Torquato Tasso
The life of Torquato Tasso (1544-1595) can at best be called unfortunate. Born in Sorrento on the eleventh of March to Bernardo Tasso, himself a poet of some esteem and a member of the very minor nobility, Torquato was able to benefit from the education that was available to those of his station. He studied at the court of Duke Guibaldo II delle Rovere of Urbino until 1560, when, at his father's request, he left to study law and philosophy at the University of Padua. It was during this time that Torquato Tasso (Tasso) wrote his first major romantic poem “Rinaldo”, which dealt with the stories of Charlemagne. Tasso's father, upon reading this manuscript relieved Tasso of his legal and philosophical studies so that he might further explore and develop his poetic talents. Thus, Tasso enrolled at the University of Bologna in 1563, and after three years of study, became a courtier of Cardinal Luigi d’Este at Ferrara, under whose patronage, Tasso thrived in what could probably be called the happiest years of his life. Later, he entered into the service of the Cardinal's brother, Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara. It was at this time that Tasso produced his “L'Aminta” and his masterwork about the First Crusade, La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), which was completed between 1559 and 1575. However, it was through this work that Tasso's life and work would no longer be his to control.
While in the process of completing his masterpiece, Tasso sent out portions to his friends and other critics for their evaluations and suggestions. The responses that he received were altogether unfavorable and the work was very harshly criticized, even to the point that some of the clergy dubbed Tasso a heretic for writing it. Tasso, sensitive to this criticism, fell into an unhealthy state of depression and melancholy and was prone to fits of irritability and instability. His condition was made worse by the knowledge that some of the critics who had criticized his work began to publish pieces of it publicly. His condition at one point reached such a state that one night in 1577 Tasso stabbed one of his servants who he believed to be spying on him. After this incident, Tasso was jailed but later escaped and fled to his sister's house in Sorrento.
Faith and Other Flat Tires is the story of Andrea Palpant Dilley’s journey through her religion. Raised in Kenya by Quaker missionary parents, Dilley had assumed her religion was already laid out for her. Her father was a priest, and her mother was a devout Christian. She dressed up as Amy Carmichael, a Christian missionary, for Halloween, stayed involved with her church community, and chose to get baptized herself. After her baptism, Dilley felt spiritually fulfilled. She describes the experience, “In that moment, I felt the blessing of a priest upon me. The feeling of being known and understood. The feeling of belonging to God’s great cosmos” (Dilley 53). However, as Andrea Dilley matures and learns to recognize the problems within the world, she loses sight of her devotion to God.
Zaho’s work like Noel’s, is in a way classical in nature but for a different reason, she interacts heavily with Dante and Boccaccio, but even more so with Petrarch. Zaho traces the classical roots of triumphal imagery and its relation to Petrarch’s Africa. She argues that the revival of the antique triumph was the most significant tool, propagandistic or otherwise, in legitimizing the rules of Italian Renaissance rulers. She looks at Sigismondo Malatesta, Federico de Montefeltro, and the Duke Borso d’Este for her case studies. She lends a key contribution to the field, in that she argues a point perhaps somewhat contradictory to that of Jane Black who takes a far more legal approach to the topic of Renaissance ruler’s justifications for their
This narratives follows the life of Guglielmo Embriaco, the patriarch of a well-respected Genoese family, and his journey to the Holy Land during the First Crusade—where he emerges not only as a fearless leader but also as an innovative engineer, instrumental in the successful but challenging siege of Jerusalem and also the siege of Antioch (Bent, 1881).
Ruskin, John. “Grotesque Renaissance.” The Stones of Venice: The Fall. 1853. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. 112-65. Rpt. in Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1989. 21-2.
It was an early age when Monteverdi’s career began, he then published his first pieces, and this was based on as a collection of three-voice motets, at the age of fifteen. It was by 1591, when he went to Mantua as a musician for the Gonzaga court, by then he had already published books of “spiritual madrigals” in 1583, then another canzonettas in 1584, by 1587 and 1590 he published his first two books of “madrigals.” It was in Mantua he continued writing madrigals, and then in 1607 he produced his first work in the new genre of opera, the setting was of Orfeo. 1613, he was then appointed maestro di cappella at ST. Mark’s Cathedral which was held in Venice. Monteverdi had remained in Venice for the rest of his life, writing music in all different kinds of genres, including his final opera, “incoronaszione di Poppea in 1642.
Voter ID laws in the United States have begun to create controversy since the beginning of its adaptations in the early 2000’s. Voter ID laws in the United States is a law that requires U.S. citizens to have a special form of identification in order to vote in an election. The idea with Voter ID laws is that the state must make sure that the laws do not pose any sort of burden on the voters. These laws have been proposed in order to stop voting fraud. However, the institution of Voter ID laws have made trouble in states, including Texas, regarding to the various amount of identification requirements needed.
The Renaissance has not ceased to be an age of discussion and debate among historians throughout the recent centuries. The vibrant nature of the era marks it as a most fascinating period of history. The Renaissance can be described as an age carrying the essence of “self-discovery and fulfillment, of recognition of human worth, and a dynamic outpouring of artistic activity.” This new world flourishing with art and creative optimism was also steeped in a spirit of “revolt of the Medievalists.” In an effort of “rebirth,” the previous culture of the Middle Ages was rejected, and even scorned. Foundational principles in all fields were overstepped, and old cultural norms were practically obsolete. It was an era whose humanistic philosophy greatly impacted the lens through which man viewed himself and the world.
Titian had many accomplishments in his lifetime. In 1518, Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin was shown at the Church of the Frari in Venice. It was in this composition that Titian seemed suddenly to absorb the achievements of the Roman High Renaissance style. At the time, it was learned that Titan had not traveled much, and therefore assumed that he squired this knowledge of art by visiting artists, studying their drawings and reproductive engravings. During the decades following his appearance in the art life, Titian’s reproductions placed him along with Michelangelo, as the most powerful artist in Europe. He was recognized for his mythical paintings, three of which he created for Alfonso I d’Este of Ferrara, called The Bacchanal of the Andrians, The Worship of Venus, and Baahus and Ariadne. Among his many patrons, the most important were the Spanish Habsburgs. Titian’s fame, wealth, and social position resulted from his patrons and admirers. His major artistic inhibitions included being especially creative with diagonal placing and perspectives, as well as setting up unusual spectator viewpoints. Among his most famous works, rests the picture known as The Gypsy Madonna. This picture ...
Little is known about the details of this humble man's life. The sparse biographical data which has come down through the centuries offers only some landmarks. The following pieces of information provide only a basis for inference: entries in ledgers regarding the payment of sums owed for commissions; the dates at which the edificies for which they were intended such as churches or chapels are known to have been built and the dates at which those who commisioned works took office or died. It would be interesting to have details of his early family life or some of his own writings as are available for many contemporary artists. Some of Vasari's writings about Angelico are somewhat romantic and often quoted by other historians such as one who states that the saints painted by Fra Angelico seemed more saintly than other painters (3). As well, Vasari tells us that Fra Angelico was a simple man, most holy in his habits, most...
In 2011, one of these laws was passed in Texas. As a result, 93-year old Viviette Applewhite was not able to cast her vote in the general elections of 2012, as she had no driver’s license and was adopted as a young child. This woman, who had voted in every election since 1960, is one out of many who have been negatively impacted by the latest forms of strict voter ID laws that have been passed in more than 10 states. Besides causing disenfranchisement, voter id laws create barriers between citizens and the polls. An estimated 21 million people (11% of the population) do not have a driver’s license, and therefore would have no photo ID to “deserve” their right to vote, a right that no American citizen should have to earn. Most affected are the elderly, low income, and minority groups that tend to lean to the Democratic side. It is also detrimental to those living in rural regions far from areas to acquire the necessary documents in obtaining an ID. These people are eligible vot...
In this brief monograph, we shall be hunting down and examining various creatures from the bestiary of Medieval/Renaissance thought. Among these are the fierce lion of imperious, egotistical power, a pair of fantastic peacocks, one of vanity, one of preening social status, and the docile lamb of humility. The lion and the peacocks are of the species known as pride, while the lamb is of an entirely different, in fact antithetical race, that of humility and forgiveness. The textual regions we shall be exploring include the diverse expanses, from palace to heath, of William Shakespeare, the dark, sinister Italy of John Webster, and the perfumed lady's chambers of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick.
The tendencies of Baroque translated differently in parts of Europe. In Italy, it reflected the return of intense piety through dense church ornamentations, complex architecture, and dynamic painting. Calabrese’s work exhibits the combined artistic stimuli of the 17th century and culminates in the acquired Caravagesque style that alters how paintings were composed from then on. Executed at the height of Calabrese’s most creative phase, St. John the Baptist Preaching is indicates the monumentality of change in urbanization as well as the return of Catholic permanence in the 1600’s. Aside from the Baroque power of the artwork, Calabrese’s St. John is a piece worth gravitating to and stands as reminder of the grandiose excesses of Baroque art.
The artists of the Baroque had a remarkably different style than artists of the Renaissance due to their different approach to form, space, and composition. This extreme differentiation in style resulted in a very different treatment of narrative. Perhaps this drastic stylistic difference between the Renaissance and Baroque in their treatment of form, space, and composition and how these characteristics effect the narrative of a painting cannot be seen more than in comparing Perugino’s Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter from the Early Renaissance to Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul from the Baroque.Perugino was one of the greatest masters of the Early Renaissance whose style ischaracterized by the Renaissance ideals of purity, simplicity, and exceptional symmetry of composition. His approach to form in Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to St.Peter was very linear. He outlined all the figures with a black line giving them a sense of stability, permanence, and power in their environment, but restricting the figures’ sense of movement. In fact, the figures seem to not move at all, but rather are merely locked at a specific moment in time by their rigid outline. Perugino’s approach to the figures’themselves is extremely humanistic and classical. He shines light on the figures in a clear, even way, keeping with the rational and uncluttered meaning of the work. His figures are all locked in a contrapposto pose engaging in intellectual conversation with their neighbor, giving a strong sense of classical rationality. The figures are repeated over and over such as this to convey a rational response and to show the viewer clarity. Perugino’s approach to space was also very rational and simple. He organizes space along three simple planes: foreground, middle ground, and background. Christ and Saint Peter occupy the center foreground and solemn choruses of saints and citizens occupy the rest of the foreground. The middle distance is filled with miscellaneous figures, which complement the front group, emphasizing its density and order, by their scattered arrangement. Buildings from the Renaissance and triumphal arches from Roman antiquity occupy the background, reinforcing the overall classical message to the
The renaissance and the reformation were two of the most significant changes in history that has shaped our world today. Both of these great time periods are strikingly similar in some ways and totally different in others. This is because the renaissance was a change from religion to humanism whether it is in art or literature; it is where the individual began to matter. However, the reformation was,” in a nutshell,” a way to reform the church and even more so to form the way our society is today. The first half of this paper will view the drop in faith, the economic powers, and the artistic and literary changes during the renaissance, while the second half will view the progresses and changes the church makes during the reformation.
The story really begins with Napster and its free software that allowed users to swap music across the Internet for free using peer-to-peer networks. While Shawn Fanning was attending Northeastern University in Boston, he wanted an easier method of finding music than by searching IRC or Lycos. John Fanning of Hull, Massachusetts, who is Shawn's uncle, struck an agreement which gave Shawn 30% control of the company, with the rest going to his uncle. Napster began to build an office and executive team in San Mateo, California, in September of 1999. Napster was the first of the massively popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, although it was not fully peer-to-peer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provideddirectories, effectivelywhile actual transactions were conducted directly between machines. Although there were already media which facilitated the sharing of files across the Internet, such as IRC, Hotline, and USENET, Napster specialized exclusively in music in the form of MP3 files and presented a user-friendly interface. The result was a system whose popularity generated an enormous selection of music to download. Napster became the launching pad for the explosive growth of the MP3 format and the proliferation of unlicensed copyrights.