1.
Volterra
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Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri or Vlathri and to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy. The town was a Bronze Age settlement of the Villanovan culture, the site is believed to have been continuously inhabited as a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC. It became a municipium allied to Rome at the end of the 3rd century BC, the city was a bishops residence in the 5th century, and its episcopal power was affirmed during the 12th century. With the decline of the episcopate, Volterra became a place of interest of the Florentines, Florentine rule was not always popular, and opposition occasionally broke into rebellion. These rebellions were put down by Florence, when the Florentine Republic fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Founded in 1905, the gallery consists mostly of works by Tuscan artists from 14th to 17th centuries, includes a Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino. It was enlarged in the 13th century after an earthquake, in the center of the vault are fragments of an Eternal Father by Niccolò Circignani. Also noteworthy is the Addolorata Chapel, with a terracotta attributed to Andrea della Robbia. In the nearby chapel, dedicated to the Very Holy Name of Jesus, is a table with Christs monogram, the rectangular bell tower is from 1493. Fortezza Medicea, build in the 1470s, now a housing the noted restaurant. Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, with thousands of funeral urns dating back to the Hellenistic and Archaic periods, main attractions are the bronze statuette Ombra della sera, and the sculpted effigy, Urna degli Sposi of an Etruscan couple in terra cotta. The Etruscan City Walls, including the well-preserved Porta allArco, the Medici Villa di Spedaletto, outside the city, in direction of Lajatico There are excavations of Etruscan tombs in the Valle Bona area. Volterra features in Horatius, a poem by Lord Macaulay, linda Prouds A Tabernacle for the Sun, the first volume of The Botticelli Trilogy, begins with the sack of Volterra in 1472. Volterra is the home of the Maffei family and the events of 1472 lead directly to the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. The protagonist of the novel is Tommaso de Maffei, half brother of one of the conspirators, Volterra is an important location in Stephenie Meyers Twilight series. In the books, Volterra is home to the Volturi, a coven of rich, regal, powerful ancient vampires and this is the central incident in his book On Love. Volterra is mentioned repeatedly in British author Dudley Popes Captain Nicholas Ramage historical nautical series, gianna, the Marchesa of Volterra and the fictional ruler of the area, features in the first twelve books of the eighteen-book series. Volterra is the site where the novel Chimaira by the Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi takes place, Valerio Massimo Manfredis The Ancient Curse is also set in Volterra, where a statue called The Shade of Twilight is stolen from the Volterra museum
2.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
3.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
4.
Mannerism
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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
5.
Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
6.
Michelangelo
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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
7.
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
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The Last Judgment, is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity, the souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ who is surrounded by prominent saints. Altogether there are over 300 figures, the work took over four years to complete between 1536 and 1541. Michelangelo began working on it twenty five years after having finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, in the lower part of the fresco Michelangelo followed tradition in showing the saved ascending at the left and the damned descending at the right. In the upper part the inhabitants of Heaven are joined by the newly saved, the majority of angels and males were originally shown nude, though a good deal of the pieces of drapery added later to cover them remain after recent cleaning and restoration. The fresco is more monochromatic than the ceiling frescoes and is dominated by the tones of flesh, the cleaning and restoration of the fresco, however, revealed a greater chromatic range than previously apparent. Orange, green, yellow, and blue are scattered throughout, the project was a long time in gestation. It was probably first proposed in 1533, but was not then attractive to Michelangelo, a number of Michelangelos drawings from the early 1530s develop a Resurrection of Jesus. Vasari, alone among contemporary sources, says that originally Michelangelo was intended to paint the other end wall with a Fall of the Rebel Angels to match, by April 1535 the preparation of the wall was begun, but it was over a year before painting began. The new fresco required, unlike his Sistine Chapel ceiling, considerable destruction of existing art, above this zone there were two paintings from the 15th-century cycles of Moses and Christ which still occupy the middle zone of the side walls. These were probably the Finding of Moses and the Adoration of the Kings, above them were the first of the series of standing popes in niches, including Saint Peter himself, probably as well as a Saint Paul and a central figure of Christ. Finally, the project required the destruction of two lunettes with the first two Ancestors of Christ from Michelangelos own ceiling scheme. However, some of works may have already been damaged by an accident in April 1525, when the altar curtains went on fire. The structure of the chapel, built in a hurry in the 1470s, had given trouble from the start. At Christmas in 1525 a Swiss Guard entering the chapel with the pope was killed when the stone lintel to the doorway split, the site is on sandy soil, draining a large area, and the preceding Great Chapel had had similar problems. As shown by drawings, the conception for the Last Judgement was to leave the existing altarpiece and work round it, stopping the composition below the frescos of Moses. The Sistine Chapel was dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, the tapestry has a vertical format, and still in the Vatican Museums. A print of 1582 shows the chapel in use, with a cloth of roughly this shape hanging behind the altar
8.
Breeches
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Breeches are an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. Formerly a standard item of Western mens clothing, they had out of use by the mid-19th century in favour of trousers. Modern athletic garments used for English riding and fencing, although called breeches or britches, Breeches is a double plural known since c. Breeches uses a form to reflect it has two legs, the word has no singular form. This construction is common in English and Italian, but is no common in some other languages in which it was once common, e. g. the parallel modern Dutch. At first breeches indicated a cloth worn as underwear by both men and women, philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, uses the word breech as a synonym or perhaps a euphemism for anus in his letters. Until around the end of the 19th century, small boys wore special forms of dresses until they were breeched, or given the adult male styles of clothes, at about the age of 6 to 8. Their clothes were rarely as easy to confuse with those of girls, as the head covering and hair, chest and collar. During the French Revolution, breeches were seen as a symbol of the nobility, lower-class revolutionaries became known as sans-culottes. The spelling britches is a variant, not a corruption. Presently, britches reflects a pronunciation often used in casual speech to mean trousers or pants in many English-speaking parts of the world. Breeks is a Scots or northern English spelling and pronunciation and this also led to the following, a breech is the part of a firearm behind the bore. The terms breeches or knee-breeches specifically designate the knee-length garments worn by men from the later 16th century to the early 19th century, spanish breeches, stiff, ungathered breeches popular from the 1630s until the 1650s. Petticoat breeches, very full, ungathered breeches popular from the 1650s until the early 1660s, rhinegraves, full, gathered breeches popular from the early 1660s until the mid-1670s, often worn with an overskirt over them. Fall front breeches, breeches with a panel or flap covering the front opening, dress breeches are tight fitting and have buttons and a strap and buckle closure at the bottoms, made of velvet or barathea wool, used for livery, formal and court dress. From the 1890s to the 1930s a form of breeches called knickerbockers or knickers were in fashion with men and boys. Like their 18th century predecessor, they reached and were fastened just below the knees, vráka are the traditional breeches of the islands of Greece from the westernmost Ionian Islands to the easternmost, Cyprus. Greek breeches are extremely roomy and are meant to be tucked inside long boots just below the knee and they were originally meant to facilitate movement on fishing boats and sailing ships
9.
Siena
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Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena, the historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nations most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008, Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio, a horse race held twice a year. Siena, like other Tuscan hill towns, was first settled in the time of the Etruscans when it was inhabited by a called the Saina. A Roman town called Saena Julia was founded at the site in the time of the Emperor Augustus, the first document mentioning it dates from AD70. Some archaeologists assert that Siena was controlled for a period by a Gaulish tribe called the Senones, according to local legend, Siena was founded by Senius and Aschius, two sons of Remus and thus nephews of Romulus, after whom Rome was named. Supposedly after their fathers murder by Romulus, they fled Rome, taking them the statue of the she-wolf suckling the infants. Additionally they rode white and black horses, giving rise to the Balzana, some claim the name Siena derives from Senius. Other etymologies derive the name from the Etruscan family name Saina, Siena did not prosper under Roman rule. It was not sited near any major roads and lacked opportunities for trade and its insular status meant that Christianity did not penetrate until the 4th century AD, and it was not until the Lombards invaded Siena and the surrounding territory that it knew prosperity. Siena prospered as a trading post, and the constant streams of pilgrims passing to, the oldest aristocratic families in Siena date their line to the Lombards surrender in 774 to Charlemagne. This ultimately resulted in the creation of the Republic of Siena, the Republic existed for over four hundred years, from the late 11th century until the year 1555. During the golden age of Siena before the Black Death in 1348, in the Italian War of 1551–59, the republic was defeated by the rival Duchy of Florence in alliance with the Spanish crown. After 18 months of resistance, Siena surrendered to Spain on 17 April 1555, the new Spanish King Felipe II, owing huge sums to the Medici, ceded it to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, to which it belonged until the unification of Italy in the 19th century. A Republican government of 700 Sienese families in Montalcino resisted until 1559, the picturesque city remains an important cultural centre, especially for humanist disciplines. The city lies at 322 m above sea level, the Siena Cathedral, begun in the 12th century, is a masterpiece of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture. Its main façade was completed in 1380, the original plan called for an ambitiously massive basilica, the largest then in the world, with, as was customary, an east-west nave. However, the scarcity of funds, in due to war and plague, truncated the project
10.
Tuscany
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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
11.
Sienese School
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In the 16th century the Mannerists Beccafumi and Il Sodoma worked there. While Baldassare Peruzzi was born and trained in Siena, his major works, Siena remains a remarkably well-preserved Italian late-Medieval town. Pope-Hennessy, John & Kanter, Laurence B, the Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings. New York, Princeton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press
12.
Il Sodoma
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Il Sodoma was the name given to the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Giovanni Bazzi was of the family de Bazis, and born at Vercelli in Piedmont in 1477 and his first master was the archaic Martino Spanzotti, he also appears to have been a student of the painter Giovenone. Along with Pinturicchio, Sodoma was one of the first to practice in Siena the style of the High Renaissance, gaining fluency in the prevailing popular style of Pinturicchio, Sodoma completed the set in 1502 and included a self-portrait with badgers. Sodoma was invited to Rome in 1508 by the celebrated Sienese merchant Agostino Chigi and was employed there by Pope Julius II in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. Vasaris rhetorical story that Sodomas larger works did not satisfy the pope, who engaged Raphael to substitute a program of Justice, Poetry, and Theology is not borne out by the documents. Before October 1510 he was in Siena, where he painted the exterior of Palazzo Chigi in monochrome chiaroscuro with scenes from the Bible and from Antiquity and his painting at this time began to show distinct Florentine influences, especially of Fra Bartolommeo. When Leo X became pope, Sodoma presented him with a picture of the Death of Lucretia, Leo gave him a large sum of money as a reward and created him a cavaliere. Sodoma returned to Siena and, at a date, sought work in Pisa, Volterra. From Lucca he returned to Siena not long before his death on 14 February 1549 and he had supposedly squandered his property and is said, without documentary support, to have died in penury in the great hospital of Siena. One of his pupils was Giomo del Sodoma, in his youth, Sodoma had married, but he and his wife soon separated. A daughter married Bartolomeo Neroni, called also Riccio Sanese or Maestro Riccio, instead, he was considered by contemporaries to have been homosexual, and was known from 1512 on as Il Sodoma. Giorgio Vasari, in particular, stressed this aspect, perhaps it was a nickname that resulted from a joke, but Bazzi seems to have used the name with pride. Some critics see in Sodomas Madonna in the Pinacoteca di Brera the direct influence of this master, in the Oratory of San Bernardino, are scenes from the history of the Virgin, painted in conjunction with Pacchia and Beccafumi. These frescoes depict the Visitation and the Assumption, in San Francesco are the Deposition from the Cross and Christ Scourged. Many critics regard one or the other of these paintings as Sodomas masterpiece, in the choir of the Pisa Cathedral is the Sacrifice of Abraham, and in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence a St. Sebastian. Some of his works, including the Holy Family now in the Pinacoteca and his easel pictures are rare, there are two in the National Gallery, London. C. Rape of the Sabine Women - Galleria Nazionale dArte Antica, Rome St, according to Vasari, the name by which Bazzi was known was Il Mattaccio, this epithet having been bestowed upon him by the monks of Monte Oliveto. He dressed gaudily, like a mountebank, and his house was a Noahs ark and he was a cracker of jokes, fond of music, and he sang poems composed by himself on indecorous subjects
13.
Baldassare Peruzzi
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Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi was an Italian architect and painter, born in a small town near Siena and died in Rome. He worked for years with Bramante, Raphael, and later Sangallo during the erection of the new St. Peters. He returned to his native Siena after the Sack of Rome where he was employed as architect to the Republic, for the Sienese he built new fortifications for the city and designed a remarkable dam on the Bruna River near Giuncarico. He seems to have moved back to Rome permanently by 1535 and he was a painter of frescoes in the Cappella San Giovanni in the Duomo of Siena. His son Giovanni Sallustio was also an architect, another son, Onorio, learned painting from his father, then became a Dominican priest in the convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. He then stopped painting until requested by his superiors at San Romano di Lucca to paint the organ doors of the church, almost all art critics ascribe the design of the Villa Chigi in Rome, now known more commonly as the Villa Farnesina, to Peruzzi. In this villa, two wings branch off from a hall with a simple arrangement of pilasters, and a decorative frieze on the exterior of the building. Some of the paintings which adorn the interior rooms are by Peruzzi. One example is the Sala delle Prospettive, in which Peruzzi revived the perspective schemers of Melozzo da Forli and Mantegna, possibly under the influence of both. The walls of the room are painted so that when one stands toward the left, one has the illusion that one is standing in a terrace, lined by pillars. The decoration of the façade, the work of Peruzzi, has almost entirely vanished, Raphael designed the composition of the story of Amor and Psyche as a continuation of the Galatea. On a plate-glass vault Peruzzi painted the firmament, with the signs, the planets. The interior room has a use of illusionistic perspective Peruzzi had produced a mosaic ceiling for the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome. Other paintings ascribed to him are to be found in SantOnofrio, the exterior details display a Mannerist-style. He made significant but unspecified contributions to what would become the Seven Books of Architecture, published in installments after Peruzzis death by his pupil and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. article name needed
14.
Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne
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The Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy. In addition the curved façade was dictated by foundations built upon the stands for the stadium of the emperor Domitian and it fronts the now-busy Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, a few hundred yards from the front of the church of SantAndrea della Valle. The entrance is characterized by a portico with six Doric columns, paired. Inside there are two courtyards, of which the first one has a portico with Doric columns as a basement for a rich loggia, the column decorations gave the name to the palace, alle Colonne. The façade is renowned as one of the most masterful of its time, the recessed entrance portico differs from typical palazzo models such as exemplified by the Florentine Palazzo Medici. In addition, there is a variation of size of windows for different levels, unlike the Palazzo Medici, there is no academic adherence to superimposition of orders, depending on the floor. On the opposite façade of this palace, opening onto the Piazzetta dei Massimo, the palace connects with the frescoed façade of the conjoined annex, for many centuries, this used to be the central post office of Rome, a Massimo family perquisite. To the left of the palace is the Palazzo di Pirro, the interior ceilings and vestibules are elaborately ornamented with rosettes and coffered roofs. The entrance ceiling is decorated with a fresco by Daniele da Volterra, who represented scenes from the Life of Fabio Massimo, the supposed Roman founder of the Massimo family. The chapel on the floor was a room where the 14-year-old Paolo Massimo. The interior of the palace is open to the public only on that day. Other notable events in the palace of the 16th century including various intrafamilial murders, photo — The palace is on the gentle curve of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, to the left and across the street of Santa Andrea della Valle
15.
Perino del Vaga
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Perino del Vaga was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance/Mannerism. His father ruined himself by gambling, and became a soldier in the army of Charles VIII. His mother died when he was but two old, but shortly afterwards he was taken up by his fathers second wife. Perino was first apprenticed to a druggist, but soon passed into the hands of a painter, Andrea de Ceri. Perino was one of Ghirlandaios most talented pupils, another mediocre painter, Vaga from Toscanella, undertook to settle the boy in Rome. Perino, when he at last reached Rome, was utterly poor and he was eventually entrusted with some of the subordinate work undertaken by Raphael in the Vatican. Some of these are in bronze-tint, while others are in full color and he also painted, after Raphaels drawings, figures of the planets in the great hall of the Appartamenti Borgia. Perino was soon regarded as his assistant, second only to Giulio Romano. To Raphael himself he was always exceedingly attentive and his solo works in the city include the hall of Palazzo Baldassini, a noble building in the center of the city, and the Pietà in the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco. After Raphaels death in 1520 and the plague of 1523, a troubled period ensued for Perino and he returned to Florence, and befriended Rosso Fiorentino and executed an admirable design of 10,000 Martyrs. In 1527 Andrea Doria invited Perino to Genoa to decorate the Palace of Fassolo, Perino accepted an invitation to Genoa, to help design decorate the newly rebuilt Palazzo del Principe for Andrea Doria. Fresco decoration began in 1529, starting with a now destroyed Quos Egos from the Aeneid, rapidly founded a quasi-Roman school of art in the Ligurian city. Among the principal works are, the War between the Gods and Giants, Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge, and the Fortitude of Mutius Scaevola, the most important work of all, the Shipwreck of Acneas, is no longer extant. From Genoa Perino twice visited Pisa, and began painting in the cathedral. A year later he returned to Rome and frescoed the Pucci Chapel in the Trinità dei Monti, pope Paul III granted him a regular salary. He retouched many works of Raphael, Perino was engaged in the general decoration of the Sala Reale, begun by Paul III when he died on October 19,1547, in Rome. He is buried in the Pantheon and his work in the Castel SantAngelo was continued by his student Pellegrino Tibaldi. Del Vagas style was renowned for his vitality and elegance and his paintings are considered important in the mediation between the Roman Raphaelesque tradition and the first Florentine Mannerism
16.
Crucifixion
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It is principally known from classical antiquity, but remains in occasional use in some countries. The crucifixion of Jesus is a narrative in Christianity. Ancient Greek has two verbs for crucify, ana-stauro, from stauros, stake, and apo-tumpanizo crucify on a plank, in earlier pre-Roman Greek texts anastauro usually means impale. New Testament Greek uses four verbs, three of them based upon stauros, usually translated cross, prospegnumi, to fix or fasten to, impale, crucify occurs only once at the Acts of the Apostles 2,23. The English term cross derives from the Latin word crux, the Latin term crux classically referred to a tree or any construction of wood used to hang criminals as a form of execution. The term later came to specifically to a cross. The English term crucifix derives from the Latin crucifixus or cruci fixus, past participle passive of crucifigere or cruci figere, Crucifixion was often performed in order to terrorize and dissuade its witnesses from perpetrating particularly heinous crimes. Victims were left on display after death as warnings to others who might attempt dissent, Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful, gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. Crucifixion methods varied considerably with location and time period, in some cases, the condemned was forced to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. A whole cross would weigh well over 135 kg, but the crossbeam would not be quite as burdensome, weighing around 45 kg. Upright posts would presumably be fixed permanently in place. Objects used in the crucifixion of criminals, such as nails, were sought as amulets with perceived medicinal qualities, while a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth or a covering of the genitals. Writings by Seneca the Younger state some victims suffered a stick forced upwards through their groin, despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators. Frequently, the legs of the executed were broken or shattered with an iron club, an act called crurifragium. This act hastened the death of the person but was meant to deter those who observed the crucifixion from committing offenses. The gibbet on which crucifixion was carried out could be of many shapes, at times the gibbet was only one vertical stake, called in Latin crux simplex. This was the simplest available construction for torturing and killing the condemned, frequently, however, there was a cross-piece attached either at the top to give the shape of a T or just below the top, as in the form most familiar in Christian symbolism
17.
San Marcello al Corso
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San Marcello al Corso, a church in Rome, Italy, is a titular church whose cardinal-protector normally holds the rank of cardinal-priest. The church, dedicated to Pope Marcellus I, is located just inset from Via del Corso, in ancient times called via Lata, and it stands diagonal from the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata and two doors from the Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso. While the tradition holds that the church was built over the prison of Pope Marcellus I, it is known that the Titulus Marcelli was present no later than 418, the Septiformis litany, commanded by Pope Gregory I in 590, saw the men moving from San Marcello. Pope Adrian I, in the 8th century, built a church on the same place, the corpse of Cola di Rienzo was held in the church for three days after his execution in 1354. On 22 May 1519, a fire destroyed the church, the money collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the landsknechts, who were pillaging the city during the Sack of Rome. The original plan to rebuild the church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, the work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, who rebuilt the church, but a Tiber flood damaged it again in 1530. It was only in 1592–1597 that the church was completed with a facade by Carlo Fontana, the exterior travertine statues were sculpted by Francesco Cavallini, and the stucco bas-relief over the entrance, with depicts San Filippo Benizio, was created by Antonio Raggi. Benizio had been a member of the Servite order, under the main altar, decorated with 12th century opus sectile, are the relics of several saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus as well as Digna and Emerita. The last chapel on the left is dedicated to St Philip Benizi, the late-Baroque decoration contains sculptures by Francesco Cavallini and reliefs by Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi. The first chapel on the left has the tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Michiel. Behind the facade is a Crucifixion by Giovanni Battista Ricci, the tomb of Cardinal Cennino was sculpted by Giovanni Francesco deRossi. Along the right, the first chapel of Marchese Maccarani holds an Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi, inside of the chapel has busts of Muzio, Roberto, Lelio Frangipane by Alessandro Algardi. In the third chapel on the left is a Doloroso by Pietro Paolo Naldini, Sacrifice of Isaac and discovery of Moses by Domenico Corvi, in the first, Madonna, the church is administered and owned by the Servite Order since 1369. San Marcello al Corso, Chris Nyborg, descrizione delle Pitture, Sculture e Architetture esposte in Roma. GCatholic Media related to San Marcello al Corso at Wikimedia Commons
18.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus
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Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator was a Roman politician and general, who was born in Rome around 280 BC and died in Rome in 203 BC. He was a Roman Consul five times and was twice appointed Dictator, in 221 and he reached the office of Roman Censor in 230 BC. His agnomen Cunctator means lingerer in Latin, and refers to his strategy in deploying troops during the Second Punic War. He is widely regarded as the father of guerrilla warfare due to his, at the time and his cognomen Verrucosus means warty, a reference to a wart above his upper lip. According to Fabius biographer Plutarch, Fabius possessed a mild temper, as a child, he had difficulties in learning, engaged in sports with other children cautiously and appeared submissive in his interactions with others. All the above were perceived by those who knew him superficially to be signs of inferiority, however, according to Plutarch, these traits proceeded from stability, greatness of mind, and lion-likeness of temper. During his first consulship, he was awarded a triumph for his victory over the Ligurians, a tribe of Gauls, whom he had defeated and then driven into the Alps. He might have participated in the First Punic War, the first of three wars fought between the Roman Republic and Ancient Carthage, although no details of his role are known, after the end of the war, he rapidly advanced his political career. He served twice as a Roman Consul and as a Roman Censor, in 218 BC, he took part in the embassy to Carthage. It was, according to Livy, Fabius himself who formally declared war on the Carthaginian Senate after the capture of Saguntum by Hannibal, however, it is likely that this is untrue and could very well have been Fabius Buteo, his kinsman. When the Consul Gaius Flaminius was killed during the disastrous Roman defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene, with Consular armies destroyed in two major battles, and Hannibal approaching Romes gates, the Romans feared the imminent destruction of their city. The Roman Senate decided to appoint a dictator, and chose Fabius for the role, in due to his advanced age. As Dictator, he did not get to appoint his own Master of the Horse, instead, then Fabius quickly sought to calm the Roman people by asserting himself as a strong Dictator at the moment of what was perceived to be the worst crisis in Roman history. He asked the Senate to allow him to ride on horseback, Plutarch tells us that Fabius believed that the disaster at Lake Trasimene was due, in part, to the fact that the gods had become neglected. Before that battle, a series of omens had been witnessed, including a series of lightning bolts and he had warned Flaminius of this, but Flaminius had ignored the warnings. And so Fabius, as Dictator, next sought to please the gods and he ordered a massive sacrifice of the whole product of the next harvest season throughout Italy, in particular that of cows, goats, swine, and sheep. In addition, he ordered that musical festivities be celebrated, Fabius was well aware of the Carthaginian military superiority, and so refused to meet Hannibal in a pitched battle. Instead, he kept his troops close to Hannibal, hoping to exhaust him in a war of attrition
19.
Pope Paul III
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Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope from 13 October 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527. He convened the Council of Trent in 1545 and he was a significant patron of the arts and employed nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family. It is to Pope Paul III that Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, alessandro’s humanist education was at the University of Pisa and the court of Lorenzo de Medici. Initially trained as a notary, he joined the Roman Curia in 1491. Farnese’s sister, Giulia was reputedly a mistress of Alexander VI, for this reason, he was sometimes mockingly referred to as the Borgia brother-in-law, just as Giulia was mocked as the Bride of Christ. More disparagingly he was referred to as Cardinal Fregnese, as Bishop of Parma, he came under the influence of his vicar general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni. This led to the future pope breaking off the relationship with his mistress, under Pope Clement VII he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and dean of the College of Cardinals, and on the death of Clement VII in 1534, was elected as Pope Paul III. As a young cleric, Alessandro lived a dissolute life, taking for himself a mistress. By Silvia Ruffini, he fathered Pier Luigi Farnese, whom he created Duke of Parma, others included Ranuccio Farnese, the fourth pope during the period of the Protestant Reformation, Paul III became the first to take active reform measures in response to Protestantism. Paul III first deferred for a year and then discarded the whole project, in 1536, Paul III invited nine eminent prelates, distinguished by learning and piety alike, to act in committee and to report on the reformation and rebuilding of the Church. This report was printed not only at Rome, but at Strasburg, yet the Pope was in earnest when he took up the problem of reform. Yet it is clear that the Concilium bore no fruit in the situation. On the other hand, serious political complications resulted, in order to vest his grandson Ottavio Farnese with the dukedom of Camerino, Paul forcibly wrested the same from the duke of Urbino. He also incurred virtual war with his own subjects and vassals by the imposition of burdensome taxes, perugia, renouncing its obedience, was besieged by Pauls son, Pier Luigi, and forfeited its freedom entirely on its surrender. The burghers of Colonna were duly vanquished, and Ascanio was banished, after this the time seemed ripe for annihilating heresy. In 1540, the Church officially recognized the young society forming about Ignatius of Loyola, the second visible stage in the process becomes marked by the institution, or reorganization, in 1542, of the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. On another side, the Emperor was insisting that Rome should forward his designs toward a recovery of the German Protestants
20.
Sala Regia (Vatican)
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The Sala Regia is a state hall in the Apostolic Palace, in Vatican City. Although not intended as such, this room is really an antechamber to the Sistine Chapel. To the left of the entrance formerly stood the papal throne, the hall was begun under Pope Paul III by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and was completed in 1573. The elegant barrel vault is graced by the very impressive plaster decorations of Perino del Vaga, the stucco ornaments over the doors are by Daniele da Volterra. The walls were decorated by Livio Agresti, Giorgio Vasari and Taddeo Zuccari, the hall was originally used for the reception of princes and royal ambassadors, hence its name. Index of Vatican City-related articles Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles
21.
Jesus
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In Christology, the Person of Christ refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they co-exist within one person. There is no discussion in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the days of Christianity theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures. In the period following the Apostolic Age, specific beliefs such as Arianism and Docetism were criticized. On the other end of the spectrum, Docetism argued that Jesus physical body was an illusion, docetic teachings were attacked by St. Ignatius of Antioch and were eventually abandoned by proto-orthodox Christians. However, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Logos, historically in the Alexandrian school of christology, Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos paradoxically humanized in history, a divine Person who became enfleshed, uniting himself to the human nature. The views of these schools can be summarized as follows, Alexandria, Antioch, Logos assumes a specific human being The First Council of Ephesus in 431 debated a number of views regarding the Person of Christ. At the same gathering the council debated the doctrines of monophysitism or miaphysitism. The council rejected Nestorianism and adopted the term hypostatic union, referring to divine, the language used in the 431 declaration was further refined at the 451 Council of Chalcedon. However, the Chalcedon creed was not accepted by all Christians, because Saint Augustine died in 430 he did not participate in the Council of Ephesus in 431 or Chalcedon in 451, but his ideas had some impact on both councils. On the other hand, the major theological figure of the Middle Ages. The Third Council of Constantinople in 680 held that both divine and human wills exist in Jesus, with the divine will having precedence, leading and guiding the human will. John Calvin maintained that there was no element in the Person of Christ which could be separated from the person of The Word. Calvin also emphasized the importance of the Work of Christ in any attempt at understanding the Person of Christ, the study of the Person of Christ continued into the 20th century, with modern theologians such as Karl Rahner and Hans von Balthasar. Balthasar argued that the union of the human and divine natures of Christ was achieved not by the absorption of human attributes, thus in his view the divine nature of Christ was not affected by the human attributes and remained forever divine
22.
The Deposition (Michelangelo)
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The Deposition is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo. The sculpture, on which Michelangelo worked between 1547 and 1555, depicts four figures, the body of Jesus Christ, newly taken down from the Cross, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene. The sculpture is housed in the Museo dellOpera del Duomo in Florence, according to Vasari, Michelangelo made the Florence Pietà to decorate his tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Vasari noted that Michelangelo began to work on the sculpture around the age of 72, without commission, Michelangelo worked tirelessly into the night with just a single candle to illuminate his work. Vasari wrote that he began to work on this piece to amuse his mind, after 8 years of working on the piece, Michelangelo would go on and attempt to destroy the work in a fit of frustration. Since its inception, the piece has been plagued by ambiguities and never ending interpretations, the face of Nicodemus under the hood is considered to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself. The composition of work has caused controversy and debate since its creation. Art historians have argued back and forth about what scene or scenes are being presented in this piece as well as the identity of the hooded figure encapsulating the scene. The only way to know which scenes or scenes are being depicted lies within the identity of the hooded figure. Right away, it is clear who the three figures are in this piece. The body of Christ just after his crucifixion in the middle, being assisted by a distraught Virgin Mary to his left, all three of the known figures are in some way helped by the hooded figure in supporting Christs body. The hooded figure can be one of two people, or even both, historians argue that the figure can either be Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus, the latter of which is most generally accepted. Conventionally speaking, Joseph of Arimathea is usually shown with a beard and broods over Christs head, on the other hand, this figure could be Nicodemus who is typically shown with some type of head covering, which would be the hood in this case. Both Joseph and Nicodemus had significant roles in Christs final days, Joseph gave up his own tomb for Christ to use and he helped remove Christs body from the cross. Nicodemus moreover, had a conversation with Christ about how one could be again and obtain eternal life. From that conversation on, Nicodemus became involved with Christ and also aided Joseph of Arimathea in Christs deposition. Since both Joseph and Nicodemus were involved in the deposition, there is an argument that that is the scene being shown, so much so that to some. Christs serpentine shaped body sulks heavily in the arms of his loved ones as if he was in the process of descending from the cross straight into his mothers arms
23.
Giulio Mazzoni
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Giulio Mazzoni was an Italian painter and stuccoist, active during the Renaissance period. He was born in Piacenza, but studied in Rome under Daniele da Volterra and he helped decorate the Palazzo Spada. He also painted a canvas of the Four Evangelists for the Cathedral of Piacenza, one of the major works in his oeuvre is the Theodoli Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo which is a gem of Roman Mannerism. Mazzoni was commissioned by Traiano Alicorni in 1555 to decorate his chapel in the basilica, the work was restarted by a new patron, Girolamo Theodoli, the Bishop of Cádiz after 1569 and finished around 1575. Mazzoni created a harmonious and iconographically coherent ensemble of delicate stuccos, frescos and he was probably related to the sculptor Guido Mazzoni. Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves, ed, dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Giulio Mazzoni de Piacenza, Pittore e Scultore
24.
Raphael
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Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running a large workshop and, despite his death at 37. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, the best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings and he was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region and his poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture, growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a humanistic education however, it is unclear how easily he read Latin. His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1,1494 by his father, Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven, his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master and he had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great help to his father. A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity and his fathers workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter, and Luca Signorelli, according to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, an alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters, the Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a master, that is to say fully trained and his first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was named in the commission
25.
Transfiguration (Raphael)
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The Transfiguration is the last painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael. Commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de Medici, the later Pope Clement VII and conceived as an altarpiece for the Narbonne Cathedral in France, the painting exemplifies Raphaels development as an artist and the culmination of his career. Unusually for a depiction of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Christian art, the Transfiguration stands as an allegory of the transformative nature of representation. It is now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Vatican City, by December 1516, the latest date of commission, Cardinal Giulio de Medici, cousin to Pope Leo X, was also the Popes vice-chancellor and chief advisor. He had been endowed with the legation of Bologna, the bishoprics of Albi, Ascoli, Worcester, Eger, from February 1515, this included the archbishopric of Narbonne. He commissioned two paintings for the cathedral of Narbonne, The Transfiguration of Christ from Raphael and The Raising of Lazarus from Sebastiano del Piombo. With Michelangelo providing drawings for the work, Medici was rekindling the rivalry initiated a decade earlier between Michelangelo and Raphael, in the Stanze and Sistine Chapel. From 11 to 12 December 1516, Michelangelo was in Rome to discuss with Pope Leo X and Cardinal Medici the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. During this meeting, he was confronted with the commission of The Raising of Lazarus and it was here that he agreed to provide drawings for the endeavour, the commission went to Michelangelos friend Sebastiano del Piombo. As of this meeting the paintings would become emblematic of a paragone between two approaches to painting, and between painting and sculpture in Italian art. An early modello for the painting, done in Raphaels studio by Giulio Romano, here Christ is shown on Mount Tabor. Moses and Eljah float towards him, John and James are kneeling to the right, the top of the model depicts God the Father and a throng of angels. A second modello, done by Gianfrancesco Penni, shows a design with two scenes, as the painting was to develop and this modello is held by the Louvre. The Raising of Lazarus was unofficially on view by October 1518, by this time Raphael had barely started on his altarpiece. By the time Sebastiano del Piombos work was inspected in the Vatican by Leo X on Sunday,11 December 1519. A surviving modello for the project, now in the Louvre shows the change in the intended work. Examination of the final Transfiguration revealed more than sixteen incomplete areas, an important theory holds that the writings of Blessed Amadeo Menes da Silva was key to the transformation. Amadeo was a friar, healer and visionary as well as the Pope’s confessor
26.
Domenichino
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Domenico Zampieri, known as Domenichino for his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese or Carracci School of painters. Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoemaker, and he left Bologna for Rome in 1602 and became one of the most talented apprentices to emerge from Annibale Carraccis supervision. As a young artist in Rome he lived with his slightly older Bolognese colleagues Albani and Guido Reni, and worked alongside Lanfranco, meanwhile, he had completed frescoes c. Following Annibale Carraccis death in 1609, Annibales Bolognese pupils, foremost Domenichino, Albani, Reni and Lanfranco, became the leading painters in Rome. One of Domenichinos masterpieces, his frescoes of Scenes of the Life of Saint Cecilia in the Polet Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, was commissioned in 1612 and completed in 1615. Concurrently he painted his first, and most celebrated, altarpiece and it subsequently would be judged as being comparable to Raphaels great Transfiguration and even as the best picture in the world. With the election of a Bolognese pope in 1621, Domenichino returned to Rome, appointed Papal Architect, he nonetheless continued to be most active as a painter, obtaining many commissions for altarpieces in Roman churches. His Scenes from the Life of San Gennaro occupied him for the rest of his life and he painted four large lunettes, four pendentives, and twelve scenes in the soffits of the arches, all in fresco, plus three large altarpieces in oil on copper. He died, perhaps by poison at the hands of the jealous Cabal of Naples, before completing the fourth altarpiece or the cupola, at the time of his death, Domenichinos chief assistant was an obscure painter from Assisi, Francesco Raspantino, who inherited his masters studio. Earlier, Domenichinos principal pupils were Alessandro Fortuna, Giovanni Battista Ruggieri, Antonio Alberti called Barbalonga, Francesco Cozza, Andrea Camassei, others who studied in his studio include Poussin, Pietro Testa, and his future biographer, Giovanni Pietro Bellori. The portrait of Agucchi in York used to be attributed to Domenichino, Imitation in this sense is not copying but a creative process inspired by rhetorical theory whereby revered models are not only emulated but surpassed. Jerome from an altarpiece of the subject in Bologna by his former teacher. Like Domenichinos paintings, its sources were in ancient models and aimed at clarity of expression capable of moving its audience, as the Florentine composer Giulio Caccini held and Domenichino surely believed, the aim of the composer/artist was to move the passion of the mind. To achieve that goal, Domenichino paid particular attention to expressive gestures, Domenichinos composite score of 58 nonetheless was surpassed only by Raphael and Rubens, and it equalled that of the Carracci. The Balance reflects Domenichinos high standing in the history of European taste— until John Ruskin in the 1840s wrote his devastating attacks on Bolognese Baroque painting in his Modern Painters, the Carracci and their followers were condemned by Ruskin as being insincere. For Ruskin, there was no entirely sincere nor any great art from the seventeenth century, in 1996 the first major exhibition of his work was held at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. 1620, Royal Collection, Hampton Court Madonna of Loreto with Saints John the Baptist, Paterniano, 1618–19, North Carolina Museum of Art) Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1620–21, Louvre, Paris Martyrdom of St Peter Martyr, c, 1622-23, Louvre, Paris Saint Ignatius de Loyola’s Vision of Christ and God the Father, c
27.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
28.
Uffizi
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The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, the construction was later continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1581. The niches in the piers that alternate with columns filled with sculptures of artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices, the Tribunal and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive. He commissioned from the architect Buontalenti the design of the Tribuna degli Uffizi that collected a series of masterpieces in one room, over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, because of its huge collection, some of its works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the exhibition space some 6,000 metres² to almost 13,000 metres². On 27 May 1993, a car exploded in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace. The most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, the identity of the bomber or bombers are unknown, although it was almost certainly attributable to the Sicilian Mafia who were engaged in a period of terrorism at that time. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence, in high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm, the Gallery was partially flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, and the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence severely. Here is a selection from the collection, The collection also contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project
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Florence
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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
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Death mask
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A death mask is an image, typically in wax or plaster cast made of a persons face following death, often by taking a cast or impression directly from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits, in other cultures a death mask may be a funeral mask, an image placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites, and normally buried with them. The best known of these are the used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamuns mask. In some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals, mourning portraits were also painted, showing the subject lying in repose. During the 18th and 19th centuries masks were used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was replaced by post-mortem photography. In the cases of people whose faces were damaged by their death, an example of this occurred in the case of Thomas DArcy McGee, the Canadian statesman whose face was shattered by the bullet which assassinated him in 1868. When taken from a subject, such a cast is called a life mask. Proponents of phrenology used both death masks and life masks for pseudoscientific purposes, masks of deceased persons are part of traditions in many countries. A special element of the rite was a mask, put on the face of the deceased. This mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy, the best known mask is Tutankhamuns mask. Made of gold and gems, the conveys the highly stylized features of the ancient ruler. Such masks were not, however, made from casts of the features, rather, in 1876 the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered in Mycenae six graves, which he was confident belonged to kings and ancient Greek heroes—Agamemnon, Cassandra, Evrimdon and their associates. To his surprise, the skulls were covered with gold masks and it is now thought most unlikely that the masks actually belonged to Agamemnon and other heroes of the Homeric epics, in fact they are several centuries older. The lifelike character of Roman portrait sculptures has been attributed to the earlier Roman use of wax to preserve the features of deceased family members, the wax masks were subsequently reproduced in more durable stone. The use of masks in the cult is also attested in Etruria. Excavations of tombs in the area of the ancient city of Clusium have yielded a number of sheet bronze masks dating from the Etruscan Late Orientalising period. In the 19th century it was thought that they were related to the Mycenaean examples, the most credited hypothesis holds that they were originally fixed to cinerary urns, to give them a human appearance
31.
Belvedere (structure)
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A belvedere /ˈbɛlvᵻdɪər/ or belvidere is an architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fine or scenic view. While a belvedere may be built in the part of a building the actual structure can be of any form, whether a turret. Or it may be a pavilion in a garden, or the term may be used for a paved terrace with a good viewpoint. It may also be used for a building, as in the Belvedere, Vienna, a huge palace, or Belvedere Castle. On the hillside above the Vatican Palace, Antonio Pollaiuolo built a pavilion named the palazzetto or the Belvedere for Pope Innocent VIII. This began the fashion in the 16th century for the belvedere, Belvedere, a picture by M. C. Escher which shows an impossible belvedere Widows walk Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
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Bronze
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These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as stiffness, ductility, or machinability. The archeological period where bronze was the hardest metal in use is known as the Bronze Age. In the ancient Near East this began with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with India and China starting to use bronze around the same time, everywhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BC and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BC, the discovery of bronze enabled people to create metal objects which were harder and more durable than previously possible. Bronze tools, weapons, armor, and building such as decorative tiles were harder and more durable than their stone. It was only later that tin was used, becoming the major ingredient of bronze in the late 3rd millennium BC. Tin bronze was superior to arsenic bronze in that the process could be more easily controlled. Also, unlike arsenic, metallic tin and fumes from tin refining are not toxic, the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to 4500 BCE in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik. Other early examples date to the late 4th millennium BC in Africa, Susa and some ancient sites in China, Luristan, ores of copper and the far rarer tin are not often found together, so serious bronze work has always involved trade. Tin sources and trade in ancient times had a influence on the development of cultures. In Europe, a source of tin was the British deposits of ore in Cornwall. In many parts of the world, large hoards of bronze artefacts are found, suggesting that bronze also represented a store of value, in Europe, large hoards of bronze tools, typically socketed axes, are found, which mostly show no signs of wear. With Chinese ritual bronzes, which are documented in the inscriptions they carry and from other sources and these were made in enormous quantities for elite burials, and also used by the living for ritual offerings. Pure iron is soft, and the process of beating and folding sponge iron to wrought iron removes from the metal carbon. Careful control of the alloying and tempering eventually allowed for wrought iron with properties comparable to modern steel, Bronze was still used during the Iron Age, and has continued in use for many purposes to the modern day. Among other advantages, it does not rust, the weaker wrought iron was found to be sufficiently strong for many uses. Archaeologists suspect that a disruption of the tin trade precipitated the transition. The population migrations around 1200–1100 BC reduced the shipping of tin around the Mediterranean, limiting supplies, there are many different bronze alloys, but typically modern bronze is 88% copper and 12% tin
33.
Equestrian statue
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An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin eques, meaning knight, deriving from equus, meaning horse. A statue of a horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a difficult and expensive object for any culture to produce, Equestrian statuary in the West goes back at least as far as Archaic Greece. Found on the Athenian acropolis, the sixth century BC statue known as the Rampin Rider depicts a kouros mounted on horseback, a number of ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Persian reliefs show mounted figures, usually rulers, though no free standing statues are known. The Chinese Terracotta Army has no mounted riders, though cavalrymen stand beside their mounts, the Regisole was a bronze classical or Late Antique equestrian monument of a ruler, highly influential during the Italian Renaissance but destroyed in 1796 in the wake of the French Revolution. It was originally erected at Ravenna, but removed to Pavia in the Middle Ages, a fragment of an equestrian portrait sculpture of Augustus has also survived. Equestrian statues were not very frequent in the Middle ages, nevertheless, there are some examples, like the Bamberg Horseman, located in Bamberg Cathedral. Another example is the Magdeburg Reiter, in the city of Magdeburg, there are a few roughly half-size statues of Saint George and the Dragon, including the famous ones in Prague and Stockholm. The Scaliger Tombs in Verona include Gothic statues at less than lifesize, a well-known small bronze in Paris may be a contemporary portrait of Charlemagne, although its date and subject are uncertain. Leonardo da Vinci had planned an equestrian monument to the Milanese ruler. The The Wax Horse and Rider is a model for an equestrian statue of Charles dAmboise. Titians equestrian portrait of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor of 1548 applied the form again to a ruler, taccas studio would produce such models for the rulers in France and Spain. His last public commission was the equestrian bronze of Philip IV, begun in 1634. The near life-size equestrian statue of Charles I of England by Hubert Le Sueur of 1633 at Charing Cross in London is the earliest large English example, which was followed by many. The Bronze Horseman is an equestrian statue, on a huge base, of Peter the Great of 1782 by Étienne Maurice Falconet in Saint Petersburg. Mills was the first American sculptor to overcome the challenge of casting a rider on a rearing horse, the resulting sculpture was so popular he repeated it, for Washington, D. C. New Orleans, Louisiana and Nashville, Tennessee, cyrus Edwin Dallin made a specialty of equestrian sculptures of American Indians, his Appeal to the Great Spirit stands before the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Robert Gould Shaw Monument in Boston, Massachusetts is a famous relief including an equestrian portrait, as the 20th century progressed, the popularity of the equestrian monument declined sharply, as monarchies fell, and the military use of horses virtually vanished
34.
Henry II of France
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Henry II was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis III, Duke of Brittany, as a child, Henry and his elder brother spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages in exchange for their father. Henry pursued his fathers policies in matter of arts, wars and he persevered in the Italian Wars against the House of Habsburg and tried to suppress the Protestant Reformation, even as the Huguenot numbers were increasing drastically in France during his reign. Henry suffered a death in a jousting tournament held to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis at the conclusion of the Eighth Italian War. The kings surgeon, Ambroise Paré, was unable to cure the infected wound inflicted by Gabriel de Montgomery and he was succeeded in turn by three of his sons, whose ineffective reigns helped to spark the French Wars of Religion between Protestants and Catholics. Henry was born in the royal Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris and his father was captured at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 by the forces of his sworn enemy, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and held prisoner in Spain. To obtain his release, it was agreed that Henry and his brother be sent to Spain in his place. They remained in captivity for four years. Henry married Catherine de Medici, a member of the family of Florence, on 28 October 1533. The following year, he became involved with a thirty-five-year-old widow. They had always very close, she had publicly embraced him on the day he set off to Spain. Diane became Henrys mistress and most trusted confidante and, for the next years, wielded considerable influence behind the scenes. Extremely confident, mature and intelligent, she left Catherine powerless to intervene and she did, however, insist that Henry sleep with Catherine in order to produce heirs to the throne. When his elder brother Francis, the Dauphin and Duke of Brittany, died in 1536 after a game of tennis and he succeeded his father on his 28th birthday and was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 at Reims Cathedral. Henrys reign was marked by wars with Austria and the persecution of Protestants, Henry II severely punished them, particularly the ministers, for example by burning at the stake or cutting off their tongues for uttering heresies. Even those only suspected of being Huguenots could be imprisoned and it also strictly regulated publications by prohibiting the sale, importation or printing of any unapproved book. It was during the reign of Henry II that Huguenot attempts at establishing a colony in Brazil were made, persecution of Protestants at home did not prevent Henry II from becoming allied with German Protestant princes at the Treaty of Chambord in 1552. Simultaneously, the continuation of his fathers Franco-Ottoman alliance allowed Henry II to push for French conquests towards the Rhine while a Franco-Ottoman fleet defended southern France, an early offensive into Lorraine was successful
35.
Louis XIII of France
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Louis XIII was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. Shortly before his birthday, Louis became king of France. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during his minority, Louis XIII, taciturn and suspicious, relied heavily on his chief ministers, first Charles dAlbert, duc de Luynes then Cardinal Richelieu, to govern the kingdom of France. King and cardinal are remembered for establishing the Académie française, the reign of Louis the Just was also marked by the struggles against Huguenots and Habsburg Spain. This battle marked the end of Spains military ascendancy in Europe and foreshadowed French dominance in Europe under Louis XIV, his son, born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the oldest child of King Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de Medici. As son of the king, he was a Fils de France and his father Henry IV was the first French king of the House of Bourbon, having succeeded his ninth cousin, Henry III of France, in application of Salic law. Louis XIIIs paternal grandparents were Antoine de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme and his maternal grandparents were Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Eleonora de Medici, his aunt, was his godmother. His mother Marie de Medici acted as Regent until 1617, although Louis XIII became of age at thirteen, his mother did not give up her position as Regent until 1617. Marie maintained most of her husbands ministers, with the exception of Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully and she mainly relied on Nicolas de Neufville, seigneur de Villeroy, Noël Brûlart de Sillery, and Pierre Jeannin for political advice. Marie pursued a policy, confirming the Edict of Nantes. She was not, however, able to prevent rebellion by nobles such as Henri, Prince of Condé second in line to the throne after Maries second surviving son Gaston, Duke of Orléans. Condé squabbled with Marie in 1614, and briefly raised an army, but he found support in the country. Nevertheless, Marie agreed to call an Estates General assembly to address Condés grievances, the assembly of this Estates General was delayed until Louis XIII formally came of age on his thirteenth birthday. Although Louiss coming-of-age formally ended Maries Regency, she remained the de facto ruler of France, the Estates General accomplished little, spending its time discussing the relationship of France to the Papacy and the venality of offices, but reaching no resolutions. Beginning in 1615, Marie came to rely increasingly on the Italian Concino Concini, Concini was widely unpopular because he was a foreigner. This further antagonised Condé, who launched another rebellion in 1616, Huguenot leaders supported Condés rebellion, which led the young Louis XIII to conclude that they would never be loyal subjects. Eventually, Condé and Queen Marie made peace via the Treaty of Loudun, which allowed Condé great power in government, but did not remove Concini
36.
Place des Vosges
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The Place des Vosges, originally Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris and one of the finest in the city. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. It was a fashionable and expensive square to live in during the 17th and 18th centuries, originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square, it embodied the first European program of city planning. It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens, at a tournament at the Tournelles, catherine de Medicis had the Gothic complex demolished, and she moved to the Louvre Palace. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the ceilings that the galleries were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the center the north and south faces. The Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created an urban background for the French aristocracy. The square was often the place for the nobility to chat and this was so until the Revolution. Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out, Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the center. In the late 18th century, while most of the nobility moved to the Faubourg Saint-Germain district and it was renamed in 1799 when the département of the Vosges became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army. The Restoration returned the old name, but the short-lived Second Republic restored the revolutionary one in 1848. Today the square is planted with a bosquet of mature lindens set in grass and gravel, residents of the Place des Vosges No. 1bis Madame de Sevigné was born here No,9, seat of l Académie darchitecture, currently also tenanted by Galerie Historisimus No.11 occupied from 1639-1648 by the courtesan Marion Delorme No.14. Its ceilings painted by Lebrun are reinstalled in the Musée Carnavalet, rabbi David Feuerwerker, Antoinette Feuerwerker and Atara Marmor No.15 Marguerite Louise dOrléans, wife of Cosimo III de Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. No.17 former residence of Bossuet No.21 Cardinal Richelieu from 1615 to 1627 No.23 post-impressionist painter Georges Dufrénoy No, archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Satellite image from Google Maps http, //www. letthemtalk. com/html/pariswalks/placedesvosges. html Place des Vosges audio tour dans le parc
37.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
38.
Teylers Museum
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Teylers Museum is an art, natural history, and science museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. Established in 1778, Teylers Museum was founded as a centre for contemporary art, the historic centre of the museum is the neoclassical Oval Room, which was built behind the house of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, the so-called Fundatiehuis. Pieter Teyler was a cloth merchant and banker of Scottish descent, who bequeathed his fortune for the advancement of religion, art. He was a Mennonite and follower of the Scottish Enlightenment, in his will, Pieter Teyler stipulated that his collection and part of his fortune should be used to establish a foundation for their promotion, Teylers Stichting. The executors of Teylers will, the first directors of Teylers Stichting, decided to establish a centre for study, under a single roof, it would house all manner of suitable artifacts, such as books, scientific instruments, drawings, fossils, and minerals. The concept was based on a revolutionary ideal derived from the Enlightenment, in 1779, Leendert Viervant started on the design of an art and book room behind Teyler’s residence. The Oval room was opened in 1784, with the scientist Martin van Marum as its first director, a showcase in the centre displays a mineralogical collection from the 18th century and the showcases around hold 18th-century scientific instruments. The upper gallery, which was designed to let in the amount of light for viewing purposes, has 12 built-in bookcases, largely containing period encyclopaedias. Over the ensuing centuries, the museum was gradually extended, the arrangement of each new part was consistent with the insights of the day, thereafter it remained almost wholly unchanged. In the 19th century, the museum was expanded with two painting galleries, Teylers First Painting Gallery in 1838 and Paintings Gallery II in 1892, in 1878, to mark the first centenary, a new entrance on the Spaarne was designed by the Viennese architect Christian Ulrich. The rooms behind it – the Instrument Room, and Fossil Rooms I, at the same time, the library was extended and a 150-seat auditorium was added. Over a century later, in 1996, a new wing was added. In 2002, a property was added to the museum to serve as the museum shop. Teylers Museum displays a collection of fossils, minerals, scientific instruments, medals, coins. In his own contribution to the development of the natural sciences, to study fossils, he purchased fossil material such as the Mosasaurus. To demonstrate the principles of hydraulics, he commissioned models of mills, to disseminate natural and cultural knowledge, public experiments were conducted, such as those with van Marum’s large electrostatic generator built in 1784 by John Cuthbertson in Amsterdam. Lectures were given and scientific literature published, similarly, the museum contains nearly the complete graphic work of Rembrandt and Adriaen van Ostade. Teylers Museum holds a collection of more than 10,000 master drawings, various parts of the prints and drawings collection are shown in rotation in a specially prepared room for prints and drawings built behind the Oval Room
39.
Haarlem
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Haarlem is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland and is situated at the edge of the Randstad. Haarlem had a population of 155,758 in 2014 and it is a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam, and many residents commute to the countrys capital for work. Haarlem was granted city status or stadsrechten in 1245, although the first city walls were not built until 1270, the modern city encompasses the former municipality of Schoten as well as parts that previously belonged to Bloemendaal and Heemstede. Apart from the city, the municipality of Haarlem also includes the part of the village of Spaarndam. Newer sections of Spaarndam lie within the municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude. The city is located on the river Spaarne, about 20 km west of Amsterdam and it has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears the nickname Bloemenstad, for this reason. Haarlem has a history dating back to pre-medieval times, as it lies on a thin strip of land above sea level known as the strandwal. The people on this strip of land struggled against the waters of the North Sea from the west, and the waters of the IJ. Haarlem became wealthy with toll revenues that it collected from ships, however, as shipping became increasingly important economically, the city of Amsterdam became the main Dutch city of North Holland during the Dutch Golden Age. The town of Halfweg became a suburb, and Haarlem became a bedroom community. Nowadays many of them are on the Dutch Heritage register known as Rijksmonuments, the list of Rijksmonuments in Haarlem gives an overview of these per neighbourhood, with the majority in the old city centre. The oldest mentioning of Haarlem dates from the 10th century, the name probably comes from Haarlo-heim. This name is composed of three elements, haar, lo and heim, there is not much dispute about the meaning of lo and heim, in Old Dutch toponyms lo always refers to forest and heim to home or house. Haar, however, has several meanings, one of them corresponding with the location of Haarlem on a sand dune, the name Haarlem or Haarloheim would therefore mean home on a forested dune. There was a stream called De Beek, dug from the peat grounds west of the river Spaarne as a drainage canal, over the centuries the Beek was turned into an underground canal, as the city grew larger and the space was needed for construction. Over time it began to silt up and in the 19th century it was filled in, the location of the village was a good one, by the river Spaarne, and by a major road going south to north. By the 12th century it was a town, and Haarlem became the residence of the Counts of Holland
40.
Catholic Encyclopedia
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The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index volume in 1914 and later supplementary volumes. It was designed to give its readers full and authoritative information on the cycle of Catholic interests, action. The Catholic Encyclopedia was published by the Robert Appleton Company, a company incorporated at New York in February 1905 for the express purpose of publishing the encyclopedia. The five members of the encyclopedias Editorial Board also served as the directors of the company, in 1912 the companys name was changed to The Encyclopedia Press. Publication of the volumes was the sole business conducted by the company during the projects lifetime. The encyclopedia was designed to serve the Roman Catholic Church, concentrating on information related to the Church and it records the accomplishments of Catholics and others in nearly all intellectual and professional pursuits, including artists, educators, poets and scientists. The volumes came out sequentially the first two in 1907 and the last three in 1912, The editors had their first editorial meeting at the office of The Messenger, on West 16th Street, New York City. The text received a nihil obstat from an official censor, Remy Lafort, on November 1,1908 and this review process was presumably accelerated by the reuse of older authorized publications. A first supplement was published in 1922, a supplement in nine loose-leaf sections was published by The Gilmary Society between 1950 and 1958. In 1912, a special completely illustrated commemorative volume was awarded to patrons who contributed to the start of the enterprise by buying multiple encyclopedia sets early on. The encyclopedia was later updated under the auspices of The Catholic University of America and a 17-volume New Catholic Encyclopedia was first published in 1967, and then in 2002. The Catholic Encyclopedia and its makers states that, The work is entirely new, the editors have insisted that the articles should contain the latest and most accurate information to be obtained from the standard works on each subject. Those who wrote new articles in English include Anthony Maas and Herbert Thurston, under United States copyright law, all works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain. Knight founded the website New Advent to house the undertaking, volunteers from the United States, Canada, France, and Brazil helped in the transcription of the original material. The site went online in 1995, and transcription work ended in 1997, in 2007, Catholic Answers published a watermarked version derived from page scans. This version has since replaced with a transcription of the Encyclopedia similar to that found at the New Advent website. The Catholic Answers transcription, however, is a transcription of the original text, whereas the New Advent version at times modernizes certain words. Other scanned copies of the 1913 Encyclopedia are available on Google Books, at the Internet Archive, wikisource also hosts a transcription project backed by the scans hosted at Commons
41.
Breaking wheel
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As a form of execution, it was used from classical times into the 18th century, as a form of post mortem punishment of the criminal, the wheel was still in use in 19th-century Germany. The wheel was typically a wooden wagon wheel with many radial spokes. The condemned were lashed to the wheel and their limbs were beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the limbs to give way, a wheel was sometimes used for the actual bludgeoning. During the execution for parricide of Franz Seuboldt in Nuremberg on 22 September 1589, the executioner used wooden blocks to raise Seuboldts limbs, then broke them by slamming a wagon wheel down onto the limb. The survival time after being broken could be extensive, accounts exist of a 14th-century murderer who lived for three days after undergoing the punishment. In 1348, during the time of the Black Death, a Jew named Bona Dies underwent the punishment, the authorities stated he lived for four days and nights afterwards. In 1581, German serial killer Christman Genipperteinga lived for nine days on the wheel before expiring, having been deliberately kept alive with strong drink. Pieter Spierenburg mentions a reference in sixth-century author Gregory of Tours as an origin for the punishment of breaking someone on the wheel. In Gregorys time, a criminal could be placed in a deep track, thus, the latter practice could be seen as a symbolic re-enactment of the previous penalty in which people were literally driven over by a wagon. In France, the condemned were placed on a cartwheel with their limbs stretched out along the spokes over two sturdy wooden beams. The wheel was made to slowly, and a large hammer or an iron bar was then applied to the limb over the gap between the beams, breaking the bones. This process was repeated several times per limb, sometimes it was mercifully ordered that the executioner should strike the condemned on the chest and abdomen, blows known as coups de grâce, which caused fatal injuries. Without those, the man could last hours and even days. Eventually, shock and dehydration caused death, in France, a special grace, the retentum, could be granted, by which the condemned was strangled after the second or third blow, or in special cases, even before the breaking began. In the Holy Roman Empire, the wheel was punishment reserved primarily for men convicted of aggravated murder, less severe offenders would be cudgelled top down, with a lethal first blow to the neck. More heinous criminals were punished bottom up, starting with the legs, the number and sequence of blows was specified in the courts sentence. Corpses were left for carrion-eaters, and the criminals heads often placed on a spike, the wheel is then slammed two times on each arm, one blow above the elbow, the other below. Then, each leg gets the treatment, above and below the knees
42.
Sistine Chapel
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The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected, the fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo. In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned, the fame of Michelangelos paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, there were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet. Of these 50 occasions,35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, in general St. Peters and these included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, the Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV, this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, the Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. The proportions of the present chapel appear to follow those of the original. The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir, for whom much original music has been written, one of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, if white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time attended by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican, until the Great Schism, canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name, at this time, until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Its exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as is common in many Italian churches of the Medieval, subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the appearance of the Chapel. The building is divided into three stories of which the lowest is a tall basement level with several utilitarian windows
43.
Council of Trent
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The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Churchs most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. Four hundred years later, when Pope John XXIII initiated preparations for the Second Vatican Council, he affirmed the decrees it had issued, What was, still is. These addressed a range of subjects, including scripture, the Biblical canon, sacred tradition, original sin, justification, salvation, the sacraments, the Mass. The Council met for twenty-five sessions between 13 December 1545 and 4 December 1563, all in Trento, apart from the ninth to eleventh sessions held in Bologna during 1547, the consequences of the Council were also significant as regards the Churchs liturgy and practices. During its deliberations, the Council made the Vulgate the official example of the Biblical canon and commissioned the creation of a standard version, although this was not achieved until the 1590s. These, in turn, led to the codification of the Tridentine Mass, more than three hundred years passed until the next ecumenical council, the First Vatican Council, was convened in 1869. A few months later, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther issued his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, after the Pope condemned in Exsurge Domine fifty-two of Luthers theses as heresy, German opinion considered a council the best method to reconcile existing differences. German Catholics, diminished in number, hoped for a council to clarify matters. Under Pope Clement VII, troops of the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked Papal Rome in 1527, raping, killing, burning, stealing, saint Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel were used for horses. This, together with the Pontiffs ambivalence between France and Germany, led to his hesitation, Charles V strongly favoured a council, but needed the support of King Francis I of France, who attacked him militarily. This proposal met the opposition of the Pope for it gave recognition to Protestants, faced with a Turkish attack, Charles held the support of the Protestant German rulers, all of whom delayed the opening of the Council of Trent. In reply to the Papal bull Exsurge Domine of Pope Leo X, Martin Luther burned the document, in 1522 German diets joined in the appeal, with Charles V seconding and pressing for a council as a means of reunifying the Church and settling the Reformation controversies. Pope Clement VII was vehemently against the idea of a council, after Pope Pius II, in his bull Execrabilis and his reply to the University of Cologne, set aside the theory of the supremacy of general councils laid down by the Council of Constance. Pope Paul III, seeing that the Protestant Reformation was no longer confined to a few preachers, yet when he proposed the idea to his cardinals, it was almost unanimously opposed. Nonetheless, he sent nuncios throughout Europe to propose the idea, Paul III issued a decree for a general council to be held in Mantua, Italy, to begin on 23 May 1537. Martin Luther wrote the Smalcald Articles in preparation for the general council, the Smalcald Articles were designed to sharply define where the Lutherans could and could not compromise. The council was ordered by the Emperor and Pope Paul III to convene in Mantua on 23 May 1537 and it failed to convene after another war broke out between France and Charles V, resulting in a non-attendance of French prelates
44.
Catherine of Alexandria
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According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian around the age of fourteen, and converted hundreds of people to Christianity. She was martyred around the age of 18, over 1,100 years following her martyrdom, Saint Joan of Arc identified Catherine as one of the Saints who appeared to her and counselled her. The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates her as a Great Martyr, in the Catholic Church she is traditionally revered as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. In 1969 the Catholic Church removed her feast day from the General Roman Calendar, however, in 2002, her feast was restored to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial. According to the narrative, Catherine was the daughter of Constus. From a young age she devoted herself to study, a vision of the Madonna and Child persuaded her to become a Christian. When the persecutions began under Maxentius, she went to the emperor, the emperor summoned fifty of the best pagan philosophers and orators to dispute with her, hoping that they would refute her pro-Christian arguments, but Catherine won the debate. Several of her adversaries, conquered by her eloquence, declared themselves Christians and were at once put to death, upon the failure of Maxentius to make Catherine yield by way of torture, he tried to win the beautiful and wise princess over by proposing marriage. The saint refused, declaring that her spouse was Jesus Christ, the furious emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered. A tradition dating to about 800 states that carried her corpse to Mount Sinai. Her body was discovered around the year 800 at Mount Sinai, with hair still growing, in the 6th century, the Eastern Emperor Justinian had established what is now Saint Catherines Monastery in Egypt. Although Eusebius did not name the woman, she had identified with Dorothea of Alexandria. It is also referred to as Saint Helens Chapel, the main church was built between 548 and 565, and the monastery became a major pilgrimage site for devotees of Catherine and the other relics and sacred sites there. Saint Catherines Monastery survives, and is a repository of early Christian art, architecture and illuminated manuscripts that remains open to tourists. The site is sacred to Christianity and Islam, there is no evidence that Katherine herself was a historical figure and she may well have been a composite drawn from memories of women persecuted for their faith. Many aspects of her Passio are clearly legendary and conform to well-known hagiographical topoi, rufinus states that her first name was Dorothea, and that at her christening she acquired the name Aikaterina, a name that signifies her pure, clean and uncontaminated nature. There are several pilgrimage narratives that chronicle the journey to Mount Sinai, most notably those of John Mandeville, however, the monastery at Mount Sinai was the best-known site of Catherine pilgrimage, but was also the most difficult to reach. The most prominent Western shrine was the monastery in Rouen that claimed to house Catherines fingers and it was not alone in the west, however, accompanied by many, scattered shrines and altars dedicated to Catherine, which existed throughout France and England
45.
Saint Blaise
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Saint Blaise, was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea in historical Armenia. According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron combs and he is the patron saint of wool combers. In the Latin Church his feast falls on 3 February, in the Eastern Churches on 11 February, marco Polo reported the place where Meeser Saint Blaise obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom, Sebastea, the shrine near the citadel mount was mentioned by William of Rubruck in 1253. However, it appears to no longer exist, from being a healer of bodily ailments, Saint Blaise became a physician of souls, then retired for a time to a cavern where he remained in prayer. As bishop of Sebastea, Blaise instructed his people as much by his example as by his words, from all parts, the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills. He is said to have healed animals and to have been assisted by animals, in 316, the governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia Agricolaus began a persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius and Saint Blaise was seized. After his interrogation and a severe scourging, he was hurried off to prison, the legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years later. The Acts of St. Blaise, written in Greek, are medieval, when the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles, from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body, even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him. According to the Acts, while Blaise was being taken into custody, touched at her grief, he offered up his prayers, and the child was cured. Consequently, Saint Blaise is invoked for protection against injuries and illnesses of the throat, in many places on the day of his feast the blessing of St. At the same time the following blessing is given, May Almighty God at the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, preserve you from infections of the throat, then the priest makes the sign of the cross over the faithful. As the governors hunters led Blaise back to Sebastea, on the way, at the command of Blaise, the wolf restored the pig to its owner, alive and unhurt. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, in the West there was no cult honoring St. Blaise prior to the eighth century. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Blaise became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages and his cult became widespread in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries and his legend is recounted in the 14th-century Legenda Aurea
46.
Pope Pius IV
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Pope Pius IV, born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 25 December 1559 to his death in 1565. He is known for presiding over the session of the Council of Trent. Giovanni Angelo Medici was born in Milan on 31 March 1499 as the second of eleven children to Bernardino de Medici and he was not closely related to the Medicis of Florence. Giovanni Medici was the brother of condottiero Gian Giacomo Medici. Medici studied philosophy and medicine in Pavia, after studying at Bologna and acquiring a reputation as a jurist he obtained his doctorate in both canon and civil law on 11 May 1525. Medici went in 1527 to Rome, and as a favourite of Pope Paul III was rapidly promoted to the governorship of several towns, the archbishopric of Ragusa, in April 1549, Pope Paul III made Medici a cardinal. Under Papal authority, he was sent on missions to Germany. On the death of Pope Paul IV, he was elected pope on 25 December 1559, taking the name Pius IV. and installed on 6 January 1560. His first public acts of importance were to grant a pardon to the participants in the riot after the death of his predecessor. One, Cardinal Carlo Carafa, was strangled, and Duke Giovanni Carafa of Paliano, on 18 January 1562 the Council of Trent, which had been suspended by Pope Julius III, was convened by Pius IV for the third and final time. The more marked manifestations of stringency during his pontificate appear to have been prompted rather than spontaneous, his personal character inclining him to moderation, in the same year he published a bull granting the use of the cup to the laity of Austria and Bohemia. A conspiracy against Pius IV, headed by Benedetto Accolti the Younger, katherine Rinne said in her book Waters of Rome that Pius IV also ordered public construction to improve the water supply of Rome. Pius IV died on 9 December 1565 and he was buried in Santa Maria degli Angeli. Cardinals created by Pius IV List of popes from the Medici family House of Medici Bonora, roma 1564, La congiura contro il papa. Freedberg, Sydney J. Pelican History of Art, ed, catholic Hierarchy, Pope Pius IV Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Medici
47.
Michele Alberti
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Michele Alberti was an Italian painter of the latter half of the 16th century. He trained in Florence, where he was a pupil of Daniele da Volterra and his most famous paintings are Murder of the Innocents at the church of Trinità dei Monti. He painted the vaults of the Conservators Apartment representing the Murder of the Innocents much spoiled by restoration, michele Alberti has been erroneously recorded as a member of the family of Durante Alberti of Borgo San Sepolcro
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Williamson, George Charles (1913). "Daniele da Volterra". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
Media related to Daniele da Volterra at Wikimedia Commons
"Ricciarelli, Daniele". Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 290.
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