Paint Me, Professor | Student-Professor Erotic Novel | 18+ | ✔️

3 - "I Apologize"

Alison
***

"Miss Bureau, since you have already given us a piece of your mind, why won't you go first?"

Professor Damon's words rattled in my head. My immediate reaction was to pull my eyes away from him, but I quickly looked back at him. Of course he wanted to humiliate me further. Luckily for me, I was more than prepared to speak about the paper. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me fail.

"Sure." I said confidently, my eyes meeting his. He put his weight on his right leg, folding his bulging arms across his wide chest, giving me permission to speak. "Ames-Lewis affirms that early Renaissance artists like Da Vinci and Raphael were engaged in a rapidly increasing intellectualization of artistic activity — a combination of classical and literary influences and technical developments that advanced the visual arts (primarily painting and sculpture, of course), and created a sophisticated elite who legitimately claimed the elevated social status of practitioners of established liberal arts."

I expected him to comment my statement, but he gave no feedback "What else?"

"Each chapter considers a unique aspect of the intellectual life of the artist. For example, chapter 2 explores the education of the artist, which although was not generally classical, it gradually needed some familiarity with classical languages and themes. By writing treatises, biographies, poetry, and other literary works, by seeking contacts with humanists and literary men, and by investigating the arts of the classical past, Renaissance artists honed their social graces and broadened their intellectual horizons. They also experienced a growing creative confidence and self-awareness that was expressed in novel self-portraits, works created solely to demonstrate pictorial skills, and monuments to commemorate themselves after death."

Dr Damon was silent. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest.

"That's all very well Alison, but I want to hear your opinion. If I wanted a summary of the paper, I'd google it."

The rest of the students chuckled around me. I didn't think the situation was funny at all, but apparently everyone else did. They were just happy it wasn't them on the chopping block.  My thoughts scattered; my hands started to sweat. I looked down at my notes for salvation, but nothing helped.

"Well?" He insisted, sounding impatient.

I had to say something, anything. Better to say something stupid than to just stand there in silence.

"I guess I could say that what I took from this paper is how so many different factors can shape an artist. Their environment, education, experiences... As we all know, the Renaissance was marked by humanism, which placed the human being at the center of all things. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science and literature. In other words, this belief of placing humans as the center of it all made it so that art itself was the product of artists, but it also shaped artists themselves. That's why I think the Renaissance is so fascinating: you can no longer separate the art from the artist. An artist's education, upbringing, and experiences is the art itself."

He smiled for the first time that morning. It was a grim, granted, but nevertheless, a smile.

"You can no longer separate the art from the artist..." He repeated my words, letting them linger in the air theatrically. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the reason why Art History is so important. The art you will produce in your lifetime will be a direct reflection of your influences, of your studies, of your experiences. How can you become great artists if you don't know what the greats before you have done? Perhaps you'll be inspired by most of them. You'll finally be able to see the artist behind the canvas, what and who inspired them, what myriad of variables lead them to create the art they did."