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In the art of the Middle Ages, we never encounter the personality of the artist as an individual; rather it is diffused through the artistic genius of centuries embodied in the rules of religious art. Art of the Middle Ages is first a sacred script, the symbols and meanings of which were well settled. The circular halo placed vertically behind the head signifies sainthood, while the halo impressed with a cross signifies divinity. By bare feet, we recognize God, the angels, Jesus Christ and the apostles, but for an artist to have depicted the Virgin Mary with bare feet would have been tantamount to heresy. Several concentric, wavy lines represent the sky, while parallel lines water or the sea. A tree, which is to say a single stalk with two or three stylized leaves, informs us that the scene is laid on earth. A tower with a window indicates a village, and, should an angel be depicted with curly hair, and a short beard, while Saint Paul has always a bald head and a long beard.
A second characteristic of this iconography is obedience to a sacred mathematics. "The Divine Wisdom," wrote Saint Augustine, "reveals itself everywhere in numbers", a doctrine attributable to the neo-Platonists who revived the genius of Pythagoras. Twelve is the master number of the Church and is the product of three, the number of the Trinity, and four, the number of material elements. The number seven, the most mysterious of all numbers, is the sum of four and three. There are the seven ages of man, seven virtues, seven planets. In the final analysis, the seven-tone scale of Gregorian music is the sensible embodiment of the order of the universe. Numbers require also a symmetry. At Charters. a stained glass window show the four prophets, Isaac, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah, carrying on their shoulders the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
A third characteristic of art is to be a symbolic language, showing us one thing and inviting us to see another. In this respect, the artist was called upon to imitate Cod, who had hidden a profound meaning behind the literal and wished nature itself to be a moral lesson to man. Thus, every painting is an allegory. In a scene of the final judgment, we can see the foolish virgins at the left hand of Jesus and the wise at his right, and we understand that this symbolizes those who are Just and those who are saved. Even seemingly insignificant details carry hidden meaning: The lion in a stained glass window is the figure of the Resurrection.
These, then, are the defining characteristics of art of the Middle Ages, a system within which even the most mediocre talent was elevated by the genius of the centuries. The artists of the early Renaissance broke with traditional at their own peril. When they are not outstanding, they are scarcely able to avoid insignificance and banality in their religious works, and, even when they are great, they are no more than the equals of the old masters who passively followed the sacred rules. (523)
What does the circular halo placed behind the head signify in the art of the Middle Ages？
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Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at the culmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years--and why in the following two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science has accumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences may be justly regarded as the products of our own times--are questions which have interested the modern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediately conversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greater virtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin？ Was the long period one of arrested development, as in the modern era one of normal growth？ Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents--to the influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in the omnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence？
The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deduction chiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the modems employ induction, proves to be too narrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrast that is evident between ancient and modem scientific doctrines and inquires. For all knowledge is founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis and synthesis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals to observation under the guidance of deduction--by steps which are indeed correlative parts of one method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or parts of one method, which have been generalized from the examples of sciences.
A failure to employ or to employ adequately anyone of these partial methods, an imperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness in observation, neglect of relevant facts, vagueness and carelessness in the reasoning, and the failure to draw the consequences of theory and test them by appeal to experiment and observation-these are the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or the moderns, but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greater virtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the sudden growth of science in recent times.
The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of "facts" and "theories" or "facts" and "ideas"--in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and their too exclusive attention to the latter proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to the charge of vagueness. For, in the first place, the antihesis is not complete, facts and theories are not coordinate species. Theories. if true, are facts--a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex ones, but still facts. Facts on the other hand, even in the narrowest signification of the word, if they are at all complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have all the positive attributes of theories.
Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of the true method in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A fact is a proposition of which the verification by an appeal to the primary sources of our knowledge or to experience is direct and simple A theory, on the other hand, if true, has all the characteristics of a fact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. To convert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the full characteristics of a fact. (628)
The title that best expresses the ideas of this passage is ______.
For a smarter baby, experts say it's not all in the books--emotional development plays a big role in raising intelligent kids. "We really need to change that historic dichotomy of cognition on the one hand, emotions on the other hand, and realize that our emotions are the fuel that gives rise to social behavior. but also to different levels of intelligence," says Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a child development researcher at George Washington University medical school. Genetics also plays a role, but Greenspan says a baby's future is not written in his DNA. "Regardless of the history of IQ tests in the family, if I see nurturing, warm, interactive people who read emotional signals well and interact well, usually I see happy, competent and bright children," Greenspan says.
Besides parent-child interaction, there are other ways to increase baby brain power that have been in the spotlight recently: Breast-feeding is good for a baby--and most experts say they believe it's aim good for a baby's developing brain. Those who had been breast-fed for seven to nine months scored higher on IQ tests than those breast-fed for one month or less, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May. Listening to music was once thought to enhance math skills. A 1999 Harvard medical school analysis of more than a dozen studies doesn't support this claim, but music and dancing can be excellent ways to inter act. Other research shows infants can learn basic sign language even before they speak. These infants appear to grow up a little smarter, but some experts say they think the benefit is due to increased parent-child interaction.
Baby reading lessons are growing in popularity. The makers of video, books and flash cards aimed at the very young claim to sometimes have 2 year-olds reading simple children's books by themselves. Some experts support these programs, while others oppose them. "If you do a little bit of looking at books with your children and inspire them to be curious about the pictures and what the word means, but don't get into very structured systematic teaching at too early an age," Greenspan says, "and you also interact emotionally and have fun with pretend play.., then you have the best of both worlds." (416)
Dr. Stanley Greenspan thinks that ______.
The research is conducted in order to ______.
Which of the following statements is NOT true about the characteristics of the art of the
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