News
Medieval
and Renaissance Study in Italy
The University of Arkansas Rome Campus and the
Medieval and Renaissance Program are offering two opportunities to study in
Rome in 2017.
During Summer Session 2, students can take two
3000-level courses for a variety of humanities credit. During fall semester,
students can enroll for 15 (or more) hours of credit.
For more information contact directly professor
William A. Quinn, director of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 575-5988,
wquinn@uark.edu.
Rt66 Renaissance Faire GoFundMe Appeal
Rt66 Renaissance Faire, is the newest
Renaissance style fair to Oklahoma…
We at Black Sheep Entertainment ( the
producers of Rt66 Renaissance Faire), want to create a realm where people can
step back in time to a renaissance style country market that has been set up as
Fall Festival where people can enjoy the day with Nobles,
Commoners, and Pirates of the past. Both to learn a little about history to
some extent, sing songs of merriment with our bards and musicians, or cause
shenanigans with our booty finding friends…
What the Money will be used
for:
The money we are trying to raise, is
to help set up the bases for this event, which will help pay for part of the
grounds, materials, and start to pay for some of the entertainment for the
event…
Rt66 Renaissance Faire, is
slated to open its gates, November 11 & 12, 2017 at the Creek County Fair
Grounds, Kellyville Oklahoma, thus giving us plenty of time to create wonderful
event and atmosphere…
Complete GoFundMe appeal:
Past
Faires/Events
The
Ohio Renaissance Fair
2016 Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival
Following the fall of the Western
Roman Empire, the medieval period that followed lasted from the 5th to the 15th
century. Scholars prefer to call the era the “medieval period” because saying
“Middle Ages incorrectly implies that the period was an insignificant blip
sandwiched between two important epochs” (history.com). Within those ten
centuries ranged every catastrophe from economic devastation to the Dark Ages
of barbarism, the Black Death (bubonic plague) that killed 30 percent of all
Europeans, to the rise of Islam, as well as the Crusades to Attila the Hun —
and these are only the footnotes!
Representing life and lifestyles in
the Middle Ages, the Rosenvolk German Medieval Festival offered educational
events for the hundreds of school children who will arrive by the bus loads
(class trips) and car loads (parents) to spend the day in an exciting
atmosphere of Lords and Ladies, Kings and Queens, Knights and Dukes, learning
the crafts, music, methods and more of European life in the Middle Ages.
Each day of the festival began with
entertainment by Crossed Cannons and Celica Fae. Crossed Cannons is a musical
group of pirates, singing sea shanties and other “sea” related songs.
Very nice, detailed article:
http://www.duboiscountyfreepress.com/romance-royalty-music-mead-knights-fire-breathers-jesters-jousting-rosenvolk/
King Harold Day medieval festival
Celebrating the Life,
Legend & Legacy of England's Last Anglo-Saxon King
This year is the 950th Anniversary of
the Year of King Harold II, of his Coronation, the three great battles of 1066,
and Harold’s death on the battlefield.
Harold Godwinsson, King Harold II, was
Lord of the Manor of Waltham when he was Earl of Essex and East Anglia, owned
much land and property in the area, and whose family home with his handfast
wife, Edith Swan-Neck, was at Nazeing. Harold founded the Minster Church that
eventually became the Great Abbey, and legend has it that he came to pray at
the Miraculous Cross of Waltham before the Battle of Hastings, and that his
body was brought back here after his death.
This year the re-enactors werre The Feudals.
They set up their medieval camp where you could see cooking, weaving, arrow
making in the medieval way, as well as their weapons and armour….
Trouvère,
medieval musicians provided early Saxon and Norman music.
Coda Falconry
had birds of prey on show all day, and flying from the Arena once in the
morning and once in the afternoon.
Chingford Morris Men
performed their Mummers’ Play and morris dancing…
Also featured was a Hog Roast, and the
local Dominion Brewery offered 11th Century-type ales.,,
King Harold Day is part of the King
Harold 950 Festival taking place from September to December 2016…
Complete article: http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/Essex/Waltham-Abbey/EN9/News/Whats-On/302883-King-Harold-Day-Festival-950th-Anniversary-Year-Sat-8th-October-2016
Shepherdstown
Renaissance Fair (WV)
The residents and visitors of Shepherdstown got
a chance to see sword fights and more Saturday when King Street was transformed
into a Renaissance Fair to show how inhabitants of 16th century Europe dressed,
ate, worshiped, protested and entertained themselves 500 years ago, during the
Protestant Reformation.
Shepherdstown’s inaugural Renaissance Festival
was titled “1517 Festival: A Renaissance Street Fair that is observing 500 Year
of the Reformation.”
The exact year of 1517 has some historic and
religious significance itself.
“1517 is most commonly attributed to Martin
Luther nailing a copy of his ’95 Thesis’ on the door of the All Saints Church
in Wittenburg, Germany,” said Jake Priddy, owner and head instructor of Fenris
Kunst des Fechtens, a martial arts training group from Extreme Family Fitness
in Martinsburg.
Besides teaching Medieval sword fighting,
Priddy is also a student of Medieval history earning a Master’s degree in the
subject at George Washington University...
Complete article and pictures: http://www.journal-news.net/news/local-news/2016/10/shepherdstown-hosts-reformation-style-renaissance-fair/
SCA People
Psychology Professor David Johnson
…Johnson is a proud member of the Society
of Creative Anachronism, a medieval recreation group that is dedicated to
learning the arts and practices of the ancient world.
SCA isn’t your typical renaissance
festival group, as one can tell from visiting Johnson’s office, where parchment
scrolls of handcrafted calligraphy hung on the same walls as collegiate
degrees.
The organization’s main focus is on
researching, learning and ultimately recreating the skills people would have
learned back in the middle ages, which is usually defined by the organization
as anything before the 17th century.
The SCA
prides itself in being not just a renaissance festival group or a medieval
reenactment organization, but instead a group for living history.
“We do use the term anachronism because
we’re a little bit different than what you might call reenactors, like the
Civil War folks, Johnson said.
“Their overall desire is to have things
exactly the way they were, and they also reenact specific battles. We do
recreation, so we do the things they might have done in the middle ages, but
we’re not really recreating any particular battles.”
SCA offers opportunities for people to
learn a variety of skills that would have been taught in the middle ages,
including learning weaponry, woodworking and hat making.
“Probably the thing I do, for the most
part, is missile weapons. So I do archery, and throw axes and knives and
spears,” Johnson said.
Johnson is also interested in medicinal
history. “Medicine is another interest of mine. Research is sort of my thing,
so what I really like doing is when I find something really interesting in a medieval
document, where they say to use this [medicine] for all of these disorders.”
Johnson also said he likes to “go into modern research to see if it held any
water. And amazingly, a lot of times they were onto things,” Johnson said….
“I believe that my most medieval
experience was the archery shoot from the Viking boat, Johnson said.
“After reading about Vikings (and of
course watching the TV show!) it was an exhilarating experience to row [an]
old, heavy, Viking boat with my fellow archers and then shoot at targets on
land from the boat. Rowing back to the dock, we all had grins on our faces that
I will never forget…
Complete
article: http://advocate.jbu.edu/2016/10/06/professor-shares-medieval-passion/
Art
Denver Art
Museum Oct 2, 2016 - Feb. 12, 2017
North Carolina Museum of Art March 4, 2017 –
June 18, 2017
Experience the extraordinary artistic creativity of
Venice at Glory of Venice: Masterworks of the Renaissance, opening
Oct. 2 at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). From the mid-1400s to early 1500s,
artists forged a Renaissance style that was distinctly Venetian. Through this
artistic evolution, the city became an internationally recognized model of
pictorial excellence.
Artworks on view in the exhibition will emphasize how
masters during this period—whose sensitivity toward color and light remained
unparalleled for centuries—veered from traditional techniques and began using
oil paint to experiment with depth, emotion and dimension in their work.
Glory of Venice features about 50
significant works, and provides visitors with a rare opportunity to experience
19 artworks from Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia, which houses one of the
greatest collections of Venetian Renaissance art in the world. Additional
masterworks on view include paintings on loan from the Scuola Grande di San
Rocco in Venice and the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Parma, Italy, as well as
signature paintings from the DAM’s collection.
Art works examples can be seen here:
Lucas
Cranach
Lucas Cranach (1472–1553) is today acknowledged
as one of the great painters of the Northern Renaissance, the creator of a
large number of remarkable paintings in a distinctive, highly recognisable
style. He was also responsible for the iconic series of images of the
Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546), his friend and contemporary who
had also settled in the small north German city of Wittenberg. His images of
Luther and friends provide the definitive pictorial chronicle of the reformer’s
life, from the time he first burst on to the public stage, and into old age.
All of the many books that celebrate Luther in
this run-up to the 500th anniversary in 2017 of the publishing of his 95 Theses
will draw on Cranach for their image of the reformer. So too will the
exhibitions organised under the aegis of the Luther Exhibitions USA 2016
project: ‘Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation’ at the Morgan Library
and Museum, New York (7 October–22 January 2017); ‘Law and Grace: Martin
Luther, Lucas Cranach, and the Promise of Salvation’ at Pitts Theology Library,
Emory University, Atlanta (11 October–16 January 2017); and ‘Martin Luther: Art
and the Reformation’ at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (30 October–15 January
2017)...
Complete, comprehensive and very interesting
article with art: http://www.apollo-magazine.com/the-art-that-built-martin-luthers-brand/
Botticelli
and the Search for the Divine: Florentine Painting Between the Medici and
the Bonfires of the Vanities
Muscarelle Museum- College of William &
Mary February 11, 2017 - April 6 2017
Museum of Fine Arts Boston April 18 2017-
July 9, 2017
Botticelli and the Search for the Divine:
Florentine Painting Between the Medici and the Bonfires of the Vanities is a
major international loan exhibition organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art
in Williamsburg, Va., in partnership with Italy’s Associazione Culturale
Metamorfosi.
Sandro Botticelli (Florence
1445 –1510), was one of the most original and creative painters of the
Italian Renaissance. Today his name and images are known as widely as Leonardo
da Vinci and Michelangelo, who were his friends. Together with his deeply
moving religious images, Botticelli is renowned as the unchallenged master of
classical mythologies. In his time, he also replicated the central figure of
his iconic Birth of Venus in the Uffizi gallery in Florence in paintings with
dark backgrounds stripped bare of place and time, just displaying the solitary
beautiful nude.
One of the only two such Venuses known today in
the world, from the Galleria Sabauda museum in Turin, will be on view for the
first time in America, together with many other works that have never
previously traveled to the United States.
The exhibition will travel to the Museum of
Fine Arts Boston as its only other venue. The exhibition will open at the
Muscarelle Museum on February 11, 2017 and run through April 6. The exhibition
will open to the public in Boston on April 18 and will close on July 9.
Renato Miracco, cultural attaché for the
Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. has stated that the upcoming Botticelli and
the Search for the Divine “will be the largest and most important exhibition of
its type ever organized in the United States.” He added that “the exhibition
catalogues by John Spike, a leading Italianist, have been outstanding works of
scholarship.” The Botticelli show is the most recent of numerous cultural
initiatives by the Muscarelle Museum to which the Italian Embassy has lent its
support.
The restless, prolific and original genius of
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) will be explored in depth in this historic
exhibition, which features sixteen of his paintings, most with life-size
figures, from major museums and churches in six Italian cities, including
Florence, Milan and Venice. Every phase of the artist’s long, tumultuous career
is represented in the selection, by far the largest and most important
Botticelli exhibition ever staged in the United States.
Also featured are six rare paintings, by
Botticelli’s great master Filippo Lippi, the only pupil of Masaccio. The
cultural milieu of Renaissance Florence will be represented by several
paintings by Filippo’s son, Filippino Lippi, Botticelli’s most important
student and a leading master in his own right; a painting and a bronze
statuette of Hercules by Antonio Pollaiuolo; the death mask of Lorenzo the
Magnificent; and a portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo.
By 1490, as the first Renaissance century drew
to a close, Sandro Botticelli was reputed the greatest painter in Florence.
Born in 1445, Botticelli’s path to success had been guided by the Medici
dynasty headed by Lorenzo de’ Medici, Il Magnifico. Naturally willing to learn,
Botticelli returned the favor with sensuous fantasies on the Birth of Venus and the Allegory of Spring inspired by the
Medici passion for the beauty of ancient Greece and the exoticism of the
Romans. Botticelli’s mythologies endure among the best-known images of the
Renaissance and the most famous paintings in the world.
Sandro Botticelli’s idyllic life was changed
forever when Lorenzo the Magnificent died unexpectedly in 1492. His son
and successor, Piero the “Unfortunate”, so thoroughly mismanaged affairs that
the government of the city was ceded to Fra Savonarola, the fiery preacher and
nemesis of the Medici.
Botticelli is the most prominent of the
painters whose nudes and pagan subjects were thrown on the notorious Bonfires
of the Vanities that took place on Fat Tuesday (mardis gras) of 1497 and 1498.
Some authorities believe that Botticelli himself participated in the
burning.
The
Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena
Manuscript illuminator and panel painter
Giovanni di Paolo (about 1399–1482) counts as one of the most distinctive and
imaginative artists working in Renaissance Siena, Italy. The Shimmer of Gold:
Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena, on view October 11, 2016 through
January 8, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, brings
together several examples of his brilliantly colored paintings on both panel
and parchment, including the work that scholars consider to be the artist’s
masterpiece.
The exhibition centers on Giovanni’s most
important commission, the Branchini Altarpiece, a multi-panel polyptych
completed in 1427 for the Branchini family chapel in the church of San Domenico
in Siena. The exhibition reunites—for the first time since it was dispersed
sometime after 1649—the glorious, large central panel, representing the Virgin
and Child surrounded by seraphim and flowers, with the altarpiece’s four
surviving predella panels, smaller narrative paintings that decorated the lower
register of the altarpiece.
The signed and dated central panel, the
so-called “Branchini Madonna,” on loan from the Norton Simon Museum in
Pasadena, was the only portion identified as part of the altarpiece until 2009,
when scholars in Europe connected it with other works.
The team at the Getty recently had the
opportunity to study the panel from the Norton Simon when it came to the Museum
for conservation, along with a small predella panel representing
the Adoration of the Magi, which had been loaned for study and treatment
by the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. Technical analysis is still
ongoing, but it seems to support what scholars had already suspected: that the
Adoration of the Magi panel was indeed part of the Branchini Altarpiece, as
were three other predella panels in the collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale
of Siena. All four surviving predella panels (there was a fifth panel, which is
yet to be found) will be gathered together in the exhibition.
The exhibition also brings into focus the
highly decorative and richly colored painting technique, which included
extensive use of gold leaf, that peaked in Italy in the early 15th century, and
of which Giovanni di Paolo was a celebrated master.
Over the course of his lengthy career, Giovanni
received prestigious commissions from private individuals and families, patrons
such as the Pope, guilds, and numerous religious orders, including the
Dominicans and Augustinians. His brilliantly colorful paintings on both panel
and parchment reveal him to be an artist whose style drew uniquely from Sienese
and Florentine models.
In the 1420s, Giovanni di Paolo and fellow
Sienese artists responded enthusiastically to the courtly splendor of the newly
arrived painter Gentile da Fabriano, one of the most successful artists in
Italy at the time, who traveled to Tuscany from northern Italy for numerous
commissions, and who immediately worked with and sometimes under the
supervision of Siena’s leading creative personalities.
Some scholars have suggested that the young
Giovanni di Paolo may have worked on the Branchini Altarpiece with Gentile, who
would have influenced Giovanni di Paolo’s technique, as many similarities in
their painting methods are apparent. The sophisticated layering of paint and
gold as well as the careful execution of elaborate and fine decorative details
is evident in the work of both artists, and each were masters at depicting the
luxury brocaded textiles and animal furs that were so valued during this
period.
In the exhibition, leaves and cuttings from
choir books illuminated by Sienese and Florentine artists underscore the shared
working methods, itinerant travels, and – in particular – the prevalent use of
gold in the religious imagery of the period; as well as explore Giovanni di
Paolo’s influence on the painted arts in Renaissance Tuscany. “The illuminated
choir book is one of the most significant art forms to demonstrate the combined
efforts of multiple artists, a theme demonstrated through a grouping of
miniatures lent by the Burke Family Collection and the Ferrell Collection,”
says Bryan C. Keene, assistant curator in the department of Manuscripts at the
Getty Museum, who also co-curated the exhibition.
The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in
Renaissance Siena will be on view October 11, 2016 – January 8, 2017 at the J.
Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition is generously supported by the Museum’s
Paintings Council who not only sponsored the conservation work on the predella
panel from the Kröller-Müller Museum, but also provided funding for the
exhibition.
Complementing the exhibition is a special show
at the Italian Cultural Institute in Westwood. Unknown Monk – on view from
October 7 through November 11, 2016 – features a series of small panels and a
large oil painting on canvas which visually references the Giovanni di Paolo
altarpiece by contemporary Italian artists Alex Folla and Elena Trailina.
Also on view at the Getty Center are The Art of
Alchemy at the Getty Research Institute (October 11, 2016 –February 12, 2017)
and Alchemy of Color in Medieval Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum
(October 11, 2016 –January 8, 2017). Drawn primarily from the collections of
the Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum The Art of Alchemy,
portrays the critical impact of this arcane subject on artistic practice and
expression from Greco-Egyptian antiquity to medieval Central Asia, and from the
Islamic world to Europe during the Enlightenment and beyond. The Alchemy of
Color in Medieval Manuscripts examines the significance of color, which was
understood in the Middle Ages in terms of its material, scientific and
medicinal properties.
Artworks: http://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-shimmer-of-gold-giovanni-di-paolo.html
The
Alchemy of Color in Medieval Manuscripts
On View October 11, 2016 –January 1, 2017
at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center
Today color is appreciated primarily for its
aesthetic qualities, but during the Middle Ages it was also recognized for its
material, scientific, and mechanical properties. The manufacture of colored
pigments and inks used for painting and writing was part of the science of
alchemy, the chemical transformation of matter. Manuscripts not only
transcribed the scientific practice of alchemy—a medieval antecedent to modern
chemistry—but were created with alchemically produced materials.
From October 11, 2016, through January 1, 2017,
The Alchemy of Color in Medieval Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the
Getty Center sheds light on medieval manuscript illumination within the context
of alchemy as early chemistry and craft practice. With objects from the
Museum’s renowned manuscripts collection complemented by generous loans, the
exhibition examines colorants and medieval recipes for pigments and imitation
gold in a presentation that highlights the Getty’s ongoing research into the
materials used by book illuminators.
“Alchemy was the medieval antecedent to modern
chemistry,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“Manuscripts exemplify this tradition well, not only as a medium by which
scientific texts were transmitted, but because the painted illuminations are
themselves made with alchemically produced materials. Our ongoing research into
materials that were used for manuscript illuminations reveals an alchemical
rainbow of colorants made from plants, minerals, and metals.”
The exhibition is divided into three sections
exploring the technical aspects of alchemy, the manufacture of color, and the
use of gold.
Alchemical Heritage in Manuscripts
Medieval technical manuals and early scientific
books are filled with recipes and instructions for manufacturing pigments.
Alchemy was an ancient tradition known to medieval readers through texts
compiled and copied over centuries in manuscripts. Alchemical knowledge from
antiquity entered medieval encyclopedias, craft manuals, household miscellanies,
and literary texts. This section of the exhibition describes the types of
documents in which alchemical texts reside, including medicinal, astrological,
scientific miscellanies, and craft treatises, as well as the earliest mention
of the practice of alchemy in medieval literature in The Personification of
Nature Making Birds, Animals, and People (about 1405). The authors, Guillaume
de Lorris and Jean de Meun, likened the female personification of Nature to the
most adept alchemist, transforming base materials and hammering at the anvil to
make all the creatures of the world. Evoking the ancient challenge for artists
to imitate Nature with their skillful handling of materials, this trope
positions alchemists and craftsmen as rivals to Nature herself.
The Alchemical Rainbow
As the medieval forerunner to chemistry,
alchemy was concerned with the basic transformation of matter, and this
included the fabrication of beautiful coloring materials for painting. This
section highlights the colors and pigments utilized by illuminators, such as
ultramarine blue, vermilion red, orpiment yellow, and other lesser known
pigments. Some pigments were made from colored earths or semiprecious stones
ground to a fine powder and mixed with a sticky medium. Other pigments required
chemical separations or synthesis by heating or exposing metals to corrosive or
reactive agents. Highly toxic products and materials often yielded the most
brilliant colors, creating a remarkably varied alchemical rainbow. One of the
highlights of this section of the exhibition is an illuminated manuscript of
Saint John (late fourteenth –early fifteenth century). The Indigo blue used for
this painting was produced by the fermentation of the tropical indigofera
plant. This plant was not only used as a dyestuff for textiles but also as a
painting material. Its color can range from blue-black to a paler
greenish-blue, as used for the background coloring in this illumination.
Illuminating with Precious Metals
“Contrary to the popular misconception that the
pursuit of alchemists was simply chrysopoeia, or the making of gold, for many
alchemists the goal was nothing less, in fact, than the reproduction of the
divine act of creation itself,” says Nancy Turner, J. Paul Getty Museum
conservator and curator of the exhibition. The term used to refer to paintings
within books – “illumination” – derives from the Latin illuminare meaning pages
“lit up with gold.” Having come to epitomize the art of book painting, gold is
used not only for its incorruptibility, purity, and high value as a material
but also for its spiritual connotations. Among the examples on view in this
section of the exhibition is Pentecost (about 1030-40). The illuminator
depicted the moment when the Twelve Apostles are imbued with the Holy Spirit of
God. The shimmering gold background adds to the radiant, visionary images, and
was achieved by painting onto the parchment layered applications of granular
gold paint, which was polished with a stone burnisher to achieve a highly
lustrous effect.
The Alchemy of Color in Medieval Manuscripts
will be on view October 11, 2016 –January 1, 2017 at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The exhibition is curated by Nancy Tuner, conservator of manuscripts at the J.
Paul Getty Museum. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with The Art of
Alchemy at the Getty Research Institute (October 11, 2016 –February 12, 2017)
and The Shimmer of Gold: Giovanni di Paolo in Renaissance Siena at the J. Paul
Getty Museum (October 11, 2016 –January 8, 2017).
Van Eyck brothers' “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"
The first restoration
stage of one of the most important pieces of early Renaissance art: the Van
Eyck brothers' altarpiece in Ghent, has been finished.
Completed in 1432, the
"Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" is a complex painting some four and a
half metres (14.75 ft) wide by three and a half metres tall, consisting of 12
panels, eight of them painted on both sides to enable the whole work to be
opened and closed up…
The first stage of the
restoration took four years to complete and focused on the outside panels,
which depict the Annunciation - the angel Gabriel telling Mary she will give
birth to Jesus - as well as showing prophets and two portraits of the praying
donors of the painting…
The painting has had a tumultuous
history, surviving not only the destruction of religious images that swept
through the Low Countries in the summer of 1566…
Complete article and
picture: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/entertainment/flemish-altarpiece-masterwork-part-restored-to-former-glory/3201340.html
Music
Ancestors of contemporary orchestral instruments
Consider
the sackbut or sacbut, an early form of the trombone used in music from the
Renaissance era; or the shawm, a Medieval/Renaissance double reed wind
instrument — the ancestor of the oboe. Then there’s the viol or viola da gamba,
an elder of the cello, and the unusually shaped crumhorn, which may be the
great-grandparent of the clarinet.
You
could have seen and heard these instruments, and experience the sometimes
merry, sometimes plaintive sounds of music from the Medieval, Renaissance,
Baroque and American Colonial eras, when the Guild for Early Music presented
its 12th annual festival, titled “The Zodiac and the Night Sky...”
Engelchor
combined forces with La Spirita to perform music from the 15th -century court
of Burgundy — known for prolific composers such as Guillaume Dufay and Gilles
Binchois…
The a
cappella vocal chamber group Mostly Motets will be playing music from the
Renaissance with text about stars and the night sky, to go with the festival’s
theme…
Complete article:
http://www.centraljersey.com/time_off/bright-and-early-instruments-of-the-past-will-be-heard/article_84fa7dac-8be7-11e6-a98a-43f1b570a0dd.html
Blackmore's
Night
Blackmore's Night: Ritchie Blackmore,
Candice Night, Earl Grey of Chimay, Bard David of Larchmont,The Scarlett
Fiddler, Lady Lynn, and Troubadour of Aberdeen...
Night was working at a local New York rock
music radio station When, she first encountered Blackmore she asked him for an
autograph. The two started living together in 1991. Both shared a passionate
interest in Renaissance music...
In 1997 the project started as being a pun of
their own names, which would consist of themselves plus session musicians.
Their debut album Shadow of the Moon was a musical success... Over time, Night
has increasingly participated instrumentally as well as singing the vocals, and
is competent in a wide variety of Renaissance instruments.
The group performs internationally, mainly in
historical venues including castles theaters and opera houses for an audience
dressed largely in period costume...
The
Boston Camerata
Camerata's musical performances are well known
for their blending of spontaneity and emotional commitment with careful
research and scholarship. With its distinguished roster of singers and
specialists in early instruments, Camerata produces an intown concert series
for audiences in the Greater Boston area. The Boston Camerata also tours
regularly in the US and all over the world. These live performances present
vital, historically informed performances of European music of the Medieval,
Renaissance and Baroque eras, and of early American music, sacred and secular.
The Camerata's many LP and CD recordings, as
well as its numerous media appearances and educational projects, have brought
its work to audiences in every continent.
Future concerts – see website for schedule: http://www.bostoncamerata.com/blog/upcoming/
Puer
Natus Est:
A Medieval Christmas A glimpse of Christmas
spirituality from Medieval France, Italy, England, and Provence, including
music of the church and songs of private devotion around the joyous theme of
the Nativity. Included are songs to the Virgin Mary, processionals from Saint
Martial of Limoges, hymns, lyrics, and miracle ballads sung in Latin, Old
French, Old Provençal, and Saxon, interlaced with Medieval English texts of the
Nativity. The cast features an extraordinary trio of women’s voices with harp
and vielle.
In
Dulci Jubilo:
A German Christmas In the European North, the
forests are deep; the nights are dark and long. Perhaps this is why, in
reaction, the early Christmas music of the German-speaking peoples is so
intensely joyful, so profoundly rich. Our program explores the marvelous music
of German Christmas festivity through chants and chorales, simple carols,
grandiose polyphony, and instrumental fantasias of the 15th to early 17th
centuries. This new program will feature the stellar Boston Camerata Wind
Ensemble and an expanded consort of voices and early instruments.
Treasures
of Devotion:
Spiritual Song in Northern Europe 1500-1540
Music of personal devotion from the early Renaissance, reflecting the
spirituality of homes, family circles, and small chapels in an age of intense
religious renewal. Prayers, songs, chants, including music for the Virgin,
meditations on the cross, and astonishing reworkings of the day’s popular
melodies to sacred texts by Josquin, Agricola, Compère, Senfl, Clemens non
Papa, and others.
Daniel:
A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited This powerful,
highly-praised production returns to Boston in 2017 as part of a national tour.
The themes of justice, and of truth spoken to power, are once again front and
center as the Jewish captive Daniel confronts the tyrannical Belshazzar. The
magnificent musical play of Daniel, composed eight centuries ago in Beauvais,
France was newly transcribed from the original manuscript source and powerfully
staged for modern audiences by Anne Azéma, it was premiered in Boston in 2014
to critical and public acclaim.
History
Middle
Ages and Renaissance anniversaries
This year is a significant one for Middle Ages
and Renaissance anniversaries. It has been 1,000 years since the Danish
conquest of England in 1066, 800 years since the death of King John (of Magna
Carta fame) in 1216, and 400 years since the deaths of both William Shakespeare
and Miguel de Cervantes in 1616.
November- December
Faires
ALABAMA
Mobile
Renaissance Faire and Pirate Festival
November 14 - 15, 2015, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $10 / Contact: Steven Melei, Mobile
Renaissance Faire, 3603 Mobile Hwy., Pensacola, FL 32505, (850) 429-8462,
email: sadie50us@yahoo.com, web: www.gcrf.us / Site: Medieval Village, 30569
Eagle Lane, Robertsdale, AL 36567 / Booths: 50 / Attendance: 6,500 / Weapons:
must be peace-tied / Camping and hotels nearby.
ARKANSAS
Gravette Renaissance Festival NEW
LISTING!
November 7, 2015, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission: $1 / Contact: Gravette
Library, 407 Charlotte St SE, Gravette, AR, 72736, (479) 787-6955, email:
soler@ochonline.com, web: Gravette Public Library Facebook Page / Site: Old
Town Park, Gravette, AR / Booths: 25 / Attendance: 1,300 / Weapons: must be
peace-tied / Camping nearby.
CALIFORNIA
November 7 - 8, 2015, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $10 / Contact: Joyce Roberts, Two Fayre Ladies, 4546 E.
Ashlan, Fresno, CA 93726, (559) 392-0965, email: queensfavr@aol.com, web:
www.twofayreladies.com or facebook page “Kearney Renaissance Faire” / Site:
Kearney Park, 7160 W. Kearney Blvd., Fresno, CA 93722 / Booths: 40 /
Attendance: 5,000 / Weapons: must be peace-tied / On-site camping available for
participants.
FLORIDA
Camelot
Days
November 14 - 22, 2015, (WO) 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Admission: $15 / Contact: Brad Hanafourde, Camelot Days,
Inc., 6971 SW 64th St., Miami, FL 33143, (786) 332-0047, email:
brad@camelotdays.com, web: www.camelotdays.com / Site: Topeekeegee Yugnee Park,
3300 N. Park Rd. Hollywood, Florida 33021, I-95 to Sheridan St., west to N.
Park Rd. / Booths: 150 / Attendance: 4,000 / Weapons: must be sheathed and
peace-tied / Limited on-site camping by request for performers and vendors.
Kathy Stone plunged a sword today into a
"stone" that will become a permanent memorial to her late husband,
Mike, who was known for his tireless volunteer work.
The memorial is at the site of the Lady of the
Lakes Renaissance Faire, which is staged by the Educational Foundation of Lake
County, off County Road 448 in Tavares. Mike Stone, who died July 16 at age 63,
was a dedicated foundation volunteer and a faire workhorse. This year's faire
is set for Nov. 4-6 and 11-13…
Picture and complete article:
November 4 - November 13, 2016, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $13 / Contact: Educational Foundation of Lake County, 910
E. Dixie Ave., Leesburg, FL 34748, (352) 326-1265, email:
cullen-battc@lake.k12.fl.us, web: www.medievalfest.com / Site: Hickory Point
Recreation Park, 27341 St. Rd. 19, Tavares, FL / Booths: 75 / Attendance:
13,000 / Weapons: must be peace-tied / Hotels/motels nearby.
Sarasota
Medieval Fair
November 7 - 22, 2015, (WO) 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission: $17.95 / Contact: Sarasota Medieval Fair,
Inc., PO Box 21371, Bradenton, FL 34204, (888) 303-3247 (FAIR), email:
info@sarasotamedievalfair.com, web: www.sarasotamedievalfair.com / Site:
Sarasota County Fairgrounds, 3000 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota, FL / Booths: 100+ /
Attendance: 63,000 / Weapons: must be peace-tied / No camping on-site. Hotels
and campgrounds nearby.
LOUISIANA
November 5 - December 11, 2016, (WO & Thanksgiving Friday)
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Admission: $18 / Contact: Alvon Brumfeld, PO Box 220, Robert, LA
70455, (985) 429-9992, email: info@larf.org, web: www.larf.org or
www.la-renfest.com / Site: 46468 River Rd., Hammond, LA / Booths: 100 /
Attendance: 55,000 / Weapons: must be peace-tied / Camping & hotels within
15 minutes of site.
MARYLAND
FaerieCon: The Int'l Faerie
Convention
November
4 - 6, 2016, Fri. 1 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. - 11 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. - 5
p.m.
Admission: $45 for weekend pass or $12-20 per day / Contact: Kelly or
Emilio Miller-Lopez, PO Box 51177, Eugene, OR 97405, (514) 687-0945, email:
info@faerieworlds.com, web: www.faeriecon.com / Site: Baltimore Marriott Hunt
Valley Inn, Baltimore, MD / Booths: N/A / Attendance: 6,000 / Weapons: not
allowed / Hotels nearby.
Carolina
Renaissance Festival
…Matt Siegel, director of marketing and
entertainment for the festival, tells me the event is "off to a great
start" with nearly 115,000 people having attended so far. Average
attendance for the eight-week run is about 180,000, he says.,,
The Carolina Renaissance Festival combines
outdoor theater, an artisan marketplace, games of skill and more in a 25-acre
village nestled in the woods off Poplar Tent Road in Huntersville. Revelers
will find cottages and castles, jousting knights and all manner of unusual
characters wandering in their midst. Pubs and kitchens along the festival path
serve up local craft beer, mead, roasted turkey legs and bread bowls, among
other fare.
Organizers bring on about 350 seasonal
employees to work in food and beverage service, ticket sales, parking and other
areas, plus hundreds more costumed performers who roam the grounds.
Preparations for the festival's annual run go on
all year, Siegel says. Offseason projects include working with partners to
improve marketing, entertainment and craft-vendor offerings as well as planning
and implementing solutions for challenges experienced the season prior…
Complete article and lots of pictures:
October
3 - November 22, 2015, (WO) 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m
.
Admission:
$24; $23 adv / Contact: Matt Siegel, 11056 Renaissance Dr. #130, Davidson, NC
28036, (704) 896-5544, email: carolinarenfest@royalfaires.com, or
matt@royalfaires.com, web: www.royalfaires.com/carolina / Site: 16445 Poplar
Tent Rd., Huntersville, NC / Booths: 110 / Attendance: 170,000 / Weapons: must
be peace-tied / Participant camping on-site; motels and campgrounds nearby.
TEXAS
Texas
Renaissance Festival
..What I learned is that everyone has a
favorite show. Mine is probably “Blunt Force Drama: International Combat
Tournament of Champions.” As I describe to my friends, it is WWE with swords,
axes and other weapons. During fights (and short breaks even), four combatants
taunt each other and use real techniques as volunteers from the crowd determine
the winner. It’s definitely my favorite show, but not suitable for the
pint-sized folk.
\
My niece, Lila, really, really, really liked
the Fire Whip Show performed by Adam ‘Crack’ Winrich. If it was up to her, we
would stay there all day and never watch anything else. It’s a very goofy show,
since Adam is hilarious, and the final moments with the flaming whip are worth
the wait.
My brother, Greg, made it clear that tradition
dictates we had to see the mudmen or the Sturdy Beggars before we leave the
festival...
Complete article and pictures: http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/leisure/traveling_soldier/texas-renaissance-festival/article_3f1e5712-9ac5-11e6-8598-3b276527aecf.html
Hundreds of visitors to Todd Mission stepped into a time warp
this weekend, as the Texas Renaissance Festival opened its gates for its
42nd season. Everyone from a shirtless man in Ray-Ban sunglasses carrying a
bottle of red wine, to a woman in a bright blue Cinderella dress—complete with
six-foot-long train—seemed to be enjoying themselves on opening day of the
two-month-long festival.
The version of the Middle Ages on display at the RenFest isn’t
exactly completely historically accurate. Costumes ranged from leather
dominatrixes to Star Wars storm troopers to Anonymous-style Guy Fawkes
masks. There was also a fair amount of lederhosen on display, as the weekend’s
theme was Oktoberfest…
Despite it only being opening day, none of the acts we caught
seemed rusty. Christophe the Insulter—who, as his name implies, will insult any
audience member if you pay him enough—impressively managed to work in
references to both Saint Francis of Assisi and Cousin Itt, and to quote Alien
within about ten minutes. (Parents, do not take your children to see his act
unless you want them to acquire a very thorough understanding of female
anatomy…)
This year is your last chance to visit the festival before its
off-season facelift. Next season will see the RenFest expand to add three more
acres to the park, to create a storybook village-type area, as well as a new
themed weekend…
Complete article: http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/renfests-opening-weekend-lets-houstonians-time-travel-to-middle-ages-8844320
37!
Photographs: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Good-weather-draws-crowd-to-RenFest-in-Houston-9957963.php
October
8 - November 27, 2016, (WO & Thanksgiving Fri) 10 a.m. - dusk
Admission:
$27 / Contact: Texas Renaissance Festival, 21778 FM 1774, Plantersville, TX
77363, (800) 458-3435, email: TAlbert@texrenfest.com, web: www.texrenfest.com /
Site: 21778 FM 1774, Plantersville, TX / Booths: 400 / Attendance: 606,000 /
Weapons: must be peace-tied / See web site for lodging info.
UTAH
Now entering its fourth year, the Utah Winter
Faire (http://www.utahwinterfaire.com/)
combines the best parts of a Renaissance Faire with elements of pirate, fantasy
and Steampunk entertainment. The result is an event with something for the
whole family. This year, the Utah Winter Faire will be open December 2-4 at the
Legacy Events Center in Farmington.
The variety of attractions at the Utah Winter
Faire is certain to stimulate guests' sense of wonder and curiosity. The Faire
features a variety of accomplished artisans demonstrating skills that few
possess. In addition, dozens of vendors will be attending; a complete list is
available on the website. When not shopping for a perfect gift, or watching an
artisan ply her trade, guests can enjoy unique attractions like juggling,
dancing and storytelling. All entertainment is free with general admission.
Returning to this year's edition of the Faire
is the Armored Combat League, who will be holding their Western Conference
Tournament. Combatants wear real armor and wield real weapons in full-contact
matches that are as incredible as they sound. The Armored Combat League is
among the most spectacular and popular events at the Faire, and as with every
other attraction, entry is free with general admission.
As a family-friendly event, the Utah Winter
Faire has several activities geared for the youngest guests. Children can
participate in activities like the Children's Quest, explore the Village Green
area or meet the Faire's many colorful characters – Steampunk Santa, the Arctic
queen, mermaids, and famous historical figures. One of the goals at the Utah
Winter Faire is to combine education and interactive entertainment in a way
that children won't soon forget.
From noon until 1 p.m. on the opening day of
the Utah Winter Faire, admission is free to all students. This special
"Children's Day" offer covers home schools, public schools, private
schools and any other educational groups. Instructors can download educational
packets to help them incorporate a trip to the Faire into a lesson plan on medieval
history and culture or fantasy literature, among other possible topics.
General admission to the Utah Winter Faire is
$12 at the door, and children 6 and under get in free. Discounted prices are
available online through December 1.
December 2 - 4, 2016, 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Admission: $7 - $12 / Contact: Lora Harpster, Utah Winter Faire
LLP, 2723 S 450 West, Bountiful, UT 84010, (801) 803-4131, email:
utahwinterfairinfo@gmail.com, web: utahwinterfaire.com, / Site: Legacy Events
Center, Farmington, UT / Booths: 40 / Attendance: 4,000+ / Weapons: must be
peace-tied / Hotels nearby.
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