1.
Watto
–
Watto is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, featured in the films The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. He is computer-generated and played by voice actor Andy Secombe and he is a mean-tempered, greedy Toydarian, and owner of a second-hand goods store in Mos Espa on the planet Tatooine. Among Wattos belongings are the slaves Shmi Skywalker and her son and he acquires them after winning a podracing bet with Gardulla the Hutt, and he puts them both to work in his store. Anakin demonstrates an aptitude for equipment repair, and Watto decides to profit from it by having the boy fix various broken equipment in the store. He eventually loses Anakin in a bet with Qui-Gon Jinn when he bets on a competitor, Sebulba. Initial designs for Watto were of a more bird-like nature, including plumage, another design included tentacles and a cigar. Wattos face originated in an early Neimoidian picture by design director Doug Chiang, the hooked trunk and crooked teeth were carried over to the Toydarian design. Animation supervisor Rob Coleman realized that the dental work would need some modification when the time came to create Watto on screen. To solve the problem, Coleman broke off one of Wattos incisors, the sound of his wings flapping is a looped recording of sound designer Ben Burtt opening and closing an umbrella. Watto first appears in Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace and he has both an ability for haggling and a resistance to the Jedi mind trick, a technique used to persuade people. He is both a junk dealer and slave owner on the planet Tatooine, possessing both Shmi Skywalker and her son Anakin, when challenged to a bet for Anakins freedom, Watto agrees. After Anakin beats Sebulba, a racer that he challenged throughout the race he participated in. Searching Mos Espa, he finds Watto sitting outside the shop at a small stall, Watto tells Anakin that he sold Shmi some years ago to a moisture farmer named Cliegg Lars who freed and married her. Watto then takes Anakin and Padmé to look through his records to find her, Watto makes multiple appearances in the Star Wars series Expanded Universe. One appearance details his time on his home planet before he came to Tatooine during a war and it also tells how he sustained his broken tusk and disabled leg. He later learns his business savvy from the Jawas, native to the planet Tatooine and his son Blatto makes an appearance in the non-canonical television special Phineas and Ferb, Star Wars. He is also a character in the Lego Star Wars video games. Watto is also available to purchase as a Lego minifigure, under the Lego Star Wars line, editors for IGN ranked Watto 78th in their list of Top 100 Star Wars characters
Watto
–
Watto as he appears in
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He is a
computer generated character, featuring faded blue skin, and small wings on his back.
2.
Rosalba Carriera
–
Rosalba Giovana Carriera was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures and it is for this that she was able to establish a career in portraiture. Carriera would later became known for her work, a medium appealing to Rococo styles for its soft edges. She is remembered as one of the most successful artists of any era. Born in Venice with two sisters, Rosalba Carriera was a prominent and greatly admired portrait artist of the Italian Rococo. Her family was from the lower-middle-class in Venice, and as a child, she began her career by making lace-patterns for her mother. However, when interests in lace waned and the industry began to falter, Carriera had to find a new means of providing for herself, the popularity of snuff-taking gave her a an opportunity to do just that. Carriera began painting miniatures for the lids of snuff-boxes, and was the first painter to use instead of vellum for this purpose. Gradually, this evolved into portrait-painting, for which she pioneered the exclusive use of pastel. Prominent foreign visitors to Venice, young sons of the nobility on the tour and diplomats for example. By 1700 she was already creating miniatures and by 1703 she completed her first pastel portraits, in 1704, she was made an Accademico di merito by the Roman Accademia di San Luca, a title reserved for non-Roman painters. By 1721, during Carrieras left Venice for Paris, as portraits by her were in great demand, while in Paris, as a guest of the great amateur and art collector, Pierre Crozat. She painted Watteau, all the royalty and nobility from the King and Regent downwards and her brother-in-law, the painter Antonio Pellegrini, married to her sister Angela, was also in Paris that year. Pellegrini was employed by John Law, a British financier and adventurer, Carrieras other sister, Giovanna, and her mother, were members of the party in France. Both sisters, particularly Giovanna, helped her in painting the hundreds of portraits she was asked to execute and this was because she undertook a lot of work in order to support her family. Carrieras diary of these 18 months in Paris was later published by her admirer, Antonio Zanetti. Her extensive correspondence has also been published, in the short time she spent in Paris, her work contributed to forming the new aristocratic tastes of the court and by extension, the tastes of Parisians. No longer did art serve only the monarchys needs and her freedom, colorfulness and charms were injected into the Rococo style which soon dominated the arts
Rosalba Carriera
–
Self-portrait, 1715
Rosalba Carriera
–
Female Portrait with Mask, (
Fondazione Cariplo).
Rosalba Carriera
–
Self-Portrait
3.
Valenciennes
–
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies on the Scheldt river, although the city and region experienced a steady population decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded. The 1999 census recorded that the population of the commune of Valenciennes was 41,278, Valenciennes is first mentioned in 693 in a legal document written by Clovis II. In the 843 Treaty of Verdun, it was made a city between Neustria and the Austrasia. Later in the 9th century the region was overrun by the Normans, in 923 it passed to the Duchy of Lower Lotharingia dependent on the Holy Roman Empire. Once the Empire of the Franks was established, the city began to develop, under the Ottonian emperors, Valenciennes became the centre of marches on the border of the Empire. In 1008, a famine brought the Plague. According to the tradition, the Virgin Mary held a cordon around the city which. Since then, every year at that time, the Valenciennois used to walk around the 14 kilometres road round the town, many Counts succeeded, first as Margraves of Valenciennes and from 1070 as counts of Hainaut. In 1285, the currency of Hainaut was replaced by the currency of France, Valenciennes was full of activity, with numerous corporations, and outside its walls a large number of convents developed, like that of the Dominicans. In the 14th century, the Tower of Dodenne was built by Albert of Bavaria, where even today, in the 15th century, the County of Hainault, of which Valenciennes is part, was re-attached to Burgundy, losing its autonomy. On the Journée des Mals Brûlés in 1562, a mob freed some Protestants condemned to die at the stake, in the wave of iconoclastic attacks called the Beeldenstorm that swept the Low Countries in the summer of 1566, the city was the furthest south to see an attack. In 1576, when for a time the Southern Netherlands joined the revolt, however, in 1580, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma took Valenciennes and Protestantism was eradicated there. Hereafter, Valenciennes remained under Spanish protection, no longer involved in later fighting of the Eighty Years War. With its manufacturers of wool and fine linens, the city was able to economically independent. In 1591, the Jesuits built a school and then the foundations of a church of Sainte-Croix, in 1611, the façade of the town hall was completely rebuilt in magnificent Renaissance style. In the seventeenth century the Scheldt was channelled between Cambrai and Valenciennes, benefitting Valenciennes wool, fabric and fine arts, to use up flax yarn, women began to make the famous Valenciennes lace. The French army laid siege to the city in 1656, defending the city, Albert de Merode, marquis de Trélon was injured during a sortie on horseback, died as a result of his injuries and was buried in the Church of St. Paul
Valenciennes
–
The town hall
Valenciennes
–
Valenciennes in the 17th century.
Valenciennes
–
Valenciennes town hall
Valenciennes
–
La Maison Espagnole, now home to the tourist information office
4.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
5.
Nogent-sur-Marne
–
Nogent-sur-Marne is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 10.6 km from the centre of Paris, Nogent-sur-Marne is a sous-préfecture of the Val-de-Marne département, being the seat of the Arrondissement of Nogent-sur-Marne. Several origins of the name are proposed, Novigentum, new people, nov. indicates fatty or soaked grounds. Novientum which is the Gallic equivalent of medieval French Villeneuve or English Newtown, in the Middle Ages, several castles were built. Le Château de Plaisance, built in the 13th century, which hosted Charles V, the only vestige which remains is a house of the current private hospital,30 rue de Plaisance, as well as the bottom of the enclosing wall of the gardens. Le Château de Beauté sur Marne, 14th century, is a royal stay, cardinal de Richelieu destroyed it in 1626. In the 17th century, whereas the population was made up of a majority of vine growers, the middle-class discovered the charms of the country. Jean-Antoine Watteau lived in Mr. Lefevres house his last moments, the construction of the two railway lines, Paris–Mulhouse and Bastille–La Varenne in the 1850s still accelerated the process. The viaduct, built by Auvergnats and Belgians was destroyed once on 15 September 1870, italians rebuilt it, an Italian community was established there. Coming, for the majority, from the province of Piacenza, isolated since 1854 by the construction of a viaduct for the Paris–Mulhouse line, the commune of Le Perreux sur Marne is born after a fight of more than 10 years in 1887. On 28 February 1887, more than half of the territory of Nogent-sur-Marne was detached, in 1929, the commune of Nogent-sur-Marne lost a small part of its territory when the city of Paris annexed the Bois de Vincennes, the eastern fringe of which belonged to Nogent-sur-Marne. Autoroutes, A4 A86 both at 03 - A4–A86 Junction, Nogent-sur-Marne N34 by boat, by Marne, from Paris, collège Pierre Brossolette is in nearby Le Perreux. The commune has two public academic high schools/sixth-form colleges, Lycée Branly and Lycée Louis Armand, as well as two high schools, La Source and Val de Beauté. Private schools, Lycée Albert-de-Mun Institut Montalembert Bibliothèque Cavanna serves as the municipal library
Nogent-sur-Marne
–
The
Pavillon Baltard
Nogent-sur-Marne
–
Railway bridge of Nogent-sur-Marne
Nogent-sur-Marne
–
Nogent-sur-Marne, Leclerc square
6.
Painting
–
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent, the word red, for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and Anselm Kiefer, there is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
Painting
–
The
Mona Lisa, by
Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world.
Painting
–
Chen Hongshou (1598–1652), Leaf album painting (
Ming Dynasty)
Painting
–
Circus Sideshow (
French: Parade de cirque),
Georges Seurat, 1887–88
Painting
–
Cave painting of aurochs, (
French: Bos primigenius primigenius),
Lascaux,
France,
prehistoric art
7.
Architecture
–
Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings and other physical structures. Architectural works, in the form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements, Architecture can mean, A general term to describe buildings and other physical structures. The art and science of designing buildings and nonbuilding structures, the style of design and method of construction of buildings and other physical structures. A unifying or coherent form or structure Knowledge of art, science, technology, the design activity of the architect, from the macro-level to the micro-level. The practice of the architect, where architecture means offering or rendering services in connection with the design and construction of buildings. The earliest surviving work on the subject of architecture is De architectura. According to Vitruvius, a building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, commonly known by the original translation – firmness, commodity. An equivalent in modern English would be, Durability – a building should stand up robustly, utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used. Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing, according to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as possible. Leon Battista Alberti, who elaborates on the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, De Re Aedificatoria, saw beauty primarily as a matter of proportion, for Alberti, the rules of proportion were those that governed the idealised human figure, the Golden mean. The most important aspect of beauty was, therefore, an inherent part of an object, rather than something applied superficially, Gothic architecture, Pugin believed, was the only true Christian form of architecture. The 19th-century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps of Architecture, Architecture was the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men. That the sight of them contributes to his health, power. For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance and his work goes on to state that a building is not truly a work of architecture unless it is in some way adorned. For Ruskin, a well-constructed, well-proportioned, functional building needed string courses or rustication, but suddenly you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say, This is beautiful, le Corbusiers contemporary Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. The notable 19th-century architect of skyscrapers, Louis Sullivan, promoted an overriding precept to architectural design, function came to be seen as encompassing all criteria of the use, perception and enjoyment of a building, not only practical but also aesthetic, psychological and cultural
Architecture
–
Brunelleschi, in the building of the dome of
Florence Cathedral in the early 15th-century, not only transformed the building and the city, but also the role and status of the architect.
Architecture
–
Section of
Brunelleschi 's dome drawn by the architect
Cigoli (c. 1600)
Architecture
–
The
Parthenon,
Athens,
Greece, "the supreme example among architectural sites."
(Fletcher).
Architecture
–
The
Houses of Parliament, Westminster, master-planned by
Charles Barry, with interiors and details by A.W.N. Pugin
8.
Embarkation for Cythera
–
The Embarkation for Cythera is a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. It is also known as Voyage to Cythera and Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera, Watteau submitted this work to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as his reception piece in 1717. The painting is now in the Louvre in Paris, a second version of the work, sometimes called Pilgrimage to Cythera to distinguish it, was painted by Watteau about 1718 or 1719 and is in the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. The work celebrates love, with many cupids flying around the couples and pushing them closer together, there are three pairs of lovers in the foreground. At the foot of the hill, several more happy couples are preparing to board the boat at the left. With its light and wispy brushstrokes, the landscape in the background does not give to any clues about the season. It has often noted that, despite the title, the people on the island seem to be leaving rather than arriving. Many art historians have come up with a variety of interpretations of the allegory of the voyage to the island of love, Watteau himself purposely did not give an answer. In the ancient world, Cythera, one of the Greek islands, was thought to be the birthplace of Venus, thus, the island became sacred to the goddess and love. However, the subject of Cythera may have inspired by certain 17th century operas or an illustration of a minor play. It was around 1709 that Watteau painted his first, more literal version of the theme and this work is now in the Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main. When Watteau was accepted as a member of the Academy in 1714, although he was given unusual freedom in choosing a subject for his painting, his failure to submit a work brought several reprimands. Meanwhile, Watteau worked on private commissions that his rising reputation brought him. Finally, in January,1717, the Academy called Watteau to task, and in August of that year he presented his painting, once submitted, the painting caused the Academy to invent a new classification for it, since the subject was so striking and new. This resulted in the fête galantes, a genre subsequently practiced by imitators of Watteau, such as Jean-Baptiste Pater and Nicolas Lancret. Charles-Antoine Coypel, the son of its director, later said. After Watteau’s death, his art fell out of fashion, in the early 19th century the curator at the Louvre was forced to place it in storage until 1816 in order to protect the painting from angry protesters. It was not until the 1830s that Watteau and the Rococo returned into fashion, in 1904 Claude Debussy wrote a piece for solo piano titled LIsle Joyeuse, which may have been inspired by the painting, the colorful and brilliant piano writing depicts the ecstasy of the lovers
Embarkation for Cythera
–
The Embarkation for Cythera (Louvre version): Many commentators note that it depicts a departure from the island of
Cythera, the birthplace of
Venus, thus symbolizing the temporary nature of human happiness.
Embarkation for Cythera
–
Pilgrimage to Cythera is an embellished repetition of Watteau's earlier painting, and demonstrates the frivolity and sensuousness of
Rococo painting. (c. 1718-19, Berlin)
Embarkation for Cythera
–
External video
Embarkation for Cythera
–
Works
9.
Rococo
–
Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XVs reign and it includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word is seen as a combination of the French rocaille and coquilles, the term may also be a combination of the Italian word barocco and the French rocaille and may describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. The Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts led some critics to say that the style was frivolous or merely modish, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning old-fashioned. While there is some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, an exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIVs succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves. These elements are obvious in the designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this change became well established, first in the royal palace. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XVs reign. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France, the style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications, william Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty that the lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace. The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality, Blondel decried the ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order, in Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil
Rococo
–
Pair of lovers group of
Nymphenburg porcelain, c. 1760, modelled by
Franz Anton Bustelli
Rococo
–
The Rococo
Basilica at Ottobeuren (Bavaria): architectural spaces flow together and swarm with life.
Rococo
–
Rococo-style
House of the Good Shepherd in
Bratislava (
Slovakia) - an example of the 18th century
bourgeoisie house.
Rococo
–
François Boucher, Le Déjeuner, (1739,
Louvre), shows a rocaille interior of a French bourgeois family in the 18th century. The porcelain statuette and vase add a touch of
chinoiserie.
10.
Antonio da Correggio
–
In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Rococo art of the 18th century. He is considered a master of chiaroscuro, antonio Allegri was born in Correggio, Italy, a small town near Reggio Emilia. His date of birth is uncertain, otherwise little is known about Correggios early life or training. It is, however, often assumed that he had his first artistic education from his fathers brother, after a trip to Mantua in 1506, he returned to Correggio, where he stayed until 1510. To this period is assigned the Adoration of the Child with St. Elizabeth and John, by 1516, Correggio was in Parma, where he spent most of the remainder of his career. Here, he befriended Michelangelo Anselmi, a prominent Mannerist painter, in 1519 he married Girolama Francesca di Braghetis, also of Correggio, who died in 1529. One of his sons, Pomponio Allegri, became an undistinguished painter, from this period are the Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John, Christ Leaving His Mother and the lost Madonna of Albinea. Correggios first major commission was the decoration of the private dining salon of the mother-superior of the convent of St Paul called the Camera di San Paolo at Parma. Here he painted an arbor pierced by oculi opening to glimpses of playful cherubs, below the oculi are lunettes with images of feigned monochromic marble. The fireplace is frescoed with an image of Diana, the iconography of the scheme is complex, combining images of classical marbles with whimsical colorful bambini. While it recalls the secular frescoes of the palace of the Villa Farnesina in Rome. He then painted the illusionistic Vision of St. John on Patmos for the dome of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. Three years later he decorated the dome of the Cathedral of Parma with a startling Assumption of the Virgin, the recession and movement implied by the figures presage the dynamism that would characterize Baroque painting. Other masterpieces include The Lamentation and The Martyrdom of Four Saints, the Lamentation is haunted by a lambence rarely seen in Italian painting prior to this time. The Martyrdom is also remarkable for resembling later Baroque compositions such as Berninis Truth and Ercole Ferratas Death of Saint Agnes, aside from his religious output, Correggio conceived a now-famous set of paintings depicting the Loves of Jupiter as described in Ovids Metamorphoses. The voluptuous series was commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua, however, they were given to the visiting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and thus left Italy within years of their completion. Danaë, now in Romes Borghese Gallery, depicts the maiden as she is impregnated by a curtain of gilded divine rain. Her lower torso semi-obscured by sheets, Danae appears more demure and gleeful than Titians 1545 version of the same topic, the picture once called Antiope and the Satyr is now correctly identified as Venus and Cupid with a Satyr
Antonio da Correggio
–
Antonio Allegri da Correggio
Antonio da Correggio
–
Correggio - The Holy Night
Antonio da Correggio
–
Jupiter and Io (c. 1531) typifies the unabashed eroticism, radiance, and cool, pearly colors associated with Correggio's best work.
Antonio da Correggio
–
Leda and the Swan (c. 1532)
11.
Peter Paul Rubens
–
Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter. He is widely considered as the most notable artist of Flemish Baroque art school, the catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop. His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects and he painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house and he also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635. His drawings are mostly extremely forceful but not overly detailed and he also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. For altarpieces he painted on slate to reduce reflection problems. Rubens was born in the city of Siegen to Jan Rubens and he was named in honour of Saint-Peter and Paul, because he was born on their solemnety. His father, a Calvinist, and mother fled Antwerp for Cologne in 1568, after increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Spanish Netherlands by the Duke of Alba. Jan Rubens became the adviser of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange. Following Jan Rubens imprisonment for the affair, Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577, the family returned to Cologne the next year. In 1589, two years after his fathers death, Rubens moved with his mother Maria Pypelincks to Antwerp, religion figured prominently in much of his work and Rubens later became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting. In Antwerp, Rubens received a Renaissance humanist education, studying Latin, by fourteen he began his artistic apprenticeship with Tobias Verhaeght. Subsequently, he studied under two of the leading painters of the time, the late Mannerist artists Adam van Noort. Much of his earliest training involved copying earlier works, such as woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at time he entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. In 1600 Rubens travelled to Italy and he stopped first in Venice, where he saw paintings by Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, before settling in Mantua at the court of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga. The colouring and compositions of Veronese and Tintoretto had an effect on Rubenss painting. With financial support from the Duke, Rubens travelled to Rome by way of Florence in 1601, there, he studied classical Greek and Roman art and copied works of the Italian masters
Peter Paul Rubens
–
Self-portrait, 1623,
Royal Collection
Peter Paul Rubens
–
Rubens and
Isabella Brant, the
Honeysuckle Bower, c. 1609.
Alte Pinakothek
Peter Paul Rubens
–
The garden Rubens planned at
Rubenshuis, in
Antwerpen
Peter Paul Rubens
–
Portrait of a Young Scholar, from 1597
12.
Baroque
–
The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
Baroque
–
The Triumph of the Immaculate by
Paolo de Matteis
Baroque
–
The Church of
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Baroque
–
Brooch of an African,
Walters Art Museum
Baroque
–
Aeneas Flees Burning Troy,
Federico Barocci, 1598
13.
Italy
–
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 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
Italy
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering of ancient history.
Italy
–
Flag
Italy
–
The
Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the
Kings of Italy.
Italy
–
Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor
Frederick II,
UNESCO World Heritage site
14.
Comedy
–
In a modern sense, comedy refers to any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece, in the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a Society of Youth and a Society of the Old, a revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Similarly scatological humour, sexual humour, and race humour create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, a comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society and uses humor to parody or satirize the behaviour and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms. The adjective comic, which means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage. Of this, the word came into usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the comedy to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average, however, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others, the mask, for instance, in the Middle Ages, the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, as time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the comedy became synonymous with satire. They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms and they viewed comedy as simply the art of reprehension, and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term gained a more general meaning in medieval literature. Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the satyr plays
Comedy
–
Thalia, muse of comedy, holding a comic mask - detail of “Muses Sarcophagus”, the
nine Muses and their attributes; marble, early second century AD, Via Ostiense - Louvre
Comedy
–
Charlie Chaplin
Comedy
–
The
Monty Python comedy group
Comedy
–
Tragic Comic Masks of
Ancient Greek Theatre represented in the
Hadrian's Villa mosaic.
15.
Ballet
–
Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ is a type of performance dance that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own based on French terminology. It has been influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres. Becoming a ballet dancer requires years of training, Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures to evolve the art. Ballet may also refer to a dance work, which consists of the choreography. A well-known example of this is The Nutcracker, a ballet that was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained artists, the word came into English usage from the French around 1630. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th and 16th centuries before being spread from Italy to France by an Italian aristocrat, Catherine de Medici, in France, ballet developed even further under her aristocratic influence. The dancers in these early court ballets were mostly noble amateurs, Ballets in this period were lengthy and elaborate and often served a political purpose. Ornamented costumes were meant to impress viewers and restricted freedom of movement. The ballets were performed in large chambers with viewers on three sides, French court ballet reached its height under the reign of King Louis XIV. Known as the Sun King, Louis symbolized the brilliance of France, in 1661 Louis founded the Académie Royale de Danse to establish standards and certify dance instructors. In 1672, Louis XIV made Jean-Baptiste Lully the director of the Académie Royale de Musique from which the first professional ballet company, Lully is considered the most important composer of music for ballets de cour and instrumental to the development of the form. Ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it continued to develop in Denmark, Italy, the arrival in Europe on the eve of First World War of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, revived interest in the ballet and started the modern era. The Russian choreographer Michel Fokine challenged tradition and called for reforms that reinvigorated ballet as an art form, in the 20th century, ballet had a wide influence on other dance genres, and subgenres of ballet have also evolved. In the United States, choreographer George Balanchine developed what is now known as neoclassical ballet, other developments include contemporary ballet and post-structural ballet. Also in the century, ballet took a turn dividing it from classical ballet to the introduction of modern dance. Stylistic variations have emerged and evolved since the Italian Renaissance, early, classical variations are primarily associated with geographic origin
Ballet
–
Classical bell tutus in The Dance Class by
Degas, 1874
Ballet
–
Anna Pavlova in
Giselle, wearing a romantic tutu
Ballet
–
Scene from act 4 of
Swan Lake,
Vienna State Opera, 2004
Ballet
–
Harlequin and
Columbina from the mime theater at
Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark
16.
Spanish Netherlands
–
Spanish Netherlands, French, Pays-Bas espagnols) was the collective name of States of the Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, held in personal union by the Spanish Crown from 1581 to 1714. This region comprised most of modern Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as parts of northern France, the Imperial fiefs of the former Burgundian Netherlands had been inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg from the extinct House of Valois-Burgundy upon the death of Mary of Burgundy in 1482. The Seventeen Provinces formed the core of the Habsburg Netherlands which passed to the Spanish Habsburgs upon the abdication of Emperor Charles V in 1556. When part of the Netherlands separated to form the autonomous Dutch Republic in 1581 and his granddaughter Mary had confirmed a number of privileges to the States by the Great Privilege signed in 1477. After the government takeover by her husband Archduke Maximilian I of Austria, Maximilian prevailed with the support of Duke Albert III of Saxony and his son Philip the Handsome could assume the rule over the Habsburg Netherlands in 1493. The Habsburgs often used the term Burgundy to refer to their lands, actually until 1795. In 1522 Emperor Charles V concluded a treaty with his younger brother Archduke Ferdinand I of Habsburg, whereby the House of Habsburg split into an Austrian. By the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549, Charles declared the Seventeen Provinces a united, the Seventeen Provinces, de jure still fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, from that time on de facto were ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs as part of the Burgundian heritage. Philips despotism and his stern Counter-Reformation measures sparked the Dutch Revolt in the mainly Calvinist Netherlandish provinces, the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs could only retain the rule over the partly Catholic Southern Netherlands, completed after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585. Better times came, when in 1598 the Spanish Netherlands passed to Philips daughter Isabella Clara Eugenia, in the early 17th century, there was a flourishing court at Brussels. Among the artists who emerged from the court of the Archdukes, by the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 the French annexed Artois and Cambrai, and Dunkirk was ceded to the English. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and Nijmegen, further territory up to the current Franco-Belgian border was ceded, including Walloon Flanders, later, in the War of the Reunions and the Nine Years War, France annexed other parts of the region. During the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1706 the Habsburg Netherlands became an Anglo-Dutch condominium for the remainder of the conflict. By the peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt in 1713/14 ending the war, the Southern Netherlands fell back to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy forming the Austrian Netherlands
Spanish Netherlands
–
Jeton with portraits of the Archdukes
Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and
Infanta Isabella of Spain, struck in Antwerp 1612. Obv: Portraits of Albert and Isabella. Rev: Eagle holding balance, date 1612.
Spanish Netherlands
–
Flag
17.
Pont Notre-Dame
–
The Pont Notre-Dame is a bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris, France linking the quai de Gesvres on the Rive Droite with the quai de la Corse on the Île de la Cité. The bridge once was lined with approximately sixty houses, the weight of which caused a collapse in 1499 and it was on this spot that the first bridge of Paris, called the Grand-Pont, crossed the Seine from antiquity. In 886, during the siege of Paris and the Norman attacks and this bridge was destroyed by the floods of 1406. On May 31,1412, Charles VI of France ordered the construction of the first version of the bridge to be named Notre-Dame and this structure was composed of solid wood and connected the Île de la Cité to the rue Saint-Martin. The bridge took seven years to build and had sixty houses atop it, the houses were noted by Robert Gauguin as being remarkable for their height, and the uniformity of construction and was called the handsomest in France. King Charles wooden bridge collapsed on October 25,1499 near 9 a. m. likely due to structural instabilities caused by the lack of repairs, stone foundations were laid for a new bridge that same year, while a ferry filled the transportation void. The houses upon the bridge were the first to be given numbers, in 1660 the bridge was refurbished to honour the arrival in Paris of the daughter of the king Philip IV of Spain, Maria Theresa of Spain who became queen of France by marrying Louis XIV. Between 1746 and 1788 the houses along the bridge were demolished for sanitary purposes, in 1853, a new stone structure was completed atop the existing stone foundation, although this reincarnation was only composed of five arches. The new bridge was subsequently the cause of not fewer than thirty-five water traffic accidents between 1891 and 1910 and was given the name the pont du Diable. Thus, in order to facilitate the passage of boats and the flow of the Seine, a decision was made to rebuild the bridge, this time in metal. The new work was directed by Jean Résal, who had worked on the Pont Mirabeau and Pont Alexandre III, it was inaugurated in 1919 by Raymond Poincaré. The structure has remained the same since, beneath one of the arches, there is a distich in Latin from Italian poet Jacopo Sannazaro, best known for his master-work Arcadia, which depicted an idyllic land. This refers to the architect, Fra Giovanni Giocondo, and the bridges that had been built earlier upon that spot. Each of the bridges arches carries a head of Dionysus carved in stone, additionally, its piles are decorated on each side with a rams head. In the niches along the arches there are statues of Saint Louis, Henri IV, Louis XIII, in 1856, colour-blind artist Charles Meryon etched LArche du pont Notre-Dame. The Pont Notre-Dame is centrally located in Paris 4th arrondissement, connecting the Île de la Cité, insecula Database entry for Pont Notre-Dame
Pont Notre-Dame
–
The Pont Notre-Dame in
Paris.
Pont Notre-Dame
–
La joute de mariniers entre le pont Notre-Dame et le Pont-au-Change, by Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, 1756, clearly shows the houses atop the bridge.
Pont Notre-Dame
–
Destruction of the houses on Pont Notre-Dame in 1786, painted by
Hubert Robert (1733–1808)
Pont Notre-Dame
–
From the
pont d'Arcole, a view of the bridge with 5 arches.
18.
Genre works
–
Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, some variations of the term genre art specify the medium or type of visual work, as in genre painting, genre prints, genre photographs, and so on. Rather confusingly, the meaning of genre, covering any particular combination of an artistic medium. Painting was divided into a hierarchy of genres, with painting at the top, as the most difficult and therefore prestigious. But history paintings are a genre in painting, not genre works, the following concentrates on painting, but genre motifs were also extremely popular in many forms of the decorative arts, especially from the Rococo of the early 18th century onwards. Single figures or small groups decorated a huge variety of such as porcelain, furniture, wallpaper. Genre painting, also called genre scene or petit genre, depicts aspects of life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known member of his family. In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait—sometimes a subjective question. The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist, because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class. Genre themes appear in all art traditions. These were part of a pattern of Mannerist inversion in Antwerp painting, giving low elements previously in the background of images prominent emphasis. The generally small scale of these paintings was appropriate for their display in the homes of middle class purchasers. Often the subject of a painting was based on a popular emblem from an Emblem book. The merry company showed a group of figures at a party, other common types of scenes showed markets or fairs, village festivities, or soldiers in camp. In Italy, a school of painting was stimulated by the arrival in Rome of the Dutch painter Pieter van Laer in 1625. He acquired the nickname Il Bamboccio and his followers were called the Bamboccianti, whose works would inspire Giacomo Ceruti, Antonio Cifrondi, jean-Baptiste Greuze and others painted detailed and rather sentimental groups or individual portraits of peasants that were to be influential on 19th-century painting. Spain had a tradition predating The Book of Good Love of social observation and commentary based on the Old Roman Latin tradition, practiced by many of its painters and illuminators
Genre works
–
The Idle Servant; housemaid troubles were the subject of several of
Nicolaes Maes ' works
Genre works
–
Peasant Dance, c. 1568, oil on wood, by
Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Genre works
–
Merry company, by Dirck Hals
Genre works
–
Interior with woman by
Wybrand Hendriks
19.
Claude Gillot
–
Claude Gillot was a French painter, best known as the master of Watteau and Lancret. He was a painter, engraver, book illustrator, metal worker and he had Watteau as an apprentice between 1703 and 1708. He was also connected with the opera and theatre as a designer of scenery. He died in Paris, aged 49, references Sources Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Gillot, Claude. Brief biography of Claude Gillot from the Getty Museum
Claude Gillot
–
Claude Gillot, engraving by
Jean Aubert after
Watteau
Claude Gillot
–
Les Deux Carrosses by Claude Gillot, 1707
20.
Louis XIV
–
Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch of a country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIVs France was a leader in the centralization of power. Louis began his rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs, under his rule, the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to Huguenots, was abolished. The revocation effectively forced Huguenots to emigrate or convert in a wave of dragonnades, which managed to virtually destroy the French Protestant minority. During Louis reign, France was the leading European power, and it fought three wars, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg. There were also two lesser conflicts, the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions, warfare defined Louis XIVs foreign policies, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique, in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military, Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné and bore the title of French heirs apparent. At the time of his birth, his parents had married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631, leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, in defiance of custom, which would have made Queen Anne the sole Regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his sons behalf. His lack of faith in Queen Annes political abilities was his primary rationale and he did, however, make the concession of appointing her head of the council. Louis relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time, contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis journal entries, such as, but attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood
Louis XIV
–
Louis XIV by
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701)
Louis XIV
–
Louis-Dieudonné,
Dauphin of France, in 1643 by
Claude Deruet
Louis XIV
–
Louis XIV as a child, unknown painter
Louis XIV
–
1655 portrait of Louis, the Victor of the Fronde, portrayed as the god
Jupiter
21.
Claude Audran III
–
Claude Audran III was a French painter. Audran was born in Lyon into a family of artists and he lived with his uncle, Claude Audran the Younger. Painter to the Louis XIV of France in 1699, from 1700-1701 he took part in the decoration of the Menagerie of Versailles and the Chapels of Versailles, and the Palace of Fontainebleau, Château dAnet, Château de Meudon, and Les Invalides. In 1704, he decorated the new apartment of the Duchess at the Château de Sceaux, Audran obtained the office of Keeper of the Luxembourg Palace in 1704. In 1709, he executed a backdrop for King Louis XIV at the Château de Marly and this setting, now destroyed, is known from preparatory drawings. He was a decorative artist, and made a number of tapestries for the Gobelins, audrans style included arabesques, grotesques and singeries. He died in Paris in 1734, references Sources This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding French Wikipedia article. Media related to Claude Audran III at Wikimedia Commons The Audran by Georges Duplessis,1892
Claude Audran III
–
Claude Audran III, The Gods: Jupiter, tapestry,
Gobelins Manufactory
22.
Interior decorator
–
An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordinates, and manages such projects. Interior design is the process of shaping the experience of interior space, in the past, interiors were put together instinctively as a part of the process of building. The profession of design has been a consequence of the development of society. The pursuit of effective use of space, user well-being and functional design has contributed to the development of the interior design profession. The profession of design is separate and distinct from the role of Interior Decorator. The term is common in the UK where the profession of interior design is still unregulated and therefore, strictly speaking. In ancient India, architects used to work as interior designers and this can be seen from the references of Vishwakarma the architect - one of the gods in Indian mythology. Additionally, the sculptures depicting ancient texts and events are seen in palaces built in 17th century India, in ancient Egypt, soul houses or models of houses were placed in tombs as receptacles for food offerings. Architects would also employ craftsmen or artisans to complete design for their buildings. Large furniture firms began to branch out into general interior design and management and this business model flourished from the mid-century to 1914, when this role was increasingly usurped by independent, often amateur, designers. This paved the way for the emergence of the interior design in the mid-20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, upholsterers began to expand their business remits and they framed their business more broadly and in artistic terms and began to advertise their furnishings to the public. Firms began to publish and circulate catalogs with prints for different lavish styles to attract the attention of expanding middle classes, as department stores increased in number and size, retail spaces within shops were furnished in different styles as examples for customers. One particularly effective advertising tool was to set up rooms at national and international exhibitions in showrooms for the public to see. Some of the firms in this regard were Waring & Gillow, James Shoolbred, Mintons. This type of firm emerged in America after the Civil War, the Herter Brothers, founded by two German emigre brothers, began as an upholstery warehouse and became one of the first firms of furniture makers and interior decorators. A pivotal figure in popularizing theories of interior design to the class was the architect Owen Jones. His most significant publication was The Grammar of Ornament, in which Jones formulated 37 key principles of interior design, in 1882, the London Directory of the Post Office listed 80 interior decorators
Interior decorator
–
The lobby of Hotel Bristol
Interior decorator
–
Historical example:
Balliol College Dining Hall, Oxford
Interior decorator
–
Typical interior of one of the houses in the Folk Architecture Reservation in
Vlkolínec (
Slovakia).
Interior decorator
–
Illustrated catalog of the
James Shoolbred Company, published in 1876.
23.
Palais du Luxembourg
–
The Luxembourg Palace is located at 15 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the residence of the regent Marie de Medici. After the Revolution it was refashioned by Jean Chalgrin into a legislative building, since 1958 it has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic. Immediately west of the palace on the rue de Vaugirard is the Petit Luxembourg, now the residence of the Senate President, and slightly further west, the Musée du Luxembourg, in the former orangery. On the south side of the palace, the formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues, after the death of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de Médicis, became regent to her son, Louis XIII. Marie de Médicis desired to make a similar to her native Florences Palazzo Pitti. Marie de Médicis bought the Hôtel de Luxembourg and its fairly extensive domain in 1612 and commissioned the new building, the suites of paintings she commissioned, in the subjects of which she expressed her requirements through her agents and advisers, are scattered among museums. Marie de Médicis installed her household in 1625, while work on interiors continued, the apartments in the right wing on the western side were reserved for the Queen and the matching suite to the east, for her son, Louis XIII, when he was visiting. The 24 Marie de Medici cycle canvases, a series commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens, were installed in the Galerie de Rubens on the floor of the western wing. A series of paintings executed for her Cabinet doré was identified by Anthony Blunt in 1967, Louis XIII commissioned further decorations for the Palace from Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne. In 1642, Marie bequeathed the Luxembourg to her second and favourite son, Gaston, duc dOrléans, who called it the Palais dOrléans, but by popular will it was still known by its original name. Upon Gastons death, the passed to his widow, Marguerite de Lorraine, then to his elder daughter by his first marriage, Anne, duchesse de Montpensier. In 1660, Anne de Montpensier sold the Luxembourg to her younger half-sister, Élisabeth Marguerite dOrléans, duchesse de Guise who, in turn, gave it to her cousin, King Louis XIV, in 1694. In 1715, the became the residence of Marie Louise Elisabeth dOrleans. The widowed Duchess was notoriously promiscuous, having the reputation of a French Messalina, the Luxembourg palace and its gardens thus became stages where the radiantly beautiful princess acted out her ambitions, enthroned like a queen surrounded by her court. According to various songs which scurrilously evoked her amours the Lady of the Luxembourg hid several pregnancies. Her taste for strong liquors and her sheer gluttony also scandalised the court, on 21 May 1717, Madame de Berry received Peter the Great at the Luxembourg. On 28 February 1718, the Duchess of Berry threw a magnificent party for her visiting aunt, the entire palace and its gardens were elaborately illuminated
Palais du Luxembourg
–
Luxembourg Palace garden façade
Palais du Luxembourg
–
The Luxembourg Palace was modeled after
Palazzo Pitti in
Florence at the request of
Marie de Médicis.
Palais du Luxembourg
–
Ceiling of the Salle du Livre d'Or
Palais du Luxembourg
–
Floor plan (1752) shows the large enclosed
cour d'honneur and the long Rubens gallery in the right wing
24.
Venetian painting
–
From the later part of the 15th century, Venice had a distinctive, thriving and influential art scene. Beginning with the work of Giorgione, and the workshop of Giovanni Bellini, major artists of the Venetian school included Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and the Bassano. During the early-15th century, Venetian art was dominated by the earlier styles arising from its Byzantine links, another external factor was the visit by Leonardo da Vinci, who was particularly influential on Giorgione. During his long career, Bellini has been credited with creating the Venetian style, with such works he has been described as reaching the High Renaissance ideals, and certainly expresses the key distinctive factors of the Venetian school. Giorgione and Titian were both apprentices at Bellinis workshop and they collaborated on numerous paintings, and their styles could be so similar that it is difficult to conclusively assign authorship. This emphasis on nature as a setting was a contribution of the Venetian School. Titian, through his long and productive life, with a variety of themes and subjects was the most influential. His early Pesaro Madonna shows a new composition for such a traditional religious subject, putting the focal point of the Madonna off from the centre. Although pre-figured by the Sleeping Venus Titian is credited with establishing the female nude as an important subgenre in art. Using mythological subjects, works such as the Venus of Urbino richly depict the fabrics and other textures, and use a composition that is carefully controlled by organising colours. As an example, in painting the diagonal of the nude is matched by the opposite diagonal between the red of the cushions in the front with the red skirts of the woman in the background. With such paintings, readily transported by virtue of being oils on canvas, Titian became famous, although Tintoretto is sometimes classified as a Mannerist artist, he also incorporates Venetian and individualistic aspects. In his Miracle of the Slave, the Mannerist features include the scene, the twisting linking of figures. Following Tintoretto, were Veronese, and the Bassano and these are a few of the most outstanding in the great number of artists in the Venetian tradition, many originally from outside the Republics territory. List of painters and architects of Venice References Sources Gardners, Art Through the Ages—International Edition, Brace Harcourt Jovanovich, maria Dolores Jimenez-Blanco, Museo National Del Prado, English 2nd revised edition,2009. Federico Zeri, Elizabeth E. Gardner, Italian Paintings, Venetian School, A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Venetian painting
–
San Zaccaria Altarpiece, 1505; oil on canvas,
transferred from panel;
San Zaccaria, Venice.
Venetian painting
–
Titian's early and dramatically composed
Pesaro Madonna (1526), with rich Venetian colouring.
Venetian painting
–
Miracle of the Slave (1548), one of a trio of Tintoretto works on St Mark, the patron saint of Venice.
25.
Pierre Crozat
–
Pierre Crozat was a French art collector at the center of a broad circle of cognoscenti, he was the brother of Antoine Crozat. The brothers Crozat were born in Toulouse, France, the sons of modest merchants and he and his brother Antoine were opportunistic, self-made men, rising from obscurity to become two of the wealthiest merchants in France. Pierre was known, ironically, as Crozat le pauvre, to him from his even-wealthier brother. He was the patron of Antoine Watteau, who painted for his dining room, a suite of Four Seasons. Pierre Crozats collection of old master drawings was already one of the most important in France at the beginning of the 18th century. Between 1729 and 1742, a finely-illustrated, two-volume work was published, known as the Cabinet Crozat, many of his old master drawings, catalogued by Pierre-Jean Mariette, one of the four acknowledged expert connoisseurs in Paris, were dispersed at auction in Paris in 1741. That occasion was termed by Michael Jaffé as the greatest public sale of drawings held in the dix-huitième, most of Crozats treasures were inherited by his nephews, Louis François, Joseph Antoine, and Louis Antoine, who added to the collection. The works of art were dispersed after the nephews deaths, Louis Antoine Crozats collection was bought in 1772, through Denis Diderot, by Catherine II of Russia and went to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Media related to Pierre Crozat at Wikimedia Commons
Pierre Crozat
–
Rembrandt 's painting
Danae from Crozat's collection.
Pierre Crozat
–
Primaticcio 's Holy Family was purchased for Catherine (
Hermitage Museum)
26.
The Embarkation for Cythera
–
The Embarkation for Cythera is a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. It is also known as Voyage to Cythera and Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera, Watteau submitted this work to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture as his reception piece in 1717. The painting is now in the Louvre in Paris, a second version of the work, sometimes called Pilgrimage to Cythera to distinguish it, was painted by Watteau about 1718 or 1719 and is in the Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. The work celebrates love, with many cupids flying around the couples and pushing them closer together, there are three pairs of lovers in the foreground. At the foot of the hill, several more happy couples are preparing to board the boat at the left. With its light and wispy brushstrokes, the landscape in the background does not give to any clues about the season. It has often noted that, despite the title, the people on the island seem to be leaving rather than arriving. Many art historians have come up with a variety of interpretations of the allegory of the voyage to the island of love, Watteau himself purposely did not give an answer. In the ancient world, Cythera, one of the Greek islands, was thought to be the birthplace of Venus, thus, the island became sacred to the goddess and love. However, the subject of Cythera may have inspired by certain 17th century operas or an illustration of a minor play. It was around 1709 that Watteau painted his first, more literal version of the theme and this work is now in the Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt-am-Main. When Watteau was accepted as a member of the Academy in 1714, although he was given unusual freedom in choosing a subject for his painting, his failure to submit a work brought several reprimands. Meanwhile, Watteau worked on private commissions that his rising reputation brought him. Finally, in January,1717, the Academy called Watteau to task, and in August of that year he presented his painting, once submitted, the painting caused the Academy to invent a new classification for it, since the subject was so striking and new. This resulted in the fête galantes, a genre subsequently practiced by imitators of Watteau, such as Jean-Baptiste Pater and Nicolas Lancret. Charles-Antoine Coypel, the son of its director, later said. After Watteau’s death, his art fell out of fashion, in the early 19th century the curator at the Louvre was forced to place it in storage until 1816 in order to protect the painting from angry protesters. It was not until the 1830s that Watteau and the Rococo returned into fashion, in 1904 Claude Debussy wrote a piece for solo piano titled LIsle Joyeuse, which may have been inspired by the painting, the colorful and brilliant piano writing depicts the ecstasy of the lovers
The Embarkation for Cythera
–
The Embarkation for Cythera (Louvre version): Many commentators note that it depicts a departure from the island of
Cythera, the birthplace of
Venus, thus symbolizing the temporary nature of human happiness.
The Embarkation for Cythera
–
Pilgrimage to Cythera is an embellished repetition of Watteau's earlier painting, and demonstrates the frivolity and sensuousness of
Rococo painting. (c. 1718-19, Berlin)
The Embarkation for Cythera
–
External video
The Embarkation for Cythera
–
Works
27.
Louvre Museum
–
The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
Louvre Museum
–
the Richelieu wing (2005)
Louvre Museum
–
The only portion of the medieval Louvre still visible
Louvre Museum
–
Antonio Canova 's
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss was commissioned in 1787, donated in 1824.
Louvre Museum
–
The
Venus de Milo was added to the Louvre's collection during the reign of
Louis XVIII.
28.
Cythera (island)
–
Kythira is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is traditionally listed as one of the seven main Ionian Islands, administratively, it belongs to the Islands regional unit, which is part of the Attica region. The island is located between the Greek mainland and Crete, and from ancient times until the mid 19th century was a crossroads of merchants, sailors. As such, it has had a long and varied history and has influenced by many civilisations. This is reflected in its architecture, as well as the traditions and customs, influenced by centuries of coexistence of the Greek, Venetian, and Ottoman cultures. Kythira and the island of Antikythira were separate municipalities until they were merged at the 2011 local government reform. The municipality has an area of 300.023 km2, the municipal unit 279.593 km2, the province of Kythira was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture. It had the territory as the present municipality Kythira. There are archaeological remains from the Helladic period, contemporary with the Minoans, there is archaeological evidence of Kythiran trade as far as Egypt and Mesopotamia. Kythira had a Phoenician colony in the archaic age, the sea-snail which produces Tyrian purple is native to the island. Xenophon refers to a Phoenician Bay in Kythira, the archaic Greek city of Kythira was at Scandea on Avlemonas, its ruins have been excavated. Its acropolis, now Palicastro, has the temple of Aphrodite Ourania, in classical times, Kythira was part of the territory of several larger city-states. Kythira was independent, and issued her own coins, in 195, in Augustus time, it was again subject to Sparta, being the property of Gaius Julius Eurycles, who was both a Spartan magnate and a Roman citizen. By this time, the Greek cities were in practice subject to the Roman Empire, Kythira continued to exist under the Roman Empire and its Byzantine successor state for centuries. Christianity is attested from the fourth century AD, the time of Constantine, according to her legend, archaeological evidence suggests the island was abandoned about 700 AD. When Saint Theodore of Cythera led a resettlement after the Byzantine reconquest of Crete in 962 and he established a great monastery at Paliochora, a town grew up around it, largely populated from Laconia. When the Byzantine Empire was divided among the conquerors of the Fourth Crusade, during the Venetian domination the island was known as Cerigo. Ottomans called this island Chuha Island, kythirans still talk about the destruction and looting of Paliochora by Barbarossa, it has become an intrinsic part of the Kytherian folklore
Cythera (island)
–
Cythera's capital (Chora) with the Castle
Cythera (island)
–
Antikythera mechanism,
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Cythera (island)
–
Ruins of
Paliochora
Cythera (island)
–
View of Kythira Castle
29.
Venus (mythology)
–
Venus is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles. The Romans adapted the myths and iconography of her Greek counterpart Aphrodite for Roman art, in the later classical tradition of the West, Venus becomes one of the most widely referenced deities of Greco-Roman mythology as the embodiment of love and sexuality. It has connections to venerari and venia through a common root in an Indo-European *wenes- or *u̯enis. Their common Proto-Indo-European root is assumed as *wen- or *u̯en- to strive for, wish for, desire, Venus has been described as perhaps the most original creation of the Roman pantheon, and an ill-defined and assimilative native goddess, combined with a strange and exotic Aphrodite. The ambivalence of her persuasive functions has been perceived in the relationship of the root *venes- with Latin venenum, in the sense of a charm, in myth, Venus-Aphrodite was born of sea-foam. Roman theology presents Venus as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and her male counterparts in the Roman pantheon, Vulcan and Mars, are active and fiery. Venus absorbs and tempers the male essence, uniting the opposites of male and female in mutual affection and she is essentially assimilative and benign, and embraces several otherwise quite disparate functions. She can give military victory, sexual success, good fortune, in one context, she is a goddess of prostitutes, in another, she turns the hearts of men and women from sexual vice to virtue. Images of Venus have been found in murals, mosaics. Petronius, in his Satyricon, places an image of Venus among the Lares of the freedman Trimalchios lararium, prospective brides offered Venus a gift before the wedding, the nature of the gift, and its timing, are unknown. Some Roman sources say that girls who come of age offer their toys to Venus, it is unclear where the offering is made, in dice-games, a popular pastime among Romans of all classes, the luckiest, best possible roll was known as Venus. Venus signs were for the most part the same as Aphrodites, Venus statues, and her worshipers, wore myrtle crowns at her festivals. Likewise, Roman folk-etymology transformed the ancient, obscure goddess Murcia into Venus of the Myrtles, myrtle was thought a particularly potent aphrodisiac. The female pudendum, particularly the clitoris, was known as murtos, as goddess of love and sex, Venus played an essential role at Roman prenuptial rites and wedding nights, so myrtle and roses were used in bridal bouquets. Marriage itself was not a seduction but a condition, under Junos authority. Venus was also a patron of the ordinary, everyday wine drunk by most Roman men and women, in the rites to Bona Dea, a goddess of female chastity, Venus, myrtle and anything male were not only excluded, but unmentionable
Venus (mythology)
–
Venus on seashell, from the Casa di Venus,
Pompeii. Before 79 AD.
Venus (mythology)
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Venus (mythology)
–
Bronze figurine of Venus,
Lyon (Roman
Lugdunum)
Venus (mythology)
–
Remains of the
Temple of Venus Genetrix in the
Forum of Caesar, Rome.
30.
Prix de Rome
–
The Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them to stay in Rome for three to five years at the expense of the state, the prize was extended to architecture in 1720, music in 1803, and engraving in 1804. The prestigious award was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, the Minister of Culture, the Prix de Rome was initially created for painters and sculptors in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest, the prize, organised by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, was open to their students. From 1666, the winner could win a stay of three to five years at the Palazzo Mancini in Rome at the expense of the King of France. In 1720, the Académie Royale d’Architecture began a prize in architecture, six painters, four sculptors, and two architects would be sent to the French Academy in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1666. Expanded after 140 years into five categories, the contest started in 1663 as two categories, painting and sculpture, in 1803, music was added, and after 1804 there was a prix for engraving as well. The primary winner took the First Grand Prize and the Second Prizes were awarded to the runners-up, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. Jacques-Louis David, having failed to win the three years in a row, considered suicide. Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Ernest Chausson and Maurice Ravel attempted the Prix de Rome, but did not gain recognition. Ravel tried a total of five times to win the prize, during World War II the prize winners were accommodated in the Villa Paradiso in Nice. The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968 by André Malraux, since then, a number of contests have been created, and the academies, together with the Institut de France, were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected residents now have an opportunity for study during an 18-month stay at The Academy of France in Rome, the heyday of the Prix de Rome was during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Prix de Rome for Architecture was created in 1720, the engraving prize was created in 1804. A Prix de Rome was also established in the Kingdom of Holland by Lodewijk Napoleon to award young artists and architects, during the years 1807–1810 prize winners were sent to Paris and onwards to Rome for study. Suspended in 1851 it was reinstated in 1870 by William III of the Netherlands, since then the winners have been selected by the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam under the main headings of architecture and the visual arts. The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for artists, created in 1832
Prix de Rome
–
Palazzo Mancini, Rome, the seat of the Académie since 1725. Etching by
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1752.
Prix de Rome
–
The
Villa Medici as it looks today.
