1.
1420s in art
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The decade of the 1420s in art involved some significant events. It is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,1420, Giovanni di Paolo paints a tiny gold-ground triptych 1422, Masaccio - San Giovenale Triptych 1423, Gentile da Fabriano - Adoration of the Magi c. 1424, Masaccio - Virgin and Child with St. Museo dellOpera del Duomo, Florence 1425, Donatello - The Feast of Herod, baptismal font, Siena Cathedral 1424, Masolino sculpts his Pietà1423, Ghibertis sculpture of St. S
2.
1430s in art
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The decade of the 1430s in art involved some significant events. 1430, Considered end of Medieval art art period,1430, First use of optical methods in the creation of art. 1430s, The engraver known as the Master of the Playing Cards becomes active in south-western Germany,1435, Leon Battista Alberti writes Della Pittura. 1438-1440, Donatello completes his series of sculptures for the Cathedral of Prato
3.
Masaccio
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Masaccio, born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the circumstances of his death. The name Masaccio is a version of Maso, meaning clumsy or messy Tom. The name may have created to distinguish him from his principal collaborator, also called Maso. Despite his brief career, he had a influence on other artists. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point in art for the first time, Masaccio was born to Giovanni di Simone Cassai and Jacopa di Martinozzo in Castel San Giovanni di Altura, now San Giovanni Valdarno. His father was a notary and his mother the daughter of an innkeeper of Barberino di Mugello and his family name, Cassai, comes from the trade of his paternal grandfather Simone and granduncle Lorenzo, who were carpenters/cabinet makers. Masaccios father died in 1406, when he was five, later that same year a brother was born. He also was to become a painter, with the nickname of lo Scheggia meaning the splinter, there is no evidence for Masaccios artistic education, however Renaissance painters traditionally began an apprenticeship with an established master around the age of 12. Johannis Simonis pictor populi S. Nicholae de Florentia, the first works attributed to Masaccio are the San Giovenale Triptych, now in the Museum of Cascia di Reggello near Florence, and the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne at the Uffizi. The San Giovenale altarpiece was discovered in 1961 in the church of San Giovenale at Cascia di Reggello and it depicts the Virgin and Child with angels in the central panel, Sts. Bartholomew and Blaise on the panel, and Sts. Juvenal and Anthony Abbot in the right panel, the painting has lost much of its original framing, and its surface is badly abraded. The second work was perhaps Masaccios first collaboration with the older and already-renowned artist, Masolino is believed to have painted the figure of St. Anne and the angels that hold the cloth of honor behind her, while Masaccio painted the more important Virgin and Child on their throne. Masolinos figures are delicate, graceful and somewhat flat, while Masaccios are solid, in Florence, Masaccio could study the works of Giotto and become friends with Brunelleschi and Donatello. It was destroyed when the cloister was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century. With the two artists probably working simultaneously, the painting began around 1425, but for reasons the chapel was left unfinished. As a whole the frescoes represent human sin and its redemption through the actions of Peter, the style of Masaccios scenes shows the influence of Giotto especially
4.
Pisa
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Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces. Much of the architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The origin of the name, Pisa, is a mystery, while the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city. Archaeological remains from the 5th century BC confirmed the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks, the presence of an Etruscan necropolis, discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991, confirmed its Etruscan origins. Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city, strabo referred Pisas origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy. Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a center by the times described. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti, or Pelops, the maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the port along the western coast from Genoa to Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls, in 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium, Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in Colonia Iulia obsequens. It is supposed that Pisa was founded on the shore, however, due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 kilometres north of the Arnos, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 kilometres away from the coast, currently, it is located 9.7 kilometres from the coast. However it was a city, with ships sailing up the Arno. In the 90s AD, a complex was built in the city. During the later years of the Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the cities of Italy, probably thanks to the complexity of its river system. After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, politically it became part of the duchy of Lucca
5.
Bahram V
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Bahram V was the fifteenth Sasanian King of Persia. Also called Bahram Gōr or Bahram Gūr, he was a son of Yazdegerd I, after his fathers assassination, Bahram V gained the crown against the opposition of the grandees by the help of Al-Mundhir I ibn al-Numan, the king of the Lakhmid dynasty. Bahram V began his reign with a persecution of the Christians. His chief mōbed Mihr-Shabūr ordered Christian tombs and gravesites exhumed, among those executed was James Intercisus, which led to a war with the Eastern Romans. In the year 421, the Romans sent their general Ardaburius with an extensive contingent into Armenia, Ardaburius defeated the Persian commander Narseh and proceeded to plunder the province of Arzanene and lay siege to Nisibis. Ardaburius abandoned the siege in the face of an army under Bahram. Peace was then concluded between the Persians and Romans with a return to status quo ante bellum, the situation in Armenia occupied Bahram immediately after the conclusion of peace with Rome. Armenia had been without a king since Bahrams brother Shapur had vacated the country in 418, Bahram now desired that a descendant of the royal line of kings, a scion of the Arshakunis, should be on the throne of Armenia. With this intention in mind, he selected an Arshakuni named Artaxias IV, a son of Vramshapuh, but the newly appointed king did not have a good character. The frustrated nobles petitioned Bahramgur to remove Artaxias IV and admit Armenia into the Persian Empire so that the province would be under the control of the Sassanian Empire. Despite his strong protests, however, Armenia was annexed by Bahram, during the later part of Bahram Vs reign, Persia was invaded from the northeast by Hephthalite hordes who ravaged northern Iran under the command of their leader. They crossed the Elburz into Khorasan and proceeded as far as the ancient town of Rey, unprepared, Bahram initially made an offer of peace and submission which was well received by the Khan of the Hephthalites. But crossing Tabaristan, Hyrcania and Nishapur by night, he took the Huns unawares and massacred them along with their Khan, the retreating Huns were pursued and slaughtered up to the Oxus. One of Bahrams generals followed the Huns deep into Hun territory and his portrait which survived for centuries on the coinage of Bukhara is considered to be an evidence of his victory over the Huns. Bahram V has left behind a rich and colorful legacy, with numerous legends and his fame has survived the downplay of Zoroastrianism and the anti-Iranian measures of the Umayyads and the Mongols, and many of the stories have been incorporated in contemporary Islamic lore. His legacy even survives outside Iran and he is the king who receives the Three Princes of Serendip in the tale that gave rise to the word Serendipity. He is believed to be the inspiration for the legend of Bahramgur prevalent in the Punjab and he is called Bahram Gur, Onager, on account of his love for hunting, and in particular, hunting onagers. The ruins of three of these towers are yet shown by the peasantry, as also the swamp in which Bahram sunk while pursuing his Gur, some have judged Bahram V to have been rather a weak monarch, after the heart of the grandees and the priests
6.
Nizami Ganjavi
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Nizami Ganjavi, Nizami Ganjei, Nizami, or Nezāmi, whose formal name was Jamal ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad Ilyās ibn-Yūsuf ibn-Zakkī, was a 12th-century Persian Sunni Muslim poet. Nezāmi is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature and his heritage is widely appreciated and shared by Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Kurdistan region and Tajikistan. His personal name was Ilyas and his chosen pen-name was Nezami and he was born of an urban background in Ganja and is believed to have spent his whole life in South Caucasus. According to De Blois, Ganja was a city which at that time had predominantly an Iranian population, the Armenian historian Kirakos Gandzaketsi mentions that, This city was densely populated with Iranians and a small number of Christians. Because Nezami was not a poet, he does not appear in the annals of the dynasties. Tazkerehs, which are the compilations of literary memoirs that include maxims of the poets along with biographical information. Much of this material in these Tazkerehs are based on legends, anecdotes, consequently, few facts are known about Nezamis life, the only source being his own work, which does not provide much information on his personal life. Nezami was orphaned early and was raised by his maternal uncle Khwaja Umar who took responsibility for him and his mother, named Raisa, was of Kurdish background. His father, whose name was Yusuf is mentioned once by Nezami in his poetry, in the same verse, Nezami mentions his grandfathers name as Zakki. In part of the verse, some have taken the word Muayyad as a title for Zakki while others have interpreted it as the name of his great grandfather. Some sources have stated that his father might be possibly from Qom, Nezami is variously mentioned as a Persian and/or Iranian. His first wife was a Kipchak slave girl which was sent to him by Fakhr al-Din Bahramshah, according to Iraj Bashiri she became Nezamis most beloved wife. His only son Mohammad was from this wife and she died after Khosrow and Shirin was completed. Mohammad was seven at the time, Nezami mentions his son again in Layli and Majnun adding that now this son is 14 years old and apple of my eyes. In Haft Peykar, he mentions and advises his son about taking more responsibility as the father was growing more frail. Some modern writers in the late 20th century have claimed that this wife was called Afaq, Nezami was not a philosopher in the sense of Avicenna or an expositor of theoretical Sufism in the sense of Ibn Arabi. Often referred to by the honorific Hakim, Nezami is both a poet and master of a lyrical and sensuous style. About Nezamis prodigious learning there is no doubt, poets were expected to be well versed in many subjects, but Nezami seems to have been exceptionally so
7.
Herat
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Herat is the third-largest city of Afghanistan. It has a population of about 436,300, and serves as the capital of Herat Province and it is linked with Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif via highway 1 or the ring road. It is further linked to the city of Mashhad in neighboring Iran through the town of Islam Qala. Herat dates back to the Avestan times and was known for its wine. The city has a number of sites, including the Herat Citadel. During the Middle Ages Herat became one of the important cities of Khorasan and it has been governed by various Afghan rulers since the early 18th century. In 1717, the city was invaded by the Hotaki forces until they were expelled by the Afsharids in 1736, after Nader Shahs death and Ahmad Shah Durranis rise to power in 1747, Herat became part of Afghanistan. It witnessed some political disturbances and military invasions during the half of the 19th century. Herat suffered from destruction during the Soviet war in the 1980s. Herat lies on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, Central, the roads from Herat to Iran, Turkmenistan, and other parts of Afghanistan are still strategically important. As the gateway to Iran, it collects high amount of revenue for Afghanistan. The city has an international airport, Herat is a regional hub in western Afghanistan in close proximity to Iran and Turkmenistan. The city has high residential density clustered around the core of the city, however, vacant plots account for a higher percentage of the city than residential land use and agricultural is the largest percentage of total land use. Herat dates back to ancient times, but its exact age remains unknown, during the period of the Achaemenid Empire, the surrounding district was known as Hariva, and in classical sources the region was correspondingly known as Aria. In the Zoroastrian Avesta, the district is mentioned as Haroiva, the name of the district and its main town is derived from that of the chief river of the region, the Herey River, which traverses the district and passes some 5 km south of modern Herāt. Herey is mentioned in Sanskrit as yellow or golden color equivalent to Persian Zard meaning Gold, the naming of a region and its principal town after the main river is a common feature in this part of the world—compare the adjoining districts/rivers/towns of Arachosia and Bactria. The district Aria of the Achaemenid Empire is mentioned in the lists that are included in various royal inscriptions, for instance. Representatives from the district are depicted in reliefs, e. g. at the royal Achaemenid tombs of Naqsh-e Rustam and they are wearing Scythian-style dress and a twisted Bashlyk that covers their head, chin and neck
8.
Afghanistan
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
9.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially the Met, is located in New York City and is the largest art museum in the United States, and is among the most visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, on the edge of Central Park along Manhattans Museum Mile, is by area one of the worlds largest art galleries. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains a collection of art, architecture. On March 18,2016, the museum opened the Met Breuer museum at Madison Avenue in the Upper East Side, it extends the museums modern, the Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art. The museum is home to collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, as well as antique weapons. Several notable interiors, ranging from first-century Rome through modern American design, are installed in its galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day and it opened on February 20,1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, the museum is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, and antique weapons and armor from around the world. A number of interiors, ranging from 1st century Rome through modern American design, are permanently installed in the Mets galleries. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Met organizes and hosts traveling shows throughout the year. The director of the museum is Thomas P. Campbell, a long-time curator and it was announced on February 28th,2017 that Campbell will be stepping down as the Mets director and CEO, effective June. On March 1st,2017 the BBC reported that Daniel Weiss shall be the acting CEO until a replacement is found, Beginning in the late 19th century, the Met started to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East. From a few tablets and seals, the Mets collection of Near Eastern art has grown to more than 7,000 pieces. The highlights of the include a set of monumental stone lamassu, or guardian figures. The Mets Department of Arms and Armor is one of the museums most popular collections. Among the collections 14,000 objects are many pieces made for and used by kings and princes, including armor belonging to Henry VIII of England, Henry II of France, Rockefeller donated his more than 3, 000-piece collection to the museum. The Mets Asian department holds a collection of Asian art, of more than 35,000 pieces, the collection dates back almost to the founding of the museum, many of the philanthropists who made the earliest gifts to the museum included Asian art in their collections
10.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
11.
Adoration of the Magi (Gentile da Fabriano)
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The Adoration of the Magi is a painting by the Italian painter Gentile da Fabriano. The work, housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, is considered his finest work, the painting was commissioned by the Florentine literate and patron of the arts Palla Strozzi, at the arrival of the artist in the city in 1420. Palla paid 300 florins for the altarpiece, or about six times the salary of a skilled labourer. According to other opinions, the falcon trainer depicts the commissioner Palla Strozzi with his eldest son Lorenzo to his right, finished in 1423, the painting was placed in the new chapel of the church of Santa Trinita which Lorenzo Ghiberti was executing in these years. The works shows both the international and Sienese schools influences on Gentiles art, combined with the Renaissance novelties he knew in Florence, all the figures wear splendid Renaissance costumes, brocades richly decorated with real gold and precious stones inserted in the panel. Gentiles typical attention for detail is evident in the exotic animals, such as a leopard, a dromedary, some apes and a lion, as well as the magnificent horses. The frame is also a work of art, characterized by three cusps with tondoes portraying Christ Blessing and the Annunciation, the predella has three rectangular paintings with scenes of Jesus childhood, the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt and the Presentation at the Temple
