1.
Asceticism
–
Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Asceticism is classified into two types, Asceticism has been historically observed in many religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Judaism. Mainstream Islam has lacked asceticism, except for its minority Sufi sect whose long tradition has included strict asceticism, the practitioners of these religions eschewed worldly pleasures and led an abstinent lifestyle, in the pursuit of redemption, salvation or spirituality. Asceticism is seen in the ancient theologies as a journey towards spiritual transformation, where the simple is sufficient, the bliss is within, the adjective ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askēsis, which means training or exercise. The original usage did not refer to self-denial, but to the training required for athletic events. Its usage later extended to rigorous practices that are used in all religious traditions, in varying degrees to attain redemption. Asceticism has been classified into natural and unnatural forms of asceticism, natural asceticism is defined as a lifestyle where material aspects of life are reduced to utmost simplicity and minimum. This may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on floor or caves, natural asceticism, state Wimbush and Valantasis, does not include maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer. Self-discipline and abstinence in some form and degree are parts of religious practice within many religious, ascetic lifestyle is associated particularly with monks, nuns, fakirs in Abrahamic religions, and bhikkhus, munis, sannyasis, yogis in Indian religions. Christian authors of antiquity such as Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ignatius, John Chrysostom. Scriptural examples of asceticism could be found in the lives of John the Baptist, Jesus, the twelve apostles, the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed ascetic practices of the ancient Jewish sect of Essenes who took vows of abstinence to prepare for a holy war. An emphasis on a religious life was evident in both early Christian writings and practices. Other Christian practitioners of asceticism include individuals such as Simeon Stylites, Saint David of Wales, according to Richard Finn, much of early Christian asceticism has been traced to Judaism, but not to traditions within Greek asceticism. Some of the thoughts in Christianity nevertheless, Finn states, have roots in Greek moral thought. Virtuous living is not possible when an individual is craving bodily pleasures with desire, the deserts of the Middle East were at one time inhabited by thousands of Christian hermits including St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt, and St. Simeon Stylites. In 963 CE, an association of monasteries called Lavra was formed on Mount Athos and this became the most important center of orthodox Christian ascetic groups in the centuries that followed. In the modern era, Mount Athos and Meteora have remained a significant center, sexual abstinence such as those of the Encratites sect of Christians was only one aspect of ascetic renunciation, and both natural and unnatural asceticism have been part of Christian asceticism. The natural ascetic practices have included simple living, begging, fasting and ethical practices such as humility, compassion, patience, such ascetic practices were linked to the Christian concepts of sin and redemption
Asceticism
–
Buddha practiced severe asceticism before his enlightenment and recommended a non-ascetic
middle way thereafter. In Christianity,
Francis of Assisi and his followers practiced extreme acts of asceticism.
Asceticism
Asceticism
–
The ascetics ask Rama for protection.
Asceticism
–
Acharya Vidyasagar,
Digambara Jain monk
2.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
–
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a proponent of the credo art for arts sake. His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail, the symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality—his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler entitled many of his paintings arrangements, harmonies, and nocturnes and his most famous painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistlers Mother, the revered and oft-parodied portrait of motherhood, Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers. James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 10,1834 and his father was a railroad engineer, and Anna was his second wife. James lived the first three years of his life in a modest house at 243 Worthen Street in Lowell, today, the house is a museum dedicated to Whistler. During the Ruskin trial, Whistler claimed St. Petersburg, Russia, as his birthplace, declaring, I shall be born when and where I want, in 1837, the Whistlers moved from Lowell to Stonington, Connecticut, where George Whistler worked for the Stonington Railroad. Sadly, during this period, three of George and Anna Whistlers children died in infancy, in 1839, the Whistlers fortunes improved considerably when George Whistler received the appointment that would make his fortune and fame - that of chief engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad. Thus, the moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, then one of the United States most prosperous cities. The Whistlers lived in Springfield until they left the United States in late 1842, Nicholas I of Russia learned of George Whistlers ingenuity in engineering the Boston & Albany Railroad, and offered Whistler a position in 1842 engineering a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In the winter of 1842, the Whistlers moved from Springfield to St. Petersburg, in later years, James Whistler played up his mothers connection to the American South and its roots, and presented himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat. After her death, he adopted her name, using it as an additional middle name. Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence and his parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention. Beginning in 1842, his father was employed to work on a railroad in Russia, after moving to St. Petersburg to join his father a year later, the young Whistler took private art lessons, then enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at age eleven. In 1844, he met the noted artist Sir William Allan, Whistlers mother noted in her diary, the great artist remarked to me Your little boy has uncommon genius, but do not urge him beyond his inclination. In 1847-48, his family spent some time in London with relatives, Whistlers brother-in-law Francis Haden, a physician who was also an artist, spurred his interest in art and photography. Haden took Whistler to visit collectors and to lectures, and gave him a set with instruction
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
–
Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter (self portrait, c. 1872),
Detroit Institute of Arts
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
–
Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858),
Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
–
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862), The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
–
Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (1872),
Tate Britain, London, England
3.
Art movement
–
Art movements were especially important in modern art, when each consecutive movement was considered as a new avant-garde. According to theories associated with modernism and the concept of postmodernism, the period of time called modern art is posited to have changed approximately halfway through the 20th century and art made afterward is generally called contemporary art. Postmodernism in visual art begins and functions as a parallel to late modernism, the postmodern period began during late modernism, and according to some theorists postmodernism ended in the 21st century. During the period of time corresponding to modern art each movement was often considered a new avant-garde. Also during the period of time referred to as modern art movement was seen corresponding to a somewhat grandiose rethinking of all that came before it. Generally there was a commonality of visual style linking the works, postmodernist theorists posit that the idea of art movements are no longer as applicable, or no longer as discernible, as the notion of art movements had been before the postmodern era. There are many theorists however who doubt as to whether or not such an era was actually a fact, the term refers to tendencies in visual art, novel ideas and architecture, and sometimes literature. In music it is common to speak about genres and styles instead. See also cultural movement, a term with a broader connotation, as the names of many art movements use the -ism suffix, they are sometimes referred to as isms. 20th-century Western painting Art periods List of art movements Post-expressionism Western art history the-artists. org Art movements since 1900, 20th-Century Art Compiled by Dr. Witcombe, Sweet Briar College, Virginia. WebMuseum, Paris Themes index and detailed glossary of art periods
Art movement
–
History of art
Art movement
–
Jacques-Louis David,
The Coronation of Napoleon, (1806),
Musée du Louvre,
History painting
Art movement
–
Eugène Delacroix,
Liberty Leading the People 1830,
Romanticism
Art movement
–
Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Savage State 1836,
Hudson River School
4.
Aesthetic
–
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that explores the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgements of sentiment. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as critical reflection on art, in modern English, the term aesthetic can also refer to a set of principles underlying the works of a particular art movement or theory, one speaks, for example, of the Cubist aesthetic. The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός, which in turn was derived from αἰσθάνομαι, for some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others insist that there is a significant distinction between these closely related fields. In practice, aesthetic judgement refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object, philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about art works, but has also to give a definition of what art is. Art is an entity for philosophy, because art deals with the senses. Hence, there are two different conceptions of art in aesthetics, art as knowledge or art as action, any aesthetic doctrines that guided the production and interpretation of prehistoric art are mostly unknown. Western aesthetics usually refers to Greek philosophers as the earliest source of aesthetic considerations. Plato believed in beauty as a form in which beautiful objects partake and he felt that beautiful objects incorporated proportion, harmony, and unity among their parts. Similarly, in the Metaphysics, Aristotle found that the elements of beauty were order, symmetry. From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a revolution into what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasized beauty as the key component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at absolute beauty. For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the experiences, a younger sister of logic. For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but similar human truth, however, beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. For Friedrich Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect reconciliation of the sensual and rational parts of human nature, for Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the organon of philosophy concerning the relation between man and nature. So aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art, Friedrich von Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel also gave lectures on aesthetics as philosophy of art after 1800. For Hegel, all culture is a matter of absolute spirit coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty. It is thus for Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering, the British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps
Aesthetic
–
Bronze sculpture, thought to be either
Poseidon or
Zeus,
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Aesthetic
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
Aesthetic
–
Cubist painting by
Georges Braque, Violin and Candlestick (1910)
Aesthetic
–
William Hogarth, self-portrait, 1745
5.
Literature
–
Literature, in its broadest sense, is any single body of written works. Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts, developments in print technology have allowed an evergrowing distribution and proliferation of written works, culminating in electronic literature. There have been attempts to define literature. Simon and Delyse Ryan begin their attempt to answer the question What is Literature, with the observation, The quest to discover a definition for literature is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they change over time. In fact, the thing that is certain about defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change over time as well, definitions of literature have varied over time, it is a culturally relative definition. In Western Europe prior to the century, literature as a term indicated all books. A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works. The value judgment definition of literature considers it to cover exclusively those writings that possess high quality or distinction and this sort of definition is that used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition when it classifies literature as the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing. The formalist definition is that literature foregrounds poetic effects, it is the literariness or poetic of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura learning, a writing, grammar, originally writing formed with letters, in spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. Poetry is a form of art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of. Possibly as a result of Aristotles influence, poetry before the century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition, novel, a long fictional prose narrative. It was the close relation to real life that differentiated it from the chivalric romance, in most European languages the equivalent term is roman. In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the fifteenth century, with the meaning of news, it came to indicate something new
Literature
–
The
Classic of Rites (
Chinese: 禮 記;
pinyin: Lǐjì), an ancient Chinese text. Certain definitions of literature have taken it to include all written work.
Literature
–
A
calligram by
Guillaume Apollinaire. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such a way to produce a visual image.
Literature
–
Egyptian hieroglyphs with
cartouches for the name "
Ramesses II ", from the
Luxor Temple,
New Kingdom
Literature
–
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
German writer and author of the
Faust books
6.
Fine art
–
Historically, the five main fine arts were painting, sculpture, architecture, music and poetry, with performing arts including theatre and dance. Today, the fine arts commonly include additional forms, such as film, photography, video production/editing, design, sequential art, conceptual art, and printmaking. However, in some institutes of learning or in museums, fine art, in that sense, there are conceptual differences between the fine arts and the applied arts. The word fine does not so much denote the quality of the artwork in question and this definition originally excluded the applied or decorative arts, and the products of what were regarded as crafts. According to some writers the concept of a category of fine art is an invention of the early modern period in the West. Larry Shiner in his The Invention of Art, A Cultural History locates the invention in the 18th century, There was a traditional “system of the arts” in the West before the eighteenth century. ”Similar ideas have been expressed by Paul Oskar Kristeller, Pierre Bourdieu, and Terry Eagleton, though the point of invention is often placed earlier, in the Italian Renaissance. The separation of arts and crafts that often exists in Europe, in Japanese aesthetics the activities of everyday life are depicted by integrating not only art with craft but man-made with nature. Traditional Chinese art distinguished within Chinese painting between the mostly landscape painting of scholar gentlemen and the artisans of the schools of court painting. A high status was given to many things that would be seen as craft objects in the West, in particular ceramics, jade carving, weaving. Drawing is a form of expression and is one of the major forms of the visual arts. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoals, chalk, pastels, markers, stylus, There are a number of subcategories of drawing, including cartooning. Mosaics are images formed with pieces of stone or glass. They can be decorative or functional, an artist who designs and makes mosaics is called a mosaic artist or a mosaicist. Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper, except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print is considered an original, as opposed to a copy, the reasoning behind this is that the print is not a reproduction of another work of art in a different medium — for instance, a painting — but rather an image designed from inception as a print. An individual print is also referred to as an impression, prints are created from a single original surface, known technically as a matrix. But there are other kinds, discussed below. Multiple nearly identical prints can be called an edition, in modern times each print is often signed and numbered forming a limited edition
Fine art
–
Self-Portrait with Two Circles, oil on canvas,
Rembrandt, c. 1665–1669.
Fine art
–
Black Square, oil on canvas,
Kazimir Malevich, 1923–29
Fine art
–
History of art
Fine art
–
Mosaic of
Christ Pantocrator from
Hagia Sophia
7.
Music
–
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres and it is music to my ears point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, There is no noise, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. There are many types of music, including music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal, within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, the word derives from Greek μουσική. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the music is derived from mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica the art of music and this is derived from the. Greek mousike of the Muses, from fem. of mousikos pertaining to the Muses, from Mousa Muse. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. With the advent of recording, records of popular songs. Some music lovers create mix tapes of their songs, which serve as a self-portrait. An environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved, amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings, There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians, in community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. However, there are many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers
Music
–
A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC).
Music
–
Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier
Music
–
The composer
Michel Richard Delalande, pen in hand.
Music
–
Funk places most of its emphasis on rhythm and
groove, with entire songs based around a
vamp on a single chord. Pictured are the influential funk musicians
George Clinton and
Parliament Funkadelic in 2006.
8.
Art
–
In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, during the Romantic period, art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Though the definition of what art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency. The nature of art, and related such as creativity. One early sense of the definition of art is related to the older Latin meaning. English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, however, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homers great poetic art, in Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, the forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is an imitation of men worse than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankinds advantages over animals. The second, and more recent, sense of the art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. The creative arts are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks that are compelled by a drive and convey a message, mood. Art is something that stimulates an individuals thoughts, emotions, beliefs, works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are considered applied art
Art
–
Clockwise from upper left: a
self-portrait by
Vincent van Gogh; a female ancestor figure by a
Chokwe artist; detail from the
Birth of Venus by
Sandro Botticelli; and an Okinawan
Shisa lion.
Art
–
Works of art can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song dynasty artist
Wang Ximeng.
Art
–
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.
Art
–
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000
BP
9.
Oscar Wilde
–
Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he one of Londons most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment, Wildes parents were successful Anglo-Irish, Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life, at university, Wilde read Greats, he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the philosophy of aestheticism. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles, known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with social themes. He wrote Salome in French in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to the prohibition of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, at the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest, was still being performed in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry prosecuted for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wildes lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, the charge carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest, after two more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years hard labour. Upon his release he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain, there he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of 46, Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, the second of three children born to Sir William Wilde and Jane Wilde, two years behind William. Wildes mother was of Italian descent, and under the pseudonym Speranza and she read the Young Irelanders poetry to Oscar and Willie, inculcating a love of these poets in her sons. Lady Wildes interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts of ancient Greece, William Wilde was Irelands leading oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore, a renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for the care of the citys poor at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. On his fathers side Wilde was descended from a Dutchman, Colonel de Wilde, on his mothers side Wildes ancestors included a bricklayer from County Durham who emigrated to Ireland sometime in the 1770s. Wilde was baptised as an infant in St, marks Church, Dublin, the local Church of Ireland church
Oscar Wilde
–
Photograph taken in 1882 by
Napoleon Sarony
Oscar Wilde
–
Wilde Family home on Merrion Square
Oscar Wilde
–
Statue of Oscar Wilde in
Merrion Square, Dublin. The materials are granite,
green nephrite jade, white
jadeite and
thulite.
Oscar Wilde
–
Oscar Wilde at Oxford
10.
Symbolism (arts)
–
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style originates with the 1857 publication of Charles Baudelaires Les Fleurs du mal, the works of Edgar Allan Poe, which Baudelaire admired greatly and translated into French, were a significant influence and the source of many stock tropes and images. The aesthetic was developed by Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and 1870s, in the 1880s, the aesthetic was articulated by a series of manifestos and attracted a generation of writers. The name symbolist itself was first applied by the critic Jean Moréas, distinct from, but related to, the style of literature, symbolism in art is related to the gothic component of Romanticism and Impressionism. In ancient Greece, the symbolon was a shard of pottery which was inscribed, Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams. Some writers, such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, began as naturalists before becoming symbolists, for Huysmans, the Symbolist poets have a more complex relationship with Parnassianism, a French literary style that immediately preceded it. The Symbolists continued to admire Théophile Gautiers motto of art for arts sake, many Symbolist poets, including Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine, published early works in Le Parnasse contemporain, the poetry anthologies that gave Parnassianism its name. One of Symbolisms most colourful promoters in Paris was art and literary critic Joséphin Péladan, a number of Symbolists were associated with the Salon. Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly, thus, they wrote in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning. Jean Moréas published the Symbolist Manifesto in Le Figaro on 18 September 1886, the Symbolist Manifesto names Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Paul Verlaine as the three leading poets of the movement. In a nutshell, as Mallarmé writes in a letter to his friend Cazalis, to not the thing. Symbolist poems were attempts to evoke, rather than primarily to describe, – both poets seek to identify one sense experience with another. The earlier Romanticism of poetry used symbols, but these symbols were unique, the symbolists were more extreme, investing all things, even vowels and perfumes, with potential symbolic value. The physical universe, then, is a kind of language that invites a privileged spectator to decipher it, Symbolist symbols are not allegories, intended to represent, they are instead intended to evoke particular states of mind. The nominal subject of Mallarmés Le cygne is of a trapped in a frozen lake. Significantly, in French, cygne is a homophone of signe, un cygne d’autrefois se souvient que c’est lui Magnifique mais qui sans espoir se délivre. They were also portrayed as at odds with society, having tragic lives and these traits were not hindrances but consequences of their literary gifts. Schopenhauers aesthetics represented shared concerns with the symbolist programme, they tended to consider Art as a contemplative refuge from the world of strife and will
Symbolism (arts)
–
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Jeunes Filles au Bord de la Mer (Young Girls on the Edge of the Sea), 1879,
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Symbolism (arts)
–
Victor Vasnetsov, The Knight at the Crossroads, 1878
Symbolism (arts)
–
John William Waterhouse, Cecilia, 1895
Symbolism (arts)
–
Henri Fantin-Latour, By the Table, depicting: seated:
Paul Verlaine,
Arthur Rimbaud, Léon Valade, Ernest d'Hervilly and
Camille Pelletan; standing: Pierre Elzéar, Emile Blémont and
Jean Aicard.
11.
Decadent movement
–
The Decadent Movement was a late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. Baudelaire referred to himself as decadent in his 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal and he would later use the term decadence to include the subversion of traditional categories in pursuit of full, sensual expression. Though he was Belgian, Félicien Rops was instrumental in the development of early stage of the Decadent Movement. A friend of Baudelaire, he was also a frequent illustrator of Baudelaires writing, Rops delighted in breaking artistic convention and shocking the public with his combination of with gruesome, fantastical horror. He was explicitly interested in the Satanic, and he sought to portray the double-threat of Satan and Woman. At times, his goal was the portrayal of a woman hed observed debasing herself in the pursuit of her own pleasure. Their work was the worship of beauty disguised as the worship of evil, for both of them, mortality and all manner of corruptions were always on their mind. The ability of Rops to see and portray the world as they did. The concept of decadence lingered after that, but it wasnt until 1884 that Maurice Barrès referred to a group of writers as Decadents. He defined this group as those who had been influenced heavily by Baudelaire, though they were influenced by Gothic novels. Many were associated with Symbolism, others with Aestheticism, in his 1884 decadent novel À Rebours, Joris-Karl Huysmans overthrew the past, subordinated nature to the human creative will, and suggested the primacy of but inherent disillusion in pleasure. Not only did Against Nature define an ideology and a literature, the character of Des Esseintes explcitily heralded the work of Gustave Moreau, Jan Luyken, and Odilon Redon. None of these artists would have identified themselves as part of this movement and it has also been suggested that a dream vision that Des Esseintes describes is based the series of satanic encounters painted by Félicien Rops. Capitalizing on the momentum of Huysmans work, Anatole Baju founded the magazine Le Décadent in 1886, not everyone was comfortable with Baju and Le Décadent, even including some who had been published in its pages. Rival writer Jean Moréas published his Symbolist Manifesto, largely to escape association with the Decadent Movement, Moréas and Gustave Kahn, among others, formed rival publications to reinforce the distinction. Paul Verlaine embraced the label at first, applauding it as a brilliant marketing choice by Baju, far-fetched plots were acceptable if they helped generate the desired moments of salacious experience or glorification of the morbid and grotesque. Writers who embraced the sort of decadence featured in Le Décadent include Albert Aurier, Rachilde, Pierre Vareilles, Miguel Fernandez, Jean Lorrain, many of these authors did also publish symbolist works, however, and it unclear how strongly they would have identified with Baju as decadents. In France, the Decadent Movement is often said to have begun with either Joris-Karl Huysmans Against Nature or Baudelaires Les Fleur du Mal and this movement essentially gave way to Symbolism when Le Décadent closed down in 1889 and Anatole Baju turned toward politics and became associated with anarchy
Decadent movement
–
Pornocrates by
Félicien Rops. Etching and
aquatint
Decadent movement
–
Oscar Wilde
Decadent movement
–
Gabriele d'Annunzio
Decadent movement
–
Joris-Karl Huysmans
12.
Oxford
–
Oxford is a city in the South East region of England and the county town of Oxfordshire. With an estimated 2015 population of 168,270, it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom, the city is situated 57 miles from London,69 miles from Bristol,65 miles from both Southampton and Birmingham and 25 miles from Reading. The city is known worldwide as the home of the University of Oxford, buildings in Oxford demonstrate notable examples of every English architectural period since the late Saxon period. Oxford is known as the city of dreaming spires, a term coined by poet Matthew Arnold, Oxford has a broad economic base. Its industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing and a number of information technology and science-based businesses. Oxford was first settled in Saxon times and was known as Oxenaforda, meaning Ford of the Oxen. It began with the establishment of a crossing for oxen around AD900. In the 10th century, Oxford became an important military frontier town between the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex and was on several occasions raided by Danes, Oxford was heavily damaged during the Norman Invasion of 1066. Following the conquest, the town was assigned to a governor, Robert DOyly, the castle has never been used for military purposes and its remains survive to this day. DOyly set up a community in the castle consisting of a chapel. The community never grew large but it earned its place in history as one of Britains oldest places of formal education and it was there that in 1139 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his History of the Kings of Britain, a compilation of Arthurian legends. Mary at Oseney and to the canons serving God in that place and we have made this concession and confirmation in the Common council of the City and we have confirmed it with our common seal. These are those who have made this concession and confirmation, a grandson of King John established Rewley Abbey for the Cistercian Order, and friars of various orders all had houses of varying importance at Oxford. Parliaments were often held in the city during the 13th century, the Provisions of Oxford were instigated by a group of barons led by Simon de Montfort, these documents are often regarded as Englands first written constitution. Richard I of England and John, King of England the sons of Henry II of England, were born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford, on 8 September 1157 and 24 December 1166 respectively. A plaque in Beaumont Street commemorates these events, the University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th century records. Of the hundreds of Aularian houses that sprang up across the city, what put an end to the halls was the emergence of colleges. Oxfords earliest colleges were University College, Balliol and Merton and these colleges were established at a time when Europeans were starting to translate the writings of Greek philosophers
Oxford
–
From top left to bottom right: Oxford skyline panorama from St Mary's Church; Radcliffe Camera; High Street from above looking east; University College; High Street by night; Natural History Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum.
Oxford
–
The
Radcliffe Camera, completed in 1748
Oxford
–
Royal proclamation granting Lord Mayoralty to Oxford.
Oxford
–
Photochrom of the High Street, 1890–1900
13.
Walter Pater
–
Walter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, literary and art critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His works on Renaissance subjects were popular but controversial, reflecting his lost belief in Christianity. Born in Stepney in Londons East End, Walter Pater was the son of Richard Glode Pater. Dr Pater died while Walter was an infant and the moved to Enfield. Walter attended Enfield Grammar School and was tutored by the headmaster. In 1853, he was sent to The Kings School, Canterbury and he was fourteen when his mother, Maria Pater, died in 1854. As a schoolboy Pater read John Ruskins Modern Painters, which helped inspire his lifelong attraction to the study of art and he gained a school exhibition, with which he proceeded in 1858 to Queens College, Oxford. As an undergraduate, Pater was a man, with literary. Flaubert, Gautier, Baudelaire and Swinburne were among his early favourites, visiting his aunt and sisters in Germany during the vacations, he learned German and began to read Hegel and the German philosophers. The scholar Benjamin Jowett was struck by his potential and offered to give him private lessons, in Jowetts classes, however, Pater was a disappointment, he took a Second in literae humaniores in 1862. As a boy Pater had cherished the idea of entering the Anglican clergy, in spite of his inclination towards the ritual and aesthetic elements of the church, he had little interest in Christian doctrine and did not pursue ordination. After graduating, Pater remained in Oxford and taught Classics and Philosophy to private students and he became acutely interested in art and literature, and started to write articles and criticism. First to be printed was an essay on the metaphysics of Coleridge, in the following years the Fortnightly Review printed his essays on Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo. The last three, with similar pieces, were collected in his Studies in the History of the Renaissance, renamed in the second and later editions The Renaissance, Studies in Art. The Leonardo essay contains Paters celebrated reverie on the Mona Lisa, an essay on The School of Giorgione, added to the third edition, contains Paters much-quoted maxim All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music. The final paragraphs of the 1868 William Morris essay were reworked as the books Conclusion and this brief Conclusion was to be Paters most influential – and controversial – publication. It asserts that our lives are made up of scientific processes and elemental forces in perpetual motion, renewed from moment to moment. Continual vanishing away, that strange, perpetual weaving and unweaving of ourselves, forming habits means failure on our part, for habit connotes the stereotypical
Walter Pater
–
Walter Pater, photograph
Elliott & Fry, 1890s
Walter Pater
–
Walter Pater lived at 2
Bradmore Road in
North Oxford (the right-hand house with a
blue plaque) between 1869 and 1885 with his sisters, including
Clara Pater, a pioneer of women's education.
Walter Pater
–
Blue plaque, 12 Earl's Terrace, Kensington
14.
Victor Cousin
–
Victor Cousin was a French philosopher. He was the founder of eclecticism, an influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism. As the administrator of public instruction for over a decade, Cousin also had an important influence on French educational policy, the son of a watchmaker, he was born in Paris, in the Quartier Saint-Antoine. At the age of ten he was sent to the grammar school, the Lycée Charlemagne. The classical training of the lycée strongly disposed him to literature and he was already known among his fellow students for his knowledge of Greek. From the lycée he graduated to the most prestigious of higher schools, École Normale Supérieure. That day decided my whole life and that school has remained ever since the living heart of French philosophy — Henri Bergson, Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida are among its past students. Cousin wanted to lecture on philosophy and quickly obtained the position of master of conferences in the school, the second great philosophical impulse of his life was the teaching of Pierre Paul Royer-Collard. The Scottish Philosophy being the Common Sense Philosophy of Thomas Reid, in 1815–1816 Cousin attained the position of suppliant to Royer-Collard in the history of modern philosophy chair of the faculty of letters. Another thinker who influenced him at this period was Maine de Biran. These men strongly influenced Cousins philosophical thought, to Laromiguière he attributes the lesson of decomposing thought, even though the reduction of it to sensation was inadequate. Royer-Collard taught him that even sensation is subject to certain laws and principles which it does not itself explain, which are superior to analysis. De Biran made a study of the phenomena of the will. He taught him to distinguish in all cognitions, and especially in the simplest facts of consciousness, the influence of Schelling may be observed very markedly in the earlier form of his philosophy. He sympathized with the principle of faith of Jacobi, but regarded it as arbitrary so long as it was not recognized as grounded in reason, in 1817 he went to Germany, and met Hegel at Heidelberg. Hegels Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften appeared the year, and Cousin had one of the earliest copies. He thought Hegel not particularly amiable, but the two became friends, the following year Cousin went to Munich, where he met Schelling for the first time, and spent a month with him and Jacobi, obtaining a deeper insight into the Philosophy of Nature. Frances political troubles interfered for a time with his career, in the events of 1814–1815 he took the royalist side
Victor Cousin
–
Le Gray's 1850s
Albumen print of Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin
15.
Benjamin Constant
–
Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque, or simply Benjamin Constant, was a Swiss-French political activist and writer on politics and religion. He was the author of a partly biographical psychological novel, Adolphe, henri-Benjamin Constant was born in Lausanne to descendants of Huguenot Protestants who had fled from Artois to Switzerland during the Huguenot Wars in the 16th century. His father, Jules Constant de Rebecque, served as a officer in the Dutch States Army, like his grandfather, his uncle. When Constants mother died soon after his birth, both his grandmothers took care of him, private tutors educated him in Brussels and in the Netherlands. At the Protestant University of Erlangen, he gained appointment to the court of Duchess Sophie Caroline Marie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and he had to leave after an affair with a girl, and moved to the University of Edinburgh. There he lived at the home of Andrew Duncan, the elder and became friends with James Mackintosh, when he left the city, he promised to pay back his gambling debts. In 1787, he returned, traveling on horseback through England and Scotland, when he stayed at her home in Colombier Switzerland, they wrote an epistolary novel together. She acted as a mother to him until Constants appointment to the court of Charles William Ferdinand and he left the court when the War of the First Coalition began in 1792. In Brunswick, he had married Wilhelmina von Cramm, but he divorced her in 1793, in September 1794, he met and became interested in the famous and rich Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, brought up on the principles of Rousseau. They both admired Jean Lambert Tallien and Talleyrand and their intellectual collaboration between 1795 and 1811 made them one of the most celebrated intellectual couples of their time. After the Reign of Terror in France, Constant became a defender of bicameralism, in revolutionary France this strand of political thought resulted in the Constitution of the Year III, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients. Constant became acquainted with Julie Talma, the wife of François-Joseph Talma, in 1800, the Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, an act of terror, failed. In 1803, at a time when Britain and France were at peace, Jean Gabriel Peltier, while living in England, the lawyer James Mackintosh defended the French refugee against a libel suit instigated by Napoleon – then First Consul of France. Mackintoshs speech was published in English and also across Europe in a French translation by Madame de Staël. She was forced to leave Paris, de Staël, disappointed in French Rationalism, became interested in German Romanticism. Constant moved with her and their two children to Weimar, Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel welcomed them the day after their arrival. In Weimar they met Friedrich von Schiller, Johann Wolfgang Goethe at first hesitated, in Berlin, they met with August Wilhelm Schlegel, and his brother, Friedrich Schlegel. Constant parted from de Stael and in 1806 lived in Rouen and Meulan, in 1809, he secretly married Caroline von Hardenberg, a woman who had been divorced twice
Benjamin Constant
–
Benjamin Constant
Benjamin Constant
–
Painting by Marguerite Gérard, Mme de Staël et sa fille (around 1805)
Benjamin Constant
–
Charlotte von Hardenberg
Benjamin Constant
–
Madame Recamier (1777–1849) by
Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard
16.
Morality
–
Morality is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are distinguished as proper and those that are improper. Morality may also be synonymous with goodness or rightness. Moral philosophy includes moral ontology, or the origin of morals, as well as moral epistemology, an example of normative ethical philosophy is the Golden Rule, which states that, One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself. Immorality is the opposition to morality, while amorality is variously defined as an unawareness of, indifference toward. Ethics is the branch of philosophy which addresses questions of morality, the word ethics is commonly used interchangeably with morality, and sometimes it is used more narrowly to mean the moral principles of a particular tradition, group, or individual. It does not connote objective claims of right or wrong, descriptive ethics is the branch of philosophy which studies morality in this sense. In its normative sense, morality refers to whatever is actually right or wrong, normative ethics is the branch of philosophy which studies morality in this sense. For example, while they might concede that forces of social conformity significantly shape individuals moral decisions and this may be the philosophical view propounded by ethical naturalists, however not all moral realists accept that position. Moral anti-realism, on the hand, holds that moral statements either fail or do not even attempt to report objective moral facts. Some forms of non-cognitivism and ethical subjectivism, while considered anti-realist in the robust sense used here, are considered realist in the sense synonymous with moral universalism, celia Green made a distinction between tribal and territorial morality. She characterizes the latter as predominantly negative and proscriptive, it defines a persons territory, including his or her property and dependents, apart from these proscriptions, territorial morality is permissive, allowing the individual whatever behaviour does not interfere with the territory of another. By contrast, tribal morality is prescriptive, imposing the norms of the collective on the individual, Green relates the development of territorial morality to the rise of the concept of private property, and the ascendancy of contract over status. Some observers hold that individuals apply distinct sets of rules to people depending on their membership of an in-group or an out-group. Some biologists, anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists believe this in-group/out-group discrimination has evolved because it enhances group survival and this belief has been confirmed by simple computational models of evolution. In simulations this discrimination can result in both unexpected cooperation towards the in-group and irrational hostility towards the out-group, falger have argued that nationalism and patriotism are forms of this in-group/out-group boundary. Jonathan Haidt has noted that experimental observation indicating an in-group criterion provides one moral foundation substantially used by conservatives, peterson and Seligman approach the anthropological view looking across cultures, geo-cultural areas and across millennia. They conclude that certain virtues have prevailed in all cultures they examined, the major virtues they identified include wisdom / knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each of these includes several divisions, for instance humanity includes love, kindness, and social intelligence
Morality
–
Allegory with a portrait of a Venetian senator (Allegory of the morality of earthly things), attributed to
Tintoretto, 1585
17.
Punch (magazine)
–
Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, after the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002, Punch was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon and it was subtitled The London Charivari in homage to Charles Philipons French satirical humour magazine Le Charivari. Mayhew ceased to be joint editor in 1842 and became suggestor in chief until he severed his connection in 1845, the magazine initially struggled for readers, except for an 1842 Almanack issue which shocked its creators by selling 90,000 copies. In December 1842 due to difficulties the magazine was sold to Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury and Evans capitalised on newly evolving mass printing technologies and also were the publishers for Charles Dickens, Punch humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the Punch cartoons led to the terms widespread use. The illustrator Archibald Henning designed the cover of the magazines first issues, the cover design varied in the early years, though Richard Doyle designed what became the magazines masthead in 1849. Artists who published in Punch during the 1840s and 50s included John Leech, Richard Doyle, John Tenniel and this group became known as The Punch Brotherhood, which also included Charles Dickens who joined Bradbury and Evans after leaving Chapman and Hall in 1843. Punch authors and artists contributed to another Bradbury and Evans literary magazine called Once A Week. In the 1860s and 1870s, conservative Punch faced competition from upstart liberal journal Fun, at Evanss café in London, the two journals had Round tables in competition with each other. Punch gave several phrases to the English language, including The Crystal Palace, several British humour classics were first serialised in Punch, such as the Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That. Towards the end of the century, the artistic roster included Harry Furniss, Linley Sambourne, Francis Carruthers Gould. Among the outstanding cartoonists of the century were Bernard Partridge, H. M. Bateman, Bernard Hollowood who also edited the magazine from 1957 to 1968, Kenneth Mahood. Circulation broke the 100,000 mark around 1910, and peaked in 1947–1948 at 175,000 to 184,000, sales declined steadily thereafter, ultimately, the magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. Punch was widely emulated worldwide and popular in the colonies, however, the colonial experience, especially in India, also influenced Punch and its iconography. Tenniels Punch cartoons of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny led to a surge in the magazines popularity, colonial India was time and again caricatured in Punch and can be seen as a significant source for producing knowledge about India. Many Punch cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own, Punch magazine ceased publishing in 1992
Punch (magazine)
Punch (magazine)
–
Cover of the first Punch, or The London Charivari, depicts Punch hanging a caricatured
Devil, 1841 (see
gallery below for enlarged detail)
Punch (magazine)
–
Editorial meeting of Punch magazine in the late 19th century
18.
John Ruskin
–
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, as well as an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and his writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin also penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters, the elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society and he also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. He was hugely influential in the half of the 19th century. After a period of decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, from the 1850s he championed the Pre-Raphaelites who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues, Unto This Last marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, in 1871, he began his monthly letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain, published under the title Fors Clavigera. In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society, as a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. Ruskin was the child of first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin, was a sherry and wine importer founding partner and de facto manager of Ruskin, Telford. John James was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a mother from Glenluce and his wife, Margaret Cox, née Cock, was the daughter of an aunt on the English side of the family and a publican in Croydon. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John Jamess mother, John James had hoped to practice law, but was instead articled as a clerk in London. His father, John Thomas Ruskin, described as a grocer, was an inadequate businessman, to save the family from bankruptcy, John James, whose prudence and success were in stark contrast to his father, took on all debts, settling the last of them in 1832. John James and Margaret were engaged in 1809, but opposition to the union from John Thomas, Ruskin was born at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, south of St Pancras railway station. His childhood was characterised by the influences of his father and mother. John James Ruskin helped to develop his sons Romanticism and they shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and especially Walter Scott
John Ruskin
–
John Ruskin in 1863
John Ruskin
–
Ruskin as a young child, painted by
James Northcote.
John Ruskin
–
10 Rose Terrace, Perth (on the right), where Ruskin spent boyhood holidays with Scottish relatives
John Ruskin
–
Effie Gray painted by
Thomas Richmond. She thought the portrait made her look like "a graceful Doll".
19.
Matthew Arnold
–
Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a writer, a type of writer who chastises. The Reverend John Keble, who would one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Thomas Arnold admired Kebles hymns in The Christian Year, only reversing himself with exasperation when this old friend became a Romeward-tending High Church reactionary in the 1830s. In 1828, Arnolds father was appointed Headmaster of Rugby School and his family took up residence. In 1831, Arnold was tutored by his uncle, Rev. John Buckland in the village of Laleham. In 1834, the Arnolds occupied a home, Fox How. William Wordsworth was a neighbour and close friend, in 1836, Arnold was sent to Winchester College, but in 1837 he returned to Rugby School where he was enrolled in the fifth form. He moved to the form in 1838 and thus came under the direct tutelage of his father. He wrote verse for the manuscript Fox How Magazine co-produced with his brother Tom for the enjoyment from 1838 to 1843. During his years there, he won prizes for English essay writing. His prize poem, Alaric at Rome, was printed at Rugby, in 1841, he won an open scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. During his residence at Oxford, his friendship ripened with Arthur Hugh Clough, Arnold attended John Henry Newmans sermons at St. Marys but did not join the Oxford Movement. His father died suddenly of disease in 1842, and Fox How became his familys permanent residence. Arnolds poem Cromwell won the 1843 Newdigate prize and he graduated in the following year with a 2nd class honours degree in Literae Humaniores. In 1845, after an interlude of teaching at Rugby, he was elected Fellow of Oriel College. In 1847, he became Private Secretary to Lord Lansdowne, Lord President of the Council, in 1849, he published his first book of poetry, The Strayed Reveller
Matthew Arnold
–
Matthew Arnold, by
Elliott & Fry, circa 1883.
Matthew Arnold
–
Matthew Arnold's grave at the All Saints Church,
Laleham, Surrey.
Matthew Arnold
–
A
London County Council blue plaque for Arnold at 2
Chester Square,
Belgravia
20.
George MacDonald
–
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a figure in the field of fantasy literature. His writings have been cited as a literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his master, Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, a few hours later, said Lewis, I knew that I had crossed a great frontier. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had made a difference to my whole existence, even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works on Christian apologetics including several that defended a view that has described as Christian Universalism. George MacDonald was born on 10 December 1824 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire and his father, a farmer, was one of the MacDonalds of Glen Coe, and a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the massacre of 1692. The Doric dialect of the Aberdeenshire area appears in the dialogue of some of his non-fantasy novels and his paternal grandfather had supported the publication of an Ossian edition, the controversial Celtic text believed by some to have contributed to the starting of European Romanticism. MacDonald’s step-uncle was a Shakespeare scholar, and his paternal cousin another Celtic academic, MacDonald grew up in the Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. MacDonald graduated from the University of Aberdeen, and then went to London, later he was engaged in ministerial work in Manchester, leaving that because of poor health. After a short sojourn in Algiers, he settled in London, MacDonald was also for a time editor of Good Words for the Young. I write, not for children, he wrote, but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, MacDonald also published some volumes of sermons, the pulpit not having proved an unreservedly successful venue. He would go on, after his success, to do a lecture tour to significant acclaim, in the United States. MacDonald was acquainted with most of the luminaries of the day, a surviving group photograph shows him with Tennyson, Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Trollope, Ruskin, Lewes. Carroll, one of the finest Victorian photographers, also created portraits of several of the MacDonald children. MacDonald was also friends with John Ruskin, and served as a go-between in Ruskins long courtship with Rose La Touche, while in America he was befriended Longfellow and Walt Whitman. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of Unspoken Sermons, I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity, nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined
George MacDonald
–
George MacDonald in the 1860s
George MacDonald
–
MacDonald was the pastor of
Trinity Congregational Church, Arundel from 1850.
George MacDonald
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George MacDonald with son Ronald (right) and daughter Mary (left) in 1864. Photograph by
Lewis Carroll.
George MacDonald
–
George MacDonald with his wife Louisa in 1901 at their 50th wedding anniversary.
21.
Ideasthesia
–
Ideasthesia is defined as a phenomenon in which activations of concepts evoke perception-like experiences. The name comes from Greek ἰδέα and αἴσθησις, meaning sensing concepts or sensing ideas, syn-aesthesis denoting co-perceiving, implies the association of two sensory elements with little connection to the cognitive level. In other words, while synesthesia presumes that both inducer and concurrent are of nature, ideasthesia presumes that only the concurrent is of sensory nature while inducer is semantic. Research on ideasthesia bears important implications for solving the mystery of human conscious experience, a common example of synesthesia is the association between graphemes and colors, usually referred to as grapheme-color synesthesia. Here, letters of the alphabet are associated with vivid experiences of color, studies have indicated that the perceived color is context-dependent and is determined by the extracted meaning of a stimulus. For example, an ambiguous stimulus 5 that can be interpreted either as S or 5 will have the associated with S or with 5. If presented among numbers, it will be interpreted as 5, if presented among letters, it will be interpreted as S and will associate the respective synesthetic color. Evidence for grapheme-color synesthesia comes also from the finding that colors can be associated to graphemes. In one study synesthetes were presented with Glagolitic letters that they have never seen before, the Glagolitic graphemes inherited the colors of the corresponding Latin graphemes as soon as the Glagolitic graphemes acquired the new meaning. In another study, synesthetes were prompted to form novel synesthetic associations to graphemes never seen before, for lexical-gustatory synesthesia evidence also points towards ideasthesia, In lexical-gustatory synesthesia, verbalisation of the stimulus is not necessary for the experience of concurrents. Instead, it is sufficient to activate the concept, another case of synesthesia is swimming-style synesthesia in which each swimming style is associated with a vivid experience of a color. These synesthetes do not need to perform the movements of a corresponding swimming style. To activate the concurrent experiences, it is sufficient to activate the concept of a swimming style and it has been argued that grapheme-color synesthesia for geminate consonants provides also evidence for ideasthesia. Recently, it has suggested that the Bouba/Kiki phenomenon is a case of ideasthesia. Most people will agree that the object on the left is named Kiki. It has been assumed that these come from direct connections between visual and auditory cortices. These sound-shape associations seem to be related through a large overlap between semantic networks of Kiki and star-shape on one hand, and Bouba and round-shape on the other hand, for example, both Kiki and star-shape are clever, small, thin and nervous. This indicates that behind Kiki-Bouba effect lies a rich semantic network, in other words, our sensory experience is largely determined by the meaning that we assign to stimuli
Ideasthesia
–
Example of associations between graphemes and colors that are described more accurately as ideasthesia than as synesthesia
Ideasthesia
–
An example of
time unit - space synesthesia /ideasthesia.
22.
John Keats
–
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He had a significant influence on a range of poets. Jorge Luis Borges stated that his first encounter with Keatss work was the most significant literary experience of his life, the poetry of Keats is characterised by sensual imagery, most notably in the series of odes. This is typical of poets, as they aimed to accentuate extreme emotion through the emphasis of natural imagery. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular, John Keats was born in Moorgate, London, on 31 October 1795 to Thomas Keats and his wife, born Frances Jennings. There is no evidence of his exact birthplace. Although Keats and his family seem to have marked his birthday on 29 October and he was the eldest of four surviving children, his younger siblings were George, Thomas, and Frances Mary Fanny who eventually married Spanish author Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez. Another son was lost in infancy and his father first worked as a hostler at the stables attached to the Swan and Hoop Inn, an establishment he later managed, and where the growing family lived for some years. Keats believed that he was born at the inn, a birthplace of humble origins, the Globe pub now occupies the site, a few yards from the modern-day Moorgate station. He was baptised at St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and sent to a dame school as a child. His parents were unable to afford Eton or Harrow, so in the summer of 1803, he was sent to board at John Clarkes school in Enfield, the small school had a liberal outlook and a progressive curriculum more modern than the larger, more prestigious schools. In the family atmosphere at Clarkes, Keats developed an interest in classics and history, the headmasters son, Charles Cowden Clarke, also became an important mentor and friend, introducing Keats to Renaissance literature, including Tasso, Spenser, and Chapmans translations. The young Keats was described by his friend Edward Holmes as a character, always in extremes, given to indolence. However, at 13 he began focusing his energy on reading and study, in April 1804, when Keats was eight, his father died. The cause of death was a fracture, suffered when he fell from his horse while returning from a visit to Keats. Frances remarried two months later, but left her new husband soon afterwards, and the four went to live with their grandmother, Alice Jennings. In March 1810 when Keats was 14, his mother died of tuberculosis and she appointed two guardians, Richard Abbey and John Sandell, to take care of them. That autumn, Keats left Clarkes school to apprentice with Thomas Hammond, a surgeon and apothecary who was a neighbour, Keats lodged in the attic above the surgery at 7 Church Street until 1813
John Keats
–
Portrait of John Keats by
William Hilton.
National Portrait Gallery, London
John Keats
–
Life mask of Keats by
Benjamin Haydon, 1816
John Keats
–
Wentworth Place, now the
Keats House museum (left), Ten Keats Grove (right)
John Keats
–
Ambrotype of Fanny Brawne taken circa 1850 (photograph on glass)
23.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
–
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets, and is regarded by some as among the finest lyric, as well as most influential, poets in the English language. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition for his poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, and his own second wife, Mary Shelley. Shelley is perhaps best known for such poems as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, Music, When Soft Voices Die, The Cloud. Shelleys close circle of friends included some of the most important progressive thinkers of the day, including his father-in-law, the philosopher William Godwin and Leigh Hunt. Though Shelleys poetry and prose output remained steady throughout his life, most publishers, Shelley became a lodestone to the subsequent three or four generations of poets, including important Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite poets such as Robert Browning and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He was admired by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, yeats, Upton Sinclair and Isadora Duncan. Henry David Thoreaus civil disobedience was apparently influenced by Shelleys non-violence in protest, Shelleys popularity and influence has continued to grow in contemporary poetry circles. Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place, Broadbridge Heath, near Horsham, West Sussex, England. He was the eldest legitimate son of Sir Timothy Shelley, a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790–92 and he had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. He received his education at home, tutored by the Reverend Evan Edwards of nearby Warnham. His cousin and lifelong friend Thomas Medwin, who lived nearby and it was a happy and contented childhood spent largely in country pursuits such as fishing and hunting. In 1802, he entered the Syon House Academy of Brentford, in 1804, Shelley entered Eton College, where he fared poorly, and was subjected to an almost daily mob torment at around noon by older boys, who aptly called these incidents Shelley-baits. Surrounded, the young Shelley would have his books torn from his hands and his clothes pulled at and this daily misery could be attributed to Shelleys refusal to take part in fagging and his indifference towards games and other youthful activities. Because of these peculiarities he acquired the nickname Mad Shelley, Shelley possessed a keen interest in science at Eton, which he would often apply to cause a surprising amount of mischief for a boy considered to be so sensible. Shelley would often use an electric machine to charge the door handle of his room. His friends were particularly amused when his tutor, Mr Bethell, in attempting to enter his room, was alarmed at the noise of the electric shocks. His mischievous side was again demonstrated by his last bit of naughtiness at school, despite these jocular incidents, a contemporary of Shelley, W. H. Merie, recalled that Shelley made no friends at Eton, although he did seek a kindred spirit without success
Percy Bysshe Shelley
–
Portrait of Shelley by
Alfred Clint (1819)
Percy Bysshe Shelley
–
Signature
Percy Bysshe Shelley
–
William Godwin in 1802, by
James Northcote.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
–
Richard Rothwell 's portrait of Mary Shelley in later life was shown at the
Royal Academy in 1840, accompanied by lines from Percy Shelley's poem
The Revolt of Islam calling her a "child of love and light".
24.
Pre-Raphaelite
–
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member brotherhood and their principles were shared by other artists, including Marie Spartali Stillman and Ford Madox Brown. A later, medievalising strain inspired by Rossetti included Edward Burne-Jones, the groups intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been an influence on the academic teaching of art. In particular, the group objected to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the English Royal Academy of Arts, to the Pre-Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, sloshy meant anything lax or scamped in the process of painting. Any thing or person of a commonplace or conventional kind, the brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. The group associated their work with John Ruskin, an English critic whose influences were driven by his religious background, the group continued to accept the concepts of history painting and mimesis, imitation of nature, as central to the purpose of art. The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a movement, created a distinct name for their form of art. The groups debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in John Millaiss parents house on Gower Street, London in 1848. At the first meeting, the painters John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hunt and Millais were students at the Royal Academy of Arts and had met in another loose association, the Cyclographic Club, a sketching society. At his own request Rossetti became a pupil of Ford Madox Brown in 1848, at that date, Rossetti and Hunt shared lodgings in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, Central London. Hunt had started painting The Eve of St. Agnes based on Keatss poem of the same name, as an aspiring poet, Rossetti wished to develop the links between Romantic poetry and art. Ford Madox Brown was invited to join, but the more senior artist remained independent but supported the group throughout the PRB period of Pre-Raphaelitism, other young painters and sculptors became close associates, including Charles Allston Collins, Thomas Tupper, and Alexander Munro. The PRB intended to keep the existence of the secret from members of the Royal Academy. The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of artists to determine their own ideas. Influenced by Romanticism, the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable, nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by medieval culture, believing it to possess a spiritual and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of realism which stress the independent observation of nature, in its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
Pre-Raphaelite
–
Proserpine, by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Pre-Raphaelite
–
Illustration by Holman Hunt of Thomas Woolner's poem "My Beautiful Lady", published in The Germ, 1850
Pre-Raphaelite
–
Christ in the House of His Parents, by John Everett Millais, 1850
Pre-Raphaelite
–
Ophelia, by
John Everett Millais
25.
Algernon Charles Swinburne
–
Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of such as Poems and Ballads. A controversial figure at the time, Swinburne was a sado-masochist and alcoholic and was obsessed with the Middle Ages, Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the Ocean, Time, several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho, Anactoria, Jesus and Catullus. Swinburne was born at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, on 5 April 1837 and he was the eldest of six children born to Captain Charles Henry Swinburne and Lady Jane Henrietta, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, a wealthy Northumbrian family. He grew up at East Dene in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight, as a child, Swinburne was nervous and frail, but was also fired with nervous energy and fearlessness to the point of being reckless. He attended Eton College, where he first started writing poetry, at Eton, he won first prizes in French and Italian. He returned in May 1860, though he never received a degree, Swinburne considered Northumberland to be his native county, an emotion reflected in poems like the intensely patriotic Northumberland, Grace Darling and others. He enjoyed riding his pony across the moors through honeyed leagues of the northland border, in the period 1857–60, Swinburne became one of Lady Pauline Trevelyans intellectual circle at Wallington Hall. After his grandfathers death in 1860, he stayed with William Bell Scott in Newcastle, in 1861, Swinburne visited Menton on the French Riviera to recover from excessive use of alcohol, staying at the Villa Laurenti. From Menton, Swinburne travelled to Italy, where he journeyed extensively, in December 1862, Swinburne accompanied Scott and his guests, probably including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, on a trip to Tynemouth. At Oxford, Swinburne met several Pre-Raphaelites, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swinburne was an alcoholic and algolagniac and highly excitable. Thereafter, he lost his youthful rebelliousness and developed into a figure of social respectability and it was said of Watts that he saved the man and killed the poet. Swinburne died at the Pines on 10 April 1909 at the age of 72 and was buried at St. Boniface Church, Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. Common gossip of the time reported that he had a crush on the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton. The English language is poor in rhymes, and most English poets. Swinburnes work was quite popular among undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge. T. S. Eliot read Swinburnes essays on the Shakespearean and Jonsonian dramatists in The Contemporaries of Shakespeare and The Age of Shakespeare and Swinburnes books on Shakespeare and Jonson
Algernon Charles Swinburne
–
Swinburne aged 52
Algernon Charles Swinburne
–
Signature
Algernon Charles Swinburne
–
Sketch of Swinburne at age 23 by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Algernon Charles Swinburne
–
Swinburne caricatured by
'Ape' In
Vanity Fair in 1874
26.
James McNeill Whistler
–
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a proponent of the credo art for arts sake. His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail, the symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality—his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler entitled many of his paintings arrangements, harmonies, and nocturnes and his most famous painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly known as Whistlers Mother, the revered and oft-parodied portrait of motherhood, Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers. James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, on July 10,1834 and his father was a railroad engineer, and Anna was his second wife. James lived the first three years of his life in a modest house at 243 Worthen Street in Lowell, today, the house is a museum dedicated to Whistler. During the Ruskin trial, Whistler claimed St. Petersburg, Russia, as his birthplace, declaring, I shall be born when and where I want, in 1837, the Whistlers moved from Lowell to Stonington, Connecticut, where George Whistler worked for the Stonington Railroad. Sadly, during this period, three of George and Anna Whistlers children died in infancy, in 1839, the Whistlers fortunes improved considerably when George Whistler received the appointment that would make his fortune and fame - that of chief engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad. Thus, the moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, then one of the United States most prosperous cities. The Whistlers lived in Springfield until they left the United States in late 1842, Nicholas I of Russia learned of George Whistlers ingenuity in engineering the Boston & Albany Railroad, and offered Whistler a position in 1842 engineering a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In the winter of 1842, the Whistlers moved from Springfield to St. Petersburg, in later years, James Whistler played up his mothers connection to the American South and its roots, and presented himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat. After her death, he adopted her name, using it as an additional middle name. Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence and his parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention. Beginning in 1842, his father was employed to work on a railroad in Russia, after moving to St. Petersburg to join his father a year later, the young Whistler took private art lessons, then enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at age eleven. In 1844, he met the noted artist Sir William Allan, Whistlers mother noted in her diary, the great artist remarked to me Your little boy has uncommon genius, but do not urge him beyond his inclination. In 1847-48, his family spent some time in London with relatives, Whistlers brother-in-law Francis Haden, a physician who was also an artist, spurred his interest in art and photography. Haden took Whistler to visit collectors and to lectures, and gave him a set with instruction
James McNeill Whistler
–
Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter (self portrait, c. 1872),
Detroit Institute of Arts
James McNeill Whistler
–
Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858),
Freer Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
James McNeill Whistler
–
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862), The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
James McNeill Whistler
–
Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (1872),
Tate Britain, London, England
27.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt, Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a precursor of the Aesthetic movement. Rossettis art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism and his early poetry was influenced by John Keats. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence, poetry and image are closely entwined in Rossettis work. Rossettis personal life was linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth. The son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and his wife Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, Rossetti was born in London, England and his family and friends called him Gabriel, but in publications he put the name Dante first in honour of Dante Alighieri. He was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti and his father was a Roman Catholic, at least prior to his marriage, and his mother was an Anglican, ostensibly Gabriel was baptized as and was a practicing Anglican. During his childhood, Rossetti was home educated and often read the Bible, along with the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, the youthful Rossetti is described as self-possessed, articulate, passionate and charismatic but also ardent, poetic and feckless. Like all his siblings, he aspired to be a poet and attended Kings College School and he also wished to be a painter, having shown a great interest in Medieval Italian art. He studied at Henry Sass Drawing Academy from 1841 to 1845, when he enrolled in the Antique School of the Royal Academy, after leaving the Royal Academy, Rossetti studied under Ford Madox Brown, with whom he retained a close relationship throughout his life. Following the exhibition of William Holman Hunts painting The Eve of St. Agnes, the painting illustrated a poem by the little-known John Keats. Rossettis own poem, The Blessed Damozel, was an imitation of Keats, together they developed the philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with John Everett Millais. Their approach was to return to the abundant detail, intense colours, the eminent critic John Ruskin wrote, Every Pre-Raphaelite landscape background is painted to the last touch, in the open air, from the thing itself. Every Pre-Raphaelite figure, however studied in expression, is a portrait of some living person. Rossettis first major paintings in oil display the realist qualities of the early Pre-Raphaelite movement and his Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini portray Mary as a teenage girl. I saw at once that he was not an orthodox boy, the mixture of genius and dilettantism of both men shut me up for the moment, and whetted my curiosity. Although his work subsequently won support from John Ruskin, Rossetti only rarely exhibited thereafter, in 1850, Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal, an important model for the Pre-Raphaelite painters
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti c. 1871, by
George Frederic Watts
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Self-portrait, 1847
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at 22 years of Age by
William Holman Hunt
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
–
The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849). (Models: the artist's mother for
St. Anne and his sister Christina for
the Virgin).
28.
Gilbert and Sullivan
–
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H. M. S, Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Sullivan, six years Gilberts junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos and their operas have enjoyed broad and enduring international success and are still performed frequently throughout the English-speaking world. Gilbert and Sullivan introduced innovations in content and form that influenced the development of musical theatre through the 20th century. The operas have influenced political discourse, literature, film. Producer Richard DOyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and nurtured their collaboration and he built the Savoy Theatre in 1881 to present their joint works and founded the DOyly Carte Opera Company, which performed and promoted Gilbert and Sullivans works for over a century. Gilbert was born in London on 18 November 1836 and his father, William, was a naval surgeon who later wrote novels and short stories, some of which included illustrations by his son. Director and playwright Mike Leigh described the Gilbertian style as follows, With great fluidity and freedom, First, within the framework of the story, he makes bizarre things happen, and turns the world on its head. Thus the Learned Judge marries the Plaintiff, the soldiers metamorphose into aesthetes, and so on and his genius is to fuse opposites with an imperceptible sleight of hand, to blend the surreal with the real, and the caricature with the natural. In other words, to tell a perfectly outrageous story in a deadpan way. Gilbert developed his theories on the art of stage direction. At the time Gilbert began writing, theatre in Britain was in disrepute, Gilbert helped to reform and elevate the respectability of the theatre, especially beginning with his six short family-friendly comic operas, or entertainments, for Thomas German Reed. At a rehearsal for one of these entertainments, Ages Ago, the composer Frederic Clay introduced Gilbert to his friend, two years later, Gilbert and Sullivan would write their first work together. Those two intervening years continued to shape Gilberts theatrical style, Sullivan was born in London on 13 May 1842. His father was a bandmaster, and by the time Arthur had reached the age of eight. In school he began to compose anthems and songs, in 1856, he received the first Mendelssohn Scholarship and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and then at Leipzig, where he also took up conducting. His graduation piece, completed in 1861, was a suite of music to Shakespeares The Tempest. Revised and expanded, it was performed at the Crystal Palace in 1862 and was an immediate sensation and he began building a reputation as Englands most promising young composer, composing a symphony, a concerto, and several overtures, among them the Overture di Ballo, in 1870
Gilbert and Sullivan
–
W. S. Gilbert
Gilbert and Sullivan
–
Arthur Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
–
One of Gilbert's illustrations for his
Bab Ballad "Gentle Alice Brown"
Gilbert and Sullivan
–
An early poster showing scenes from The Sorcerer, Pinafore, and Trial by Jury
29.
Patience (opera)
–
Patience, or, Bunthornes Bride, is a comic opera in two acts with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. Henceforth, the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas would be known as the Savoy Operas, Patience was the sixth operatic collaboration of fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan. It ran for a total of 578 performances, which was seven more than the earlier work. Pinafore, and the second longest run of any work of theatre up to that time. Called Art for Arts Sake, the movement valued its ideals of beauty above any pragmatic concerns, although the output of poets, painters and designers was prolific, some argued that the movements art, poetry and fashion was empty and self-indulgent. That the movement was so popular and also so easy to ridicule as a meaningless fad helped make Patience a big hit, the same factors made a hit out of The Colonel, a play by F. C. Burnand based partly on the cartoons of George du Maurier in Punch magazine. The Colonel beat Patience to the stage by several weeks, modern productions of Patience have sometimes updated the setting of the opera to an analogous era such as the hippie 1960s, making a flower-child poet the rival of a beat poet. The two poets in the opera are given to reciting their own verses aloud, principally to the chorus of rapturous maidens. The style of poetry Bunthorne declaims strongly contrasts with Grosvenors, the formers, emphatic and obscure, bears a marked resemblance to Swinburnes poetry in its structure, style and heavy use of alliteration. The latters, simpler and pastoral, echoes elements of Coventry Patmore, Gilbert scholar Andrew Crowther comments, Bunthorne was the creature of Gilberts brain, not just a caricature of particular Aesthetes, but an original character in his own right. According to Gilberts biographer Edith Browne, the character, Patience, was made up. Patience was not the first satire of the movement played by Richard DOyly Cartes company at the Opera Comique. Grossmith himself had written a sketch in 1876 called Cups and Saucers that was revived as a piece to H. M. S. Pinafore in 1878, which was a satire of the blue pottery craze, a popular misconception holds that the central character of Bunthorne, a Fleshly Poet, was intended to satirise Oscar Wilde, but this identification is retrospective. Rossetti had been attacked for immorality by Robert Buchanan in an article called The Fleshly School of Poetry, published in The Contemporary Review for October 1871, nonetheless, Wildes biographer Richard Ellmann suggests that Wilde is a partial model for both Bunthorne and his rival Grosvenor. Carte, the producer of Patience, was also Wildes booking manager in 1881 as the poets popularity took off, although a satire of the aesthetic movement is dated today, fads and hero-worship are evergreen, and Gilbert’s pen was rarely sharper than when he invented Reginald Bunthorne. Gilbert originally conceived Patience as a tale of rivalry between two curates and of the ladies who attended upon them
Patience (opera)
–
1881 Programme for Patience
Patience (opera)
–
George Grossmith as Bunthorne
Patience (opera)
–
Aesthetic dress (left and right) contrasted with
'fashionable attire' (centre), 1881
Patience (opera)
–
"Rapturous maidens" await Bunthorne
30.
F. C. Burnand
–
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivans opera Cox and Box. From his schooldays he had written plays, and from 1860 until the end of the 19th century, he produced a series of more than 200 Victorian burlesques, farces, pantomimes. His early successes included the burlesques Ixion, or the Man at the Wheel and The Latest Edition of Black-Eyed Susan, or, also in 1866, he adapted the popular farce Box and Cox as a comic opera, Cox and Box, with music by Sullivan. The piece became a favourite and was later frequently used by the DOyly Carte Opera Company as a curtain raiser. By the 1870s, Burnand was generating an output of plays as well as comic pieces. Among his 55-stage works during the decade was another frequently revived hit, for Punch, among other things, he wrote the popular column Happy Thoughts, in which the narrator recorded the difficulties and distractions of everyday life. Also admired were his burlesques of other writers works, Burnand was a contributor to Punch for 45 years and its editor from 1880 until 1906 and is credited with adding much to the popularity and prosperity of the magazine. His editorship of the publication of The Diary of a Nobody by the brothers George. Many of his articles were collected and published in book form and his stage successes in the 1890s included his English-language versions of two Edmond Audran operettas, titled La Cigale and Miss Decima. His last works included collaborations on pantomimes of Cinderella and Aladdin, in other forms of theatre Burnand was outstandingly successful, with his works receiving London runs of up to 550 performances and extensive tours in the British provinces and the US. He published several books and memoirs and was knighted in 1902 for his work on Punch. Burnand was born in central London, the child of Francis Burnand and his first wife Emma, née Cowley. Burnand senior, a stockbroker, was descended from an old Savoyard family, prominent in the trade, his wife a was a descendant of the poet. Burnand was educated at Eton, where, aged fifteen, he wrote a farce, Guy Fawkes Day, played at Cookesleys house, while at Eton, he submitted some illustrations to the comic weekly magazine, Punch, one or two of which were published. Guest and his colleagues refused their consent, but Burnand went ahead without it, the members of the club performed a triple bill under stage names to avoid retribution from the university. The club prospered, Burnand acted and wrote plays under the name Tom Pierce and he enrolled at Cuddesdon theological college, where his studies of divinity led him to leave the Anglican church and become a Roman Catholic. This caused a breach between Burnand and his father, but the estrangement did not last long, to the disappointment of Cardinal Manning, leader of the English Catholics, Burnand announced that his vocation was not for the church but for the theatre
F. C. Burnand
–
Theatre poster for Burnard's Black Eyed See-Usan
F. C. Burnand
–
From The History of
"Punch"
F. C. Burnand
–
Burnand, c. 1870s
F. C. Burnand
–
J. L. Toole in Burnand's Paw Claudian, 1884
