Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, dance, recitation, or drama. It is distinguished by the performance venue, which might be a pub, a casino, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances; the audience dining or drinking, does not dance but sits at tables. Performances are introduced by a master of ceremonies or MC; the entertainment, as done by an ensemble of actors and according to its European origins, is oriented towards adult audiences and of a underground nature. In the United States striptease, drag shows, or a solo vocalist with a pianist, as well as the venues which offer this entertainment, are advertised as cabarets; the term came from Picard language or Walloon language words camberete or cambret for a small room. The first printed use of the word kaberet is found in a document from 1275 in Tournai; the term was used since the 13th century in Middle Dutch to mean an inexpensive restaurant. The word cambret, itself derived from an earlier form of chambrette, little room, or from the Norman French chamber meaning tavern, itself derived from the Late Latin word camera meaning an arched roof.

Cabarets had appeared in Paris by at least the late fifteenth century. They were distinguished from taverns because they served food as well as wine, the table was covered with a cloth, the price was charged by the plate, not the mug, they were not associated with entertainment if musicians sometimes performed in both. Early on, cabarets were considered better than taverns. In the seventeenth century, a clearer distinction emerged when taverns were limited to selling wine, to serving roast meats. Cabarets were used as meeting places for writers, actors and artists. Writers such as La Fontaine and Jean Racine were known to frequent a cabaret called the Mouton Blanc on rue du Vieux-Colombier, the Croix de Lorraine on the modern rue Bourg-Tibourg. In 1773 French poets, painters and writers began to meet in a cabaret called Le Caveau on rue de Buci, where they composed and sang songs; the Caveau continued until 1816, when it was forced to close because its clients wrote songs mocking the royal government.

In the 18th century the café-concert or café-chantant appeared, which offered food along with music, singers, or magicians. The most famous was the Cafe des Aveugles in the cellars of the Palais-Royal, which had a small orchestra of blind musicians. In the early 19th century many cafés-chantants appeared around the city. By 1900, there were more than 150 cafés-chantants in Paris; the first cabaret in the modern sense was Le Chat Noir in the Bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre, created in 1881 by Rodolphe Salis, a theatrical agent and entrepreneur. It combined music and other entertainment with political satire; the Chat Noir brought together the wealthy and famous of Paris with the Bohemians and artists of Montmartre and the Pigalle. Its clientele a mixture of writers and painters, of journalists and students, of employees and high-livers, as well as models and true grand dames searching for exotic experiences." The host was Salis calling himself a gentleman-cabaretier. The cabaret was too small for the crowds trying to get in.

The composer Eric Satie, after finishing his studies at the Conservatory, earned his living playing the piano at the Chat Noir. By 1896 there were fifty-six cafes with music in Paris, along with a dozen music halls; the cabarets did not have a high reputation. The traditional cabarets, with monologues and songs and little decor, were replaced by more specialized venues; some were purely theatrical. Some focused on the erotic; the Caberet de la fin du Monde had servers dressed as Greek and Roman gods and presented living tableaus that were between erotic and pornographic. By the end of the century there were only a few cabarets of the old style remaining where artists and bohemians gathered, they included the Cabaret des noctambules on Rue Champollion on the Left Bank. The music hall, first invented in London, appeared in Paris in 1862, it offered more lavish musical and theatrical productions, with elaborate costumes and dancing. The theaters of Paris, fearing competition from the music halls, had a law passed by the National Assembly forbidding music hall performers to wear costumes, wear wigs, or recite dialogue.

The law was challenged by the owner of the music hall Eldorado in 1867, who put a former famous actress from the Comédie-Française on stage to recite verse from Corneille and Racine. The public took the side of the music halls, the law was repealed; the Moulin Rouge was opened in 1889 by the Catalan Jose

Sir John Taylor, KCB, FRIBA was a British architect working for the Office of Works. The son of a joiner, Taylor first trained in the service of the Duke of Northumberland and under Anthony Salvin, from 1852, remodelled the duke's Alnwick Castle. After working with the contractors George Smith & Co. Taylor entered the Office of Works in 1859. 1866–98 he served as Surveyor of palaces and public building in London district. Taylor's most active period as an architect began in 1879–80 with the construction of Bow Street Magistrates' Court which the listing entry describes as "dignified, eclectic Graeco-Roman with some Vanbrughian details, rather in the Pennethorne manner." In 1883–84 he was a judge in the competition for the Admiralty and War Office buildings in Whitehall, in 1886 added a new storey to Marlborough House. In the 1880s, Taylor was involved in restructuring work in a number of London's museums, he was responsible for display fittings of the new Natural History Museum and built the White Wing of the British Museum from 1882–84.

From 1885–87, Taylor designed and built the vestibule and central hall with staircase of the National Gallery, for which he is best known. He was involved in engineering projects such as the extension of the Thames Embankment at Millbank. Regarded as a technical expert and planner of well-functioning buildings, Taylor remained attached to the Office of Works after his retirement in 1898; as a consulting architect, he fulfilled the projects. Due to the death of its original architect William Young in 1900, together with Young's son Clyde Francis Young, was given the task of completing the construction of the War Office building, he resigned from his post after the building's completion in 1906 but remained a member of the advisory committee on the new public buildings. Taylor was well respected as an architect as well as a public servant, he became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1881, was a member of its council from 1899–1900 and served as vice-president 1905–06. In recognition of his service, in 1895, Taylor was made Companion, in 1897 Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Taylor was a member of the Civil Service Rifles and a good shot, winning several competitions of the National Rifle Association. He was a keen golfer, captain of the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club and, in 1887, a founder member of the Royal St George's Golf Club at Sandwich, Kent

The School of Ferrara was a group of painters which flourished in the Duchy of Ferrara during the Renaissance. Ferrara was ruled by the Este family, well known for its patronage of the arts. Patronage was extended with the ascent of Ercole d'Este I in 1470, the family continued in power till Alfonso II, Ercole's great-grandson, died without an heir in 1597; the duchy was occupied in succession by Papal and Austrian forces. The school evolved styles of painting that were appeared to blend influences from Mantua, Lombardy and Florence; the ties to Bolognese School were strong. Much of the local collections, like those of the Gonzaga family in Mantua, were dispersed with the end of the Este line in 1598. In the late 15th century Ferrara was a main centre of engraving in Italy; the most famous prints it produced are the two sets traditionally, if inaccurately, known as the Mantegna Tarocchi, each by an unidentified master. A list of painters of the School of Ferrara, with the page for the title entry in Camillo Laderchi's 1856 artist biography, includes: Gelasio di Nicoló, p20 Cristoforo da Bologna, p28 Antonio Alberti, p29 Galasso Galassi Cosimo Tura, p30 Francesco Cossa, p32 Bono da Ferrara, p33 Stefano da Ferrara, p37 Baldassare Estense, p38 Antonio Aleotti, p39 Ercole Grandi, p51 Ludovico Mazzolino, p54 Michele Cortellini, p39 Ercole de' Roberti Lorenzo Costa, p57 Francesco and Bernardino Zaganelli da Cotignola, p58 Benedetto Coda, p59 Boccaccio Boccaccino Domenico Panetti, p61 Giovanni Battista Benvenuti Taddeo Crivelli Nicolo Pisano Dosso Dossi, p62 Giovanni Battista Dossi Girolamo da Carpi Benvenuto Tisi, p73 Ludovico Mazzolino Sigismondo Scarsella, p124 Scarsellino, p125 Costanzo Cattanio Giovanni Francesco Surchi Camillo Ricci, p135 Domenico Mona, p121 Sebastiano Filippi Gaspare Venturini, p137 Giovanni Andrea Ghirardoni, p138 Giovanni Paolo Grazzini, p138 Jacopo Bambini, p139 Giulio Cromer, p140 Carlo Bononi, p141 Alfonso Rivarola, p153 Giovanni Battista della Torre, p154 Camillo Berlinghieri, p155 Ippolito Caselli, p155 Francesco Naselli, p156 Ercole Sarti, p157 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri born in Cento, p159 Paolo Antonio Barbieri, p168 Benedetto Genari the elder, p158 Cesare Genari, p170 Giuseppe Caletti, p170 Ludovico Lana, p172 Francesco Costanzo Cattaneo, p172 Giuseppe Bonati, p173 Giuseppe Avanzi, p175 Orazio and Cesare Mornasi, p175 Francesco and Antonio Ferrari, p176 Francesco Scala, p177 Maurelio Scanavini, p178 Giacomo Parolini, p179 Giuseppe Zola, p181 Giovanni Francesco Braccioli, p182 Antonio Contri, p183 Giuseppe Ghedini, p183 Giovanni Monti, p184 Alberto Muchiatti, p184 Giuseppe Santi, p184 Giovanni Masi, p185 Lucchese School Florentine School Sienese School Freedberg, Sydney J..

Pelican History of Art. Painting in Italy, 1500-1600. Penguin Books Ltd. Francis P. Smyth and John P. O'Neill (Editors in Chief. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; the Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Camillo Laderchi. La pittura ferrarese, memorie. Googlebooks. Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Census of Ferrarese Paintings and Drawings Italian Paintings: North Italian School, a collection catalog containing information on a variety of Ferrara artists