Italian Renaissance Courts: Art, Pleasure and Power (Renaissance Art)

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Following the move of the Ballets Russes to France, ballet began to have a broader influence, particularly in the United States of America. Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine, performing “Don Quixote” in New York, 1965. (Photo: New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/Library of Congress) Leonardo also began to experiment with architectural theory. He was inspired by the Milan brainiacs club — Donato Bramanate, Lucca Paccoli, Francesco Martini. Some pieces of that era, however, were remarkable. The Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev and Lavrovsky is a masterpiece. The Flames of Paris, while it shows all the faults of socialist realist art, pioneered the active use of the corps de ballet in the performance and required stunning virtuosity. The ballet version of the Pushkin poem, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai with music from Boris Asafiev and choreography by Rostislav Zakharov was also a hit.

The Medici family was the unrivaled dynasty of the Renaissance period, running the most famous Renaissance court in Italy. They were bankers turned royals. Every community on Apartments.com features a rating displayed on a 5-star scale. This rating includes average renter review scores and a building rating to determine an overall blended score for this property. Buranbaeva, Oksana; Vanja Mladineo (2011). Culture and Customs of Hungary. ABC-CLIO. p.172. ISBN 978-0-313-38370-0.One dancer who trained with Balanchine and absorbed much of this neo-classical style was Mikhail Baryshnikov. Following Baryshnikov's appointment as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre in 1980, he worked with various modern choreographers, most notably Twyla Tharp. Tharp choreographed Push Comes To Shove for ABT and Baryshnikov in 1976; in 1986 she created In The Upper Room for her own company. Both these pieces were considered innovative for their use of distinctly modern movements melded with the use of pointe shoes and classically trained dancers—for their use of contemporary ballet.

Bland, Alexander (1976). A History of Ballet and Dance in the Western World. New York: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0-275-53740-4. Main article: Contemporary ballet A 2010 performance of Irène Tassembédo's contemporary ballet piece Allah Garibou.

Russian ballet continued development under Soviet rule. There was little talent left in the country after the Revolution, but it was enough to seed a new generation. After stagnation in the 1920s, by the mid-1930s that new generation of dancers and choreographers appeared on the scene. The technical perfection and precision of dance was promoted (and demanded) by Agrippina Vaganova, who had been taught by Petipa and Cecchetti and headed the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the school to prepare dancers for the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg/Leningrad. Cross, Samuel H. (1944) "The Russian Ballet Before Dyagilev." Slavonic and East European Review. American Series 3.4 (1944): 19–49. in JSTOR

This tour is a good example of how a good organisation and a fine lecturer can greatly surpass what we might do on our own.' Development of capitalism, banking, merchantilism and accounting: beginning of the European Great Divergence Barbara Karinska was a Russian emigree and a skilled seamstress who collaborated with Balanchine to elevate the art of costume design from a secondary role to an integral part of a ballet performance. She introduced the bias cut and a simplified classic tutu that allowed the dancer more freedom of movement. With meticulous attention to detail, she decorated her tutus with beadwork, embroidery, crochet and appliqué. The new mercantile governing class, who gained their position through financial skill, adapted to their purposes the feudal aristocratic model that had dominated Europe in the Middle Ages. A feature of the High Middle Ages in Northern Italy was the rise of the urban communes which had broken from the control by bishops and local counts. In much of the region, the landed nobility was poorer than the urban patriarchs in the High Medieval money economy whose inflationary rise left land-holding aristocrats impoverished. The increase in trade during the early Renaissance enhanced these characteristics. The decline of feudalism and the rise of cities influenced each other; for example, the demand for luxury goods led to an increase in trade, which led to greater numbers of tradesmen becoming wealthy, who, in turn, demanded more luxury goods. This atmosphere of assumed luxury of the time created a need for the creation of visual symbols of wealth, an important way to show a family's affluence and taste. Ballet is a formalized form of dance with its origins in the Italian Renaissance courts of 15th and 16th centuries. Ballet spread from Italy to France with the help of Catherine de' Medici, where ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. An early example of Catherine's development of ballet is through 'Le Paradis d' Amour', a piece of work presented at the wedding of her daughter Marguerite de Valois to Henry of Navarre. Aristocratic money was responsible for the initial stages of development in 'court ballet', as it was royal money that dictated the ideas, literature and music used in ballets that were created to primarily entertain the aristocrats of the time. The first formal 'court ballet' ever recognized was staged in 1573, 'Ballet des Polonais'. In true form of royal entertainment, 'Ballet des Polonais' was commissioned by Catherine de' Medici to honor the Polish ambassadors who were visiting Paris upon the accession of Henry of Anjou to the throne of Poland. In 1581, Catherine de' Medici commissioned another court ballet, Ballet Comique de la Reine, however it was her compatriot, Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, who organized the ballet. Catherine de' Medici and Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx were responsible for presenting the first court ballet ever to apply the principles of Baif's Academie, by integrating poetry, dance, music and set design to convey a unified dramatic storyline. Moreover, the early organization and development of 'court ballet' was funded by, influenced by and produced by the aristocrats of the time, fulfilling both their personal entertainment and political propaganda needs.Cohen, Selma Jeanne, ed. (1998). International Encyclopedia of Dance. New York: Oxford University Press. The Renaissance court of Urbino was led by the powerful Duke Federico da Montefeltro. He was another mercenary general turned politician turned Renaissance scholar and art patron. Homans, Jennifer (2010). Apollo's angels: a history of ballet (1sted.). New York: Random House. pp.65–66. ISBN 978-1-4000-6060-3. OCLC 515405940.

Another popular explanation for the Italian Renaissance is the thesis, first advanced by historian Hans Baron, [24] that states that the primary impetus of the early Renaissance was the long-running series of wars between Florence and Milan. By the late 14th century, Milan had become a centralized monarchy under the control of the Visconti family. Giangaleazzo Visconti, who ruled the city from 1378 to 1402, was renowned both for his cruelty and for his abilities, and set about building an empire in Northern Italy. He launched a long series of wars, with Milan steadily conquering neighbouring states and defeating the various coalitions led by Florence that sought in vain to halt the advance. This culminated in the 1402 siege of Florence when it looked as though the city was doomed to fall, before Giangaleazzo suddenly died and his empire collapsed.The latter half of the 20th century brought a new style known as neoclassical ballet. A young Russian dancer who trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, George Balanchine became one of the most important figures in modern ballet. The young, classically trained dancer fled Soviet Russia in 1924 and joined the Ballets Russes in Paris as their choreographer. In Paris in 1928, his work Apollo debuted, and is considered today to be the first neoclassical ballet. Its pared-down aesthetic and choreography driven by the music (rather than the story) was innovative. Explorers from the Italian maritime republics serve under the auspices of European monarchs, ushering in the Age of Discovery