Understanding Visual Figures of Speech
Figures of Speech
Visual Metaphor
In which the qualities of an object are used to highlight another object’s qualities.
Visual Antithesis
Two opposing elements are bound and/or merged to achieve a single goal.
Visual Ellipsis
A single item or piece stands out among all others.
Visual Synecdoche
The picture is cut, but the concept is still recognizable.
Visual Hyperbole
The element is exaggerated. It exalts or magnifies the image; it should display the best possible detail.
Visual Economics
The images appear
Read MoreSpanish Painting: Centers, Masters, and Evolution
Spanish Painting
There are three major art centers:
- Madrid: Velazquez’s host was the foremost painter.
- Seville: The next focus of interest, with Zurbaran, Murillo, and Valdes Leal.
- Valencia: The third center of momentum, thanks to Ribera and Francisco Ribalta.
In the early years, following the tradition of the seventeenth-century Escorial: severity, decorum, rigidity, and naturalism. Later in the reign of Philip IV, painting reached its maturity from the hand of Jose de Ribera, Francisco de Zurbaran,
Read More20th Century Novel: Trends, Techniques, and Evolution
20th Century Novel: Trends and Evolution
Trends and Years. Throughout the century, a commercial novel for the general public persisted, continuing the assumptions of nineteenth-century Realism. Among its features are:
- Presence of a narrator: Often omniscient, guiding the reader to interpret and suggesting directions within the work.
- Linear narrative: Events are narrated in a linear order.
- Classic structure: The story follows a classic structure: problem, development, complication, and resolution.
- Character-
Eros and Psyche by Canova: Neoclassical Sculpture
Eros and Psyche by Antonio Canova
Sculpture Details
- Location: Louvre Museum
- Artist: Antonio Canova
- Style: Neoclassicism
- Date: 1787-1793
- Technique: Sculpting
- Material: Marble
- Form: Free-standing sculpture
The 19th Century: A Time of Change
A) The nineteenth century was a time of profound political, economic, and cultural change. This era emphasized the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. Napoleon expanded French influence throughout Europe. The victorious European monarchies, absolute monarchies,
Read MoreSpanish Literature After the Civil War (1939-Present)
Spanish Literature Since 1936
The postwar period brought two main literary trends:
- A conservative aesthetic trend, cultivated by authors ideologically close to the regime.
- Literature expressing existential despair caused by war, evolving toward social criticism in the 1950s.
Existential Fiction in the 1940s
In 1939, the cultural landscape was bleak; many writers were exiled, and literature was determined by censorship. Around 1942, the novel took a new direction, becoming existential, with key themes
Read MorePerspective in Art: Renaissance to Cubism
Quattrocento (15th Century, Renaissance)
Effect of perspective: Variations in the apparent size of objects due to their relative distance to the observer. The discovery takes place in Florence. “Artificial perspective” tries to represent the depth of field. Perspective has a Latin etymology, from the verb perspicere, and derives from the Greek optiké. The prospect appears with the knights in the Middle Ages, and is very primitive, using parallel lines. Pecham speaks of “visual pyramids.”