Assignment 2.
Concerning the circle of Hell I would send him to, as Dante, it might have been the second circle, meaning the one responsible for lust and where sinners were hunted by horrible storm. On the other hand, I think it would be too mild because Dante's perception of lust is more connected with love and obsession with one's beloved one, rather than an act of dominance and possession of one' will and freedom. So, I would place him in the Seventh circle for violence because he committed violence against those women he raped. I would place him in the outer ring so that he could get his punishment in the boiling river of blood and fire together with Alexander the Great and stand in that river by the level of his chin. Although Alexander is condemned for the river of blood he shed, Strauss-Kahn is condemned for violence over women which is the worst act in the warfare, but was conducted out of mere boredom.
Assignment 3 (Friday).
I think that my colleague is entirely right because such kind of sin should be punished accordingly. In this context is meant that lust as betrayal should be punished, not due to the act itself, but rather due to consequences and the main consequences are impact of lack of fidelity on family life and social structure. Without stable family based on fidelity and mutual respect, no moral and legal systems are possible. Thus, society would be in chaos.
It should be realised that although Dante placed lovers driven by lust in the Second Circle, he aimed to punish lust and not love and to preserve the sacredness of marriage and unbreakable significance of oaths in society. That is why I think that my colleague is right about placing this person into the second Circle and not any other. I think that placing of this or that individual into circles of Hell does not depend that much about Dante but rather about the time he lived in and difference between his perception of sins and contemporary ideas about them.
Assignment 3 (Saturday).
I think that my colleague is right about placing that person into the fifth circle responsible for anger because his actions are, in fact, conditioned by the feeling of anger and fury. The rationale for placing this sin as one of the most dramatic ones is that it has devastating consequences for the surrounding environment and social structure. I think it deserves the punishment of fighting with each other in the river of sticks. just as anger is eternal so is this river. On the other hand, this person might be in the seventh circle as well, since the main consequence of anger is violence. So it actually depends on consequences of a certain act and not just intentions.
I also agree with my other colleague arguing that the chosen individual should go to the ninth circle, mainly because his activity is a treachery no matter how one might try to justify his actions. In the end of the day, betrayal remains a betrayal even if one argues that it was done for the common benefits. On the other hand, I am not sure whether Round 1 is entirely relevant. I think his act of treason is more suitable for the Round 4 called Judecca. The main reason for this is that the betrayal affected the closest people this person had, so the act of betrayal is not only about the chosen target but about the multi-dimensional destruction of trust and interpersonal-relations.
Question Answer 1.
I was inspired by the transitional meaning of the building from church to mosque and then again to church. So I used a simple image of a flower with multiple meaning. Just as the initial meaning of the rose for Greeks was the flower of innocence and later white rose meant death for Hindu, it later became the symbol of love and passion. So did the Spanish cathedral - it meant one thing for Christian religion and entirely different for Muslim. The commonality between the rose and building is in preserving their essence but evolving in their meaning.
Assignment 1. Towards Limpid Divinity
The transition from one architectural technique to another is often a sign of a more crucial cultural and socio-political change. In case of the transition from Romanesque architecture towards Gothic, there were a few reasons. First of all, as it may be seen on the example of Pisa cathedral group, the Romanesque architecture was conditioned by Church self- perception as the way to the God and subsequently to heaven (Conant 76). On the other hand, when Church had to fight for its power with the strengthening authority of French kings and local feudal, the house of God was considered to become the heaven itself. In this context, the Gothic Churches like Notre dame de Paris and York Minster were to become more elegant and divine as an embodiment of God's mercy and lightness of the Holy Spirit (Frankl and Crossley 67). Thus, from the political point, the shift in the meaning and functionality of the church was aimed at protection the power of the Papacy and to preserve local authority over the people. In this context, previous image of God as a judge was changed to be a promise of paradise. Thus, the house of God was meant to be that heaven and not simply a fortress against demons (Grodecki and Prache 39).
As it can be seen in the Pisa cathedral group, the Romanesque architecture was directly derived from the tradition of ancient castles and fortresses - round forms, large shapes, strong walls, sometimes columns to support a heavy dome roof. Irrespective of the cream-light colour of the stone used for the buildings, the main message of the groups is material dominance of Church and its power over those entering the building (Conant 61). One can easily imagine the Roman palace in the same style as Pisa cathedrals. On the other hand, Notre Dame and York Cathedral are characterised by additional height and stretching towards the sky. Irrespective of the dark stone as the main material, the interior is full of space and light. Unlike Romanesque heavy walls with small or even absent windows, Gothic cathedrals have massive stained-glass windows like the famous Rose Window in Notre Dame. The colourful light is a crucial means of Gothic architecture to show the presence of God and his diversity (Frankl and Crossley 77).
The three chosen buildings show that transformation from one style to another was not swift and that engineering advancement required some experiments like in case of the Notre Dame and only later the full capacity of high Gothic elegance could be achieved on the level of York Minster. In this context, it is easy to track the difference between the last two types of Gothic architecture. The Notre Dame is an example of experiments, when some large walls were replaced by thinner, but not as thin as later in York Minster. Although the size of the internal support was reduced, it was not yet mastered to its full capacity. The height was achieved by the addition of the triforium, an extra story to the traditional three-story structure. It contributed to extra addition of space and volume due to its own miniature arcade (Ditchfield 27). On the other hand, York Cathedral shows a classic English perpendicular feature and introduction of bar tracery inside the cathedral. Unlike the early Gothic, the building is fully based on transparent and thin walls, and English adaptation of the Gothic style - Perpendicular structure of the main building which together with thin walls and windows added extra space and transcendence of the air (Ditchfield 34). Thus, the new power and grandness was in the Gothic architecture, but it was not in massive forms but in the creation of space and skeletal elegance of interconnectivity and balance of lines in construction.
Works Cited
Conant, K.J. Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture: 800-1200. New Haven, CT: Yale
Ditchfield, P.H. English Gothic Architecture. London: Read Books. 2008. Print.
Frankl, P. and Crossley, P. Gothic Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
2000. Print.
Grodecki, Louis and Prache Anne. Gothic architecture. Rome: Ellectra/Rozzoli. 1985. Print.
