Alessandro Longhi
Alessandro Longhi was a Venetian portrait painter and printmaker in etching. He is known best for his oil portraits of Venetian nobles of state, his father was the famed genre painter Pietro Longhi. He trained under Giuseppe Nogari. Like Sebastiano Bombelli in the prior century, Alessandro Longhi is noted for his zealous full-length depictions of robes and emblems of office, his "tumultuous and unusual technique shows first-hand knowledge of Rembrandt's etchings", according to Olimpia Theodoli. Luigi and Alvise III Pisani and family Portrait of Carlo Goldoni Portrait of a Composer, erroneously to be the Portrait of Domenico Cimarosa Portrait of a Lady Portrait of a Gentleman Portrait of a Gentleman Couple 1 of 2 Couple 2 of 2 Portrait of Giambattista Piazzetta Portrait of Giuseppe Chiribiri Portrait of Giulio Contarini Portrait of Giacomo Casanova Portrait of Jacopo Gradenigo Portrait of Antonio Renier Portrait of a Magistrate Painting and Merit Wittkower, Rudolf. "Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750".
Pelican History of Art. 1980. Penguin Books Ltd. p. 493. Italian Paintings, Venetian School, a collection catalog containing information about Longhi and his works
Carnival of Venice
The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday; the festival is world-famous for its elaborate masks. It's said that the Carnival of Venice was started from a victory of the Venice Republic against the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico di Treven in the year 1162. In the honor of this victory, the people started to gather in San Marco Square; this festival started on that period and became official in the Renaissance. In the seventeenth century, the baroque carnival was a way to save the prestigious image of Venice in the world, it was famous during the eighteenth century. It encouraged licence and pleasure, but it was used to protect Venetians from present and future anguish. However, under the rule of the Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria, Francis II, the festival was outlawed in 1797 and the use of masks became forbidden, it reappeared in the nineteenth century, but only for short periods and above all for private feasts, where it became an occasion for artistic creations.
After a long absence, the Carnival returned in 1979. The Italian government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice, sought to use the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of its efforts; the redevelopment of the masks began as the pursuit of some Venetian college students for the tourist trade. Since approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for the Carnival. One of the most important events is the contest for la maschera più bella, judged by a panel of international costume and fashion designers. Here are the winners: 2015: Le stelle dell'amore by Horst Raack, best costume for the official theme La regina della cucina veneziana by Tanja Schulz-Hess, most creative costume Monsieur Sofa et Madame Coco by Lorenzo Marconi 2014: Una giornata in campagna by Horst Raack, Radice Madre by Maria Roan di Villavera 2013: Alla Ricerca del Tempo Perduto by Anna Marconi, most colourful costume Luna Park 2012: Il servizio da thè del settecento by Horst Raack, most creative costume Oceano by Jacqueline Spieweg 2011: La famille Fabergé by Horst Raack, Ommagio a Venezia by Paolo and Cinzia Pagliasso and Anna Rotonai, best costume for the official theme 19th century by Lea Luongsoredju and Roudi Verbaanderd 2010: Pantegane from England 2009: The voyagers of Marco Polo by Horst Raack and Tanja Schulz-Hess 2008: Luna park by Tanja Schulz-Hess 2007: La Montgolfiera by Tanja Schulz-Hess Masks have always been an important feature of the Venetian carnival.
Traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano and the end of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were allowed on Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large portion of the year in disguise. Maskmakers enjoyed a special position with their own laws and their own guild. Venetian masks can be made of leather, using the original glass technique; the original masks were rather simple in design and had a symbolic and practical function. Nowadays, most Italian masks are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate. However, this makes them rather expensive when compared to the widespread, low-quality masks produced by American factories; this competition accelerates the decline of this historical craftsmanship peculiar to the city of Venice. There is little evidence explaining the motive for the earliest mask wearing in Venice. One scholar argues that covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history.
During Carnival, the sumptuary laws were suspended, people could dress as they liked, instead of according to the rules that were set down in law for their profession and social class. The first documented sources mentioning the use of masks in Venice can be found as far back as the 13th century; the Great Council made it a crime for masked people to throw scented eggs. These ovi odoriferi were eggshells that were filled with rose water perfume, tossed by young men at their friends or at young women they admired. However, in some cases, the eggs were filled with ink or other damaging substances. Gambling in public was illegal, except during Carnival; the document decrees. Another law in 1339 forbade Venetians from wearing vulgar disguises and visiting convents while masked; the law prohibited painting one's face, or wearing false beards or wigs. Near the end of the Republic, the wearing of the masks in daily life was restricted. By the 18th century, it was limited only to about three months from December 26.
The masks were traditionally worn with decorative beads matching in colour. Several distinct styles of mask are worn in some with identifying names. People with different occupations wore different masks; the bauta is a mask, today heavily gilded though simple stark white, designed to comfortably cover the entire face. The mask's beak-like chin is designed to enable the wearer to talk and drink without having to remove it; the bauta was accompanied by a red or black cape and a tricorn. In the 18
Leiden
Leiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden had a population of 123,856 in August 2017, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp and Zoeterwoude with 206,647 inhabitants; the Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics further includes Katwijk in the agglomeration which makes the total population of the Leiden urban agglomeration 270,879, in the larger Leiden urban area Teylingen and Noordwijkerhout are included with in total 348,868 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Oude Rijn, at a distance of some 20 kilometres from The Hague to its south and some 40 km from Amsterdam to its north; the recreational area of the Kaag Lakes lies just to the northeast of Leiden. A university city since 1575, Leiden has been one of Europe's most prominent scientific centres for more than four centuries. Leiden is a typical university city, university buildings are scattered throughout the city and the many students from all over the world give the city a bustling and international atmosphere.
Many important scientific discoveries have been made here, giving rise to Leiden's motto: ‘City of Discoveries’. The city houses Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, Leiden University Medical Center. Leiden University is one of Europe's top universities, with thirteen Nobel Prize winners, it is a member of the League of European Research Universities and positioned in all international academic rankings. It is twinned with the location of the United Kingdom's oldest university. Leiden University and Leiden University of Applied Sciences together have around 35,000 students. Modern scientific medical research and teaching started in the early 18th century in Leiden with Boerhaave. Leiden is a city with a rich cultural heritage, not only in science, but in the arts. One of the world's most famous painters, was born and educated in Leiden. Other famous Leiden painters include Jan van Goyen and Jan Steen. Leiden was formed on an artificial hill at the confluence of the rivers Nieuwe Rijn.
In the oldest reference to this, from circa 860, the settlement was called Leithon. The name is said to be from Germanic *leitha- "canal" in dative pluralis, thus meaning "at the canals". "Canal" is not the proper word. A leitha was a human-modified natural river natural artificial. Leiden has in the past erroneously been associated with the Roman outpost Lugdunum Batavorum; this particular castellum was thought to be located at the Burcht of Leiden, the city's name was thought to be derived from the Latin name Lugdunum. However the castellum was in fact closer to the town of Katwijk, whereas the Roman settlement near modern-day Leiden was called Matilo; the landlord of Leiden, situated in a stronghold on the hill, was subject to the Bishop of Utrecht but around 1100 the burgraves became subject to the county of Holland. This county got its name in 1101 from a domain near the stronghold: Holland. Leiden was sacked in 1047 by Emperor Henry III. Early 13th century, Countess of Holland took refuge here when she was fighting in a civil war against her uncle, William I, Count of Holland.
He captured Ada. Leiden received city rights in 1266. In 1389, its population had grown to about 4,000 persons. In 1420, during the Hook and Cod wars, Duke John III of Bavaria along with his army marched from Gouda in the direction of Leiden in order to conquer the city since Leiden did not pay the new Count of Holland Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, his niece and only daughter of Count William VI of Holland. Burgrave Filips of Wassenaar and the other local noblemen of the Hook faction assumed that the duke would besiege Leiden first and send small units out to conquer the surrounding citadels, but John of Bavaria chose to attack the citadels first. He rolled the cannons along with his army but one, too heavy went by ship. By firing at the walls and gates with iron balls the citadels fell one by one. Within a week John of Bavaria conquered the castles of Poelgeest, Ter Does, Hoichmade, de Zijl, ter Waerd, Warmond and de Paddenpoel. On 24 June the army appeared before the walls of Leiden. On 17 August 1420, after a two-month siege the city surrendered to John of Bavaria.
The burgrave Filips of Wassenaar was stripped of his offices and rights and lived out his last years in captivity. Leiden flourished in the 17th century. At the close of the 15th century the weaving establishments of Leiden were important, after the expulsion of the Spaniards Leiden cloth, Leiden baize and Leiden camlet were familiar terms. In the same period, Leiden developed an important publishing industry; the influential printer Christoffel Plantijn lived there at one time. One of his pupils was Lodewijk Elzevir, who established the largest bookshop and printing works in Leiden, a business continued by his descendants through 1712 and the name subsequently adopted by contemporary publisher Elsevier. In 1572, the city sided with the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule and played an important role in the Eighty Years' War. Besieged from May until October 1574 by the Spanish, Leiden was relieved by the cutting of the dikes, thus enabling ships to carry provisions to the inhabitants of the flooded town.
As a reward for the heroic defence of the previous year, the University of Leiden was founded by William I of Orange in 1575. Yearly on 3 Oc
Giuseppe Crespi
Giuseppe Maria Crespi, nicknamed Lo Spagnuolo, was an Italian late Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. His eclectic output includes religious paintings and portraits, but he is now most famous for his genre paintings. Giuseppe Crespi, together with Giambattista Pittoni, Giovan Battista Tiepolo, Giovan Battista Piazzetta and Francesco Guardi forms the traditional great Old Masters painters of that period. Crespi was born in Bologna to Isabella Cospi, his mother was a distant relation of the noble Cospi family, which had ties to the Florentine House of Medici. He was nicknamed "the Spanish One" because of his habit of wearing tight clothes characteristic of Spanish fashion of the time. By age 12 years, he apprenticed with Angelo Michele Toni. From the age of 15–18 years, he worked under the Bolognese Domenico Maria Canuti; the Roman painter Carlo Maratti, on a visit to Bologna, is said to have invited Crespi to work in Rome, but Crespi declined. Maratti's friend, the Bolognese Carlo Cignani invited Crespi in 1681–82 to join an Accademia del Nudo for the purpose of studying drawing, he remained in that studio until 1686, when Cignani relocated to Forlì and his studio was taken over by Canuti's most prominent pupil, Giovanni Antonio Burrini.
From this time hence, Crespi worked independently of other artists. His main biographer, Giampietro Zanotti, said of Crespi: " never again wanted for money, he would make the stories and caprices that came into his imagination; also he painted common things, representing the lowest occupations, people who, born poor, must sustain themselves in serving the requirements of wealthy citizens". Thus it was for Crespi himself, he is said to have had a camera optica in his house for painting. By the 1690s he had completed various altarpieces, including a Temptation of Saint Anthony commissioned by Count Carlo Cesare Malvasia, now in San Niccolò degli Albari, he journeyed to Venice, but never to Rome. Bearing his large religious canvas of Massacre of the Innocents and a note from Count Vincenzo Rannuzi Cospi as an introduction, Crespi fled in the middle of the night to Florence in 1708, gained the patronage of the Grand Duke Ferdinand I de' Medici, he had been forced to flee Bologna with the canvas, which while intended for the Duke, had been fancied by a local priest, Don Carlo Silva for himself.
The events surrounding this episode became the source of much litigation, in which Crespi, at least for the next five years, found the Duke a firm protector. An eclectic artist, Crespi was a portrait painter and a brilliant caricaturist, was known for his etchings after Rembrandt and Salvator Rosa, he could be said to have painted a number of masterpieces in different styles. He painted few frescoes, in part because he refused to paint for quadraturists, though in all likelihood, his style would not have matched the requirements of a medium often used for grandiloquent scenography, he was not universally appreciated, Lanzi quotes Mengs as lamenting that the Bolognese school should close with the capricious Crespi. Lanzi himself describes Crespi as allowing his "turn for novelty at length to lead his fine genius astray", he found Crespi included caricature in scriptural or heroic subjects, he cramped his figures, he "fell in to mannerism", painted with few colors and few brushstrokes, "employed indeed with judgement but too superficial and without strength of body".
One celebrated series of canvases, the Seven Sacraments, was painted around 1712, now hangs in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. It was completed for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni in Rome, upon his death passed to the Elector of Saxony; these imposing works still maintain a sober piety. Making no use of hieratic symbols such as saints and putti, they utilize commonplace folk to illustrate sacramental activity. Crespi is best known today as one of the main proponents of baroque genre painting in Italy. Italians, until the 17th century, had paid little attention to such themes, concentrating on grander images from religion and history, as well as portraiture of the mighty. In this they differed from Northern Europeans Dutch painters, who had a strong tradition in the depiction of everyday activities. There were exceptions: the Bolognese Baroque titan of fresco, Annibale Carracci, had painted pastoral landscapes, depictions of homely tradespeople such as butchers. Before him, Bartolomeo Passerotti and the Cremonese Vincenzo Campi had dallied in genre subjects.
In this tradition, Crespi followed the precedents set forth by the Bamboccianti Dutch genre painters active in Rome. Subsequently, this tradition would be upheld by Piazzetta, Pietro Longhi, Giacomo Ceruti and Giandomenico Tiepolo to name a few, he painted other domestic subjects. The painting of The Flea depicts a young woman readying for sleep and grooming for a nagging pest on her person; the environs are squalid—nearby are a vase with a few flowers and a cheap bead necklace dangling on the wall—but she is sheltered in a tender womb of light. She is not a Botticellian beauty, but her lapdog asleep on the bed-sheets. In another genre scene, Crespi captures the anger of a woman at a man publicly urinating on wall, with a picaresque cat objecting to the man's indiscretion. True to his eclecticism, is the naturalistic St John Nepomuk confessing the Queen of Swabia, made late in Crespi's life. In this painting, much is said by shielded faces, his Resurrection of Christ is a dramatic arrangement in dynamic perspectives, somewhat influen
Gaspare Traversi
Gaspare Traversi was an Italian Rococo painter best known for his genre works. Active in his native city of Naples, he painted throughout Italy, including a stay in Parma. Gaspare appears to have been born to a Genoese merchant living in Naples, he appears to have been baptized on February 15, 1722, in the church of Santa maria dell'Incoronatella in Naples under the name Gasparro Giovanni Battista Pascale Traversa. He trained under Francesco Solimena, he was a contemporary of other Solimena pupils, Giuseppe Bonito a genre painter, Francesco de Mura. He was active between 1732–1769. Traversi can be described as a Neapolitan Steen or Longhi, working in a Caravaggist style. Traversi's satirical paintings depict animated groups of bourgeois protagonists that seem compressed physically into an indoor pictorial space that can contain them, his religious canvases have foreshortened crowding. Facial expressions are lively and varied. Women are situated in either a foolish or ironic situation, or engage in a pulchritudinous talent, while men leer or participate with other intentions in mind.
One could view these as elaborations of moralistic tales, such as Caravaggio's The Fortune Teller, a topic which Traversi depicted, but Traversi's living rooms are more densely populated, the emotions, as well as the situations, teeter awkwardly with imbalance. Although he had no pupils, his influence was significant, can be seen in the works of Lorenzo de Caro, Giuseppe Bonito and Orazio Solimena. Traversi was a focus of a monograph by Roberto Longhi. Francis P. Smyth and John P. O'Neill. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, ed; the Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Pp. 373–378. Wittkower, Rudolf. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Pelican History of Art. Pp. 494–495. Naples Exhibition in 2005 was titled Gaspare Traversi. Napolitans of the 1700s between Misery and Nobility Stuttgart Exhibition: Gaspare Traversi Amusement in the Shade Parma Exhibition:Luminary of the 1700s: Gaspare Traversi and his painting in Emilia
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives and airbrushes, can be used; the final work is called a painting. Painting is an important form in the visual arts, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, narration, or abstraction. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, abstract, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by religious art. Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery, to Biblical scenes Sistine Chapel ceiling, to scenes from the life of Buddha or other images of Eastern religious origin. In art, the term painting describes the result of the action; the support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, canvas, glass, pottery, leaf and concrete, the painting may incorporate multiple other materials including sand, paper, gold leaf, as well as objects.
Color, made up of hue and value, dispersed over a surface is the essence of painting, just as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music. Color is subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West; some painters, theoreticians and scientists, including Goethe and Newton, have written their own color theory. Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent; the word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a formalized register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as F or C♯. For a painter, color is not divided into basic and derived colors. Painters deal with pigments, so "blue" for a painter can be any of the blues: phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, Cobalt blue, so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not speaking, means of painting.
Colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, because of this, the perception of a painting is subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to "light" in painting, "shades" to dynamics, "coloration" is to painting as the specific timbre of musical instruments is to music; these elements do not form a melody of themselves. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting to include, as one example, which began with Cubism and is not painting in the strict sense; some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Anselm Kiefer. There is a growing community of artists who use computers to "paint" color onto a digital "canvas" using programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, many others; these images can be printed onto traditional canvas. Jean Metzinger's mosaic-like Divisionist technique had its parallel in literature. I make a kind of chromatic versification and for syllables I use strokes which, variable in quantity, cannot differ in dimension without modifying the rhythm of a pictorial phraseology destined to translate the diverse emotions aroused by nature.
Rhythm, for artists such as Piet Mondrian, is important in painting as it is in music. If one defines rhythm as "a pause incorporated into a sequence" there can be rhythm in paintings; these pauses allow creative force to intervene and add new creations—form, coloration. The distribution of form, or any kind of information is of crucial importance in the given work of art, it directly affects the aesthetic value of that work; this is because the aesthetic value is functionality dependent, i.e. the freedom of perception is perceived as beauty. Free flow of energy, in art as well as in other forms of "techne", directly contributes to the aesthetic value. Music was important to the birth of abstract art, since music is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul. Wassily Kandinsky used musical terms to identify his works. Kandinsky theorized that "music is the ultimate teacher," and subsequently embarked upon the first seven of his ten Compositions.
Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that, yellow is the color of middle C on a brassy trumpet. In 1871 the young Kandinsky learned to play the cello. Kandinsky's stage design for a performance of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" illustrates his "synaesthetic" concept of a universal correspondence of forms and musical sounds. Music d
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
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