The Carl Schmitt Foundation is thrilled to be invited to take part in Princeton Humanities’ Being Human Festival Series 2019. A portion of this event will be held at the Princeton University Art Museum which houses a woodcut from Carl Schmitt. Scroll to bottom for event schedule.
This event is open to the public and free. Registration is required:
The below information is copied from the Princeton Humanities Council website.
Celebrating the aesthetic riches of the Princeton University Art Museum, a series of interdisciplinary events will examine human nature from the perspectives of music, poetry, painting, stained glass, and sculpture. Joe Perez-Benzo ’17, who majored in history as an undergraduate at Princeton University and is pursuing the Master of Liberal Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, will harness his research about the role of wonder, a capacity shrouded in secrecy and animating all discoveries. The festivities will revolve around one of the Princeton University Art Museum’s greatest treasures, Edward Burne Jones’s luminous stained glass portrait of the pensive Saint Cecilia.
The festivities begin with a screening of Handel's oratorio, Alexander's Feast in McCormick 101. After the screening at 4:30pm, Jose Perez-Benzo '17 and Nathaniel Gadiano '20 will lead a poetry tour of the Art Museum where they pair poems with paintings and sculptures in the museum, with participants reciting poems in front of the relevant pieces, each medium shedding light on the other. Following the tour, from 5:30pm to 6:30pm there will be a reception with food and drinks. At 6:30pm there will be a concert in the Medieval Gallery, with Emily Swope de Sa and Ruth Swope playing Gustave Holst's Four Songs for Voice and Violin.
Finally, at 7:00pm the evening of events concludes with a roundtable conversation on St. Cecilia in Poetry, Music, and Art in McCormick 101. Broadly, the three speakers will discuss the portrayal of St. Cecilia by John Dryden in his poem 'Alexander's Feast: Or, the Power of Music. An Ode to Saint Cecilia,' by George Frideric Handel in his oratorio Alexander's Feast which set Dryden's poem to music, and by Edward Burne Jones in Princeton's own luminous stained glass portrait. More specifically, Jose Perez-Benzo '17 will recite Dryden's poem, and then focus on Dryden’s complex use of Plutarch’s Life of Alexander as well as Plutarch’s Moralia, the way in which he thinks poetry affects the passions, and Dryden’s claims about the distinction between pagan and Christian understandings of human nature, and by extension, art. Emily Swope de Sa, a professional soprano, will explore how Handel translates Dryden's insights into music. Andrew de Sa, a professional oil painter, will analyze Burne-Jones's portrait of Saint Cecilia and the writings of American artist, Carl Schmitt. Julia Dunn Mosby '19 will serve as moderator.
All events associated with 'The Art of Being Human: St. Cecilia in Poetry, Music, and Art' are free and open to the public. That said, for the portions occurring in the Art Museum, space is limited and will be given out on a first come, first served basis.
