The Mountains still Surround Jersusalem

In the Italian renaissance period The bottega system ruled the art production of Florence and the other surrounding societies. The interesting thing about this system of production was conformity and the passing on of traditions.

You see, the way a new artist was trained, was by the boy becoming an apprentice to a master who would provide for him and train him in return for his work in the bottega. The training would involve copying the master's drawings, then after that copying and drawing, on would draw from paintings and works of art in the churches or public art collections of the city of Florence or whatever town they happen to be in. Not until you became an advance student or a master would one even dream nude studies. The works of art in the renaissance many times were all very similar for this reason. Because all the artist were trained one after the other with the same basic techniques, the same patterns and works of art, and were generally required to complete the same subjects over and over due to the all encompassing Catholic church at this time.

So it is no wonder why art history can be so challenge for those without a keen eye for many of these images have very slight differences, but when you start placing them in a line you can see a gradual progression from this to that which happened slowly over many decades and through the contribution of hundreds of artists. And yet today we live in a modern society that thrives on creating that which was never created before, that which looks nothing like anything else, or is made for the mere fact of how cool or awesome it was to make it. Back then artist didn't have the luxury of being able to just create and sell. Instead they had to sell themselves with each commission they received in order to receive another. Artist were poor, they hardly received a paycheck for their work after paying for supplies, living quarters, food, and assistants. But art was continued to be produced, and still is, and will be for long to come.

This little dive into history can show us many things. It can show us that over time and contribution many together can grow and create something that becomes beautiful, but sometimes the road is not easy, or fair, or even right. also it should be known that the bottega system began to fall apart after a few centuries. It fell apart for many reasons, but one of the main reasons was individuality. Individuality also has many great qualities of not always following a trend, getting more perspectives, and not always having to rely on others. But individuality tends to help things to just get more muddled and people begin to drift apart.

But it should be remembered that in Israel's history their were many ups and downs. they went this way and that and traveled from one land to another, But always they were god's people. And always the mountains continued to surround Jerusalem. And always God surrounded them with a special relationship that the other nations had little understanding of.

Many times as an artist I feel disconnected from reality, many times I just don't understand why you can't do that or don't understand this or that. But that's the case with each of us. In each of us there are things that we understand or see from a certain perspective that few if any others do like a modern artist. But at the same time we live with others and communicate with them and we still have that communication and struggle and building up and tearing down of each other toward a common goal whether we realize it or not (just like the Workshops in the Renaissance). And their is a battle between the individual and the body that we continually fight with for control. But we must remember that the mountains still surround Jerusalem, whether were alone or in a great multitude. For God Loves Each of us, and in each of us their is room for the individual and the collective group, as long as God takes center stage and and we go to him in the mountains in stead of waiting in the valley and as long as we live and grow together and keep our hands free to help our neighbor up when he or she falls then together we can stand and rely and lift each other up.