Trebuchets were the weapon of choice in the thirteenth century. Due to their increase in power, accuracy, and distance, they quickly made the catapults obsolete. One of the main purpose of a battle ready trebuchet was to tear down enemy defense fortification. With projectiles of up to 300 pounds, the trebuchet was able to knock down walls with ease. In fact, on many occasions the enemy inside the fortress would instantly surrender just by the sight of a trebuchet. Trebuchets truly were the most feared weapon of medieval times.  Check out this video that I have posted and you will get a glimpse of what a full scale trebuchet can really do. Enjoy! 

The Controversy of The Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks. There are two versions of this painting, one in Louvre in Paris, and the National Gallery in London. The painting in the Louvre thought to be an early version of the work. The paintings use of chiaroscuro, or contrast between light and dark, and sfumato are very obvious in this painting. The second, an almost identical painting, is in the National Gallery in London. It is slightly different in that Jesus and his mother have halos and the angel in the painting is not pointing to John the Baptist. Many think that Leonardo may not have painted the version in the Louvre because of these inconsistencies. Although some believe that the Louvre version is the work of Leonardo, because it is stylistically close to Leonardo's other works of the 1480s. In the novel The Da Vinci Code it is claimed the earlier Louvre version contained hidden symbolism that contradicted orthodox Christian belief; most art historians are dismissive of the "hidden meaning". You can clearly see in the painting that Jesus is blessing his cousin John the Baptist while Mary is trying to unite them. The angel’s presence next to Jesus shows his connection to the supernatural and when he blesses John the Baptist it is to show his closeness with God. 

Seeing With New Eyes

I was always terrified of art until I took art with Dr. B. I always looked at a painting and it was just that…a painting. I could tell you if I thought it was pretty or not, but if you asked me to analyze a work I was lost. I was nervous on my first day of class with Dr. B simply because I felt in over my head, but I quickly found out what a remarkable teacher he was and soon I was looking at works of art and actually recognizing techniques and I really started to appreciate it. We looked at a lot of works this semester some I loved and some I could have lived without. One of my favorites and the one that reminded me of this class the most would have to be Benozzo di Lesse di Sandro Gozzoli’s work The Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem. The style of the clothing and overall look of the painting seems medieval and if you did not know the title of the work you would probably not associate it with Christian art at all. It could be a hunting party or a kingly procession. The artist alternated between using wet fresco and dry fresco when painting this scene. It is a fairy tale picture but instead of this great procession leading to a beautiful princess it leads directly to the King of Kings.

Apologetics

So in trying to defend the gospel to someone who is atheistic or agnostic, you kind of need to establish that there is a god, whether or not that god is the Christian God. That can be accomplished with the arguments/proofs of Aquinas or others similar to his. Because if you can't establish a supernatural creator, then the idea of that creator in a human form is just dumb. But I think, for the most part, if people actually consider the origin of matter, that will lead to a belief in a supernatural power because something cannot come from nothing naturally. Once a god is established, this leads to a consideration of Yahweh as well as other gods. I think it's important that you do not refuse them to consider any other religion's god(s) but let them ponder them then inform them about the history of the Old Testament God and how this is the God that exists. Easier said than done. It takes a lot of studying to be able to do this and to refute the other religions, but it can be done. This opens the door to the New Testament and Jesus. I think it would be best to discuss the historical evidence of the existence of Jesus first. Before proving Jesus is God, prove that he was an actual person that actually existed. Then you can move on to His divinity. In order to do this, you need to be able to discuss the reliability of the New Testament documents. If they think that the gospels are not reliable then nothing you say that is in the scriptures will mean anything. But if you can prove that what the gospels say is reliable then they will be more inclined to believe the claims that the gospels make. You also need to know how to defend the resurrection because although they may believe the gospels, it doesn't mean that they will believe everything the gospels say, especially the resurrection. There is historical evidence that supports the resurrection but it takes a lot of studying to defend it. That leads to the transition from history to theology. And you can take it from there.

Our first launches of the Trebuchet

This is a video of our first launch of our Trebuchet. It was a tough and at times stressful task which took three days to build and much more time to plan and organize the materials and locations. We used power tools to cut, drill holes, and screw into the wood. Even with these tools it was tough. I can't even imagine how people did it in the old days.


This is a video of a later launch. All of these are hard to see because it was at night time when we finally finished. I believe it might have been either Josh H, Daniel W, or Thomas who had the idea to launch a flashlight. So we strapped my flashlight to a roll of duct tape and launched it into the dark. It was an amazing sight as it launched perfectly, seeing the light flicker into the distance as it rolled over and under. I would have to say that it went a good 100 yds! The whole night, everything went great with our practice runs.

Shout out

One week left. One week until we all go our seperate ways, for a short time anyway. Something i really wanted to share this is just what this semester has done for me, what this class has done for me. More than anything, more than the contrapasso of Dante or the controversy of King Lear, the greatest influence so far has been the class itself. That means you. All of you. And a huge shout out to Dr. Mitchell too, for being so spontaneous and insane and keeping us guessing. Its been alot of work so far, but what makes it worth it to me is doing it all together. Building the relationships and getting to know everyone like i have, its been incredible. Even with the trebuchet and play, as insanely awesome as it was to launch that sucker, and be awestruck by the acting, the best part was just hangin out, goofin off, workin together to get the job done.
So with that said, I want to personally thank Dr. Mitchell and the class of this year for an incredible semester

Heeeeeyyyy Trebuchet!!!

So… I have to be honest. In the beginning of the semester when we got the assignment to build a trebuchet, I had no idea what it was. I now know that it a sort of catapult. For those of you who have questions on the trebuchet… this is the blog for you.
So one of the first questions I had was what the difference is between a trebuchet and just a regular old catapult. Why do we have to say some confusing word that I cannot spell instead of just using the term “catapult”? Basically, a trebuchet is a type of catapult. A catapult is a general term for a medieval device that launches objects and is used as a weapon. A trebuchet is a specific type of catapult. It uses the force of gravity as a counterweight to propel its arm, which launches a pouch, which holds the object to be launched.
Another question I had when I found about our little project was how this whole thing was going to work. Like I said earlier, the trebuchet uses gravity as a counterweight. Thus, on the main arm, there is, on one side, the object to be fired and on the other weights. The arm is held in place by a pin so that the weight is held up. When the pin is removed, gravity takes its place, and the weights go down. When the weight-side of the arm goes down, the object in the sling flies up and flies out.
That is how it is supposed to work. But things do not always go as planned. We definitely learned this through our building of our trebuchet. It did not launch all the times it should have. But nevertheless it was a lot of fun and was ridiculously cool… especially when we launched the cantaloupe! I guess it was awesome to see how everything came together. There were times that we thought that there was no way that this pile of wood that we put together would work. Butt it certainly did! I guess that is what makes honors so great. Not only do we get to do crazy awesome things like building trebuchets, but we also get to accomplish things that we did not think were possible.