Study Guide from 1-6-09

Knowledge Bowl Study Guide
1/6/2009

1. What is another name for a play or other dramatic literature or performance?
A. Theater

2. What is the Principle of Design that refers to the way the elements of art are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work or a pleasing or harmonious arrangement or proportion of parts or areas in a design or composition?
A. Balance.

3. What is another name for sounds that produce effect: sounds, usually produced by instruments or voices, that are arranged or played in order to create an effect?
A. Music

mu•sic [ myzik ]

noun

Definition:

1. sounds that produce effect: sounds, usually produced by instruments or voices, that are arranged or played in order to create an effect
2. art of arranging sounds: the art of arranging or making sounds, usually those of musical instruments or voices, so as to create an effect

4. What is the Principle of Design that gives importance or dominance (weight) to some feature or features of an artwork; something singled out, stressed, or drawn attention to by means of contrast, anomaly, or counterpoint for aesthetic impact?
A. Emphasis.

5. When someone moves their feet and body rhythmically, usually in time to music, what is that called?
A. Dance or dancing

dance [ danss ]

verb (past and past participle danced, present participle danc•ing, 3rd person present singular danc•es)

Definition:

1. intransitive verb move rhythmically to music: to move the feet and body rhythmically, usually in time to music
2. transitive verb perform particular steps to music: to perform or participate in a particular series of rhythmic steps and movements, usually to music
to dance a lively polka

6. What is the Principle of Design that creates a large difference between two things; for example, hot and cold, green and red, light and shadow?
A. Contrast.

7. Which form of dance is characterized by conventional steps, poses, and graceful movements including leaps and spins?
A. Ballet

8. In a piece of artwork, what is the part called where interest or attention centers?
A. Focal Point.

9. When a story is performed by dancers with a choreographed presentation of a story or theme performed to music by dancers, what is that called?
A. Ballet

10. Which Principle of Design involves the act or process of moving, especially change of place or position?
A. Movement.

11. When performers (actors) are performing with music and singing rather than reciting their lines, and when it is a drama in which the text is set to music and staged, what is that performing art called?
A. Opera

12. What is the name for a visual tempo or beat, or the Principle of Design that refers to a regular repetition of elements of art to produce the look and feel of movement?
A. Rhythm.

13. What is a comic opera with dancing called?
A. Operetta

Operetta - comic opera with dancing: a theatrical production, usually with a comic theme, similar to opera but with much spoken dialogue and usually some dancing. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote many operettas.

14. What is it called when elements of art are used over and over again several times in the same picture?
A. Repetition.

15. What is the performing art form called that is a musical using popular culture elements?
A. Rock Opera

Rock Opera, musical using popular culture elements. An example of rock opera is Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) by British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and British lyricist Timothy Rice. These works can be produced for the stage or as motion pictures, or both, as with a number of Lloyd Webber’s most successful shows.

16. What is the repetition of anything – shapes, lines, or colors—also called a motif, in a design referred to?
A. Pattern.

17. When there is entertainment or spectacle featuring animal acts and human feats of daring, what is this called?
A. Circus arts.

Entertainment or spectacle featuring animal acts and human feats of daring. The modern circus was founded in England in 1768 by the bareback rider Philip Astley (1742–1814), who built stands around his performance ring and opened Astley's Amphitheatre. One of his riders later established the Royal Circus (1782), the first modern use of the term. The first U.S. circus opened in Philadelphia in 1793. Horse acts were later joined by wild-animal acts. After the invention of the flying trapeze by Jules Léotard (1859), aerial acts were featured. P.T. Barnum expanded the traditional circus by adding two rings to create the three-ring circus (1881) and augmented it with sideshow performers. Circuses traveled throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, performing in a tent (the Big Top) into the 1950s. Today circuses usually perform in permanent buildings, though small troupes still travel with tents in some regions. By the late 20th century, notable circuses also had developed in Africa, India, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. Perhaps the most innovative trend in circuses at the turn of the 21st century was the establishment of companies such as the Cirque du Soleil; these companies employed no animals, instead emphasizing acts of human skill and daring and integrating elements of contemporary music and dance into the overall performance.

18. A consistent or recurrent conceptual element, usually a figure or design, or an architectural or decorative pattern that is repeated is called what?
A. Motif.

19. What form of performance art is a play or film whose action and dialogue is interspersed with singing and dancing?
A. Musical Theater

20. What Principle of Design refers to the comparative, proper, or harmonious relationship of one part to another whole with respect to size, quality, or degree; a ratio?
A. Proportion.

21. When a performer speaks directly to the audience without the theatrical “fourth wall”, reciting a fast-paced succession of “bits”, that form of performing arts is called what?
A. Stand-up Comedy

Stand-up comedy is a style of comedy where the performer speaks directly to the audience, with the absence of the theatrical "fourth wall". A person who performs stand-up comedy is known as a stand-up comic, stand-up comedian (comedienne if female) or more informally stand up. It is usually performed by a single comedian, with the aid of a hand-held microphone (sometimes, however, the comic will opt to keep the microphone in the stand so he or she may use both hands for visual effect, as is the case of Ron White). The comedian usually recites a fast-paced succession of humorous stories, short jokes (called "bits"), and one-liners, which comprise what is typically called a monologue, routine or act. Some stand-up comedians use props, music or magic tricks to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedy is often performed in comedy clubs, bars, colleges and theaters. However, there is no real restriction on where the craft can be performed. Many smaller venues hold "open mic" events, where amateur comedians perform comedy before a live audience, offering a way for such performers to hone their craft and possibly break into the business. In North America, many comedy clubs feature the now-iconic brick wall as the backdrop for stand-up performances.
Many stand-up routines are similar to one-man shows, with the main difference being the expectations of the audience, who, in some cases, expect a relatively steady stream of "laughs". This in turn affects the aims of the performer, who is under great pressure to deliver those laughs. If the performer cannot coax laughs out of the crowd, sometimes the crowd will poke fun at the comedian, a practice known as heckling.

22. In the Principles of Design, what is a ratio (proportion) used in determining the dimensional relationship between a representation to that which it represents (its actual size), as in maps, architectural plans, and models…often expressed numerically as two quantities separated by a colon(:). For example, a town represented by a map…the map would not be the same size as a town, but would be shown in inches, feet, meters, etc. to represent the town. What is this principle of design called?
A. Scale

23. True or False. A pantomime is someone who uses great fictional tales to portray a smaller fictional story to an audience.
A. False.

pan•to•mime [ pántə mm ] (plural pan•to•mimes)

noun
Definition:
1. mime artist: somebody who acts without speaking, using gesture and expression
2. humorous British theatrical entertainment: a style of British theater, or a play in this style, traditionally performed at Christmas, in which a folktale or children's story is told with jokes, songs, and dancing
3. Roman theatrical performance: in ancient Rome, a theatrical performance by one masked actor who played all the characters, using only dance, gesture, and expression, and no words, while a chorus narrated the story

24. What is the quality of wholeness or oneness that is achieved through the effective use of the elements and principles of design called?
A. Unity.

25. What form of the performing arts uses the exercise of sleight of hand or conjuring for entertainment?
A. Magic

26. Clustering, proximity, dominant color, and contour are all part of what (in the Principles of Design)?
A. Unity.

27. What form of performing art uses only gesture and action: a style of performance in which people act out situations or portray characters using only gesture and action?
A. Mime (see # 23)

28. Size and scale are all part of what (in the Principles of Design)?
A. Proportion.

29. When someone uses great skill and agility with their body during a performance, they are using what?
A. acrobatics (they would be called an acrobat)

30. Which is the Principle of Design that refers to a way of combining elements of art in involved ways to achieve intricate and complex relationships…increasing the visual interest of the artwork?
A. Variety.

31. If someone is walking steadily and rhythmically and in step with others, such as in a parade, what are they doing (what form of the performing arts are they using)?
A. Marching Arts

32. When something is plain and doesn’t have any variety, what is that called?
A. Monotony.

33. When someone is able to keep several objects in the air, in motion, at the same time by throwing them and catching them in quick succession, what are they doing?
A. juggling

34. When something has many different things included in it…a variety of interesting things, what is that called?
A. Diversity.

35. What is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment industry?
A. Film

Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as part of the entertainment industry. Because photographic film historically has been the primary medium for displaying moving images, academics often refer to this field as the study of film.
Motion pictures are an art form, a popular form of entertainment, and a business. Film is produced by recording "real" people and objects (including played-out fantasy and fakes) with cameras, and/or by animation.
The word film also often refers to photographic film used to make still photographs, or to the flexible strip of plastic covered in a light-sensitive silver halide solution, also called filmstock, on which motion pictures have historically been made.
The images that make up a motion picture are all individual photographs. But when they appear rapidly in succession, the human eye does not detect that they are separate images. This results from persistence of vision, a phenomenon whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Although we do not experience the images as individual photographs, we do notice the differences between them. The brain then perceives these differences as motion.

36. Monotony and Diversity are both part of what (in the Principles of Design)?
A. Variety.

37. What is another name for a musical variety show consisting of skits, dance routines, and songs that often satirize current events and personalities?
A. Revue

38. Which Principle of Design refers to a union or blend of aesthetically compatible components?
A. Harmony.

39. Another name of a show with various acts: a theatrical show made up of a number of short performances of different kinds, such as singing, comic sketches, dancing, and magic acts is ____________?
A. Variety Show

40. What is the branch of philosophy called that deals with the nature and value of art objects and experiences?
A. Aesthetics.

41. There is another form of the performing arts that is similar to the Variety Show that is defined as theatrical entertainment consisting of a number of individual performances, acts, or mixed numbers, as by comedians, singers, dancers, acrobats, and magicians. What is it called?
A. Vaudeville

1. theatrical entertainment consisting of a number of individual performances, acts, or mixed numbers, as by comedians, singers, dancers, acrobats, and magicians. Compare VARIETY (def. 9).

2. a theatrical piece of light or amusing character, interspersed with songs and dances.
3. a satirical cabaret song.

42. When there is a large difference between two things; for example, black and white, what is that called?
A. Contrast.

43. Exciting and gripping events and actions in a story on the radio are called what?
A. Radio Drama

44. Color, Intensity, Textural, Pattern and Size can all be part of what (in the Principles of Design)?
A. Contrast.

45. If you saw a group of people, dressed in appropriate costume, posing silent and motionless as a representation of a scene (people imitating picture), what is that called?
A. Tableau Vivant

46. Which painting movement was the one in which artists typically applied paint rapidy, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions?
A. Abstract Expressionism.

47. What is the performing arts form that is the art of creating and manipulating puppets in a theatrical show?
A. Puppetry

Art of creating and manipulating puppets in a theatrical show. Puppets are figures that are moved by human rather than mechanical aid. They may be controlled by one or several puppeteers, who are screened from the spectators. Varieties include glove (or hand) puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, and marionettes (or string puppets). Puppetry had its beginnings in tribal society and has been part of every civilization. By the 18th century it was so popular in Europe that permanent theatres were built for the usually itinerant puppeteers. Companies presented favourite stories of the French Guignol, the Italian Arlecchino, the German Kasperle, and the English Punch and Judy. By the mid 20th century puppetry had reached television with Jim Henson's Muppets.

48. Who painted “Mural on Indian Red Ground” in 1950?
A. Jackson Pollock

49. Which art movement was of the Counter-Reformation in the seventeenth century in which some features appear in Dutch art?
A. Baroque.

50. During which art movement was Rembrandt’s work?
A. Baroque.

51. What was Rembrandt considered the master of?
A. Dutch art.

52. Who painted “The Lacemaker” and “The Letter”?
A. Jan Vermeer.

Note: the stories we read will be posted as separate posts.

Study Video # 3

If you wish to make this full-size, you can click on this YouTube version...

The Billy Goats Gruff (or The Three Billy Goats Gruff)

The Billy Goats Gruff

Once upon a time there were three billy goats called Gruff. In the winter they lived in a barn in the valleyspring came they , but when the longed to travel up to the mountains to eat the lush sweet grass.

On their way to the mountains the three Billy Goats Gruff had to cross a rushing river. But there was only one bridge across it, made of wooden planks. And underneath the bridge there lived a terrible, ugly, one-eyed troll.

Nobody was allowed to cross the bridge without the troll’s permission - and nobody ever got permission. He always ate them up.

The smallest Billy Goat Gruff was first to reach the bridge. Trippity-trop, trippity-trop went his little hooves as he trotted over the wooden planks. Ting-tang, ting-tang went the little bell round his neck.

"Who’s that trotting over my bridge?" growled the troll from under the planks.
"Billy Goat Gruff," squeaked the smallest goat in his little voice. "I’m only going up to the mountain to eat the sweet spring grass."

"Oh no, you’re not!" said the troll. "I’m going to eat you for breakfast!"

"Oh no, please Mr Troll," pleaded the goat. "I’m only the smallest Billy Goat Gruff.
I’m much too tiny for you to eat, and I wouldn’t taste very good. Why don’t you wait for my brother, the second Billy Goat Gruff? He’s much bigger than me and would be much more tasty."

The troll did not want to waste his time on a little goat if there was a bigger and better one to eat. "All right, you can cross my bridge," he grunted. "Go and get fatter on the mountain and I’ll eat you on your way back!"

So the smallest Billy Goat Gruff skipped across to the other side.

The troll did not have to wait long for the second Billy Goat Gruff. Clip-clop, clip-clop went his hooves as he clattered over the wooden planks. Ding-dong, ding-dong went the bell around his neck.

"Who’s that clattering across my bridge?" screamed the troll, suddenly appearing from under the planks.

"Billy Goat Gruff," said the second goat in his middle-sized voice. "I’m going up to the mountain to eat the lovely spring grass."

"Oh no you’re not!" said the troll. "I’m going to eat you for breakfast."

"Oh, no, please," said the second goat. "I may be bigger than the first Billy Goat Gruff, but I’m much smaller than my brother, the third Billy Goat Gruff. Why don’t you wait for him? He would be much more of a meal than me."

The troll was getting very hungry, but he did not want to waste his appetite on a middle-sized goat if there was an even bigger one to come. "All right, you can cross my bridge," he rumbled. "Go and get fatter on the mountain and I’ll eat you on your way back!"

So the middle-sized Billy Goat Gruff scampered across to the other side.
The troll did not have to wait long for the third Billy Goat Gruff. Tromp-tramp, tromp-tramp went his hooves as he stomped across the wooden planks. Bong-bang, bong-bang went the big bell round his neck.

"Who’s that stomping over my bridge?" roared the troll, resting his chin on his hands.

"Billy Goat Gruff," said the third goat in a deep voice. "I’m going up to the mountain to eat the lush spring grass."

"Oh no you’re not," said the troll as he clambered up on to the bridge. "I’m going to eat you for breakfast!"

"That’s what you think," said the biggest Billy Goat Gruff. Then he lowered his horns, galloped along the bridge and butted the ugly troll. Up, up, up went the troll into the air... then down, down, down into the rushing river below. He disappeared below the swirling waters, and was drowned.

"So much for his breakfast," thought the biggest Billy Goat Gruff. "Now what about mine!" And he walked in triumph over the bridge to join his two brothers on the mountain pastures. From then on anyone could cross the bridge whenever they liked - thanks to the three Billy Goats Gruff.

Wikipedia information

Three Billy Goats Gruff (Norwegian: De tre bukkene Bruse) is a famous Norwegian fairy tale in which three goats cross a bridge, under which is a fearsome troll who wants to eat them.[1] The fairy tale was collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. It has an "eat-me-when-I'm-fatter" plot (Aarne-Thompson type 122E).

The story introduces three male goats named Gruff of varying size and age, sometimes identified in the story as youngster, father and grandfather, but more often they are described as brothers. There is no grass left for them nearest where they live, so they must cross a river to go a "sæter" (a summer farm in the hills) "to make themselves fat", but the only way across is by a bridge and it is guarded by a fearsome troll who eats any who pass that way. The youngest goat, knowing nothing of this, crosses the bridge and is threatened by the troll but is spared when he tells the troll that his brothers are larger and more gratifying as a feast. The middle goat sees that the youngest one has crossed and reaches the conclusion that the bridge must be safe after all, but when he crosses and the troll challenges him, he too tells him of his eldest brother. When the eldest and largest of them attempts to cross, the troll comes out to seize him but is gored by his horns and knocked into the river. From that time on the bridge is safe, and all three goats are able to go to the rich fields around the summer farm in the hills.

The tale is, essentially, a tale of mind over matter and good against evil. The first two goats save their own lives by using their wits. It could also be said they act somewhat rashly and carelessly in the first place by crossing paths with a troll and then afterwards by putting their eldest brother at risk by telling the troll to wait for him instead. Ultimately, the eldest goat, who is older, stronger and more intelligent than both the younger goats and the troll, comes out as the story's hero.
Another perspective is that the protagonist is the troll and that the moral is to accept a good deal, rather than to wait for a better one.

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."

     The king said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test."

     And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die."

     Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.

     But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, "Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?"

     "Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it."

     "What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for you?"

     "My necklace," said the girl.

     The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

     By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?"
< 2 >

     "The ring on my finger," answered the girl.

     The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.

     The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight, but still he had not gold enough, and he had the miller's daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, "You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife."

     Even if she be a miller's daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.

     When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, "What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?"

     "I have nothing left that I could give," answered the girl.

     "Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child."

     Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller's daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.

     And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller's daughter became a queen.

     A year after, she brought a beautiful child into the world, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, "Now give me what you promised."

     The queen was horror-struck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, "No, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world."

     Then the queen began to lament and cry, so that the manikin pitied her.

     "I will give you three days, time," said he, "if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child."

     So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be. When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, "That is not my name."
< 3 >

     On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg, but he always answered, "That is not my name."

     On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, "I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted -

     'To-day I bake, to-morrow brew,
     the next I'll have the young queen's child.
     Ha, glad am I that no one knew
     that Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.'"

     You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, "Now, mistress queen, what is my name?"

     At first she said, "Is your name Conrad?"

     "No."

     "Is your name Harry?"

     "No."

     "Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"

     "The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that," cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.

Wikipedia Information

Rumpelstiltskin is a character in a fairy tale of the same name that originated in Germany (where he is known as Rumpelstilzchen). The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm, who first published it in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales. It was subsequently revised in later editions until the final version was published in 1857.

The story has been retold in other countries, sometimes with the main character's name changing completely; Tom Tit Tot in England (from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs), Päronskaft (meaning "pear stalk") in Sweden and Martinko Klingáč in Slovakia.

Plot synopsis
In order to make himself appear more important, a miller/commoner lied to the king that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king called for the girl, shut her in a tower room with straw and a spinning wheel, and demanded that she spin the straw into gold by morning, for three nights, or be executed. Some versions say that if she failed, she would be skewered and then fricasseed like a pig, while others take a less graphic approach and say that the girl is locked in the dungeon forever. She had given up all hope, when a dwarf appeared in the room and spun straw into gold for her in return for her necklace; then again the following night for her ring. On the third night, when she had nothing with which to reward him, the strange creature spun straw into gold for a promise that the girl's first-born child would become his.

The king was so impressed that he let the miller's daughter marry his son, the prince, but when their first child was born, the dwarf returned to claim his payment: "Now give me what you promised". The queen was frightened and offered him all the wealth she had if she could keep the child. The dwarf refused but finally agreed to give up his claim to the child if the queen could guess his name in three days. At first she failed, but before the second night, her messenger overheard the dwarf hopping about his fire and singing. While there are many variations in this song, the 1886 translation by Lucy Crane reads

"To-day do I bake, to-morrow I brew,
The day after that the queen's child comes in;
And oh! I am glad that nobody knew
That the name I am called is Rumpelstiltskin!"[1]

When the dwarf came to the queen on the third day and she revealed his name, Rumpelstiltskin lost his bargain. In the 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm tales, Rumpelstiltskin then "ran away angrily, and never came back". The ending was revised in a final 1857 edition to a more gruesome version where Rumpelstiltskin "in his rage drove his right foot so far into the ground that it sank in up to his waist; then in a passion he seized the left foot with both hands and then took his left foot and tore himself in two." Other versions have Rumpelstiltskin driving his right foot so far into the ground that he creates a chasm and falls into it, never to be seen again. In the oral version originally collected by the brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin flies out of the window on a cooking ladle (Heidi Anne Heiner).

The story of Rumpelstiltskin is an example of Aarne and Thompson's folklore type 500 (The Name of the Helper; see links below). Other fairy tale themes in the story include the Impossible Task, the Hard Bargain, the Changeling Child, and, above all, the Secret Name.
Rumpelstiltskin is most commonly interpreted as a cautionary tale against bragging (compare with the concept of hubris in Greek mythology), but in this case not the miller himself but rather his daughter is punished for his lies. An alternative explanation is that the tale could have been meant to teach women the importance of performing a supporting role in their later marriage. The gift of spinning straw into gold is seen here as a metaphor for the value of household skills. Indeed, the king in this tale does not seem to be interested in the girl besides her alleged magical capabilities — even though her beauty is mentioned in passing — and she exists only to bring him riches and bear his children.
Because of Rumpelstiltskin's odd name, magical powers involving gold and attempted theft of a human child, some critics have also interpreted the story in the context of medieval German anti-semitism. [2]
Specific analysis as related to Secret Name is the idea we cannot banish problems that plague us until they are properly identified for what they are. Knowing the name of the problem is understanding the problem.
The dwarf's demand for the girl's first-born child probably has remnants of older legends which held that malignant sprites and goblins would steal unattended babies and replace them with a child (or "changeling") of their own.[3] (Similar tales exist about trolls as well, though their motives were generally seen as selfish rather than unpleasant, in that they supposedly found some of their own children too humanoid to exist among them.) However, tales like these in themselves were intended to stop children from playing outside without care, or mothers from leaving their children in danger, and the miller, famously, puts his own child in the power of a greedy king, while she in turn agrees to hand over her child to a virtual stranger.
Another tale revolves about a girl trapped by false claims about her spinning abilities: The Three Spinners. However, the three women who assist that girl do not demand her first born, but that she invite them to her wedding and say that they are relatives of hers. With this more reasonable request, she complies, and is freed from her hated spinning when they tell the king that their hideous looks spring from their endless spinning. In one Italian variant, she must discover their names, as with Rumpelstiltskin, but not for the same reason: she must use their names to invite them, and she has forgotten them.

Another tale revolves about a girl trapped by false claims about her spinning abilities: The Three Spinners. However, the three women who assist that girl do not demand her first born, but that she invite them to her wedding and say that they are relatives of hers. With this more reasonable request, she complies, and is freed from her hated spinning when they tell the king that their hideous looks spring from their endless spinning. In one Italian variant, she must discover their names, as with Rumpelstiltskin, but not for the same reason: she must use their names to invite them, and she has forgotten them.

Study Guide 12-09-08 - possible questions

1. Q In visual art, what includes pointillism, feathering, and divisionism?

A.Methods of painting.

2. Q. During what years was Ludwig Beethoven alive?

A. 1770-1827

3. Q. In visual art what includes abstract expressionism, baroque, cubism, impressionism, neo-impressionism, op art, pop art, realism, romanticism, and symbolism?

A. Art movements

4. Q. In literature, what includes haiku, biography, autobiography, fiction, limerick, and non-fiction?

A. Literary Forms

5. Q. When was Johann Sebastian Bach alive?

A. 1685-1750.

6. Q. In the performing arts, what includes comedy, tragedy, melodrama, tragicomedy, satire, and epic?

A. Subjects

7. Q. What country was Johann Sebastian Bach from?

A. Germany

8. Q. In music, what includes eighth notes, eighth rests, sharps, flats, natural, fermata, measure, bar lines, and ledger lines?

A. Musical Notation

9. Q. In music, what includes baroque, classical, modern and rock and roll?

A. Music Periods.

10. Q. What style of art was created by Edouard Manet?

A. Impressionism.

11. Q. In visual art, what includes graver and gouge

A. Art tools.

12. Q. In visual art, what includes arch, column, and capital?

A. Architectural terms.

13. Q. When was Cyrus E. Dallin alive?

A. 1861-1943.

14. Q. What style of art did Pierre Auguste Renoir create?

A. Impressionism

15. Q. In music, what type of markings include pianissimo, fortissimo, and diminuendo?

A. Dynamic Markings.

16. Q. What are three music careers?

A. Composer, lyricist, recording technician

17. Q. What style of music did Antonio Vivaldi create?

A. Baroque.

18. Q. In the performing arts, what includes point of attack (main action), exposition (important information), rising action, climax (crisis), and resolution?

A. Dramatic Structure.

19. Q. In visual art, what element of design includes hue, intensity, and the color wheel?

A. Color

20. Q. What in the elements of design includes primary, secondary, tertiary, complementary monochromatic, warm/cold and neutral?

A. The color wheel.

21. Q. Who created the piece of art that is a collage called “Summertime”?

A. Romare Bearden.

22. Q. Who created the piece of art that is a Northern Renaissance landscape called “The Harvesters”?

A. Pieter Brueghel.

23. Q. In the Principles of Design, what includes focal point and contrast?

A. Emphasis.

24. Q. In Visual Art, what includes an Architect, Art Buyer, Art Critic, Artist, Art Educator, Landscape Architect, and Sculptor?

A. Art Careers.

25. Q. In music, what includes allegro and presto?

A. Tempo.

26. Q. What style of music did Maurice Ravel create?

A. Impressionistic.

27. Q. What fairy tale included a father, and young daughter, a castle, a mirror, and a character that at the beginning of the story was not a prince?

A. Beauty and the Beast.

28. Q. Who composed “Fur Elise”?

A. Ludwig Beethoven.

29. Q. In the performing arts, what includes ballet, jazz, modern, tap, ballroom, and Latin?

A. Dance forms.

30. Q. What principle of design refers to the way the elements of art are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work?

A. Balance.

31. Q. What principle of design refers to the repetition of anything — shapes, lines, or colors — also called a motif, in a design?

A. Pattern.

32. Q. Which art movement was a painting movement when artists typically applied paint rapidly, and with force to their huge canvases in an effort to show feelings and emotions (sometimes with large brushes, dripping, or even throwing)?

A. Abstract Expressionism.

33. Q. Who was the artist who created “Mural on Indian Red Ground” in 1950 using oil and enamel on board?

A. Jackson Pollock.

34. Q. Which art movement was of the Counter-Reformation in the 17th century and was mainly limited to Catholic countries?

A. Baroque.

35. Q. Who was the artist considered to be the master of Dutch art?

A. Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn).

36. Q. Which art movement rejected the purely visual realism of the Impressionist, and the rationality of the Industrial Age in order to depict the symbols of ideas?

A. Symbolism.

37. Q. Who was the Impressionist who created “The Beet Harvest” in 1881?

A. Camille Pissarro

38. Q. Which art style is one in which an artist intends to represent a subject as it appears in the natural world?

A. Naturalism.

39. Q. Which art career is a person who designs and draws plans, elevations, and cross sections of buildings and other environmental features?

A. Architect.

Robert Schumann, "Catch-As-Catch-Can"

"Robert Schumann
1810-1856

There were few more important figures of the romantic era than Robert Schumann, massively influential during his life and long after his death. A composer, critic, virtuoso pianist and philosopher, he was the paradigm of the romantic individual, highly emotionally charged (and indeed unstable), and brilliantly talented.

For his time, Schumann was relatively progressive; his Papillons was one of the first instrumental pieces of its kind to be a representation of a literary subject. The composer continued this trend with the Fantasiestucke and Kinderszenen, two masterpieces for solo piano, arguably the ancestors of works such as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

Schumann was perhaps the most well known practitioner of cryptography in music – using codes. Carnaval and the F-A-E sonata both equate musical notes with letters, words and names, giving a fascinating subtext to many of his pieces. Indeed, his works often make reference to his wife Clara, an interesting subject in itself given her debated relationship to Brahms.

Schumann’s emotional state was often in turmoil, to the point where he attempted suicide. In response he was eventually confined to an asylum, where he died two years later. The result of this tumultuous mental state was constantly changing music, almost schizophrenic in nature, featuring small contrasting sections of different speed and mood. His compositions are often genuinely beautiful and tuneful, particularly the pieces for piano.

Recommended Listening:

Kindersezen, Carnaval, Piano Concerto" -- Boosey Radio.Com

Stars and Stripes Forever

"Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America.

In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa writes that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. He had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, then manager of the Sousa Band. Sousa was on a ferry in Europe at the time, and he composed the march in his head. He committed the notes to paper on arrival in America. Although he would conduct performances of it at virtually every concert until his death, only one recording, made in 1909, is known to survive today." -- Wikipedia

Robert Schumann - "Knight of the Hobby Horse"

The first song is called "Knight of the Hobby Horse".



"Robert Schumann (1810-1856), German composer, a principal figure of the early romantic movement in 19th-century music.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856), German composer, a principal figure of the early romantic movement in 19th-century music.

Robert Alexander Schumann was born on June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Saxony, and educated at the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg. The son of a bookseller, he early became absorbed in literature, particularly that of romanticism. In 1830 he abandoned the study of law in order to devote himself to music. He studied piano with the German teacher Friedrich Wieck, but a permanent injury to one of his fingers forced him to abandon the career of pianist. He then turned to composition and the writing of musical essays. In 1834, he founded the music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, which he edited until 1844. Schumann married the pianist Clara Josephine Wieck, the daughter of his former teacher, in 1840. In 1843 Schumann was appointed to the faculty of the newly founded Leipzig Conservatory, but finding himself emotionally unfit for teaching, he soon resigned. In 1850 he was named town music director at Düsseldorf; advancing mental illness, which had threatened him since adolescence, forced him to resign in 1854. That same year Schumann attempted suicide and was confined to an asylum near Bonn, where he died on July 29, 1856.

One of the most typical of romantic composers, Schumann characterized himself in two imaginary figures, the forceful Florestan and the poetic Eusebius, whose names he signed to his critical articles and whose musical portraits he drew in his piano suite Carnaval (1834-1835). During 1840, he achieved what generally is considered his greatest work when he suddenly turned to the song form. In that year he composed 138 songs of the finest quality, among them the great song cycles Liederkreis (two cycles, texts by Heinrich Heine), Myrthen (texts by various poets), Frauenliebe und Leben (Woman's Love and Life, text by Adelbert von Chamisso), and Dichterliebe (Poet's Love, text by Heinrich Heine). Schumann concentrated on the psychological subtleties of a poem and in his songs gave to the piano accompaniment an equal role in expressing the mood and meaning of a poem.

Schumann's piano works are largely musical expressions of literary themes and moods. With the exception of the Fantasy in C Major (1836) and Études Symphoniques (1854), his best piano compositions consist of cycles of short pieces in which a single lyrical idea is brought to completion within a small framework. In addition to Carnaval, they include Papillons (Butterflies, 1820-1831), Kinderscenen (Scenes from Childhood, 1838), Kreisleriana (1838), and Album für die Jugend (Album for the Young, 1848)." -- Robert Schumann, Encarta

Robert Schumann (Schumann Kinderszenen)

Robert Schumann 1810-1856
There were few more important figures of the romantic era than Robert Schumann, massively influential during his life and long after his death. A composer, critic, virtuoso pianist and philosopher, he was the paradigm of the romantic individual, highly emotionally charged (and indeed unstable), and brilliantly talented.
For his time, Schumann was relatively progressive; his Papillons was one of the first instrumental pieces of its kind to be a representation of a literary subject. The composer continued this trend with the Fantasiestucke and Kinderszenen, two masterpieces for solo piano, arguably the ancestors of works such as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
Schumann was perhaps the most well known practitioner of cryptography in music – using codes. Carnaval and the F-A-E sonata both equate musical notes with letters, words and names, giving a fascinating subtext to many of his pieces. Indeed, his works often make reference to his wife Clara, an interesting subject in itself given her debated relationship to Brahms.
Schumann’s emotional state was often in turmoil, to the point where he attempted suicide. In response he was eventually confined to an asylum, where he died two years later. The result of this tumultuous mental state was constantly changing music, almost schizophrenic in nature, featuring small contrasting sections of different speed and mood. His compositions are often genuinely beautiful and tuneful, particularly the pieces for piano.

Remember to study every day!

Remember to study every day. You are doing a great job!

If you have any questions, please contact

Natasha Call

Home: 653-2763
Cell: 801-915-9130

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Winslow Homer - Biography

Winslow Homer, 1836-1910. American. American Realism. Outdoor scenes with much movement.

Breezing Up (left picture)

Snap the Whip (right picture)

Winslow Homer (February 24, 1836 – September 29, 1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art.
Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working as a commercial illustrator.[1] He subsequently took up oil painting and produced major studio works characterized by the weight and density he exploited from the medium. He also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a fluid and prolific oeuvre, primarily chronicling his working vacations. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1836, Homer was the second of three sons of Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson Homer, both from long lines of New Englanders. His mother was a gifted amateur watercolorist and Homer’s first teacher, and she and her son had a close relationship throughout their lives. [3] Homer had a happy childhood, growing up mostly in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was an average student, but his art talent was on display early. Homer’s father was a volatile, restless businessman who was always looking to “make a killing”. When Homer was thirteen, Charles gave up the hardware store business to seek a fortune in the California gold rush. When that failed, Charles left his family and went to Europe to raise capital for other get-rich-quick schemes that didn’t materialize.[4] After Homer’s high school graduation, his father saw an ad in the newspaper and arranged for an apprenticeship. Homer’s apprenticeship to a Boston commercial lithographer at the age of 19, was a formative but “treadmill experience”.[5] He worked repetitively on sheet music covers and other commercial work for two years. By 1857, his freelance career was underway after he turned down an offer to join the staff of Harper's Weekly. “From the time I took my nose off that lithographic stone”, Homer later stated, “I have had no master, and never shall have any.” [6] Homer’s career as an illustrator lasted nearly twenty years. He contributed to magazines such as Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly, at a time when the market for illustrations was growing rapidly, and when fads and fashions were changing quickly. His early works, mostly commercial engravings of urban and country social scenes, are characterized by clean outlines, simplified forms, dramatic contrast of light and dark, and lively figure groupings — qualities that remained important throughout his career.[7] His quick success was mostly due to this strong understanding of graphic design and also to the adaptability of his designs to wood engraving.

Edward Hicks - Biography

Edward Hicks, 1780-1849. American. Naïve, simplistic style. Flat patterns without perspective.

Peaceable Kingdom ( see picture)

Edward Hicks (1780-1849) was an American folk painter whose chief subject was the "Peaceable Kingdom, " based on the biblical prophecy from Isaiah.

Edward Hicks was born on April 4, 1780, in a small Pennsylvania town (now Langhorne). He was orphaned early and boarded out at the age of 3 to David Twining, a Quaker, civic leader, and prosperous farmer near Newtown, Pa.
At 13 Hicks was apprenticed to a coach maker. In 1800 he began working as a journeyman coach painter and 6 months later struck out on his own. When he came of age in 1801, Hicks began to attend Quaker meetings at nearby Middletown. Two years later he applied for Quaker membership there and married Sarah Worstall, whom he had known since childhood. The couple began married life in Milford, Pa., where the first of their four children was born.
Hicks painted an elaborate tavern sign, probably in 1813, the same year that he turned from coach painting to farming. Failing as a farmer, he returned in 1815 to New-town and to painting. That year a Friends' meeting was established there, and the painter met his cousin, Elias Hicks of Long Island, who had founded the Hicksite movement, which urged a return to the principles of the early Quakers. A fireboard painted in 1817 may have been Hicks's first easel painting.
Hicks's 1819 visit to Niagara Falls was used later as the subject of at least two paintings. In 1820, with few painting commissions to occupy him, Hicks visited Elias's Long Island meetings to work for peace among disparate Quaker factions. That year he also painted the first version of the "Peaceable Kingdom, " a favorite subject of which almost 60 versions are extant. In 1827, when a schism developed among the Quakers, Hicks joined his cousin as a member of the dissenting Hicksites.
Hicks continued to paint "Peaceable Kingdom" pictures, both as gifts and as commissions from relatives and friends. In the 1840s he painted the first of several landscapes that range from beautiful and romantic versions of Bucks County, Pa., farms to renditions of the Grave of William Penn, based on a print or book illustration. He painted several versions of other subjects, including Penn's Treaty with the Indians and Washington Crossing the Delaware.
On Aug. 23, 1849, Hicks died in Newtown. According to a contemporary account, his funeral was the largest ever held in Bucks County. More than 100 paintings by this supremely talented, intensely personal, and unique folk artist still exist.

William Harnett - Biography

William Harnett, 1848-1892. American. Realism. Still-life with remarkable detail.

My Gems (see picture)

Harnett was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland during the time of the potato famine. Shortly after his birth his family emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia. Becoming a United States citizen in 1868, he made a living as a young man by engraving designs on table silver, while also taking night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later, in New York, at Cooper Union and at the National Academy of Design. His first known oil painting, a still life, dates from 1874.
The style of trompe l'oeil painting that Harnett developed was distinctive and inspired many imitators,[1] but it was not without precedent. What sets Harnett's work apart, besides his enormous skill, is his interest in depicting objects not usually made the subject of a painting. Harnett painted musical instruments, hanging game, and tankards, but also painted the unconventional Golden Horseshoe (1886), a single rusted horseshoe shown nailed to a board. He painted a casual jumble of second-hand books set on top of a crate, Job Lot, Cheap (1878), as well as firearms and even paper currency. His works sold well, but they were more likely to be found hanging in a tavern or a business office than in a museum, as they did not conform to contemporary notions of high art. Harnett spent the years 1880–1886 in Europe,[1] staying in Munich from 1881 until early 1885.[2] Harnett's best-known paintings, the four versions of After The Hunt, were painted between 1883 and 1885. Each is an imposing composition of hunting equipment and dead game, hanging on a door with ornate hinges at the right and keyhole plate at the left. These paintings are especially effective as trompe l'oeil because the objects occupy a shallow space, meaning that the illusion is not spoiled by parallax shift if the viewer moves. Crippling rheumatism plagued Harnett in his last years, reducing the number but not the quality of his paintings.[3] He died in New York City in 1892. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harnett

Thomas Gainsborough - Biography

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727-1788. England. Rococo. Colorful portraits and landscapes.

Blue Boy (see picture)

Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-88). English painter of portraits, landscapes, and fancy pictures, one of the most individual geniuses in British art.
He was born at Sudbury, Soffolk, and went to London in about 1740, probably studying with the French engraver Gravelot. He returned to Sudbury in 1748 and in 1752 he set up as a portrait painter at Ipswitch. His work at this time consisted mainly of heads and half-length, but he also painted some small portrait groups in landscape settings which are the most lyrical of all English conversation pieces (Heneage Lloyd and his Sister, Fitzwilliam, Cambridge). His patrons were the merchants of the town and the neighboring squires, but when in 1759 he moved to Bath, his new sitters were members of Society, and he developed a free and elegant mode of painting seen at its most characteristic in full-length portraits (Mary, Countess Howe, Kenwood House, London, c.1763-64).
In 1768 he was elected a foundation member of the Royal Academy, and in
1774 he moved permanently to London. Here he further developed the personal style he had evolved at Bath, working with light and rapid brush-strokes and delicate and evanescent colors. He became a favorite painter of the Royal Family, even though his rival Reynolds was appointed King's Principal Painter.
Gainsborough sometimes said that while portraiture was his profession landscape painting was his pleasure, and he continued to paint landscapes long after he had left a country neighborhood. He produced many landscape drawings, some in pencil, some in charcoal and chalk, and he occasionally made drawings which he varnished. He also, in later years, painted fancy pictures of pastoral subjects (Peasant Girl Gathering Sticks, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1782). Gainsborough's style had diverse sources. His early works show the influence of French engraving and of Dutch landscape painting; at Bath his change of portrait style owed much to a close study of van Dyck (his admiration is most clear in The Blue Boy, Huntingdon Art Gallery, San Marino, 1770); and in his later landscapes (The Watering Place, National Gallery, London, 1777) he is sometimes influenced by Rubens. But he was an independent and original genius, able to assimilate to his own ends what he learnt from others, and he relied always mainly on his own resources. With the exception of his nephew Gainsborough Dupont, he had no assistants and unlike most of his contemporaries he never employed a drapery painter.
He was in many ways the antithesis of Reynolds. Whereas Reynolds was sober-minded and the complete professional, Gainsborough (even though his output was prodigious) was much more easy-going and often overdue with his commissions, writing that `painting and punctuality mix like oil and vinegar'. Although he was an entertaining letter-writer, Gainsborough, unlike Reynolds, had no interest in literary or historical themes, his great passion outside painting being music (his friend William Jackson the composer wrote that he `avoided the company of literary men, who were his aversion... he detested reading'). Gainsborough and Reynolds had great mutual respect, however; Gainsborough asked for Reynolds to visit him on his deathbed, and Reynolds paid posthumous tribute to his rival in his Fourteenth Discourse. Recognizing the fluid brilliance of his brushwork, Reynolds praised `his manner of forming all the parts of a picture together', and wrote of `all those odd scratches and marks' that `by a kind of magic, at a certain distance... seem to drop into their proper places'. For more information see http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gainsborough/

Louise R. Farnsworth - Biography

Louise R. Farnsworth, 1878-1969. American. Expressionism.

Capitol from North Salt Lake (see picture)

Louise Richards Farnsworth was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1878. She painted Utah landscapes in brilliant fauvist style. She died in Salt Lake City in 1969.Farnsworth’s cousin, Lee Greene Richards, influenced her painting style with his use of bright color and his loose application of paint. The neoimpressionist work of Birger Sandźen and the expressionist work of Henri Moser also influenced her approach. From 1898 to 1900, she studied in New York at the Art Students League where her instructors were Kenyon Cox and Joseph De Camp. She later studied in Paris where her work was exhibited in the Salon in 1904. She returned to Utah in that same year. Although she frequently exhibited outside Utah, she maintained a studio in Salt Lake City until 1960. Capitol from North Salt Lake (1935), Hay Stacks (1935), and Springtime (1935) are examples of her work.In 1934, an exhibition of her work, 52 oils of mountain scenes from Utah to Alaska, was exhibited at the Montross Gallery in New York. The Stendahl Gallery in Los Angeles exhibited 20 of her mountain landscapes. The Springville Art Museum includes her work in its permanent collection.Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.
For more information see http://webpac.lib.utah.edu/fa/UtahArtists/artists/farnsworth/index.html

Leonardo da Vinci - Biography

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519. Italian. Renaissance. Portraits and religious works.

Mona Lisa (see picture)

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (pronunciation (help·info), April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man whose "unquenchable curiosity" was equalled 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.[2] Helen Gardner says "The scope and depth of his interests were without precedent...His mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".
Born as the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, 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 King François I.

Leonardo was and is renowned[2] primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, 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,[3] 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 rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
Leonardo is revered[2] for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, 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.[nb 4] As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

James C. Christensen - Biography

James C. Christensen, 1942-present. American.

Rhinoceros (see picture)

James C. Christensen (born 1942) is an American artist. His main body of work, mostly paintings, is heavily influenced by fantasy themes. Even his small body of religious work shows heavy fantasy influence. Christensen says his inspirations are myths, fables, fantasies, and tales of imagination.
Christensen was raised in Culver City, California and attended UCLA. He then moved to Utah to finish his higher education at Brigham Young University (Christensen is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints[1], BYU's sponsor). He then went on to teach art for over 20 years where he finished his teaching career at Brigham Young University in the
late 1990s. Christensen now resides in Orem, Utah.
Most of Christensen's paintings have a philosophical message. He is loath to describe them, however, preferring to allow the viewer to discern their own message. Christensen's work has appeared in the American Illustration Annual and Japan's Outstanding American Illustrators. He also won all the professional art honors the World Science Fiction Convention offers, and multiple Chesley Awards from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. Christensen appeared in an episode of ABC's show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2005. He created a picture featuring a member of the family as a fairy. The design team filmed a segment at his studio. The Greenwich Workshop donated a framed Court of the Faeries that Christensen presented to the family for the room as well. Christensen has published three books, with many of his works appearing in many more. His first book, A Journey of the Imagination: The Art of James Christensen, was printed in 1994 to great acclaim. His second, Voyage of the Basset (October 1, 1996), contains a frame story for a great deal of original work. His third book, Rhymes & Reasons, was published in May 1997. Christensen also illustrated A Shakespeare Sketchbook (May 2001) with text by Renwick St. James. Christensen lives in a house he designed filled with secret passages and sculptures inspired by his paintings. Not employed in all his paintings, his trademark is a flying or floating fish, often on a leash. Christensen co-chairs the Mormon Arts Foundation with his wife Carole.[2] Christensen has produced some pieces that can be placed in historical periods such as "Harvey Cluff".[3] For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Christensen.

Marc Chagall - Biography

Marc Chagall, 1887-1985. Russian (lived in France). Expressionism. Scenes of Russian life and much symbolism.

I and My Village (I and the Village) -- see picture

"Marc Chagall: Russian-born French painter. Born to a humble Jewish family in the ghetto of a large town in White Russia, Chagall passed a childhood steeped in Hasidic culture. Very early in life he was encouraged by his mother to follow his vocation and she managed to get him into a St Petersburg art school. Returning to Vitebsk, he became engaged to Bella Rosenfeld (whom he married twelve years later), then, in 1910, set off for Paris, 'the Mecca of art'. He was a tenant at La Ruche, where he had Modigliani and Soutine for neighbours. His Slav Expressionism was tinged with the influence of Daumier, Jean-François Millet, the Nabis and the Fauves. He was also influenced by Cubism. Essentially a colourist, Chagall was interested in the Simultaneist vision of Robert Delaunay and the Luminists of the Section d'Or.
"Chagall returned to Vitebsk in 1914, where he was caught by the outbreak of the First World War. He married Bella there in 1915. He was appointed provincial Commissar for Fine Art in 1917 and became involved in ambitious projects for a local academy, but he left after two and a half years in order to escape the revolutionary dictates of Malevich. After a stay in Moscow, where he worked in the Jewish theatre, then in Berlin, where he studied the technique of engraving, he returned to Paris in 1923. For the publisher Vollard he illustrated Gogol's Dead Souls, La Fontaine's Fables and the Bible. Breton, who admired the 'total lyric explosion' of his pre-war painting, tried to claim him for Surrealism but Chagall only flirted with it briefly during his exile in New York (1941-48). His emblematic irrationality shook off all outside influences: colour governed his compositions, calling up chimerical processions of memory where reality and the imaginary are woven into a single legend, born in Vitebsk and dreamed in Paris. Back in France, Chagall discovered ceramics, sculpture and stained glass. He settled in the south of France, first at Vence (1950), then in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (1966). Commissions poured in: for the Assy baptistery in 1957, the cathedrals of Metz (1960) and Rheims (1974), the Hebrew University Medical Centre synagogue in Jerusalem (1960), the Paris Opéra (1963). The Musée Chagall in Nice dedicated to the 'Biblical Message' set the seal on his fame in July 1973. A painter-poet celebrated by Apollinaire and Cendrars, Chagall brought back the forgotten dimension of metaphor into French formalism." For more information see http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/chagall.html

Paul Cezanne - Biography

Paul Cezanne, 1839-1906. French. Post Impressionism. Reduced objects in nature to basic shapes. Considered the founder of modern art.

Apples and Oranges (see left picture)

and The Card Players (see right picture)

The French painter Paul Cézanne, who exhibited little in his lifetime and pursued his interests increasingly in artistic isolation, is regarded today as one of the great forerunners of modern painting, both for the way that he evolved of putting down on canvas exactly what his eye saw in nature and for the qualities of pictorial form that he achieved through a unique treatment of space, mass, and color.
Cézanne was a contemporary of the impressionists, but he went beyond their interests in the individual brushstroke and the fall of light onto objects, to create, in his words, ``something more solid and durable, like the art of the museums.''
Cézanne was born at Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on Jan. 19, 1839. He went to school in Aix, forming a close friendship with the novelist Emile Zola. He also studied law there from 1859 to 1861, but at the same time he continued attending drawing classes. Against the implacable resistance of his father, he made up his mind that he wanted to paint and in 1861 joined Zola in Paris. His father's reluctant consent at that time brought him financial support and, later, a large inheritance on which he could live without difficulty. In Paris he met Camille Pissarro and came to know others of the impressionist group, with whom he would exhibit in 1874 and 1877. Cézanne, however, remained an outsider to their circle; from 1864 to 1869 he submitted his work to the official SALON and saw it consistently rejected. His paintings of 1865-70 form what is usually called his early ``romantic'' period. Extremely personal in character, it deals with bizarre subjects of violence and fantasy in harsh, somber colors and extremely heavy paintwork. Thereafter, as Cézanne rejected that kind of approach and worked his way out of the obsessions underlying it, his art is conveniently divided into three phases. In the early 1870s, through a mutually helpful association with Pissarro, with whom he painted outside Paris at Auvers, he assimilated the principles of color and lighting of Impressionism and loosened up his brushwork; yet he retained his own sense of mass and the interaction of planes, as in House of the Hanged Man (1873; Musee d'Orsay, Paris). In the late 1870s Cézanne entered the phase known as ``constructive,'' characterized by the grouping of parallel, hatched brushstrokes in formations that build up a sense of mass in themselves. He continued in this style until the early 1890s, when, in his series of paintings titled Card Players (1890-92), the upward curvature of the players' backs creates a sense of architectural solidity and thrust, and the intervals between figures and objects have the appearance of live cells of space and atmosphere. Finally, living as a solitary in Aix rather than alternating between the south and Paris, Cézanne moved into his late phase. Now he concentrated on a few basic subjects: still lifes of studio objects built around such recurring elements as apples, statuary, and tablecloths; studies of bathers, based upon the male model and drawing upon a combination of memory, earlier studies, and sources in the art of the past; and successive views of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, a nearby landmark, painted from his studio looking across the intervening valley. The landscapes of the final years, much affected by Cézanne's contemporaneous practice in watercolor, have a more transparent and unfinished look, while the last figure paintings are at once more somber and spiritual in mood. By the time of his death on Oct. 22, 1906, Cézanne's art had begun to be shown and seen across Europe, and it became a fundamental influence on the Fauves, the cubists, and virtually all advanced art of the early 20th century. For information see http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cezanne/bio.html

Mary Cassatt - Biography

Mary Cassatt, 1845-1926. American. Impressionism. Family scenes, especially mothers and children.

Artist. Born on May 22, 1844, in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Mary Cassatt was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement of the later part of the 1800s. Born into a prosperous family, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1861 to 1865.Traveling abroad, Mary Cassatt studied and painted in Paris, Italy, Spain, and Holland from 1866 to 1874. She finally settled in Paris, which became her home for the rest of her life. Befriended by Edgar Degas, she was soon characterized as an Impressionist painter in both style and subject matter. By 1883 she was emphasizing more the linear aspect, and the 1890 exhibition of Japanese prints in Paris also influenced her style. She never married, but her own family gradually joined her in Paris. After 1910 her increasingly poor eyesight virtually put an end to her serious painting. Mary Cassatt died on June 14, 1926. She is best known for her luminous portraits of women and children, such as The Morning Toilet (1886) and Mother Feeding a Child (1898). A less recognized legacy was her influence in getting many Americans to acquire Impressionist and other contemporary French paintings now in U.S. museums.
For more information see http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9240820