Rahul Hardy's

Art through Ages Chapter 2

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 07:57:00 +0000

Theatre and Origin of Cinema

Theatre

The Origins of Drama

Twenty-five hundred years ago, two thousand years before Shakespeare, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture whose form, technique and terminology have lasted two millennia, and they created plays that are still considered among the greatest works of world drama. Their achievement is truly remarkable when one considers that there have been only two other periods in the history of theatre that could be said to approach the greatness of ancient Athens - Elizabethan England and, perhaps the Twentieth Century. The greatest playwright of Elizabethan England was Shakespeare, but Athens produced at least five equally great playwrights. The Twentieth Century produced thousands of fine plays and films, but their form and often their content are based on the innovations of the ancient Athenians.

The Cult of Dionysus

The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from religious rites which date back to at least 1200 BC. At that time, Greece was peopled by tribes that we in our arrogance might label 'primitive'. In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a cult arose that worshipped Dionysus, the god of fertility and procreation. This Cult of Dionysus, which probably originated in Asia Minor, practised ritual celebrations which may have included alcoholic intoxication, orgies, human and animal sacrifices, and perhaps even hysterical rampages by women called maenads.

The cult's most controversial practice involved was the uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created an altered mental state. This altered state was known as 'ecstasis', from which the word ecstasy is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and 'catharsis' also derive from Greek words for emotional release or purification. Ecstasy was an important religious concept to the Greeks, who would come to see theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions through its ritual power. Though it met with resistance, the cult spread south through the tribes of Greece over the ensuing six centuries. During this time, the rites of Dionysus became mainstream and more formalised and symbolic. The death of a tragic hero was offered up to god and man rather than the sacrifice of say, a goat. By 600 BC these ceremonies were practised in spring throughout much of Greece.

The Dithyramb

An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb. The word means 'choric hymn'. This chant or hymn was probably introduced into Greece early accompanied by mimic gestures and, probably, music. It began as a part of a purely religious ceremony, like a hymn in the middle of a mass describing the adventures of Dionysus. In its earliest form it was lead off by the leader of a band of revellers, a group of dancers, probably dressed as satyrs dancing around an altar. It was probably performed by a chorus of about fifty men dressed as satyrs -- mythological half-human, half- goat servants of Dionysus. They may have played drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as they danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Some accounts say they also wore phallus-like headgear. It was given a regular form and raised to the rank of artistic poetry in about 600 BC. Introduced into Athens shortly before 500 BC, dithyramb was soon recognised as one of the competitive subjects at the various Athenian festivals. For more than a generation after its introduction the dithyramb attracted the most famous poets of the day. By this time, however, it had ceased to concern itself exclusively with the adventures of Dionysus and begun to choose its subjects from all periods of Greek mythology. In this way, over time the dithyramb evolved into stories in 'play' form: drama.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF GREEK THEATRE

By 600 BC Greece was divided into city-states, separate nations centred in major cities and regions. The most prominent city-state was Athens, where at least 150,000 people lived. It was here that the Rites of Dionysus evolved into what we know today as theatre. Since Athens was located in a region called Attica. Greek and Athenian theatre are sometimes referred to as Attic Theatre.

Stages and Styles of Presentation

According to tradition, the first tragedian, Thespis, performed his plays on wagons with which he travelled, and seats were set up for performances in the agora or market place of Athens. By the end of the sixth century BC, however, a permanent theatron of ‘watching place’, was set up in the precinct of Dionysuson the south slope of the Athenian Acropolis. Since at first any construction above ground was made of wood, and since the theatre was later rebuilt many times, the surviving remains of this earliest Theatre of Dionysus are extremely scanty. It has therefore to be reconstructed on the analogy of other Greek theatres and on the evidence of the plays performed there. The only features which necessarily existed in the early fifth century are wooden seats for spectators on the hillside, and a level earth-floored orchestra, or ‘dancing area’ in the centre. The orchestra is usually believed to have been circular, like a threshing floor. The orchestra at Epidaurus, for example, has a diameter of just over 20 metres. If the spot chosen necessitated another shape, it could be rectangular like that at Thoricus.

Most of the surviving plays also make use of a building, the skene or scene building. This was used as a changing-room for actors and as a sounding board, but also served to represent the palace or house in front of which most plays are set. At first, it must have been a temporary building re-erected each year (skene means merely ‘tent’ or ‘hut’). The number of doors in its facade is disputed; most tragedies require only one, but it most likely that there were in fact three. Actors and chorus could enter by paths, called parodoi or eisodoi, to the right and left of the skene. Chiefly they made these entrances on horse-drawn chariots. The roof of the building could be used as an acting area, for watchmen, gods and others. There is some oblique suggestion in two texts of the period that permanent screens with architectural images were used, not ‘sets’ for specific plays, but permanent fixtures. It is conceivable, too, that there was some rather underground passage, allowing ghosts to appear from below.

There have been many disputes as to the existence of a stage (logeion) in front of the skene, raising the actors above the orchestra where the Chorus performed. The evidence is sparse, but is probable that this stage existed, although it will not have been so high as to prevent easy interaction between actors and Chorus. Other features of the orchestra were a central altar several images of gods, which could be noticed in the plays, when required.

European Medieval Theatre

Early Medieval Theatre

The Early Middle age Churches started staging dramatized versions of particular biblical events on specific days of the year. This was done with a view of explaining a new religion to a largely illiterate population. Symbolic objects and actions (vestments, altars, censers, and pantomime) performed by the priests recalled the events which Christian ritual celebrates. These were extensive set of visual signs that could be used to communicate with a largely illiterate audience. During the early stages around 925 c.a., the performances developed into liturgical dramas, which were sung by two groups and did not involve any actors; until sometime between 965 and 975 when the Bishop of Winchester composed the Regularis Concordia (Monastic Agreement), a complete playlet with directions for performance.

The Western Roman Empire seat shifted to Constantinople and the Eastern were known as Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine theatre has records of mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances and other entertainments. The importance of Byzantine theatre comes from the compilation of a massive encyclopedia called the Suda. The Justinian finally shut down the theatres around 6^th century. The Constantinople had two theatres until 5^th century. According to the early beliefs of the church followers of anything that didn’t to God was Satanic, all theatres were shut down, literatures of Greek and Roman were burnt, Platonic Academy was closed and Olympic game were banned. The theatre was viewed as diabolic due to its continued popularity in Rome and the church characterized the stage as an instrument to Devil’s evil plot to corrupt men’s souls and acting was considered sinful as they mocked God’s creation.

Hrosvitha, an aristocratic canoness and historian, wrote six plays modelled on Terence’s comedies using religious subjects in 10^th century. To pre-empt criticism from Church, she stated that her collection was to save the church from guilt when reading classical literature. The six plays were the first known plays composed by a woman and the first identifiable Western dramatic works for post-Classical era. Hrosvitha was followed by Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine abbess who wrote a musical Ordo Virtutum in 1155.

High and Late Medieval Theatre

The liturgical dramas spread from Russia to Scandinavia to Italy by 11^th Century. Numerous liturgical dramas have survived from the period, though the churches have only performed one or two a year. The Feast of Fools was important in the development of comedy. The plays were staged with the occasion and a certain amount of burlesque and comedy made to enter the liturgical drama, as part of ridiculing the higher superior clergy and routine of church life.

The usage of the vernacular in the plays made the reach to a wider range of audience, which started in the late 12^th century. During the high middle ages, the trade guilds started to perform plays often relating to a biblical story referenced to their profession. A number of religious plays were performed in every European country during the high and late medieval ages. Many of them were contained comedy, devils, villains and clowns. Many of the actors were drawn from local population. Plays were staged on pageant wagon stages, which was an unidentified space, allowed for abrupt changes in the location.

Morality plays which developed as a different distinct dramatic form during the 1400s and flourished until 1550, puts forth many a plays relating to the moral values of a person. Another form of drama that was written was secular plays, which contained satirical scenes and folk material such as fairies and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also grew in popularity in the 13^th century. Many of the plays came from France and Germany and were similar in tone and form.

A significant forerunner of development of Elizabethan drama was the Chamber of Rhetoric in the Low country. At the end of the late Middle Ages, professional actors began to appear in England and around Europe.

Contributions to Modern Theatre

Many components of theatre that developed during the Middle Ages continue to be incorporated in productions around the world to this day, such as use of the vernacular, spectacle, stage direction and the use of farce. Performances that were spoken in the vernacular provided opportunities for larger audiences, who included members of lower socio-economic status, who would have otherwise been excluded from understanding the performances. Medieval theatre differed from the classical theatre for it emphasized spectacle. In addition, it presented various actions on stage in time and space and presented a combination of the sublime with detailed realism.

Asian Theatre

Chinese Theatre

Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China which is a composite performance art that is amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more than a thousand years, reaching its mature form in the 13th century during the Song Dynasty. Early forms of Chinese drama are simple, but over time they incorporated various art forms, such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, as well as literary art forms to become Chinese opera.

An early form of Chinese drama is the Canjun Opera which originated from the Later Zhao Dynasty (319-351). In its early form it was a simple comic drama involving only two performers, where a corrupt officer, Canjun or the adjutant, was ridiculed by a jester named Grey Hawk. The characters in Canjun Opera are thought to be the forerunners of the fixed role categories of later Chinese opera, particularly of its comic chou characters. Various song and dance dramas developed during the ages.

During the Northern Qi Dynasty, a masked dance called the Big Face was created in honour of Gao Changgong who went into battle wearing a mask. Another was called Botou, a masked dance drama from the Western Regions that tells the story of a grieving son who sought a tiger that killed his father. In The Dancing Singing Woman, which relates the story of a wife battered by her drunken husband, the song and dance drama was initially performed by a man dressed as a woman. The stories told in of these song-and-dance dramas are simple, but they are thought to be the earliest pieces of musical theatre in China, and the precursors to the more sophisticated later forms of Chinese opera. These forms of early drama were popular in the Tang Dynasty where they further developed. For example, by the end of the Tang Dynasty the Canjun Opera had evolved into a performance with more complex plot and dramatic twists, and it involved at least four performers. The early form of Chinese theatre became more organized in the Tang Dynasty with Emperor Xuanzong (712–755), who founded the "Pear Garden", the first academy of music to train musicians, dancers and actors. The performers formed what may be considered the first known opera troupe in China, and mostly performed for the emperors' personal pleasure.

Present

In the 21st century, Chinese opera is seldom publicly staged except in formal Chinese opera houses. It is also presented during the lunar seventh month Chinese Ghost Festival in Asia as a form of entertainment to the spirits and audience. More than thirty famous forms of Chinese opera continue to be performed today came from Kunqu, including Journey of the West, Romance of Three Kingdom, the Peony Pavilion, and the Peach Blossom Fan. These masks were based on the ancient face painting tradition where warriors decorated themselves to scare the enemy.

In 2001, Kunqu was recognized as Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO).

Indian Theatre

The earliest form of the theatre of India was the Sanskrit theatre. It emerged sometime between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD and flourished between the 1st century AD and the 10th, which was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written. In an attempt to re-assert indigenous values and ideas, village theatre was encouraged across the subcontinent, developing in a large number of regional languages from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Modern Indian theatre developed during the period of colonial rule under the British Empire, from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th.

Sanskrit Theatre

The earliest-surviving fragments of Sanskrit drama date from the 1st century AD. The Mahabhasya by Patanjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of Sanskrit drama. This treatise on grammar from 140 BC provides a feasible date for the beginnings of theatre in India. The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is A Treatise on Theatre (Natyasastra), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BC to 200 AD) and whose authorship is attributed to Bharata Muni. The Treatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting, dance, music, dramatic construction, architecture, costuming, make-up, props, the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers a mythological account of the origin of theatre.[8] In doing so, it provides indications about the nature of actual theatrical practices. Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred ground by priests who had been trained in the necessary skills (dance, music, and recitation) in a [hereditary process]. Its aim was both to educate and to entertain.

Theatre in India under British Rule

Under British colonial rule, modern Indian theatre began when a theatre was started in Belgachia. Rabindranath Tagore was a pioneering modern playwright who wrote plays noted for their exploration and questioning of nationalism, identity, spiritualism and material greed. His plays are written in Bengali and include Chitra (Chitrangada, 1892), The King of the Dark Chamber (Raja, 1910), The Post Office (Dakghar, 1913), and Red Oleander (Raktakarabi, 1924).

Kalyanam Raghuramaiah, a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, and the Padmashri, was known for the roles of Krishna or Dushyantha, Bhavanisankar, Narada etc. in Telugu theatre. He performed those roles for about 60 years. He indulged in elaborate raga alapana, based on different ragas while rendering padyams. One of the finest method actors, he had the ability to sing padyams and songs through whistle, by putting his finger in mouth and producing the whistle or flute sound (meaning Eela in Telugu). He has acted in various dramas and gave more than 20,000 stage performances. He was called the "Nightingale of the Stage" by Rabindranath Tagore.

Indian Theatre after Independence

Mrityunjay Prabhakar is one of the major young Hindi theatre director and playwright who emerged on Indian Theatre Scene in the last decade of the 20th century and established himself as a significant theatre activist in first decade of the 21st century. He started his theatre career from Patna during his graduation days. He has worked with several theatre groups like Abhiyan, Prerna, Mach Art group and Prangan in Patna.

Saurabh Srivastava is another versatile theatre worker who has been active in different parts of country since 1980, acting and directing in plays in Allahabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi, Vadodara, Hyderabad, Jodhpur and Jaipur.[18] Working with Campus Theatre, Creative Arts, Apurva Society etc., Saurabh Srivastava has directed more than two dozen Hindi plays and presented hundreds of shows in different cities. Literary interpretation, mature insight, penetrating vision and an ability to successfully communicate the essence to the audience are some of the strengths of Saurabh's style and vision of theatrical presentation. He is currently active in Jaipur.

Forms of Indian Theatre

Kutiyattom

Kutiyattam is the only surviving specimen of the ancient Sanskrit theatre, thought to have originated around the beginning of the Common Era, and is officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Koodiyattam and chakyar koothu were among the dramatized dance worship services in temples of ancient India, particularly Kerala. Both koodiyattam and chakyar koothu find several mentions in ancient sangam literature of south and also in the epigraphs belonging to subsequent Pallava, Chera, Chola periods.

Traditionally, the main musical instruments used in Koodiyattam are mizhavu, kuzhitalam, etakka, kurumkuzhal, and sankhu. Mizhavu, the most prominent of these, is a percussion instrument that is played by a person of the Ambalavas Nambiar caste, accompanied by Nangyaramma playing the kuzhithalam (a type of cymbal).

Traditionally, Koodiyattam has been performed by Chakyars (a subcaste of Kerala Hindus) and by Nangyaramma (women of the Ambalavasi Nambiar caste). The name Koodiyattam, meaning playing or performing together, is thought to refer to the presence or more actors on stage who act in consonance with the beats of the mizhavu drummers. Koodiyattam performances are lengthy and elaborate affairs, ranging from 12 to 150 hours spread across several nights. A complete Koodiyattam performance consists of three parts. The first of these is the purappadu where an actor performs a verse along with the nritta aspect of dance. Following this is the nirvahanam where the actor, using abhinaya, brings to the audience the mood of the main character of the play. The nirvahanam, a retrospective, takes the audience up to the point where the actual play begins. The final part of the performance is koodiyattam which is the play itself. While the first two parts are solo acts, Koodiyattam can have as many characters as are required to perform on the stage.

Kadhakali

Kathakali, one of the major forms of classical Indian dance is another "story play" genre of art that is distinguished by its elaborately colourful make-up, costumes and face masks wearing actor-dancers, who have traditionally been all males. Kathakali was primarily developed as a Hindu performance art in Kerala. The traditional themes of the Kathakali are folk mythologies, religious legends and spiritual ideas from the Hindu epics and the Puranas. The vocal performance has traditionally been Sanskritised Malayalam.

The play is in the form of verses that are metered and lyrical, sung by vocalists whose voice has been trained to various melodies (raga), music and synchronized with the dance-acting on the stage.[53] The vocalists not only deliver the lines, but help set the context and express the inner state of the character by modulating their voice. For example, anger is expressed by the use of sharp high voice and pleading is expressed by the use of a tired tone for the verse. Music is central to a Kathakali performance. It sets the mood and triggers emotions resonant with the nature of the scene. It also the beat speed with which the actors play their parts. Some major musical patterns, according to Clifford and Betty, that go with the moods and content of the scene are: Cempata (most common and default that applies to a range of moods, in battles and fights between good and evil, also to conclude a scene); Campa music (depict tension, dispute, disagreement between lovers or competing ideas); Pancari (for odious, preparatory such as sharpening a sword); Triputa (thought provoking, scenes involving sages and teachers); Atanta (scenes involving kings or divine beings); Muri Atanta musical style (for comic, light hearted, or fast moving scenes involving heroic or anger-driven activity). Many musical instruments are used in Kathakali. Three major drums found are Maddalam (barrel shaped), Centa (cylindrical drum played with curved sticks) and Itaykka (Idakka, hourglass shaped drum with muted and melodious notes played when female characters perform).

A tradition Kathakali play typically consists of two interconnected parts, the third-person Shlokas and first-person Padams. The Shlokas are in Sanskrit and describe the action in the scene, while Padams are dialogues in Malayalam (Sanskritized) for the actors to interpret and play. A Padam consists of three parts: a Pallavi (refrain), Anupallavi (subrefrain) and Caranam (foot), all of which are set to one of the ancient Ragas (musical mode), based on the mood and context as outlined in ancient Sanskrit texts such as the Natya Shastra. In historic practice of a play performance, each Padam was enacted twice by the actor while the vocalists sang the lines repeatedly as the actor-dancer played his role out. The traditional plays were long, many written to be performed all night, some such as those based on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata written to be performed for many sequential nights. However, others such as the Prahlada Caritam were composed so that they can be performed within four hours. Modern productions have extracted parts of these legendary plays, to be typically performed within 3 to 4 hours.

Kathakali has lineages or distinctive styles of play interpretation and dance performance called Sampradayam. These developed in part because of the Gurukul system of its transmission from one generation to the next. By the 19th-century, many such styles were in vogue in Malayalam speaking communities of south India, of which two major styles have crystallized and survived into the modern age.

The Kidangoor style is one developed in Travancore, and it is strongly influenced by Kutiyattam, while also drawing elements of Ramanattam and Kalladikkotan. The Kalluvayi style is second of the two, which developed in Palakkad (Olappamanna Mana) in central Kerala, and is a synthesis of the older Kaplingadan and Kalladikkotan performance arts. It is traditionally attributed to Unniri Panikkar, in a Brahmin household (1850), and became the dominant style established in Kerala Kalamandalam – a school of performance arts.

Cinema

Cinema is the repurposing of life. We, the audience, choose to recognize what is inside the frame and what is not. Martin Scorsese knew this when he broke down film to its base level: “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s not.” Scorsese, himself, is a major practitioner of his own theory. Always one to give a sly wink and nod to the “oldies,” he constantly fills his frame with the aesthetic tropes of the earliest days of film. Taking this basic idea, the first ten years of cinema set the foundation for the century of innovation that has followed, where two future allies in battle would first set a course of competition for supremacy in the creation of the most awe-inspiring of mediums: the movies. While one can trace the “origins of cinema” all the way back to Euclid, the essential genesis of it comes from a Belgian physicist and an Austrian geometry professor. Joseph Plateau and Simon von Stampfer developed the first true illusionary device of images called the phenakistoscope in 1832. Following on the heels of this creation in 1833, William George Horner came up with a more sophisticated invention called the zoetrope. It took the pinwheel idea of the phenenakistoscope and made it more visually pleasing for the viewer. By 1878, a noted photographer named Eadweard Muybridge was asked by former California governor Leland Stanford to invent a system that would help study the gaits of horses more effectively. Muybridge put twelve cameras side-by-side that each shot an exposure of one-thousandth of a second, one-half-second each. This became the first photograph-based movement of images. Once George Eastman developed his Kodak film stock in 1888, it was all an already-established inventor needed to develop his next great invention.

Thomas Alva Edison will normally be credited with the creation of the first “film” device. He and his assistant W.K.L. Dickson, with a lot of research of others work, began to devise a machine that would take Eastman’s Kodak film stock and run it through a camera they had put together. This kinetograph camera was apart of a larger machine with spinning gears that would slowly run the film stock through it. Edison would name this machine a “kinetoscope” and it would have its first public test run in New York City on April 14, 1894. Soon, hundreds of kinetoscopes were showing up in parlors across the country to great acclaim. Viewers could peer through a peep hole in the machine and see the twenty-second short films Edison and his company produced. The race for cinematic supremacy was on. Europe had always been on top of the most fashionable trends and styles and, certainly France, Paris more specifically, was an epicenter of this. Always seen as the art capital of the world, Paris and its surrounding cities produced and displayed the finest of artistic works. As Edison’s kinetoscope was becoming more and more ubiquitous, two brothers named Louis and Auguste Lumiere from Lyon, France, had the grand idea of creating something more portable than its predecessor, but, also, more functional. They would be able to shoot their own films on this particular device using the Eastman/Edison stock and have the positive copies printed on the same machine. Once it was placed in front of a magic lantern, it, would finally act as a projector as well. Once they had created twenty-five or so short films, similar to the ones Edison made, they took what they dubbed the “cinematographe” to the Grand Cafe in Paris and effectively became responsible for the first movie-going experience.

Now, cinema had officially gone international. Movie houses and nickelodeons would begin popping up in the next ten years. By the end of the 19th century, films were still primitive. Unlike theatrical works, there was no functioning narrative or plot line to the shorts that Edison and the Lumieres had created. They were certainly new and fun to look at for the audiences, but a cadre of individuals began testing the boundaries of how far they could go with the stories they wanted to tell. Famed Parisian magician George Melies, already a wizard at creating illusions, got his hands on a camera and began tinkering not only with what he could do with it, but, also, the mise-en-scene that it was filming. He used many various methods of special effects to show fantastical stories being brought to life. His use of the dissolve edit and superimposition was completely unheard of at the time. Melies’s films would get progressively more complex with each year and in 1902, he directed what became one of the longest pieces seen up to that point, A Trip to the Moon. This film is the measuring stick for all ones that were to come, with its futuristic narrative of a group of French scientists and their exploration of space and the moon. The aforementioned technical tricks Melies used are on full display, here. For example, the Moon creatures that antagonize the scientists are easily disposed of by simply hitting them. They turn into puffs of smoke after being whacked with either umbrellas or appendages. He would cut the film between the two bits of action to create this particular illusion. A Trip to the Moon garnered plenty of attention, especially from an American working for Edison’s company at the time. Edwin S. Porter, a former projectionist, did early photography work for Edison and, in the process, created over two hundred short films. After seeing A Trip to the Moon, he felt that he could properly tell his own short stories. In 1903, he made two films, ‘Life of an American Fireman’ and ‘The Great Train Robbery’, were evolutionary leaps in editing. Instead of using trickery like Melies, Porter would use parallel editing with two pieces of information in two different locales that would equal a converging story. Technical “intercutting” back and forth between these locations wouldn’t be used until a few years later, but what Porter accomplished with both films made it a lot easier for future filmmakers. The Great Train Robbery, itself, was ahead of its time just in the way of action and violence. In fact, Porter used, seemingly as an afterthought, a, now, iconic shot at the very end of the film of one of the robbers staring at the camera for a few seconds, then turning a gun on it and shooting. Audiences were reportedly startled by this. Porter was able to create one of the first truly Brechtian, fourth-wall-breaking moments in cinema.

This wholly new medium was picking up steam by the beginning of the 20th century and, soon, had become a cultural revolution, still evolving to this day. The 2011 film, Hugo, which was an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’, was about Melies’s life after his film career ended. The film, which was shot in 3-D, pays wonderful homage to moments most of us can only dream about getting to see: the first time ‘Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat’ was played to audiences and the shock and awe that occurred, Melies’s gorgeous glass studio where he created many of his most notable works, and even Melies’s the gala retrospective he was given by film scholars in the late-1920s. It’s a cliche, but it’s easily one of the best love letters to the cinema. In a more surreptitious moment, at the end of his 1990 film Goodfellas, he quickly added in a shot of the psychotic Tommy, played by Joe Pesci, staring at the camera and shooting his gun at it, right before he cuts to Ray Liotta’s Henry walking back in the house and slamming the door. The moment is perfect, as Scorsese reinforces the idea that these men were cowboys. They succeeded as cowboys and they certainly failed like them, too. Just two moments like these prove how pivotal, no matter how simplistic, the first ten years of cinema were.

Art through the Ages

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 07:45:00 +0000

Art and its Development through the Ages

Art

"To evoke in oneself a feeling one has experienced, and then, by mean of movements, lines, colours, sounds or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling is the activity of Art.” - Leo Tolstoy

Classification

Traditional and contemporary art encompasses activities as diverse as:

Architecture, music, opera, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, illustration, drawing, cartoons, printmaking, ceramics, stained glass, photography, installation, video, film and cinematography etc. classified into several overlapping categories such as: fine, visual, plastic, decorative, applied and performing.

Fine Art:

· Drawings using charcoal, chalk, crayon, pastel or with pencil or pen and ink.

· Painting using oil, watercolour, gauche, acrylics, ink and wash, tempera or encaustic.

· Printmaking using woodcuts or stencils, or techniques of engraving, etching or lithography or modern methods like screen printing.

· Sculptures in bronze, stone, marble, wood or clay.

· Calligraphy used for highly complex stylised writing.

Visual Art:

Includes all the forms of fine arts as well the new media and contemporary forms of expression such as installation, conceptual, performance arts as well photography and film based forms like video and animation, and environmental land art.

Performance Art:

The type refers to public performance events. Traditional varieties include, theatre, opera, music, and ballet. Contemporary performance art also includes any activity in which the artist's physical presence acts as the medium. Thus it encompasses, mime, face or body painting, and the like. A hyper-modern type of performance art is known as Happenings.

Plastic Art:

The term denotes three dimensional works employing materials that can be moulded, shaped or manipulated (plasticized) in some way such as clay, plaster, stone, metals, wood (sculpture), paper (origami), and so on.

Decorative Art:

The category denotes ornamental art forms such as works in glass, clay, wood, metal, or textile fabric; which involves all forms of jewellery and mosaic art as well ceramics, decorated styles of ancient pottery, furniture, furnishings, strained glass and tapestry art.

Applied Art:

Involves activities of application of aesthetic designs to everyday functional objects. Applied art creates utilitarian items using aesthetic principles in their designs. Folk art, computer art, graphic design, architecture, interior design as well as all decorative arts can be classified under applied arts.

Origin

The origin of Art or Visual Language is unknown. It dates to the prehistoric periods of mankind. It has acted as a mode of communication. The art of storytelling was done in those days with the help of gestures around a camp fire by the group leader who went on to hunt for the group that he takes cares. He used to demonstrate the activities that he had to undergo for the supper they are having to educate the younger and weaker members in the group for them to be motivated. Later on they started producing sounds to emphasise their thrill and to generate more enthusiasm in the minds of the weaker. The cavemen also started to paint or draw the images of their prey and hunting activities in the walls of the caves to demonstrate and educate the younger and pass on the information.

These sort of activities of dancing around the fire and as well painting on the walls of stones etc. can yet be found with some very rare tribal groups, as a tribute to tradition and custom.

Development

The art had its origin from the prehistoric men and had taken different forms from storytelling with gestures and illustrations to the present mode of storytelling through cinema. As different civilizations emerged, so did different forms of art and different styles, ideas and methods. There had been different types of movements that effected the way the man sees a piece of art, which resulted in generating new art forms with the view to capture the minds of others.

Prehistoric Art

During prehistoric period, art acted as form of communication. A set of group of men went for hunting and they used to narrate the activities of their catching the prey with gestures around a fire where the younger and weaker members of the group used to gather around and listen with great enthusiasm. This enthusiasm made the next generation to get more vigilant to hunting. They started to draw illustration of the prey and activities they undertook while hunting. The art of masonry was also developed slowly. Some of the art works dating back to even 1, 00,000 years have been found. Cave paintings of a horse from Lascaux cave, a statue Venus of Willendorf etc. have been found which dates back to 24,000 years.

Ancient Art

As the group of men started gathering around a certain area, there started a civilization. The great civilisations that perched were around the areas of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, China, Ancient Greece, and Rome, as well in Inca, Maya and Olmec. Each of these civilizations has given their own great contributions to the work of art.

The development of dramas and theatres was a great contribution from the side of Ancient Greece. There used to be a culture of providing sacrificing animals and dancing to please the god of wine and fertility Dionysus. The ritual slowly spread to main Greece and the king of Athens, started a festive for 100 days every year during when dramas were staged at amphitheatres and prizes were awarded for the best.

The Greeks also had provided their contribution widely in the fields of Medicine, Literature, Science, Architecture etc.

Mesolithic Age

Petroglyphs, stylised cave paintings and hand stencils and bracelets, functional objects like paddles and weapons of the Mesolithic Age were the art works during this period.

Neolithic Age

During the Neolithic age period, artworks became more enhanced by the use of metals like copper and design of new tools. Free standing sculptures, statues, pottery, primitive jewellery and decorated artefacts became more common. The advent of hieroglyphic writing system in Sumer heralds the arrival of pictorial methods of communication, while the greater prosperity leads to more religious activity and religious art in temples and tombs.

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age period witnessed the emergence of cities, the development of more sophisticated tools led to wider range of ceramics. The art includes statues, sculptures and paintings of God. The art of this period started assuming a significant role in reflecting the community, its rulers, and relationship with the deities it worshiped.

Egyptian Art

In ancient Egypt their monumental architecture and associated sculptures were of most influence. In paintings, artists depicted the head, legs and feet of their human subjects in profile, while portraying the eye, shoulders, arms and torso from the front. Other conventions depicted how God, Pharaohs and ordinary people should be portrayed and regulated the size, colour and figurative positions of these images accordingly. Women were painted with fair skin, men with dark skin. Much of the art in temples and tombs (hieroglyphs, papyrus scrolls, murals, panel paintings and sculptures) reflects religious themes, especially concerning the afterlife.

Minoan Art

Minoan Art and mural paintings uncovered from the palaces of Minos illustrates the Cretan life and Aegean ways of design. The murals were bright in colour, highly stylized in manner, and generally florid in decorative accessory such as frieze or identical pattern. The medium of fresco paintings is lime-plaster fresco, and the colours are separately blocked on, usually without gradation and merging over an outline drawing. A few simple bright colours suffice. These are in flat mural technique and standard fresh colours. Occasionally frescos was superimposed on mural design modelled in slight relief. The figures in paintings are beautifully set up, straight, the men high-chested and the women with breasts full and firm. In murals, seals and sculptures there was a convention of shoulders held back and waist pinched in, heightening the impression. A second convention was that the male flesh was indicated by dark tone and women’s by light tone.

Iron Age

Iron Age saw a great growth in artistic activity, especially in Greece and around the eastern Mediterranean and coincided with the rise of Hellenic culture.

Mycenaean Art

The Mycenaean art were dominated by the Minoan culture. The painters and sculptors emphasized military and other mythological exploits in a more formal geometric style than that of the Minoans. Their art encompassed ceramics, pottery, carved gemstones, jewellery, glass ornaments, as well as tomb and palace murals, frescoes and sculptures.

During the Celtic period, two distinguished styles emerged: Hallstatt and La Tene. The more advanced La Tene was characterised by its distinctive geometric designs and stylised bird and animal forms exemplified by the decorative designs on the stonework of Turoe stone. The Hallstatt art centred on ornamentation of utilitarian items (weapons, chariots, armour, personal accessories) together with the creation of high quality jewellery often employing fine techniques, contrasting colour work and extravagant patterns with rigid symmetry.

Greek Art

The Classical Greek Art is divided into 3 periods: early classical, high classical and late classical periods. The Greek grasp of linear perspective and naturalist representation remained unsurpassed until the Italian Renaissance. Greek artists used walls, panels of wood or marble, terracotta slabs or plagues, and sometimes pieces of ivory, leather, parchment or linen. On walls the method of painting were tempera and fresco; on wood and marble, tempera and encaustic. In the terracotta metopes from the temples the pictorial field is about two feet square and the figures occupy its full height, but the style is that of Corinthian vase painting and the artist has used the larger scale not to multiple the patterns of drapery. The colour palette is no wider that the vase’s – black, white, light brown and purple (for male flesh), all used in flat washes and Apollo’s at Thermon was restricted to colours that would stand firing. A technical difference is that on metopes, the outlines and lines of inner detail are drawn and not incised. In Panel paintings the ground is white and the colours used were red, blue, black, light brown and dark brown. In Etruscan Tomb paintings attic red-figures can be found fairly numerous.

The technique of the painters was still the outline drawing with economical linear detail. Modelling, by hatching or gradation of colours came slowly and intermittently. The outline of pelts and rocks were filled with an uneven wash of dilute paint. Later by the second quarter of fifth century, the folds were sometimes emphasized by thickened lines or shading, so giving some kind of shadow. At about the same time, light hatching or shading now and then reinforced the edge of round objects. Later by the end of the fifth century human anatomy began to be detailed. The male flesh started to be modelled strongly, though female flesh is not. There was a vogue for 4 colour paintings, the colours being black, white, red and yellow and their combinations.

During the Hellenistic art period, an almost Baroque-like dramatization of subject matter took place. The classical realism was replaced with solemnity and heroism. During this period, the artist’s interest was concentrated on his figures, modelled with bold light and shade, expressive of feelings and arranged in a crowded but carefully controlled composition. The brush work is competently sketchy and in the distances the colours fade.

Roman Art

Roman paintings and sculptures remained largely imitative of the Greek art and style. Early Roman art was realistic and direct. Hellenistic Roman art was more heroic and the paintings were executed in tempera or in encaustic pigments. Late roman art gave way to both Celtic and Christian Roman art which was influenced by the Constantinople.

Indian Art

Indian art’s origin can be traced to pre-historic Hominid settlements in 3^rd millennium BC. The art forms in India include plastic art such as pottery and sculptures, visual arts such as paintings, and textile art such as woven silk. A strong sense of design is characteristic in Indian art and can be seen with modern and traditional forms. In spite of the complex mixture of religious traditions, the prevailing style has been shared by major groups. Early Indian art can be dated to 650 CE from early as 5000 BCE.

Rock art of India includes rock relief carvings, engravings and paintings. It is estimated to have existed since the Palaeolithic age at the Bhimbetka caves. The style had varied with age and region, with the most common characteristic, a red wash made using a - mineral called geru, which is a form of iron oxide.

During the Indus valley civilization period (5000 BC – 1500 BC), the art works excavated and identified includes, works of gold; terracotta figurines of cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs; majority of seals at sites of mature period speculates part bull, part zebra, with majestic horns; and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses which also reveals the presence of some form of dance.

The Mauryan period (340 BC- 232 BC) marked the use of brick and stone for architecture. The period also marked an impressive step in stone sculpture. The Pataliputra capital has a strong Greek stylistic influence, with volute, bead and reel meander or honeysuckle designs of a Persian lion. The period was associated with various types of pottery of which a highly developed technique can be seen with the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBP).

The Buddhist art period (1CE – 500 CE) had seen a wide variety of Buddhist statues and reliefs and illustrations of life of Buddha. Buddhism developed an increasing emphasis on statues of the Buddha, which greatly influenced later Hindu and Jain religious figurative art, which were also influenced by the Greco-Buddhist art. This fusion developed in the far north-west of India, especially Gandhara. The Buddhist Kushan Empire spread from Central Asia to include northern India in the early centuries CE, and briefly commissioned large statues that were portraits of the royal dynasty, a type of art that was otherwise wholly absent from India until the Mughal miniature.

Chinese Art

From the earliest Stone Age art to the Ming Dynasty in 1500 AD, Chinese artists took up the same themes over and over again. They were interested in swirling lines. They were interested in nature: animals, trees, flowers, rocks, water. Chinese artists wanted to express the relationship between people and nature.

But there were also big changes in Chinese art, some caused by new ideas within China, and some by new ideas coming from India, Central Asia, or West Asia. In the Stone Age, Chinese artists experimented with pottery. They used swirling brushwork to decorate the pots - that continued throughout Chinese art. Beginning in the Shang Dynasty, artists also cast bronze jars in molds with designs of dragons, elephants, and other creatures. During the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese artists also began to make all kinds of lacquered boxes. When Chinese people learned about Buddhism, under the Han Dynasty, they also learned about Buddhist art styles in India, and these new styles had a huge effect on Chinese art. Chinese sculptors learned to make life-size stone statues.

By the time of the Three Kingdoms, Chinese painting became much more important. Artists worked with swirling brushstrokes to create striking line paintings. T'ang Dynasty paintings depict people, horses, and elaborate landscapes coloured with green and blue paints. Song Dynasty paintings, influenced by Taoism and Confucianism, often show tiny people dwarfed by nature. Artists became concerned with economy of line: one simple line makes us see the whole cliff, or flowers, or birds. They began to draw just one flower, or one bird.The Mongol invasions brought a new energy and enthusiasm to painting, but then under the Ming Dynasty artists began to explore still-life painting, and to reconsider and revive the styles of the past.

Medieval Art

The art that prevailed during the period of dark ages (c. 500 to 1500 AD) spreading areas around Europe, Middle East and North Africa. It includes major art movements and periods both national and regional art. The Art historians classified the medieval art into 5 major periods based on styles the artists followed; the Early Christian art, Byzantine art, Pre-Romanesque art, Romanesque art and Gothic art.

The medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church. A remarkable artistic legacy was produced by adopting a vigorous ‘barbarian’ artistic culture of Northern Europe. The period ended with the self-perceived Renaissance recovery of the skills and values of the classical art. The use of valuable materials was a constant in the medieval art. Gold was used for objects in churches and palaces, personal jewellery and fittings of clothes and fixed to the back of the glass tesserae as a solid background for the mosaics, or applied as gold leafs to miniatures in manuscripts, and panel painting. The even more expensive pigment ultramarine, made from ground lapis lazuli, was used lavishly in the Gothic period.

Early Christian Art

The period of art covered from 200 to until the onset of a fully Byzantine style. From the start of the period the main survivals of Christian art are the tomb-paintings in popular styles of the catacombs of Rome, but by the end there were a number of lavish mosaics in churches built under imperial patronage. Figures are mostly seen frontally staring out at the viewer, where classical art tended to show a profile view. Some examples are the Arch of Constantine in Rome, Ascension of Christ, and Consular diptych, Constantinople.

Byzantine Art

The art that emerged from late Antiquity in about 500 CE and soon formed a tradition distinct from that of Catholic Europe and influenced it, is of the Greek speaking Byzantine Empire. Byzantine art was extremely conservative, for religious and cultural reasons. It retained a continuous tradition of Greek realism, which contended with a strong anti-realist and hieratic impulse. There classical style was revived noticeable. Byzantine art’s crowning achievement were the monumental frescoes and mosaics inside domed churches.

The Coptic art of Egypt after the mid-5^th century started producing a completely non-realist and naïve style of figures. This was capable of great expressiveness. Coptic decorations used intricate geometric designs. The textiles were often elaborately decorated with the figurative and pattern designs.

A distinct style was followed around Ireland and Britain from about 7^th century to about 10^th century, called the Insular art. It followed an extremely detailed geometric, interlace and stylised animal decoration with forms derived from secular metalwork like brooches, spread across manuscripts usually gospel books like Book of Kells and very few human figures were Evangelist portraits which were crude though they followed Late Antiquity style. The insular manuscript style had a vital role in the formation of later medieval styles.

Islamic Art and its influence on Western Art

Islamic art was widely admired and imported by European elites. The art used artists and sculptors trained under the Coptic and Byzantine tradition. Instead of wall paintings, they used painted tiles and the process also spread to Europe.

Crusader art is a hybrid of Catholic and Byzantine styles with an Islamic influence. The most part luxury products of the court culture such as silks, ivory, precious stones and jewels were imported to Europe in an unfinished form and labelled as "eastern" by local medieval artisans. They were free from depictions of religious scenes and normally decorated with ornament, and by the late Middle-Ages there was a fashion for pseudo-Kufic imitations of Arabic script used decoratively in Western art.

Pre-Romanesque Art

Pre-Romanesque art period’s primary theme was the introduction and absorption of classical Mediterranean and Christian forms with Germanic, creating innovative new forms leading to the rise of Romanesque art in the 1100 CE. Before the Romanesque art period there had been 2 styles followed in the northern Europe under the Carolingian dynasty and Ottonian dynasty lasting from 780 to 900 AD and 936 to 1056 AD respectively.

Both the dynasties focused more on the court and monastery art. Some centres of Carolingian style pioneered on expressive styles in work like Utrecht Psalter and Ebbo Gospels. The Carolingian art created innovative new forms such as naturalistic figure line drawing. The Ottonian art moved towards great expressiveness through simple forms that achieved monumentality even in small works. The art was expressive in a different way with agitated figures and drapery, best shown in pen drawings in manuscripts. The Ottonian art created a period of heightened cultural and artistic fervour. It reflected the dynasty’s desire to establish visually a link to the Christian Rulers of late Antiquity. The monasteries were directly sponsored from the emperors and bishops, having best in talent and equipment.

Romanesque Art

The Romanesque art developed in the period of 1000 AD and lasted till the emergence of Gothic Art in 12^th century. It was the first medieval style to become prominent all over Europe, though with regional differences. The arrival coincided with a great increase in church buildings, and in massive size of cathedrals and larger churches. The Romanesque architecture is dominated by thick walls, massive structures conceived as a single organic form, with vaulted roofs and round headed windows and arches.

The different techniques of mural painting are: fresco, distemper, wax painting and fresco al secco. For fresco, the mason prepares a certain area of fresh, smooth mortar or plaster on which the painter works directly, with slightly moistened brush full of ground colour. The colour pigments penetrate the mortar while this is drying. This technique requires great skill on the artist's part, since he cannot go over his first strokes or make any corrections. The choice of colours is limited to those derived from earth or chalk: whites, ochre, yellows, browns and reds, all rather subdued in tone.

Distemper painting is done, like fresco, on a previously prepared coat of plaster, which in this case is moistened afresh completely. This involves working on a dry surface with colours soaked in water mixed with size. This was chiefly used in France during the Romanesque period.

Melted wax painting, which had also been known for centuries and even in Roman times, is carried out by mixing powdered colours with wax, which is melted and introduced into the ground by means of a heated spatula or piece of metal.

Fresco al secco is done straight on to the dry plaster. It is done with colours soaked in water to which is added either white of egg or glue made from fish bones or rabbit skins, which serves to fix the colours.

For panel paintings and illuminated manuscripts, the usual painting method was tempera.

Gothic Art

The Gothic Style refers to styles of European sculptures, architectures and other minor art forms that linked the Romanesque era to the early Renaissance period. The period is primarily divided into Early Gothic (1150 - 1250), High Gothic (1250-1375) and International Gothic (1375-1450). Gothic art, being exclusively religious art, lent powerful tangible weight to the growing power of the Church in Rome. This not only inspired the public, as well as its secular leaders but also it firmly established the connection between religion and art, which was one of the foundations of the Italian Renaissance (1400-1530).

Paintings in Gothic period was practised in 4 media:

Frescoes
Stained Glass
Manuscripts and printmaking
Altar piece and panel painting

The Gothic period is defined more by the Gothic Architecture. A flying buttress, ribbed vault, and a pointed arch characterised Gothic architecture. The architecture included sculpture as an important part of the style with larger portals and figures on frontages. During the late stages, large carved altarpieces in painted and glided wood became the focus. The Gothic architecture allowed for larger windows and stained glass, is the type of art associated in minds of most people with Gothic period.

Renaissance

The Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the fourteenth century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The word Renaissance means literally means “rebirth,” and the era is best known for the renewed interest in the culture of classical antiquity. The Italian Renaissance began in Tuscany, centered in the cities of Florence and Siena. It later had a significant impact in Venice, where the remains of ancient Greek culture provided humanist scholars with new texts. The Italian Renaissance peaked in the late-fifteenth century as foreign invasions plunged the region into turmoil. However, the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance spread into the rest of Europe, setting off the Northern Renaissance centered in Fontainebleau and Antwerp, and the English Renaissance.

The Italian Renaissance is best known for its cultural achievements. They include works of literature by such figures as Petrarch, Castiglione, and Machiavelli; works of art by artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci; and great works of architecture, such as The Duomo in Florence and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Development

Renaissance politics developed from this background. Since the thirteenth century, as armies became primarily composed of mercenaries, prosperous city-states could field considerable forces, despite their low populations. In the course of the fifteenth century, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbors. Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona, while the Duchy of Milan annexed a number of nearby areas including Pavia and Parma.

Lorenzo was the first of the family to be educated from an early age in the humanist tradition and is best known as one of the Renaissance's most important patrons of the arts. Renaissance ideals first spread from Florence to the neighboring states of Tuscany such as Siena and Lucca. The Tuscan culture soon became the model for all the states of Northern Italy, and the Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in literature. In 1447, Francesco Sforza came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed that still medieval city into a major center of art and learning that drew Leone Battista Alberti. Venice, one of the wealthiest cities due to its control of the Mediterranean Sea, also became a center for Renaissance culture, especially architecture. Smaller courts brought Renaissance patronage to lesser cities, which developed their characteristic arts: Ferrara, Mantua under the Gonzaga, and Urbino under Federico da Montefeltro. In Naples, the Renaissance was ushered in under the patronage of Alfonso I who conquered Naples in 1443 and encouraged artists like Francesco Laurana and Antonello da Messina and writers like the poet Jacopo Sannazzaro and the humanist scholar Angelo Poliziano.

In 1378, the papacy returned to Rome, but that once imperial city remained poor and largely in ruins through the first years of the Renaissance. The great transformation began under Pope Nicholas V, who became pontiff in 1447. He launched a dramatic rebuilding effort that would eventually see much of the city renewed. The humanist scholar Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini became pope as Pius II in 1458. As the papacy fell under the control of the wealthy families from the north, such as the Medici and the Borgias, the spirit of Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican. Pope Sixtus IV continued Nicholas' work, most famously ordering the construction of the Sistine Chapel. The popes became increasingly secular rulers as the Papal States were forged into a centralized power by a series of "warrior popes."

The nature of the Renaissance also changed in the late-fifteenth century. The Renaissance ideal was fully adopted by the ruling classes and the aristocracy. In the early Renaissance, artists were seen as craftsmen with little prestige or recognition. By the later Renaissance, the top figures wielded great influence and could charge great fees. A flourishing trade in Renaissance art developed. While in the early Renaissance many of the leading artists were of lower- or middle-class origins, increasingly they became aristocrats.

Sculpture and Painting

In painting, the false dawn of Giotto's realism, his fully three-dimensional figures occupying a rational space, and his humanist interest in expressing the individual personality rather than the iconic images, was followed by a retreat into conservative late-Gothic conventions. The Italian Renaissance in painting began anew, in Florence and Tuscany, with the frescoes of Masaccio then the panel paintings and frescoes of Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello began to enhance the realism of their work by using new techniques in perspective, thus representing three dimensions in two-dimensional art more authentically. Piero della Francesca even wrote treatises on scientific perspective.

The creation of credible space allowed artists to also focus on the accurate representation of the human body and on naturalistic landscapes. Masaccio's figures have a plasticity unknown up to that point in time. Compared to the flatness of Gothic painting, his pictures were revolutionary. At the turn of the sixteenth century, especially in Northern Italy, artists also began to use new techniques in the manipulation of light and darkness, such as the tone contrast evident in many of Titian's portraits and the development of sfumato and chiaroscuro by Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgione. The period also saw the first secular (non- religious themes).

In sculpture, Donatello's (1386–1466) study of classical sculpture lead to his development of classicizing positions (such as the contrapposto pose) and subject matter (like the unsupported nude – his second sculpture of David was the first free-standing bronze nude created in Europe since the Roman Empire.) The progress made by Donatello was influential on all who followed; perhaps the greatest of whom is Michelangelo, whose David of 1500 is also a male nude study. Michelangelo's David is more naturalistic than Donatello's and has greater emotional intensity. Both sculptures are standing in contrapposto, their weight shifted to one leg.

The period known as the High Renaissance represents the culmination of the goals of the earlier period, namely the accurate representation of figures in space rendered with credible motion and in an appropriately decorous style. The most famous painters from this time period are Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Their images are among the most widely known works of art in the world. Leonardo's Last Supper, Raphael's School of Athens, and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling are the textbook examples of this period.

Architecture

In Italy, the Renaissance style, introduced with a revolutionary but incomplete monument in Rimini by Leone Battista Alberti, was developed, however, in Florence. Some of the earliest buildings showing Renaissance characteristics are Filippo Brunelleschi's church of San Lorenzo and the Pazzi Chapel. The interior of Santo Spirito expresses a new sense of light, clarity, and spaciousness, which is typical of the early Italian Renaissance. Its architecture reflects the philosophy of Humanism, the enlightenment and clarity of mind as opposed to the darkness and spirituality of the Middle Ages. The revival of classical antiquity can best be illustrated by the Palazzo Ruccelai. Here the pilasters follow the superposition of classical orders, with Doric capitals on the ground floor, Ionic capitals on the piano nobile and Corinthian capitals on the uppermost floor.

In Mantua, Leone Battista Alberti ushered in the new antique style, though his culminating work, Sant'Andrea, was not begun until 1472, after the architect's death.

The High Renaissance, as we call the style today, was introduced to Rome with Donato Bramante's Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio (1502) and his original centrally planned St. Peter's Basilica (1506), which was the most notable architectural commission of the era, influenced by almost all notable Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo and Giacomo della Porta. The beginning of the late Renaissance in 1550 was marked by the development of a new column order by Andrea Palladio. Colossal columns that were two or more stories tall decorated the facades.

Different Art Moments in the 20^th Century

Cubism

Cubism, an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, had also inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris during the 1910s and extending through the 1920s.

The movement was pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris. A primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne. In Cubist artwork, objects are analysed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.

The impact of Cubism was far-reaching and wide-ranging. Cubism spread rapidly across the globe and in doing so evolved to greater or lesser extent. In essence, Cubism was the starting point of an evolutionary process that produced diversity; it was the antecedent of diverse art movements.

Cubism formed an important link between early-20th-century art and architecture. The historical, theoretical, and socio-political relationships between avant-garde practices in painting, sculpture and architecture had early ramifications in France, Germany and Netherlands. There are many points of intersection between Cubism and architecture. Most often the connections are made by reference to shared formal characteristics: faceting of form, spatial ambiguity, transparency, and multiplicity.

Architectural interest in Cubism centred on the dissolution and reconstitution of three-dimensional form, using simple geometric shapes, juxtaposed without the illusions of classical perspective. Diverse elements could be superimposed, made transparent or penetrate one another, while retaining their spatial relationships. Cubism had become an influential factor in the development of modern architecture from 1912 onwards with the simplification of building design, the use of materials appropriate to industrial production, and the increased use of glass.

Modernism

Modernism, a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by the horror of World War I. Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief.

Modernism includes the activities and creations of those who felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences, were becoming ill-fitted to their tasks and outdated in the new economic, social, and political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world. Its innovations, like the stream-of-consciousness novel, inharmonious and twelve-tone music, divisionism painting and abstract art, all had precursors in the 19th century.

A notable characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness and irony concerning literary and social traditions, which often led to experiments with form, along with the use of techniques that drew attention to the processes and materials used in creating a painting, poem, building, etc. Modernism explicitly rejected the ideology of realism and makes use of the works of the past by the employment of reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody.

Modernism can be defined as a mode of thinking—one or more philosophically defined characteristics, like self-consciousness or self-reference, that run across all the novelties in the arts and the disciplines. From this perspective, modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was 'holding back' progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end. Another focus on modernism was as an aesthetic introspection, which facilitates consideration of specific reactions to the use of technology in the First World War, and anti-technological and nihilistic aspects of the works of diverse thinkers and artists spanning the period from Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) to Samuel Beckett (1906–1989).

Realism

Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic movement. Instead it sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, and not avoiding unpleasant or sordid aspects of life. Realist works depicted people of all classes in situations that arise in ordinary life, and often reflected the changes brought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. The popularity of such "realistic" works grew with the introduction of photography—a new visual source that created a desire for people to produce representations which look objectively real.

The Realists depicted everyday subjects and situations in contemporary settings, and attempted to depict individuals of all social classes in a similar manner. Classical idealism and Romantic emotionalism and drama were avoided equally, and often sordid or untidy elements of subjects were not smoothed over or omitted. Social realism emphasizes the depiction of the working class, and treating them with the same seriousness as other classes in art, but realism, as the avoidance of artificiality, in the treatment of human relations and emotions was also an aim of Realism. Treatments of subjects in a heroic or sentimental manner were equally rejected.

Realism as an art movement was led by Courbet in France. It spread across Europe and was influential for the rest of the century and beyond, but as it became adopted into the mainstream of painting it becomes less common and useful as a term to define artistic style. After the arrival of Impressionism and later movements which downgraded the importance of precise illusionistic brushwork, it often came to refer simply to the use of a more traditional and tighter painting style. It has been used for a number of later movements and trends in art, some involving careful illusionistic representation, such as Photorealism, and others the depiction of "realist" subject matter in a social sense, or attempts at both.

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature. Its long-term effect was on the growth of nationalism was perhaps more significant.

The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe. It considered folk art and ancient custom to be noble statuses, but also valued spontaneity, as in the musical impromptu. In contrast to the rational and Classicist ideal models, Romanticism revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived as authentically medieval in an attempt to escape population growth, early urban sprawl, and industrialism.

The movement was rooted in which it preferred intuition and emotion to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the events and ideologies of the French Revolution were also proximate factors. Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of "heroic" individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism.

WD My Passport Unpacking and Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 07:21:00 +0000

In The Voice Of Silence!

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 06:58:00 +0000

In The Voice Of Silence!

I had a voice in my silence to talk to you,

But you never heard;

As did I had tête-à-têtes with you,

That were never listened.

And here I am, now with greying hair;

Listening your confession, yet I lost my hair.

A Life Robbed

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 21:19:00 +0000

Title: A Life Robbed
A snippet from my life, altered the ending part though.

Synopsis:

A person reads the newspaper article of a death he witnessed. The article states that an unidentified dead body by the side road extension of a playground has been found. The actual situation is being portrayed in the film in 2 person perceptive, one of the victim himself and the second of the witness.

The plot is inspired from the real life of the writer.

Treatment:

Ryan is a calm person who just involves in his day-to-day activities. One day, after visiting to his friends’, Ryan was returning back to his apartment. He was walking through a narrow unused uninhabited shortcut road playing music on his phone and listening through headphones. On reaching a narrow curved uninhabited location, 2 persons corner him to the side on a scooter. One from them pointed a small sword at him at his throat asking for everything he had with him. Ryan a little tensed did not move but just opened his hands blank. The second person from the scooter came over to and started searching Ryan and took the mobile phone, headset and watch and two ATM cards from him. The second person then left off and started the scooter. The person with the knife took Ryan by his collars and moved to the scooter where he stabbed him on his head and flew away on the scooter. Ryan drops to the floor unconscious and opens his eyes to see blood drops drooling to the road. He fights to get up and reach for help, but with no luck faints back to the road where he breaths his last.

All this was witnessed by another person hiding by the corner of the curve who is reading the newspaper article about the incident the next day.

Mohanjo-Daro - An Indus Valley Civilisation

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 19:15:00 +0000

Mohanjo-daro

The Birth of the Indus Valley Civilization:

A chaos of water flowing from the mountains in north formed tributaries that merged into the Indus River. Sometime around the 6000 BC a nomadic herding people settled into villages just west of the Indus River. There they created order for themselves, growing barley and wheat using sickles with flint blades, and they lived in small houses build with baked bricks. After 5000 BC the climate in their region changed, bringing more food, and they grew in population. They began domesticating sheep, goats and cows and then water buffalo. Then after 4000 BC they began to trade beads and shells with people in distant areas of central Asia and other areas west of Khyber Pass. They began using bronze and working metals. With time and experience they were improving their technology. The climate changed again, bringing more rainfall, and on the plains along the river jungles grew inhabited by crocodiles, tigers, buffalos and elephants. By around 2600 BC, a civilization as grand as those in Mesopotamia and Egypt began in the Indus Plains and surroundings. They had covered sewers and drainage systems beneath their streets. By 2300 BC this civilization reached maturity and was trading with Mesopotamia.

Location:

Mohanjo-daro, the trade city of the Indus Valley Civilization, is located in Larkhana District on the right bank of the Indus River in Sindh, Pakistan, on a Pleistocene ridge in the flood plain of the river valley of Indus, around 28 km from town of Larkhana. The ridge was prominent during the time of Indus Valley Civilisation, allowing the city to stand above the surrounding plain, but the flooding of river has since buried the ridge in deposited silt.

Mohanjo-daro was one of the largest cities of the civilization. At its height, the Civilization spanned much of what is now in Pakistan and North India, extending westwards to the Iranian border, south to Gujarat in India and northwards to an outpost in Bactria. Mohanjo-daro was the most advanced city of its time, with

remarkable civil engineering and urban planning.

Excavation and Discovery of Site:

The ruins of the city remained undiscovered for over 3700 years until an officer RD Banerji of Archaeological survey of India in search of a Buddhist stupa known to be there and finding a flint scrapper which convinced him of site’s antiquity in 1919-1920. Following which large-scale excavations of Mohanjo-daro led by John Marshall was done in 1920. In 1930s major scale excavations were done under Marshall, DK Dikshitar and Ernest Mackay. Further excavations were carried out by Mortimer Wheeler and Ahmad Dani in 1945. The last major series of excavations were conducted in 1964 and 1965 by Dr. George F Dales. However in the 1980’s, German and Italian survey groups led by Dr. Michael Jansen and Dr. Maurizio Tosi used less invasive archaeological techniques to gather further information about Mohanjo-daro. In 1980s the site of city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Architecture and Urban Infrastructure:

A well planned street grid and an elaborate drainage system hint that the occupants of the ancient Indus civilization city Mohanjo-daro were skilled urban planners with a reverence for the control of water.

The city lacks ostentatious palaces, temples or monuments. There’s no obvious central seat of government or evidence of a king or queen. Modesty, order and cleanliness were apparently preferred. Pottery and tools of copper and stone were standardized. Seals and weighs suggest a system of tightly controlled trade.

The city’s wealth and stature is evident in artifacts such as ivory, lapis, carnelian, and gold beads, as well as baked brick city structures themselves.

A watertight pool called the Great Bath, perched on top of a mound of dirt and held in place with walls of baked brick, is the closest structure Mohanjo-daro has to a temple. The Great Bath and an associated large building occupied the tallest mound. It is said that this suggests an ideology based on cleanliness.

Wells were found throughout the city, and nearly every house contained a bathing area and drainage system.

There is no evidence of Kings or Queens, Mohanjo-daro was likely governed as a city state, perhaps by elected officials from each of the mounds.

The Deity and Sacred Beliefs and Cultures:

It is believed that the Indus Valley people were devotee of the Lord of Rain and Thunder, Indra. There has been rituals, sacrifices made to please the god Indra who has been considered the supreme god.

It is also believed that Cock-fighting may have had ritual and religious significance for the city, with domesticated chickens bred there for sacred purposes, rather than as a food source.

Notable Artefacts:

Numerous objects found in excavation include seated and standing figures, copper and some stone tools, carved seals, balance scales and weighs and gold and jasper jewellery, and children’s toys. Many important objects from Mohanjo-daro are conserved at the National Museum of India in Delhi and the National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi. In 1939, a representative collection of artefacts excavated at the site was transferred to the British Museum by the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India.

Dancing Girl:

A bronze statuette dubbed the “Dancing Girl”, 10.5 Centimeters high and some 4500 years old was found in HR area of Mohanjo-daro in 1926.

The statuette gave way to 2 discoveries about the Civilization. Firstly, they knew metal blending, casting and other sophisticated methods of working with ore; and secondly that the entertainment, especially dance was a part of the culture.

Priest-King:

In 1927, a seated male soapstone figure was found in a building with unusually ornamental brickwork and a wall-niche. The sculpture is 17.5 centimetres tall and depicts a bearded man with a fillet around his head, an armband, and a cloak decorated with trefoil patterns that were originally filled with red pigment. The two holes by the side of the ears suggest that a necklace or other head ornament was attached to the sculpture. The eyes were deeply incised and may have held inlay. The upper lip is shaved and a short combed beard frames the face with left shoulder covered in a cloak decorated with trefoil, in double circle and single circle designs. Drill holes in each circle indicate that they were made with specialised drill and then touched with chisel.

Pashupati seal:

A seal discovered at the site bears the image of a seated, cross-legged and possibly ithyphallic figure surrounded by animals. The figure has been interpreted by some scholars as a ‘yogi’ and by others as a three-headed ‘proto-Shiva’ as “Lord of the Animals”.

Seven-stranded necklace:

It is believed to be at least 4500 years old. The necklace has an S-shaped clasp with seven strands, each over 4ft long , of bronze metal bead-like nuggets which connect each arm of the S in filigree. Each strand has of about 220 to 230 of the many faceted nuggets, and there are about 1600 nuggets in total. The necklace weighs about 250 grams in total, and is presently held in a private collection in India.

Movie Review: Devdas(Hindi Movie 2002)

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 09:26:00 +0000

Movie Review: Devdas(Hindi Movie 2002)

Introduction:

The movie is based upon one of the most popular romantic tragic novella of 1917s Bengali writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay published in Bengali by GCS on 30^th June 1917 with the Title(Bengali: Debdas; Hindi: Devdas). This novella powerfully shows the then prevalent societal customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which were responsible for preventing the happy ending of a sincere love story.

Journey from 1917 Debdas novella to the 2002 Devdas movie and beyond:

The answer to, “What can be more glorious than to die for love?” is what makes Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s tragic novella hero Devdas an interesting subject for the Indian filmmakers, to name a few Naresh Mitra(Director of 1928 Devdas(Silent Film)), P. C Barua, Bimal Roy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali(the Director of 2002 Devdas).

The novella has been made into a film in many Indian languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Telungu, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese and Malayalam. It is the most filmed non-epic story in India.

Some of the notable film versions of the novella include:

· 1927 Silent Film Devdas Directed by Naresh Mitra.
· 1935 Bengali Film Devdas Directed by P. C Barua.
· 1936 Hindi Film Devdas Directed by P.C Barua.
· 1937 Assamese Film Devdas Directed by P.C Barua.
· 1953 Telungu/Tamil Film Devdas(Devadasu) Directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah.
· 1955 Hindi Film Devdas Directed by Bimal Roy.
· 1965 Urdu Film Devdas Directed by Khawaja Sarfaraz.
· 1989 Malayalam Film Devadas Directed by Crossbelt Mani.
· 2002 Hindi Film Devdas Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
· 2009 Hindi Film Dev D Directed by Anurag Kashyap.
· 2013 Bengali Film Devdas Directed by Chashi Nazrul Islam.

Devdas 2002 Hindi Movie:

The Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2002 film of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1917 novel Devdas titled the same starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aiswarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit has been ranked Eighth among the ten greatest movies of the millennium by The Times Magazine quoting, “Devdas is a visual ravishment, with sumptuous sets, fabulous frocks and beautiful people to fill them; having a grandeur the old Hollywood moguls would have loved. The piece is played with such commitment that the tritest plot twists seem worth believing. But the fervid emotion is what makes the thing sing”.

Devadas is a 2002 Indian Romantic film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali based upon the 1917 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Devdas. This is the third Hindi version and first color version to be done in Hindi. The film was screened retrospective, during the 2014 International Film Festival of India in the Celebrating Dance in Indian Cinema section. Devdas was declared a hit in India by Box Office India and won the Filmfare Award for Best Film. It also won 5 National Awards and 9 other Filmfare Awards, one of the most Filmfare Awards any film had won at the time. It was received well by Western audiences alike and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film and also India’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The Times Magazine named Devdas as the best movie made all around the world in the year 2002.

The acting was seen by many as the primary success factor, with Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Aiswarya Rai all wining Filmfare Awards for their performances. The film’s success was also attributed to the dance performances with Dixit’s “Maar Daala” considered one of the most iconic of her career and the song “Dola Re Dola” becoming a hit due to the unique dance duet between Madhuri Sixit and Aiswarya Rai, two of the leading actresses of the era. At the time of the release of film, it was the most expensive Bollywood film ever produced with a reported budget of 50 crores. The film was a huge commercial success in India and abroad becoming the highest grossing Indian film of the year.

Location and Sets:

The Major part of the movie was filmed at Dharavi, Mumbai, recreating the early 20^th century Culcutta. Chandramukhi’s kotha was constructed next to an artificial lake, to make it look like a set in Benaras on the Ganges. A temple city surrounded he set, for which inspiration was taken from the Dilwara Temples in Rajasthan. For the creation of Paro’s room in a haveli 12,20,00,008 pieces of strained glass were used.

Plot Summary:

In the early 1990s, the neighbours Kaushalya (Smita Jaykar) and Sumitra (Kirron Kher) gets overjoyed hearing about return of Kaushalya’s younger son Devadas’s (Shah Rukh Khan) return after 10 years of law studies from England. Sumithra’s daughter “Paro” Parvathy Chakroborthy (Aiswarya Rai) and Devdas share a deep friendship rooted in the childhood. With Devdas’s return the childhood friendship between him and Paro turns to love.

Devdas’s scheming sister-in-law Kumud (Ananya Khare) reminds Kaushalya of Paro’s inappropriate maternal lineage of nautch girls and nautanki performers. When Sumitra publicly announces her desire for Devdas and Paro’s marriage, she is rejected and humiliated by Kaushalya saying that she is from a lower class. Devastated, Sumitra hastily arranges Paro’s marriage to a man from a family wealthier than the Mukherjees: Thakur Bhuvan Chaudry, a 40 year old widowed aristocrat with 3 grown children, who married her only to be mother of his children and lady of the estate.

Devdas who has completely lost Paro leaves his parent’s house and takes refuge at a brothel and becomes an alcoholic, where he also meets a good hearted courtesan Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit) who falls in love with Devdas. Eventually Devdas becomes so ill that the slightest dose of alcohol could kill him. Paro arrives at Chandramukhi’s brothel, accusing her of driving Devdas to drink, but realises Chandramukhi is in love with Devdas and invites Chandramukhi to a celebration of Durga Pooja at her husband’s home. Paro also urges Devdas to stop drinking for which he promises Paro that he would come to her doorstep one last time before he dies. Devdas tells Chandramukhi that she must let him leaveand decides to travel the country; on a train, he meets his college friend Chunnibabu (Jackie Shroff), who uges him to drink in the name of friendship. Devdas drinks, knowing well that it will be fatal. On the verge of death, Devdas travels to Paro’s house to honour his promise, collapsing under a tree in front of the main gate. Paro runs through the mansion, attempting to reach him. Bhuvan sees this and orders to shut the gate. Devdas sees a blurred image of Paro running towards him, but the gates close just before she can reach, leaving her sobbing inside. Devdas whispers Paro’s name with his last breath as he slowly dies.

Music:

The film soundtrack has been predominantly composed by Ismail Darbar, while lyrics have been penned by Nusrat Badr, Prakash Kapadi and Pandit Birju Maharaj. It features playback singers Shreya Ghoshal (as Parvati), Kavita Krishnamurthy (as Chandramukhi), and Udit Narayan (as Devdas).

Awards:

Filmfare Awards

Devdas won ten awards at the 2002 Filmfare Awards, and was the fourth film to win the four major awards (Best Movie, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress).

Best Film – Bharat Shah
Best Actor – Shah Rukh Khan
Best Actress – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan
Best Director – Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Best Supporting Actress – Madhuri Dixit Nene
Best Female Playback – Shreya Ghoshal & Kavita Krishnamurthy - “Dola Re Dola”
Best Cinematographer – Binod Pradhan
Best Art Direction – Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Best Choreography – Saroj Khan
Best Scene of the Year – Confrontation scene between Parvati and Chandramukhi.

National Film Awards

Devdas won 5 awards at the 2002 National Awards.

Best Popular Film providing wholesome Entertainment.
Best Art Direction – Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Best Female Playback Singer – Shreya Ghoshal – “Baire Piya”
Best Choreography – Saroj Khan
Best Costume Design – Neeta Lulla, Reza Shariffi, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla

Star Screen Awards

Devdas won five awards at the 2002 Star Screen Awards.

Best Actor – Shah Rukh Khan
Best Actress – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan
Best Supporting Actress – Madhuri Dixit Nene
Jodi No 1 – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan & Shah Rukh Khan
Best Playback Male Singer – Udit Narayanan

IIFA Awards

Devdas won 6 awards at the 2003 IIFA Awards

Best Movie – Bharat Shah
Best Director – Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Best Actor – Shah Rukh Khan
Best Actress – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan
Best Actress in Supporting role – Kirron Kher
Best Female Playback Singer – Shreya Ghoshal, Kavita Krishnamurthy – “Dola Re”
Best Dialogue – Prakash Kapadia

Zee Cine Awards

Devdas won six awards at the 2003 Zee Cine Awards.

Best Film – Bharat Shah
Best Director – Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Best Actor – Male – Shah Rukh Khan
Best Actor - Female – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan
Best Playback Singer –Female – Shreya Ghoshal, Kavita Krishnamurthy – “Dola Re”
True Indian Beauty – Aiswarya Rai Bachchan

Star Dust Awards

New Musical Sensation – Female – Shreya Ghoshal for “Dola Re Dola”

MTV Asia Awards

Devdas won the 2003 Asian Film Award.

Devdas was also nominated for the BAFTA and Academy Awards 2003 for the Best Foreign Language Film. Devdas was also screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, 2002.

Michelangelo - “Father and Master of All the Arts”

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 07:27:00 +0000

Michelangelo

Name	Michelangelo
Occupation	Painter, Architect, Poet, Sculptor.
Birth Date	6^th March, 1475
Death Date	18^th February, 1564
Place of Birth	Caprese(Republic of Florence), Italy
Place of Death	Rome, Italy
AKA	Michelangelo Buonarroti Michelangelo
Nickname	“Father and Master of All the Arts”
Full Name	Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo is widely regarded as the most famous artist of Italian Renaissance. Among his works are the “David” and “Pieta” statues and the Sistine Chapel frescoes.

Introduction

Michelangelo born 6^th March, 1475 in Caprese, Italy to a family of moderate means in the banking business became an apprentice to a painter before studying in the sculpture gardens of powerful Medici family. His became one of the remarkable career as an artist in the Italian Renaissance, recognized in his own time for his own time for his artistic virtuosity. His works include the “David” and “Pieta” statues and the ceiling paintings of Rome’s Sistine Chapel, including the “Last Judgement”. He lived most of his life in Rome, where he died in 1564, at the age of 88.

Early Life

Painter, sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo, one of the most famous artists of Italian Renaissance, was born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni on March 6^th, 1475 in Caprese, Italy. His father, Leonardo di Buonarroti Simoni, realised early on that his son had no interest in family financial business and so agreed to apprentice him to the fashionable Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio’s workshop, at the age of 13. There Michelangelo was exposed to the technique of fresco.

After a year’s experience with the recommendation of Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo moved into the palace of Florentine ruler Lorenzo the Magnificent, of the powerful Medici family, to study classical sculpture in the Medici gardens. The time was a fertile one for Michelangelo; his years with Medici family, 1489 to 1492, allowing him to study under the respected sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni and exposing him to prominent poets, scholars and learned Humanists. He also obtained special permission from the Catholic Church to study the cadavers for insight into anatomy, though exposure to corpses had an adverse effect on his health. These combined influences laid the groundwork for his distinctive style of muscular precision and reality combined with an almost lyrical beauty. Two relief sculptures that survive, “Battle of Centaurs” and “Madonna Seated on a Step”, are testaments to his unique talent at the tender age of 16.

Early Success and Influences

Michelangelo left to Bologna where he continued his studies after the death of Lorenzo and returned in 1495 to work as sculptor, modelling his style after masterpieces of classical antiquity.

Cardinal Riario of San Giorgio was so impressed with Michelangelo’s work and even invited him to Rome, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Not long after his relocation to Rome in 1498, his fledgling career was bolstered by another cardinal Jean Bilheres de Lagraulas, a representative of the French King Charles VIII to the pope. Michelangelo’s “Pieta”, a sculpture of Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap, was finished in less than a year and was erected in the church of cardinal’s tomb, now its present location is at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

By the time Michelangelo returned to Florence, he had become something of an art star. He took over a commission for a statue of “David”, and turned the 17 foot piece of marble into a dominating figure. The strength of statue’s sinews, vulnerability of its nakedness, humanity of expression and overall courage made the “David” a prized representative of the city of Florence.

Art and Architecture

Michelangelo was asked to switch from sculpting to painting to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while working on the tomb of Pope Julius II. The project fuelled his imagination, and the original plan for 12 apostles morphed into more than 300 figures on the ceiling of the sacred space. He completed the 65 foot ceiling alone, spending endless hours on his back and guarding the project jealously until revealing the finished work, on Oct 31, 1512.

The result is a transcended masterpiece of High Renaissance art incorporating the Christian symbology, prophecy and humanist principles that he had absorbed during his youth. The vivid vignettes of his Sistine ceiling produce a kaleidoscopic effect, with the most iconic image being the “Creation of Adam”.

Michelangelo then turned his focus towards architecture. He continued to work on the tomb of Julius II for the next few decades. He also designed the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library- located opposite the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence- to house the Medici Book Collection. These buildings are considered a turning point in the architectural history. His crowning glory came in 1546 when he was made the chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Literary Works and Personal Life

Michelangelo’s poetic impulse, which had been expressed in his sculptures, paintings and architecture began taking literary form in his later years. Although never married he was devoted to a pious and noble widow named Vittoria Colonna, the subject and recipient of many of his more than 300 poems and sonnets. Their friendship remained a great solace to Michelangelo until Colonna’s death 1547.

Death and Legacy

Following a brief illness, Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564 at his home in Macel de’Corvi, Rome. A nephew bore his body back to Florence, where he was revered by the public as the “father and master of all the arts”. He was laid to rest at the Basilica di Santa Croce- his chosen place of burial.

Unlike many artists, Michelangelo achieved fame and wealth during his lifetime. He also had the peculiar distinction of living to see the publication of teo biographies about his life (written by Giorgio Vasari and Ascanio Condivi). Appreciation of Michelangelo’s artistic mastery has endured for centuries, and his name has become synonymous with the best of Italian Renaissance.

Some illustrations of the Important works done by Michelangelo:

Figure 1: Battle of the Centaurs	Figure 2: Madonna Sitting on the Steps
Figure 3: Pieta	Figure 4: David
Figure 5: Sistine Chapel	Figure 6: The Last Judgement in Sistine Chapel
Figure 7: Creation of Adam in Sistine Chapel

"Mystic Sun" - A Dream Project.

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul R) — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 17:24:00 +0000

Mystic Sun

“Memories can be both dazzling and devastating; but both give us lessons that can be laughed at later on as the path lines of our lives. They are the most valuable, of all the captured frames, by our soul. Tracing them at times, make us pass through the paths once taken, and show us even our minute mistakes so that our path can be corrected later on.”

Remembering his on wordings, the old man retraces a few steps to have a closer look on the by gone path of his life, as the road beyond is full dark as he consumes but at an end with a small dim beam of light.

The first trace of memory that lit up his vacuum was from his childhood, the day first he stood on stage for a play.

“Adithya, Adithya… come on out, it is time for us to leave…”

Knock… Knock… After the knocking sound on his door.

A child of 9 rushes out of his room, shutting the door behind, running to his mother saying, “Mommy I don’t want to I’m feeling scared… uh!!!…”

His mother grabs him and hugs him saying,”Adhi, one should never allow his fears to win over his will. You had the will to be on stage and play the act till few minutes back, otherwise why would have you dressed for the play. Your stage fear is taking over your will. Don’t let that happen Adhi.”

“Uhm, but mummy what if I don’t perform well. Everyone will laugh at me.”

“No, my child you will do great. I have confidence. Moreover you are showing up for a role and not sitting back in your chair, losing a chance to show up your talent. That’s more wonderful. ”

“Are you sure mummy!!!”

His mother gives a kiss to his forehead and smilingly replies, “No matter what happens, I will be by your side, Adhi. And you will start to overcome your fear for stage. I promise.” Taking his hand they move out of the house to driveway.

The old man keeps a step further to the darkness, in a motivated manner, trying to neglect his fear of darkness, to the distant dim beam of light. As he takes another step forward towards the light, he hears another female familiar sound calling out,”Adhi….” He immediately recognizes the sound to be of his beloved wife and suddenly with an emotional breakdown falls down to his knees and as he closes his eyelids another fragment of memory that lits around him is of the day when he lost his mother.

He is feeling so weak and disturbed when he learns that his mother died and is weeping at the edge of her bed kneeling when his wife comes forth to him saying, “Dear it is ok. I know she meant so much to you. You will do well, I’m there. I will help you as she did. You know that.” And she pats him on his shoulder. Nodding his head he rises from bed, looking to her side.

As he opens his eyelids, he realises he is in a blacked out dark pathway with a small luminescent even further than it was at first. His fear of darkness takes over again and he kneels down to the floor in an emotional breakdown, closing his eyes and weeping over.

It is then he felt a hand on his shoulder, that started to shake him, and he hears a small faint voice calling, “Daddy, Daddy ….”

As his eyelids open, he realises he was in his bedroom, lying back in his grandma chair and he recognised the voice to be of his son, Ryan. Ryan waking him up was saying, ”Daddy it is time for us to leave for the cremation rituals of mom and not to worry of anything that they together will work out any issues.”

It is then that he understood that the far away luminescent was none other than his own son, Ryan.

--- END ---