History Class Response

This is the Class Response. There are 2 options, and you can chose one theme to write. This aticle must be 200-350 words, and due by 4/11/2015 before 23:59

Option 1: Van Eyck and Renaissance Painting

   Please read: David G. Stork, “Optics and Realism in Renaissance Art,” Scientific America, December 2004, pp. 1-9.; Available in the Readings Folder.

   And view: Northern Renaissance - The Supreme Art, Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xql4qDfOJI

   Then discuss:  What issues or questions are at stake in Stork’s article?  Why are people concerned about Van Eyck’s methods?  Do their questions and investigations help us understand the Renaissance period better and if so in what ways?   How does the Stork article compare to the documentary Northern Renaissance (the same story or a different one)?

Option 2: Unger on the technology of herring finish.

Please read:

Richard W. Unger, “Dutch Herring, Technology, and International Trade in the Seventeenth Century,’ The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Jun., 1980), pp. 253-280, available in the Readings Folder on JSTOR at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2120179

And discuss:

1. Choose one of the four technical changes in Dutch herring production and discuss how it helps to explain the relationship between the Dutch success and other social, economic, political or cultural trends at that time.