Deriving from the French word rocaille, in reference to the curved forms of shellfish, and the Italian Barocco, the French created the term Rococo. Appearing at the beginning of the 18th-century, it rapidly spread to the whole of Europe. Extravagant and light, Rococo responded perfectly to the spontaneity of the aristocracy of the time. In many aspects, this art was linked to its predecessor, Baroque, and it is thus also referred to as late Baroque style. While artists such as Tiepolo, Boucher and Reynolds carried the style to its apogee, the movement was often condemned for its superficiality. In the …

In the past decade, Berlin has become the construction site of a new Reichstag, image of the German democracy, of futuristic buildings and incredible museums like the Pergamon or the Charlotteburg. Mythical sites such as the Alexanderplatz, the Unter den Linden, the arch of Brandeburg, the favourite esplanades of the Berliners, the Kurfürstendamm, breathe a new life and are illuminated once a year for the joyful celebration of the Love Parade. For these festivities, young people from all over the world come to express their passion for the city that has now become a symbol of joy and love. “Ich …

The Art Deco movement emerged from the remnants of a world that had been torn apart after World War I. This aesthetic movement came to embody dreams of industry and prosperity. In the whirl of the Jazz Age and frenzy of the "Roaring Twenties", the streamlined silhouette of the flapper girl was reflected in the architectural aesthetic of Art Deco the rounded curve was conquered by the androgynous straight line. Architecture, painting, furniture, and sculpture evolved into oeuvres enhanced with sharp lines and broken angles. Although short-lived, this movement still influences contemporary design today.

For more than a millennium, from its creation in 330 A.D. until its fall in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was a cradle of artistic effervescence that we are only beginning to rediscover. Endowed with the rich heritage of Roman, Eastern and Christian cultures, Byzantine artists developed an architectural and pictorial tradition, marked by symbolism, whose influence extended far beyond the borders of the Empire. Today, Italy, Northern Africa, and the Near East preserve the vestiges of this sophisticated artistic tradition, with all of its mystical and luminous beauty. The magnificence of the palaces, churches, paintings, enamels, ceramics and mosaics from …

The Baroque period lasted from the beginning of the 17th-century to the middle of the 18th-century. Baroque art was artists' response to the Catholic Church's demand for solemn grandeur following the Council of Trent, and through its monumentality and grandiloquence, it seduced the great European courts. Amongst the Baroque arts, architecture has, without doubt, left the greatest mark in Europe: the continent is dotted with magnificent Baroque churches and palaces, commissioned by patrons at the height of their power. The works of Gian Lorenzo Bernini of the Southern School and Peter Paul Rubens of the Northern School alone show the …

Naive art first became popular at the end of the 19th-century. Until that time this form of expression, created by untrained artists and characterised by spontaneity and simplicity, enjoyed little recognition from professional artists and art critics. Influenced by primitive arts, naive painting is distinguished by the fluidity of its lines, vivacity, and joyful colours, as well as by its rather clean-cut, simple shapes. Naive art is represented by such artists as Henri Rousseau, Séraphine de Senlis, André Bauchant, and Camille Bombois. This movement has also found adherents abroad, including such prominent artists as Joan Miró, Guido Vedovato, Niko Pirosmani, …

Saint-Exupéry might have had the Little Prince say that he liked the desert because that is where camels can hide out. Dubai is one of the seven Gulf Emirates and has become a high-tech avantgarde metropolis where superlatives are superfluous. Major wonders of architectural imagination and scale include the National Bank of Dubai, Clock Tower, Creek Side and Dubai Internet City. It also operates the world's largest man-made harbour in Jebel Ali, which features a major water desalination plant. It is the world's third largest trans-shipment hub after Hong Kong and Singapore. Nonetheless, Dubai preserves close ties to the past, …

Sydney Bay was discovered by European explorers in 1770. Populated at first by colonial convicts and their guards, the city today accounts for one fifth of the entire population of Australia. Renowned for its Opera House, it presents an ultramodern vista to the tourists’ gaze. Sydney Harbour Bridge - one of the longest bridges in the world - and the immense high-rise buildings that sore skywards both astound and fascinate. At the same time the great city is truly cosmopolitan, incorporating a celebrated Chinatown and even more prominently an Aboriginal area in which the colourful way of life of these …

Este libro reúne ensayos sobre el k-cine y el k-drama, géneros que impulsan la difusión del hallyu (ola coreana), un fenómeno global nacido del crecimiento de la industria cultural surcoreana desde la década de 1990. Este éxito no se explica solo por factores económicos, sino por una modernidad que conecta Asia y Occidente. El libro ofrece análisis de películas como Burning (2018) y Parásitos (2019), explora los lazos cinematográficos entre Latinoamérica y Corea del Sur, y examina k-dramas populares como Crash Landing on You (2019) y Start-Up (2020) desde una perspectiva social contemporánea.

El bullicio alegre de las zambombas es una tradición única que ilumina las noches de adviento en Jerez con sus cantos y ritmos cargados de historia popular. Este libro invita a conocer la magia de una fiesta donde la música del pueblo se mezcla con el aroma del anís y los dulces típicos, en un ambiente que cada compás de la zambomba y cada rasgueo de la guitarra transportan a un mundo de alegría compartida.

Descubra cómo estas celebraciones, tan arraigadas en los patios y plazas de Jerez, han evolucionado desde sus raíces en las comunidades moriscas hasta …

Centred in the city of Rome, the civilization of Ancient Rome ruled much of Europe for over 1000 years. The diverse phases of Roman art correspond to as many phases in the spiritual and political life of the Roman people. It has its origin in the national character and circumstances of the Romans. The ideal in matters of taste in ancient Rome was only derived by them from the gods through the medium of another nation. Their own notion of the highest of all things, their summum bonum, was not the beautiful, but the powerful. And this they thought they …