1.
Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen
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The Portrait of Bernhart von Reesen is a painting by German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer, dating from 1521, now housed in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister of Dresden, Germany. The painting was executed during the trip to the Low Countries. On 16 March 1521, Dürer wrote that he had portrayed in Antwerp one Bernhart von Reesen, being paid eight florins and some gifts for his wife. The subject is unknown, although he could be one rich merchant from Danzig who was active in the cosmopolitan Flemish port, other scholars identify him with Bernard van Orley, a painter from Brussels. The man is portrayed with black garments, aside from the shirt under the jacket. His hands, which, according to the Flemish painting tradition, are lying on the lower border, hold a cartouche where it is perhaps written his address
2.
Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting
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Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting represents the 16th century response to Italian Renaissance art in the Low Countries. Antwerp was the most important artistic centre in the region, many artists worked for European courts, including Bosch, whose fantastic painted images left a long legacy. Jan Mabuse, Maarten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris were all instrumental in adopting Italian models and incorporating them into their own artistic language. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, with Bosch the only artist from the period to remain widely familiar, may seem atypical, dutch and Flemish painters were also instrumental in establishing new subjects such as landscape painting and genre painting. Like the world landscapes, these represented a typically Mannerist inversion of the normal decorum of the hierarchy of genres, Italian Renaissance influences begin to show on Early Netherlandish painting around 1500, but in many ways the older style was remarkably persistent. Antwerp Mannerism is a term for painters showing some Italian influence, hieronymus Bosch is a highly individual artist, whose work is strange and full of seemingly irrational imagery, making it difficult to interpret. The Romanists were the phase of influence, adopting Italian styles in a far more thorough way. The Fall of Icarus, although highly atypical in many ways and it hints at the renewed interest for antiquity, but the hero Icarus is hidden away in the background. The main actors in the painting are nature itself and, most prominently, the peasant, Brueghel shows man as an anti-hero, comical and sometimes grotesque. Northern Renaissance Art,1985, Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 0-13-623596-4 Orenstein, Nadine M. ed. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Drawings and Prints
3.
Brussels tapestry
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Sophie Schneebalg-Perelmans attribution to Brussels of The Lady and the Unicorn at the Musée de Cluny may well be correct. Leo must have motivated by the already high technical quality of Brussels tapestries. A Hunts of Maximilian suite, depicting hunting in each of the months, was woven to cartoons by Bernard van Orley ca1531-33, van Orleys pupils, Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Michiel Coxie, also provided cartoons for Brussels looms under the general influence of Italian painting. A set of Seven Deadly Sins, of which four survive, are recognized as Pieter Coecke van Aelsts masterpieces, Brussels quickly took pre-eminence in tapestry weaving. In 1528 a city decree ordained that each piece of Brussels tapestry over a certain size bear the mark of a red shield flanked by two Bs, this aids in identifying Brussels production. Each tapestry was to include the woven mark of the maker or the merchant who commissioned the tapestry for resale, the public market for tapestry sales was Antwerp. Though he was the arch-rival of the Habsburgs, Francis I of France commissioned tapestries from Brussels and Antwerp in the early years of his reign. The prominent Brussels weaver Peter de Pannemaker executed for Francis that same year a suite enriched with silver and gold thread, to designs by Matteo del Nassaro of Verona, an engraver of gems. There were other commissions and purchases by Francis of Brussels tapestry until the establishment, about 1540 of a manufactory at Fontainebleau, the Valois tapestries depicting festivities at the court of France were woven in the Spanish Netherlands, likely in Brussels, shortly after 1580. Other nobles continued to support Brussels manufacture in the 16th century, only 136 tapestries from the initial original collection of 356 pieces remain today, from which the largest part was commissioned in Brussel. In England, both Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII amassed large tapestry collections, Wolsey furnished his palaces at York Place and Hampton Court with rich tapestries. Many of the cardinals acquisitions illustrate Biblical texts, but he also acquired secular works, one was purchased from the executors of the Bishop of Durham and one was commissioned directly by Wolsey. Evidence associates this later set with a partial set now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Seven Deadly Sins panels woven for Wolseys bedroom at Hampton Court are also thought to be Brussels work. By the time of his fall in 1529, Wolseys collection included over 600 tapestry pieces, old, but despite his commissions to the weavers of Brussels, his tastes were conventional, and none of his acquisitions seem to have been in the new style pioneered by van Orley. Conversely, Henry VIII embraced the new Italianate style, in October 1528, Henry acquired a small set of the Twelve Months and a much larger ten-piece set of The Story of David measuring 743 1/2 ells from the merchant Richard Gresham. Two of these, The Triumph of Hercules and the Triumph of Bacchus, the prominent atelier of Jan Raes the Elder and Younger had executed a set of Animals in Landscapes for Cardinal Montalto. and a suite of the History of Samson. Other leading Brussels ateliers of the 17th century were directed by Martin Reymbouts, rubenss pupil Jacob Jordaens also provided many cartoons for tapestries. Kermesse subjects drawn from life in the manner of the Teniers, father
4.
Romanism (painting)
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Romanism is a term used by art historians to refer to painters from the Low Countries who had travelled in the 16th century to Rome. In Rome they had absorbed the influence of leading Italian artists of the such as Michelangelo and Raphael. Upon their return home, these Northern artists created a Renaissance style, the style continued its influence until the early 17th century when it was swept aside by the Baroque. By drawing on mythological subject matter, the Romanists introduced new themes in Northern art that corresponded with the interests, the Romanists painted mainly religious and mythological works, often using complex compositions and depicting naked human bodies in an anatomically correct way but with contrived poses. Their style often appears forced and artificial to the modern viewer, however, the artists saw their efforts as an intellectual challenge to render difficult subjects through a struggle with form. The term Romanist was coined by 19th-century art historians such as Alfred Michiels and they attributed the shift to the influence of artists who had visited Italy, an in particular Rome, and called them Romanists. Jan Gossaert was one of the first Netherlandish artists to make the Rome trip in 1508/9 and after his return to the northern Netherlands, jan van Scorel worked in Rome in the years 1522 and 1523 where he was particularly impressed by Michelangelo and Raphael. Pieter Coecke van Aelst was probably in Italy before 1527, jan Sanders van Hemessen traveled to Italy early in his career, around 1520. Here he studied both models from antiquity, such as the Laocoön as well as the contemporary works of Michelangelo. Michiel Coxie of Mechelen was in Rome for a period of time roughly between 1529 and 1538. He was most influenced by Raphael and worked in a completely Italianized style upon his return, maarten van Heemskerck travelled to Rome around 1532 where he produced many paintings and drawings after Classical sculpture. After his return to the north, his work helped spread a very Italianizing style, lambert Lombard of Liège travelled to Rome in 1537 and developed influential theories about classicism. He may have encouraged his pupil Frans Floris to study in Rome as well, Floris was in Rome from about 1640 and was influenced mainly by Michelangelo and Giulio Romano. A second group of Northern artists who travelled to Rome in the half of the 16th century included Dirck Barendsz, Adriaen de Weerdt. The last two artists did not return home although Spranger exerted an important influence through other Northern artists who spent time at the Prague court where he worked and this later generation of artists are usually referred to as Mannerists. They showed a greater feeling for proportion and used a formal language then the first generation of Romanists. The most important influences on the Romanists were works by Michelangelo, Raphael and Raphael’s students such as Giulio Romano, Polidoro da Caravaggio, the Classical monuments and artefacts in Rome were also an important object of study and inspiration for Netherlandish artists in Rome. In a later phase other Italian cities exercised an important appeal in particular Venice, rosso Fiorentino, Vasari and various sculptors were the Florentine artists that appealed to the Northern artists while in Emilia, Parmigianino and his followers were the preferred models
5.
Italian Renaissance painting
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The city of Florence in Tuscany is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance, and in particular of Renaissance painting. A detailed background is given in the companion articles Renaissance and Renaissance architecture, Italian Renaissance painting can be divided into four periods, the Proto-Renaissance, the Early Renaissance, the High Renaissance, and Mannerism. These dates are approximations rather than specific points because the lives of individual artists, the Proto-Renaissance begins with the professional life of the painter Giotto and includes Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagna and Altichiero. The Early Renaissance was marked by the work of Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, the High Renaissance period was that of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. The Mannerist period included Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Tintoretto, Mannerism is dealt with in a separate article. The influences upon the development of Renaissance painting in Italy are those also affected Philosophy, Literature, Architecture, Theology, Science, Government. The following is a summary of points dealt with more fully in the articles that are cited above. A number of Classical texts, that had been lost to Western European scholars for centuries and these included Philosophy, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on the Arts and Early Christian Theology. The resulting interest in Humanist philosophy meant that mans relationship with humanity, a revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello. Simultaneous with gaining access to the Classical texts, Europe gained access to advanced mathematics which had its provenance in the works of Byzantine and Islamic scholars. The advent of movable type printing in the 15th century meant that ideas could be disseminated easily, the development of oil paint and its introduction to Italy had lasting effects on the art of painting. The establishment of the Medici Bank and the subsequent trade it generated brought unprecedented wealth to a single Italian city, Cosimo de Medici set a new standard for patronage of the arts, not associated with the church or monarchy. A similar heritage of artistic achievement occurred in Venice through the talented Bellini family, their influential inlaw Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, much painting of the Renaissance period was commissioned by or for the Catholic Church. These works were often of large scale and were frequently painted in fresco of the Life of Christ. There were also many paintings on the theme of Salvation. Churches also commissioned altarpieces, which were painted in tempera on panel, apart from large altarpieces, small devotional pictures were produced in very large numbers, both for churches and for private individuals, the most common theme being the Madonna and Child. Throughout the period, civic commissions were also important, during the 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Portraiture was to become a subject for High Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Titian
6.
Raphael
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Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running a large workshop and, despite his death at 37. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, the best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings and he was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region and his poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture, growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a humanistic education however, it is unclear how easily he read Latin. His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1,1494 by his father, Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven, his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master and he had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great help to his father. A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity and his fathers workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter, and Luca Signorelli, according to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, an alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters, the Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a master, that is to say fully trained and his first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was named in the commission
7.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
8.
Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
9.
Beeldenstorm
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Most of the destruction was of art in churches and public places. The Dutch term usually refers to the wave of disorderly attacks in the summer of 1566 that spread rapidly through the Low Countries from south to north. In England there was both government-sponsored removal of images and also attacks from 1535 onwards, and in Scotland from 1559. In France there were several outbreaks as part of the French Wars of Religion from 1560 onwards, the region affected was perhaps the richest in Europe, but still seethed with economic discontent among parts of the population, and had suffered a poor harvest and hard winter. However, recent historians are less inclined to see the movement as prompted by these factors than was the case a few decades ago. The Beeldenstorm grew out of a turn in the behaviour of Low Country Protestants starting around 1560, Catholic preachers were interrupted in sermons, and raids were organized to rescue Protestant prisoners from jail, who then often fled into exile in France or England. Protestant views were spread by a movement of field sermons or open-air sermons held outside towns. Prosecutions for heresy continued, especially in the south, although they were erratic, by 1565 the authorities seem to have realized that persecution was not the answer, and the level of prosecutions slackened, and the Protestants became increasingly confident in the open. A letter of July 22,1566, from officials to the Regent, warned that the scandalous pillage of churches, monasteries. Iconoclastic attacks spread rapidly northwards and resulted in the destruction of not only images but all sorts of decoration and fittings in churches, however, there was relatively little loss of life, unlike similar outbreaks in France, where the clergy were often killed, and some iconoclasts too. Valenciennes was the most southerly town attacked, in the east, Maastricht on September 20 and Venlo on October 5 saw attacks, but generally the outbreaks were restricted to more westerly and northern areas. Over 400 churches were attacked in Flanders alone, so that in fine, I cannot write you in x sheets of paper the strange sight I saw there, organs and all destroyed. Nicolas Sander, an English Catholic exile who was a professor of theology at Louvain and these fresh followers of this new preaching threw down the graven and defaced the painted images, not only of Our Lady but of all others in the town. The Blessed Sacrament of the altar and they trod under their feet and shed their stinking piss upon it. Such details are corroborated by other sources. Alcohol features largely in many accounts, perhaps in some cases because in Netherlandish law being drunk could be regarded as a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing. The destruction frequently included ransacking the priests house, and sometimes private houses suspected of sheltering church goods, there are many accounts of rituals of inversion, in which the church sometimes stood for the whole social order. Children sometimes participated enthusiastically, and street games afterwards became play battles between papists and beggars, one child was killed in Amsterdam by a stone thrown in such a game
10.
Cartoon
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A cartoon is a type of two-dimensional illustration. An artist who creates cartoons is called a cartoonist, the concept originated in the Middle Ages and first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, fresco, tapestry, or stained glass window. In the 19th century, it came to refer to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers, in the 21st century, cartoons could be published on the Internet. A cartoon is a drawing made on sturdy paper as a study or modello for a painting. Cartoons were typically used in the production of frescoes, to link the component parts of the composition when painted on damp plaster over a series of days. Such cartoons often have pinpricks along the outlines of the design so that a bag of soot patted or pounced over the cartoon, held against the wall, would leave black dots on the plaster. Cartoons by painters, such as the Raphael Cartoons in London, tapestry cartoons, usually coloured, were followed with the eye by the weavers on the loom. In modern print media, a cartoon is an illustration or series of illustrations and this usage dates from 1843, when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages, particularly sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster, Cartoons can be divided into gag cartoons, which include editorial cartoons, and comic strips. Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines, generally consist of a drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath. Newspaper syndicates have also distributed single-panel gag cartoons by Mel Calman, Bill Holman, Gary Larson, George Lichty, Fred Neher, many consider New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno the father of the modern gag cartoon. The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes names like Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti, Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus and Virgil Partch began as magazine gag cartoonists and moved to syndicated comic strips. Richard Thompson is noteworthy in the area of newspaper cartoon illustration, the sports section of newspapers usually featured cartoons, sometimes including syndicated features such as Chester Chet Browns All in Sport. Editorial cartoons are found almost exclusively in news publications and news websites, although they also employ humor, they are more serious in tone, commonly using irony or satire. The art usually acts as a metaphor to illustrate a point of view on current social and/or political topics. Editorial cartoons often include speech balloons and sometimes use multiple panels, editorial cartoonists of note include Herblock, David Low, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters and Gerald Scarfe. Comic strips, also known as cartoon strips in the United Kingdom, are daily in newspapers worldwide. In the United States, they are not commonly called cartoons themselves, nonetheless, the creators of comic strips—as well as comic books and graphic novels—are usually referred to as cartoonists
11.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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Charles V was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556, through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four square kilometers and were the first to be described as the empire on which the sun never sets. Charles was the heir of three of Europes leading dynasties, the Houses of Valois-Burgundy, Habsburg, and Trastámara and he inherited the Burgundian Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as heir of the House of Valois-Burgundy. From his own dynasty, the Habsburgs, he inherited Austria and he was also elected to succeed his Habsburg grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor, a title held by the Habsburgs since 1440. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, the personal union, under Charles, of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire resulted in the closest Europe would come to a universal monarchy since the death of Louis the Pious. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charless reign, enormously expensive, they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean, after seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans’ advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529. A lengthy war of attrition, conducted on his behalf by his younger brother Ferdinand, in the Mediterranean, although there were some successes, Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans’ increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs. Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by religious and political opposition to him. Once the rebellions were quelled the essential Castilian and Burgundian territories remained mostly loyal to Charles throughout his rule, Charles’s Spanish dominions were the chief source of his power and wealth, and they became increasingly important as his reign progressed. In the Americas, Charles sanctioned the conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec, Castillian control was extended across much of South and Central America. The resulting vast expansion of territory and the flows of South American silver to Castile had profound long term effects on Spain. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery. Upon Charles’s abdications, the Holy Roman Empire was inherited by his younger brother Ferdinand, the Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son Philip II. The two empires would remain allies until the 18th century, Charles was born in 1500 as the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile in the Flemish city of Ghent, which was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life and he was tutored by William de Croÿ, and also by Adrian of Utrecht. He also gained a decent command of German, though he never spoke it as well as French, a witticism sometimes attributed to Charles is, I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse
12.
Duchy of Brabant
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The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. Today all the former territories, apart from exclaves are in Belgium except for the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Duchy of Brabant was historically divided into four parts, each with its own capital, the four capitals were Leuven, Brussels, Antwerp and s-Hertogenbosch. Before s-Hertogenbosch was founded, Tienen was the fourth capital and its most important cities were Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven, Breda, s-Hertogenbosch, Lier and Mechelen. The modern flag of Belgium takes its colors from Brabants coat of arms, probably first used by Count Lambert I of Louvain, the lion is documented in a 1306 towns seal of Kerpen, together with the red lion of Limburg. Up to the present, the Brabant lion features as the charge on the coats of arms of both Flemish and Walloon Brabant, and of the Dutch province of North Brabant. The regions name is first recorded as the Carolingian shire pagus Bracbatensis, upon the 843 Treaty of Verdun it was part of Lotharingia within short-lived Middle Francia, and was ceded to East Francia according to the 880 Treaty of Ribemont. In earlier Roman times, the Nervii, a Belgic tribe and they were incorporated into the Roman province of Belgica, and considered to have both Celtic and Germanic cultural links. At the end of the Roman period the region was conquered by the Germanic Franks, in 959 the East Frankish king Otto I of Germany elevated Count Godfrey of Jülich to the rank of duke of Lower Lorraine. In 962 the duchy became a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Here, the counts of Leuven rose to power, when about 1000 Count Lambert I the Bearded married Gerberga, the daughter of Duke Charles of Lower Lorraine, and acquired the County of Brussels. About 1024 southernmost Brabant fell to Count Reginar V of Mons, in 1190, after the death of Godfrey III, Henry I also became Duke of Lower Lotharingia. By that time the title had lost most of its territorial authority, according to protocol, all his successors were thereafter called Dukes of Brabant and Lower Lotharingia. After the Battle of Worringen in 1288, the dukes of Brabant also acquired the Duchy of Limburg, in 1354 Duke John III of Brabant granted a Joyous Entry to the citizens of Brabant. In 1430 the Duchies of Lower Lotharingia, Brabant and Limburg were inherited by Philip the Good of Burgundy, in 1477 the Duchy of Brabant became part of the House of Habsburg as part of the dowry of Mary of Burgundy. At that time the Duchy extended from Luttre, south of Nivelles to s Hertogenbosch, the subsequent history of Brabant is part of the history of the Habsburg Seventeen Provinces. The Eighty Years War brought the parts under military control of the northern insurgents. The southern part remained in Spanish Habsburg hands as a part of the Southern Netherlands and it was transferred to the Austrian branch of the Habsburg monarchy in 1714
13.
Retable
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A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum it may be a shelf for candles behind an altar. A retable which incorporates sculptures or painting is referred to as an altarpiece. Many altars have both a reredos and a retable and this distinction is not always upheld in common use, and the terms are often confused or used as synonyms. The non-English word retable therefore often refers to what should in English be called a reredos, the retable may hold the altar cross, mostly in Protestant churches, as well as candles, flowers and other things. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
14.
Gothic art
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Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, in the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscripts. The earliest Gothic art was monumental sculpture, on the walls of Cathedrals, Christian art was often typological in nature, showing the stories of the New Testament and the Old Testament side by side. Increased literacy and a body of secular vernacular literature encouraged the representation of secular themes in art. Gothic art emerged in Île-de-France, France, in the early 12th century at the Abbey Church of St Denis built by Abbot Suger, monastic orders, especially the Cistercians and the Carthusians, were important builders who disseminated the style and developed distinctive variants of it across Europe. Gothic art was often typological in nature, reflecting a belief that the events of the Old Testament pre-figured those of the New, Old and New Testament scenes were shown side by side in works like the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, and the decoration of churches. The Gothic period coincided with a resurgence in Marian devotion. Images of the Virgin Mary developed from the Byzantine hieratic types, through the Coronation of the Virgin, to human and initimate types. Artists like Giotto, Fra Angelico and Pietro Lorenzetti in Italy, and Early Netherlandish painting, brought realism, Western artists, and their patrons, became much more confident in innovative iconography, and much more originality is seen, although copied formulae were still used by most artists. Even in Last Judgements Christ was now usually shown exposing his chest to show the wounds of his Passion, the word Gothic for art was initially used as a synonym for Barbaric, and was therefore used pejoratively. Its critics saw this type of Medieval art as unrefined and too remote from the aesthetic proportions, Renaissance authors believed that the Sack of Rome by the Gothic tribes in 410 had triggered the demise of the Classical world and all the values they held dear. Gothic art was criticized by French authors such as Boileau, La Bruyère, Rousseau, before becoming a recognized form of art. Molière would famously comment on Gothic, The besotted taste of Gothic monuments, These odious monsters of ignorant centuries, in its beginning, Gothic art was initially called French work, thus attesting the priority of France in the creation of this style. Painting in a style that can be called Gothic did not appear until about 1200, or nearly 50 years after the origins of Gothic architecture and sculpture. Then figures become more animated in pose and facial expression, tend to be smaller in relation to the background of scenes, and are arranged more freely in the pictorial space, where there is room. This transition occurs first in England and France around 1200, in Germany around 1220, painting during the Gothic period was practiced in four primary media, frescos, panel paintings, manuscript illumination and stained glass. Frescoes continued to be used as the pictorial narrative craft on church walls in southern Europe as a continuation of early Christian
15.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
16.
St. James' Church, Antwerp
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St. James Church in Antwerp, Belgium, is built on the site of a hostel for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. The present building is the work of the Waghemakere family and Rombout Keldermans, the church contains the grave of Rubens in the eastern chapel. From 1431 on, even before the church was built, the chapel on site was a stop on the route to the burial place of Saint James the Great in Santiago de Compostela. In 1476 the chapel became a church so plans were made to replace the modest building with a large church. Fifteen years later, in 1491, construction of the late Gothic church started and it was not completed until 1656, when Baroque architecture was in vogue. Fortunately throughout all years the architects closely followed the original Gothic design. The interior however is decorated in Baroque style, the plans at the start of the construction, in a time when Antwerp was on its way to becoming one of the most important economic hubs in Europe, were very ambitious. The church was to feature just one tower, but this was to be about 150 m tall, well above the 123 m of the two planned towers of Antwerp Cathedral. In return, he was rewarded by being permitted to one church in Antwerp which would not be plundered. Many of the original windows were unfortunately destroyed during World War II. Among the Baroque interior decorations are the wooden choir stalls. The central pulpit was created in 1675 by Lodewijk Willemssens, the old organ has a rich history, it was played by many famous people, amnongstv them Henry Bredemers. The Choir organ, built by J. B. Forceville in 1727, is also original, the hew grand organ was built in 1884 by Anneesens, in Romantic style. In the 16th, 17th and 18th century St. James Church was the church of Antwerps prominent citizens. In the church numerous important important gravestones are still inside, most belonging to the nobility, there are more than 1300 graves inside the church, and dates of burials of more than 4500 persons. The most famous is that of Antwerps renowned painter Peter Paul Rubens, the painting above Rubens tomb is by the master himself. Peter Paul Rubens and Helena Fourment, clara Stappaert, father in law of Peter Paul Rubens. François I, son of Peter Paul Rubens, Schepen of Antwerp in 1659, Alexander Josephus Rubens, Grandson of Peter Paul Rubens
17.
Antwerp
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Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
18.
Raphael Cartoons
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Reproduced in the form of prints, they rivalled Michelangelos ceiling as the most famous and influential designs of the Renaissance, and were well known to all artists of the Renaissance and Baroque. Admiration of them reached its highest pitch in the 18th and 19th centuries, originally the set was intended to include 16 tapestries. Raphael was paid twice by Leo, in June 1515 and December 1516, tapestries retained their Late Gothic prestige during the Renaissance. Most of the expense was in the manufacture, although the creation of the tapestries in Brussels cost 15,000 ducats, the cartoons are painted in a glue distemper medium on many sheets of paper glued together, they are now mounted on a canvas backing. They are all slightly over 3 m tall, and from 3 to 5 m wide, although some colours have faded, they are in general in very good condition. The tapestries are mirror-images of the cartoons, as they were worked from behind, there would have been other drawings for all the subjects, which have been lost, it was from these that the first prints were made. The seven cartoons were probably completed in 1516 and were sent to Brussels. Various other sets were later, including one acquired by Henry VIII of England in 1542. Cartoons were sometimes returned with tapestries to the commissioner, but this clearly did not happen here, the tapestries had very wide and elaborate borders, also designed by Raphael, which these cartoons omit, presumably they had their own cartoons. The borders included ornamentation in an imitation of Ancient Roman relief sculpture, the tapestries were made with both gold and silver thread, some were later burnt by soldiers in the Sack of Rome in 1527 to extract the precious metals. The first delivery was in 1517, and seven were displayed in the Chapel for Christmas Day in 1519 and it was partly this that made the designs so effective in reduced print versions. The Raphael Cartoons represent scenes from the lives of Saints Peter, there were relatively few precedents for these subjects, so Raphael was less constrained by traditional iconographic expectations than he would have been with a series on the life of Christ or Mary. He no doubt received some advice or instructions in choosing the scenes to depict, an intervening small frieze showed subjects from the life of Leo, also designed to complement the other series. Each sequence begins at the wall, with the Life of Peter on the right side of the Chapel. The Healing of the Lame Man The Death of Ananias, Life of Paul The Stoning of St Stephen at which Paul was present before his conversion. The Conversion of Saint Paul The Conversion of the Proconsul or The Blinding of Elymas, after Paul miraculously cures a cripple, the people of Lystra see him and his companion Barnabas as gods, and want to make a sacrifice to them. Paul tears his garments in disgust, whilst Barnabas speaks to the crowd, St Paul in prison, smaller than the others. St Paul Preaching in Athens, the standing at the left in a red cap is a portrait of Leo, next to him is Janus Lascaris
19.
Acts of the Apostles
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The Acts of the Apostles, often referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament, it tells of the founding of the Christian church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a work, Luke–Acts, by the same anonymous author. The first part, the Gospel of Luke, tells how God fulfilled his plan for the salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts continues the story of Christianity in the 1st century, beginning with Jesuss Ascension to Heaven, the early chapters, set in Jerusalem, describe the Day of Pentecost and the growth of the church in Jerusalem. Initially the Jews are receptive to the Christian message, but soon turn against the followers of Jesus. Rejected by the Jews, under the guidance of the Apostle Peter the message is taken to the Gentiles. The later chapters tell of Pauls conversion, his mission in Asia Minor and the Aegean, and finally his imprisonment in Rome, the title Acts of the Apostles was first used by Irenaeus in the late 2nd century. It is not known whether this was a title or one invented by Irenaeus, it does seem clear, however. The Gospel of Luke and Acts make up a work which scholars call Luke–Acts. The author is not named in either volume. )He admired Paul, the earliest possible date for the composition of Acts is set by the events with which it ends, Pauls imprisonment in Rome c.63 AD, but an early date is now rarely put forward. In either case there is evidence that it was still being revised well into the 2nd century. Luke aligned his work, Luke–Acts, to the narratives which many others had written, Acts, the second part, is widely thought of as a history, but it lacks exact analogies in Hellenistic or Jewish literature. The title Acts of the Apostles would seem to identify it with the telling of the deeds and achievements of great men. By and large the sources for Acts can only be guessed at, but Luke would have had access to the Septuagint, the gospel of Mark and the collection of sayings of Jesus called the Q source. )There are also points of contacts with 1 Peter, the Letter to the Hebrews, and 1 Clement. Other sources can only be inferred from internal evidence—the traditional explanation of the three we passages, for example, is that they represent eye-witness accounts, the search for such inferred sources was popular in the 19th century, but by the mid-20th it had largely been abandoned. Acts was read as a history of the early church well into the post-Reformation era. The mid-19th century scholar Ferdinand Baur suggested that Luke had re-written history to present a united Peter and Paul, Baur continues to have enormous influence, but today there is less interest in determining Lukes historical accuracy than in understanding his theological program. Luke was written to be read aloud to a group of Jesus-followers gathered in a house to share the Lords supper, the author assumes an educated Greek-speaking audience, but directs his attention to specifically Christian concerns rather than to the Greco-Roman world at large
20.
Pope Leo X
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Pope Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici, was Pope from 9 March 1513 to his death in 1521. The second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of the Florentine Republic, following the death of Pope Julius II, Giovanni was elected pope after securing the backing of the younger members of the Sacred College. Early on in his rule he oversaw the sessions of the Fifth Council of the Lateran. In 1517 he led a war that succeeded in securing his nephew as duke of Urbino. He later only narrowly escaped a plot by some cardinals to poison him and he is probably best remembered for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peters Basilica, which practice was challenged by Martin Luthers 95 Theses. He seems not to have taken seriously the array of demands for reform that would quickly grow into the Protestant Reformation. His Papal Bull of 1520, Exsurge Domine, simply condemned Luther on a number of areas and he did, however, grant establishment to the Oratory of Divine Love. A significant patron of the arts, upon election Leo is alleged to have said, Since God has given us the papacy, under his reign, progress was made on the rebuilding of Saint Peters Basilica and artists such as Raphael decorated the Vatican rooms. Leo also reorganised the Roman University, and promoted the study of literature, poetry and he died in 1521 and is buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome. He is the last pope not to have been in priestly orders at the time of his election to the papacy. Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici was born on December 11,1475 in the Republic of Florence, the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. From an early age he was destined for an ecclesiastical career and he received the tonsure at the age of seven and was soon granted rich benefices and preferments. Meanwhile, he received an education at Lorenzos humanistic court under such men as Angelo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino, from 1489 to 1491 he studied theology and canon law at Pisa. On 23 March 1492, he was admitted into the Sacred College of Cardinals and took up his residence at Rome. The death of Lorenzo on the following 8 April, however and he returned to Rome to participate in the conclave of 1492 which followed the death of Innocent VIII, and unsuccessfully opposed the election of Cardinal Borgia. While Piero found refuge at Venice and Urbino, Giovanni traveled in Germany, in the Netherlands, in May 1500, he returned to Rome, where he was received with outward cordiality by Pope Alexander VI, and where he lived for several years immersed in art and literature. In 1503 he welcomed the accession of Pope Julius II to the pontificate and this and other attempts to regain political control of Florence were frustrated until a bloodless revolution permitted the return of the Medici. Giovannis younger brother Giuliano was placed at the head of the republic, Giovanni was elected Pope on 9 March 1513, and this was proclaimed two days later
21.
Pieter van Aelst III
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Pieter van Aelst or Pieter van Aelst III was a Flemish tapestry weaver whose workshop commenced by his grandfather was one of the leading weavers of Flanders in the first half of the 16th century. He was likely born around 1495 in Brussels as the son of Pieter van Edingen van Aelst (also referred to as and his father and grandfather were both tapestry weavers. Pieter joined the workshop that his father had set up in Brussels in 1493 and was trained there and he became the purveyor of tapestries to the Spanish king Charles V, the then ruler of Flanders. This was likely upon the death of Pieter’s grandfather Pieter van Aelst I, in 1509 he was mentioned as a restorer of the collection of tapestries of Margaret of Austria, the governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. In 1517 he was paid for tapestries of David and John the Baptist made for the English king Henry VIII, a tapestry after Raphael’s Bearing of the Cross produced by the van Aelst workshop in 1520 played an important role in the introduction of the Italian Renaissance style in Flanders. The tapestry, which was part of a series of tapestries, in 1520 Pope Leo X commissioned a series of 20 tapestries of Children’s Games and Medici Symbols from van Aelst. The contract required the background of the tapestries to be filled with gold. The price of the gold accounted for 14,000 ducats in the price of 17,600 ducats payable for the series. The series of Children’s Games depicted winged spirits with attributes and emblems representing the emblems of the House of Medici, in 1547 and 1548 he was still listed as a tapestry maker for the court of Charles V. Around 1550 van Aelst was commissioned by the Polish king Sigismund II Augustus to make a large and these works were made in collaboration with six other Brussels workshops. As in 1560 his workshop was sold by his heirs to the prominent Brussels weaver Willem de Pannemaker, ortiz, A. Carretero, C. et al. Resplendence of the Spanish monarchy, Renaissance tapestries and armor from the Patrimonio Nacional, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
22.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
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The Kunsthistorisches Museum is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on Ringstraße, it is crowned with an octagonal dome, the term Kunsthistorisches Museum applies to both the institution and the main building. It is the largest art museum in the country and it was opened around 1891 at the same time as the Naturhistorisches Museum, by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. The two museums have similar exteriors and face each other across Maria-Theresien-Platz, both buildings were built between 1871 and 1891 according to plans drawn up by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer. The two Ringstraße museums were commissioned by the Emperor in order to find a shelter for the Habsburgs formidable art collection. The façade was built of sandstone, the building is rectangular in shape, and topped with a dome that is 60 meters high. The inside of the building is decorated with marble, stucco ornamentations, gold-leaf. It was featured in an episode of Museum Secrets on the History Channel and it had been the biggest art theft in Austrian history. Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós Media related to Kunsthistorisches Museum at Wikimedia Commons Official website Spherical panorama of entrance Hofburgs Armory - photo gallery in Flickr
23.
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
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The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. In 1845 it is decided by royal Decree that a museum is to be founded with works of art of deceswed and this is accorded by Minister Sylvain van de Weyer a national Commission is founded to select important works of art. This commission is presided by the First president Count de Beaufort, other members are, Gustaf Wappers, President of the Royal Museum of Antwerpen. François-Joseph Navez, President of the Académie royale des beaux-arts de Bruxelles, guillaume Geefs Eugène Simonis Tilman-François Suys, professor at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. Much of the members were active in the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. The museums are situated in the capital Brussels in the area on the Coudenberg. There are six museums connected with the Royal Museum, and two of them, are in the main building, the Royal Museum contains over 20,000 drawings, sculptures, and paintings, which date from the early 15th century to the present. The museum has a collection of Flemish painting, among them paintings by Bruegel and Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Anthony van Dyck. The museum is also proud of its Rubens Room, which more than 20 paintings by the artist. The painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, long-attributed to Brueghel, is located here and forms the subject of W. H. Audens famous poem Musée des Beaux Arts, named after the museum. The chief curators of the museum have been or are, from 1961 till 1984, balat was the kings principal architect, and this was one part of the kings vast building program for Belgium. The building was completed in 1887, and stands as an example of the Beaux-Arts architecture use of themed statuary to assert the identity, the finial, gilded Genius of Art was also designed by de Groot. The two bas-relief panels are Music by Thomas Vincotte and Industrial Arts by Charles Brunin, the two bronze groups on pedestals represent The Crowning of Art by Paul de Vigne, and The Teaching of Art by Charles van der Stappen. On the side of the building, a memorial commemorates five members of the Mouvement National Royaliste, a resistance group, killed during the liberation of Brussels on 3–4 September 1944
24.
Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon
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It is characterized by its late Brabantine Gothic exterior and rich interior decoration including two Baroque chapels. This chapel became the chapel of the Crossbow Guild, the woman stole the statue and through some miraculous events was able to bring it to Brussels by boat in 1348. The statue of Mary was then placed in the chapel. The Guild also promised to hold a procession, called an Ommegang. This Ommegang developed into an important religious and civil event in the calendar of Brussels. The exact date of commencement of the construction of the church replaced the chapel is not known with certainty. It is generally believed that it was around the turn of the fifteenth century, the whole construction process took about a century. The choir was finished in 1435 as is testified by mural paintings of that date, the works were interrupted because of the troubles after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477 but recommenced by the end of the century. The nave finally had seven bays the last two of which should have been surmounted by a tower that was never completed, the sacrarium built behind the choir dates from 1549. At the end of the century the church was sacked by the Calvinists. At the beginning of the French occupation in 1795 the church was saved from the anti-religious zeal of the occupiers, the church remained closed for a few years and was returned to religious service under Napoleon, as a subsidiary of the Chapel Church. Soon after the completion of the section of the Regentschapsstraat or Rue de la Régence in 1872. The church appeared so dilapidated after this removal that restoration works were commenced immediately, the first works were entrusted in 1870 to the local architect Auguste Schoy. He proposed a project that was so radical that the Commission of Monuments at first refused to endorse it. The site was entrusted to the Belgian architect Jules-Jacques Van Ysendijck. Jules-Jacques van Ysendijck was a disciple of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and led the work in accordance with the principle of unity of style of the latter, from 1895 to 1912, he and his son implemented six construction phases by which they created a monument that had never existed. They added turrets, pinnacles and openwork balustrades, covered the aisles with perpendicular gables instead of the continuous gables parallel to the nave, from 1917 to 1937 the architect François Malfait directed the placement of 57 statues from 27 different sculptors. More recently, the city of Brussels undertook a restoration to restore the church to its former glory
25.
Jan van Eyck
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Jan van Eyck was a Flemish/Netherlandish painter active in Bruges. He is often considered one of the founders of Early Netherlandish painting school, the few surviving records of his early life indicate that he was born c. After Johns death in 1425 he was employed in Lille as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, until 1429 before moving to Bruges, where he lived until his death. Apart from the Ghent Altarpiece and the miniatures of the Turin-Milan Hours, about 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him. Ten, including the Ghent altarpiece, are dated and signed with a variation of his motto, ALS IK KAN always written in Greek characters, Van Eyck painted both secular and religious subject matter, including altarpieces, single panel religious figures and commissioned portraits. His work includes single panels, diptychs, triptychs, and polyptych panels and he was well paid by Philip, who sought that the painter was secure financially and had artistic freedom and could paint whenever he pleased. Van Eycks work comes from the International Gothic style, but he soon eclipsed it, through his developments in the use of oil paint he achieved a new level of virtuosity. Van Eyck was highly influential and his techniques and style were adopted and refined by the Early Netherlandish painters, little is known of Jan van Eycks early life and neither the date nor place of his birth is documented. This suggests a date of birth of 1395 at the latest, however, his apparent age in the London probable self-portrait of 1433 suggests to most scholars a date closer to 1380. He was identified in the late 1500s as having been born in Maaseik and this claim is still considered credible on etymological grounds, considering that Van Eyck means of Eyck which is an old variant spelling of eik. He had a sister Margareta, and at least two brothers, Hubert and Lambert, both painters, but the order of their births has not been established. Another significant, and rather younger, painter who worked in Southern France and it is not known where Jan was educated, but he had knowledge of Latin and used the Greek and Hebrew alphabets in his inscriptions, indicating that he was schooled in the classics. This level of education was rare among painters, and would have made him attractive to the cultivated Philip. Van Eyck served John of Bavaria-Straubing, ruler of Holland, Hainault, by this time van Eyck had assembled a small workshop and was involved in redecorating the Binnenhof palace in The Hague. After Johns death in 1425 he moved to Bruges and came to the attention of Philip the Good c and his emergence as a collectable painter generally follows his appointment to Philips court, and from this point his activity in the court is comparatively well documented. He served as court artist and diplomat, and a was a member of the Tournai painters guild. On 18 October 1427, the Feast of St. Luke, he travelled to Tournai to attend a banquet in his honour, also attended by Robert Campin, a court salary freed him from commissioned work, and allowed a large degree of artistic freedom. Over the following decade van Eycks reputation and technical ability grew, unlike most of his peers his reputation never diminished and he remained well regarded over the following centuries
26.
Rogier van der Weyden
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Rogier van der Weyden or Roger de la Pasture was an Early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces and commissioned single and diptych portraits. By the latter half of the 15th century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity, however his fame lasted only until the 17th century, and largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the mid-18th century. There are few facts of van der Weydens life. What else is known of him has come from records and secondary sources. However the paintings now attributed to him are generally accepted, despite a tendency in the 19th century to attribute his work to others, all of his forms are rendered with rich, warm colourisation and a sympathetic expression, while he is known for his expressive pathos and naturalism. His portraits tend to be half length and half profile, Van der Weyden used an unusually broad range of colours and varied tones, in his finest work the same tone is not repeated in any other area of the canvas, even the whites are varied. Due to the loss of archives in 1695 and again in 1940, Rogelet de le Pasture was born in Tournai in 1399 or 1400. His parents were Henri de le Pasture and Agnes de Watrélos and he married around 1426, to Elisabeth Goffaert, and was made town painter of Brussels in 1436, and changed his name from the French to the Flemish format, becoming van der Weyden. The Pasture family had settled before in the city of Tournai where Rogiers father worked as a maître-coutelier, in 1426 Rogier married Elisabeth, the daughter of a Brussels shoemaker Jan Goffaert and his wife Cathelyne van Stockem. Rogier and Elisabeth had four children, Cornelius, who became a Carthusian monk, was born in 1427, a daughter Margaretha in 1432. Before 21 October 1435 the family settled in Brussels where the two children were born, Pieter in 1437 and Jan in 1438, who would go on to become a painter. On his move to Brussels, Rogier began using the Flemish version of his name, little is known about Rogiers training as a painter. The archival sources from Tournai were completely destroyed during World War II, the sources on his early life are confusing and have led to different interpretations by scholars. It is known that the city council of Tournai offered eight pitchers of wine in honour of a certain Maistre Rogier de le Pasture on the 17th November 1426. However, on 5 March of the year the records of the painters guild show a Rogelet de le Pasture entered the workshop of Robert Campin together with Jacques Daret. Records show that de le Pasture was already established as a painter, only five years later, on the first of August 1432, de le Pasture obtained the title of a Master painter. His later entry into apprenticeship might be explained by the fact that during the 1420s the city of Tournai was in crisis, the late apprenticeship may have been a legal formality. Also Jacques Daret was then in his twenties and had living and working in Campins household for at least a decade
27.
Veurne
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Veurne is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Veurne proper and the settlements of Avekapelle, Booitshoeke, Bulskamp, De Moeren, Eggewaartskapelle, Houtem, Steenkerke, Vinkem, Wulveringem, and Zoutenaaie. Veurne, in Latin Furna, is first found in 877 as a possession of the Saint Bertin Abbey in Saint-Omer, around 890 AD, it was noted as a fortification against the Viking raids. It soon was placed at the head of the castellany of Veurne, Veurne became a city in the 12th century. During the following century, trade with England flourished, in 1270, however, the relations with England came to a standstill and the city’s economy went into a long decline, hence the nickname of the Veurne Sleepers. On August 20,1297, the Battle of Veurne was fought in the struggle between the Flemish cities and the French king. The beautiful gothic church of Saint Walburga and the tower of the church of Saint Nicolas, Saint Walburga housed a chapter of canons. Saint Nicholas and Saint Denis were the two parish churches and possessions of the Norbertine abbey of Saint Nicholas. The 15th century saw the construction of a new city hall, as most of the Westhoek, the city and the neighbourghood strongly recessed during the economic and religious problems around 1566–1583. But when the town and the castellany officially got together, the town flourished, most of the other historic buildings date from this time, the prosperous reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella around 1600. In 1644 the Capucines organised a procession, since 1646, this procession was organised by the Sodales, a religious confraternity, that organised a crossway during Advent time, under the leadership of the Norbertine monk Jacob Clou. The hooded Sodales took a cross for penitence and this procession was expanded at the end of the 17th century with scenes from the Bible, and is the only one of his kind, remaining up to now in Flanders. The second half of the 17th century was marked by the miseries brought to the region by Louis XIV’s wars, vauban built heavy fortifications around the city, the outlines of which are still noticeable from the air today. Joseph II of Austria put them down and closed some of the institutions, putting a temporary end to the penitents’ procession. Those few cloisters that were still operating were closed at the French Revolution, from the Battle of Waterloo until World War I, Veurne could enjoy a century of quiet and prosperity. In 1831, Veurne was the first city to welcome Belgium’s new king, Leopold I, during World War I, Veurne was located within the Yser pocket of Belgian resistance against the German troops. During the Battle of the Yser, the Veurne city hall became the headquarters for the Belgian troops under King Albert I, in 1920, the French President, Raymond Poincaré, came to Veurne to award the city the Croix de guerre with palm. Veurne suffered some damage during World War II, mainly from allied bombing, today, the city is a regional centre, which gives commercial, medical, and educational services to the surrounding communities while enjoying increasing tourist attention
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Grisaille
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Grisaille is a term for a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider range, like the Andrea del Sarto fresco illustrated. Paintings executed in brown are referred to as brunaille, and paintings executed in green are called verdaille, a grisaille may be executed for its own sake, as underpainting for an oil painting, or as a model for an engraver to work from. Rubens and his school sometimes use monochrome techniques in sketching compositions for engravers, originally these were the sides on display for most of the time, as the doors were normally kept closed except on feast days or at the request of tourists. However today these images are invisible in museums when the tryptych is displayed open. In these cases imitation of sculpture was intended, sculpture was still more expensive than a painting even by a top master. The ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel have portions of the design in grisaille, Grisaille, while less widespread in the 20th Century, continues as an artistic technique. Pablo Picassos painting Guernica is one contemporary example, hugo Bastidas is a contemporary American painter known for black and white paintings that imitate the effect of grisaille and often resemble black and white photographs. Bastidas’ paintings frequently reference architecture, water, vegetation and art history, and reflect his concern about the condition, globalization. After returning to New York from a Fulbright Fellowship in his native Ecuador in the early 1990s, Bastidas began using a color palette of black. His medium- and large-scale paintings allude to black-and-white photography, and feature contrasting zones of high, by making thousands of marks with a size No.1 hogs bristle brush on linen primed with rabbit-skin glue, Bastidas achieves a high level of image definition. He also works in photography, which informs his subject matter without rendering a photo-realistic effect. With the 20th centurys emphasis on painting, the grisaille technique lost favour with artists of the period. This historic method is still incorporated into the curriculum of some private ateliers, the term is also applied to monochrome painting in other media such as enamels, where an effect similar to a relief in silver may be intended. It is common in stained glass, where the need for sections in different colours was thereby greatly reduced, portions of a window may be done in grisaille — using, for example, silver stain or vitreous paint — while other sections are done in coloured glass. Sepia tone References A Watercolour Demonstration Using Grisaille Notes Jan Gossarts Saint Jerome Penitent using grisaille Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and workshop, Odalisque in Grisaille
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Sabauda Gallery
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The Sabauda Gallery is an art collection in Turin, Italy, which contains the royal art collections amassed by the House of Savoy over the centuries. It is located on Via XX September,86, on October 2,1832, King Charles Albert of Savoy inaugurated the royal gallery at the Palazzo Madama, containing 365 paintings. In 1865, Massimo dAzeglio had the collection transferred to Guarino Guarinis Palazzo dellAccademia delle Scienze where it stood until 2012, on December 4,2014, at the presence of the Italian Minister of Culture, the Manica Nuova of Palazzo Reale was official opened. The collection has now found its place to be exhibited. The gallery is based on a new museum project conceived and developed by the superintendent Edith Gabrielli together with Studio Albini Associati. The lighting is by CastagnaRavelli Studio, based in Milan, the graphic is by Noorda Design
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Charlemagne
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Charlemagne or Charles the Great, numbered Charles I, was the King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774 and Emperor of the Romans from 800. He united much of Europe during the early Middle Ages and he was the first recognised emperor in western Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state which Charlemagne founded was called the Carolingian Empire, Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. He became king in 768 following his fathers death, initially as co-ruler with his brother Carloman I, carlomans sudden death in 771 in unexplained circumstances left Charlemagne as the undisputed ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. He continued his fathers policy towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy and he campaigned against the Saxons to his east, Christianising them upon penalty of death and leading to events such as the Massacre of Verden. Charlemagne reached the height of his power in 800 when he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day at Old St. Peters Basilica. Charlemagne has been called the Father of Europe, as he united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire and his rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of energetic cultural and intellectual activity within the Western Church. All Holy Roman Emperors considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagnes empire, up to the last Emperor Francis II and these and other machinations led to the eventual split of Rome and Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Charlemagne died in 814, having ruled as emperor for thirteen years and he was laid to rest in his imperial capital of Aachen in what is today Germany. He married at least four times and had three sons, but only his son Louis the Pious survived to succeed him. By the 6th century, the western Germanic Franks had been Christianised, Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. Following the Battle of Tertry the Merovingians declined into powerlessness, for which they have dubbed the rois fainéants. Almost all government powers were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace, in 687, Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry. He became the governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pepin was the grandson of two important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pepin of Landen, Pepin of Herstal was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel. After 737, Charles governed the Franks in lieu of a king, Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Carloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. In 743, the brothers placed Childeric III on the throne to curb separatism in the periphery and he was the last Merovingian king. Carloman resigned office in 746, preferring to enter the church as a monk, Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power
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Shroud of Turin
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The shroud is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The Catholic Church has neither endorsed nor rejected the shroud. Pope John Paul II called the Shroud a mirror of the Gospel, the origins of the shroud and its images are the subject of intense debate among theologians, historians and researchers. Articles published from 2005 -2015 have highlighted concerns about this dating, aspects of the 1988 test continue to be debated, but meaningful challenges to the dating result have so far been unsuccessful. According to Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit in 2011, there are various hypotheses as to why the dates might not be correct, but none of them stack up. A variety of methods have been proposed for the formation of the image, despite numerous investigations and tests, the status of the Shroud of Turin remains murky, and the nature of the image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain puzzling. The shroud continues to be intensely studied and controversial. The shroud is rectangular, measuring approximately 4.4 by 1.1 metres, the cloth is woven in a three-to-one herringbone twill composed of flax fibrils. Its most distinctive characteristic is the faint, brownish image of a front, the two views are aligned along the midplane of the body and point in opposite directions. The front and back views of the head nearly meet at the middle of the cloth, the image of the Man of the Shroud has a beard, moustache, and shoulder-length hair parted in the middle. Forensic doctors have interpreted markings on the cloth as follows, One wrist bears a large, round wound, small punctures around the forehead and scalp Scores of linear wounds on the torso and legs. Swelling of the face Streams of blood down both arms The details of the image on the shroud are not easily seen with the naked eye, in May 1898 Italian photographer Secondo Pia was allowed to photograph the shroud. He took the first photograph of the shroud on 28 May 1898, Pia was startled by the visible image of the negative plate, implying that the shroud is effectively a negative of some kind. Pia was at first accused of doctoring his photographs, but he was vindicated in 1931 when another photographer, Giuseppe Enrie, photographed the shroud, in 1978, ultraviolet photographs were taken of the shroud. The shroud was damaged in a fire in 1532 in the chapel in Chambery, There are some burn holes and scorched areas down both sides of the linen, caused by contact with molten silver during the fire that burned through it in places while it was folded. Fourteen large triangular patches and eight smaller ones were sewn onto the cloth by Poor Clare nuns to repair the damage, the historical records for the shroud can be separated into two time periods, before 1390 and from 1390 to the present. Prior to 1390 there are some similar images such as the Pray Codex. However, what is claimed by some to be the image of a shroud on the Pray Codex has crosses on one side, a step pyramid pattern on the other
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Court painter
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A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or noble family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Especially in the late Middle Ages, they were given the office of valet de chambre. Usually they were given a salary and formal title, and often a pension for life, in England the role of Serjeant Painter was set up for this, leaving the Kings painter free to paint mostly portraits. See category of Italian art collectors for lists that included non-aristocratic patrons, some artists, like Jan van Eyck or Diego Velázquez, were used in other capacities at court, as diplomats, functionaries, or administrators. In Islamic cultures, especially between the 14th and 17th centuries, similar arrangements operated for miniaturists and artists in other media. In the Persian miniature, the shah and other rulers typically maintained a workshop or atelier, of calligraphers, miniaturists, binders and other crafts. The name by which Riza Abbasi is usually includes the honorific title Abbasi. Abd as-Samad, a Persian painter who moved to the Mughal Empire, was given a number of significant administrative jobs, the court remained the focus of patronage of painting in the sub-Mughal princely courts of India, whether Muslim or Hindu. At many periods rulers owned or controlled royal workshops or factories making high-quality tapestries, porcelain or pottery, silks and this was especially the case in China and in the Byzantine Empire. Le Brun dominated, and largely created, the style found throughout Louis XIVs palaces, by the 20th century court painters was an obsolete position. Commonly more artists were granted permission by royalty who would sit for official portraits whether for private of patron purposes, Artists of the Tudor Court 21st Century Court Artists Michael Levey, Painting at Court, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London,1971
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Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy
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Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Princess of Asturias and Duchess of Savoy by her two marriages, was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515 and again from 1519 to 1530. Margaret was born on 10 January 1480, as the child and only daughter of Maximilian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy. She was named after her stepgrandmother, Margaret of York, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, who was especially close to Duchess Mary. In 1482, Margarets mother died and her brother, Philip the Handsome. In 1482, her father and the King Louis XI of France signed the Treaty of Arras, the engagement took place in 1483. Margaret, with Franche-Comté and Artois as her dowry, was transferred to the guardianship of King Louis XI of France and she was educated at the French royal court and prepared for her future role as queen of France. She was raised as a fille de France by Madame de Segré, under the supervision of her fiancés sister and regent, several French noble children had their education overseen by Anne as well, amongst which Louise of Savoy, with whom she would later negotiate peace. Margaret developed genuine affection for Charles, however, in the autumn of 1491, he renounced the treaty and married Margarets stepmother Anne, Duchess of Brittany, for political reasons. The French court had ceased treating Margaret as queen early in 1491, the Duchess of Brittany had been married to Margarets father by proxy but their marriage was annulled. Margaret was not returned to her stepgrandmothers court until June 1493, Margaret was hurt by Charless action and was left with a feeling of enduring resentment towards France. Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496, the marriage took place in 1497. John died after six months, on 4 October. Margaret was left pregnant, but on 2 April 1498 she gave birth to a stillborn daughter. The Dowager Princess of Asturias returned to the Netherlands early in 1500, in 1501, Margaret married Philibert II, Duke of Savoy. This marriage was childless as well, and he died three years. A grief-stricken Margaret threw herself out of a window, but was saved, after being persuaded to bury her husband, she had his heart enbalmed so she could keep it with her forever. She vowed never to marry again and her court historian and poet Jean Lemaire de Belges gave her the title Dame de deuil. During a remarkably successful career lasting from 1506 until her death in 1530, after the early death of her brother Philip of Spain, in November 1506 she became the only woman elected as its ruler by the representative assembly of Franche-Comté
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Jacopo de' Barbari
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He moved from Venice to Germany in 1500, thus becoming the first Italian Renaissance artist of stature to work in Northern Europe. His few surviving paintings include the first known example of trompe loeil since antiquity and his twenty-nine engravings and three very large woodcuts were also highly influential. Since the earlier part of the range would have him achieve sudden prominence at the age of nearly fifty, there have also been suggestions he was of German extraction, but it now seems clear he was Italian, there are surviving documents of his in Italian addressed to Germans. He signed most of his engravings with a caduceus, the sign of Mercury, and he was probably not of the important Venetian Barbaro family as he was never listed in that familys genealogy. Nothing is known about his first decades, although Alvise Vivarini has been suggested as his master and he left Venice for Germany in 1500, and thereafter is better documented. In Germany he was known as Jacop Walch, probably from Wälsch meaning foreigner. He may have returned to Venice with Philip the Handsome of Burgundy, by March 1510 he was working for Philips successor Archduchess Margaret in Brussels and Mechelen. In January 1511 he fell ill and made a will, and in March the Archduchess gave him a pension for life, on account of his age and weakness. His earliest documented work is his huge and impressive aerial view Map of Venice, for which a privilege was granted to its publisher in 1500. This clearly drew on the work of many surveyors, but was a spectacular feat nonetheless and it was later updated by others to reflect major new building projects in a second state of the print. These may have also produced before 1500, they are clearly strongly influenced by Mantegna. He showed me a man and a woman which he had according to measure. Jacobus did not want to show his principles to me clearly, de Barberi spent a year in Nuremberg, where Dürer lived, in 1500–1, and influences flowed in both directions between him and Dürer for a number of years. None of his engravings are dated, so much of the dating of them depends on resemblances to dated prints by Dürer, five of his engravings were in an album of Hartmann Schedels, which was bound up in December 1504, which gives further evidence as to dating. De Barberi had probably made some engravings before leaving Italy, some of his paintings are dated as,1500,1503,1504,1508. Documents relating to his employment by Maximilian suggest his work was to include illuminating manuscripts and his only generally accepted drawing is a Cleopatra in the British Museum, apparently done as a study for an engraving which has not survived. His style is related to his master, Alvise Vivarini and to Giovanni Bellini. Apart from Dürer, the influence of Mantegnas technique also appears in what are probably the earlier engravings, done around the turn of the century and his engravings are mostly small, showing just a few figures
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Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)
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Mary of Austria, also known as Mary of Hungary, was queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia as the wife of King Louis II, and was later Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. The daughter of Queen Joanna and King Philip I of Castile, Mary married King Louis II of Hungary and their marriage was happy but short and childless. Upon her husbands death following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Queen Mary governed Hungary as regent in the name of the new king, her brother, as governor of the Netherlands, Mary faced riots and a difficult relationship with the Emperor. Throughout her tenure she continuously attempted to ensure peace between the Emperor and the King of France, after her final resignation, the frail Queen moved to Castile, where she died. Having inherited the Habsburg lip and not very feminine looks, Mary was not considered physically attractive and her portraits, letters, and comments by her contemporaries do not assign her the easy Burgundian charm possessed by her grandmother, Duchess Mary of Burgundy, and her aunt Margaret. Nevertheless, she proved to be a determined and skillful politician, as well as a patron of literature, music. Born in Brussels on 15 September 1505, between ten and eleven in the morning, Archduchess Mary of Austria was the child of King Philip I. Her birth was difficult, the Queens life was in danger. On 20 September, she was baptized by Nicolas Le Ruistre, Bishop of Arras, and named after her grandmother, Mary of Burgundy. Her godfather was her grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. On 17 March 1506, Emperor Maximilian promised to marry her to the first son born to King Vladislaus II of Hungary, at the same time, the two monarchs decided that a brother of Mary would marry Vladislaus daughter Anne. Three months later, Vladislaus wife, Anne of Foix-Candale, gave birth to a son, Queen Anne died in childbirth and the royal physicians made great efforts to keep the sickly Louis alive. After the death of Marys father in September 1506, her mothers health began to deteriorate. Mary, Isabella, and Eleanor were educated together at their aunts court in Mechelen and their music teacher was Henry Bredemers. Mary was summoned to the court of her grandfather Maximilian in 1514, on 22 July 1515, Mary and Louis were married in St. Stephens Cathedral, Vienna. At the same time, Louis sister Anne was betrothed to an as yet unspecified brother of Mary, due to their age, it was decided that the newly married couple would not live together for a few more years. Anne eventually married Marys brother Ferdinand and came to Vienna, where the double sisters-in-law were educated together until 1516 and that year, Marys father-in-law died, making Louis and Mary king and queen of Hungary and Bohemia. Mary moved to Innsbruck, where she was educated until 1521, Maximilian encouraged her interest in hunting, while childhood lessons prompted an interest in music
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Michiel Coxie
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Michiel Coxie, Coxie also spelled Coxcie or Coxien, Latinised name Coxius, was a Flemish painter who studied under Bernard van Orley, who probably induced him to visit the Italian peninsula. Coxie was born in 1499 in Mechelen in the Duchy of Brabant, but Coxies principal occupation was designing for engravers, and the fable of Psyche in thirty-two sheets by Agostino Veneziano and the Master of the Die are favorable specimens of his skill. He belonged to the circle of Michelangelo and not only learned the style of the renaissance master, he also studied the philosophy and art theory of the antiquity. Returning to the Netherlands, Coxie greatly extended his practice in this branch of art, but his productions were till lately concealed under an interlaced monogram M. C. O. K. X. I. N. In 1539, Coxie returned to Mechelen, where he matriculated and painted the wings of an altarpiece for the chapel of the guild of St Luke. At van Orleys death in 1541 Coxie succeeded to the office of court painter to the Regent Maria of Austria, at that time, Coxie also designed tapestries for the Brussels looms. Many of the Jagiellonian tapestries were sold to Sigismund II Augustus for his castle on the Wawel, Coxie may also have designed the tapestries for Phillip IIs Royal Palace of Madrid depicting episodes of the life of Cyrus II, based on the writing of Herodotus. There are large masterworks of his from in the St. Rumbolds Cathedral of Mechelen, in the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral of Brussels and his style is a unique synthesis of the Flemish and Italian artistic traditions. Influenced by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphaël, he never forgot his Flemish training and he was known as the Flemish Raphael. He died at Mechelen on 5 March 1592 at the age of 92, after his death, he still influenced the painters of the first half of the seventeenth century, but he was forgotten afterwards. M - Museum Leuven presented in 2013 the first monographic exhibition on Michiel Coxie and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
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Job (biblical figure)
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Job is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. Job is a prophet in the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, in rabbinical literature, Iyov is called one of the prophets of the Gentiles. Job is presented as a good and prosperous family man who is beset with horrendous disasters that take all that he holds dear, including his offspring, his health. He struggles to understand his situation and begins a search for the answers to his difficulties, the Hebrew Book of Job is part of Ketuvim of the Jewish Bible. Not much is known about Job based on the Masoretic text of the Jewish Bible, the characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his three friends, a man named Elihu, God, and angels. It begins with an introduction to Jobs character—he is described as a man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz. The Lords praise of Job prompts an angel with the title of satan to suggest that Job served God simply because God protected him, God removes Jobs protection, ordering the angel to take his wealth, his children, and his physical health. Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, and although he anguishes over his plight, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Jobs miserable earthly condition is simply Gods Will, in the following, Job debates three friends concerning Jobs condition. They argue whether it was justified, and they debate solutions to his problems, Job ultimately condemns all their counsel, beliefs, and critiques of him as false. God then appears to Job and his friends out of a whirlwind, Job, by staying silent before God, stresses the point that he understands that his affliction is Gods Will even though he despairs at not knowing why. Job appears faithful without direct knowledge of God and without demands for attention from God. And the text gives an allusion to Job 28,28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. God rebukes the three friends and gives them instruction for remission of sin, followed by Job being restored to a better condition than his former wealthy state. Job 42, 10–17 Job is blessed to have seven sons and his daughters were said to be the most beautiful women in the land. The Greek Old Testament of the Christian Bible has a revised and updated final verse that claims Jobs genealogy, asserting him to be a grandson of Esau and a ruler of Edom. And he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, and his friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Thaemanites, Baldad sovereign the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans. In addition to the Book of Job, Job is mentioned in religious texts
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Rich man and Lazarus
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The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a well-known parable of Jesus appearing in the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke tells of the relationship, during life and after death, the traditional name, Dives, is not actually a name, but instead a word for rich man, dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate. The rich man was given the names Neuēs and Fineas in the 3rd. Luke 16, 19–31, New International Version, There are different views on the historicity and origin of the story of the Rich Man, the story is unique to Luke and is not thought to come from the hypothetical Q document. Some Christians view the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, not as a parable and this was generally the view of the medieval Church. Supporters of this point to a key detail in the story. By contrast, in all of the other parables Jesus refers to a character by a description, such as a certain man, a sower. Critics of this point out that The soul that sins, it shall die, For dust you are. Paul describes death as sleep until the Day of the Lord, no scripture, other than Philippians 1, 23–25,2 Corinthians 12, 2–4,2 Corinthians 5,8, etc. accounts for a disembodied soul and its comfort or torture. was figurative. The 19th century evangelist Brownlow North inclined to the view that the story described a literal, historical event, other Christians consider that this is a parable created by Jesus and told to his followers. Tom Wright and Joachim Jeremias both treat it as a parable, proponents of this view argue that the story of Lazarus and the rich man has much in common with other stories which are agreed-upon parables, both in language and content. The hell here mentioned cannot be the hell that will begin on the day of judgment. For the corpse of the man is without doubt not in hell, but buried in the earth, it must however be a place where the soul can be and has no peace. From whence it is easy to judge what was the design, E. W. Bullinger in the Companion Bible cited Lightfoots comment, and expanded it to include coincidence to lack of belief in the resurrection of the historical Lazarus. An alternative explanation of the parable is a satirical parable against the Sadducees, one writer to identify the Sadducees as the target was Johann Nepomuk Sepp. This last interpretation had wide circulation in France during the 1860s–1890s as a result of having included in the notes of the pictorial Bible of Abbé Drioux. Simon Perry has argued that the Lazarus of the parable refers to Eliezer of Damascus, in Genesis 15—a foundational covenant text familiar to any 1st century Jew—God says to Abraham this man will not be your heir. Perry argues that this is why Lazarus is outside the gates of Abrahams perceived descendant, by inviting Lazarus to Abrahams bosom, Jesus is redefining the nature of the covenant
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Early Netherlandish painting
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Their work follows the International Gothic style and begins approximately with Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck in the early 1420s. It lasts at least until the death of Gerard David in 1523, the major Netherlandish painters include Campin, van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dieric Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, Hugo van der Goes and Hieronymus Bosch. These artists made significant advances in natural representation and illusionism, and their subjects are usually religious scenes or small portraits, with narrative painting or mythological subjects being relatively rare. Landscape is often richly described but relegated as a background detail before the early 16th century, the painted works are generally oil on panel, either as single works or more complex portable or fixed altarpieces in the form of diptychs, triptychs or polyptychs. The period is noted for its sculpture, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass. Assisted by the system, panels and a variety of crafts were sold to foreign princes or merchants through private engagement or market stalls. A majority were destroyed during waves of iconoclasm in the 16th and 17th centuries, Early northern art in general was not well regarded from the early 17th to the mid-19th century, and the painters and their works were not well documented until the mid-19th century. Art historians spent almost another century determining attributions, studying iconography, attribution of some of the most significant works is still debated. These artists became a driving force behind the Northern Renaissance. In this political and art-historical context, the north follows the Burgundian lands which straddled areas that encompass parts of modern France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlandish artists have been known by a variety of terms. Late Gothic is a designation which emphasises continuity with the art of the Middle Ages. In the early 20th century, the artists were variously referred to in English as the Ghent-Bruges school or the Old Netherlandish school. In this context, primitive does not refer to a lack of sophistication. When the Burgundian dukes established centres of power in the Netherlands, in the 19th century the Early Netherlandish artists were classified by nationality, with Jan van Eyck identified as German and van der Weyden as French. Scholars were at times preoccupied as to whether the schools genesis was in France or Germany, in the 14th century, as Gothic art gave way to the International Gothic era, a number of schools developed in northern Europe. Early Netherlandish art originated in French courtly art, and is tied to the tradition. Modern art historians see the era as beginning with 14th-century manuscript illuminators and this patronage continued in the low countries with the Burgundian dukes, Philip the Good and his son Charles the Bold. The demand for illuminated manuscripts declined towards the end of the century, following van Eycks innovations, the first generation of Netherlandish painters emphasised light and shadow, elements usually absent from 14th-century illuminated manuscripts
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Jan Gossaert
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He achieved fame across at least northern Europe, and painted religious subjects, including large altarpieces, but also portraits and mythological subjects, including some nudity. From at least 1508 he was apparently continuous employed, or at least retained, by quasi-royal patrons, mostly members of the extended Habsburg family, heirs to the Valois Duchy of Burgundy. These were Philip of Burgundy, Adolf of Burgundy, Christian II of Denmark when in exile, and Mencía de Mendoza, Countess of Nassau, third wife of Henry III of Nassau-Breda. He was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer and the rather younger Lucas van Leyden, whom he knew, unlike them, he was not a printmaker, though his surviving drawings are very fine, and are preferred by some to his paintings. His name was in fact Jan Gossart, and he was so known in his lifetime, little is known of his early life. One of his earliest biographers, Karel van Mander, claimed he was from a town in Artois or Henegouwen called Maubeuge or Maubuse. He is registered in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1503, Philips party, very likely including Gossaert, left the Netherlands in October 1508, arrived in Rome on 14 January 1509, and was back at The Hague by 28 June 1509. Although the details are unclear, it seems that Gossaert remained in Philips employment until he died in 1524, however, throughout this time he was able to work for other patrons, mostly friends of Philip. In 1509–17 Gossaert was registered as a resident of Middelburg, according to Van Mander he was one of the first Flemish artists to bring back the Italian manner of painting with lots of nudity in historical allegories. From 1517–24 he is registered at Duurstede Castle where according to the RKD, from 1524 onwards he returned to Middelburg as court painter to Adolf of Burgundy, another Habsburg relative. Jan Mertens the Younger was another pupil, Gossaert shows Antwerp influence in the large altar-pieces previously located at Castle Howard and Scawby. At Scawby he illustrates the legend of the count of Toulouse and his altarpiece of the Descent from the Cross with heavy double doors in Middelburg was admired by Albrecht Dürer before the church itself was hit by lightning. This is possibly the now in the Hermitage, though Van Mander stated the lightning destroyed it. This painting is now on display at the National Gallery, which bought it in 1911, Gossaert surprises the viewer with pompous costume and flaring contrasts of tone. His figures, like pieces on a chess-board, are often rigid, the landscape which shows through the colonnades is adorned with towers and steeples in the minute fashion of Van der Weyden. After a residence of a few years at Antwerp, Gossaert took service with Philip of Burgundy, bastard of Philip the Good, at that time lord of Somerdyk and admiral of Zeeland. One of his pictures had already become celebrated, a Descent from the Cross, in 1568 the altarpiece perished by fire. In 1508 Gossaert accompanied Philip of Burgundy on his Italian mission to the pope, Gossaert appears to have chiefly studied in Italy the cold and polished works of the Leonardesques
41.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
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The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. This collection is representative of the production and the taste of art enthusiasts in Antwerp, Belgium. The museum is closed for renovation until the end of 2017, the neoclassical building housing the collection is one of the primary landmarks of the Zuid district of Antwerp. The majestic building was designed by Jacob Winders and Frans van Dijk, built beginning in 1884, opened in 1890, the building stands in gardens bounded by the Leopold de Waalplaats, the Schildersstraat, the Plaatsnijdersstraat, and the Beeldhouwersstraat. The museums collection began with the artworks owned by the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, when the guild disbanded, its gallery of paintings went to the Academy of Fine Arts, which had been founded in 1663 with the involvement of David Teniers. The gallery had works by Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, during French occupations in 1794 and 1796, art was looted from churches and other buildings in Antwerp, the pieces that were later recovered became part of the museums collection. By 1817 the museum listed 127 items in its catalogue, mostly dating to the mid-16th and 17th centuries, william I of the Netherlands helped the museum in various ways. In 1823 he donated three paintings, including a work by Titian—Pope Alexander IV presents Jacopo Pesaro to Saint Peter—which became the museums first foreign piece. He decreed a grant of 20,000 guilders to build the collections contemporary art in 1827, only in 1873 did the museum begin to acquire living artists works. A significant bequest from a mayor of Antwerp, Florent van Ertborn. Van Ertborn had collected Early Netherlandish art at a time when it was out of favour and these works included Jan van Eycks Saint Barbara and Madonna at the Fountain and Rogier van der Weydens Portrait of Philip de Croy and the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece. Also in the bequest were paintings by Hans Memling, Dieric Bouts, Joachim Patinir, Quinten Massys, Jean Fouquet, Simone Martini, Antonello da Messina, at the end of 2011 the museum closed to the public for major renovations
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Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)
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The Cathedral of Our Lady is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Antwerp, Belgium. Todays see of the Diocese of Antwerp started in 1352 and, in Gothic style, its architects were Jan and Pieter Appelmans. It contains a number of significant works by the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, as well as paintings by such as Otto van Veen, Jacob de Backer. The belfry of the cathedral is included in the Belfries of Belgium, where the cathedral now stands, there was a small chapel of Our Lady from the 9th to the 12th century, which acquired the status of parish church in 1124. During the course of the century, it was replaced by a larger Romanesque church. In 1352, construction was begun on a new Our Lady’s church which would become the largest Gothic church in the Netherlands, in the beginning, it was to be provided with two towers of equal height. In 1521, after nearly 170 years, the new church of Our Lady was ready, the south tower reached only as far as the third string course. During the night of 5–6 October 1533, the new church was gutted by fire. The completion of the tower was therefore delayed, which led to its ultimate postponement. Moreover, the church only became cathedral of the bishopric of Antwerp in 1559 but lost this title again from 1801 to 1961, during the Iconoclasm of 20 August 1566, Protestants destroyed a large part of the cathedral interior. Later, when Antwerp came under Protestant administration in 1581, a number of treasures were once again destroyed, removed or sold. The restoration of Roman Catholic authority came in 1585 with the fall of Antwerp, in 1794 the French revolutionaries who conquered the region plundered Our Lady’s Cathedral and inflicted serious damage. Around 1798, the French administration intended to demolish the building but after each blow, in 1816, various important works of art were returned from Paris, including three Rubens masterpieces. And over the course of the 19th century, the church was restored and refurnished. Between 1965 and 1993, a restoration took place. At the beginning of the 15th century, the choir started developing an active musical life, and as a result. Johannes Ockeghem, one of the most important composers of the 15th century, served here as a vicar-singer in 1443, from 1725 to 1731 Willem de Fesch served as Kapelmeester followed from 1731 to 1737 by Joseph-Hector Fiocco. Lesser known, but locally important figures, such as Jacobus Barbireau and Andreas Pevernage, the churchs one finished spire is 123 metres high, the highest church tower in the Benelux
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Church of Our Lady, Bruges
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The Church of Our Lady in Bruges, Belgium, dates mainly from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Its tower, at 122.3 metres in height, remains the tallest structure in the city, in the choir space behind the high altar are the tombs of Charles the Bold, last Valois Duke of Burgundy, and his daughter, the duchess Mary. The gilded bronze effigies of both father and daughter repose at full length on polished slabs of black stone, both are crowned, and Charles is represented in full armor and wearing the decoration of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Probably meant originally for Siena Cathedral, it was purchased in Italy by two Brugean merchants, the brothers Jan and Alexander Mouscron, and in 1514 donated to its present home. The sculpture was recovered after being looted by foreign occupiers—French revolutionaries c.1794. Bumpus, T. Francis, The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium, London, T W Laurie, pp. 138–144, the Bruges Madonna, Information Sciences Institute, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, archived from the original on 8 June 2014. Kerknet Vlaanderen, archived from the original on 14 April 2012, official website of the Church of Our Lady, Bruges
44.
Bourg-en-Bresse
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Bourg-en-Bresse is a commune in eastern France, capital of the Ain department, and was capital of the ancient province of Bresse. It is located 70 km north-northeast of Lyon, the inhabitants of Bourg-en-Bresse are known as Burgiens. Bourg-en-Bresse is located at the base of the Jura mountains, on the left bank of the Reyssouze. It lies 70 kilometers northeast of Lyon and 50 kilometers south-southwest of Lons-le-Saunier, roman remains have been discovered at Bourg, but little is known of its early history. Raised to the rank of a town in 1250, it was at the beginning of the 15th century the capital of the dukes of Savoy in the province of Bresse. In February 1535 it was conquered by France during an invasion of Savoy, but was restored to Duke Philibert Emmanuel in 1559. The duke later built a citadel, which afterwards withstood a six-months siege by the soldiers of Henry IV during the Franco-Savoyard War of 1600–1601. The town was ceded to France in 1601. In 1814, the inhabitants, in spite of the condition of their town, offered resistance to the Austrians. The church of Notre-Dame has a built in the Renaissance. In the interior there are stalls of the 16th century, the other public buildings, including a handsome prefecture, are modern. The town hall contains a library and the Lorin Museum with a collection of pictures, while another museum has a collection of old costumes, among the statues in the town there is one of historian Edgar Quinet, a native of Bourg. The church of Brou, a suburb of Bourg-en-Bresse, is of artistic interest. Margaret of Bourbon, wife of Philip II of Savoy, had intended to found a monastery on the spot, the church was actually built early in the 16th century by her daughter-in-law Margaret of Austria, wife of Philibert le Beau of Savoy, in memory of her husband. The exterior, especially the façade, is ornamented, but the chief interest lies in the works of art in the interior. The most important are the three mausoleums with the effigies of Marguerite of Bourbon, Philibert le Beau, and Margaret of Austria. All three are remarkable for perfection of sculpture and richness of ornamentation, the rood loft, the oak stalls, and the reredos in the chapel of the Virgin are masterpieces in a similar style. The Gare de Bourg-en-Bresse railway station offers connections to Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon and Geneva by high-speed rail, the A39 motorway connects Bourg with Dole and Dijon, the A40 with Mâcon and Geneva
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Margaret of Parma
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Margaret of Parma was Governor of the Netherlands from 1559 to 1567 and from 1578 to 1582. She was the daughter of the then 22-year-old Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. She was a Duchess of Florence and a Duchess of Parma and her mother, Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, a servant of Charles de Lalaing, Seigneur de Montigny, was a Fleming. In 1527, in the year she turned five, she engaged to the Popes nephew, Alessandro de Medici, Duke of Florence. The marriage negotiations had been initiated in 1526, and in 1529 the agreement was signed by her father. Though she was multi-lingual, she was to prefer the Italian language for the rest of her life, in 1536, she married Alessandro, who was assassinated in 1537. On 4 November 1538, the 15-year-old widow married Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, at first she refused to marry him. Although the union proved a one, it gave her years of experience in Rome. The couple lived separately for much of their lives, and Margaret maintained her own court and she was in a somewhat difficult position, as the Pope and the Emperor argued about authority over Parma. In 1555, the Farnese family were acknowledged as rulers of Parma by Spain in exchange for the custody of her son, in 1555, she left Italy for the Netherlands, where she left her son in the care of her half-brother Philip II. Like her aunts who trained her, Margaret had many abilities, Philip II appointed her Governor of the Netherlands when he left them in 1559 for Spain. In ordinary times she could probably have proved as successful a ruler as her two predecessors in that post, but her task was very different from theirs and she faced the rising storm of discontent against the Inquisition and Spanish despotism, and Philip left her but nominal authority. He was determined to pursue his own course, and the result was the revolt of the Netherlands. Margaret was forced to adjust herself to the advice of Cardinal Granvelle, Philips choice for her chief councillor, in 1565, an opposition party was forged from the Dutch nobility. Margaret received its complaints, and promised to stop religious repression since she had no army to put against the dissenters, in 1566, Iconoclastic riots took place all over the Netherlands but she managed to stop them. The next year, Philip sent her military help led by the Duke of Alba, actions by Alba, Margaret warned Philip, would lead to catastrophe. Instead however of trying to stop the Duke, Margaret resigned when she realized that his power of attorney from Philip superseded her own, in 1567 Margaret resigned her post into the hands of the Duke of Alba and retired to LAquila in Italy. She was appointed Governor of Abruzzo, where she had inherited a domain from her late husband and she acted as the adviser of her son and also her royal bastard half-brother, John of Austria
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Philip II of Spain
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Philip II of Spain, called the Prudent, was King of Spain, King of Portugal, King of Naples and Sicily, and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland. He was also Duke of Milan, from 1555, he was lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands. Known in Spain as Felipe el Prudente, his empire included territories on every continent then known to Europeans, during his reign, Spain reached the height of its influence and power. This is sometimes called the Golden Age, the expression, the empire on which the sun never sets, was coined during Philips time to reflect the extent of his dominion. During Philips reign there were separate state bankruptcies in 1557,1560,1569,1575 and this was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. The Ambassador went on to say He dresses very tastefully, the culture and courtly life of Spain were an important influence in his early life. He was tutored by Juan Martínez Siliceo, the future Archbishop of Toledo, Philip displayed reasonable aptitude in arms and letters alike. Later he would study with more illustrious tutors, including the humanist Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, though Philip had good command over Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese, he never managed to equal his father, Charles V, as a polyglot. While Philip was also a German archduke of the House of Habsburg, Philip felt himself to be culturally Spanish, he had been born in Spain and raised in the Castilian court, his native tongue was Spanish, and he preferred to live in Spain. This would ultimately impede his succession to the imperial throne, in April 1528, when Philip was eleven months old, he received the oath of allegiance as heir to the crown from the Cortes of Castile. Philip was also close to his two sisters, María and Juana, and to his two pages, the Portuguese nobleman Rui Gomes da Silva and Luis de Requesens, the son of his governor Juan de Zúñiga. These men would serve Philip throughout their lives, as would Antonio Pérez, Philips martial training was undertaken by his governor, Juan de Zúñiga, a Castilian nobleman who served as the commendador mayor of Castile. The practical lessons in warfare were overseen by the Duke of Alba during the Italian Wars, Philip was present at the Siege of Perpignan in 1542 but did not see action as the Spanish army under Alba decisively defeated the besieging French forces under the Dauphin of France. On his way back to Castile, Philip received the oath of allegiance of the Aragonese Cortes at Monzón. The king-emperors interactions with his son during his stay in Spain convinced him of Philips precocity in statesmanship, Philip, who had previously been made the Duke of Milan in 1540, began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen. Charles left Philip with experienced advisors—notably the secretary Francisco de los Cobos, Philip was also left with extensive written instructions that emphasised piety, patience, modesty, and distrust. These principles of Charles were gradually assimilated by his son, who would grow up to become grave, self-possessed, personally, Philip spoke softly and had an icy self-mastery, in the words of one of his ministers, he had a smile that cut like a sword. After living in the Netherlands in the years of his reign
47.
Crown of thorns
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According to three of the canonical Gospels a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim of authority. It is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John and is alluded to by the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen. In later centuries, relics believed by many to be all or part of the Crown of Thorns have been venerated, a few writers of the first six centuries AD speak of a relic known to be still in existence and venerated by the faithful. St. Cassiodorus, when commenting on Psalm lxxxvi, speaks of the crown of thorns among the relics which are the glory of the earthly Jerusalem. There, he says, we may behold the thorny crown, from these fragments of evidence and others of later date, it is likely that a purported crown of thorns was venerated at Jerusalem from the fifth century for several hundred years. Francois de Mély supposed that the crown was not transferred to Byzantium until about 1063. Eight of these are said to have been there at the consecration of the basilica of Aachen by Pope Leo III. The presence of the Pope at the consecration is a later legend, four were given to Saint-Corneille of Compiègne in 877 by Charles the Bald. Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, sent one to the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan in 927, on the occasion of marriage negotiations. Another was presented to a Spanish princess about 1160, and again another was taken to Andechs Abbey in Germany in the year 1200. In 1238, Baldwin II, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, anxious to support for his tottering empire, offered the crown of thorns to Louis IX. It was then in the hands of the Venetians as security for a heavy loan, new reliquaries were provided for the relic, one commissioned by Napoleon, another, in jewelled rock crystal and more suitably Gothic, was made to the designs of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. In 2001, when the treasures from the Sainte-Chapelle were exhibited at the Louvre. Pope John Paul II translated it personally to the Sainte-Chapelle during World Youth Day, the relic can only be seen on the first Friday of every month, when it is brought out for a special veneration mass, as well as each Friday during Lent. See also Feast of the Crown of Thorns, the Catholic Encyclopedia said, Authorities are agreed that a sort of helmet of thorns must have been plaited by the Roman soldiers, this band of rushes being employed to hold the thorns together. None of these now remain at Paris, some small fragments of rush are also preserved. This reaches the height of fifteen or twenty feet and is growing in abundance by the wayside around Jerusalem
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