1.
Lucas Vorsterman
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Lucas Vorsterman was a Baroque engraver. He worked with the artists Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, as well as for such as Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel. Around 1617 or 1618 Vorsterman joined Rubenss workshop and became Rubenss primary engraver for several years, in 1621 a violent dispute arose between Vorsterman and Rubens. The exact causes of the dispute are not known, but it is generally assumed that it had its source in the issue of ownership of the author rights to the prints engraved by Vorsterman on the basis of Rubens designs. Before the dispute arose, their relationship had ostensibly been good since Rubens had agreed to be godfather to Vorstermans eldest son Lucas Vorsterman II, the dispute ended the working relationship between the two men. In 1624 Vorsterman went to England and survived on the patronage of royalty and nobility and he returned to Antwerp in 1630 and was one of the printmakers selected by Van Dyck to engrave plates for the Iconography. He executed twenty two of the original eighty plates and he also worked one more time with Rubens on a printing project in 1638. Vorsterman lost his sight in his old age and he lived in poverty and he lived on the support of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke until his death in 1675. His pupils include Paulus Pontius, Hans Witdoeck, Jacob Neefs, vostermans son Lucas Vorsterman II was trained by his father as an engraver. Liedtke, Walter A. Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lucas Vorsterman
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Portrait of Lucas Vorsterman, engraving by
Anthony van Dyck for his Iconography
Lucas Vorsterman
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Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg; engraving by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder after a portrait by
Anthony van Dyck
Lucas Vorsterman
–
Triumph of Poverty
2.
Anthony van Dyck
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Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England, after enjoying great success in Italy and Flanders. He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, the Van Dyke beard is named after him. Antoon van Dyck was born to parents in Antwerp. By the age of fifteen he was already an accomplished artist, as his Self-portrait, 1613–14. He was admitted to the Antwerp painters Guild of Saint Luke as a master by February 1618. His influence on the young artist was immense, Rubens referred to the nineteen-year-old van Dyck as the best of my pupils. At the same time the dominance of Rubens in the small and declining city of Antwerp probably explains why, despite his periodic returns to the city, van Dyck spent most of his career abroad. In 1620, at the instigation of George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, van Dyck went to England for the first time where he worked for King James I of England, receiving £100. After about four months he returned to Flanders, but moved on in late 1621 to Italy and he was already presenting himself as a figure of consequence, annoying the rather bohemian Northern artists colony in Rome, says Giovan Pietro Bellori, by appearing with the pomp of Zeuxis. He was mostly based in Genoa, although he travelled extensively to other cities. In 1627, he went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years, a life-size group portrait of twenty-four City Councillors of Brussels he painted for the council-chamber was destroyed in 1695. He was evidently very charming to his patrons, and, like Rubens, well able to mix in aristocratic and court circles, by 1630 he was described as the court painter of the Habsburg Governor of Flanders, the Archduchess Isabella. In this period he produced many religious works, including large altarpieces. King Charles I was the most passionate and generous collector of art among the British monarchs, and saw art as a way of promoting his elevated view of the monarchy. In 1628, he bought the collection that the Gonzagas of Mantua were forced to dispose of. In 1626, he was able to persuade Orazio Gentileschi to settle in England, later to be joined by his daughter Artemisia and some of his sons. Rubens was a target, who eventually came on a diplomatic mission, which included painting, in 1630. He was very well-treated during his visit, during which he was knighted
Anthony van Dyck
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Self-Portrait With a Sunflower (after 1633),
Trinity College, Cambridge
Anthony van Dyck
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Self-portrait, 1613–14
Anthony van Dyck
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Anthony van Dyck, by
Peter Paul Rubens (1627–28) in
the Louvre
Anthony van Dyck
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The more intimate, but still elegant style he developed in England, ca 1638
3.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
Baroque
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The Triumph of the Immaculate by
Paolo de Matteis
Baroque
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The Church of
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Baroque
–
Brooch of an African,
Walters Art Museum
Baroque
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Aeneas Flees Burning Troy,
Federico Barocci, 1598
4.
Printmaker
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Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a copy but rather is considered an original, a print may be known as an impression. Printmaking is not chosen only for its ability to multiple impressions. Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process, other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Multiple impressions printed from the matrix form an edition. Prints may also be printed in book form, such as illustrated books or artists books, Printmaking techniques are generally divided into the following basic categories, Relief, where ink is applied to the original surface of the matrix. Relief techniques include woodcut or woodblock as the Asian forms are known, wood engraving. Intaglio, where ink is applied beneath the surface of the matrix. Intaglio techniques include engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, planographic, where the matrix retains its original surface, but is specially prepared and/or inked to allow for the transfer of the image. Planographic techniques include lithography, monotyping, and digital techniques, stencil, where ink or paint is pressed through a prepared screen, including screenprinting and pochoir. Other types of printmaking techniques outside these groups include collagraphy and viscosity printing, collagraphy is a printmaking technique in which textured material is adhered to the printing matrix. This texture is transferred to the paper during the printing process, Contemporary printmaking may include digital printing, photographic mediums, or a combination of digital, photographic, and traditional processes. Many of these techniques can also be combined, especially within the same family, for example, Rembrandts prints are usually referred to as etchings for convenience, but very often include work in engraving and drypoint as well, and sometimes have no etching at all. Woodcut, a type of print, is the earliest printmaking technique. It was probably first developed as a means of printing patterns on cloth, woodcuts of images on paper developed around 1400 in Japan, and slightly later in Europe. These are the two areas where woodcut has been most extensively used purely as a process for making images without text, the artist draws a design on a plank of wood, or on paper which is transferred to the wood
Printmaker
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Rembrandt,
Self-portrait,
etching, c.1630.
Printmaker
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Mount Fuji, from the
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, color
woodcut by
Katsushika Hokusai
Printmaker
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Francisco Goya, There is No One To Help Them,
Disasters of War series,
aquatint c.1810.
Printmaker
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External video
5.
Drawing
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Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, the most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything, the medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas, the wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities. In addition to its artistic forms, drawing is frequently used in commercial illustration, animation, architecture, engineering. A quick, freehand drawing, usually not intended as a work, is sometimes called a sketch. An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper/other material, traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour, while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks, dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a medium, applied with brushes or pens. Drawing is often exploratory, with emphasis on observation, problem-solving. Drawing is also used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies, there are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling, free hand and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania. A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch, in fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called drawings even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing. Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression and these drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts. The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express ones creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise, initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings
Drawing
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Pen and wash lion by
Rembrandt in the
Louvre
Drawing
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A person drawing the
Barberini Faun in Munich
Drawing
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Madame Palmyre with Her Dog, 1897.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Drawing
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André Masson. Automatic Drawing. 1924. Ink on paper, 23.5 x 20.6 cm.
Museum of Modern Art, New York
6.
Duchy of Lorraine
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The Duchy of Lorraine, originally Upper Lorraine, was a duchy now included in the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France. It was founded in 959 following the division of Lotharingia into two duchies, Upper and Lower Lorraine, the westernmost parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The Lower duchy was quickly dismantled, while Upper Lorraine came to be known as simply the Duchy of Lorraine, the Duchy of Lorraine was coveted and briefly occupied by the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France. When Stanisław died on 23 February 1766, Lorraine was annexed by France, lorraines predecessor, Lotharingia, was an independent Carolingian kingdom under the rule of King Lothair II. Its territory had originally been a part of Middle Francia, created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun, Middle Francia was allotted to Emperor Lothair I, therefore called Lotharii Regnum. On his death in 855, it was divided into three parts, of which his son Lothair II took the northern one. His realm then comprised a territory stretching from the County of Burgundy in the south to the North Sea. In French, this became known as Lorraine, while in German. In the Alemannic language once spoken in Lorraine, the -ingen suffix signified a property, thus, in a figurative sense, stuck in the conflict with his rival Hugh the Great, in 942 King Louis IV of France renounced all claims to Lotharingia. In 953, the German king Otto I had appointed his brother Bruno the Great Duke of Lotharingia, in 959, Bruno divided the duchy into Upper and Lower Lorraine, this division became permanent following his death in 965. The Upper Duchy was further up the system, that is, it was inland. Upper Lorraine was first denominated as the Duchy of the Moselle, the usage of Lotharingia Superioris and Lorraine in official documents begins later, around the fifteenth century. The first duke and deputy of Bruno was Frederick I of Bar, Lower Lorraine disintegrated into several smaller territories and only the title of a Duke of Lothier remained, held by Brabant. After the duchy of the Moselle came into the possession of René of Anjou, the name Duchy of Lorraine was adopted again, only retrospectively called Upper Lorraine. At that time, several territories had already split off, such as the County of Luxembourg, the Electorate of Trier, the County of Bar, the border between the Empire and the Kingdom of France remained relatively stable throughout the Middle Ages. In 1301, Count Henry III of Bar had to receive the part of his lands as a fief by King Philip IV of France. In 1475, the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold campaigned for the Duchy of Lorraine, in the 1552 Treaty of Chambord, a number of insurgent Protestant Imperial princes around Elector Maurice of Saxony ceded the Three Bishoprics to King Henry II of France in turn for his support. In the 17th century, the French kings began to covet Lorraine, while the central Imperial authority decayed in the course of the Thirty Years War, Chief Minister Cardinal Richelieu urged the occupation of the duchy in 1641
Duchy of Lorraine
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1618-1648
Duchy of Lorraine
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Flag
7.
Old master print
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An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. Fifteenth-century prints are rare that they are classed as old master prints even if they are of crude or merely workmanlike artistic quality. A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term, the main techniques used, in order of their introduction, are woodcut, engraving, etching, mezzotint and aquatint, although there are others. Different techniques are combined in a single print. With rare exceptions printed on textiles, such as silk, or on vellum, many great European artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, and Francisco Goya, were dedicated printmakers. In their own day, their international reputations largely came from their prints, influences between artists were also mainly transmitted beyond a single city by prints, for the same reason. Prints therefore are frequently brought up in detailed analyses of individual paintings in art history, today, thanks to colour photo reproductions, and public galleries, their paintings are much better known, whilst their prints are only rarely exhibited, for conservation reasons. But some museum print rooms allow visitors to see their collection, the oldest technique is woodcut, or woodblock printing, which was invented as a method for printing on cloth in China, and perhaps separately in Egypt in the Byzantine period. This had reached Europe via the Byzantine or Islamic worlds before 1300, religious images and playing cards are documented as being produced on paper, probably printed, by a German in Bologna in 1395. However, the most impressive printed European images to survive from before 1400 are printed on cloth, for use as hangings on walls or furniture, including altars, some were used as a pattern to embroider over. Some religious images were used as bandages, to speed healing, the earliest print images are mostly of a high artistic standard, and were clearly designed by artists with a background in painting. Whether these artists cut the blocks themselves, or only inked the design on the block for another to carve, is not known, the great majority of surviving 15th-century prints are religious, although these were probably the ones more likely to survive. Their makers were sometimes called Jesus maker or saint-maker in documents, as with manuscript books, monastic institutions sometimes produced, and often sold, prints. No artists can be identified with specific woodcuts until towards the end of the century, the little evidence we have suggests that woodcut prints became relatively common and cheap during the fifteenth century, and were affordable by skilled workers in towns. For example, what may be the earliest surviving Italian print, the school caught fire, and the crowd who gathered to watch saw the print carried up into the air by the fire, before falling down into the crowd. This was regarded as an escape and the print was carried to Forlì Cathedral. Like the majority of prints before approximately 1460, only a single impression of this print has survived, Woodcut blocks are printed with light pressure, and are capable of printing several thousand impressions, and even at this period some prints may well have been produced in that quantity. Many prints were hand-coloured, mostly in watercolour, in fact the hand-colouring of prints continued for many centuries, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands were the main areas of production, England does not seem to have produced any prints until about 1480
Old master print
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The Three Crosses,
etching by
Rembrandt, 1653,
State III of IV
Old master print
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Melencolia I, 1514, engraving by
Albrecht Dürer
Old master print
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This
donor portrait of about 1455 shows a large coloured print attached to the wall with
sealing wax.
Petrus Christus,
NGA, Washington. Another example is seen
here.
Old master print
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Anonymous German 15th century woodcut, about 1480, with hand-colouring, including (unusually) spots of gold. 5.2 x 3.9 cm, i.e. this is similar to the original size on most screens
8.
Etching
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Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material, as a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology. In traditional pure etching, a plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with an etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece. The échoppe, a tool with an oval section, is also used for swelling lines. The plate is dipped in a bath of acid, technically called the mordant or etchant. The acid bites into the metal where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate, the remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink wiped off the surface, the plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper. The paper picks up the ink from the lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times, typically several hundred impressions could be printed before the shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can also be added to by repeating the whole process, Etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as engraving or aquatint. The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg, Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates. Apart from his prints, there are two examples of his work on armour, a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid. The switch to copper plates was made in Italy. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, prior to 1100 AD, the New World Hohokam independently utilized the technique of acid etching in marine shell designs. Jacques Callot from Nancy in Lorraine made important technical advances in etching technique and he developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do. Callot also appears to have responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground
Etching
–
The Soldier and his Wife. Etching by
Daniel Hopfer, who is believed to have been the first to apply the technique to printmaking
Etching
–
Portrait of
Luca Giordano, 18th century
Etching
–
Rembrandt,
The Virgin and Child with a Cat, 1654. Original copper etching plate above, example of the print below, with composition reversed.
Etching
–
Christ Preaching, known as The
Hundred Guilder Print; etching c1648 by
Rembrandt.
9.
Nancy, France
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Nancy is the capital of the north-eastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census,103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper. The motto of the city is Non inultus premor, Latin for Im not touched with impunity—a reference to the thistle, the earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to 800 BC. Early settlers were attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe River. A small fortified town named Nanciacum was built by Gérard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Nancy in 1477, René II, Duke of Lorraine became the ruler. In 1736 Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Duke François of Lorraine, exiled Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński, father-in-law of French king Louis XV, was given the vacant duchy instead. Under his nominal rule, Nancy experienced growth and a flowering of Baroque culture and architecture, with his death in 1766, the duchy became a regular French province and Nancy lost its position as a residential capital city with its own princely court and patronage. As unrest surfaced within the French armed forces during the French Revolution, a few reliable units laid siege to the town and shot or imprisoned the mutineers. In 1871, Nancy remained French when Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine, the flow of refugees reaching Nancy doubled its population in three decades. Artistic, academic, financial and industrial excellence flourished, establishing what is still the Capital of Lorraines trademark to this day, Nancy was freed from Nazi Germany by the U. S. Third Army in September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II at the Battle of Nancy ), in 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Nancy. In 2005, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Nancy is situated on the left bank of the river Meurthe, about 10 km upstream from its confluence with the Moselle. The Marne–Rhine Canal runs through the city, parallel to the Meurthe, Nancy is surrounded by hills that are about 150 m higher than the city center, which is situated at 200 m amsl. The area of Nancy proper is small,15 km2. Its built-up area is continuous with those of its adjacent suburbs, the neighboring communes of Nancy are, Jarville-la-Malgrange, Laxou, Malzéville, Maxéville, Saint-Max, Tomblaine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy and Villers-lès-Nancy. Adjacent to its south is the quarter Charles III – Centre Ville and this quarter contains the famous Place Stanislas, the Nancy Cathedral, the Opéra national de Lorraine and the main railway station. The old city centers heritage dates from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, the cathedral of Nancy, the Triumphal Arch and the Place de la Carriere are a fine examples of 18th-century architecture. The Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine is the princely residence of the rulers
Nancy, France
–
Place Stanislas – Fountain of Amphitrite
Nancy, France
–
A panoramic view of
Place Stanislas
Nancy, France
–
The emblem of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on Notre-Dame de Bon Secours
Nancy, France
–
Cours-Léopold
10.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
Nobility
–
Detail from
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry), c. 1410, month of April
Nobility
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Nobility offered protection in exchange for service
Nobility
–
French aristocrats, c. 1774
Nobility
–
A French political cartoon of the three orders of
feudal society (1789). The rural third estate carries the clergy and the nobility.
11.
Goldsmith
–
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Goldsmiths must be skilled in forming metal through filing, soldering, sawing, forging, casting, the trade has very often included jewellery-making skills, as well as the very similar skills of the silversmith. Many universities and junior colleges also offer goldsmithing, silversmithing, compared to other metals, gold is malleable, ductile, rare, and it is the only solid metallic element with a yellow color. It may easily be melted, fused, and cast without the problems of oxides and gas that are problematic with other such as bronzes. It is fairly easy to weld, wherein similarly to clay two small pieces may be pounded together to make one larger piece. Gold is classified as a noble metal—because it does not react with most elements and it usually is found in its native form, lasting indefinitely without oxidization and tarnishing. Gold has been worked by humans in all cultures where the metal is available, either indigenously or imported, and the history of these activities is extensive. Superbly made objects from the ancient cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, India, North America, Mesoamerica, some pieces date back thousands of years and were made using many techniques that still are used by modern goldsmiths. Techniques developed by some of those goldsmiths achieved a level that was lost and remained beyond the skills of those who followed. In medieval Europe goldsmiths were organized into guilds and usually were one of the most important, the guild kept records of members and the marks they used on their products. These records, when they survive, are useful to historians. Goldsmiths often acted as bankers, since they dealt in gold and had sufficient security for the storage of valuable items. The Sunar caste is one of the oldest communities in goldsmithing in India, in India, Vishwakarma are the goldsmith caste. The printmaking technique of engraving developed among goldsmiths in Germany around 1430, the notable engravers of the fifteenth century were either goldsmiths, such as Master E. S. or the sons of goldsmiths, such as Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer. A goldsmith might have an array of skills and knowledge at their disposal. Gold, being the most malleable metal of all, offers opportunities for the worker. In todays world a variety of other metals, especially platinum alloys. 24 Carat is pure gold and historically, was known as fine gold, because it is so soft, however,24 Carat gold is rarely used
Goldsmith
–
Fifteenth-century
engraving of the goldsmith and
patron saint of goldsmiths
Saint Eligius in his workshop
Goldsmith
–
The Baqdadi goldsmith by
Kamal-ol-molk
Goldsmith
–
A
Karo people (Indonesia) goldsmith in Sumatra (circa 1918)
Goldsmith
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Karo goldsmith and his tools
12.
Engraving
–
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it. Wood engraving is a form of printing and is not covered in this article. Engraving was an important method of producing images on paper in artistic printmaking, in mapmaking. Other terms often used for printed engravings are copper engraving, copper-plate engraving or line engraving, hand engraving is a term sometimes used for engraving objects other than printing plates, to inscribe or decorate jewellery, firearms, trophies, knives and other fine metal goods. Traditional engravings in printmaking are also engraved, using just the same techniques to make the lines in the plate. Each graver is different and has its own use, engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin, or graver, to cut the design into the surface, most traditionally a copper plate. Modern professional engravers can engrave with a resolution of up to 40 lines per mm in high grade work creating game scenes, dies used in mass production of molded parts are sometimes hand engraved to add special touches or certain information such as part numbers. In addition to engraving, there are engraving machines that require less human finesse and are not directly controlled by hand. They are usually used for lettering, using a pantographic system, there are versions for the insides of rings and also the outsides of larger pieces. Such machines are used for inscriptions on rings, lockets. Gravers come in a variety of shapes and sizes that yield different line types, the burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. The angle tint tool has a curved tip that is commonly used in printmaking. Florentine liners are flat-bottomed tools with multiple lines incised into them, ring gravers are made with particular shapes that are used by jewelry engravers in order to cut inscriptions inside rings. Flat gravers are used for work on letters, as well as wriggle cuts on most musical instrument engraving work, remove background. Knife gravers are for line engraving and very deep cuts, round gravers, and flat gravers with a radius, are commonly used on silver to create bright cuts, as well as other hard-to-cut metals such as nickel and steel. Square or V-point gravers are typically square or elongated diamond-shaped and used for cutting straight lines, V-point can be anywhere from 60 to 130 degrees, depending on purpose and effect. These gravers have very small cutting points, other tools such as mezzotint rockers, roulets and burnishers are used for texturing effects. Burnishing tools can also be used for stone setting techniques
Engraving
–
St. Jerome in His Study (1514), an engraving by Northern Renaissance master
Albrecht Dürer
Engraving
–
Artist and engraver
Chaim Goldberg at work
Engraving
–
An assortment of hand engraving tools
Engraving
–
At an engravers workshop: Miniature engraving on a
Louis George watch movement: Smallest engraving of the royal
Prussian eagle on a watch movement. It takes about 100 passes to create the figure.
13.
Antonio Tempesta
–
Antonio Tempesta was an Italian painter and engraver, whose art acted as a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp. He was born and trained in Florence and painted in a variety of styles and he enrolled in the Florentine Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in 1576. He was a pupil of Santi di Tito, then of the Flemish painter Joannes Stradanus and he was part of the large team of artists working under Giorgio Vasari on the interior decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. His favourite subjects were battles, cavalcades, and processions and he relocated to Rome, where he associated with artists from the Habsburg Netherlands, which may have led to his facility with landscape painting. Among his followers was Marzio di Colantonio and he completed frescoes in the Palazzina Gambara at the Villa Lante in Bagnaia. From 1579–83, Tempesta participated in the decoration of the Villa Farnese in Caprarola and he is also known to have collaborated on frescoes in the Villa dEste at Tivoli and the Palazzina Gamara at Villa Lante, Bagnaia. He painted a series of turbulent and crowded battle scenes for the Medici and he also completed a series of engravings on outdoor courtly hunting scenes. Tempesta painted frescoes for the Palazzos Colonna, the Doria Pamphilj, and for the Marchese Giustiniani in his Roman palace, where Tempesta collaborated with Paul Bril and he painted a Massacre of the Innocents for the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome. Tempesta is now best known as a printmaker in etching and engraving, the series consists of 36 numbered engraved plates and illustrates the armed struggle between the ancient Dutch tribes and their Roman oppressors as narrated in Tacitus Histories. Each plate bears at the bottom an engraved legend in Flemish, anno 1611, shows Roma and Batavia in battle dress with respective scenic backgrounds, symbolizing the two nations. Fifteen other plates bear Tempestas monogramme, the plates depict heroic events, sieges, and battle scenes. This historicist work was popular in its time. Tempesta also drew designs for tapestries. Text from Karel van Manders Schilderboeck, p.1593. in platte forme, en int groote, brief bio of Tempesta from Web Gallery of Art Grove Art Dictionary Eckhard Leuschner, Antonio Tempesta. Ein Bahnbrecher des roemischen Barock und seine europaeische Wirkung, Petersberg 2005, walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves, ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical, york St. #4, Covent Garden, London, Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18,2007, George Bell and Sons
Antonio Tempesta
–
Portrait of Antonio Tempesta, from Serie degli uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura, e architettura, Florence, 1724
14.
Florence
–
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence
–
A collage of Florence showing the
Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the
Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the
Fountain of Neptune in the
Piazza della Signoria
Florence
–
A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence
–
The façade of the Cathedral
Florence
–
Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the
Uffizi Gallery.
15.
Medici
–
The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to fund the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, the Medici produced three Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X, Pope Clement VII, and Pope Leo XI, two regent queens of France—Catherine de Medici and Marie de Medici. In 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence, in 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, the grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt. Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. They, along with families of Italy—such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara. The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, there are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy, a notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system, the Medici family came from the agricultural Mugello region, north of Florence, being mentioned for the first time in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain, Medici is the plural of medico, also written del medico or delmedigo, meaning, medical doctor. It has been suggested that the derived from one Medico di Potrone, a castellan of Potrone in the late 11th century. The dynasty began with the founding of the Medici Bank, until the late 14th century, prior to the Medici, the leading family of Florence was the House of Albizzi. In 1293 the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, which became the constitution of the republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. The citys numerous luxurious palazzi were becoming surrounded by townhouses, built by the ever prospering merchant class. In 1298, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medicis, first under Giovanni de Medici, later under his son Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici and great-grandson, Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici bank—then Europes largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence, in 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, a pro-Medici Signoria was elected, the Medici became the citys leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders, some examples of these families include the Bardi, Salviati, Cavalcanti, and the Tornabuoni
Medici
–
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, founder of the Medici bank.
Medici
–
Medici
Medici
–
The Confirmation of the Rule by
Domenico Ghirlandaio.
Medici
–
Cosimo I the Great, founder of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
16.
Rembrandt
–
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. A prolific and versatile master across three media, he is considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art. Having achieved youthful success as a painter, Rembrandts later years were marked by personal tragedy. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, Rembrandts portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and his reputation as the greatest etcher in the history of the medium was established in his lifetime, and never questioned since. Few of his paintings left the Dutch Republic whilst he lived, but his prints were circulated throughout Europe, because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called one of the great prophets of civilization. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic and he was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuijtbrouck. His family was quite well-to-do, his father was a miller, religion is a central theme in Rembrandts paintings and the religiously fraught period in which he lived makes his faith a matter of interest. His mother was Roman Catholic, and his father belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, unlike many of his contemporaries who traveled to Italy as part of their artistic training, Rembrandt never left the Dutch Republic during his lifetime. He opened a studio in Leiden in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend, in 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerrit Dou in 1628. In 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, as a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, Saskia came from a good family, her father had been a lawyer and the burgemeester of Leeuwarden. When Saskia, as the youngest daughter, became an orphan, Rembrandt and Saskia were married in the local church of St. Annaparochie without the presence of Rembrandts relatives. In the same year, Rembrandt became a burgess of Amsterdam and he also acquired a number of students, among them Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck. In 1635 Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat, in 1639 they moved to a prominent newly built house in the upscale Breestraat, today known as Jodenbreestraat in what was becoming the Jewish quarter, then a young upcoming neighborhood. The mortgage to finance the 13,000 guilder purchase would be a cause for later financial difficulties. Rembrandt should easily have been able to pay the house off with his income, but it appears his spending always kept pace with his income. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbors to model for his Old Testament scenes, in 1640, they had a second daughter, also named Cornelia, who died after living barely over a month
Rembrandt
–
Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659),
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Rembrandt
–
The Prodigal Son in the Tavern, a self-portrait with Saskia, c. 1635
Rembrandt
–
Portrait of
Saskia van Uylenburgh, ca. 1635
Rembrandt
–
Rembrandt Memorial Marker Westerkerk Amsterdam
17.
Lute
–
The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. It is also an instrument, especially in vocal works. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, the words lute and oud possibly derive from Arabic al-ʿud. Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ʿud may in turn be an Arabized version of the Persian name rud and it has equally been suggested the wood in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessors. Gianfranco Lotti suggests the wood appellation originally carried derogatory connotations because of proscriptions of all music in early Islam. Lutes are made almost entirely of wood, the soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood. In all lutes the soundboard has a single decorated sound hole under the strings called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of a vine or a decorative knot. Robert Lundberg, in his book Historical Lute Construction, suggests ancient builders placed bars according to ratios of the scale length. He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard is an adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenists right hand more space between the strings and soundboard. Soundboard thickness varies, but generally hovers between 1.5 and 2 mm, some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to produce desirable sonic results. The lute belly is almost never finished, but in cases the luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of shellac or glair to help keep it clean. After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the edge of the soundboard, the half-binding is approximately half the thickness of the soundboard and is usually made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be precise to avoid compromising structural integrity. The back or the shell is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength, the neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the fretboard is mounted flush with the top
Lute
–
Various lutes
Lute
–
A lute being made in a workshop.
Lute
–
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting depicting lute players,
18th Dynasty (c.
1350 BC).
Lute
–
Hellenistic banquet scene from 1st Century AD,
Hadda,
Gandhara. Lute player far right.
18.
Varnish
–
Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film that is primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a oil, a resin. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss sheens by the addition of flatting agents. Varnish has little or no color, is transparent, and has no added pigment, as opposed to paints or wood stains, varnishes are also applied over wood stains as a final step to achieve a film for gloss and protection. Some products are marketed as a stain and varnish. Resin varnishes dry by evaporation of the solvent and harden almost immediately upon drying, acrylic and waterborne varnishes dry upon evaporation of the water but will experience an extended curing period. Environmental factors such as heat and humidity play a large role in the drying and curing times of varnishes. In classic varnish the cure rate depends on the type of oil used and, to some extent, the drying and curing time of all varnishes may be sped up by exposure to an energy source such as sunlight, ultraviolet light, or heat. Many varnishes contain plant-derived oils, synthetic oils or resins as their binder in combination with organic solvents and these are highly flammable in their liquid state. A highly important note, that is often over looked, all drying oils, certain alkyds, thus, oil-soaked rags and paper can smolder and ignite into flames, even several hours after use if proper precautions are not taken. Varnishing was a well known in ancient Egypt. Varnishing is also recorded in the history of Asia, in India, China and Japan, where the practice of lacquer work, varnishing was likely popular in India & China before it spread to Japan and Korea. Varnish and lacquer work are, however, generally treated in the arts as separate, berenice comes from the Greek words phero + nike. There are many different types of drying oils, including linseed oil, tung oil and these contain high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Resins that are used in varnishes include amber, kauri gum, dammar, copal, rosin, sandarac, balsam, elemi, mastic, in the 1900s in Canada, resins from local trees were used to finish pianos. As a result, these now antique pianos are considered difficult to refinish, however, shellac can be used over the existing resins provided sufficient time is allowed for thin coats to cure. Thus the original finish can be returned to its original lustre while preserving the color, violin varnishing is a multi-step process involving some or all of the following, primer, sealer, ground, color coats, and clear topcoat. Some systems use an oil varnish as described below, while others use spirit varnish
Varnish
–
Varnish on wood stairs
Varnish
–
Animal products
19.
Abraham Bosse
–
Abraham Bosse was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour. He was born to Huguenot parents in Tours, France, where his father had moved from Germany and his father was a tailor, and Bosses work always depicted clothes in loving detail. He married Catherine Sarrabat at Tours in 1632 and he remained a Huguenot, dying before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but was happy to illustrate religious subjects to Catholic taste. Roughly 1600 etchings are attributed to him, with including, daily life religion, literature, history fashion, technology. Most of his output was illustrations for books, but many were sold separately. His style grows from Dutch and Flemish art, but is given a strongly French flavour, many of his images give informative detail about middle and upper-class daily life in the period, although they must be treated with care as historical evidence. Most of his images are perhaps best regarded as rather than art. He was apprenticed in Paris about 1620 to the Antwerp-born engraver Melchior Tavernier and his first etchings date to 1622, and are influenced by Jacques Bellange. He took Callots highly detailed small images to a size. Like most etchers, he used engraving on a plate in addition to etching. In 1641 he began to attend classes given by the architect Girard Desargues on perspective, Bosse not only adopted these methods but also published a series of works between 1643–1653 explaining and promoting them. In 1648, when Cardinal Mazarin established the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, in 1661 Bosse was forced to withdraw from the Academy, he established his own school as an alternative. Des Argues Lyonnois pour poser lessieu & placer les heures & autres choses aux cadrans au Soleil, printed by P. de Hayes, manière universelle de M. des Argues pour pratiquer la perspective par petit-pied comme le géométral. — Manual on perspective Moyen universel de la perspective sur les tableaux ou surfaces irrégulières. The famous frontispiece for Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes was created with input from Hobbes, ISBN 2-7177-2283-1 Dhombres, Sakharovitch — Desargues en son temps, libr. Albert Blanchard, Paris Jean-Claude Vuillemin, “Abraham Bosse, ” in L. Foisneau, dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers,2 vols. London and New York, Thoemmes Continuum,2008, GUERRIAUD, M. Abraham Bosse et la gravure du doyen. Revue d’Histoire de la Pharmacie,2013, p. 289-301, dossier on Abraham Bosse by the French ministry of culture
Abraham Bosse
–
Valet de Chambre from a series of etchings of trades, Les Metiers 1635
Abraham Bosse
–
Watercolour of a ball by Abraham Bosse, a similar subject to many of his most famous etchings
Abraham Bosse
–
Frontispiece for Hobbes' Leviathan.
20.
Francisco Goya
–
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his career was a commentator. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns and he was also one of the great portraitists of modern times. He was born to a modest family in 1746 in the village of Fuendetodos in Aragon and he studied painting from age 14 under José Luzán y Martinez and moved to Madrid to study with Anton Raphael Mengs. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773, the couples life together was characterised by an almost constant series of pregnancies and miscarriages, Goya was a guarded man and although letters and writings survive, little is known about his thoughts. He suffered a severe and undiagnosed illness in 1793 which left him completely deaf, after 1793 his work became progressively darker and more pessimistic. His later easel and mural paintings, prints and drawings appear to reflect a bleak outlook on personal, social and political levels and he was appointed Director of the Royal Academy in 1795, the year Manuel Godoy made an unfavorable treaty with France. In 1799 Goya became Primer Pintor de Cámara, the then-highest rank for a Spanish court painter, in the late 1790s, commissioned by Godoy, he completed his La maja desnuda, a remarkably daring nude for the time and clearly indebted to Diego Velázquez. In 1801 he painted Charles IV of Spain and His Family, in 1807 Napoleon led the French army into Spain. Goya remained in Madrid during the Peninsular War, which seems to have affected him deeply. Although he did not vocalise his thoughts in public, they can be inferred from his Disasters of War series of prints and his 1814 paintings The Second of May 1808 and The Third of May 1808. Goya eventually abandoned Spain in 1824 to retire to the French city of Bordeaux, accompanied by his much younger maid and companion, Leocadia Weiss, there he completed his La Tauromaquia series and a number of other, major, canvases. Following a stroke left him paralyzed on his right side. His body was later re-interred in Spain, Francisco Goya was born in Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain, on 30 March 1746 to José Benito de Goya y Franque and Gracia de Lucientes y Salvador. The family had moved that year from the city of Zaragoza, José was the son of a notary and of Basque origin, his ancestors being from Zerain, earning his living as a gilder, specialising in religious and decorative craftwork. He oversaw the gilding and most of the ornamentation during the rebuilding of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, Francisco was their fourth child, following his sister Rita, brother Tomás and second sister Jacinta. There were two sons, Mariano and Camilo. His mothers family had pretensions of nobility and the house, a modest brick cottage, was owned by her family and, perhaps fancifully, about 1749 José and Gracia bought a home in Zaragoza and were able to return to live in the city
Francisco Goya
–
Portrait of Francisco Goya by
Vicente López y Portaña (1826). Oil on canvas, 93 × 75 cm,
Museo del Prado,
Madrid, Spain
Francisco Goya
–
La cometa, 1777–78, one of
Goya's tapestry cartoons
Francisco Goya
–
De Goya's 1790 Retrato de Martín Zapater at
Museo de Arte de Ponce,
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Francisco Goya
–
Charles IV of Spain and His Family, 1800.
Théophile Gautier described the figures as looking like "the corner baker and his wife after they won the lottery".
21.
Los Desastres de la Guerra
–
The Disasters of War is a series of 82 prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya. Although deeply affected by the war, he kept private his thoughts on the art he produced in response to the conflict and he was in poor health and almost deaf when, at 62, he began work on the prints. They were not published until 1863,35 years after his death and it is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons. In total over a thousand sets have been printed, though later ones are of lower quality, the name by which the series is known today is not Goyas own. His handwritten title on an album of proofs given to a friend reads, Fatal consequences of Spains bloody war with Bonaparte, aside from the titles or captions given to each print, these are Goyas only known words on the series. With these works, he breaks from a number of painterly traditions and he rejects the bombastic heroics of most previous Spanish war art to show the effect of conflict on individuals. In addition he abandons colour in favour of a more direct truth he found in shadow, the series was produced using a variety of intaglio printmaking techniques, mainly etching for the line work and aquatint for the tonal areas, but also engraving and drypoint. As with many other Goya prints, they are referred to as aquatints. The series is considered in three groups which broadly mirror the order of their creation. The first 47 focus on incidents from the war and show the consequences of the conflict on individual soldiers, the middle series record the effects of the famine that hit Madrid in 1811–12, before the city was liberated from the French. Napoleon I of France declared himself First Consul of the French Republic on 18 February 1799, because Spain controlled access to the Mediterranean, it was politically and strategically important to the French. The reigning Spanish sovereign, Charles IV, was regarded as ineffectual. Seduced by the French offer, Godoy accepted, failing to detect the true motivations of either Napoleon or Ferdinand, under the guise of reinforcing the Spanish armies,23,000 French troops entered Spain unopposed in November 1807. Even when their intentions became clear the following February, the forces faced little resistance besides isolated actions in disconnected areas. They decided that Napoleons brother, Joseph Bonaparte, should be king, under a pretext of mediation, Napoleon summoned Charles and Ferdinand to Bayonne, France, where they were coerced into relinquishing their rights to the throne in favour of Joseph. Like other Spanish liberals, Goya was left in a position after the French invasion. He had supported the aims of the French Revolution, and hoped its ideals would help liberate Spain from feudalism to become a secular. The latter divide became more pronounced—and the differences far more entrenched—following the eventual withdrawal of the French, several of Goyas friends, including the poets Juan Meléndez Valdés and Leandro Fernández de Moratín, were overt afrancesados, the supporters of Joseph Bonaparte
Los Desastres de la Guerra
–
Plate 3: Lo mismo (The same). A man about to cut off the head of a soldier with an axe.
Los Desastres de la Guerra
–
Plate 34: Por una navaja (For a clasp knife). A garroted priest grasps a crucifix in his hands. Pinned to his chest is a description of the crime for which he was killed—possession of a knife.
Los Desastres de la Guerra
–
In
The Third of May 1808, along with its companion work
The Second of May 1808, Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of 1808. Both were produced in 1814, while the print series was in progress.
Los Desastres de la Guerra
–
Francisco Goya,
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, 1812–14. During the
Peninsular War, the British, led by Wellington, led a
proxy war against
Napoleon's marshals and the
Imperial French Army.
22.
Derby porcelain
–
The production of Derby porcelain dates from the first half of the 18th century, although the authorship and the exact start of the production remains today as a matter of conjecture. It was common at the time that dealers purchased white glazed porcelain from various manufacturers, curiously, there are no other references to this supposed «Derby Porcelain Manufactory, » which suggests that the name was specifically invented for the occasion. Although it can be only as boasting, the advertisement calls the factory a «second Dresden. The potter Andrew Planche is often cited as a forerunner of the Derby china factory, reports about a «foreigner in very poor circumstances» who lived in Lodge Lane and produced small porcelain figures around 1745, may refer to Planchè. However, as pointed out by a researcher, in 1745 Planchè was only 17 years old, the very importance of Planchè to the constitution of the future Royal Crown Derby was minimized by some, and contested by others, who doubt his existence. However, there is evidence that Planchè was really a historical figure, a serious contender for the title of maker of the porcelain pieces of the «second Dresden» is the Cockpit Hill Potworks. We deduce that this «Derby Pot Works» was already in operation around 1708, on behalf of a slipware tyg. It is known that the «Pot Works» produced china, due to the announcement of an auction held in 1780, no mention is made of enamelled figures, but it is quite likely that they were also built, at a time when demand for these items was high. Or, perhaps, this branch of the works has been assimilated by the Duesburys factory from the second half of 1750s on. Because of an arrest warrant drawn up in 1758 against a certain John Lovegrove, we know that the owners of the «Cockpit Hill Potworks» were William Butts, Thomas Rivett and John Heath. However, competition with the Nottingham Road factory seems to have been fatal. » In 1785, from the book Bow, Chelsea, and Derby Porcelain by William Bemrose,1,2,3 - Earliest Derby Marks, generally in blue. 4 - Crossed swords, crown, and D, and 6 dots, carefully painted in blue, later in puce,5,6 - Ditto, less carefully painted in red. 7,8,9,10 - Later Duesbury Marks,11 - Duesbury & Kean, seldom used, circa 1795 to 1809. 12,13,14,15 - Bloor Marks, commence 1811 to 1849,16,17,18,19 - Quasi Oriental Marks used on several occasions in matching, and to use up seconds stock by Bloor. No.17 is an imitation of the Sèvres mark,20 - Dresden Mark, often used on figures. 21 - Derby Mark, supposed to have used by Holdship when at Derby. 22 - Stephenson & Hancock, King Street Factory,1862, same mark used afterwards by Sampson Hancock,23 - Mark used by the Derby Crown Porcelain Co. Osmaston Road, from its establishment in 1877 to Dec.1889,24 - This Mark adopted by the above Co. when Her Majesty granted the use of the prefix Royal on 3 January 1890
Derby porcelain
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A Doe made from Derby porcelain in the 1750s.
Derby porcelain
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Site of Woodward's pipe kiln, where André Planchè fired «his birds cats dogs sheep &c».
Derby porcelain
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Figure of
Britannia made around 1780.
Derby porcelain
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Marks made to Derby china.
23.
Mansion House, London
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Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It is used for some of the City of Londons official functions, including two annual White Tie dinners, hosted by the Lord Mayor. At the Easter banquet, the speaker is the Foreign Secretary. In early June, it is the turn of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give his Mansion House Speech about the state of the British economy and it is a Grade I listed building. Mansion House was built between 1739 and 1752, in the then fashionable Palladian style by the surveyor and architect George Dance the Elder. The site, at the east end of Poultry, had previously occupied by the Stocks Market. The construction was prompted by a wish to put an end to the inconvenient practice of lodging the Lord Mayor in one of the City Halls, Dance won a competition over designs solicited from James Gibbs and Giacomo Leoni, and uninvited submissions by Batty Langley and Isaac Ware. In 1795 George Dance the Younger re-roofed the central courtyard, and had the Noahs Ark demolished, in the same year, the original grand staircase was removed to make way for a further two rooms. In 1835 the entrance steps were reduced to one flight, Mansion House was paid for in an unusual way. William Edward Hartpole Lecky in his History of England during the Eighteenth Century describes it as a very scandalous form of persecution, there are over one hundred livery companies, the senior members of which form a special electorate known as Common Hall. In order to serve as a Sheriff of the City of London and this was exactly what English Dissenters could not, in conscience, do. The electors appointed these Dissenters with a knowledge that they would not serve. One of those whom they selected was blind, another was bedridden, some tried to appeal, but the process was immensely risky and costly, with the City holding all the cards. Thomas Abney rose to be Lord Mayor in this fashion, a person who had not taken the Sacrament according to the Anglican rite could not stand as a candidate for sheriff of London. Thus Dissenters were ineligible, they could not run if asked, Samuel Sharpe, banker by day and amateur Egyptologist by night, wrote about it in the 1830s, striking a blow against the Test and Corporate Acts. The article was republished in 1872, Sharpe argues that Mansion House remains as a monument of the unjust manner in which Dissenters were treated in the last century. Mansion House has three storeys over a rusticated basement. The building originally had two prominent and unusual attic structures at either end, which were removed in 1794 and 1843, the building is on a confined site
Mansion House, London
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Mansion House on Mansion House Street near
Bank junction.
Mansion House, London
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An 1837 view showing one of the two high attics. They were nicknamed the "Mayor's Nest" and "Noah's Ark".
Mansion House, London
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An early 19th century banquet in the Egyptian Hall at the Mansion House
Mansion House, London
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A public session at the Mansion House, London (c. 1840)
24.
Caricature
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A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. The term is derived from the Italian caricare—to charge or load, an early definition occurs in the English doctor Thomas Brownes Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, with the footnote, When Mens faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the Italians call it, to be drawn in Caricatura Thus, the word caricature essentially means a loaded portrait. Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Caricature took a road to its first successes in the aristocratic circles of France and Italy. These caricatures were the work of Brig. -Gen, george Townshend whose caricatures of British General James Wolfe, depicted as Deformed and crass and hideous, were drawn to amuse fellow officers. Elsewhere, two great practitioners of the art of caricature in 18th-century Britain were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, Rowlandson was more of an artist and his work took its inspiration mostly from the public at large. Gillray was more concerned with the vicious visual satirisation of political life and they were, however, great friends and caroused together in the pubs of London. In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature, the British caricaturist Ted Harrison said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the subject with an effective caricature. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art can be employed to make a social or political point. A caricaturist draws on the characteristics of the subject, the acquired characteristics. Sir Max Beerbohm, created and published caricatures of the men of his own time. His style of single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings was established by 1896 and his published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Poets Corner, and Rossetti and His Circle. He published widely in magazines of the time, and his works were exhibited regularly in London at the Carfax Gallery. George Cruikshank created political prints that attacked the family and leading politicians. He went on to create caricatures of British life for popular publications such as The Comic Almanack
Caricature
–
Caricature of
Aubrey Beardsley by
Max Beerbohm (1896), taken from
Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen
Caricature
–
Ancient
Pompeiian graffiti caricature of a politician.
Caricature
–
James Gillray 's The Plumb-pudding in danger (1805), which caricatured
Pitt and
Napoleon, was voted the most famous of all UK political cartoons.
Caricature
–
Une discussion littéraire à la deuxième Galerie by
Honoré Daumier Lithograph published in Le Charivari newspaper, February 27, 1864
25.
Impruneta
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Impruneta is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany. The name Impruneta is derived from inprunetis meaning within the pine woods, the terracotta is made from local clay, has a red-colored finish, and production includes everything from small tiles to large garden vases and statues. The most important feature of Impruneta is the Sanctuary of Santa Maria, the Basilica dates from 1060, being probably located over an ancient devotional site of Etruscan times. It was an important site of pilgrimage during the Middle Ages, the basilica was bombed during World War II and now few of the original decorations can be seen. The façade is preceded by a portico by Gherardo Silvani, built by the Florentine people as vow for the liberation from the plague, the interior has a single nave, artworks include a Nativity by Domenico Passignano and a Vocation of St. Peter by Jacopo da Empoli. The museum connected to the basilica is home to one of the pieces of European patchwork. The current Madonnas image is a restoration by Ignazio Hugford from 1758. The towns saint is St. Luc and the saints feast day on 18 October each year is the highlight of a festival with a Palio featuring horse racing a carnival
Impruneta
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Basilica of Impruneta.
26.
Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
Virtual International Authority File
–
Screenshot 2012
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Callot, Jacques". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
