​   ​   During the Italian Renaissance, two schools of thought came about to describe the ideation and creation of paintings. ​One was named 'disegno' and was associated with the Florentine way while the other was 'colore' and was associated with the Venetian way. The former emphasized planning, order, logic, drawing, linework, and composition. On the other hand, the latter focused on movement, emotion, freeform design, and dramatic light and color. The former could be seen as masculine, and the latter, feminine. 

   One of the top complaints by feminists is that the Catholic Church is a 'patriarchy.' Admittedly, before I researched this piece, I almost agreed with them. By a quick glance, it definitely appeared as if men/priests/bishops/the Pope called all the shots. Where did women have a place of power? Where was their authority?

   I lack the words to fully explain what this piece means to me but I'll try my best to describe what I wanted to say with it. Being a female, and a self proclaimed feminist (no, I don't hate men. I'm simply a pro-life from womb to tomb woman who wants us females to truly know about our reproductive organs/cycles without being told that The Pill will solve all our issues. And who thinks having the ability to vote is pretty rad too. I call myself a feminist because it starts up some great conversations with liberals and conservatives alike), I had a lot of friends and acquaintances who questioned how I could reconcile that aspect of myself with my Roman Catholic beliefs.

   This piece is about the symbolism between the Ark of the Covenants in the Old and New Testaments. Most people are familiar with the Old Testament version because of the Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even though the movie does a great depiction of the ark, no one knows exactly what it looked like since it's been lost to antiquity. However, there is an exceedingly detailed description in the book of Exodus that helps us to imagine it. The ark was created in order to house 3 important objects to Judaism: