1.
Palazzo Pitti
–
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the side of the River Arno. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the residence of Luca Pitti. The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry. In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a base by Napoleon. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919, the palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below, the construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti, a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact, Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. Besides obvious differences from the architects style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book De Re Aedificatoria. Though impressive, the original palazzo would have no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the series of seven arch-headed apertures. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style allantica, work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished, the building was sold in 1549 by Buonaccorso Pitti, a descendant of Luca Pitti, to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de Medici of Tuscany
Palazzo Pitti
–
Early,
tinted 20th-century photograph of the Palazzo Pitti, then still known as La Residenza Reale following the residency of
King Victor Emmanuel II between 1865 and 1871, when Florence was the capital of Italy.
Palazzo Pitti
–
Luca Pitti (1398–1472) began work on the palazzo in 1458.
Palazzo Pitti
–
Eleonora di Toledo,
Duchess of Florence, bought the palazzo from the Pitti in 1549 for the Medici. Portrait after
Bronzino.
Palazzo Pitti
–
A
lunette painted in 1599 by
Giusto Utens, depicts the palazzo before its extensions, with the
amphitheatre and the Boboli Gardens behind. The red stone excavated from the site was used in extensions to the palazzo.
2.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
3.
Italian language
–
By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
Italian language
–
Dante Alighieri (above) and
Petrarch (below) were influential in establishing their
Tuscan dialect as the most prominent literary language in all of
Italy in the
Late Middle Ages
Italian language
–
The geographic distribution of the Italian language in the world: large Italian-speaking communities are shown in green; light blue indicates areas where the Italian language was used officially during the Italian colonial period.
Italian language
Italian language
–
Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language from the Tuscan dialect, as a literary medium, codifying the language for standard modern usage
4.
Florence
–
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
5.
Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
Italy
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering of ancient history.
Italy
–
Flag
Italy
–
The
Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the
Kings of Italy.
Italy
–
Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor
Frederick II,
UNESCO World Heritage site
6.
Pitti Palace
–
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the side of the River Arno. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the residence of Luca Pitti. The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry. In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a base by Napoleon. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919, the palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below, the construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti, a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact, Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. Besides obvious differences from the architects style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book De Re Aedificatoria. Though impressive, the original palazzo would have no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the series of seven arch-headed apertures. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style allantica, work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished, the building was sold in 1549 by Buonaccorso Pitti, a descendant of Luca Pitti, to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de Medici of Tuscany
Pitti Palace
–
Early,
tinted 20th-century photograph of the Palazzo Pitti, then still known as La Residenza Reale following the residency of
King Victor Emmanuel II between 1865 and 1871, when Florence was the capital of Italy.
Pitti Palace
–
Luca Pitti (1398–1472) began work on the palazzo in 1458.
Pitti Palace
–
Eleonora di Toledo,
Duchess of Florence, bought the palazzo from the Pitti in 1549 for the Medici. Portrait after
Bronzino.
Pitti Palace
–
A
lunette painted in 1599 by
Giusto Utens, depicts the palazzo before its extensions, with the
amphitheatre and the Boboli Gardens behind. The red stone excavated from the site was used in extensions to the palazzo.
7.
Medici
–
The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, the Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Leo XI, two regent queens of France—Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence, in 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, the grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. They, along with families of Italy—such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara. The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, there are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy, a notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system, the Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region, north of Florence, being mentioned for the first time in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain, Medici is the plural of medico, also written del medico or delmedigo, meaning, medical doctor. It has been suggested that the derived from one Medico di Potrone, a castellan of Potrone in the late 11th century. The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank, until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293 the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, which became the constitution of the republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. The citys numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses, built by the ever prospering merchant class. In 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europes largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence, in 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria was elected, the Medici became the citys leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders, some examples of these families include the Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti, and the Tornabuoni
Medici
–
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, founder of the Medici bank.
Medici
–
Medici
Medici
–
The Confirmation of the Rule by
Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Medici
–
Cosimo I the Great, founder of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
8.
Tuscany
–
Tuscany is a region in central Italy with an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy, Tuscany produces wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is considered a nation within a nation. Tuscany is traditionally a popular destination in Italy, and the main tourist destinations by number of tourist arrivals are Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia and Grosseto. The village of Castiglione della Pescaia is also the most visited destination in the region. Additionally, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val dOrcia are also internationally renowned, Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations that attract millions of tourists every year. In 2012, the city of Florence was the worlds 89th most visited city, roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north and east, Umbria to the east and Lazio to the southeast. The comune of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany has a western coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea, containing the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the largest island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately 22,993 square kilometres, surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains, and with few plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds of the total area, covering 15,292 square kilometres, and mountains. Plains occupy 8. 4% of the total area—1,930 square kilometres —mostly around the valley of the River Arno, many of Tuscanys largest cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital Florence, Empoli and Pisa. The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the late Bronze and Iron Ages parallels that of the early Greeks, following this, the Villanovan culture saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan before Orientalization occurred and the Etruscan civilization rose, the Etruscans created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in Etruria well into prehistory, throughout their existence, they lost territory to Magna Graecia, Carthage and Celts. Despite being seen as distinct in its manners and customs by contemporary Greeks, the cultures of Greece, one reason for its eventual demise was this increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans. Soon after absorbing Etruria, Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, introduction of aqueducts and sewers, however, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West collapsed in the 5th century AD, in the years following 572, the Longobards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their Duchy of Tuscia
Tuscany
–
Hilly landscape in
Val d'Orcia
Tuscany
–
Tuscany Toscana
Tuscany
–
Tuscan landscape near
Siena
Tuscany
–
Cinerary urns of the
Villanovan culture
9.
Florence, Italy
–
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence, Italy
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence, Italy
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence, Italy
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence, Italy
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
10.
Grotto
–
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or liable to flood at high tide, sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden features. The Grotta Azzurra at Capri and the grotto at the villa of Tiberius in the Bay of Naples are examples of popular natural seashore grottoes, the word grotto comes from Italian grotta, Vulgar Latin grupta, and Latin crypta. It is also related by an accident to the word grotesque. The rooms had sunk underground over time, the Romans who discovered this historical monument found it very strange, a sentiment enhanced by the fact that it was uncovered from an underworld source. This led the Romans to give it the name grottesche, or grotesque, grottoes were very popular in Greek and Roman culture. Spring-fed grottoes were a feature of Apollos oracles at Delphi, Corinth, the Hellenistic city of Rhodes was designed with rock-cut artificial grottoes incorporated into the city, made to look natural. According to tradition, Praenestes sacred spring had a native nymph, Tiberius, the Roman emperor, filled his grotto with sculptures to create a sense of mythology, perhaps channeling Polyphemus cave in the Odyssey. The numinous quality of the grotto is still more ancient, in a grotto near Knossos in Crete, Eileithyia was venerated, even farther back in time, the immanence of the divine in a grotto is seen in the sacred caves of Lascaux. The popularity of artificial grottoes introduced Mannerist style to Italian and French gardens of the mid-16th century, two famous grottoes in the Boboli Gardens of Palazzo Pitti were begun by Vasari and completed by Ammanati and Buontalenti between 1583 and 1593. One of these grottoes originally housed the Prisoners of Michelangelo, before Boboli grotto, a garden was laid out by Niccolò Tribolo at the Medici Villa Castello, near Florence. At Pratolino, in spite of the dryness of the site, there was a Grotto of Cupid, with water tricks for the unsuspecting visitor. The Fonte di Fata Morgana at Grassina, not far from Florence, is a garden building. It is decorated with sculptures in the Giambolognan manner, the outside of garden grottoes are often designed to look like an enormous rock, a rustic porch or a rocky overhang. Damp grottoes were cool places to retreat from the Italian sun, in Kuskovo at the Sheremetev estate there is a Summer Grotto, built in 1775. Grottoes could also serve as baths, an example of this is at the Palazzo del Te, in the Casino della Grotta, courtiers once bathed in the small cascade that splashed over the pebbles and shells encrusted in the floor and walls. Grottoes have also served as chapels, or at Villa Farnese at Caprarola and they were often combined with cascading fountains in Renaissance gardens. The grotto designed by Bernard Palissy for Catherine de Medicis château in Paris, there are also grottoes in the gardens designed by André Le Nôtre for Versailles
Grotto
–
A Marian grotto in Bischofferode (Germany)
Grotto
–
Marian grotto with a lily pond in
San Thome Basilica, Chennai
Grotto
–
Grotto in an
iceberg with the
Terra Nova ship in the background (1911) during the 'British Antarctic Expedition' by
Herbert G. Ponting
Grotto
–
Grotto of the
Buttes-Chaumont in Paris.
11.
Nympheum
–
A nymphaeum or nymphaion, in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habitations to the local nymphs and they were sometimes so arranged as to furnish a supply of water, as at Pamphylian Side. A nymphaeum dedicated to a water nymph, Coventina, was built along Hadrians Wall. Subsequently, artificial grottoes took the place of natural ones, the nymphaeum in Jerash, Jordan, was constructed in 191 AD. The fountain was originally embellished with marble facing on the level, painted plaster on the upper level. Water cascaded through seven carved lions heads into small basins on the sidewalk, the nymphaea of the Roman period, which extended the sacral use to purely recreational ones, were borrowed from the constructions of the Hellenistic east. The majority of them were rotundas, and were adorned with statues and they served the threefold purpose of sanctuaries, reservoirs and assembly-rooms. A special feature was their use for the celebration of marriages, such nymphaea existed in Corinth, Antioch and Constantinople, the remains of some twenty have been found in Rome and many in Africa. The so-called exedra of Herodes Atticus, the nymphaeum in the palace of Domitian, nymphaea were important in the architectural movement of mosaic from floor to walls and ceiling vaults in the 1st century. Initially they were decorated with geometrical mosaics often incorporating shells. The term nymphaeum was also applied to the fountains of water in the atrium of the Christian basilica, phiale is an equivalent Greek term. A nymphaeum for al fresco summer dining featuring artificial grottoes with waterflows was designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati, Roman gardens This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Plattner and T. Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of rome,1929, Nymphaeum
Nympheum
–
The Jerash nymphaeum.
Nympheum
–
The Nymphenbad, the nympheum of the
Zwinger, Dresden
Nympheum
–
Ceiling of the 17th-century nymphaeum of the Saint-Sulpice Seminary in
Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.
12.
Eleonora di Toledo
–
She is credited with being the first modern first lady, or consort. She served as regent of Florence during the absence of her spouse, Eleanor was born in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, as the second daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca and Maria Osorio, 2nd Marquise of Villafranca. Her father was the son of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba and therefore. Eleanor was remembered for her beauty, brunette with hazel eyes, eleonor was seen as an incredibly charming bride entering the Medici household. The Emperor, not wanting to antagonize Cosimo, offered him one of the daughters of the viceroy of Naples. The viceroy agreed, provided Cosimo settled a large amount of money on her as dowry and this marriage was politically beneficial as the Medici were new to their ducal status. Eleanor married Cosimo I de’ Medici in the spring of 1539 at seventeen years of age, Eleanor was married by proxy on 29 March 1539, and set sail from Naples,11 June, accompanied by her brother Garcia with seven galleys following. They arrived at Livorno on the morning of June 22 and that same morning, Eleonora left for Pisa and halfway through, met Cosimo. After a short stay in Pisa, the couple left for Florence. July 29 marked the entrance of Eleonora from the Porta al Prato to the church of San Lorenzo for the official wedding, in a grand. Eleanor and Cosimo had a long and peaceful married life, surprisingly, Cosimo was faithful to Eleanor throughout their married life. Both were religious and led their lives accordingly, the ducal couple served as an example of a traditional couple, which served to strengthen Cosimos various reforms and separate him from association with the former Duke. Eleanor and Cosimo had eleven children, including five sons who reached maturity, two of her sons, Francesco and Ferdinando, reigned as grand Dukes of Tuscany. The last of the old Medici line, Alessandro bequeathed to the Medici name a legacy and reputation of sex, scandal, alessandros distantly related successor, Cosimo I, needed to reassure the public of the stability and respectability of not only his family, but the new reign. During her marriage, despite her initial unpopularity as a Spaniard, she gained great influence in Florence, a pious woman, she encouraged the Jesuit order to settle in Florence, she also founded many new churches in the city. Eleanor was also interested in agriculture and business and she also supported unhesitatingly her husband and his policies, so much so that he consulted with her. So great was his trust in her that in his frequent absences he made her regent, a station which also established her position as more than just a pretty bearer of Medici children. As a consequence, it known that Eleanor was the key to her husband
Eleonora di Toledo
–
Portrait by
Agnolo Bronzino
Eleonora di Toledo
–
Eleanor of Toledo with her son Giovanni, painted by
Bronzino in 1545. It's considered the first state portrait to depict a ruler's wife with his heir. The picture was intended to demonstrate the wealth, domesticity and continuity of the Medici. A much repeated myth tells this dress served as her
shroud. However, newer research has examined her funeral dress and found it to be another
13.
Bartolomeo Ammanati
–
Bartolomeo Ammannati was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo and he was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. He worked in Rome in collaboration with Vignola and Vasari), including designs for the Villa Giulia and his design mirrored the appearance of the main external façade of Pitti. He was also named Consul of Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence, in 1569, Ammanati was commissioned to build the Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge over the Arno River. The three arches are elliptic, and though very light and elegant, has survived, when floods had damaged other Arno bridges at different times, Santa Trinita was destroyed in 1944, during World War II, and rebuilt in 1957. Ammannati designed what is considered a prototypic mannerist sculptural ensemble in the Fountain of Neptune, from 1563 and 1565, Ammannati and his assistants, among them Giambologna, sculpted the block of marble that had been chosen by Bandinelli. He took Grand Duke Cosimo I as model for Neptunes face, the statue was meant to highlight Cosimos goal of establishing a Florentine Naval force. In 1550 Ammannati married Laura Battiferri, an elegant poet and an accomplished woman, later in his life he had a religious crisis, influenced by Counter-Reformation piety, which resulted in condemning his own works depicting nudity, and he left all his possessions to the Jesuits. He died in Florence in 1592, victory, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Leda with the Swan, marble, also in Bargello, Florence, parnassus, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence Allegory of Winter, stone, Villa Medici, Castello Goddess Opi, bronze, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence Bartolomeo Ammannati in the History of Art
Bartolomeo Ammanati
–
The
Fountain of Neptune (Fontana del Nettuno) on the
Piazza della Signoria in
Florence,
Italy
Bartolomeo Ammanati
–
Garden entrance of the Ammannati Courtyard in the Pitti Palace.
Bartolomeo Ammanati
–
The
Jesuit College in Rome, 1582–84, was one of Ammannati's later designs
Bartolomeo Ammanati
14.
Giorgio Vasari
–
Vasari was born in Arezzo, Tuscany. Recommended at an age by his cousin Luca Signorelli, he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia. He was befriended by Michelangelo whose painting style would influence his own, in 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance. Vasaris own Mannerist paintings were admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547 he completed the hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni and he was consistently employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome, and worked in Naples, Arezzo and other places. He also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo, now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio, aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was also successful as an architect. In Florence, Vasari also built the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, the enclosed corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio and winds around the exterior of several buildings. He also renovated the medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, at both he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodelled the retro-choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he was responsible for the painting of The Adoration of the Magi which was commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and it was recently restored, before being put on exhibition in 2011 in Rome and in Naples. Eventually it is planned to return it to the church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, in 1562 Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia, an important example of high Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammanati at Pope Julius IIIs Villa Giulia, the Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was rewritten and enlarged in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists. The work has a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines, and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example, Venetian art in particular, is systematically ignored in the first edition. Between the first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the edition gave more attention to Venetian art. Vasaris biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip, with a few exceptions, however, Vasaris aesthetic judgement was acute and unbiased. He did not research archives for exact dates, as art historians do, and naturally his biographies are most dependable for the painters of his own generation. Modern criticism – with new materials opened up by research – has corrected many of his traditional dates and attributions. Vasari includes a sketch of his own biography at the end of the Lives, according to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari was one of the earliest authors to use the term competition in its economic sense
Giorgio Vasari
–
Vasari's self-portrait
Giorgio Vasari
–
Giorgio Vasari, Italian humanists, Tuscan Poets: Dante, Petrarch, Guido Cavalcanti, Boccaccio, Cino da Pistoia and Guittone d'Arezzo
Giorgio Vasari
–
Giorgio Vasari, The Garden of Gethsemane
Giorgio Vasari
–
The Uffizi Loggia.
15.
Bernardo Buontalenti
–
Bernardo Buontalenti, byname of Bernardo Delle Girandole, was an Italian stage designer, architect, theatrical designer, military engineer and artist. He entered the service of the Medici as a youth and remained with them the rest of his life and he executed a number of miniatures for Francesco, the son of Cosimo I. He was also a mechanic, and an excellent mathematician. In 1562 he travelled to Spain and his first known work is from 1568, the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello in Florence. In the Uffizi Palace of Florence, he built a great court stage and he designed costumes for the Medici extravaganzas. Despite his successes, his prodigality led Buontalenti to financial ruin, dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. York St. #4, Covent Garden, London, Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18,2007, George Bell, Bernardo Buontalenti and the Grotta Grande of Boboli, Florence, Maschietto Editore,2012
Bernardo Buontalenti
–
The famous Mannerist Buontalenti Grotto in the
Boboli Gardens.
16.
Arno River
–
The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber, the river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a southward curve. The river turns to the west near Arezzo passing through Florence, Empoli and Pisa, with a length of 241 kilometres, it is the largest river in the region. It has many tributaries, Sieve at 60 kilometres long, Bisenzio at 49 kilometres, and the Era, Elsa, Pesa, the Val di Chiana, a plain drained in the 18th century, which until then had been a marshy area tributary of the Tiber. The upper Valdarno, a valley bordered on the east by the Pratomagno massif. The Sieves basin, which flows into the Arno immediately before Florence, the middle Valdarno, with the plain including Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Prato, and Pistoia. The lower Valdarno, with the valley of important tributaries such as the Pesa, Elsa, and Era and in which, after Pontedera, the Arno flows into the Ligurian Sea. The river has a variable discharge, ranging from about 6 cubic metres per second to more than 2,000 cubic metres per second. The mouth of the river was once near Pisa but is now several kilometres westwards and it crosses Florence, where it passes below the Ponte Vecchio and the Santa Trìnita bridge. The flow rate of the Arno is irregular and it is sometimes described as having a torrentlike behaviour, because it can easily go from almost dry to near flood in a few days. At the point where the Arno leaves the Apennines, flow measurements can vary between 0.56 and 3,540 cubic metres per second, new dams built upstream of Florence have greatly alleviated the problem in recent years. The flood on November 4,1966, collapsed the embankment in Florence, killing at least 40 people and damaging or destroying millions of works of art, new conservation techniques were inspired by the disaster, but even decades later hundreds of works still await restoration. The philologist Hans Krahe related this toponym on a paleo-European basis *Ar-n-, derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *er-, flow, move
Arno River
–
View of the Arno from the
Ponte Vecchio
Arno River
–
"Ponte vecchio" (The old bridge)
Arno River
–
River Arno in Florence
Arno River
–
River Arno in
Pisa, near the Ponte della Fortezza (Fortress Bridge)
17.
Amphitheater
–
An amphitheatre or amphitheater /ˈæmfᵻˌθiːətər/ is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον, from ἀμφί, ancient Roman amphitheatres were oval or circular in plan, with seating tiers that surrounded the central performance area, like a modern open-air stadium. In contrast both ancient Greek and ancient Roman theatres were built in a semicircle, with tiered seating rising on one side of the performance area. In modern usage, amphitheatre is used to describe theatre-style stages with spectator seating on only one side, theatres in the round. Natural formations of similar shape are known as natural amphitheatres. Ancient Roman amphitheatres were major public venues, circular or oval in plan and they were used for events such as gladiator combats, chariot races, venationes and executions. About 230 Roman amphitheatres have been found across the area of the Roman Empire, the earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the 1st century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period onwards. Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman empire, the largest could accommodate 40, the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary. After the end of games in the 5th century and of staged animal hunts in the 6th. Their materials were mined or recycled, some were razed, and others were converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places, in some of these, in modern usage, an amphitheatre is a circular, semicircular or curved, acoustically vibrant performance space, particularly one located outdoors. Small-scale amphitheatres can serve to host outdoor local community performances, notable modern amphitheatres include the Shoreline Amphitheatre and the Hollywood Bowl. The term amphitheatre is used for some indoor venues such as the Gibson Amphitheatre. The term amphitheatre can also be used to naturally occurring formations which would be ideal for this purpose. Arena Stadium Thingplatz List of Roman amphitheatres List of contemporary amphitheatres List of indoor arenas List of ancient Greek theatres Roman theatre Bomgardner, the Story of the Roman Amphitheatre
Amphitheater
–
The
Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of
architecture and
engineering.
Amphitheater
–
Interior of the
Colosseum
Amphitheater
–
Arles Amphitheatre, a
Roman arena in Arles, France, still in use today for bullfighting,
plays and summer
concerts.
Amphitheater
–
The
Hollywood Bowl,
Hollywood,
California
18.
Hippodrome
–
The hippodrome was an ancient Grecian stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words hippos and dromos, the term is used in the modern French language and some others, with the meaning of horse racecourse. Hence, some horse racing tracks also include the word hippodrome in their names, such as the Hippodrome de Vincennes. The Greek hippodrome was similar to the Roman Circus, the hippodrome was not a Roman amphitheatre which was used for spectator sports, games and displays, or a Greek or Roman semi-circular theater used for theatrical performances. The Greek hippodrome was usually set out on the slope of a hill, one end of the hippodrome was semicircular, and the other end square with an extensive portico, in front of which, at a lower level, were the stalls for the horses and chariots. At both ends of the hippodrome there were posts that the turned around. This was the most dangerous part of the track, and the Greeks put an altar to Taraxippus there to show the spot where many chariots wrecked, a large ancient hippodrome was the Hippodrome of Constantinople, built between AD203 and 330. However, since it was built to a Roman design, it was actually a circus
Hippodrome
–
Roman hippodrome in ancient city of
Aphrodisias,
Turkey
Hippodrome
–
Biga chariot rounding a terma:
Attic black-figure amphora, ca. 500 BC, found at
Vulci
19.
Ancient Egyptian
–
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
Ancient Egyptian
–
The
Great Sphinx and the
pyramids of Giza are among the most recognizable symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian
–
A typical Naqada II jar decorated with gazelles. (Predynastic Period)
Ancient Egyptian
–
The
Narmer Palette depicts the unification of the Two Lands.
20.
Villa Medici
–
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, a musical evocation of its garden fountains features in Ottorino Respighis Fontane di Roma. In ancient times, the site of the Villa Medici was part of the gardens of Lucullus, which passed into the hands of the Imperial family with Messalina, who was murdered in the villa. In 1564, when the nephews of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano acquired the property, the new proprietors commissioned Annibale Lippi, the late architects son, to continue work. Interventions by Michelangelo are a tradition, in 1576, the property was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici, who finished the structure to designs by Bartolomeo Ammanati. A series of grand gardens recalled the botanical gardens created at Pisa and at Florence by the Cardinals father Cosimo I de Medici, sheltered in plantations of pines, cypresses and oaks. Ferdinando de Medici had a studiolo, a retreat for study and contemplation, now these rooms look onto Borghese gardens but would then have had views over the Roman countryside. An engraving detailing the arrangement of statues prior to 1562 was documented by Galassi Alghisi, then the antiquities from the Villa Medici formed the nucleus of the collection of antiquities in the Uffizi, and Florence began to figure on the European Grand Tour. The fountain in the front of the Villa Medici is formed from a red granite vase from ancient Rome and it was designed by Annibale Lippi in 1589. The view from the Villa looking over the fountain towards St Peters in the distance has been much painted, like the Villa Borghese that adjoins them, the villas gardens were far more accessible than the formal palaces such as Palazzo Farnese in the heart of the city. For a century and a half the Villa Medici was one of the most elegant and worldly settings in Rome, the seat of the Grand Dukes embassy to the Holy See. When the male line of the Medici died out in 1737, in this manner Napoleon Bonaparte came into possession of the Villa Medici, which he transferred to the French Academy at Rome. Subsequently it housed the winners of the prestigious Prix de Rome, under distinguished directors including Ingres and Balthus, in 1656, Christina, Queen of Sweden was said to have fired one of the cannon on top of the Castel SantAngelo without aiming it first. The wayward ball hit the villa, destroying one of the Florentine lilies that decorated the facade, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved the French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici with the intention of preserving an institution once threatened by the French Revolution. At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state, in this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance. The young architect Auguste-Henri-Victor Grandjean de Montigny undertook the renovation, the competition was interrupted during the first World War, and Benito Mussolini confiscated the villa in 1941, forcing the Academy of France in Rome to withdraw until 1945. The competition and the Prix de Rome were eliminated in 1968 by André Malraux, the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Institut de France then lost their guardianship of the Villa Medici to the Ministry of Culture and the French State. Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus, then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, Balthus participated “hands on” in all the phases of the construction
Villa Medici
–
Villa Medici in Rome
Villa Medici
–
The villa's Loggia dei leoni, including copies of the original
Medici lions
Villa Medici
–
The fountain in the 19th century
Villa Medici
–
The fountain in 2002
21.
Neptune (god)
–
Neptune was the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon, in the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions, Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, Neptune is the creator of horses and is the god of the sea as well as the owner of a powerful weapon, the Trident. Poseidon is the greek Neptune and is one of the big three gods Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and he accidentally created horses when he had an affair with Medusa, and also created a boy who roams the seas as a pirate past the pillar of Hercules. The etymology of Latin Neptunus is unclear and disputed, the ancient grammarian Varro derived the name from nuptus i. e. covering, with a more or less explicit allusion to the nuptiae, marriage of Heaven and Earth. Among modern scholars Paul Kretschmer proposed a derivation from IE *neptu- moist substance, similarly Raymond Bloch supposed it might be an adjectival form in -no from *nuptu-, meaning he who is moist. Georges Dumézil though remarked words deriving root *nep- are not attested in IE languages other than Vedic and he proposed an etymology that brings together Neptunus with Vedic and Avestan theonyms Apam Napat, Apam Napá and Old Irish theonym Nechtan, all meaning descendant of the waters. By using the approach the Indo-Iranian, Avestan and Irish figures would show common features with the Roman historicised legends about Neptune. Dumézil thence proposed to derive the nouns from IE root *nepot-, descendant, IE root *nebh-, having the original meaning of damp, wet, has given Sanskrit nábhah, Hittite nepis, Latin nubs, nebula, German Nebel, Slavic nebo etc. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of Greek god Όυράνος, derived from IE root *h2wórso-, to water, irrigate and *h2worsó- and this etymology would be more in accord with Varros. The district was connected to the cult of the god, Messapus and Halesus. Messapus led the Falisci and others to war in the Aeneid, nepi and Falerii have been famed since antiquity for the excellent quality of the water of their springs, scattered in meadows. Nepet is considered a hydronymic toponym of preIndoeuropean origin widespread in Europe and from an appellative meaning damp wide valley, plain, cognate with pre-Greek νάπη, such an identification may well be grounded in the strict relationship between the Latin and Greek theologies of the two deities. Servius the grammarian also explicitly states Neptune is in charge of all the rivers, springs and he also is the lord of horses because he worked with Minerva to make the chariot. He may find a parallel in Irish god Nechtan, master of the well from all the rivers of the world flow out. Poseidon on the other hand underwent the process of becoming the main god of the sea at an earlier time. For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water, Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans, who called themselves Neptunia proles
Neptune (god)
–
A
velificans of Neptune in his
seahorse -drawn
triumphal chariot from the mid-3rd century AD -
Sousse Archaeological Museum.
Neptune (god)
–
Marcus Aurelius (
head covered) sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Neptune (god)
–
Mosaic of Neptune (
Regional Archeological Museum Antonio Salinas,
Palermo)
Neptune (god)
–
Chichester Inscription which reads (in English): "To Neptune and
Minerva, for the welfare of the Divine House, by the authority of
Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, Great King in Britain,¹ the college of artificers and those therein erected this temple from their own resources [...]ens, son of Pudentinus, donated the site."
22.
Stoldo Lorenzi
–
Stoldo Lorenzi was an Italian Mannerist sculptor. Born at Settignano, he studied in Florence and was influenced by such as Giambologna. His masterwork in Florence is considered the Fountain of Neptune in the Boboli Gardens, later he worked in other areas of Italy. In Milan he provided sculptures for the façade of Santa Maria presso San Celso. In Pisa he executed an Angel for the Duomo and he died in Pisa after 1583
Stoldo Lorenzi
–
Fountain of Neptune in the Boboli Gardens
23.
Giulio Parigi
–
Giulio Parigi was an Italian architect and designer. He was the member of a family of architects and designers working for the Grand Ducal court of the Medici. His father, Alfonso Parigi the Elder, was an architect, through his fathers collaborations under the court architect Bernardo Buontalenti, Giulio Parigi was trained in the practice of architecture. Giulio worked on the Boboli Gardens, constructing the Grotto of Vulcan and laying out the second axis of the Boboli Gardens, at angles to the first. His is also the stairs of Palazzo Gianni-Lucchesini-Vegni. Giulios son, Alfonsos grandson, Alfonso Parigi the Younger was also an architect, arthur Blumenthal, Giulio Parigis Stage Designs, Florence and the Early Baroque Spectacle, PhD, New York University,1984. Arthur Blumenthal, Theatre Art of the Medici, Dartmouth,1980 Berto, media related to Giulio Parigi at Wikimedia Commons
Giulio Parigi
–
Painting by Giulio Parigi in Florence, Italy, showing
Archimedes ' mirror used to burn Roman ships.
24.
Bosquet
–
Bosquets are traditionally paved with gravel, as the feature predates Buddings invention of the lawnmower, and since the maintenance of turf under trees is demanding. The shade of paired bosquets flanking a parterre affords both relief from the glare and the pleasure of surveying sunlit space from shade, another Achemenid invention. As they mature, the trees of the form an interlacing canopy overhead. Lower trunks may be given a wash to a selected height. Clipped outer faces of the trees may be pleached, within a large wood a bosquet in another, closely related sense can be set out as a formal room, a cabinet de verdure cut into the formal woodland, a major ingredient of André Le Nôtres Versailles. These intimate areas defined by clipped walls of shrubs and trees offered privacy and relief from the grand scale, often a single path with a discreet curve or dogleg provided the only access. Inside the bosquet, privacy was assured, there virtuoso jeux deau and sculpture provided allegorical themes, the bosquets were altered often during the years Le Nôtre worked at Versailles. The bosquets of Versailles were examples of a matured tradition, in Alexandre Francinis engravings of the royal gardens at Fontainebleau and Saint Germain-en-Laye, compartments of bosquets are already in evidence. In Jacques Boyceaus posthumous Traité du iardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de lart, in the eighteenth-century, bosquets flanked the Champs-Elysées, Paris. In Paris, bosquets set in gravel may still be enjoyed in the Jardin des Tuileries, after a century of naturalistic landscape gardening and two generations of revived pattern planting some bosquets re-entered garden design at the turn of the twentieth century. Bosquets, unfamiliar in American gardens, but introduced in the Beaux-Arts gardens of Charles A. Platt, were planted along the Fifth Avenue front of the Metropolitan Museum in 1969-70, typical trees employed for bosquets are fine-scaled in leaf, such as linden, hornbeam or hazelnut. Gardens of the French Renaissance Garden à la française Stand level modelling Lisa L. Moore, What gardens mean, the Formal Garden, Traditions of Art and Nature Chapter 2, Baroque Gardens, The Age of Parterre and Bosquet The Salle des Antiques at Versailles
Bosquet
–
Château d'Amboise: the parterres have been recreated in the twentieth century as rectangles of lawns set in gravel and a formal bosquet of trees.
Bosquet
–
Bosquet in the Promenade Saint-Antoine, Geneva
Bosquet
–
Bosquet of the
Branicki Palace in
Białystok, 1750s
25.
Giambologna
–
Giambologna — born Jean Boulogne — was a Flemish sculptor based in Italy, celebrated for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style. Giambologna was born in Douai, Flanders, in 1529, after youthful studies in Antwerp with the architect-sculptor Jacques du Broeucq, he moved to Italy in 1550, and studied in Rome. Giambologna made detailed study of the sculpture of classical antiquity and he was also much influenced by Michelangelo, but developed his own Mannerist style, with perhaps less emphasis on emotion and more emphasis on refined surfaces, cool elegance and beauty. Pope Pius IV gave Giambologna his first major commission, the colossal bronze Neptune, Giambologna spent his most productive years in Florence, where he had settled in 1553. He was interred in a chapel he designed himself in the Santissima Annunziata, Giambologna became well known for a fine sense of action and movement, and a refined, differentiated surface finish. Among his most famous works are the Mercury, poised on one foot, the god raises one arm to point heavenwards, in a gesture borrowed from the repertory of classical rhetoric that is characteristic of Giambolognas maniera. His other most famous work is the Rape of the Sabine Women a marble sculpture which is featured prominently in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florences Piazza della Signoria and this impressive sculpture which includes three full figures was carved from a single piece of marble. Giambologna carved it without a subject in mind, and the name Rape of the Sabine Women was given after it was in place in the Loggia, the sculpture was produced for Francesco Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Another of his marbles, Hercules Slaying a Centaur was also placed in the Loggia dei Lanzi in 1599 and he created allegories strongly promoting Medicean political propaganda, such as Florence defeating Pisa and, less overtly, Samson Slaying a Philistine, for Francesco de Medici. The equestrian statue of Cosimo I de Medici also in Florence, was completed by his studio assistant Pietro Tacca. Giambologna provided as well as sculptures for garden grottos and fountains in the Boboli Gardens of Florence and at Pratolino. For the grotto of the Villa Medicea of Castello he sculpted a series of studies of animals, from life. Small bronze reductions of many of his sculptures were prized by connoisseurs at the time and ever since, italian Art, Florence, Giunti Gruppo Editoriale,2000, ISBN 88-09-01771-4. Giambologna, 1529-1608, sculptor to the Medici, an exhibition organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain etc. catalogue edited by Charles Avery, london, Arts Council of Great Britain,1978, ISBN 0-7287-0180-4. Biography with a portrait on kfki. hu Giambologna on mega. it Model of a River God, archived from the original on 2009-07-09. Archived from the original on 2011-03-12, a Tour of the location of Giambolognas major works in Florence
Giambologna
–
The Rape of the Sabine Women (1574-82), Florence. The title was only assigned after completion.
Giambologna
–
"Portrait of Giovanni Bologna" by
Hendrick Goltzius, collection
Teylers Museum
Giambologna
–
Samson Slaying a Philistine, about 1562.
Giambologna
–
Architettura exemplifies the long limbs of Giambologna's influential ideal female type
Bargello
26.
Mannerism
–
Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, lasting until about 1580 in Italy, when the Baroque style began to replace it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century, stylistically, Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and early Michelangelo. Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. Mannerism favors compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting, Mannerism in literature and music is notable for its highly florid style and intellectual sophistication. The definition of Mannerism and the phases within it continue to be a subject of debate among art historians, for example, some scholars have applied the label to certain early modern forms of literature and music of the 16th and 17th centuries. The term is used to refer to some late Gothic painters working in northern Europe from about 1500 to 1530. Mannerism also has been applied by analogy to the Silver Age of Latin literature, the word mannerism derives from the Italian maniera, meaning style or manner. Like the English word style, maniera can either indicate a type of style or indicate an absolute that needs no qualification. Vasari was also a Mannerist artist, and he described the period in which he worked as la maniera moderna, james V. Mirollo describes how bella maniera poets attempted to surpass in virtuosity the sonnets of Petrarch. This notion of bella maniera suggests that artists thus inspired looked to copying and bettering their predecessors, in essence, bella maniera utilized the best from a number of source materials, synthesizing it into something new. As a stylistic label, Mannerism is not easily defined, “High Renaissance” connoted a period distinguished by harmony, grandeur and the revival of classical antiquity. The term Mannerist was redefined in 1967 by John Shearman following the exhibition of Mannerist paintings organised by Fritz Grossmann at Manchester City Art Gallery in 1965. The label “Mannerism” was used during the 16th century to comment on social behaviour, however, for later writers, such as the 17th-century Gian Pietro Bellori, la maniera was a derogatory term for the perceived decline of art after Raphael, especially in the 1530s and 1540s. From the late 19th century on, art historians have used the term to describe art that follows Renaissance classicism. By the end of the High Renaissance, young artists experienced a crisis, no more difficulties, technical or otherwise, remained to be solved. The young artists needed to find a new goal, and they sought new approaches, at this point Mannerism started to emerge. The new style developed between 1510 and 1520 either in Florence, or in Rome, or in both cities simultaneously and this period has been described as a natural extension of the art of Andrea del Sarto, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Michelangelo from an early age had developed a style of his own, one of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and subsequent artists attempted to imitate it
Mannerism
–
In
Parmigianino 's
Madonna with the Long Neck (1534-40), Mannerism makes itself known by elongated proportions, highly stylized poses, and lack of clear perspective.
Mannerism
–
Mannerism role-model:
Laocoön and His Sons, an ancient sculpture, rediscovered in 1506; now in the
Vatican. The artists of Mannerism greatly admired this piece of sculpture.
Mannerism
–
Ignudi from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Mannerism
–
The Libyan Sibyl from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
27.
Michelangelo
–
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since described as one of the greatest artists of all time. A number of Michelangelos works of painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence and he sculpted two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, before the age of thirty. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library, at the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peters Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification. Michelangelo was unique as the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive, in his lifetime he was often called Il Divino. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, the attempts by subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelos impassioned and highly personal style resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese near Arezzo, at the time of Michelangelos birth, his father was the Judicial administrator of the small town of Caprese and local administrator of Chiusi. Michelangelos mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena, the Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa, this claim remains unproven, but Michelangelo himself believed it. Several months after Michelangelos birth, the returned to Florence. There Michelangelo gained his love for marble, as Giorgio Vasari quotes him, If there is good in me. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, as a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar under the Humanist Francesco da Urbino. The young artist, however, showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches, the city of Florence was at that time the greatest centre of the arts and learning in Italy. Art was sponsored by the Signoria, by the merchant guilds and by patrons such as the Medici. The Renaissance, a renewal of Classical scholarship and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as The Gates of Paradise. The exterior niches of the Church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery of works by the most acclaimed sculptors of Florence – Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio, and Nanni di Banco. The interiors of the churches were covered with frescos, begun by Giotto. During Michelangelos childhood, a team of painters had been called from Florence to the Vatican, among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master in fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture who had the largest workshop in Florence at that period
Michelangelo
–
Portrait of Michelangelo by
Daniele da Volterra
Michelangelo
–
The
Madonna of the Stairs (1490–92), Michelangelo's earliest known work
Michelangelo
–
Michelangelo's
Pietà, St Peter's Basilica (1498–99)
Michelangelo
–
The
Statue of David, completed by Michelangelo in 1504, is one of the most renowned works of the Renaissance.
28.
Pope Julius II
–
Pope Julius II, nicknamed The Fearsome Pope and The Warrior Pope, born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1 November 1503 to his death in 1513. In addition to a military policy, he personally led troops into battle on at least two occasions. There is disagreement about Juliuss year of birth, for some sources put it as late as 1453, Giuliano della Rovere was the son of Rafaello della Rovere. Francesco della Rovere was his uncle and he was educated among the Franciscans by his uncle, who took him under his special charge and later sent him to a Franciscan friary in Perugia with the purpose of obtaining knowledge of the sciences. After his uncle was elected Pope Sixtus IV, della Rovere was promoted to be cardinal, taking the title as that formerly held by his uncle. With his uncle he obtained great influence, and in addition to the archbishopric of Avignon he held no fewer than eight bishoprics, including Lausanne from 1472. In June 1474, della Rovere led an army to Todi and Spoleto, around this time, in 1483, an illegitimate daughter was born, Felice della Rovere. Della Rovere, jealous and angry, accused Borgia of being elected over him, in 1494 he joined Charles VIII of France who was undertaking a military expedition into Italy. This was, in Andrew Greeleys view, almost certainly by means of bribery with money, but also, per Ott, Ullman, and Hughes, with promises. Giuliano Della Rovere thenceforth took the name of his fourth century predecessor, Julius I, indeed, on the day of his election, he declared I will not live in the same rooms as the Borgias lived. He desecrated the Holy Church as none before and he usurped the papal power by the devils aid, and I forbid under the pain of excommunication anyone to speak or think of Borgia again. His name and memory must be forgotten and it must be crossed out of every document and memorial. All paintings made of the Borgias or for them must be covered over with black crepe, all the tombs of the Borgias must be opened and their bodies sent back to where they belong—to Spain. The Borgias apartments remained sealed until the 19th Century, the combination was, however, at first little more than nominal, and was not immediately effective in compelling the Venetians to deliver up more than a few unimportant places in the Romagna. With a campaign in 1506, he led an army to Perugia and Bologna. The refusal of Pope Clement VII to grant the annulment led to the English Reformation, the same year, he founded the Swiss Guard to provide a constant corps of soldiers to protect the Pope. On Palm Sunday,1507, Julius II entered Rome, both as a second Julius Caesar, heir to the majesty of Romes imperial glory, and in the likeness of Christ, whose vicar the pope was, and who in that capacity governed the universal Roman Church. Julius, who modelled himself after his namesake Caesar, would lead his army across the Italian peninsula under the imperial war-cry
Pope Julius II
–
Portrait of Pope Julius II by
Raphael
Pope Julius II
–
Giuliano della Rovere (left, future Julius II), and Julius II's future
cardinal-nephew,
Clemente della Rovere (right), who safeguarded Giuliano's affairs while he fled to France following a dispute with Alexander VI.
Pope Julius II
–
Giulliano della Rovere, as cardinal (left), with uncle and patron Francesco della Rovere, Pope Sixtus IV (right).
Pope Julius II
–
Leonardo Grosso della Rovere, the fourth
cardinal-nephew of Julius II accompanied him on his military campaigns in
Bologna and
Perugia, and served as his ambassador to France
29.
Bartolomeo Ammannati
–
Bartolomeo Ammannati was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo and he was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. He worked in Rome in collaboration with Vignola and Vasari), including designs for the Villa Giulia and his design mirrored the appearance of the main external façade of Pitti. He was also named Consul of Accademia delle Arti del Disegno of Florence, in 1569, Ammanati was commissioned to build the Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge over the Arno River. The three arches are elliptic, and though very light and elegant, has survived, when floods had damaged other Arno bridges at different times, Santa Trinita was destroyed in 1944, during World War II, and rebuilt in 1957. Ammannati designed what is considered a prototypic mannerist sculptural ensemble in the Fountain of Neptune, from 1563 and 1565, Ammannati and his assistants, among them Giambologna, sculpted the block of marble that had been chosen by Bandinelli. He took Grand Duke Cosimo I as model for Neptunes face, the statue was meant to highlight Cosimos goal of establishing a Florentine Naval force. In 1550 Ammannati married Laura Battiferri, an elegant poet and an accomplished woman, later in his life he had a religious crisis, influenced by Counter-Reformation piety, which resulted in condemning his own works depicting nudity, and he left all his possessions to the Jesuits. He died in Florence in 1592, victory, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Leda with the Swan, marble, also in Bargello, Florence, parnassus, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence Allegory of Winter, stone, Villa Medici, Castello Goddess Opi, bronze, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence Bartolomeo Ammannati in the History of Art
Bartolomeo Ammannati
–
The
Fountain of Neptune (Fontana del Nettuno) on the
Piazza della Signoria in
Florence,
Italy
Bartolomeo Ammannati
–
Garden entrance of the Ammannati Courtyard in the Pitti Palace.
Bartolomeo Ammannati
–
The
Jesuit College in Rome, 1582–84, was one of Ammannati's later designs
Bartolomeo Ammannati
30.
Fountain of Neptune, Florence
–
The Fountain of Neptune is a fountain in Florence, Italy, situated on the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned in 1565 and is the work of the sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati, Ammannati and his assistants, such as Giambologna, were commissioned to design and complete the work on the occasion of the wedding of Francesco I de Medici with Joanna of Austria in 1565. The assignment had first been given to Baccio Bandinelli, who designed the model, the Neptune figure, whose face resembles that of Cosimo I de Medici, was meant to be an allusion to the dominion of the Florentines over the sea. The figure stands on a pedestal in the middle of an octagonal fountain. The pedestal is decorated with the figures of Scylla and Charybdis. The statue of Neptune is a made in the nineteenth century. However, when the work was finished, it was not appreciated in particular by the Florentines, work continued on this fountain during the next ten years. The monumental marble and the dynamic bronzes give nevertheless a coherent impression, the fountain served as an example for future fountain-makers. The fountain has suffered a great deal of damage during the centuries and it was used as a washbasin for laundry at the end of the 16th century. It was vandalized on January 25,1580, a satyr was stolen during the carnival in 1830. It was damaged again by the Bourbon bombardments of 1848, consequently, it has been the object of several restorations and substitutions. On August 4,2005, the statue was the target of three vandals who climbed it, damaging one of the hands and the trident of Neptune, the act was recorded by security cameras. The statue was restored by 2007, since then, security on the fountain has been taken very seriously. In late 2007, the statue was the target of attempted vandalism by four teens, the security cameras and nearby police ensured that no damage came to the fountain again and the four were arrested. As would be expected, the Sea-God, Neptune is a frequent theme for fountains, in Florence, there is another fountain of Neptune is found in the Boboli Gardens, behind the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Giambologna sculpted a statue for the similar fountain in Bologna in the 1560s. Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli created a nearly contemporary fountain in Messina, Sicily
Fountain of Neptune, Florence
–
The Fountain of Neptune at mid-day
Fountain of Neptune, Florence
–
The fountain after its hand was cut off by
vandals in the night of August 4, 2005
Fountain of Neptune, Florence
–
Giacomo Brogi,
stereo card, before 1881
Fountain of Neptune, Florence
–
Giambologna's
satyr
