More On Kabuki - Japanese Theater Art

Kabuki is a traditional theater art of Japan. It was started by Lzumo no Okuni. This new dance style inspired many other troupes after the appreciation of Okuni’s performance in the royal court of Shogunate. Initially it was an all women’s performance but when those women turned to prostitution men, because of the ban levied on them, substituted them. But the handsome youth too caught the fancy of salacious audience and were made to enter prostitution. Then finally it was declared that matured men would only be the part of kabuki to maintain the dignity of the society.

Hanamichi or flower path is the walkway, which is used to for entering and exiting for the performers, and it extends into the spectator’s area. Things like trap doors and rotating steps were added way back in the eighteenth century. The rotating stage was invented in the Kyoho period and was called as Mawari-butai. The technique involved a separate circular stage placed on wheel, in center of the original stage. If the circular stage was rotated in full light, it was known as Akaten or lighted revolve and if the lights of stage were dimmed when the platform is revolved, which was known as Kuraten or darken revolve. The trap doors were known as Seri, which were used to either lower or raise an actor on to stage. This was used to achieve the effect of raising the whole scene on to the stage or declining the whole scene from the stage.

The spectators were made to believe that the actor is flying by attaching wires to the costumes of the actor. This technique was known as Chunori. This technique was made in the nineteenth century. Tricks like this and many other tricks are known as Keren, meaning playing to the gallery. They are used to refer to the sudden appearance and disappearance of the performers. Hiki Dagu was mobile stage place on wagons. They were used to change the scene in between when the actors were still performing on stage and when the curtains weren’t drawn. This technique was taken further and was used on actors. The actors used to perform on wheeled platform and at the end of the performance some men used to push that platform away from the eyes of the spectators. These men were also used to remove or add a scene or prop and were known as Kuroko. To decrease their visibility to the audience they were made to dress in black. Modern theaters have become more and more better when compared to the traditional theaters.

In this modern age Kabuki is still famous and has gained immense traditional importance. A statue of Okuni was erected in 2003 in Pontocho district. There are many renowned Kabuki theaters in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. The famous performers of Kabuki are given chance to act in movies and television series. Bando Tamasaburo was a very famous kabuki performer as well as an actor who performed in many films especially in the female character or Annagata. Females are also a part of the performance now instead of only men who used to perform the Annagata roles. In fact after the World War II all female groups were also formed which were known as Ichikawa Kabuki-za. Many kabuki troupes perform on international level also like America and Europe. International plays have been rewritten for kabuki performances. Kabuki is also referred to as Anime. In 2005, UNESCO declared kabuki as “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.

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The History Of Theatre

The history of theatre arts can be dated back to as early as the period of ancient Greek. Since then the various eras witnessed changes in the types of theatre stages, which affected the actors and also gave rise to different forms of acting.

In ancient Greece, plays were staged to mark a religious occasion in theatres where only prestigious men were allowed as at that time women and slaves were looked down upon in the society. Theatres popularly known as amphitheatres housed a large round stage which was encircled three-fourth by audience. This is how a stage would be set in the Greek Era. Amphitheatre could accommodate an audience of 25,000 at a time which made it very difficult to see what’s going on for the audience at the back. To overcome this obstruction the actors would be loud with grandiose voice and enormous gestures and to be more noticeable wore mask and symbolical attires. High pitched chorus was used to as a means of cautioning of an upcoming event or to advice co-actors. To improve the visibility and to give a deception of reality to the plays they were held in daylight and a real landscape acted as the background of the play.

In the medieval era facilities were more commonly available to many of the inhabitants of the community. Theatres too were no longer reserved for the rich. Plays were held on wagons better known as pageants. The wagon would be dragged into the marketplace where the play was decided to be held. Spectators would surround the stage from all sides and would watch the play. The themes of most of the plays at that time were the daily happenings and day to day experiences depicted as an ironic comedy or as a genuine mime depending on the taste of the audience. This created an interaction between the audience and the actors with the audience expressing their views on the theme.

During the Renaissance Period theatre performance took the form of professional performance more than an artistic one. The blueblood of England started investing into performing groups and theatres with an apron stage. The apron stage had a rectangular platform with nearly an audience of 2,000 surrounding the three sides of it and was in close proximity with the actors performing on stage. With the wealthy aristocrats funding the plays the costumes were designed with more details and were elegant. Plays were enacted at daytime which made the creation of illusion of nighttime difficult which was overcome by dispatching the information as a part of an actor’s dialogue which is termed as word scenery. Denizens from all sects of the society attended these plays so an effort was made to please a large array of spectators by taking different storylines into consideration.

The period around the seventeenth and eighteenth century was known as the Restoration period. The theatres around this time were smaller than those of the Renaissance period and held up to 500 spectators at a time. This period gave an end to daylight lit auditoriums replacing them with closed rooms lit completely with man-made light. Stages were bounded with decorated frames but with no curtains like the modern times. Although the audiences weren’t in close vicinity of the stage, a small stage protruded into the auditorium so as to increase the interaction between the audience and the actors. Lack of curtain hindered the privacy of changing of scenes which affected the realistic illusion. Performances by the restoration period were character driven with more emphasis on the perfectionism, social issues, and scenery.

The stage in the later centuries evolved into what is known as the proscenium stage or picture frame stage. It’s designed and named after the technique of how one visualizes a picture. There is a defined separation between the spectators and the actors with the introduction of ramp. Curtains added to this and the same time gave privacy to change scenes thus creating a realistic and elaborated picturization. The auditorium is darkened during the performance there by increasing the concentration of the audience. Modern technologies and aids have made illustration more interesting and realistic and made the art even more interesting and popular.

The Plays Of Shakespeare

The works of William Shakespeare bears no comparison in the history of arts. He was a versatile English poet, play writer and actor. He has written nearly 38 plays, 154 sonnets and countless poems between the years 1582–1612, which are remembered even to this day. They had great impact on English literature and western theater. All his works have been translated into all known languages and they have been performed around over the world over a million times.

Although most of his works were written for English audience the appeal was universal. His writing style was greatly influenced by Christopher Marlowe. In 1594, Shakespeare became part-owner of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a drama company. By then he had even started acting, along with writing plays. Under his presence the company became so famous which made King James I buy the company and then it was named as King’s men.

His plays revolved around tragedy, comedy, romance and history. He started his career reworking on other writers work which was common at that time. Since then he helped the playwrights to finish their work fast. Like Hamlet was the new adaptation of a lost play named Ur-Hamlet and King Lear was the new version of King Leir. His plays on history were inspired by the Greek, Roman and English history. Plays like Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and Raphael Holinshed’s The Chronicle of England inspired plays like Macbeth and King Lear. Tempest was his original work.

Shakespeare’s early works of 1590s were based on romantic comedies and historic nostalgia which were the storyline of works like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry IV, Part I. After the plague, he began including rhymed couplets and dramatic dialogues in his work. His middle period works revolved around betrayal, murder, egoism, power, ambition, lust, tragedy and comedy. Plays like Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida were based on them. His later works were mostly romantic and fantasies such as The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. His works were also published in press as a series of quartos. Two actors named John Heminges and Henry Condell started First Folio to honor and publish Shakespeare’s work exclusively in 1623. Categories such as comedies, tragedies and histories were made in First Folio. Modern critics have added categories like problem-play and tragic-comedies.

The exact order of plays is unknown and has always been the subject of an argument as at his time, plays weren’t authoritatively printed. Many of his plays had many different blueprints due to the textual corruption like printer’s error and compositor’s misreading, so the recognition of his original work is a problem. Many words and spellings were invented by Shakespeare. He had a habit of writing his plays number of time using those different words and spellings. After his death, speculations have risen about the authenticity of Shakespeare’s work. There have been very little record about the events that happened in his life and nor does his will gives an account on any of his plays, poems, sonnets and ownership of the Globe theater. It has been rumored that they might be works of Francis Bacon or Christopher Marlowe.

The works that have been lost are Love’s Labour’ Won, Cardenio and Quixote. Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Othello, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Richard III are some the critically acclaimed works of William Shakespeare.

Choosing Religious Paintings

I have a gallery that a local businessman financed. He wanted a place on the town square that featured religious paintings. I’ve been busy buying religious painting for several years. I have found some very nice pieces and I have a lot of people purchase paintings that I’ve found.

One of my favorite artists is someone that I actually stumbled across when I was buying religious paintings. He was not famous, but he had some of his pieces at a local show. I found that he primarily paints and sells his work on the internet.

It is hard to describe all of the feelings that I had when I saw his first piece. I really liked that he used the scripture Psalm 139:14 and made it gently legible within the layers of fresco colors. I thought that this was an excellent choice for my gallery. Buying religious paintings is very rewarding.

When my painting arrived, it was on gallery wrap ¾ inch stretcher frames and was ready to hang. My patrons came to a private preview of the piece and were so happy with my success at buying religious paintings. The piece was actually five original canvases, each 15” X 30” with black painted gallery wrap edges so that no frames were needed.

The title of the piece was long, but appropriate. The title was “I will praise thee for I am fearfully made marvelous are Thy works and that my soul knoweth right well”. One of my patrons wanted to buy it and hang it in his home. I had to convince him to let me show it for four months before he did that. It is hard work finding and buying suitable religious paintings.

In all the time that I’ve spent looking at and buying religious paintings, I am starting to feel like an expert. I try to find paintings in a variety of mediums to keep the gallery feeling fresh and vibrant. My favorite religious paintings use fresh earth minerals, pigments, oil glazes and acrylic varnish.

I actually have no preference if an artist signs his canvas or not. Most of my patrons, however, want their religious paintings signed. So, when I am buying religious paintings, I try to find ones that the artist signed.

The artist that I decided was my personal favorite uses the lost language of symbolism in his original paintings. He told me that his religious paintings are inspired by the ancient storytelling frescoes of Pompeii, Italy. He has a trademark style that he calls Religious Graffiti.

I get a lot of requests for certain subjects in the religious paintings that I buy. I have been looking for religious paintings of Mary and Jesus and also painting of Mary and Angel Gabriel. I have several families that have wanted these classic images in their homes. I have another family that wants me to find an oil Madonna with Child to hang in her church.

There was one religious painting that I bought that was very sweet. The image of Our Lady, Jesus and St. Giovannino was very provocative and it hung prominently in the gallery for six months before I let it go. I get attached to the religious paintings that I buy and then get to view every day. I have a policy that no painting will leave the walls of the gallery for four months.

My new favorite piece is an abstract triptych that I found while I was in Atlanta buying religious paintings. The piece was called Guardian Angel and I love it. My patrons fell in love with it as well. They have asked me to track down the artist and see if he has anymore religious paintings available.

The only religious paintings that I actually do not buy are ones that reflect the image of Jesus on the cross. I don’t have a problem with them, some of them are extremely well done and would more than likely sell well, but my investors made it very clear when they financed the gallery that I would not put that image into it.

The Art Of Ballet

The ancient Greeks were known to be great warriors and artists. People were known to be blessed with talents in fields such as theater, painting, sculpturing, and poetry. Theater itself was one field which included many other arts such as acting, singing, dancing, writing, and poetry. This art was later on reflected in other countries such as Indian, China and Indonesia. Ballet is a special dance form basically inspired from Greek and Roman theaters to take its full form in 1400s in Italy and France. Although dance was suppressed by the churches this art spread to Russia and America with a version of their own. Ballet was driven from the Latin word “Ballere” which meant dance.

During the renaissance period in Italy, ballet was the product of court pageantry. Domenico da Piacenza was a well-known artist to have mastered arts. He used to teach the nobles and other people who used to perform in the court. These court musicians and dancers used to perform on great occasions like weddings. They were later joined by the ballet De Cour which consisted of dancers who wore elegant costumes and sang beautiful songs. This art was transferred from Italy to France when Catherine de Medici of France married Henry II of Italy. She made great contribution to help flourish the art in France.

It was under the rule of Louis XIV, performance art was given great importance as he himself had a liking for it and was responsible to entrench what is known now as Paris Opera Ballet. Jean-Baptiste Lully was the favorite Italian composer of the king. He had a great understanding of the physical movements, musical songs and graceful dance. He made great contribution to ballet which was of utmost importance even after many years. He along with another French writer Moliere created Comedie-ballet. He was responsible to combine Italian and French ballet. French ballet consisted of instrumental music at first and then vocal music was added to it.

In the late 1800s ballet began to be practiced in Russia, America, Denmark, and Paris. Artists who were responsible for this were Marius Petipa, August Bournonville and Jules Perrot. Stories with Middle Eastern touch were also written. Ballets such as The Talisman and Pharaohs’ Daughter became very famous with the people. Many plays of William Shakespeare like Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet were interpreted through ballets.

The most important feature of ballet is that the thighs rotate in an outward direction from the hips. Performers who are interested in learning this art are expected to undergo very strenuous health workouts. It ends along with getting the high school degree. Some exams are practical and some are theoretical. Ballet incorporates French words which are used to name the movements and steps. The dancers should know French in order to be more familiar. This also means that the terms used for the steps are universal. It’s very important for the artist to have a strong lower body especially the legs and the abs. strong legs are necessary for the en pointe position and strong abs are necessary for turning the body. A dancer can also create an illusion of long or short hands and legs. If the limbs are placed near the back of the body they appear short and when they are brought forward the limbs seem to be longer.

A lot of physics is involved in ballet. The dancer should create an illusion that she or he is opposing gravity. The dancer’s body acts like a parabola or a projectile in the air and gravity works on the center of mass of the body. Like they can act as if they are suspended in air by jumping with their arms and legs suspended and head lowered. But the landing should be carefully done; otherwise the dancer could fall down, hurting one self which would also affect the show. A precaution that can be taken in such cases is to have a shock absorbent floor. Another technique which can be extremely hazardous is the rolling of the foot from toe to heel with knees bend. Such type of training calls for the help of professionals. Despite all these complications involved in performing ballet, it remains one of the most popular performing arts in the world.

About Realism Paintings

In literature as well as art realism is the depiction of subjects as they appear in practical, everyday life. Realism does not deal with interpretation or embellishment. The point of realism is to capture people or situations in a gritty and real way. Similar to realist photography, the realist painter does not place emphasis on stylization but is most interested in depicting situations just as they appear to the naked eye.

While realism depicts real characters in real situations, there tends to be emphasis placed on the sordid or ugly. In this way, realism is very much the opposite of idealism. In idealism the theory is that the reality and regular world around us is merely a reflection of a higher truth. With realism, however, it’s as though we’re saying “all I know for sure is what my eyes and other sense organs tell me”.

As a reaction to the idealism of Romanticism in France during the middle of the nineteenth century, realism became the popular cultural movement in many ways. Realism is often linked to demands for political and social reform, as well as ideas about democracy. Dominating the literature and visual arts of England, France and the United States between the years 1840 and 1880, realism was popular throughout many facets of life.

Realists tend to throw out such hubris as classical forms, theatrics and lofty esoteric subjects in favor of the most commonplace subjects and themes. A very famous example of a realist painting is Jean-Francois Millet’s ‘The Gleaners’ from the year 1857. This painting portrays three women working in the fields. The colors are very realistic, almost drab, by contrast to non-realist paintings.

Realism as an art movement appears as early as 2400 BC in India in the city of Lothal. Examples of this type of art can be found around the world and throughout art history. In a very broad sense, realism is art that shows any subject or object that has been observed and accurately depicted, though the entire art piece may not conform to realism conditions.

During the late sixteenth century the most prominent mode of art in European art was a form called mannerism, which showed artificial and elongated figures in very unreal, though graceful positions. Then an artist by the name of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio emerged and changed much of the direction of art simply by depicting real humans doing real things. His work shows images painted directly fro meveryday life and shows an immediacy that had never been seen before.

Dutch art had any realism entries, with their fondness for homely details and humble situations and subjects. Rembrandt is a very well known example of Dutch realism in paintings. The Barbizon School took realism in a whole new direction when, by observing and painting nature, the beginnings of Impressionism took shape.

Realism still plays a role in paintings and art of all kinds today. From film to television and the fine arts, realism is still a major player in the world of creative and expressive processes and productions. Throughout human history there have been those that wish to see things as they are and those that see in reality a hint of the divine. Realism went a long way in providing the one extreme with which we’ve discovered several in betweens in more modern and contemporary art.

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Theater Arts � The History Of Mummers

Mime is a kind of theater arts where the performer depicts the whole theme with the help of action and without spelling a single word. Such kinds of performers are known as mummers. Other genre of dances like break dance has many steps inspired from mime, the most famous being Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Clowns also undergo training in mime.

Like most of the theater arts, the reason behind the birth of this art is the Greek and Roman theaters. The history of the origin of mime can be dated back to the 3rd century BC’s Theater of Dionysus in Athens. At that time the mime wasn’t completely speechless as the modern mimes. Although there was some dialogue delivery, it was minimum and there was chorus, which is the key element of the theaters at that time. Mime artist were known as Phylakes at that time.

The stories were tragic at first with a moral lesson at the end. Some of the well-known mime writers were Epicharmus, Decimus Laberius, Pubilius Syrus, Herodas and Sophron. After the downfall of Roman Empire, the mime artists were part of the court performers all over Europe. They were known as Saltator or Mimus and this was how the word mime was derived. Sword swallowers, short drama actors, acrobats and jugglers were also known by the name Mimus. On the basis of this patented dumb roles were invented as the coward husband, forgetful old man and many others. They further grew as a non-silent comedy in the Italian theaters as the dumb show, British Pantomime, Masque and Italian commedia Dell’arte.

In the modern times there are primarily two categories of Mime. The first type is named Pantomime in which the whole emphasis is on the body as a whole along with facial expressions, gestures and body language. There is hardly any place for props in this kind of mime. Instead the objects are imagined and an illusion is created for the audience. Here the facial expressions and movement of the body is exaggerated.

The second type is Corporeal Mime. It was developed because of the effort of people like Jacques Lecoq and Etienne Decroux. Here the body is used to express something that even words cannot express. Emotions and thoughts were expressed so as to make the invisible visible. This is done not by just over doing the daily gestures but by discovering the range of human body to its fullness. The modernized version also includes elements of other theater arts like dialogues, puppetry and writing.

A mime is always presented with a painted face with more concentration on the lips and eyes, by highlighting them with red and black color, respectively. White gloves are a necessity as it is used to increase the visibility of the movements of the hand. The costumes consist of a black suit with white lining, suspenders and a black hat.

There are many other countries that have their own type of mime depending on their culture. The best example is the Indian classical dance. Mukhabinaya or face and eyes expression was a part of the Indian dance Natya Shastra original to Bharat Muni Theater, which is an Indian version of mime. It includes a vast vocabulary of hand gestures and stylized positions. Illusions are created by Mime that interprets an action, landscape, and living being. Sometimes song and music of the instruments or the lightning movement of the dancer’s feet support the mime performance.

Minimalism Paintings

Though I could enjoy speaking on the topic of art for sometime, I found myself without a way to truly understand the differing values in the ways of thought that permeate this grouping of human experience, and found myself looking to sources over the Internet to further my knowledge to utilize the information gathered to purchase paintings. I have always been interested in the passions evoked by the series of artists and movements that proliferate what we have come to know as the history of art. Reflecting on this notion of life’s passing interaction whether Romanticist, Surrealist, or Minimalist in nature.

Speaking on Minimalism now, the ideas that made this movement unique relied heavily upon the work being stripped down to the barest fundamental aspects, and laying bare those integral parts of self-expression. Many pieces of work other than visual art has been affected by these ideals of minimalism, and acted outside of this particular aesthetic appeal, creating new ways to interpret literature and even lifestyles. As far as painting goes, however, the minimalist paintings will typically use limited color schemes and simple geometric designs. Minimalist sculpture is focused on the materials used.

Some of the phases commonly agreed on about this movement are each notable for how they have progressed the overall conception of minimalism as a movement. A distillation in forms was the first phase, with contributors claiming in order to create a universal language of art that masses were meant to understand easily, and seemed poised to support the rapid industrialization for particular settings of the time. Searching for a purity of form, and paving the way for the abstractions to come later on, allowing for the second more notable phase to reach its’ crescendo afterwards.

Much of the formats for commercial artwork we see today have had a great deal of background in this movement of visual art, allowing us to understand on a fundamental level what the message is that the work is trying to convey, and a large amount of the signs and signals we find today relies heavily upon these ideals to translate a universal meaning to the general populace. We can easily see the progression of minimalism in these examples of the world over, and it almost as ingrained into our society now as much as we care to see.

A minimalist painting will typically use a very limited amount of colors and have a very simplistic geometric design. Minimalism in sculpture, on the other hand, is much more concerned with the materials used. Many people believe that minimalism in generally is about geometric shapes, but this interpretation depends widely on the branch of art as well as the interpreter.

But the simplest way to describe minimalism is that the less that is in the painting or work of art, the better it is. Minimalism is all about drawing attention to the few objects and colors of the composition. In this way minimalism shows us that less is better, for the eye is not drawn away by this of that filler or extra objects.

Minimalism is about starting with nothing and then carefully applying the few objects and colors that will define the piece as a whole. Minimalism is still one of the major parts of contemporary art, but it is used I conjunction with other styles and flairs from other art movements to form new types of minimalism.

Theater Arts - The Golden Age

The period around 600 BC - 200 BC was known as the Golden age of Greek Theater arts. Athens was the focal point for the flourishing arts. The political and military epicenter gave birth to great emperors, soldiers, philosophers, poets, writers and actors.

Annually plays were staged at Theater of Dionysia. Songs were sung at first in praise of God of wine and fertility, Dionysus. Out of them Aristotle’s poetry was outstanding. Its major element was tragedy which was the inspiration behind the tragic stories. Another poet Arion developed chorus singing which was known as Dithyramb. Later on chorus became an integral part of Greek Theater alongside actors, commentators and narrators who were also a part of the chorus team. In some plays chorus acted as a separately different character. They all synchronized with each other to project the image of a single entity rather than a group. In the beginning chorus comprised of twelve singing and dancing participants known as Choreutai. Later the number was increased to fifteen and two groups of seven, known as Hemichoria, were made with a lead singer known as Koryphaios.

Plays were written by Thespis in the beginning with one actor who enacted different characters by wearing different masks. He interacted with the chorus which narrated some parts of the story and sang when required. His play’s themes were tragedy and God Dionysus. Aeschylus introduced a second actor, followed by Sophocles, who introduced a third actor. This increased the complexity of the story and opened the horizons as other Greek mythological characters were being considered. And this was when the leader of the chorus was also introduced. He was responsible to interact with the actors on stage and with the audience too, for their opinion and for the summarization. Sometimes the interaction was in the form of a song and at other times he spoke directly. The rest of the chorus sang along in the background and illustrated on the main theme.

And thus two masks became the symbol of Greek Theater or Theatron. One had a smile and gleeful expression representing the comic aspect of the play and the other mask bore a sad expression which represented the tragic aspect of the play. By 500s BC, theaters were more dignified and became the pride of Athenian culture. The first renowned theater was the Theater of Dionysus. Annual competitions were held where three tragic plays were performed and the best play was rewarded. Competition between comedy plays started in 430s BC.

In the fourth century BC, King Alexander attacked Athens which led to the Peloponnesian War. It was then when the power of Athens began to deteriorate. In spite of the threat to the theatrical traditions of Greek, it still survived and passed onto the Hellenistic period. It was in this period when Comedy Theater came to its full form which reflected the lives of common man. The storyline of the plays was never mixed, i.e. comedy was never intermingled with tragedy and vice-versa. Menander was the writer who attained fame during this period.

The three main elements of theater became Orchestra, Skene and Audience. The platform on which artists performed and chorus performed was known as orchestra or the dancing place. At other times it was used to conduct religious rites. Skene was a huge rectangular building behind the orchestra. Originally it was a simple hut or tent used as a backstage. Actors changed their costumes here and it was used for religious purposes also. But later it took the form of a firm stone structure with two to three doors which opened into the orchestra. Paintings were done on this structure which was used as the background of the play and that’s how the term Skene came into existence. Later on another structure named as Proskene was also erected in front of the Skene which was exclusively meant for the performance of the actors. The audience sat in round ascending stair-case form of seating. Therefore the shape of the mountain into which the whole structure is being sculptured is important.

The theater arts that emerged during that era are mirrored in the plays of today all over the world. Out of all the plays written at that time plays of tragedians like Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles and plays of comedian Aristophanes became famous in the golden history of Greek arts. Their work was taken one step further by Plautus and Terence.