1.
Alfred Jarry
–
Alfred Jarry was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play Ubu Roi. He also coined the term and philosophical concept of pataphysics, Jarry was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, and his mother was from Brittany. He was associated with the Symbolist movement and his play Ubu Roi is often cited as a forerunner of Dada, and to the Surrealist and Futurist movements of the 1920s and 1930. Jarry wrote in a variety of genres and styles, prefiguring the postmodern. He wrote plays, novels, poetry, essays and speculative journalism and his texts present us with pioneering work in the fields of absurdist literature and postmodern philosophy. At the lycée in Rennes when he was 15, he led a group of boys who enjoyed poking fun at their well-meaning, but obese and incompetent physics teacher, a man named Hébert. Jarry and his classmate, Henri Morin, wrote a play they called Les Polonais, the main character, Père Heb, was a blunderer with a huge belly, three teeth, a single, retractable ear and a misshapen body. In Jarrys later work Ubu Roi, Père Heb would develop into Ubu, one of the most monstrous, at 17 Jarry passed his baccalauréat and moved to Paris to prepare for admission to the École Normale Supérieure. Though he was not admitted, he gained attention for his original poems and prose-poems. A collection of his work, Les minutes de sable mémorial, was published in 1893 and that same year, both his parents died, leaving him a small inheritance which he quickly spent. Jarry had meantime discovered the pleasures of alcohol, which he called my sacred herb or, when referring to absinthe, a story is told that he once painted his face green and rode through town on his bicycle in its honour. When he was drafted into the army in 1894, his gift for turning notions upside down defeated attempts to instill military discipline, eventually the army discharged him for medical reasons. His military experience inspired his novel Days and Nights. Jarry returned to Paris and applied himself to writing, drinking, symbolism as an art movement was in full swing at this time, and LYmagier provided a nexus for many of its key contributors. Jarrys play Caesar Antichrist drew on this movement for material and this is a work that bridges the gap between serious symbolic meaning and the type of critical absurdity with which Jarry would soon become associated. The character Ubu Roi first appears in this play, the spring of 1896 saw the publication, in Paul Forts review Le Livre dart, of Jarrys 5-act play Ubu Roi, the rewritten and expanded Les Polonais of his school days. Ubu Rois savage humor and monstrous absurdity, unlike anything thus far performed in French theater, however, impetuous theater director Aurélien-Marie Lugné-Poe took the risk, producing the play at his Théâtre de lŒuvre. On opening night, with traditionalists and the avant-garde in the audience, King Ubu stepped forward and intoned the opening word, Merdre
Alfred Jarry
–
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry
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Alfred Jarry, Deux aspects de la marionnette original d'Ubu Roi, premiered at the Théâtre de l'Œuvre on 10 December 1896
Alfred Jarry
–
Jarry in
Alfortville
2.
Play (theatre)
–
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous, comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups, comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, a generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often overacted and often involve slapstick humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors, a satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogols The Government Inspector, satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely. This is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time, however, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private. It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière’s theories of comedy, the inconsistency between restoration comedy’s morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, however, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance. These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster, often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have extremely dramatic conflicts, tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeares Hamlet, and also John Websters play The Duchess of Malfi and these plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are neither of these. History as a genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schillers Demetrius and William Shakespeares King John, ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called “The Disappointment”, however, around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly
Play (theatre)
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A children's play depicting
The Nativity
3.
W. B. Yeats
–
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others. He was born in Sandymount, Ireland and educated there and in London and he spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display Yeatss debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, from 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, in 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Of Anglo-Irish descent, William Butler Yeats was born at Sandymount in County Dublin and his father, John Butler Yeats, was a descendant of Jervis Yeats, a Williamite soldier, linen merchant, and well-known painter who died in 1712. Benjamin Yeats, Jerviss grandson and Williams great-great-grandfather, had in 1773 married Mary Butler of a family in County Kildare. Following their marriage, they kept the name Butler in the family name, Mary was a descendant of the Butler of Ormond family from the Neigham Gowran branch of the family. They were descendants of the first Earls of Ormond, by his marriage, Williams father John Yeats was studying law but abandoned his studies to study art at Heatherleys Art School in London. His mother, Susan Mary Pollexfen, came from a merchant family in Sligo. Yeats was raised a member of the Protestant Ascendancy, which was at the time undergoing a crisis of identity. In 1997, his biographer R. F. Foster observed that Napoleons dictum that to understand the man you have to know what was happening in the world when he was twenty is manifestly true of W. B. Y. Yeatss childhood and young adulthood were shadowed by the power-shift away from the minority Protestant Ascendancy, the 1880s saw the rise of Charles Stewart Parnell and the home rule movement, the 1890s saw the momentum of nationalism, while the Catholics became prominent around the turn of the century. These developments had an effect on his poetry, and his subsequent explorations of Irish identity had a significant influence on the creation of his countrys biography. In 1867, the moved to England to aid their father, John. At first the Yeats children were educated at home and their mother entertained them with stories and Irish folktales. John provided an education in geography and chemistry, and took William on natural history explorations of the nearby Slough countryside
W. B. Yeats
–
William Butler Yeats photographed in 1903 by
Alice Boughton.
W. B. Yeats
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Balscadden House in
Howth, County Dublin, where Yeats lived in 1880–83
W. B. Yeats
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1900 portrait by
John Butler Yeats
W. B. Yeats
–
Maud Gonne c. 1900
4.
Literary modernism
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Modernists experimented with literary form and expression, adhering to Ezra Pounds maxim to Make it new. This literary movement was driven by a desire to overturn traditional modes of representation. In the 1880s increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, the theories of Sigmund Freud, and Ernst Mach influenced early Modernist literature. Mach argued that the mind had a structure, and that subjective experience was based on the interplay of parts of the mind in The Science of Mechanics. Freuds first major work was Studies on Hysteria, according to Freud, all subjective reality was based on the play of basic drives and instincts, through which the outside world was perceived. As a philosopher of science, Ernst Mach was an influence on logical positivism, and through his criticism of Isaac Newton. Another major precursor of modernism was Friedrich Nietzsche, especially his idea that psychological drives, specifically the will to power, were more important than facts, or things. Henri Bergson, on the hand, emphasized the difference between scientific clock time and the direct, subjective, human experience of time. Also important in Bergsons philosophy was the idea of élan vital, the life force and his philosophy also placed a high value on intuition, though without rejecting the importance of the intellect. These various thinkers were united by a distrust of Victorian positivism, Modernism as a literary movement can be seen also, as a reaction to industrialization, urbanization and new technologies. Initially, some modernists fostered a spirit, stimulated by innovations in anthropology, psychology, philosophy, political theory, physics. This idealism, however, ended, with the outbreak of World War I, many modernist writers also shared a mistrust of institutions of power such as government and religion, and rejected the notion of absolute truths. Modernist works such as T. S. Eliots The Waste Land were increasingly self-aware, introspective, and explored the darker aspects of human nature. The term modernism covers a number of related, and overlapping, artistic and literary movements, including Imagism, Symbolism, Futurism, Vorticism, Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and Dada. They also attempted to take into account changing ideas about reality developed by Darwin, Mach, Freud, Einstein, Nietzsche, Bergson, from this developed innovative literary techniques such as stream-of-consciousness, interior monologue, as well as the use of multiple points-of-view. This can reflect doubts about the basis of realism, or alternatively an expansion of our understanding of what is meant by realism. For example, the use of stream-of-consciousness or interior monologue reflects the need for psychological realism. But modernism was already stirring by 1902, with such as Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, while Alfred Jarrys absurdist play, Ubu Roi appeared even earlier
Literary modernism
–
Modernist literature scholar
David Thorburn saw connections between literary style and impressionist painters such as
Claude Monet. Modernist writers, like Monet's paintings of water lilies, suggested an awareness of art as art, rejected realistic interpretations of the world and dramatized "a drive towards the abstract".
5.
Dada
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Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland at the Cabaret Voltaire, in New York, and after 1920, in Paris. The art of the movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, Dadaist artists expressed their discontent with violence, war, and nationalism, and maintained political affinities with the radical left. Others note that it suggests the first words of a child, evoking a childishness, still others speculate that the word might have been chosen to evoke a similar meaning in any language, reflecting the movements internationalism. The roots of Dada lay in pre-war avant-garde, the term anti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined by Marcel Duchamp around 1913 to characterize works which challenge accepted definitions of art. Cubism and the development of collage and abstract art would inform the movements detachment from the constraints of reality, the work of French poets, Italian Futurists and the German Expressionists would influence Dadas rejection of the tight correlation between words and meaning. Works such as Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, and the ballet Parade by Erik Satie would also be characterized as proto-Dadaist works, the Dada movements principles were first collected in Hugo Balls Dada Manifesto in 1916. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown music movements, Dada was an informal international movement, with participants in Europe and North America. The beginnings of Dada correspond to the outbreak of World War I, avant-garde circles outside France knew of pre-war Parisian developments. Futurism developed in response to the work of various artists, many Dadaists believed that the reason and logic of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war. They expressed their rejection of that ideology in artistic expression that appeared to reject logic and embrace chaos, for example, George Grosz later recalled that his Dadaist art was intended as a protest against this world of mutual destruction. According to Hans Richter Dada was not art, it was anti-art, Dada represented the opposite of everything which art stood for. Where art was concerned with aesthetics, Dada ignored aesthetics. If art was to appeal to sensibilities, Dada was intended to offend, as Hugo Ball expressed it, For us, art is not an end in itself. But it is an opportunity for the perception and criticism of the times we live in. A reviewer from the American Art News stated at the time that Dada philosophy is the sickest, most paralyzing and most destructive thing that has ever originated from the brain of man. Art historians have described Dada as being, in large part, a systematic work of destruction and demoralization. In the end it became nothing but an act of sacrilege, to quote Dona Budds The Language of Art Knowledge, Dada was born out of negative reaction to the horrors of the First World War. This international movement was begun by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, Dada rejected reason and logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition
Dada
–
Cover of the first edition of the publication Dada by
Tristan Tzara;
Zürich, 1917
Dada
–
Francis Picabia, Dame! Illustration for the cover of the periodical Dadaphone, n. 7, Paris, March 1920
Dada
–
Francis Picabia, (left) Le saint des saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans ce portrait, 1 July 1915; (center) Portrait d'une jeune fille americaine dans l'état de nudité, 5 July 1915: (right) J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il s'agit, De Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin, New York, 1915.
Dada
–
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90×144 cm,
Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
6.
Surrealism
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Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream, leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I, the word surrealist was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire and first appeared in the preface to his play Les Mamelles de Tirésias, which was written in 1903 and first performed in 1917. The Dadaists protested with anti-art gatherings, performances, writings and art works, after the war, when they returned to Paris, the Dada activities continued. Meeting the young writer Jacques Vaché, Breton felt that Vaché was the son of writer. He admired the young writers anti-social attitude and disdain for established artistic tradition, later Breton wrote, In literature, I was successively taken with Rimbaud, with Jarry, with Apollinaire, with Nouveau, with Lautréamont, but it is Jacques Vaché to whom I owe the most. Back in Paris, Breton joined in Dada activities and started the literary journal Littérature along with Louis Aragon and they began experimenting with automatic writing—spontaneously writing without censoring their thoughts—and published the writings, as well as accounts of dreams, in the magazine. Breton and Soupault delved deeper into automatism and wrote The Magnetic Fields, continuing to write, they came to believe that automatism was a better tactic for societal change than the Dada form of attack on prevailing values. They also looked to the Marxist dialectic and the work of such theorists as Walter Benjamin, freuds work with free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious was of utmost importance to the Surrealists in developing methods to liberate imagination. They embraced idiosyncrasy, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness, as Salvador Dalí later proclaimed, There is only one difference between a madman and me. Beside the use of analysis, they emphasized that one could combine inside the same frame, elements not normally found together to produce illogical. The more the relationship between the two juxtaposed realities is distant and true, the stronger the image will be−the greater its emotional power, the group aimed to revolutionize human experience, in its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects. They wanted to people from false rationality, and restrictive customs. Breton proclaimed that the aim of Surrealism was long live the social revolution. To this goal, at various times Surrealists aligned with communism and anarchism, in 1924 two Surrealist factions declared their philosophy in two separate Surrealist Manifestos. That same year the Bureau of Surrealist Research was established, leading up to 1924, two rival surrealist groups had formed. Each group claimed to be successors of a revolution launched by Guillaume Apollinaire, the other group, led by Breton, included Louis Aragon, Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Jacques Baron, Jacques-André Boiffard, Jean Carrive, René Crevel and Georges Malkine, among others. Goll and Breton clashed openly, at one point literally fighting, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, in the end, Breton won the battle through tactical and numerical superiority
Surrealism
–
Max Ernst,
The Elephant Celebes (1921),
Tate, London
Surrealism
–
Cover of the first issue of
La Révolution surréaliste, December 1924.
Surrealism
–
Yvan Goll, Surréalisme, Manifeste du surréalisme, Volume 1, Number 1, October 1, 1924, cover by
Robert Delaunay
Surrealism
–
André Masson. Automatic Drawing. 1924. Ink on paper, 23.5 x 20.6 cm.
Museum of Modern Art, New York.
7.
Bourgeoisie
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A legally defined class of the Middle Ages to the end of the Ancien Régime in France, that of inhabitants having the rights of citizenship and political rights in a city. This bourgeoisie destroyed aristocratic privilege and established civic equality after the French monarchy collapsed, the aristocracy crumbled because it refused to reform institutions and financial systems. An affluent and often opulent stratum of the class who stand opposite the proletariat class. In English, bourgeoisie identified a social class oriented to economic materialism and hedonism, hence, since the 19th century, the term bourgeoisie usually is politically and sociologically synonymous with the ruling upper class of a capitalist society. The 18th century saw a partial rehabilitation of bourgeois values in such as the drame bourgeois and bourgeois tragedy. The bourgeoisie emerged as a historical and political phenomenon in the 11th century when the bourgs of Central and this urban expansion was possible thanks to economic concentration due to the appearance of protective self-organisation into guilds. Guilds arose when individual businessmen conflicted with their feudal landlords who demanded greater rents than previously agreed. In English, the bourgeoisie is often used to denote the middle classes. In fact, the French term encompasses both the upper and middle classes, a misunderstanding which has occurred in other languages as well. The bourgeoisie in France and many French-speaking countries consists of four evolving social layers, petite bourgeoisie, moyenne bourgeoisie, grande bourgeoisie, the petite bourgeoisie consists of people who have experienced a brief ascension in social mobility for one or two generations. It usually starts with a trade or craft, and by the second and third generation, the petite bourgeois would belong to the British lower middle class and would be American middle income. They are distinguished mainly by their mentality, and would differentiate themselves from the proletariat or working class and this class would include artisans, small traders, shopkeepers, and small farm owners. They are not employed, but may not be able to afford employees themselves, the moyenne bourgeoisie or middle bourgeoisie contains people who have solid incomes and assets, but not the aura of those who have become established at a higher level. They tend to belong to a family that has been bourgeois for three or more generations, some members of this class may have relatives from similar backgrounds, or may even have aristocratic connections. The moyenne bourgeoisie is the equivalent of the British and American upper-middle classes, the grande bourgeoisie are families that have been bourgeois since the 19th century, or for at least four or five generations. Members of these tend to marry with the aristocracy or make other advantageous marriages. This bourgeoisie family has acquired an established historical and cultural heritage over the decades, the names of these families are generally known in the city where they reside, and their ancestors have often contributed to the regions history. These families are respected and revered and they belong to the upper class, and in the British class system are considered part of the gentry
Bourgeoisie
–
The prototypical bourgeois: Monsieur Jourdain, the protagonist in
Molière 's play
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670).
Bourgeoisie
–
The 16th-century German banker
Jakob Fugger and his principal accountant, M. Schwarz, registering an entry to a ledger. The background shows a file cabinet indicating the European cities where the Fugger Banker conducts business. (1517)
Bourgeoisie
–
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) portrayed the moral, intellectual, and physical decadence of the German upper bourgeoisie in the novel
Buddenbrooks (1926)
8.
Guignol
–
Guignol is the main character in a French puppet show which has come to bear his name. It represents the workers in the industry of France, Europe. -- Laurent Mourguet, Guignols creator, was born into a family of modest silk weavers on March 3,1769, the certificate of his marriage to Jeanne Esterle in 1788 shows he was unable to read. When hard times fell on the trade during the French Revolution, he became a peddler, and in 1797 started to practice dentistry. The service was free, the money was made from the medicines sold afterward to ease the pain, to attract patients, he started setting up a puppet show in front of his dentists chair. In the end, his strategy worked well to his advantage. His first shows featured Polichinelle, a character borrowed from the Italian commedia dellarte who in England would become Punch and he developed characters closer to the daily lives of his Lyon audience, first Gnafron, a wine-loving cobbler, and in 1808 Guignol. Other characters, including Guignols wife Madelon and the gendarme Flageolet soon followed, what remain constant are his poverty, but more importantly his good humor and his sense of justice. The use in French of guignol as an insult meaning buffoon is a misnomer, as Guignol is clever, courageous and generous. Sixteen of Mourguets children and grandchildren continued his tradition, and many of the companies performing today can trace their heritage back to him
Guignol
–
A Guignol show being performed in Paris.
Guignol
–
Guignol de Lyon
9.
William Shakespeare
–
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589
William Shakespeare
–
The
Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed.
National Portrait Gallery, London.
William Shakespeare
–
John Shakespeare's house, believed to be
Shakespeare's birthplace, in
Stratford-upon-Avon.
William Shakespeare
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Shakespeare's coat of arms, as it appears on the rough draft of the application to grant a coat-of-arms to John Shakespeare. It features a spear as a
pun on the family name.
William Shakespeare
–
Shakespeare's funerary monument in Stratford-upon-Avon.
10.
Macbeth
–
Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Of all the plays that Shakespeare wrote during the reign of James I and it was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book, and is his shortest tragedy. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland, consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia, forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness, the events of the tragedy are usually associated with the execution of Henry Garnet for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, over the course of many centuries, the play has attracted some of the most renowned actors to the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comics, the play opens amidst thunder and lightning, and the Three Witches decide that their next meeting shall be with Macbeth. Macbeth, the Kings kinsman, is praised for his bravery, in the following scene, Macbeth and Banquo discuss the weather and their victory. As they wander onto a heath, the Three Witches enter, though Banquo challenges them first, they address Macbeth, hailing him as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and that he shall be King hereafter. Macbeth appears to be stunned to silence, when Banquo asks of his own fortunes, the witches respond paradoxically, saying that he will be less than Macbeth, yet happier, less successful, yet more. He will father a line of kings though he himself will not be one, while the two men wonder at these pronouncements, the witches vanish, and another thane, Ross, arrives and informs Macbeth of his newly bestowed title, Thane of Cawdor. The first prophecy is fulfilled, and Macbeth, previously skeptical. King Duncan welcomes and praises Macbeth and Banquo, and declares that he spend the night at Macbeths castle at Inverness. Macbeth sends a message ahead to his wife, Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth suffers none of her husbands uncertainty and wishes him to murder Duncan in order to obtain kingship. When Macbeth arrives at Inverness, she overrides all of her husbands objections by challenging his manhood and he and Lady Macbeth plan to get Duncans two chamberlains drunk so that they will black out, the next morning they will blame the chamberlains for the murder. They will be defenseless as they remember nothing. While Duncan is asleep, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts and he is so shaken that Lady Macbeth has to take charge
Macbeth
–
Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches for the first time
Macbeth
–
A poster for a
c. 1884 American production of Macbeth, starring Thomas W. Keene. Depicted, anticlockwise from top-left, are: Macbeth and Banquo meet the
witches; just after the murder of
Duncan; Banquo's ghost; Macbeth duels Macduff; and Macbeth.
Macbeth
–
Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856), Macbeth seeing the Ghost of Banquo, 1854
Macbeth
–
Macbeth consulting the Vision of the Armed Head by
Johann Heinrich Füssli
11.
Hamlet
–
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet is called to wreak upon his uncle, Claudius, by the ghost of Hamlets father, Claudius had murdered his own brother and seized the throne, also marrying his deceased brothers widow. It has inspired many other writers—from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Dickens to James Joyce and he almost certainly wrote his version of the title role for his fellow actor, Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeares time. In the 400 years since its inception, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors in each successive century. Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto, the Second Quarto, each version includes lines and entire scenes missing from the others. The plays structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny, the protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his fathers brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlets widow, Gertrude, Hamlets mother, Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighboring Norway, which culminated when King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway, and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbrass infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian kings son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle and they vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. As the court gathers the next day, while King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius, after the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his fathers death and his mothers hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself, as Poloniuss son Laertes prepares to depart for a visit to France, Polonius gives him contradictory advice that culminates in the ironic maxim to thine own self be true. Poloniuss daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, and that night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, telling the prince that he was murdered by Claudius and demanding that Hamlet avenge him. Hamlet agrees and the ghost vanishes, the prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to put an antic disposition on and forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret. Privately, however, he remains uncertain of the ghosts reliability, soon thereafter, Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving crazily. Polonius blames love for Hamlets madness and resolves to inform Claudius, as he enters to do so, the king and queen finish welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the students investigate the cause of Hamlets mood, additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard, messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the King of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his fathers battles. The forces that Fortinbras conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlets behavior, and speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to uncover more information. Hamlet feigns madness but subtly insults Polonius all the while, when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they are spies
Hamlet
–
The American actor
Edwin Booth as
Hamlet, ca. 1870
Hamlet
–
Hamlet mistakenly stabs Polonius (Artist: Coke Smyth, 19th century).
Hamlet
–
The "gravedigger scene" (Artist:
Eugène Delacroix, 1839)
Hamlet
–
A facsimile of
Gesta Danorum by
Saxo Grammaticus, which contains the legend of Amleth
12.
King Lear
–
King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. The Tragedy of King Lear, a more theatrical revision, was included in the 1623 First Folio, Modern editors usually conflate the two, though some insist that each version has its own individual integrity that should be preserved. The tragedy is particularly noted for its probing observations on the nature of human suffering, george Bernard Shaw wrote, No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear. The eldest, Goneril, speaks first, declaring her love for her father in fulsome terms, moved by her flattery Lear proceeds to grant to Goneril her share as soon as she has finished her declaration, before Regan and Cordelia have a chance to speak. He then awards to Regan her share as soon as she has spoken, in his anger he disinherits Cordelia and divides her share between Regan and Goneril. Kent objects to Lears unfair treatment of Cordelia, enraged by Kents protests, Lear then summons the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France, who have both proposed marriage to Cordelia. Learning that Cordelia has been disinherited, the Duke of Burgundy withdraws his suit, the King of France is shocked by Lears decision because up until this time Lear has only praised and favored Cordelia. Meanwhile, Gloucester has introduced his illegitimate son Edmund to Kent, Lear announces he will live alternately with Goneril and Regan, and their husbands. He reserves to himself a retinue of one hundred knights, to be supported by his daughters, Goneril and Regan speak privately, revealing that their declarations of love were fake, and that they view Lear as a foolish old man. Edmund resents his illegitimate status, and plots to dispose of his older brother Edgar. He tricks their father Gloucester with a letter, making him think Edgar plans to usurp the estate. Kent returns from exile in disguise under the name of Caius, Lear and Caius quarrel with Oswald, Gonerils steward. Lear discovers that now that Goneril has power, she no longer respects him and she orders him to behave better and reduces his retinue. Enraged, Lear departs for Regans home, Edmund learns from Curan, a courtier, that there is likely to be war between Albany and Cornwall, and that Regan and Cornwall are to arrive at Gloucesters house that evening. Taking advantage of the arrival of the duke and Regan, Edmund fakes an attack by Edgar and he disinherits Edgar and proclaims him an outlaw. Bearing Lears message to Regan, Caius meets Oswald again at Gloucesters home, quarrels with him again, when Lear arrives, he objects to the mistreatment of his messenger, but Regan is as dismissive of her father as Goneril was. Goneril arrives and supports Regans argument against him, Lear yields completely to his rage. He rushes out into a storm to rant against his ungrateful daughters, Kent later follows to protect him
King Lear
–
"King Lear and the Fool in the Storm" by
William Dyce (1806–1864)
King Lear
–
Cordelia in the Court of King Lear (1873) by
Sir John Gilbert
King Lear
–
A watercolour of King Lear and the Fool in the storm from Act III, Scene ii of King Lear
King Lear
–
King Lear: Cordelia's Farewell by
Edwin Austin Abbey
13.
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.
14.
Richard III (play)
–
Richard III is a historical play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1592. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of King Richard III of England, the play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as such. Occasionally, however, as in the edition, it is termed a tragedy. Richard III concludes Shakespeares first tetralogy and it is the second longest play in the canon after Hamlet, and is the longest of the First Folio, whose version of Hamlet is shorter than its Quarto counterpart. The play is rarely performed unabridged, often, certain characters are removed entirely. In such instances extra lines are often invented or added from elsewhere in the sequence to establish the nature of characters relationships. Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, Richard is an ugly hunchback who is rudely stampd, deformed, unfinishd, and cannot strut before a wanton ambling nymph. He responds to the anguish of his condition with an outcasts credo, Richard now schemes to woo the Lady Anne – Anne Neville, widow of the Lancastrian Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. He confides to the audience, Ill marry Warwicks youngest daughter, what, though I killd her husband and her father. The scene then changes to reveal Lady Anne accompanying the corpse of the late king Henry VI, along with Trestle and Berkeley, on its way to be interred at St Pauls cathedral. She asks them to set down the honourable load – if honour may be shrouded in a hearse, Richard suddenly appears and demands that the unmannerd dog carrying the hearse set it down, at which point a brief verbal wrangling takes place. Despite initially hating him, Anne is won over by his pleas of love and repentance, when she leaves, Richard exults in having won her over despite all he has done to her, and tells the audience that he will discard her once she has served her purpose. The atmosphere at court is poisonous, The established nobles are at odds with the upwardly mobile relatives of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Margaret, Henry VIs widow, returns in defiance of her banishment and warns the squabbling nobles about Richard. Queen Margaret curses Richard and the rest who were present, the nobles, all Yorkists, reflexively unite against this last Lancastrian, and the warning falls on deaf ears. Richard orders two murderers to kill Clarence in the tower, Clarence, meanwhile, relates a dream to his keeper. The dream includes vivid language describing Clarence falling from a ship as a result of Gloucester. Under the water Clarence sees the skeletons of thousands of men that fishes gnawed upon and he also sees wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, inestimable stones, unvalued jewels. All of these are scatterd in the bottom of the sea, Clarence adds that some of the jewels were in the skulls of the dead
Richard III (play)
–
Frontispage of the
First Quarto Richard The Third
Richard III (play)
–
English actor
David Garrick as Richard III just before the battle of
Bosworth Field. His sleep having been haunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered, he wakes to the realisation that he is alone in the world and death is imminent. The painting,
David Garrick as Richard III (1745), by
William Hogarth.
Richard III (play)
–
The first page of Richard III, printed in the Second Folio of 1632
Richard III (play)
–
A scene from Richard III, directed by
Keith Fowler for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival in Williamsburg, site of the first Shakespearean performances in America. (Here Richard is stabbed with a boar spear by the Earl of Richmond.)
15.
Sophocles
–
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were later than those of Aeschylus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place, Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions. Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor and he also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus. Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a member of the rural deme of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become a setting for one of his plays. Sophocles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, Sophocles was born into a wealthy family and was highly educated. Sophocles first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the master of Athenian drama. According to Plutarch, the victory came under unusual circumstances, instead of following the usual custom of choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily, although Plutarch says that this was Sophocles first production, it is now thought that his first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival, in 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean, celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have one of his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles, Cimons rival. In 443/2 he served as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, in 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was given the posthumous epithet Dexion by the Athenians and he was also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners who responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5 BC, as with many famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without pausing to take a breath, another account suggests he choked while eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia, one of his sons, Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights. Several ancient sources mention Sophocles homosexuality or bisexuality, Athenaios reported that Sophocles loved boys like Euripides loved women. The poet Ion of Chios relates an anecdote involving Sophocles seducing a serving boy at a symposium, Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles early career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work towards the end of his life
Sophocles
–
Sophocles
Sophocles
–
A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles
Sophocles
–
Portrait of the
Greek actor Euiaon in Sophocles' Andromeda, c. 430 BC.
Sophocles
–
Naples Museum, Naples, Italy. Statue of Sophocles
16.
French Renaissance
–
The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define the artistic, the French Renaissance traditionally extends from the French invasion of Italy in 1494 during the reign of Charles VIII until the death of Henry IV in 1610. The reigns of Francis I of France and his son Henry II are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance, the word Renaissance is a French word, whose literal translation into English is Rebirth. The word Renaissance was first used and defined by French historian Jules Michelet, in his 1855 work, as a French citizen and historian, Michelet also claimed the Renaissance as a French movement. His work is at the origin of the use of the French word Renaissance in other languages, for a chronological list of French Renaissance artists, see List of French Renaissance artists. In 1516, Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to the Château dAmboise and provided him with the Château du Clos Lucé, then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo, a painter and inventor, arrived with three of his paintings, namely the Mona Lisa, Sainte Anne, and Saint Jean Baptiste. There are a number of French artists of talent in this period including the painter Jean Fouquet of Tours. Marie de Medici, Henry IVs queen, invited the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens to France, another Flemish artist working for the court was Frans Pourbus the younger. Outside France, working for the dukes of Lorraine, one finds a very different late mannerist style in the artists Jacques Bellange, Claude Deruet and Jacques Callot. Having little contact with the French artists of the period, they developed a heightened, extreme, and often erotic mannerism, the old Louvre castle in Paris was also rebuilt under the direction of Pierre Lescot and would become the core of a brand new Renaissance château. To the west of the Louvre, Catherine de Medici had built for her the Tuileries palace with extensive gardens and they became an extension of the chateaux that they surrounded, and were designed to illustrate the Renaissance ideals of measure and proportion. Burgundy, the mostly French-speaking area unified with the Kingdom of France in 1477, was the center of Europe in the early. The Burgundian style gave birth to the Franco-Flemish style of polyphony which dominated European music in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, by the end of the 15th century, a French national character was becoming distinct in music of the French royal and aristocratic courts, guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois are two notable examples from the Burgundian school during the early Renaissance period. The most renowned composer in Europe, Josquin des Prez, worked for a time in the court of Louis XII, Francis I, who became king that year, made the creation of an opulent musical establishment a priority. By far the most significant contribution of France to music in the Renaissance period was the chanson, the chanson in the early 16th century was characterised by a dactylic opening and contrapuntal style which was later adopted by the Italian canzona, the predecessor of the sonata. Typically chansons were for three or four voices, without accompaniment, but the most popular examples were inevitably made into instrumental versions as well
French Renaissance
–
Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels,
Melun Diptych by
Jean Fouquet, c.1450.
French Renaissance
–
Château de Chambord (1519–1547).
French Renaissance
–
Renaissance
French Renaissance
–
Francis I of France, by
Jean and
François Clouet (c.1535, oil on panel) (Louvre).
17.
Gargantua and Pantagruel
–
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, which tells of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The text is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, and features much crudity, scatological humor, according to Rabelais, the philosophy of his giant Pantagruel, Pantagruelism, is rooted in a certain gaiety of mind pickled in the scorn of fortuitous things. Rabelais had studied Ancient Greek and he applied it in inventing hundreds of new words in the text, wordplay and risqué humor abound in his writing. Although different editions divide the work into a number of tomes. The original title of the work was Pantagruel roy des dipsodes restitué à son naturel avec ses faictz et prouesses espoventables, Pantagruel was a sequel to an anonymous book entitled The Great Chronicles of the Great and Enormous Giant Gargantua. This early Gargantua text enjoyed great popularity, despite its poor construction. At the beginning of book, Gargantuas wife dies giving birth to Pantagruel. Rabelais gives a catalog of his reading, mostly humorously-titled books, together with a group of friends, they intoxicate an army of invading giants, burn their camp, and drown survivors in urine. Epistemon, decapitated in the fray, recovers when Panurge sews his head back to his body and he reports that souls in hell are poorly paid and work bad jobs, but thats the extent of their torments. Another battle is missed by the narrator, who is exploring the civilization in Pantagruels mouth at the time, after the success of Pantagruel, Rabelais revisited and revised his source material. He produced a narrative of the life and acts of Pantagruels father in The Very Horrific Life of Great Gargantua, Father of Pantagruel. This volume begins with the birth of Gargantua after an 11-month pregnancy. The labor is so difficult, his mother threatens to castrate his father, the giant Gargantua emerges at his mothers left ear, calling for ale, while 17,913 cows were required for the provision of his daily milk. His first garment featured a codpiece whose exiture, outjecting or outstanding, was of the length of a yard, its contents providing so much delight that his three nurses squabble over claims to it. After some indifferent education at home, he is sent to Paris where the crowds so annoy him that he drowns thousands of them in a flood of urine. He steals the bells of St. Anthony, but gives them back after a sophist makes ludicrously self-centered appeals for their return, while he studies diligently in Paris, the neighboring Lord Picrocholes bakers are insulted and attacked by Grandgousiers shepards. A massive retaliatory strike against Grandgousiers lands is finally halted at Seville by the merciless Friar John, Grandgousier sues for peace, but Picrochole arrogantly rebuffs him. Gargantua and Friar John rally the troops and they win a battle, drive Picrochole back to his city
Gargantua and Pantagruel
–
Illustration by
Gustave Doré, 1873
Gargantua and Pantagruel
–
Gargantua and "Pilgrims eaten in salads," illustration
Gustave Doré, 1873.
Gargantua and Pantagruel
–
An example of the giants' shift in body size, above where people are the size of Pantagruel's foot, and below where Gargantua is hardly twice the height of a human.
Gargantua and Pantagruel
18.
Turkey
–
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
Turkey
–
Some
henges at
Göbekli Tepe were erected as far back as 12,000 BC, predating those of
Stonehenge,
England by almost ten millennia.
Turkey
–
Flag
Turkey
–
The Lion Gate in
Hattusa, capital of the
Hittite Empire. The city's history dates back to the 6th millennium BC.
Turkey
–
The
Library of Celsus in
Ephesus was built by the
Romans in 135 AD. The
Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, built by king
Croesus of
Lydia in the 6th century BC, was one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
19.
Galley
–
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used in favorable winds, but human strength was always the primary method of propulsion. This allowed galleys to navigate independently of winds and currents, Galleys were the warships used by the early Mediterranean naval powers, including the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans. They remained the dominant types of vessels used for war and piracy in the Mediterranean Sea until the last decades of the 16th century and they were the first ships to effectively use heavy cannons as anti-ship weapons. As highly efficient gun platforms they forced changes in the design of medieval seaside fortresses as well as refinement of sailing warships. The zenith of galley usage in warfare came in the late 16th century with battles like that at Lepanto in 1571, by the 17th century, however, sailing ships and hybrid ships like the xebec displaced galleys in naval warfare. From the mid-16th century galleys were in intermittent use in the Baltic Sea, with its short distances, there was a minor revival of galley warfare in the 18th century in the wars between Russia, Sweden and Denmark. The term galley derives from the medieval Greek galea, a version of the dromon. The origin of the Greek word is unclear but could possibly be related to galeos, the word galley has been attested in English from c. It was only from the 16th century that a unified galley concept came in use, before that, particularly in antiquity, there was a wide variety of terms used for different types of galleys. Ancient galleys were named according to the number of oars, the number of banks of oars or lines of rowers, the terms are based on contemporary language use combined with more recent compounds of Greek and Latin words. The earliest Greek single-banked galleys are called triaconters and penteconters, for later galleys with more than one row of oars, the terminology is based on Latin numerals with the suffix -reme from rēmus, oar. A monoreme has one bank of oars, a two and a trireme three. Since the maximum banks of oars was three, any expansion above that did not refer to additional banks of oars, but of additional rowers for every oar. Quinquereme was literally a five-oar, but actually meant that there were several rowers to certain banks of oars which made up five lines of oar handlers, for simplicity, they have by many modern scholars been referred to as fives, sixes, eights, elevens, etc. Anything above six or seven rows of rowers was not common, any galley with more than three or four lines of rowers is often referred to as a polyreme. Oared military vessels built on the British Isles in the 11th to 13th centuries were based on Scandinavian designs, many of them were similar to birlinns, close relatives of longship types like the snekkja. By the 14th century, they were replaced with balingers in southern Britain while longship-type Irish galleys remained in use throughout the Middle Ages in northern Britain, Medieval and early modern galleys used a different terminology than their ancient predecessors
Galley
–
A model of a Maltese design typical of the 16th century, the last great era of the war galley
Galley
–
The English-built
Charles Galley, a "galley frigate" built in the 1670s. It was not a "true" galley, but the term still became part of its name due to its oars.
Galley
–
Watercolor of United States ships at the
battle of Valcour Island, depicting several "
row galleys "; similar function, but based on very different designs than Mediterranean galleys.
Galley
–
Assyrian warship, a
bireme with pointed bow. 700 BC
20.
Norway
–
The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
Norway
–
The
helmet found at Gjermundbu near
Haugsbygd,
Buskerud, is the only
Viking Age helmet that has been found.
Norway
–
Flag
Norway
–
The
Gokstad ship at the
Viking Ship Museum in
Oslo, Norway
Norway
–
The
Battle of the Sound between an allied Dano-Norwegian–
Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy, 8 November 1658 (29 October
O.S.)
21.
Poland
–
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
Poland
–
Reconstruction of a
Bronze Age,
Lusatian culture settlement in
Biskupin, c. 700 BC
Poland
–
Flag
Poland
–
Earliest known contemporary depiction of a Polish ruler; King
Mieszko II Lambert of Poland being presented with a
Liturgical book by
Matilda of Swabia, 1025–1031
Poland
–
Drawing of the
Battle of Grunwald, which was fought against the
German Order of Teutonic Knights, 15 July 1410
22.
Paul Verlaine
–
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international, born in Metz, Verlaine was educated at the Lycée Impérial Bonaparte in Paris and then took up a post in the civil service. He began writing poetry at an age, and was initially influenced by the Parnassien movement and its leader. Verlaines first published poem was published in 1863 in La Revue du progrès, Verlaines first published collection, Poèmes saturniens, though adversely commented upon by Sainte-Beuve, established him as a poet of promise and originality. Verlaines private life spills over into his work, beginning with his love for Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville, Mathilde became Verlaines wife in 1870. At the proclamation of the Third Republic in the year, Verlaine joined the 160th battalion of the Garde nationale. He became head of the bureau of the Central Committee of the Paris Commune. Verlaine escaped the deadly street fighting known as the Bloody Week, or Semaine Sanglante, Verlaine returned to Paris in August 1871, and, in September, he received the first letter from Arthur Rimbaud. By 1872, he had lost interest in Mathilde, and effectively abandoned her and their son, Rimbaud and Verlaines stormy affair took them to London in 1872. In Brussels in July 1873 in a drunken, jealous rage, romances sans paroles was published while Verlaine was imprisoned. From there he went to teach in Boston, before moving to Bournemouth, while in England he produced another successful collection, Sagesse. He returned to France in 1877 and, while teaching English at a school in Rethel, fell in love one of his pupils, Lucien Létinois. Verlaine was devastated when Létinois died of typhus in 1883, Verlaines last years saw his descent into drug addiction, alcoholism, and poverty. He lived in slums and public hospitals, and spent his days drinking absinthe in Paris cafes and his poetry was admired and recognized as ground-breaking, and served as a source of inspiration to composers. Gabriel Fauré composed many mélodies, such as the song cycles Cinq mélodies de Venise and La bonne chanson, claude Debussy set to music Clair de lune and six of the Fêtes galantes poems, forming part of the mélodie collection known as the Recueil Vasnier. Reynaldo Hahn set several of Verlaines poems as did the Belgian-British composer Poldowski and his drug dependence and alcoholism caught up with him and took a toll on his life. Paul Verlaine died in Paris at the age of 51 on 8 January 1896, much of the French poetry produced during the fin de siècle was characterized as decadent for its lurid content or moral vision. But with the publication of Jean Moréas Symbolist Manifesto in 1886, along with Verlaine, Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Paul Valéry, Albert Samain and many others began to be referred to as Symbolists
Paul Verlaine
–
The House of Verlaine, Verlaine's birthplace in
Metz, today a museum dedicated to the poet's life and artworks
Paul Verlaine
–
Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
–
Plaque in
Brussels
Paul Verlaine
–
Paul Verlaine during his career
23.
Gustave Moreau
–
Gustave Moreau was a major figure in French Symbolist painting whose main emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. As a painter, Moreau appealed to the imaginations of some Symbolist writers and he is recognized for his works that are influenced by the Italian Renaissance and exoticism. His art work was preserved in Paris at the Musée Gustave Moreau and he was born in Paris, France, at 6 Rue des Saints-Peres. He came from a middle class family and his father, Louis Jean Marie Moreau, was an architect for the city of Paris and his mother, nee Adele Pauline Desmoutier, was an accomplished musician. Gustave Moreau lived a sheltered life growing up, having visited Italy at age 15 he began his love for art. At age 18 he was to art at Ecole des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of François-Édouard Picot. He then began to study art under his new mentor Théodore Chassériau, Moreau participated in the Salon for the first time in 1852. Moreau had a 25-year personal, possibly romantic relationship, with Adelaide-Alexandrine Dureux and his first painting was a Pietà which is now located in the cathedral at Angoulême. He showed A Scene from the Song of Songs and The Death of Darius in the Salon of 1853, in 1853, he contributed Athenians with the Minotaur and Moses Putting Off his Sandals within Sight of the Promised Land to the Great Exhibition. Oedipus and the Sphinx, one of his first symbolist paintings, was exhibited at the Salon of 1864, Moreau quickly gained a reputation for eccentricity. One commentator said Moreaus work was like a pastiche of Mantegna created by a German student who relaxes from his painting by reading Schopenhauer, the painting currently resides in the permanent collection at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. On March 28,1890, Alexandrine Dureux died and her death affected Moreau greatly, and his work after this point contained a more melancholic edge. She was buried at the cemetery that Moreau himself would be laid to rest. Moreau became a professor at Paris École des Beaux-Arts in October 1891, among his many students were fauvist painters Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault. Jules Flandrin, Theodor Pallady and Léon Printemps also studied with Moreau, Moreau died of stomach cancer and was buried at the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris in his parents tomb. During his lifetime, Moreau produced more than 8,000 paintings, watercolors and drawings, the museum is in his former workshop, and began operation in 1903. André Breton famously used to haunt the museum and regarded Moreau as a precursor of Surrealism and his work influenced the next generation of Symbolists, particularly Odilon Redon and Jean Delville, a leading figure in Belgian Symbolism in the early part of the twentieth century. The death of Chasseriau in 1856 caused Moreau to enter a state of gloominess and he stopped painting and withdrew himself from the public
Gustave Moreau
–
Self-portrait of Gustave Moreau, 1850
Gustave Moreau
–
Oedipus and the Sphinx (1864)
Gustave Moreau
–
Jason and Medea, (1865)
Gustave Moreau
–
Orpheus (1865)
24.
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes was a French painter best known for his mural painting, who came to be known as the painter for France. He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Puvis de Chavannes was a prominent painter in the early Third Republic. Émile Zola described his work as an art made of reason, passion, Puvis de Chavannes was born Pierre-Cécile Puvis in a suburb of Lyon, France. He was the son of a mining engineer, being descended from an old noble family of Burgundy, he later added the ancestral de Chavannes to his name. Throughout his life, however, he spurned his Lyon origins, preferring to identify himself with the blood of the Burgundians. Puvis de Chavannes was educated at the Amiens College and at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris and he intended to follow his fathers profession until a serious illness compelled him to convalesce at Mâcon with his brother and sister-in-law in 1844 and 1845, interrupting his studies. A journey to Italy opened his mind to fresh ideas, and he studied first under Eugène Delacroix, but only very briefly, as Delacroix closed his studio shortly afterwards due to ill health. He studied subsequently under Henri Scheffer and then Thomas Couture and his training was not classical as he found that he preferred to work alone. He took a studio near the Gare de Lyon and attended anatomy classes at the Académie des Beaux Arts. It was not until a number of later, when the government of France acquired one of his works. Puvis de Chavannes made his Salon debut in 1850 with Dead Christ, Negro Boy, The Reading Lesson, and Portrait of a Man. In Montmartre, he had an affair with one of his models, Suzanne Valadon, who would one of the leading artists of the day as well as the mother, teacher. One of his protégés was Georges de Feure, Puvis de Chavannes is best known for his mural painting, and came to be known as the painter for France. His first commission was for his brothers chateau, Le Brouchy, the principal decorations take the four seasons as their theme. His first public commissions came early in the 1860s, with work at the Musée de Picardie at Amiens, the first four works were Concordia, Bellum, Le Travail and Le Repos. Over the course of his career, Puvis received a number of commissions for works to be carried out in public. His early work at the Musée de Picardie had helped him to develop his style. Among his public works are the later cycles completed at Amiens, at Marseille, at Lyon, of particular importance is the cycle at the Palais de Beaux Arts in Lyon, which includes three significant works, filling the wall space in the main staircase
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, c. 1880, after a negative by
Étienne Carjat
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
The Wine Press, 1865,
The Phillips Collection
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
Young Girls by the Seaside (1887)
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes
–
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes - Fantasy,
Ohara Museum of Art
25.
Charles Conder
–
Charles Edward Conder was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, Conder was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, the second son, of six children, of James Conder, civil engineer and Mary Ann Ayres. He left school at 15, and his religious, non-artistic father, against Charless natural artistic inclinations. In 1884, at the age of 16, he was sent to Sydney, Australia, where he worked for his uncle, however he disliked the work, much preferring to draw the landscape rather than survey it. In 1886, he left the job and became an artist for the Illustrated Sydney News and he also attended the painting classes of Alfred James Daplyn and had joined the Art Society of New South Wales. In 1888, Conder moved to Melbourne where he met other Australian artists including Arthur Streeton, and shared a studio with Tom Roberts, whom he had previously met in Sydney. Short of cash, the attractive Conder apparently paid off his landlady by sexual means, catching syphilis in the process, during his two years in Melbourne, Conder worked with the other members of the school and produced a number of famous works, including Under The Southern Sun. This painting clearly shows the burning sunlight and desolation that can be inflicted by an Australian drought, in 1890, He moved to Paris and studied at the Académie Julian, where he befriended severl avant-garde artists. In Sydney and later Melbourne Conder associated with G. P. Nerli, an itinerant Italian painter, the extent of the influence has been debated, but the fact of it is undeniable. Like Conder, Nerli was a bon-vivant whose appreciation of the dam fine Melbourne girls survives in a letter to a mutual friend, regarded as his greatest Sydney painting, Departure of the Orient – Circular Quay was the culmination of Conder’s new mastery of form and brushwork. Following successful sale of this work to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Conder departed for Melbourne in October 1888 to join Roberts, Conder was a fun-loving man who painted with an often humorous touch. The man and woman at the front of the face away from each other, yet possibly are interested in each other. The mood is one of simple elegance and with a relaxed feel, the composition of the painting has possibly been borrowed from a work by Whistler in which a bridge similarly transects the picture. Conder among other such as Frederick McCubbin had been directly or indirectly influenced by Whistler. Conder left Australia in 1890, and spent the rest of his life in Europe, mainly England and his art was better received in England than in Paris. In 1892, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painted his portrait, this sketch is owned by the Aberdeen Art Gallery and his friends remembered him as a sick man, unable to face reality. In spite of drunken spells and disreputable company, Condors powers as an artist were then at their height and he met Aubrey Beardsley in Dieppe, but they did not like each other. He continued to paint, but his output was affected by the continual poor health, including paralysis
Charles Conder
–
Charles Edward Conder.
Charles Conder
–
A holiday at Mentone, c. 1888 (This painting featured on a 1984 Australian postage stamp)
Charles Conder
–
La Morte Amoureuse (1910, watercolour on silk)
Charles Conder
–
An Early Taste for Literature
26.
Czech language
–
Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. It is spoken by over 10 million people and is the language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of being intelligible to a very high degree. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the written standard was codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main vernacular, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, the Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are mostly also counted as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak. The Czech phoneme inventory is moderate in size, comprising five vowels, words may contain uncommon consonant clusters, including one consonant represented by the grapheme ř, or lack vowels altogether. Czech orthography is simple, and has used as a model by phonologists. Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and this branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech, the West Slavic languages are spoken in an area classified as part of Central Europe. Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bohemian language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the early 14th century, the first complete Bible translation also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were produced outside the university as well, literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century, the publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries. In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620 and this emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, the modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. Changes include the shift of í to ej and é to í and the merging of í
Czech language
–
The
Bible of Kralice was the first complete
translation of the Bible into the Czech language. Its six volumes were first published between 1579 and 1593.
Czech language
–
regions where Czech is the language of the majority
Czech language
–
Jan Hus
Czech language
–
Josef Dobrovský, whose writing played a key role in reviving Czech as a written language
27.
Jan Werich
–
Jan Werich was a Czech actor, playwright and writer. Between 1916 and 1924, Werich attended reálné gymnasium in Křemencová Street in Prague. He studied law at the Charles University Law School from 1924 to 1927, from which he made a departure to begin his artistic career. His collaboration with Jiří Voskovec and Jaroslav Ježek lasted for more than 10 years and their partnership was a platform for their numerous left-wing political satires. The trios work took inspiration from Dada, with its love of the absurd, a reaction against bourgeois values, Werich returned to his homeland five years later, and started a partnership with Miroslav Horníček. He also worked with famous puppeteer Jiří Trnka to write fairy tales. With his new partner Miroslav Horníček at his side, he re-staged many of the plays he had created with Voskovec in the 1930s but set them in the political content specific to the time. Jan Werich appeared in films as Byl jednou jeden král, which was released in 1955. The 1960s were a peak in Werichs career, from the creation of the ABC Theatre he moved to the City Theatres of Prague and then to the Musical Theatre of Karlin and Nusle. Werich was originally cast by producer Harry Saltzman to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Upon his arrival at the Pinewood set, both producer Albert R. Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert felt that he was a choice, resembling a poor. Nonetheless, in an attempt to make the work, Gilbert continued filming. After several days, both Gilbert and Broccoli determined that Werich was not menacing enough, and recast Blofeld with Donald Pleasence in the role, Jan Werich signed the pro-reform manifesto 2000 Words in 1968. After the Soviet invasion of 1968, he and his wife fled to Vienna along with many other Czechs at the time. After long deliberations he realized he had to go back, saying that his home was his castle and he returned to Czechoslovakia in early 1969. Werich met with Voskovec for the very last time in Vienna and he had limited opportunities to perform in public until his death in 1980. His last public appearance was in Pragues Lucerna in 1977, Werich died on 31 October 1980 at the age of 75. There were not enough however and so it was renamed and other stories were added - some of them has been previously published and some are originals, from manuscripts
Jan Werich
–
Jan Werich
Jan Werich
–
Werich's screentest as Blofeld.
Jan Werich
–
Tombstone of Voskovec and Werich at Olšany Cemetery in Prague
28.
Czechoslovakia
–
From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
Czechoslovakia
–
Czechoslovak troops in Vladivostok (1918)
Czechoslovakia
–
Flag since 1920
Czechoslovakia
–
The car in which Reinhard Heydrich was killed
Czechoslovakia
–
Spartakiad in 1960
29.
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
–
Approximately 250,000 Warsaw pact troops attacked Czechoslovakia that night, with Romania and Albania refusing to participate. Although East German forces were prepared to participate in the invasion as well,108 Czechoslovakian civilians were killed and around 500 wounded in the invasion. The invasion successfully stopped Alexander Dubčeks Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authority of the authoritarian wing within the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the foreign policy of the Soviet Union during this era was known as the Brezhnev Doctrine. The process of de-Stalinization in Czechoslovakia had begun under Antonín Novotný in the late 1950s and early 1960s, following the lead of Nikita Khrushchev, Novotný proclaimed the completion of socialism, and the new constitution, accordingly, adopted the name Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. In the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia underwent an economic downturn, the Soviet model of industrialization applied poorly to Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was already quite industrialized before World War II and the Soviet model mainly took into account less developed economies, novotnýs attempt at restructuring the economy, the 1965 New Economic Model, spurred increased demand for political reform as well. A few months later, at a party meeting, it was decided that actions against the writers who openly expressed support of reformation would be taken. Since only a part of the union held these beliefs. The Prague Spring was a period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. The Prague Spring reforms were an attempt by Dubček to grant additional rights to the citizens of Czechoslovakia in an act of partial decentralization of the economy. The freedoms granted included a loosening of restrictions on the media, speech, a large wave of emigration swept the nation. A spirited non-violent resistance was mounted throughout the country, involving attempted fraternization, painting over and turning street signs, defiance of various curfews, etc. While the Soviet military had predicted that it would take four days to subdue the country the resistance held out for eight months, there were sporadic acts of violence and several suicides by self-immolation, but there was no military resistance. Czechoslovakia remained controlled until 1989, when the revolution ended pro-Soviet rule peacefully, undoubtedly drawing upon the successes of the non-violent resistance twenty years earlier. Gustáv Husák, who replaced Dubček and also president, reversed almost all of Dubčeks reforms. The Prague Spring inspired music and literature such as the work of Václav Havel, Karel Husa, Karel Kryl, the first such fear was that Czechoslovakia would defect from the bloc, injuring the Soviet Unions position in a possible war with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Not only would the loss result in a lack of depth for the USSR. Czechoslovak leaders had no intention of leaving the Warsaw Pact, other fears included the spread of liberalization and unrest elsewhere in Eastern Europe
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
–
©Ladislav Bielik,Šafárikovo námestie, Bratislava: Emil Gallo baring his chest in a gesture of defiance
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
–
Barricades and Soviet tanks on fire.
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
–
A Prague resident tries to talk with a Soviet soldier.
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia
–
Soviet soldier with a tank shell - possibly having brought it out of a burning tank.
30.
Jan Lenica
–
Jan Lenica was a Polish graphic designer and cartoonist. A graduate of the Architecture Department of Warsaw Polytechnic, Lenica became a poster illustrator, from 1963 -1986 he lived and worked in France, while from 1987 he lived and worked in Berlin. He was a professor of graphic, poster, animated cartoon for many years at German high schools and he used cut-out stop motion animation in his numerous films, which included two features, Adam 2 and Ubu et la grande gidouille
Jan Lenica
–
German Poststamp designed by Jan Lenica
