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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Joachim du Bellay

Pietro Bembo by Titian, and the Vernacular

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Vernacular

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Geoffrey Chaucer, Joachim du Bellay, Masterpiece, Pietro Bembo, portraits, Shakespeare, Titian, Vernacular

15bembo

Portrait of Pietro Bembo by Titian, 1540 (WikiArt.org.)

A few posts ago, I listed two old posts as related articles. One was about the Petrarchan Movement, the other, about Joachim du Bellay.

In 1525, Cardinal Pietro Bembo (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January 1547) wrote Prose della volgar lingua, a text in which he encouraged authors to write in Italian, the vernacular, rather than Latin. The vernacular was Italian as spoken in Florence and Tuscany. For Pietro Bembo, however, it was the Italian used by Francesco Petrarch (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January 1547), hence the Petrarchan Movement. I also mentioned authors Dante Alighieri (1625 – 1321) and Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313- 21 December 1375).

The Madrigal

As for musicians, they too were to set to music texts written in Italian, rather than Latin. In the area of music, Francesco Landini (c. 1325 or 1335 – 2 September 1397) was the first writer of madrigals, a word meaning in one’s mother tongue: madre in Spanish.

France: Du Bellay

A few years later, in 1549, French poet Joachim du Bellay (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560) published his Défense et illustration de la langue française. It became acceptable to write poetry in one’s native language. Du Bellay was a poet, not a composer.

England: Chaucer

As for England, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), who took the Roman de la Rose to England, he had also advocated the use of English, rather than Latin or French, as a literary language. He translated part of the Roman de la Rose. You may recall that until the end of the Hundred Years’ War, French was spoken at the court of England and Edward VII felt he was a legitimate heir to the throne of France. He wasn’t by virtue of the Salic Law. A woman could not ascend the throne of France. Edward VII’s mother was French. Hence the fratricidal nature of the Hundred Years’ War, a war of succession.

sans-titre

Shakespeare, the Chandos Portrait, sometimes attributed to Titian (Photo credit: Art History Today)

Titian (Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio)

Portrayed about is William Shakespeare (c 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) the Chandos Portrait, is sometimes attributed to Titian. (See Art History Today.)

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Art History Today
  • The Hundred Year’s War: its Literary Legacy (24 January 2016)
  • The Petrarchan Movement (6 December 2011)

 

With warm greetings to all of you. ♥ 

Titian
Ennio Morricone (Deborah’s Theme)

Titian%20side%20profile

Self-portrait by Titian
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
26 January 2016
WordPress

 

 

 

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Belaud the Cat Writes a Post

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Alix de France, art, Belaud, crises, Fantin-Latour, Joachim du Bellay, larkspur, lilacs, peonies, the United States

Lilas, by Fantin-Latour, 1872

Lilacs, by Fantin-Latour, 1872

Larkspur (1888)

Larkspur, 1888

Vase pf Peonies, 1902

Vase of Peonies, 1902

I am Belaud (pronounced ‘below’), the little fur person who shares Micheline’s life. She has asked me to write a note on her behalf. She somehow got interested in “The Fox and the Crow” and started writing a post she could not finish.  

She is lucky to be able to count on me when such “accidents” occur. The best remedy, I told her, is to slash and slash. She explained that there were times when one could not slash and slash. Since the Syrian crisis and the debt-ceiling crisis, one nearly overlapping the other, she has not been her usual self. What would she do without me?

Micheline is now returning to her post. The arrangement is that she will discuss the moral in one post and will provide additional information in a separate post. I explained that she may run out of pictures, but this does not appear to be the case.

About me, Belaud

I am a pure-bred chartreux and, as we will see, a celebrated cat, but Micheline does not take me to shows. The two of us stick to a humble lifestyle. She says class is irrelevant. After all, she is, on her maternal grandmother’s side, a descendant of Alix de France, one of Eleanor of Aquitaine‘s (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) two daughters by King Louis VII.

During the years she spent in Nova Scotia, she didn’t know this and knowing has not improved her life. She cannot play a musical instrument in this apartment and selling it, the apartment that is, would not buy her a little house or a townhouse however humble.

Joachim du Bellay

Joachim du Bellay, by Jean Cousin

Joachim du Bellay  (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560; aged 37) was the first French author who felt French could be a literary language.  He was a member of the Pléiade, an informal academy.  He wrote their manifesto: Défense et illustration de la langue française (La Deffence, et Illustration de la Langue Francoyse, 1549.)

There is one poem Micheline loves: Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage,… (Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has gone on a beautiful trip,…).  Du Bellay was in Rome, but missed la doulceur angevine, gentle Anjou.

Despite lineage, no great author has made Micheline into a celebrity. But Joachim du Bellay eulogized his cat Belaud, one of my ancestors: Sur la mort de Belaud. I don’t think anyone will eulogize Micheline, not even me, except modestly, if I’m still alive. Public speaking scares me.    

RELATED ARTICLES

La Pléiade: Du Bellay (michelinewalker.com)
Belaud the Cat (michelinewalker.com)
Belaud the Cat’s Suite (michelinewalker.com)
 

Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 – 25 August 1904)

Belaud

Belaud

 
© Micheline Walker
21 October 2013
WordPress

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La Pléiade: Du Bellay

30 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in France, Literature, Vernacular

≈ 58 Comments

Tags

Défense et illustration..., Joachim du Bellay, La Pléiade, Les Regrets, Renaissance

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Belaud

31 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Chartreux, Joachim du Bellay, Micheline's cat

Alllow me to introduce Belaud (as in “down below”).  He is a chartreux, France’s blue cats.  Poet Joachim du Bellay (1522-1560), a member of La Pléiade wrote an exquisite poem on the death of his cat Belaud:  Sur la mort de Belaud (on the internet).

I have been Belaud’s happy hostage for three years.

Belaud is a rather large cat, a big potato on four toothpicks.  This is a borrowed description now firmly entrenched in both oral and learned (i.e. written) tradition.

Tis Summertime (my thanks to Gershwin) so, on sunny but somewhat breezy days, Belaud spends time sitting or lying on the balcony, surrounded by large pots of flowers.  I keep the door ajar so he may run back to the safety of the indoors when he senses danger.

Can he run!  If I have been absent for several hours or a night, no sooner do I enter the apartment that he turns into an arrow, run towards me, and starts climbing.  I quickly pick up this furry person and sit him on my left shoulder.  I tell him that he is a beau Belaud , the prince of éviers (kichen sinks) and lavabos (bathroom sinks).

Belaud enjoys curling up inside various sinks and, at night, he plays hockey in one of the bathtubs, using Gertrude, a rubber ducky, as hockey puck.

Belaud also loves the sight and sound of gently dripping water.  The best we can hope for, says he, are small pleasures.  As you can see, that Belaud is quite the philosopher and a nosy one.

His hero is Agatha Christy’s Hercule Poirot.   The two have a lot in common, including accent and boastfulness.

By the way, Belaud is a musician whose favourite work is Rhapsody in Blue.  As a blue cat, he relates to anything blue.  Once again, I we have Gerschwin to thank.

You may have guessed that Belaud is also a writer.  You are absolutely right.  He even has an email address given to him by John.  He can be reached at lordbrokentail@snoro.com. “Snoro” is North-American French, perhaps Ameridian, for beloved “rascal.”

Write to him, but please do not mention the current debt-ceiling crisis.  Belaud is forbidden exposure to any and all x-rated material.  He is a child.

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