4º - GOYA, Unit 1, art.

 Here you have the presentation (if it asks you to log in, use your educa.jcyl.es access data).

Example on how to interpret a work of art

Hi guys!

I share with you an example of commentary of a work of art... This one is an example from Unit 1 and the method is valid for all the year.

How to interpret an object/ picture/ work of art... 

You should follow these steps:

1- What is it? It is a sculpture, it’s a capital from a column inside a church. It belongs to San Pedro de la Nave, Zamora.

2- Who did it? or Which civilization? It is from the visigothic style in the Iberian Peninsula.

3- Which is its approximate date? It was made about the end of the 7th century.

4- How is it? (form, material, decoration, theme...) It is made from stone, it is part of a column, and the sculpture is on relief, adapted to the architectural element. This is a scene from the Bible, a religious theme, depicting the sacrifice of Isaac. It is very clear, designed for the people, who were illiterate in those days, to easily understand it.

5- What information from the past does it give us? (facts, government, population...) In the Visigothic kingdom, in the medieval era of history, churches were small, and used the decoration in order to teach people about christianity.

6- What was it used for? (function) Churches were a place to pray, and capitals were an element of the architecture, part of the column and therefore a support element. The real function of the decoration in this capitals was to show people the scenes of the Bible in a simple form.

Compare two pictures / monuments

First you have the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, from Charlemagne's period, the Carolingian Empire.

And next, San Vitale in Ravenna, a byzantine Church.

Project 1 - Unit 1 Art

Each group will present to the class their work in a speaking presentation.
You can use different resources (storyteller, narrator, online presentations, videos, poster...).
You have to choose and divide the different parts, so each member of the group participe equally.

GROUP 1 - GOYA

Ideas:
Biography
Work by stages:   1- First years (Zaragoza). 2- Tapestry cartoons (Madrid), 3-Portraits (Madrid), 4- Last works (History paintings, black paintings)

GROUP 2 - NEOCLASSIC MADRID

Ideas:
Carlos III - role
Tourist guided route: different monuments in Madrid made in that period, in neoclassic style (for example the Prado museum, the Puerta de Alcalá, the Royal Observatory, the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Basilica of San Francisco el Grande...
     

"Your Spitfires At Work!" British Propaganda Poster in the Persian Gulf

© IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 5268)

The nature of propaganda is intertwined with that of human nature. Propaganda served as a way to solidify public support, decimate the reputation of the enemy, further one's ego and reputation (indeed, one of the earliest pieces of propaganda are those detailing the rise of Darius of Persia). In times of war, the home front is as crucial as the battlefront and propaganda is always an effective tool in a government's arsenal. In this post, I'm sharing this poster made by the British (likely the British Civilian Organisation) destined towards the British protectorates of the Persian Gulf whom had donated funds to the war cause (indeed, the hakim of Bahrain donated £30,000)

The title reads "Your [Persian Gulf] Spitfires in Action". Official transcript of the poster lies below:

[top left] One of the four fighter aircraft donated by the people of the Persian Gulf. The other three aircraft are called 'Bahrain', 'Kuwait' and 'Oman'.

[top right] When enemy bombers come close to Britain, fighter aircraft go to chase them and drive them away. The picture shows one of your fighter aircraft shooting down an enemy bomber.

[bottom left] Your fighter aircraft participate in sweeping raids on enemy territory, and their machine guns inflict huge losses on enemy ships, transport and communication routes.

[bottom right] Your fighter aircraft protect the Allies’ commercial ships against the attack of enemy aircraft. Good surveillance and vigilance of the fighter aircraft only played a major role in the arrival of many military shipments into their destination ports.

[bottom text] Countries of the Persian Gulf voluntarily participated in the daily punishment administered by the RAF to the aggressive Nazi State.

This photograph shows the spitfire (entitled Bahrain) that was donated to the Royal Air Force after raising £15,000 to buy it. The plane itself was piloted by Air Vice-Marshal (Flying Officer during the Battle of Britain) Francis David Stephen Scott-Malden.

His entry at ‘The Airmen’s Stories’ section of the Battle of Britain London Monument website reads:

‘Bearing the initials "S-M" below the cockpit and the legend "Bahrain", Scott-Malden's Spitfire W3632 - built at the Supermarine factory at Woolston, Hampshire - was a gift from the people of Bahrain, who had raised £15,000 to buy it.’

In his Bahrain plane, Scott-Malden led one of the Free Norwegian fighter squadrons leading three sorties in one day during the disastrous Deippe raid of August 1942. Scott-Malden was later awarded the Distinguished Service Order and decorated by the King of Norway.

 If you are interested, you can read about the role of Bahrain during the Second World War

A History of Contemporary Theatre in Bahrain

Below I'm reposting the Wikipedia article I've written:

The history of the theatre in Bahrain is one example of the modernisation that swept Bahrain in the 20th century, as a result of the British-backed reforms.  Contemporary Bahraini theatre, in its present form, originated in the early 20th century, resulting from the introduction of formal education in the country.
Traditionally, shadow plays and puppet shows were widespread forms of entertainment in Bahrain. The European-style drama plays were first introduced in schools and plays written by Arab dramatists would be later included in the school curriculum.

As civil society became more interested in theatre and influenced by the likes of Tawfiq al-Hakim and Saadallah Wannous, Bahrain experienced a golden age by the 1970s of playwrights such as Ali Al Shargawi, Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh, Aqil Sawar and Yousef al-Hamdan. The country hosts three notable theatre companies; Awal Theatre, Al-Jazira Theatre and the Al-Sawari Theatre companies

History 

Archaeological excavation of sites dating back to the Dilmun civilisation of the Bronze Age in Bahrain have revealed the existence of a ritualistic polytheistic religion that was believed to contain elements of theatre. However, limited information is known about it. In the 7th century AD, Bahrain converted to Islam. Islam did not encourage human representation or drama; however, the events of Ashura inspired a form of dramatic expression called Ta'zieh (Arabic: تعزية‎). These dramatic re-enactments occur during the Islamic month of Muharram and commemorates the Battle of Karbala where the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed, Imam Hussain, and his companions were killed. Furthermore, there exists two related forms of drama in the Islamic world; Maqama and shadow plays.

Aside from this, other forms of performance art in Bahrain included puppet theatres and shadow plays, which were popular between the Middle Ages up to the 18th century. European drama plays were first brought to the Arab world as a result of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt in 1798, eventually reaching the island nation of Bahrain.

20th Century

Drama in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf was pioneered by Kuwait and Bahrain in the early 20th century.^[4] The first recorded theatre production was A Judge from God's Will (Arabic: القاضي بأمر الله‎) which was performed in 1925 at the Hidaya Al-Khalifa Boys School in Muharraq.^[5] As a result of the formal education system in place in Bahrain, plays written by European playwrights, Arab and eventually Bahraini dramatists were staged by students and teachers in school. Religious, moralist and historical plays were primarily written by Syrian and Egyptian writers and performed at school. The earliest credited pioneers of Bahraini theatre were the two poets Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh and Abdulrahman Almoawda, whose plays in the 1950s were primarily based on historic figures and events in Islamic Arab history.^[2] Influenced by the likes of Egyptian playwright Ahmed Shawqi, both writers authored a combined ten plays, with Almoawda basing his plays on historical characters in Arab history such as Al-Ala'a Al-Hadrami.

In the 1940s, literary societies began expressing interest in amateur theatre, eventually culminating in the establishment of multiple theatre companies and a generation of Bahraini playwrights by the 1970s. Most plays were translated from English such as Shakespeare, with the later introduction of Arabic plays from Egypt and Syria. Eventually, a home-grown dramatic movement was born in the 1970s. Notable writers from this time include:

• Ali Al Shargawi (born 1948), who primarily produced children's plays,.
• Aqil Sawar (born 1946), who was a realistic author and playwright of Al-Nawkhidha (1985) and Al Baraha (1990),
• Yousef al-Hamdan (born 1956) was an experimental dramatist and respected academic critic, who published his memoirs Al-Jathoum in 1990.
• Amin Salah (born 1949) was a novelist and later-turned dramatist who gained recognition after rewriting Romeo and Juliet, titled Romeo al-Fareeg in 1988. Other works were satire of current events such as Al-Jutah on capitalism.

Censorship was a common obstacle for playwrights; any content deemed politically motivated was subject to censorship by the Bahraini government, making it difficult to highlight seemingly apolitical social problems in plays.

Companies

Traditionally, there have been three notable non-profit theatre companies operating in Bahrain. They receive subsidies from the Bahraini government.

 Awal Theatre

Established in 1970, it is the oldest theatre company in the country and the first to be formed independent of any civil society or club. Headquartered in the city of Muharraq, its performances were mainly carried out in the nearby capital city, Manama. Relying on government subsidies, the Awal Theatre company promoted local playwright talents and actors. Its first play was Kursi Ateeq in 1970, an original play written by Mohammed Awad. Since then, the company had performed regional Arab as well as international plays

Al Jazira Theatre

Established in 1971 as an extension of the Al Jazira club and included former Awal Theatre members, its members were semi-professionals and frequently trained in the higher institutes of dramatic arts in Kuwait. Both Awal and Al Jazira theatre companies performed seasonally in Bahrain and toured in drama festivals across the Arab World.

 Al Sawari Theatre

Founded by Abdullah al Sawari in 1991, the company primarily focuses on experimental theatre, adapting Asian elements of theatre such as Kathakali from India and Kabuki from Japan<sup>.

Reference:</sup>

• Rubin, Don (1999). The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre: The Arab world. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415059282. Retrieved 5 June 2015.

The Happiest Man in 1901-1904

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It's often incredibly rare to find photographs of people smiling pre-20th century. In fact, you can be forgiven for thinking the smile was an invention of the 20th century, after seeing the seemingly solemn and emotionless expressions of people in Victorian-era photographs. The reasoning behind this was that photographs were costly investments and were rarely taken in the lifetime of a Victorian gentleman. Considering the fact that this photo would likely serve as their identification for decades and for life, could you blame them for not wanting to look silly?

Regardless, that isn't the topic of this post. This post is an elaborate excuse to post this uplifting photo of a photogenic man eating a bowl of rice in China, sometime between 1901-1904. The photo was shot by the Jacob H. Schiff Chinese Expedition (an expedition led by the German scholar aforementioned) and kept in the records of the American Museum of Natural History. What's puzzling to us is the near stock-photo-like appearance, the over-the-top expression, the seemingly flawless dental hygiene. I think it's worth spending a few moments taking in this image.

I mean, when was the last time you've seen an old photo with a guy as cheerful as this?