Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham, known as Howard of Effingham, was an English statesman and Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I. He was commander of the English forces during the battles against the Spanish Armada and was chiefly responsible after Francis Drake for the victory that saved England from invasion by the Spanish Empire. Few details of Charles Howard's early life are known, he was born in 1536, was the cousin of Queen Elizabeth. He was son of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham and Margaret Gamage, daughter of Sir Thomas Gamage, he was a grandson of 2nd Duke of Norfolk. He was the cousin of Anne Boleyn, held several prominent posts during the reign of Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I, it is believed that Charles Howard was taught French and a bit of Latin at the house of his uncle, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk. He was educated in penmanship, chivalric exercises, some legal traditions, he served as a page to his cousin Thomas who became the 4th Duke of Norfolk.
He fished and hunted fervently throughout his life. Howard served at sea under his father's command as a youth. In 1552, he was sent to France to become well-educated in the French language, but was soon brought back to England at the request of his father because of questionable or unexpected treatment. Howard went to the peace negotiations between England and France which led to the Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis of 1559, he informed Elizabeth of its ratification. He served as Ambassador to France in 1559. In December 1562, he became the keeper of the Queen's park at Oatlands. In his early years at court he and five other gentlemen bore the canopy of state when Queen Elizabeth opened her second Parliament on 11 January 1563, he is recorded as having been a regular participant in jousts and tournaments, but despite his relationship to the Queen it is said that it took some time before he was able to gain any personal benefit from his situation. Howard was a member of the House of Commons, yet he was not as distinguished as many others have been.
He represented Surrey in Parliament in 1563 and again in 1572. In 1564 he became a member of Gray's Inn, received his Master of Arts at Cambridge in 1571; this was not because he had any legal ambitions, but because it was the normal thing for men of his status to do. He suppressed a Catholic rebellion in northern England, he commanded a squadron of ships escorting the Queen of Spain on a state visit in 1570. Howard was knighted in 1572 and became Lord Howard of Effingham following his father's death in 1573. From 1576–1603 he was patron of a playing company, Nottingham's Men called the Admiral's Men. On 3 April 1575 Howard was elected to the Order of the Garter to replace his cousin, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, executed in 1572, he was installed at Windsor on 8 May 1575. Howard was named Lord High Admiral in 1585; the French ambassador wrote to Sir Francis Walsingham, saying Elizabeth's appointment of Howard was "a choice worthy of her virtue and prudence and necessary for the Admiralty.
I pray you tell her that the King has written to me by an express to thank her for having elected so good an admiral, from whom he hopes great things for the peace of his subjects". Howard attended the Privy Council during the Babington Plot, he was named as one of the commissioners to try Mary, Queen of Scots but is not subsequently mentioned as one of those who sat on the trial. William Davison alleged that Howard spoke to Elizabeth on 1 February 1587 "of the great danger she continually lived in" as there were rumours of new plots against her life and spoke of the stories that Mary had escaped from prison. Elizabeth was "moved by his lordship to have some more regard to the surety of herself and the state than she seemed to take" and made up her mind, telling Howard to send for Davison and Mary's death warrant. Howard met Davison and informed him that Elizabeth was now "fully resolved" and ordered him to bring forth the warrant to be signed, "that it might be forthwith despatched and deferred no longer".
Elizabeth would blame Davison for breaking orders that no-one must be told of what had happened. The Privy Council decided to take responsibility for the execution of Mary. In early December 1587 orders were drawn up for Howard to take the fleet to sea. On 21 December Howard's commission was signed, requiring Howard "according as there shall be occasion, wherever and whenever he shall deem it fitting, to invade, enter and make himself master of the kingdoms, lands and all other places whatever belonging to the said Spaniards", he was furthermore given full authority over the army at sea. Between 15 December and 1 April 1588 he sat on the Privy Council only four times and attended court every five or six days to meet with Walsingham. Writing on 27 January 1588, Howard believed the peace negotiations with Spain were a trap and expressed his dismay in a letter to Walsingham: I have made of the French King, the Scottish King, the King of Spain, a Trinity that I mean never to trust to be saved by.
Sir, there was never, since England was England, such a stratagem and mask made to deceive England withal as this is of the treaty of peace. I pray God we have not cause to remember one thing, made of the Scots by the Englishmen. You know; the next day he wrote again to Walsingham that if
Brussels tapestry
Brussels tapestry workshops produced tapestry from at least the 15th century, but the city's early production in the Late Gothic International style was eclipsed by the more prominent tapestry-weaving workshops based in Arras and Tournai. In 1477 Brussels, capital of the duchy of Brabant, was inherited by the house of Habsburg; the only millefleur tapestry to survive together with a record of its payment was a large heraldic millefleur carpet of high quality made for Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy in Brussels, of which part is now in the Bern Historical Museum. Sophie Schneebalg-Perelman's attribution to Brussels of The Lady and the Unicorn at the Musée de Cluny may well be correct; the great period of Renaissance weaving in Brussels dates from the weaving entrusted by Pope Leo X to a consortium of its ateliers of the Acts of the Apostles after cartoons by Raphael, between 1515 and 1519. Leo must have been motivated by the high technical quality of Brussels tapestries; the conventions of a monumental pictorial representation with the effects of perspective that would be expected of a fresco or other wall decoration were applied for the first time in this prestigious set.
The prominent painter and tapestry designer Bernard van Orley transmuted the Raphaelesque monumental figures to forge a new tapestry style that combined the Italian figural style and perspective rendition with the "multiple narratives and anecdotal and decorative detail of the Netherlandish tradition," according to Thomas P. Campbell. A Hunts of Maximilian suite, depicting hunting in each of the months, was woven to cartoons by Bernard van Orley ca1531-33. A suite of nine allegorical Honors that celebrated the coronation of Charles V as king of Germany and his assumption of the title of Holy Roman Emperor-elect in 1520 survives among the Patrimonio Nacional, Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso, Spain. Van Orley's pupils, Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Michiel Coxie provided cartoons for Brussels looms under the general influence of Italian painting. A set of Seven Deadly Sins, of which four survive, are recognized as Pieter Coecke van Aelst's masterpieces. Brussels took pre-eminence in tapestry weaving.
In 1528 a city decree ordained that each piece of Brussels tapestry over a certain size bear the woven mark of a red shield flanked by two B's. Each tapestry was to include the woven mark of the maker or the merchant who commissioned the tapestry for resale; the public market for tapestry sales was Antwerp. Though he was the arch-rival of the Habsburgs, Francis I of France commissioned tapestries from Brussels and Antwerp in the early years of his reign. After the arrival of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau in 1532, it was to Brussels that the Italian painter was sent, with a preparatory drawing of a Story of Scipio Africanus to be rendered as a cartoon, with which he returned; the prominent Brussels weaver Peter de Pannemaker executed for Francis that same year a suite enriched with silver and gold thread, to designs by Matteo del Nassaro of Verona, an engraver of gems. There were other commissions and purchases by Francis of Brussels tapestry until the establishment, about 1540 of a manufactory at Fontainebleau, under the general patronage of the king.
The'Valois tapestries' depicting festivities at the court of France were woven in the Spanish Netherlands in Brussels, shortly after 1580. Other nobles continued to support Brussels manufacture in the 16th century. Most of the royal'Jagiellonian tapestries' conserved in Poland at the Wawel Castle in Cracow were commissioned by Sigismund II Augustus of Poland in Brussels in the workshops of Willem and Jan de Kempeneer, Jan van Tieghem and Nicolas Leyniers between 1550 and 1565. Only 136 tapestries from the initial original collection of 356 pieces remain today, from which the largest part was commissioned in Brussel. In England, both Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII amassed large tapestry collections. Henry competed with both Charles V and Francis I in displays of courtly magnificence, vast sums were spent on tapestries to augment the lavish settings for his meeting with Francis at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 and for the visit of Charles V to England in 1522. Wolsey furnished his palaces at Hampton Court with rich tapestries.
Many of the cardinal's acquisitions illustrate Biblical texts, but he acquired secular works, including two sets of Triumphs of Petrarch. One was purchased from the executors of the Bishop of Durham and one was commissioned directly by Wolsey. Evidence associates this set with a partial set now in the Victoria & Albert Museum and woven in Brussels; the Seven Deadly Sins panels woven for Wolsey's bedroom at Hampton Court are thought to be Brussels work. By the time of his fall in 1529, Wolsey's collection included over 600 tapestry pieces and new, but despite his commissions to the weavers of Brussels, his tastes were conventional, none of his acquisitions seem to have been in the new style pioneered by van Orley. Conversely, Henry VIII embraced the new Italianate style. From the 1520s, the king's tapestry commissions reflect two marked tendencies: a selection of themes and subjects chosen as "unambiguous and pointed" propaganda, the first appearance of the figural styles of the Italian Renaissance in England, albeit through the "distorted lens of the Brussels'Romanist' artists."
In October 1528, Henry
Florence Cathedral
Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi; the exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink, bordered by white, has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris. The cathedral complex, in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Giotto's Campanile; these three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major tourist attraction of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy's largest churches, until the development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world, it remains the largest brick dome constructed. The cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, whose archbishop is Giuseppe Betori.
Santa Maria del Fiore was built on the site of Florence's second cathedral dedicated to Saint Reparata. The ancient structure, founded in the early 5th century and having undergone many repairs, was crumbling with age, according to the 14th-century Nuova Cronica of Giovanni Villani, was no longer large enough to serve the growing population of the city. Other major Tuscan cities had undertaken ambitious reconstructions of their cathedrals during the Late Medieval period, such as Pisa and Siena where the enormous proposed extensions were never completed; the new church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio and approved by city council in 1294. Di Cambio was architect of the church of Santa Croce and the Palazzo Vecchio, he designed three wide naves ending under the octagonal dome, with the middle nave covering the area of Santa Reparata. The first stone was laid on 9 September 1296, by Cardinal Valeriana, the first papal legate sent to Florence; the building of this vast project was to last 140 years.
After Arnolfo died in 1310, work on the cathedral slowed for thirty years. When the relics of Saint Zenobius were discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata, the project gained a new impetus. In 1331, the Arte della Lana, the guild of wool merchants, took over patronage for the construction of the cathedral and in 1334 appointed Giotto to oversee the work. Assisted by Andrea Pisano, Giotto continued di Cambio's design, his major accomplishment was the building of the campanile. When Giotto died on 8 January 1337, Andrea Pisano continued the building until work was halted due to the Black Death in 1348. In 1349, work resumed on the cathedral under a series of architects, starting with Francesco Talenti, who finished the campanile and enlarged the overall project to include the apse and the side chapels. In 1359, Talenti was succeeded by Giovanni di Lapo Ghini who divided the center nave in four square bays. Other architects were Giovanni d'Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravante and Andrea Orcagna. By 1375, the old church Santa Reparata was pulled down.
The nave was finished by 1380, by 1418, only the dome remained incomplete. On 18 August 1418, the Arte della Lana announced an architectural design competition for erecting Neri's dome; the two main competitors were two master goldsmiths, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, the latter of whom was supported by Cosimo de Medici. Ghiberti had been the winner of a competition for a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery in 1401 and lifelong competition between the two remained sharp. Brunelleschi received the commission. Ghiberti, appointed coadjutator, drew a salary equal to Brunelleschi's and, though neither was awarded the announced prize of 200 florins, was promised equal credit, although he spent most of his time on other projects; when Brunelleschi became ill, or feigned illness, the project was in the hands of Ghiberti. But Ghiberti soon had to admit. In 1423, Brunelleschi took over sole responsibility. Work started on the dome in 1420 and was completed in 1436; the cathedral was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV on 25 March 1436.
It was the first'octagonal' dome in history to be built without a temporary wooden supporting frame. It was one of the most impressive projects of the Renaissance. During the consecration in 1436, Guillaume Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores was performed; the structure of this motet was influenced by the structure of the dome. The decoration of the exterior of the cathedral, begun in the 14th century, was not completed until 1887, when the polychrome marble façade was completed with the design of Emilio De Fabris; the floor of the church was relaid in marble tiles in the 16th century. The exterior walls are faced in alternate vertical and horizontal bands of polychrome marble from Carrara, Siena, Lavenza and a few other places; these marble bands had to repeat the existing bands on the walls of the earlier adjacent baptistery the Battistero di San Giovanni and Giotto's Bell Tower. There are two side doors: the Doors of the Canonici and the Door of the Mandorla with sculptures by Nanni di Banco and Jacopo della Quercia.
The six side windows, notable for their delicate tracery and ornaments, are separated by pilasters. Only the four windows closest
Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa
The Palazzo Grimani of Santa Maria Formosa is a State museum, located in Venice in the Castello district, near Campo Santa Maria Formosa. The palace can be reached by land from Ruga Giuffa; the water entry used in ancient times, is located on the San Severo canal. The Palazzo constitutes for the city of Venice a precious novelty for the originality of the architecture, for the decorations and for its history; the original medieval building was built at the confluence of the canals of San Severo and Santa Maria Formosa, purchased by Antonio Grimani, who became a doge in 1521, subsequently passed on as a legacy, in the third decade of the 16th century, to the grandsons Vettore Grimani, Procurator de Supra for the Venetian Republic, Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, who refurbished the old structure inspired by architectural models taken from classicism. The two brothers wanted to give "modern" forms to the building and had it decorated with fresco cycles and elegant stucco. In 1558, at the death of Vettore, Giovanni became the sole owner of the building: he added an extension of the palace.
Decorating the rooms were many artists including Federico Zuccari, architect of the monumental staircase, Camillo Mantovano. The patriarch Giovanni Grimani set up his refinedcollection of antiques, including sculptures, vases and gems, in the rooms of the palace. In 1587 he donated the collection of sculptures and gems to the Serenissima: after his death the first ones were placed in the anti-room of the Marciana Library and today they are the founding nucleus of the National Archaeological Museum of Venice; until 1865, it was property of the Santa Maria Formosa branch of the Grimani family. Open to the public on December 20, 2008, after a long restoration, it is a museum belonging to the Veneto Museum PoleThe long restoration by the Superintendence included the interior decorations, including: the Camerino di Callisto, with stucco by Giovanni da Udine. Here, the sculpture depicting the Kidnapping of Ganimede is suspended in the center of the vault decorated by lacunae. Federico Zuccari is also responsible for the stucco decoration with the grotesque monster with its wide open mouth visible in the Sala del Camino.
Other works exhibited in the museum refer to the collections of the Grimani family. In the Sala di Psiche is an antique copy of Salviati's Adoration of Psyche lodged in the middle of the wooden ceiling, dismembered in the mid-nineteenth century; the second floor of the building houses cultural events. The marble entrance portal leads into the large courtyard; the original medieval building, an L-shape plan, was restructured and redecorated between 1537 and 1540 by brothers Vettore and Giovanni Grimani, according to a style inspired by the ancient Roman domus. In 1558, Giovanni patronized the addition of a further wing, enclosing in a square the central courtyard; the loggias that were created were adorned with classical statues. The loggia in front of the entrance of the museum was frescoed with plant motifs and completed by the wonderful stucco baskets fulled with fruits and vegetables. Between 1563 and 1565 the barrel vault of the staircase leading to the portego or passing salon of the main floor was sumptuously decorated by a young Federico Zuccari, who had trained in Rome, with allegorical frescoes referring to the virtues of his client Giovanni, completed by grotesques and stucco reliefs with mythological creatures.
The stuccos reproduce some antique cameos from the Giovanni Grimani collection. Overall, the grand staircase bears comparing to the Scala d'Oro of Palazzo Ducale and with the entrance to the Marciana Library; this room owes its name to the tapestries embellished with gold yarns. Today we can admire some pieces from the collection of antiques by Giovanni Grimani, donated in 1587 to the Public Statuary of the Serenissima; the plaster statue of the Laocoon Group is a rare eighteenth-century plaster of the famous sculpture of the first century B. C.that great interest aroused in Cardinal Domenico Grimani. The group, found in Rome in 1506 at the Baths of Titus, is kept in the Vatican Museums; the ceiling of the room called of the foliages, or of the pergolo, was made in the sixties of the sixteenth century by Camillo Mantovano. It owes its name to the decoration of the ceiling, a spectacular decoration that celebrates the luxuriant nature of plants and flowers, a thick forest inhabited by numerous animals in predatory attitudes and rich in symbolic meanings.
In the lunettes surmounted by grotesques, complex figurations in the form of rebus allude to the long and troubled process for heresy suffered by the patriarch Giovanni Grimani. The Tribuna was known as Antiquarium and housed more than one hundred and thirty ancient sculptures, among the finest of the collection; this extraordinary space, once closed on three sides, illuminated only from above and inspired by the Pantheon, was the true fulcrum and the final destination of the itinerary along the rooms that precede it. The variety of sources of inspiration suggests a direct involvement of Giovanni Grimani hims
Brussels
Brussels the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita, it covers 161 km2, a small area compared to the two other regions, has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people. Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been a major centre for international politics and the home of numerous international organisations, politicians and civil servants.
Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, including its administrative-legislative, executive-political, legislative branches and its name is sometimes used metonymically to describe the EU and its institutions. The secretariat of the Benelux and headquarters of NATO are located in Brussels; as the economic capital of Belgium and one of the top financial centres of Western Europe with Euronext Brussels, it is classified as an Alpha global city. Brussels is a hub for rail and air traffic, sometimes earning the moniker "Crossroads of Europe"; the Brussels Metro is the only rapid transit system in Belgium. In addition, both its airport and railway stations are the busiest in the country. Dutch-speaking, Brussels saw a language shift to French from the late 19th century; the Brussels-Capital Region is bilingual in French and Dutch though French is now the de facto main language with over 90% of the population speaking it. Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual.
English is spoken as a second language by nearly a third of the population and a large number of migrants and expatriates speak other languages. Brussels is known for its cuisine and gastronomy, as well as its historical and architectural landmarks. Main attractions include its historic Grand Place, Manneken Pis and cultural institutions such as La Monnaie and the Museums of Art and History; because of its long tradition of Belgian comics, Brussels is hailed as a capital of the comic strip. The most common theory of the origin of the name Brussels is that it derives from the Old Dutch Bruocsella, Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning "marsh" and "home" or "home in the marsh". Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai, made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695, when it was still a hamlet; the names of all the municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region are of Dutch origin, except for Evere, Celtic. In French, Bruxelles is pronounced and in Dutch, Brussel is pronounced. Inhabitants of Brussels are known in French in Dutch as Brusselaars.
In the Brabantian dialect of Brussels, they are called Brusseleirs. The written x noted the group. In the Belgian French pronunciation as well as in Dutch, the k disappeared and z became s, as reflected in the current Dutch spelling, whereas in the more conservative French form, the spelling remained; the pronunciation in French only dates from the 18th century, but this modification did not affect the traditional Brussels' usage. In France, the pronunciations and are heard, but are rather rare in Belgium. See also: History of Brussels The history of Brussels is linked to that of Western Europe. Traces of human settlement go back to the Stone Age, with vestiges and place-names related to the civilisation of megaliths and standing stones. During late antiquity, the region was home to Roman occupation, as attested by archaeological evidence discovered near the centre. Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire, it was incorporated into the Frankish Empire; the origin of the settlement, to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus' construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580.
The official founding of Brussels is situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel. Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven, gained the County of Brussels around 1000, by marrying Charles' daughter; because of its location on the shores of the Senne, on an important trade route between Bruges and Ghent, Cologne, Brussels became a commercial centre specialised in the textile trade. The town grew quite and extended towards the upper town, where there was a smaller risk of floods; as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. Around
Pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII, born Ugo Boncompagni, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 13 May 1572 to his death in 1585. He is best known for commissioning and being the namesake for the Gregorian calendar, which remains the internationally accepted civil calendar to this day. Ugo Boncompagni was born the son of Cristoforo Boncompagni and of his wife Angela Marescalchi in Bologna, where he studied law and graduated in 1530, he taught jurisprudence for some years, his students included notable figures such as Cardinals Alexander Farnese, Reginald Pole and Charles Borromeo. He had an illegitimate son after an affair with Maddalena Fulchini, Giacomo Boncompagni, but before he took holy orders. At the age of thirty-six he was summoned to Rome by Pope Paul III, under whom he held successive appointments as first judge of the capital and vice-chancellor of the Campagna e Marittima. Pope Paul IV attached him as datarius to the suite of Cardinal Carlo Carafa, Pope Pius IV made him Cardinal-Priest of San Sisto Vecchio and sent him to the Council of Trent.
He served as a legate to Philip II of Spain, being sent by the Pope to investigate the Cardinal of Toledo. It was there that he formed a lasting and close relationship with the Spanish King, to become important in his foreign policy as Pope. Upon the death of Pope Pius V, the conclave chose Cardinal Boncompagni, who assumed the name of Gregory XIII in homage to the great reforming Pope, Gregory I, surnamed the Great, it was a brief conclave, lasting less than 24 hours. Many historians have attributed this to the backing of the Spanish King. Cardinal Borromeo and the cardinals wishing reform accepted Boncompagni's candidature and so supported him in the conclave while the Spanish faction deemed him acceptable due to his success as a nuncio in Spain. Gregory XIII's character seemed to be perfect for the needs of the church at the time. Unlike some of his predecessors, he was to lead a faultless personal life, becoming a model for his simplicity of life. Additionally, his legal brilliance and management abilities meant that he was able to respond and deal with major problems and decisively, although not always successfully.
Once in the chair of Saint Peter, Gregory XIII's rather worldly concerns became secondary and he dedicated himself to reform of the Catholic Church. He committed himself to putting into practice the recommendations of the Council of Trent, he allowed no exceptions for cardinals to the rule that bishops must take up residence in their sees, designated a committee to update the Index of Forbidden Books. He was the patron of a new and improved edition of the Corpus juris canonici. In a time of considerable centralisation of power, Gregory XIII abolished the Cardinals Consistories, replacing them with Colleges, appointing specific tasks for these colleges to work on, he was renowned for having a fierce independence. The power of the papacy increased under him, whereas the influence and power of the cardinals decreased. Noteworthy is his establishment of the Discalced Carmelites, an offshoot of the Carmelite Order, as a distinct unit or "province" within the former by the decree "Pia consideratione" dated 22 June 1580, ending a period of great difficulty between them and enabling the former to become a significant religious order in the Catholic Church.
A central part of the strategy of Gregory XIII's reform was to apply the recommendations of Trent. He was a liberal patron of the formed Society of Jesus throughout Europe, for which he founded many new colleges; the Roman College of the Jesuits grew under his patronage, became the most important centre of learning in Europe for a time. It is now named the Pontifical Gregorian University. Pope Gregory XIII founded numerous seminaries for training priests, beginning with the German College at Rome, put them in the charge of the Jesuits. In 1575 he gave official status to the Congregation of the Oratory, a community of priests without vows, dedicated to prayer and preaching. In 1580 he commissioned artists, including Ignazio Danti, to complete works to decorate the Vatican and commissioned The Gallery of Maps. Noteworthy during his pontificate as a further means of putting into practice the recommendations of the Council of Trent is the transformation in 1580 of the Dominican studium founded in the 13th century at Rome into the College of St. Thomas, the precursor of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.
Pope Gregory XIII is best known for his commissioning of the calendar after being authored by the doctor/astronomer Aloysius Lilius and with the aid of Jesuit priest/astronomer Christopher Clavius who made the final modifications. The reason for the reform was that the average length of the year in the Julian calendar was too long – as it treated each year as 365 days, 6 hours in length, whereas calculations showed that the actual mean length of a year is less As a result, the date of the actual vernal equinox had slipped to 10 March, while the computus of the date of Easter still followed the traditional date of 21 March; this was verified by the observations of Clavius, the new calendar was instituted when Gregory decreed, by the papal bull Inter gravissimas of 24 February 1582, that the day after Thursday, 4 October 1582 would be not Friday, 5 October, but Friday, 15 October 1582. The new calendar duly replaced the Julian calendar, in use since 45 B
Mannerism
Mannerism known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century. Stylistically, Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and early Michelangelo. Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant; the style is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities. It favors compositional tension and instability rather than the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance painting. Mannerism in literature and music is notable for its 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 the Antwerp Mannerists—a group unrelated to the Italian movement. Mannerism 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 specific type of style or indicate an absolute that needs no qualification. In the second edition of his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters and Architects, Giorgio Vasari used maniera in three different contexts: to discuss an artist's manner or method of working. Vasari was a Mannerist artist, he described the period in which he worked as "la maniera moderna", or the "modern style". 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 who were thus inspired looked to copying and bettering their predecessors, rather than confronting nature directly. 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 defined. It was used by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt and popularized by German art historians in the early 20th century to categorize the uncategorizable art of the Italian 16th century — art, no longer found to exhibit the harmonious and rational approaches associated with the High Renaissance. “High Renaissance” connoted a period distinguished by harmony 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 and to convey a refined virtuoso quality or to signify a certain technique.
However, for writers, such as the 17th-century Gian Pietro Bellori, "la maniera" was a derogatory term for the perceived decline of art after Raphael in the 1530s and 1540s. From the late 19th century on, art historians have used the term to describe art that follows Renaissance classicism and precedes the Baroque, yet historians differ as to whether Mannerism is a movement, or a period. By the end of the High Renaissance, young artists experienced a crisis: it seemed that everything that could be achieved was achieved. No more difficulties, technical or otherwise, remained to be solved; the detailed knowledge of anatomy, light and the way in which humans register emotion in expression and gesture, the innovative use of the human form in figurative composition, the use of the subtle gradation of tone, all had reached near perfection. The young artists needed to find a new goal, 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.
This period has been described as a "natural extension" of the art of Andrea del Sarto and Raphael. Michelangelo developed his own style at an early age, a original one, admired at first often copied and imitated by other artists of the era. One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, subsequent artists attempted to imitate it. Other artists learned Michelangelo's impassioned and personal style by copying the works of the master, a standard way that students learned to paint and sculpt, his Sistine Chapel ceiling provided examples for them to follow, in particular his representation of collected figures called ignudi and of the Libyan Sibyl, his vestibule to the Laurentian Library, the figures on his Medici tombs, above all his Last Judgment. The Michelangelo was one of the great role models of Mannerism. Young artists stole drawings from him. In his book Lives of the Most Eminent Painters and Architects
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Middleton, John Henry (1911). "Zuccaro". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 1047.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 