Borghese Museum (not finished)

Tübingen Wäldhäuser

Snowy winter

I have forgotten when was the last time I wrote something in this blog.

Time pasts fast, and I tried to grasp some wonderful memory sooner or later will be forgotten by

everyone, including myself.

During the past few months, I leaned German in Viva Lingua institute, but didn't really improve much, and then I started to learn by myself, via the website 'Duolingo.'


Time flied, and there came the Christmas holidays, during which I went to Italy to recharge myself with the cornucopia of best European arts- from Gothic, Romanesque to Renaissance , and to Baroque arts.

David by Michelagelo

I have seen the most famous and remarkable sculptures in the world when I was traveling across Italy- Milan, Florence, and Rome. I have stood in front of some of the most breathtaking art pieces, famous or not, for hours, and reflecting and chewing over the ideas the artists tried to convey.

Back the times, artists are not artists of today. They are erudite literate who possess the ability to appreciate, criticize and create arts. They live a very different life style than most of their contemporaries- farmers, handicraftsman, and small shop owners, who were not able to read, to write, letting alone appreciate arts.

David by Donatello

These artists are liberal experts of ancient literatures, and adept at science. Their works advocate the ideas of Christianity meanwhile they have the freedom to reinterpret the stories and morals that were meant to be the privilege of clergies. Exemplars are ubiquitous- David and Goliath by Michelangelo, a constant subject of great interest of the time, has been seen as a symbol that  human civilization defeats barbarian primitivity, and conquers nature powers . On the other hand,  Donatello, one of the earliest representative sculptors of Renaissance, although loyally but blandly expressed moral the original story , good overcome evil, his David is the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity.

David by Bernini

Pay a visit to  Borghese Gallery in Rome, you will find the best collection of Bernini, the Michelangelo of Baroque era. His David tells an entire different story.

Without the peacefulness and perfectness pertaining to the figures and stances of sculptures in Renaissance era, here you see a David with intense facial expression, impressive muscle profile, and dynamic, flowing body movement. Everything becomes more energetic, emotional, and expressive. The revolutionary ideas pertaining to Bernini's sculptures opened up a new era of Baroque style of sculptures.

There are too many things to talk about regarding to the classical arts I saw and learned in Italy, so I will leave it to another post. So, let's back to the topic.

Time flies, I don't really have time to write blogs, and it is really not a good time to write a post, since tomorrow I have to hand in my Machine learning homework, and Final exam is near. However, human is human because they always can't be disciplined like machines and follow what is planned by themselves a minutes ago.

I write blog because I have the strong impulse that compels me to write down what I have felt and thought during the day. It is like there is another guy living inside me, dictate me to fulfill its wants.

I write because I am forced to write, not by my boss, but a hidden boss living inside me. He is the master , and I am his slave.

It was cold, my hands turned numb a couple of minutes after I drew it out from my pocket. But I had to keep doing it to photograph all magnificent natural spectacles that I saw here in Tübingen.

The town is small, and most people are students. In the outskirt of the town it felt doubly empty comparing with already sparse populated town. Few cars, and few people incidentally passed by my visual field shortly when I was walking on the big ways. Other than that, you are all by yourself.

You start to talk to yourself. Of course silently.

If you are a person who enjoy solitude, Germany is for you. If you are a person who is tired of noisy and bustling life of mega city, Germany is for you. If you also are agitated by any colorful and animated animals and plants, Tübingen is for you.  Only thing you will see here in winter is immense farmland caped by snows, and bland and that passionless dull sky falls behind it. Empty and vast are how I will describe it. The huge emptiness displayed its gigantic size that will awe you if you were born in a crowed noisy urbanized tropical island like me. 

Wildness is a solid ocean for inland cities, these unpopulated lands are also very exoplanet looking.

It is like a white solidified ocean with black forests lining surrounding any inland German cities. We are living on islands made of bricks and concrete. Although we can walk on this ocean, it is still untraversable.

Comparing with humid, frying hot climate in Taiwan. The coldness here is soothing, and the serenity is enjoyable. I am tired of hearing people quibbling over infinitesimal business and counting their beans under their nose. I am also irritated by the garbage news and shows on TV that I had to live with in Taiwan. Here, I am accompanied with woods and grass, sky and earth. Finally I can rest my ear and rest my mind. I hope the serenity here can heal my nerve breakdown.  

A tree standing alone in the middle of the field. Its branches stretched out leave-less, resembling nerve fibers we see on the cover of Nature journal.

Put down your job temporarily and take a walk in the timeless forest. You will find out how ridiculous it is how we live in our everyday routine with weary. Without human activity, the world seems to be timeless, and everything around me seemed to be asking, ' Why are you always so in a hurry ? Will you die if you slow down ? ' Yes, slow down seems to be the most extravagant thing to do to us, and slow down seems to be regarded as a guilt. Are we unconsciously taking slow down as a form of laziness or unproductiveness ? So what ?

We always think time is flowing, but when there is no life, there is no time.  Time is meaningless to nature. 500,000 years later, sun rises and sets, snow falls and tree withers.  Maybe sometimes a tree may recall a guy had come beneath it 500,000 years ago, if you incidentally passed by a tree spirit someday .

Isn't it beautiful, if one day we can take our time and seat on this bench, take a look at what is surrounding us ?

'Where are the people ? ' asked the tree.

'Look at me, I am so beautiful ! Come out and see me !' 

       Watch point. But where is the border ?

  
   People don't need horses anymore. We have cars, bikes, and planes. Horse becomes a beautiful reminiscence that will be remembered as a time when we are not that far from nature.