Botticelli vs. Michelangelo essays

Botticelli vs. Michelangelo essays The Early Renaissance or the Florentine Renaissance all started when the Italian artists and intellectual minds felt an urge to return to their Classical roots. Having felt that they had broken radically with the past they began to speak of a rebirth of civilization. They rejected the more recent, medieval past, which constituted the Gothic era. Works by classical authors, lost to the West for centuries, were rediscovered, and with them, a new humanistic outlook that placed man and human achievement at the center of all things. In this time period Florentine artists, flourished largely because of the patronage of wealthy citizens and the church. Sandro Botticelli, the principal painter of the Medici family, created a prime example of Florentine Renaissance style artwork, which he titled The Birth of Venus. The Renaissance style is depicted in his classical subject matter, figures from antiquity, such as the goddess Venus and the three Graces. It is also in the effect of motion that he achieves, where he carefully places his figures in nearly balanced groupings, yet never loses a feeling of that motion and lightness. The Birth of Venus seems to be a combination of mythological and Christian ideas. On the surface, the painting represents not a Christian legend, but a classical myth: Venus, the goddess of love (the nude woman at the center of the work), has been born from the sea, and is being delicately blown to shore by Zephyrus, god of the winds, as another woman, perhaps a goddess, waits on shore to cover Venus with a cloak. Venus's modesty (despite that fact that she is indeed nude) and her pose refer to standard portrayals of the Virgin Mary. Zephyrus is recognizable as an angel, while the figure on the right refers to another standard religious subject, the baptism of Christ: specifically the way St. John the Baptist is usually pictured. The Birth of Venus represented the Florentine Renaissance style in that it took...

The Demographic Transition Definition in Sociology

The Demographic Transition Definition in Sociology Demographic transition is a model used to represent the movement of high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system. It works on the premise that birth and death rates are connected to and correlate with stages of industrial development. The demographic transition model is sometimes referred to as DTM and is based on historical data and trends.   The Four Stages of Transition   Demographic transition involves four stages:   Stage 1: Death rates and birth rates are high and are roughly in balance, a common condition of a pre-industrial society. Population growth is very slow, influenced in part by the availability of food. The U.S. was said to be in Stage 1 in the 19th century.   Stage 2: This is the developing country phase. Death rates drop rapidly due to improvements in food supply and sanitation, which increases life spans and reduces disease. Without a corresponding fall in birth rates, countries in this stage experience a large increase in population. Stage 3: Birth rates fall due to access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, an increase in the status and education of women, and other social changes. Population growth begins to level off. Mexico is believed to be in this stage in the early decades of the millennium. Northern Europe entered this stage in the later part of the 19th century.   Stage 4:  Birth rates and death rates are both low in this stage. People born during S tage 2 are now beginning to age and require the support of a dwindling working population. Birth rates may drop below replacement level, considered to be two children per family. This leads to a shrinking population. Death rates may remain consistently low, or they may increase slightly due to increases in lifestyle diseases linked to low exercise levels and high obesity. Sweden has reached this stage in the 21st century.   The Fifth Stage of Transition   Some theorists include a fifth stage in which fertility rates begin to transition again to either above or below that which is necessary to replace the percentage of the population that is lost to death. Some say fertility levels decrease during this stage while others hypothesize that they increase. Rates are expected to increase populations in Mexico, India and the U.S. in the 21st century, and to decrease populations in Australia and China.   Birth and death rates largely plateaued in most developed nations in the late 1900s.   The Timetable There is no prescribed time within which these stages should or must take place to fit the model. Some countries, like Brazil and China, have moved through them quickly due to rapid economic changes within their borders. Other countries may languish in Stage 2 for a much longer period due to development challenges and diseases like AIDS.   Additionally, other factors not considered in the DTM can affect population. Migration and immigration are not included in this model and can affect population.