1.
1650s in architecture
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1650 - The Marian column in Prague is erected. 1651 - Collegiate Church of Saint Magdalena and Saint Stanisław in Poznań is started,1652 - Church of the Resurrection, Kostroma. 1653 The Taj Mahal mausoleum at Agra in India is completed, the Radziwiłł Palace, Vilnius, is completed. 1656 The Jama Masjid, Delhi, is completed, the colonnade of St. Peters Basilica in Rome is started by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. 1658 - Terraced houses at 52-55 Newington Green in London, perhaps by Thomas Pidcock, are completed,1659 Ca Pesaro on the Grand Canal is started by Baldassarre Longhena. Tomb of Nadira Begum in Lahore is started
2.
The Goldfinch (painting)
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The Goldfinch is a 1654 animal painting by Carel Fabritius of a chained goldfinch. It is an oil painting on panel of 33.5 by 22.8 cm, the work belongs to the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Netherlands. The painting is a trompe-lœil of a European goldfinch on top of its feeder that is attached to the wall, the feeder consists of two half rings and a blue container. The bird is sitting on the top ring, to which it is chained by its foot, the painting is signed C fabritivs 1654 at the bottom. In the 17th century, goldfinches were popular pets because they could be trained to draw water from a bowl with a miniature bucket, the Dutch title of the painting pertains to the birds nickname puttertje, which refers to this custom and translates literally as little weller. The work was painted without major corrections, with minor ones to the contours of the bird. Most of the painting is set up with brush strokes. Fabritius showed off his skill by painting the birds head foreshortened and it is one of three paintings that Fabritius painted in the year that he died. It is painted in a distinct from Fabritius master Rembrandt. In style, the work is closer to Fabritius supposed pupil Johannes Vermeer, art historians have found no hard evidence to support this master-pupil relationship. As a trompe-lœil, it is a work in Dutch Golden Age painting. It has been compared with Still-Life with Partridge and Gauntlets that Jacopo de Barbari painted more than 100 years earlier, the Goldfinch was owned by Chevalier Joseph-Guillaume-Jean Camberlyn in Brussels, when it was given to Etienne-Joseph-Théophile Thoré in 1865. It was sold again at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 5 December 1892, the painting was later purchased by Abraham Bredius for the Mauritshuis at the sale of the E. Martinet collection also at Hôtel Drouot on 27 February 1896. The painting is in the permanent collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the painting plays a central role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch written by Donna Tartt. Vermeer and His Milieu, A Web of Social History, the Goldfinch at the Mauritshuis website
3.
Carel Fabritius
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He was a pupil of Rembrandt and worked in his studio in Amsterdam. Fabritius, who was a member of the Delft School, developed his own style and experimented with perspective. Among his works are A View of Delft, The Goldfinch, Fabritius was born in February 1622 in Middenbeemster, a village in the ten-year-old Beemster polder in the Dutch Republic, and was baptized on 27 February of that year. He was the son of Pieter Carelsz, a painter and schoolteacher, and he had two younger brothers Barent and Johannes, who also became painters. Initially he worked as a carpenter, in the early 1640s he studied at Rembrandts studio in Amsterdam, along with his brother Barent. In the early 1650s he moved to Delft, and joined the Delft painters guild in 1652. Fabritius died young, caught in the explosion of the Delft gunpowder magazine on October 12,1654, only about a dozen paintings have survived. According to Houbraken, his student Mattias Spoors and the church deacon Simon Decker died with him, in a poem written by Arnold Bon to his memory, he is called Karel Faber. Of all Rembrandts pupils, Fabritius was the one to develop his own artistic style. A typical Rembrandt portrait would have a dark background with the subject defined by spotlighting. In contrast, Fabritius portraits feature delicately lit subjects against light-coloured, textured backgrounds, moving away from the Renaissance focus on iconography, Fabritius became interested in the technical aspects of painting. He used cool colour harmonies to create shape in a style of painting. Fabritius was also interested in complex spatial effects, as can be seen in the perspective of A View of Delft. He also showed excellent control of a loaded brush, as in The Goldfinch. All these qualities appear in the work of Delfts most famous painters, Vermeer and de Hooch, het complete oeuvre Frederik J. Duparc, Ariane van Suchtelen, Gero Seelig. ISBN 978-90-400-8987-9 The Oxford Dictionary of Art ISBN 0-19-280022-1 Biography at Residenzgalerie Salzburg Olgas Gallery Adventures in Cybersound interest in unusual perspectives
4.
Young Man in a Fur Cap
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A Young Man in a Fur Cap and a Cuirass is a 1654 portrait painting by Carel Fabritius. It is an oil painting on canvas of 70.5 by 61.5 cm, the painting is generally considered to be a self-portrait. The work has been in the collection of the National Gallery in London since 1924, Young Man in a Fur Cap at the National Gallery website
5.
Delft
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Delft is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, to the north of Rotterdam, the city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the Delf, which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court, from a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century received its charter. The towns association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange, nicknamed William the Silent, at the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years War. By then Delft was one of the cities of Holland. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled, after the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584, by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk, starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day. The Delft Explosion, also known in history as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, over a hundred people were killed and thousands were wounded. About 30 tonnes of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarissen convent in the Doelenkwartier district, cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Luckily, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague, Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing the devastation. Historical buildings and other sights of interest include, Oude Kerk, buried here, Piet Hein, Johannes Vermeer, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. Nieuwe Kerk, constructed between 1381 and 1496 and it contains the Dutch royal familys burial vault, which between funerals is sealed with a 5,000 kg cover stone. A statue of Hugo Grotius made by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886 and this is the only remaining gate of the old city walls. The Gemeenlandshuis Delfland, or Huyterhuis, built in 1505, which has housed the Delfland regional water authority since 1645, the Vermeer Centre in the rebuilt Guild house of St. Luke. Windmill De Roos, a mill built c.1760. Restored to working order in 2013, another windmill that formerly stood in Delft, Het Fortuyn, was dismantled in 1917 and re-erected at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Gelderland in 1920. Delft is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century, the city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, the painter Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft
6.
Egbert van der Poel
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Egbert van der Poel was a Dutch Golden Age genre and landscape painter, son of a Delft goldsmith. He may possibly have been a student of Esaias van de Velde, according to the RKD he was the brother of the painter Adriaen Lievensz van der Poel and a student of Cornelis Saftleven in Rotterdam. Van der Poel was registered with the Guild of St Luke in Delft on October 17,1650, in 1651 van der Poel married Aeltgen Willems van Linschooten in Maassluis, near Rotterdam. His most famous paintings depict the Delft gunpowder explosion of October 12,1654 and its aftermath, he, Egbert and Aeltgen van der Poel had a son and three daughters. He died in Rotterdam in 1664, works and literature on Egbert van der Poel Vermeer and The Delft School, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Egbert van der Poel
7.
Willem Drost
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Willem Drost was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker of history paintings and portraits. He is a figure, closely associated with Rembrandt, with very few paintings clearly attributable to him. He was presumably born in Amsterdam, in what was known as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, but when. Houbraken described him as a painter of allegories and a pupil of Rembrandt. Houbraken saw a Johannes Predicatie by him that was composed and painted. He was in Amsterdam until 1655 and then travelled to Italy and he influenced the painter Adolf Boy. He died in the city in 1659. Willem Drosts recognized lifetime output of artwork is very small, while Rembrandt is credited with more than 2,000 paintings and etchings, in recent years, some paintings attributed to Rembrandt have had their authenticity come under question. The importance of these Rembrandt works is such that the Foundation Rembrandt Research Project was established in Amsterdam to review the attribution of all of his works, scholars have now reattributed a number of Rembrandts paintings to his pupils and associates. As well, when the portrait of a man on horseback titled The Polish Rider was discovered in 1897 it too was attributed to Rembrandt. Acquired by New York Citys Frick Collection, The Polish Rider is one of the Frick Museums most valued treasures, for years, the paintings subject matter and purpose was questioned by many scholars, led by the renowned expert Julius S. The Frick Collection has not changed the attribution, and today it is believed that Rembrandt initiated the painting but had others help him finish it. Willem Drost, A Rembrandt Pupil in Amsterdam and Venice, seymour Slive, Dutch Painting, 1600–1800, Yale UP,1995, ISBN 0-300-07451-4 Media related to Willem Drost at Wikimedia Commons
8.
Rembrandt
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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. A prolific and versatile master across three media, he is considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art. Having achieved youthful success as a painter, Rembrandts later years were marked by personal tragedy. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, Rembrandts portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and his reputation as the greatest etcher in the history of the medium was established in his lifetime, and never questioned since. Few of his paintings left the Dutch Republic whilst he lived, but his prints were circulated throughout Europe, because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called one of the great prophets of civilization. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic and he was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuijtbrouck. His family was quite well-to-do, his father was a miller, religion is a central theme in Rembrandts paintings and the religiously fraught period in which he lived makes his faith a matter of interest. His mother was Roman Catholic, and his father belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, unlike many of his contemporaries who traveled to Italy as part of their artistic training, Rembrandt never left the Dutch Republic during his lifetime. He opened a studio in Leiden in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend, in 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerrit Dou in 1628. In 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, as a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, Saskia came from a good family, her father had been a lawyer and the burgemeester of Leeuwarden. When Saskia, as the youngest daughter, became an orphan, Rembrandt and Saskia were married in the local church of St. Annaparochie without the presence of Rembrandts relatives. In the same year, Rembrandt became a burgess of Amsterdam and he also acquired a number of students, among them Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck. In 1635 Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat, in 1639 they moved to a prominent newly built house in the upscale Breestraat, today known as Jodenbreestraat in what was becoming the Jewish quarter, then a young upcoming neighborhood. The mortgage to finance the 13,000 guilder purchase would be a cause for later financial difficulties. Rembrandt should easily have been able to pay the house off with his income, but it appears his spending always kept pace with his income. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbors to model for his Old Testament scenes, in 1640, they had a second daughter, also named Cornelia, who died after living barely over a month
9.
Bathsheba
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According to the Hebrew Bible, Bat Sheva, more commonly known by the anglicized name Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. She is most known for the Bible story in which she was summoned by King David who had seen her bathing, Bathsheba was a daughter of Eliam, one of Davids thirty, Eliam was the son of Ahitophel, one of Davids chief advisors. Ahitophel was from Giloh, a city of Judah, and thus Bathsheba was from Davids own tribe and she was the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as king, making her the Queen Mother. Bathsheba was the daughter of Eliam and her father is identified by some scholars with Eliam mentioned in 2 Samuel 23,34 as the son of Ahithophel, who is described as the Gilonite. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and afterward of David, by whom she gave birth to Solomon, Davids seduction of Bathsheba, told in 2 Samuel 11, is omitted in the Books of Chronicles. The story is told that David, while walking on the roof of his palace, saw Bathsheba and he immediately desired her and later made her pregnant. But Uriah was unwilling to violate the ancient kingdom rule applying to warriors in active service, rather than go home to his own bed, he preferred to remain with the palace troops. David had Uriah himself carry the message led to his death. After Uriah was dead, David married the now widowed Bathsheba, Davids action was displeasing to the Lord, who accordingly sent Nathan the prophet to reprove the king. The king at once confessed his sin and expressed sincere repentance, Bathshebas first child by David was struck with a severe illness and died, unnamed, a few days after birth, which the king accepted as his punishment. Nathan also noted that Davids house would be punished in revenge of this murder, Bathsheba later gave birth to Davids son Solomon. Davids punishment came to pass years later one of Davids much-loved sons, Absalom. The story of Davids adultery sets up the context for the penitential Psalm 51, Bathsheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel, Davids famous counselor. The Haggadah states that Ahithophel was misled by his knowledge of astrology into believing himself destined to become king of Israel. His astrological information had been, however, misunderstood by him, for in reality it only predicted that his granddaughter, Bathsheba, the daughter of his son Eliam, would become queen. The Midrash portrays the influence of Satan bringing about the relation of David and Bathsheba as follows, Bathsheba was bathing. Satan is depicted as coming in the disguise of a bird, David, shooting at the bird, strikes the screen, splitting it, thus Bathsheba is revealed in her beauty to David. In Matthew 1,6, the wife of Uriah is mentioned as one of the ancestors of Jesus, in Islam David is considered to be a prophet, and some Islamic tradition views the Bible story as incompatible with the principle of infallibility of the prophets
10.
Portrait of Jan Six
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Portrait of Jan Six is a 1654 painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. Having been handed down many generations, via the direct descendants of the subject, Jan Six. This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot in 1915, who wrote,712 and he stands, seen in full face, turned slightly to the left with his head bent over a little on the right shoulder, and looks straight out of the picture. He is about to go out, he has put his black felt hat on his long fair reddish hair, and with the right hand. He wears a grey coat with yellow buttons, over the left shoulder hangs a short bright red cloak with a collar. He has a collar and pleated wristbands. The light falls from the left at top on the whole figure, the date is known from the couplet written by J. Six himself, AonlDas qVI sVM tenerls VeneratVs ab annls TaLIs ego lanVs SIXIVs ora tVLI, the sum of the capitals, M, D, L, X, V, I, gives the date 1654. Canvas,44 1/2 inches by 40 1/2 inches, etched by P. J. Arendzen, by W. Steelink in Van Someren, Oude Kunst in Nederland, by Desboutin. Mentioned by Vosmaer, pp.273,556, Bode, pp.532,558, Dutuit, p.54, Michel, pp.452,565, Hofstede de Groot, Urkunden, No. 151, Professor Jan Six, Oud Holland, xi. p.156, Moes, exhibited at Amsterdam,1872, and 1900, No.127. Painted for the sitter, and since preserved in his family, in the collection of J. Six, Amsterdam. Free from all external hindrances, he could create, he no longer aimed at securing so exact a likeness of his sitter. Altman, the Nicolaes Bruyningh at Cassel, and above all the Jan Six at Amsterdam, list of paintings by Rembrandt Rkd. nl, Jan Six — in the RKD
11.
Bartholomeus van der Helst
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Bartholomeus van der Helst was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter. His first dated picture, a portrait of the regents of the Walloon Orphanage. It is unknown from whom he learned to paint, but in Haarlem he must have at least known the work of Frans Hals, who like him, never traveled to Italy and specialized in portraiture. As the son of an innkeeper with ever-increasing trekschuit patrons, van der Helst would have immediately the importance of this. In any case, he moved to Amsterdam and in 1639 he won his own commission, The company of Captain Roelof Bicker. In Amsterdam he may well have trained with Nicolaes Eliaszoon Pickenoy, in Amsterdam Van der Helst was a contemporary of Rembrandt. Some of Rembrandts pupils, including Ferdinand Bol and Govaert Flinck and his large group portrait, Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Guard in Celebration of the Peace of Münster, was painted in 1648, and exhibited to popular acclaim. It was this painting that sealed his fame for future generations, according to Arnold Houbraken, although the damage this time was mostly to the varnish layer, some parts of the original paint and cloth were also afflicted as well as the frame. He was the teacher of his son Lodewijk van der Helst who followed his style and he died at Amsterdam in 1670. Along with the portraits for which he is most famous, Van der Helst painted a few historical, biblical and mythological scenes. Today van der Helsts most famous portrait is his portrayal of Gerard Andriesz Bicker, the son of Andries Bicker, the mayor of Amsterdam. This portrait is often used to depict obesity as a symbol of wealth of the Amsterdam merchants of the Dutch Golden Age in Amsterdam and it was probably painted in 1639, the same year as the first schutterstuk where Roelof Bicker is the central figure. At that time Gerard Andriesz Bicker was 17 years old, and held the titles Lord of Engelenburg and it was quite common for artists to win whole family portrait commissions from members of the schutterij after painting group portraits. This is why the competition in schutterstukken became so fierce, led by Rembrandts Nightwatch, paintings Collection of works and literature on Bartholomeus van der Helst Bartholomeus van der Helst
12.
Bartolomeo Altomonte
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Bartolomeo Altomonte, also known as Bartholomäus Hohenberg, was an Austrian baroque painter who specialized in large scale frescoes. He was the son of Martino Altomonte, also a painter, Altomonte was born in Warsaw, where his father, Martino Altomonte, had been appointed to the court of Jan Sobieskis. He was the third of six children, Altomonte spent most of his life in Linz and worked primarily in Austrian monasteries such as St. Florians Priory and Admont Abbey. He learned from assisting his father at painting, but also from an apprenticeship with Daniel Gran, tendencies towards the rococo remained foreign to the artist all his life, he is considered one of the last great painters in the manner of the baroque allegory. Media related to Bartolomeo Altomonte at Wikimedia Commons Entry for Bartolomeo Altomonte on the Union List of Artist Names
13.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
14.
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, if the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. This area is called the giornata, and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, if mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area—or to change them later, a secco. An indispensable component of this process is the carbonatation of the lime, the eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark outlining of his central figures within his frescoes, in a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has fallen off. One of the first painters in the period to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist, a secco or fresco-secco painting is done on dry plaster. The pigments thus require a medium, such as egg. Blue was a problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli. By the end of the century this had largely displaced buon fresco
15.
Giuseppe Passeri
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Giuseppe Passeri was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in his native city of Rome. Born the nephew of the painter Giovanni Battista Passeri, Giuseppe trained in the studio of Carlo Maratta, among the paintings by Giuseppe is St. Peter baptizes the Centurion, transferred to mosaic, the original was moved to a church of the Conventuali in Urbino. The painter Luigi Garzi was his son-in-law, storia della Pittura Italiana esposta coi Monumenti
16.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
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