1 apollonian and dionysian tendencies in the arts
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Apollonian and Dionysian Tendencies in the Arts
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. Young Bacchus (Dionysus) by.Caravaggio. 1585.
Apollo. Temple of Zeus at Olympia, 468-460 BCE.
Apollonian Reason,Dionysian Intuition.
Meanad
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Portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900) byEdward Munch.
Friedrich Nietzsche:Birth of Tragedy from theSpirit of Music (1872)
Theory: Tragedy is rooted instrong emotions thatarise from thestruggle betweentwo creative tendencies:emotion and reason.
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Oedipus Rexby Sophocles
Oedipus supported by his daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
Performance, the Coliseum, Rome
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Old Gods Live -- help us gain insight . . .
RoommatesChildrenA walk in the woodsWeekendsFoodSex and LoveInstitutions
ReligionEducation
How can the distinction be usedto explain these?
1. Ways to appreciate drama2. tendencies in human personality3. way people behave4. how social institutions operate5. guide to how we judge and
interact with others.
Romeo and Juliet
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ROMEO [To JULIET] If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the
gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged. JULIET Then have my lips the sin that they have took. ROMEO Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again. JULIET You kiss by the book.
ROMEO and JULIET. William Shakespeare. 1596.Act 1. Scene V. A hall in Capulet's house.
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Institutions
Religion:
MythologyOld TestamentCatholicism Altruism - Heresy - European Reformation
ProtestantismPuritanismNathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850).
Apollonian and Dionysian elements
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Marriage Ceremony
Shakespeare’s time
A Catholic ceremony today.
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Gianlorenzo Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, 1647-52.
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Hester Prynne portrayed1850s 2002.
The Scarlet LetterNathaniel Hawthorne
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School
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Jokes, Dreams and Slips
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Jokes:Dionysian releaseJokes and theirRelation to the Unconscious.
Sigmund Freud:
“A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but you mean your mother.”
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Salvador Dali. Metamorphosis of Narcissus. 1937.Freud commented: “I’ve never seen such a perfect example of Spanish man before, what a fanatic!” Dalí said that this work was all about the death and petrifaction of Narcissus.
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Henri Matisse
Title: The Piano Lesson 1916
Apollonian/Dionysian?
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig von Beethoven
Rock concert
Music-most Dionysian art?
Apollonian/Dionysian response?“I hated it because I didn’t know what it meant.”
Role of critical analysis . . .
What would be a Dionysian expectation for music?
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“What is the sound-scape of your life?”
Music was meant to stir the emotions, notthought processes. Do you agree?
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William Wordsworth"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.".
--“Distanced emotion” “aesthetic distance”
Drama, literature, poetry--most Apollonian?
--Apollonian elements in drama, literature, poetry:
emphasis on moralityintentional communication of ideasgoal of improving societyorderly structuresdistanced emotions (aesthetic distance)
--Dionysian elements?
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THE LAWS OF GOD, THE LAWS OF MAN
The laws of God, the laws of manHe may keep that will and can;Not I; let god and man decreeLaws for themselves and not for me;And if my ways are not as theirsLet them mind their own affairs.Their deeds I judge and much condemn,Yet when did I make laws for them?Please yourselves, say I, and theyNeed only look the other way.But no, they will not; they must stillWrest their neighbor to their will,And make me dance as they desireWith jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the oddsOf man’s bedevilment and God’s?I, a stranger and afraidIn a world I never made.They will be master, right or wrong;Though both are foolish, both are strong.And since, my soul, we cannot flyTo Saturn nor to Mercury,Keep we must, if keep we can,These foreign laws of God and man.
A.E. Housman. ABH, pp.. 33-34.
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Clear
the children they move stand about roam freely
come rushing, their innocence
solemn their grace
have you seen them have you seen them
can you feel the Revolution
Clear as the sun that makes the morning blossom
Flowing and Brilliantthrough circles & meadows
& on into Streets . . .
from poem Clear, by Angelo John Lewis (b.1950).
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Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Bolero, 1928.
A Paradox . . .
Form:
Elements composed of basic elements : tone, scale, rhythm, melody . . .
Principles (music has them too):coherence and unity through
repetition, organization. -
Impulse/idea, content --> strict Form --> Dionysian effect.
Embedding.
.
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Stages of Creativity
1. 2. 3.First Insight Saturation Incubation
*4. 5.Illumination Verification.(The Ah-Ha!)
See Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Artist Within, 1986.
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Visual Arts
Basic Elements of Visual Art:
Line, shape, form, color, texture, space
CompositionUnity and variety
Likeness, alteration
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26W. Kandinsky. Composition VII. 1913.
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PersianMiniature1525-35.
28F. Goya. Shootings of the 3rd of May, 1808. 1814.
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Donatello
Title: David
bronze.
ca. 1428-32.
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Michelangelo
David.
marble
1504.
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Drama
To providecatharsis orprovoke?
To entertain?
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Plan of Versailles
VersaillesPalace andGardens.
1668.
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Dionysian/Apollonian?
Theory, structure:Practice: The flow of life:
Apollonian and Dionysian qualities have muchto do with personal decisions and responses to events.
-->Balance. Combine elements.
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Raphael. School of Athens, 1509-11. The Vatican.
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Question: Can a rebellious art form remain Dionysian in a museum setting?
I.M. Pei, Museumof Rock and Roll,Cleveland, Ohio.
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Apollo and Daphne1622. Marble.
Gianlorenzo Bernini
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Henry Matisse. The Joy of Life. 1905-6.
38Henri Matisse. The Music Lesson. 1917.
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STUDY FOR APOLLONIAN and DIONYSIAN TENDENCIES. Be ready to identify
characteristics of an Apolloniancharacteristics of a Dionysian event, person, thing, idea
Remember the back and forth swing in peoplereligion, education: realized personMardi Gras infinite personAsh Wednesday l’uomo universaleVersailles literalist (?)St. Peter’s balance
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Form and content of plays and writing:
Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Shakespeare’s Romeo and JulietNathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter
poetry of Angelo J Lewis and A.E. Housman, Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of MusicVictor Hugo’s Les Miserables
W. Wordsworth’s “emotion recollected in tranquility”“aesthetic pleasure” “aesthetic distance” catharsisSigmund Freud’s theory of jokes
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Embedding, comparisons, form and content in music and art
Michelangelo’s and Donatello’s David Bernini, St. TeresaGoya, 3rd of May
Raphael, School of AthensMatisse, Music LessonKandinsky, Composition VII
Rock concerts, museumsRavel’s BoleroVictorian Age
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QUIZ. 4-C
CRITICAL THINKINGand APOLLONIAN and DIONYSIAN TENDENCIES
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MATCHINGChoose the best term for these descriptions from the options below them.
1. ____said, the creative struggle between emotion and reason leads to powerful works of art.
2. The author of a poem about someone with fifty more years to live, during which he intends to live seizing every opportunity to experience beautiful things
3. ____ who said, jokes and slips of the tongue release Dionysian impulses.
A) Beethoven B) Mozart C) Plato D) Freud E) Nietzsche AB) A.E. Housman.
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MATCHING
4. Persons with an objective approach to subjects.
5. Leonardo and Einstein are examples of this.
6. Persons whose knowledge of the past informs their present.
• The Greek god of the sun (hence of light and truth) is named:
A) Plato B) realized human beings C) ApolloD) literalists E) critical thinkers AB) uomo universale
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MATCHING. 8. A framework of circumstances and relationships
around a subject.
9. A statement that is believed to contain a reasoned foundation for ethical behavior.
10. A process that describes, defines, and analyzes.
• Plausible but self-serving reasons for actions.
A) critical thinking B) principle C) rationalization D) context
E) buried assumptions
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MULTIPLE CHOICE.
12. Which of the following would NOT be considered one of the disciplines to study in the humanities?
A) music B) biology C) television D) philosophy
13 . Which of these items would NOT belong in the repertoire of a professional critic when assessing an artistic work?
A) adding observations about the production, performers, or artist's technique.
B) not trusting one’s initial response.
C) noticing details in the work and in the presentation of the work. D) using many adjectives that describe mostly one's personal feelings about the work.
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14 . The Dionysian spirit is most applicable to which of the following artistic creations?
A) the improvisations of a jazz musician B) the precise, fourteen-line structure of a sonnet C) the balanced composition of a landscape painting D) the structural design of St. Peter's cathedral in Rome
15 . The rigidly Apollonian Protestant sect that dominated New England in the 17th century (providing the basis for Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter) is known as:
• Puritanism B) Roman Catholicism C) Protestantism D) Mysticism
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MATCHING
16. This artistic work shows the Dionysian side of religion. 17. This play depicts the Apollonian authority of the family
squelching two Dionysian lovers.
A. Michelangelo's David B). Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Teresa C. Miss Saigon D. Romeo and Juliet E) Oedipus Rex
TRUE (A) or FALSE (B)
18. Knowledge of historical context allows people to better understand the meaning of the artistic work, even though the style of the work may be out of date.
• “Clear” by Angelo John Lewis gives a Dionysian appearance to poetry.
20 . Dionysians trust in luck.
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21. Educational theory is Apollonian; educational practice is more Dionysian.
22. Sigmund Freud wrote a famous essay attacking the belief that Greek myths contained psychological realities.
Would teach critical thinking (A) or Would NOT (B).
Which questions would help teach critical thinking? (A)Which would not? (B)23. At what temperature does water boil?
• What is the relationship of 17th century music
and the gardens of Versailles?
25. Who sculpted the statue of David found in Florence?
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DISCUSSION. Explain outstanding Dionysian and Apollonian features of this work (3 pts).
Salvador Dali. Metamorphosis of Narcissus. 1937.
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QUIZ. 4-D
CRITICAL THINKINGand APOLLONIAN and DIONYSIAN TENDENCIES
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MATCHING
Choose the best term for each description from the options below them.
1. The author of The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power.
2. ____who said that the creative struggle between emotion and reason leads to powerful works of art.
3. ____Don Campbell said, listening to this composer’s music may help us problem solve and create.
A) Ravel B) Mozart C) T. Culley D) Plato E) Freud AB) Nietzsche.
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MATCHING
4 . The Greek god of the earth, spring, and renewal (hence whatever was natural and beyond rational analysis) is named
5. Leonardo and Einstein are examples of this.
6. A person whose reality was only surface deep and who was not given to critical thought:
• Persons with an objective approach to subjects.
A) Plato B) critical thinkers C) uomo universale D) Dionysus
E) T. Culley AB) W. Tatlock.
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MATCHING8. Poem with a clearly Dionysian theme, expressing distrust of
any laws, yet it is encased in Apollonian structure and language.
9. This famous abstract painting may at first appear totally
Dionysian, but it includes some Apollonian overtones in the finishing.
10. This sculpture depicts the Dionysian in religion. 11. This famous modern-day musical is based on a famous
novel that questions whether the Apollonian justice system can accommodate a Dionysian exception.
• Donatello's David B) Angelo J. Lewis's "Clear"
C) V. Hugo's Les Miserables D) V. Kandinsky's Black Lines
E) A.E. Housman's "The Laws of God, the Laws of Man"
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TRUE (A) or FALSE (B)
12 . The word "cyber" was originally a Greek word meaning "helmsman," the person in command of the ship.
13.The critical thinker knows enough not to challenge people’s assumptions.
14.The Puritanism of 17th century New England tended to an Apollonian extreme.
15. Theory is Dionysian; trial and error is Apollonian.
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TRUE (A) or FALSE (B).
16.Miss Saigon is an update of Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro.
17. Timeless Dionysian elements include uninhibited dance, repeated chants, mysticism, and emphasis on feeling and instinct.
18. Giving labels to historical periods is Apollonian.
19 . The extreme Apollonian is rigid and uncompromising—like Hester Prynne's vengeful husband in The Scarlet Letter.
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MULTIPLE CHOICE
20 . Which one of the following would NOT be considered a gift of the humanities? The ability to: A) find pleasure in the beautiful B) think criticallyC) understand how the concepts of the past affect the presentD) analyze various geologic structures within the earth's mass
21. Which one of these individuals—as both a lover of science as a lover of humanities— designed the first submarine, the first airplane, studied how the human circulatory system worked, invented the hydrometer (a machine that measure the specific gravity of liquids), and painted the Mona Lisa?
A) Orville Wright B) Galileo C) Michelangelo D) Leonardo da Vinci
22 . William Wordsworth defined poetry as what "recollected in tranquility"?
A) emotion B) memory C) despair D) beauty
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Which questions would help teach critical thinking? (A)
-->Which would not? (B)
23.Who painted Matisse’s Piano Lesson ?
24. Which provides a better vacation, whitewater rafting or a cruise?
25. How much did Miss Saigon make at the box office?
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Which questions would help teach critical thinking? (A)
-->Which would not? (B)
23.Who painted Matisse’s Piano Lesson ?
24. Which provides a better vacation, whitewater rafting or a cruise?
MULTIPLE CHOICE:25. According to Martha Graham, modern dance should • imitate nature around us B. show everyday actions • express human existenceD. portray exotic creatures.
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DISCUSSION. Explain outstanding Dionysian and Apollonian features of this work (3 pts).
Henri MatisseThe Piano Lesson
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In another moment Alice was through the glass*, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room. . . . Then she began looking about, and noticed that what could be seen from the old room was quite common and uninteresting, but that all the rest was as different as possible. . . . “They don’t keep this room so tidy as the other,” thought Alice to herself.
DISCUSSION. What are the Dionysian and Apollonian features of this work? (3 pts.)
Alice in Wonderland
*glass or looking glass = mirror
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Isamu NoguchiWater Stone.1980s.
DISCUSSION. Explain outstanding Dionysian and Apollonian features of this work (3 pts).
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G. L. Bernini,St. Teresa.
DISCUSSION. Explain outstanding Dionysian and Apollonian features of this work (3 pts).