Humanities blog

"One of the most important innovations of the seventeenth century was opera" (Cunningham 391) After reading and watching  Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais'  Marriage of Figaro, I chose to analyze the character Susanna. I found Susanna to be filled with superior intellect and whit through her actions and traits presented in the Opera. Susanna role is the countess' maid, who is very fond of her and she must resist his seductions. She is engaged to Fargo, the protagonist in the play, who is apart of the count's help. Susanna is considered to be in lower class being that she is a maid, but she knows how to strategize this to her advantage.  Susanna is a strong love interest for many in the plot. She is engaged to Fargo, but knows that Count has a strong attraction to her. She uses this to her advantage, which gives her more power in her ultimately powerless position as a maid. She moves the plot forward, by exposing Count's desires through staying true to her beli...

       I researched Henry VII, ruler of England from 1485 to 1509. I choose the journal article titled, "The Henry VII in the National Portrait Gallery". My theme I am choosing is what is the role of political power in the relationship between individuals (the people) and the authority (the rulers)?      Henry VII, also called Henry Tudor was born on January 28th 1457 in Pembroke, Wales. Henry became king through inheritance and his slaying of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. He was then crowned as king in October. Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV of England. They had eight children together, but only four survived past childhood. It said that he was incredibly clever, which was well liked by the people. He died on April 21st 1509 due to tuberculosis.       I choose the portrait of King Henry VII by an unknown Netherlandish artist. Pained with oi...

The timeless Hamlet  Shakespeare has written countless plays, but one of the most popular that still continues to be taught and studied, is the Hamlet . Hamlet was written in the early 17th century and first performed in 1602. This was written during the Renaissance era and Shakespeare wanted to explore the real and raw human experience.   Through Hamlet he explored these struggles and real human experiences through his characters in the play.  The story of Hamlet follows, The King of Denmarks son, Hamlet, through tragedy, betrayal, revenge, and friendship.  The play begins when Hamlets father, the king, passes away and his wife, Gertrude marries his brother, Claudius. Hamlet then sees the ghost of his father and the ghost tells Hamlet he was murdered,  “foul and most unnatural murder” (I.v.25) by Gertrude his brother. After learning about his father being murdered and being told to avenge Claudius, Hamlet tries to unravel the details of his fathers ...

Reading  Madrigal Music by composer Jacques Arcadelt  During the 16th century, the Renaissance produced major musical development through sacred and secular music.       Sacred music generally involved the musical form of the motet or mass, while secular music involved the rise of instrumental music and dance music using madrigals. Secular music was intended for a non religious audience, while the sacred music serves a specific religious purpose.       When describing the new styles arising in the Northern renaissance, many of these new styles were expanded upon many of the musical forms developed in the early Renaissance and High Middle Ages. "Composers also continued to write madrigals (songs for three or more solo voices based generally on secular poems).. This increasing complexity produced a significant change in character of madrigals, which were especially popular in Elizabethan England"(Cunnigham). The advancement of the ma...

     After learning about Michelangelo's history and art more in depth in Chapter 13, I wanted to discover more. When doing some more research, I stumbled upon James G. Cooper's article titled, "Michelangelo's Laurentian Library: Drawings and Design Process". I found his art inspiring and I wanted to learn more about the delicate process behind it, which is why I choose this article. Essentially, this article goes into his design process by studying his drawings that survived in the Laurentian Library.       This author carefully studied and replicated many of his sketches in order to truly understand his artistic process.  Cooper goes into his sketching process stating, "In all the surviving sheets the drawings are incomplete, and this is because the act of sketching was itself Michelangelo's primary vehicle for exploring and developing an idea. Each sketch inevitably led to a new idea and this led to a new sketch with there being ...

 After reading The Prince  by Niccolo Machiavelli and then reading the many opinionated articles following the text, I choose to examine Erica Benner's article title "From Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading". The main idea presented by Benner is the idea that Machiavelli was trying to restore good moral standards in politics or overall ruling. Benner states, "Machiavelli's Prince , I suggest, is a masterwork with ironic writing with a moral purpose" (Benner 300). She explains the two ideas Machiavelli is trying to get across, one being the idea of warning people of power of the danger of asserting total dictatorship over people who value their freedom. Benner then goes into the idea of Machiavelli., teaching ordinary citizens to reconginice the early warning signs of control-hungry behavior in their leaders, and to impress on them the need to establish political and military orders that can keep tyranny at bay" (Benner 301). The overall message I t...