Download or read book The Rise of Female Kings in Europe 1300 1800 written by William Monter and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively and pathbreaking book, William Monter sketches Europe's increasing acceptance of autonomous female rulers between the late Middle Ages and the French Revolution. Monter surveys the governmental records of Europe's thirty women monarchs—the famous (Mary Stuart, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great) as well as the obscure (Charlotte of Cyprus, Isabel Clara Eugenia of the Netherlands)—describing how each of them achieved sovereign authority, wielded it, and (more often than men) abandoned it. Monter argues that Europe's female kings, who ruled by divine right, experienced no significant political opposition despite their gender.

Download or read book Realms of Ritual written by Peter Arnade and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While earlier historians have seen the elaborate public rituals of the Burgundian dukes as stagnant forms held over from the chivalric world of the High Middle Ages, Peter Arnade argues that they were a vital theater of power through which the ducal court and the urban centers constantly renegotiated their relationship. This book is the first to apply the combined insights of social, political, and cultural history to an important but little-explored area of medieval and early modern Europe, the Burgundian Netherlands. Realms of Ritual traces the role of ritual in encounters between the dukes of Burgundy (later the Habsburg princes) and the townspeople of Ghent, the most important city in the county of Flanders. Arnade analyzes city-state ceremonies through which Ghent's aldermen, patricians, guildsmen, and the city's military and drama confraternities confronted local power and the growth of the Burgundian state. In the first serious reappraisal of Johan Huizinga's classic work The Waning of the Middle Ages, Arnade confirms Huizinga's vision of a Low Country society rich in public symbols, yet reveals the city-state conflict within which such ritual thrived. He offers a dramatically new perspective on the Northern Renaissance, as well as a historical/anthropological model for the study of urban-state relations.

Download or read book At the Crossroads of Art and Religion written by Hetty Zock and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 'turn to the subject' in modernity, aesthetic experiences have become crucial in the creation of meaning. This explains why art and religion are becoming increasingly intermingled in late modern Western culture. The search for meaning is no longer confined to traditional religious settings and it is especially in art that people are looking for moral and spiritual significance. Religion is being aestheticised while art is being spiritualised. This volume contains studies on the interface between art and religion. Scholars from art studies, theology, philosophy and psychology of religion address the following questions: What psychological and religious functions does art fulfil? What are the similarities and differences between aesthetic and religious experiences? How does the aestheticising of religion affect theological thinking? How does the spiritualising of art affect artistic practices and theory? Case studies are taken from literature, visual art, film and opera, both from 'high' and popular culture. Among others, there are chapters on J.M. Coetzee's novel Waiting for the Barbarians, Richard Wagner's operas, the Harry Potter books and the concept of beauty from a theological perspective. The contributors all highlight the crucial role of human imaginative capabilities and the capacity of art to open up wider horizons of meaning.

Download or read book On the God of Socrates written by Apuleius and published by . This book was released on 2017-04-12 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "On the God of Socrates" is a work on the existence and nature of demons, the intermediaries between gods and humans. This treatise was roughly attacked by Augustine of Hippo. It contains a passage comparing gods and kings which is the first recorded occurrence of the proverb "familiarity breeds contempt".Apuleius (/ˌ�pjᵿˈliːəs/; also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis and in Berber: Afulay c. 124 - c. 170 AD) was a Latin-language prose writer, platonist philosopher and rhetorian. He was a Numidian who lived under the Roman Empire and was from Madauros (now M'Daourouch, Algeria). He studied Platonism in Athens, travelled to Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the attentions (and fortune) of a wealthy widow. He declaimed and then distributed a witty tour de force in his own defense before the proconsul and a court of magistrates convened in Sabratha, near ancient Tripoli, Libya. This is known as the Apologia.His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel, the Metamorphoses, otherwise known as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the ludicrous adventures of one Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey.

Download or read book Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain written by Theresa Earenfight and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume consider three aspects of queenship and politics: the institutional foundations and practice of politics, the politics of religion and religious devotion, and the literary and artistic representations of queenship and power. They address the distinctive Spanish political culture that resulted in a form of queenship similar to, yet also substantially different from, that of northern Europe.

Download or read book Talismans and Trojan Horses written by Christopher A. Faraone and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greek legends and historical accounts contain many references to special statues or images designed to preserve the safety or livelihood of a city, a business or a house. These images, which fall into two often overlapping categories (talismans and apotropaia), were erected according to special rituals and took on a variety of intriguing forms, including lions, locusts, and bound effigies of destructive deities like Ares. Looking closely at a wide variety of Greek texts and artifacts, Faraone provides a detailed description and survey of these images and then uses this information to provide new interpretations of early Greek myths about Pandora, the Trojan Horse, and the "living statues" created by Hephaestus. At each step he sets the Greek evidence in a wider eastern-Mediterranean context, with detailed discussions of Near Eastern and Egyptian practices that bear close resemblance to the Greek rituals. The study closes with a re-evaluation of the traditional scholarly approach to religious art as purely representational, suggesting that some images instead of simply illustrating the power of a god, were actually created to restrain and control the power of inimical supernatural forces such as plague-gods and ghosts. Focusing renewed attention on these often misinterpreted talismans and apotropaia, Talismans and Trojan Horses will be illuminating for scholars and students of classics, art and archaeology, religion, the Ancient Near East, the Bible, and mythology.

Download or read book The Invention of the Visible written by Patrick Vauday and published by Rowman & Littlefield International. This book was released on 2017 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Working at the margins of aesthetics and politics, Patrick Vauday challenges the dominant assumptions of our mediatized society and its disposition towards images. This challenge does not advocate eliminating images altogether, but rather entreats us to see them in a different light.

Download or read book Greek Mysteries written by Michael B. Cosmopoulos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by an international team of acknowledged experts, this excellent book studies a wide range of contributions and showcases new research on the archaeology, ritual and history of Greek mystery cults. With a lack of written evidence that exists for the mysteries, archaeology has proved central to explaining their significance and this volume is key to understanding a phenomenon central to Greek religion and society.

Download or read book Marketing Maximilian written by Larry Silver and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Long before the photo op, political rulers were manipulating visual imagery to cultivate their authority and spread their ideology. Born just decades after Gutenberg, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) was, Larry Silver argues, the first ruler to exploit the propaganda power of printed images and text. Marketing Maximilian explores how Maximilian used illustrations and other visual arts to shape his image, achieve what Max Weber calls "the routinization of charisma," strengthen the power of the Hapsburg dynasty, and help establish the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A fascinating study of the self-fashioning of an early modern ruler who was as much image-maker as emperor, Marketing Maximilian shows why Maximilian remains one of the most remarkable, innovative, and self-aggrandizing royal art patrons in European history. Silver describes how Maximilian--lacking a real capital or court center, the ability to tax, and an easily manageable territory--undertook a vast and expensive visual-media campaign to forward his extravagant claims to imperial rank, noble blood, perfect virtues, and military success. To press these claims, Maximilian patronized and often personally supervised and collaborated with the best printers, craftsmen, and artists of his time (among them no less than Albrecht Dürer) to plan and produce illustrated books, medals, heralds, armor, and an ambitious tomb monument.

Download or read book The Notion of religion in Comparative Research written by Ugo Bianchi and published by L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. This book was released on 1994 with total page 980 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nel 1990 si tenne a Roma il XVI Congresso del I.A.H.R. che ebbe come tema la nozione di "religione". Venne particolarmente analizzato l'uso di tale termine da parte degli studiosi di lingua europea nei rapporti con le culture non europee e viceversa.

Download or read book The Life of Pythagoras written by Iamblichus and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sex and Terror written by Pascal Quignard and published by French List. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinus, or phallus, was at the heart of classical Roman art and life. No god was more represented in ancient Rome than the phallic deity Priapus, and the fescennine verses, one of the earliest forms of Roman poetry, accompanied the celebrations of Priapus, the harvest, and fertility. But with this emphasis on virility also came an emphasis on power and ideas of possession and protection. In Sex and Terror, Pascal Quignard looks closely at this delicate interplay of celebration and terror. In startling and original readings of myths, satires, memoirs, and works of ancient philosophy and visual art, Quignard locates moments of both playful, aesthetic commemoration and outward cruelty. Through these examples, he describes a colossal cultural shift within Western civilization that occurred two millennia ago, as Augustus shaped the Roman world into an empire and the joyous, precise eroticism of the Greeks turned into a terror-stricken melancholy. The details of this revolution in thinking are revealed through Quignard's astute analysis of classical literary sources and Roman art. This powerful transformation from celebration to fear is a change whose consequences, Quignard argues, we are still dealing with today, making Sex and Terror an intriguing reconsideration of ancient Rome that transcends its history.

Download or read book Women of Distinction written by Yvonne Bleyerveld and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2005 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This lavishly illustrated handbook was conceived to accompany an international exhibition organised by the city of Mechelen (Malines) in 2005. Both the exhibition and the catalogue highlight an important aspect of Burgundian culture: the impact of noble women on life at the court and in the city around 1500. Margaret of York (1446-1503), the English princess married to Duke Charles-the-Bold, and Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), the only daughter of Mary of Burgundy, both lived in Mechelen as well-to-do widows and are therefore the focal point of this publication. At the time, the city of Mechelen was the cosmopolitan and administrative centre of the Burgundian Netherlands. It forms the stage on which their lives as dowager duchess and as regent of the Netherlands unfold. Both women carried high responsibilities in matters of education, learning, devotion, government, diplomacy, patronage, public appearance and court etiquette. The book looks at the way in which court ladies were meant to behave within a given societal framework and also discusses how each individual interpreted her role by actively negotiating her position of authority. The sixteen essays which introduce the five distinct catalogue sections were written by leading scholars from different disciplines such as Wim Blockmans, Krista De Jonge, Dagmar Eichberger, Marie-Madeleine Fontaine, Anne-Marie Legare, Philippe Lorentz and Walter Prevenier. This book provides much more than a biographical account of two "women of distinction," but regards their lives as paradigmatic for upper-class women of that time. The study takes a fresh look at the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period and offers the reader essential information as well as new insights into matters of gender and female concern.

Download or read book For the Common Good written by Jelle Haemers and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1477, the Low Countries were in chaos. On 5 January Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was killed in the battle of Nancy. His political adversaries used this fortuitous opportunity to reverse his much-hated policies. The late duke's confidents were executed, as nobles fled from court.The French king declared war on Charles' heir, Mary of Burgundy, and the cities rose in rebellion against the duchy. United in their opposition to the ducal court, the Estates-General instituted a new state structure which severely reduced the power of the central state. The duchess' new husband, Maximilian of Austria, was never able to dictate war policy nor appease the discontent of the populace, because his first priority was to strengthen the power of the Habsburg dynasty. In 1482, when Mary of Burgundy died after a tragic fall from her horse, revolt again spread across the county of Flanders. In this dramatic crisis that would last for a decade, central authority was again challenged by a political alternative, the Flemish regency council. This book examines the people behind the revolt.From a murky background of conflicting loyalties, it identifies the principal allies of the Habsburg dynasty and key political adversaries of Maximilian in the Flemish cities. An in-depth analysis of their lives and their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds on the eve of the Flemish Revolt elucidates their reasons for rebelling or remaining loyal to court.By focusing on disloyal nobles at court and urban dissenters in the county of Flanders, this book goes beyond previous studies of the revolt and offers new insights into the social history of medieval politics. In the end, readers will discover whether the court, the nobility, and the urban rebels were really striving for the goal they claimed, the common good.

Download or read book Excavating the Medieval Image written by David S. Areford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval images, especially manuscript illuminations, have long been treated independently of the contexts in which they were created. These beautiful miniature paintings, frequently valued as keepers of documentary evidence or as curious artistic commodities, have only recently become the focus of art historians concerned with new questions related to artistic working methods, audience and the status of the visual in the Middle Ages and the modern era. Excavating the Medieval Image argues that the illuminated image is best understood as thoroughly integrated in the material context of the manuscript - and thus, integrated in a cultural context of production and reception. Seen in this way, the illuminated manuscript becomes a kind of archaeological site, which must be carefully unearthed layer by layer. The fourteen essays gathered here are written by scholars of both medieval and Renaissance art history, and demonstrate varied methodological approaches that combine the pursuits of traditional connoisseurship and iconography with those of critical theory and historiography. In addition, the authors contribute more broadly to important interdisciplinary issues such as the study of gender, text and image, and the history of literacy and the book.

Download or read book Women and Portraits in Early Modern Europe written by Andrea Pearson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As one of the first books to treat portraits of early modern women as a discrete subject, this volume considers the possibilities and limits of agency and identity for women in history and, with particular attention to gender, as categories of analysis for women's images. Its nine original essays on Italy, the Low Countries, Germany, France, and England deepen the usefulness of these analytical tools for portraiture. Among the book's broad contributions: it dispels false assumptions about agency's possibilities and limits, showing how agency can be located outside of conventional understanding, and, conversely, how it can be stretched too far. It demonstrates that agency is compatible with relational gender analysis, especially when alternative agencies such as spectatorship are taken into account. It also makes evident the importance of aesthetics for the study of identity and agency. The individual essays reveal, among other things, how portraits broadened the traditional parameters of portraiture, explored transvestism and same-sex eroticism, appropriated aspects of male portraiture to claim those values for their sitters, and, as sites for gender negotiation, resistance, and debate, invoked considerable relational anxiety. Richly layered in method, the book offers an array of provocative insights into its subject.

Download or read book Charles the Bold written by Richard Vaughan and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historical and biographical study of Charles's personality and his role as ruler, 1467-1477, discussing his relationship with his subjects and his neighbours, and giving particular attention to his imperial plans and projects and his clash with the Swiss.