At the turn of the 16th century; Italy was a turbulent territory made up of independent states; each at war with or intriguing against its neighbor. There were the proud; cultivated; and degenerate Sforzas in Milan; and in Rome; the corrupt Spanish family of the Borgia whose head; Rodrigo; ascended to St Peters throne as Pope Alexander VI. In Florence; a golden age of culture and sophistication ended with the death of the greatest of the Medici family; Lorenzo the Magnificent; giving way to an era of uncertainty; cruelty; and religious fundamentalism.In the midst of this turmoil; there existed the greatest concentration of artists that Europe has ever known. Influenced by the rediscovery of the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome; artists and thinkers such as Botticelli and da Vinci threw off the shackles of the Middle Ages to produce one of the most creative periods in history - the Renaissance.This is the story of twelve years when war; plague; famine; and chaos made their mark on a volatile Italy; and when a young; erratic genius; Michelangelo Buonarroti; made his first great statue - the David. It was to become a symbol not only of the independence and defiance of the city of Florence but also of the tortured soul who created it. Anton Gills Il Gigante is a wonderful history of the artist; his times; and one of his most magnificent works.
#2470696 in eBooks 2011-01-25 2011-01-25File Name: B00F5SKTIA
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Insightful on many levelsBy olvasoIdeas are bursting off each page here; so many that you can hardly process them; many elliptical requiring multiple readings; so if you are someone who needs all arguments to run in straight lines; this might not be the book for you. Reading this as a prosecutor; I found the transformation by Shakespeare of those confined at Luther Luckett state prison in Kentucky very interesting; but there is a larger point here. According to the Shakespeare Behind Bars program; prison Shakespeare programs in general result in recidivism rates that are one-tenth the national average. There may be some self-selection bias at work; and the statistics might be a little less startling if you could compare recidivism rates solely among the medium security prisons where these programs tend to be held. But this is unlikely to be the entire explanation for the disparity. With about 6.5 million individuals currently incarcerated in the United States; an understanding of what programs actually reduce recidivism rates and how they achieve these results should be crucially important to all of us.Herold shows that aggression dissipates when you provide mechanisms for people to become empathetic; to see the world from a multi-layered perspective; and to become comfortable with ambiguity. Conceivably; the process of producing any play might work towards the same end: choosing a character; inhabiting the alternative worldview of that character; allowing your own prior experiences to flow into another personality; and creating institutional and safe mechanisms for otherwise inhibited sharing of both past experiences and new peak emotional moments. So is it uniquely Shakespeare; or is it theatre in general that is having this ameliorating effect on recidivism rates? With their frequent themes of both mental and physical confinement; their mercurial characters and their unflinching look at the often trivial causes but profound effects of violence; Shakespeares plays do in fact seem to be uniquely suitable as a medium for this type of transformative experience.But this transformative power goes beyond prisons. Shakespeares broader project is to show us that it is only by getting out of ideology; out of theory; out of single versions of ourselves; only by breaking boundaries; only by seeing the world from multiple directions; that we can break out of the single brains shackles. Shakespeare himself adroitly sidestepped the demonizing ideological tendencies of his age; and as Herold notes; his plays are characterized by a "rejection of dogma" as well as any tendency to try to remodel the world as a place of "unity and perfection." He grounded his ethics not in some overarching doctrinaire philosophical theory; but "in the behavior of individuals;" privileging "small gestures" by real people as "crucially significant;" and rejecting nostalgia for some imagined past "golden world." He refused; moreover; to routinize the sacrifice of those born into "lower social orders" to those born into privilege based on some inherently arbitrary criterion like genealogy; inherited wealth; skin color; or social class. (P. 120-21).Shakespeares antipathy to ideologies of any sort is just as germane today as it was in the 16th century. As Herold insightfully shows; Shakespeare intended the experience within his pages and in his theater not only of physical confinement; but also mental confinement; to help his audiences understand what it means to be free. And not only on the worlds stages; but also at Luther Luckett state prison in La Grange; Kentucky; the man who was "not of an age; but for all time" is still working his magic.