Come with Me on My Visit to The MET!

A bit of the background of this story.  It was painted by an African American artist named Joshua Reynolds, and is named ‘’The Strawberry Girl’’ since the girl in the painting is picking strawberries up from the jar of strawberries. Joshua was enslaved and later freed in 1782, and shortly after became an apprentice.  He was one of the few painters that created portraits. Many of Joshua’s portraits are depicting children like Emma Van Name, the girl depicted in the painting. Most of his subjects that were painted were upper middle class of Baltimore’s citizens that wanted to be portrayed. The girl is portrayed in a stiff manner and stands in a direct manner and stands there with an expressive face and seriousness wearing a lace with an overlap of a pink dress and a ruffled bonnet. The girl is wearing what most upper class girls have worn in the 19th century and holding a strawberry to her mouth. That big red splash of color was meant to dramatize the feeling of the youth and it’s purity. The background has a curtain tied up with the scenery of the outside of Johnson’s paintings.

I recently learned about Buddhism in class these past two weeks.  So here’s a bit of history nuggets (as my teacher says)!

While there is no actual founder of Buddhism, the story goes that a prince back in the Indian civilization was supposed to be an important religious figure. His mother was warned about having this type of son much like in Christianity where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is about to have a child from God. But with this one, it contrasts since she wasn’t exactly “warned’’ but dreamt it. Unfortunately, she passed in the labor and his father raised him away from the outside world so he would follow in his footsteps and be the ruler after him. 

In India, they mostly practiced Hinduism and in its states, one must follow their dharma or their rule. It didn't matter what caste you were in, you had to fulfill your dharma. But one day when Buddha (prince) pleaded with his father to see the outside world, he set out on his spiritual journey to embark on his journey. When on the trip he came on account with people that were less fortunate than him. He knew that there were misfortunes in the world. So to reach enlightenment he meditated to concentrate. But Buddhism was not widely popular in India because Hinduism was more popular there. While there is no ‘’true founder’’ it was started by Siddha. The name Buddha means the ''enlightenment one''. Buddhists wanted to reach nirvana, or be in union with the universe. One can only reach nirvana if someone reaches enlightenment. But how does one become enlightened?   One has to accept the four noble truths. They must accept that life is full of suffering and to eliminate selfish desires one has to follow the ''eightfold path''.