Lecure 1

Italian Language and Culture
Past and Present
Architecture
• Roman architectural idioms of
arches, columns and domes foundations of later Italian
architecture
• The Romanesque style (9th to
11th century)
• The Renaissance style (the late
14th to the 16th c)
• The baroque style and
Palladianism (16th - 17th c)
• Neoclassical style (18th -19th
c)
Architecture
• Romanesque because plenty
of Roman architectural
elements were used Roman arches, stained glass
and carved columns.
• Bitono, Bari, Puglia
Idioms of the Classic Architecture
Architecture
• The Arch of Constantine with Roman arches and
columns
Architecture
• The Renaissance
• The revival of the ‘golden age’ ancient Rome
• Fillipo Brunelleschi built the
largest dome for the Florence
cathedral since Roman times.
Architecture
• Basillica di Sant’Andrea at Mantua designed by
Leon Battista Alberti
Architecture
• Basilica di San Pietro at Rome designed by
Michelangelo and Bramante
Architecture
• Paradianism Buildings by Andrea Palladio
• La Rotonda in Vicenza (1570)
• Square building which looks the same from
every side. At the centre there is a dome. On
every side there is a portico like a Roman
temple.
Architecture
• 15 July, Erez Golani Solomon
• The Ideal Villa: Legacy of Andrea Palladio
Literature
• Italian literature;
literature written in the
Italian language since the
14 th century.
• Written in Latin before
• Dante Alighieri (12651321)
• The Divine Comedy
(1304-7)
Literature
• Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita
• In the middle of the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Literature
• Francesco Petrarch
• Completed ‘sonnet’
form – 14 lines with
distinctive rhyming
patterns
• Love sonnets
• Influenced on all
European poets
Literature
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course,
untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Literature
秋の夜は、はるかの彼方に、
小石ばかりの、河原があつて、
それに陽は、さらさらと
さらさらと射してゐるのでありました。
陽といつても、まるで硅石か何かのやうで、
非常な個体の粉末のやうで、
さればこそ、さらさらと
かすかな音を立ててもゐるのでした。
さて小石の上に、今しも一つの蝶がとまり、
淡い、それでゐてくつきりとした
影を落としてゐるのでした。
やがてその蝶がみえなくなると、いつのまに
か、
今迄流れてもゐなかつた川床に、水は
さらさらと、さらさらと流れてゐるのでありまし
た…… Chuya Nakahara
Literature
• Giovanni Boccacio
• Decameron (1348-53)
a prose collection of
100 stories told by 10
narrators
Drama
• Comedia del arte – a form of theatre
characterized by masked ‘types’ begun in the 16
th century
• Emergence of actress, improvised performance
based on sketches or scnearios.
Drama
• 18 June Takeo Fujikura
• Italian Mime and Clown: Comedia del Arte
Literauture
• Gabrielle D’Annunzio
• Man of action,
nationalist, literary
virtuoso, aesthete, and
exhibitionist
• Life and art was a blend
of Jacob Burckhardt’s
‘complete man’ and
Nietzsche’s ‘superman’
Literature
• Yukio Mishima
enormously influenced
by D’Annunzio not only
in literature but also in
life
• Nationalist, aesthete,
exhibitionist, and literary
virtuoso.
Literature
• Literary connection
between Italy and Japan
• Love of translated literature
in Italy
• Over the half of the fictions
published are translations
• 16 April Alessandro
Gerevini, The Reception of
Japanese Fictions in Italy
Literature
• Italo Calvino (1923 Cuba –
1985 Siena) Journalist, shortstory writer and novelist
• Imaginative and whimsical
fables made him one of the
most important 20 th century
writer.
• 3 June, Italian Fairy Tales and
Italo Calvino
Art
• Giotto – the first artist
who painted people,
nature and action
realistically.
• In the frescos in churches
of Assisi, Florence, Padua
and Rome, he created life
like figures showing real
emotions
Giotto
Giotto
Giotto
• The Renaissance (from
the late 1400s to the
early 1500s) dominated
by Michelangelo, Raphael
and Leonardo.
• Michelangelo; sculptor,
painter, and poet
• The greatest sculptor in
history
• Master of portraying the
human figure
Art
Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo: Sistine Chapel Ceiling
God dividing light from darkness
Michelangelo: Creation of the Heavenly Bodies
Michelangelo: Separation of Land and Water
Michelangelo: Creation of Adam
Michelangelo: Creation of Eve
Michelangelo: Fall of Man and Expulsion from Paradise
Michelangelo: Sacrifice of Noah
Michelangelo: The Flood
Michelangelo: Drunkenness of Noah
Michelangelo
Raphael
• Raphael’s paintings are
softer, gentler, more
poetic, and harmonious.
• Impeccable composition
and perfect perspective
• Delicate ‘Madonna’
paintings with young
Jesus and his cousin John
the Baptist
Raphael
Raphael
Raphael
Raphael
Raphael
Leonardo
• Leonardo, painter and
natural scientist
• He embodied the
Renaissance spirit of
learning and intellectual
curiosity
Leonardo
Leonardo
Leonardo
Art
• Michelangelo di Meresi
da Caravaggio
• Baroque paintings
combine the realistic
observation of human
state, both physical and
emotional, with
dramatic use of lighting
Caravaggio
• Michelangelo Meresi da Caravaggio: a
Revolutionary Artist
Art
• Italian modernist art in the
early 20th century
• Giorgio di Chirico
• Futurism
• Metaphysical Art
• 10 June, Helena Chapkova,
Italian Modernist Art
Music
• Italian music – one of
Europe’s supreme
expressions of the art
• Gregorian chants – the
innovation of modern
musical notation in the
11th century
• Dies irae – the Second
Coming of Christ and
Judgement
• Troubadour and the
madrigal
• Palestrina’s polyphonic
church music and
Monteverdi’s religious
and secular music and
operas
• Great Italian music
tradition
• Polyphonic music by
Palestrina
Music
Music
• Italian Baroque music
• Creation of rich tonality,
elaborate musical
ornamentation, new
instrumental playing
techniques
• Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Corelli,
Marcello
• Four Seasons
Music
• Italy – birth place of
opera
• Opera was born around
1600 combination of
singing, acting, orchestral
music, acting and dance
• Recitativo (dialogue) and
aria (song)
Music
• Opera of the Golden
Age
• Opera of Romantic
Period in the 19th c
• Gioacchino Rossini,
Vincenzo Bellini,
Gaetano Donizetti &
Giacomo Puccini
• La Boheme; Duet
Music
• Giuseppe Verdi (18131901)
• 23 April, Seishiro Niwa
Social Background of the
Birth of Opera
• Aida, Triumphant March