Titians altarpieces in the church of the Frari Venice essays

Titians altarpieces in the church of the Frari Venice essays Titians Pesaro and Assunta. Altarpieces in the church of the Frari, Venice. What was the importance of these two altarpieces for the development of painting in Venice, both from a stylistic and iconographic point of view? It has been said that Titians Assunta, which adorns the high altar, and Pesaro (on the left aisle of the chapel of the Immaculate Conception) stand mid-way between the past and the future of Venetian painting. This infers that Titian drew on established traditions learnt from his masters Bellini and Giorgione, and imbued his works with a freshness and inspiration not seen before. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that his sensitive construction of the works considering the authority of his patrons facilitate a depth of interpretation which highlight both the sacred and civic concerns of the time. To illustrate Titians progressive role in Venetian art history, I will draw on Renaissance documentation, and contemporary research that notes the stylistic and iconographic elements of these altarpieces. In 1568 the Florentine chronicler Vasari wrote of Titian, Titian...who has adorned with great pictures the City of Venice...deserves the love and respect of all craftsmen, who ought to admire and imitate him in many things. For he is a painter who has produced...work which...will live as long as the memory of illustrious men endures . This is a useful starting point for such an investigation: this representation is valid, since Vasari had met and spoken to him while writing the book, and being a Florentine he wasnt so susceptible to employing the Venetian rhetoric which could tend to be biased The contemporary chronicler Ludovico Dolce recorded the shock and criticism the Assunta attracted when it was first unveiled. Such controversy points to its radicalism and supports assertions that it was influential for developing artists: For all [the panels gr...

Definition of Literacy Test

Definition of Literacy Test   A literacy test measures a person’s proficiency in reading and writing. Beginning in the 19th century, literacy tests were used in the voter registration process in southern states of the U.S. with the intent to disenfranchise black voters. In 1917, with the passing of the Immigration Act, literacy tests were also included in the U.S. immigration process, and are still used today. Historically, literacy tests have served to legitimize racial and ethnic marginalization in the U.S. HISTORY OF RECONSTRUCTION AND JIM CROW ERA Literacy tests were introduced into the voting process in the South with the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were state and local laws and statutes enacted by southern and border states in the late 1870s to deny African Americans the right to vote in the South following Reconstruction (1865-1877). They were designed to keep whites and blacks segregated, to disenfranchise black voters, and to keep blacks subjugated, undermining the 14th and 15th Amendments of the United States Constitution. Despite the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States which included former slaves, and the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870, which specifically gave African Americans the right to vote, Southern and Border states continued to find ways to keep racial minorities from voting. They used electoral fraud and violence to intimidate African American voters, and created Jim Crow laws to promote racial segregation. During the twenty years following Reconstruction, African Americans lost many of the legal rights that had been gained during Reconstruction. Even the Supreme Court of the United States â€Å"helped undermine the Constitutional protections of blacks with the infamous Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, which legitimized Jim Crow laws and the Jim Crow way of life.† In this case, the Supreme Court maintained that public facilities for blacks and whites could be â€Å"separate but equal.† Following this decision, it soon became the law throughout the South that public facilities had to be separate. Many of the changes made during Reconstruction proved to be short-lived, with the Supreme Court continuing to uphold racial discrimination and segregation in its decisions, thus giving southern states free reign to impose literacy tests and all manner of voting restrictions on prospective voters, discriminating against black voters. But racism was not just recurring in the South. Although the Jim Crow Laws were a Southern phenomenon, the sentiment behind them was a national one. There was a resurgence of racism in the North as well and â€Å" emerging national, indeed international, consensus (among whites at any rate) that Reconstruction had been a serious mistake. LITERACY TESTS AND VOTING RIGHTS Some states, such as Connecticut, used literacy tests in the mid-1800s to keep Irish immigrants from voting, but Southern states didn’t use literacy tests until after Reconstruction in 1890, sanctioned by the federal government, where they were used well into the 1960s. They were used ostensibly to test the voters ability to read and write, but in reality to discriminate against African American voters and sometimes poor whites. Since 40-60% of blacks were illiterate, compared to 8-18% of whites, these tests had a large differential racial impact. Southern states also imposed other standards, all of which were arbitrarily set by the test administrator. Those who were property owners or whose grandfathers had been able to vote   (â€Å"grandfather clause†),   those deemed to have â€Å"good character,† or those who paid poll taxes were able to vote. Because of these impossible standards, â€Å"in 1896, Louisiana had 130,334 registered black voters. Eight years later, only 1,342, 1 percent, could pass the state’s new rules.†Ã‚  Even in areas where the black population was substantially greater, these standards kept the white voting population in the majority. The administration of literacy tests was unfair and discriminatory. â€Å"If the official wanted a person to pass, he could ask the easiest question on the test- for example, Who is the president of the United States?† The same official might require a black person to answer every single question correctly, in an unrealistic amount of time, in order to pass.†Ã‚  It was up to the test administrator whether the prospective voter passed or failed, and even if a black man was well-educated, he would most likely fail, because â€Å"the test was created with failure as a goal.† Even if a potential black voter knew all the answers to the questions, the official administering the test could still fail him. Literacy tests were not declared unconstitutional in the South until ninety-five years after the15th Amendment was ratified, by the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Five years later, in 1970, Congress abolished literacy tests and discriminatory voting practices nationwide, and as a result, the number of registered African American voters increased dramatically. ACTUAL LITERACY TESTS In 2014 a group of Harvard University students was asked to take the 1964 Louisiana Literacy Test to raise awareness about voting discrimination.   The test is similar to those given in other Southern states since Reconstruction to potential voters who could not prove they had a fifth grade education. In order to be able to vote, a person had to pass all 30 questions in 10 minutes. All of the students failed under those conditions, because the test was meant to be failed. The questions have nothing at all to do with the U.S. Constitution and are completely nonsensical. You can try the test yourself here.    LITERACY TESTS AND IMMIGRATION In the late 19th century many people wanted to restrict the influx of immigrants to the U.S. due to increased problems of urbanization and industrialization such as crowding, lack of housing and jobs, and urban squalor. It was during this time that the idea of using literacy tests to control the number of immigrants able to enter the United States, particularly those from southern and eastern Europe, was formed. However, it took those who advocated for this approach many years to try to convince lawmakers and others that immigrants were the â€Å"cause† of many of America’s social and economic maladies. Finally, in 1917, Congress passed the Immigration Act, also known as the Literacy Act (and Asiatic Barred Zone Act), which included a literacy test that is still a requirement for becoming a U.S. citizen today. The Immigration Act demanded that those who were over the age of 16 and could read some language must read 30-40 words to show they were capable of reading. Those who were entering the U.S. to avoid religious persecution from their country of origin did not have to pass this test. The literacy test that is part of the Immigration Act of 1917 included only a few languages available to immigrants. This meant that if their native language was not included, they could not prove they were literate, and were denied entry. Beginning in 1950, immigrants could legally only take the literacy test in English, further limiting those who could gain entry to the United States. Besides demonstrating the ability to read, write, and speak English, immigrants also have to display knowledge of U.S. history, government, and civics. English literacy tests have effectively been used in the U.S. as a means to keep immigrants   that the government deemed unwanted out of the country, for the tests are demanding and rigorous.   Would you be able to pass them? REFERENCES 1.Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University, 2.Foner, Eric., The Supreme Court and the History of Reconstruction and Vice-VersaColumbia Law Review, November 2012, 1585-1606ericfoner.com/articles/SupCtRec.html 3.4. Techniques of Direct Disenfranchisement 1880-1965,   University of Michigan, umich.edu/~lawrace/disenfranchise1.htm 4. Constitutional Rights Foundation, A Brief History of Jim Crow, crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow 5. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, PBS, pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html 6. Ibid. 7. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI8708749/ RESOURCES AND FURTHER READING Alabama Literacy Test, 1965, pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html Constitutional Rights Foundation, A Brief History of Jim Crow, crf-usa.org/black-history-month/a-brief-history-of-jim-crow Foner, Eric, The Supreme Court and the History of Reconstruction and Vice-Versa Columbia Law Review, November 2012, 1585-1606ericfoner.com/articles/SupCtRec.html Head, Tom, 10 Racist US Supreme Court Rulings, ThoughtCo., March 03, 2017, https://www.thoughtco.com/racist-supreme-court-rulings-721615 Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University, ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm Onion, Rebecca, Take the Impossible â€Å"Literacy† Test Louisiana Gave Black Voters in the 1960s, slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html PBS, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/voting_literacy.html Schwartz, Jeff, CORE’s Freedom Summer, 1964 - My Experiences in Louisiana, crmvet.org/nars/schwartz.htm Weisberger, Mindy, Immigration Act of 1917 Turns 100: Americas Long History of Immigration Prejudice, LiveScience, Feb. 5, 2017, livescience.com/57756-1917-immigration-act-100th-anniversary.html

Psychology of Violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Psychology of Violence - Essay Example Though the article does not state Mr Clementi suffered from bullying, humiliation and invasion of privacy as a sex offense, Mr Ravi delegitimized him by taking all levels of privacy out of his hands. It is considered a sex offense because he broke the solitude Mr Clementi was after, by having the room until midnight, the intimacy of having a sexual relationship with anonymity and the reserve to decide under what terms. These four types of privacy were established by Mr Westin.(DeCew) As the police had already established that Mr Ravi had been bullying Mr Clementi since August, he will be tried for a bias crime. Behavioral Psychology is a theory that all behaviors are gained through conditioning: classical & operant. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Classical conditioning have two elements, the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response. Operant Conditioning is the association between the behaviour and the consequence for that behaviour. From this conditioning, the learning theory was developed. Negative behaviour can be eliminated by taking away the benefit. A persons behaviour is learned by the consequences which can be external forces. His conscious is changed by the rewards he receives. Mr Ravi is an insecure young man as a new student; as psychologically needing to break his roommate; and who needs to make a place for himself in the dormitory. His name is Indian, so he has suffered prejudices for half of his life in the US. . He might also be questioning his own sexuality which could be common but not part of his own culture. Did he bully Mr Clementi because of his sexual orientation; or would he have done so to any roommate? The questions is his satisfaction in wanting to torture another individual. In putting the streaming of his encounter on the internet, was he showing his jealousy in Mr Clementis ability to perform on stage. Both acts represent the most

The Importance of Researching High School Dropout Trends Essay

The Importance of Researching High School Dropout Trends - Essay Example However, the number of high school drop-outs is still high: The U.S. High school dropout rate is higher than Germany and Japan (Wooldridge, 1993). Drop-outs represent an economic cost to the country as a whole. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, only about two-thirds of children entering high school will eventually graduate. In 2004, more than 2.1 million kids in the United States dropped out of high school in 2004, at a cost of "more than $325 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes," (Holt 2006). That cost is just for the dropouts of 2004; it doesn't include the ongoing cost of dropouts from prior years, and doesn't begin to calculate the cost to the competitive advantage of the U.S. A closer look at the numbers reveals other trends. The U.S. Census shows that overall, Hispanic adults over 25 hold the fewest degrees, with just 58.4 percent reporting a high school diploma or higher degree. That trails the nearest minority group by far: 80.6% of African Americans over 25 have at least a high school diplomas, compared with 86.8% of Asians and 80% of Non-Hispanic whites (Education Attainment in the United States, 2005).

To Save or Not To Save - That Is the Question Essay example -- Conserv

When you look at a bald eagle, you see how powerful and majestic this bird is, which is how many people feel about the United States; that’s why the bald eagle is our national emblem on our Great Seal. It would be a dishonor to our Nation to have such a worldwide-recognized symbol of The United States extinct, but in fact that’s exactly what almost happened. To help the bald eagle regain it’s numbers, on December 28, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon signed The Endangered Species Act. â€Å"The law established procedures for conserving plants and animals in danger of extinction and those that are threatened, or likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future (Cooper, â€Å"Endangered Species Act† 855). Since its establishment, the Endangered Species Act has been a topic of debate on whether the way the act is set up now has been worth the securing of land, including land that is privately owned, the time to research and the money that has been spent . Once species are listed as either threatened or endangered of becoming extinct the first move is to figure out what can be done to help them. What kind of habitat does it need to thrive? Is it isolated to only a few regions of the country or widely located? Could it be introduced into new regions, whether rural or urban, and still have a chance of survival? The lands that are being protected range from mountains to national parks to any neighborhood across the country, so that the smallest plant to the largest wild animal has an environment where they can continue to thrive. Some species have been reintroduced and their populations have recovered enough to bring them out of the endangered status and off of the Endangered Species Act listing. Wolfs and grizzly bears are two out of the nu... ...ecies Act have their valid points. The two sides need to work together discuss which animals are vital to the balance of the eco-system and which plants could help create medicine that fight illnesses like cancer. The laws need to reflect not only the time and money involved in saving the world’s species of plants and animals but also protect the livelihood of the populations of people who are involved in such areas. The balance between the two is possible as long as both sides work with each other not against each other. Works Cited Arrandale, Tom. "Disappearing Species." CQ Researcher 17.42 (2007): 985-1008. CQ Researcher. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. Cooper, Mary H. "Endangered Species Act." CQ Researcher 9.37 (1999): 849-64. CQ Researcher. Web. 24 Mar. 2012. ---. "Endangered Species Act." CQ Researcher 15.21 (2005): 493-516. CQ Researcher. Web. 24 Mar. 2012.

Government Economic Policies and Business Essay

(a) The government used fiscal policy to increase public spending. This implies that a rise in taxation also took place. The rise in taxes meant that people had less money to spend, i.e. less disposable income. As a result, they were unable to buy as much. This caused the demand of certain products to decline. As a result, the respective companies made less profit. This meant that they were unable to produce as much (also to avoid excess supply). This led to companies cutting jobs. The cut in jobs increased unemployment, which meant people had no job, so they had no income, therefore they were unable to spend, which makes the demand fall further, and so on. (b) The government had used fiscal policy to boost the economy. In Japan, the fiscal policy was used to fund the games industry, to create more jobs, in order to increase the income and therefore, increase spending by the people in those jobs. However, we can see from the graphs that retail sales in Japan in 1997 were dramatically falling. A cause for this was the GDP which also hit an all time low in Japan. This meant that people did not have the money to spend, therefore, from the evidence available we can say that Japan’s fiscal policy was unsuccessful. (c) The country’s budget provides an opportunity not only to take an overview of the macro-economy, but also to make changes to the incentive structures created by different taxes. The chancellor has many objectives to consider at budget time. One of these objectives may be to increase taxes on polluting fuels (e.g. petrol) so as to discourage their use. This can be controlled by the fiscal policy, which, in this case would involve increasing taxes on such fuels. This may come as a direct tax on the petrol, or more indirectly by increasing the road tax on bigger vehicles. Provided that such polluting fuels are used to the same extent, this would generate higher tax revenue for the government which can then be used to increase public spending, such as building hospitals, which would not only result in better healthcare, but it would also create jobs, which would mean that people would be earning, allowing them more disposable income, and thus influencing spending power, which may in fact be another objective of the government.

American Genesis By Alden T. Vaughan - 1270 Words

In the book American Genesis by Alden T. Vaughan, Vaughan explains in detail Captain John Smith’s life, in order to inform the reader of his journeys throughout his invigorating lifestyle. Vaughan’s book inspires one to feel adventurous, just as John Smith once was. Throughout his many journeys and experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly; John Smith was a hero to many. Like many of his contemporaries, too, Smith carried for the rest of his life the era’s taste for adventure and achievement. â€Å"Elizabethan England knew both† of those characteristics grew wild in John Smiths imagination. â€Å"The outside world of England held wonders too vast to comprehend.†, and that is why Queen Elizabeth sent Captain John Smith, among others to explore the world that they were so curious about. Although in 1606 Smith was the youngest among the leaders of England’s first success colonizing expedition, â€Å"Smith was also the most traveled, the most experienced, and the most educated.† Smith had fought more battles, endured more hardships, and seen more strange lands and exotic people than any of his companions. Furthermore, that is why Captain John Smith was the right leader for the colony of Jamestown, which will come later. â€Å"In 1606, John Smith boarded a ship at Blackwall, London. By nightfall most of the other passengers and crewmen had crowded into the hundred-ton flagship Susan Constant.† This would be the journey for England to begin their expedition to America, more specifically