Dianne Durante's Articles
Arts & Culture, Biographies
Henry Kitchell Webster’s Life-Loving, Pro-Business Fiction
Dianne Durante December 22, 2021
Henry Kitchell Webster's novels have charming, intelligent characters who pursue their goals in unusual ways. They show that there’s no good reason “why a serious novel should not be a good story."
Arts & Culture
How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings
Dianne Durante August 20, 2007
Provides a step-by-step method for viewing, assessing, and enjoying this rich visual medium. The article is accompanied by fifteen images of the paintings discussed, some of which are a feast, others of which are a foil.
Arts & Culture, History, Philosophy
19th-Century French Painting and Philosophy
Dianne Durante August 20, 2006
Examines the relationship between art and fundamental philosophic ideas by considering the Kantian notion that man cannot know reality by means of reason—a notion that became increasingly prevalent over the course of the 1800s—in connection with the works and words of 19th-century French painters and art critics, who, correspondingly, became increasingly hostile to reason over the same period. The article is accompanied by fifty-eight color images of the paintings discussed, which range from the sublime to the grotesque.
Arts & Culture
Getting More Enjoyment from Art You Love
Dianne Durante May 20, 2006
Examines two equestrian sculptures—George Washington, by Henry Kirke Brown, and the Cid, by Anna Hyatt Huntington—and demonstrates a method by which to approach such works in order to reap the most enjoyment from them.