art sources are various,
interesting and are going to be of particular
benefit in the teaching and learning process. The
only inconvenience comes from the fact that many
of the articles posted are not written in English
and regretfully, there is no option for reversing
the language either, but this, of course, is
understandable.
4. The Online Meetings ? This is by all means a
personal opinion, but I hope that the rest of the
colleagues, who took part in these meetings,
would agree with me that enlarging our personal
knowledge was by far not the only benefit of the
process of discussion. We were also provided with
the priceless opportunity to develop a better
understanding for the internal, strictly
nationally determined factors, conditioning the
identity, traditions, main characteristics and
purpose of the art of the countries, working on
the project
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? The online meetings made it possible for us to
evolve a deeper comprehension and respect for the
other participants ideas, opinions and
conceptions of art, they even gave us a chance
for a closer look on our colleagues teaching
practices. For me, for example, it was of
particular interest whether in the classes of the
other schools the accent is placed on practical
exercises, theoretical knowledge of arts
history, or they both are equally included in the
course syllabus
? It was a personally rewarding activity, because
we came to know people in the same sphere of
education, professional occupation and interests
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? I really hope that I express the shared
perception of all the participants that it was an
incredible and delightful experience for each one
of us to meet people we could have considered
different from us at first notion, but in the
process of online discussion we formed a feeling
of (this is the closest in meaning word I can
think of) community and professional
fulfillment as a result of our common motivation
to earn more detailed knowledge and deeper
understanding for European art, either as a whole
and as a consistence of creative models,
tendencies, manifestations, representatives and
masterpieces, originating from diverse countries,
their interdependence and the influence they have
often had on one another.
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5. The Comments The comments are an inseparable
and very important part of this project. It is
definitely one of the Portals components that I
myself like in particular. The posted impressions
and views of all the participants are a natural
and necessary supplement to the presented courses
and are very conductive to the main objective of
the project- the popularization of art of five
European countries and the exchange of knowledge,
ideas and professional experience by the means of
multinational collaboration.
? The comments reveal what kind of influence the
information of a certain course experts on other
professionals and provide ground for sharing
different learning, notions, artistic perceptions
and aesthetic models ? They bring up questions
of direct concern to matters, that have not been
completely elaborated and establish a basis for
advancing the subjects in concern, often from a
different point of view
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? Supplement to the presentations of artists or
artworks by adding links to other art sources on
the web and extending the useful data
? The posted impressions and views contribute to
the genesis of comparisons between art
traditions, tendencies and artists in the
different countries, thus promoting the better
understanding of European art in its entirety ?
The opinions of the participants are an original
overall evaluation of the information, the
courses provide, its structure, clearness and
thoroughness, its qualities and eventual
shortcomings, which is an important precondition
for further improvements of the developed
material.
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6. The New Technologies and Their
Perspectives As an online project, the
Michelangelo Portal appears to be unique
opportunity of exploring new ideas and
perceptions of art in the prospect of new
computer technologies and the incredible
potential they provide for the popularization of
art. They are in fact presenting an opening for
dialogues, exchange of knowledge, opinions, a
chance for a better creative exploration by the
means of bringing together professionals from
diverse cultures,regardless of distances,
possibility to travel or material status of the
individuals.
7. Practical Benefits of the Michelangelo
Project, Regarding the Teaching and Learning
Process Since the rapid development of new
computer technologies, the Internet provides us
with the opportunity of quick and easy access to
any kind of information. Proceeding from my
personal observations, I consider it to be the
main source of drawing knowledge and experience
for most of my students. In this train of thought
I am convinced that the Michelangelo Project
would most certainly be extremely useful in our
teaching work due to the following reason
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? The access to the Portal is quick, it is easy
to use, well organized and clearly structured,
the information provided is comprehensive,
profound and interesting ? The images,
attractive visualizations and interactive
exercises contribute to provoking students
curiosity and arousing their interest in the art
of the participating countries ? The
Michelangelo Portals main advantage is that it
actually provides information about some of the
most prominent European artists in the period
10th- 20th Century and their artwork together
with artists that might not be so well-known
? It gives a brief information of the historical
scene so that we could understand the development
and tendencies of art in the context of
historical preconditions and social factors ? In
conclusion, there are the bright and innovative
ideas, used in the visualizations and practical
exercises- they have a great contribution to the
artistic and aesthetic appearance of the Portal.
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8. Generalization of the Main Benefits ?
Collaboration is a process of learning from one
another by sharing professional experience,
knowledge and ideas, thus creating new
perspectives for mutual understanding and laying
the foundations for further cooperation and
future projects ? The Michelangelo Project
generates a rich variety of genius examples of
the constant searches of human spirit in many
aspects, manifestations and achievements in the
sphere of fine art- icons, folk art,
psychological portrait, historical, religious and
social painting and print ? By the means of
multinational collaboration, this project gives
us the exceptional opportunity to widen our
individual horizons. It reveals new views in
reference to art and new concepts to exercise
positive effect on our educational work due to
their genesis from the deeper comprehension for
foreign art history and practice (including
teaching practices and models)
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? The Michelangelo Portals potential as a web
source is huge, because distance will no longer
be an obstacle for communication. The possibility
for common work and shared research by
specialists in the same sphere of occupation and
diverse nationalities is most certain to result
in teachers increased individual qualification,
professional experience and, consequently, in the
improvement of the educational models, used in
the teaching and learning process ? The
project provides an opportunity for an
international educational approach, by the means
of lessons, exploring the art history and forms
of other countries and promoting students with
understanding for different nations culture,
conceptions, aesthetic values and even a
possibility of sharing their own vision and
knowledge of art with their coevals.
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9. Some Perspectives for Further Development of
the Project ? I believe it would be a good idea
to include more artists from each county. There
are still no representatives of the 21st Century,
for example, which might be a possible starting
point for a future progress of the Michelangelo
Portal ? More opportunities could be provided
for cultural and artistic exchange, for
professional contacts, resulting in further
cooperation and future collaborative art products
and projects. I hope it would not be considered
too bold of me if I took the liberty of proposing
that the participating schools deliberated on
developing students exchange programs at a
further stage
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? I dare to express my personal opinion that if
we involve our students more actively in the
project (only the Italian colleagues have
included their pupils so far), we could use the
affinity for technologies that seem to be
essential for their generation, their bright and
fresh ideas and understanding of art through the
prism of their outlook and impressions of art. It
might be a good idea for the Michelangelo Portal
to include a section where students could share
their comments, post ideas, upload their own
visualizations in order to illustrate their
perception of art.
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I think it would be interesting if they uploaded
their own pieces of work like paintings, graphic
prints, sculptures or artistic photographs,
because ultimately, dont we all hope that our
art students will become professional artists,
who will be familiar with the classical
traditions in art on one hand and contribute to
the development of the newer tendencies on the
other? And in this connection it might also be a
good idea if we ourselves present samples of our
artwork, which would be the best illustrative
example of our perception of art.
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In Conclusion Art has always played a most
significant role in the formation of each
countrys cultural history, lifestyle and even
national consciousness. It is a reflection of the
ideas of generations of talented artists and
their perception of contemporary reality with its
times either of prosperity or crisis, high morals
or degradation, peace and security or warfare and
starvation. In this train of thought I believe
that teaching art is an important and necessary
part of the education, because todays students
are the ones to build the future.
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This is the reason for me to believe that when it
comes to popularizing fine art, the Michelangelo
Portal is a big stride in the right direction.
The information it provides and the innovative,
attractive manner of presenting it is making it
really easy for us as teachers to use it in
classroom, as a part of the curriculum. Not so
long ago I would have thought that it is rather
impossible to create a web source which could
actually summarize the art of five countries
during the last ten centuries, so I would like to
express my admirations to the people who have
worked on this project and made it a reality. I
believe that it is done in the best possible way.
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??? I would like to put into words my happiness
about being a part of this project, because it
not simply added to my personal knowledge of art,
but provided me with the possibility to see each
participating countrys art through the eyes of
its contemporary artists and art professionals,
which gave me a completely new understanding for
it. The chance to meet the colleagues, working on
the project and some of their students, and to be
able to communicate with them, was a great
pleasure and unforgettable experience for
me. And last, but not least, I would like to
express my gratitude to the Center for Human
Resource Development - Bulgaria, Pixel
Associazione - Italy and Zinev Art Technologies
Bulgaria, for the priceless opportunity to
participate in the Michelangelo Project and the
course for individual qualification that followed
it.
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