How To Be Both - “Eyes”

How To Be Both - “Eyes” Amber Andy Shayne Qi Qi Yanan

Ali Smith, Author • Ali Smith was born in Scotland in 1962. • After working as a professor at the University of Strathclyde, her literary pursuits became a full-time career. • She began writing short stories in the mid 1990s; her subsequent full-length novels have won numerous awards ranging from Scotland’s “Encore Award” and, for How to be Both, the Goldsmith’s Prize. • Currently, she writes for the Guardian, the Scotsman, and the Times Literary Supplement. • Smith was appointed “Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to literature. • She is openly gay and lives with her partner in Cambridge.

Borso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara • Borso d’Este was the first Duke of Modena, ruling from 1450 until his death in 1471. • He commissioned Francesco del Cossa to paint in the palazzo. • His court was the Ferrarese School of painting, of which include, Ercole dei Roberti, Cosimo Tura, and Francesco del Cossa. • Borso d’Este’s most important commissions were the frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia and Borso D’Este Bible. • He was generally well-regarded, and considered a patron of the arts - he protected musicians and artists and utilized the arts as a means of political self-representation and expression.

What is the Renaissance Era? 1.Location: Western Europe 2.Time Period: 14th-17th 3.A transition period between dark age in Europe and modern Europe. 4.Revival of art, literature, and learning. 5.Against to asceticism, renew humanism.

The Effects of Renaissance • Impact feudalism. • Revival of humanism • http://study.com/academy/lesson/humanism-in-the-renaissance-recognizing-the-beauty-of-the-individual.html • Spread of education • Print Press

Introduction The origins of Renaissance art can be traced to Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries (1280-1400). Italian Renaissance paintings can be divided into four periods including the abovementioned Proto-Renaissance (1280-1400), the Early Renaissance (1400-1475), the High Renaissance (1475-1525), and Mannerism (1525-1600). Before the Renaissance, all art of the middle ages were virtually Christian. Art was primarily associated with religion. Artists drew pictures of monks, bishops and priests and the church had restricted their freedom of thought and action. However, during the Renaissance artists and painters developed a growing interest in classical art and literature. Known as Humanism, it was a great intellectual movement of Renaissance Italy. Lamentation, fresco by Giotto, c. 1305-06

Techniques Tempera Tempera is created when pigment is mixed with egg to produce a durable paint. The types of colors that painters could achieve with tempera was limited, but it was the medium of choice for most artists working in Italy until the late fifteenth century, when oil paints were adopted. Portrait of a Princess, tempera on panel by Pisanello, c. 1435–1449

Techniques Oil Oil paints were widely adopted in Northern Europe in the first half of the fifteenth century, and they did not become popular in Italy until late in the century. Oil is slow drying, making it easy to make modifications while it dries. Oil paints also offered artists the ability to paint with a greater variety of colors, which allowed them to depict the human figure, architecture, and the natural environment in more realistic visual terms. Mona Lisa, oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–06

Francesco del Cossa • Francesco del Cossa was an Italian Renaissance painter who was born in Ferrara, Italy in 1436. Cossa’s painting style Famous work Cossa in Bologna Francesco’s death

Saint Petronius (San Petronio), drawing by Francesco del Cossa Marquetry is the art and craft of applying a decorative layer of fine wood to a structure to form patterns, designs, or pictures.

FRESCOES Allegory of March: Triumph of Minerva Allegory of May: Triumph of Apollo

Allegory of April:Triumph of Venus by Francesco del Cossa

Women’s Status • Women’s Education • Women’s legal status • Women’s self-conscious

Women’s education • People thought women did not need to learn to read or write. • Some upper class had chances to have education • What they learned was limited.

Women’s legal status Cultural System: gender inequality

Women’s self-conscious Women’s self-conscious awakened: • Christine De Pizan: Was an Italian French late medieval author

2. Isabella D-Este: (19 May 1474 - 13 February 1539) Was Marchesa of Mantua and One of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a Major cultural and politiacl figure

Discussion Questions • How do the women and men within the story perceive Francescho’s identity differently? • In what ways do George and Francescho mirror each other when it comes to things like family, truth, and art? • What were the circumstances surrounding Francescho’s death? Do you believe that he died of the plague or was there a different cause of his death? • What is the symbolism of the wall in “Eyes”?

How To Be Both - “Eyes”