Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area. Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the established Kingdom of Italy; the Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini. The city attracts millions of tourists each year, the Historic Centre of Florence was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982; the city is noted for Renaissance art and architecture and monuments.
The city contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, still exerts an influence in the fields of art and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Florence is an important city in Italian fashion, being ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world. In 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, after a long period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune, it was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe and the world from the 14th to 16th centuries; the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, still is, accepted as the Italian language. All the writers and poets in Italian literature of the golden age are in some way connected with Florence, leading to the adoption of the Florentine dialect, above all the local dialects, as a literary language of choice.
Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of industry all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon and Hungary. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War, they 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 history's 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 and Clement VII. Catherine de Medici married King Henry II of France and, after his death in, 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 formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole, destroyed by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 80 BC in reprisal for supporting the populares faction in Rome. The present city of Florence was established by Julius Caesar in 59 BC as a settlement for his veteran soldiers and was named Fluentia, owing to the fact that it was built between two rivers, changed to Florentia, 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 main route between Rome and the north, within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement became an important commercial centre. In centuries to come, the city experienced turbulent periods of Ostrogothic rule, during which the city was troubled by warfare between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines, which may have caused the population to fall to as few as 1,000 people. 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 grow again and commerce prospered. In 854, Florence and Fiesole were united in one county. Margrave Hugo chose Florence as his residency instead of Lucca at about 1000 AD; the Golden Age of Florentine art began around this time. In 1013, construction began on the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte; the exterior of the church was reworked in Romanesque style between 1059 and 1128. In 1100, Florence was a "Commune"; the city's primary resource was the Arno river, providing power and access for the industry, access to the Mediterranean sea for international trade. Another great source of strength was its industrious merchant community; the Florentine merchant banking skills became recognised in Europe after they brought decisive financial innovation to medieval fairs. This period saw the eclipse of Florence's powerful rival Pisa, the exercise of power by the mercantile elite following an anti-aristocratic movement, led by Giano della Bella, that resulted in a set of laws called the Ordinances of Justice.
Of a population estimated at 94,00
Double Rainbow (viral video)
Double Rainbow is a viral video filmed by Paul "Bear" Vasquez. The clip, filmed in his front yard just outside Yosemite National Park, in the U. S. state of California, shows his ecstatic reaction to a double rainbow which he described as the "Eye of God". As of April 2018, the 53-year-old farmer's video has accumulated more than 45 million views on YouTube. Vasquez is a native of East Los Angeles. After two years, he re-settled in Yosemite in 1985 buying an eight-acre plot, marrying with two kids before divorcing, becoming a truck driver and participating in a single mixed martial arts bout. Vasquez lived on a mobile farm outside Mariposa, California 10 miles from Yosemite, where he operated a farm and uploaded occasional videos of his life. Paul Vasquez posted the video to YouTube himself as user Hungrybear9562 on January 8, 2010. On July 3, comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel linked to the video in a post on Twitter, saying that he and a friend had declared it the "funniest video in the world."
The video gained over one million views. A July 16 feature on the video by CNN.com stated. The video gained Vasquez a feature on the comedy show Tosh.0. ABC News describes the video as "a three-and-a-half-minute emotional journey," with Vasquez confirming his sobriety during recording. On July 26, 2010, Bear was interviewed by Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live! On the December 16th episode he was awarded Video of the Year and appeared in a video short created by the show for the event. On July 5, 2010, the Gregory Brothers auto-tuned the video under the name "Double Rainbow Song", their video has since gotten over 39 million views and has become a viral video in itself surpassing the original in number of views. The song has been covered by Amanda Palmer, Jimmy Fallon and The Axis of Awesome during a live recording of a charity show in the UK. In 2011, Paul appeared in a commercial for Vodafone New Zealand; the video appears as the first scene of the 2013 movie We're the Millers. Two years earlier, Bear had appeared in Jennifer Aniston's ad for smartwater.
On May 9, 2016, Bear appeared on the Slooh live broadcast of the Transit of Mercury. Part of Slooh's goal was to capture a diverse history of Mercury, how it has been interpreted throughout the years, the meanings people have attributed to it. With an enormous smile, he discussed his excitement for the rare event. Like the day he saw the Double Rainbow, Bear felt that the Mercury Transit had significant life meaning for him. In this way, Bear was able to provide a sense of wonder and joy that shows the deep connection people feel for the cosmos; this video was featured in 2016 YouTube's April Fool prank and it can be watched with Snoop Dogg in 360 "SnoopaVision". The original video, titled "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10" on YouTube
Santa Croce, Florence
The Basilica di Santa Croce is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo; the site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, thus it is known as the Temple of the Italian Glories; the Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world. Its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils, its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says; the construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio, paid for by some of the city's wealthiest families. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV; the building's design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans. The floorplan is an Egyptian or Tau cross, 115 metres in length with a nave and two aisles separated by lines of octagonal columns.
To the south of the church was a convent, some of whose buildings remain. The Primo Chiostro, the main cloister, houses the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the chapter house, completed in the 1470s. Filippo Brunelleschi was involved in its design which has remained rigorously unadorned. In 1560, the choir screen was removed as part of changes arising from the Counter-Reformation and the interior rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari; as a result, there was damage to the church's decoration and most of the altars located on the screen were lost. The bell tower was built in 1842; the neo-Gothic marble façade dates from 1857-1863. The Jewish architect Niccolo Matas from Ancona, designed the church's façade, working a prominent Star of David into the composition. Matas had wanted to be buried with his peers but because he was Jewish, he was buried under the threshold and honored with an inscription. In 1866, the complex became public property, as a part of government suppression of most religious houses, following the wars that gained Italian independence and unity.
The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce is housed in the refectory off the cloister. A monument to Florence Nightingale stands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi built the inner cloister, completed in 1453. In 1966, the Arno River flooded much of Florence, including Santa Croce; the water entered the church bringing mud and heating oil. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe. Today the former dormitory of the Franciscan friars houses the Scuola del Cuoio. Visitors can watch as artisans craft purses and other leather goods which are sold in the adjacent shop; the basilica has been undergoing a multi-year restoration program with assistance from Italy’s civil protection agency. On 20 October 2017, the property was closed to visitors due to falling masonry which caused the death of a tourist from Spain; the basilica will be closed indefinitely during a survey of the stability of the church. The Italian Ministry of Culture said that "there will be an investigation by magistrates to understand how this dramatic fact happened and whether there are responsibilities over maintenance."
As of spring, 2019, the church is open. Artists whose work is present in the church include: Benedetto da Maiano Antonio Canova Cimabue Andrea della Robbia Luca della Robbia Desiderio da Settignano Donatello Agnolo Gaddi Taddeo Gaddi Giotto Giovanni da Milano with Scenes of the Life of the Virgin and the Magdalen Maso di Banco depicting Scenes from the life of St. Sylvester. Henry Moore Andrea Orcagna Antonio Rossellino Bernardo Rossellino Santi di Tito Giorgio Vasari with sculpture by Valerio Cioli, Iovanni Bandini, Battista Lorenzi. Way to Calvary painted by Vasari. Domenico Veneziano Once present in the church's Medici Chapel, but now split between the Florentine Galleries and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan, is a polyptych by Lorenzo di Niccolò; the Basilica became popular with Florentines as a place of worship and patronage and it became customary for honoured Florentines to be buried or commemorated there. Some were in chapels "owned" by wealthy families such as the Bardi and Per
The Stendhal Syndrome
The Stendhal Syndrome is a 1996 Italian horror film written and directed by Dario Argento and starring his daughter Asia Argento. It was the first Italian film to use computer-generated imagery. Stendhal syndrome is considered a real syndrome by some, first diagnosed in Florence, Italy in 1982. Argento said. While touring Athens with his parents young Dario was climbing the steps of the Parthenon when he was overcome by a trance that caused him to become lost from his parents for hours; the experience was so strong. It was a box office hit when released in Italy, grossing ₤5,443,000,000 Italian lira. Detective Anna Manni travels to Florence on the trail of Alfredo Grossi. While visiting a museum, Anna is overcome by Stendhal syndrome, a condition which causes the sufferer to become overwhelmed when viewing great works of art; when Alfredo learns of Anna's disorder, he uses it to disable her before he kidnaps her and subjects her to a brutal and sadistic sexual attack. Although she manages to escape, Anna is left traumatized.
Alfredo is able to capture her again. This time, Anna turns the tables on her abductor, breaking free of his grasp, badly wounding him in the process, knocking him into a river. While the police, believing Alfredo to be dead, search the river for his body, Anna meets and soon falls in love with Marie, a young French art student. Anna takes sessions with a psychologist in an effort to come to terms with her own deep-seated emotional trauma; that trauma is intensified. When Marie is found murdered, Anna's psychologist, concerned about her mental state, visits her at home. While he is there, a colleague of Anna's, calls to notify her that Alfredo's body has in fact been found; this leads to the psychologist realizing the truth, he confronts Anna with the reality that she herself is Marie's murderer. Marco arrives at Anna's apartment, only to find; as he attempts to take Anna's gun from her, she confesses that Alfredo is now inside her, ordering her to do terrible things, whereupon she murders Marco.
The police arrive on the scene and arrest her after she wanders the streets. Asia Argento as Det. Anna Manni Thomas Kretschmann as Alfredo Grossi Marco Leonardi as Marco Longhi Luigi Diberti as Insp. Manetti Paolo Bonacelli as Dr. Cavanna Julien Lambroschini as Marie Beyle John Quentin as Mr. Manni Franco Diogene as Victim's husband Lucia Stara as the Shop assistant Sonia Topazio as Victim in Florence Lorenzo Crespi as Giulio Vera Gemma as the Policewoman John Pedeferri as Hydraulic engineer Veronica Lazar as Mrs. Beyle Mario Diano as the Coroner Cinzia Monreale as Mrs. Grossi Eleonora Vizzini as Anna Manni Bridget Fonda was set to star in the role of Anna, but dropped out before the start of production, Jennifer Jason Leigh was considered as a possible replacement before Dario Argento cast his own daughter, Asia, in the role. Thomas Kretschmann was cast as Alfredo Grossi because he had worked with Asia on the film La Reine Margot and she recommended him to her father; the opening scene was shot in Florence at Italy's famed Uffizi Gallery.
Dario Argento is the only director granted permission to shoot there. The work that Anna steps into is a painting by Rembrandt, depicting 17th century policemen and titled The Night Watch; the painting that causes Anna to faint in the museum is Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Bruegel. The footage of Anna underwater after she faints in the gallery was shot in the sea; the huge grouper fish that Anna kisses was a remote model, being pulled through the water by cables attached to a small float on the ocean's surface. Mere moments after wrapping the underwater shoot, the fish stopped working; this would be the last fiction feature film for acclaimed director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno. The following year he shot a documentary on Marcello Mastroianni before retiring. Graffiti artists were brought in to cover the walls of Alfredo's underground lair with graffiti. In one night the group created over one hundred square feet of graffiti-covered walls at the location; this is the second of five films in which Argento has directed his daughter, the four others being: Trauma, The Phantom of the Opera, The Mother of Tears and Dracula 3D.
She had roles in Demons 2 and The Church, both of which her father produced. Argento planned on making a sequel to The Stendhal Syndrome which would follow detective Anna Manni on another case. However, Asia was unavailable so Stefania Rocca was cast; the resulting film is 2004's The Card Player. The film carries a 75%'Fresh' rating from Rotten Tomatoes indicating positive reviews, was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Home Video Release. Response from critics was mixed, with AllMovie's Jason Buchanan calling the film "a sadistic and disturbing psychological exploration", but one, "ultimately a victim of its own excess and the director's tendency to overcomplicate a simple storyline." Buchanan praised the film's "stunningly visual opening sequence" and Ennio Morricone's "hauntingly hypnotic score" but criticized how "the meandering plot grinds to a halt just as it should shine."Variety's David Rooney gave the film a mixed review, praising the film's "exhilarating" opening sequence and Giuseppe Rotunno's "cool and elegant" ci
David (Michelangelo)
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo. David is a 5.17-metre marble statue of the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence. David was commissioned as one of a series of statues of prophets to be positioned along the roofline of the east end of Florence Cathedral, but was instead placed in a public square, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, in the Piazza della Signoria where it was unveiled on 8 September 1504; the statue was moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, in 1873, replaced at the original location by a replica. Because of the nature of the hero it represented, the statue soon came to symbolize the defence of civil liberties embodied in the Republic of Florence, an independent city-state threatened on all sides by more powerful rival states and by the hegemony of the Medici family; the eyes of David, with a warning glare, were turned towards Rome.
The history of the statue begins before Michelangelo's work on it from 1501 to 1504. Prior to Michelangelo's involvement, the Overseers of the Office of Works of Florence Cathedral, consisting of members of the influential woolen cloth guild, the Arte della Lana, had plans to commission a series of twelve large Old Testament sculptures for the buttresses of the cathedral. In 1410 Donatello made the first of a figure of Joshua in terracotta. A figure of Hercules in terracotta, was commissioned from the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and was made under Donatello's direction. Eager to continue their project, in 1464, the Operai contracted Agostino to create a sculpture of David. A block of marble was provided from a quarry in Carrara, a town in the Apuan Alps in northern Tuscany. Agostino only got as far as beginning to shape the legs and the torso, roughing out some drapery and gouging a hole between the legs, his association with the project ceased, for reasons unknown, with the death of Donatello in 1466, ten years Antonio Rossellino was commissioned to take up where Agostino had left off.
Rossellino's contract was terminated soon thereafter, the block of marble remained neglected for 26 years, all the while exposed to the elements in the yard of the cathedral workshop. This was of great concern to the Opera authorities, as such a large piece of marble not only was costly but represented a large amount of labour and difficulty in its transportation to Florence. In 1500, an inventory of the cathedral workshops described the piece as "a certain figure of marble called David, badly blocked out and supine." A year documents showed that the Operai were determined to find an artist who could take this large piece of marble and turn it into a finished work of art. They ordered the block of stone, which they called The Giant, "raised on its feet" so that a master experienced in this kind of work might examine it and express an opinion. Though Leonardo da Vinci and others were consulted, it was Michelangelo, only 26 years old, who convinced the Operai that he deserved the commission. On 16 August 1501, Michelangelo was given the official contract to undertake this challenging new task.
He began carving the statue early in the morning on 13 September, a month after he was awarded the contract. He would work on the massive statue for more than two years. On 25 January 1504, when the sculpture was nearing completion, Florentine authorities had to acknowledge there would be little possibility of raising the more than six-ton statue to the roof of the cathedral, they convened a committee of 30 Florentine citizens that comprised many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli, to decide on an appropriate site for David. While nine different locations for the statue were discussed, the majority of members seem to have been split between two sites. One group, led by Giuliano da Sangallo and supported by Leonardo and Piero di Cosimo, among others, believed that, due to the imperfections in the marble, the sculpture should be placed under the roof of the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria. Another opinion, supported by Botticelli, was that the sculpture should be situated on or near the cathedral.
In June 1504, David was installed next to the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, replacing Donatello's bronze sculpture of Judith and Holofernes, which embodied a comparable theme of heroic resistance. It took four days to move the statue the half mile from Michelangelo's workshop into the Piazza della Signoria; that summer the sling and tree-stump support were gilded, the figure was given a gilded loin-garland. In 1873, the statue of David was removed from the piazza, to protect it from damage, displayed in the Accademia Gallery, where it attracted many visitors. A replica was placed in the Piazza della Signoria in 1910. In 1991 Piero Cannata, an artist who the police described as deranged, attacked the statue with a hammer he had concealed beneath his jacket, he said that a 16th century Venetian painter's model ordered him to do so. Cannata was restrained. On 12 November 2010, a fiberglass replica of the David was installed on the roofline of Florence Cathedral, for one day only. Photographs of the installation reveal the statue the way the Operai who commissioned the work expected it to be seen.
In 2010, a dispute over the ownership of David arose when, based on a legal review of historical documents, the municipality of Florence claimed ownership of the statue in opposition to the Italian Culture Ministry, which disputes the munic
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works from the period of the Italian Renaissance. After the ruling house of Medici died out, their art collections were gifted to the city of Florence under the famous Patto di famiglia negotiated by Anna Maria Luisa, the last Medici heiress; the Uffizi is one of the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, in 1765 it was opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865. Today, the Uffizi is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Florence and one of the most visited art museums in the world; the building of Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine magistrates, hence the name uffizi, "offices".
The construction was continued by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti. The top floor was made into a gallery for the family and their guests and included their collection of Roman sculptures; the cortile is so long and open to the Arno at its far end through a Doric screen that articulates the space without blocking it, that architectural historians treat it as the first regularized streetscape of Europe. Vasari, a painter and architect as well, emphasised its perspective length by adorning it with the matching facades' continuous roof cornices, unbroken cornices between storeys, as well as the three continuous steps on which the palace-fronts stand; the niches in the piers that alternate with columns of the Loggiato filled with sculptures of famous artists in the 19th century. The Uffizi brought together under one roof the administrative offices and the Archivio di Stato, the state archive; the project was intended to display prime art works of the Medici collections on the piano nobile.
He commissioned the architect Buontalenti to design the Tribuna degli Uffizi that would display a series of masterpieces in one room, including jewels. The octagonal room was completed in 1584. Over the years, more sections of the palace were recruited to exhibit paintings and sculpture collected or commissioned by the Medici. For many years, 45 to 50 rooms were used to display paintings from the 13th to 18th century; because of its huge collection, some of the Uffizi's works have in the past been transferred to other museums in Florence—for example, some famous statues to the Bargello. A project was finished in 2006 to expand the museum's exhibition space some 6,000 metres2 to 13,000 metres2, allowing public viewing of many artworks, in storage; the Nuovi Uffizi renovation project which started in 1989 was progressing well in 2015 to 2017. It was intended to modernize all of more than double the display space; as well, a new exit was planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated.
During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. For example, the Botticelli rooms and two others with early Renaissance paintings were closed for 15 months but reopened in October 2016; the major modernization project, New Uffizi, had increased viewing capacity to 101 rooms by late 2016 by expanding into areas used by the Florence State Archive. The Uffizi hosted over two million visitors in 2016, making it the most visited art gallery in Italy. In high season, waiting times can be up to five hours. Tickets are available on-line in advance, however, to reduce the waiting time. A new ticketing system is being tested to reduce queuing times from hours to just minutes; the museum is being renovated to more than double the number of rooms used to display artwork. On 27 May 1993, the Sicilian Mafia carried out a car bomb explosion in Via dei Georgofili and damaged parts of the palace, killing five people.
The blast destroyed five pieces of art and damaged another 30. Some of the paintings were protected by bulletproof glass; the most severe damage was to the Niobe room and classical sculptures and neoclassical interior, although its frescoes were damaged beyond repair. In early August 2007, Florence experienced a heavy rainstorm; the Gallery was flooded, with water leaking through the ceiling, the visitors had to be evacuated. There was a much more significant flood in 1966 which damaged most of the art collections in Florence including some of the works in the Uffizi; the collection contains some ancient sculptures, such as the Arrotino and the Two Wrestlers. Collections of the Uffizi Official website Uffizi – Google Art Project Uffizi Gallery
Lisztomania
Lisztomania or Liszt fever was the intense fan frenzy directed toward Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841 and the term was coined by Heinrich Heine in a feuilleton he wrote on April 25, 1844, discussing the 1844 Parisian concert season. Lisztomania was characterized by intense levels of hysteria demonstrated by fans, akin to the treatment of celebrity musicians today – but in a time not known for such musical excitement. Franz Liszt began receiving piano lessons at the age of seven from his father Adam Liszt, a talented musician who played the piano, violin and guitar, who knew Joseph Haydn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ludwig van Beethoven personally. By age 11, Franz Liszt was composing music and appearing in concerts; as he grew older, Liszt continued to develop his expertise at playing piano. In 1839 Liszt began an extensive tour of Europe; this period was Liszt's most brilliant as a concert pianist and he received many honours and much adulation during his tours.
Scholars have called these years a period of "transcendental execution" for Liszt. During this period, the first reports of intense responses from Liszt's fans appeared, which became referred to as Lisztomania. Liszt arrived in Berlin around Christmas 1841 and word of his arrival soon spread; that night, a group of thirty students serenaded him with a performance of his song "Rheinweinlied". He played his first recital in Berlin on December 27, 1841, at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin to an enthusiastic crowd; this performance would be marked as the beginning of Lisztomania, which would sweep across all of Europe after 1842. Lisztomania was characterized by a hysterical reaction to his concerts. Liszt's playing was reported to raise the mood of the audience to a level of mystical ecstasy. Admirers of Liszt would swarm over him, fighting over his gloves. Fans would wear his portrait on cameos. Women would try to get locks of his hair, whenever he broke a piano string, admirers would try to obtain it in order to make a bracelet.
Some female admirers would carry glass phials into which they poured his coffee dregs. According to one report: Liszt once threw away an old cigar stump in the street under the watchful eyes of an infatuated lady-in-waiting, who reverently picked the offensive weed out of the gutter, had it encased in a locket and surrounded with the monogram "F. L." in diamonds, went about her courtly duties unaware of the sickly odour it gave forth. The writer Heinrich Heine coined the term Lisztomania to describe the outpouring of emotion that accompanied Liszt and his performances. Heine wrote a series of musical feuilletons over several different music seasons discussing the music of the day, his review of the musical season of 1844, written in Paris on April 25, 1844, is the first place where he uses the term Lisztomania: When I heard of the fainting spells which broke out in Germany and specially in Berlin, when Liszt showed himself there, I shrugged my shoulders pityingly and thought: quiet sabbatarian Germany does not wish to lose the opportunity of getting the little necessary exercise permitted it...
In their case, thought I, it is a matter of the spectacle for the spectacle's sake... Thus I explained this Lisztomania, looked on it as a sign of the politically unfree conditions existing beyond the Rhine, yet I was mistaken, after all, I did not notice it until last week, at the Italian Opera House, where Liszt gave his first concert... This was no Germanically sentimental, sentimentalizing Berlinate audience, before which Liszt played, quite alone, or rather, accompanied by his genius, and yet, how convulsively his mere appearance affected them! How boisterous was the applause which rang to meet him!...hat acclaim it was! A veritable insanity, one unheard of in the annals of furore! Musicologist Dana Gooley argues that Heine's use of the term "Lisztomania" was not used in the same way that "Beatlemania" was used to describe the intense emotion generated towards The Beatles in the 20th century. Instead, Lisztomania had much more of a medical emphasis because the term "mania" was a much stronger term in the 1840s, whereas in the 20th century "mania" could refer to something as mild as a new fashion craze.
Lisztomania was considered by some a genuine contagious medical condition and critics recommended measures to immunize the public. Some critics of the day thought that Lisztomania, or "Liszt fever" as it was sometimes called, was a reflection of the attitudes of Berliners and Northern Germans and that Southern German cities would not have such episodes of Lisztomania because of the difference in constitutions of the populace; as one report stated in a Munich paper in 1843: Liszt fever, a contagion that breaks out in every city our artist visits, which neither age nor wisdom can protect, seems to appear here only sporadically, asphyxiating cases such as appeared so in northern capitals need not be feared by our residents, with their strong constitutions. There was no known cause for Lisztomania. Heine tried to explain the cause of Lisztomania in the same letter. In that letter he wrote: What is the reason of this phenomenon? The solution of this question belongs to the domain of pathology rather than that of aesthetics.
A physician, whose speciality is female diseases, whom I asked to explain the magic our Liszt exerted upon the public, smiled in the strangest manner, at the same time said all sorts of things about magnetism, electricity, of the contagion of the close hall filled with countless wax lights and several hundred perfumed and perspiring
