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 (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
• 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.
• 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 (18131901)
• 23 April, Seishiro Niwa
Social Background of the
Birth of Opera
• Aida, Triumphant March