Peter Paul Rubens Essay Example for Free

Peter Paul Rubens Essay The most sought-after painter in northern Europe during the seventeenth century, Peter Paul Rubens, was also a diplomat, linguist, and scholar. His dramatic artistic style of the seventeenth century is now called baroque, a term apparently derived at a later time from ornate jewelry set with irregular pearls. At its most exuberant, the baroque involves restless motion, startling color contrasts, and vivid clashes of light and shadow. Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. Born the son of a lawyer and educated at a Jesuit school in Antwerp, Flanders, Rubens learned classical and modern languages. He spent the years 1600 to 1608 studying and working in Italy. Returning to Antwerp, he continued to travel as both courtier and painter. His repeated visits to Madrid, Paris, and London allowed him to negotiate treaties while accepting royal commissions for art. One of Rubens major innovations in procedure, which many later artists have followed, was his use of small oil studies as compositional sketches for his large pictures and tapestry designs. Rather than merely drawing, Rubens painted his modelli, or models, thereby establishing the color and lighting schemes and the distributions of shapes simultaneously. Rubens managed a very large studio in Antwerp, training many apprentices and employing independent colleagues to help execute specific projects. Among his mature collaborators whose baroque works are on view in the National Gallery of Art are Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Jan Brueghel, and Frans Snyders. Rubens style tremendously influenced baroque painters throughout Europe, even those such as the German-born Johann Liss who had no documented contact with the master. Liss The Satyr and the Peasant, for instance, is Rubensian in its lively gestures and telling expressions. Painted during the 1620s in Italy, it illustrates a tale from Aesops Fables in which an immortal satyr helped a peasant find his way through a winter storm. The goat-legged creature was astonished when the man put his chilled hands to his mouth to warm them. In thanks for the satyrs guidance, the peasant invited him home to eat. The satyr was further perplexed when the man blew on his spoon to cool the hot soup. The satyr jumped up in disgust at human hypocrisy, proclaiming, I will have nothing to do with someone who blows hot and cold with the same breath! The Fall of Man Rubens copied many of Titians paintings. Part of Rubens greatness was due to his eager study of earlier masters and his ability to combine their techniques with his own style. The Fall of Man is an interesting example of a work after Titian, that is very close to the original but in which Rubens has changed some details. The red parrot in the tree is not in Titians painting. The colors in Rubens painting are more yellowish and Rubens has actually improved Titians painting by giving Adam a more natural pose. In fact, Adam looks a lot like Rubens himself. When Rubens made this painting, he had just met his second wife-to-be, Helene Fourment. She was only 15 years old at the time. Adoration of the Magi Religious paintings were fashionable during the time of Peter Paul Rubens and were nearly always reverential. Adoration of the Magi is a good example of how Jesus was expected to be venerated in art. A painting of 99 inches by 133 inches, Adoration of the Magi is an oil on canvas painting that features a group of figures, who are waiting in turn to pay homage to the newly born Jesus. It is painting that was created by Rubens in 1616 and 1617. The Power of Christ The Virgin Mary is depicted holding up Jesus as an elderly magus kisses the babys feet. Rubens clearly shows that Jesus is no normal child, as quite apart from the large group of people who have come to see Christ, the infant Jesus is seen touching the head of the elderly magus as a sign of acknowledgment of the old mans devotion. Rubens also adds power to the image and of Jesus himself, with the ethnic mix of the visitors. This suggests that the men have traveled from many different parts of the world to witness seeing the baby Jesus and are not all, in fact, magi. The age of the men and the way they are dressed indicates men of power, and, consequently, their humble adoration of Christ gives the work an added weight. Though the expression of the figures in the painting are almost universally serious, there is one man who appears to be smiling and acts in a way many adults would normally act on seeing a baby. The Virgin Mary, however, looks very serious, almost severe, but she is concentrating on Jesus not coming to any harm, as he is standing upright to receive the line of visitors. The Propaganda Element As with most religious paintings of the early 17th Century there could be said to be an element of propaganda in Adoration of the Magi, as it is really showing the power of the Church. It is painting that is saying that however powerful leaders may be, the Church is more powerful than any earthly empire. The fact that there is little light in the painting gives it an air of mystery, as one wonders if some figures are deliberately hidden. Some of the visitors to the stable are also partly hidden by other visitors. The horse to the left of the painting infers that animals are also part of the kingdom of God. Adoration of the Magi currently hangs in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France. VENUS IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR Peter Paul Rubens presented his Venus in Front of the Mirror as the ultimate symbol of beauty. She is aware of the viewer in a mirror that frames her face like a portrait. Great play is made of the sensual reproduction of her skin and silky hair, which is further enlivened by the contrast with the dark-skinned maidservant. The few costly accessories, otherwise decorative additions to elaborate clothing, emphasize the figure’s nakedness. The sensual qualities of the painting are created by Rubens’s subtle painterly approach. He alternates sketchy brushstrokes, drawn over the ground like a transparent veil, with compact areas, painted in great detail. One particularly attractive feature of the picture is the contrast between the goddess’s encounter with the viewer, which seems to occur almost by chance, and the representation of her beauty, as if conceived for a spectator. The mirror that Cupid holds up for the goddess reveals an additional level of meaning: the reflection of Venus, which reveals her beauty to the viewer, becomes a symbol of painting that competes with nature to produce an image that is as real as possible.

Free Hamlet Essays: The Great Actor in Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

The Great Actor in Hamlet Hamlet is sane, not insane. He is putting on an act making people think that he is really insane when he is really just acting. Hamlet was ordered to avenge his fathers death by his father's spirit. The spirit told Hamlet that how he died. The spirit said that he was sleepong in his garden when the uncle came and poured poison into his ear. The spirit told Hamlet to avenge his death by killing his uncle. Hamlet wanted to prove that his uncle really killed his father. His uncle married his mother shortly after the murder of Hamlets father. I think Hamlet is crying inside beacuse he suspects what really happened. People think Hamlet is insane but he is really only acting. After Hamlet has spoken to the ghost, and Horatio and Marcellus find him, emotionally disturbed he says, "As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on... to note that you know aught of me--this do swear". (Act 1, scene 5, line 191-192, 201) This means if I (Hamlet) act crazy in the future, don't take it seriously, I am just acting. Hamlet acting crazy will help him prove that his uncle indeed killed his father. Hamlet wanted to know if what his father's spirit told him about his uncle killing his father was true, so he got the best actors he could find and reenacted what he though the death of his father was like, to see what his uncle's reaction would be. When he saw his uncle storm out of the room he knew it was true. If he were insane he could not have thought of such a good plan to "catch the conscience of the King" (Act 2, scene 2, line 634). Hamlet wanted the king to think he was insane. The king did think Hamlet was insane. The King talking to Rosencranz and Guildenstern says, "something have you heard of Hamlet's transformation, so call it, sith nor th'exterior nor the inward man resembles that it was." (Act 2, scene 2, lines 4-7). Hamlet wanted the king to think he was insane because he didn't want the king to interfere with his plan to find out if he really killed his father. He acted insane because he knew if he did the king would stay out of his way and he would have time to put his plan into operation.

Purpose of Anthem for a Doomed Youth Essay

Owen’s purpose in writing Anthem for a Doomed Youth is to reveal the cruel reality of war which was always hidden from the public in World War One and to show anger to the people who sent him to the trenches. He says in his preface â€Å"All a poet can do today is warn†¦.† this shows he aims to prevent war from happening in later generations. One way that Owen conveys rage is through the men not getting the recognition that they deserved. He does this by dehumanizing the soldiers and comparing them to â€Å"cattle† which shows that they were only seen as instruments of war by the government. Throughout the poem the men not recognized as individuals, but are referred to as â€Å"they†, â€Å"these† or â€Å"them†, by referring to them as a collective he gives a tone that people other than family did not care about the men’s well being at war. If and when the men do die, the prayers to remember them are ‘hasty’ and careless, this is because too many people die in a day to give the true amount of respect they needed showing the futility of war. In the last line of the poem â€Å"a drawing down of blinds†, this metaphor infers death but in different ways. Firstly, in Owen’s time if a funeral car drove past people would pull their blinds down to show respect to the deceased this shows that everyday someone in a town will die and did not come home, so the ‘blinds’ are drawn for funerals that did not take place as men were lost in battle. At the end of everyday blinds are drawn down this can symbolize the sun also going down at the end of a day or finality when someone dies, the blinds of their life are drawn. Finally it infers that people might have drawn their blinds down, or turned their back, to the truth about the war, because maybe it was too brutal to think of their loved ones in the middle of it. Owen also proves in this poem that people, on the battle field and back in Britain, lost their faith in God during the war. Even the title of the piece is ironic in a way. An â€Å"anthem† is usually written for a religious purpose, but when contrasted with a â€Å"doomed youth† it shows not only that war was falsely portrayed as heroic to the men, but also that the war was â€Å"doomed† from the start and not even God could have helped them. Also, no one stopped  to mourn the fallen, the only ‘choirs’ are the voices from the ‘shells’ and bombs on no-mans land. Whilst the men are dehumanized, the rifles, shells and other machines are personified and given human feelings such as â€Å"stuttering† and â€Å"demented† showing that the equipment of war meant more to the government than the men. Also, world war one was the first war to introduce industrial methods of warfare so the guns were seen as better and given more care than the men. When dehumanizing the soldiers and personifying the arms Owen is criticizing the war by saying that the guns mean more than the men controlling them. But although the guns are given feelings and characteristics, they are negative. The artillery are â€Å"stuttering† which can be caused by shell-shock this implies that the soldiers ‘disabilities’ have been transferred to the weapons. The form of the poem is a sonnet, sonnets first started out as romantic but truthful poems by poets such as Wordsworth. By Owen using a sonnet as the poem’s form he conveys irony and conflict as the poem is about aggression and struggle. To conclude, Owen uses Anthem for a Doomed Youth to criticize the war and to expose the true reality of the trenches, he does this by using many language techniques such as dehumanization, metaphors, oxymoron, onomatopoeia and personification.

The History, Development, and Growth of the Federal Bank...

In Michele Terry the Aspiring Marketing Executive case study, one will be able to discuss the history, development, and growth of Federal Bank as well as Michele’s career development and contribution through the years. The topics that will provide us with a thorough understanding are the following: talent management, compensation, labor relations, KPI, performance management, training and development among other key elements that will enhance the organizational changes. Ultimately, with our findings we will develop a connection with the profession of Human Resource Management and Career Development that will further our knowledge and view point in the business world. Federal Bank: History, Development, and Growth Founded in 1887, Federal†¦show more content†¦In these trying times, Federal Bank immediately decided to conduct one on one career development meetings after carefully reviewing the performance results of those employees who were in dire need of long-term goals/motivation. Most employees experiencing these problems were asked to reexamine their present long-term goals, identify behaviors, activities, and experiences that will help them reach the goals, and do the same for short term goals in order to be able to combine each goal desires to put it into effect (Greenhaus Callahan, 2010, Chapter 5, Kindle: 1759). Thankfully, Michele was one of the rare few that actually decided to reach out to Federal officers and her husband for further feedback. Nevertheless, this event was necessary for the development of the Human Resource Management and Career Development system today because it helped valued-driven managers keep on moving fo rward in the corporate ladder that once reaches a dull point in their careers. The HR management department truly savaged the operational errors with the employees so that it would not evolved into a greater ordeal. For that reason, lets not forget that for this financial institution and any other institution if the employees do not feel taken care of, goal-oriented, motivated, and happy it is quite impossible to provide a customer driven environment. Hence, the internal