Word: backdrop
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Writing in 1939, Brecht set his drama against the backdrop of the 17th century Thirty Years War between Protestants and Catholics. In her cagey peasant way, Mother Courage (Anne Bancroft) is a petty war profiteer peddling brandy, belts and other boodle to the troops. Her only religion is her hand-drawn canteen cart and her three children. But just as Mother Courage is a coward, her children ironically symbolize the degradation and defeat of virtue in the world...
...labors over the massive cartoons for his windows. In starting a commission, he cooperates closely with the architect, for his designs come out of the "possibilities and opportunities afforded by the architecture of a given project. Take, for instance, a modern church that has a square-patterned concrete backdrop behind the altar. People don't like to see jail-type grids or bars behind an altar, so I design windows that destroy such patterns...
...palace itself, properly known as the Palazzo Poli, holds no art treasures; but its south side forms a backdrop for Trevi fountain, conceived in 1630 by Architect Giovanni Bernini, and built more than 100 years later, chiefly by Nicola Salvi. Hollywood added to the fountain's fame with its Three Coins in the Fountain, and Rome's moviemakers did their bit by dunking Anita Ekberg in its great marble basin for a high-voltage, low-décolletage scene in La Dolce Vita...
Edward G. Kaebler, assistant dean, said yesterday that the building would humble a medieval tower. It will differ significantly in appearance from the more traditional architecture of the immediate neighborhood. Kaebler added that he was trying "to find some building that will form a backdrop to the others--one of a quiet design...
...know for the first time about her bargain with his mother. He shoots himself in despair; she goes to Paris. All these witty antics take place in a seaside retreat as elegant as suburban Miami. At least the Italians have St. Peter's or the Borghese Gardens for a backdrop; in Argentina there are ranch houses and shopping centers. The European haut monde diverts itself with chic and decadent parties, but in Argentina the big money falls back on canasta and TV westerns for its kicks...