Giorgione's The Pastoral Concert a work now attributed to Titian

Pastoral, as an adjective, refers to the lifestyle of shepherds and pastoralists, moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability of water and feed. Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c 1485 &ndash August 27 1576 better known as Titian, was the leading painter of the 16th-century Venetian A shepherd is a person who tends to feeds or guards Sheep, especially in flocks Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of Agriculture concerned with the raising of Livestock. "Pastoral" also describes literature, art and music which depicts the life of shepherds, often in a highly idealised manner. It may also be used as a noun (a pastoral) to describe a single work of pastoral poetry, music or drama. An alternative name for the literary "pastoral" (both as an adjective and a noun) is bucolic, from the Greek βουκóλος, meaning a "cowherd". This reflects the Greek origin of the pastoral tradition.

Pastoral literature

Pastoral literature in general

In literature, the adjective 'pastoral' refers to rural subjects and aspects of life in the countryside among shepherds, cowherds and other farm workers that are often romanticized and depicted in a highly unrealistic manner. Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter A shepherd is a person who tends to feeds or guards Sheep, especially in flocks A cowboy is an animal Herder who tends Cattle on Ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback and often performs a multitude of Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Indeed, the pastoral life is sometimes depicted as being far closer to the Golden age than the rest of human life. The term Golden age is best known from Greek mythology and legend but can also be found in other ancient cultures (see below ^[1] A typical mood is set by Christopher Marlowe's well known lines from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love":

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a poem written by the English poet Christopher Marlowe in the 1590s

There will we sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

Pastoral shepherds and maidens usually have Greek names like Corydon or Philomela, reflecting the origin of the pastoral genre. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Pastoral poems are set in beautiful rural landscapes, the literary term for which is "locus amoenus" (Latin for "beautiful place"), such as Arcadia, a rural region of Greece, mythological home of the god Pan, which was portrayed as a sort of Eden by the poets. Arcadia or Arkadía ( Greek Αρκαδία is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Pan ( Greek, Genitive) is the Greek god of shepherds and flocks of mountain wilds hunting and rustic music paein means to pasture Not to be confused with Eden Gardens.The Garden of Eden ( Hebrew "pleasure" גַּן עֵדֶן Arabic: جنات عدن, The tasks of their employment with sheep and other rustic chores is held in the fantasy to be almost wholly undemanding and is left in the background, abandoning the shepherdesses and their swains in a state of almost perfect leisure. Leisure or free time, is a period of Time spent out of work and essential domestic Activity. This makes them available for embodying perpetual erotic fantasies. Erotica (from the Greek Eros —"desire" or "curiosa" works of art including literature, photography film sculpture The shepherds spend their time chasing pretty girls — or, at least in the Greek and Roman versions, pretty lads as well. The eroticism of Virgil's second eclogue, Formosum pastor Corydon ardebat Alexin ("The shepherd Corydon burned with passion for pretty Alexis") is entirely homosexual. An eclogue is a Poem in a classical style on a Pastoral subject Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation.

Pastoral poetry

Georgics Book III, Shepherd with Flocks, Vatican

Pastoral literature began with the poetry of the Hellenistic Greek Theocritus, several of whose Idylls are set in the countryside (probably reflecting the landscape of the island of Cos where the poet lived) and involve dialogues between herdsmen. This article focuses on the cultural aspects of the Hellenistic age for the historical aspects see Hellenistic period. Theocritus ( Greek: Θεόκριτος the creator of Ancient Greek Bucolic Poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC Kos or Cos ( Greek: Κως Turkish: İstanköy; Italian: Coo formerly Stanchio in English is a Greek ^[2] Theocritus may have drawn on authentic folk traditions of Sicilian shepherds. He wrote in the Doric dialect but the metre he chose was the dactylic hexameter associated with the most prestigious form of Greek poetry, epic. For the modern Doric dialect of Scotland see Doric dialect (Scotland Doric was a dialect of ancient Greek. Dactylic Hexameter (also known as "heroic hexameter" is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation This blend of simplicity and sophistication would play a major part in later pastoral verse. Theocritus was imitated by the Greek poets Bion and Moschus. Bion (Greek Βίων Greek Bucolic Poet, was a native of the city of Smyrna and flourished about 100 BC For the 6th-century Syrian writer see Joannes Moschus. Moschus is also the genus of the Musk deer. The Roman poet Virgil adapted the genre into Latin with his highly influential Eclogues. Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or The Bucolics (also called the Eclogues) is the first of the three major works of the Latin Poet Virgil. Virgil presented a more idealised vision of rural life than Theocritus and was the first to set his poems in Arcadia, the favourite location of subsequent pastoral literature. Arcadia or Arkadía ( Greek Αρκαδία is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. He also included elements of political allegory. ^[3]

Italian poets revived the pastoral from the 14th century onwards, first in Latin (examples include works by Petrarch, Pontano and Mantuan) then in the Italian vernacular (Boiardo). Francesco Petrarca ( July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374) known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar Iovianus Pontanus ( Italian Giovanni Gioviano Pontano) (1426 ‑ September 17, 1503) was an Italian humanist and Poet Baptista Spagnuoli Mantuanus ( Italian: Battista Mantovano, English: Mantuan, also known as Johannes Baptista Spagnolo') Matteo Maria Boiardo (c 1434 &ndash December 20, 1494) was an Italian Renaissance Poet. The fashion for pastoral spread throughout Renaissance Europe. In Spain, Garcilaso de la Vega was an important pioneer and his motifs find themselves renewed in the 20th Century Spanish language poet Giannina Braschi. For the Peruvian writer Garcilaso de la Vega see Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Garcilaso de la Vega (c Leading French pastoral poets include Marot and Ronsard. Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544 was a French Poet of the Renaissance period Pierre de Ronsard ( 11 September, 1524 – December 1585 was a French Poet and "prince of poets" (as his own generation in France

The first pastorals in English were the Eclogues (c. 1515) of Alexander Barclay, which were heavily influenced by Mantuan. Dr Alexander Barclay (c 1476 &ndash 10 June 1552 English / Scottish Poet, was born about 1476 A landmark in English pastoral poetry was Spenser’s The Shepheardes Calender, first published in 1579. Edmund Spenser (c 1552 &ndash 13 January, 1599) was an important English Poet and Poet Laureate best known for The The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser 's first major poetic work published in 1579 Spenser's work consists of twelve eclogues, one for each month of the year, and is written in dialect. It contains elegies, fables and a discussion of the role of poetry in contemporary England. The term " elegy " was originally used for a type of poetic meter ( Elegiac metre but is also used for a Poem of mourning from the Greek A fable is a succinct story in prose or verse that features Animals Plants inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are Spenser and his friends appear under various pseudonyms (Spenser himself is "Colin Clout"). Spenser's example was imitated by such poets as Michael Drayton (Idea, The Shepherd's Garland) and William Browne (Britannia's Pastorals). Michael Drayton (1563 &ndash December 23, 1631) was an English Poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. William Browne (1590? &ndash 1645? was an English Poet, born at Tavistock Devon and educated at Oxford; subsequently he entered the Inner Temple The most famous pastoral elegy in English is John Milton's Lycidas (1637), written on the death of Edward King, a fellow student at Cambridge University. John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and "Lycidas" is a poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a Pastoral Elegy, first appearing in a 1638 collection of elegies entitled The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Milton used the form both to explore his vocation as a writer and to attack what he saw as the abuses of the Church. The formal pastoral in English died out in the 18th century, one of the last notable examples being Alexander Pope's Pastorals (1709). Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744 is generally regarded as the greatest English Poet of the eighteenth century best known for his Satirical The form was parodied by writers such as John Gay (in his Shepherd's Week), criticised for its artificiality by Doctor Johnson and attacked for its lack of realism by George Crabbe, who attempted to give a true picture of rural life in his poem The Village (1783). John Gay ( 30 June, 1685 - 4 December, 1732) was an English Poet and Dramatist. Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September George Crabbe ( 24 December 1754 - 3 February 1832) was an English Poet and naturalist. Pastoral nevertheless survived as a mood rather than a genre, as can be seen from such works as Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis (1867), a lament on the death of his fellow poet Arthur Hugh Clough. Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 &ndash 15 April 1888 was an English Poet, and Cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools Arthur Hugh Clough ( January 1, 1819 &ndash November 13, 1861) was an English Poet, and the brother of Anne Jemima

Pastoral romances

Italian writers invented a new genre, the pastoral romance, which mixed pastoral poems with a fictional narrative in prose. Although there was no classical precedent for the form, it drew some inspiration from ancient Greek novels set in the countryside, such as Daphnis and Chloe . Daphnis and Chloe (Δαφνιν και Χλοην Daphnin kai Chloēn) is the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greek Novelist The most influential Italian example of the form was Sannazzaro's Arcadia (1504). Jacopo Sannazaro or Sannazzaro ( 28 July 1458 - April 27, 1530) was an Italian poet humanist and epigrammist The vogue for the pastoral romance spread throughout Europe producing such notable works as Montemayor's Diana (1559) in Spain, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1590) in England, and Honoré d'Urfé's Astrée (1607-27) in France. Jorge de Montemayor ( Jorge de Montemor) (1520? &ndash February 26, 1561) was a Portuguese Novelist and Poet, who wrote Sir Philip Sidney ( November 30, 1554 &ndash October 17, 1586) became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures Honoré d'Urfé marquis de Valromey comte de Châteauneuf ( February 11, 1568 - June 1, 1625) was a French Novelist and

Pastoral plays

Pastoral drama also emerged in Renaissance Italy. Again, there was little Classical precedent, with the possible exception of Greek satyr plays. Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy similar to the modern-day Burlesque style Poliziano's Orfeo (1480) shows the beginnings of the new form, but it reached its zenith in the late 16th century with Tasso's Aminta (1573) and Guarini's Il pastor fido (1590). Angelo Ambrogini, best known as Poliziano ( July 14, 1454 &ndash September 24, 1494) was a Florentine Classical Torquato Tasso ( 11 March 1544 &ndash 25 April 1595) was an Italian Poet of the 16th century best known for his poem Aminta is a play written by Torquato Tasso in 1573, represented during a garden party at the court of Ferrara. Giovanni Battista Guarini ( December 10, 1538 – October 7, 1612) was an Italian poet dramatist and diplomat John Lyly's Endimion (1579) brought the Italian-style pastoral play to England. John Lyly ( Lilly or Lylie) (c 1553 or 1554 &ndash November 1606 was an English writer best known for his books Euphues The Anatomy of Wit John Fletcher's The Faithful Shepherdess and Ben Jonson's The Sad Shepherd are later examples. John Fletcher (1579 &ndash 1625 was a Jacobean Playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist Some of Shakespeare's plays contain pastoral elements, most notably As You Like It (whose plot was derived from Thomas Lodge's pastoral romance Rosalynde) and The Winter's Tale, of which Act 4 Scene 4 is a lengthy pastoral digression. William Shakespeare ( baptised As You Like It is a Pastoral Comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published Thomas Lodge (c 1558 &ndash 1625 was an English Dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, first published in the First Folio in 1623

Pastoral music

Theocritus's Idylls include strophic songs and musical laments, and, as in Homer, his shepherds often play the syrinx, or Pan flute, considered a quintessentially pastoral instrument. The pan flute or pan pipe (also known as panflute or panpipes) is an ancient Musical instrument based on the principle of the Closed Virgil's Eclogues were performed as sung mime in the 1st century, and there is evidence of the pastoral song as a legitimate genre of classical times.

The pastoral genre was a significant influence in the development of opera. Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto After settings of pastoral poetry in the pastourelle genre by the troubadours, Italian poets and composers became increasingly drawn to the pastoral. The pastourelle is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess A troubadour ( IPA:, originally) was a composer and performer of Occitan Lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100&ndash1350 Musical settings of pastoral poetry became increasingly common in first polyphonic and then monodic madrigals: these later led to the cantata and the serenata, in which pastoral themes remained on a consistent basis. A cantata (derived from the Italian word 'cantare' meaning 'to sing' is a vocal composition with an instrumental Accompaniment and often This article is about the musical form See Serenade (disambiguation for other meanings Partial musical settings of Giovanni Battista Guarini's Il pastor fido were highly popular: the texts of over 500 madrigals were taken from this one play alone. Giovanni Battista Guarini ( December 10, 1538 – October 7, 1612) was an Italian poet dramatist and diplomat Tasso's Aminta was also a favourite. As opera developed, the dramatic pastoral came to the fore with such works as Jacopo Peri's Dafne and, most notably, Monteverdi's L'Orfeo. Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto Jacopo Peri ( August 20 1561 &ndash August 12 1633) was an Italian Composer and singer of the transitional period between Dafne is the earliest known work that by modern standards could be considered an Opera. L'Orfeo ( L'Orfeo favola in musica, SV 318 or La Favola d'Orfeo, or The Legend of Orpheus) is one of the earliest Pastoral opera remained popular throughout the 17th-century, and not just in Italy, as is shown by the French genre of pastorale héroïque, Englishman Henry Lawes's music for Milton's Comus (not to mention John Blow's Venus and Adonis), and Spanish zarzuela. Pastorale héroïque is a genre of French Baroque Opera. The first work to bear the name was Jean-Baptiste Lully 's final completed opera Henry Lawes ( 5 December 1595 - 21 October 1662) was an English Musician and Composer. John Milton ( 9 December, 1608 – 8 November, 1674) was an English Poet, Prose Polemicist and Comus ( A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle 1634) is a Masque in honour of chastity written by John Milton and first presented on John Blow (baptised 23 February 1649 &ndash 1 October 1708 was an English Composer and Organist. Venus and Adonis is an Opera in three acts and a Prologue by the English Baroque Composer John Blow Zarzuela (θarˈθwela in Spain in Latin America is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes the latter incorporating Operatic At the same time, Italian and German composers developed a genre of vocal and instrumental pastorals, distinguished by certain stylistic features, associated with Christmas Eve.

The pastoral, and parodies of the pastoral, continued to play an important role in musical history throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. John Gay may have satirized the pastoral in The Beggar's Opera, but also wrote an entirely sincere libretto for Handel's Acis and Galatea. John Gay ( 30 June, 1685 - 4 December, 1732) was an English Poet and Dramatist. The Beggar's Opera is a Ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. For the Lully opera please see Acis et Galatée. Acis and Galatea ( HWV 49 was originally a Masque composed by George Frideric Rousseau's Le Devin du village draws on pastoral roots, and Metastasio's libretto Il re pastore was set over 30 times, most famously by Mozart. Le devin du village ("The Village Soothsayer" is an Opera by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who also wrote the Libretto. Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his Pseudonym of Metastasio, ( January 3, 1698 &ndash April 12, 1782 Il re pastore ( The Shepherd King) is an Opera, K 208 written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian Libretto Rameau was an outstanding exponent of French pastoral opera. Jean-Philippe Rameau (ʒɑ̃filip ʀaˈmo in French (September 25 1683 – September 12 1764 was one of the most important French Composers and music theorists ^[4] Beethoven also wrote his famous Pastoral Symphony, avoiding his usual musical dynamism in favour of relatively slow rhythms. Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. More concerned with psychology than description, he labelled the work "more the expression of feeling than [realistic] painting". The pastoral also appeared as a feature of grand opera, most particularly in Meyerbeer's operas: often composers would develop a pastoral-themed "oasis", usually in the centre of their work. Grand Opera is a genre of 19th-century Opera generally in four or five acts characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras and (in their original productions lavish and Notable examples include the shepherd's "alte Weise" from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, or the pastoral ballet occupying the middle of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. Tristan und Isolde ( Tristan and Isolde, or Tristan and Isolda) is an Opera, or Music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner The 20th-century continued to bring new pastoral interpretations, particularly in ballet, such as Ravel's Daphis and Cloe, Nijinsky's use of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, and Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps and Les Noces. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (commonly known by its original French title Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune) is a Musical composition Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to This article is about the ballet music For the emo/hardcore band see Rites of Spring The Rite of Spring, commonly referred ^[5]

Pastoral art

Idealised pastoral landscapes appear in Hellenistic and Roman wall paintings. Interest in the pastoral as a subject for art revived in Renaissance Italy, partly inspired by the descriptions of pictures Sannazzaro included in his Arcadia. The Fête champêtre (Pastoral Concert) attributed to Giorgione is perhaps the most famous painting in this style. Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance Later, French artists were also attracted to the pastoral, notably Claude, Poussin (e. Claude Lorrain (also Claude Gellée or Le Lorrain) ( Lorraine, c Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665 was a French painter in the classical style g. Et in Arcadia ego) and Watteau (in his Fêtes galantes). "Et in Arcadia ego" is a Latin phrase that most famously appears as the title of two paintings by Nicolas Poussin ( 1594 &ndash 1665) Jean-Antoine Watteau ( October 10, 1684 – July 18, 1721) was a French painter whose brief career spurred the revival of ^[6]

See also

• Pastorela
• Pastourelle
• Eclogue
• Idyll
• Arcadia

References

External links

• Two Idylls by Theocritus (English)
• The Eclogues of Virgil
• The complete works of Christopher Marlowe
• Shepheardes Calendar by Edmund Spenser
• La Castità Conquistata: The Function of the Satyr in Pastoral Drama, by Meredith Kennedy Ray (University of Chicago)
• 'The Pastoral Concert' at the Louvre site