I really enjoyed our visit to Musée d’Orsay today and our tour of the museum with Paul Perrin. It was an incredible experience to see the museum empty before the crowds rushed in. It felt surreal to see artworks in real life that I’ve studied in past art history classes. What stood out to me the most was the scale of the history paintings. The scale of A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet was especially striking. In a strange way, it made me think of the ideas of medium specificity we talked about during the first week of class. If one were to think about history paintings as a medium for telling a message, that message is most effectively told when depicted at a large scale. The immersive nature of large-scale history paintings transports the viewer back to the time of the event being depicted. I have studied A Burial at Ornanns in many art history classes but seeing the painting in real life was a completely different experience. I never realized how big it was because I was so used to seeing it in digital form in a lecture slideshow. After experiencing the work in real life, I began to wonder what is the most effective way to teach the power of things like history paintings if traveling to the museum is not an option? For example, if you are unable to visit the Musée d’Orsay, what is the most effective way to learn and interact with the work? This led me to think about facsimiles and if they could be an option for learning, which I think they very well could. Though it is a heavily debated subject if facsimiles belong in museums or not. Personally, I think there is a place for them in museums as they can be valuable educational tools.
In relation to cinema, I wonder how the scale of our screens affects our movie-watching experience. What are the true differences between seeing a movie in the theaters on a big screen and watching a movie on our cell phones? Does the screen size impact the way we immerse ourselves in a film?