Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Arts and Humanities

Gothic Sculpture (13th and 15th Centuries)

Features of Gothic Sculpture

• Figures exhibit a natural, realistic quality, with lifelike poses and expressions. They convey emotions, humanizing the art, while still retaining a degree of idealization.
• High relief is the dominant technique.
• Religious themes, particularly from the New Testament, are emphasized. Unlike the Romanesque period, the focus shifts away from the Book of Revelation.
• Sculptures now express a range of emotions, including pain and pleasure. The Virgin Mary is often depicted as an intermediary. Representations of Christ on the cross are imbued with intense pain and expressiveness.
• In addition to freestanding sculptures, other prominent genres include altarpieces, tombs, and choir stalls.

Adjectives Explained

An adjective is a word that expresses a quality or characteristic of a noun it accompanies, agreeing in gender and number.

Types of Adjectives

• Variable Adjectives: Have distinct forms for masculine and feminine genders. Plural forms are typically created by adding 's' or 'es' to the singular form.
• Invariable Adjectives: Have a single form for both masculine and feminine. Adjectives ending in -ac, -ic, -oc often have one ending for both genders in the singular but may vary in the plural. (Note: This rule seems specific, possibly to Catalan grammar.)

Degrees of Adjectives

• Positive Degree: Expresses a quality simply, without comparison.
• Comparative Degree: Expresses the intensity of a quality in comparison to other elements. It can

Noucentisme

Features of Noucentisme

• Intellectualism: Defend rationality and intellectual rigor, usually possessing a strong background.
• European Influence: Advocate for the intellectual modernization of Spain and its connection to European culture.
• Cultural and Political Presence: Utilize positions of power to influence society.
• Universalist Ideal: Demonstrate a preference for urban culture.
• Aestheticism: Art is conceived as a self-sufficient and beautiful object: pure art, detached from sentimentality and realism, inspired by classical models.
• Formal Concern: Admire the intellectual rigor of well-executed work, and value art and intellectual minorities.

Avant-Garde Movements

The avant-garde movements and isms originated in Europe around World War I... Continue reading "Noucentisme and Avant-Garde Movements in Spanish Literature" »

Italian Renaissance Painting

Space-Time Context

Between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Historical Context

Renaissance painting, bridging medieval and baroque art, reflects the revival of classical antiquity, the impact of humanism, new artistic techniques and sensibilities, and the transition from the medieval to the early modern age.

Key Periods

The Italian Renaissance is divided into two periods:

• The 15th century (Quattrocento): Florence is the cradle of Renaissance painting.
• The 16th century (Cinquecento/High Renaissance): Rome experiences the greatest artistic splendor.

General Characteristics

Renaissance painting sees the decline of the altarpiece, an emphasis on seniority and classical evocation, mastery of perspective, and the continuation of fresco... Continue reading "Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture" »

The Open Novel: Narrative Techniques and Features

The open novel has a flexible structure that can accommodate all kinds of narrative techniques. With its complex composition and calculated ambiguity, it presents a fragmentary and unfinished structure that requires the reader's collaboration and interpretation. It breaks the chronological arrangement of the story and has a complex, even chaotic, structure. Narrative times are mixed with flashbacks, anticipations of the future, and alternate histories. The omniscient narrator is replaced by a plurality of approaches, with the story being told from the viewpoint of two or more narrators.

It mixes pure storytelling, dialogue, and free indirect dialogue in which the narrator assumes the viewpoint... Continue reading "Open Novel Structure: Narrative Techniques and Features" »

Symbolic Capacity

Aristotle defined the human being as a rational animal. Studying their origins, we know that man was and is an animal that has followed an evolutionary process. According to the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer, the definition of "rational animal" is valid but insufficient. The human animal has emotions, feelings, poetic imagination, and all this is able to be expressed symbolically. To that effect, human beings have a characteristic that perhaps most differentiates us from the rest of the animals: symbolic capacity. Man is the only animal capable of building symbolic forms such as language, art, and religion. These shapes give meaning and symbolic significance to the world in which he lives.

What is a Symbol?

• It is a substitute

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini

Classification

Figurative group sculpture in the round representing a scene within a relatable space.

Composition

The sculpture features two figures: one standing (an angel) and one semi-reclining (Saint Teresa). The composition is characteristically Baroque, defined by two opposing curved lines. The angel is positioned higher and vertically, creating a slightly open composition that extends into the surrounding space. The artist uses four reinforcing resources: the flowing lines of the garments, the expressive gesture of the saint, the chosen moment of action, and the dramatic use of light, which enters through a yellow glass, creating a theatrical effect. Anatomical proportions are realistic, and the varied... Continue reading "Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa: Baroque Sculpture Analysis" »

The Last Judgment

Chronology

1534-1541

Style

Renaissance style, Cinquecento period. Artist: Michelangelo. Technique: Fresco. Support: Wall. Location: Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

• Consolidation of oil painting and introduction of new media like canvas (Flemish influence).
• Figures emphasize eyes and hands.
• Use of chiaroscuro (defines figure contours through light and shadow).
• Influence of Leonardo's sfumato and scientific perspective.
• Michelangelo's emphasis on terribilità in the Sistine Chapel.

Technique and Composition

Michelangelo meticulously prepared drawings for each figure, showcasing his anatomical knowledge. The figures possess a sculptural quality, appearing powerful, vigorous, and imbued with terribilità. Their contorted and unbalanced positions... Continue reading "The Last Judgment: A Detailed Analysis" »

Avant-Garde Movements

Avant-garde movements provide in their manifestos a break with all previous aesthetics in an attempt to radically transform traditional conceptions of art and literature. Fundamentally developed in the period of the twentieth century between wars, major movements include:

Futurism

Futurism proposes to break with classical values and traditions, imposing a Nietzschean vitalism that exalts risk and violence, progress, and the modern world. It breaks with traditional literary language; the lexicon can be created on a whim, and punctuation is dismantled.

Cubism

Cubism emerges as a pictorial current, expressing intellectual reality through geometric figures. It decomposes literary reality and then remakes it through a collage technique,... Continue reading "Avant-Garde Movements: Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism & Surrealism" »

Culteranismo (Góngora)

Seeks to cultivate beauty and impress the reader's senses with light, heat, and sound.

• Features: hyperbaton; metaphors; cultism (use of words from Latin or Greek); adjectives (color, sound, appearance); mythology (subjects taken from Greek and Latin mythology).

Conceptismo (Quevedo)

Explores the meaning of words, wit, and clever puns that surprise the reader by the accumulation of reasoning.

• Features: metaphors based on ingenious partnerships; neologisms (creating words with prefixes and suffixes); antithesis (presentation of competing ideas); hyperbole (exaggeration); ornamental adjectives but not conceptual.

Characteristics of Lope de Vega's Theater

• Themes and issues: issues like love, honor, religious and monarchical ideals.