Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Alliteration: Repetition of one or more initial sounds in words that are very close together.

Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate real sounds.

Paronomasia (Pun): Repetition of words with very similar sounds.

Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, verses, or sentences.

Parallelism: Repetition of syntactic structures.

Anadiplosis: Repetition of the last word or phrase of a clause or sentence at the beginning of the next.

Concatenation: A series of anadiplosis in sequence.

Epanadiplosis: Repetition of a word at the beginning and end of a clause, verse, or sentence.

Pun: Play on words that uses multiple meanings of a term, or words that sound alike but have different meanings.

Chiasmus: A rhetorical or literary... Continue reading "Literary Devices: A Comprehensive Reference" »

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" »

Understanding Narrative-Descriptive Texts

This text can be classified as narrative-descriptive because it combines both narrative and descriptive elements. Descriptive passages focus on detailing elements, such as a room mentioned in the text. These descriptions are often subjective, reflecting the narrator's point of view, although objective adjectives might also be present.

Linguistic Features of Description

Key linguistic features in descriptive writing include verb forms, nouns, adjectives, semantic structures, and literary procedures.

Verb Forms in Descriptions

In descriptive sections, verb forms often have an imperfect aspect (e.g., imperfect, present tense), reflecting ongoing or unfinished actions. This contributes to a more static feel... Continue reading "Analyzing Narrative and Descriptive Writing Techniques" »

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" »

Kandinsky and the Dawn of Abstraction

Wassily Kandinsky is widely considered the father of abstract art. His work, including Composition IV, belongs to a series of completely abstract pieces.

Analyzing Composition IV

The style of Composition IV depicts an abstract battle, potentially inspired by knights or fairy tales, interpreted as a dynamic struggle between pictorial elements. Yellow confronts blue, and straight lines contrast with curved lines. While some identifiable elements might seem present initially, Kandinsky's methods tend to dissolve them, focusing instead on the contrast of colors within fluid contours.

In the center, a blue mountain appears, crowned by a castle's silhouette. Fighting knights are also depicted. Kandinsky aimed for... Continue reading "Composition IV: Kandinsky's Abstract Symphony" »

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" »