Arts and literature of Urcea

Art

The history of Urcean visual art is part of Levantine painting history. Levantine art was influenced by earlier Adonerii civilization and can in part be taken as a descendant thereof. However, Levantine painting does have important unique characteristics. Such painting can be grouped into 4 main "styles" or periods, and may contain the first examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape.

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1828) by Thomas Comhale, Urcea's foremost Romantic painter

Panel painting became more common during the Levanesque period, under the heavy influence of Istroyan icons. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more realistic, with the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective in Urcea. From then on, the treatment of composition by the best painters also became much more free and innovative.

Initially serving imperial, private, civic, and religious patronage, Urcean painting later found audiences in the aristocracy and the middle class. From the Middle Ages through the Renaissance painters worked for the church and a wealthy aristocracy. Beginning with the Baroque era, artists received private commissions from a more educated and prosperous middle class. The idea of "art for art's sake" began to find expression in the work of the Romantic painters, the most famous of which was Thomas Comhale, whose paintings of Ionian Highlands and scenes in the eastern Urcean plain were embraced as a "uniquely Urcean artistic school" during the period of the Recess of the Julii and Aedanicad. The Romantic art style remained popular in Urcea long after it had been supplanted elsewhere and it was valued as the "art of the common people and their inheritance in the land of Urcea", as Aedanicus VIII put it in 1863. Urcean Romanticism heavily featured both landscapes and historical scenes in addition to Biblical and pseudo-historical scenes, especially in the well known The Course of Empire series of paintings by Comhale which depict the rise and fall of a classic Latinic civilization. During the 19th century commercial galleries became established and continued to provide patronage in the 20th century.

Architecture

Urcea has a very broad and diverse architectural style, most of which cannot be simply classified by period. A major reason for this is the stark regional differences that occur depending upon where one studies, due to the consolidation of various polities into Urcea since its formation. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs. Though not as widely spread, there is a strong association with the Urcean identity and the Rococo style of architecture due to the opulence of Urcea during the late 17th century and early 18th century, best expressed perahaps in both Electorsbourg and the Hermitage. The most popular and commonly used kind of architecture, due to rapid growth during the early industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, is the so-called Caroline architecture and associated pseudo-Caroline and neo-Caroline designs. An offshoot of Neoclassical architecture, Caroline architecture typically uses plain surfaces with attenuated detail, usually isolated in panels, tablets, and friezes. It also had a flatter, smoother façade and rarely used pilasters. It was most influenced by the interpretation of the ancient architecture of Great Levantia, which was growing in popularity in the mid-18th century due to increasing interest in archaeology.

Despite its relative diversity, Urcea is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of arches, domes and similar structures during ancient Great Levantia, achievements in the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th centuries, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world. Electorsbourg near Cana and the Praetorium in Urceopolis is among one of the better known buildings in this style. Urcean architecture has also widely influenced the architecture of the world. Additionally, the supposed "Urceanate architecture", popular abroad since the 19th century and the cultural dominance of Urcea during the Aedanicad, was used to describe foreign architecture which was built in a Urcean style, especially modeled on Gothic architecture. Perhaps the most prominent building of the so-called Urceanate style is the Julian Palace, which inspired many other public buildings around the world.

Literature

Urcean literature refers to the literature of Urcea as well as older literature written in the Lebhan language. It may also refer to literature written by Urceans or Urcean emigres elsewhere, especially in Levantia. Urcean literature is considered to have begun in the 12th century when, in different regions of the Kingdom, the slowly standardizing Lebhan language started to be used in a literary manner. Urcean literature continued on past the adoption of Julian Ænglish as the national language.

The earliest literature which can be considered Urcean dates back to the centuries following the fall of Great Levantia. During this time, many iterative works of the Great Levantine period - especially Lebhan language treatments of stories of the Latin Heroic Age - were popular, as well as theological treatises dealing with the fall of Great Levantia. Much of Urcean literature through about 1700 focused on the nature of the divine and its relation to human life, and consequently some of the greatest works of Christian devotional literature, including The Imitation of Christ and Dark Night of the Soul were written in Urcea. This focus on devotional literature set the foundation for later works in the Romantic period and specifically during the Aedanicad, which is considered to be the golden age of Urcean literature. This period saw the increasing interest in establishing a uniquely Urcean literature style as opposed to the general cultural history and mores of the Holy Levantine Empire, from which Urcea found itself increasingly estranged from during the Recess of the Julii. With the desire to produce uniquely Urcean literature and culture, a number of key new literary figures emerged, including novelists such as Téodóir Dostovenus, who wrote extensively about human nature and the duality of man, especially in works such as The Brothers Kerkinius.

Theater

Theater in Urcea is based in the Occidental tradition and did not take on a unique dramatic identity until the 17th century, coinciding with the rise of Urcean theater music. Its history prior to the 17th century is somewhat obscured in the historical record, though most histories have included theater as a "minor" form of entertainment. Pre-17th century Urcean theater is typically presented as having represented many of the classics of antiquity, though considerable scholarly evidence in the 2020s suggested that the classic theatrical presentations of Great Levantia survived in greatly modified and adapted forms. Consequently, many early Urcean theatrical productions depicting events of the Great Interregnum and other events are now considered to be ahistorical, adapting earlier stories by placing them within the context of later historical events.