Dodo Collections brings you another classic from Romain Rolland lsquo;Michelangelo.rsquo;The life of Michelangelo offers one of the most striking examples of the influence that a great man can have on his time. At the moment of his birth in the second half of the fifteenth century the serenity of Ghirlandajo and of Bramante illuminated Italian art. Florentine sculpture seemed about to languish away from an excess of grace in the delicate and meticulous art of Rossellino; Disiderio; Mino da Fiesole; Agostino di Duccio; Benedetto da Maiano and Andrea Sansovino. Michelangelo burst like a thunder-storm into the heavy; overcharged sky of Florence. This storm had undoubtedly been gathering for a long time in the extraordinary intellectual and emotional tension of Italy; which was to cause the Savonarolist upheaval. Nothing like Michelangelo had ever appeared before. He passed like a whirlwind; and after he had passed the brilliant and sensual Florence of Lorenzo dersquo; Medici and Botticelli; of Verocchio and Lionardo; was ended forever. All that harmonious living and dreaming; that spirit of analysis; that aristocratic and courtly poetry; the whole elegant and subtle art of the ldquo;Quattrocento;rdquo; was swept away at one blow. Even after he had been gone for a long time; the world of art was still whirled along in the eddies of his wild spirit. Not the most remote corner was sheltered from the tempest; it drew in its wake all the arts together. Michelangelo captured painting; sculpture; architecture and poetry; all at once; he breathed into them the frenzy of his vigour and of his overwhelming idealism. No one understood him; yet all imitated him. Every one of his great works; the David; the cartoon for the war against Pisa; the vault of the Sistine Chapel; the Last Judgment; St. Peterrsquo;s; dominated generations of artists and enslaved them. From every one of these creations radiated despotic power; a power that came above all from Michelangelorsquo;s personality and from that tremendous life which covered almost a century.Romain Rolland (29 January 1866 ndash; 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist; novelist; essayist; art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 ldquo;as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary production and to the sympathy and love of truth with which he has described different types of human beingsrdquo;. He became a history teacher at Lyceacute;e Henri IV; then at the Lyceacute;e Louis le Grand; and member of the Eacute;cole franccedil;aise de Rome; then a professor of the History of Music at the Sorbonne; and History Professor at the Eacute;cole Normale Supeacute;rieure.Rollandrsquo;s most significant contribution to the theatre lies in his advocacy for a ldquo;popular theatrerdquo; in his essay The Peoplersquo;s Theatre (Le Theacute;acirc;tre du peuple; 1902). ldquo;There is only one necessary condition for the emergence of a new theatrerdquo;; he wrote; ldquo;that the stage and auditorium should be open to the masses; should be able to contain a people and the actions of a peoplerdquo;. The book was not published until 1913; but most of its contents had appeared in the Revue drsquo;Art Dramatique between 1900 and 1903. Rolland attempted to put his theory into practice with his melodramatic dramas about the French Revolution; Danton (1900) and The Fourteenth of July (1902); but it was his ideas that formed a major reference point for subsequent practitioners.
#1815432 in eBooks 2015-08-21 2015-08-21File Name: B0147CHVF8
Review
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Ian Myles Slater on: Short Book. Large ConceptsBy Ian M. Slater"Ancient Art and Ritual" is a short. "popular" book by Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928). who was a classical scholar by training. and a student of anthropology (or sociology) when Frazers "The Golden Bough" was still astonishing (or infuriating) classicists with its message that the customs and beliefs of "beastly heathen savages" might shed light on those of the Greeks and Romans. (Who were. of course. strictly speaking. "beastly heathens" themselves.... Not to mention some of their other customs.) On top of this. she pioneered the role of professional academic for women; separating the two aspects in some of the negative reactions to her work can be difficult.Those curious about her now have a very good Wikipedia article to refer to. so Ill forgo a biographical sketch. and a lot of bibliographic detail on her publications. (This takes advantage of well-documented modern studies. Sandra J. Peacocks 1988 biography. "Jane Ellen Harrison: The Mask and the Self." and Mary Beards 2000 "The Invention of Jane Harrison." Book 14 in the Harvard University Press "Revealing Antiquity" series. which supersede the biographical sketches available in earlier decades.)Like many of her works. "Art and Ritual" is available as a free pdf from archive.org (a Library of Congress website); a few (including this one) are available in Kindle editions (based. in this case. on a Project Gutenberg text). There are also no less than four competing editions of "Ancient Art and Ritual" for NOOK Books (although I have not taken the time to compare them).In "Ancient Art and Ritual." she used some of the insights (real or supposed) gained from her classical and anthropological studies to analyze the place of the arts in (despite the title). the "modern" world. (Mostly Britain. as it was just before the First World War.)Her basic thesis (much simplified) is that art. including visual and dramatic art. and ritual ("religion") were once united. expressing and evoking strong personal and communal emotions through the mode of imitation; and that the modern world had severed the connection. to its own considerable loss. She notes that she could have written the book with reference to India. or Medieval Europe. but argues that the modern world -- or at least the educated part at which the book was aimed -- felt closer to the ancient Greeks. so that the contrast was clearer. (One may doubt the extent to which this is now a compelling argument. but it made sense at the time.)If one takes her argument seriously. the temptation to apply it to. say. television. may be irresistible.However. if asked to list Harrisons major works. I would restrict my selection to three connected books: "Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion." first published in 1903. with various re-printings containing additional technical notes and some revisions of her views on particular issues; "Themis. a study of the social origins of Greek religion" ("With an excursus on the ritual forms preserved in Greek tragedy by Gilbert Murray and a chapter on the origin of the Olympic games by F.M. Cornford"). in 1912; and "Epilogomena to the Study of Greek Religion." published in 1921 (by which time she was cutting her connections to classical studies in favor of other interests. like Russian literature.)The first two volumes are massive studies. of which the first was the most successful with fellow-classicists in her own time. ("Themis" had to wait to the later twentieth century for belated recognition). "Epilogomena" is very short. and cant stand alone. being mostly limited to "reconsiderations" of (mainly) theoretical issues. but it is well worth reading. In these volumes. she attempted to go past the "barrier" erected by Homer and Athenian Tragedy. with their Olympian deities. and find the "real" roots of Greek ritual actions and religious feeling. particularly concerns for subsistence. In her view (shared by the so-called "Cambridge School"). it was the ritual which gave rise to the mythology. and the concepts of the gods. and not the other way around. Whether or not once comes away convinced. the argument is extremely interesting. "Prolegomena" in particular is packed with reflections on the "Lower Mythology" (daemons. and various types of local spirits. benevolent or malicious) usually ignored -- or deplored -- in older treatments of "Greek Religion.""Ancient Art and Ritual" (1913; corrected edition with some new bibliography. 1948) is something of a satellite to "Prolegomena" and "Themis." without the illustrations from ancient art. the edited Greek texts. and the careful documentation. It was originally published in the "Home University Library of Modern Knowledge." issued by Williams and Norgate (UK) and Henry Holt and Co. (US). in a volume roughly the size of a mass-market paperback.So far as I know. "Ancient Art and Ritual." despite a fair number of reprintings. had little impact; the classicist who might have been most impressed by it. Gilbert Murray. was its editor. However. in 1926. one of Harrisons close friends. Hope Mirrlees (1887-1978; again. see her own Wikipedia article for details). published a fantasy novel. "Lud-in-the-Mist." with an epigraph by Harrison. The book. currently available in a very nice Kindle edition (besides out-of-print paperbacks) has a number of (mostly favorable) reviews on . From my perspective. the ideas about society. art. and religion embodied in the novel are in part a reflection on "Ancient Art and Ritual."6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Art Emotion Go Hand in Hand!By Lynn M.This book is a scholarly read and Jane Harrison shows how man has always dealt with rituals to celebrate new life or some rite of passage. He could be seen enraptured in a dance or a song as he asks the gods to show mercy for rain. a healing or for food. She shows how these ancient rituals evolved into art forms such as choral readings. dance forms and even drama itself. Also. Greek sculpture was developed as a demure way to give homage to the gods.The one common thread behind all of the art forms was high emotional energy because the needs were so great. She then moves towards the premise that art is borne out of emotion and when man has a dire need. he becomes active and participatory.She then shifts to the artist himself and says he speaks when he is vexed or his feelings are deeply stirred. It is the artistrsquo;s duty to transfer those feelings into some medium and this expression will eventually be seen as a spoken truth whether done through writing. painting or drama. The artist normally has a keener emotion and though often perceived as somewhat removed or aloof from practical life. it is his responsibility to tell what he sees and feels.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A Lasting Classic by a Lasting ScholarBy Maggy A. AnthonyJane Ellen Harrison was one of the great classical scholars of her time. at a time when women were scarce in academia. She had the respect of other scholars in her field too and was an inspiration to the next generations.She was far ahead of her time as a multi-disciplinarian bringing all her knowledge in various fields to bear in her works. This book is seminal for the ritual and art of ancient times.
