Le Château de Chambord (Beth Olry)

The Château de Chambord is a Renaissance chateau located in the Loire Valley in the heart of France. The primary significance of the luxurious castle is its magnificent size and adapted architecture. Constructed during the time period from 1519-1536. There are contradicting reports about the actual architect to attribute this monumental beauty, but most are in agreement that it was predominantly the work of Domenico da Cortona, along with contributions by Leonardo da Vinci and several other architects and painters. Some believe that French artists were influenced by Italian architecture and that this led to the mixed style exemplary throughout the castle, birthing the evolution of French style.

                Initially, there was actually a palace in this location used as a hunting lodge by Counts of Blois until King François I demolished it in 1518. He decided it was the perfect place to build a chateau six times the size of any other in Loire Valley as a monument to the royal sport, also royal duty, of hunting.  François I was compelled by Europe’s largest enclosed forest park with a plethora of wild deer and boar surrounding the chateau. The construction  was later completed during the reign of Louix XIV. It was reported that during Louis XIV reign that 1800 workers worked continuously for 12 years.

                Regarding renaissance architecture, it blends traditional medieval forms with classical renaissance structures. The impressive chateau consists of 400 rooms, 80 staircases, and 365 fireplaces for every day of the year. The royal influence and hunting purpose are celebrated with the fireplaces as the Château de Chambord is considered a winter palace. There is a plethora of towers, cathedral ceilings, pointed domes, and pinnacles quintessential to renaissance architecture. Gothic style is evident on the rooftop showered with spires, chimneys, and pinnacles.

                The Château de Chambord has a Greek cross-shaped center plan design. The interior central section is known as the “keep” and was a fortified tower to use as a retreat during a battle, which was commonplace during the middle ages by European nobility. The four sides of the structure open up onto spacious rooms. There is a unique, memorable double helix staircase in the center of the building. A moat surrounds the corner towers and demonstrates the military power distinctly symbolic of sixteenth-century Renaissance chateaus. The first floor houses royal apartments; the second floor a hunting museum; and the rooftop has a “hunt-viewing” terrace. Only 80 rooms of the chateau are open for the public to view.

https://www.chambord.org/en/

http://www.theenglishgroup.co.uk/blog/2013/04/06/chateau-de-chambord/

https://monikaholloway.deviantart.com/art/Chateau-de-Chambord-264345300

http://www.loirevalleyfrance.net/castles/chateau-chambord.html

http://justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-chateau-de-chambord/

Taylor finds the love in TN

Finding the love in Twelfth Night (Taylor Jones)

When the beginning of a play starts off with the line “If music be the food of love, play on” one can safely make the assumption that love will be a prominent theme, and that holds true in Twelfth Night (1.1.1). While love is a main theme in this play, a lot of it isn’t genuine, it’s just infatuation and makes the reader wonder, what is love and do we really know if a person truly loves someone or just the idea of them? These different types of love appear throughout the play and they bring up the issue of true love and simple infatuation that fades.

            The first instance of love is seen between Orsino and Olivia, of course this isn’t genuine love at all because Orsino’s love for Olivia quickly changes to love for Viola. Orsino’s feelings for Olivia at the beginning of the play is not only just infatuation, it is unrequited love.  Olivia doesn’t return the love because she is mourning her brother and Osino doesn’t appreciate Olivia’s request, he keeps pursuing her. This alone says that Orsino isn’t truly in love with Olivia, he has an obsessive infatuation with her and has no regard for her feelings during her time of mourning. This is also a very unstable love, as seen in the dialogue from him in the first scene. He almost seems to enjoy chasing after her heart and just the idea of her, not her as a person because from what the audience can tell, he doesn’t know her very well.

            Olivia shows this same type of infatuation when she meets Cesario, she hardly knows anything about him but quickly falls in love with him. She could only be infatuated with the idea of Cesario, also because Cesario is really Viola. Another example of this infatuation is between Sebastian and Olivia. Sebastian agrees to marry Olivia when she thinks he is his sister, Viola as Cesario. This is a quick pairing and irrational for both parties involved.

            The only time any inkling of true love is found is between Orsino and Cesario/Viola. These characters get to know each other and become close, Orsino still loves Olivia when he meets Cesario. While Viola does love Orsino quickly, it isn’t dramatic or irrational like the other characters are when they have feelings for someone else. An interesting facet of this relationship is that Orsino still refers to Viola as a man even after she has revealed her true identity in Act V. While Orsino is in love with Viola, he may also be in love with Cesario. This situation brings a complicated element to their love because of the mistaken identity in the play.

Image

The image is a painting by Fredrick Pickersgill from 1859 and it is called Viola and the Countess. It depicts Olivia and Viola (Cesario) in a scene together where Olivia seems to be in love with Cesario.

Fyodor found the love in TN

Finding the Love in Twelfth Night (Fyodor Wheeler)

The comic ending of Twelfth Night sees mistaken and assumed identities sorted out and two couples united – Olivia and Sebastian and the more complicated Orsino and Viola. Cesario has been revealed to be a girl and not exactly the person Orsino fell in love with either, at least in appearance and name. However, Viola and Cesario are the same person, and Orsino sees that, though how he addresses his partner at first makes it seem he does not. Turning to Viola, he says “Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times / Thou never shouldst love woman like to me” (TN.5.1.265-266), still calling her, perhaps out of habit, a boy. This is then countered by his next lines, asking to see her in her “woman’s weeds” (TN.5.1.271). So, who does Orsino love, Cesario or Viola?

The answer is both. “Here is my hand,” Orsino says, “Yo shall from this time be your master’s mistress” (TN.5.1.321-323). He doesn’t reject Viola because she technically isn’t who he was first attracted to, and he doesn’t question her presentation of gender. He sees the same person, and he loves them. His closing lines before Feste’s song demonstrate how he feels about Viola/Cesario - “Cesario, come - / For so you shall be while you are a man. / But when in other habits you are seen, Orsino’s mistress and his fancy’s queen” (TN.5.1.381-383). I take this and the rest of his reaction to mean he loves Viola/Cesario for who they are, male or female (or perhaps a combination). His love doesn’t change even if the name of the recipient of it changes.

This is an illustration of love defined in Sonnet 116, specifically “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds” (116.2-3). Love does not seek to change the other person, and it itself does not change. If love for someone else changes when they do, then it really wasn’t love – and Orsino’s love does not alter with the alteration of Cesario to Viola.

As I said, above, Orsino loves Cesario, or Viola, (or as 5.1.380-384 might suggest, whichever one they want to be) for their person. Orsino spent time with Cesario and enjoyed his company whereas Olivia wouldn’t even speak to him, which meant there was no relationship in the first place. Because Cesario was male, there wasn’t the expectations of a male/female acquaintanceship, which probably would not have begun with friendship. Knowing how much he is loved in return makes this the real marriage of true minds.

And makes Orsino bisexual.

Kathye on Mary Ward

Mary Ward (Kathye Macias-Ramirez)

The English Renaissance saw an increase in women writers. Prior to the year 1500, there were no works “composed or translated” by women. However, by the end of 1640, there was over one hundred. These works consisted of “prose narratives, poetry, prayers, essays, confessions, diaries, letters, prefaces, and translations.” Though this contribution does not compare with the amount published by men, it still deserves recognition. Recognition because the “advancement of capitalism” took power away from women of the time. It left them in the home to take care of the family. This did not exclude them from the subjects of “religion”, “motherhood” and “social commentary.” Nevertheless, they continued to be “sheltered” from subjects of “worlds of commerce and government.” A humanist who believed in including women did so only to become a “better Christians.” Women remained subordinate to men despite the humanist movement that pressed on the idea of “the potential, freedom, and dignity of ‘Man’.”

Mary Ward was born 23 January 1585. She left behind many writings that depicted “her life and Institute”, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto sisters). The Institutes initiative was ‘the education of girls and other works congruent to the needs of the times’. Her life serves as a good example of women during this time period.

She was raised in a Catholic family in Yorkshire, North England. Yorkshire particularly resisted the anti-Catholic movement and was a “hotspot” for conflict between Catholics and Protestants. The Ward family, however, was willing to face the consequences that came with being Catholic. They maintained with their religious instructions, prayer, and study of languages. Despite being proposed to twice, Mary choice a religious life over marriage, but her parents did not agree. Her parents wanted to “strengthen” the power of Catholicism over Protestantism. After six years despite her parent's initial opinion, she traveled to St. Omer to work as an ‘outsister’. She later left and founded her own convent.

For the remainder of her life, Mary Ward would work to educate girls and empower Catholicism in general. She first located herself in England where she strengthened the faith of struggling Catholics under the rule of James the first. She shared with her family and ‘circle of friends’ that the aim for holiness, she found, does not requires one's withdraw from the world but interaction with it. Furthermore, she later returned to St. Omer and equipped women with an education and the same in England in order for women to understand their influence on society. Despite her dedication to Catholicism, she “pioneered a new form of religious life.” She devoted herself to live in the “way of life of the Jesuits”, connecting back to her idea of holiness, and interaction vs. withdraw. This allowed her to travel and spread the Gospel were “the need as greatest”, an activity normally associated with men. She saw the potential of women and “Man” in general and found “God in all things.”

With early support from “Bishops and members of the European Royalty” Mary sought approval from the Pope in 1621. She and four others traveled during the winter from “Liege to Rome”, 932 miles, to present her petition and letters that praised the work done in the schools and houses in the span of ten years. Many key Cardinals, however, had already come to contradicting conclusions. By 1628 the Pope and Cardinals withheld approval and in addition, closed all the houses. In addition, Mary Ward and those involved were not be recognized as sisters. In 1630 Mary was arrested and imprisoned. Again she traveled to Rome where she was “acquitted of heresy” after fighting for her innocence.  Despite giving life to the Catholic church in its time of need Mary Ward was not recognized as the founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary until 1909 by Pope Pius X. Overall, Mary Ward’s deep relationship with her faith brought her “freedom” and ‘fullness” as she took back power when many women did not know they had any.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/women%20writers/women.html

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/women%20writers/ward.html

http://www.loreto.org.au/about-us/our-history/mary-ward/

http://archives.loreto.org.au/Home/Our-Story/Our-History/Mary-Ward-(A-Painted-Life).aspx

Lindsay on Twelfth Night Intro

Greenblatt's Twelfth Night Intro (Lindsay Halliburton)

In his intro to Twelfth Night,  Stephen Greenblatt calls into question the ideals of love and of identity. The main couple, Viola and Orsino is quite controversial for the time period Shakespeare is writing in. During this time women were to dress a certain way which makes the contrast between Cesario and Viola so ironically humorous to the audience.

This choice of dress also highlights the opportunity for romantic sexuality to come into the spotlight through Orsino's feelings toward Cesario, and Olivia's feelings toward Cesario. Even when Olivia finds out that Sebastian is not the person that she fell in love with, she still chose to stay married to the brother of her beloved, which calls into question the sanctity of marriage and if love is meant to be seen in a good light or a comical lens in this play. 

    Is the love that Olivia feels for Cesario somehow changed by his/her gender, or is it simply the time that they live in that makes it situationally impossible? or did she lose her love for her upon finding out her true identity?  

Laura on Cervantes and Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote (Laura Laudeman)

            Miguel de Cervantes was born in 1547 in Spain near Madrid. Today, he is regarded by many academics and critics as the greatest Spanish-language writer in history and one of the world’s greatest novelists. Cervantes is best-known for writing Don Quixote, a novel that is now recognized as a critical classic of the Western literary cannon. Don Quixote is considered the most influential novel of the Spanish Golden Age and became so widely popular that it has been translated into more languages than any other book, with the exception of the Bible. The novel often appears on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.

            Miguel de Cervantes grew up in relative poverty. His father was a barber-surgeon, a lower-middle class occupation at the time. As a young man, Cervantes was employed as a solider, and he was known for his fearlessness in battle. As a result of his daring, he suffered two severe abdominal wounds and mangled his left hand.

During this time he was captured by Turks and imprisoned for five years.

            Following his military career, Miguel de Cervantes published a pastoral romance, La Galatea (1585). This first attempt at a novel, however, was not terribly successful, and did not attract much notice. Cervantes also tried to succeed as a playwright. Theatre was a major form of entertainment in Golden Age Spain, and writing plays could prove to be lucrative if audiences liked your work. Cervantes did not find acclaim as a playwright either, though.

            After his initial lack of literary success, Cervantes took a job as a commissary for the Spanish Armada. This entailed collecting grain and other supplies from rural communities, who sometimes did not want to give up their resources. When Cervantes repeatedly failed to collect what he was supposed to, he was charged with mismanagement and put in prison. It was during this time, allegedly, that he conceived of and began writing Don Quixote.

            Don Quixote was first published in 1605. Centuries later, American literary critic Harold Bloom would call it “the first modern novel.” Don Quixote was meant to be a comic satire of the chivalric romances that were popular at the time.

With an episodic narrative structure, it relates the story of an elderly man who has read too many of these romances, losing his mind as a result. He assumes the identity of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a knight errant who seeks to right the world’s wrongs and exert justice on villains. He recruits a poor farmer, Sancho, to be his squire, and an old work horse becomes his trusty steed. Don Quixote transforms the realities of the world into analogues for his medieval fantasy: a simple inn is a castle, and prostitutes are high-born ladies of the court. He famously fights a windmill, imagining it to be a giant. He exhibits other strange behavior too, sometimes speaking in such elevated, flowery language that nobody understands him. Throughout the story, Don Quixote’s friends try to cure him of his madness by burning his books and otherwise discouraging his reading.

            One notable feature of Don Quixote is Cervantes’ suggestion that the events of the novel are true. He writes that some of the novel was transcribed from the “archives of La Mancha,” and that the rest of the text was translated from Arabic accounts of his adventures. The narrator alleges to have found manuscripts verifying the details of various episodes in Don Quixote. 

            Ten years after the original publication of Don Quixote, Cervantes published a second part to the novel. This additional text takes place a number of years after the first one, in a world in which every literate Spanish-speaking person has read the original novel, and Don Quixote is recognized when he goes out as somewhat of a celebrity. These two parts are now published together as one novel.

            Though it was originally conceived as and received by the public as a comic novel, Don Quixote has been interpreted in a number of different ways throughout the years— some have viewed it as a tragedy of idealism and as a critical social commentary. But regardless of how the novel is interpreted, it has left an indelible mark on global society and literature. The word “quixotic” has entered our lexicon to describe one who relentlessly pursues virtuous ideals to the point of impracticality and foolishness. The phrase “tilting at windmills,” too, has become common parlance for one who battles imaginary or insignificant enemies.

Literature and popular culture abound with references to Cervantes’ masterpiece, also. Direct references to Don Quixote are made in other classic novels like The Three Musketeers and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A myriad of adaptations of Don Quixote exist across all forms of media, including paintings by Picasso and Dali, as well as the 1965 stage musical The Man of La Mancha. Other novels, poetry, and plays written by Miguel de Cervantes have survived, but none of them come close to having the cultural impact that Don Quixote has had.

Hieronymous Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch (born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken, c. 1450-1516)

Bosch (pr. boss) is certainly one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time, developing his aesthetic separately from the Italianate traditions that informed some of his later contemporaries, such as Dürer, van Eyck, and Breughel. Scholars have tried to categorize him as a moralist, a satirist, a humanist, and a fiery religious propagandist, among other things.

In many ways, Bosch remains a cipher, like many medieval artists, who remained anonymous because of the theological injunctions against pride and, frankly, because many painters worked in a collective like the craftsmen they were considered to be. Therefore, there are no diaries, artistic manifestos, or informed witnesses or biographers. His Christian name is a variation on Jerome, the name of the saint who created the Vulgate. His family name van Aken, means “from Aachen,” a city now in Germany but which was Flanders in the sixteenth century. However, 's-Hertogenbosch is not particularly close to Aachen. In Dutch, his name is pronounced “boss,” but in German, “bosh.”

He came from a family of painters, including his grandfather, uncles, and father, all from the same region and town, 's-Hertogenbosch, from the Netherlands provice of Brabant. Bosch’s father was the artistic advisor to the civic order called the Brotherhood of Our Lady. Much of the town was destroyed in a fire, so it’s possible that this is why most of their works did not survive. Eventually, Bosch joined this society as well. He married a rich woman, and she may have helped support his art.

Philip II of Spain greatly admired Bosch and acquired many of his works, which is why many of them remain in that country. One presumes that their religious significance attracted the king, a conservative Catholic. Perhaps the most celebrated piece is The Garden of Earthly Delights, one of his triptychs.  It depicts a slightly dysfunctional and erotic Paradise with Adam and Eve, bizarre fruits and vegetables, and then a frightening and grotesque hell on the right hand panel. When one closes the triptych, one can see a grisaille of God creating the Earth.

Since Bosch’s art is so singular and bizarre, most critics have not known what to make of it. Was it advancing or criticizing medieval heresies, demonstrating a obscure hermeticism, or just there to titillate and provoke? Generally the paintings have been subjected to the same analysis that has dominated literary studies. Interpretations have tended to reflect the aesthetic or ethics of their own time rather than Bosch’s. Hence our time thinks itself less prescriptive and judgmental and sees its beliefs in Freud and surrealism validated, for instance.

His work is easily available online, notably at the site hieronymous-bosch.org. and boschproject.org

Kara on Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca (Kara Beasley)

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) was born in Arezzo, Italy on July 20, 1304. We know him today as “The Father of Humanism.” He was an Italian poet and scholar who based most of his poems on a woman named Laura who was his idealized beloved and these poems contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry. He loved classical artists and this love inspired him to travel because of it. He visited men of learning and searching monastic libraries for classical manuscripts. Petrarch’s father was a lawyer who was forced to leave Florence in order to find a job and ended up in Avignon in 1312. Several years after Petrarch was born. Once Petrarch was old enough, his father had him study law and he moved back to Italy with his brother in 1320, where started to develop ‘an unquenchable thirst for literature.” His earliest poems were about his mother’s death and he started to become acquainted with vernacular poetry, where he moved back to Avignon and became associated with Cardinal Giovanni Colonna. Later he met his beloved Laura who he kept secret about her status because he felt that was unimportant. From this love, his most celebrated Italian poems sprang forth, which despised as mere trifles, he revised them throughout his life. He then was invited by Paris and Rome to be crowned poet and chose Rome in order to celebrate the rebirth of the cult of poetry. He wrote Secretum Meum in 1342-43 which was an autobiographical treatise consisting of three dialogues between Petrarch and St. Augustine talking about even if you are absorbed in yourself and others around you, a man might still find his way to God. Petrarch love for Laura made him realize that he had love for the creature rather than the creator which was proof to his attachment of the world. Because of this, he broke through his too-exclusive admiration for antiquity to admit to other authoritative voices. He wrote De Vita Solitaria as an example of this where developed the theoretical basis and description of the “solitary life” where a man can enjoy nature and study together with those of prayer. He died July 18/19, 1374 in Padua, Italy.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Petrarch#ref5637

and

facsimile

Tyler on AYL Final Pairings

AYL Final Four (Tyler Damerall)

Helen Mirren as our lovely Rosalind/Ganymede

 

The two final pairings that are arranged by Rosalind, being Orlando with herself, and Silvius with Phoebe, are conventional in terms that a comedy is usually concluded with a wedding and that the characters who truly are in love are the ones paired despite any obfuscation during the rest of the play.  The act of pairing is unconventional as it is done by Rosalind, a woman.  As we have seen in other plays by Shakespeare, the authority of matchmaking was traditionally reserved for men.  Nonetheless, it follows Rosalind’s unconventional personality.  She has been shown to act assertively and, though she initially dresses up as a man to bear only semblance of power, her actions while disguised as Ganymede for the greater part of the play prove her real potential.  While still disguised in Act V, scene ii, Rosalind plans that Orlando shall marry Rosalind; and Phoebe shall marry Silvius if he cannot Ganymede.  The first pairing is rather obvious as a plot device. The second, however, is a clever sleight of hand over which she has total control, since once she assumes again her proper identity, then Ganymede will be impossible to marry.  The marriage is carried out in Act V, scene iv and so the pairs of lovers are rightfully married and the divine order is “atone,” to borrow a word from the god of marriage, who shows up to suggest the union of Orlando and Rosalind is divine will.  Thus, at the end of the play, there is love and mirth, and all is set right not just in the world, but also the heavens.

Todd on AYL final pairings

AYL Final Four (Todd Douglas)

 

            In As You Like It, love is seen as a very consuming thing. The characters in the play have an idea of what it means to be a “true” lover; according to Silvius:

O, thou didst then never love so heartily!

If thou rememb'rest not the slightest folly

That ever love did make thee run into,

Thou hast not lov'd;

Or if thou hast not sat as I do now,

Wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise,

Thou hast not lov'd;

 

This speech in compases love in the play because love each of the characters believe that love has some special quality to it. Most of them believes that love can drive a person to be irrational.  Rosalind (as Ganymede) tells Orlando “Then your hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unbanded, your sleeve unbuttoned, your shoe untied, and everything about you demonstrating a careless desolation.” Here Rosalind poses the question that if Orlando is so in love, why isn’t he a mess? When speaking of her own affections for him she says “Oh, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself.”

Orlando also becomes consumed by his passion, and can barely speak in the first act when he first comes into contact with Rosalind, even though he’s attracted to her. The idea of a tortured love sick lover continues throughout the play. Silvius is the perfect example of this, as the young shepard loves a woman that wants nothing to do with him. In in his speech in Act 2 scene 4, he believes “no man has ever loved so.” He follows her around begging her to give him a chance.

Touchstone, on the other hand, can’t make up his mind when to marry Audrey. He goes around in search of the perfect wedding venue. Celia and Oliver waist no time getting to the altar. Even though they don’t meet each other till the end of the play, they decide to get married the quickest of any of the characters.

Love in As You Like It is irrational, and the couples in As You Like It do some “unnecessary” things to get love from their partner. Rather than just marrying them from the beginning, they put each other through a game of sport showing just how insane love is.

Picture: https://www.intofilm.org/resources/238

David on Theodore Beza

Theodore Beza (David Jones)

Theodore Beza is a name that is not as well-known as Luther, Calvin or Zwingli, but was still a very important figure in the Protestant Reformation.  He was born June 24^th, 1519, at Vezelay, in Burgundy, France. He was the son of Pierre de Beze, who was the royal governor of Vezelay.  He owed much of his education to his uncle, Nicolas de Besze, a counsellor of the Paris parliament. He was placed under the tutorage of Melchior Wolmar. In 1935, he went to Orleans to study law and after completing his education in 1539, he established a practice in Paris and published a book of Latin poetry call Juvenilia in 1548. That same year, Beza was stricken with a severe illness that revealed to him his spiritual needs. Upon recovering, Beza traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, the city of refuge for Evangelicals, arriving there on October 23, 1548 and joining the church of Calvin. In November of 1549, a meeting with Pierre Viret in Lausanne, Switzerland brought about his appointment as a professor of Greek at the academy. While teaching there, Beza wrote his defense of the burning of the anti-Trinitarian heretic Michael Servetus and pleaded for the Waldenses, who suffered terrible persecution. In the late 1550s, John Calvin invited Beza to Geneva to help with establishing the Academy of Geneva, which would become the training ground for future ministers for the reformed cause. He taught Greek at first, and later took over the role of Theologian after Calvin’s death.  When Calvin died in 1564, Beza succeeded him as the head of the Academy and the leader of the Protestant Reformation centered in Geneva. He served with distinction at the Colloquy of Poissy and contributed Greek editions and Latin translations of the New Testament. He also donated to the University of Cambridge the Codex Bezae, a manuscript from the 5^th century containing Greek and Latin versions of the four Gospels and Acts. He remained the chief pastor of the Geneva church until his death in 1605.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Beza

https://www.theopedia.com/theodore-beza

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/philosophy-and-religion/protestant-christianity-biographies/theodore-beza

Link to picture: https://continuingreformation.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/theodre-beza.jpg

Alex on Rosalind and Orlando in 4.1

Rosalind and Orlando in AYL 4.1 (Alex Settle)

The fruition of Rosalind’s love for Orlando is finally presented to the audience throughout this section of dialogue.  Upon beginning his lesson of love, Orlando is immediately criticized and insulted by Rosalind, who is appalled that he, not only is late, but tries to justify it. After relenting, Rosalind agrees to teach him and tells Orlando to try to “woo” her.  As the lesson continues, Rosalind begins to reassert herself as a woman who has, just begun, to take an interest in Orlando.  At the pretend wedding, she goes as far as to make Orlando and herself actually say the vows as though they are at a real wedding.  Vows are extremely sacred at this time, and to even use them in a pretend wedding was just as serious.  This presents the ideology that she wishes to marry Orlando.  As this fictitious wedding continues, Rosalind assures Orlando that after marriage, the woman becomes less appealing, as if to see if Orlando would agree or disagree.  Orlando does not think this is true for him and instead believes it is a poorly created stereotype, and refuses this ideology given from Rosalind.  This is where Rosalind realizes that Orlando truly understands what a relationship is.  He has exceeded Rosalind’s expectations of him, thus she begins overflowing with even more love for Orlando.  After Orlando leaves, Rosalind states that she is unbelievably in love with Orlando.  According to her, only Cupid could, “…judge how deep I am in love” (461).  She will now go and wait for the return of her beloved since she has finally come to the full realization of how deeply she cares about Orlando.

Hallie on Aemilia Lanyer

Aemilia Lanyer (Hallie Nowak)

Emilia Lanyer (1569-1645)

Lanyer, born in 1569, was the first Englishwoman to both publish and making a living from her poetry: her single volume of poems, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. This volume of poems features a myriad of poetic verse, ranging from series of poems, a poem on Christ’s Passion (which, notably, is written completely from a feminine perspective), and the first published country-house poem. Her work has been considered proto-feminist; as Poetry Foundation asserts referring to Dus Rex Judaeorum, “all of its dedicatees are women, the poem on the Passion specifically argues the4 virtues of women as opposed to the vices of men.” This poem, which also titles Lanyer’s collection of poems, is significant for its satirical tone explicating the story of Christ’s Passion entirely from the women that surround Christ. Exploring the genealogy of women is another theme that becomes present within Lanyer’s work. Her work explores the relationship between mother and daughter, and how the genealogy of women began with Eve. Lanyer also advocated for the interconnectivity between the material world, spritiual world, and women, using spirituality to supplement meaning in a woman’s life. This ideal originates from Lanyer’s intrinsic belief conveyed in her life and writing that women should be raised to the same standard as men.  Lanyer was associated with Margaret, Countess of Cumberland. “The Description of Cookeham” relays this interconnectivity between Margaret and Lanyer, praising the pastoral landscape in which Lanyer depicts a community of religious and educated women. Her volume of poetry was given to Prince Henry by the countess of Cumberland. Lanyer has also been identified as Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady” that has made an appearance in several of his Sonnets. Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/aemilia-lanyerhttps://www.poemhunter.com/aemilia-lanyer/biography/

D'Jara on Adam and Orlando

Adam and Orlando (D'Jara Culpepper)

The relationship between Adam and Orlando in As You Like It is one example of love that didn’t register upon my first reading of Acts I and II. In Act I, Scene I, Adam begins as the loyal servant of Oliver. Understandably, there is some familiarity between him and Orlando because of Adam’s service to late Sir Roland de Bois, but there is no explicit elaboration on Adam’s relationship with either of the young lords until his choosing to protect Orlando from Oliver’s schemes in Act II, Scene III. Through this scene, Adam reveals not only his disliking of Oliver’s ways but a possibly paternal if not familial affection for Orlando. Though this is not to say that lord-servant relationships are normally unaffectionate in nature, the sorrowful words Adam delivers to Orlando before explaining Oliver’s scheme displays both phileo and agape love:

            What, my young master? O my gentle master,

            O my sweet master, O you memory

            Of old Sir Roland, why, what make you here?

            Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you?

            And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant?

            . . .

            Know you not, master, to some kind of men

            Their graces serve them but as enemies?

            No more do yours: your virtues, gentle master,

            Are sanctified and holy traitors to you. (2.3.2-13)

Later on in Act II, Orlando displays similar love in his effort to lift Adam’s spirits and care for him before his search for food for both of their sakes:

            Live a little, comfort a little, cheer thyself a little. If this

            Uncouth forest yield anything savage I will either be food

for it or bring it for food to thee. […] Yet thou liest in the bleak air.

Come, I will bear thee to some shelter, and thou shalt not

die for lack of a dinner if there live anything in this desert.

Picture: Adam and Orlando as performed by Richard Briars (left) and David Oyelowo (right)

Picture URL: http://www.shakespeare-navigators.com/as_you_like_it/AYLI_Note_1_1_3.html

Mariah on Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega (Mariah Zimmerman)

Lope de Vega was born in Madrid,  November 25, 1562 to an undistinguished family. He ultimately became a playwright, poet, novelist, and marine. At a young age, Vega had begun to show that he was extremely intelligent. When he was five years old he was reading in Spanish and Latin and had completed his first play when he was twelve years old.  Due to the help of Bishop of Avila, Vega was enrolled into the University of Acala and enlisted into the Spanish navy in 1583 after his graduation. Years after his enrollment, Vega survived the attack of the English which was a substantial defeat for the Spanish Armada. On his return from the battle he began to write earnestly.

The personal life of Vega was very interesting, and it had a large impact on his work. Vega suffered two lawsuits and once was sent to prison for libel after attacks on former lovers. While Vega was in exile for his crime he married 16-year-old Isabel de Urbina, whom died in childbirth. He married again but first had many affairs, which were the inspiration for his work. He also had many illegitimate children. In total, Vega had 15 documented children, some legitimate and others not.

Lope de Vega is one of the most prominent figures of Spanish literature. He wasn’t well known amongst the English-speaking world, but his plays helped to renew Spanish theater and he is considered to be one of the best dramatists of Western literature. Lope had many works including 3,000 sonnets, 9 epic poems, 3 novels, and 1,800 works of theater 80 of which are regarded as masterpieces. An example of one of his most famous works is El Isidro which was published in 1599. This work is a narrative of the life of the patron Saint of Vega’s home city. Vega was often criticized for putting quantity over quality but his contribution to Spanish literature is undeniable. 

While Lope de Vega published many works throughout his life, the end of his life was tragic. He experienced the death of his favorite son as well as the abduction of his youngest daughter. Vega died in Madrid, Spain on August 27^th, 1635 from Scarlet Fever. He is honored with a statue that stands in Madrid.

http://www.donquijote.co.uk/blog/spanish-literature-lope-de-vega

Tara on Hilliard and Jones

                                            Hilliard, Young Man among Roses (c. 1586)

Nicholas Hilliard and Inigo Jones (Tara Olivero)

Nicholas Hilliard

In Elizabethan England, one of the most dominating forms of art was portraiture, especially in miniature. Portrait miniatures were intended for private viewing, and the subjects of miniatures were often personal depictions of lovers or mistresses. They were often painted on vellum using watercolors before being mounted onto playing cards or kept in lockets. One of the most popular painters best known for his miniatures was Nicholas Hilliard. Born in 1547 in Exeter, he was apprenticed in his youth as a goldsmith under Robert Brandon, whose daughter he later married. Hilliard was favored in Elizabeth I’s court beginning in 1572. He then worked in France from 1576-1579 because he was slow to be paid at court, but returned to high popularity and employment back in the English court. He earned the position of “court limner” to James I when he took the throne in 1603. He was not known for his financial frugality and therefore ended up living in poverty by the time he died in 1619. Despite his unfortunate end, Hilliard is often known as the first great artist of Britain.

In his treatise called The Arte of Limning, Hilliard explained how he trained himself in miniature painting by following the style of Hans Holbein the Younger. He also practiced by copying paintings of superior painters, like Holbein and Dürer. His painting style “emphasized distinctive line and reduced shadow” (The Met). Essentially, his paintings emphasized flattened, two-dimensional aesthetics, with even light. Additionally, his miniatures pay attention to intricate patterning on the sitters’ clothing as well as the sitters’ jewelry.

One of his most well-known miniatures is his Young Man Among Roses, which depicts a mustachioed young man leaning against a tree trunk and surrounded by bushes of white roses. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the miniature “has come to epitomise the romantic vision of the sonnet hero of Shakespeare’s England.” The pose of the young man was seemingly influenced by Hilliard’s time in France studying French art of the time period. Additionally, miniatures were often an impress (or imprese, or impresa), in which symbolism of both imagery and words was meant to send a specific message in a hidden code. Elizabeth I in particular surrounded herself with such coded art, which led to its popularity at court. In Young Man Among Roses, for example, the five-petaled white roses were known as eglantines. Roses typically alluded to the crown, and eglantines were the personal flower of Elizabeth I. The colors of the Young Man’s clothing, black and white, often signified Elizabeth’s constancy and chastity. A tree is also the symbol for steadfastness. The Latin motto at the top of the miniature reads “Dat poenas laudata fides,” or “My praised faith procures my pain,” which comes from a famous speech by the Roman poet Lucan. Other than being reminiscent of most typical sonnet speakers in the Elizabethan era, the words from Lucan’s speech references Pompey the Great, whom we can infer the Young Man is identifying himself with. Because of Pompey’s military greatness, the sitter of Young Man Among Roses was most likely a young courtier with military ambitions who was involved in either a romantic or platonic relationship with the Queen. The director of the V&A, Roy Strong, believed that this evidence pointed to the sitter being Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, who is the only person known to have fit this description. Regardless of who the figure was intended to be, the miniature still serves as a symbol of the courtly lover of Elizabethan sonnetry.

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is known as the first notable architect in Renaissance England. He was born in 1573 in London as the son of a cloth worker, although not much else is known about his childhood or education. He travelled abroad before the end of the century, especially in Italy where he was introduced to the architecture of Andrea Palladio. Queen Anne, the wife of James I, first commissioned him to design costumes and settings for court masques before he grew in popularity as an architect. The symmetry and harmony employed by Italian Renaissance architects finally transferred to England with Jones’ work. His first architectural design was for the New Exchange in the Strand in London, designed for the Earl of Salisbury in 1608. When he returned from his 1613 trip to Italy, he was appointed the surveyor to the king, which is a position he held until the English Civil War in 1643. One of the most famous works he completed as surveyor was the Queen’s House at Greenwich. The building process began in 1617 and was finished by 1635, despite the Queen’s death in 1619. The House was then for Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.

Prior to the Queen’s House, English structures featured mostly Gothic elements such as turrets and towers, but this building acts as the first real example of neoclassical architecture in England. Often called “The White House,” the building used the geometric designs and harmonious proportions that his Italian contemporaries valued. One example of this is that the Great Hall, which sits in the exact center of the building, is a cube of 40 feet by 40 feet by 40 feet, and the designs of squares and circles on the marble floor are reflected in the pattern of the ceiling. He incorporated classical columns and ionic orders into the building as well, also influenced by Italian architecture. The House also included a balcony for the Queen and her ladies to oversee riding or hunting taking place in the park below. A central bridge on the first floor above ground level originally joined the two halves of the building, which split a road running through the park. Finally, the Queen’s House contains the “Tulip Stairs,” planned by Jones but built by Nicholas Stone. It was the first centrally unsupported spiral staircase in England, with each stair supported by the one below and cantilevered from the wall.

Jones also designed a new Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace (1619) after the old one burned down, and he assisted with the restoration of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He designed less than 50 buildings in his career, and of these, only seven have survived. Jones died in 1652, but his architectural ideas were influential to later Georgian architecture in the 18th century.

Visual Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhdtgsjTAbuoHIw1RptOzf1z_k7Br4K9q0SdVJwnfss/edit?usp=sharing

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/26776597

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/y/nicholas-hilliards-young-man-among-roses/

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/35.89.4/

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/liza/hd_liza.htm

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07108/nicholas-hilliard

https://www.nicholls.edu/art-dhc/tudorelizabethan.html

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/sep/10/renaissance-architecture

https://www.nicholls.edu/art-dhc/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/jones_inigo.shtml

https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/inigo-jones-and-queens-house#GGgrDCkURDrx88G4.99

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/architecture/inigo-jones.htm

Additional Image Credits:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O72550/self-portrait-aged-30-portrait-miniature-hilliard-nicholas/

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/search#/6/collection/420013/henry-viii-1491-1547

https://www.arthermitage.org/Anthony-van-Dyck/Portrait-of-Inigo-Jones.html

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143239.html

http://www.graemewebb.co.uk/galleries/fineart/image1.php/