The Devout Hand: Women, Virtue, and Visual Culture in Early Modern Italy
Author: Patricia Rocco File Type: pdf After the Counter-Reformation, the Papal State of Bologna became a hub for the flourishing of female artistic talent. The eighteenth-century biographer Luigi Crespi recorded over twenty-eight women artists working in the city, although many of these, until recently, were ignored by modern art criticism, despite the fame they attained during their lifetimes. What were the factors that contributed to Bolognas unique confluence of women with art, science, and religion? The Devout Hand explores the work of two generations of Italian women artists in Bologna, from Lavinia Fontana (15521614), whose career emerged during the aftermath of the Counter Reformation, to her brilliant successor, Elisabetta Sirani (16381665), who organized the first school for women artists. Patricia Rocco further sheds light on Siranis students and colleagues, including the little-known engraver Veronica Fontana and the innovative but understudied etcher Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. Combining analysis of iconography, patronage, gender, and reception studies, Rocco integrates painting, popular prints, book illustration, and embroidery to open a wider lens onto the relationship between women, virtue, and the visual arts during a period of religious crisis and reform. A reminder of the lasting power of images, The Devout Hand highlights womens active role in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Christian reform and artistic production. **Review Original, well-considered, and effectively presented, Roccos study refocuses attention on and re-evaluates genres, artistic practices, and media that have been relegated to the margins of art history discourse. Adelina Modesti, La Trobe University Proposing convincing interpretations of the flowering and meaning of their work, The Devout Hand is an original study of the phenomenon of women artists as a whole. Gabriella Zarri, University of Florence About the Author Patricia Rocco is adjunct professor of art history at Hunter College of the City University of New York and Manhattan School of Music.
Author: Hillel Soifer
File Type: pdf
Between 1980 and 1994, Peru endured a bloody internal armed conflict, with some 69,000 people killed in clashes involving two insurgent movements, state forces, and local armed groups. In 2003, a government-sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Committee reported that the conflict lasted longer, affected broader swaths of the national territory, and inflicted higher costs, in both human and economic terms, than did any other conflict in Perus history. Of those killed, 75 percent were speakers of an indigenous language, and almost 40 percent were among the poorest and most rural members of Peruvian society. These unequal impacts of the violence on the Peruvian people revealed deep and historical disparities within the country.This collection of original essays by leading international experts on Peruvian politics, society, and institutions explores the political and institutional consequences of Perus internal armed conflict in the long 1980s. The essays are grouped into sections that cover the conflict itself in historical, comparative, and theoretical perspectives its consequences for Perus political institutions its effects on political parties across the ideological spectrum and its impact on public opinion and civil society. This research provides the first systematic and nuanced investigation of the extent to which recent and contemporary Peruvian politics, civil society, and institutions have been shaped by the countrys 1980s violence.About the AuthorbHillel Davis Soiferb is an associate professor of political science at Temple University. He is the author of State Building in Latin America.
Author: Paul Veyne
File Type: pdf
Located northeast of Damascus, in an oasis surrounded by palms and two mountain ranges, the ancient city of Palmyra has the aura of myth. According to the Bible, the city was built by Solomon. Regardless of its actual origins, it was an influential city, serving for centuries as a caravan stop for those crossing the Syrian Desert. It became a Roman province under Tiberius and served as the most powerful commercial center in the Middle East between the first and the third centuries CE. But when the citizens of Palmyra tried to break away from Rome, they were defeated, marking the end of the citys prosperity. The magnificent monuments from that earlier era of wealth, a resplendent blend of Greco-Roman architecture and local influences, stretched over miles and were among the most significant buildings of the ancient worlduntil the arrival of ISIS. In 2015, ISIS fought to gain control of the area because it was home to a prison where many members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood had been held, andISIS went on to systematically destroy the city and murder many of its inhabitants, including the archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, the antiquities director of Palymra. In this concise and elegiac book, Paul Veyne, one of Palymras most important experts, offers a beautiful and moving look at the history of this significant lost city and why it wasand still isimportant. Today, we can appreciate the majesty of Palmyra only through its pictures and stories, and this book offers a beautifully illustrated memorial that also serves as a lasting guide to a cultural treasure. **
Author: Erik Kooper
File Type: pdf
There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of a yearbook. In the first place there is its ubiquity all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions. The yearbook The Medieval Chronicle aims to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds. The Medieval Chronicle is published in cooperation with the Medieval Chronicle Society.
Author: Aeschylus
File Type: pdf
Highly acclaimed as translators of Greek and Sanskrit classics, respectively, David Grene and Wendy Doniger OFlaherty here present a complete modern translation of the three plays comprising Aeschylus Orestia and, with the assistance of director Nicholas Rudall, an abridged stage adaptation. This blanced and highly successful collaboration of scholars with a theater director solves the contemporary problems of translating and staging the Orestia, which originally was written to be performed in Athens in the first half of the fifth century B.C.While remaning faithful to the original Greek, Grene and OFlaherty embrace a strong and adventurous English style, vivid and visceral. The language of this extraordinary translation, immediately accessible to a theater audience, speaks across the centuries. Premiered at Chicagos Court Theater in 1986 under Rudalls direction, the stage adaptation of the Orestia proved eminently playable.This new adaptation of the orestia offers a brilliant demonstration of how clearly defined goals (here, the actors needs) can inspire translators to produce fresh, genuine, accessible dramatic texts. The resulting work provides complete and accurate texts for those who cannot read the original Greek, and it transforms the Orestia into an effective modern stage play. With interpretive introductions written by the translators and director, this new version will be welcomed by teachers of translation courses, by students of Greek and world drama in general, and by theater professionals.**From Library JournalUnlike Lattimores renowned translation of the Oresteia , this one is for the theater. To that end, it offers both an unabridged translation (137 pages) and an acting version (74 pages) that is based on the longer text but trimmed by director Nicholas Rudall for a production at Chicagos Court Theater. The longer text cannot compete with Lattimores skilled rendering of interlocking Aeschylean imagery, and though its simpler phrasing is indeed better suited to the modern stage, it is in need of some serious pruning of its own. Rudall has shown the way with his abridged Oresteia , which was apparently performed with great success.- Stephen Scully, Boston Univ.
Author: Jo Littler
File Type: pdf
Meritocracy today involves the idea that whatever your social position at birth, society ought to offer enough opportunity and mobility for talent to combine with effort in order to rise to the top. This idea is one of the most prevalent social and cultural tropes of our time, as palpable in the speeches of politicians as in popular culture. In this book Jo Littler argues that meritocracy is the key cultural means of legitimation for contemporary neoliberal culture and that whilst it promises opportunity, it in fact creates new forms of social division. ul l*l ul Against Meritocracy is split into two parts. Part I explores the genealogies of meritocracy within social theory, political discourse and working cultures. It traces the dramatic U-turn in meritocracys meaning, from socialist slur to a contemporary ideal of how a society should be organised. Part II uses a series of case studies to analyse the cultural pull of popular parables of progress, from reality TV to the super-rich and celebrity CEOs, from social media controversies to the rise of the mumpreneur. Paying special attention to the role of gender, race and class, this book provides new conceptualisations of the meaning of meritocracy in contemporary culture and society. **
Author: James M. Robinson
File Type: pdf
We all know the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but what was the gospel of Jesus? That is, what was the original good news the first disciples heard from Jesus? What did Jesus really say that started the dramatic movement in Galilee that grew to become the largest religion in the world? Jesuss original gospel has been lost from sight, hidden behind the version preferred by the church. We have put him on a pedestal, rather than walked in his footsteps. In The Gospel of Jesus, James M. Robinson, the preeminent expert on the earliest sources of information about Jesus, provides the primary texts in all their unvarnished honesty to get to the true historical message of Jesus -- what Robinson calls a brittle, upsetting, comforting, challenging gospel. The Gospel of Jesusdraws on a combination of the most ancient and authentic texts to reveal what Jesus really said and to illuminate what he may still have to say to us today. Robinson addresses such provocative questions as What can we know about Jesuss childhood and youth? What was his family like? What sort of education did he receive? How observant a Jew was he? What do we know about his sex life? What do we know about his relation to Mary Magdalene? What was John the Baptists impact on him? What message did Jesus really preach? What do we know about his crucifixion? Why did his followers believe so fervently in his resurrection? Drawing on the earliest Gospel, Mark, plus the source for Matthew and Luke, known as Q, as well as from Jewish sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient extra-biblical Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Robinson not only reconstructs the good news Jesus preached and practiced two thousand years ago, but shows how relevant his message still is -- and how we can apply it to our lives today. The Gospel of Jesus offers one of the most authentic and stirring accounts ever written of the message preached by the figure whose followers today number more than two billion.
Author: Peter Kurie
File Type: epub
In Chocolate We Trust takes readers inside modern-day Hershey, Pennsylvania, headquarters of the iconic Hershey brand. A destination for chocolate enthusiasts since the early 1900s, Hershey has transformed from a model industrial town into a multifaceted suburbia powered by philanthropy. At its heart lies the Milton Hershey School Trust, a charitable trust with a mandate to serve social orphans and a $12 billion endowment amassed from Hershey Company profits. The trust is a longstanding source of pride for people who call Hershey home and revere its benevolent capitalist founderbut in recent years it has become a subject of controversy and intrigue. Using interviews, participant observation, and archival research, anthropologist Peter Kurie returns to his hometown to examine the legacy of the Hershey Trust among local residents, company employees, and alumni of the K-12 Milton Hershey School. He arrives just as a scandal erupts that raises questions about the outsized power of the private trust over public life. Kurie draws on diverse voices across the community to show how philanthropy stirs passions and interests well beyond intended beneficiaries. In Chocolate We Trust reveals the cultural significance of Hershey as a forerunner to socially conscious corporations and the cult of the entrepreneur-philanthropist. The Hershey story encapsulates the dreams and wishes of todays consumer-citizens the dream of becoming personally successful, and the wish that the most affluent among us will serve the common good. **
Author: Steven Heine
File Type: pdf
Since Zen Buddhism first captivated the attention of Western seekers the dominant discourse about this sect has been romantic, idealistic, and utopian. The essence of Zen has been described as ineffable, holistic, and promoting social harmony. In recent years, however, some scholars have begun to examine Zen through the lenses of historical and cultural criticism, producing a sharp challenge to the traditional view. These clashing viewpoints are now entrenched in two warring camps, and their exponents talk past each other with virtually no constructive interaction. In this book, Steven Heine argues that a constructive compromise is possible. He focuses on three principal areas of disagreement (1) the role of language and discourse in a tradition that claims to be outside words and letters, yet has produced a voluminous body of texts, (2) the function of rituals and objects of worship to gain world benefit in a tradition supposedly founded on unmediated experience attained in an iconoclastic and ascetic environment, (3) the impact of a tradition that espouses peace and harmony on social issues such as class and gender discrimination and on nationalism and imperialism in Japan. Avoiding the stagnant polarization that characterizes most encounters between Zen traditionalists and their critics, he suggests ways in which these two perspectives can complement each other in a more balanced and nuanced alternative position. **Review As we enter the 21st century and western Zen Buddhism develops the roots and branches of its second and third generations, the time has come to reflect on what aspects of this ancient tradition we are importing. What are the Zen myths and realities we are disseminating throughout the West? Most importantly, does Zen address the moral and ethical issues unique to our time and place? Steven Heine is eminently qualified to crack open this Pandoras box and help us sort out the real from the apparent. With its critical reflection, deep investigation and outstanding scholarship, Zen Skin, Zen Marrow is a step in the process allowing Zen to take the shape of the container that holds it. This book belongs on the shelf of every Zen center in the West. --John Daido Loori, author of True Dharma Eye Master Dogens Three Hundred Koans and Sitting with Koans This book provides a valuable and insightful effort to clarify the conflict between two competing streams of Zen scholarship the Traditional Zen Narrative and Historical and Cultural Criticism. Steven Heine is among the worlds leading scholars of Rinzai and Soto Zen, and this latest work will make an extremely valuable contribution to such fields as ZenChan studies, East Asian Buddhism, comparative mysticism, and other related areas. --Steve Odin, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa This book makes an extremely valuable contribution to Zen studies, general Buddhist studies, and comparative studies of mysticism. ...Highly recommended. --Choice For the scholarly community, Heines work contributes to the possibility of healing within the field of Zen studies...Only a scholar of Heines stature in the field could offer such an invitation. --Journal of Japanese Studies About the Author Steven Heine, Professor and Director of Asian Studies at Florida International University, is an authority on Japanese religion and society, especially the history of Zen Buddhism and its relation to culture in China and Japan. He has published over a dozen books, including Zen Classics and Zen Ritual, coedited with Dale S. Wright.