Bernini, a 17th-century artist and architect, was a leading figure in the development of the Italian baroque style. Among his best-known sculptures, which often combine white and colored marble with bronze and stucco, are the Cornaro Chapel’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa and the David displayed at the Borghese Gallery. Bernini also designed the magnificent baldachin, or canopy, inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini’s designs for the façade of what famed museum were rejected? Discuss
Month: December 2022
make a mint
To earn a very large amount of money, especially by doing something very successfully. Watch the video
Basket Weaving
Basketry is the ancient art of weaving flexible materials to form vessels or other objects. Baskets used for storing grain in 4000 or 5000 BCE have been excavated in Egypt, and the tombs of Etruria have yielded ancient specimens that, along with much later Roman baskets, display weaving strokes still in use. There are many commercial basket-weaving establishments today, but basketry remains a popular home industry. How were baskets used to transport vital information during the World Wars? Discuss
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13th Amendment to US Constitution is Ratified (1865)
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution completed the process of abolishing slavery, which had begun with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Between February 1 and December 6 of 1865, the required three-fourths of the existing states—then 27 of 36—ratified the proposed amendment, making it law. Slavery offenses were still being prosecuted as recently as 1947. Which of the states that initially rejected the amendment finally ratified it in 2013, 147 years after it was adopted? Discuss
get knocked out cold
To be rendered unconscious, as by a physical blow, medication, or other means. Watch the video
Muay Thai
Muay Thai is a martial art that originated in 16th-century Thailand. Once used as military training, it gained international fame in the 20th century when its practitioners defeated those of other martial arts. Today’s “sport” version of Muay Thai takes place in a ring and features gloves like those used in boxing. It is called “The Art of Eight Limbs” because the hands, feet, elbows, and knees are all involved—giving each combatant eight points of contact. Who was Nai Khanomtom? Discuss
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Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin Debuts in US (1926)
Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, based on the real-life 1905 uprising aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin, is a seminal film in cinematic history. Eisenstein deliberately wrote the silent film as a revolutionary propaganda piece and used it to test his theories of “montage,” a form of movie collage consisting of a series of short shots edited into a sequence intended to effect emotional or intellectual responses. What is the film’s most famous montage sequence? Discuss
Fritz Lang (1890)
A successful Austrian director, Lang gained worldwide acclaim with his early German expressionistic films Metropolis and M. After making the anti-Nazi film The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse, he fled Germany in 1933, eventually settling in the US, where he revived his career. His Hollywood films rival his earlier works in their intensity, pessimism, and visual mastery. What was Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’s unexpected response to The Last Will of Dr. Mabuse? Discuss