This book explores the responses of leading European avant-garde painters to the operas of Richard Wagner, the most influential composer of the late nineteenth century. The term avant-garde represents a twenty-first century evaluation of certain nineteenth-century artists working in a variety of advanced styles, rather than a phrase the artists applied to themselves. Chapters are on individual artists or groups, rather than an attempt to survey all of nineteenth-century Wagnerian visual art. They deal with paintings and drawings inspired by Wagner and his operas, not with the composer’s larger cultural influence through his writings and personal example. Thus artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who knew of Wagner’s music and writings but did not depict scenes from his operas, are not discussed in detail. The emphasis is on the diverse effects Wagner had on the works of leading avant-garde artists, varying according to their personalities and stylistic interests. The period beginning in the 1880s, often associated with post-Impressionism, was characterized by a movement away from realist subject matter to more personal or imaginary themes, a general intellectual trend of the fin-de-siècle. Wagner’s remote quasi-historical or mythological subjects fit well with this escapist tendency in the art and culture of the time, in part a return to the Romantic sensibility that was dominant in Wagner’s youth. Wagner’s influence peaked in the period between his death in 1883 and 1900, though a few long-lived artists continued their Wagnerian explorations from this era well into the early twentieth century. There is no “Wagner style” in art, yet Wagner’s pervasive influence is immediately evident in these works. Artists whose works are discussed include Eugène Delacroix, Henri Fantin-Latour, Odilon Redon, Max Klinger, James Ensor, Fernand Khnopff, John Singer Sargent and Aubrey Beardsley, among others. The book features 60 art reproductions, half of them in color.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Germany's bourgeois elites became enthralled by the civilization of Renaissance Italy. As their own country entered a phase of critical socioeconomic changes, German historians and writers reinvented the Italian Renaissance as the onset of a heroic modernity: a glorious dawn that ushered in an age of secular individualism, imbued with ruthless vitality and a neo-pagan zest for beauty. The Italian Renaissance in the German Historical Imagination is the first comprehensive account of the debates that shaped the German idea of the Renaissance in the seven decades following Jacob Burckhardt's seminal study of 1860. Based on a wealth of archival material and enhanced by more than one hundred illustrations, it provides a new perspective on the historical thought of Imperial and Weimar Germany, and the formation of a concept that is still with us today.

Access to dissertations and theses is becoming increasingly easier as a result of digitalization projects such as UMI's Current Research, which at the present time provides full-text access to dissertations published after 1996. However, access to retrospective titles continues to prove difficult. This bibliography addresses some of the limitations of Dissertation Abstracts, especially in uncovering works below the doctoral level and those produced in Canada's French-language universities. While Canadian research is accessible by title and keyword through the National Library of Canada's checklists, covering the period from 1821 onwards, there are few existing publications that provide abstracts. Existing annotated bibliographies in the field of fine arts in Canada merely cover dissertations written prior to 1981. This book identifies 1765 theses or dissertations dealing with Canadian art or built architecture in Canada, excluding studio projects and works on landscape architecture. Chronologically, these works cover a time span from 1924 to 1999. The bibliography is divided into 25 sections, 13 dealing with art and 12 dealing with architecture. Works are listed in the category considered most descriptive of content, with cross-references to other relevant sections. Author, institution, and detailed subject indexes are provided, along with order numbers where available. All abstracts are in English, although approximately 40 percent of the works included were written in French, with a few in other languages. A specialized but needed resource reference work for librarians, art and architecture historians, and students of Canadian art and architecture.

This edited volume explores the dialogue between art and music with that of mystical currents at the turn of the twentieth century. The volume draws on the most current research from both art historians and musicologists to present an interdisciplinary approach to the study of mysticism’s historical importance. The chapters in this edited volume gauge the scope of different interpretations of mysticism and illuminate how an exchange between the sister arts unveil an underlying stream of metaphysical, supernatural, and spiritual ideas over the course of the century. Case studies include Charles Tournemire, Joseph Péladan, Erik Satie, Hilma af Klint, Jean Sibelius, František Kupka, and Wassily Kandinsky. The contributors’ unique theoretical perspectives and disciplinary methodologies offer expert insight on both the rewards and inevitable aesthetic complications that arise when one artform meets another. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, musicology, visual culture, and mysticism.

This volume analyses and illustrates the personalities, movements, major figures and works that have given rise to contemporary art, from Matisse to Picasso, from Boccioni to Kirchner, from Kandinsky to Malevich, from De Chirico to Mondrian, to Duchamp.

Improve your vocabulary in your spare time-and enhance your opportunities for a lifetime Whether you're studying for school, preparing a business presentation, or mingling at a cocktail party, your mastery of words is essential to your overall success. 1,500 Words in 15 Minutes a Day is the ultimate crash course in vocabulary building-a comprehensive day-by-day, week-by-week program that makes it easy to learn new words in the fastest time possible. The book's simple lesson plans are organized by related topics, highlighting common words used in business, politics, religion, and the arts. Each chapter includes clear definitions, pronunciations, and examples of usage, as well as self-quizzes and fascinating facts for a total learning experience. This exciting year-long program will help you to: SPEAK AND WRITE with total confidence MASTER KEY WORDS AND TERMS that every professional should know PREPARE YOURSELF for college or enhance your career INCREASE YOUR KNOWLEDGE on a wide range of subjects MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS with fill-in quizzes and a final review BUILD AN IMPRESSIVE VOCABULARY ...in just fifteen minutes a day.

Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the Dutch architect and architectural philosopher, created a series of buildings and a body of writings from 1886 to 1909 that were among the first efforts to probe the problems and possibilities of modernism. Although his Amsterdam Stock Exchange, with its rational mastery of materials and space, has long been celebrated for its seminal influence on the architecture of the 20th century, Berlage's writings are highlighted here. Bringing together Berlage's most important texts, among them "Thoughts on Style in Architecture", "Architecture's Place in Modern Aesthetics", and "Art and Society", this volume presents a chapter in the history of European modernism. In his introduction, Iain Boyd Whyte demonstrates that the substantial contribution of Berlage's designs to modern architecture cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the aesthetic principles first laid out in his writings.

Music and Modernism is a collection of essays which re-evaluates the significant connections between the disciplines of music, fine art and architecture in the period covering the emergence and flowering of modernism, c. 1849–1950. Combining established scholars in the field with those at the start of their careers, this book presents an exceptional cross-section of European and American modernism through a series of detailed case-studies. Avoiding a simplistic engagement with cross- or inter-disciplinarity, the focus of attention centres on themes that became key to modernist artists and critics: association, perception, representation, subjectivity, writing and language. Accordingly, this book re-thinks modernism itself in the light of both the fine arts and music, to advocate a multiplicity of modernisms from which it is necessary for scholars to construct their own narratives.