Misplaced Pages

#745254

177-533: In art, Cupid often appears in multiples as the Amores / ə ˈ m ɔː r iː z / (in the later terminology of art history , Italian amorini ), the equivalent of the Greek Erotes . Cupids are a frequent motif of both Roman art and later Western art of the classical tradition . In the 15th century, the iconography of Cupid starts to become indistinguishable from the putto . Cupid continued to be

354-414: A collective consciousness . Art historians do not commonly commit to any one particular brand of semiotics but rather construct an amalgamated version which they incorporate into their collection of analytical tools. For example, Meyer Schapiro borrowed Saussure 's differential meaning in effort to read signs as they exist within a system. According to Schapiro, to understand the meaning of frontality in

531-551: A London setting, themes of trickery and money, and a distinct moral ambiguity, despite Jonson's professed aim in the Prologue to Volpone to "mix profit with your pleasure". His late plays or " dotages ", particularly The Magnetic Lady and The Sad Shepherd , exhibit signs of an accommodation with the romantic tendencies of Elizabethan comedy . Within this general progression, however, Jonson's comic style remained constant and easily recognisable. He announces his programme in

708-438: A bee and stung her. The image of Cupid as a bee is part of a complex tradition of poetic imagery involving the flower of youth, the sting of love as a deflowering, and honey as a secretion of love. In both ancient and later art, Cupid is often shown riding a dolphin . On ancient Roman sarcophagi , the image may represent the soul's journey, originally associated with Dionysian religion . A mosaic from late Roman Britain shows

885-556: A brief Bible verse (the neck-verse ), forfeiting his "goods and chattels" and being branded with the so-called Tyburn T on his left thumb. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright , a Jesuit priest. In 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour , capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Day's Mirth . William Shakespeare

1062-567: A brief spell of imprisonment imposed to mark the authorities' displeasure at the work, in the second week of October 1605, he was present at a supper party attended by most of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. After the plot's discovery, he appears to have avoided further imprisonment; he volunteered what he knew of the affair to the investigator Robert Cecil and the Privy Council. Father Thomas Wright, who heard Fawkes's confession,

1239-423: A charge of recusancy , with Jonson alone additionally accused of allowing his fame as a Catholic to "seduce" citizens to the cause. This was a serious matter (the Gunpowder Plot was still fresh in people's minds) but he explained that his failure to take communion was only because he had not found sound theological endorsement for the practice, and by paying a fine of thirteen shillings (156 pence ) he escaped

1416-902: A cousin of King James, in Leith, and was made an honorary burgess of Edinburgh at a dinner laid on by the city on 26 September. He stayed in Scotland until late January 1619, and the best-remembered hospitality he enjoyed was that of the Scottish poet, William Drummond of Hawthornden , sited on the River Esk . Drummond undertook to record as much of Jonson's conversation as he could in his diary, and thus recorded aspects of Jonson's personality that would otherwise have been less clearly seen. Jonson delivers his opinions, in Drummond's terse reporting, in an expansive and even magisterial mood. Drummond noted he

1593-465: A decade, scores of papers, articles, and essays sustained a growing momentum, fueled by the Second-wave feminist movement , of critical discourse surrounding women's interactions with the arts as both artists and subjects. In her pioneering essay, Nochlin applies a feminist critical framework to show systematic exclusion of women from art training, arguing that exclusion from practicing art as well as

1770-470: A dolphin rescuing Cupid from an octopus, or Cupid holding a dolphin. The dolphin, often elaborated fantastically, might be constructed as a spout for a fountain. On a modern-era fountain in the Palazzo Vecchio , Florence, Italy , Cupid seems to be strangling a dolphin. Dolphins were often portrayed in antiquity as friendly to humans, and the dolphin itself could represent affection. Pliny records

1947-399: A famous poem to Camden and lines to Lucy Harington, are longer and are mostly addressed to specific individuals. Although it is included among the epigrams, " On My First Sonne " is neither satirical nor very short; the poem, intensely personal and deeply felt, typifies a genre that would come to be called "lyric poetry." It is possible that the spelling of 'son' as 'Sonne' is meant to allude to

SECTION 10

#1732765419746

2124-652: A fixed engagement in the Admiral's Men , then performing under Philip Henslowe 's management at The Rose . John Aubrey reports, on uncertain authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor; whatever his skills as an actor, he was more valuable to the company as a writer. By this time Jonson had begun to write original plays for the Admiral's Men; in 1598 he was mentioned by Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia as one of "the best for tragedy." None of his early tragedies survive, however. An undated comedy, The Case

2301-501: A full-blown art-historical methodology. Sedlmayr, in particular, rejected the minute study of iconography, patronage, and other approaches grounded in historical context, preferring instead to concentrate on the aesthetic qualities of a work of art. As a result, the Second Vienna School gained a reputation for unrestrained and irresponsible formalism , and was furthermore colored by Sedlmayr's overt racism and membership in

2478-412: A hideous monster, and she finally introduces a lamp into their chamber to see him. Startled by his beauty, she drips hot oil from the lamp and wakes him. He abandons her. She wanders the earth looking for him, and finally submits to the service of Venus, who tortures her. The goddess then sends Psyche on a series of quests. Each time she despairs, and each time she is given divine aid. On her final task, she

2655-454: A line when he wrote. His own claimed response was "Would he had blotted a thousand!" However, Jonson explains, "Hee was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free nature: had an excellent Phantsie ; brave notions and gentle expressions: wherein hee flow'd with that facility, that sometime it was necessary he should be stopp'd". Jonson concludes that "there was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned." When Shakespeare died, he said, "He

2832-458: A lion skin. In the poetry of Giambattista Marino (d. 1625), the image of Cupid or Amore sleeping represents the indolence of Love in the lap of Idleness. A madrigal by his literary rival Gaspare Murtola exhorted artists to paint the theme. A catalogue of works from antiquity collected by the Mattei family , patrons of Caravaggio , included sketches of sleeping cupids based on sculpture from

3009-622: A master bricklayer two years later. Jonson attended school in St Martin's Lane in London. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School , where the antiquarian , historian, topographer and officer of arms William Camden (1551–1623) was one of his masters. The pupil and master became friends, and the intellectual influence of Camden's broad-ranging scholarship upon Jonson's art and literary style remained notable, until Camden's death in 1623. At Westminster School he met

3186-514: A more affirmative notion of leftover materials of capitalist culture. Greenberg now is well known for examining and criticizing the formal properties of modern art. [3] Meyer Schapiro is one of the best-remembered Marxist art historians of the mid-20th century. After his graduation from Columbia University in 1924, he returned to his alma mater to teach Byzantine, Early Christian, and medieval art along with art-historical theory. [4] Although he wrote about numerous time periods and themes in art, he

3363-601: A nonsensical line in Julius Caesar and the setting of The Winter's Tale on the non-existent seacoast of Bohemia. Drummond also reported Jonson as saying that Shakespeare "wanted art" (i.e., lacked skill). In "De Shakespeare Nostrat" in Timber , which was published posthumously and reflects his lifetime of practical experience, Jonson offers a fuller and more conciliatory comment. He recalls being told by certain actors that Shakespeare never blotted (i.e., crossed out)

3540-470: A number of Jonson's plays, at least two of which ( Every Man in His Humour and Sejanus His Fall ) Shakespeare certainly acted in. However, it is now impossible to tell how much personal communication they had, and tales of their friendship cannot be substantiated. Jonson's most influential and revealing commentary on Shakespeare is the second of the two poems that he contributed to the prefatory verse that opens Shakespeare's First Folio . This poem, "To

3717-552: A popular figure in the Middle Ages , when under Christian influence he often had a dual nature as Heavenly and Earthly love. In the Renaissance , a renewed interest in classical philosophy endowed him with complex allegorical meanings. In contemporary popular culture, Cupid is shown drawing his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day . Cupid's powers are similar, though not identical, to Kamadeva ,

SECTION 20

#1732765419746

3894-511: A portrait of Jonson, offers a caricature that is recognisable from Drummond's report – boasting about himself and condemning other poets, criticising performances of his plays and calling attention to himself in any available way. This " War of the Theatres " appears to have ended with reconciliation on all sides. Jonson collaborated with Dekker on a pageant welcoming James I to England in 1603 although Drummond reports that Jonson called Dekker

4071-411: A procession emerging from the mouth of the sea god Neptune , first dolphins and then sea birds, ascending to Cupid. One interpretation of this allegory is that Neptune represents the soul's origin in the matter from which life was fashioned, with Cupid triumphing as the soul's desired destiny. In other contexts, Cupid with a dolphin recurs as a playful motif, as in garden statuary at Pompeii that shows

4248-400: A relative artistic value for individual works with respect to others of comparable style or sanctioning an entire style or movement; and art theory or " philosophy of art ", which is concerned with the fundamental nature of art. One branch of this area of study is aesthetics , which includes investigating the enigma of the sublime and determining the essence of beauty. Technically, art history

4425-415: A remarkable new direction for Jonson: a move into pastoral drama. During the early 1630s, he also conducted a correspondence with James Howell , who warned him about disfavour at court in the wake of his dispute with Jones. According to a contemporary letter written by Edward Thelwall of Gray's Inn , Jonson died on 18 August 1637 (O.S. 6 August). He died in London. His funeral was held the next day. It

4602-502: A rogue. Marston dedicated The Malcontent to Jonson and the two collaborated with Chapman on Eastward Ho! , a 1605 play whose anti-Scottish sentiment briefly landed both Jonson and Chapman in jail. At the beginning of the English reign of James VI and I in 1603 Jonson joined other poets and playwrights in welcoming the new king. Jonson quickly adapted himself to the additional demand for masques and entertainments introduced with

4779-613: A secondary purpose as art museums, and Cicero mentions a statue of "Cupid" (Eros) by Praxiteles that was consecrated at a sacrarium and received religious veneration jointly with Hercules . An inscription from Cártama in Roman Spain records statues of Mars and Cupid among the public works of a wealthy female priest ( sacerdos perpetua ) , and another list of benefactions by a procurator of Baetica includes statues of Venus and Cupid. Cupid became more common in Roman art from

4956-430: A series of setbacks drained his strength and damaged his reputation. He resumed writing regular plays in the 1620s, but these are not considered among his best. They are of significant interest, however, for their portrayal of Charles I 's England. The Staple of News , for example, offers a remarkable look at the earliest stage of English journalism. The lukewarm reception given that play was, however, nothing compared to

5133-441: A side figure in cult statues. A Cupid might appear among the several statuettes for private devotion in a household shrine , but there is no clear distinction between figures for veneration and those displayed as art or decoration. This is a distinction from his Greek equivalent, Eros , who was commonly worshipped alongside his mother Aphrodite , and was even given a sacred day upon the 4th of every month. Roman temples often served

5310-465: A similar work by Franz Theodor Kugler . Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945), who studied under Burckhardt in Basel, is the "father" of modern art history. Wölfflin taught at the universities of Berlin, Basel, Munich, and Zurich. A number of students went on to distinguished careers in art history, including Jakob Rosenberg and Frida Schottmüller  [ de ] . He introduced a scientific approach to

5487-426: A specific pictorial context, it must be differentiated from, or viewed in relation to, alternate possibilities such as a profile , or a three-quarter view . Schapiro combined this method with the work of Charles Sanders Peirce whose object, sign, and interpretant provided a structure for his approach. Alex Potts demonstrates the application of Peirce's concepts to visual representation by examining them in relation to

Cupid - Misplaced Pages Continue

5664-485: A tale of a dolphin at Puteoli carrying a boy on its back across a lake to go to school each day; when the boy died, the dolphin grieved itself to death. In erotic scenes from mythology, Cupid riding the dolphin may convey how swiftly love moves, or the Cupid astride a sea beast may be a reassuring presence for the wild ride of love. A dolphin-riding Cupid may attend scenes depicting the wedding of Neptune and Amphitrite or

5841-497: A winged figure, Cupido shared some characteristics with the goddess Victoria . On coinage issued by Sulla the dictator , Cupid bears the palm branch , the most common attribute of Victory. "Desire" in Roman culture was often attached to power as well as to erotic attraction. Roman historians criticize cupido gloriae , "desire for glory", and cupido imperii , "desire for ruling power". In Latin philosophical discourse, cupido

6018-412: A work of art. Art historians employ a number of methods in their research into the ontology and history of objects. Art historians often examine work in the context of its time. At best, this is done in a manner which respects its creator's motivations and imperatives; with consideration of the desires and prejudices of its patrons and sponsors; with a comparative analysis of themes and approaches of

6195-425: Is Altered , is markedly similar to Shakespeare's romantic comedies in its foreign setting, emphasis on genial wit and love-plot. Henslowe's diary indicates that Jonson had a hand in numerous other plays, including many in genres such as English history with which he is not otherwise associated. The comedies of his middle career, from Eastward Hoe to The Devil Is an Ass are for the most part city comedy , with

6372-507: Is Altered , may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597, a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe , The Isle of Dogs , was suppressed after causing great offence. Arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth I 's so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe . Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with "Leude and mutynous behaviour", while Nashe managed to escape to Great Yarmouth . Two of

6549-409: Is Altered , Jonson eschewed distant locations, noble characters, romantic plots and other staples of Elizabethan comedy, focusing instead on the satiric and realistic inheritance of new comedy . He set his plays in contemporary settings, peopled them with recognisable types, and set them to actions that, if not strictly realistic, involved everyday motives such as greed and jealousy . In accordance with

6726-455: Is also sometimes depicted blindfolded and described as blind, not so much in the sense of sightless—since the sight of the beloved can be a spur to love—as blinkered and arbitrary. As described by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1590s): Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love's mind of any judgement taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste. And therefore

6903-454: Is an especially good example of this, as the Russian avant-garde and later Soviet art were attempts to define that country's identity. Napoleon Bonaparte was also well known for commissioning works that emphasized the strength of France with him as ruler. Western Romanticism provided a new appreciation for one's home country, or new home country. Caspar David Friedrich 's, Monk by

7080-401: Is an icon for all of womankind. This chain of interpretation, or "unlimited semiosis" is endless; the art historian's job is to place boundaries on possible interpretations as much as it is to reveal new possibilities. Semiotics operates under the theory that an image can only be understood from the viewer's perspective. The artist is supplanted by the viewer as the purveyor of meaning, even to

7257-455: Is best remembered for his commentary on sculpture from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Arnold Hauser wrote the first Marxist survey of Western Art, entitled The Social History of Art . He attempted to show how class consciousness was reflected in major art periods. The book was controversial when published in 1951 because of its generalizations about entire eras, a strategy now called " vulgar Marxism ". [5] Marxist art history

Cupid - Misplaced Pages Continue

7434-522: Is commonly used in relation to the holiday Valentine's Day . "La Belle et la Bête" ("The Beauty and the Beast") was written by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve , and then abridged by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1740; in 1991 it inspired the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast . It has been said that Gabrielle was inspired by the tale Cupid and Psyche . On gems and other surviving pieces, Cupid

7611-529: Is described by the Latin poet Ovid in the first book of his Metamorphoses . When Apollo taunts Cupid as the lesser archer, Cupid shoots him with the golden arrow, but strikes the object of his desire, the nymph Daphne , with the lead. Trapped by Apollo's unwanted advances, Daphne prays to her father, the river god Peneus , who turns her into a laurel, the tree sacred to Apollo. It is the first of several unsuccessful or tragic love affairs for Apollo. This theme

7788-488: Is love said to be a child Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. In Botticelli 's Allegory of Spring (1482), also known by its Italian title La Primavera , Cupid is shown blindfolded while shooting his arrow, positioned above the central figure of Venus. Particularly in ancient Roman art, cupids may also carry or be surrounded by fruits, animals, or attributes of the Seasons or the wine-god Dionysus , symbolizing

7965-471: Is non-representational or a work of expressionism . An iconographical analysis is one which focuses on particular design elements of an object. Through a close reading of such elements, it is possible to trace their lineage, and with it draw conclusions regarding the origins and trajectory of these motifs . In turn, it is possible to make any number of observations regarding the social, cultural, economic and aesthetic values of those responsible for producing

8142-542: Is not these things, because the art historian uses historical method to answer the questions: How did the artist come to create the work?, Who were the patrons?, Who were their teachers?, Who was the audience?, Who were their disciples?, What historical forces shaped the artist's oeuvre and how did he or she and the creation, in turn, affect the course of artistic, political and social events? It is, however, questionable whether many questions of this kind can be answered satisfactorily without also considering basic questions about

8319-423: Is possible to trace the ideas of Xenokrates of Sicyon ( c.  280 BC ), a Greek sculptor who was perhaps the first art historian. Pliny's work, while mainly an encyclopaedia of the sciences, has thus been influential from the Renaissance onwards. (Passages about techniques used by the painter Apelles c. (332–329 BC), have been especially well-known.) Similar, though independent, developments occurred in

8496-472: Is somewhat mirrored in the story of Echo and Narcissus , as the goddess Juno forces the nymph Echo's love upon Narcissus, who is cursed by the goddess Nemesis to be self absorbed and unresponsive to her desires. A variation is found in The Kingis Quair , a 15th-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland , in which Cupid has three arrows: gold, for a gentle "smiting" that is easily cured;

8673-493: Is the equivalent of Greek pothos , a focus of reflections on the meaning and burden of desire. In depicting the "pious love" (amor pius) of Nisus and Euryalus in the Aeneid, Vergil has Nisus wonder: Is it the gods who put passion in men's mind, Euryalus, or does each person's fierce desire (cupido) become his own God? In Lucretius' physics of sex , cupido can represent human lust and an animal instinct to mate, but also

8850-642: Is to retrieve a dose of Proserpina 's beauty from the underworld. She succeeds, but on the way back can not resist opening the box in the hope of benefitting from it herself, whereupon she falls into a torpid sleep. Cupid finds her in this state, and revives her by returning the sleep to the box. Cupid grants her immortality so the couple can be wed as equals. The story's Neoplatonic elements and allusions to mystery religions accommodate multiple interpretations, and it has been analyzed as an allegory and in light of folktale , Märchen or fairy tale , and myth . Often presented as an allegory of love overcoming death,

9027-536: Is usually shown amusing himself with adult play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts, catching a butterfly, or flirting with a nymph . He is often depicted with his mother (in graphic arts, this is nearly always Venus), playing a horn. In other images, his mother is depicted scolding or even spanking him due to his mischievous nature. He is also shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler, perhaps in reference to Virgil 's Omnia vincit amor or as political satire on wars for love, or love as war. Traditionally, Cupid

SECTION 50

#1732765419746

9204-599: The Mona Lisa . By seeing the Mona Lisa , for example, as something beyond its materiality is to identify it as a sign. It is then recognized as referring to an object outside of itself, a woman, or Mona Lisa . The image does not seem to denote religious meaning and can therefore be assumed to be a portrait. This interpretation leads to a chain of possible interpretations: who was the sitter in relation to Leonardo da Vinci ? What significance did she have to him? Or, maybe she

9381-646: The Augustan poet Vergil , writing in the late 1st century BC. His collection of Eclogues concludes with what might be his most famous line: Omnia vincit Amor: et nos cedamus Amori. Love conquers all, and so let us surrender ourselves to Love. The theme was also expressed as the triumph of Cupid, as in the Triumphs of Petrarch . The ancient Roman Cupid was a god who embodied desire, but he had no temples or religious practices independent of other Roman deities such as Venus, whom he often accompanies as

9558-686: The Hindu god of human love. The name Cupīdō ('passionate desire') is a derivative of Latin cupiō , cupĕre ('to desire'), itself from Proto-Italic *kup-i- , which may reflect *kup-ei- ('to desire'; cf. Umbrian cupras , South Picene kuprí ). The latter ultimately stems from the Proto-Indo-European verbal stem *kup-(e)i- ('to tremble, desire'; cf. Old Irish accobor 'desire', Sanskrit prá-kupita - 'trembling, quaking', Old Church Slavonic kypĕti 'to simmer, boil'). The Romans reinterpreted myths and concepts pertaining to

9735-454: The Rainbow and Zephyr . The Greek travel writer Pausanias , he notes, contradicts himself by saying at one point that Eros welcomed Aphrodite into the world, and at another that Eros was the son of Aphrodite and the youngest of the gods. In Latin literature , Cupid is usually treated as the son of Venus without reference to a father. Seneca says that Vulcan , as the husband of Venus, is

9912-556: The Temple of Venus Erycina in Rome. Caravaggio, whose works Murtola is known for describing, took up the challenge with his 1608 Sleeping Cupid , a disturbing depiction of an unhealthy, immobilized child with "jaundiced skin, flushed cheeks, bluish lips and ears, the emaciated chest and swollen belly, the wasted muscles and inflamed joints". The model is thought to have suffered from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis . Caravaggio's sleeping Cupid

10089-525: The psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams , art, mythology , world religion and philosophy . Much of his life's work was spent exploring Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy , astrology , sociology , as well as literature and the arts. His most notable contributions include his concept of the psychological archetype , the collective unconscious , and his theory of synchronicity . Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidence were not merely due to chance but, instead, suggested

10266-485: The sonnet form, with which it shares some features. A few other so-called epigrams share this quality. Jonson's poems of "The Forest" also appeared in the first folio. Most of the fifteen poems are addressed to Jonson's aristocratic supporters, but the most famous are his country-house poem "To Penshurst" and the poem " To Celia " ("Come, my Celia, let us prove") that appears also in Volpone . Underwood , published in

10443-532: The three dimensions of sculptural or architectural space to create their art. The way these individual elements are employed results in representational or non-representational art. Is the artist imitating an object or can the image be found in nature? If so, it is representational. The closer the art hews to perfect imitation, the more the art is realistic . Is the artist not imitating, but instead relying on symbolism or in an important way striving to capture nature's essence, rather than copy it directly? If so

10620-582: The 11th —in or near London. In midlife, Jonson said his paternal grandfather, who "served King Henry 8 and was a gentleman", was a member of the extended Johnston family of Annandale in the Dumfries and Galloway , a genealogy that is attested by the three spindles ( rhombi ) in the Jonson family coat of arms : one spindle is a diamond-shaped heraldic device used by the Johnston family. His ancestors spelt

10797-414: The 1616 folio) is an entry in a genre that was popular among late-Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences, although Jonson was perhaps the only poet of his time to work in its full classical range. The epigrams explore various attitudes, most from the satiric stock of the day: complaints against women, courtiers and spies abound. The condemnatory poems are short and anonymous; Jonson's epigrams of praise, including

SECTION 60

#1732765419746

10974-473: The 6th century China, where a canon of worthy artists was established by writers in the scholar-official class. These writers, being necessarily proficient in calligraphy, were artists themselves. The artists are described in the Six Principles of Painting formulated by Xie He . While personal reminiscences of art and artists have long been written and read (see Lorenzo Ghiberti Commentarii , for

11151-735: The Church of England); the carving shows a distinct space between "O" and "rare". A monument to Jonson was erected in about 1723 by the Earl of Oxford and is in the eastern aisle of Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner . It includes a portrait medallion and the same inscription as on the gravestone. It seems Jonson was to have had a monument erected by subscription soon after his death but the English Civil War intervened. Apart from two tragedies, Sejanus and Catiline , that largely failed to impress Renaissance audiences, Jonson's work for

11328-462: The Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor and as a playwright. As an actor, he was the protagonist "Hieronimo" (Geronimo) in the play The Spanish Tragedy ( c.  1586 ), by Thomas Kyd (1558–94), the first revenge tragedy in English literature. By 1597, he was a working playwright employed by Philip Henslowe , the leading producer for the English public theatre; by

11505-625: The English Civil War, the "Tribe of Ben" touted his importance, and during the Restoration Jonson's satirical comedies and his theory and practice of "humour characters" (which are often misunderstood; see William Congreve's letters for clarification) was extremely influential, providing the blueprint for many Restoration comedies. John Aubrey wrote of Jonson in Brief Lives . By 1700, Jonson's status began to decline. In

11682-485: The English-speaking academy in the 1930s. These scholars were largely responsible for establishing art history as a legitimate field of study in the English-speaking world, and the influence of Panofsky's methodology, in particular, determined the course of American art history for a generation. Heinrich Wölfflin was not the only scholar to invoke psychological theories in the study of art. An unexpected turn in

11859-497: The First Folio, and he may have been inspired to write this poem by reading his fellow playwright's works, a number of which had been previously either unpublished or available in less satisfactory versions, in a relatively complete form. Jonson was a towering literary figure, and his influence was enormous for he has been described as "One of the most vigorous minds that ever added to the strength of English literature". Before

12036-522: The Greek Eros for Cupid in their own literature and art, and medieval and Renaissance mythographers conflate the two freely. In the Greek tradition, Eros had a dual, contradictory genealogy. He was among the primordial gods who came into existence asexually; after his generation, deities were begotten through male-female unions. In Hesiod 's Theogony , only Chaos and Gaia (Earth) are older. Before

12213-596: The King was in residence. The Masque of Blackness was praised by Algernon Charles Swinburne as the consummate example of this now-extinct genre, which mingled speech, dancing and spectacle. On many of these projects, he collaborated, not always peacefully, with designer Inigo Jones . For example, Jones designed the scenery for Jonson's masque Oberon, the Faery Prince performed at Whitehall on 1 January 1611 in which Prince Henry , eldest son of James I, appeared in

12390-692: The Litany , The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History , and Reclaiming Feminist Agency: Feminist Art History After Postmodernism are substantial efforts to bring feminist perspectives into the discourse of art history. The pair also co-founded the Feminist Art History Conference. As opposed to iconography which seeks to identify meaning, semiotics is concerned with how meaning is created. Roland Barthes 's connoted and denoted meanings are paramount to this examination. In any particular work of art, an interpretation depends on

12567-521: The Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare and What He Hath Left Us" , did a good deal to create the traditional view of Shakespeare as a poet who, despite "small Latine, and lesse Greeke", had a natural genius. The poem has traditionally been thought to exemplify the contrast which Jonson perceived between himself, the disciplined and erudite classicist, scornful of ignorance and sceptical of

12744-528: The Modern era. Some of this scholarship centers on the feminist art movement , which referred specifically to the experience of women. Often, feminist art history offers a critical "re-reading" of the Western art canon, such as Carol Duncan 's re-interpretation of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon . Two pioneers of the field are Mary Garrard and Norma Broude . Their anthologies Feminism and Art History: Questioning

12921-613: The Nazi party. This latter tendency was, however, by no means shared by all members of the school; Pächt, for example, was himself Jewish, and was forced to leave Vienna in the 1930s. Our 21st-century understanding of the symbolic content of art comes from a group of scholars who gathered in Hamburg in the 1920s. The most prominent among them were Erwin Panofsky , Aby Warburg , Fritz Saxl and Gertrud Bing . Together they developed much of

13098-499: The Russian Revolution and the communist ideals. Artist Isaak Brodsky 's work of art Shock Workers from Dnieprostroi in 1932 shows his political involvement within art. This piece of art can be analysed to show the internal troubles Soviet Russia was experiencing at the time. Perhaps the best-known Marxist was Clement Greenberg , who came to prominence during the late 1930s with his essay " Avant-Garde and Kitsch ". In

13275-882: The Sea (1808 or 1810) sets a sublime scene representing the overwhelming beauty and strength of the German shoreline at the Baltic Sea. In the infancy of the American colonies, the people believed it was their destiny to explore the Western, "untamed", wilderness. Artists who had been training at the Hudson River School in New York, took on the task of presenting the unknown land as both picturesque and sublime. Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( c. 11 June 1572 – 18 August [ O.S. 6 August] 1637)

13452-689: The Temple of Venus on the Capitoline Hill , and keeping one in his bedroom where he kissed it at night. A brother of this child became the emperor Claudius , whose mother Antonia appears in a surviving portrait-sculpture as Venus, with Cupid on her shoulder. The Augustus of Prima Porta is accompanied by a Cupid riding a dolphin . Cupids in multiples appeared on the friezes of the Temple of Venus Genetrix (Venus as "Begetting Mother"), and influenced scenes of relief sculpture on other works such as sarcophagi , particularly those of children. As

13629-601: The Triumph of Neptune, also known as a marine thiasos . To adapt myths for Christian use, medieval mythographers interpreted them morally. In this view, Cupid is seen as a "demon of fornication ". The innovative Theodulf of Orleans , who wrote during the reign of Charlemagne , reinterpreted Cupid as a seductive but malicious figure who exploits desire to draw people into an allegorical underworld of vice. To Theodulf, Cupid's quiver symbolized his depraved mind, his bow trickery, his arrows poison, and his torch burning passion. It

13806-469: The Welsh poet Hugh Holland , with whom he established an "enduring relationship". Both of them would write preliminary poems for William Shakespeare 's First Folio (1623). On leaving Westminster School in 1589, Jonson attended St John's College, Cambridge , to continue his book learning. However, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather, he returned after a month. According to

13983-534: The World War in 1914, wanted to create artworks which were nonconforming and aimed to destroy traditional art styles. [2] These two movements helped other artists to create pieces that were not viewed as traditional art. Some examples of styles that branched off the anti-art movement would be Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism. These styles and artists did not want to surrender to traditional ways of art. This way of thinking provoked political movements such as

14160-542: The actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again briefly imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison , for killing Gabriel Spenser in a duel on 22 September 1598 in Hogsden Fields (today part of Hoxton ). Tried on a charge of manslaughter , Jonson pleaded guilty but was released by benefit of clergy , a legal ploy through which he gained leniency by reciting

14337-567: The archer-brother of Diana and patron of poetic inspiration whose love affairs almost always end disastrously. Ovid jokingly blames Cupid for causing him to write love poetry instead of the more respectable epic. The story of Cupid and Psyche appears in Greek art as early as the 4th century BC, but the most extended literary source of the tale is the Latin novel Metamorphoses , also known as The Golden Ass , by Apuleius (2nd century AD). It concerns

14514-403: The art is non-representational—also called abstract . Realism and abstraction exist on a continuum. Impressionism is an example of a representational style that was not directly imitative, but strove to create an "impression" of nature. If the work is not representational and is an expression of the artist's feelings, longings and aspirations or is a search for ideals of beauty and form, the work

14691-457: The article anonymously. Though the use of posthumous material to perform psychoanalysis is controversial among art historians, especially as the sexual mores of Michelangelo's and Leonardo's time and Freud's are different, it is often attempted. Carl Jung also applied psychoanalytic theory to art. Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist , an influential thinker, and founder of analytical psychology . Jung's approach to psychology emphasized understanding

14868-663: The best early example), it was Giorgio Vasari, the Tuscan painter, sculptor and author of the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , who wrote the first true history of art. He emphasized art's progression and development, which was a milestone in this field. His was a personal and a historical account, featuring biographies of individual Italian artists, many of whom were his contemporaries and personal acquaintances. The most renowned of these

15045-462: The canonical history of art was the consequence of cultural conditions which curtailed and restricted women from art producing fields. The few who did succeed were treated as anomalies and did not provide a model for subsequent success. Griselda Pollock is another prominent feminist art historian, whose use of psychoanalytic theory is described above. While feminist art history can focus on any time period and location, much attention has been given to

15222-416: The careful attention to form and style that often came naturally to those trained in classics in the humanist manner. Jonson largely avoided the debates about rhyme and meter that had consumed Elizabethan classicists such as Thomas Campion and Gabriel Harvey . Accepting both rhyme and stress, Jonson used them to mimic the classical qualities of simplicity, restraint and precision. "Epigrams" (published in

15399-666: The churchman and historian Thomas Fuller (1608–61), Jonson at this time built a garden wall in Lincoln's Inn . After having been an apprentice bricklayer, Jonson went to the Netherlands and volunteered to soldier with the English regiments of Sir Francis Vere (1560–1609) in Flanders . England was allied with the Dutch in their fight for independence as well as the ongoing war with Spain . The Hawthornden Manuscripts (1619), of

15576-466: The comedies Volpone (acted 1605 and printed in 1607), Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), Bartholomew Fair (1614) and The Devil Is an Ass (1616). The Alchemist and Volpone were immediately successful. Of Epicoene , Jonson told Drummond of a satirical verse which reported that the play's subtitle was appropriate since its audience had refused to applaud

15753-539: The conversations between Ben Jonson and the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649), report that, when in Flanders, Jonson engaged, fought and killed an enemy soldier in single combat , and took for trophies the weapons of the vanquished soldier. Johnson is reputed to have visited the antiquary Sir Robert Cotton at a residence of his in Chester early in the 17th century. After his military activity on

15930-432: The creator's colleagues and teachers; and with consideration of iconography and symbolism . In short, this approach examines the work of art in the context of the world within which it was created. Art historians also often examine work through an analysis of form; that is, the creator's use of line , shape , color , texture and composition. This approach examines how the artist uses a two-dimensional picture plane or

16107-581: The decorative manifestation of these proliferating loves and desires. During the English Renaissance , Christopher Marlowe wrote of "ten thousand Cupids"; in Ben Jonson 's wedding masque Hymenaei , "a thousand several-coloured loves ... hop about the nuptial room". In the later classical tradition , Cupid is most often regarded as the son of Venus and Mars, whose love affair represented an allegory of Love and War. The duality between

16284-560: The direct inspiration for Karl Schnaase 's work. Schnaase's Niederländische Briefe established the theoretical foundations for art history as an autonomous discipline, and his Geschichte der bildenden Künste , one of the first historical surveys of the history of art from antiquity to the Renaissance, facilitated the teaching of art history in German-speaking universities. Schnaase's survey was published contemporaneously with

16461-532: The discipline. As in literary studies, there is an interest among scholars in nature and the environment, but the direction that this will take in the discipline has yet to be determined. The earliest surviving writing on art that can be classified as art history are the passages in Pliny the Elder 's Natural History ( c.  AD 77 –79), concerning the development of Greek sculpture and painting . From them it

16638-441: The dismal failure of The New Inn ; the cold reception given this play prompted Jonson to write a poem condemning his audience ( An Ode to Himself ), which in turn prompted Thomas Carew , one of the "Tribe of Ben", to respond in a poem that asks Jonson to recognise his own decline. The principal factor in Jonson's partial eclipse was, however, the death of James and the accession of King Charles I in 1625. Jonson felt neglected by

16815-472: The earth's generative capacity. Having all these associations, Cupid is considered to share parallels with the Hindu god Kama . Cupid carries two kinds of arrows, or darts, one with a sharp golden point, and the other with a blunt tip of lead. A person wounded by the golden arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire, but the one struck by the lead feels aversion and desires only to flee. The use of these arrows

16992-471: The essay Greenberg claimed that the avant-garde arose in order to defend aesthetic standards from the decline of taste involved in consumer society , and seeing kitsch and art as opposites. Greenberg further claimed that avant-garde and Modernist art was a means to resist the leveling of culture produced by capitalist propaganda . Greenberg appropriated the German word ' kitsch ' to describe this consumerism, although its connotations have since changed to

17169-618: The existence of gender dichotomy, Eros functioned by causing entities to separate from themselves that which they already contained. At the same time, the Eros who was pictured as a boy or slim youth was regarded as the child of a divine couple, the identity of whom varied by source. The influential Renaissance mythographer Natale Conti began his chapter on Cupid/Eros by declaring that the Greeks themselves were unsure about his parentage: Heaven and Earth, Ares and Aphrodite , Night and Ether , or

17346-828: The expanded folio of 1640, is a larger and more heterogeneous group of poems. It contains A Celebration of Charis , Jonson's most extended effort at love poetry; various religious pieces; encomiastic poems including the poem to Shakespeare and a sonnet on Mary Wroth ; the Execration against Vulcan and others. The 1640 volume also contains three elegies which have often been ascribed to Donne (one of them appeared in Donne's posthumous collected poems). There are many legends about Jonson's rivalry with Shakespeare . William Drummond reports that during their conversation, Jonson scoffed at two apparent absurdities in Shakespeare's plays:

17523-463: The extent that an interpretation is still valid regardless of whether the creator had intended it. Rosalind Krauss espoused this concept in her essay "In the Name of Picasso." She denounced the artist's monopoly on meaning and insisted that meaning can only be derived after the work has been removed from its historical and social context. Mieke Bal argued similarly that meaning does not even exist until

17700-407: The family name with a letter "t" (Johnstone or Johnstoun). While the spelling had eventually changed to the more common "Johnson", the playwright's own particular preference became "Jonson". Jonson's father lost his property, was imprisoned, and, as a Protestant, suffered forfeiture under Queen Mary . Becoming a clergyman upon his release, he died a month before his son's birth. His widow married

17877-460: The father of Cupid. Cicero , however, says that there were three Cupids, as well as three Venuses: the first Cupid was the son of Mercury and Diana , the second of Mercury and the second Venus, and the third of Mars and the third Venus. This last Cupid was the equivalent of Anteros , "Counter-Love", one of the Erotes , the gods who embody aspects of love. The multiple Cupids frolicking in art are

18054-532: The first volume of the folio-collected edition of his works that year. Other volumes followed in 1640–41 and 1692. (See: Ben Jonson folios ) On 8 July 1618 Jonson set out from Bishopsgate in London to walk to Edinburgh, arriving in Scotland's capital on 17 September. For the most part he followed the Great North Road , and was treated to lavish and enthusiastic welcomes in both towns and country houses. On his arrival he lodged initially with John Stuart,

18231-411: The founders of art history, noted that Winckelmann was 'the first to distinguish between the periods of ancient art and to link the history of style with world history'. From Winckelmann until the mid-20th century, the field of art history was dominated by German-speaking academics. Winckelmann's work thus marked the entry of art history into the high-philosophical discourse of German culture. Winckelmann

18408-468: The hero. She gives safe harbor to Aeneas and his band of refugees from Troy , only to be abandoned by him as he fulfills his destiny to found Rome . Iulus (also known as Ascanius ) becomes the mythical founder of the Julian family from which Julius Caesar came. Augustus, Caesar's heir, commemorated a beloved great-grandson who died as a child by having him portrayed as Cupid, dedicating one such statue at

18585-529: The history of art criticism came in 1910 when psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud published a book on the artist Leonardo da Vinci , in which he used Leonardo's paintings to interrogate the artist's psyche and sexual orientation. Freud inferred from his analysis that Leonardo was probably homosexual . In 1914 Freud published a psychoanalytical interpretation of Michelangelo's Moses ( Der Moses des Michelangelo ). He published this work shortly after reading Vasari's Lives . For unknown reasons, he originally published

18762-442: The history of art, focusing on three concepts. Firstly, he attempted to study art using psychology, particularly by applying the work of Wilhelm Wundt . He argued, among other things, that art and architecture are good if they resemble the human body. For example, houses were good if their façades looked like faces. Secondly, he introduced the idea of studying art through comparison. By comparing individual paintings to each other, he

18939-406: The identification of denoted meaning —the recognition of a visual sign, and the connoted meaning —the instant cultural associations that come with recognition. The main concern of the semiotic art historian is to come up with ways to navigate and interpret connoted meaning. Semiotic art history seeks to uncover the codified meaning or meanings in an aesthetic object by examining its connectedness to

19116-427: The image is observed by the viewer. It is only after acknowledging this that meaning can become opened up to other possibilities such as feminism or psychoanalysis. Aspects of the subject which have come to the fore in recent decades include interest in the patronage and consumption of art, including the economics of the art market, the role of collectors, the intentions and aspirations of those commissioning works, and

19293-406: The impulse of atoms to bond and form matter. An association of sex and violence is found in the erotic fascination for gladiators , who often had sexualized names such as Cupido . Cupid was the enemy of chastity , and the poet Ovid opposes him to Diana , the virgin goddess of the hunt who likewise carries a bow but who hates Cupid's passion-provoking arrows. Cupid is also at odds with Apollo ,

19470-447: The inscription. Another theory suggests that the tribute came from William Davenant , Jonson's successor as Poet Laureate (and card-playing companion of Young), as the same phrase appears on Davenant's nearby gravestone, but essayist Leigh Hunt contends that Davenant's wording represented no more than Young's coinage, cheaply re-used. The fact that Jonson was buried in an upright position was an indication of his reduced circumstances at

19647-413: The internet or by other means, has transformed the study of many types of art, especially those covering objects existing in large numbers which are widely dispersed among collections, such as illuminated manuscripts and Persian miniatures , and many types of archaeological artworks. Concurrent to those technological advances, art historians have shown increasing interest in new theoretical approaches to

19824-570: The manifestation of parallel events or circumstances reflecting this governing dynamic. He argued that a collective unconscious and archetypal imagery were detectable in art. His ideas were particularly popular among American Abstract expressionists in the 1940s and 1950s. His work inspired the surrealist concept of drawing imagery from dreams and the unconscious. Jung emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of

20001-452: The masses, and Shakespeare, represented in the poem as a kind of natural wonder whose genius was not subject to any rules except those of the audiences for which he wrote. But the poem itself qualifies this view: Some view this elegy as a conventional exercise, but others see it as a heartfelt tribute to the "Sweet Swan of Avon", the "Soul of the Age!" It has been argued that Jonson helped to edit

20178-410: The more compelling silver; and steel, for a love-wound that never heals. In the tale of Cupid the honey thief, the child-god is stung by bees when he steals honey from their hive. He cries and runs to his mother Venus, complaining that so small a creature should not cause such painful wounds. Venus laughs, and points out the poetic justice: he too is small, and yet delivers the sting of love. The story

20355-478: The more serious penalties at the authorities' disposal. His habit was to slip outside during the sacrament, a common routine at the time—indeed it was one followed by the royal consort, Queen Anne of Denmark , herself—to show political loyalty while not offending the conscience. Leading church figures, including John Overall , Dean of St Paul's , were tasked with winning Jonson back to Protestantism, but these overtures were resisted. In May 1610 Henry IV of France

20532-492: The most important twentieth-century art historians, including Ernst Gombrich , received their degrees at Vienna at this time. The term "Second Vienna School" (or "New Vienna School") usually refers to the following generation of Viennese scholars, including Hans Sedlmayr , Otto Pächt, and Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg. These scholars began in the 1930s to return to the work of the first generation, particularly to Riegl and his concept of Kunstwollen , and attempted to develop it into

20709-569: The nature of art. The current disciplinary gap between art history and the philosophy of art (aesthetics) often hinders this inquiry. Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Art of South Asia Art of Southeast Asia Art of Europe Art of Africa Art of the Americas Art of Oceania Art history is an interdisciplinary practice that analyzes the various factors—cultural, political, religious, economic or artistic—which contribute to visual appearance of

20886-455: The nature of artworks as objects. Thing theory , actor–network theory , and object-oriented ontology have played an increasing role in art historical literature. The making of art, the academic history of art, and the history of art museums are closely intertwined with the rise of nationalism. Art created in the modern era, in fact, has often been an attempt to generate feelings of national superiority or love of one's country . Russian art

21063-563: The new court. A decisive quarrel with Jones harmed his career as a writer of court masques, although he continued to entertain the court on an irregular basis. For his part, Charles displayed a certain degree of care for the great poet of his father's day: he increased Jonson's annual pension to £100 and included a tierce of wine and beer. Despite the strokes that he suffered in the 1620s, Jonson continued to write. At his death in 1637 he seems to have been working on another play, The Sad Shepherd . Though only two acts are extant, this represents

21240-530: The new reign and fostered by both the king and his consort Anne of Denmark . In addition to his popularity on the public stage and in the royal hall, he enjoyed the patronage of aristocrats such as Elizabeth Sidney (daughter of Sir Philip Sidney ) and Lady Mary Wroth . This connection with the Sidney family provided the impetus for one of Jonson's most famous lyrics, the country house poem To Penshurst . In February 1603 John Manningham reported that Jonson

21417-688: The next year, the production of Every Man in His Humour (1598) had established Jonson's reputation as a dramatist. Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as "a shrew, yet honest". The identity of Jonson's wife is obscure, though she sometimes is identified as "Ann Lewis", the woman who married a Benjamin Jonson in 1594, at the church of St Magnus-the-Martyr , near London Bridge . The registers of St Martin-in-the-Fields record that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. A decade later, in 1603, Benjamin Jonson, their eldest son, died of bubonic plague when he

21594-478: The object. Many art historians use critical theory to frame their inquiries into objects. Theory is most often used when dealing with more recent objects, those from the late 19th century onward. Critical theory in art history is often borrowed from literary scholars and it involves the application of a non-artistic analytical framework to the study of art objects. Feminist , Marxist , critical race , queer and postcolonial theories are all well established in

21771-462: The orders of Lord Burghley , was permitted to minister to the inmates of London prisons. It may have been that Jonson, fearing that his trial would go against him, was seeking the unequivocal absolution that Catholicism could offer if he were sentenced to death. Alternatively, he could have been looking to personal advantage from accepting conversion since Father Wright's protector, the Earl of Essex ,

21948-478: The overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche ("Soul" or "Breath of Life") and Cupid, and their ultimate union in marriage. The fame of Psyche's beauty threatens to eclipse that of Venus herself, and the love goddess sends Cupid to work her revenge. Cupid, however, becomes enamored of Psyche, and arranges for her to be taken to his palace. He visits her by night, warning her not to try to look upon him. Psyche's envious sisters convince her that her lover must be

22125-422: The piece. Proper analysis of pigments used in paint is now possible, which has upset many attributions. Dendrochronology for panel paintings and radio-carbon dating for old objects in organic materials have allowed scientific methods of dating objects to confirm or upset dates derived from stylistic analysis or documentary evidence. The development of good color photography, now held digitally and available on

22302-414: The play (i.e., remained silent). Yet Epicoene , along with Bartholomew Fair and (to a lesser extent) The Devil is an Ass have in modern times achieved a certain degree of recognition. While his life during this period was apparently more settled than it had been in the 1590s, his financial security was still not assured. Jonson recounted that his father had been a prosperous Protestant landowner until

22479-402: The plot mostly takes second place to a variety of incident and comic set-pieces. They are, also, notably ill-tempered. Thomas Davies called Poetaster "a contemptible mixture of the serio-comic, where the names of Augustus Caesar , Maecenas , Virgil , Horace , Ovid and Tibullus , are all sacrificed upon the altar of private resentment". Another early comedy in a different vein, The Case

22656-555: The political and economic climates in which the art was created. Linda Nochlin 's essay " Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? " helped to ignite feminist art history during the 1970s and remains one of the most widely read essays about female artists. This was then followed by a 1972 College Art Association Panel, chaired by Nochlin, entitled "Eroticism and the Image of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Art". Within

22833-577: The priest alone drinks the wine. The exact date of the ceremony is unknown. However, his interest in Catholic belief and practice remained with him until his death. Jonson's productivity began to decline in the 1620s, but he remained well-known. In that time, the Sons of Ben or the "Tribe of Ben", those younger poets such as Robert Herrick , Richard Lovelace , and Sir John Suckling who took their bearing in verse from Jonson, rose to prominence. However,

23010-565: The primordial and the sexually conceived Eros accommodated philosophical concepts of Heavenly and Earthly Love even in the Christian era. Cupid is winged, allegedly because lovers are flighty and likely to change their minds, and boyish because love is irrational. His symbols are the arrow and torch, "because love wounds and inflames the heart". These attributes and their interpretation were established by late antiquity, as summarized by Isidore of Seville (d. 636 AD) in his Etymologiae . Cupid

23187-442: The prologue to the folio version of Every Man in His Humour : he promises to represent "deeds, and language, such as men do use". He planned to write comedies that revived the classical premises of Elizabethan dramatic theory—or rather, since all but the loosest English comedies could claim some descent from Plautus and Terence , he intended to apply those premises with rigour. This commitment entailed negations: after The Case

23364-478: The public theatres was in comedy. These plays vary in some respects. The minor early plays, particularly those written for boy players , present somewhat looser plots and less-developed characters than those written later, for adult companies. Already in the plays which were his salvos in the Poets' War, he displays the keen eye for absurdity and hypocrisy that marks his best-known plays; in these early efforts, however,

23541-504: The reactions of contemporary and later viewers and owners. Museum studies , including the history of museum collecting and display, is now a specialized field of study, as is the history of collecting. Scientific advances have made possible much more accurate investigation of the materials and techniques used to create works, especially infra-red and x-ray photographic techniques which have allowed many underdrawings of paintings to be seen again, including figures that had been removed from

23718-461: The real emphasis in the study of art should be the views of the learned beholder and not the viewpoint of the artist. Winckelmann's writings thus were the beginnings of art criticism. His two most notable works that introduced the concept of art criticism were Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst , published in 1755, shortly before he left for Rome ( Fuseli published an English translation in 1765 under

23895-573: The reign of James I ." Jonson was a classically educated , well-read and cultured man of the English Renaissance with an appetite for controversy (personal and political, artistic and intellectual) whose cultural influence was of unparalleled breadth upon the playwrights and the poets of the Jacobean era (1603–1625) and of the Caroline era (1625–1642). Jonson was born in June 1572 —possibly on

24072-414: The reign of " Bloody Mary " and had suffered imprisonment and the forfeiture of his wealth during that monarch's attempt to restore England to Catholicism. On Elizabeth 's accession, he had been freed and had been able to travel to London to become a clergyman. (All that is known of Jonson's father, who died a month before his son was born, comes from the poet's own narrative.) Jonson's elementary education

24249-485: The reputation of the young artist, who was only twenty at the time. At the request of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici , his patron, he increased its value by deliberately making it look "antique", thus creating "his most notorious fake". After the deception was acknowledged, the Cupid Sleeping was displayed as evidence of his virtuosity alongside an ancient marble, attributed to Praxiteles , of Cupid asleep on

24426-449: The story was a frequent source of imagery for Roman sarcophagi and other extant art of antiquity. Since the rediscovery of Apuleius's novel in the Renaissance , the reception of Cupid and Psyche in the classical tradition has been extensive. The story has been retold in poetry, drama, and opera, and depicted widely in painting, sculpture, and various media. It has also played a role in popular culture as an example for "true love", and

24603-511: The tale as Schadenfreude ("taking pleasure in someone else's pain") in a poem by the same title. In a version by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , a writer of the German Enlightenment , the incident prompts Cupid to turn himself into a bee: Through this sting was Amor made wiser. The untiring deceiver concocted another battle-plan: he lurked beneath the carnations and roses and when a maiden came to pick them, he flew out as

24780-449: The temper of his age, he was often so broad in his characterisation that many of his most famous scenes border on the farcical (as William Congreve , for example, judged Epicoene ). He was more diligent in adhering to the classical unities than many of his peers—although as Margaret Cavendish noted, the unity of action in the major comedies was rather compromised by Jonson's abundance of incident. To this classical model, Jonson applied

24957-552: The theories of Riegl, but became eventually more preoccupied with iconography, and in particular with the transmission of themes related to classical antiquity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In this respect his interests coincided with those of Warburg, the son of a wealthy family who had assembled a library in Hamburg, devoted to the study of the classical tradition in later art and culture. Under Saxl's auspices, this library

25134-563: The time of Augustus , the first Roman emperor . After the Battle of Actium , when Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, Cupid transferring the weapons of Mars to his mother Venus became a motif of Augustan imagery. In the Aeneid , the national epic of Rome by the poet Virgil , Cupid disguises himself as Iulus , the son of Aeneas who was in turn the son of Venus herself, and in this form he beguiles Queen Dido of Carthage to fall in love with

25311-415: The time of his death, although it has also been written that he asked for a grave exactly 18 inches square from the monarch and received an upright grave to fit in the requested space. It has been pointed out that the inscription could be read "Orare Ben Jonson" (pray for Ben Jonson), possibly in an allusion to Jonson's acceptance of Catholic doctrine during his lifetime (although he had returned to

25488-564: The title Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks ), and Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums ( History of Art in Antiquity ), published in 1764 (this is the first occurrence of the phrase 'history of art' in the title of a book). Winckelmann critiqued the artistic excesses of Baroque and Rococo forms, and was instrumental in reforming taste in favor of the more sober Neoclassicism . Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897), one of

25665-422: The title role. Perhaps partly as a result of this new career, Jonson gave up writing plays for the public theatres for a decade. He later told Drummond that he had made less than two hundred pounds on all his plays together. In 1616 Jonson received a yearly pension of 100 marks (about £60), leading some to identify him as England's first Poet Laureate . This sign of royal favour may have encouraged him to publish

25842-472: The troublesome twelve years he remained a Catholic. His stance received attention beyond the low-level intolerance to which most followers of that faith were exposed. The first draft of his play Sejanus His Fall was banned for " popery ", and did not re-appear until some offending passages were cut. In January 1606 he (with Anne, his wife) appeared before the Consistory Court in London to answer

26019-459: The two features of his style which save his classical imitations from mere pedantry: the vividness with which he depicted the lives of his characters and the intricacy of his plots. Coleridge, for instance, claimed that The Alchemist had one of the three most perfect plots in literature. Jonson's poetry, like his drama, is informed by his classical learning. Some of his better-known poems are close translations of Greek or Roman models; all display

26196-803: The unconscious realm. His work not only triggered analytical work by art historians but became an integral part of art-making. Jackson Pollock , for example, famously created a series of drawings to accompany his sessions with his Jungian analyst, Joseph Henderson. Henderson, who later published the drawings in a text devoted to Pollock's sessions, realized how powerful the drawings were as a therapeutic tool. The legacy of psychoanalysis and analytical psychology in art history has been profound, and extends beyond Freud and Jung. The prominent feminist art historian Griselda Pollock, for example, draws upon psychoanalysis both in her reading into contemporary art and in her rereading of modernist art. With Griselda Pollock 's reading of French feminist psychoanalysis and in particular

26373-407: The various visual and conceptual outcomes related to an ever-evolving definition of art. Art history encompasses the study of objects created by different cultures around the world and throughout history that convey meaning, importance or serve usefulness primarily through visual representations. As a discipline, art history is distinguished from art criticism , which is concerned with establishing

26550-449: The vocabulary that continues to be used in the 21st century by art historians. "Iconography"—with roots meaning "symbols from writing" refers to subject matter of art derived from written sources—especially scripture and mythology. "Iconology" is a broader term that referred to all symbolism, whether derived from a specific text or not. Today art historians sometimes use these terms interchangeably. Panofsky, in his early work, also developed

26727-468: The writings of Julia Kristeva and Bracha L. Ettinger , as with Rosalind Krauss's readings of Jacques Lacan and Jean-François Lyotard and Catherine de Zegher's curatorial rereading of art, Feminist theory written in the fields of French feminism and Psychoanalysis has strongly informed the reframing of both men and women artists in art history. During the mid-20th century, art historians embraced social history by using critical approaches. The goal

26904-484: Was Michelangelo . Vasari's ideas about art were enormously influential, and served as a model for many, including in the north of Europe Karel van Mander 's Schilder-boeck and Joachim von Sandrart 's Teutsche Akademie . Vasari's approach held sway until the 18th century, when criticism was leveled at his biographical account of history. Scholars such as Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768) criticized Vasari's "cult" of artistic personality, and they argued that

27081-446: Was "a great lover and praiser of himself, a contemner and scorner of others". On returning to England, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Oxford University. The period between 1605 and 1620 may be viewed as Jonson's heyday. By 1616 he had produced all the plays on which his present reputation as a dramatist is based, including the tragedy Catiline (acted and printed 1611), which achieved limited success and

27258-442: Was able to make distinctions of style. His book Renaissance and Baroque developed this idea, and was the first to show how these stylistic periods differed from one another. In contrast to Giorgio Vasari , Wölfflin was uninterested in the biographies of artists. In fact he proposed the creation of an "art history without names." Finally, he studied art based on ideas of nationhood . He was particularly interested in whether there

27435-416: Was among the first actors to be cast. Jonson followed this in 1599 with Every Man out of His Humour , a pedantic attempt to imitate Aristophanes . It is not known whether this was a success on stage, but when published it proved popular and went through several editions. Jonson's other work for the theatre in the last years of Elizabeth I's reign was marked by fighting and controversy. Cynthia's Revels

27612-401: Was among those who might hope to rise to influence after the succession of a new monarch. Jonson's conversion came at a weighty time in affairs of state; the royal succession, from the childless Elizabeth, had not been settled and Essex's Catholic allies were hopeful that a sympathetic ruler might attain the throne. Conviction, and certainly not expedience alone, sustained Jonson's faith during

27789-488: Was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours ; he is best known for the satirical plays Every Man in His Humour (1598), Volpone, or The Fox ( c.  1606 ), The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614) and for his lyric and epigrammatic poetry. He is regarded as "the second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare , during

27966-545: Was an inherently "Italian" and an inherently " German " style. This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artist Albrecht Dürer . Contemporaneous with Wölfflin's career, a major school of art-historical thought developed at the University of Vienna . The first generation of the Vienna School was dominated by Alois Riegl and Franz Wickhoff , both students of Moritz Thausing , and

28143-424: Was appropriate to portray him naked, so as not to conceal his deception and evil. This conception largely followed his attachments to lust, but would later be diluted as many Christians embraced Cupid as a symbolic representation of love. Cupid sleeping became a symbol of absent or languishing love in Renaissance poetry and art, including a Sleeping Cupid (1496) by Michelangelo that is now lost. The ancient type

28320-526: Was assassinated, purportedly in the name of the Pope; he had been a Catholic monarch respected in England for tolerance towards Protestants, and his murder seems to have been the immediate cause of Jonson's decision to rejoin the Church of England. He did this in flamboyant style, pointedly drinking a full chalice of communion wine at the eucharist to demonstrate his renunciation of the Catholic rite, in which

28497-496: Was attended by "all or the greatest part of the nobility then in town". He is buried in the north aisle of the nave in Westminster Abbey , with the inscription "O Rare Ben Johnson [ sic ]" set in the slab over his grave. John Aubrey , in a more meticulous record than usual, notes that a passer-by, John Young of Great Milton , Oxfordshire , saw the bare grave marker and on impulse paid a workman eighteen pence to make

28674-535: Was characterized by a tendency to reassess neglected or disparaged periods in the history of art. Riegl and Wickhoff both wrote extensively on the art of late antiquity , which before them had been considered as a period of decline from the classical ideal. Riegl also contributed to the revaluation of the Baroque. The next generation of professors at Vienna included Max Dvořák , Julius von Schlosser , Hans Tietze, Karl Maria Swoboda, and Josef Strzygowski . A number of

28851-650: Was developed into a research institute, affiliated with the University of Hamburg , where Panofsky taught. Warburg died in 1929, and in the 1930s Saxl and Panofsky, both Jewish, were forced to leave Hamburg. Saxl settled in London, bringing Warburg's library with him and establishing the Warburg Institute . Panofsky settled in Princeton at the Institute for Advanced Study . In this respect they were part of an extraordinary influx of German art historians into

29028-481: Was first told about Eros in the nineteenth Idyll of Theocritus (3rd century BC). It was retold numerous times in both art and poetry during the Renaissance. The theme brought the Amoretti poetry cycle (1595) of Edmund Spenser to a conclusion, and furnished subject matter for at least twenty works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop. The German poet and classicist Karl Philipp Conz (1762–1827) framed

29205-436: Was in a small church school attached to St Martin-in-the-Fields parish, and at the age of about seven he secured a place at Westminster School , then part of Westminster Abbey . Notwithstanding this emphatically Protestant grounding, Jonson maintained an interest in Catholic doctrine throughout his adult life and, at a particularly perilous time while a religious war with Spain was widely expected and persecution of Catholics

29382-556: Was intensifying, he converted to the faith. This took place in October 1598, while Jonson was on remand in Newgate Gaol charged with manslaughter . Jonson's biographer Ian Donaldson is among those who suggest that the conversion was instigated by Father Thomas Wright, a Jesuit priest who had resigned from the order over his acceptance of Queen Elizabeth's right to rule in England. Wright, although placed under house arrest on

29559-413: Was known at the time through descriptions in classical literature, and at least one extant example had been displayed in the sculpture garden of Lorenzo de' Medici since 1488. In the 1st century AD, Pliny had described two marble versions of a Cupid (Eros), one at Thespiae and a nude at Parium , where it was the stained object of erotic fascination. Michelangelo's work was important in establishing

29736-416: Was known to Jonson from prison in 1598 and Cecil may have directed him to bring the priest before the council, as a witness. At the same time, Jonson pursued a more prestigious career, writing masques for James's court. The Satyr (1603) and The Masque of Blackness (1605) are two of about two dozen masques which Jonson wrote for James or for Queen Anne, some of them performed at Apethorpe Palace when

29913-542: Was living on Robert Townsend, son of Sir Roger Townshend , and "scorns the world." Perhaps this explains why his trouble with English authorities continued. That same year he was questioned by the Privy Council about Sejanus , a politically themed play about corruption in the Roman Empire. He was again in trouble for topical allusions in a play, now lost, in which he took part. Shortly after his release from

30090-487: Was not of an age, but for all time." Thomas Fuller relates stories of Jonson and Shakespeare engaging in debates in the Mermaid Tavern ; Fuller imagines conversations in which Shakespeare would run rings around the more learned but more ponderous Jonson. That the two men knew each other personally is beyond doubt, not only because of the tone of Jonson's references to him but because Shakespeare's company produced

30267-470: Was portrayed nude in the style of Classical art, but more modern depictions show him wearing a diaper, sash, and/or wings. Art history Art history is, briefly, the history of art—or the study of a specific type of objects created in the past. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, art history examines broader aspects of visual culture , including

30444-674: Was produced by the Children of the Chapel Royal at Blackfriars Theatre in 1600. It satirised both John Marston , who Jonson believed had accused him of lustfulness in Histriomastix , and Thomas Dekker . Jonson attacked the two poets again in Poetaster (1601). Dekker responded with Satiromastix , subtitled "the untrussing of the humorous poet". The final scene of this play, while certainly not to be taken at face value as

30621-496: Was read avidly by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller , both of whom began to write on the history of art, and his account of the Laocoön group occasioned a response by Lessing . The emergence of art as a major subject of philosophical speculation was solidified by the appearance of Immanuel Kant 's Critique of Judgment in 1790, and was furthered by Hegel 's Lectures on Aesthetics . Hegel's philosophy served as

30798-503: Was reconceived in fresco by Giovanni da San Giovanni , and the subject recurred throughout Roman and Italian work of the period. Earlier in his career, Caravaggio had challenged contemporary sensibilities with his "sexually provocative and anti-intellectual" Victorious Love , also known as Love Conquers All (Amor Vincit Omnia) , in which a brazenly naked Cupid tramples on emblems of culture and erudition representing music, architecture, warfare, and scholarship. The motto comes from

30975-416: Was refined by scholars such as T. J. Clark , Otto Karl Werckmeister  [ de ] , David Kunzle, Theodor W. Adorno , and Max Horkheimer . T. J. Clark was the first art historian writing from a Marxist perspective to abandon vulgar Marxism . He wrote Marxist art histories of several impressionist and realist artists, including Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet . These books focused closely on

31152-400: Was seven years old, upon which Jonson wrote the elegiac " On My First Sonne " (1603). A second son, also named Benjamin Jonson, died in 1635. During that period , Jonson and his wife lived separate lives for five years; Jonson enjoyed the residential hospitality of his patrons, Esme Stuart, 3rd Duke of Lennox and 7th Seigneur d'Aubigny and Sir Robert Townshend. By summer 1597, Jonson had

31329-462: Was to show how art interacts with power structures in society. One such critical approach was Marxism. Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes, how images contain information about the economy, and how images can make the status quo seem natural ( ideology ). [1] Marcel Duchamp and the Dada Movement jump-started the anti-art style. German artists, upset by

#745254