Visual project: compare the greatest works of Leonardo and Michelangelo

Michelangelo's David, Firenze
Originally uploaded by Esmerelda Rose

In this comparison please include images such as

Leonardo
1. Himself
2. Mona Lisa
3. Last Supper
4. Vitruvian Man
5. Map of Imola, Italy
6. Anatomy from the Notebooks
7. Gran Cavallo

Michelangelo
1. Himself
2. Pieta
3. David
4. Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel
5. Dome of St Peter's
6. Moses
7. Sketches

Plus brief identifications.
15 pts.

Painters' basic undercoat: Gesso Italiano

Gesso Italiano
Originally uploaded by abcgail

"Gesso", also known "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso"[2] is a traditional mix of an animal glue binder, usually rabbit-skin glue, chalk, and white pigment, used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels as an absorbent primer coat substrate for painting.

The colour of gesso was usually white or off-white, says Wikipedia.

Its absorbency makes it work with all painting media, including water-based media, different types of tempera, and oil paint. It is also used as a base on three-dimensional surfaces for the application of paint or gold leaf.[3]

Mixing and applying it is an art form in itself since it is usually applied in 10 or more extremely thin layers.

Semester exam guide, Dec, 2011

DSC00713
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Guitars and Camels
1. The oldest known iconographic representation of an instrument displaying the essential features of a guitar is a 3,300 year old stone carving of a ____ bard. a) Hittite b) Chinese c) Aryan d) Persian.
2. The Middle Eastern antecedent of the guitar is the __, an instrument brought to Spain by the conquering Moors, the Islamic peoples of North Africa. a) guitarra b) kithara c) lute d) goombah.
3. The prominent nation whose flag features a long-bladed sword with elaborate hilt and pommel. a) Syria b) India c) Saudi Arabia d) Israel.
4. The Stratocaster, one of pop music's most oft-played instruments, was developed in California by a) Les Paul b) Leo Fender c) Orville Gibson d) CF Martin.
5. In the cultural transference across the Silk Road - from Asia to Europe - we see jewels, fabrics and pottery traveling from China to a middle trading center, __ . a) Persia b) Japan c) Espana d) Italy.
6. Name the keyboard instrument in which the strings are plucked by metal fingers. a) Piano forte b) Cithara c) Harpsichord d) Zither.
7. Vienna (Wien) is a city of coffeehouses and astounding music in the nation of a) Germany b) Switzerland c) Deutschland d) Austria.
8. Early Christian music as chanted in monasteries and churches was named for a pope: a) St Benedict b) St Gregory c) St Ignatius of Loyola d) St John.
9. If the word liturgical indicates religious matters, the word for non-religious matters is a) secular b) terra cotta c) mnemonic d) pontifical.
10. "Every writer should have a built-in, shockproof crap detector." a) Shakespeare b) TS Eliot c) Chaucer d) Ernest Hemingway.
11. The musical instrument commonly associated with ancient Greece is the a) goblet drum b) harp, or lyre c) flute d) fiddle.
12. The Italian port cities of __ and __ were centers for European trade with China, Persia and India. a) Venice, Genoa b) Rome, Naples c) Milan, Bologna d) Florence, Cremona.

Caravaggio and brethren
1. Caravaggio painted in numerous locales, among them Roma and a small
island southeast of Italy: a) Sicily b) Malta c) Corsica d)
Sardinia.
2. Caravaggio was commissioned to paint primarily by (the) __ . a)
Catholic church b) Italian noblemen c) growing Italian middle class
d) Roman senators.
3. Caravaggio's style was notable for its dramatic use of light and
shadow, a technique known as __ (spelling counts).
4. The Normandy invasion undertaken by the Allies in WWII took place
alongside the English Channel in __ France. a) Southwest b)
Northwest c) Mediterranean d) Brittany.
5. Region of France favored by the majority of painters and sculptors:
a) Cote d'Azur b) Bordeaux c) Champagne d) Burgundy.
6. Shutter noise - if minor - due to the internal mirror which must
move for an exposure to take place: a) Rangefinder camera b) Single
lens reflex camera
c) Imax camera.
7. The expensive, prestigious and reliable German camera company
favored by Henri Cartier-Bresson: a) Nikon b) Canon c) Hasselblad
d) Leica.
8. This female from Jewish biblical literature decapitated the
Assyrian commander named Holofernes: a) Judith b) Leah c) Esther
d) Rachel.
9. While working for Leland Stanford in California Eadweard Muybridge
was a pioneer in photography that recorded movement . After their
falling out, Muybridge shot most of his movement studies for the
University of __ . a) California b) Texas c) Pennsylvania d)
Michigan.
10. Boggis, Bunce and Bean: a) Leland Stanford b) Eadweard Muybridge
c) Roald Dahl d) Caravaggio.
11. Escargots à la Bourguignonne: a) Bordeaux b) Burgundy c)
Normandy d) Cote d'Azur.
12. The Decisive Moment: a) Eadweard Muybridge b) Roald Dahl c) Caravaggio
d) Henri Cartier-Bresson.


Jazz quiz
1. First city of jazz: __ __.
2. Second city of Jazz (and of the US in general): __ .
3. Third city to which the fathers of jazz - such as Joe Oliver, Louis
Armstrong and Jellyroll Morton - relocated: __ __ .
4. Movement of impoverished black Americans from the farms of the Deep
South to urban centers of Upper Midwest and Northeast: a) diplomacy b)
dispora c) displacement d) dislocation .
5. Approximate date for the birth of jazz: a) 1800 b) 1850's c)
1900 d) 1920's.
6. Name given to the place in New Orleans where slaves gathered on
Sundays: a) river levees b) Ashanti circle c) Place Congo d) Vieux
Carre.
7. Louisiana term for people of mixed ethnic background, esp. a
mixture of French, Spanish, native American and Afro-Caribbean: __ .
8. Gens de couleur libre was a special ethnic category in NO. It
indicated a person who was African-American, yet not a slave. T / F
9. Another name for the historic French Quarter is Vieux Carre; it
means: a) Spanish Quarter b) Old Quarter c) French District d)
Slave Quarters .
10. A radical change in his instrument's shape was the signature of
bebop jazz artist Dizzy Gilespie. His instrumentwas the ____ .
11. Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and other jazzers offered vocal
improvisation with random vocables and syllables or without words at
all. This is called __ singing.
12. World War I and the Immigration Act of 1924 halted the flow of
European immigrants to the emerging industrial centers of the
Northeast and Midwest, causing shortages of workers in the factories
and openings for immigrating African-Americans. T / F
13. Chronological order of the development of jazz: a) Dixieland,
big band-style swing, bebop, Latin jazz, free jazz b) big band-style
swing, Dixieland, bebop, Latin jazz, free jazz c) bebop, Dixieland,
big band-style swing, Latin jazz, free jazz
14. In jazz the skilled performer will interpret a tune in very
individual ways, never playing the same composition exactly the same
way twice. Thus while jazz may be difficult to define, ______ is
clearly one of its key elements.
a) swing b) improvisation c) syncopation d) concentration.


1. New Orleans
2. Chicago
3. NYC (Harlem is not a city; it is a neighborhood in NYC)
4. diaspora
5. 1900
6. Place Congo, or Congo Square
7. Creole
8. T
9. Old Quarter
10. trumpet
11.scat
12. T
13. Dixieland, swing, bebop, etc
14. improvisation

Jazz musicians with the highest status in this American art form -

1. Jellyroll Morton
2. Joe King Oliver
3. Louis Armstrong
4. Fletcher Henderson
5. Charlie Parker
6. Edward Duke Ellington
7. William Count Basie
8. Benny Goodman
9. Glenn Miller
10. Lionel Hampton
11. Charlie Christian
12. Charlie Bird Parker
13. Dizzy Gillespie
14. Thelonius Monk
15. Miles Davis
16. John Coltrane
17. Charles Mingus
18. Billie Holiday
19. Ella Fitzgerald
20. Nat King Cole
21. Herbie Hancock
22. Wynton Marsalis
23. George Gershwin, classical / jazz
24. Leonard Bernstein, classical / jazz

Another Jazz quiz:
1. He was a Manhattan music man who straddled jazz, pop and Classical music. Most famous for 'West Side Story." a) Leonard Bernstein b) George Gershwin c) Duke Ellington d) Dizzy Gillespie.
2. Bebop sounds from the man with the bent horn: a) Wynton Marsalis b) Louis Armstrong c) Duke Ellington d) Dizzy Gillespie.
3. Approximate date for the birth of jazz: a) 1800 b) 1850's c) 1900 d) 1920's.
4. Name given to the place in New Orleans where slaves danced and sang on Sundays: a) the levee b) Basin St c) Vieux Carre d) Place Congo.
5. Louisiana term for people of mixed ethnic background, esp. a mixture of French, Spanish, native American and Afro-Caribbean: __ .
6. Gens de couleur libre was a special ethnic category in NO. It indicated a person who was African-American, yet not a slave. T / F
7. The primary destination of the Great Migration of Black Americans in the early part of the 20th century: a) upper Midwest b) West coast c) Harlem d) East Coast.
8. At the turn of the century both New Orleans and Shreveport established legal red light districts. Shreveport's was called St Paul's Bottoms. New Orleans was called a) French Quarter b) Vieux Carre' c) Canal St d) Storyville.
9. Referring to the a dynasty of Kings in France: a) Royal St b) Bourbon St c) Rampart St d) Decatur St.
10. Had a well-documented predilection for cannabis sativa: a) John Coltrane b) Miles Davis c) Dizzy Gillespie d) Louis Armstrong.
11. Was a vivid and profuse writer of letters and of an autobiography: a) John Coltrane b) Miles Davis c) Dizzy Gillespie d) Louis Armstrong.
12. Yiddish-based term for art-like work that is non-original, commercial and intended for a mass audience: a) schlock b) kitsch c) kvetch d) chutzpah.
13. Azucar was the Arabic word for a substance that drove the Atlantic slave trade: a) rum b) African peoples c) sugar d) tobacco.


Howl
by Allen Ginsberg

For Carl Solomon

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry
fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the
starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the
supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of
cities contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels
staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Arkan-
sas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes
on the windows of the skull,

the importance of Kerouac and On The Road

Magnet fine arts: Kerouac
Originally uploaded by trudeau
On the Road is a highly-recommended book for the college-bound student
or the adventure-minded person.
- Lower middle class life in the post-war, post-depression era prior
to widespread prosperity.
- A writer and his charismatic buddy criss-cross the US by bus,
hitch-hiking, train and careening, high-speed driving.
- Find an atlas and keep it by your side as you read so that you can
learn the towns and cities of the US.
- Men obsessed with drinking, sex, drugs and boyish freedom
nonetheless bond with each other over philosophical inquiry.
- How men slowly and painfully mature.
- Strong parallels with Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby.
- A celebration of jazz and of brotherhood.
- Published in 1957 the tale catalyzed the alienated and restless
youths already disillusioned by the material prosperity delivered by
success in the American Dream.

1.Kerouac 2.Ginsberg 3.Lear 4.Burroughs 5.Albee 6.Albee 7.Kerouac
8.Carroll 9.Carroll
10.Dylan 11.Albee 12.Kerouac 13.Beatles 14.Kerouac 15.Kerouac
16.Kerouac 17.San Francisco.

Mozart quiz from the award-winning movie Amadeus -

1. Mozart has six children and one wife. Her name: a) Nanerl b) Marie
Antoinette c) Constanza d) Maria Magdalena.
2. Court composer Antonio Salieri makes a dramatic vow to God. Which
virtue does he withhold in the vow? a) charity b) chastity c)
humility. '
3. The Mozarts have a never-ending domestic issue. It is a) infidelity
b) inheritance c) money d) parties.
4. A notable work by Mozart is the __ known as Don Giovanni. a) opera
b) symphony c) chamber work d) piano concerto.
5. As a child Mozart performs for the Pope in Rome. Mozart is a __ .
a) prophecy b) profligate c) philanthropist d) prodigy.
6. Much of Mozart's early career is spent in __, Austria. A very
musical city, it is not the capital. a) Vienna b) Salzburg
c) Brandenburg d) Munich.
7. In a gentile European party in the late 1700's it is distinctly
improper for a lady to allow a view of her a) breasts b) legs c)
tongue.
10. Mozart composed his first symphony at the age of __ . a) 3 b) 7
c) 16 d) 21.
12. The Emperor of Austria has numerous musical advisors from the
nation that is home to the opera and to the violin: a) Germany b)
France c) England d) Italy.
13. Mozart's wife is so stressed by domestic issues that she leaves
home to have a stay in a __ . a) castle b) palace
c) spa d) hospital.
14. Mozart had a puerile and __ sense of humor. a) scatalogical b)
sarcastic c) satirical d) scrotile.
15. Who is Mozart's employer when the movie begins? a) the Pope b)
Archbishop of Salzburg c) Louis XVI d) Henry VIII.
16. In the last part of his career, Mozart makes money independently
of his commissioned work for the Emperor. T / F
17. Emperor Joseph of Austria had a famous sister who was put to death
in 1792. She was a) Marie Antoinette b) Queen Anne
c) Victoria I d) Elizabeth I.
18. One of Mozart's operas is about a bird man named Papagaeno and the
Queen of the Night. It has been called a vaudeville work. a) Requiem
b) The Marriage of Figaro c) The Magic Flute d) Cosi fan Tutte
("Women are like that").
19. In 1787 a young German composer, __, spent several weeks in
Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart. a) Beethoven b) Salieri
c) Tchaikovsky d) Verdi.
20. Mozart died of ill health at age a) 25 b) 35 c) 45 d) 65.

1. chai: Asian term for __ . a) tea b) coffee c) ginger d) wine.
- ciao: Italian for hello or goodbye
2. An American journalist who became a major novelist advised writers
to cultivate a "A built-in, shock-proof crap detector."
a) Scott Fitzgerald b) Allen Ginsberg c) Alvin Ailey d) Ernest Hemingway.
3. Meaning "in the middle of earth" or "between lands:" a) Atlantic
b) Pacific c) Mediterranean d) Caribbean.
4. Austrian city notable for coffee shops for discussion of ideas and
art: a) Berlin b) Vienna c) Munich d) Milan.
5. Capital city of Germany. Bach's home was near this city: a) Berlin
b) Vienna c) Munich d) Milan.


1. Earliest roots of the guitar: a) Persia b) Arabia c) India.
2. The etymology of "guitar" reaches back to a) Persia b) Arabia c) India.
3. The oud, a 4-string lute, was a direct antecedent to the guitar; it was brought to Spain and to Western Europe by people of __ . a) Persia b) Arabia c) India.
4. The Fender Stratocaster was created in the early a) 1940's b) 1950's c) 1960's.
5. Leo Fender, one of the fathers of the electric guitar, lived in a) Los Angeles
b) NYC c) London d) Chicago.
6. Orville Gibson, founder of the company famous for the Les Paul electric guitar, lived in the 1890's and designed a) drums b) mandolins c) acoustic guitars
d) pianos.
7. In the 1930's and 1940's the classic jazz guitar was one made by a) Gibson
b) Fender.


The Leonardo Quiz, Da Vinci 1. Born in Vinci, near the major city of __ .
2. Another word for a person with superior intelligence whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. A Renaissance Man or a _polymath__ .
3. Da Vinci: a geologist? y / n
4. Da Vinci: a dentist? y / n
5. Da Vinci: a student of law? y / n
6. A botanist? y / n
7. Leonardo was said to use empirical methods. Empirical studies are based on a) theory b) observation.
8. He was educated under the notable artist of Firenze, Andrea del __.
9. Da Vinci was a bastard, or illigitimate by birth. y / n
10. He died in: a) Italy b) France c) Germany.
11. Leonardo worked in Milan; he also worked in Naples, Sienna and in Sicily. y / n
12. This subject of this painting was described as enigmatic and monumental, if small in size. It is a) Vitruvian Man b) Mona Lisa c) Last Supper .
13. Painting purchased by the king of France, Francois 1; later owned by Louis XIV and displayed in the Palais de Versailles: _____ . a) Vitruvian Man b) Mona Lisa c) Last Supper .
14. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential Dadaists, created a parody of the Leonardo painting ____ . a) Vitruvian Man b) Mona Lisa c) Last Supper .
15. In Rome he worked for Lorenzo de Medici. y / n
16. In Milan he worked for Ludovico Sforza, il Moro. y / n
17. Both Leonardo and Michelangelo designed domes for the largest churches in Italy. y / n
18. The statue was called the Gran Cavallo. In it he lionized the Sforza family in his presentation of an animal that stood 24 feet high. It was a __ .
19. The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist is a cartoon, or work preparatory to a painting. It was drawn on paper with black and white __ .
20. Leonardo worked as chief military engineer and architect for Cesare Borgia. His most significant work was to create a __ for Borgia.

Wheat fields and a starry night: Vincent Van Gogh
1. Van Gogh's home nation? __ . a) Netherlands b) France c) Deutschland d) Belgium .
2. Father's occupation and Vincent's first vocation? ___ a) Art dealer b) painter c) minister d) farmer.
3. City in which VG realizes that his task in life is to reach the people - esp the common and impoverished people of Europe? a) London b) Amsterdam c) Antwerp d) Paris
4. He returns to the continent to a city in Belgium where he is inspired by Japanese woodcuts and paintings by Rubens. ____, Belgium. a) London b) Amsterdam c) Antwerp d) Paris
5. The most important person in his life. Steady subsidizer and moral support were unconditionally granted. __ . a) wife b) mother c) sister d) brother.
6. His next stop is the city that is the capital of the art world in the nineteenth century. __ . a) London b) Amsterdam c) Antwerp d) Paris.
7. During his time in the big city he lives near his brother. There we see that an important part of his historic record, or documentation of his life, is missing. His __ are the record is his life. a) paintings b) letters c) tattoos d) invoices and bills. 8. There he paints his most famous still lives, some dozen versions of this subject. The object of these paintings? __ a) wheat fields b) starry nights c) flowers d) portraits.
9. In this city he meets one of the leading painters of the day, the enormously creative and virile Paul __ . a) Gaugin b) Cezanne c) Monet d) Degas.
10. VG believes that he should have an artists' commune. It will be a house filled with artistic energy and discussions. To get this, he moves to small city in southern France: __. a) Provence b) Arles c) Versailles d) Marseille.
11. He is bedeviled by several forms of illness, says Wikipedia. Which one is Not listed? a) Depression b) Suicidal tendencies c) Epilepsy d) Schizophrenia.
12. While waiting for his artist companion from Paris in the isolated city mentioned above, he does what? __. a) Visits brothels b) paints the rooms c) purchases books d) Paints landscapes.
13. He subsequently spends some time in a former monastery in the town of St Remy, France. Why? a) Recuperation from mental illness b) recuperation from visiting brothels c) becoming a monk d) recuperation from an ill-fated affair with a resident of a brothel.
14. Characteristics of his painting that have made him so notable: ___ brush strokes. ____ __ __ use of color.
15. He moves near Paris to the care of a doctor specializing in melancholia. What do we call that illness today? ___ a) Epilepsy b) depression c) schizophrenia d) halitosis.
16. Following his period of convalescence he shoots himself. Dead. At what age does this occur? __ a) 37 b) 47 c) 57 d) 77.
17. Simon Schama says VG makes his best paintings during what period of his condition? __. a) deep illness b) between illnesses.
18. In the end he has moved far past the artistic style of the day, which was __ . a) impressionism b) realism c) expressionism d) fauvism.
19. He is thus called the father of expressionism but, even more importantly, he is called the progenitor of what general era of art? __ __ a) contemporary b) radical c) modern d) colorful.

Rembrandt quiz
1. Rembrandt Van Rijn was born and raised in a period in which the Dutch were in financial and cultural ascension. T / F
2. R. became a portraitist and teacher in the city of a) Rotterdam b) Leiden c) the Hague d) Amsterdam.
3. Based on his name we know that R's family resided in an area near the a) Danube R. b) Amstel R. c) Thames R. d) Rhine R.
4. R's success coincided with the Golden Age of the Dutch: a) 1500's b) 1600's c) 1700's d) 1800's.
5. In a life that was marked by personal tragedy in the later years, he lived about __ years. a) 30 b) 40 c) 50 d) 60.
6. Much of his work illustrated stories from the __ . a) Business leaders of Holland b) Shakespeare c) King James Bible d) Lives of leading professionals.
6. The Dutch empire extended to the Caribbean. T / F
7. The Dutch empire comprised a part of __ where diamonds and gold were found in abundance. a) South America b) South Africa c) Middle East d) South Asia.
8. Rembrandt's life would have overlapped in small part with that of a) JS Bach b) Mozart c) Beethoven.
9. Chiaroscuro: a) strong contrasts between light and dark b) portraiture with side lighting c) Portraiture done in classic Italian style.
10. Rembrandt lighting includes a triangle of light on the subject's cheek on the side that is a) lighted b) in shadow c) either side.
11. Also a famous resident of Amsterdam: a) Anne Frank b) Adolph Hitler c) Winston Churchill d) JS Bach.
12. Also a famous resident of Amsterdam: a) Edgar Degas b) Vincent Van Gogh c) Henri Matisse d) Claude Monet.
13. Western Europe's principal waterway, the Rhine, rises in Switzerland and empties into the Nord Zee (North Sea) at a) Rotterdam, the Netherlands b) Brussels, Belgium c) Hamburg, Germany d) Calais, France.
14.Painting of an association of clothing merchants in the garb of militiamen: a) The Anatomy Lesson b) The Jewish Bride c) The Syndics d) The Night Watch.

Mona Lisa: enigma!

Mona Lisa
Originally uploaded by JKleeman

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde, or Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo[1]) is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, says Wikipedia. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519. Property of the French State, it is on permanent display at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a seated woman, Lisa del Giocondo, whose facial expression has been frequently described as enigmatic.[2] The ambiguity of the subject's expression, the monumentality of the composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work.[1] The image is widely recognised, caricatured, and sought out by visitors to the Louvre, and it is considered the most famous painting in the world.

Leonardo took the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited the painter to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise. Most likely through the heirs of Leonardo's assistant Salai,[9] the king bought the painting for 4,000 écus and kept it at Château Fontainebleau, where it remained until given to Louis XIV. Louis XIV moved the painting to the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon I had it moved to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre.

Mona Lisa was not well known until the mid-19th century when artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique.

In Italian, ma donna means my lady. This became madonna, and its contraction mona. Mona is thus a polite form of address, similar to Ma’am, Madam, or my lady in English.

Da Vinci used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Her folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid. Her breast, neck and face glow in the same light that models her hands. The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles.

The painting was among the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape and Da Vinci was one of the first painters to use aerial perspective.[29] The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing are echoed in the undulating imaginary valleys and rivers behind her.

Dance your PhD

Fine arts dance with Tamara Mayer
Originally uploaded by trudeau

Please check this TED video for a surprising insight into the usefulness of dance as communication.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo: "one of the most referenced and reproduced artistic images in the world today"

Vitruvian Man
Originally uploaded by AstroAlbert

The Vitruvian Man is a world-renowned drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1487, says Wikipedia.[1]

It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius.

The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square.

The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only occasionally.

The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described[4] by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.

"The length of the outspread arms is equal to the height of a man," is one of the numerous proportions - written in mirror writing.

The multiple viewpoint that set in with Romanticism has convinced us that there is no such thing as a universal set of proportions for the human body. Vitruvius' statements may be interpreted as statements about average proportions.

Leonardo's drawing combines a careful reading of the ancient text with his own observation of actual human bodies.

The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, of the universe as a whole.

Mona Lisa, the Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are among the iconic works by Leonardo da Vinci

Mona Lisa
Originally uploaded by BartPalka(BUSY and AWAY)

Leonardo was and is renowned[2] primarily as a painter, says Wikipedia.

Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious paintings of all time, respectively, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.[1]

Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon,[4] being reproduced on everything from the Euro to text books to t-shirts.

Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.[nb 2] Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivaled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 – 1519), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist and writer.

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.[1] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice and spent his last years in France, at the home awarded him by Francis I.

He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator,[5] the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics.

Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime,[nb 3] but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded.

As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.[6]

Martha Graham: "Some of you are doomed to be artists"

martha graham
Originally uploaded by sico_activa

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.[1]

Graham invented a new language of movement, says Wikipedia, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience.

She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian award, the Medal of Freedom.

In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."

Radical revision in the world od artful dance: American choreographer Merce Cunningham

(pda) Merce Cunningham
Originally uploaded by newnewpon

Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant garde for more than fifty years, says Wikipedia.

Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance. Cunningham is also notable for his frequent collaborations with artists of other disciplines, including musicians John Cage and David Tudor, artists Robert Rauschenberg and Bruce Nauman, designer Romeo Gigli, and architect Benedetta Tagliabue.

Works that he produced with these artists had a profound impact on avant-garde art beyond the world of dance.

As a choreographer, teacher, and leader of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company,[2] Cunningham had a profound influence on modern dance. Many dancers who trained with Cunningham formed their own companies, and they include Paul Taylor, Remy Charlip, Viola Farber, Charles Moulton, Karole Armitage, Robert Kovich, Foofwa d’Immobilité, Kimberly Bartosik, Floanne Ankah and Jonah Bokaer.

In the fall of 1939, Cunningham moved to New York and began a six-year stint as a soloist in the company of Martha Graham. He presented his first solo concert in New York in April 1944 with composer John Cage, who became his life partner and frequent collaborator until Cage's death in 1992.

Bill T. Jones, celebrated American modern dance choreographer

Bill T. Jones
Originally uploaded by deSingel International Arts Campus

In 1994, Bill T Jones, American artistic director, choreographer and dancer, received a MacArthur “Genius” Award.[6]

Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida, in 1952. His family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York. He began his dance training at Binghamton University, where he studied classical ballet and modern dance.

He choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with Arnie Zane before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.

He has choreographed works for almost every possible dance opportunity,including PBS, the BBC, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, among others.

Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran Off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in October 2009. Jones won the Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography.[4][5]

In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College, and Yale University.

In 2003 Jones was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”[7] In 2005 he received the Wexner Prize at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.

In 2007, he won the Tony award for Best Choreography for Spring Awakening.[8]

Bill T Jones was the recipient of the 2011 Young Arts Arison Award which is given annually to an individual who has had a significant influence on the development of young American artists.

Alvin Ailey, Choreographer and extraordinary American

Alvin Ailey, Choreographer
Originally uploaded by Ben Heine

Alvin Ailey, American modern dancer and choreographer, was born in Rogers, Texas in 1931 and moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of twelve. There, on a junior high school class trip to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, he fell in love with concert dance, says Wikipedia.

Inspired by performances of the Katherine Dunham Dance Company and classes with Lester Horton, Mr Ailey began his formal dance training. It was with Mr. Horton, the founder of the first racially integrated dance company in this country, that Mr. Ailey embarked on his professional dance career.

After Horton's death in 1953, Mr. Ailey became the director of the Lester Horton Dance Theater and began to choreograph his own works. In 1954, he and his friend Carmen de Lavallade were invited to New York to dance in the Broadway show, House of Flowers, by Truman Capote.

In New York, Mr. Ailey studied with many outstanding dance artists, including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and took acting classes with Stella Adler. The versatile Ailey won a number of acting roles, continued to choreograph and performed as a dancer.

In 1958, Mr. Ailey founded his own company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Ailey had a vision of creating a company dedicated to the preservation and enrichment of the American modern dance heritage and the uniqueness of black cultural expression. In 1960 he choreographed Revelations, the classic masterpiece of American modern dance based on the religious heritage of his youth.

Throughout his lifetime, Mr. Ailey created some 79 ballets, many of which have appeared in the repertoire of major dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Ballet.

Mr. Ailey died of complications due to AIDS on December 1, 1989. Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times wrote, "You didn't need to have known Ailey personally to have been touched by his humanity, enthusiasm and exuberance and his courageous stand for multiracial brotherhood."

Tamara Mayer choreographs Fine Arts class @ Magnet on Mon

Tamara Mayer choreographs Fine Arts class @ Magnet
Originally uploaded by trudeau

But the dance sessions will be in the PAC lobby. The stage is set for the band and choir concert.

The PAC lobby is an excellent venue for dance steps.

One-sheet fine arts project: compare two great dancers

Josephine Baker
Originally uploaded by Jane Diamond

Please choose between
- Isadora Duncan
- Martha Graham
- Josephine Baker

Include
- 2 illustrations
- 5 bulleted factoids on each figure.
- 6 multiple-choice questions; 3 on each person.
Print out.
10 pts.
Due Mon.

Twentieth century dance: the Isadora Duncan revolution

Euphrosyne, Thalie et Aglaé ©
Originally uploaded by றouvemenʨ d'un ciℓ (➳ in project

Isadora Duncan - 1877 - 1927 - was an American artist of movement and costume who freed women from the constraints of traditional dance forms, especially ballet.

Angela Isadora Duncan was born in San Francisco, California, says Wikipedia, the youngest of the four children of Joseph Charles Duncan, a banker, mining engineer and connoisseur of the arts, and Mary Isadora Gray, youngest daughter of Thomas Gray, a California state senator.

In her early years, Duncan did attend school but, finding it to be constricting to her individuality, she dropped out. Owing to an untimely divorce and reverse in her family's fortune, there was no extra money. Both she and her sister gave dance classes to local children to earn extra money.

In 1895 Duncan became part of Augustin Daly's theater company in New York. She soon became disillusioned with the form. In 1899 she decided to move to Europe, first to London and then a year later, to Paris. Within two years she achieved both notoriety and success.

The developing Bohemian environment in the Montparnasse section of Paris did not suit her. In 1909 Duncan moved to two large apartments at 5 rue Danton, where she lived on the ground floor and used the first floor for her dance school. Barefoot, dressed in clinging scarves and faux-Grecian tunics, she created a primitivist style of improvisational dance to counter the rigid styles of the time.

She was inspired by the classics, especially Greek myth. She rejected traditional ballet steps to stress improvisation, emotion and the human form. Duncan believed that classical ballet, with its strict rules of posture and formation, was "ugly and against nature"; she gained a wide following that allowed her to set up a school to teach.

Duncan became so famous that she inspired artists and authors to create sculpture, jewelry, poetry, novels, photographs, watercolors, prints and paintings of her.

When the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées was built in 1913, her likeness was carved in its bas-relief over the entrance by sculptor Antoine Bourdelle and included in painted murals of the nine muses by Maurice Denis in the auditorium.

Throughout her career Duncan did not like the commercial aspects of public performance, regarding touring, contracts and other practicalities as distractions from her real mission: the creation of beauty and the education of the young. A gifted, if unconventional pedagogue, she was the founder of three schools dedicated to teaching her dance philosophy to groups of young girls (a brief effort to include boys was unsuccessful).

Both in her professional and private lives, Duncan flouted traditional mores and morality.

She was though to be bisexual. She alluded to her Communism during her last United States tour, in 1922-23; Duncan waved a red scarf and bared her breast on stage in Boston, proclaiming, "This is red! So am I!".

Duncan bore two children, both out of wedlock.

Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves was the cause of her death in a freak automobile accident in Nice, France, on the night of September 14, 1927, at the age of 50. Her long scarf, hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov, became enmeshed in the wheel of the auto. She was thrown from the open car to her death.

Caravaggio quiz plus France and Ansel Adams

The Calling Of St. Matthew
Originally uploaded by earthmagnified

1. Caravaggio painted in numerous locales, among them Roma and a small
island southeast of Italy: a) Sicily b) Malta c) Corsica d) Sardinia.
2. Caravaggio was commissioned to paint primarily by (the) __ . a) Catholic church b) Italian noblemen c) growing Italian middle class d) Roman senators.
3. Caravaggio's style was notable for its dramatic use of light and
shadow, a technique known as __ (spelling counts).
4. The Normandy invasion undertaken by the Allies in WWII took place alongside the English Channel in __ France. a) Southwest b) Northwest c) Mediterranean d) Brittany.
5. Region of France favored by the majority of painters and sculptors:
a) Cote d'Azur b) Provence c) Champagne d) Burgundy.
6. Shutter noise - if minor - due to the internal mirror which must move for an exposure to take place: a) Rangefinder camera b) Single lens reflex camera c) Imax camera.
7. The expensive, prestigious and reliable German camera company
favored by Henri Cartier-Bresson: a) Nikon b) Canon c) Hasselblad d) Leica.
8. This female from Jewish biblical literature decapitated the Assyrian commander named Holofernes: a) Judith b) Leah c) Esther d) Rachel.
9. While working for Leland Stanford in California Eadweard Muybridge was a pioneer in photography that recorded movement . After their falling out, Muybridge shot most of his movement studies for the Univ of __ . a) California b) Texas c) Pennsylvania d) Michigan.
10. Boggis, Bunce and Bean: a) Leland Stanford b) Eadweard Muybridge c) Roald Dahl d) Caravaggio.
11. Escargots à la Bourguignonne: a) Bordeaux b) Burgundy c) Normandy d) Cote d'Azur.
12. The Decisive Moment: a) Eadweard Muybridge b) Roald Dahl c) Caravaggio d) Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Wheat fields and a starry night: Vincent Van Gogh

View from the Wheat Fields @Musée Rodin
Originally uploaded by dominotic

Vincent Van Gogh -
1. Home nation? __
2. Father's occupation and Vincent's first vocation? ___
3. City in which VG realizes that his task in life is to reach the people - esp the common and impoverished people of Europe? a) London b) Amsterdam c) Antwerp d) Paris
4. He returns to the continent to a city in Belgium where he is inspired by Japanese woodcuts and paintings by Rubens. ____, Belgium.
5. The most important person in his life. Steady subsidizer and moral support were unconditionally granted. __ .
6. His next stop is the city that is the capital of the art world in the nineteenth century. __ .
7. During his time in the big city he lives near his brother. There we see that an important part of his historic record, or documentation of his life, is missing. His __ are the record is his life.
8. There he paints his most famous still lives, some dozen versions of this subject. The object of these paintings? __
9. In this city he meets one of the leading painters of the day, the enormously creative and virile Paul __ .
10. VG believes that he should have an artists' commune. It will be a house filled with artistic energy and discussions. To get this, he moves to small city in southern France: __.
11. He is bedeviled by 2 major forms of illness, says Wikipedia: __ , __ .
12. While waiting for his artist companion from Paris in the isolated French city mentioned above, he does what? __.
13. He subsequently spends some time in a former monastery in the town of St Remy, France. Why?
14. Characteristics of his painting that have made him so notable: ___ brush strokes. ____ __ __ use of color.
15. He moves near Paris to the care of a doctor specializing in melancholia. What do we call that illness today? ___
16. Following his period of convalescence he shoots himself. Dead. At what age does this occur? __
17. Simon Schama says VG makes his best paintings during what period of his condition? __.
18. In the end he has moved far past the artistic style of the day, which was __ .
19. He is thus called the father of expressionism but, even more importantly, he is called the progenitor of what general era of art? __ __