Thursday, March 19, 2020

Pygmalion Act Iiii Essays - Pygmalion, English-language Films, ELIZA

Pygmalion Act Iiii Essays - Pygmalion, English-language Films, ELIZA Pygmalion Act Iiii The trio return to Higgins' Wimpole Street laboratory, exhausted from the night's happenings. They talk about the evening and their great success, though Higgins seems rather bored, more concerned with his inability to find slippers. While he talks absentmindedly with Pickering, Eliza slips out, returns with his slippers, and lays them on the floor before him without a word. When he notices them, he thinks that they appeared out of nowhere. Higgins and Pickering begin to speak as if Eliza is not there with them, saying how happy they are that the entire experiment is over, agreeing that it had become rather boring in the last few months. The two of them then leave the room to go to bed. Eliza is clearly hurt (Eliza's beauty turns murderous, say the stage directions), but Higgins and Pickering are oblivious to her. Higgins pops back in, once again mystified over what he has done with his slippers, and Eliza promptly flings them in his face. Eliza is mad enough to kill him; she thinks that she is no more important to him than his slippers. At Higgins' retort that she is presumptuous and ungrateful, she answers that no one has treated her badly, but that she is still left confused about what is to happen to her now that the bet has been won. Higgins says that she can always get married or open that flower shop (both of which she eventually does), but she replies by saying that she wishes she had been left where she was before. She goes on to ask whether her clothes belong to her, meaning what can she take away with her without being accused of thievery. Higgins is genuinely hurt, something that does not happen to him often. She returns him a ring he bought for her, but he throws it into the fireplace. After he leaves, she finds it again, but then leaves it on the dessert stand and departs. If we consider the conventional structure of a romance or fairy tale, the story has really already reached its climax by this point, because Cinderella has been turned into a princess, and the challenge has been met. Then why does the play carry on for another two acts? This would appear completely counter- productive, only if one thinks that this play is only about changing appearances. The fact that the play carries on indicates that there are more transformations in Eliza to be witnessed: this act shows the birth of an independent spirit in the face of Higgins' bullying superiority. The loosely set-up dichotomy between people and objects (i.e., whether Higgins treats people like people or objects) is brought to a head when Eliza flings his slippers in his face, and complains that she means no more to him than his slippersYou don't care. I know you don't care. You wouldn't care if I was dead. I'm nothing to younot so much as them slippers. Not only does she object to being treated like an object, she goes on to assert herself by saying that she would never sell herself, like Higgins suggests when he tells her she can go get married. This climactic move forces Higgins to reconsider what a woman can be, and, as he confesses in the final act, marks the beginning of his considering Eliza to be an equal rather than a burden. One thing to consider in this act is why Shaw has chosen not to portray the climax at the ambassador's party where Eliza can prove how well she has been instructed by Higgins (although his movie screenplay does allow for a scene at the embassy). One reason is that most theatrical productions do not have the capacity to stage an opulent, luxurious ball just for a short scene. But another reason is that Shaw's intention is to rob the story of its romance. We are spared the actual training of Eliza as well as her moment of glory (that is, both the science and the magic); instead, all we get is scenes of her pre- and post- the dramatic climax.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Maya Blue - Distinctive Color Used by Maya Artists

Maya Blue - Distinctive Color Used by Maya Artists Maya Blue is the name of a hybrid organic and inorganic pigment, used by the Maya civilization to decorate pots, sculpture, codices and panels. While its date of invention is somewhat controversial, the pigment was predominantly used within the Classic period beginning about AD 500. The distinctive blue color, as seen in the murals at Bonampak in the photo, was created using a combination of materials, including indigo and palygorskite (called sak luum or white earth in the Yucatec Maya language). Maya blue was used primarily in ritual contexts, pottery, offerings, copal incense balls and murals. By itself, palygorskite was used for medicinal properties and as an additive for ceramic tempers, in addition to its use in the creation of Maya blue. Making Maya Blue The striking turquoise color of Maya Blue is quite tenacious as such things go, with visible colors left on stone stele after hundreds of years in the subtropical climate at sites such as Chichà ©n Itz and Cacaxtla. Mines for the palygorskite component of Maya Blue are known at Ticul, YoSah Bab, Sacalum, and Chapab, all in the Yucatn peninsula of Mexico. Maya Blue requires the combination of ingredientsthe indigo plant and palygorskite oreat temperatures between 150 and 200 degrees centigrade. Such heat is necessary to get molecules of indigo incorporated into the white palygorskite clay. The process of embedding (intercalcating) indigo into the clay makes the color stable, even under exposure to harsh climate, alkali, nitric acid and organic solvents. The application of heat to the mixture may have been completed in a kiln built for that purposekilns are mentioned in early Spanish chronicles of the Maya. Arnold et al. (in Antiquity below) suggest that Maya Blue may also have been made as a by-product of burning copal incense at ritual ceremonies. Dating Maya Blue Using a series of analytical techniques, scholars have identified the content of various Maya samples. Maya Blue is generally believed to have been used first during the Classic period. Recent research at Calakmul supports suggestions that Maya Blue began to be used when the Maya began painting internal murals on temples during the late pre-classic period, ~300 BC-AD 300. However, murals at Acanceh, Tikal, Uaxactun, Nakbe, Calakmul and other pre-classic sites dont seem to have included Maya Blue in their palettes. A recent study of the interior polychrome murals at Calakmul (Vzquez de gredos Pascual 2011) conclusively identified a blue painted and modelled substructure dated to ~150 AD; this is the earliest example of Maya Blue to date. Scholarly Studies of Maya Blue Maya blue was first identified by Harvard archaeologist R. E. Merwin at Chichà ©n Itz in the 1930s. Much work on Maya Blue has been completed by Dean Arnold, who over his 40 year investigation has combined ethnography, archaeology, and materials science in his studies. A number of non-archaeological material studies of the mixture and chemical makeup of Maya blue have been published over the past decade. A preliminary study on sourcing palygorskite using trace element analysis has been undertaken. A few mines have been identified in the Yucatn and elsewhere; and tiny samples have been taken from the mines as well as paint samples from ceramics and murals of known provenience. Neutron activation analysis (INAA) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (LA-ICP-MS) have both been used in an attempt to identify the trace minerals within the samples, reported in a 2007 article in Latin American Antiquity listed below. Although there were some problems with correlating the two methodologies, the pilot study identified trace amounts of rubidium, manganese and nickel in the various sources which may prove useful in identifying the sources of the pigment. Additional research by the team reported in 2012 (Arnold et al. 2012) hinged on the presence of palygorskite, and that mineral was identified in several ancient samples as having the same chemical make up a modern mines at Sacalum and possibly Yo Sak Kab. Chromatographic analysis of the indigo dye was securely identified within a Maya blue mixture from a pottery censer excavated from Tlatelolco in Mexico, and reported in 2012. Sanz and colleagues found that blue coloration used on a 16th century codex attributed to Bernardino Sahagà ºn was also identified as following a classic Maya recipe. Recent investigations have also centered on the composition of Maya Blue, indicating that perhaps making Maya Blue was a ritual part of sacrifice at  Chichà ©n Itz. See  Maya Blue: Ritual and Recipe  for more information. Sources This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to  Maya, and the  Guide to Ancient Pigments. Anonymous. 1998.  Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology at Ticul, Yucatn, Mexico.  Society for Archaeological Sciences Bulletin  21(12). Arnold DE. 2005. Maya blue and palygorskite: A second possible pre-Columbian source.  Ancient Mesoamerica  16(1):51-62. Arnold DE, Bohor BF, Neff H, Feinman GM, Williams PR, Dussubieux L, and Bishop R. 2012.  The first direct evidence of pre-columbian sources of palygorskite for Maya Blue.  Journal of Archaeological Science  39(7):2252-2260. Arnold DE, Branden JR, Williams PR, Feinman G, and Brown JP. 2008.  The first direct evidence for the production of Maya Blue: rediscovery of a technology.  Antiquity  82(315):151-164. Arnold DE, Neff H, Glascock MD, and Speakman RJ. 2007. Sourcing the Palygorskite Used in Maya Blue: A Pilot Study Comparing the Results of INAA and LA-ICP-MS.  Latin American Antiquity  18(1):44–58. Berke H. 2007.  The invention of blue and purple pigments in ancient times.  Chemical Society Reviews  36:15–30. Chiari G, Giustetto R, Druzik J, Doehne E, and Ricchiardi G. 2008.  Pre-columbian nanotechnology: reconciling the mysteries of the maya blue pigment.  Applied Physics A  90(1):3-7. Sanz E, Arteaga A, Garcà ­a MA, Cmara C, and Dietz C. 2012.  Chromatographic analysis of indigo from Maya Blue by LC–DAD–QTOF.  Journal of Archaeological Science  39(12):3516-3523. Vzquez de gredos Pascual, Domà ©nech Carbà ³ MT, and Domà ©nech Carbà ³ A. 2011.  Characterization of Maya Blue pigment in pre-classic and classic monumental architecture of the ancient pre-Columbian city of Calakmul (Campeche, Mexico).  Journal of Cultural Heritage  12(2):140-148.