Cultural Tour of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC Andrew William Mellon, an art collector and investor hailing from Pittsburgh, designed and presented Washington's famed National Gallery of Art to American citizens. Mellon came to the Continue Reading...
Introduction The Renaissance was a time in which humanism and classical order united in the height of Christendom’s cultural power. The Renaissance would eventually be eclipsed by the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the A Continue Reading...
The abstract characteristics of Germanic art prior to this work are now relegated to supporting positions and in the midst of the geometric designs and patterns is the figure of St. Mark, preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Germanic tribes h Continue Reading...
African-American Art The art of African-Americans became a powerful medium for social and self-expression. Visual arts including sculpture carried with it political implications related to colonialism, oppression, and liberation. Along with other fo Continue Reading...
The Donations of Constantine were in fact a fraud - a fact that could only have been revealed through the subjecting of the "original" document to unbiased evaluation. Yet Leonardo Bruni, much more than Valla, deserves the credit for shaping the mod Continue Reading...
Even in Catholic France, the Protestant sentiment that God's grace alone can save His fallen, human creation was evident in the humanist king, Francis I's sister, Margaret, Queen of Navarre's novel when she wrote: "We must humble ourselves, for God Continue Reading...
Middle Ages and the Renaissance are two historical periods in Europe that give interest to many philosophers, writers, and artists, among many others, in their study of how the Europeans, in their respective periods, lived their lives. In the study Continue Reading...
African-American culture flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Although often characterized by and punctuated with the “double consciousness” of being both black and an American, the work of Harlem Renaissance writers and poets was va Continue Reading...
Yet, I suggest that while Anne Clifford succeeded in life -- she was at last able to join the fellowship at Penshurst and through long life and tenacity to reclaim her lands -- Aemilia Lanyer succeeds in an imaginative vision: out of marginality, ou Continue Reading...
Spanish collections were, in fact, a national enterprise. "Collections were assembled all over the Iberian peninsula on the basis of objects acquired throughout Italy, in the Low Countries, in England, from the Americas, and even from India and the Continue Reading...
Thus, we assume that children gifted in the arts are every bit as intellectually endowed as those with academic gifts. The relationships among giftedness, talent development, and creativity are challenging areas of research. Because researchers lac Continue Reading...
The Catholic Church was forced to react and respond to the Protestant Reformation. This can be seen in the music of Palestrina. The Council of Trent resolved to eliminate the use of secular and ornate music during masses, which it saw as part of th Continue Reading...
One of the major problems faced by Charlemagne in his efforts to extend the level of education was the fact that there were very few educated persons available to teach others. Years of neglect had left the educational field with few individuals po Continue Reading...
Olmec Although scientists found artifacts and art objects of the Olmecs; until this century they did not know about the existence of the Olmecs. Most of the objects which were made by this community were associated with other civilizations, such as Continue Reading...
Carl Van Vechten Carl Van Vechten was a white man with a zeal for blackness who had a fundamental role to play in aiding the Harlem Renaissance, which was a movement shepherded by the blacks, come to understand itself. Van Vechten played a pivotal ro Continue Reading...
Western Civilization From Prehistory to the Renaissance Early Civilizations What do historians mean by "pre-history?" What was life like for early humans during these years? There are many things that we as citizens of the modern world take for g Continue Reading...
These pastel-colored etches influenced Degas' late-life paintings. Those were characterized by women frequently engaged in some type of grooming, such as bathing. Rather than the tightly-structured lines of his earlier works, these later works seeme Continue Reading...
Thomas Aquinas led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and toward Aristotelianism and "developed a philosophy of mind by writing that the mind was at birth a tabula rasa ('blank slate') that was given the ability to think and recognize f Continue Reading...
Art History Raphael's Career Raphael is one of the most renowned artists in modern human history. He is so famous that he is one of a small number of artists that they are only known by one name. His full name is Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino. His pre Continue Reading...
Art The Baroque period of art that flourished in the seventeenth century. Although the focal point of Baroque art was Italy and France, its influence was felt throughout Europe. In Italy and other heavily Catholic countries, Baroque art is character Continue Reading...
Renaissance Art An Analysis of Love in the Renaissance Art of Sidney, Shakespeare, Hilliard and Holbein If the purpose of art, as Aristotle states in the Poetics, is to imitate an action (whether in poetry or in painting), Renaissance art reflects Continue Reading...
art historian W.J.T. Mitchell asserted that there is no doubt that the classical and romantic genres of landscape painting evolved during the great age of European imperialism but have since been retired, accepted as part of the common repertory of Continue Reading...
He is one of the few artists that were recognized for his work while he was still living. One of Michelangelo's most exquisite pieces is Pieta. In this sculpture, we can see how Michelangelo was moving away from the traditional form of sculpting. C Continue Reading...
Raphael / Michelangelo / Donatello Raphael's School of Athens is considered a high point of humanism. We can understand this by considering some basic facts about the work: it is a fresco painting done on a wall in the Vatican, arguably the center o Continue Reading...
When geniuses are alive they make people uncomfortable in the ways that they challenge accepted artistic and intellectual concepts. People reject geniuses, and prefer more mainstream representations of art and literature in popular culture. But true Continue Reading...
Workers in Florence were experts when it came to transforming wool into cloth of an excellent quality; they wee well acquainted with the ways to do the same. The process was a quite complicated one which involved dying of wool, cleaning the wool and Continue Reading...
Symbolism first developed in poetry, where it spawned free verse. Forefathers included the poets Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud; practitioners included Laforgue, Moreas, and Regnier. The Swiss artist Arnold Becklin is perhaps the most well-known Continue Reading...
Michelangelo and the RenaissanceMichelangelo was one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance. He began his career with the chisel and ended it with the paint brush. He was a master in sculpture, engineering, and painting. Had he excelled in p Continue Reading...
Michael Baxandall's Painting & Experience in 15th Century Italy In his work, Painting & Experience In 15th Century Italy, the art critic Michael Baxandall attempted not simply to discuss the art of this particular period in Italian history, Continue Reading...
Umlauf, The Torchbearers The Mannerist Aesthetics of Umlauf's "The Torchbearers" Charles Umlauf's "The Torchbearers" is informed by Renaissance art in its handling of the human form, but it is identifiably a modern work. Depicting two muscled athle Continue Reading...
Messiah:" What major cultural events could we say contribute to this rise of the individual? Although oratorios were not staged like operas, they were composed many individual songs pieces when the singers would take on the roles of different char Continue Reading...
In his attempt to paint the goddess, the Renaissance painter inspired from the mythological legend of Venus's birth. The Roman Goddess of love apparently emerged out of the sea as a result of a foam formed around Uranus's genitals that had just been Continue Reading...
Support for the figure being Diogenes rather than Socrates has been found in the fact that he is prone, and alone, which seems to suggest Diogenes' status as an antisocial Cynic -- he also called himself a 'dog.' However, the painting seems to depic Continue Reading...
Question 2: Which of the Davids could Americans adopt as symbolic of the time in which we are currently living -- and why? Bernini's "David" is a man of action, not a static ideal. Bernini demonstrates why the Biblical figure of David is a hero an Continue Reading...
Question: Why are we shown the rear of the horse so predominantly? Life is ordinary -- even during seismic events there is always humor, ugliness, and the everyday -- and the rear ends of animals. A horse in the Bible had the same basic anatomy as Continue Reading...
On the contrary, if I had been able to be a clergyman or an art dealer, then perhaps I should not have been fit for drawing and painting, and I should neither have resigned nor accepted my dismissal as such. I cannot stop drawing because I really ha Continue Reading...
They are draped in white with gold frills around their neck and arms. Their long wings are white, red, and yellow. Similar to the saints of Cimabue, we see that the angels have halos surrounding their heads. The next area we will explore is the mid Continue Reading...
In essence, the horse in this painting appears to be the centerpiece for our eyes rather than Saul and his conversion. In addition, Caravaggio has "paid no attention to the usual dignity appointed to scenes from the holy scriptures" (Linda Murray, 1 Continue Reading...
Leonardo Da Vinci Regarded one of the most innovative and talented individuals of his time, BBC (2014) describes Leonardo da Vinci as "one of the greatest creative minds of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor but al Continue Reading...
Such linkages and juxtapositions contributes to the search for hidden meanings, and concentration on Poussin's iconography shows that critics believe there is usually more meaning in the frame than a cursory look would convey. To a degree, this beli Continue Reading...
