Visual Arts And Literature Essay Example for Free

Visual Arts And Literature Essay In visual arts and literature, the sacred and the secular, separate entities in themselves meld into one another, frequently producing a hybrid which gives rise to a new seculo-religious genre. Despite of the doctrine of separation of the church and state, most times it was the priests who were in charge of many other areas outside the religious realm such as education and politics. The far-reaching influence of the church had caused artists, musicians, architects, and authors to incorporate elements of the sacred in their work. Also these practitioners had fervent, deeply-rooted convictions which consciously and unconsciously pervaded their work. In the text Culture and Values: Survey of the Humanities, the dual presence of both sacred and secular represents the union of two major spheres. Cunningham observes that â€Å"the intermingling of secular with religious elements is thoroughly in accordance with Renaissance ideals† (Cunningham 291). Tiziano Vecelli (1473-1576) was a Renaissance artist who mingled the sacred and secular in his art pieces. His major masterpieces include The Assumption of the Virgin (1516), The Pesaro Madonna (1519-1526), Venus of Urbino (1538), Danae with Nursemaid (1553-1556), Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (1539), and St. Peter the Martyr (1530). His artistic life is characterized by the mixture, in one way or another, of Christian religious aspects with secular (and pagan) aspects. On one hand, one attests to Vecelli’s Marian devotion in his portraits such as The Assumption of the Virgin (1516-1518), which stands proudly in the Venetian Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and The Pesaro Madonna (1519-1526), placed at the Frari Basilica Chapel. The paintings laud Mary as a holy human intercessor and deity with the Child Jesus. Enmeshed in the words are the worship of the saints, heavenly glory, and apostles, all in a posture of solemn and sacred reverence At the same time his voluptuous painting of Venus is Venus of Urbino (1538) exhibits the nude body of a woman poised in a supine position on her bed, with seductive airs. Venus is the pagan goddess of love, fertility, and sex often depicted as a prostitute. Danae with Nursemaid also derives from Greco-Roman mythology. The art work demonstrates the naked Danae lying on a bed with her eyes heavenward and her maid Abbot Suger (1081-1151) is the one responsible for the rise of Gothic architecture and its popularity within the Christian church in the early ninth and tenth centuries. In the interpretation and construction of gothic buildings â€Å"(secular) builders and theologians worked closely together† (Cunningham 218). The collaboration of both secular and sacred perspectives gives birth to gothic architecture which began in Paris and which celebrated â€Å"the philosophical and theological traditions known as scholasticism† (Cunningham 209). Suger functioned as the Abbey of Saint Denis and therefore the architecture served both for religious uplift and secular admiration. The fusion of the secular and the sacred is evidenced in the proliferation of literature in the medieval and renascent times. The Summa Theologica, a literary and theological masterpiece, â€Å"represents †¦ the hierarchical and synthetic religious humanism of the middle ages† (Cunningham 232). Written by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Summa Theologica sets forth the primary beliefs and dogma of the church explaining and confirming arguments for theocentrism and also containing humanism’s doctrines. The scriptorium was the designated writing room within monasteries. Cunningham documents that â€Å"from the seventh century on monastic scriptoria were busily engaged copying a wealth of material, both sacred and profane† (Cunningham 193). Priests and friars wrote several essays, poems, and theses. Moreover in the Islamic tradition, one sees the merger of the secular and the sacred. Islamic literature became a classic art form where calligraphic depictions of sacred writings are etched on Muslim mosques. The art work symbolizes the Muslim concept of their God, Allah, who encompasses everything. These writings were often extracted from passages in the Qu’ran. Observers in classic renaissance mosque bear witness to â€Å"elaborate mosaics and geometric decoration† (Cunningham 311). One major example of the Islamic artistic accomplishment is the Arabic script. The beautiful Arabic script was originally sacred as it read the holy words of the Muslim faith, however it soon became both sacred and secular, as fine art. â€Å"The Kufic script is one of the most beautiful earliest and most beautiful of Arabic calligraphy styles† (Cunningham 176). The geometric lines of the Kufic script are distinctive since they boast vertical lines and shapes. The Catholic Church endorsed â€Å"the double usage for humanist learning for secularist and spiritual reform† (Cunningham 289). Humanistic and theological principles were unified in order to reconcile two divergent views where philosophy became spiritualized. Another artist who believed in the seculo-religious merger was Wassily Kandinsky who composed Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1911) and â€Å"claimed that the source of all true art was the human soul† (Cunningham 307). This view is in accordance with humanism where man is at the center of the universe (often represented as a man, centralized within a circle). A characteristic of Kandinsky’s work is his obsession with geometry, triangles, and circles. Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky likens man’s life as a triangular pyramid where the ultimate goal is to achieve ascendancy at the top. Man’s soul can either be base (at the bottom of the triangle or exalted at the zenith. This art system hearkens back to Leonardo da Vinci’s classical Vitruvian Man (1490) where the man is his own universe. This double dimensioned painting shows a naked man simultaneously with his legs apart and his legs together, and his arms apart in two positions. The homocentrtic man stands as his own measure enclosed in a circle and square. Kalinsky also saw the spirituality of color for in his work he expressed the joyful, spiritually ecstasy in vivid and bright color versus the dark, melancholic color. However, there were opponents to the union of secular and sacred who held that both should be kept separate. The unity between sacred and secular was not a smooth transition nor was it a unanimous movement, â€Å"the culture of the fifteenth century often was in fact a dialectical struggle at times classical ideals clashed with biblical ideals; at other times the two managed to live in harmony or in a temporary marriage of convenience. The strains of Classicism and Christianity interacted in complex and subtle ways† (291). Catholic Emperor Justinian I was a fan of secular and sacred architecture. He personally directed the erection of several, elaborate cathedrals with Byzantine designs. He helped construct many churches, convents, and palaces, namely, The Great Palace of Constantinople, Basilica Cistern, Church of St. Sophia, and Saint Apollinaire Nuovo. During the reign of Justinian, after the conquest of the old tribe, the Goths (from which one gets the word gothic), the art works of the conquered tribe became ornaments which were positioned within the churches. Cunningham testifies that gothic â€Å"mosaics were added to the church when the building passed from the Goths into Byzantine hands† (Cunningham 161). In Justinian’s time saw a marked proliferation of icon paintings which featured images of Christ and which commenced an iconic style. However, opponents to the incorporation of these icons rebelled to the new wave of art and thus became iconoclastic (thus the origin of the word). Justinian also had mosaics crafted of him and his wife, Theodora, called the Ravenna Mosaics. They portray the royal couple with divine auras around their heads which explain their religio-political views of divine right to rule. Movements within the church and religion rose up to keep the secular and the sacred separate. One such ardent critic of the seculo-religious combination is Girolamo Savonarola (1542-1498) who in an attempt to reform the church who embraced the secular, implemented book burning to expunge the decadent material from the holy writings. As a passionate Dominican friar, his radical views were vehemently anti-Renaissance and anti-humanist. He disagreed with the secular literary that was gaining ground within the church. However, he was condemned a heretic, excommunicated, and martyred. Savonarola wrote spiritual meditations based on Psalms 50 and Psalms 51. The Church also proscribed certain writings and did not tolerate heretical teachings such as Galileo’s Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632). Galileo Galilei wrote Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) and following Copernicus, concluded that the sun was at the center of the universe. Galileo’s â€Å"discoveries brought ecclesiastical censure and he was forced to recant before the inquisition. Facing a possible excommunication and martyrdom, Galileo chose to renounce his beliefs to preserve his life while the Catholic Church bans his book as a forbidden text. Two branches of Buddhism emerge in the thesis and antithesis of the secular and the sacred. The Hinayana is a more rigid form of Chinese Buddhism whereas Mahayana is more worldly and was attractive to Confucians. On the ascetic side, Hinayana appreciated â€Å"Buddhist art (which) aimed to inspire spiritual meditation and a rejection of worldly values† (Cunningham 129). The art work that emblemized the adherent’s austerity is the Fasting Buddha. The image of the Fasting Buddha embodied â€Å"the command to renounce all worldly pleasures† (Cunningham 120). This sculpture forms an essential part of Gandhara Art which represents a thin, gaunt man in a cross-legged seated position with a halo about his head, symbolizing the resultant enlightenment. This antique shows Siddhartha who fasted for three months, denying himself and meditating. The monasteries which supported Mahayana grew faster and were patronized by the wealthy elite classes. Hinduism also contains a hybrid literature which included Hindu sacred text as well as secular tastes. The Gitanjali is an anthology of poems translated into English from the original Vedic manuscripts where its author, Rabindranath Tagore wrote the anthology which signifies â€Å"an offering of songs. † The poetry still retains its strong religious connotations nevertheless, it speaks of and brings together both worlds of the secular and the sacred. â€Å"in 1913, Tagore won the Nobel Prize for literature for Gitanjali, a collection of poems based upon traditional Hindu themes† (Cunningham 314). The work typifies a drawing together of two bodies the male and the female and at the same time uses this sexual imagery to relay information about the ultimate mystery of man’s spiritual union with the divine. In sum the joining of the secular and the sacred tells that although disparate in nature these dichotomies manage to combine and form a powerful force in art and literature. One cannot deny that in order to not lose its peculiar characteristics and identity, strategies of separation between the secular and the sacred have been executed. Holiness ought to be preserved as holy and the secular as its worldly self. Difference can be necessary in order to prevent dilution and weakening of core principles which can be misplaced with frequent mixture. Works Cited: Cunningham, Lawrence S. John J Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities, Wadsworth, Boston, 2006.

Mothers, Daughters and Common Ground in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club Ess

Mothers, Daughters and Common Ground in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club Here is a journey that not only started "a thousand Li away", but from generations upon generations of tradition. The Joy Luck Club travels over time and continents to present the background and turmoil of eight amazing women. All of these women have had to deal with the issues of culture, gender, and family, each in their own way, yet all similarly. Amy Tan dedicates her novel to her mother with the comment "You asked me once what I would remember†¦ This, and much more." Each of the mothers in Tan's novel wanted to teach their daughters the lessons learned in China while giving them the comforts of America. But language and culture barriers diverge the women until they were almost lost to each other. Each character had to take their own journey to finally understand what drove them apart and find their common ground. Each Mother brought baggage with her across the pacific. They wanted to teach their daughters from all of their pain and suffering, but were never able to communicate the complexities of their life. Suyuan Woo struggles to explain herself to her daughter "'This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.' And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English"(3). The journey that brought Suyuan to America was long and full of hardship. From the Japanese invasion of Kweilin were she lost her husband and had to leave her daughters, to her assimilation in America. Suyuan wanted to teach her daughter about these hardships so that she could understand the extent of her potential. " My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in Ameri... ... finding her sisters and in doing this fulfilling her own. Just as Jing-Mei found what made her Chinese, Lindo discovered what made her American. "I was so much like my mother. She did not see how my face changed over the years. How my eyes began following the American way"(293). She is a mixture, no longer one hundred percent Chinese, yet she has held her culture with her throughout her life in America. "Not only traditional and not only modern, not just Chinese and not just American, but Chinese-American"(Reece). This is the same discovery that Waverly and Jing-Mei come to, they finally understand were their mother's have come from and the history brought with them from far away. And the mother's best intentions are no longer like the illusive mountains covered in fog, left in China. Works Cited Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1989.

Economic comment Essay

Interest rates are proportionate to credit quality and it shows the ability of the investor to pay at any given circumstance. World economic conditions vary by geography and country and the nature of inflation and deflation influences interest rates. Interest rate is also determined by the government through its enactment of public policy called interest rate subsidy (Montalbano, 6). Interest rate term structures evidences how they are determined by future expectations of the value money. However in the absences of the aforementioned determinants, interest rates are determined by the supply and demand for funds. 2. Interest is the premium paid for use of borrowed money. The interest for loans is usually fixed for a certain number of years after which if there is delay in payment the interest rate adjusts upwardly each year. The value of dollar can increase or decrease depending on the supply and demand imbalance. However, lending of money is associated with risks as the lender can not be certain whether or not the borrower will pay the money back. In order for the lender to reduce the risks, it is important to secure the loan with a physical property such as real estate. Additionally, examining of one’s ability to pay back the money by use of credit score range can help reduce the risks of lending. 3. Interest rates are also determined by the supply and the demands for funds. This shows that at whatever rate of borrowing, the borrower believes he/she has borrowed at the lowest rate and he/she can even provide higher interest rates on the same funds (Montalbano, 12). On the other hand, the lender believes the funds cannot be lent at a higher rate and there is certainty to receive interest and return of principal. Works Cited Montalbano, J. How are interest rates determined? 201. Viewed August 14 2010 from

Yeshiva University Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA

Yeshiva University is a private research university with an acceptance rate of 60%. The university has four undergraduate campuses across New York City: the Wilf Campus, the Beren Campus, the Brookdale Center, and the Resnick Campus. The college has a dual curriculum which includes both a secular and spiritual focus. Students study contemporary academic fields along with the ancient teachings of the Torah. Yeshiva has arrangements with many institutions in Israel to facilitate study abroad. In athletics, the Yeshiva Maccabees compete in NCAA Division III athletics. Considering applying to Yeshiva University? Here are the admissions statistics you should know, including average SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of admitted students. Acceptance Rate During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, Yeshiva University had an acceptance rate of 60%. This means that for every 100 students who applied, 60 students were admitted, making Yeshivas admissions process competitive. Admissions Statistics (2017-18) Number of Applicants 1,508 Percent Admitted 60% Percent Admitted Who Enrolled (Yield) 59% SAT Scores and Requirements Yeshiva University requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 45% of admitted students submitted SAT scores. SAT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile ERW 580 700 Math 560 700 ERW=Evidence-Based Reading and Writing This admissions data tells us that most of Yeshivas admitted students fall within the top 35% nationally on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Yeshiva scored between 580 and 700, while 25% scored below 580 and 25% scored above 700. On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 560 and 700, while 25% scored below 560 and 25% scored above 700. Applicants with a composite SAT score of 1400 or higher will have particularly competitive chances at Yeshiva University. Requirements Yeshiva University does not require the SAT writing section or SAT Subject tests. Note that Yeshiva does not provide information about the universitys superscore policy. However, the school suggests that most successful applicants have a minimum SAT composite score of 1180, with higher score requirements for some programs. ACT Scores and Requirements Yeshiva requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 52% of admitted students submitted ACT scores. ACT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile English 23 33 Math 22 29 Composite 22 30 This admissions data tells us that most of Yeshivas admitted students fall within the top 36% nationally on the ACT. The middle 50% of students admitted to Yeshiva University received a composite ACT score between 22 and 30, while 25% scored above 30 and 25% scored below 22. Requirements Yeshiva University does not require the ACT writing section. Note that Yeshiva does not provide information about the universitys superscore policy. However, the school suggests that most successful applicants have a minimum ACT composite score of 24, with higher score requirements for some programs. GPA In 2018, the average high school GPA of Yeshiva Universitys incoming class was 3.44, and over 56% of incoming students had average GPAs of 3.5 and above. These results suggest that most successful applicants to Yeshiva University have primarily A and B grades. Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph Yeshiva University Applicants Self-Reported GPA/SAT/ACT Graph. Data courtesy of Cappex. The admissions data in the graph is self-reported by applicants to Yeshiva University. GPAs are unweighted. Find out how you compare to accepted students, see the real-time graph, and calculate your chances of getting in  with a free Cappex account. Admissions Chances Yeshiva University, which accepts just over half of applicants, has a competitive admissions pool. The majority of admitted students have above average grades and standardized test scores. However, Yeshiva also has a  holistic admissions  process and admissions decisions are based on much more than numbers. A strong  application essay  can strengthen your application, as can participation in meaningful  extracurricular activities  and a  rigorous course schedule. Yeshiva also requires that all applicants participate in an interview. The college is looking for students who will contribute to the campus community in meaningful ways, not just students who show promise in the classroom. Students with particularly compelling stories or achievements can still receive serious consideration even if their grades and scores are outside of Yeshivas average range. In the graph above, the green and blue dots represent students who were accepted to Yeshiva. Most had SAT scores (ERWM) of 1200 or higher, ACT composite scores of 24 or higher, and high school GPAs of a B or better. If You Like Yeshiva University, You May Also Like These Schools: Brandeis UniversityCornell UniversitySyracuse UniversityTufts UniversityUniversity of RochesterEmory UniversityStony Brook UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityBrown UniversityBoston UniversityUniversity of Chicago All admissions data has been sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics and Yeshiva University Undergraduate Admissions Office.