1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
3.
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
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Giovanni Battista Piazzetta was an Italian Rococo painter of religious subjects and genre scenes. Piazzetta was born in Venice, the son of a sculptor Giacomo Piazzetta, starting in 1697 he studied with the painter Antonio Molinari. By Piazzettas account, he studied under Giuseppe Maria Crespi while living in Bologna in 1703–05, thanks to Crespi, Carlo Cignanis influence reached Piazzetta. Piazzetta did find inspiration in Crespis art, in which the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio was transformed into an idiom of graceful charm in his pictures of common folk and he was also greatly impressed by the altarpieces created by another Bolognese painter of a half-century earlier, Guercino. Around 1710, he returned to Venice, yet Piazzetas range of topics was broader than that of these artists, Tiepolo, for example, never painted genre paintings and restricted himself to grand history and religious altarpieces. Piazzetta created an art of warm, rich color and a mysterious poetry and he often depicted peasantry, even if often in a grand fashion. He was highly original in the intensity of color he used in his shadows. The gestures and glances of his protagonists hint at unseen dramas, as in one of his best-known paintings and he brought similar elusiveness to works of a religious nature, such as the Sotto in su Glory of St. Dominic in the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Also notable are his many carefully rendered drawings of figures or groups of heads. Usually in charcoal or black chalk with white heightening on gray paper, these are filled with the spirit that animates his paintings. In 1750 Piazzetta became the first director of the newly founded Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia and he was elected a member of the Bolognese Accademia Clementina in 1727. Among the painters in his studio were Domenico Maggiotto, Francesco Dagiu, Johann Heinrich Tischbein, Egidio DallOglio, the engraver Marco Pitteri was affiliated with his studio, and engraved many of his works. Among younger painters who emulated his style are Giovanni Battista Pissati, giulia Lama, Federico Bencovich, and Francesco Polazzo. He died in Venice on April 28,1754, St. James Led to Matyrdom Chiesa di San Stae, Venice. Madonna and child appearing to St Philip Neri Glory of St. Dominic Chiesa di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, centro Di, Kimball Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, eds. Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy
4.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice. He was prolific, and worked not only in Italy, but also in Germany, Giovan Battista Tiepolo, together with Giambattista Pittoni, Canaletto, Giovan Battista Piazzetta, Giuseppe Maria Crespi and Francesco Guardi forms the traditional great Old Masters of that period. Successful from the beginning of his career, he has described by Michael Levey as the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe. Born in Venice, he was the youngest of six children of Domenico and his father was a small shipping merchant who belonged to a family that bore the prestigious patrician name of Tiepolo without claiming any noble descent. Some of the children acquired noble godparents, and Giambattista was originally named after his godfather and he was baptised on 16 April 1696 in the local church, San Pietro di Castello. His father died about a later, leaving his mother to bring up a family of young children. In 1710 he became a pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini, a painter with an eclectic style. A biography of his teacher, published in 1732, says that Tiepolo departed from studied manner of painting and his earliest known works are depictions of the apostles, painted in spandrels as part of the decoration of the church of the Ospedoletto in Venice in 1715–6. He painted his first fresco in 1716, on the ceiling of a church at Biadene and he probably left Lazzarinis studio in 1717, the year he was received into the Fraglia or guild of painters. In around 1719–20 he painted a scheme of frescoes for the wealthy, Tiepolo depicted the Triumph of Aurora on the ceiling, and the Myth of Phaethon on the walls, creating the kind of fluid spatial illusion which was to become a recurring theme in his work. In 1722 he was one of twelve artists commissioned to contribute a painting on canvas of one of the apostles as part of a scheme for the nave of San Stae in Venice. The other artists involved included Ricci, Piazetta, and Pellegrini, in 1719, Tiepolo married noblewoman Maria Cecilia Guardi, sister of two contemporary Venetian painters Francesco and Giovanni Antonio Guardi. Together, Tiepolo and his wife had nine children, four daughters and three sons survived childhood. Two of his sons, Domenico and Lorenzo, painted with him as his assistants and his children painted figures with a design similar to that of their father, but with distinctive, including genre, styles. His third son became a priest, fabio Canal, Francesco Lorenzi, Domenico Pasquini were among his pupils. Some major commissions came from the patrician Dolfin family, Tiepolo used a much cooler palette than previous Venetian painters, in order to create a convincing effect of daylight. These early masterpieces, innovative amongst Venetian frescoes for their luminosity, dominic Instituting the Rosary, Palazzo Clerici, Milan, decorations for Villa Cordellini at Montecchio Maggiore and for the ballroom of the Palazzo Labia in Venice, showing the Story of Cleopatra. Tiepolo produced two sets of etchings, the Capricci and the Scherzi di fantasia, the ten capricci were first published by Anton Maria Zanetti, incorporated into the third edition of a compilation of woodcuts after Parmigiano
5.
Pietro da Cortona
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Pietro da Cortona was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini and he was also an important designer of interior decorations. He was born Pietro Berrettini, but is known by the name of his native town of Cortona in Tuscany. He worked mainly in Rome and Florence, only a limited number of his architectural projects were built but nonetheless they are as distinctive and as inventive as those of his rivals. Berrettini was born into a family of artisans and masons, in Cortona and he trained in painting in Florence under Andrea Commodi, but soon he departed for Rome at around 1612/3, where he joined the studio of Baccio Ciarpi. In Rome, he had encouragement from many prominent patrons, according to Cortonas biographers his gifted copy of Raphaels Galatea fresco brought him to the attention of Marcello Sacchetti, papal treasurer during the Barberini papacy. Such contacts helped him gain a major commission in Rome. In 1633, Pope Urban VIII commissioned from Cortona a large painting for the main salon ceiling of the Barberini family palace. It was completed six years later, following Cortonas influential visit to northern Italy where he would have seen at first hand perspectival works by Paolo Veronese, Cortonas huge Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power marks a watershed in Baroque painting. The ornamented architectural framework essentially forms five compartments, the central and most significant part celebrates the glorification of the reign of Urban VIII in a light filled scene populated with allegorical figures and Barberini family emblems. The illusion of spatial extension through paint, the grandiose theme, the first two represented the ages of silver and gold. In 1641, he was recalled to paint the Bronze Age and he began work on the decoration of the grand-ducal reception rooms on the first floor of the Palazzo Pitti, now part of the Palatine Gallery. These highly ornate ceilings with frescoes and elaborate stucco work essentially celebrate the Medici lineage, Pietro left Florence in 1647, and his pupil and collaborator, Ciro Ferri, completed the cycle by the 1660s. For a number of years, Cortona was involved for decades in the decoration of the frescoes in the Oratorian Chiesa Nuova in Rome. Other frescoes are in Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona, in 1660, he executed The Stoning of Saint Stephen for the church of San Ambrogio della Massima in Rome. The work currently hangs in the Hermitage, towards the end of his life he devoted much of his time to architecture, but he published a treatise on painting in 1652 under a pseudonym and in collaboration. He refused invitations to both France and Spain and he was elected as director of the Academy of St Luke the painters guild in Rome, in 1634. It was at the Academy in 1636 that Cortona and Andrea Sacchi were involved in controversies regarding the number of figures that were appropriate in a painted work
6.
Belluno
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Belluno listen, is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about 100 kilometres north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno, with its roughly 36,000 inhabitants, it is the largest populated area of Valbelluna. It is one of the 15 municipalities of the Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park, together with other Alpine towns, Belluno engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Belluno was named Alpine Town of the Year in 1999, the ancient city of Belluno rises above a cliff spur near the confluence of the Torrente Ardo and the Piave River. To the north is the imposing Schiara range of the Dolomites, with the famous Gusela del Vescovà, to the south, the foothills of the Alps separate Belluno from the Venetian plain. Further to the south is the Nevegal, in the Castionese area, the average annual temperature in Belluno is 9 °C, and the average annual precipitation is 137 cm. The name of the city is derived from Celtic belo-dunum which means splendid hill, the name was inspired by the favorable position within the valley. It is conjectured that the population of the area that became Belluno was largely Venetic with a strong Celtic minority, however, as the Romans expanded northward into the Alps, the Celtic either emigrated or were absorbed. The people of the area swore friendship to Rome in the 225 BC conflict with the Gauls, founded perhaps around 220-200 BC the initial influence of Rome was military and commercial. Strategically located, the town protected cities to the south, Belluno also became a supplier of iron and copper. Already within the Roman sphere of influence, the town was juridically and polictically incorporated into the Roman Republic by the second century BC. Sometime between the death of Julius Caesar and the ascent of Augustus, Bellunum became a Roman municipium, the town was ruled by quattorviri juri dicendo, by quattorviri aedilicia potestate, and by a Council of Elders. Under Augustus, it part of Regio X Venetia et Histria. Among its citizens were Caius Flavius Hostilius and his wife Domitia, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was ruled by the Lombards and the Carolingians, the famous Belluno Treasure in the British Museum dates from this period. From the late 9th century it was ruled by a count-bishop and it received a castle, later it was a possession of the Ghibelline family of the Ezzelino. After having longly contended the nearby territory with Treviso, in the end Belluno gave itself to the Republic of Venice, the city was thenceforth an important hub for the transport of lumber from the Cadore through the Piave river. After the fall of the Republic, Belluno was an Austrian possession, the cathedral was much damaged by the earthquake of 1873, which destroyed a considerable portion of the town, though the campanile stood firm. The Duomo, with the 18th-century bell tower designed by Filippo Juvarra and it includes five paintings by Andrea Schiavone, three by Sebastiano Ricci
7.
Federico Cervelli
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Federico Cervelli was an Italian painter, who established his workshop in Venice at the age of about thirty. He initially trained with Pietro Ricci and his first documented and dated painting is a Sacrifice of Noah conserved at San Giorgio Maggiore in Bergamo. Among his pupils, according to the connoisseur Antonio Maria Zanetti, was Aidan Rajswing, R. Palluchini, La pittura Veneziana del Seicento, Milan,1981, pp. 297–298
8.
Venice
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Venice is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is situated across a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and these are located in the shallow Venetian Lagoon, an enclosed bay that lies between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Parts of Venice are renowned for the beauty of their settings, their architecture, the lagoon and a part of the city are listed as a World Heritage Site. In 2014,264,579 people resided in Comune di Venezia, together with Padua and Treviso, the city is included in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, with a total population of 2.6 million. PATREVE is a metropolitan area without any degree of autonomy. The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by the 10th century BC, the city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been known as the La Dominante, Serenissima, Queen of the Adriatic, City of Water, City of Masks, City of Bridges, The Floating City, and City of Canals. The City State of Venice is considered to have been the first real international financial center which gradually emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century and this made Venice a wealthy city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period, Venice has played an important role in the history of symphonic and operatic music, and it is the birthplace of Antonio Vivaldi. Venice has been ranked the most beautiful city in the world as of 2016, the name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti. The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends. Linguists suggest that the name is based on an Indo-European root *wen, so that *wenetoi would mean beloved, lovable, a connection with the Latin word venetus, meaning the color sea-blue, is also possible. The alternative obsolete form is Vinegia, some late Roman sources reveal the existence of fishermen on the islands in the original marshy lagoons. They were referred to as incolae lacunae, the traditional founding is identified with the dedication of the first church, that of San Giacomo on the islet of Rialto — said to have taken place at the stroke of noon on 25 March 421. Beginning as early as AD166 to 168, the Quadi and Marcomanni destroyed the center in the area. The Roman defences were again overthrown in the early 5th century by the Visigoths and, some 50 years later, New ports were built, including those at Malamocco and Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. The tribuni maiores, the earliest central standing governing committee of the islands in the Lagoon, the traditional first doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, was actually Exarch Paul, and his successor, Marcello Tegalliano, was Pauls magister militum. In 726 the soldiers and citizens of the Exarchate rose in a rebellion over the controversy at the urging of Pope Gregory II
9.
Sebastiano Mazzoni
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Sebastiano Mazzoni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Born in Florence, he trained in that city during 1632-33 in the studio of Baccio del Bianco and he then moved to Venice in 1648, and stayed there till his death. He painted a somewhat unusual Annunciation with a hovering ghostly angel dominating the scene, in 1638 he joined the Accademia del Disegno in Florence. Andrea Celesti was one of his pupils, and it is said he influenced the style of Sebastiano Ricci, ultimately he has an enigmatic individual style with paintings of unresolved dynamism, depicted from awkward perspectives, in some fashion he resembles his contemporary Francesco Maffei. Death of Cleopatra Vulcan surprises Venus and Mars
10.
Bologna
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Bologna is the largest city of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of an area of about one million. The first settlements back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been a centre, first under the Etruscans. Home to the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is also an important transportation crossroad for the roads and trains of Northern Italy, where many important mechanical, electronic and nutritional industries have their headquarters. According to the most recent data gathered by the European Regional Economic Growth Index of 2009, Bologna is the first Italian city, Bologna is home to numerous prestigious cultural, economic and political institutions as well as one of the most impressive trade fair districts in Europe. In 2000 it was declared European capital of culture and in 2006, the city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country, after a long decline, Bologna was reborn in the 5th century under Bishop Petronius. According to legend, St. Petronius built the church of S. Stefano. After the fall of Rome, Bologna was a stronghold of the Exarchate of Ravenna in the Po plain. In 728, the city was captured by the Lombard king Liutprand, the Germanic conquerors formed a district called addizione longobarda near the complex of S. Stefano. Charlemagne stayed in this district in 786, traditionally said to be founded in 1088, the University of Bologna is widely considered to be the first university. The university originated as a centre of study of medieval Roman law under major glossators. It numbered Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarca among its students, the medical school is especially famous. In the 12th century, the families engaged in continual internecine fighting. Troops of Pope Julius II besieged Bologna and sacked the artistic treasures of his palace, in 1530, in front of Saint Petronio Church, Charles V was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII. Then a plague at the end of the 16th century reduced the population from 72,000 to 59,000, the population later recovered to a stable 60, 000–65,000. However, there was also great progress during this era, in 1564, the Piazza del Nettuno and the Palazzo dei Banchi were built, along with the Archiginnasio, the centre of the University
11.
Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole
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Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole was an Italian painter and engraver from Bologna, active in the late-Baroque period. His father, Giovanni Antonio Maria, was a painter who trained with Francesco Albani. Giovanni Gioseffo first apprenticed with Domenico Maria Canuti, and then in 1672 and he painted frescoes in the cupola of Santa Maria dei Poveri in Bologna, and an altarpiece of the Trinity for the Chiesa del Suffragio in Imola. He is said to have collaborated with Giuseppe Maria Crespi, two paintings by Dal Sole, Diana with cupids and Ecstasy of the Magdalen are found in the Palazzo Spalletti-Trivelli in Bologna. There is a Salome with the St John the Baptist in the Fitzwilliam Museum attributed to Giovanni Gioseffo and he also frescoed the Palazzo Mansi in Lucca with a Judgement of Paris. He also played some role as a mentor to a pupil of Pasinelli and Sirani, Teresa Muratori Scannabecchi, artnet biography from Grove encyclopedia of Art
12.
Parma
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Parma listen is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its prosciutto, cheese, architecture, music and surrounding countryside. It is home to the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world, Parma is divided into two parts by the stream of the same name. The district on the far side of the river is Oltretorrente, Parmas Etruscan name was adapted by Romans to describe the round shield called Parma. The Italian poet Attilio Bertolucci wrote, As a capital city it had to have a river, as a little capital it received a stream, which is often dry. Parma was already an area in the Bronze Age. In the current position of the city rose a terramare, the terramare were ancient villages built of wood on piles according to a defined scheme and squared form, constructed on dry land and generally in proximity to the rivers. During this age the first necropolis were constructed, diodorus Siculus reported that the Romans had changed their rectangular shields for round ones, imitating the Etruscans. Whether the Etruscan encampment was so named because it was round, like a shield, the Roman colony was founded in 183 BC, together with Mutina,2,000 families were settled. Parma had an importance as a road hub over the Via Aemilia. It had a forum, in what is today the central Garibaldi Square, in 44 BC, the city was destroyed, and Augustus rebuilt it. During the Roman Empire, it gained the title of Julia for its loyalty to the imperial house, the city was subsequently sacked by Attila, and later given by the Germanic king Odoacer to his followers. During the Gothic War, however, Totila destroyed it and it was then part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna and, from 569, of the Lombard Kingdom of Italy. Under Frankish rule, Parma became the capital of a county, like most northern Italian cities, it was nominally a part of the Holy Roman Empire created by Charlemagne, but locally ruled by its bishops, the first being Guibodus. In the subsequent struggles between the Papacy and the Empire, Parma was usually a member of the Imperial party, two of its bishops became antipopes, Càdalo, founder of the cathedral, as Honorius II, and Guibert, as Clement III. An almost independent commune was created around 1140, a treaty between Parma and Piacenza of 1149 is the earliest document of a comune headed by consuls, the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines was a feature of Parma too. In 1213, her podestà was the Guelph Rambertino Buvalelli, then, after a long stance alongside the emperors, the Papist families of the city gained control in 1248. The city was besieged in 1247–48 by Emperor Frederick II, who was crushed in the battle that ensued. Parma fell under the control of Milan in 1341, after a short-lived period of independence under the Terzi family, the Sforza imposed their rule through their associated families of Pallavicino, Rossi, Sanvitale and Da Correggio
13.
Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena
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Ferdinando Galli Bibiena or Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, also Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena or Bibbiena, was an Italian Baroque-era architect, designer, and painter. Bibiena was born on 18 August 1657 at Bologna and he was the son of painter Giovanni Maria Galli, and he studied painting under Carlo Cignani and architecture under Giulio Trogli, called il Paradosso. On recommendation of Cignani, Bibliena entered into the service of the duke of Parma and his main work during this period was the garden and villa of Colorno, but he soon earned a reputation for his scenic designs and began working for the theatre. In 1708, Bibiena was called to Barcelona to organize the decorations in connection with the festivities of the future Holy Roman emperor Charles VI. When this prince became the Emperor, Bibliena traveled to Vienna, in his decorations for the theatre and festivities, Bibliena replaced the central axis with a diagonal axis, introducing an angular perspective along the diagonal. In the competition to select a design for the construction of the St. Charles´ church in Vienna and he returned to Bologna in 1716, where in 1717, he was elected as a member of the Clementine Academy. In 1731, Bibliena built the theatre of Mantua. He produced several books, including, LArchitettura civile, later reissued under various titles Varie opere di prospettiva, past the age of 86, Bibliena died on January 3,1743. The Galli-Bibiena family derives its name from the surname and birthplace of papa Giovanni Maria Galli, Giovanni studied painting under Francesco Albani and laid the foundations of an artistry which was continued by his descendants, who dedicated themselves to scenic work for the theatre. For example, Ferdinandos second son, Antonio, was regarded, like his father, as a pittore scenico or teatrale. Among their followers was Francesco Zinani of Reggio Emilia, from about 1690 to 1787, eight Bibienas designed and painted for many of the courts of Europe with intricate settings for operas, weddings, and funerals. The Habsburgs were their most generous patrons, among his followers or artists in his studio was Domenico Francia. Karlskirche - Karls Church in Vienna, a. H. Mayor, The Bibiena Family,1940
14.
Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma
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Ranuccio II Farnese was the sixth Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1646 until his death nearly 50 years later and Duke of Castro from 1646 until 1649. Ranuccio was the eldest son of Odoardo Farnese, the sovereign duke of Parma. After his fathers death, Ranuccio succeeded as duke. As he was a minor and had not yet reached his majority, Ranuccio belonged to the House of Farnese, founded by Pope Paul III, formerly Alessandro Farnese. The Farnese Dukes had been ruling Parma and Piacenza since Pope Pauls illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese was given it as a possession and they found the excuse when Odoardo was unable to repay his creditors, from whom he had incurred debts. Urban responded to the plea for help and had Castro occupied. However, the first war ended with Papal defeat, Ranuccio refused to repay the debts incurred by his father, despite the latter having a signed a peace treaty agreeing to do so. He also refused to recognise the new bishop of Castro, appointed by Urbans successor, in 1649, the new bishop, Cardinal Cristoforo Giarda, was murdered on his way to Castro. Innocent accused Ranuccio of the murder and in retaliation, forces loyal to the Pope besieged Castro, and then razed it to the ground. In August of that year the Parmense troops had been crushed not far from Bologna. In 1672 he bought the principate of Bardi and Compiano from Gianandrea Doria Landi, in the last days of his reign, the Duchy suffered heavily from the presence of Imperial troops, who were fighting in the dispute between Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and France. Ranuccio II was married three times, On 29 April 1660, Ranuccio married firstly Marguerite Yolande of Savoy, a daughter of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and Christine Marie of France. They had two children, On 18 February 1664 Ranuccio married secondly Isabella dEste of Modena, a daughter of Francesco I dEste and they had three children, On 1 October 1668 he married Maria dEste of Modena, his second wifes sister. They had nine children, http, //www. comune. piacenza. it/english/history/Ifarnese. htm http, //www. italycyberguide. com/History/factspersons/wxyz. htm http, //page. freett. com/mako_vl/name/hausf. html
15.
Piacenza
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Piacenza listen is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza, modern forms of the name descend from Latin Placentia. The etymology is long-standing, tracing an origin from the Latin verb placēre, in French, and occasionally in English, it is called Plaisance. The name means a pleasant abode, or as James Boswell reported some of the etymologists of his time to have translated it and this was a name of good omen. Piacenza is located at a crossroads at the intersection of Route E35/A1 between Bologna and Milan, and Route E70/A21 between Brescia and Tortona. Piacenza is also at the confluence of the Trebbia, draining the northern Apennine Mountains, Piacenza also hosts two universities, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Polytechnic University of Milan. Before then, says Polybius, These plains were anciently inhabited by Etruscans before the Gauls took the entire Po Valley from them, Piacenza and Cremona were founded as Roman military colonies in May 218 BC. The Romans had planned to them after the successful conclusion of the latest war with the Gauls ending in 219 BC. In the spring of 218 BC, after declaring war on Carthage, the reaction of the regions Gauls was swift, they drove the colonists off the lands. Taking refuge in Mutina, the latter sent for military assistance, a small force under Lucius Manlius was prevented from reaching the area. The Senate then sent two legions under Gaius Atelius, collecting Manlius and the colonists, they descended on Piacenza and Cremona and successfully placed castra there of 480 square metres to support the building of the city. Piacenza must have been walled immediately, as the walls were in place when the Battle of the Trebia was fought around the city in December. There is no evidence either textual or archaeological of a settlement at that exact location, however. Piacenza was the 53rd colony to be placed by Rome since its foundation and it was the first among the Gauls of the Po valley. It had to be supplied by boat after the Battle of Trebbia, in 209 BC, Hasdrubal Barca crossed the Alps and laid siege to the city, but he was unable to take it and withdrew. In 200 BC, the Gauls sacked and burned it, selling the population into slavery, subsequently, the victorious Romans restored the city and managed to recover 2000 citizens. In 198 BC, a force of Gauls and Ligurians plundered the whole region. As the people had never recovered from being sold into slavery, in 190 BC they complained to Senate of underpopulation, the construction of the Via Aemilia in the 180s made the city easily accessible from the Adriatic ports, which improved trade and the prospects for timely defense
16.
Pope Paul III
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Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope from 13 October 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527. He convened the Council of Trent in 1545 and he was a significant patron of the arts and employed nepotism to advance the power and fortunes of his family. It is to Pope Paul III that Nicolaus Copernicus dedicated De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, alessandro’s humanist education was at the University of Pisa and the court of Lorenzo de Medici. Initially trained as a notary, he joined the Roman Curia in 1491. Farnese’s sister, Giulia was reputedly a mistress of Alexander VI, for this reason, he was sometimes mockingly referred to as the Borgia brother-in-law, just as Giulia was mocked as the Bride of Christ. More disparagingly he was referred to as Cardinal Fregnese, as Bishop of Parma, he came under the influence of his vicar general, Bartolomeo Guidiccioni. This led to the future pope breaking off the relationship with his mistress, under Pope Clement VII he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and dean of the College of Cardinals, and on the death of Clement VII in 1534, was elected as Pope Paul III. As a young cleric, Alessandro lived a dissolute life, taking for himself a mistress. By Silvia Ruffini, he fathered Pier Luigi Farnese, whom he created Duke of Parma, others included Ranuccio Farnese, the fourth pope during the period of the Protestant Reformation, Paul III became the first to take active reform measures in response to Protestantism. Paul III first deferred for a year and then discarded the whole project, in 1536, Paul III invited nine eminent prelates, distinguished by learning and piety alike, to act in committee and to report on the reformation and rebuilding of the Church. This report was printed not only at Rome, but at Strasburg, yet the Pope was in earnest when he took up the problem of reform. Yet it is clear that the Concilium bore no fruit in the situation. On the other hand, serious political complications resulted, in order to vest his grandson Ottavio Farnese with the dukedom of Camerino, Paul forcibly wrested the same from the duke of Urbino. He also incurred virtual war with his own subjects and vassals by the imposition of burdensome taxes, perugia, renouncing its obedience, was besieged by Pauls son, Pier Luigi, and forfeited its freedom entirely on its surrender. The burghers of Colonna were duly vanquished, and Ascanio was banished, after this the time seemed ripe for annihilating heresy. In 1540, the Church officially recognized the young society forming about Ignatius of Loyola, the second visible stage in the process becomes marked by the institution, or reorganization, in 1542, of the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. On another side, the Emperor was insisting that Rome should forward his designs toward a recovery of the German Protestants
17.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
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Palazzo Farnese
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Palazzo Farnese or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French embassy in Italy. First designed in 1517 for the Farnese family, the expanded in size and conception when Alessandro Farnese became Pope Paul III in 1534. Its building history involved some of the most prominent Italian architects of the 16th century, including Michelangelo, Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, work was interrupted by the Sack of Rome in 1527. The massive palace block and its facade dominate the Piazza Farnese, when Paul appeared on the balcony, the entire facade became a setting for his person. The courtyard, initially open arcades, is ringed by an exercise in ascending orders. The piano nobile entablature was given a frieze with garlands, added by Michelangelo, while the practicalities of achieving this bridge remain dubious, the idea was a bold and expansive one. During the 16th century, two large granite basins from the Baths of Caracalla were adapted as fountains in the Piazza Farnese, the palazzo was further modified for the papal nephew Ranuccio Farnese by Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. It was completed for the second Cardinal Alessandro Farnese by Giacomo della Portas porticoed facade towards the Tiber which was finished in 1589, following the death of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese in 1626, the palazzo stood virtually uninhabited for twenty years. At the conclusion of the War of Castro with the papacy, Duke Odoardo was able to regain his family properties, the resulting inventory is the oldest surviving complete inventory of Palazzo Farnese. After Odoardos death, Pope Alexander VII allowed Queen Christina of Sweden to lodge in the palace for several months, other rooms have frescoes by Daniele da Volterra and by other artists. For generations, the room with Herculean frescoes accommodated the famous Greco-Roman antique sculpture known as the Farnese Hercules, other works from the family collection of classical sculpture were also housed in the palace. One of the vault and ceiling fresco by Annibale Carracci is Galleria Farnese and this large central scene depicts the triumphal progress of Bacchus and Ariadne. Two smaller paintings are attached to the top and bottom of the central picture, USA, the Chief Secretary’s Building in Sydney, Australia, and the Royal Palace, Stockholm. In England Charles Barrys great admiration for the building led him to use it as the model for Londons Reform Club, in Puccinis opera Tosca, set in Napoleonic Rome, the heroines confrontation with the malevolent Chief of Police, Scarpia, takes place in Palazzo Farnese. The Palazzo was inherited from the Farnese by the Bourbon kings of Naples, though the government of Benito Mussolini ransomed it in 1936, the French Embassy remains, under a 99-year lease for which they pay the Italian government a symbolic fee of 1 euro per month. The Palazzo Farnese houses the great scholarly library amassed by the Ecole Française de Rome, concentrating especially on the archeology of Italy, the first three volumes are, F. C. Uginet, Le palais farnèse à travers les documents financiers. Ecole Française de Rome I.1 and I.2, Étude des manuscrits latins et en langue vernaculaire
19.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
20.
Raphael
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Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running a large workshop and, despite his death at 37. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, the best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings and he was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region and his poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture, growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a humanistic education however, it is unclear how easily he read Latin. His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1,1494 by his father, Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven, his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master and he had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been a great help to his father. A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity and his fathers workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter, and Luca Signorelli, according to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice despite the tears of his mother. The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, an alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters, the Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a master, that is to say fully trained and his first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was named in the commission
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Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
22.
Louis XIV of France
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Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great or the Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any monarch of a country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIVs France was a leader in the centralization of power. Louis began his rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister. By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs, under his rule, the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to Huguenots, was abolished. The revocation effectively forced Huguenots to emigrate or convert in a wave of dragonnades, which managed to virtually destroy the French Protestant minority. During Louis reign, France was the leading European power, and it fought three wars, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg. There were also two lesser conflicts, the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions, warfare defined Louis XIVs foreign policies, and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique, in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military, Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was named Louis Dieudonné and bore the title of French heirs apparent. At the time of his birth, his parents had married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631, leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God. Sensing imminent death, Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order in the spring of 1643, in defiance of custom, which would have made Queen Anne the sole Regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his sons behalf. His lack of faith in Queen Annes political abilities was his primary rationale and he did, however, make the concession of appointing her head of the council. Louis relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for the time, contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis journal entries, such as, but attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood
23.
Milan
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Milan is a city in Italy, capital of the Lombardy region, and the most populous metropolitan area and the second most populous comune in Italy. The population of the city proper is 1,351,000, Milan has a population of about 8,500,000 people. It is the industrial and financial centre of Italy and one of global significance. In terms of GDP, it has the largest economy among European non-capital cities, Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and lies at the heart of one of the Four Motors for Europe. Milan is an Alpha leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research, and tourism. Its business district hosts Italys Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the largest national and international banks, the city is a major world fashion and design capital, well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students, Milans museums, theatres and landmarks attract over 9 million visitors annually. Milan – after Naples – is the second Italian city with the highest number of accredited stars from the Michelin Guide, the city hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. Milan is home to two of Europes major football teams, A. C. Milan and F. C. Internazionale, the etymology of Milan is uncertain. One theory holds that the Latin name Mediolanum comes from the Latin words medio, however, some scholars believe lanum comes from the Celtic root lan, meaning an enclosure or demarcated territory in which Celtic communities used to build shrines. Hence, Mediolanum could signify the central town or sanctuary of a Celtic tribe, indeed, the name Mediolanum is borne by about sixty Gallo-Roman sites in France, e. g. Saintes and Évreux. Alciato credits Ambrose for his account, around 400 BC, the Celtic Insubres settled Milan and the surrounding region. In 222 BC, the Romans conquered the settlement, renaming it Mediolanum, Milan was eventually declared the capital of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian in 286 AD. Diocletian chose to stay in the Eastern Roman Empire and his colleague Maximianus ruled the Western one, immediately Maximian built several monuments, such as a large circus 470 m ×85 m, the Thermae Herculeae, a large complex of imperial palaces and several other buildings. With the Edict of Milan of 313, Emperor Constantine I guaranteed freedom of religion for Christians, after the city was besieged by the Visigoths in 402, the imperial residence was moved to Ravenna. In 452, the Huns overran the city, in 539, the Ostrogoths conquered and destroyed Milan during the Gothic War against Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. In the summer of 569, a Teutonic tribe, the Lombards, conquered Milan, some Roman structures remained in use in Milan under Lombard rule. Milan surrendered to the Franks in 774 when Charlemagne took the title of King of the Lombards, the Iron Crown of Lombardy dates from this period
24.
Monza Cathedral
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The Duomo of Monza often known in English as Monza Cathedral is the main religious building of Monza, near Milan, in northern Italy. The church is known as the Basilica of San Giovanni Battista from its dedication to John the Baptist. Monza itself was known as Modoetia. In 595, she had a built on the Greek Cross plan. The queen was buried here, in what is now the left aisle of the church. On the remains of the oraculum, a new church was erected in the 13th century and it was again rebuilt as a basilica, starting from 1300, on a Latin Cross plan with an octagonal tiburium. In the late 14th century, the chapels were added and, as designed by Matteo da Campione. Starting from the 16th century, the choir and the ceiling were restored, subsequently, the walls and the vaults were decorated with frescoes and stucco-work. The bell tower was erected in 1606, in the 18th century a cemetery was annexed on the left side. The massive west front is divided into five parts by six lesene, the façade has several mullioned windows with, in the centre, a large rose window framed by a motif inspired by Roman antique ceilings, decorated with rosettes, masks and star motifs. The façade is considered Romanesque in its structure and Gothic in its decoration, typical of the latter is the porch, with 14th century gargoyles on the sides and the 13th century lunette with the 16th century busts of Theodelinda and King Agilulf. Over the porch is the statue of Saint John the Baptist, over the portal is depicted the Baptism of Jesus, assisted by Saint Peter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Zachary and Saint Paul. In the upper section is portrayed Theodelinda offering to John the Baptist the Iron Crown of Lombardy, together with her kneeling husband Agilulf and their children Adaloald, the church has a nave and two aisles, separated by octagonal columns with Romanesque capitals and round columns with Baroque capitals. It ends in large apses, and has a series of chapels opening into the aisles, the wall decoration is overwhelmingly Baroque. Other artworks include a choir by Matteo da Campione, the altar by Andrea Appiani. Only Bobbio has an equivalent collection of ampullae, the library holds a number of old and important illuminated manuscripts. Apart the Iron Crown, the most famous attraction of the church is the Chapel of Theodelinda, all the figures are portrayed with rich garments typical of the Visconti era. The vault is decorated with 14th century figures of saints and evangelists enthroned, on the outer arch are depicted Theodelinda with her court venerating Saint John the Baptist
25.
Abbey of Santa Giustina
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The Abbey of Santa Giustina is a Benedictine abbey in the center of the City of Padua, facing the Prato della Valle, which dates from the 10th century. The abbey is attached to the Basilica of Santa Giustina, which was built in the 6th century and its present shape derives from construction in the 17th century. The abbey is attached to the basilica which was built in the 520s by the Prefect Opilius to house the remains of St. Justina of Padua, the building, with its lavish decorations, was described in 565 in a Life of St. Martin written by Venantius Fortunatus. At that point the community undertook renovations of the basilica. In 1110 the abbey was sacked by the troops of the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry V during his invasion of Lombardy, the basilica complex was devastated in 1117 by a very strong earthquake which wreaked havoc throughout northern Italy and Germany. A period of decline in the observance of its way of life began to develop in the monastic community, the congregation later became called the Cassinese Congregation. The abbey developed ties with centers of learning across the continent and its artworks and the most valuable collections of the abbatial library were sent to Paris by the occupying forces. The monks were expelled and the buildings and property were sold off in 1810, the cloisters were then used as a military hospital, later as a barracks. The buildings were returned to the Catholic Church in 1917 and Pope Benedict XV re-established the abbey with all its ancient rights and he placed it under the Abbey of Praglia in nearby Teolo, which sent monks to resume monastic life there. On 1 November 1942 the community was declared an autonomous priory, the basilica and abbey now have the government status of a national monument and operate under the authority of the Superintendent of Monuments and Civil Heritage. The building is a Latin cross that extends from east to west, at 118.5 metres long and 82 metres wide, the Basilica of Santa Giustina is one of the largest of Christianity, it is seventh largest in Italy. The grandeur of the building is enhanced by the Prato della Valle, the presbytery with the choir, and the two chapels for saints Luke and Matthew that form the transepts. Each has an apse and are flanked by two chapels. Each aisle has six chapels, square plan. The 26 pillars supporting the roof domes, each dome is set directly on the barrel vaults, the floor of the basilica was laid between 1608 and 1615 on geometric design, with yellow, white and red marble. There are many pieces of Greek marble, from the Basilica Opilionea, capella di San Giacomo The first chapel is dedicated to Saint James the Less. The altar is in polychrome stones in the style of the Corbarelli family of the seventeenth century, the white marble altarpiece shows an oil on canvas by Carlo Caliari, the martyrdom of Saint James. Capella di San Gregorio Magno The second chapel is dedicated to Pope Gregory I, altar in polychrome mineral marquetry in the taste of the Corbarelli family of the twentieth century
26.
Padua
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Padua is a city and comune in Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic, the city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, which has a population of c. Padua stands on the Bacchiglione River,40 kilometres west of Venice and 29 km southeast of Vicenza, the Brenta River, which once ran through the city, still touches the northern districts. Its agricultural setting is the Venetian Plain, to the citys south west lies the Euganaean Hills, praised by Lucan and Martial, Petrarch, Ugo Foscolo, and Shelley. It hosts the University of Padua, founded in 1222, where Galileo Galilei was a lecturer, Padua is the setting for most of the action in Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew. There is a play by the Victorian writer Oscar Wilde, titled The Duchess Of Padua, the original significance of the Roman name Patavium is uncertain. It may be connected with the ancient name of the River Po, additionally, the root pat-, in the Indo-European language may refer to a wide open plain as opposed to nearby hills. The ending -ium, signifies the presence of villages that have united themselves together, Padua claims to be the oldest city in northern Italy. According to a tradition dated at least to the time of Virgils Aeneid and to Livys Ab Urbe Condita, Padua was founded in around 1183 BC by the Trojan prince Antenor. After the Fall of Troy, Antenor led a group of Trojans and their Paphlagonian allies, the Eneti or Veneti, thus, when a large ancient stone sarcophagus was exhumed in the year 1274, officials of medieval commune declared the remains within to be those of Antenor. Nevertheless, archeological remains confirm a date for the foundation of the center of the town to between the 11th and 10th centuries BC. The Roman historian Livy records an invasion of the Spartan king Cleonimos around 302 BC. The Spartans came up the river but were defeated by the Veneti in a naval battle, still later, the Veneti of Padua successfully defended themselves against the aggression of Etruscans and Gauls. According to Livy and Silius Italicus, the Veneti, including those of Padua, formed an alliance with the Romans by 226 BC, against their common enemy, men from Padua fought and died besides the Romans at Cannae. As the Romans advanced northward, Padua was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic, in 175 BC, Padua requested the aid of Rome in putting down a local civil war. In 91 BC, Padua, along with cities of the Veneti. Around 49 BC, Padua was made a Roman municipium under the Lex Julia Municipalis and its citizens ascribed to the Roman tribe, at that time the population of the city was perhaps 40,000. The city was reputed for its excellent breed of horses and the wool of its sheep, in fact, the poet Martial remarks on the thickness of the tunics made there
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Vincenzo Coronelli
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Vincenzo Coronelli was a Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice, Vincenzo Coronelli was born, probably in Venice, August 16,1650, the fifth child of a Venetian tailor named Maffio Coronelli. At ten, young Vincenzo was sent to the city of Ravenna and was apprenticed to a xylographer, in 1663 he was accepted into the Conventual Franciscans, becoming a novice in 1665. At age sixteen he published the first of his one hundred forty separate works and he excelled in the study of both astronomy and Euclid. A little before 1678, Coronelli began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter and so impressed the Duke that he made Coronelli his theologian. Coronellis renown as a theologian grew and in 1699 he was appointed Father General of the Franciscan order, Coronelli moved to the French capital in 1681, where he lived for two years. Each globe was composed of spindles of bent timber about ten feet long and this wood was then coated with a layer of plaster about an inch thick and covered in a layer of strong unfinished fabric. This was then wrapped in a layer of two very fine fabrics which provided backing for the painted information of the globes. These globes, measuring 384 cm in diameter and weighing approximately 2 tons, are displayed in the Bibliothèque nationale François Mitterrand in Paris, the globes depicted the latest information of French explorations in North America, particularly the expeditions of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Due to his renown he worked in various European countries in the following years, in Venice he started his own cosmographical project and published the volumes of Atlante Veneto. In his home city he founded the very first geographical society and he also held the position of Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice. Later six volumes of the Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profana were published by Coronelli and this was a kind of encyclopedia, its compiled entries were ordered alphabetically. Coronelli died at the age of 68 in Venice, having created hundreds of maps in his lifetime, original globes by Coronelli are today located in several collections. The request for Globes started as a private commission from a highdemanding class, mostly concentrated in the northern. The art of coated cards globes with terrestrial or celestial, handwritten and often finely decorated originated in Italy, Coronelli was among the initiators of this art. Indeed, the quality of made for Louis XIV created the request for other Coronellis globes. By this intent the two globes that we today in the Salone Furietti of Angelo Mai Library arrived in Bergamo. The history of the two globes is closely tied to events and policies that have affected the city of Bergamo in the last 500 years
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Santi Apostoli, Rome
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Today, the basilica is under the care of the Conventual Franciscans, whose headquarters in Rome is in the adjacent building. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus XII Apostolorum is Angelo Scola, among the previous Cardinal Priests are Pope Clement XIV, whose tomb by Canova is in the basilica, and Henry Benedict Stuart. Santi Apostoli was ruined by the earthquake of 1348, and left abandoned, in 1417, Pope Martin V, whose Colonna family owned the adjacent Palazzo Colonna, restored the church, while the facade was built at the end of the same century by Baccio Pontelli. It was frescoed by Melozzo da Forlì whose wall-paintings at Santi Apostoli were renowned for their techniques of foreshortening. Pope Clement XI instigated dramatic renovations of the church, Melozzos frescoes were either destroyed or moved partly to the Quirinal and partly to the Vatican Museums. A new Baroque interior was designed by Carlo Fontana and Francesco Fontana, the church was later restored again, with the facade completed by Giuseppe Valadier in 1827. XII Apostoli, a valuable source illustrating the history of the church, have collected and published by Vincenzo Forcella. This church has three naves, divided by a row of Corinthian pillars, supporting the ceiling, on the middle of which is painted in 1707 the Triumph of the Order of St Francis, there are also frescoes of the Evangelists by Luigi Fontana. The use of perspective is very good, and the angels appear to come out of the vault, above the sanctuary is a fresco from 1709 by Giovanni Odazzi, representing the Fall of Lucifer and his Angels. To the right of the altar are the tombs of Count Giraud de Caprières and Cardinal Raffaele Riario. To the left is a monument to Cardinal Riario, by the school of Andrea Bregno, there is also a Madonna by Mino da Fiesole. On the wall, to the right of the portico of the ancient church, is an antique bas-relief of a surrounded by an oak crown that it holds in its talons. Opposite is the monument of the engraver Giovanni Volpato executed and erected by his friend and it consists of a large bas-relief, representing Friendship in the form of a woman weeping before the bust of the deceased Volpato. On a pier of the nave on the side, near the first chapel, is enshrined the heart of Maria Klementyna Sobieska, wife of the Old Pretender. Her tomb is in St Peters Basilica and her monument is by Filippo della Valle. Her husband used to pray every morning. James III was laid in state here himself in 1766, before he was buried with his wife at St Peters, Melozzo da Forlì painted, on the ceiling of the great chapel, the Ascension of our Lord. This painting was executed for Cardinal Raffaele Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV about the year 1472, several heads of the apostles which surrounded it, and were likewise cut away, were deposited in the Vatican palace
29.
Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
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Joseph I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I from his third wife, Joseph was crowned King of Hungary at the age of nine in 1687, and King in Germany at the age of eleven in 1690. He succeeded to the throne and that of Bohemia when his father died. Joseph also had to contend with a revolt in Hungary. Neither conflict was resolved until after his death and his motto was Amore et Timore. Born in Vienna, he was educated strictly by Prince Dietrich Otto von Salm, although the first son and child born of his parents marriage, he was his fathers third son and seventh child. Previously, Leopold had been married to Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain, then, he married Claudia Felicitas of Austria, heiress of Tyrol, who gave him two short-lived daughters. In 1684, the six-year-old Archduke had his first portrait painted by Benjamin von Block, at the age of nine, on 9 December 1687, he was crowned King of Hungary, and at the age of eleven, on 23 January 1690, King of the Romans. Unlike many of his relatives, although a Roman Catholic, Joseph was not one for religion, the cause of this may be that he was spared a strict religious upbringing. He had two great enthusiasms, music and hunting, in 1702, at the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Joseph saw his only military service. He joined the Imperial General, Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, prior to his ascension, Joseph had surrounded himself with reform-hungry advisors and the ‘young court’ of Vienna was ambitious in the elaboration of innovative plans. He was described as a forward-looking ruler, the large number of privy councillors was reduced and attempts were made to make the bureaucracy more efficient. Measures were taken to modernize the central bodies and a success was achieved in stabilizing the chronic Habsburg finances. Joseph also endeavoured to strengthen his position in the Holy Roman Empire – as a means of strengthening Austria’s standing as a great power. When he sought to lay claim to rights in Italy and gain territories for the Habsburgs. In Hungary, Joseph had inherited the kuruc rebellion from his father Leopold I, once again, nobles in Transylvania had risen against Habsburg rule, even advancing for a time as far as Vienna. Although Joseph was compelled to take action, he refrained – unlike his predecessors – from seeking to teach his subjects a lesson by executing the leaders. Instead, he agreed to a peace, which in the long term facilitated the integration of Hungary into the Habsburg domains
30.
Augustus III of Poland
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The only legitimate son of Augustus II of Poland, he followed his father’s example by joining the Roman Catholic Church in 1712. In 1719 he married Maria Josepha, daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph I, chosen king by a small minority of electors on 5 October 1733, he drove his rival, the former Polish king Stanisław I, into exile. He was crowned in Kraków on 17 January 1734, and was recognised as king in Warsaw in June 1736. Augustus gave Saxon support to Austria against Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession and his last years were marked by the increasing influence of the Czartoryski and Poniatowski families, and by the intervention of Catherine the Great in Polish affairs. His rule deepened the anarchy in Poland and increased the dependence on its neighbours. The reign of Augustus witnessed one of the greatest periods of disorder in Polish history, Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Prince-Elector of Saxony and king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth who belonged to the Albertine line of the House of Wettin. His mother was Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, groomed to succeed his father as king of Poland, Augustus converted to Catholicism in 1712, when publicly announced, this caused discontent among the Protestant Saxon aristocracy. Upon the death of Augustus II in 1733, Augustus inherited the Saxon electorate and was elected to the Polish throne, with the support of the Russian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. He was opposed by the forces of Stanisław I Leszczyński, who had usurped the throne with Swedish support during the Great Northern War, reigning from 1706 until 1709, Stanisław was overthrown after the Swedish defeat at Poltava. As King, Augustus was uninterested in the affairs of his Polish–Lithuanian dominion, focusing instead on hunting, the opera, Augustus delegated most of his powers and responsibilities in the Commonwealth to Heinrich von Brühl, who served in effect as the viceroy of Poland. Augustuss eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian of Saxony, succeeded his father as Elector, a Russian-supported coup détat in Poland, instigated by the Czartoryskis, resulted in the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania on 7 September 1764. August was portrayed by Ernst Dernburg in the 1941 film Friedemann Bach, in Dresden on 20 August 1719, Augustus married Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, the Holy Roman Emperor. Bachs title of Koeniglicher Pohlnischer Hoff Compositeur is engraved on the page of Bachs famous Goldberg Variations. History of Saxony History of Poland Rulers of Saxony List of Lithuanian rulers Dresden Castle – Residence of Augustus III Bach, Johann Sebastian, Mass in B Minor, Cue points, Oregon Bach festival
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Saxony
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Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate. To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan region with Halle. The latter city is located just across the border to Saxony-Anhalt, Leipzig shares for instance an S-train system and an airport with Halle. Saxony has, after Saxony Anhalt, the most vibrant economy of the states of the former East Germany and its economy grew by 1. 9% in 2010. Nonetheless, unemployment remains above the German average, the eastern part of Germany, excluding Berlin, qualifies as an Objective 1 development-region within the European Union, and is eligible to receive investment subsidies of up to 30% until 2013. FutureSAX, a business competition and entrepreneurial support organisation, has been in operation since 2002. Microchip makers near Dresden have given the region the nickname Silicon Saxony, the publishing and porcelain industries of the region are well known, although their contributions to the regional economy are no longer significant. Today the automobile industry, machinery production and services contribute to the development of the region. Saxony is also one of the most renowned tourist destinations in Germany - especially the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, new tourist destinations are developing, notably in the lake district of Lausitz. Saxony reported an unemployment of 8. 8% in 2014. By comparison the average in the former GDR was 9. 8% and 6. 7% for Germany overall, the unemployment rate reached 8. 2% in May 2015. The Leipzig area, which recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many part suppliers, zwickau is another major Volkswagen location
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Bergamo
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Bergamo is a city in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan and 30 km from the lakes Como and Iseo. The foothills of the Bergamo Alps begin immediately north of the town, Bergamo is the seat of the Province of Bergamo. With a population of around 120,000, Bergamo is the fourth-largest city in Lombardy, the metropolitan area of Bergamo extends beyond the administrative city limits, spanning over a densely urbanized area with slightly less than 500,000 inhabitants. The Bergamo metropolitan area is part of the broader Milan metropolitan area. As of 2015, Bergamo is the second most visited city in Lombardy after Milan, Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement of the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, containing c.10,000 inhabitants at its peak, an important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century. From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento, after the conquest of the Lombard Kingdom by Charlemagne, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus. An important Lombardic hoard dating from the 6th to 7th centuries was found in the vicinity of the city in the 19th century and is now in the British Museum. From the 11th century onwards, Bergamo was an independent commune, the local Guelph and Ghibelline factions were the Colleoni and Suardi, respectively. Feuding between the two initially caused the family of Omodeo Tasso to flee north c, from 1264, Bergamo was intermittently under the rule of Milan. In 1331, it gave itself to John of Bohemia, after a short conquest by the Malatesta in 1407, in 1428 it fell under the control of the Venetian Republic, remaining part of it until 1797. Between 1797 and 1815, Bergamo and its territory were included in the political entities born in North Italy during the French, notably, the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town. In 1815, it was assigned to the Austrian Empire, giuseppe Garibaldi freed it in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence, when Bergamo became part of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 20th century Bergamo became one of Italys most industrialized cities and it is also one of the few Italian cities that did not suffer major destruction during World War II. Bergamo experiences a subtropical climate characteristic of Northern Italy. While most of Italy is characterized by dry summers with little to no precipitation, Bergamo has the reverse trend, the two parts of the town are connected by funicular/cable car, roads, and foot-paths. Parking spaces are limited in the upper city. The upper city, surrounded by Venetian walls built in the 16th century, Città Alta is an extremely expensive place to live in, with properties being sold for five to twelve thousand euro per square meter
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Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
34.
Palazzo Fenzi
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Palazzo Fenzi is a palace in Florence, Italy. Built in the 16th century for the Castelli family by Gherardo Silvani, in 1829 it was bought by Emanuele Fenzi in order to house his bank and his family. It is currently home to the History Department of the University of Florence, among many other Baroque architectural features such as ornate ceilings and marble sculptures, the Palazzo Fenzi has a wide variety of frescoes, some of which by the painter Sebastiano Ricci. These frescoes were executed during his stay in Florence from 1706 to 1707, during this period he first completed a large fresco series on allegorical and mythological themes in the Marucelli-Fenzi palace before going on throughout Italy and Europe. He was later to influence the Florentine Rococo fresco painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, cambridge Journals, Isabella Bigazzi and Zeffiro Ciuffoletti Palazzo Marucelli Fenzi Guida storico-artistica Fenzi Family Archive Trust Il Possesso di Rusciano
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University of Florence
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The University of Florence is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has about 60,000 students enrolled, the first university in Florence was the Studium Generale, which was established by the Florentine Republic in 1321. The Studium was recognized by Pope Clement VI in 1349, the Pope also established that the first Italian faculty of theology would be in Florence. The Studium became a university in 1364, but was moved to Pisa in 1473 when Lorenzo the Magnificent gained control of Florence. Charles VIII moved it back from 1497–1515, but it was moved to Pisa again when the Medici family returned to power, in 1923, the Istituto was officially denominated as University by the Italian Parliament. Faculties are located in strategic areas based on their subject matter. The Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Political Sciences are in the Polo delle Scienze Sociali, in the Novoli district, near the new courthouse. The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, the Faculty of Pharmacology, the Faculty of Engineering is located at the S. Marta Institute, whereas the Faculty of Agriculture is in front of the Parco delle Cascine. The Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences is located in Sesto Fiorentino, the Faculty of Architecture is in the center of the city, as the Accademia di Belle Arti, home of Michelangelos David. The Faculties of Literature, History, Philosophy, and Pedagogy are in the centre of Florence, leonardo da Vinci carried out studies on anatomy at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital in the center of town which is today a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Florence. Giovanni Sartori, political scientist, professor of Political Science, born in 1924 in Florence, giovanni Spadolini, historian and important Italian politician, professor of Contemporary History, born in 1925 in Florence. Mario Draghi, President of ECB, full professor of Monetary Economics and Monetary Policy in the faculty of Political Science from 1981 to 1991
36.
Illusionistic ceiling painting
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Italian terminology for this technique reflects the latter artists influence and is called prospettiva melozziana, or Melozzos perspective. Another notable use is by Antonio da Correggio in the Duomo of Parma, the technique often uses foreshortened figures and an architectural vanishing point to create the perception of true space on a painted, most-often frescoed, ceiling above the viewer. Quadratura, a term which was introduced in the century and is also normally used in English. Although it can refer to the opening up of walls through architectural illusion. Due to its reliance on perspective theory, it more fully unites architecture, painting and sculpture, the artist would paint a feigned architecture in perspective on a flat or barrel-vaulted ceiling in such a way that it seems to continue the existing architecture. The perspective of this illusion is centered towards one focal point, the steep foreshortening of the figures, the painted walls and pillars, creates an illusion of deep recession, heavenly sphere or even an open sky. Paintings on ceilings could, for example, simulate statues in niches or openings revealing the sky, Quadratura may also employ other illusionistic painting techniques, such as anamorphosis. Examples of illusionistic painting include, Andrea Pozzo at San Ignazio in Rome and he wrote the standard theoretical work of his artistic ideas in the two volumes of, Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum Andreae Putei a societate Jesu. Pietro da Cortona at the Palazzo Barberini, Gianbattista Tiepolo in the Ca Rezzonico in Venice, Villa Pisani at Stra, other examples were by Paolo Veronese at Villa Rotonda in Vicenza and Baldassare Peruzzi in the Villa Farnesina of Rome. His masterpiece was a series of frescoes that culminated in 1474 in the Camera degli Sposi of the Ducal Palace, in these works, he carried the art of illusionistic perspective to new limits. This was the prototype of illusionistic ceiling painting that was to become an important element of Italian baroque, in a visual continuity between the architectural interior and its painted surfaces, Corregios clouds and figures appear to inhabit the same architectural space in which the spectator stands. Lanfrancos work in Rome and in Naples was fundamental to the development of illusionism in Italy, Pietro Berrettini, called Pietro da Cortona, developed the illusionistic ceiling fresco to an extraordinary degree in works such as the ceiling of the gran salone of Palazzo Barberini. From 1676 to 1679 Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccio, painted an Adoration of the Name of Jesus on the ceiling of the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome. From 1691 to 1694 Andrea Pozzo painted the Entrance of Saint Ignatius into Paradise on the vault of SantIgnazio, Rome, with theatricality. The Loves of the Gods Johann Paul Schor Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power Paul Troger, sjöström, Quadratura, studies in Italian ceiling painting, Stockholm,1978. Quadratura, Geschichte, Theorie, Technik, ed. Pascal Dubourg Glatigny and Matthias Bleyl, trevor Hunt, From Mantegna to Michelangelo, illusionistic ceiling paintings of the Renaissance pave the way for Baroque excess RomeArtLover, Baroque ceilings
37.
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I. Ferdinando was the son of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo, the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo. He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 14 but was never ordained into the priesthood, at Rome, he proved an able administrator. He founded the Villa Medici in Rome and acquired works of art. When his brother Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died in 1587, in many ways, Ferdinando was the opposite of his brother who preceded him. Approachable and generous, he set out to rule mildly and he re-established the justice system and was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his subjects. During his reign, Tuscany revived and regained the independence his brother had given up, Ferdinando fostered commerce and gained great wealth through the Medici banks, which were established in all the major cities of Europe. He enacted an edict of tolerance for Jews and heretics, and he established the Medici Oriental Press, which published numerous books in the Arabic script. He improved the harbor Cosimo I had built and diverted part of the flow of the Arno River into a canal called the Naviglio, which aided commerce between Florence and Pisa. He fostered an irrigation project in the Val di Chiana, which allowed the flatlands around Pisa and Fucecchio, for the first two years of his reign, he retained his position as Cardinal. In 1589 he married Christina of Lorraine, the couple had a large reception at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Christinas dowry was considerably large, it included 600,000 crowns in cash as well as jewellery with a value of 50,000 crowns. Also, the rights of the duchy of Urbino were transferred to Christina after the death of Queen Catherine and his foreign policy attempted to free Tuscany from Spanish domination. After the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589, he supported Henry IV of France in his struggles against the Catholic League, Ferdinando lent Henry money and encouraged him to convert to Catholicism, which he eventually did. Ferdinando also used his influence with the Pope to get him to accept Henrys conversion, Henry showed no appreciation for these favors, and Ferdinando let the relationship cool, maintaining his cherished independence. He supported Philip III of Spain in his campaign in Algeria and Rudolf II, for these undertakings, he found it necessary to raise taxes on his subjects. He finally obtained the investiture of Siena, which his father had conquered. Ferdinando also strengthened the Tuscan fleet, and it saw victories against pirates on the Barbary coast in 1607 and he also dreamed of a small African empire, and then considered the possibility of a colony in Brasil
38.
Pitti Palace
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The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the side of the River Arno. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the residence of Luca Pitti. The palace was bought by the Medici family in 1549 and became the residence of the ruling families of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. It grew as a treasure house as later generations amassed paintings, plates, jewelry. In the late 18th century, the palazzo was used as a base by Napoleon. The palace and its contents were donated to the Italian people by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1919, the palazzo is now the largest museum complex in Florence. The principal palazzo block, often in a building of design known as the corps de logis, is 32,000 square metres. It is divided into several principal galleries or museums detailed below, the construction of this severe and forbidding building was commissioned in 1458 by the Florentine banker Luca Pitti, a principal supporter and friend of Cosimo de Medici. The early history of the Palazzo Pitti is a mixture of fact, Pitti is alleged to have instructed that the windows be larger than the entrance of the Palazzo Medici. Besides obvious differences from the architects style, Brunelleschi died 12 years before construction of the palazzo began. The design and fenestration suggest that the architect was more experienced in utilitarian domestic architecture than in the humanist rules defined by Alberti in his book De Re Aedificatoria. Though impressive, the original palazzo would have no rival to the Florentine Medici residences in terms of either size or content. Whoever the architect of the Palazzo Pitti was, he was moving against the flow of fashion. The rusticated stonework gives the palazzo a severe and powerful atmosphere, reinforced by the series of seven arch-headed apertures. The Roman-style architecture appealed to the Florentine love of the new style allantica, work stopped after Pitti suffered financial losses following the death of Cosimo de Medici in 1464. Luca Pitti died in 1472 with the building unfinished, the building was sold in 1549 by Buonaccorso Pitti, a descendant of Luca Pitti, to Eleonora di Toledo. Raised at the court of Naples, Eleonora was the wife of Cosimo I de Medici of Tuscany
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Rococo
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Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XVs reign and it includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word is seen as a combination of the French rocaille and coquilles, the term may also be a combination of the Italian word barocco and the French rocaille and may describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. The Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts led some critics to say that the style was frivolous or merely modish, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning old-fashioned. While there is some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, an exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIVs succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves. These elements are obvious in the designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this change became well established, first in the royal palace. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XVs reign. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France, the style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications, william Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty that the lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace. The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality, Blondel decried the ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order, in Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil
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Giovanni Domenico Ferretti
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Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, also called Giandomenico dImola was an Italian Rococo style painter from Florence. According to the contemporary Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani, Ferretti was a pupil of the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi, others say he worked with painter Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole. He returned to Florence with a letter of recommendation of Cardinal Gozzadini seeking patronage from Cosimo III de Medici and he found work in the studio of Tommaso Redi and Sebastiano Galeotti. He travelled to Bologna to work under Felice Torelli and then resettled in Florence in 1715, Ferretti soon joined the Florentine Accademia del Disegno, where he later taught painting but also designed tapestries for the Medici. He found abundant patronage in fresco painting for the Florentine Abbey, the Chapel of San Giuseppe in the Duomo, one of his most important works was the decoration of the ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, since lost in a fire. Ferrettis fresco style was influenced by Sebastiano Riccis lively, colourful, Ferretti himself decorated the Palazzo Amati Cellesi in Pistoia, the Palazzo Sansedoni in Siena, and the Villa Flori in Pescia. The frescoes for the cupola of the cathedral of San Zeno in Pistoia are attributed to him, ralph Nicholson Wornum, ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. London, Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, web Gallery of Art Biography Getty Museum Biography
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San Giorgio Maggiore
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San Giorgio Maggiore is one of the islands of Venice, northern Italy, lying east of the Giudecca and south of the main island group. The isle is surrounded by Canale della Grazia, Canale della Giudecca, Saint Mark Basin, Canale di San Marco and it forms part of the San Marco sestiere. San Giorgio Maggiore was probably occupied in the Roman period, after the foundation of Venice it was called Insula Memmia after the Memmo family who owned it. By 829 it had a church consecrated to St George, thus it was designated as San Giorgio Maggiore to be distinguished from San Giorgio in Alga. The San Giorgio Monastery was established in 982, when the Benedictine monk, Giovanni Morosini, Morosini drained the islands marshes next to the church to get the ground for building, and founded the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, and became its first abbot. San Giorgio is now best known for the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, designed by Palladio, the belltower has a ring of 9 bells in C#. In the early 19th century, after the Republic fell, the monastery was almost suppressed and it became the home of Venices artillery. San Giorgio Maggiore is now the headquarters of the Cini Foundation arts centre, in addition, it features two harbours managed by the Compagnia della Vela, Darsena Crose, facing north and Darsena Verde, facing south. San Giorgio Monastery Church of San Giorgio Maggiore San Giorgio Maggiore at dusk Guida d’Italia del Touring Club Italiano, Venice, ISBN 978-88-365-4347-2 S. Vianello, ed
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Marco Ricci
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Marco Ricci was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was born at Belluno and received his first instruction in art from his uncle, Sebastiano Ricci and he left for Venice with his uncle in 1696, but had to flee the city after killing a gondolier. He visited Rome, where he was for some time occupied in painting perspective views, in 1706–7, he worked with his uncle on the decoration of the Sala dErcole in the Palazzo Fenzi, located in Florence. In England, he collaborated with the artist Pellegrini in the staging of Italian works at the Queens Theatre in Haymarket. With Pellegrini, he executed six large canvases for Burlington House. Ricci returned to Venice in 1711, but came back to England with his uncle Sebastiano the following year, during his time in England, Marco Ricci also painted several landscapes, capriccios, and the wry painting Opera Rehearsal for Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle. His production as a landscapist can be divided into four categories, alpine views or pastorals, violent country storms, ruins, while the medium of many of his works was oil on canvas, about half of his output, smaller in dimension, was tempera applied to goatskin. Marco Ricci returned to Venice in 1716, living with his uncle there until his death, riccis output in the 1720s was prodigious, and his production encompassed landscapes, capriccios, gouaches on vellum, drawings of stage designs and caricatures. He collaborated with Sebastiano on monumental figurative paintings, important patrons of Ricci in Venice were Consul Smith and Zanetti the Elder. Marco Ricci can be regarded as the initiator of a new Venetian landscape style and he died in Venice in 1730. Among his pupils were Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani, in, The glory of Venice, Art in the Eighteenth Century. Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robinson, eds, yale University Press, New Haven and London. A biographical and critical dictionary of painters and engravers, with a list of ciphers, monograms, in, The glory of Venice, Art in the Eighteenth Century. Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robinson, eds, yale University Press, New Haven and London. An Introduction to 18th-Century Venetian Art, in, The glory of Venice, Art in the Eighteenth Century. Martineau, Jane, and Andrew Robinson, eds, yale University Press, New Haven and London. Visions of Venice, Paintings of the 18th Century, tauris Parke Books, London and New York. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750, The Late Baroque, a biographical and critical dictionary of painters and engravers, with a list of ciphers, monograms, and marks
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Detroit Institute of Arts
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The Detroit Institute of Arts, located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers 658,000 square feet with a renovation and expansion project completed in 2007 that added 58,000 square feet. The DIA collection is regarded as among the top six museums in the United States with a collection which spans the globe from ancient Egyptian and European works to contemporary art. Its art collection is valued in billions of dollars, up to $8.1 billion according to a 2014 appraisal. The DIA campus is located in Midtown Detroits Cultural Center Historic District, the museum building is highly regarded by architects. The original building, designed by Paul Philippe Cret, is flanked by north and south wings with the marble as the main exterior material for the entire structure. The campus is part of the citys Cultural Center Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the museums first painting was donated in 1883 and its collection consists of over 65,000 works. With about 677,500 visitors annually for 2015, the DIA is among the most visited art museums in the world, the museum contains 100 galleries of art from around the world. Diego Riveras Detroit Industry cycle of frescoes span the upper and lower levels to surround the central grand marble court of the museum, the armor collection of William Randolph Hearst lines the main hall entry way to the grand court. The collection of American art at the DIA is one of the most impressive, works by American artists began to be collected immediately following the museums founding in 1883. Williams, Anne Wilson, Andrew Wyeth, and James McNeill Whistler, the museum includes works by Vincent van Gogh including a self-portrait. The self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh and The Window by Henri Matisse were purchased in 1922 and were the first paintings by two artists to enter an American public collection. Non-German artists in the Expressionist movement include Oskar Kokoschka, Wassily Kandinsky, Chaim Soutine, the Nut Gatherers by William-Adolphe Bouguereau is, by some accounts, the most popular painting in the collection. In December 2010, the museum debuted a new permanent gallery with collections of hand, shadow. The museum plans to feature puppet related events and rotation of exhibits drawn from its puppet collections, artists’ Take on Detroit, Projects for the Tricentennial This exhibit celebrates Detroit’s 300th year anniversary by creating 10 projects that represent the city. The installations created by 15 artists include video and still photography, text and sound, Degas and the Dance This exhibit includes more than 100 pieces of work created by Edgar Degas. These pieces include model stage sets, costume designs, and photographs of the dancers from the 19th-century Parisian ballet. This exhibit includes work from Joshua Johnson, Robert Scott Duncanson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Augusta Savage, Benny Andrews, Betye Saar, Richard Hunt, Sam Gilliam, and Lorna Simpson
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Earl of Burlington
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Lord Burlington most frequently refers to the architect and patron Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England, the first creation was for Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork, on 20 March 1664. He had previously been created Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, in the County of York, on 4 November 1644, lord Burlington was the husband of Elizabeth Clifford, 2nd Baroness Clifford. Their eldest son Charles Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan, succeeded his mother as third Baron Clifford in 1691, lord Burlington was therefore succeeded by his grandson, the third Earl of Cork and second Earl of Burlington. He had already succeeded his father as fourth Baron Clifford in 1694 and his only son, The 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, was the famous architect and patron. He had two daughters but no sons and on his death in 1753 the barony of Clifford of Lanesborough and he was succeeded in the earldom of Cork by his third cousin, the fifth Earl of Orrery. Lord Burlington was succeeded in his Burlington estates and in the barony of Clifford by his daughter Charlotte and she was the wife of The 4th Duke of Devonshire. In 1858 his grandson, the second Earl, succeeded his first cousin once removed as seventh Duke of Devonshire, for more information on this creation of the earldom, see the latter title. New York, St Martins Press,1990, Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages Lundy, Darryl
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Bulstrode Park
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Bulstrode is a large park and mansion to the southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Gerrards Cross in the English Home Counties. The estate predates the Norman conquest and the name may originate from the Anglo-Saxon words burh, the previous house was built in 1686 for the infamous Judge Jeffreys. It was sold to Hans William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, in the 1740s, the architect and builder Stiff Leadbetter altered the house significantly for the 2nd Duke of Portland. Between 1806-1809, there were further re-modellings and additions, including the castellated West Wing, Bulstrode was used by Margaret Bentinck, the wife of the 2nd Duke to house her natural history and antiquities collection, with the south-west side of the park used for live specimens. The grounds today are grade 1 listed and their son, the 3rd Duke was a collector of marble and glass, and was influential in loaning the Roman Portland Vase to Josiah Wedgwood. When the 4th Duke of Portland inherited the title in 1809, the title then passed into the hands of the Dukes of Somerset. Bulstrode Street in Londons Marylebone district was named after Bulstrode Park, the 12th Duke of Somerset, Edward Adolphus Seymour commissioned the present mansion, completed in 1865. After his death, it passed to his daughter, Lady Helen Guendolen Ramsden and then to her son, Sir John Frecheville Ramsden, in 1932, the estate was sold. Outlying buildings were sold, but the house was unoccupied until World War II, after the War, Sir John used part of the property for chemical research into sisal by-products, but the property fell into disrepair. After his death in 1958, the park was sold to a farmer, and the mansion and woodland were bought by the Bruderhof community, the history of the house and a Guide to the gardens are available in a booklet called Bulstrode, the home of WEC International. The house and grounds have now been sold STC through Savills, Bulstrode Park entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses
Media related to Sebastiano Ricci at Wikimedia Commons
