Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces Leda. According to Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris; the subject was seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheus. Thanks to the literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance.
The subject undoubtedly owed its sixteenth-century popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man. The earliest depictions show the pair love-making with some explicitness—more so than in any depictions of a human pair made by artists of high quality in the same period; the fate of the erotic album I Modi some years shows why this was so. The theme remained a dangerous one in the Renaissance, as the fates of the three best known paintings on the subject demonstrate; the earliest depictions were all in the more private medium of the old master print, from Venice. They were based on the brief account in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, though Lorenzo de' Medici had both a Roman sarcophagus and an antique carved gem of the subject, both with reclining Ledas; the earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many woodcut illustrations to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book published in Venice in 1499. This shows Leda and the Swan making love with gusto, despite being on top of a triumphal car, being pulled along and surrounded by a considerable crowd.
An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by Giovanni Battista Palumba shows the couple in coitus, but in deserted countryside. Another engraving from Venice and attributed by many to Giulio Campagnola, shows a love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is ambiguous. Palumba made another engraving in about 1512 influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children. There were significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts private media. Benvenuto Cellini made a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, Antonio Abondio one on the obverse of a medal celebrating a Roman courtesan. Leonardo da Vinci began making studies in 1504 for a painting never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. In 1508 he painted a different composition of the subject, with a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins, their huge broken egg-shells; the original of this is lost deliberately destroyed, was last recorded in the French royal Château de Fontainebleau in 1625 by Cassiano dal Pozzo.
However it is known from many copies, of which the earliest are the Spiridon Leda by a studio assistant and now in the Uffizi, the one at Wilton House in England. Lost, deliberately destroyed, is Michelangelo's tempera painting of the pair making love, commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d'Este for his palazzo in Ferrara, taken to France for the royal collection in 1532. Michelangelo's cartoon for the work—given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533—survived for over a century; this composition is known from many copies, including an ambitious engraving by Cornelis Bos, c. 1563. 1530, in the National Gallery, London. The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows Mannerist tendencies of elongation and twisted pose that were popular at the time. In addition, a sculptural group, similar to the Prado Roman group illustrated, was believed until at least the 19th century to be by Michelangelo; the last famous Renaissance painting of the subject is Correggio's elaborate composition of c. 1530.
His son Louis, though a great lover of painting, had periodic crises of conscience about his way of life, in one of which he attacked the figure of Leda with a knife. The damage has been repaired. Both the Leonardo and Michelangelo paintings disappeared when in the collection of the French Royal Family, are believed to have been destroyed by more moralistic widows or successors of their owners. There were many other depictions in the Renaissance, including cycles of book illustrations to Ovid, but most were derivat
Peter P. McCann, of University Park, Florida, is a philatelist who has supported the hobby of philately on a national scale. For his varied services to the American Philatelic Society over several decades, he was awarded in 2008 the Luff Award for outstanding service to the society. Peter McCann served the APS in a variety of ways, including acting as president, vice president, board member, ambassador-at-large for the society, he served on, chaired, various committees, he served as judge on at least 125 national stamp exhibitions. In addition to judging exhibits of others at stamp exhibitions, McCann has exhibited and internationally, selections from his own collections and has won national grand awards with three different exhibits. McCann has served as president of the American Philatelic Congress, the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, the British Caribbean Philatelic Study Group, he is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, has been a trustee of the Philatelic Foundation.
He served as co-chairman of the Council of Philatelists at the National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C, he was elected Vice President of FIP, the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie, in 2004 and reelected in 2008. McCann has written articles on various aspects of philately and has served as co-editor and co-author of several books related to philately of Caribbean islands and the islands of the South Atlantic Ocean. In addition to receiving the Luff Award in 2008, McCann signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 2007, he has been awarded the Eugene Klein Memorial Award, the Phoenix Award, the Skavaril Award. In 2010 he was awarded the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Memorial Award. Philately Philatelic literature APS News release
Ludovico Luigi Carlo Maria di Barbiano di Belgiojoso or Ludwig Karl Maria von Barbiano Graf von Belgiojoso was an Austrian diplomat and Lieutenant Field Marshal who served the Habsburg Monarchy in the second half of the 18th century. Ludovico di Belgiojoso was born in Belgioioso as the second son of Count Don Antonio Barbiano di Belgioioso and his wife Barbara Luigia Elisabetta D'Adda, contessa di Bronno; the medieval castle of Belgioioso, a town located just south of Milan, had been the seat of the Belgiojoso family for centuries. Belgioioso was part of the Duchy of Milan which itself formed a part of the Holy Roman Empire at that time. Ludovico's father Count Antonio had served the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa throughout his career as Imperial ambassador and since 1748 as Imperial Personal Councillor, he was made a Knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1763 and was elevated from Count to'Prince of the Empire and of Belgioioso' in Vienna on 5 August 1769. The elevation included the right to mint coins bearing the effigy of the prince.
His son Ludovico was created a Knight of Malta at the age of seven in 1735. Following in the footsteps of his father Ludovico started a successful career in the service of the Emperor becoming at first an Imperial Chamberlain. In 1757 he was appointed captain of the Imperial army. From 1764 until 1769 he served as Habsburg's ambassador to Sweden. Empress Maria Theresia was satisfied with his performance to such an extent that in 1769 she gave him the important position of the Emperor's special envoy and plenipotentiary at the Court of St James's in London. In the following years he accompanied Maria Theresia's son Joseph on his journeys to a number of European courts and cities. On 3 May 1781, Belgiojoso was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society, he stayed in London until 1782. Count Belgiojoso was promoted'Lieutenant Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire' on 26 April 1783. On 9 May of that year emperor Joseph II appointed him'authorised minister in the Austrian Netherlands' and sent him to Brussels in succession of Georg Adam, Prince of Starhemberg.
Belgiojoso assumed his duties a few days later. He remained as authorised minister in Brussels the next four years until 1787. In this period emperor Joseph II tried to introduce a number of reforms in the field of education, which caused a lot of resistance; when Joseph replaced the central organs of government with a single General Council of Government, abolished the Council of Brabant, replacing it with a supreme court, he provoked widespread rioting and a rising in Brussels known as the "Small Revolution" in May 1787. The government in Brussels tried to calm down the unrests by suspending the edicts from January 1787 which caused the troubles; this prompted a furious reaction from the emperor. With order from 24 June 1787 Count Belgiojoso, his authorised minister in the Austrian Netherlands, the Duke of Teschen, his governor-general, were both recalled to Vienna, they left Brussels between 20 July. Both were replaced ad interim with Joseph Count Murray de Melgum, commander-in-chief of the Austrian army in the Austrian Netherlands.
Following an invitation of the emperor, a delegation of the Provincial States of Brabant travelled to Vienna to meet the Emperor. Although Joseph felt a bit satisfied by this gesture, the disputed issues remained unsolved and both sides left frustrated. In an attempt to soothe the tensions Count Murray again suspended in September 1787 the edicts from January; as a result, he was removed from his post as commander-in-chief and replaced with Count Richard d'Alton. As future'authorised minister in the Austrian Netherlands' the emperor however appointed Ferdinand von Trauttmansdorff. Count Belgiojoso's political career was finished and he returned on to Milan. Between 1790 and 1796, along with architect Leopold Pollack, Belgiojoso redesigned the family residence, now known as Royal Villa of Milan. On 15 May 1801 Ludovico Count of Belgiojoso died in Milan. Joseph II. in deutsche-biographie.de Trauttmansdorff, Ferdinand Fürst zu, in deutsche-biographie.de F. Calvi, Curiosità storiche e diplomatiche del secolo decimo-ottavo, Milano Ottokar Lorenz, Joseph II.
Und die Wien Bright, James Franck, Joseph II, Macmillan and Company. Renate Zedinger, Die Verwaltung der Österreichischen Niederlande in Wien, Böhlau Verlag Wien Derek Edward Dawson Beales, Joseph II: Volume 2, Against the World, 1780–1790, Cambridge University Press
Colilodion, sole member of the tribe Colilodionini, is a genus of beetles belonging to the family Staphylinidae and comprising eight species from Southeast Asia. Species of the genus Colilodion are presumed to be myrmecophiles due to the presence of trichomes retaining ant pheromones; the exact systematic placement of the genus remains uncertain. Eight species have been described: Colilodion concinnus Besuchet, 1991 Colilodion incredibilis Besuchet, 1991 Colilodion inopinatus Besuchet, 1991 Colilodion mirus Besuchet, 1991 Colilodion schulzi Yin & Cuccodoro, 2016 Colilodion tetramerus Löbl, 1998 Colilodion thienmu Nomura & Sugaya, 2007 Colilodion wuesti Löbl, 1994 Besuchet, Claude. "Révolution chez les Clavigerinae". Revue suisse de Zoologie. 98: 499–515. Doi:10.5962/bhl.part.79801
Armin Otto Leuschner was an American astronomer and educator. Leuschner was raised in Germany, he returned to the US for university studies, graduating from the University of Michigan in 1888 with a degree in mathematics. He became the first graduate student at Lick Observatory, but due to conflicts with his advisor, Lick director Edward S. Holden, he left Lick before finishing his Ph. D. Leuschner subsequently returned to Germany and attended the University of Berlin, where in 1897 he earned his doctorate with a praised thesis on the orbits of comets, he returned to California as an associate professor in astronomy at UC Berkeley, where he remained for over half a century. He founded an observatory there for student instruction renamed in his honor Leuschner Observatory. Together with Lick director James E. Keeler, Leuschner shaped the combined graduate program at Berkeley and Lick into one of the nation's foremost centers of astronomical education. Leuschner's own research continued to focus on the orbits of comets.
More than five dozen students received their doctorates under Leuschner's guidance. In 1913 Leuschner became dean of the entire graduate school at Berkeley, was appointed head of all World War I related training at the University, he was a founding member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, served a term as the president of the American Association of University Professors, chaired the International Astronomical Union's committee on comets and minor planets for two decades. Leuschner was one of the first astronomers to dispute Pluto as being Planet X as predicted by Lowell. By 1932 he was suggesting that Pluto had a mass less than the Earth, that the discovery of Pluto was an accidental by-product of the Lowell search. Awards James Craig Watson Medal Order of the North Star, Sweden Bruce Medal Rittenhouse Medal Halley Lecturer, University of Oxford Named after him Leuschner on the Moon Leuschner Observatory Main-belt asteroid 1361 Leuschneria Asteroid 718 Erida is named after his daughter Erida Leuschner.
Denies Planet Really Found Armin Otto Leuschner papers, 1875–1951 at The Bancroft Library National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir Portrait of Armin Otto Leuschner from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
Adolph Zukor was an Austro-Hungarian-born American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures. Zukor was born to a Jewish family in Ricse, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At a young age he became an orphan so he decided to immigrate to the US, he sailed from Hamburg on the s/s Rugia on March 1 and arrived in New York City under the name Adolf Zuckery on March 16, 1891. Like most immigrants, he began modestly. After having landed in New York City, he started working in an upholstery shop. A friend got him a job as an apprentice at a furrier. Zukor stayed in New York City for two years; when he left to become a "contract" worker, sewing fur pieces and selling them himself, he was twenty years old and an accomplished designer. He was young and adventuresome, the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago drew him to the Midwest. There he started a fur business. In the second season of operation, Zukor's Novelty Fur Company expanded to 25 men and opened a branch. Historian Neal Gabler wrote, "one of the stubborn fallacies of movie history is that the men who created the film industry were all impoverished young vulgarians..."
Zukor didn't fit this profile. By 1903, he looked and lived like a wealthy young burgher, he earned the income of one, he had a commodious apartment at 111th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York City's wealthy German-Jewish section". In 1918, he moved to New City, Rockland County, New York, where he purchased 300 acres of land from Lawrence Abraham, heir to the A&S Department Stores. Abraham had built a sizable house, a nine-hole golf course and a swimming pool on this property. Two years Zukor bought an additional 500 acres, built a night house, guest house, movie theater, locker room, garages, staff quarters and hired golf architect A. W. Tillinghast to build an 18-hole championship golf course. Today, Zukor's estate is the private Paramount Country Club. In 1903, he became involved in the motion picture industry when his cousin, Max Goldstein, approached him for a loan to invest in a chain of theaters; these theaters were started by Mitchell Mark in New York and hosted Edisonia Hall. Mark needed investors to expand his chain of theaters.
Zukor gave Goldstein the loan and formed a partnership with Mark and Morris Kohn, a friend of Zukor's who invested in the theaters. Zukor and Kohn opened a penny arcade operating as The Automatic Vaudeville Company on 14th Street in New York City, they soon opened branches in Boston and Newark, with funding by Marcus Loew. In 1912, Adolph Zukor established Famous Players Film Company—advertising "Famous Players in Famous Plays"—as the American distribution company for the French film production Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth starring Sarah Bernhardt; the following year he obtained the financial backing of the Frohman brothers, the powerful New York City theatre impresarios. Their primary goal was to bring noted stage actors to the screen and Zukor went on to produce The Prisoner of Zenda, he purchased an armory on 26th Street in Manhattan and converted it into Chelsea Studios, a movie studio, still used today. In 1916, the company merged with Jesse L. Lasky's company to form Famous Players-Lasky.
The Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to distribute films made by Famous Players-Lasky, a dozen smaller companies pulled into Zukor's corporate giant. The consolidations led to the formation of a nationwide film distribution system. In 1917, Zukor acquired 50% of Lewis J. Selznick's Select Pictures which led Selznick's publicity to wane. However, Selznick bought out Zukor's share of Select Pictures. Zukor shed most of his early partners. In 1919, the company bought 135 theaters in the Southern states, making the producing concern the first that guaranteed exhibition of its own product in its own theaters, he revolutionized the film industry by organizing production and exhibition within a single company. Zukor believed in stars, he signed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Marguerite Clark, Pauline Frederick, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Wallace Reid. With so many important players, Zukor pioneered "Block Booking" for Paramount Pictures, which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions.
It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than 20 years. Zukor was the driving force behind Paramount's success. Through the teens and twenties, he built the Publix Theatres Corporation, a chain of nearly 2000 screens, he ran two production studios, one in Astoria, New York and the other in Hollywood, California. In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg, who had an unerring eye for new talent, to run the new West Coast operations, they purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street for US$1 million. In 1927, Famous Players-Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. Three years because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became Paramount Publix Corporation. Zukor was now turning out 60 features a year, he made deals to show them all in theaters controlled by Loew's Enterprises, continued to add more theaters to his own chain.
By 1920 he was in a position to charge. Thus he pioneered the concept, now the accepted practice in the film industry, by which the distributor charges the exhibitor a percentage of box-office receipts. Zukor, ever