1.
Branford College
Branford College is one of the 12 residential colleges at Yale University. Branford College was founded in 1933 by partitioning the Memorial Quadrangle into two parts and Branford, according to Robert Frost, it is the oldest and most beautiful of the Yale residential colleges, though it shares a building and was founded simultaneously with Saybrook. In the start of the year in 1933, Branford College opened its doors. Clarence Whittlesey Mendell, Dean of Yale College, had been named Master in 1931, what impressed quite a few visitors to Branford was the calm and subdued character of the College. Chauncey Tinker commented that Saybrook was like an anthill, but Branford was like an oyster bed, Branford College was named for the nearby town of Branford, where Yale was briefly located. The base of Harkness Tower, one of the universitys most prominent structures and one of the tallest free-standing stone structures in the world, the tower contains a 54-bell carillon. Frank Lloyd Wright is said to have been asked where he would choose to be if he could be anywhere in the U. S.
since Branfords courtyards have many squirrels, the college adopted the squirrel as its mascot. The college has a rivalry with neighboring Jonathan Edwards College as well as a less formal one with Saybrook. Branford is the college of Quincy House at Harvard, Pembroke College at Oxford. It is tradition for Branfordians to host members of Quincy House when Yale hosts Harvard during The Game, there are two common rooms in addition to the primary common room. Located between Linonia and Branford Courts is the Fellows Lounge, where the Fellows of the College meet and this room is called the Trumbull Room, in memory of the first art gallery at Yale, which was built to house the paintings of John Trumbull. The Branford Dining Hall is located above the common room parallel to York Street, the large, vaulted main dining hall contains a 15th-century Burgundian fireplace. A smaller, cozier room called traditionally called The Pit known as the Small Dining Hall is frequently reserved by student groups for dinner meetings, the other Common Room is the Mendell Room, named for Branfords first master, Clarence Whittlesey Mendell.
Confusingly, this had several other names. It was originally dubbed the Cabinet Commons when it was constructed and it quickly came to be known as the Ship Room after the carving over the mantle, which depicts the phantom Great Ship lost at sea off of New Haven. During the early days of the College, it was used as a Music Room, and it was only after the death of Master Mendell that the room was renamed in his honor. The room, which is located between the Branford and Brothers in Unity Courts is used for seminars and meetings of student organizations. The Branford College Library is located in the courtyard of Branford College
2.
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture and its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the cathedrals, abbeys. It is the architecture of many castles, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, for this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, the term Gothic architecture originated as a pejorative description. Hence, François Rabelais, of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, Here enter no hypocrites, slipping in a slighting reference to Gotz and Ostrogotz.
Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old medieval style, the Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic. Gothic architecture is the architecture of the medieval period, characterised by use of the pointed arch. As an architectural style, Gothic developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture, the greatest number of surviving Gothic buildings are churches. The Gothic style is most particularly associated with the cathedrals of Northern France. At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states, norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with other, or united for mutual weal.
Civic building was of importance to these towns as a sign of wealth. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings and bishops, the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the lords and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early Medieval periods had seen a growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, a part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centers of culture and commerce
3.
Samuel Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American painter and inventor. After having established his reputation as a painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs. He was a co-developer of the Morse code and helped to develop the use of telegraphy. Samuel F. B. Morse was born in Charlestown, the first child of the pastor Jedidiah Morse, who was a geographer and his father was a great preacher of the Calvinist faith and supporter of the American Federalist party. He thought it helped preserve Puritan traditions, and believed in the Federalist support of an alliance with Britain, Morse strongly believed in education within a Federalist framework, alongside the instillation of Calvinist virtues and prayers for his first son. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Samuel Morse went on to Yale College to receive instruction in the subjects of philosophy, mathematics. While at Yale, he attended lectures on electricity from Benjamin Silliman, in 1810, he graduated from Yale with Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Morse expressed some of his Calvinist beliefs in his painting, Landing of the Pilgrims and his image captured the psychology of the Federalists, Calvinists from England brought to North America ideas of religion and government, thus linking the two countries. This work attracted the attention of the notable artist, Washington Allston, Allston wanted Morse to accompany him to England to meet the artist Benjamin West. Allston arranged — with Morses father — a three-year stay for painting study in England, the two men set sail aboard the Lybia on July 15,1811. In England, Morse perfected his painting techniques under Allstons watchful eye, by the end of 1811, at the Academy, he was moved by the art of the Renaissance and paid close attention to the works of Michelangelo and Raphael. After observing and practicing life drawing and absorbing its anatomical demands, the young artist produced his masterpiece, to some, the Dying Hercules seemed to represent a political statement against the British and the American Federalists.
The muscles symbolized the strength of the young and vibrant United States versus the British, during Morses time in Britain, the Americans and British were engaged in the War of 1812. Both societies were conflicted over loyalties, anti-Federalist Americans aligned themselves with the French, abhorred the British, and believed a strong central government to be inherently dangerous to democracy. As the war raged on, Morses letters to his parents became more anti-Federalist in tone, in one such letter, Morse wrote, I assert that the Federalists in the Northern States have done more injury to their country by their violent opposition measures than a French alliance could. Their proceedings are copied into the English papers, read before Parliament, and circulated through their country and they call them cowards, a base set, say they are traitors to their country and ought to be hanged like traitors. Although Jedidiah Morse did not change Samuels political views, he continued as an influence, critics believe that the elder Morses Calvinist ideas are integral to Morses Judgment of Jupiter, another significant work completed in England.
Jupiter is shown in a cloud, accompanied by his eagle, with his hand spread above the parties, with an expression of compunction and shame, is throwing herself into the arms of her husband
4.
Elihu Yale
Yales ancestry can be traced back to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llandegla, Wales. The name Yale is the English spelling of the Welsh place name Iâl, the Yale family left Boston and returned to England when Elihu was three years old and he grew up going to school in London. For 20 years Yale served the Honourable East India Company, in 1684 he became the first president of Fort St. George, the companys post at Madras, India. He succeeded a number of agents from Andrew Cogan to William Gyfford, Yale was instrumental in the development of the Government General Hospital, housed at Fort St. George. Yale amassed a fortune working for the company, largely through secret contracts with Madras merchants. By 1692, his repeated flouting of East India Company regulations, Yale returned to Britain in 1699. He spent the rest of his life at Plas Grono, a mansion bought by his father near Wrexham, Wales, or at his house in London, Yale married Catherine Hynmers, a widow, in 1680. The wedding took place at St.
Marys Church, at Fort St. George, the marriage was the first registered at the church. Elihu Yale was re-appointed as president of the administration of Fort St George on 26 July 1687 and he implemented an order dated 14 January 1685 which required the English at Fort St George to make all attempts at procurement of the town of St Thome on lease. To this effect, Chinna Venkatadri was sent to negotiate with the governor on 4 August 1687. The mission was successful and Chinna Venkatadri assumed sovereignty over St Thome for a period of three years, notwithstanding the vehement protests of the Portuguese inhabitants of St Thome, the English gained absolute control over all lands up to St Thomas Mount for a period of three years. In September 1688, the Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb took Golconda after a prolonged battle, the Mughals took Sultan of Golconda prisoner and annexed the state. Aurangazeb guaranteed the independence of Madras, but in return demanded that the English supply troops in the event of a war against the Marathas and it was around this time that Yales three-year-old son David Yale died and was interred in the Madras cemetery.
The records of this period mention a flourishing trade in Madras. He enforced a law that at least ten slaves should be carried on every ship bound for Europe, in his capacity as judge he on several occasions sentenced so-called black criminals to whipping and enslavement. When the demand began to rapidly, the English merchants even began to kidnap young children and deport them to distant parts of the world. The charter came into effect on 29 September 1688, and a Corporation was established comprising a Mayor,12 Aldermen, 60-100 Burgesses, Nathaniel Higginson, who was the second member of the Council of Fort St George took office as the Mayor of Madras. In August 1689, a French fleet appeared near the coast of Ceylon compelling the Governor of Pulicat Lawrence Pitt who was on high seas to seek protection within the bastions of Fort St George
5.
Edward Harkness
Edward Stephen Harkness was an American philanthropist. Harkness inherited his fortune from his father, Stephen V. Harkness, whose wealth was established by an investment in Standard Oil. Stephen Harkness died when Edward was fourteen, leaving his wife and oldest son, Harkness attended St. Pauls School and Yale College, Class of 1897 and Columbia Law School. Harkness, his brother Charles, and cousin William were members of Wolfs Head Society at Yale, after graduating, Edward Harkness married Mary Stillman, daughter of wealthy New York attorney Thomas E. Stillman, in 1904. As the buildings architect, Harkness chose Yale College classmate James Gamble Rogers, the home, at 75th Street and 5th Avenue and now known as the Edward S. Harkness House, became the headquarters of Harkness Commonwealth Fund after Marys death. Harkness briefly served as a director for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He began making gifts to the Egyptian collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1912, Harkness older brother Charles died in 1916 at age 55, leaving Edward more than US$80 million, much of it in Standard Oil stock.
Charles had continued to invest substantially in Standard Oil as manager of the family fortune, Harkness made charitable gifts totaling more than $129 million, the equivalent of $2 billion in 2005 dollars. His philanthropic peers John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie gave respectively $550 million, the campus was built in the 1920s on the site of Hilltop Park, the one-time home stadium of the New York Yankees. The Harkness Pavilion, named for father Stephen, is a part of the campus. Harkness and his mother, gave substantial sums to several important non-profit enterprises, Harkness was a major benefactor of the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Harkness, in addition to donations to the Decorative Arts Department, Harkness bought the complete Tomb of Perneb for the Met and helped purchase the Carnarvon Collection of Egyptian artifacts. He donated the Mets unofficial mascot, a blue decorative hippo from the Egyptian Middle Kingdoms Twelfth Dynasty, in 1917, a year after Charles death, Anna Harkness donated $3 million to Yale University to build the Memorial Quadrangle student dormitory in Charles memory.
In 1918, Anna Harkness established the Commonwealth Fund with a gift of $10 million. Harkness and his wife made many contributions to educational buildings, including St Salvators Hall at the University of St, between 1926 and 1930, Harkness made major donations to Yale and Harvard to establish residential college systems at each school. When the Yale Corporation failed to accept Harkness offer by 1928, harvards president, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, quickly accepted, and eight houses for Harvard College were completed by 1931 with a $10 million gift from Harkness. Dismayed, Yale administrators appealed to Harkness to reconsider his offer, Harkness persuaded Yale to retain his friend James Gamble Rogers as the colleges architect. He made gifts that established the Yale School of Drama, the first independent drama faculty in the country, around the same time as his Yale-Harvard philanthropy, Harkness sought to reform the pedagogical techniques of the countrys elite boarding schools
6.
Aristotle
Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, died when Aristotle was a child, at seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Platos Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, teaching Alexander the Great gave Aristotle many opportunities and an abundance of supplies. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of many of his hundreds of books and he believed all peoples concepts and all of their knowledge was ultimately based on perception. Aristotles views on natural sciences represent the groundwork underlying many of his works, Aristotles views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, some of Aristotles zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century.
His works contain the earliest known study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as The First Teacher and his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues – Cicero described his style as a river of gold – it is thought that only around a third of his original output has survived. Aristotle, whose means the best purpose, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice. His father Nicomachus was the physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Aristotle was orphaned at a young age, although there is little information on Aristotles childhood, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Platos Academy and he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC.
Aristotle accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor, there, he traveled with Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island. Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermiass adoptive daughter or niece and she bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. Soon after Hermias death, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander in 343 BC, Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During that time he gave not only to Alexander
7.
Phidias
Phidias or Pheidias was a Greek sculptor and architect. His statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Phidias was the son of Charmides of Athens. The ancients believed that his masters were Hegias and Ageladas, Phidias is often credited as the main instigator of the Classical Greek sculptural design. Today, most critics and historians consider him one of the greatest of all ancient Greek sculptors, although no original works exist that can be attributed to Phidias with certainty, numerous Roman copies of varying degrees of fidelity are known to exist. Almost all classical Greek paintings and sculptures have been destroyed, and only Roman copies or notes of them exist, the ancient Romans frequently copied and further developed Greek art. In antiquity Phidias was celebrated for his statues in bronze and his chryselephantine works, in the Hippias Major, Plato claims that Phidias seldom, if ever, executed works in marble, though many of the sculptures of his times were executed in marble.
Plutarch tells us that he superintended the works ordered by Pericles on the Acropolis. Ancient critics take a high view of the merits of Phidias. What they especially praise is the ethos or permanent moral level of his works as compared with those of the so called pathetic school, demetrius calls his statues sublime, and at the same time precise. Of his life we know little apart from his works and his first commission created a group of national heroes with Miltiades as a central figure. Pericles used some of the money from the maritime League of Delos, to rebuild, inscriptions prove that the marble blocks intended for the pedimental statues of the Parthenon were not brought to Athens until 434 BC, which was probably after the death of Phidias. It is therefore possible that most of sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was the work of Phidias workshop including pupils of Phidias, such as Alcamenes, the Golden Ratio has been represented by the Greek letter φ, after Phidias, who is said to have employed it.
The Golden Ratio is an irrational number approximating 1.6180 which has special mathematical properties, the golden spiral is said to hold aesthetic values. The earliest of the works of Phidias were dedications in memory of Marathon, at Delphi he created a great group in bronze including the figures of Greek gods Apollo and Athena, several Attic heroes, and General Miltiades the Younger. On the Acropolis of Athens Phidias constructed a bronze statue of Athena, the Athena Promachos. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warriors and the protector of Athens, at Pellene in Achaea, and at Plataea Phidias made two other statues of Athena, as well as a statue of the goddess Aphrodite in ivory and gold for the people of Elis. Both sculptures belong to about the middle of the 5th century BC, a number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made. Phidias left Athens in about 438 BC, on completion of the Athena Parthenos, accused by a fellow worker of embezzlement, and unable to account for the amount of gold used in separate parts of the statue, he voluntarily underwent exile rather than face public humiliation
8.
Washington Monument
It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. Although the stone structure was completed in 1884, internal ironwork, the knoll, a difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills, but he did not include his proposed colonnade due to a lack of funds, despite many proposals to embellish the obelisk, only its original flat top was altered to a pointed marble pyramidion, in 1884. Upon completion, it became the worlds tallest structure, a previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, the monument was damaged during the 2011 Virginia earthquake and Hurricane Irene in the same year and remained closed to the public while the structure was assessed and repaired. After 32 months of repairs, the National Park Service and the Trust for the National Mall reopened the Washington Monument to visitors on May 12,2014, as of September 2016, the monument has been closed indefinitely due to reliability issues with the current elevator system.
On December 2,2016, the National Park Service announced that the monument would be closed until 2019 in order to modernize the elevator. The $2 to 3 million project will correct the elevators ongoing mechanical and computer issues, the National Park Service has requested funding in its FY2017 Presidents Budget Request to construct a permanent screening facility for the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument is expected to re-open to visitors in 2019, even his erstwhile enemy King George III called him the greatest character of the age. At his death in 1799 he left a legacy, he exemplified the core ideals of the American Revolution. Washington was the unchallenged public icon of American military and civic patriotism, starting with victory in the Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a memorial in the national capital. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party and they blocked his image on coins or the celebration of his birthday.
Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, by that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial. As early as 1783, the Continental Congress had resolved That an equestrian statue of George Washington be erected at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established, there are two equestrian statues of President Washington in Washington, D. C. Ten days after Washingtons death, a Congressional committee recommended a different type of monument, John Marshall, a Representative from Virginia proposed that a tomb be erected within the Capitol. Progress toward a memorial began in 1832. That year, which marked the 100th anniversary of Washingtons birth, in 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations, they announced a competition for the design of the memorial
9.
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution, Whitneys invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost many profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin, thereafter, he turned his attention into securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825, Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8,1765, the eldest child of Eli Whitney Sr. a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Fay, of Westborough. Although the younger Eli, born in 1765, could technically be called a Junior and he was famous during his lifetime and afterward by the name Eli Whitney. His son, born in 1820, named Eli, was known during his lifetime and afterward by the name Eli Whitney, Jr.
Whitneys mother, Elizabeth Fay, died in 1777. At age 14 he operated a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his fathers workshop during the Revolutionary War, because his stepmother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as a farm laborer and school teacher to save money. He prepared for Yale at Leicester Academy and under the tutelage of Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, Connecticut, he entered the class of 1789 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1792. Whitney expected to study law but, finding himself short of funds, instead of reaching his destination, he was convinced to visit Georgia. In the closing years of the 18th century, Georgia was a magnet for New Englanders seeking their fortunes, when he initially sailed for South Carolina, among his shipmates were the widow and family of the Revolutionary hero Gen. Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. Mrs. Greene invited Whitney to visit her Georgia plantation, Mulberry Grove and her plantation manager and husband-to-be was Phineas Miller, another Connecticut migrant and Yale graduate, who would become Whitneys business partner.
Whitney is most famous for two innovations which divided the United States in the century, the cotton gin. In the South, the cotton gin revolutionized the way cotton was harvested and reinvigorated slavery, in the North the adoption of interchangeable parts revolutionized the manufacturing industry, and contributed greatly to the U. S. victory in the Civil War. The cotton gin is a device that removes the seeds from cotton. The word gin is short for engine, the cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with hooks that pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fit through the mesh and fell outside, a single cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds of cleaned cotton daily. Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on March 14,1794, Whitney and his partner, did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of grist and sawmills, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of the value, resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable
10.
Homer
Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C.
Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated.
The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
11.
Sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies.
The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple.
Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
12.
Jonathan Edwards (theologian)
Jonathan Edwards was a revivalist preacher and Congregationalist Protestant theologian. Like most of the Puritans, he held to the Reformed theology and his colonial followers distinguished themselves from other Congregationalists as New Lights, as opposed to Old Lights. Edwards is widely regarded as one of Americas most important and original philosophical theologians, Edwards theological work is broad in scope, but he was rooted in Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his lifes work on conceptions of beauty and ethical fittingness, Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening, and oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733–35 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards delivered the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey. He was the grandfather of Aaron Burr, third Vice President of the United States, Jonathan Edwards was born on October 5,1703 and was the son of Timothy Edwards, a minister at East Windsor, who eked out his salary by tutoring boys for college.
His mother, Esther Stoddard, daughter of the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, seems to have been a woman of unusual mental gifts, their only son, was the fifth of 11 children. He entered Yale College in 1716, at just under the age of 13, in the following year, he became acquainted with John Lockes Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which influenced him profoundly. He was interested in history, and as a precocious 11-year-old, observed. Edwards would edit this text to match the genre of scientific literature. Even though he would go on to study theology for two years after his graduation, Edwards continued to be interested in science, Edwards was fascinated by the discoveries of Isaac Newton and other scientists of his age. Before he undertook full-time ministry work in Northampton, he wrote on topics in natural philosophy, including flying spiders, light. While he was worried about the materialism and faith in reason alone of some of his contemporaries, he saw the laws of nature as derived from God and demonstrating his wisdom and care.
In 1722 to 1723, he was for eight months stated supply of a small Presbyterian Church in New York City, the church invited him to remain, but he declined the call. The years 1720 to 1726 are partially recorded in his diary and he now took a great and new joy in taking in the beauties of nature, and delighted in the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon. On February 15,1727, Edwards was ordained minister at Northampton and he was a scholar-pastor, not a visiting pastor, his rule being 13 hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, 17, Sarah was from a storied New England clerical family, her father was James Pierpont, the head founder of Yale College, and her mother was the great-granddaughter of Thomas Hooker. Sarahs spiritual devotion was without peer, and her relationship with God had long proved an inspiration to Edwards and he first remarked on her great piety when she was 13 years old
