Student at Drexel University Essay Example for Free

Student at Drexel University Essay While the Philadelphia Museum of Art may not house some of the more famous artwork from the Baroque period, their acquisition of Poussin’s â€Å"Birth of Venus† was nothing short of a savvy purchase. Hungry for Western currency, the painting was sold by the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 1930 under the Soviet Regime to the PMA. In their possession is arguably one of the most hotly debated works from that era. Also aptly named â€Å"The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite† this painting not only highlights Poussin’s trademark ability to allow for an open interpretation of his depictions but also encourages an allegorical analysis of the many elements present in his composition. The very ambiguities of this painting, and his others, emphasizes Poussin’s capacity to express the concepts or overall ideas of things and events themselves while not concentrating on the minutia while still allowing for translation. Before one can approach an iconological interpretation of Poussin’s work, one must also understand his early training, influences and subsequent ideology to grasp his use of deep symbolism and line. In his early career working with Italian poet Giambattista Marino, Nicolas Poussin was commissioned to illustrate Ovidian poetry subsequently establishing the ideals of Metamorphoses – themes and motifs prominent in â€Å"The Birth of Venus†.[3][6] This was also important in developing his ability to intimately tie literature to painting.[1] Poussin grew to heavily favor Disegno over Colore, or design over color which can be seen in all of his works[3][6]. His ideology proposed that design, form and line were more important than t he colors and dà ©cor of the traditional Baroque French art of the time. This very dogma split French Renaissance Art 200 years after his death in which factions of his study (Poussinistes) proposed that drawing was superior to color (Rubà ©nistes)[6]. Poussin’s  holistic and classical approach was his attempt to reach the highest aim of painting: the representation of the magnificent. He intended to only focus on great events, battles and divine matters. In this way, Poussin’s take on Roman Classicism eventually contributed to the aesthetic style of Grand Matter[3][6]. His method of Ideal or Heroic Landscape, which drew upon the perspectives of rhetoric, utopianism, drama and metaphysics allowed him to coherently arrange elements as seen in the â€Å"Birth of Venus†. The very nature and composition of Poussin’s works highlights the realm of Baroque Classicism in which the arrangement of the physical is paramount to reflecting the rationality of an ideal and eternal world. His fascination with deity and mythology sans Christianity also can be seen in his rejection of Neoplatonism and his use of Epicurean interpretation[5]. Indeed, Poussin was not the first artist to depict Venus physica (terrestrial Venus). Nearly a century and a half prior to Poussin’s painting, Italian painter Sandro Boticelli composed a similar painting also named â€Å"The Birth of Venus† (1485)[6]. While there are some similarities to Boticelli’s painting, Poussin’s provides a more Epicurean interpretation rather than a Neoplatonistic o ne. In addition, 20 years after Boticelli’s work, another Italian painter created another piece of art that depicts Venus in a manner more similar to Poussin’s (â€Å"The Triumph of Galatea†)[6]. The Birth of Venus by Boticelli (1485) The Triumph of Galatea by Raphael (1514) Both of these paintings, while somewhat similar, only reinforce some of the symbolic clues left by Poussin in his own depiction: The Birth of Venus or The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite by Poussin (1635) As we gaze over Poussin’s work of art we notice a great many things. First and foremost, as we know of his attention to placement, the centermost and brightest subject is of a nude female deity. A time-frozen, windswept pink shroud is cast upon her naked body while she rides on top of dolphins harnessed by her and the cupid-like boy under her. Poussin’s placement of Her is crucial because it highlights Her very significance in the scene; she is centered as her male counterpart is seemingly subordinate and pictorially  off to the side. Around her are Tritons and Nerreds and above are cupid-like babies adorning her with flowers. The inspiration for the placement and formation of the goddess can be seen by the earlier paintings of Boticelli and Raphael. In each painting the deity in the center is shielded by a billowing cloth of pink/red. In addition, Poussin chose to have the woman deity ride in on dolphins similar to that of Raphael’s composition. Because there are two official names for this painting, one thing must be addressed before moving on, â€Å"Is this a depiction of the birth of Venus or the triumph of Amphitrite?†. Amphitrite is the Greek sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon while Venus is the Roman goddess of love, two different characters that share no parallels. There is some interesting evidence to support that the painting is indeed Venus’ birth. In both The Triumph of Galatea and The Birth of Venus, Venus is not only riding on dolphins but also has her son Cupid below her also harnessing the sea beasts[3][4][5][6]. Furthermore in Boticelli’s painting and in Poussin’s, the woman deity is being adorned with myrtle, the flower most commonly associated with Venus, goddess of love – myrtle too is a symbol of love[6]. Additionally, Poussin employs his knowledge of Apulerius in Metamorphoses or â€Å"The Golden Ass† of which the story describes Venus as being accompanied by a ban d of fellow beings singing and blowing horns[2][4]. The comparison between the Apulerius’ text and Poussin’s painting are fascinating, there are a band of fellow beings surrounding Venus in the form of Tritons and Nerreds, two of which are blowing horns. In Metamorphoses, Apulerius merely depicts the triumph of a Venus while Poussin paints her genesis[2]. Seen in the warm clouds above, riding on a chariot in the sky by six doves is the infant form of Venus. On her journey to creation she encounters transformation which is signified by the dark storm clouds above. This is painted to contrast the entire tone of the painting so markedly that it bears a special meaning. Poussin again employs his usage of literary interpretation in the form of Lucretius’ didactic poem De rerum natura or â€Å"On the Nature of Things†[4]. In this poem’s prologue, there lies a single significant line: â€Å"Te dea, te fugiunt venti, Te nubile caeli Adventumque tuum†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This translates to â€Å"Thee, goddess fle e you, the wind, cloudy skies, and your arrival.† [4] Which means that the winds and clouds part in anticipation of a goddess, shown in the picture. In Poussin’s depiction, he portrays Venus as being propelled by the  winds just as in Boticelli’s work. These pieces of literary and visual evidence provide basis that the central female deity in Poussin’s painting is in fact Roman goddess Venus. To the left of Venus is a male deity riding on hippocamps or seahorses, it is not easily discernible however if he is to be depicted as Neptune the Roman god of freshwater and sea or Poseidon, Greek god of the ocean. Both counterparts are known as god of the horses and horse tamer respectively and each wields a trident[6]. In regards to the location of the painting, Poussin uses the method of Ideal Landscape[6] in which he represents the locale but not exactly. It was important that the setting did not exactly reflect or imitate a real place in its entirety but to highlight the divinity, magnificence and importance of the event or subject in an effort to not distract the audience. However, Poussin did provide a small piece of evidence in the form of a spilling vase at the base of the painting. This could symbolize a river near a mountai nous island in the Mediterranean. Evidence has shown that the archaeological site of Paphos (a mountainous island of Cyprus) is near the mouth of the Bocarus River which could very well be the paintings’ setting [4][5]. Works Cited [1] Janson, Anthony. Jansons History of Art . 8th ed. Pearson, 2011. Print. [2]Moore, Brooks. Ovids Metamorphoses. 1st. New York, NY: Marshall Jones Company, 1933. Print. [3] Nicolas Poussin Biography. Nicholas Poussin: The Complete Works. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Aug 2013. . [4] Phelan, Joseph. Poussin and the Heroic Landscape.ArtCyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Aug 2013. [5] Sommer, Frank H. . Poussins Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite: A Re- Identification. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 24.3 (1961): 323-327. Print. [6] Verdi, Richard. Nicolas Poussin. Encyclopedia Britannica. .

John von Neumann :: Computer Science

John von Neumann ---------------- Von Neumann, a mathematician designed the architecture model for a CPU. This model was a single storage structure to hold both the set of instructions on how to perform the computation and the data required or generated by the computation. He designed it by treating the instructions in the same way as the data, a stored-program machine can easily change the instructions. In other words the machine is reprogrammable. Von Neumann’s archtectre is still used it todays modern CPU’S. The CPU ------- This diagram represents the structure of the Central Processing System. Arithmetic Logic Unit --------------------- The ALU performs addition and subtraction, logic operations, masking, and shifting (multiplication and division). Control Unit ------------ The Control Unit is the heart of the computer. It controls and co-ordinates the systems operations. This contains the system clock, program counter and the instruction register. It also manages the signals from the control bus. Registers --------- This is a form of high-speed memory which is contained inside of the CPU. All data must be represented in a register before it can be processed. Information is stored temporarily in the registers in which text or buffer positions or rectangles can be saved for later use. Buses ----- A bus is a channel or path between the components in a computer. Having a high-speed bus is important. A bus lets you connect computers components to the processor. The advantage of a bus is that it makes parts more interchangeable. If you want to get a better graphics card, you simply unplug the old card from the bus and plug in a new one. If you want two monitors on your computer, you plug two graphics cards into the bus. And so on. A PC usually has two buses. The first connects the CPU and the system memory. This is the fastest bus in the system. The second bus is the slower and it connects other devices, like the hard disk, CD drive,

Poetic Style of Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost, New England’s cherished poet’s, has been called America’s purest classical lyricist and one of the outstanding poets of the twentieth century. He was a modernist poet. During his childhood he thrived in English and Latin classes and discovered a common thread in Theocritus' and Virgil’s poetry, and in the romantic balladry. Frost’s style was influenced by the early romantic poets as we can see the romantic features in his poems and also by the contemporary British poets as Edward Thomas, Rupert Brooke and Robert Graves.Many of his poems had to do with nature and transcendentalism. â€Å"Of all his poetic elements, Frost's style seems the hardest to pin down. Actually one cannot pin it down, but something could be said to further our un-enlightenment†, says Lawrence Thompson. He then moves on to state what Frost said about style in a letter to his friend Louis Untermeyer dated March 10, 1924, â€Å"style in prose or verse is that which indicates how the writer takes himself and what he is saying†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. His style is the way he carries himself toward his ideas and deeds.†Randall Jarrell a poet/critic praised Frost’s style as, â€Å"No other living poet has written so well about the actions of ordinary man. † The essential element of Frost's style is his choice of words or diction. He uses everyday (simple) words you would use in conversation. Frost writes his sentences with meter and rhythm to increase their beauty. His style also comprises of various elements such as lyric and narrative, with characters, background and imagery drawn from New England, choice of rural (pastoral) subjects and realistic depiction of ordinary life and people.He also uses many poetic devices adding to the craftsmanship of the poem. Language used in his poems is simple and rustic. Frost is universally recognized for being a pastoral poet who deals with the subject of everyday life of the humble dwel lers in the countryside with their works and loved ones, with their joys and sorrows, and the background setting is nature. Many of his most famous poems (such as â€Å"Mending Wall† and â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening†) are inspired by the natural world, particularly his time spent as a poultry farmer in New Hampshire.Ironically, until his adulthood in New England, Frost was primarily a â€Å"city boy† who spent nearly all of his time in an urban environment. It is possibly because of his late introduction to the rural side of New England that Frost became so intrigued by the pastoral world. Frost states that â€Å"Poetry is more often of the country than the city†¦Poetry is very, very rural – rustic. It might be taken as a symbol of man, taking its rise from individuality and seclusion – written first for the person that writes and then going out into its social appeal and use.†Ã‚  Yet Frost does not express pastoral only i n terms of beauty, as in a traditional sense. Instead, he also emphasizes the harsh conflicts of the natural world: the clash between urban and rural lifestyles as seen in his poem â€Å"Mending Wall†. Frost’s poetry is simple and clear. Richard Wilbur points out â€Å"it is not written in the colloquial language of an uneducated farm boy, but rather in a beautifully refined and charged colloquial language. † Poems are said to be lyric, narrative or dramatic and Frost wrote in all these three forms.Lyric poetry's are usually short; expressing personal thoughts and feelings, and it is spoken by single speaker about his own feelings for an object or a person. For example ‘Mowing' is a lyrical sonnet where Frost talks about the speaker's own opinion or rather ideas about the sound a scythe makes mowing hay in a field by a forest, and what this sound might signify. Narrative poetry tells us a story of a single event. For example: ‘Out, Out' is a narrativ e in blank verse written in a continuous structure where Frost talks about the death of a boy in a farm (accident).Dramatic poems have speaking characters as in a little play. Frost's dramatic poems fall under four categories- ballads, linear narratives, dramatic monologues, and dramatic narratives. One of Frost's famous poems ‘The Death of a Hired Man' is an example for dramatic narrative which is written in blank verse. Frost has written many poems with speakers engaged in conversation like ‘A Hundred Collars' and ‘The Death Of A Hired Man', he has always been interested in distinguishing New England speakers who are highly characterized in his poems because he was born in San Francisco and spent his early years there..â€Å"I could enumerate more derivations in Frost's conversational style, but the point is that this style doesn’t try to imitate the inconsequentialities of spoken discourse† (Charney, Maurice. 1). Charney also stated â€Å"Frost is not at all like David Mamet or Harold Pinter, although these two dramatists are probably just as far from the realities of everyday conversation as Frost. † His use of ordinary conversational style is tremendous. Symbolic and metaphorical devices are one of the elements of Frost's poetic style.Frost said, â€Å"Every poem I write is figurative in two senses. It will have figures in it, of course; but it's also a figure in itself – a figure for something, and it's made so that you can get more than one figure out of it. â€Å"(Cook Voices p235). The use of metaphorical devices in Frost's poetry is more obvious. Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things which are not alike. In most of his poems we can see the use of metaphors; he is notably a poet of metaphors more than anything else.For example: In the poem ‘Putting in the seed' the planting of seed in the garden, in spring time is like (compared to) making love, in another poem of Frost called ‘Devotion. ‘ the passive but ever-changing shore and the persistent energetic ocean are compared to a devoted couple. .Frost said,† Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, ‘grace metaphors,' and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. People say, ‘Why don't you say what you mean?'We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets. We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections – whether from diffidence or from some other instinct†. †¦ Excerpt from an essay entitled â€Å"Education by Poetry† by Robert Frost. Symbolic representation may be an object, person, situation or action which stands for something else more abstract. For example: In the poem ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' even though there is no one overt symbol in the poem, the entire journey can represent life's jo urney. â€Å"Dark woods† also become a powerful recurring symbol in Frost.There are certain signature images that become symbols when we look at Frost's work namely, trees, birds and birdsongs, solitary travelers, etc. Inspired by the romantic poets, Frost's works influence romantic features as in the use of imagery. Poetry indirectly appeals to our senses through imagery. Frost’s use of â€Å"the sound of sense† is most successful because of the clarity and colloquial nature of his poetry. It is only because of this clarity that Frost is able to explore topics of emotion, struggle, and conflict that would be incomprehensible in any other form.

Analysis Of Jhumpa Lahiri s The Namesake, Ashoke And...

Embracing Culture Immigrants to America face a major challenge when they first arrive. These immigrants from all different backgrounds and cultures feel like outsiders in America because the culture they have been immersed in their entire lives is no longer present in America. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli come to the United States after they have lived in India for nearly thirty years. Ashoke and Ashima are only familiar with the Bengali customs and traditions; they have no sense of the American culture. In America, they have a son Gogol. Ashima and Ashoke surround Gogol in Bengali culture in any way they can in America. Even Gogol grows up in a Bengali household, Gogol identifies more with the American culture throughout his entire adolescence and into his adult life. As Gogol grows older, he tries to avoid his parents at all costs. The direct clash of Gogol’s American culture and his parents’ Bengali culture is what caused the sepa ration between Gogol and his parents. On the Ganguli’s trip to Calcutta, Gogol sees the Bengali culture first hand. Before the family even leaves for India, Gogol, â€Å"... dreads the thought of eight months without a room of his own, without his records and his stereo, without friends.†(79) Records and a stereo are objects that are common in the American culture. Gogol thinking naming these objects shows that he has adopted the American culture. Instead of expressing excitement, he hates the idea of having to leaveShow MoreRelatedThe Struggle to be Bengali and American in Jhumpa Lahiris The Namesake3046 Words   |  12 Pagesï » ¿Outline I. The Namesake critical essay A. Introduction 1. Emphasis on how formation of identity is germane to Ganguli family due to their Bengali culture and their American surroundings. 2. Thesis a. The cultural values of the past cannot be erased, and needs to be rectified with the present in order to forge a salutary identity for the future. B. Supporting Paragraph: Ashimas journey 1. Her resistance to American culture while pregnant eventually leads to a resistance of Bengali culture