mysterium colorum | Cavedo

This is magister Cavedo again, this time with a description for my class this summer: mysterium colorum. 

mysterium colorum explores the sensory perception of colors in our lives and situates that daily experience within the historical context of how humans have been viewing and describing the world around them, and images of that world, for thousands of years. In the first half of the course we will investigate the science behind the phenomenon of color as well as the ways people in the ancient Mediterranean perceived, conceived, and named colors. In the second half of the course we will examine the cultural-historical legacy of colors in European art and visual culture in order to reveal how notions of color in antiquity influence our lives and society today, and why we should care. The purpose of this interdisciplinary approach to a topic as pervasive as colors is to demonstrate how knowledge of Latin language and texts can be used in a dialogue with other bodies of evidence, such as science and art history, in order to shed new light on old issues of our shared human cultural history. 

In the meantime, if you want to watch some documentaries on Netflix that I would assign for homework at academy if that were possible I encourage you to watch Life in Color with David Attenborough, which is all about color in nature (and how the crew captured the colors on film), as well as season 2 episode 1 of Abstract: the Art of Design titled Olafur Elliason: the Design of Art, which is about the artist's immersive artistic installations. There is also an episode of Radiolab called Colors that is pretty good too. None of this is compulsory but if you are interested in this topic this is a great way to get a head start. 

​I am eager to share this class with you. In many ways it is a culmination of how Latin Academy has shaped and changed me as both a student and a teacher over the years and I hope it will challenge and inspire you to be curious and thoughtful about how you view and perceive the world around you. I am so excited to meet and get to know you soon, so enjoy this last week at home and I will see you on Sunday!

ex animo,
Cavedo