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

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" »

Expository Text Fundamentals

Purpose and Types

Expository Text: The purpose of these texts is to present and explain an issue with the intention of helping the recipient to learn. These texts can typically be found in textbooks, encyclopedias, and academic materials.

Textual Clarification Techniques

• Reformulation: Clarifies a segment of the text (e.g., using phrases like "in other words," "put another way," etc.).
• Definition: Defines concepts.
• Definition by Equivalence: Recognized through the verb "to be" and punctuation (:, -, (, ), /, _). For example: "A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing."
• Definition by Description: Features defined by verbs like "be," "have," "establish," "shape," and "construction." Example: "This consists

Representatives of the Renaissance

• Raphael
• Leonardo da Vinci
• San Francis (Painting)
• Michelangelo Buonarroti (Sculpture)
• Giotto (Painting)

Representatives of Mannerism

• Tiziano
• Tintoretto
• Veronese
• El Greco

Representatives of the Baroque

• Peter Puget
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Sculpture)
• Carlo Maderno
• Guarini (Sculpture)
• Bernini (Sculpture)
• Velázquez

Representatives of the Rococo

• Piazzetta (Painting)
• Guardi (Painting)
• Marco Ricci

Representatives of Neoclassicism

• Jean-Antoine Houdon (Sculpture)
• Charles Percier (Architecture)
• Pierre Fontaine (Architecture)
• Jacques-Louis David (Painting)

Representatives of Realism

• Rodin (Sculpture)
• Honoré Daumier
• Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot

Art in America: Pre-Columbian Periods

Toward the fifteenth century, diverse cultures flourished in America.

The

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" »

Visual Encoding Factors and Image Language

Visual encoding factors establish the correspondence between reality and the represented set. Understanding the language of images helps us analyze, interpret meanings, and apply them effectively when creating images, audiovisual content, and multimedia.

Key Visual Codes

• Code of Space (Framing): The same reality can be reflected through infinite framings. An author chooses a specific framing or distortion for objectivity, realism, or deliberate deception.
• Code of Gestures: Gestures reveal attitude, mood, intention, stillness, or uneasiness.
• Code of Light: This includes the amount of light, its nature (natural or artificial), and the degree of impact it has on the scenic elements or subjects.
• Code of Identity/

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 Renewal of Modernist Aesthetics and the Generation of '98

The renewal of modernist aesthetics, particularly in poetic language, extended significantly into prose and fiction. Sensuality, idealization, and the stylization of reality form the basis of these works.

The Generation of '98 (G98) retained aspects of the modernist reaction against vulgar style. The movement sometimes adopted the themes and ideas of Naturalism (as seen in Baroja), while in others, it embraced German intellectual and existential thought (Unamuno), or focused on a new sensibility of romance and nostalgia (Azorín).

Miguel de Unamuno: Intellectual and Existential Thinker

Born in Bilbao, Miguel de Unamuno was a university professor of Greek, a playwright, poet, essayist,... Continue reading "Spanish Modernism and the Generation of '98 Literary Renewal" »

1. Quadre de Costums (Customs Literature)

Literature about the customs of a community, usually those that were about to disappear. This genre employed a two-pronged approach: nostalgic and critical. The intent, as seen with Robert, was to denounce the unreasonable behavior of society, often with a humoristic tone.

From the standpoint of atmosphere, two main types emerged:

• Urban Frame (Quadre Urbà): More rebellious and critical, exemplified by R. Robert.
• Rural Frame (Quadre de Masia): More conservative and nostalgic.

It was important to incorporate reality into literature, especially in the urban frame, which was far from the idyllic and distorted vision of Romanticism.

2. The Romantic Novel

The finest example is The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe.... Continue reading "19th Century Literary Movements: Novel Development and Key Authors" »

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" »