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

Architecture• Roman Arches • Stained glass

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

• 16 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 (1265-

1321)• The Divine Comedy

(1304-7)

Literature

• Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vitami ritrovai per una selva oscura,ché la diritta via era smarrita

• In the middle of the journey of our lifeI 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

• 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, short-story writer and novelist

• Imaginative and whimsical fables made him one of the most important 20 th century writer.

• 4 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

Art• 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

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo

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

• 14 May, Norimasa Morita, Michelangelo Meresi da Caravaggio: a Revolutionary Artist

Art• Italian modernist art in

the early 20th century• Giorgio di Chirico• Futurism• Metaphysical Art• 7 May, 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

Music

• Troubadour and the madrigal

• Palestrina’s polyphonic church music and Monteverdi’s religious and secular music and operas

• Great Italian music tradition

Music

• Italian Baroque music• Creation of rich tonality,

elaborate musical ornamentation, new instrumental playing techniques

• Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Corelli, Marcello

• Oboe concerto

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 (1813-

1901)• 23 April, Seishiro Niwa

Social Background of the Birth of Opera

• Aida, Triumphant March