Theatre

Theatre

Theatre is the art of representing plays, using actors. Theatre is closely joined with literature, and sometimes it is joined with music creating musicals.

In this post, i will specially talk about the Greek theatre. 

Greeks were the pioneers of theatre as we know it, they had specially 3 genres or types of theatre:

• Tragedy: They always depicted suffering and death among the characters,
• Comedy: They always featured happy endings, or were  used to cause light laughter.(Greek comedy wasn`t like modern comedy)
• Satyr: Satyr always made fun of the  government or even the gods, to express the disgust.

Greek theatre was represented in what they called "Theatron", which was divided in 2 parts (aside the seats for the public) :

• Orchestra: A large semicircular area with a rectangle in the center, this was where actors stood and talked to the audience.
• Skene: It was at the back of the orchestra, this is where the actors changed clothes and prepared to go on stage.

Theatrons were constructed ingeniously using the s¡natural slope of the hills to help building them faster.

As greeks were the pioneers of modern theatre, it was obvious that a greek was who established the main terms in a play, it was Aristotle, who coined the terms of:

• Plot
• Theme
• Character
• Music
• Dichon
• Spectacle

Greeks were very proliferous in their writings, among the best play-writes, we can find:

• Sophocles
• Aeschylus
• Euripides
• Aristophenes
• Meander

One of the best plays of greek writers was "Oedipus Rex", which has been represented hundreds if not thousands of times, and it was first premiered  in 429 B.C.

Written by: Sophocles

Date: 429 B.C.

Where: Greece

Director: It is an old play, may vary, in this case is Sir Tyrone Guthrie

Synopsis: Oedipus rex is the story of Oedipus who was the real son of the kings of Thebes, who are told by the oracle that this son will kill his own father (the king) so they give it to a servant to kill him, he does'´t want to so he leaves him in a hill, where a shepherd finds him and takes him to corinth. Once there he gives the baby to the kings because they couldn´t have any. The kings raise him and one day oedipus goes to the oracle, where he is told the same story as his real father. Scared of killing his "father"  (the corinthian king), he flees to Thebes, where in the way he finds himself in the road with an old man, who annoys him so he kills him. When he arrived to Thebes he fights (intellectually) with the sphinx and ends up victorious. Because of that act of bravery, he is named king (as the old one was dead) and marries the queen to have offspring. Some time later plagues came and the only way to solve them is to find the real killer of the old king. After a tough investigation he finds out that he killed the king himself, and realizes that he (the old king) was his real father and the queen was his mother. In an act of desperation he grabs a knife and pokes both of his eyes out. Even the braves person couldn´t escape from destiny. 

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh, born in March 30, 1853, in Zundert, the Netherlands, was an eccentric artist, member of the post-impressionism movement. 

Van Gogh followed his artistic impulses since a very young age but not painting, he liked drawing at the time. His career in the art business started from a very young age, by the time he was 16 years old he worked in an art firm, where he sold art of other people, but never his own.

In the lapse of 1883-1886, Van Gogh lived in 2 towns, Nuenen and Antwerp, where he developed his first works as an emerging artist with his first major artwork, "the potato eaters", which depicted a poor family that was having dinner in a very obscure scenery.

After that period Van Gogh moved to paris to discover the boundaries of his talent, he lived in Paris from 1886 to 1888. Here in Paris, van Gogh experienced being in the epicenter of the arts, this influenced him in the way that he started using more vivid and mixed colors, like in the portrait he made for Henri de Toulouse, among the other collections he had.

From Paris he moved to Arles, still in france, Arles is the place his art had its pinacle, because he was suffering of a mental illness. he lived in this town in 1888 and 1889. He was often accused of harassing women and fighting with people, for those reasons the citizens decided to put him in an asylum, where by fortune he could be dedicated completely to his paintings.

After living in arles for a year he moved again but this time to Saint-Rémy for another year (may 1889-may 1890) in this town he was still imprisoned, but was allowed short field walks, which led to his paintings of cypresses, fields, and landscapes, some of which are some of the most famous paintings in the world.

For the last month of his life (may-june 1890) Van Gogh moved one last time to Auvers-sur-oise, where he painted his last paintings, maybe not the most famous ones, but some of the most beautiful ones.

He committed suicide on july 29th 1890, due to a mental crisis he was living as an artist and person. In his whole life he just sold one painting of his own, then to be recognized as one of humanities greatest artists after his death. 

Here are some of his best works:

When: 1887

Where: Paris, France

Why: Because in this stage of his life he painted many self-portraits.

Name: Self Portrait, Spring

Why I like it: Because of the combination of the bluish and reddish colors making a very natural face and hair.

 

When: 1889

Where: Arles, France

Why: Because it was Vincent´s only way to express himself in the asylum.

Name: Wheat field with cypresses

Why I like it: Because of how the strokes create that natural movement.

When: 1888

Where: Arles, France

Why: Because it was the only thing he liked and was allowed to do at the asylum.

Name: View of aAles with irises

Why I like it: Because of its colors and natural flow

When: 1889

Where: Saint-Rémy, France

Why: Because he was inspired that lovely night

Name: The starry night

Why I like it: Because of the tranquility it sends, and its contrasts.

Impressionism and Post-impressionism

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism was a movement initiated in France during the 1870´s an lasted through the 1880´s. It had very particular characteristics, that can´t be found in any other period, the most important ones are:

• Little or none detail in the painting.
• The use of the brushstrokes to create pictures.
• Not mixing the colors but Layering them.
• Paintings resemble daily life events.
• The use of vibrant colors.
• Never using black.
• Always happy scenes (to motivate people after the war).  
• Artists started painting outside the workshops due to the invention of tubed pigments.

One of my favorite impressionist paintings is Claude Monet´s "Bordighera":

• Author: Claude Monet
• Date: 1884
• Where: France
• I like it because: The imperfect brushstrokes create a very astonishing natural movement with it´s curves in the leaves, the trunk and in the water, is natural and beautiful.

POST-IMPRESSIONISM

Post-Impressionism appeared in the late 1880`s just after the impressionism, they share most of their characteristics but some of those changed and some prevailed:

• More detail was added. (NOT always)
• Sometimes they used color black.
• Brushstrokes became more defined. (NOT always)
• Resembled daily events and landscapes.
• the rest was partially the same as impressionism.

By far my favorite post-impressionist artist is Van Gogh, which i think his masterpiece was " wheat field with cypresses":

• Author: Vincent Van Gogh.
• Date: 1889.
• Where: Arles, France.
• I like it because: The flux of the strokes is so smooth it creates amazing realness and tranquility, but keeping the characteristics of the Post-Impressionism.

Middle Ages Painting

Painting in the Middle Ages

During the middle ages, painting had a very big impact in the society, because, as it was related to religion , painting was not underrated.

The middle ages divide in 3 main eras:

1. Early middle ages: centuries V-X. Started after the fall of Rome. military governments were established in most of Europe, with loads of  wars to take the power of a region.
2. High middle ages: centuries XI-XIII. Started when the crusades started. crusades took over the military and political landscape of the era, also affecting economics of the kingdoms.
3. Late middle ages: centuries XIV-XV. Starting with the great famine. great plagues killed Europe`s population, leaving reduced kingdoms and cities to ashes. it was a difficult time.

Art in the middle ages wasn't very variated in the terms of topics, the main topics were: religion, war and history along with myths and legends.

Here are some of my favourite art works from each period of the middle ages:

Early Middle Ages:

              

• Name: The coronation Gospels
• Author: Probably Greek artist.
• When it was painted: Century VIII.
• Why it was painted: For a book of gospels.
• Where it was painted: In the Byzantine empire
• Why I like it: Because it has lots of details compared to other paintings of the era.

High Middle Ages:

• Author: French codex writer
• When it was painted: 1110 A.D.
• Why it was painted: For a page of a french codex
• Where it was painted: In France
• Why I like it: Because of the mix of the literature , mythology and painting, which creates an interesting picture.

Late Middle Ages:

• Name: Reconstruction of the temple of jerusalem
• Author: Guillame de tyre
• When it was painted: Century XV
• Why it was painted: For the use of a church.
• Where it was painted: Tyre
• Why I like it: Because of the resemblance of the last period of middle ages and it looks more like from the renaissance. Also is very detailed.

Painting

Painting

Painting is one if not the most variated type of art, because is the pure thoughts expressed in color by the artist himself.

Some of the best artists of all arts are painters, maybe because is a "simple" meaningful art.

painting, as the other arts, has evolved during time here is a list of the phases:

• Antiquity
• Medieval
• Renaissance
• Baroque
• Contemporary

The greatest era for painting was the renaissance, because artists like Da Vinci developed their abilities to the maximum, creating masterpieces like Da Vinci´s Gioconda or Michelangelo´s paintings in the sixtine chapel.

My favourite masterpiece is from this particular period, its called "Adam´s creation" which depicts God himself creating Adam, the first man. Here it is:

• Painted by Michelangelo.
• was painted between 1511 and 1512.
• Is located in the sixtine chapel, The vatican.
• Was painted for the decoration of the chapel, among many other masterpieces.

I personally love this painting because of the details and its size, it must have taken a lot of effort, also because it has a hidden meaning; the red cloth-like cloud that surrounds God resembles a human brain or cranium, because there was the belief that "God is in everyone´s mind".

Music as art

Music

Music is the type of fine art that uses sounds an silences to create and generate ideas or feelings to later transmit them to the audience.

Through the ages music has evolved, and there have been eight main eras of this evolution:

1.  Antiquity (?BC - 500 AD)
2. Medieval (500 AD - 1400)
3. Renaissance (1400 - 1600)
4. Baroque (1600 - 1760)
5. Classical (1730 - 1820)
6. Romantic (1815 - 1910)
7. 20th Century (1900 - 2000)
8. Contemporary (2000 - TODAY)

And by taking only 2 main artists of the eras we can find various famous names, here´s a list:

1.  Antiquity : N/A
2. Medieval : Leonin and Francesco Laudini
3. Renaissance : Josquin des Prez and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
4. Baroque : Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friederich Händel
5. Classical : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven
6. Romantic : Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz
7. 20th Century : Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky
8. Contemporary : John Cage and Steve Reich

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In my personal opinion the era I like the most is the Classical, because its very harmonic and has loads of instruments playing together masterpieces like Für Elise, or the Mozart´s numerous symphonies.

i like Beethoven the most because his music reflects exactlty how he was, and his piece I like the most is : Symphony #7 - Presto.

This masterpiece was...:

• Written by Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Written between 1811 and 1812
• Dedicated to the count Moritz Von Fries 
• Played by: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

Architecture

Architecture is the art of designing and constructing buildings, this type of art can create some controversies, because is the only kind of art that can be for utilitarian purposes besides the aesthetic ones.

Humanity started constructing buildings for religious purposes, such as the Stonehenge, the Teotihuacan pyramids, or for funerary purposes, like the Egyptian pyramids.This kind of architecture started 30,000-20,000 years ago.

Fig.1

Fig.2

     











Much later, with the Greek, much innovative architecture types began, with revolutions, like columns, which are the distinctive characteristic of Greek and Roman architectures.This type dates to 10,000 years ago, and had six basic types of columns.

Fig.3

Fig.4

This type of architecture persisted during the Greek culture and was then adopted by the roman empire, but then they made a few innovations like the roman arch and the roman vault (dome).

Fig.5

 After those accomplishments architecture kept changing, passing through styles, like Gothic cathedrals, to what it is today.

Fig.7

Fig.6

Pictures:
Fig.1 : Stonehenge, England, N/A, 8000 B.C
Fig.2 : Pirámide del Sol, México, N/A, 200 B.C.
Fig.3 : Greek column Types, Greece, Greek culture, 300 B.C.
Fig.4 : The Parthenon, Greece, Greek Culture, 447 B.C.
Fig.5 : The Colosseum, Italy, Roman Culture, 70 A.D.
Fig.6 : Notre Dame Cathedral, France, Maurice de Sully, 1345
Fig.7 : Sacred Family Church, Spain, Gaudi, 1882 (not completed yet)

Sculpture

This week's topic is:
Sculpture

In the field of sculpture, 4 basic techniques exist:

• Carving
• Modeling
• Casting
• Construction

In this week`s blog, we are going to see and define each one.

Carving

Augustus of Prima Porta

Native American Totem

Also known as "subtraction", carving is basically the action of removing material from an original shapeless block. This type of art was very important for ancient cultures, such as Greeks and Romans that made their sculptures in Marble, but it can be found all over the world, made from rock to wood.In this category we can also include reliefs, which are carvings in stone.

 Terracotta warrior

Àrbol de la vida

Modeling 
 Also known as "additive process" it consists on changing the shape by adding material and deforming the artwork, resulting in a totally different shape. We can see model sculptures since ancient times, often made of clay, sometimes wax or even plaster.

Casting

Richard the lionheart

Charles V, the holy emperor

Casting is the most complicated form of sculpture, because it requires a mold and a molten material (usually metals)and is mainly used in the making of coins and medals. But it is worth all that work because the results can be astonishing if done correctly. Casting has been popular since ancient times and it continues to be today.






Construction

Shadow sculpture

(Unknown)

From the other types of sculpting, construction is the most often used in modern days, in abstract art. Construction is the action of using various materials to make one single art piece, and this characteristic fits the modern-abstract art concept, resulting in masterpieces.




About The Sculptures: (Author, year, country)
Augustus of Prima Porta:  Unknown, I century A.D. Italy.
Native American Totem:  Unknown, Unknown, Canada.
Terracotta Warrior:  Unknown, 210 B.C. China.
Arbol de la Vida:  N/A, N/A, Mexico
Richard Lionheart:  Carlo Marochetti, 1860, England
Charles V: Unknown, Unknown, Italy
Shadow Sculpture: Tim Noble, 2001, England

Humanity through drawing

To draw or to illustrate is the most antique form of art. And is the base art of any other kind of plastic art, from painting, architecture, to even sculpting. Every plastic art is based on drawing, which we have improved along with time.



Since the times of the cavemen we have been representing our daily live`s events.
The oldest cave painting dates to 40,000 years ago, and is located in northern Spain.












Other form of cave picturing uses other rocks as main utensil, these are called petroglyphs, because they`re carved in the rock forming figures without the use of any pigments.This peculiar form of illustration can be found all over around the globe.








The next great step in human history is given to us by the Egyptians, who stopped drawing on their walls and started doing it in a kind of paper which they called papyrus, because it came from the papyrus plant. They also developed a kind of language based on drawings, called hieroglyphics.






From that moment drawing kept changing loads of times, passing through:






The greek and roman cultures (which art was very similar):
These cultures focused their art to their gods and beliefs, also they represented historical events, like battles, or wars.











 The middle ages:
The art in these years was dedicated all to God and the events that deserved to be remembered by the future generations.








The renaissance:
During the renaissance all arts flourished specially painting and sculpting, which works would have been impossible without drawing. These works were dedicated sometimes to God but other times to demonstrate human bigness and its nature.





Modernism:
As we come to present days, drawing is left a bit behind, painting is more common than illustrating, but let`s not forget that drawing is the base of painting. During these times, paintings leave religious themes behind and start being more surreal and abstract.