Stradano’s Allegorical Invention of the Americas in Late Sixteenth

Stradano’s Allegorical Invention of the Americas in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence part 1 Essay by LIA MARKEY This essay situates Giovanni Stradano’s engravings of the discovery of the Americas from the Americae Retectio and Nova Reperta series within the context of their design in late sixteenthcentury Florence, where the artist worked at the Medici court and collaborated with the dedicatee of the prints, Luigi Alamanni. Through an analysis of the images in relation to contemporary texts about the navigators who traveled to the Americas, as well as classical sources, emblems, and works of art in diverse media—tapestry, print, ephemera, and fresco—the study argues that Stradano’s allegorical representations of the Americas were produced in order to make clear Florence’s role in the invention of the New World. Outline1 INTRODUCTION2   STRADANO, ALAMANNI, AND THE ACCADEMIA DEGLI ALTERATI3 SOURCES AT THE MEDICI COURT4 AMERICA UNVEILED INTRODUCTION We will write a custom essay on Stradano’s Allegorical Invention of the Americas in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence part 1 specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now In the late 1580s, nearly a century after the travels of Columbus and Vespucci, Giovanni Stradano (also known as Jan Van der Straet and Johannes Stradanus, 1523–1605) designed engravings in two print series representing the discovery of the New World. In the renowned prints navigators are fashioned as mythological heroes, and Stradano’s images suggest a fantasia, or dream, rather than a record of newsworthy events. The Americae Retectio series includes an elaborate frontispiece (fig. 1) and three prints (figs. 2–4) in chronological order that depict Christopher Columbus Giovanni Stradano, Frontispiece for the Americae Retectio series, late1580s. Engraving. Private collection. (1451–1506), Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), and Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521).1 Two prints from Stradano’s Nova Reperta series similarly unite allegorical imagery with captions to portray Vespucci’s encounter with the New World (figs. 5 and 6).2 The Nova Reperta series includes nineteen prints, each representing a different invention or discovery of the recent centuries, ranging from the cure for syphilis to the production of silk.3 Stradano’s four Americae Retectio prints and these two Nova Reperta prints possess similar iconography, and all were dedicated to members of the Alamanni family and first printed by the Galle publishing house in the late 1580s and early 1590s. Giovanni Stradano, Columbus in the Americae Retectio series, late1580s. Engraving. Private collection. Since the late sixteenth century, Stradano’s prints depicting the Americas have been used as artistic sources by artists and printmakers, and more recently as illustrations for scholars writing about the interaction between the Old and New Worlds. The roles of both Stradano and the Alamanni in the creation of the prints have often been disregarded, and they are frequently solely attributed to the Flemish printmaker and publisher. In the early seventeenth century, the Northern printmaking family, the De Brys, reproduced the Americae Retectio series with few alterations, and the Stradano designs are therefore often mistakenly attributed to the De Brys.4 Since Michel de Certeau’s use of Stradano’s America image (fig. 5) from the Nova Reperta series on the frontispiece of his 1975 The Writing of History, Stradano’s prints and their reproductions by De Bry have served to illustrate Giovanni Stradano, Vespucci in the Americae Retectio series, late 1580s.Engraving. Private collection countless texts about the discovery of America and colonialism.5 Despite the popularity of the images, and the recent fascination with promoting Stradano’s America in particular as a representation of the colonial Other, the works have not been fully considered within the context in which they were produced, and even their complex iconography remains largely unexplored.6 Most recently, Michael Gaudio has called for a reevaluation of Stradano’s America in relation to ‘‘the very real space of the engraver’s Giovanni Stradano, Magellan in the Americae Retectio series, late Giovanni Stradano, Magellan in the Americae Retectio series, late 1580s. Engraving. Private collection. workshop where this print was made.’’7 Yet this print was conceived, not in the engraver’s workshop, but rather on Stradano’s page. The prints were repositories of factual and fictional information gathered by reading, speaking, and writing about these celebrated navigators among a circumscribed group of individuals in Florence. This study argues that the America print, along with Stradano’s five other New World images, must be examined together within the context of his circle. The first part of this study therefore establishes the cultural environment of the prints’ production in late sixteenth-century Florence. Examination of Stradano’s experience as a print designer and Medici court artist, and of Luigi Alamanni’s involvement in the Florentine Accademia degli Alterati, provides critical insight into the creation of these images.8 Stradano designed the prints around the time of Ferdinando de’ Medici’s (1549†“1609) 1588 accession as Grand Duke. Previously Stradano had been involved in the creation of allegorical paintings, ephemera, and cartography Giovanni Stradano, America in the Nova Reperta series, late 1580s. Engraving. Bridgeman-Giraudon/Art Resource, NY. for Medici propaganda under Ferdinando’s father, Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici (1519–74), and his brother, Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici (1541–87). At the Medici court he would have encountered objects from, texts about, and images of the New World. Though the Medici were not involved in the colonization of the Americas, and they themselves were subsumed under the sovereignty of Spain, Grand Duke Ferdinando sought to strengthen cultural and economic ties with the New World during his reign. The second part of the essay closely examines the text and image of each print in relation to this milieu. Captions on the prints, chosen by the Alamanni, and Stradano’s inscriptions on the related preparatory drawings reveal specific sources for, and ideas behind, the conception of the images.9 Using the textual materials available about the New World and stimulated both by contemporary epic literature written about the navigators and by ancient sources such as Lucretius, Stradano produced allegorical images that borrow from emblems and imprese, court frescoes, festivals, tapestries, cartography, and other printed images. These other media provided an allegorical visual language that was familiar to sixteenthcentury viewers. The Astrolabe in the Nova Reperta series, late 1580s. Engraving. , Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York. width=581 height=425 /> Giovanni Stradano, The Astrolabe in the Nova Reperta series, late1580s. Engraving. , Rare Book and Manuscript Library,Columbia University in the City of New York. media provided an allegorical visual language that was familiar to sixteenthcentury viewers. According to Jose ´ Rabasa, in Stradano’s prints and especially the America engraving, ‘‘newness is produced by means of discursive arrangements of more or less readily recognized descriptive motifs.’’10 These ‘‘descriptive motifs’’ to which Rabasa alludes are produced through the construction of complex allegorical narratives comprised of emblematic compositions that incorporate the representation of gods and navigators alongside personifications of the New World, fantastical monsters, hybrid creatures, and ancient gods. These discursive and anachronistic images would have seemed customary, and would have been comprehensible, to the prints’ late sixteenth-century audience. Yet as Sabine MacCormack has explained, there were ‘‘limits of understanding’’ in constructions of the New World, for images â⠂¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬Ëœdid not on their own lead to a significantly new perception of Greco-Roman antiquity or of the Americas.’’11 By framing the New World in recognizable allegorical imagery, Stradano’s engravings could declare the novel idea that the New World was a Florentine invention and patriotically revel in these discoveries.12 In his seminal study on mythology and allegory in the Renaissance, The Survival of the Pagan Gods, Jean Seznec writes that ‘‘basically, allegory is often sheer imposture, used to reconcile the irreconcilable.’’13 Indeed, these images do just that: theymake no reference to the Spanish, overtly connect the New World to Italy, and, with the figure of Vespucci in particular, highlight Florence’s role in the discovery. Fraught with temporal clashes between the old (pagan mythology) and the new (the discovery and invention of the Americas) the prints, disseminated throughout the world, made America part of Florence ’s history, even though in reality the New World played a small role in Florence’s past and present. This claim could be made only through the language of allegory because implicit in allegory lies fantasy and the notion that the representations are imaginary.   STRADANO, ALAMANNI, AND THE ACCADEMIA DEGLI ALTERATI As is common in sixteenth-century engravings, the captions on the prints make clear that their production was the result of a collaboration between the designer or inventor (Stradano), the printmaker and publisher (Galle and Collaert), and the dedicatee or patron (the Alamanni). A Flemish artist who began working at the Medici court sometime before 1554 first as cartoon designer for Grand Duke Cosimo’s new tapestry workshop and then as an artist under Giorgio Vasari (1511–74), Stradano was by the 1560s a relatively well-known independent artist living in Florence.14 He was an active member of the Accademia del Disegno and secured commissions for paintings and frescoes at the Medici court and also from private patrons and churches in Tuscany. Stradano was also involved in the production of several court festivals and weddings, and in the 1570s he worked briefly in Naples and in Flanders for John of Austria.15 The artist is best known for his large number of preparatory drawings for prints and tapestries that illustrate and document life at the Medici court, significant battles, hunts, as well as other current events, and religious subjects. Stradano established a partnership with the Galles, a family who ran a print publishing house in Antwerp, where most of his print designs, such as the engravings in these two series, were produced initially under Philips Galle (1537–1612).16 The family business was subsequently taken over by Philips Galle’s son, Theodor (1571–1633), and then his grandson Johannes (1600–76). Accordingly, the first two editions of the Americae Retectio prints cite Philips Galle as the printer and Philips’s son-in-law, Adriaen Collaert (1560–1618), as the engraver, while the second edition names Johannes Galle as the printer.17 Similarly, the first edition of the Nova Reperta series labels Philips Galle as the printer of the first edition, and then Theodor and Johannes Galle are credited with the two subsequent editions.18 A comparison between the engravings themselves and Stradano’s six finished preparatory drawings for the prints — five are in the Laurentian Library in Florence and the ‘‘America’’ print is housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (fig. 7) — makes clear that the Galles reproduced Stradano’s drawings with great precision and had little input into the content or style of the prints. They did, however, likely control when the prints would be published, how much they cost, and where they would be sold and distributed. Though little is known about the dissemination of the prints and though the prints are undated, a 1589 date on the Vespucci preparatory drawing in the Americae Retectio series (Laurentian Library) provides a d ate for Stradano’s drawings and suggests that the prints were produced soon after this time.19 It is believed that at least four editions of the Nova Reperta series were printed between 1591 and 1638, and that the Americae Retectio series was first printed in 1589 and then reissued in 1592 for the one-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s discovery.20 Luigi (1558–1603) and Ludovico Alamanni are both cited as ‘‘noblemen of Florence’’ in the caption on the Americae Retectio frontispiece, but only America, late 1580s. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image copyright  The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY. width=614 height=464 /> Giovanni Stradano, America, late 1580s. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, over black chalk. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image copyright  The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY. Luigi is named on the Nova Reperta frontispiece.21 Gert Jan Van der Sman has pointed out that Stradano refers to Luigi Alamanni as the auctor intellectualis, or ‘‘intellectual advisor,’’ of many of his print designs in various inscriptions on preparatory drawings and sketches, and has considered Alamanni’s scholarship as a catalyst for many of Stradano’s designs.22 Luigi Alamanni commissioned other works by Stradano, such as a series of drawings of Dante’s Divine Comedy, a series illustrating Homer’s Odyssey, and some of the prints from a series representing different types of hunting.23 Most of the preparatory drawings for the Americae Retectio prints and the drawings for the Dante series are today located in the same archival album of the Laurentian Library in Florence, indicating that they were conserved together by the Alamanni.24 The dates of the sheets, including the date on one of the American drawings, range from 1587 to 1 589, indicating that they were produced in Florence during this two-year period of time. The album is composed of fifty-six drawings: fifty illustrate canti from the Divine Comedy, four are preparatory drawings for the Americae Retectio series, one is a preparatory drawing for the print of Vespucci and the astrolabe from the Nova Reperta series, and one is a preparatory drawing for the frontispiece for Stradano’s Calcius series — an unfinished series presumably dedicated to soccer.25 Alamanni wrote copious notes on Dante in this album, and perhaps even did some of the drawings in it, demonstrating that he was closely involved in the creation of Stradano’s images.26 He can also be credited with providing titles for the Dante drawings in the album, since his hand is visible on some of Stradano’s signed drawings. .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .postImageUrl , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:hover , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:visited , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:active { border:0!important; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:active , .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7 .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ubaaf7aa6eff219fb77ed8af9005637b7:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: European Renaissance ">That the preparatory drawings for the Americae Retectio series and for the Vespucci ‘‘Astrolabe’’ print returned to Florence after they were engraved, and were placed together in the album with these important Dante drawings, demonstrates that they were considered to be important collectibles for the Alamanni. In 1587, when Alamanni and Stradano were producing the Dante drawings representing hell, Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) presented two lectures to the Accademia Fiorentina on the ‘‘Shape, Site and Size of the Inferno of Dante.’’27 Thomas Settle proposes that the letters from Alamanni to Gal ileo from this period make clear that some of these illustrations in Alamanni’s album were created in conjunction with Galileo’s work, or that Galileo even had a hand in their design.28 The drawings of the navigators also include extensive notes, in Flemish and in Stradano’s hand, to the printmakers. Stradano wrote in the captions at the base of the drawings and added several explanatory notes in the margins in order to describe some of the iconography in the images to the printmakers.29 Therefore, these drawings included important notes and ideas of Galileo and Stradano that Alamanni felt were worthy of safekeeping. During the time in which Stradano was producing the preparatory drawings for the prints, Luigi Alamanni was an active member of the Accademia degli Alterati, a literary group for whom the discovery of the New World was a subject of inquiry. A smaller and more private academy in comparison with other Florentine Cinquecento academies, such as the Accademia Fiorentina and the Accademia della Crusca, the Accademia degli Alterati began in 1569 among a group of Florentine noblemen who met frequently to discuss theoretical and technical issues related to their own writing and to other authors, particularly ancient poets, as well as Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso.30 Members included individuals from prominent Florentine families, such as the Ricasoli, Neroni, Rucellai, Davanzati, and Albizzi. Two of the more famousmembers of the academy were Filippo Sassetti (1540–88), amerchant who traveled to India and whose letters from abroad are informative about India and the New World, and Giovanni Battista Strozzi (1551–1634), the author of both an epic poem about Vespucci and an elaborate Vespucci intermezzo for Prince Cosimo II de’Medici’smarriage celebration in 1608. In an undated document Strozzi wrote out a list of potential discussion topics for the Alterati: one of them included whether ‘‘the discovery of the Indies was damning or useful to our country.’’31 According to academy member Jacopo Soldani’s funeral oration for Alamanni, Luigi suggested that a poem be written about the navigator in order ‘‘to render more glorious his country.’’ Not coincidentally, Sassetti and Strozzi were writing about the Americas in the years just preceding Stradano’s design of these American prints for the Alamanni. Sassetti was an esteemedmember of the Academy before his travels around the world, and many of the letters that Sassetti wrote on his journey were sent to members of the group, such as Bernardo Davanzati, Pietro Vettori, Francesco Buonamici, and Strozzi.33 Although Sassetti does not write about his brief experience in America, some of his letters refer to the discoveries of Vespucci an d Columbus.34 In December 1585, Sassetti wrote passionately to his friend Michele Saladini, a Florentine merchant living in Pisa, of Columbus’s route and discovery, and then explained: ‘‘But to return to Columbus once more, I do not think that his glory was dictated by the action of the wind . . . and I in particular know this so much so that I have helped and urged our Tender one to write about it: a worthy work of such greatness and wonder as to compete with the story of Ulysses. ’’35 ‘‘Our Tender one’’ here is the Accademia degli Alterati’s pseudonym for Giovanni Battista Strozzi. The comment that Columbus’s story rivals Ulysses’s tale is intriguing, since Alamanni was involved with Stradano in producing an illustrated edition of Homer’s epic poem that never came to fruition. This citation from Sassetti’s letter clearly shows that already by 1585 Sassetti had contacted Strozzi about writing a poem about Columbus’s heroic travels. But Strozzi chose to write about Vespucci rather than Columbus.36 He likely began writing the poem in the mid-1580s, when he and Sassetti were obviously engaged in a discourse on the importance of writing about the Italian navigators.37 Strozzi could have also been influenced by Giulio Cesare Stella’s (1564–1624) epic poem about Columbus, and perhaps it was knowledge of Stella’s poem that provoked Strozzi to write of Vespucci inste ad of Columbus.38 In 1590, Il Colombeide (The Columbeis, 1589), Stella’s romantic text based on the writings of Gonzalo Ferna ´ndez de Oviedo y Valde ´s (1478–1557) and PeterMartyr d’Anghiera (1457–1526) and describing Columbus’s discovery and interaction with the natives, was sent to the Accademia degli Alterati.39 Certainly the Academy knew of Stella’s poem earlier, since it had already been published in a pirated version in London in 1585. Similar to Stella’s poem, Strozzi’s text about Vespucci boasts of the navigator’s Florentine origins and describes him as a mythological hero. The writings of Sassetti, Stella, and Strozzi, who were all involved in the Accademia degli Alterati, reveal that Alamanni and members of the Academy were discussing the accomplishments of Vespucci as well. That Luigi Alamanni wrote and read Sassetti’s funeral oration and that the two men exchanged letters, suggests that they were not only colleagues, but close friends as well.40 Stradano’s preparatory drawings for the prints were born out of these literary activities, which were related to the discovery of the New World as considered among the Alterati. SOURCES AT THE MEDICI COURT Stradano and Alamanni had other ways in which to gain information about the New World that might have provoked the production of these prints. Another Alamanni family member, Vincenzo di Andrea Alamanni (1537–91), had access to news about the Americas. From the late 1570s to the 1580s, he was an ambassador employed first by Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici (1547–87) and then by Grand Duke Ferdinando de’ Medici to work at the Spanish court in Madrid, where he supplied information about imports from the Americas and sent updates about shipments being sent from Portugal to the Medici-controlled port at Livorno.41 It was Vincenzo Alamanni who was entrusted with the acquisition of Father Giovanni Pietro Maffei’s Historiarum indicarum (History of the Indies, 1588)—a book about the conversion and history of the natives of both the New World and Asia — on behalf of Grand Duke Ferdinando.42 Before defining the significance of Maffei’s text for Stradano, it is necessary to expand on Grand Duke Ferdinando’s cultural politics in relation to the Americas, since Stradano’s prints evoke the interests of the duke during this first year of his dukedom. In 1588, Ferdinando left his position as cardinal in Rome to become Grand Duke of Florence, following the sudden death of his brother Francesco. In Rome he had been an avid collector of American objects, such as featherwork and hammocks: more importantly, he became the custodian of an important manuscript about Mexico, the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva EspanËÅ"a (General History of the Things of New Spain), a codex written by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagu ´n (1499–1590).43 This manuscript recording the history and nature of New Spain was banned by King Philip II and was likely entrusted to Ferdinando because he was cardinal protectorate of the Franciscan order and possessed an interest in the Americas. He brought these treasures to Florence and commissioned Ludovico Buti (1560–1611) to fresco American natives and a scene of the conquest of Mexico in his Armory, a space for entertaining visiting dignitaries. Though Ferdinando and his Medici predecessors had no concrete ties to the Americas, in subsequent years he would devote himself to the development of the port of Livorno and to the creation of a colony—or at least an outpost—in the New World.44 Ferdinando’s support of the publication of Maffei’s book on the land, people, and conversion of the New World and Asia was therefore relevant to both his political agenda and to his religious and cultural interests. The patronage of the book began during his cardinalship and the text was ultimately published in 1588 after he became Grand Duke and while Stradano was working on these print designs. Stradano refers to Maffei’s text in an inscription on the verso of the preparatory drawing for the â⠂¬ËœÃ¢â‚¬ËœAmerica’’ print (fig. 5) for the Nova Reperta series.45 He writes with regard to one of the novel animals he portrayed in the drawing: ‘‘See volume II of the Bergomese Jesuit Pietro Maffei’s Historiarum Indicarum.’’46 Stradano used Maffei and other contemporary textual sources about the New World when designing the iconography of the prints in his Venationes (Animal Hunt) suite of 104 engravings, also printed by the Galle family, begun as early as 1570 and initially dedicated to the Medici.47 Several of the prints in the series depict natives in feather skirts and headdresses in idyllic landscapes, where they are seen procuring birds, animals, and pearls in great abundance and using novel means. For example, the print for the ‘‘American Indians catching geese with gourds’’ (fig. 8) illustrates an unusual style of hunting that was described in great detail in Oviedo’s De la natural hystoria de las Indias (Natural History of the Indies, 1526).48 These same Native Americans are also depicted in the scene of natives using pelicans to fish, a Chinese method of fishing with birds described in Maffei’s History.49 Stradano also used Jose ´ de Acosta’s (1539–1600) Historia natural y moral de las Indias (Natural and Moral History of the Indies, 1590) for his preparatory drawings for a never-produced print of ‘‘Indians smoking out animals.’’50 This was another unusual means of hunting in which Mexicans set fire to land in order to force animals out of hiding and then capture them.51 In comparison with the images of hunters in the Venationes series, Stradano’s New World representations in the Americae Retectio and the Nova Reperta appear fanciful. While many of the hunt prints are certainly imaginary, their subject matter and the series as a whole are more ethnographic in conception, endeavoring to portray realistic representations of different types of hunting throughout the world. By contrast, while perhaps also based on the writings of Maffei, Oviedo, and Giovanni Stradano, Indians Hunting for Geese with Gourds in theVenationes series, 1580s. Engraving. , Rare Book andManuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York. de Acosta, the Americae Retectio and Nova Reperta prints of the Americas neither reflect current events nor endeavor to portray the New World realistically. In this way, they are more similar to some of the allegorical paintings and cartography produced at the Medici court. As a member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and as a participant in Vasari’s workshop at the court, Stradano would have been continually confronted with the use of emblems and imprese in art.52 For instance, Stradano likely aided Vasari with the frescoes in the Sala degli Elementi in the Palazzo Vecchio from the late 1550s, which were commissioned by Duke Cosimo and employed imprese.53 Two of Vasari’s frescoed walls, like each of Stradano’s prints, feature a hero or god in the center of the composition acting out a narrative: Saturn is offered fruits on one wall and Venus rises from the sea (fig. 9) on the adjacent wall.54 In the waters surrounding these figures emblematic compositions — such as a symbol of abundance with her cornucopia (at left on the Saturn wall); a turtle with a sail alluding to one of Cosimo’s favorite mottos borrowed from Augustus, festina lente (‘‘make haste slowly,’’ at right on the Saturn wall); and a triton blowing into a shell, representing fame (at right on the Venus wall)—reveal different aspects of Medici power. Francesca Fiorani has shown how these emblematic frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio communicated Medici control over the cosmos in a similar way as the cartography produced at the court.55 Stradano himself made maps for the private rooms in the Palazzo Vecchio and was ce rtainly aware of the traditional use of allegory in cartography.56 .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .postImageUrl , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:hover , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:visited , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:active { border:0!important; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:active , .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u5831c7045b77c18b8eda858cfaa3a2ef:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Carolingian Renaissance EssayHe would have known well Egnazio Danti’s (1536–86) and Stefano Buonsignori’s (d. 1589) painted maps in Cosimo’s Guardaroba Nuova, a collection space comprised of cabinets decorated with different parts of the world, begun in 1563 and left unfinished in the 1580s.57 Here the artists-cartographers incorporated fantastic and mythological creatures in their stunningly accurate portrayals of different regions. In Stradano’s prints the visual morphology of allegory, as seen in Vasari’s frescoes and in maps produced at the Medici court, are united with knowledge about the New World acquired through circulating texts and news in order to convey a message regarding Florence’s propitious role in the Americas. AMERICA UNVEILED The frontispiece of Stradano’s Americae Retectio series serves to introduce this celebratory print series. It exhibits an elaborate mythology rejoicing inthe retectio, or discovery, of the Americas as an Italian endeavor. Giorgio Vasari, Cristofano Gherardi, and workshop, Birth of Venus,1555. Fresco. Florence, Sala degli Elementi, Palazzo Vecchio. Alinari/Art Resource,NY. the retectio, or discovery, of the Americas as an Italian endeavor. Though Magellan, a Portuguese explorer, is featured as the fourth print in this series, significantly, there is no reference to him or to his Portuguese origins on the frontispiece. In the frontispiece the gods Flora and her husband Zephyr (symbols of Florence), Janus and a pelican (a symbol for Genoa), and Oceanus (a symbol for sea travel) present a globe, while set within medallions at the top of the sheet are the two Italian navigators, Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. At the upper corners of the composition, other symbols for Florence and Genoa, namely, Mars and Neptune, ride chariots. Thus, Florence, Vespucci’s birthplace, is represented at left in the composition with images of Mars, Flora, and a portrait of Vespucci himself, while Genoa, Columbus’s birthplace, is represented at right with Neptune, Janus, and a portrait of Columbus. This entire scene floats above the waters off the west coast of Italy, allowing an Italocentric view of land at the bottom of the composition to highlight the cities of Florence and Genoa, again reminding the viewer of the origins of the navigators portrayed above. Stradano quite likely emulated another triumphant work of art when he designed this frontispiece.58 The organization of the composition of the Americae Retectio frontispiece print closely resembles a tapestry from The Spheres series produced in Brussels around 1530 for John III of Portugal (1502–57) and his new Habsburg wife Catherine of Austria (1507–78). These three tapestries, each featuring a sphere held by mythological figures and attributed to the design of Bernard van Orley (1491–1542), glorify the discoveries of the Portuguese navigators during a period in which Portugal was at the height of its mercantilist power, with possessions in both Asia and Africa.59 Jerry Brotton writes of the final tapestry in the series, representing earth held by Jupiter and Juno (fig. 10): ‘‘In one breathtaking visual conceit the globe visualizes claim to geographically distant territories, whilst also imbuing his claims with a more intangible access to esoteric cosmological power and authority reflected in the celestial iconography which surrounds the central terrestrial globe.’’60 As a Northern tapestry designer, Stradano could have known firsthand, or heard descriptions of, these renowned textiles. While he emulates the basic composition of Van Orley’s tapestry of Jupiter and Juno, he substitutes different gods and turns the globe upright to make the New World and Europe most prominent. In mimicking this propagandistic tapestry boasting of Portugal’s navigational and commercial prowess, Stradano usurped its message of power and glory on behalf of these two Italian navigators. Within the iconographic framework of Van Orley’s tapestry, Stradano in his print includes many more emblematic figures, as well as small details, portraits, and a map to emphasize Italy’s role in the discovery. Below the dove at the top of the print, navigational devices, namely a sextant and a compass, represent the tools the explorers used to make the journeys possible. The minuscule ships depicted on the globe represent Columbus’s and Vespucci’s voyages and are more subtle indicators of the travels of the two navigators. The frontispiece also recalls preparatory drawings for, and commemorative prints of, ephemeral events at the Medici court. The images of the two gods aboard chariots recall the floats that were paraded down the Arno or in the Pitti Palace courtyard in Medici festivals, as well as wedding celebrations, such as the boats and seascape scenes used in the 1579 wedding between Grand Duke Francesco and Bianca Cappello (1548–87) (fig. 11), and in the Attributed to the design of Bernard Van Orley, The Earth Protectedby Jupiter and Juno, 1530s. Tapestry. Madrid, Palacio Real. intermezzo for the 1589 celebration for Ferdinando’s wedding.61 For the drapery held by Flora and Janus, Stradano might have also looked to triumphal arches in public Florentine processions, where pagan gods would flank a coat-of-arms and drapery was used as decoration on arches and on the facades of churches for special events. As a court artist who worked on the production teams of various Medici festivals and public events, Stradano Artist unknown, Parade boat for the wedding of Francesco I de’ Medici to Bianca Cappello in Raffaello Gualterotti, Feste delle nozze del serenissimo Don Francesco Medici Duca di Toscana et della serenissima sua consorte Bianca Cappello. Florence, 1579. Woodcut. Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. width=590 height=425 /> Artist unknown, Parade boat for the wedding of Francesco I de’Medici to Bianca Cappello in Raffaello Gualterotti, Feste delle nozze del serenissimoDon Francesco Medici Duca di Toscana et della serenissima sua consorte BiancaCappello. Florence, 1579. Woodcut. Spencer Collection, The New York PublicLibrary, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. would have been quite familiar with this style of representation and its triumphal intent. The portraits of the two navigators within the medallions at the top of the image, combined with the blatant omission of Magellan, are perhaps the most overtly Italianist aspects of the print. For the portrait of Vespucci, Stradano likely copied a dubious portrait of the navigator painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–94) in a fresco of the Madonna della Misericordia in the family chapel in Ognissanti church in Florence (fig. 12). It is not certain whether the figure at the far left in the Ghirlandaio fresco that recalls Stradano’s portrait actually represents Amerigo Vespucci, especially since Vespucci, who in the fresco looks to be an adult, would have been an adolescent when the fresco was painted in the 1470s. But Vasari’s having written in his Le Vite delle piu` eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Archi tects, 1550) that the navigator was represented in the fresco, demonstrates that among sixteenth-century Florentines it was thought to be a true likeness of Domenico Ghirlandaio, Madonna della Misericordia, 1470s. Fresco. Florence, Vespucci chapel in Ognissanti church. Scala/Art Resource, NY. the explorer.62 Stradano reuses this same profile of Vespucci wearing a late fifteenth-century style hat in all of his representations of the navigator in his other prints.63 Stradano’s portrait of Columbus was most certainly based on the portrait of the navigator first produced for Paolo Giovio’s (1483–1552) portrait museum and then reproduced both in Paolo Giovio’s Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium (Praise of Men Illustrious for Courage in War, 1575) (fig. 13) and in a portrait within the Medici collection.64 This portrait type became the standard iconography for Columbus, and can be seen in many other portraits of the navigator, both painted and in print.65 Stradano used the most well-known images of the explorers to make them easily recognizable to his viewers. With their names and origins inscribed around their likenesses, the medallions in Stradano’s print recall commemorative numismatics and endow these likenesses with antique grandeu r. The spatially manipulated map of the Tuscan and Ligurian coast at the very bottom of the image makes clear that the discovery of the New World began from the northwestern coast of Italy, specifically from the navigators’ hometowns, Florence and Genoa. Here the west coast of Italy is reoriented so that it is featured at the base of the page. Though Florence is actually a good distance from the coast, it is depicted prominently at the lower left of the map with an entire cityscape, quite close to the water’s edge and framing the view of the coast. The Medici port of Livorno is also highlighted at the left with an image of a Medici fortress. Other important port towns are labeled and illustrated similarly with recognizable buildings. Genoa marks the very center of the map and is a larger coastal town in comparison with smaller towns labeled Cogoreto, Albizola, Savona. Cogoreto and Savona are included on the map likely because Oviedo wrote that Columbus might have been from one of these towns outside of Genoa.66 By reorienting Columbus’s and Vespucci’s birthplaces on the map, Stradano appoints these Italian cities as the starting points for the discovery of the New World. Stradano’s distorted map closely resembles Egnazio Danti’s map of Liguria in his frescoes in the Vatican (fig. 14) painted from 1580 to 1581, indicating either that the two one-time Medici court artists used the same source to depict the coast or that Stradano knew Danti’s frescoes in Rome.67 Within Danti’s map a detail of Neptune in a chariot leading an allegory of Columbus holding a compass includes tritons, fantastical sea creatures, and Tobias Stimmer, Columbus, in Paolo Giovio, Elogia Virorum BellicaVirtute Illustrium, Basel, 1575. Woodcut. Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D.Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. a banner stating, ‘‘Christopher Columbus of Liguria: Discoverer of the New World’’ (‘‘Christophorur Columbus Ligur. Novi Orbis Repertor’’). The use of allegory and inscription in Danti’s cartography are in the same vein as Stradano’s allegory of Genoa both in the frontispiece and in the Columbus print. Danti’s and Stradano’s maps — with their manipulated westward view of the coast of Italy, heroic representation of Columbus, and boastful Latin inscriptions — reveal the way in which cartography and allegory were used as cultural propaganda. Though Stradano is credited for the design of the image on the frontispiece, it was likely the literary scholar Alamanni who chose the Egnazio Danti, Liguria, 1580. Fresco. Vatican, Gallery of Maps. Scala/Art Resource, NY. erudite Latin inscription for the caption below the image.68 The print’s caption includes the characteristic signature of the artist and printmaker at left and the dedication to the ‘‘noble Alamanni brothers’’ at right. Both the preparatory drawing and the print include an interrogative title in the center between the artist’s signature at left and the patrons’ names at right: ‘‘QUIS POTIS EST DIGNUM POLLENT PECTORE CARMEN CONDERE PRO RERUM MAIESTATE, HISQUE REPERTIS?’’, which translates as: ‘‘Who is able to compose a song worthy of a powerful heart on behalf of the majesty of these things that have been discovered?’’ These Latin words are the first lines from book 5 of Titus Lucretius Carus’s (99–55 BCE) De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) written in the first century BCE. By the sixteenth century the De Rerum Natura was available in several printed editions and was scrutinized within literary circles both as a significant scientific treatise and as a work of great poetry that was thought to have inspired Virgil.69 The De Rerum Natura likely formed part of the readings and discussion of the members of the Accademia degli Alterati, who were at this time emulating the epic poetic form of Virgil.70 Lucretius’s discussion of technology and invention could have likewise shaped Alamanni’s conception of both of Stradano’s print series, documenting the new inventions and discoveries of early modern man. The last lines of book 5 of Lucretius, in particular, describe the idea of progress in a manner that recalls the prints in the Nova Reperta series: Ships, farms, walls, laws, arms, roads, and all the rest, Rewards and pleasures, all life’s luxuries, Painting, and song, and sculpture — these were taught Slowly, a very little at a time, By practice and by trial, as the mind Went forward searching. Time brings everything Little by little to the shores of light By grace of art and reason, till we see All things illuminate each other’s rise Up to the pinnacle of loftiness. Like Lucretius, whose poem lists the various new inventions of his time, Stradano’s Nova Reperta prints each represent a different result of progress in the sixteenth century, illustrating many of the examples that Lucretius cites, including ships, arms, and painting. Lucretius’s discussion of early man is also intriguing with regard to Stradano’s prints because it corresponds with many sixteenth-century descriptions of the people of the New World: People did not know, In those days, how to work with fire, to use The skins of animals for clothes; they lived In groves and woods, and mountain-caves †¦ Relying on their strength and speed, they’d hunt The forest animals by throwing rocks Or wielding clubs — there were many to bring down. The idea of the unclothed noble savage who hunts wild animals with a club is here described in Lucretius in a similar way that many sixteenth-century sources described the New World native, and like Stradano depicts the native in many of his hunt prints. For instance, Alison Brown has shown that Vespucci’s writings about the New World ‘‘were interpreted within the conceptual framework of Lucretius’’ in early sixteenth-century Florence.73 Though written in the first century BCE, the De Rerum Natura must have appeared shockingly modern and comprehensible to these sixteenth-century scholars who were considering new inventions and discoveries, and trying to comprehend progress and this previously unknown land often equated with antiquity. Lucretius’s evocative question used in the caption — ‘‘who is able to compose a song worthy of a powerful heart on behalf of the majesty of these things that have been discovered?’’ — could have also been understood as a literal challenge to poets contemporaneously writing about the discovery. Perhaps the caption even alludes to Stella’s Columbeidos and Strozzi’s text about Vespucci’s journey. Here Stradano has not chosen to write a song, but has rather designed images ‘‘on behalf of the majesty of these things that have been discovered.’’ By referring to this other medium, the song or poem, within his own engraving, Stradano has commented on the paragone debate between the different arts, and has shown that the print is the ‘‘worthy’’ medium for depicting this ‘‘majesty.’’ The following three prints in the series thus represent visual prin ted songs dedicated to each discoverer.

Who Is the Admission Committee What Do They Look For

Who Is the Admission Committee What Do They Look For SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The admissions committee that decides whether or not you get into your dream school can often seem shrouded in mystery. Who, exactly, are these people? A group of soulless office workers who delight in stamping â€Å"Rejected† across applications? A team of well-trained robots who data-mine your application and input it into an algorithm? While it may seem like the admissions committee process is secretive, that’s actually not the case. Admissions committees are made up of real, live humans whose sole job is to put together the best incoming class possible for their college or university. Let’s learn a little more about college admissions committees. What Is an Admission Committee? A college admissions committee is a group of people who work together to make decisions about who is accepted as part of the next matriculating class. Admissions committees are made up of admissions staffers - university employees whose job it is to assess each applicant and decide whether or not he or she is a good fit for acceptance. Most highly selective schools are fairly secretive or nebulous about their admissions process, but many public schools have guaranteed admission for students who meet certain criteria, as well as offer specific information about expected scores and GPAs for applicants. The vast majority have multiple people read your application to decide whether or not you’ll be accepted. Who Reads My Admission Application? Your college application will likely be read by at least two groups of people - regional staffers and the wider admissions committee, which may be made up of deans, faculty members, and even current students. Regional staffers are college admissions employees who focus on your specific geographical region. They are typically the people who travel to college fairs in your region and may conduct interviews. You might have met them before, if you attended a college fair at your school or in your area. The rest of the admissions committee can be structured differently, depending on the college or university. Often, there are deans or other high-ranking members of the admissions office who participate in the second read-through of your application. If you’re applying to a specific school or program, faculty members who know their coursework may be part of the decision, as they have a good sense of who can handle their classes. Some schools include students on the admissions committee, who speak to whether or not applicants would be a good addition to the larger school community and student body. Over the past few months, the lawsuit against Harvard’s discrimination towards Asian students offered insight into the previously highly secretive process. The admissions committee at Harvard assesses the grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, intended majors, ethnicities, and regional background of every student. From this information, we can assume that other highly competitive and secretive schools use similar criteria. While you obviously can’t control your ethnicity or where you live, you can control the rest of your application, so it’s important to put as much effort in your grades, essays, and extracurriculars as possible. What Is a Typical Admissions Committee Process? Very few schools divulge what happens during their admissions process or give specific, data-driven criteria. That being said, schools like Harvard have released the questions that admissions committee members ask themselves as they’re reviewing your application. Here’s a sample of some of the questions Harvard admission committee members consider: Have you been stretching yourself academically and personally? How have you used your time? Do you have initiative? Are you a self-starter? Do you care deeply about anything - intellectual? Extracurricular? Personal? How open are you to new ideas and people? Will you contribute something to Harvard and to your classmates? Will you benefit from your Harvard experience? While the specific questions may vary from school to school, the basic gist is the same. Schools want to know whether or not you’ve been challenging yourself and how you’ll contribute to their campus and classrooms. Most college admissions committees have at least a two-step process for applicants. First, applications are read by regional staffers. These admissions committee members look over your application for basic qualifications like grades, test scores, and extracurriculars to make sure you match up to the standards of the typical matriculating student. If those qualifications match up, your application will be brought to the wider admission committee, made up of senior admissions faculty, deans, professors, and maybe even students. Together, that committee discusses your application and makes a decision on whether or not to admit you. Recap: Understanding the Admission Committee A college admissions committee is a group of people who read your application and decide whether or not you’ll be a good fit to attend their school. Considering that most colleges and universities have at least two read through of each student they consider a good fit, you want to make sure that your qualifications are obvious enough to pass through the first read and move on to the second. That means that your grades and test scores should be close to the middle range of scores for accepted applicants at your school so that you’ll be considered. You also want to make sure that the qualitative parts of your application are up to snuff as well. Consider what the admissions committee will be asking themselves about you. What does your academic, extracurricular, and personal record demonstrate? What story have you told about who you are and how you might contribute to the college or university of your dreams? What’s Next? Looking for application tips for some of the most selective schools? Read our complete guides to the University of California system and to the Georgetown application. Should you apply early or regular decision to college? Find out the pros and cons of early decision in this article. Not sure what to major in? Get expert advice in our guide to choosing a college major, and learn the five main factors to consider before you declare a major. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

Managing Activities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Activities - Essay Example The Chairman, Stuart Rose, has the responsibility for the monitoring of all business activities; however, executive directors have placed at each organizational department ensuring the close control over the firm’s activities. Apart from the directors of each department there are also directors that are not related with a particular organizational sectors – non - executive directors. Although their role in the development of business activities is not made clear it can be assumed that they can intervene in all firm’s sectors – in accordance with the CEO’s guidelines or the relevant suggestions of each department’s executive director. It is assumed that cooperation and coordination are strongly promoted in the workplace. The development of divisions within the organization increases the effectiveness of the firm’s control over its activities. As for the firm’s organizational culture, there are some points that need to be highligh ted. All business activities are developed in accordance with the Corporate Governance Framework and the Code of Ethics – as presented in the firm’s website. In accordance with the corporate website, the corporate governance is based on the following principles: ‘quality, value, service, innovation and trust’ (corporate website, governance framework, 2009). A characteristic element of the firm’s governance is the use of the so-called ‘plan – A’ which aims to align all corporate activities with the environmental needs – promotion of sustainability through the business operations. In other words, corporate culture is based on the following values: application of corporate and social ethics and protection of the environment. 1b. The development of Marks and Spencer in the market – both the British and the international – has been achieved through the promotion of a series of values and the active support to the principles of

Entrepreneurship International new ventures - internalization, growth Thesis - 1

Entrepreneurship International new ventures - internalization, growth path, Measutement - Thesis Example Logitech and Skype are two firms that started out as international new ventures. Logitech and Skype are selected for case studies because they both represent the opportunities accorded international entrepreneurs and at the same time represent two different types of opportunities and risks taken and how those risks pay off and can be detrimental to international entrepreneurs. In this regard, Logitech represents how risks in international entrepreneurships can be profitable and Skype represents how risks can actually be detrimental to international new ventures. The results of this study confirm both network and internationalization theories. These results are discussed and implications for theory and practice are also discussed. Studies on international firms often focus on multi-national enterprises (MNE) which usually begin as large and powerful domestic firms that eventually branch out into the international arena (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994). However, advances in technology and an increase in the number of individuals with experience in international business have opened up opportunities for non-traditional MNEs (Oviatt & McDougall, 1994). Since the 1990s, there have been a significant and progressive growth in the number of ‘new and young firms’ that join the international market from the start (McDougall, Oviatt, & Shrader, 2003, p. 59). This trend in internationalisation from the start is known as International New Ventures (INV) (McDougall, et al., 2003). Researchers have attempted to understand why new firms which are comparatively small, would assume the additional ‘risk’ of venturing directly into the international market (McDougall, et al., 2003, p. 60). Traditional international business theories fail to provide a framework for analysing and understanding why international entrepreneurs venture out into the global market place from inception. This is because traditional international

I phone5 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

I phone5 - Research Paper Example Featuring of an architectural website, Dezeen, in the launch video of i phone5 focuses on the variance and depth of new promotional partnerships between different category products such as Apple Inc. and Dezeen, an architecture, interiors and design company website. Apple Inc. has given huge promotional leverage to Dezeen in the videos, thus, marking a new chapter of relational linking by entering into collaboration with the architecture magazine. It highlights how LTE technology offers â€Å"really fast downloads over your cellular network†. Marketing of Apple has always been a hush-hush matter. Apple contacted Dezene a year back for a customised version of its website with no advertisements and social media links without disclosing its strategy to the management of Dezeen (Golson, September 2012). The tie-up between Apple i phone5 and Dezeen magazine on architecture, interiors and design by showing the home page of the company website on the promotional videos, on the occasi on of the launch of its latest i phone5 version has huge management and functional implications for the architectural company. It offers a trade-off to the viewer of purchasing a superior quality product although it won’t be a decision taken at once, as the ad viewer would analyse the future cost and quality trajectory of the magazine in the category it belongs to. If the consumer wants to replace the product, as in this case, the decision will be taken by comparing it with the currently owned and subscribed magazine and other available magazines on architecture and design in the market. If after visiting the Dezeen company website through the Apple i phone5 link given on the email of the user, it reveals that the difference in quality is tangibly and intangibly significant relative to the cost of the architectural magazine, the possibility of replacing the current magazine with Dezeen increases. It means increase in the sale of Dezeen product. Thus, purchase decision depends , as per general modelling related to replacement. In the case of i phone5 and Dezeen, both the products are not complimentary as they are un-related. Therefore, the purchase decision in one category, i.e., the Dezeen, would not be impressed by the purchase decision in another category, i.e., the Apple company’s newly launched i phone5 (Sriram et al., 2010). Nevertheless, if the products in both the categories have been purchased, the incentive to replace them with the latest versions, as in the case of Apple i phone5, the consumer decision is going to be taken on the quality parameter only; the higher the quality, the more inspired the decision for replacement. Consumer leverage would be more if both the products are replaced relatively to a single category product replacement (Sriram et al., 2010). Anyways, the great thing for an architecture website is that a technology giant like Apple has contacted it for sharing business leverage mutually through an email link to the we bsite address for the visitor to surf the pages of the magazine compelling the viewer to take a better decision after analysing the trade-off. As per the general model for replacement, if two

The theories of leadership and motivation

The theories of leadership and motivation Leadership is the character which every organisation wants to see in their staff and the person who is self motivated and who can motivate the team members become a good manager. Leadership is nothing but inspiring the team leader is the one who does it, inspiration is nothing but motivation. So leadership and motivation is a chemistry which can take any difficult task to success. The leadership and motivation chemistry is mostly helpful in management sector whether it is in business or in the team; every individual posses leadership but the one who practices on the go become a perfect leader. The main aspect a leader consists is a vision for the certain purpose. When a task or project is taken over by a company the company searches for a leader who posses knowledge on the project and vision how to develop the project, make use of colleagues and give the organisation a profit on it. A leader tends to influence the task to be continued and change to be taken place to make the organisation profitable. There are several theories on leadership by great leaders some of them say that leadership is an action not position or person. These theories help to prepare a perfect leader, all these theories are proposed and practiced by great leaders and managers but latest management considers a leader who follows his role. Leadership theories: Considering leadership reveals school of thought giving different leadership theories such as Great Man theory, trait theory, behaviourist theory, situational leadership theory, contingency theory, transactional theory and transformational theory. Great man theory is the one proposed before twentieth century where it says that leaders are born with the talent and leader should be a man this lead to the next theory trait theory. Trait theory: The trait theory rose from the concepts of the Great Man approach. This theory leads to identify the important characteristics of a successful leader. The people who got the characters as defined by the traits approach are isolated or shortlisted and those are recruited as leaders. This type of approach was mostly implemented in military and still used in some of the area. According to the trait theory the person who got the following skills is said to be a trait. Ambitious and success oriented Adaptable to all kinds of situations Co operative to all the members in the organization Highly active or energetic Dominative Good decision making ability Self-confident Adaptable to stress conditions and Dependable. These are the characters which make a person trait and they should posses some skills which are Skills Intelligent Skilled conceptually Creative Fluent in speaking Tactful Self motivated and self belief Skilled socially When these kinds of skills and characters are identified in the person, the person is recruited in the team. Behavioural theory: The trait study doesnt give any conclusive results and it was hard to measure some more critical issues such as honesty, integrity and loyalty. This leaded the attention to be diverted on to the behaviour theories. The behaviour theory focuses on human relationship and success performance as well. According to behavioural theory the manager believes that the working environment should be like an entertainment place where the expenditure of mental and physical efforts is treated to be play and rest. The idea of manager is an average person not only learns to accept but also seek responsibility. The people will automatically learn to exercise self-control and self direction to achieve the goal or target. The organizational problems can become imaginative and creative. Contingency theory model: This theory illustrates that there are many ways for the manager to lead the team to get best outcome. According to the situation the manager can find a best way to get the best outcome. Fiedler worked on contingency theory according to that he looked for three situations which define the condition of a managerial task. Leader and team member relationship Work structure or project structure Position and power The manager should maintain relation with their team members to get along and create confidence and make them feel free to think about the task and give their ideas to help the task to be finished. Project structure is the job highly structured or unstructured or in between. The power shows how much authority a manager does posses. This theory rates the manager whether the manger is relationship oriented or task oriented. The task oriented managers gets success in such situations where there is good leader and team member relationship and structured projects or tasks doesnt matter whether the position power is weak or strong. And get success when the project is unstructured and does have any sort of good vision by having a strong power and position. The variables which affect the task such as environmental variables are combined in a heavy some and differentiated as favourable and unfavourable situations. The task oriented management style depends on the favourable and unfavourable environment variables but the relationship management style stays in the middle by managing or changing the variables to accumulate with their style. Both styles of managements got their sides to be good when all the performance and team work well in the tasks. There is no good or bad management in these two managements. Task motivated management style leaders do best when the team performs well and they are good in achieving good sales record and performance better than their competitor where as the relationship oriented leaders are helpful to gain positive customer service and build a positive image to the organisation. Transactional and transformational leadership: Transformational leadership is a relationship of mutual simulation and elevation that converts the followers in to leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents Transformational leadership is communicating with the leaders and the team members to take them to higher level something like a leader can become a moral agent and the follower can become a leader. Transactional leadership technique builds the person to finish the certain task such as job done for the time being. Some of the differences between transactional and transformational leadership are Transactional style of leadership builds a man to complete a certain task where as transformational styles builds a member to become a leader. This focuses on task completion and tactical style of management where as transformational leadership focus on strategies and missions. These are some theories of the leadership which shows how a leader act on different situations and how different leaders behave to get success in the organization. Motivation in Management: Theories of motivation: The theories of motivation can be divided into 3 broad categories. Reinforcement theories emphasize the means through which the process of controlling an individuals behavior by manipulating its consequences takes place. Content theories focus primarily on individual needs the physiological or psychological deficiencies that we feel a compulsion to reduce or eliminate. Process theories focus on the thought or cognitive processes that take place within the minds of people and that control their behavior. Early Theories of Motivation: Hierarchy of Needs Theory Theory X and Theory Y Motivation-Hygiene Theory Contemporary Theories of Motivation: ERG Theory McClellands Theory of Needs Cognitive Evaluation Theory Task Characteristics Theories Goal-Setting Theory Equity Theory Hierarchy of Needs Theory: Abraham Maslow hypothesized that within every human being there exists a hierarchy of five needs: 1. Physiological. 2. Safety. 3. Social. 4. Esteem. 5. Self-actualization. Maslow then categorized these 5 needs into lower-order needs and higher-order needs.Lower-order needs are needs that are satisfied externally: physiological and safety needs.Higher-order needs are needs that are satisfied internally (within the person): social, esteem, and self-actualization needs. Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas McGrogor: McGregor concluded that a managers vision of the nature of human beings is based on a certain blend of assumptions and that he or she tends to mold his or her actions toward subordinates according to these assumptions: Employees naturally dislike work and, whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it Since employees dislike work, they must be coerced, controlled, or threatened with punishment to achieve goals Employees will avoid responsibilities and seek formal direction whenever possible Motivation-hygiene Theory: According to Herzberg, the factors leading to job satisfaction are dividing and distinct from those that leads to job dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors include factors such as: company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary. Motivator factors include factors such as: attainment, recognition, the work itself, responsibility and growth. Hygiene Factors Company rule and management; Supervision; association with supervisor; Work circumstances; Salary; Relationship with peers; Personal life; association with subordinates; Status; Safety Motivator Factors: attainment credit; Work itself; Responsibility; progression; Growth Contemporary Theories of Motivation: ERG Theory: ERG Theory proposed by Clayton Alderfer of Yale University: Alderfer fights that there are three groups of core needs: 1) Existence 2) Relatedness 3) Growth Existence group is worried with providing our basic material existence requirements. Relatedness group is the desire we have for maintaining important interpersonal relationships McClellands Theory of Needs: McClellands theory of needs focuses on three needs: 1) Achievement 2) Power 3) Affiliation Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Allocating extrinsic rewards for behaviour that had been previously intrinsically rewarded tends to decrease the overall level of motivation. (This concept was proposed in the late 1960s.)The interdependence of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards is a real phenomenon Task Characteristics Theories: These theories seek to identify task characteristics of jobs, how these characteristics are combined to form different jobs, and their relationship to employee motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Goal-setting theory: Specific and difficult goals lead to higher performance. Feedback leads to higher performance than non-feedback. In addition to feedback, 2 other factors have been found to influence the goals-performance relationship. These are: 1. Goal commitment. 2. Sufficient self-efficacy. Equity Theory: Individuals make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relatives to those of others and then act in response so as to remove any inequities. Stacy Adams proposed that this negative tension state provides the motivation to do something to correct it. There are 4 referent comparisons that employee can use: 1. Self-inside. 2. Self-outside. 3. Other inside. 4. Other outside. Conclusion The change in the leadership theories time by time says that the leader should posses certain characters which lead the organisational success whether to believe in maintaining a relationship or to go on tactically the manager or the leader should act to the situation and get success at the end. Depending on the companies motive the leader should react or behave with the team members to achieve the target. Usually maintaining a good relation helps to make the team members life easy and manage the work happily. The team members become more innovative and achieve targets easily where as with tactical style leadership may create some sort of pressure on the team members, there is no guarantee that in every situation relational ship management is successful. the leader should adapt himself for the situation and act according to a particular situation. We have discussed above only a collection of the motivation theories and thoughts of the various proponents of management .In some of the theories and opinion presented, however, one can observe some glimpses of the person and how, perhaps, he or she could be motivated. This is satisfying in itself. But, as noted earlier, practice has been in advance of theory in this field, so let us now move to the realistic side of management of human behaviour and motivation in the workplace. REFERNCES: AstraZeneca (1999) Leadership in AstaZeneca. AstraZeneca HR, Dec 1999 Bass, B. (1985) Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. New York: Free Press. Blackler, F. and Kennedy, A. (2003) The Design of a Development Programme for Experienced Top Bergmann, H., Hurson, K. and Russ-Eft, D. (1999) Everyone a Leader: A grassroots model for thenew workplace. New York: John Wiley and Sons Gosling, J. and Mintzberg, H. (2003) Mindsets for Managers. Working paper, Centre for LeadershipStudies Hersey, P. and K.H. Blanchard (1977) Management of Organizational Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs NJ:Prentice hal1 Rodgers, H., Frearson, M., Holden, R. and Gold, J. (2003) The Rush to Leadership. Presented atManagement Theory at Work conference, Lancaster University, April 2003 Tannenbaum, R. and Schmidt, W. (1958) How to choose a leadership pattern. Harvard BusinesReview 36(2), 95-101

Virtual Communities: A Sociological Perspective From Pastoral Village t

The technical, functional, and symbolic characteristics of the Internet may have changed the ways that communities are formed and experienced through a decentralized global communication network that transcends physical time and space. While this notion of â€Å"virtual community† is closely associated with the emergence of information communication technologies (ICTs), the idea that communities can be seen as series of social ties that vary in density, size and nature is not a novel concept. The rise of cities and urban centers as a result of industrialization have long concerned sociologists, many of whom (e.g., Wirth, 1938; Woodsworth, 1911) feared that traditional social relations that permeated folk communities may be transformed and even threatened by the growth of contemporary metropolis. The development of traditional mass media (e.g., print, radio, and television) had contributed to the process of urbanization by serving as a means of communication for both social an d commercial activities. To understand what the Internet may mean for human communities in today’s social and technological context, it is necessary to first explore the changing conception of â€Å"community† before the arrival of computers. While the existence of a community is typically defined by the types of social ties formed by its members (e.g., family or work) and by the physical boundaries that it occupies (e.g., neighborhoods or towns), the idea of community can be traced to ancient social and political thought, ranging from the five fundamental relationships in Confucianism to Plato’s ideal republic. During the Enlightenment period, philosophers such as Locke (1988/1689) and Rousseau (1998/1762) wrote extensively about the ways in which individuals enter t... ...ace of community in the age of digital communication technologies. As a result, it is the person, rather than issues associated with the change in physical environment (e.g., urbanization, migration), becomes the new focus of the community research in the information age from a sociological standpoint. For example, what motivates individuals to join virtual communities? In what frequency and capacity do individuals interact with multiple social groups? And to maintain what kind of social relations? These are some of the emerging questions that community scholars will soon have to answer. It is for this reason that the study of community must move beyond the realm of sociology and incorporate perspectives from psychology in order to obtain a more compete picture of what has, and what has not, changed as a result of the networked environment at the individual level.