Tag Archives: art/architecture/design

The School of Athens

Posted on July 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

“One of four frescoes by Raphael (1483-1520) painted c. 1509 in the Stanza della Segnatura, a room in the papal apartments in the Vatican. The work was commissioned by Pope Julius II, who also commissioned Donato Bramante to design the new St. Peter’s and Michelangelo to design his tomb and (against his will) to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura are intended to demonstrate how neoplatonist philosophy justifies the power of the Roman Catholic Church. The School of Athens depicts Plato and Aristotle and a host of other philosophers, both ancient and modern, in a calm and balanced composition. The classical architectural setting–reminiscent of the new St. Peter’s–was painted from designs by Bramante, who himself acted as the model for the mathematician Euclid in the painting. Raphael’s portrait of his patron, Pope Julius, is in the National Gallery, London.

‘It took a soul as beautiful as his, in a body as beautiful as his, to experience and rediscover the true character of ancients in modern times.'”

Johann J. Winckelmann: on Raphael, in Thoughts on the Imitiation of Greek Art in Painting and Sculpture (1755)

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Fresco

Posted on July 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Called ‘buon fresco’ or ‘true fresco,’ the technique of painting on moist lime plaster with water-based pigments.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Optical Mixing

Posted on July 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

“The involuntary mixing of juxtaposed colors by the eye and brain. Thus, at a certain distance, juxtaposed dabs of red and yellow pigment produce the sensation of orange. The colors seen by optical mixing appear clearer and more brilliant than those obtained by mixing colors on a palette.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Aegean Art

Posted on July 7, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Collective term for the art of a variety of ancient cultures (ca. 2800 B.C. to ca. 1400 B.C.) on the islands and along the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The most important were Cycladic, Minoan (on the island of Crete), and Mycenaean (on the coast of mainland Greece).”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Cornice (n)

Posted on June 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Any ornamental molding that completes the part to which it is attached. A cornice is a common architectural member on facades, but applies to a molding at the junction of a wall and ceiling as well. In classical architecture, it is the crowning molding of an entablature.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Adobe (n)

Posted on June 24, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Sun-dried mud (usually clay) and straw bricks used for building construction. Used since pre-Roman times in Sumerian and Babylonian Architecture. adobe has been employed throughout the non-European world, including the U.S. Southwest, and in some European buildings.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Martha Graham (1894-1991)

Posted on March 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“U.S. dancer, teacher, choreographer, and foremost exponent of modern dance. Born in Pittsburgh, she trained from 1916 under Ted Shawn at the Denishawn school. She left in 1923 for New York, where she founded her own school in 1927 and a performing company in in 1929. She choreographed over 160 works, creating unique “dance plays” and using a variety of themes to express emotion and conflict. Many are based on American themes including Appalachian Spring (1944); other works include Primitive Mysteries (1931), El Penitente (1940), Letter to the World (1940), Cave of the Heart (1946), Clytemnestra (1958), Phaedra (1962), and Frescoes (1978). She collaborated for many years with Louis Horst, her musical director, and Isamu Noguchi, who designed many of her sets. She retired from dancing in 1970 but continued to teach and choreograph. Her technique became the first significant alternative to classical ballet, and her influence extended worldwide through her choreography and her students.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Michelangelo

Posted on October 6, 2017 | 1 comment

A reader wrote in this morning asking if I could post this Intellectual Devotional reading on Michelangelo. I typed this into a Word document so that I could edit and differentiate it for a variety of readers; the document’s header reflects the course in which I primarily use it. Since it is a Word document, you may edit it for your purposes as well. Finally, here again is the reading comprehension worksheet to accompany the reading.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, October 6, 2017, Hispanic Heritage Month 2017 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Diego Velazquez

Posted on October 6, 2017 | Leave a comment

For this, the fourth week of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Mark’s Text Terminal offers this Intellectual Devotional reading on Diego Velazquez. Here is a reading comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Chrys/o

Posted on July 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Unlike other short exercises on word roots I’ve composed, this worksheet on the Greek word root chrys/o may be one of the toughest from which to infer a meaning. It means gold or yellow, but that isn’t as readily apparent from the patterns of language in the definitions as some of the other worksheets of this type you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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