1.
Museumplein
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The Museumplein is a public space in the Museumkwartier neighbourhood of the Amsterdam-Zuid borough in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Located at the Museumplein are three major museums – the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum – and the concert hall Concertgebouw, the area was originally a wax candle factory and marshy meadows. Construction began following the completion of the Rijksmuseum in 1885, with a plan based on the design of Pierre Cuypers. The area was the location of the International Colonial and Export Exhibition in 1883, the Museumplein was reconstructed after a design by the Swedish/Danish landscape architect Sven-Ingvar Andersson in 1999. It now includes underground parking spaces and an underground supermarket, in the winter, the pond can be transformed into an artificial ice skating area. The space is used for events such as festivals, celebrations. Museum Square 1891-2020 Museum District in Amsterdam
2.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
3.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Art museum
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside
6.
History museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
7.
Taco Dibbits
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Taco Dibbits is an art historian. He first came to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam as a staff member in 1995. From 1997 to 2002, he was a director in the Old Master Paintings Department at Christies and he returned to the Rijksmuseum as curator of 17th-century painting in 2002. In recent years, as head of the department of Fine and Decorative Arts, he has led a team of curators of paintings, sculpture, applied art, since 2002 Dibbits has played an important role in developing the layout of the renewed Rijksmuseum. He is currently Director of the Rijksmuseum and will replace Wim Pijbes as General Director on 15 July 2016 and he has also published on the drawings of Italian 16th-century artist Girolamo Muziano
8.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
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Jakob Gijsbert Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal. He served as the 11th Secretary General of NATO from 5 January 2004 until 1 August 2009 and he was an important figure in the Dutch decision to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 3 December 2003, after his term as Secretary General of NATO ended, De Hoop Scheffer became a professor at the Leiden University sitting in the Pieter Kooijmans Chair. He also teaches at Leiden University College, born in Amsterdam, De Hoop Scheffer graduated with an LL. M. degree at Leiden University in 1974. After completing military service in the air force, where he became a reserve officer, for the first two years, he was stationed at the Dutch embassy in Ghana. After that, he worked at the Dutch delegation at NATO headquarters in Brussels until 1980, although he had been a member of the D66 party, he became a member of the Christen-Democratisch Appèl in 1982. At the elections of 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives and he was a spokesman on foreign policy for his party. Between 1997 and 2001, he was the leader of the CDA delegation in the House of Representatives and this made him the party leader. When the list of candidates for the 2002 elections was chosen, after a power struggle with the party chairman Van Rij, De Hoop Scheffer resigned as party leader. Jan Peter Balkenende succeeded him, and had the top spot on the CDA list of candidates in the elections on 15 May 2002, the CDA won in those elections and played the leading role in the formation of a new coalition government. In 2003, the policy of the Netherlands was largely determined by De Hoop Scheffer. Its main foreign policy decision was to contribute to Operation Iraqi Freedom, however,1,100 Dutch servicemen were deployed as part of the Stabilisation Force Iraq in the southern province of Al Muthanna from 2003 till 2005, and two of them were killed in action. In 2003 Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was also the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and he became the 11th NATO Secretary General on 5 January 2004, succeeding Lord Robertson, who held the post from 1999 until 2003. The announcement was made on 22 September 2003, as Secretary General, De Hoop Scheffer urged NATO members to contribute more to NATO operations such as the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer attended a conference in Montreal, Canada, on 21 June 2007. He said, I think more time is necessary to create conditions for reconstruction. His visit coincided with the death of three more Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, I know how dramatic it is if Canadian soldiers pay the highest price, but I still say, you are there for a good cause. De Hoop Scheffers comments were made as the Canadian government was under pressure by opposition politicians to define the length of Canadas commitment to the mission in Afghanistan, on 21 July 2009 De Hoop Scheffer suffered a heart attack
9.
Trams in Amsterdam
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The Amsterdam Tram is a tram network in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The network dates back to 1875, since 1943, it has been operated by municipal public transport operator GVB, which also runs the Amsterdam metro and the city bus and ferry services. The Amsterdam Tram is the largest tram network in the Netherlands, the trams on the network run on standard gauge track. Since 1900, they have been powered by electricity, at 600 V DC, at the terminus station of almost every tram route is a turning loop, so that the route can be operated by unidirectional trams. The only exception is Amstelveen Binnenhof, one of the termini of route 5, as of 2016, there are 14 tram routes. The network comprises a total of 80.5 kilometres of route, the fleet consists of 200 trams, of which 24 are bidirectional for use on the loop-less route 5. On 3 June 1875, Amsterdams first horse-drawn tramway was opened and it linked Plantage with the Leidseplein, and was operated by AOM, which had been founded in 1872 by Karel Herman Schadd, amongst others. By the end of the century, about 15 routes led to or from the Vondelstraat, Overtoom, Willemsparkweg, Amsteldijk, Linnaeusstraat, Weesperzijde, Bilderdijkstraat and Ceintuurbaan. The routes of the horse tram lines can still clearly be recognised in the present day tram routes 1,2,3,4,7,9,10 and 13. As of 1 January 1900, the municipality of Amsterdam took over AOM, the company continued as the Gemeentetram Amsterdam. A total of 242 tramcars,758 horses and 15 buildings were acquired along with the company, between 1900 and 1906, all but one of the existing tram lines were electrified. Additionally, the AOMs unusual track gauge of 1,422 mm was converted to 1,435 mm standard gauge, by 1906, the electric tram network consisted of 12 tram routes. To operate these routes, the GTA purchased 229 new electric tramcars, the former horse-drawn trams were progressively reclassified as tram trailers. In 1906, the Amsterdamse Tramharmonie orchestra was founded and this orchestra, composed of amateur musicians from the Amsterdam region, still exists. The last remaining Amsterdam horse tramway was route 12, which was electrified in 1916, five years later, upon Amsterdams annexation of the municipality of Sloten, a former Sloten horse tramway came under the control of the GTA. The horses of this route, which linked Overtoom with Sloten, were replaced by tram-hauling buses in 1922, between 1910 and 1930, the growth of the city generated many new extensions to the tram routes. In 1931, the network reached its greatest extent, at 25 tram routes. From that year to 1940, all the districts in the city could be reached by tram, between 1900 and 1930, the fleet grew to 445 motorised trams and approximately 350 trailers
10.
The arts
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The arts represent an outlet of expression that is usually influenced by culture in society and which in turn helps to change culture. As such, the arts are a manifestation of peoples internal creative impulse. Some art forms combine a visual element with performance or artwork with the written word, from prehistoric cave paintings to modern day films, art serves as a vessel for storytelling and conveying humankinds relationship with its environment. A debate exists in the arts and video game cultures over whether video games can be counted as an art form. In its most basic definition, art is a documented expression of a sentient being through or on an accessible medium so that anyone can view. The act itself of producing an expression can also be referred to as a certain art, or as art in general. If this solidified expression, or the act of producing it, is good or has value depends on those who access and rate it and this public rating is dependent on various subjective factors. Merriam-Webster defines the arts as painting, sculpture, music, theater, literature, etc. considered as a group of activities done by people with skill, and the study and application of the arts to the human environment. In Ancient Greece, all art and craft was referred to by the same word, thus, there was no distinction between the arts. Ancient Greek art brought the veneration of the form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features, in Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church insisted on the expression of biblical and not material truths. Eastern art has worked in a style akin to Western medieval art, namely a concentration on surface patterning. A characteristic of this style is that the colour is often defined by an outline. This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet, religious Islamic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead. The Artes Mechanicae were practised and developed in guild environments, the modern distinction between artistic and non-artistic skills did not develop until the Renaissance. In modern academia, the arts are usually grouped with or as a subset of the humanities, some subjects in the humanities are history, linguistics, literature, theology, philosophy, and/or logic. Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a variety of tools. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax colour pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers
11.
History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
12.
Amsterdam-Zuid
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Amsterdam-Zuid is a borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The borough was formed in 2010 as a merger of the former boroughs Oud-Zuid, the borough has almost 138,000 inhabitants. With 8,500 homes per square kilometer, it is one of the most densely populated boroughs of Amsterdam and it has the highest income per household of all boroughs in Amsterdam. Amsterdam-Zuid is the borough of Amsterdam situated to the south and southwest of the Singelgracht canal, the Singelgracht canal had been Amsterdams city border since the 17th century, when the Amsterdam canal belt was constructed. The taking down of the surrounding the Singelgracht, the outer canal. South of the wall, the first neighborhoods to develop were the Oude Pijp neighborhood, the neighborhood surrounding the Rijksmuseum. This area is now known as Oud Zuid. In 1917, the area was further developed southwards on the basis of Plan Zuid, berlages plan included wide streets lined with four-story apartment blocks for the middle class. The plan also included public art to be installed in the new residential areas, between 1920 and 1940, the Plan Zuid neighborhoods of Nieuwe Pijp, Diamantbuurt, Rivierenbuurt, Stadionbuurt and Apollobuurt were constructed, with many buildings designed in Amsterdam School style. This area is known as Nieuw Zuid. Another neighborhood built in the 1920s is the Hoofddorppleinbuurt, west of the Schinkel river and this neighborhood is part of Plan West, another urban expansion plan by Berlage which was designed for the western area of the city on the territory of the former municipality of Sloten. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Buitenveldert neighborhood and the smaller Prinses Irenebuurt became the last major developments in the southern part of the city. In 1961, the Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre opened, the A10 motorway, which runs through the southern borough, was constructed in 1962. In 1978, the first section of the Weesp–Leiden railway and the Amsterdam Zuid railway station opened along the part of the A10 motorway. In the 1990s and 2000s, the surrounding the railway station became the rapidly developing business district of Zuidas. Since the 2014 municipal elections, the councils have been abolished and replaced by smaller. The district committees are elected every four years, on the day as the citys central municipal council. Each district committee elects three of its members to form an executive committee, the district committees jurisdiction is determined by the central municipal council
13.
Van Gogh Museum
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The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the museum opened on 2 June 1973. It is located in buildings designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa, the museums collection is the largest collection of Van Goghs paintings and drawings in the world. In 2015, the museum had 1.9 million visitors, and was the 2nd most visited museum in the Netherlands, upon Vincent van Goghs death in 1890, his work not sold fell into the possession of his brother Theo. Theo died six months after Vincent, leaving the work in the possession of his widow, selling many of Vincents paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained a private collection of his works. Design for a Van Gogh Museum was commissioned by the Dutch government in 1963 to Dutch architect, Rietveld died a year later, and the building was not completed until 1973, when the museum opened its doors. In 1998 and 1999, the building was renovated by the Dutch architect Martien van Goor, starting in late 2012, the museum was closed for renovations for six months. During this period,75 works from the collection were shown in the Hermitage Amsterdam, on 9 September 2013, the museum unveiled a long-lost Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic believed to be by another painter. It is the first full-size canvas by him discovered since 1928, sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Goghs familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the day it was painted because he described it in a letter to his brother, Theo. In 1991, twenty paintings were stolen from the museum, among them Van Goghs early painting The Potato Eaters, although the thieves escaped from the building,35 minutes later all stolen paintings were recovered from an abandoned car. Three paintings – Wheatfield with Crows, Still Life with Bible, four men, including two museum guards, were convicted for the theft and given six or seven-year sentences. It is considered to be the largest art theft in the Netherlands since the Second World War, in 2002, two paintings were stolen from the museum, Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen. Two Dutchmen were convicted for the theft to four-and-a-half-year sentences, the museum offered a reward of €100,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings. The FBI Art Crime Team listed the robbery on their Top Ten Art Crimes list, in September 2016, both paintings were discovered by the Guardia di Finanza in Naples, Italy. The two artworks were found in a good state, according to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum is situated at the Museumplein in Amsterdam-Zuid, on the Paulus Potterstraat 7, the museum consists of two buildings, the Rietveld building, designed by Gerrit Rietveld, and the Kurokawa wing, designed by Kisho Kurokawa. The museum offices are housed on Stadhouderskade 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid, the Rietveld building is the main structure of the museum and exhibits the permanent collection
14.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
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The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The 19th century building was designed by Adriaan Willem Weissman and the 21st century wing with the current entrance was designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. It is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, where it is close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the collection comprises modern and contemporary art and design from the early 20th century up to the 21st century. In 2015, the museum had an estimated 675,000 visitors, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, opened on 14 September 1895 as an initiative of the local authority and private individuals. The Dutch Neo-Renaissance style museum building was designed by Dutch architect Adriaan Willem Weissman as part of a project spearheaded by local citizens starting in 1850. The construction of the building was funded in 1890 by Sophia Adriana de Bruyn. The Van Eeghen family also contributed to the costs and donated paintings from the collection of Christiaan Pieter van Eeghen. The building was constructed between 1891 and 1895 at Paulus Potterstraat, a walking distance from the Rijksmuseum. The museums original collection included militaria of the Amsterdam militia, Asiatic art, and artifacts from the Museum of Chronometry, in 1905, Cornelis Baard was appointed curator of the Stedelijk and promoted to museum director in 1920. During his time as curator, the local authority began building its own collection of modern art, the Great Depression in the Netherlands led to municipal cutbacks and an increased need for policy reviews in the first half of the 1930s. In 1932, a committee was established with two members from the VVHK and two from the local authority. These four figures oversaw all art purchases for the museum, notably works of Hague and Amsterdam Impressionism, the museum began actively acquiring art in 1930. Nijkerks collection of books came to the Stedelijk, which was expanded to include aesthetic book design. The Museum of Applied Art opened on the floor of the west wing on 15 December 1934. In 1936, David Röell, who had worked at the Rijksmuseum and was secretary of the VVHK. Röell appointed Willem Sandberg as the new curator in January 1938, Sandberg eventually took over as director of the museum in 1945. By 1962, the VVHK handed over most of its collection, including works by George Hendrik Breitner, Paul Cézanne, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Vincent van Gogh, and Johan Jongkind. Under the direction of Sandberg, the Stedelijk started a department of applied art in 1945, at the start of 1950, the Stedelijk also began to present modern music and films
15.
Concertgebouw
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The Royal Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term concertgebouw literally translates into English as concert building, on 11 April 2013, on occasion of the buildings 125th anniversary, Queen Beatrix bestowed the Royal Title Koninklijk upon the building, as she did previously to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Because of its highly regarded acoustics, the Concertgebouw is considered one of the finest concert halls in the world, along with such as Bostons Symphony Hall. The architect of the building was Adolf Leonard van Gendt, who was inspired by the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, construction began in 1883 in a pasture that was then outside the city, in Nieuwer-Amstel, a municipality that in 1964 became Amstelveen. A total of 2,186 piles of length twelve to thirteen metres were sunk into the soil. The hall opened on 11 April 1888 with a concert, in which an orchestra of 120 musicians and a chorus of 500 singers participated, performing works of Wagner, Handel, Bach. The resident orchestra of the Concertgebouw is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, for many decades the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest have also been regular performers in the Concertgebouw. The Main Hall seats 1,974, and is 44 metres long,28 metres wide and its reverberation time is 2.8 seconds without audience,2.2 seconds with, making it ideal for the late Romantic repertoire such as Mahler. Though this characteristic makes it unsuited for amplified music, groups such as Led Zeppelin, The Who. It hosts not only orchestral and operatic performances, but also jazz, a smaller, oval-shaped venue, the Recital Hall, is located behind the Main Hall. The Recital Hall is 20 metres long and 15 metres wide and its more intimate space is well-suited for chamber music and Lieder. The Recital Hall has 437 seats, when the Concertgebouw was built, acoustics were something of a black art. As in shipbuilding, designers drew upon what had worked in the past without entirely understanding the underlying science, when the building was completed, the acoustics were not perfect, and a lot of effort went into fine-tuning the aural ambience. During later restorations, particular care has been not to alter the materials used for interior decoration with this in mind. In the 1980s, the hall embarked on extensive fund-raising for renovations after the hall was found to be sinking into the ground. Pi de Bruijn was the architect for the annex to the original hall. Today, some nine hundred concerts and other events per year take place in the Concertgebouw, for a public of over 700,000, as of February 2014, the managing director of the Concertgebouw is Simon Reinink and the artistic director is Anneke Hogenstijn. The organ was built in 1890 by the organ builder Michael Maarschalkerweerd from Utrecht and it has 60 registers on three divisions and pedal
16.
The Hague
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The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands, and the capital city of the province of South Holland. With a population of 520,704 inhabitants and more than one million including the suburbs, it is the third-largest city of the Netherlands. The Rotterdam The Hague Metropolitan Area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 12th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country. Located in the west of the Netherlands, The Hague is in the centre of the Haaglanden conurbation and lies at the southwest corner of the larger Randstad conurbation. The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, the Supreme Court, and the Council of State, but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which constitutionally is Amsterdam. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands plans to live at Huis ten Bosch and works at Noordeinde Palace in The Hague, the Hague is also home to the world headquarters of Royal Dutch Shell and numerous other major Dutch companies. The Hague originated around 1230, when Count Floris IV of Holland purchased land alongside a pond, in 1248, his son and successor William II, King of the Romans, decided to extend the residence to a palace, which would later be called the Binnenhof. He died in 1256 before this palace was completed but parts of it were finished by his son Floris V, of which the Ridderzaal and it is still used for political events, such as the annual speech from the throne by the Dutch monarch. From the 13th century onwards, the counts of Holland used The Hague as their administrative centre, the village that originated around the Binnenhof was first mentioned as Haga in a charter dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the smarter des Graven hage came into use, literally The Counts Wood, with connotations like The Counts Hedge, s-Gravenhage was officially used for the city from the 17th century onwards. Today, this name is used in some official documents like birth. The city itself uses Den Haag in all its communication and their seat was located in The Hague. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, the absence of city walls proved disastrous, in 1575, the States of Holland even considered demolishing the city but this proposal was abandoned, after mediation by William of Orange. From 1588, The Hague also became the seat of the government of the Dutch Republic, in order for the administration to maintain control over city matters, The Hague never received official city status, although it did have many of the privileges normally granted only to cities. In modern administrative law, city rights have no place anymore, only in 1806, when the Kingdom of Holland was a puppet state of the First French Empire, was the settlement granted city rights by Louis Bonaparte. After the Napoleonic Wars, modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands were combined in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a buffer against France, as a compromise, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as capital every two years, with the government remaining in The Hague. After the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam remained the capital of the Netherlands, when the government started to play a more prominent role in Dutch society after 1850, The Hague quickly expanded. The growing city annexed the rural municipality of Loosduinen partly in 1903, the city sustained heavy damage during World War II
17.
Royal Palace of Amsterdam
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The Royal Palace in Amsterdam is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, the building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House. It is situated on the west side of Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam, opposite the War Memorial and next to the Nieuwe Kerk. The palace was built as the Town Hall of the City of Amsterdam and was opened as such on 29 July 1655 by Cornelis de Graeff and it was built by Jacob van Campen, who took control of the construction project in 1648. It was built on 13,659 wooden piles and cost 8.5 million gulden, a yellowish sandstone from Bentheim in Germany was used for the entire building. The stone has darkened considerably in the course of time, marble was the chosen material for the interior. Jacob van Campen was inspired by Roman administrative palaces and public buildings and he wanted to build a new capitol for the Amsterdam burgomasters who thought of themselves as the consuls of the new Rome of the North. The technical implementation was looked after by the town construction master Daniël Stalpaert, the sculptures were executed by Artus Quellijn. The central hall is 120 feet long,60 feet wide and 90 feet high, on the marble floor there are two maps of the world with a celestial hemisphere. The Western and Eastern hemispheres are shown on the maps, the hemispheres detail the area of Amsterdams colonial influence. The terrestrial hemispheres were made in the mid-18th century and they replaced an earlier pair made in the late 1650s. The originals showed the regions explored by the Dutch East India Companys ships in the first half of the 17th century. This feature may have inspired by the map of the Roman Empire that had been engraved on marble and placed in the Porticus Vipsania. On top of the palace is a domed cupola, topped by a weather vane in the form of a cog ship. This ship is a symbol of Amsterdam, just underneath the dome there are a few windows. From here one could see the ships arrive and leave the harbour, in the cupola is the famous carillon by François and Pieter Hemony cast in 1664 in Amsterdam. It was renovated by Eijsbouts in 1965, only 9 bells by François and Pieter Hemony remained. 38 new bells by Eijsbouts were made and tuned in meantone temperament, the old corroded Hemony bells are kept inside the palace
18.
Trippenhuis
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The Trippenhuis is a neoclassical canal mansion in the centre of Amsterdam. It was built in 1660–1662 for the wealthy Amsterdam weapons traders Louis, many references to weaponry can be seen on its facade. Since 1887 it has been the seat of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts, the building was designed by the architect Justus Vingboons. It is a house, two large homes built behind one single seven-window-wide facade for the sons Louis and Hendrick of Jacob Trip. It is the largest facade from the period in Amsterdam. In 1730 the house on the right was remodelled for Elisabeth van Loon, in 1812 the Koninklijk Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten moved there, the origin of the KNAW founded in 1808 by Louis Bonaparte. The other half was in use by the art dealer Cornelis Sebille Roos and it became quickly too small and the modern paintings were sent to the Museum van Levende Meesters located in Haarlem. The painting called the Nightwatch, by Rembrandt hung here until 1885 when it moved to the new Rijksmuseum, since 1938 the society has been called Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, though the Royal predicate was dropped during World War II
19.
Pierre Cuypers
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Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station, more representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100. Moreover, he restored a number of monuments. Cuypers was born in Roermond, the son of a church painter, after he studied at the urban college in Roermond, he moved to Antwerp in 1844 to study architecture at the Royal art academy. He was taught by Frans Andries Durlet, Frans Stoop and Ferdinand Berckmans, Cuypers was a good student, in 1849, he gained the Prix dExcellence of the academy. From 1875 he led the restoration of the front of the Mainz Cathedral. In doing so, he created as a pole to the western tower group the high, gothic likely eastern tower helmet, replacing a bell floor. After a tour in the German Rheinland, he returned to Roermond, in 1852, he opened a workshop where ecclesiastical art was manufactured. Cuypers ecclesiastical work was strongly influenced by 13th century French architecture and by the writings of his friends Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. Cuypers built a number of churches all across the Netherlands. Highlights from these first period are the Lamberts Church in Veghel, from 1870 onwards Cuypers style became more influenced by the native Gothic styles of the Netherlands as well as Gothic styles from other countries like Norway and Italy. He also experimented with centralizing ground-plans and other non-conventional layouts, in this second part of his career he built some of his best work. After 1883 he was assisted by his son Joseph Cuypers in much of his work, Cuypers led a large number of restorations. An early example of this is the restoration of the Munster Church in Roermond. Pierre Cuypers was the uncle of Eduard Cuypers who trained in his practice as a young man, other relatives who became architect are his grandsons Pierre Cuypers jr. and Theo Taen. Cuypers was a practising Roman Catholic and a member of the Lay Dominicans, as such, he was buried in the Dominican habit. He died in his town of Roermond, aged 93. A. J. C. van Leeuwen, Pierre Cuypers architect, het complete werk, Rotterdam, Nederlands Architectuurinstituut,2007
20.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
21.
Beatrix of the Netherlands
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Beatrix reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, after a reign of exactly 33 years. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, upon her mothers accession in 1948, she became heir presumptive. Beatrix attended a primary school in Canada during World War II. In 1961, she received her law degree from Leiden University, in 1966, Beatrix married Claus von Amsberg, a German diplomat, with whom she had three children. When her mother abdicated on 30 April 1980, Beatrix succeeded her as queen, on Koninginnedag,30 April 2013, Beatrix abdicated in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, and resumed the title of princess. At the time of her abdication, Beatrix was the oldest reigning monarch of the Netherlands, Beatrix was born Princess Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, Princess of Lippe-Biesterfeld, on 31 January 1938 at the Soestdijk Palace in Baarn, Netherlands. She is the first child of Princess Juliana of the Netherlands, Beatrix was baptized on 12 May 1938 in the Great Church in The Hague. Beatrixs middle names are the first names of her grandmother, the then reigning Queen Wilhelmina. When Beatrix was one old, in 1939, her younger sister Princess Irene was born. World War II broke out in the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, on 13 May, the Dutch Royal Family evacuated to London, United Kingdom. One month later, Beatrix went to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with her mother Juliana and her sister Irene, while her father Bernhard, the family lived at the Stornoway residence. With bodyguards and ladies in waiting, the family summered at Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, while on Bigwin Island, the constitution of the Netherlands was stored in the cast iron safe of Bigwin Inns Rotunda building. In order to them with a greater sense of security, culinary chefs. Upon their departure, the musicians of the Bigwin Inn Orchestra assembled dockside, and at every public performance afterward through to the end of World War II. In the years following the shuttering and neglect of the island resort, the second sister of Beatrix, Princess Margriet, was born in Ottawa in 1943. During their exile in Canada, Beatrix attended nursery and Rockcliffe Park Public School, on 5 May 1945, the German troops in the Netherlands surrendered. The family returned to the Netherlands on 2 August 1945, Beatrix went to the progressive primary school De Werkplaats in Bilthoven. Her third sister Princess Christina was born in 1947, in April 1950, Princess Beatrix entered the Incrementum, a part of Baarnsch Lyceum, where, in 1956, she passed her school-graduation examinations in the subjects of arts and classics
22.
Art
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In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, during the Romantic period, art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Though the definition of what art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency. The nature of art, and related such as creativity. One early sense of the definition of art is related to the older Latin meaning. English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, however, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homers great poetic art, in Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, the forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is an imitation of men worse than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankinds advantages over animals. The second, and more recent, sense of the art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. The creative arts are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks that are compelled by a drive and convey a message, mood. Art is something that stimulates an individuals thoughts, emotions, beliefs, works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are considered applied art
23.
Rembrandt
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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
24.
Frans Hals
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Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter who lived and worked in Haarlem. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and he helped introduce this style of painting into Dutch art. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture, Hals was born in 1582 or 1583 in Antwerp as the son of cloth merchant Franchois Fransz Hals van Mechelen and his second wife Adriaentje van Geertenryck. Like many, Hals parents fled during the Fall of Antwerp from the Spanish Netherlands to Haarlem, Hals studied under Flemish émigré Karel van Mander, whose Mannerist influence, however, is barely noticeable in Hals work. In 1610, Hals became a member of the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke and he worked on their large art collection that Karel van Mander had described in his Schilderboeck published in Haarlem in 1604. The most notable of these were the works of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Jan van Scorel, however, the entire collection of paintings was not formally possessed by the city council until 1625, after the city fathers had decided which paintings were suitable for the city hall. The remaining art that was considered too Roman Catholic was sold to Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen and it was in this cultural context that Hals began his career in portraiture, since the market had disappeared for religious themes. The earliest known example of Hals art is the portrait of Jacobus Zaffius and his breakthrough came with the life-sized group portrait The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616. His most noted portrait today is the one of René Descartes which he made in 1649, Frans Hals married his first wife Anneke Harmensdochter around 1610. Frans was of Catholic birth, however, so their marriage was recorded in the city hall, unfortunately, the exact date is unknown because the older marriage records of the Haarlem city hall before 1688 have not been preserved. Bavochurch where both are buried, though Frans took over 40 years to join his first wife there, Anneke died in 1615, shortly after the birth of their third child and, of the three, Harmen survived infancy and one had died before Hals second marriage. As biographer Seymour Slive has pointed out, older stories of Frans Hals abusing his first wife were confused with another Haarlem resident of the same name. Indeed, at the time of charges, the artist had no wife to mistreat. After his first wife died, Hals took on the daughter of a fishmonger to look after his children and, in 1617. They married in Spaarndam, a village outside the banns of Haarlem. Frans Hals was a father, and they went on to have eight children. Contemporaries such as Rembrandt moved their households according to the caprices of their patrons, for this reason, we can be sure that all sitters were either from Haarlem or were visiting Haarlem when they had their portraits made. Hals work was in throughout his life, but he lived so long that he eventually went out of style as a painter
25.
Johannes Vermeer
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Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his treatment and use of light in his work. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes and he was recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, but his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbrakens major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting, since that time, Vermeers reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Relatively little was known about Vermeers life until recently and he seems to have been devoted exclusively to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. Until the 19th century, the sources of information were some registers, a few official documents. John Michael Montias added details on the family from the city archives of Delft in his Artists and Artisans in Delft, Johannes Vermeer was baptized in the Reformed Church on 31 October 1632. His father Reijnier Janszoon was a worker of silk or caffa. As an apprentice in Amsterdam, Reijnier lived on fashionable Sint Antoniesbreestraat, in 1615, he married Digna Baltus. The couple moved to Delft and had a daughter named Geertruy who was baptized in 1620, in 1625, Reijnier was involved in a fight with a soldier named Willem van Bylandt who died from his wounds five months later. Around this time, Reijnier began dealing in paintings, in 1631, he leased an inn, which he called The Flying Fox. In 1635, he lived on Voldersgracht 25 or 26, in 1641, he bought a larger inn on the market square, named after the Flemish town Mechelen. The acquisition of the inn constituted a financial burden. When Vermeers father died in October 1652, Vermeer took over the operation of the art business. In April 1653, Johannes Reijniersz Vermeer married a Catholic girl, the blessing took place in the quiet nearby village of Schipluiden. Vermeers new mother-in-law Maria Thins was significantly wealthier than he, according to art historian Walter Liedtke, Vermeers conversion seems to have been made with conviction
26.
Asia
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Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres, about 30% of Earths total land area and 8. 7% of the Earths total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its large size and population. In general terms, Asia is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, the western boundary with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. The most commonly accepted boundaries place Asia to the east of the Suez Canal, the Ural River, and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains, China and India alternated in being the largest economies in the world from 1 to 1800 A. D. The accidental discovery of America by Columbus in search for India demonstrates this deep fascination, the Silk Road became the main East-West trading route in the Asian hitherland while the Straits of Malacca stood as a major sea route. Asia has exhibited economic dynamism as well as robust population growth during the 20th century, given its size and diversity, the concept of Asia—a name dating back to classical antiquity—may actually have more to do with human geography than physical geography. Asia varies greatly across and within its regions with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties, the boundary between Asia and Africa is the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and the Suez Canal. This makes Egypt a transcontinental country, with the Sinai peninsula in Asia, the border between Asia and Europe was historically defined by European academics. In Sweden, five years after Peters death, in 1730 Philip Johan von Strahlenberg published a new atlas proposing the Urals as the border of Asia, the Russians were enthusiastic about the concept, which allowed them to keep their European identity in geography. Tatishchev announced that he had proposed the idea to von Strahlenberg, the latter had suggested the Emba River as the lower boundary. Over the next century various proposals were made until the Ural River prevailed in the mid-19th century, the border had been moved perforce from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea into which the Ural River projects. The border between the Black Sea and the Caspian is usually placed along the crest of the Caucasus Mountains, the border between Asia and the loosely defined region of Oceania is usually placed somewhere in the Malay Archipelago. The terms Southeast Asia and Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had several different geographic meanings since their inception. The chief factor in determining which islands of the Malay Archipelago are Asian has been the location of the possessions of the various empires there. Lewis and Wigen assert, The narrowing of Southeast Asia to its present boundaries was thus a gradual process, Asia is larger and more culturally diverse than Europe. It does not exactly correspond to the borders of its various types of constituents. From the time of Herodotus a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system on the grounds there is no or is no substantial physical separation between them
27.
Alexander Gogel
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Isaac Jan Alexander Gogel was the first minister of finance of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland. He married Catharina van Hasselt in 1800, and had three children, Gogel was the son of Johan Martin Gogel, a German officer in the service of the army of the Dutch Republic, and of Alexandrina Crul. He had only a formal education and went to Amsterdam to apprentice for a career as a merchant at age 16. He started his own firm in 1791, Gogel was a typical self-made man, a product of the petty-broking and merchandising world of Amsterdam. Though later one of the most prominent pioneering Dutch economists, he did not receive an education in this field. As a typical self-taught man he tended to borrow his ideas from all the texts from the day. This caused an enmity toward the rivals of the Patriot party. Even before the Batavian revolution of 1795 and the proclamation of the Batavian Republic he became involved in politics, on a local and later national. After the January 22,1798 coup détat by general Herman Willem Daendels, he was appointed agent for finance and he then became a member of the Uitvoerend Bewind himself for a short while, till elections had been held for a new Representative Assembly. He was again appointed Agent, this time for Finance, by the new Uitvoerend Bewind and he now started on the reform of the Dutch system of public finance that was long overdue. He attempted to reorganize the tax system, but because this entailed abolition of the old, federal arrangements, besides, he proposed to form a new, national organisation to collect the taxes. His General-Taxation-Plan legislation was first proposed in 1799, but only enacted on March 25,1801, Gogel was working on adopting many parts of the new revolutionary infrastructure that had recently been put into place in Paris, and one of these was the Louvre. Modelled on that concept, he envisioned a National art gallery for art-lovers and artists alike and he decided on a place and two major types of art, and these were the Huis ten Bosch location with its magnificent Oranjezaal and the concepts historieele and moderne art. Oddly the Rijksmuseum which was founded with this collection at its core. In fact most Catholic or Orangist art galleries had either hidden their collections or taken them away, for his national inventory in 1799 he appointed an inspector for this job, Cornelis Sebille Roos. Gogel was a member of the Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen in Haarlem, which was allied with the Teylers Museum. By 1801 the political winds had changed again, the unitarian Constitution of 1798, on whose tenets the plan was based, was being undermined by the Uitvoerend Bewind itself. The new Constitution of 1801, that came into force after another coup in the Fall of that year, Gogel courageously fulminated against the financial chapters of that Constitution before the referendum that was set up to approve it
28.
Batavian Republic
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The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on 19 January 1795, and ended on 5 June 1806, in early 1795, intervention by French revolutionary forces led to the downfall of the old Dutch Republic. The new Republic enjoyed widespread support from the Dutch population and was the product of a popular revolution. Nevertheless, it clearly was founded with the support of the revolutionary French Republic. The political, economic and social reforms that were brought about during the short duration of the Batavian Republic have had a lasting impact. The confederal structure of the old Dutch Republic was permanently replaced by a unitary state, for the first time in Dutch history, the constitution that was adopted in 1798 had a genuinely democratic character. For a while the Republic was governed democratically, although the coup détat of 1801 put an authoritarian regime in power, after another change in constitution, nevertheless, the memory of this brief experiment with democracy helped smooth the transition to a more democratic government in 1848. A type of government was introduced for the first time in Dutch history. The new king, Louis Bonaparte, surprisingly did not slavishly follow French dictates either, the final days of the intermittent constitutional monarchy/republic, the Dutch Republic, which had governed the Netherlands since the late 16th century, were quite eventful. Most Patriots went into exile in France, while Hollands own Ancien Régime strengthened its grip on Dutch government chiefly through the Orangist Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel. Only two years later, the French Revolution began, which embraced many of the ideas that the Patriots had espoused in their own revolt. The Stadtholder joined the ill-fated First Coalition of countries in their attempt to subdue the suddenly anti-Austrian French First Republic, however, in many cities revolution broke out even before the French arrived and Revolutionary Committees took over the city governments, and the national government also. William was forced to flee to England on a boat on 18 January 1795. Though the French presented themselves as liberators, they behaved like conquerors, apart from imposing territorial concessions and a huge indemnity, this obligated the Dutch to maintain a French army of occupation of 25,000 men. However, this did not mean that it lost its independence in all respects, the program of reform that the Dutch revolutionaries attempted to put in place was mostly driven by indigenous needs and aspirations. The political events in the Netherlands were mainly derived from Dutch initiative, the French were responsible for at least one of the coups détat, and the French ambassador often acted as a proconsul. At first, the revolutionaries used the constitutional machinery of the old confederal republic and they resumed where they had left off after the purge in 1787 of Patriot regents, taking over the offices of the Orangist regents that were now purged in their turn. Though the political make-up of the States-General changed appreciably because of change in personnel
29.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
30.
Dutch language
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It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after English and German. Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English and is said to be roughly in between them, Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English. In both Belgium and the Netherlands, the official name for Dutch is Nederlands, and its dialects have their own names, e. g. Hollands, West-Vlaams. The use of the word Vlaams to describe Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in Flanders and used there, however, is common in the Netherlands, the Dutch language has been known under a variety of names. It derived from the Old Germanic word theudisk, one of the first names used for the non-Romance languages of Western Europe. It literarily means the language of the people, that is. The term was used as opposed to Latin, the language of writing. In the first text in which it is found, dating from 784, later, theudisca appeared also in the Oaths of Strasbourg to refer to the Germanic portion of the oath. This led inevitably to confusion since similar terms referred to different languages, owing to Dutch commercial and colonial rivalry in the 16th and 17th centuries, the English term came to refer exclusively to the Dutch. A notable exception is Pennsylvania Dutch, which is a West Central German variety called Deitsch by its speakers, Jersey Dutch, on the other hand, as spoken until the 1950s in New Jersey, is a Dutch-based creole. In Dutch itself, Diets went out of common use - although Platdiets is still used for the transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian Low Dietsch dialects in northeast Belgium, Nederlands, the official Dutch word for Dutch, did not become firmly established until the 19th century. This designation had been in use as far back as the end of the 15th century, one of them was it reflected a distinction with Hoogduits, High Dutch, meaning the language spoken in Germany. The Hoog was later dropped, and thus, Duits narrowed down in meaning to refer to the German language. g, in English, too, Netherlandic is regarded as a more accurate term for the Dutch language, but is hardly ever used. Old Dutch branched off more or less around the same time Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian and Old Saxon did. During that period, it forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, on the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in nowadays France and Germany. The division in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, one of the few moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age, the Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, East, West, and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration Period, Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots, Frisian, Low German and High German
31.
Huis ten Bosch palace
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Huis ten Bosch is a royal palace in The Hague in the Netherlands. It is one of three residences of the Dutch Royal Family, the other two being Noordeinde Palace in The Hague and the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. A replica of the palace was built in Sasebo, Japan, construction of Huis ten Bosch began on 2 September 1645, under the direction of Bartholomeus Drijffhout, and to a design by Pieter Post and Jacob van Campen. It was commissioned by Amalia von Solms, the wife of stadtholder Frederick Henry, the first stone was laid by Elizabeth of Bohemia. After her husbands death in 1647, Amalia dedicated the palace to him, the dining room was designed by Daniel Marot. Over the next century and a half, the palace would change possession from the Nassau family, the king of Prussia and they gave the palace to the Batavian people who still own it to this day. The National Art Gallery, predecessor of the Rijksmuseum, was housed in the building from 1800 to 1805, napoleon Bonapartes brother, Louis, king of Holland, briefly lived in the palace between 1805 and 1807. When William I was proclaimed King of the Netherlands, he made Huis ten Bosch one of his official residences and it became a favourite location for many members of the Royal Family, and during World War I it became the primary residence of Queen Wilhelmina. The Queen and her family were forced to evacuate the palace for Britain when the German army invaded the Netherlands during World War II, the Nazi administration planned to demolish the palace, but the controller convinced them otherwise. However, the palace was damaged beyond habitation, between 1950 and 1956, the palace was restored and once again became a Royal residence. It became the prime residence once more in 1981, the palace has undergone major reconstructions since it was built. Currently, it consists of a part with two long wings, spanning approximately 110 m from end to end. Media related to Huis ten Bosch at Wikimedia Commons Huis ten Bosch at the website of the Dutch Royal Family
32.
Stadtholder
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In the Low Countries, stadtholder, literally steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. For the last half century of its existence, it became a hereditary role. His son, Prince William V, was the last stadtholder of the republic, whose own son, King William I, became the first king of the Netherlands. The Dutch Monarchy is thus descended from the first stadtholder of the young Republic, William of Orange, the title stadtholder is roughly comparable to Englands historic title Lord Lieutenant. Its component parts literally translate as place holder, or as a cognate, stead holder. Note, however, that is not the word for the rank of lieutenant. Stadtholders in the Middle Ages were appointed by feudal lords to represent them in their absence, if a lord had several dominions, some of these could be ruled by a permanent stadtholder, to whom was delegated the full authority of the lord. A stadtholder was thus more powerful than a governor, who had limited authority. The local rulers of the independent provinces of the Low Countries made extensive use of stadtholders, in the 15th century the Dukes of Burgundy acquired most of the Low Countries, and these Burgundian Netherlands mostly each had their own stadtholder. Only the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and two smaller territories remained outside his domains, stadtholders continued to be appointed to represent Charles and King Philip II, his son and successor in Spain and the Low Countries. Due to the centralist and absolutist policies of Philip, the power of the stadtholders strongly diminished. The stadtholder no longer represented the lord but became the highest executive official, although each province could assign its own stadtholder, most stadtholders held appointments from several provinces at the same time. As these councils themselves appointed most members of the states, the stadtholder could very indirectly influence the general policy, in the army, he could appoint officers by himself, in the navy only affirm appointments of the five admiralty councils. Legal powers of the stadtholder were thus limited, and by law he was a mere official. His real powers, however, were greater, especially given the martial law atmosphere of the permanent Eighty Years War. Maurice of Orange after 1618 ruled as a dictator. The leader of the Dutch Revolt was William the Silent, he had been appointed stadtholder in 1572 by the first province to rebel and his personal influence and reputation was subsequently associated with the office and transferred to members of his house. Maurice in 1618 and William III of Orange from 1672 replaced entire city councils with their partisans to increase their power, by intimidation, the stadtholders tried to extend their right of affirmation
33.
Buitenhof (The Hague)
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The Buitenhof is a square in The Hague, Netherlands, adjacent to the Binnenhof and the Hofvijver pond. It is listed in the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites, the square originated in the 13th century, during the construction of the Binnenhof. It was filled with houses and stables and, during the reign of Count Albert I, the zoo exhibited mostly falcons and other birds of prey that were used for hunting. Later, hounds were exhibited as well, the Buitenhof was moated for safety in the 15th century. People that did not belong to the court, lived outside of it, around the Plaats and the Korte Voorhout, the only entrance to the square was the Gevangenpoort, Prison Gate. A second entrance was introduced in 1814 with the construction of the Gravenstraat, in 1923, the houses between the gate and the Hofvijver were demolished, as was advised by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. This created more space for the traffic, which had had to pass the gate before. Number 19 was built in the half of the 18th century as the main office of the garrison. It was renovated from 1897 to 1900, after which it became a police office, the building currently houses a restaurant. Number 20 was built in 1904 as a restaurant, named Entre Deux Villes, in 1935, the building became a Cineac movie theatre, which later became a Pathé movie theatre. Number 22 is the Besognekamer, today a bridge society, the ground floor is occupied by a McDonalds. Number 33 is the Gevangenpoort, which was used as a prison from 1420 to 1828, number 34 was built in 1467. In the 19th century, it was used as parking place of carriages of the court, number 37 is known as Vijverhof today. It was rebuilt by De Lussanet de la Sablonière in 1972, the building is used as an annex of the House of Representatives. Number 38 is since 1872 the Cadastre, number 39-42 are three 17th century houses, today housing the four star Hotel Corona
34.
Kingdom of Holland
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The Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom for his third brother, Louis Bonaparte, in order to better control the Netherlands. The name of the province, Holland, was now taken for the whole country. In 1807 Prussian East Frisia and Jever were added to the kingdom but in 1809, after a British invasion, also in 1809, Dutch forces fighting on the French side participated in defeating the anti-Bonapartist German rebellion led by Ferdinand von Schill, at the Battle of Stralsund. It was the first formal monarchy in the Netherlands since 1581, Napoleons brother Louis Bonaparte was installed as King of Holland on 5 June 1806. Originally the arms of the new kingdom were to be like those of the Kingdom of Italy, an eagle bearing a shield, with the arms of the United Netherlands, the lion, now royally crowned. In December 1806, A. Renodi in Paris designed arms quartering the Napoleonic eagle with the lion of the United Netherlands, around the shield was the French Order of the Grand Aigle. Behind the shield are crossed sceptres, typical for Napoleonic heraldry, exemplary for the innovation in Napoleons heraldry are the two hands coming out of clouds from behind the shield holding swords, designating King Louis as Connétable de France. Napoleon felt the Batavian Republic was becoming too independent for his liking and he thus forced the Dutch to accept his brother, Louis Bonaparte, as king. The alternative would have been outright annexation to France, despite these circumstances, many citizens were very happy with his arrival. But there was opposition, because many feared the new King would introduce the dreaded conscription. This Louis would not do, much to the dismay of Napoleon, who demanded that Louis would raise an army to guard the North from British invasion. Apart from the lavishly uniformed Royal Guard, the army of the Kingdom of Holland would always be short of recruits, Napoleon intended for Louis to be little more than the prefect of Holland. The ministers were provided mostly by Napoleon, however, Louis had his own mind, and was determined to be as independent of his elder brother as possible. In addition to refusing to introduce conscription, he declared himself Dutch rather than French and he made a sincere effort to learn the Dutch language, and required his court and ministers to only speak Dutch. He went as far as to adopt the Dutch spelling of his name, due to the economic blockade enforced by Napoleon, the economy of the Kingdom of Holland was further ruined, the smuggling of British goods increased. Louis hesitated to oppose this, which led Napoleon sending units of Douanes Imperiales to Holland, after British troops invaded Walcheren in 1809, Napoleon was fed up with his hesitant brother and decided to make Holland an integral part of France. After annexing the provinces of Holland into the Empire, he forced Louis to abdicate in 1810. Louis son, Napoleon Louis, reigned for a week as Louis II before Napoleon annexed the rest of the kingdom into the French Empire, during that period Queen Hortense acted as Regent of the Kingdom
35.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
36.
Louis Bonaparte
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Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, known as Lodewijk Napoleon in Dutch, was a French nobleman who was King of Holland in 1806-1810. He was the surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte. His brother was the first Emperor of the French, Napoleon I, Louis was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline. Louis godparents were the governor, Mr de Marbeuf and the wife of the intendant, Bertrand de Boucheporn. Louis Bonapartes early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in Egypt, Napoleon, during his Italian Campaign, recommended Louis to Carnot, and Louis was consequently made a Captain. He later became a General by the age of 25, although he felt that he had risen too high in too short a time. Upon Louiss return to France, he was involved in Napoleons plot to overthrow the Directory, after becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleons stepdaughter. Hortense, who was opposed to the marriage at first, was persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family, Louis supposedly had a poor mental condition at times, and supposedly suffered from periods of mental illness. These periods of depression or mental instability would plague Louis, and consequently Napoleon, feeling that the Batavian Republic was too independent for his liking, Napoleon replaced it with the Kingdom of Holland on 5 June 1806, and placed Louis on the throne. Napoleon had intended for his brother to be little more than a French prefect of Holland. However, Louis had his own mind, and tried to be a responsible, in an effort to endear himself to his adopted country, he tried to learn the Dutch language, he called himself Lodewijk I and declared himself Dutch rather than French. Allegedly, his Dutch was initially so poor that he told the people he was the Konijn van Olland, however, his sincere effort to learn Dutch earned him some respect from his subjects. Having declared himself Dutch, Louis tried to make his court Dutch as well and he forced his court and ministers to speak only Dutch, and also to renounce their French citizenships. This latter was too much for his wife Hortense who, in France at the time of his demands, Louis and Hortense had never gotten along, and this demand further strained their relationship. She only came to Holland reluctantly, and deliberately tried to avoid Louis as much as possible, Louis could never settle on the location for his capital city while he was in Holland. He changed capitals over a dozen times, trying Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, on one occasion, after visiting the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant, he liked the place so much that he had the owner evicted so he could take up residence there. Then, Louis moved again after seven weeks and his constant moving kept the court in upheaval since they had to follow him everywhere
37.
The Night Watch
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It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings and is window 16 in the Canon of Amsterdam, the painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, behind them, the companys colours are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen. Rembrandt has displayed the emblem of the arquebusiers in a natural way. She is a kind of mascot herself, the claws of a chicken on her belt represent the clauweniers. The man in front of her is wearing a helmet with an oak leaf, the dead chicken is also meant to represent a defeated adversary. The colour yellow is associated with victory. Another interpretation proposes that Rembrandt designed this painting with several layers of meaning, thus, the Night Watch is symmetrically divided, firstly to illustrate the union between the Dutch Protestants and the Dutch Catholics, and secondly to evoke the war effort against the Spaniards. For instance, according to Rembrandts multilayered design, the taller captain symbolizes the Dutch Protestant leadership, moreover, all characters of this painting were conceived to present double readings. One of the most important aspects of the Night Watch is that the figures are nearly human size, Rembrandt gives the illusion that the characters jump off the canvas and into real space. For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish and this varnish was removed only in the 1940s. In 1715, upon its removal from the Kloveniersdoelen to the Amsterdam Town Hall and this was done, presumably, to fit the painting between two columns and was a common practice before the 19th century. This alteration resulted in the loss of two characters on the side of the painting, the top of the arch, the balustrade. This balustrade and step were key visual tools used by Rembrandt to give the painting a forward motion, a 17th-century copy of the painting by Gerrit Lundens at the National Gallery, London shows the original composition. The painting was commissioned by Captain Banning Cocq and seventeen members of his Kloveniers, eighteen names appear on a shield, painted circa 1715, in the centre right background, as the hired drummer was added to the painting for free. A total of 34 characters appear in the painting, Rembrandt was paid 1,600 guilders for the painting, a large sum at the time. This was one of a series of seven paintings of the militiamen commissioned during that time from various artists. The painting was commissioned to hang in the hall of the newly built Kloveniersdoelen in Amsterdam
38.
Mauritshuis
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The Mauritshuis is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 841 objects, the collections contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others. Originally, the 17th century building was the residence of count John Maurice of Nassau and it is now the property of the government of the Netherlands and is listed in the top 100 Dutch heritage sites. On the plot, the Mauritshuis was built between 1636 and 1641, during John Maurices governorship of Dutch Brazil, the Dutch Classicist building was designed by the Dutch architects Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post. The two-storey building is symmetrical and contained four apartments and a great hall. Each apartment was designed with an antechamber, a chamber, a cabinet, originally, the building had a cupola, which was destroyed in a fire in 1704. After the death of Prince John Maurice in 1679, the house was owned by the Maes family, in 1704, most of the interior of the Mauritshuis was destroyed by fire. The building was restored between 1708 and 1718, in 1820, the Mauritshuis was bought by the Dutch state for the purpose of housing the Royal Cabinet of Paintings. In 1822, the Mauritshuis was opened to the public and housed the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, in 1875, the entire museum became available for paintings. The Mauritshuis was privatised in 1995, the foundation set up at that time took charge of both the building and the collection, which it was given on long-term loan. This building, which is the property of the state, is rented by the museum, in 2007, the museum announced its desire to expand. In 2010, the design was presented. The museum would occupy a part of the nearby Sociëteit de Witte building, the two buildings would be connected via an underground tunnel, running underneath the Korte Vijverberg. The renovation started in 2012 and finished in 2014, during the renovation, about 100 of the museums paintings were displayed in the Gemeentemuseum in the Highlights Mauritshuis exhibition. About 50 other paintings, including the Girl With the Pearl Earring, were on loan to exhibitions in the United States, the museum was reopened on 27 June 2014 by King Willem-Alexander. The collection of paintings of stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange was presented to the Dutch state by his son and this collection formed the basis of the Royal Cabinet of Paintings of around 200 paintings. The collection is called the Royal Picture Gallery. There are also works of Hans Holbein in the collection in the Mauritshuis, the Mauritshuis was state museum until 1995, when it became independent
39.
Villa Welgelegen
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Villa Welgelegen is a historical building in Haarlem, the Netherlands, which currently houses the offices of the provincial executives of North Holland. Located at the end of a public park in the city, it is an example of neoclassical architecture. From 1769 onwards, Henry Hope purchased more and more adjoining land in order to fulfill the plans he had for a great palace, during the five-year period that the construction took place, it was the talk of the town. No one had seen such a summer home. Henry Hope collected many paintings and sculptures and had renowned artisans design the interior and he had many famous visitors to this palace, including William V of Orange, who visited with his wife, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, and Thomas Jefferson in 1788. Before he could complete his vision of expanding the Welgelegen gardens to the Spaarne river, in 1794 Henry Hope fled to England before the French revolutionary forces, taking most of his art collection with him. He transferred the property to his nephew John Williams Hope who remained behind in Amsterdam to see to the banking business. John Hope carried on the Hope & co. family business in Amsterdam together with Alexander Baring and Adriaan van der Hoop, in 1800 Henry Hope became influential together with his London friend Francis Baring in financing the Louisiana Purchase. On behalf of the French government, Baring and Hope sold US government bonds worth $11.25 million in 1804 and it is known as the largest land transaction in history. John Williams Hope sold the villa in 1808 to Napoleons brother Louis Bonaparte who had just been named King of Holland, Louis, or Ludwig as he called himself, loved Holland and enjoyed a good reputation among the people. He gave the villa its current name Paviljoen Welgelegen, Louis Napoleon enjoyed his stay there, but left in a hurry in 1810 when he was forced to abdicate the throne by his brother Napoleon, who felt he was being too nice to his subjects. His brother Napoleon then annexed Holland, making the King function redundant, three years later after the War of 1812 Welgelegen became the property of the government of the Netherlands. From 1814 to her death in 1828 Princes Wilhelmina of Prussia, after Wilhelmina died, Welgelegen housed many museums that later moved to Amsterdam or Leiden. In 1885 the Museum van Levende Nederlandsche Meesters was closed, but the Koloniaal Museum, when the Frans Hals Museum moved to its present location on the Klein Heiligland, the Fotografisch Museum was opened here. Paviljoen Welgelegen 1789-1989, Van buitenplaats van de bankier Hope tot zetel van de provincie Noord-Holland, Haarlem 1989 De Villa Borghese in het hart van Holland, Jan Bomans, Rotterdam 1996
40.
Haarlem
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Haarlem is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland and is situated at the edge of the Randstad. Haarlem had a population of 155,758 in 2014 and it is a 15-minute train ride from Amsterdam, and many residents commute to the countrys capital for work. Haarlem was granted city status or stadsrechten in 1245, although the first city walls were not built until 1270, the modern city encompasses the former municipality of Schoten as well as parts that previously belonged to Bloemendaal and Heemstede. Apart from the city, the municipality of Haarlem also includes the part of the village of Spaarndam. Newer sections of Spaarndam lie within the municipality of Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude. The city is located on the river Spaarne, about 20 km west of Amsterdam and it has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears the nickname Bloemenstad, for this reason. Haarlem has a history dating back to pre-medieval times, as it lies on a thin strip of land above sea level known as the strandwal. The people on this strip of land struggled against the waters of the North Sea from the west, and the waters of the IJ. Haarlem became wealthy with toll revenues that it collected from ships, however, as shipping became increasingly important economically, the city of Amsterdam became the main Dutch city of North Holland during the Dutch Golden Age. The town of Halfweg became a suburb, and Haarlem became a bedroom community. Nowadays many of them are on the Dutch Heritage register known as Rijksmonuments, the list of Rijksmonuments in Haarlem gives an overview of these per neighbourhood, with the majority in the old city centre. The oldest mentioning of Haarlem dates from the 10th century, the name probably comes from Haarlo-heim. This name is composed of three elements, haar, lo and heim, there is not much dispute about the meaning of lo and heim, in Old Dutch toponyms lo always refers to forest and heim to home or house. Haar, however, has several meanings, one of them corresponding with the location of Haarlem on a sand dune, the name Haarlem or Haarloheim would therefore mean home on a forested dune. There was a stream called De Beek, dug from the peat grounds west of the river Spaarne as a drainage canal, over the centuries the Beek was turned into an underground canal, as the city grew larger and the space was needed for construction. Over time it began to silt up and in the 19th century it was filled in, the location of the village was a good one, by the river Spaarne, and by a major road going south to north. By the 12th century it was a town, and Haarlem became the residence of the Counts of Holland
41.
Vincent van Gogh
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings and his suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty. Born into a family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling and he turned to religion, and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881 and his younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, in 1886 he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and his paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the south of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include trees, cypresses, wheat fields. Van Gogh suffered from episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor and he spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris and his depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later, Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves. The most comprehensive source on Van Gogh is the correspondence between him and his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincents thoughts, Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support, and access to influential people on the contemporary art scene. Theo kept all of Vincents letters to him, Vincent kept few of the letters he received, after both had died, Theos widow Johanna arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913, the majority were published in 1914, Vincents letters are eloquent and expressive and have been described as having a diary-like intimacy, and read in parts like autobiography
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Theo van Gogh (art dealer)
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Theodorus Theo van Gogh was a Dutch art dealer. He was the brother of Vincent van Gogh, and Theos unfailing financial and emotional support allowed his brother to devote himself entirely to painting. Theo died at the age of 33, six months after his brother died at the age of 37, Theodorus Theo van Gogh was born on 1 May 1857 in the village Groot-Zundert in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. He was the son of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus and his elder brother was Vincent van Gogh, who later became a famous painter. Theo worked for years at the Dutch office of the Parisian art dealers Goupil & Cie in The Hague. Theo joined the Brussels office on 1 January 1873 as their youngest employee, after Theo was transferred to the London office, he moved to the office in The Hague, where he developed into a successful art dealer. By 1884, he was transferred to the Paris main office, starting in the winter of 1880–1881, he sent painting materials as well as monthly financial support to his brother and painter Vincent van Gogh, who was living back in the Netherlands. In Paris, Theo met Andries Bonger and his sister Johanna and he married Johanna in Amsterdam on 17 April 1889 and they moved to Paris. Their son Vincent Willem was born in Paris on 31 January 1890, on 8 June, the family visited Vincent, who was living near Paris in Auvers-sur-Oise. Vincent died in July 1890 at age 37, Theo suffered from dementia paralytica, an infection of the brain, and his health declined rapidly after Vincents death. Weak and unable to come to terms with Vincents absence, he died six months later at age 33 in Den Dolder, Theo admired his elder brother Vincent for his whole life. But communicating with him proved to be difficult, even before Vincent opted to follow his artistic vocation, the communication between both brothers suffered from diverging definitions of standards, and it was evidently Theo who kept on writing letters. Therefore, mostly Vincents answers survived and few of Theos, Theo was often concerned about Vincents mental condition and he was amongst the few who understood his brother. It is known that Theo helped Vincent to maintain his artist lifestyle by giving him money and he also helped Vincent pursue his life as an artist through his unwavering emotional support and love. The majority of Theo’s letters and communications with Vincent are filled with praise, Vincent would send Theo sketches and ideas for paintings, along with accounts of his day to day experiences, to the delight and eager attention of Theo. Theo was instrumental in the popularity of Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas by persuading his employers, Goupil & Cie, to exhibit and buy their works. In 1886, Theo invited Vincent to come and live with him in Paris, the two brothers maintained an intensive correspondence, with Theo often encouraging his depressed brother. Theo was one of the few people who Vincent could talk to, over three-quarters of the more than 800 letters Vincent wrote during his life were to Theo, including his first and his last letters
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Architectural design competition
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An architectural design competition is a type of competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is chosen by an independent panel of design professionals. This procedure is used to generate new ideas for building design, to stimulate public debate, generate publicity for the project. Winning first prize in a competition is not a guarantee that the project will be constructed, the commissioning body often has the right to veto the winning design, and both requirements and finances may change, thwarting the original intention. Architecture competitions have a more than 2, 500-year-old history, the Acropolis in Athens was a result of an architectural competition in 448 B. C. as were several cathedrals in the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, many initiated by the church have been decided through design competition. Examples are the Spanish Stairs in Rome or in 1419, a competition was held to design the dome of the Florence Cathedral, open competitions were held in the late 18th century in several countries including the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Sweden. In 19th century England and Ireland there have been over 2,500 competitions in five decades, the Institute of British Architects drafted a first set of rules in 1839, and a set of formal regulations in 1872. The German Regulations were introduced in 1867, in the same period in the Netherlands an association for the advancement of architecture started organising conceptual competitions with the aim of stimulating architects creativity. Project competitions or ideas competitions, depending on the intention of building the project or generating new ideas, single-stage or two-stage competitions, dependending on the scale and complexity of the competition. Anonymous or cooperative procedures, anonymity supports greater objectivity during the evaluation, in cooperative procedures, the authors are invited to make in-person presentations to the jury in order to explain their design strategies and allow individual discussion. In France and Germany design competitions are compulsory for all public buildings exceeding a certain cost, most significant among architectural competitions are the ones which are internationally open, attract a large number of design submissions, and the winning design is built. Student competition Student competitions AB Student design competition Andersson E. Bloxham Zettersten, G. und Rönn, M. Architectural Competitions - Histories, stockholm, The Royal Institute of Technology and Rio Kulturkooperativ,2013
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Gothic architecture
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Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture and its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the cathedrals, abbeys. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, for this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, the term Gothic architecture originated as a pejorative description. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, Here enter no hypocrites, slipping in a slighting reference to Gotz and Ostrogotz. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old medieval style, the Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic. Gothic architecture is the architecture of the medieval period, characterised by use of the pointed arch. As an architectural style, Gothic developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture, the greatest number of surviving Gothic buildings are churches. The Gothic style is most particularly associated with the cathedrals of Northern France. At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states, norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with other, or united for mutual weal. Civic building was of importance to these towns as a sign of wealth. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but also wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the lords and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early Medieval periods had seen a growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, a part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centers of culture, learning and commerce
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Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
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Sculpture
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Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts, a wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or molded, or cast. However, most ancient sculpture was painted, and this has been lost. Those cultures whose sculptures have survived in quantities include the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, India and China, the Western tradition of sculpture began in ancient Greece, and Greece is widely seen as producing great masterpieces in the classical period. During the Middle Ages, Gothic sculpture represented the agonies and passions of the Christian faith, the revival of classical models in the Renaissance produced famous sculptures such as Michelangelos David. Relief is often classified by the degree of projection from the wall into low or bas-relief, high relief, sunk-relief is a technique restricted to ancient Egypt. Relief sculpture may also decorate steles, upright slabs, usually of stone, techniques such as casting, stamping and moulding use an intermediate matrix containing the design to produce the work, many of these allow the production of several copies. The term sculpture is used mainly to describe large works. The very large or colossal statue has had an enduring appeal since antiquity, another grand form of portrait sculpture is the equestrian statue of a rider on horse, which has become rare in recent decades. The smallest forms of life-size portrait sculpture are the head, showing just that, or the bust, small forms of sculpture include the figurine, normally a statue that is no more than 18 inches tall, and for reliefs the plaquette, medal or coin. Sculpture is an important form of public art, a collection of sculpture in a garden setting can be called a sculpture garden. One of the most common purposes of sculpture is in form of association with religion. Cult images are common in cultures, though they are often not the colossal statues of deities which characterized ancient Greek art. The actual cult images in the innermost sanctuaries of Egyptian temples, of which none have survived, were rather small. The same is true in Hinduism, where the very simple. Some undoubtedly advanced cultures, such as the Indus Valley civilization, appear to have had no monumental sculpture at all, though producing very sophisticated figurines, the Mississippian culture seems to have been progressing towards its use, with small stone figures, when it collapsed. Other cultures, such as ancient Egypt and the Easter Island culture, from the 20th century the relatively restricted range of subjects found in large sculpture expanded greatly, with abstract subjects and the use or representation of any type of subject now common. Today much sculpture is made for intermittent display in galleries and museums, small sculpted fittings for furniture and other objects go well back into antiquity, as in the Nimrud ivories, Begram ivories and finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun
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Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity, thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization, and symbols. In technical drawing, thickness of line is ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters. Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are the essence of music, color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, 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 register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic, painters deal practically with pigments, so blue for a painter can be any of the blues, phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music is analogous to light in painting, shades to dynamics and these elements do not necessarily form a melody of themselves, rather, they can add different contexts to it. Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet and 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, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required, rhythm is important in painting as it is in music
