The Swan Diptych

The Swan Diptych PDF Author: Ian Thomson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781981917853
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The Swan DiptychA diptych is a painting or carving (often an altarpiece) on two panels, hinged like a book. The two stories in The Swan Diptych are likewise hinged, sometimes obviously, sometimes more subtly. Both depict the consequences of the folly and overweening pride of those who are clothed in 'a little brief authority'.In the year 1387, King Richard II visits the thriving cathedral city of Lincoln and presents a ceremonial sword to the Mayor. There is a local legend that if the swans ever leave the pool at the foot of the steep hill where the cathedral stands, the building will fall. During the celebrations the Dean believes himself to be insulted by one of the swans and vows to avenge himself. How the Dean Angered the Swans is a fable which exposes the arrogance of man and his refusal to recognise his proper place in a world which is in his custody.The Patronal Feast is set in St Stephen's College, Cambridge, in Tudor times. During the annual feast in honour of the saint's name, members of the college are permitted to eat roast swan by an edict of Richard II called the King's Writ, which is read out as the dish is served. Before the night is over, a macabre ritual murder is discovered, the Writ has disappeared, and a kitchen boy has been abducted. Paolo Giovio, internationally renowned scholar, and friend of Erasmus, is sent for. He uncovers a dark train of events, involving men of power and high station. This is a tale of ambition and betrayal over three turbulent decades.Ian Thomson is the author of The Mouse Triptych. He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and lives in Lincoln.

The Swan Diptych

The Swan Diptych PDF Author: Ian Thomson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781981917853
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The Swan DiptychA diptych is a painting or carving (often an altarpiece) on two panels, hinged like a book. The two stories in The Swan Diptych are likewise hinged, sometimes obviously, sometimes more subtly. Both depict the consequences of the folly and overweening pride of those who are clothed in 'a little brief authority'.In the year 1387, King Richard II visits the thriving cathedral city of Lincoln and presents a ceremonial sword to the Mayor. There is a local legend that if the swans ever leave the pool at the foot of the steep hill where the cathedral stands, the building will fall. During the celebrations the Dean believes himself to be insulted by one of the swans and vows to avenge himself. How the Dean Angered the Swans is a fable which exposes the arrogance of man and his refusal to recognise his proper place in a world which is in his custody.The Patronal Feast is set in St Stephen's College, Cambridge, in Tudor times. During the annual feast in honour of the saint's name, members of the college are permitted to eat roast swan by an edict of Richard II called the King's Writ, which is read out as the dish is served. Before the night is over, a macabre ritual murder is discovered, the Writ has disappeared, and a kitchen boy has been abducted. Paolo Giovio, internationally renowned scholar, and friend of Erasmus, is sent for. He uncovers a dark train of events, involving men of power and high station. This is a tale of ambition and betrayal over three turbulent decades.Ian Thomson is the author of The Mouse Triptych. He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and lives in Lincoln.

Introducing the Medieval Swan

Introducing the Medieval Swan PDF Author: Natalie Jayne Goodison
Publisher: University of Wales Press
ISBN: 1786838400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Birds have always been a popular and accessible subject, but most books about medieval birds are an overview of their symbolism generally: owl for ill-omen, the pelican as a Eucharistic image and the like. The unique selling point of this book is to focus on one bird and explore it in detail from medieval reality to artistic concept. This book also traces how and why the medieval perception of the swan shifted from hypocritical to courtly within the medieval period. With special attention to ‘The Knight of the Swan’, the book traces the rise and popularity of the medieval swan through literature, history, courtly practices, and art. The book uses thoroughly readable language to appeal to a wide audience and explains some of the reasons why the swan holds such resonance today by covering views of the swan from classic to early modern times.

Poets Thinking

Poets Thinking PDF Author: Helen Vendler
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674268105
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
Poetry has often been considered an irrational genre, more expressive than logical, more meditative than given to coherent argument. And yet, in each of the four very different poets she considers here, Helen Vendler reveals a style of thinking in operation; although they may prefer different means, she argues, all poets of any value are thinkers. The four poets taken up in this volume—Alexander Pope, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and William Butler Yeats—come from three centuries and three nations, and their styles of thinking are characteristically idiosyncratic. Vendler shows us Pope performing as a satiric miniaturizer, remaking in verse the form of the essay, Whitman writing as a poet of repetitive insistence for whom thinking must be followed by rethinking, Dickinson experimenting with plot to characterize life’s unfolding, and Yeats thinking in images, using montage in lieu of argument. With customary lucidity and spirit, Vendler traces through these poets’ lines to find evidence of thought in lyric, the silent stylistic measures representing changes of mind, the condensed power of poetic thinking. Her work argues against the reduction of poetry to its (frequently well-worn) themes and demonstrates, instead, that there is always in admirable poetry a strenuous process of thinking, evident in an evolving style—however ancient the theme—that is powerful and original.

Richard II and the English Royal Treasure

Richard II and the English Royal Treasure PDF Author: Jenny Stratford
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 1843833786
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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Book Description
The remarkable treasure of gold and silver from England and France which Richard II had amassed by the end of his reign in 1399 is fully revealed for the first time in this richly illustrated book. The author explores the nature of the objects themselves, their provenance and later fate, and examines the crucial role the treasure played in diplomacy and in financing the Hundred Years War, especially at the time of Agincourt. --

The Boundaries of the Human in Medieval English Literature

The Boundaries of the Human in Medieval English Literature PDF Author: Dorothy Yamamoto
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198186748
Category : Animals in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This study analyzes the fear of beastly transformation that recurs throughout Medieval literature. Yamamoto explores how humans envisioned animals with human characteristics in bestiaries and literatures that involve aspects of the hunt and heraldry. Minor texts, as well as major works likeChaucer's "Knight's Tale," are investigated. Additionally, she explores both examples of humans changing into animal form and those that hover enigmatically between species as wild men and women. Investigating this topic, she looks to Alexander romances, the poetry of Gower, and othersources.

Nation

Nation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description


A descriptive catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum. With an account of the Continental Collections of Classical and Mediæval Ivories. By J. O. Westwood

A descriptive catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum. With an account of the Continental Collections of Classical and Mediæval Ivories. By J. O. Westwood PDF Author: Victoria and Albert Museum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 638

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Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon PDF Author: Mark Stevens
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 052565674X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 896

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Book Description
THE TIMES ART BOOK OF THE YEAR Named one of The Irish Times' Books of the Year for 2021 A compelling and comprehensive look at the life and art of Francis Bacon, one of the iconic painters of the twentieth century—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning authors of de Kooning: An American Master. This intimate study of the singularly private, darkly funny, eruptive man and his extraordinary art “is bejeweled with sensuous detail … the iconoclastic charm of the artist keeps the pages turning” (The Washington Post). “A definitive life of Francis Bacon ... Stevens and Swan are vivid scene setters ... Francis Bacon does justice to the contradictions of both the man and the art.” —The Boston Globe Francis Bacon created an indelible image of mankind in modern times, and played an outsized role in both twentieth century art and life—from his public emergence with his legendary Triptych 1944 (its images "so unrelievedly awful" that people fled the gallery), to his death in Madrid in 1992. Bacon was a witty free spirit and unabashed homosexual at a time when many others remained closeted, and his exploits were as unforgettable as his images. He moved among the worlds of London's Soho and East End, the literary salons of London and Paris, and the homosexual life of Tangier. Through hundreds of interviews, and extensive new research, the authors probe Bacon's childhood in Ireland (he earned his father's lasting disdain because his asthma prevented him from hunting); his increasingly open homosexuality; his early design career—never before explored in detail; the formation of his vision; his early failure as an artist; his uneasy relationship with American abstract art; and his improbable late emergence onto the international stage as one of the great visionaries of the twentieth century. In all, Francis Bacon: Revelations gives us a more complete and nuanced--and more international--portrait than ever before of this singularly private, darkly funny, eruptive man and his equally eruptive, extraordinary art. Bacon was not just an influential artist, he helped remake the twentieth-century figure.

Art Buyer's Index

Art Buyer's Index PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description


A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Fictile Ivories in the South Kensington Museum PDF Author: John Obadiah Westwood
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ivories
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description