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William Bouguereau is regarded as one of history's true artistic geniuses, and among his unparalleled accomplishments, was responsible for opening French academies to women (Ross pp). He is arguably the greatest painter of the human figure, capturing not only the physical anatomy, but the subtle nuances of personality and mood, as well as the souls and spirits of his subjects (Ross pp). If Rembrandt captured the soul of age, then Bouguereau captured the soul of youth (Ross pp).
Bouguereau once said, "One has to seek Beauty and Truth ... There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian" (Bouguereau pp). To support himself while attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he worked as a bookkeeper for a wine merchant and colored lithographic labels for a local grocer (Bouguereau pp). After hours, in the evening, he created drawings from memory, and this perseverance and discipline resulted in an extraordinary production of art during his career, more than seven hundred finished works (Bouguereau pp). Although he achieved a high level of public acclaim and financial success, he was generous with his time and financial assistance in helping struggling young artists (Bouguereau pp).
Trained in classical sculpture and painting, Bouguereau made careful...
The hallmarks of his paintings are demonstrated in the tender portrayals of children and domestic scenes, his love of rich color, and his obvious skill and passion for the classics (Bouguereau pp).
Adolphe William Bouguereau, 1825-1905, exhibited in Paris Salons for more than fifty years (Adolphe pp). Due to his training and skill, he opposed the works of the impressionists because to him they were no more than sketches left unfinished (Adolphe pp). Following his death, Bouguereau and his paintings fell out of favor with scholars and the general public alike (Aldolphe pp). However during the last quarter of the twentieth century there was a renewed interest and reappraisal of his works, including a major retrospective exhibition in Paris during the mid-1980's (Aldolphe pp).
Fred Ross notes that when one considered the level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great majority of his works are life-size, no one can dispute that this is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist (Ross pp). Furthermore, more than half of these paintings are true masterpieces, thus Bouguereau is an artist who ranks among the masters of western art, such as Michelangelo, Rembrandt and…
Greek Mythology and Feminine Divinity Hesiod's Theogony tells of many goddesses who were wily, powerful and ruled many significant aspects of life. However, the Homeric Hymns to Demeter and Apollo show how limited and domesticated goddesses had become. Though the goddesses retained powers over human beings and their own fertility, they were nevertheless considerably weakened when dealing with other gods. Greek Mythology Limits and Domesticates a Previous Notion of Power in the
Greek and Roman Greek Mythology: Identification of Heroic Greek Myths in Modern Movies There are many effective and functional parallels in modern movies to ancient myths. They make us feel and think about many things. Modern movies that have been successful at the box office are inspired by Greek myths. We see common themes, characters and motifs of myth in the modern movies. The goal here is to identify the mythic elements
There were many other gods and goddesses and other supernatural beings in both mythologies (Meeks 2002). There were godlings, demigods, river nymphs and tree dryads and other mythical creatures, such as satyrs, comprising the entire belief systems. These systems were polytheistic as well as animistic. The system held that every tree, river and every part of nature had a spirit or energy behind it. Hercules was a famous demigod (Meeks).
One such myth revolves around Atlas's attempt to trick Heracles into taking over his burden. Heracles however in turn tricked Atlas into returning to his position under his burden. Eventually, according to Dixon-Kennedy (59), Atlas grew so weary of his burden that he requested Perseus to use Medusa's head to turn him into stone. Mount Atlas in North Africa is then said to be the basis for this myth. It
Using this as a foundation, the Ancient Greeks built a society in which women had few rights and were basically the property of men. But women were only one aspect of Greek culture, a culture that seemed to be based on pessimistic beginnings. Hesiod's "The Five Ages of Man" describe a period in which the world slowly devolved from a paradise into the chaos and horror of the ancient world.
Greek Mythology In ancient Greek, the word "myth" literally means "word" or "story." It refers to authorless tales perpetuated by ancient Greek communities. The characters in Greek myths are typically gods and heroic humans. Each story contains moral lessons for humans on earth that they learn from the immortal gods and various kinds of tragic human heroes. Most often, these lessons either concern morality or an explanation of how a feature