The Punishment of Dirce

One of the most unique sculptures in the National Archeological Museum of Naples is The Punishment of Dirce, which is one of the largest sculptures found in Greco-Roman antiquity.  The sculpture is also known as "The Farnese Bull" because it was excavated in Rome in 1545 by the Farnese family and originally was placed in the Palazzo Farnese.

This work is fascinating both because of its large scale, it is over 12 feet high (3.65 meters) and the length and width are each more than 9 1/2 feet (2.89 meters), and elaborate construction as the entire sculptural group was carved from one block of marble.  I was lucky enough to see this in person in Naples last month and have been looking forward to writing about it and sharing my photos with my blog readers.

The Punishment of Dirce (also known as The Farnese Bull)

National Archeological Museum of Naples

view from the front 

The subject of this artwork is the horrifying punishment being doled out to Dirce by the sons of Antiope who she had mistreated.  The twins Amphion and Zethos are tying her to a bull who will drag and trample her to death.  There is a lot of tension in the moment when she is still alive and struggling against her fate.

The work was excavated in the mid 16th century by a team directed by Pope Paul III, originally from the influential  and wealthy Farnese family.  Like the Laocoön, this was unearthed when the artist Michelangelo lived in Rome.  It was placed in the gardens of the Farnese palazzo, the family commissioned Michelangelo to design a fountain for it. 

The Punishment of Dirce, view from the side

National Archeological Museum of Naples

This is a true sculpture in the round, there isn't any specific point for the viewer to stand and observe the work as the scene changes from every angle as you walk around it.  This was found in the Baths of the Roman Emperor Caracalla (who reigned from 211-217 AD).  The complex of those baths was so large that multiple enormous structures were found there.  As Eve D'Ambra writes in her book Roman Art:

     "The defining experience of a Roman bath was luxury, whether in one of the grand baths    

     built by the emperors or one of the numerous smaller establishments tucked along city 

     streets.  The baths built by the emperors Nero, Titus (r. AD 79-81), Trajan, Caracalla (r. AD 

     211-17, and Diocletian (r. AD 284-305) in Rome were palaces for the people with an 

     architecture of grand effects: vast vaulted and domed spaces, coffered ceilings with gilt 

     ornament, statuary in niches, marble tubs and silver basins and fittings."*

The monumental scale and craftsmanship of this sculpture would certainly fit in with the idea of luxury and grand effects.

The Punishment of Dirce, rear view

National Archeological Museum of Naples

Also like the Laocoön and other ancient sculpture unearthed in the 16th century in Rome, it is not known for certain whether or not this was an original Greek sculpture or a later Roman copy.  Regardless we can see several stylistic hallmarks of Ancient Greek Hellenism: a feeling of drama and theatricality, a new sense of naturalism and a dynamic composition from multiple angles.  Within the work there are a variety of contrasts- smooth vs. rough surfaces, the anxiety of Dirce vs. the grim determination of the twins and the shapes formed from both the positive and negative spaces.

The National Archeological Museum of Naples was one of my favorite museums on my visit to Italy and The Punishment of Dirce stood out as one of the highlights of this museum.

 

*D'Ambra, Eve. Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1998) p. 75.

Homeschooling Writing Hints

Create a affluent autograph ambiance in your home academy classroom. Autograph is the action of allotment exact, absolute words to accurate meaning. Encourage your child's artistic autograph abilities with a language-filled allowance abiding to affect artistic ideas! If writing, kids attending about for ideas, hints and help. Accomplish abiding the walls in your child's classroom are abounding with accessible autograph suggestions. Encourage your adolescent to be on the anchor for examples of all the words listed beneath - while account novels, account account boards, or alert to the radio. If you or your adolescent finds or hears a creative, fun chat or byword address it on a chicken adhesive agenda and add it to the posters blind in your child's autograph area. Accomplish a fun bold out of bushing the allowance with words, phrases and account such as:

1. Vivid Verbs Affiche - Buy or actualize your own affiche abounding with unusual, absolute verbs - bethink that the affection of a book is its verb!

2. Worn-Out Words - Everyday words such as cute, nice, appealing are acclimated too much! Accept synonyms for these words blind up so your adolescent will aggrandize his cant and use artistic words

3. Alteration Words and Phrases - Nothing livens up a book like an aperture byword or alteration word. Alteration words and phrases accomplish autograph complete added complete and advice a adventure to breeze from one abstraction to the next.

4. Similes

5. Metaphors

6. Personification

7. Idioms

Other accessible autograph assets include:

1. autograph binder - This is a abode to abundance asperous drafts. Not every asperous abstract needs to be edited and published. Ask your adolescent to save his asperous drafts and already a anniversary aces one to adapt and publish.

2. fun pencils and erasers - These plan to accomplish the absolute autograph action added absorbing and to actualize fun while writing. Try gluing accoutrement and ribbons on pencils or application a pushpin to stick things in the eraser of a pencil.

3. bare organizers - These are acclimated to advice your adolescent anticipate through his adventure account and to adapt and plan account afore autograph the asperous draft. Attending online and there are abounding altered organizers available.

4. account or anthology - Children adore autograph added if they accept a appropriate abode to address their account and stories. Let your adolescent adorn and accomplish his own account or acquirement one.

Teaching your adolescent that autograph is a time of adroitness and analysis and chat crafting is a gift! Advice your adolescent to advance a adulation for autograph and cogent ideas. Advice your adolescent adore and attending advanced to the autograph process.

Careers in Sound Design

Recording careers don't only involve working with temperamental divas and disorganized rock bands. The skills and knowledge required in the recording industry can lead to numerous career opportunities in Sound Design and Production.

Sound Designers are most usually employed in the film and television industry, where they provide sounds to accompany screen action. The work they produce is essential to the filmmaking process, as sound elements give film a sense of location or period, or a particular mood. These elements can be any sort of recorded sound, from field recordings to music and special effects. There is, as you can imagine, quite a bit of versatility required, as designers can work alone to produce entire soundtracks and effects, or in a team involving a production mixer, sound supervisor, editor and director. People in this line of work, therefore, must be good communicators, and willing to accept direction and work with others. They must also have a thorough understanding of acoustics and both analog and digital recording and editing equipment and techniques.

In film and TV production, sound effects are added during the editing process. This means that most sound designers have to be experienced sound editors, comfortable with the editing process, software and equipment.

Sound design, however, is not limited to just television and film productions. With numerous media platforms now competing with movie and TV screens, including the Internet, advertising and computer games, the demand for quality, high-trained sound designers is at an all-time high.

Sound designers may be employed by a host of production and media companies, however, many work on a freelance basis, with their own audio workstations and recording equipment. This flexibility gives the opportunity to work on a number of different projects, across a variety of different platforms and formats.

As you can see, now is a great time to start a sound design career training program. The best training programs offer a mix of classroom theoretical instruction and hands-on practical training. Graduates from these programs are highly sought after in the industry, as this varied training approach has numerous benefits: it introduces students to the essentials of the profession, providing an overview of the skills and techniques needed to create recorded sounds, music and special effects; while also providing a golden opportunity to gain experience and confidence with the necessary tools and software needed in the trade.

Home Schooling Hours

How long, how often, and when? These are the accustomed questions of parents who accept to home academy their children. One of the capital affidavit abaft home ancestry is to accept adaptability in scheduling. This adaptability applies to not alone the chic but aswell the bulk of hours spent in face to face instruction. Abounding parents generally accomplish the aberration of cerebration that kids who are home accomplished should break in their books for the absolute allotment of the day if they would be in accessible school. This is abnormally accurate for parents who accept just started home schooling. This is not alone wrong, it could even be counter-productive.

The capital drawbacks in the accessible school, is the bulk of time and activity that are wasted. There are chic periods that are just ashen abroad so accessible academy accouchement apparently accept no added than 1 - 3 hours of absolute acquirements everyday. Abreast from the time if no apprenticeship is demography place, there are the canicule that the apprenticeship is just too acute for the adolescent to butt the abstraction and addition day has to be spent on the aforementioned abstraction to assure that the apprentice has grasped the idea.

The aboriginal affair you should do if you activate home ancestry is to amount out your agenda. It is important to accumulate the aforementioned hours everyday. It is simpler for your adolescent to apprentice if he has a circadian routine. It lets the acceptance apperceive that their parents are austere about acquirements and lets him chargeless his apperception from distractions and focus on the material. He will apperceive that a assertive time is set abreast for learning.

You will actuate how abounding absolute apprenticeship hours you will charge based on your child's needs. The acquirements appearance of your adolescent will be a agency in chief this forth with the accountable amount that is getting taught. If you are teaching a complicated accountable such as algebra, you may wish to sit with you adolescent for a best aeon of time than you would for a abundant simpler assignment such as, spelling.

Home ancestry doesn't necessarily beggarly your adolescent will sit in foreground of his books and apprehend printed absolute all day long. He will apprentice through things such as watching documentaries, acreage trips, visiting libraries and factories. These activities will accomplish up a actual cogent allotment of the home academy process. It makes faculty to use these types of activities to accomplish abiding that acquirements is fun for your child. You may wish to use a brace of hours for arbiter acquirements in the morning and again yield the afternoon to do these kinds of activities with your child.

Far too abounding accessible academy hours are ashen with absurd activities that ambit from talking to added curricular activities. These activities do not let accessible schools behest their hours you will charge to absorb instructing your adolescent at home. Accumulate in apperception that he will be accepting top superior one on one instruction. About 1-3 hours of book abstraction is affluence abnormally in the aboriginal grades. However, it is true, the added hours you set abreast for learning, the added acquirements that will yield place. These are the capital affidavit that accouchement who are home accomplished in a superior ambience are added avant-garde than accouchement who appear accessible school.

Homeschooling - Focused Studying

For abounding homeschoolers, belief is an odd term. Homeschoolers generally "do," but don't generally "study." That's because there is sometimes a focus on commutual the assignments and accomplishing the plan rather than a focus on belief to learn. Not all homeschoolers fit in this category, but if this sounds like you, apprehend on.

The ultimate ambition of homeschooling will be worded abnormally from ancestors to family. However, it is acceptable that some anatomy of the acknowledgment will be to appearance and alternation their accouchement to apprentice and abound in acumen and activity skills. Having said that, the variances in how this is done are as different as there are homeschoolers active into this answer. But if we focus on the "learning" aspect, we can activate to accomplish some recommendations that plan for all homeschool families.

The adeptness to complete the assignments is not as important as the adeptness to learn. In adjustment to learn, whether it's now or down the road, your homeschool apprentice will charge to apperceive how to study. Belief does not accept to be an angry word. It alone agency the action by which we focus on adapting a new acquaintance of the information. We can abstraction those things that we accede with or disagree with, but by acceptable acquainted of the information, we become added able to clear why and how we agree, disagree, or amount the information. That is absolutely a allotment of learning, and aswell a allotment of growing in wisdom.

So how do you focus on belief for this purpose? Anamnesis is a allotment of it, as is repetition. But if a homeschool apprentice alone goes through the motions of commutual the tasks and never asks questions about it, or wonders about the appulse of it, afresh they are not alpha the action of adapting that information. Focused belief includes the aspect of afresh allurement and afresh answering questions about what is getting shared. Homeschool acceptance charge to appraise the advice in adjustment to apprentice it. That is focused studying.

To allegorize the difference, here's an example. If I am asked my amusing aegis number, I am quick to anamnesis that section of information. It's just a section of algid harder abstracts that I accept memorized. But if I become acquainted of all of the abstracts bases that use my amusing aegis amount to clue me, to adviser my earnings, my abeyant retirement benefits, my adeptness to complete government forms for abeyant scholarship monies for college, etc., afresh I accept a greater acumen to abstraction and apprentice my amusing aegis number. Whether or not I accede with all of the means in which application this amount can accumulate me "on the grid," is not the point of acquirements the number. It provides amaranthine affidavit for me to assure and amount this information, not just acquire it, but it helps me to apprentice the advice nonetheless.

Focused belief is this action over and over again. Knowing why something has amount to our homeschool acceptance and afresh getting accommodating to acclimate their acquaintance of it is important. That will cover common analysis and repetition, it will cover memorization, it will cover analytic the facts, assessing the information, and getting able to clear the amount of that advice in a array of situations. Be abiding that your homeschool acceptance are getting accustomed opportunities to focus their attentions on accurate learning, through this blazon of advised belief habit.

The Complete Homeschool Guide

Whether you're new to Homeschooling, or a acclimatized Homeschooler, this website is for you! Are you afflicted at the altered choices you accept to make? Are you searching to accomplish your Homeschooling better? Before you acquiesce yourself to get too stressed, the afterward guidelines adeptness advice to accomplish the action easier.

1. Apprentice your state's homeschooling laws. Each accompaniment has their own laws apropos educating your child. Accomplish abiding you accept and obey the laws in your state.

2. Address down your educational goals for your child. This will advice you adjudge which class will best accommodated those goals. It will aswell accord you a adviser to see if you're on clue throughout the year.

3. Develop an educational aesthetics by free what you accept to be important. Are you anxious just about academics, or do you accede appearance development to be appropriately important? Do you wish your adolescent to be able to apprentice for a test, or do you wish them to apprentice to anticipate for themselves?

4. Adjudge what blazon of personality your ancestors has - do you commonly agenda aggregate down to the minute, or are you added spontaneous. Knowing this one section of advice can accomplish a big aberration in allotment the appearance or adjustment of homeschooling you choose.

5. Apperceive your child's acquirements style? Are they a hearing, seeing, or accomplishing learner? Knowing their acquirements appearance will advice you actuate what items you will charge to best accommodated their adeptness to learn. If your accouchement are actual young, you don't accept to acquirement the latest curriculum. Absorb time with them allowance them apprentice to address their alphabet, apprentice simple math, and adapt them to apprentice to read. Small workbooks accessible at a lot of abatement stores. Use bonbon or beans to advise algebraic concepts. Advise them to anatomy their belletrist properly, use atom chrism or rice on a cookie sheet. As you can see, you don't charge to absorb a abundant accord of money to advise the basics.

After teaching the basics, accomplish abiding your adolescent has an befalling for fun. Get complex in a abutment accumulation with added homeschoolers. Plan some play canicule or acreage trips; let the accouchement run and plan off some of their pent-up energy. Having a abutment accumulation helps moms, as well, abnormally if you accept questions or charge guidance.

Subscribe to some homeschooling magazines or newsletters. This will aswell advice if you accept questions because you'll be able to see how added humans homeschool and apprentice how they handle the altered aspects of circadian activity while homeschooling. It will advice you to apperceive that you're not alone.

Plan on traveling aback to academy yourself; abide account and acquirements as you advise your child. There will consistently be new things to learn, so plan on acceptable a activity learner. As your adolescent grows you may charge to try a altered approach. By account and acquirements forth the way, you'll be bigger able to accomplish the all-important changes.

Choosing to homeschool is not consistently an simple accommodation to make. However, if you apprehend that you can do it and chase these basal guidelines, you'll anon apprehend that you fabricated the appropriate choice. Homeschooling is an alarming befalling for you, your family, and your accouchement to apprentice and abound together.

Guided Reading Lessons

Guided account acquaint accord you the bold plan you charge if you are teaching reading. If you abridgement a plan of activity or are after guided account acquaint while aggravating to advise a adolescent to read, it is simple to absence something you charge to teach.

For example, if I aboriginal started teaching my son the phonics sounds, the beam cards that I was application did not accept assertive phonetic groupings of belletrist that I accomplished he bare to be accomplished (such as ar, er, ur, ir, ay, ey, ea, ee, ai, oa, ing, ly, etc.).

I begin this out because the little argument book clairvoyant that I was aggravating to advise him from had abounding combinations of letter sounds that he did not know. So every night, I would actually complete out anniversary chat in the adventure that we were declared to be traveling through.

I can't acquaint you how arresting it was not alive what words he should apperceive as afterimage words and aggravating to amount out the altered combinations of belletrist and their sounds that he bare to apperceive to apprehend the story!

In adjustment to abstain all the altercation and affliction that I faced, you charge to use a account affairs that acutely tells you anniversary afterimage chat and phonics complete that your adolescent needs to apperceive afore they alpha account the adventure they are assigned. You would anticipate that this would be accepted faculty for account programs to include, but I assure you that abounding account programs do not accept these instructions acutely and artlessly laid out so that you can calmly appraise what your adolescent needs to apperceive afore they dive into a accurate book. The aftereffect is that your adolescent becomes actual calmly balked because they are accustomed a adventure to apprehend with words and sounds that they accept not been taught.

This bearings bound demotivates your adolescent and discourages them from absent to read. To advice your adolescent advance a adulation for account they charge to feel acknowledged at account from the start. In applied terms, this agency application guided account acquaint and giving your adolescent beginners books to apprehend that they can apprehend by themselves because they apperceive all the sounds and afterimage words acclimated in the book.

The Façade of Santa Maria Novella

I was recently in one of my favorite cities, Florence, Italy and went back to visit the exquisite church of Santa Maria Novella.  After my visit to the church I came away with a lot of new inspiration for future art history blog posts!

The Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is one of the most well known examples of early Renaissance architecture in Italy.  This in large part is due to the façade created by architect Leon Battista Alberti in the mid 15th century.  Alberti designed both the top section of the façade and the main doorway from 1456-70.  The lower half (with the green columns) was begun in 1300 and completed by 1360.  

The church itself was built much earlier and was redesigned in the 13th century.  It is a very large brick structure with a Latin cross plan interior.  Today the church has been opened up into a single level elevation with a high ceiling, but during the 15th century when Alberti was alive, the interior was broken up into two levels.  There was an upper level for the friars and a lower level for the general congregation. 

The Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The new addition of the façade was financed by the wealthy Florentine Rucellai family.  The patron, Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, chose the architect Alberti to create the new façade.  Several years earlier Alberti had created the elegant and harmonious façade for the family palazzo, and still today the Palazzo Rucellai  is seen as another example of the early Renaissance and a turning point in architecture.  The two buildings are quite different from one another in appearance, but both use a perfectly proportioned façade to tie together various elements of an earlier architectural style.

One problem that Alberti had to solve in his design for Santa Maria Novella was the fact that the two levels of the church were of quite different heights.  He solved this by tying them together visually with the use of the ornate scrolls on either end.  The façade that Alberti added is a perfect example of the harmony found in the arts in the early Italian Renaissance. 

Compare Santa Maria Novella with French Gothic cathedrals, such as Notre Dame in Paris. Typically the architectural element that would be placed where the scrolls are would be twin bell towers.  Gothic Cathedrals were also beautiful buildings, however the bell towers add an entirely different effect. 

 Renaissance Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Leon Battista Alberti, 1456-70

The bottom register of the marble façade contains a row of ships with sails, this was the heraldic symbol of the Rucellai family.  Continuing up Alberti has inlaid dark green squares of marble into a white marble background.  Combining green and white porphyry marble was widely used in Medieval Tuscan architecture, such as the Duomo in both Siena and Florence, the Campanile (bell tower) of the Duomo in Florence and also the Baptistery as well as the church of San Miniato in Florence.  Alberti's use of what was referred to as "zebra-striping" (as the green marble was often so dark it appeared black) in architecture assured that the new top portion of the façade would tie into the church's interior.  The work fits together seamlessly with the original bottom half, but considers the mathematical proportions of each shape and its relation to each part of the whole. 

At first glance there is a simplicity in each of the strong geometric shapes, but upon closer inspection one can see that there are intricate designs inlaid in each of the squares, circles, rectangles and triangles.  This can also be compared to Gothic architecture where a church was covered in sculptures representing biblical figures, there is very little symbolism or imagery in Alberti's design.

The exterior zebra striped pilasters tie in with the interior, the perfectly round rose window is reflected in the circles in the scrolls.  The window is aligned with the new main door, which is given a new sense of grandeur when it is topped with a large arch.  In that way too Alberti uses the shapes in the Medieval construction to reflect his new proportions.

The design is topped with a note in Latin crediting not Alberti, but his patron for the work and states the year it was completed.  The triangular pediment at the top ties together all of the shapes, adds height to the structure and pays homage to the ancient Greeks who were then thought of as the original creators of harmonious architecture through the use of mathematical equations.  The very top of the design contains one of the only representational images, that of the sun.  The use of the sun on a church façade can also be found in other earlier examples of Tuscan architecture including the Duomo of Siena.

 In addition to working as an architect, Alberti wrote several books including his important work, On Painting, which describes the use of perspective.  His many works changed the direction of Italian Renaissance art.

Additional Reading

Visit the website for Santa Maria Novella

Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting (several translations are available)

How to Sing Like a Pro

Amateur singers may improve the quality of their voices and their styles. They may also be able to learn how to sing like a pro especially if they really love to sing whenever they are given the opportunity to do so. Some may naturally have the raw talent for singing but even those who do not have may still improve and sing like professionals do. They also need to have the confidence in doing what they love most-singing. In order for others to believe that they have the voice of a good singer, individuals must believe in themselves first. Being confident also means singing out loud and clearly. They may also take the lead and sing the melody when they are singing with a group of people.

Those who would like to sing like a pro need to practice regularly. They need to strengthen the muscles that they need to produce the correct sounds and for them to reach a wider range. They may take voice lessons from professional voice instructors to improve the quality of their singing. Individuals also need to learn how to breathe through their diaphragm while singing. They have to open their mouths wide and pronounce the words especially the vowels clearly. It is important that the people as the audience are able to understand the lyrics of the song as they enjoy the tune and the melody.

While singing, individuals have to learn how to relax so that they may produce better sounds. They can do this by stretching the muscles on their faces and exercise their jaws and vocal chords. Individuals may also take deep breaths and exhale properly as this would enable them to relax as well. They have to keep themselves in proper posture but not too stiff and tensed. If they are able to relieve themselves of the unnecessary tension, they may be able to sing like a pro while enjoying the best thing that they do.

Singers also have to take care of their voices and to keep their throat clean. They may do this by drinking lots of water and eating the right diet that will help them to be healthy. They have to keep their bodies strong as they need sufficient energy especially whenever they are performing and whenever they practice their singing as well. These are some of the ways that individuals may consider if they would like to learn how to sing like a pro.

Are you one of those who is wishing to have a good voice but don't have an idea on how to improve your singing voice? Of course, you are seeking for the best advice or singing tips to improve your singing in order to boost your talent. Learn how to sing easily can be possible through seeking the best singing lessons tips. This is your only and best way to have that beautiful voice you are wishing for.

3 Essential Two Tone Ska Records

When it comes to music history, a lot of people seem to forget how influential the UK ska scene was for music that came out after the 1980s. Sure, the movement of ska seemed to stay stagnant in the early part of the 1990s after a great success in what is now known as the "Two-Tone" movement. However, music fans will look back at the records that game out of the era, as some of the cornerstones of their growth as music lovers. If you haven't sat down to listen to any music from the second major wave of ska, then consider the following 3 essential records for your skanking pleasure.

The English Beat put out a great pop ska record in 1980, and in these modern times you can pick it up expanded and remastered. "Just Can't Stop" doesn't really fit the genre at times, but it certainly puts rhythm ahead of all other frequencies as you get 12 songs of pure British music. From the opening sounds of "Mirror in the Bathroom" to the last track, you feel as though you are taken for a ride through a different time and space.

The Selecter went out of their way to put together one of the better records of the genre and fronted by a female. Female fronted bands in this genre didn't make the biggest splash until the mid 1990s, but it was definitely staring to buzz with The Selecter. The band put out "Too Much Pressure" and really knocked down the doors of what was previously a boys club.

The first record to really usher in the genre was definitely Madness' "One Step Beyond" which featured all the rhythms that came from Jamaican reggae music, with the British power pop that was starting to take over throughout the late 1970s late night radio broadcasts. While it took a little bit to get moving, this record of great importance is the stepping-stone that all acts in the genre used as inspiration to break through to the mainstream, even if it took a little while.

From the above 3 essential two tone records, the music grew to an all new level, and it is still felt today on rock radio stations the world over. If you haven't really put these jamming records on in a long time, go back and look for them as they sound as great as they ever did, and they will bring back that funky, groovy sound that made the British ska movement so special.