Master Your Stage Presence (Transcript)

By Melanie M. Long

Master Your Stage Presence is the companion book to the audio/video series of the same name. It contains a full transcript of the series as well as the complete course guidebook which includes lecture notes, bibliography, and more.

About this series:

The development of the arts in Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern era is an astonishing record of cultural achievement, from the breathtaking architecture of Gothic cathedrals to the daring visual experiments of the Cubist painters. We all have our favorite artists, periods, or styles from this immensely rich tradition, but how many of us truly know the full sweep of European art? How many of us can connect the dots of influences and inspiration that link the Renaissance with Mannerism, or that tie the paintings of the creator of modern art, Edouard Manet, to masterpieces from centuries earlier? A History of European Art is your gateway to this visually stunning story. In 48 beautifully illustrated lectures you will encounter all the landmarks you would expect to find in a comprehensive survey of Western art since the Middle Ages. Works such as Giotto's Arena Chapel, Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Leonardo's The Last Supper, Michelangelo's David, Vermeer's View of Delft, Van Gogh's The Starry Night, Picasso's Guernica, and hundreds more. You will also find works that are completely new to you. Plus you'll be introduced to lesser-known artists—perhaps names you've heard but never connected to specific works—and you'll understand why they deserve to be classed among the great masters. An Unrivalled Collection of Masterpieces Your guide to this unrivalled collection of paintings, sculptures, architecture, drawings, and other media, created over a span of more than a thousand years, is Professor William Kloss, an independent art historian long connected with the seminar and tour programs of the Smithsonian Associates at the Smithsonian Institution. Praised by Library Journal for his perceptive 'readings' of masterworks in his previous course for The Teaching Company, Great Artists of the Italian Renaissance, Professor Kloss once again gives intriguing insights into great works, including: Mona Lisa: The famous smile in Leonardo's painting may be a pun on the sitter's married name, which means joyous in Italian. Renaissance ideals of decorum could also have influenced the expression. A 16th-century Italian writer suggested that a fashionable woman should smile as if you were smiling secretly... not in an artificial manner, but as though unconsciously ... and accompanied by ... certain movements of the eyes. Garden of Earthly Delights: Hieronymus Bosch's surreal triptych depicting scenes of the Garden of Eden, an earthly bacchanal, and Hell was probably painted for the private enjoyment of a nobleman, as a moralizing commentary on the relations between the sexes. It has been suggested that the work might have been commissioned on the occasion of a wedding. One can only hope that it was a happy marriage, says Professor Kloss. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte: Professor Kloss shows how this celebrated late 19th-century painting by Georges Seurat was influenced by the 15th-century works of Piero della Francesca, who was still relatively unknown in Seurat's day. Both artists imbue nearly immobile figures with stoic dignity and hints of otherworldliness. In fact, it is not just Piero but the entire monumental Italian tradition from Giotto to Masaccio to Piero that Seurat has revisited. What You Will Learn You begin by exploring the artistic riches of the Middle Ages, from the early architectural monuments of the Carolingian Empire to the massive cathedrals and exquisite sculpture of the French Gothic style. Then you move into the Renaissance by examining Giotto's approach to the illusionistic creation of space and tracing this accomplishment through the works of some of the greatest artists in history, from Masaccio and Donatello to

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Great Courses
• Release date: Aug 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781598039146

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