Masterpiece

This essay considers the presence, role and significance of British drama on US television screens. Drawing on original archival research, it focuses on PBS and its acclaimed series Masterpiece Theatre (1971–present). Taking into account how this long-running series has evolved in relation to changes in the broadcasting landscape, the essay analyses how Masterpiece Theatre schedules and promotes the British dramas it acquires, and how the assimilation into US broadcasting and PBS branding contexts transforms these dramas, before considering how these imports are consumed and received by both US viewers and critics. Challenging some of the prevailing perceptions of Masterpiece Theatre, the central argument is that Masterpiece Theatre and the discourses surrounding it are marked by a sense of tension that has so far not received enough critical recognition.

Study on the discovery of a masterpiece of the Spanish Renaissance. This work rescues from oblivion the art of Juan de Valmaseda, a Castilian sculptor, contemporary of Alonso Berruguete and Diego de Siloé, with important works in the high altarpieces of the Cathedrals of Palencia, León, Burgos and Oviedo. The author explains how Juan de Valmaseda’s work is the best example of the fusion of tardo-Gothic forms with the Italian models brought by Berruguete and Siloé. The work studied here radiates beauty, expressivity and a great modernity due its immediacy, all inspired by a purely spiritual sentiment which relates it to Titian, Michelangelo and El Greco, as we may observe in the illustrations of the article.

Fol suggests an examination of the ontological and aesthetic aspects of music composition as content and form respectively and establishes semiotics as connection between the two. The authour defines ontological ideas as compositional abstractions and aesthetic ideas as subjective decisions and argues for a critical approach founded in an analysis which evaluates the specific relevance of each set of ideas to the specific work of art. Fol rejects the application of media theories to music and maintains that while content and form influence one another, form does not stand for content as the “medium is the message”. She proposes a definition of a masterpiece based on the execution of interrelated ontological and aesthetical elements but acknowledges the influence of cultural semiotics on analysis. In conclusion, Fol implies a nuanced distinction between analysis and hermeneutics by stating that the latter constitutes a transition to the topic of authenticity.

... versions of ancient Venda drums, with which he interacts bodily (Figure 2), carefully choreographing performances and stating his bodily identity through a use of cloth and clothing types, is performing an African ... In Africa remix: Contemporary art of a continent, ed. Simon Njami. ...

This essay considers the presence, role and significance of British drama on US television screens. Drawing on original archival research, it focuses on PBS and its acclaimed series Masterpiece Theatre (1971–present). Taking into account how this long-running series has evolved in relation to changes in the broadcasting landscape, the essay analyses how Masterpiece Theatre schedules and promotes the British dramas it acquires, and how the assimilation into US broadcasting and PBS branding contexts transforms these dramas, before considering how these imports are consumed and received by both US viewers and critics. Challenging some of the prevailing perceptions of Masterpiece Theatre, the central argument is that Masterpiece Theatre and the discourses surrounding it are marked by a sense of tension that has so far not received enough critical recognition.