Trajan’s Column: A Roman Victory Monument

Trajan’s Column

Composition

The frieze is not monotone. The sculptor changes the rhythm. Movement and dynamism are present throughout the work, and its intensity changes according to the episode. The incidence of the projected light produces shadows of varying intensity. In the various scenes, using a high point of view lets you see more. The depth is limited. There are many allusions made to the environment, although not in an undersized manner.

The Work’s Style and Correlation with its Historical

Read More

Spanish Literature: 1950s to Generation of ’27

Spanish Literature: From the 1950s to the Generation of ’27

The Novel of the 1950s: Social Realism

Key Features:

  • Literature as a reflection of social situations.
  • Aim to raise awareness of social problems.
  • Focus on topics such as censorship, poverty, rural life, war, and the civil exodus.
  • Narrative style characterized by “objectivism”: limited dialogue and a detached narrator.
  • Use of colloquial language.
  • Collective protagonist representing the social class.
  • Concentration of time and space.
  • Structural and stylistic
Read More

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

Expansion of Rome

Rome conquered huge territories. Any citizen between 17 and 60 years old was a Roman soldier. The expansion was conducted in 3 phases:

  • Rome became the owner of the Italian peninsula.
  • Rome faced Carthage in the Punic Wars. After winning, they imposed their rule over the whole western Mediterranean.
  • The Roman legions conquered Greece and the Mediterranean, as well as some eastern provinces of central Europe.

The Romans adopted the Greek pantheon of gods and a good part of its art and

Read More

Ancient Literary Traditions: A Comparative Study

Item 1. Western Literature

Introduction

The first written texts date from 3500 BC and emerged as a need to express religious and philosophical thoughts, aiming for static, objective results in literature. The oldest known literature comes from Egypt (located in eastern Africa, separated from Asia by the Red Sea, and centered around the Nile River) and Mesopotamia (located in Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). These two civilizations were agricultural, relying on fishing and farming. They

Read More

St. John of the Cross: Mystical Poetry & Baroque Literature

St. John of the Cross: Mystical Poetry

Mystical poetry expresses the exceptional experience of the soul’s union with the divine. The lyric of St. John of the Cross expresses the experience of love through evocative and emotive symbols, inspired by the Bible, the language of love, and nature.

Life of St. John of the Cross

From humble beginnings, St. John was protected by a nobleman, which allowed him to study philosophy and theology at the University of Salamanca as a Carmelite. There, he met Fray Luis

Read More

Antonio Machado: Life, Works, and Poetic Evolution

Antonio Machado: Life and Work

Antonio Machado was born in Seville on July 26, within a middle-class, liberal, and progressive family. He later lived in Madrid, where he studied in 1893. He openly published his first prose works, while his first poems appeared in 1901. He was a professor and married Leonor Izquierdo. A few months after the appearance of Campos de Castilla, Leonor died (August 1). He wrote in all genres, standing out prominently in poetry. His first book was Soledades (1903), a few

Read More