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

Donatello's David: Style and Classical Influence

Body Posture and Classical Echoes

The posture of Donatello's David, resting on the right leg, clearly shows the influence of Praxiteles' style, known in the art world as the "Praxitelean curve" or contrapposto. This technique breaks the strict frontal presentation, providing a more harmonious body movement.

The representation features one leg slightly bent, an innovation often attributed to the sculptor Polykleitos. The composition is framed by an ellipse tracing a path from the head to the right arm, down to the legs, then up to the other arm, returning to the head.

Proportions and Finish

• The work stands at a height of 158 cm.
• It exhibits perfect body proportions and maintains a vertical axis of perfect

The Power of Radio Communication

Radio is a widely accepted and accessible medium of communication. It offers a unique listening experience that is compatible with the development of other activities, allowing for multitasking.

Elements of Radio Language

The verbal language of radio adapts to its fleeting nature, striving to capture the listener's attention without visual support. It integrates three key elements:

• Music: Can serve as primary content, background for verbal communication, or form distinct radio spots.
• Special Effects: Short sound sequences that complement spoken words and music. These include real sounds and imitations.
• Silence: Acts as a crucial counterpoint, reinforcing the meaning and impact of the message's auditory components.

Characteristics of the National Comedy

The national comedy blends the tragic and the comic. It utilizes dramatic units, including scene changes and time management. It admitted two or three simultaneous actions if they led to the same outcome. The drama is divided into three acts, within which different categories are distinguished.

Decorum, Language, and Polymetry

Decorum refers to the fitness of behavior and language according to the conventions of a social role, which are related to verisimilitude. Lope de Vega required a language that was pure and chaste, and polymetry was frequently used. Predominant themes include honor and virtuous actions, often presenting the social conflicts of the time.

Archetypal Characters

• The Lady: A star who is beautiful

Core Features of Theatrical Performance

Theater is a unique art form that must tell a story within a limited time, thus it cannot afford unnecessary delays. The storyline should capture the audience's attention. Theater is a rich mix of spectacular language and resources. Characters involved are conceived by the author to be embodied by actors on a stage. The action is determined by establishing dialogue and developing the central conflict. The author's presence is felt through the plot and characterization.

Essential Dramatic Elements

• Action

  Action develops in acts or parts. If a spatial change is produced within an act, then there is a change of frame. When a character leaves the scene, a new scene begins.

• Actors and Characters

  Actors portray characters

Baroque Prose: 17th Century Narrative Styles

The 17th century saw a decline in Renaissance narrative styles. Baroque prose is characterized by the establishment of the picaresque novel and the expression of a sensibility that could only be transmitted with an innovative, hard, and sharp style, resulting in novel ideas.

Picaresque Novel in the 17th Century: Mateo Alemán

• Born in Seville (1547), he graduated from high school but did not finish the medical studies he began. His various jobs, including that of a judge in the royal administration, did not solve the economic problems that led him to jail for debt. He traveled to America in 1608 and published Events of Fray Garcia, Archbishop of Mexico, in whose service he worked. Since 1612, nothing

Iron Architecture

Eiffel Tower

• Three distinguished parts; the ultimate section is the pinnacle.

Sculpture Highlights

• Dance (Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux): Very moving, featuring many different characters, attempting to give expression to the figures and reflecting softness in the body.
• The Thinker (Auguste Rodin): Focus on innocence and the working class.
• La Marseillaise (François Rude): Popular excitement, high energy in movements and expressions, highly detailed, Hellenistic style.
• The Burghers of Calais (Auguste Rodin): Expressionist aesthetic.

Claude Monet

• Water Lilies: Framed composition, excellent reflection of water.
• Saint-Lazare Station: Blurred vision (as if viewed through wet glass).
• The Railway Bridge: Modern architecture reflected in the water.

Understanding Narrative

A narrative is a story told to convey what happens to characters in a specific time and place.

Difference Between History, Narrative Text, and Narrative

• History: Refers to the actual events that have occurred.
• Narrative Text: The message conveyed in the act of communication.
• Narrative: The story told; how the text appears to have a narrative.

Essential Elements of a Narrative

A narrative requires:

• Someone who tells the story (narrator)
• Characters to whom events happen
• A place and time for the events to occur

Types of Narrators

The narrator is the one who tells the story. They can be classified based on their involvement in the story and the grammatical person used:

• Internal Narrator: Involved in the story.
  • Autobiographical Narrator:

Stage Lighting

Special Effects

• Physical: Smoke, snow, wind, fire, rain, etc.
• Electronic: Projectors (front and rear screen projection) for simple and moving images.
• Luminous: Laser.

Audiovisual

Displays, video projectors, cameras, etc.

Light Sources

Controllable characteristics:

• Intensity: Brightness level.
• Distribution: Area of illumination.
• Color: Controlled with gels (e.g., Rosco catalog).

Purpose of Stage Lighting

• Illumination: Provide visibility.
• Dimension: Create shadows and depth.
• Selection: Highlight specific elements.
• Atmosphere: Set the mood and environment.

Projector Placement

1. Front: Angle relative to the illuminated object no more than 75° on the horizontal plane.
2. Rear (Contra): Creates dimension and volume, highlights actors' outlines. Fresnel and

Origins and Key Characteristics

Romanticism emerged as a powerful artistic and intellectual movement, surging across Germany, England, and France. A pivotal figure in its German inception was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose seminal work, The Sorrows of Young Werther, profoundly influenced the era. This novel vividly narrates the hardships of passionate, often violent, love that tragically culminates in suicide, embodying many core Romantic ideals.

Core Features of Romanticism

• Exaltation of the Individual

  A central tenet was the worship of the material world, transforming into an artistic and literary exaltation. This fostered a profound cult of privacy, individuality, and subjective nuance, placing the inner world of the artist at the forefront.

Realism in Literature

Realism focuses on the accurate observation of contemporary reality. As a result, the novel will be the predominant genre that best meets the goals of aesthetic and moral realism. The realist novel aspires to become a credible and accurate document of the society of the time.

Features:

• Objective observation (everything revolves around reality)
• Contemporary ambiance (there are things from the time of writing)
• Thesis approach (often defends an ideological thesis)
• Psychological analysis of the characters (they are common characters; the bourgeoisie dominates, and as the century progresses, the proletarians and marginalized, especially women)
• The omniscient narrator (a habitual type of narrator who knows all about the characters)