| Creator | Title | Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dancers: Torvill and Dean | Bolero | Harmony, grace exist. | Two people as one. |
| Sculptor: Buonarotti, Michelangelo | David | Man is a strong, indomitable creature who has the intelligence to overcome terrible odds. | [requires assumption of some context of this work -- not a "cold" introduction to it]: A man able to face a daunting task, with tremulous calm and determination. This is the depiction of the David/Goliath story of the Bible in which David takes on the much more formidable Goliath and wins. |
| Director: Benigni, Roberto | Monster, The | Just laughter and more of the same. | |
| Director: Canet, Guillaume | Tell No One (aka Ne le dis à personne) | Life is sad, and controlled by mysterious corruption. | |
| Villeroy & Boch | Chocolate Pitcher and Butter Dish | Friendly warmth (arising from the simple graceful lines, and the unadorned simplicity of the colors without ornament) | |
| Blum, Robert Frederick | Moods to Music | Life is colorful and glorious. |
Pure joy of movement and femininity. |
| Designer: Eiffel, Gustave | Eiffel Tower | The works of Man are thrilling. | |
| De Felitta, Raymond | City Island | Anxiety and pain from all the lies and mistaken motives. Catharsis from the climax, leading to feelings of wanting to be truthful in life! | Lying is not the way to live. |
| Author: Shute, Nevil | Trustee from the Toolroom | A feeling of gentleness, kindness and generosity towards good people in the world. |
The importance of pursuing one's personal values.<br> |
| Painter: Ghirlandaio, Domenico | Old Man with a Young Boy | Human companionship or family closeness is real. | Quiet familial love. (A grandfather (perhaps) gazing upon a grandson, and vice versa, in a clear moment of happy communion.) |
| Designer: Unknown | Rose Window - La Sainte-Chapelle (aka The Holy Chapel | The world is open and bright and colorful and gay. | |
| Director: Reiner, Rob | American President | Romance is fun, funny and important. | |
| Author: Steinbeck, John | East of Eden | Life is filled with great and important choices. | The battle between good and evil, guilt and innocence. Takes the position that we are influenced by many things, but ultimately we have free will. |
| Painter: Tito, Ettore | La Gomena (Towing a Boat) | There is great effort in life, and a woman can be the master of it. This painting is a curious combination of romantic heroism and 19th century genre naturalism. It has a visual dynamism and dramatic content that is strongly romantic, yet the subject is the prosaic task of pulling a boat out of the water. |
The will and the power of a woman. Implacable determination. |
| Schaefer, Taf Lebel | Octopus | Playful. | |
| Director: McTiernan, John | Die Hard | The way to beat evil is to give no quarter, no compromise. Life is hard, but fighting for the right is rewarded. | Giving up in life is not an option. |
| Composer: Catalani, Alfredo | Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (aria from La Wally) | Longing is the overall emotional tone of the music. The lyric gives reason to this overall tone. |
Sadness at having to leave forever the place where you were happy once. |
| Director: Coppola Francis Ford | Godfather | Life demands death; life is a horror of killing and retribution. Life is tragedy and malevolence | Behind beauty and success lies corruption and death. |
| Alexander, John | Trees | A sense of the world as dynamic and strong. | Nature is wild and dynamic. |
| Playwright: Shakespeare, William | Much Ado About Nothing | Sweetness and light and beauty are what the world is made of. | |
| Author: Lazarus, Emma | The New Colossus | Benevolent celebration of liberty as a beacon to a troubled world. | A marvelous land of liberty offers welcome to the oppressed of the world. |
| Designer: Fortuny, Mariano | Green fabric | Still produced by the Fortuny fabric company. | |
| Painter: Van Rijn, Rembrandt | Feast of Belshazzar | The only way to know the sense of life or world view of the painting is through it's history, since the image is very mixed. Shows an opulent and sumptuous world, but the people are obviously distressed over something. Assuming one knows its history, you could conclude it is an exercise in depicting the dangers of the worldly pursuits and wealth. | |
| Architect: Wright, Frank Lloyd | Robie House | The world is open and has sweeping, unending possibilities. | The essence of a house as shelter, and providing a sense of strength and privacy. That is, a structure that exudes strength through its massive cantilever and massive brick and stone forms, along with its big overhangs sheltering the windows to create a sense of privacy and enclosure, in its urban situation. |
| Sculptor: Buonarotti, Michelangelo | Pieta | Resignation in the face of tragedy. | Recognition and acceptance of a great personal loss. |