From the Paper
"The sculptures of the Parthenon represent a high point in Classical sculpture and a culmination in the centuries-long effort by Greek sculptors to fashion images that represent natural movement and repose. But, with the increased naturalism of the Classical era, it became difficult for artists to reconcile that realism with the ideal. In comparison with the other sculpture of the Classical era, the sculptures of the Parthenon (447-432 BC) represent a unique solution to this problem.

It might have been assumed that the expression of mood and emotion, which constituted the essence of the representation of the ideal, would be facilitated by greater realism. Yet increasing realism did just the opposite, and much of Classical sculpture is distinctly less inclined toward the ideal than.."

From the Paper
"The Arts and Crafts Movement, that began in nineteenth-century Britain, and the Bauhaus movement, that started in Germany in the 1920s, had many goals in common. Both movements were interested in uniting all the arts and crafts and giving them equal dignity. Both movements were also deeply concerned with the role of the artist as worker and with the nature of work in general. Most importantly, both movements believed in beautiful design and well-made work as an enhancement of life. The importance of industrialized production and its aesthetic effects was a central question for both movements, but this was also the main point on which they disagreed. Both movements held that the industrialized production of goods had transformed the world. But, while the original Arts and Crafts movement largely rejected the machine age and all its productions, the Bauhaus.."

From the Paper
"The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has become a target of some of the Republican leadership in congress. It has long been a target of certain conservative groups either opposed to government funding of the arts as such or opposed to certain manifestations of that funding, such as performances or works of art considered obscene by the critics. In the Senate, Senator Jesse Helms has been a leading voice against the agency. A number of newly elected congressmen are bent on pushing through various conservative issues now that Republicans are in charge of Congress for the first time in four decades. However, the division over the NEA is not simply a case of right versus left, and there are arguments for and against government funding of the arts on both sides of the political spectrum.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the National ..."

From the Paper
"Proto-Abstract Expressionism was a transitional stage in the 1940s in which the developing Abstract Expressionists produced the works that led directly to the later movement. On the question of influences and development various art historians and critics hold differing views. A comparison of the views of several writers will clarify the manner in which various sources influenced Proto-Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock and how their works, in turn, led to the development of Abstract Expressionism.

Proto-Abstract Expressionism was developmental in nature and critics and historians do not assign a role in this stage to works that did not take in influences that were later manifested in Abstract Expressionism. Thus, for example, a historian might judge that early Regionalist-influenced works by Pollock and ..."

From the Paper
" Leonardo had several purposes in writing the manuscripts that are known as his notebooks. It would be difficult to make a complete list of every subject that he addressed in them, but the briefest list shows his reasons for writing. The pages include plans for books to be written, notes on Latin (which he did not study until he was over 40), notes on anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany and optics, lists of his own notebooks, speculations on proportion, observations of natural phenomenon, numerous speculations about the movement of water, long passages from books he had read, lists of words he had learned, mathematics he was learning, designs for machines and weapons, calculations of various kinds, reminders of questions he wanted to ask, ideas about painting, jokes and riddles he had been told, and sketches related to almost all these subjects. Clearly the.."

From the Paper
"The purpose of this paper is to discuss the symbolism of the bull in Minoan art. It will draw upon not only examples of Minoan art but also what is know of the religious associations of the bull in early Greek myth and religion.

Surely all attempts to comprehend the symbolism of the bull in Minoan art must begin from, or at least remain cognizant of, the fresco of the "bull dancers" found in the palace at Knossos. Greek myth, conveniently summarized in Plutarch's Life of Theseus, served to preserve a memory of this complex palace; its name or description as labyrinthos, which came to mean a maze, had apparently meant the ?house of the double ax.?

The myths also portrayed the king of Crete, Minos, as a son of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia, who rode on the back of Zeus in the form of a bull to Crete, where he seduced her and fathered Minos.."

From the Paper
" A comparison of two sculptural representations of the Buddha from the early and the late Heian periods will demonstrate the stylistic changes that accompanied the increasing "japanization" of Buddhist art at this time. In 784 the Emperor decided to move the court from Nara, headquarters of the great Buddhist monasteries, in order to escape the political interference of the monks. The introduction of Esoteric or Shingon Buddhism in the late eighth century coincided with the decision to locate the court in Heian-Kyo (later Kyoto). Shingon Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism became, respectively, the prevailing religious modes of the early Heian (sometimes called Jogan) period and late Heian (sometimes called Fujiwara) period. The effect of these strands of Buddhism on Japanese art are reflected in the two sculptures of the Buddha considered here."

From the Paper
"Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
In his book Inventing Leonardo, A. Richard Turner states that "[s]elf revelation was not Leonardo's strong suit" (9). Turner observes that, although da Vinci kept many notes about his art and mechanical and scientific investigations over the years, he included very little about his personal feelings, daily activities, or relationships to other people in these notes (9). Patrice Boussel, in her analysis of the numerous biographies of da Vinci, concludes that the few documents available concerning da Vinci's childhood leave a gap in the understanding of his early years (5). Only recently have historians been able to piece together a few specific bits of information about his early years.
Emil Moller, one of da Vinci's most notable historians.."

From the Paper
" Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) did more than any individual to create the appearance of Rome as it exists today. As the leading sculptor and architect of the Baroque era, Bernini's talents and tastes meshed perfectly with the Church's demand for an increased magnificence and intensity in religious art. The Catholic Counter-Reformation called for an image of the Church as a triumphant force, undiminished by the heretical efforts of the Protestant reformers. Throughout the city of Rome, the power of Bernini's papal patrons was reflected in the sumptuous fountains, tombs, and religious sculpture he supplied. At St. Peter's, the very heart of Catholicism, Bernini transformed the church (both inside and out) with designs whose magnificent theatricality was matched by a fervent intensity. Three major examples of Bernini's work demonstrate the nature of his enormous.."

From the Paper
"The authoritarian rule of the Byzantine emperors extended to church, state, and military. As a consequence of the complete interdependence of the church and state in Byzantium, the religious art of the Empire frequently reflected the authoritarian nature of imperial power. One of the forms this art took was the imperial votive portrait. A brief discussion of the reasons for Byzantine authoritarianism, especially in regard to control of the church, will demonstrate why such a tradition of portraiture developed. An analysis of one example, a portrait of the Emperor John II Comnenus and the Empress Irene with the Madonna, shows how such portraits were assertions of imperial power.
The Byzantine Empire came into being as the result of chaos in the Western half of the Roman Empire."

From the Paper
"In the years that he spent at Argenteuil, Monet began to work on a number of sequences of paintings in which he repeated subjects. These works were forerunners of the famous series that Monet created from 1891 to his death. One important aspect of the connection between the early sequences and the later series is the iconographic content of these works. Just as the later series are often viewed as an approach to pure abstraction, the earlier sequences are often viewed solely as the height of technical accomplishment in Impressionism. Yet, whether one considers the series of grainstacks from the 1890s or the earlier sequences of bridges at Argenteuil, these groupings of painting carry themes and meanings that are often overlooked in the attention that is paid to the evolution of Monet's Impressionist technique. The early sequence of the highway bridge at Argenteuil.."

From the Paper
"As the personal computer has become more widely available in the last decade, computer art has made great strides. The effect of computers in the art world has been and continues to be very profound. The computer has radically changed the way that art is produced and disseminated. A controversy has arisen over whether computer-generated art or computer-assisted art is true art. Computer-generated and computer-assisted art works are true art. The computer is just another tool at the disposal of the artist. The use of the computer as a tool or medium is the choice of each individual artist working in the realm of visual arts. The time-honored art practices of putting pigment on canvas with a brush, cutting images into copper plate with a burin, and welding, whittling, and forcing materials into shape to form three-dimensional forms will not be completely replaced.."

From the Paper
"The Parthenon, built atop the Acropolis, was ancient Athens' greatest temple. It was dedicated to the worship of Athena Parthenos (the virgin), and the rich program of sculptural decoration was devoted to the glory of her city and her legend. The principal decorative aspects of the Parthenon are the following: the east and west pediments; the metopes, which are divided panels set below the roofline and pediments on all sides of the building; the frieze, which runs, uninterrupted, around the outside top of the cella, behind the peristyle; and the enormous statue of Athena Parthenos that was housed inside the cella. The statue disappeared long ago, and, since 1687, the Parthenon itself has been a ruin, with many of the surviving sculptural fragments dispersed around the world. But archaeologists and scholars have tried to reconstruct the.."

From the Paper
"Thomas Eakins painted Max Schmitt in a Single Scull in 1871. The painting is oil on canvas and measures 32 1/4" by 46 1/4". It is currently owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting shows Schmitt seated in a long, narrow rowing shell, or scull. The scull sits in the middle of a river, and is located at the center of the lower half of the painting. Schmitt looks back over his shoulder toward the viewer. Beyond Schmitt the river bank appears on either side of the painting, and is covered with trees that either have fall colors or have lost their leaves. Some houses are also visible on the bank. At the horizon an iron bridge crosses the river. On the river another rower is shown beyond Schmitt, pulling on the outspread oars of his scull. Closer to the bridge there is also a long, low, red boat with a few people seated in it. Under the bridge and beyond.."

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to examine the history of photography and its cultural impact. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context and background for the emergence of photography as an instance of the fusing of applied art and applied science and then to discuss the evolution of photography as a reflection of and influence on culture.

From one point of view, the cultural impact of photography arises from the fact that it appeared in history. That is because photography is a technical, mechanical, chemical process that, in its earliest configuration did not necessarily lend itself to anything like cultural impact. "Photography is possible," says Coe, "because of the fact, known to the chemists of the eighteenth century, that most chemical compounds of silver darken on exposure to light" (Coe 9). The question of how to manipulate the .."