Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Arts and Humanities for Baccalaureate

Quattrocento Architecture

The two architects of the Quattrocento who began the break with the Renaissance and earlier Gothic tradition were Brunelleschi and Alberti. Another important figure is Michelozzo.

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446)

Born and died in Florence, where all his artistic production took place. Although he was destined by his father for a notary career, he was soon able to engage in the arts. He began working in a goldsmith shop in Rome and conducted studies on Classical Antiquity.

He represents the first example of the Renaissance ideal artist with a solid humanist education and science (architect, sculptor, painter, goldsmith, engineer...). His work constitutes the starting point of Renaissance architecture.

Leon Battista Alberti

Masterpiece of the Contarelli Chapel

The Calling of St. Matthew (1598–1600) by Caravaggio is a monumental oil on canvas measuring 3.22 x 3.40 m, located in the Church of St. Louis of the French in Rome. Cardinal Contarelli commissioned Caravaggio to decorate a chapel in the church with three paintings depicting scenes from the life of Saint Matthew. On the altar is St. Matthew and the Angel, while the sides feature The Calling of St. Matthew on the left and The Martyrdom of St. Matthew on the right.

Commission and Biblical Inspiration

The artist illustrates the Gospel passage describing the conversion of Saint Matthew:

"Jesus passed by, he saw a man sitting at the tax office, named Matthew, and said follow me. And he arose and followed him" (

Benito Pérez Galdós and Spanish Realism

Realism was an artistic current that proposed to represent reality faithfully and with verisimilitude. It began in France with authors such as Balzac, Stendhal, and Flaubert. Later, it triumphed in England with Dickens, and in Russia with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. In Spain, it started in the 1870s and developed from 1880 onwards, in the historical context of the First Republic and the Restoration, amidst a certain economic development. This improvement in material conditions enhanced the growth of cities and the development of the urban bourgeoisie, in their usual contrast of wealth with the uneducated masses, first championed by socialist and anarchist workers' movements. The most relevant schools of...

Essential Steps for Literary Analysis

Step 1: Reading, Vocabulary, and Context

The first step involves reading the text thoroughly while focusing on vocabulary and context. This includes researching the author's biography, the title text, and the title of the work to which the passage belongs.

Step 2: The Background—What Does the Text Say?

In the second stage, we examine the background. We ask: what is the text saying? This involves identifying the theme and the plot.

Step 3: The Form—How Is It Said?

The third stage focuses on the form and the literary genre. If the text is narrative, we analyze the following elements:

• Characters: Identifying main and secondary characters and their characterization.
• Place and Time: The setting where the action

The Catalan Renaixença: Identity & Revival

The Renaixença (revival movement) is defined by the recovery of Catalan identity. It expressed a desire to reconstruct a time of great historical and cultural vitality. The Catalan language was used as a unifying element for the people. The idea was to rebuild from the history of literature, fostering a sentiment of political nationalism.

Spreading the Renaixença: Media & Impact

The Renaixença diffused through two main channels: the press and the book industry. The Jocs Florals (Floral Games) became very successful, helping to discover important writers such as Jacint Verdaguer, Narcís Oller, and Àngel Guimerà.

"La Pàtria" by Aribau: A Nation's Concerns

Bonaventura Carles Aribau's text,...

Characters and Fantoches

More than 50 characters were created, inspired by real people, but what matters is the function of the figures in the play. Some characters escape the condition of human-sized puppets and charge, sobretodo Max. Max is a complex character who reaches moments of greatness; he mixes humor with complaint, and dignity with indignity. His replicas are of satire and unique depth. He emphasizes the growing anger against society, his sense of brotherhood toward the oppressed, and tenderness toward the prostitute.

Mr. Latino is a puppet, the dog that accompanies Max, the contrafigura of Sawa, a caricature of bohemianism, and miserable due to his disloyalty and vulgarization. The puppets are divided into various groups:

• The Burghers:

Literary Devices (Figures of Speech)

These rhetorical devices are used to enhance expression and suggest sensory or emotional effects:

• Alliteration

  Definition: Repetition of a sound or sounds, often at the beginning of words, intended to suggest a sensory effect.

• Anadiplosis

  Definition: Repetition of the final word(s) of a line or clause at the beginning of the subsequent line or clause.

• Anaphora

  Definition: Repeating one or more words to initiate several consecutive verses or clauses.

• Antithesis

  Definition: A relationship established between two words or phrases that have opposite meanings.

• Apostrophe

  Definition: An invocation or direct address to an absentee person, an abstract concept, or an inanimate object.

• Asyndeton

  Definition: The intentional suppression

Naturalism in 19th-Century Literature

Naturalism was a movement that occurred in late nineteenth-century literature and, to a lesser extent, in the other arts. Its creator was Émile Zola in France, and it later spread throughout the West. It aims to capture objective reality, often considered an evolution of Realism. It includes aspects of the environment that had not previously appeared in art: disadvantaged social classes, social problems, disease, and sexual themes. Social criticism prevails with a fairly pessimistic bias; the main protagonists often belong to the proletariat.

Naturalism introduced a scientific approach: the author observes the surrounding environment to capture every detail and to formulate explanatory hypotheses from a...

FC - Name: Trajan's Column / Author: Apollodorus of Damascus / Clients: - / Date: 107-113 BC / Type: Low relief / Style: Imperial Rome / Original Location: Center of the Forum of Trajan in Rome / Current Location: / D - Material: Marble from Carrara and Luni / Dimensions: 40m (height) and 4m (diameter) / Color: Polychrome / Short Description: A column that stands 40 meters above the surrounding relief, depicting a warlike character / Technique: Carving / Position: Some warriors are represented standing and sitting / Figurative / AF - Volume: Open / Anatomy: Young warriors with different anatomies / Movement: Instantaneous; all figures appearing in the relief are calm / Proportions: Smaller than actual size / Light: Internal / Time: Medium-short...

The Theater in the 16th and 17th Centuries

The theater in the sixteenth century laid the groundwork for significant developments. This evolution would become the golden age of theater in the seventeenth century, branching into two main directions: the *Baroque theater* of Shakespeare in England and Lope de Vega and Calderón in Spain, and the *Classical theater* of Corneille and Molière in France.

Shakespeare is notable for his profound exploration of the human soul, expressing its innermost passions. He cultivated the three major dramatic subgenres: dramas, comedies, and tragedies. In his human tragedies, characters become symbols of humanity's great problems, such as love (Romeo and Juliet), indecision (Hamlet), and jealousy (Othello).

French