1.
Museum
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Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public, the goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums, the city with the largest number of museums is Mexico City with over 128 museums. According to The World Museum Community, there are more than 55,000 museums in 202 countries, the English museum comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as museums. The first museum/library is considered to be the one of Plato in Athens, however, Pausanias gives another place called Museum, namely a small hill in Classical Athens opposite to the Akropolis. The hill was called Mouseion after Mousaious, a man who used to sing on the hill, the purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on ones point of view, to a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the health of a city. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museums mission, Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithsons bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution for the increase, Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of classification of a field of knowledge for research. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students, while many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is a debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museums collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks. All museums display objects that are important to a culture, as historian Steven Conn writes, To see the thing itself, with ones own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting. Museum purposes vary from institution to institution, some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects and they displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia
2.
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
3.
French Academy in Rome
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The French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy. The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1666 by Louis XIV under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Charles Le Brun, such scholars were and are known as pensionnaires de lAcadémie. One recipient of the scholarship in the 17th century was Pierre Le Gros the Younger, the Academy was housed in the Palazzo Capranica until 1737, and then in the Palazzo Mancini from 1737 to 1793. These envois were annual works, sent to Paris to be judged, at first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state and had to be renovated to house the winners of the Prix de Rome. The competition was interrupted during the first World War, and Mussolini confiscated the villa in 1941, the competition and Prix de Rome were eliminated in 1968 by André Malraux. The Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Institut de France then lost their guardianship of the Villa Medici to the Ministry of the Culture, from that time on, the boarders no longer belonged solely to the traditional disciplines but also to new or previously neglected artistic fields. These artists-in-residence are known as pensionnaires, the French word ‘pension’ refers to the room & board these, generally young and promising, artists receive. The artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus, then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment. Balthus participated “hands on” in all the phases of the construction, where the historic décor had disappeared, Balthus proposed personal alternatives. Work continued under the direction of director, Richard Peduzzi, under director Frédéric Mitterrand the Academy opened up its guest rooms to the general public at times when they are not used by pensionnaires or other official guests. k. a. Carolus-Duran 1913-1921, Albert Besnard 1921-1933, Denys Puech 1933-1937, Paul-Maximilien Landowski 1937-1960, Jacques Ibert 1961-1977, Comte Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, a. k. a. Balthus 1979-1985, Jean Leymarie 1985-1994, Jean-Marie Drot 1994-1997, Pierre-Jean Angremy, a. k. a. villamedici. it/ Official site Google Map
4.
Renaissance architecture
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Stylistically, Renaissance architecture followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the style was carried to France, Germany, England, Russia and other parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact. Italy of the 15th century, and the city of Florence in particular, was home to the Renaissance, the scholarly approach to the architecture of the ancient coincided with the general revival of learning. A number of factors were influential in bringing this about, Italian architects had always preferred forms that were clearly defined and structural members that expressed their purpose. Many Tuscan Romanesque buildings demonstrate these characteristics, as seen in the Florence Baptistery, Italy had never fully adopted the Gothic style of architecture. In the 15th century, Florence, Venice and Naples extended their power through much of the area that surrounded them and this enabled Florence to have significant artistic influence in Milan, and through Milan, France. Successive Popes, especially Julius II, 1503–13, sought to extend the Pope’s temporal power throughout Italy, in the early Renaissance, Venice controlled sea trade over goods from the East. Trade brought wool from England to Florence, ideally located on the river for the production of fine cloth, by dominating Pisa, Florence gained a seaport, and also maintained dominance of Genoa. In this commercial climate, one family in particular turned their attention from trade to the business of money-lending. The Medici became the chief bankers to the princes of Europe, becoming virtually princes themselves as they did so, along the trade routes, and thus offered some protection by commercial interest, moved not only goods but also artists, scientists and philosophers. This commenced in the mid 15th century and gained momentum in the 16th century, the construction of the Sistine Chapel with its uniquely important decorations and the entire rebuilding of St Peters, one of Christendoms most significant churches, were part of this process. In wealthy republican Florence, the impetus for church-building was more civic than spiritual, the unfinished state of the enormous cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary did no honour to the city under her patronage. The dome inspired further religious works in Florence, through Humanism, civic pride and the promotion of civil peace and order were seen as the marks of citizenship. Some major ecclesiastical building works were commissioned, not by the church. During the Renaissance, architecture became not only a question of practice, printing played a large role in the dissemination of ideas. The first treatise on architecture was De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti in 1450 and it was to some degree dependent on Vitruviuss De architectura, a manuscript of which was discovered in 1414 in a library in Switzerland. De re aedificatoria in 1485 became the first printed book on architecture, Sebastiano Serlio produced the next important text, the first volume of which appeared in Venice in 1537, it was entitled Regole generali darchitettura. It is known as Serlios Fourth Book since it was the fourth in Serlios original plan of a treatise in seven books, in all, five books were published
5.
Villa
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A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably, after the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity, sometimes transferred to the Church for reuse as a monastery. Then they gradually re-evolved through the Middle Ages into elegant upper-class country homes, in modern parlance, villa can refer to various types and sizes of residences, ranging from the suburban semi-detached double villa to residences in the wildland–urban interface. In ancient Roman architecture a villa was originally a house built for the élite. The Roman villae rusticae at the heart of latifundia were the earliest versions of what later, not included as villae were the domus, a city house for the élite and privileged classes, and insulae, blocks of apartment buildings for the rest of the population. In Satyricon, Petronius described the range of Roman dwellings. Another type of villae is the villa marittima, a seaside villa, a concentration of Imperial villas existed on the Gulf of Naples, on the Isle of Capri, at Monte Circeo and at Antium. Examples include the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, and the Villa of the Mysteries, wealthy Romans also escaped the summer heat in the hills round Rome, especially around Tibur (Tivoand Frascati, such as at Hadrians Villa. Cicero allegedly possessed no fewer than seven villas, the oldest of which was near Arpinum, pliny the Younger had three or four, of which the example near Laurentium is the best known from his descriptions. Roman writers refer with satisfaction to the self-sufficiency of their latifundium villas, archeologists have meticulously examined numerous Roman villas in England. The grand villa at Woodchester preserved its mosaic floors when the Anglo-Saxon parish church was built upon its site, grave-diggers preparing for burials in the churchyard as late as the 18th century had to punch through the intact mosaic floors. The even more palatial villa rustica at Fishbourne near Winchester was built as an open rectangle. Villae rusticae are essential in the Empires economy, two kinds of villa-plan in Roman Britain may be characteristic of Roman villas in general. The more usual plan extended wings of all opening onto a linking portico. The other kind featured a central hall like a basilica. The villa buildings were often independent structures linked by their enclosed courtyards, timber-framed construction, carefully fitted with mortises and tenons and dowelled together, set on stone footings, were the rule, replaced by stone buildings for the important ceremonial rooms. Traces of window glass have been found, as well as ironwork window grilles, with the decline and collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the villas were more and more isolated and came to be protected by walls. In England the villas were abandoned, looted, and burned by Anglo-Saxon invaders in the fifth century, in regions on the Continent, aristocrats and territorial magnates donated large working villas and overgrown abandoned ones to individual monks, these might become the nuclei of monasteries
6.
Pincian Hill
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The Pincian Hill is a hill in the northeast quadrant of the historical center of Rome. The hill lies to the north of the Quirinal, overlooking the Campus Martius. It was outside the boundaries of the ancient city of Rome, and was not one of the Seven hills of Rome. The hill came to be known in Roman times as Collis Hortulorum and its current name comes from the Pincii, one of the families that occupied it in the 4th century AD. The Pincio as seen today was laid out in 1809-14 by Giuseppe Valadier, Valadier linked the two spaces with formal staircases broken by generous landings, and a switchback carriageway. Another version stands in the Villa Borghese gardens, embriaco had presented two prototypes of his invention at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1867 where it won prizes and great acclaim. In the gardens of the Pincian, it was Giuseppe Mazzinis urging that lined the viali with busts of notable Italians, La collina del Pincio scopre i suoi segreti La Repubblica 11 December 2014
7.
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
8.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
9.
Messalina
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Valeria Messalina, sometimes spelled Messallina, was the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius. She was a cousin of the Emperor Nero, a second-cousin of the Emperor Caligula. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she conspired against her husband and was executed on the discovery of the plot. Her notorious reputation arguably results from political bias, but works of art, Messalina was the daughter of Domitia Lepida the Younger and her first cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus. Her mother was the youngest child of the consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Messalinas grandmothers Claudia Marcella and Antonia Major were half sisters. Claudia Marcella, Messalinas paternal grandmother, was the daughter of Augustus sister Octavia the Younger by her marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus Minor, Antonia Major, Messalinas maternal grandmother, was the elder daughter of Octavia by her marriage to Mark Antony, and was Claudius maternal aunt. There was, therefore, an amount of inbreeding in the family. Little is known about Messalina’s life prior to her marriage in 38 to Claudius, her first cousin once removed, who was then about 48 years old. Two children were born as a result of their union, a daughter Claudia Octavia, an empress, stepsister and first wife to the emperor Nero. When the Emperor Caligula was murdered in 41, the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Claudius the new emperor, with her accession to power, Messalina enters history with a reputation as ruthless, predatory and sexually insatiable. Her husband is represented as easily led by her and unconscious of her many adulteries, in 48 AD, he went away on a trip and was informed when he returned that Messalina had gone so far as to marry her latest lover, Senator Gaius Silius. While many would have ordered her death, the Emperor offered her another chance, seeing that as weakness, one of his head officers went behind the Emperors back and ordered Messalinas death. Upon hearing the news, the Emperor did not react and simply asked for another chalice of wine, the Roman Senate then ordered a damnatio memoriae so that Messalinas name would be removed from all public and private places and all statues of her would be taken down. The historians who relay such stories, principally Tacitus and Suetonius and it has been argued that what passes for history is largely a result of the political sanctions that followed her death. Accusations of sexual excess were a tried and tested smear tactic, two accounts especially have added to her notoriety. The poet Juvenal gives a well known description in his sixth satire of how the Empress used to work clandestinely all night in a brothel under the name of the She-Wolf. He also alludes to the story of how she compelled Gaius Silius to divorce his wife, to call a woman a Messalina indicates a devious and sexually voracious personality. The historical figure and her fate were often used in the arts to make a moral point, in modern times, that has led to exaggerated works which have been described as romps
10.
Montepulciano
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Montepulciano is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and comune in the Italian province of Siena in southern Tuscany. It sits high on a 605-metre limestone ridge,13 kilometres east of Pienza,70 kilometres southeast of Siena,124 kilometres southeast of Florence, Montepulciano is a major producer of food and drink. Renowned for its pork, cheese, pici pasta, lentils, connoisseurs consider its Vino Nobile, which should not be confused with varietal wine merely made from the Montepulciano grape, among Italys best. According to legend, it was founded by the Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Chiusi, in Roman times it was the seat of a garrison guarding the main roads of the area. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it developed as a center under the Lombards. In the 12th century it was attacked by the Republic of Siena, which the Poliziani faced with the help of the Perugia and Orvieto. The 14th century was characterized by constant struggles between the noble families, until the Del Pecora family became rulers of the town. In 1559, when Siena was conquered by Florence and Montepulciano lost its strategic role, a competitive barrel race through the city called the Bravio delle botti has been held on the last Sunday of August since the 14th Century. The main street of Montepulciano stretches for 1.5 kilometres from the Porta al Prato to the Piazza Grande at the top of the hill, the city is renowned for its walkable, car-free nature. The main landmarks include, The Palazzo Comunale, designed by Michelozzo in the tradition of the Palazzo della Signoria of Florence, Palazzo Tarugi, attributed to Antonio da Sangallo the Elder or Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. It is entirely in travertine, with a portico which was open to the public. The church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and it has a simple Mannerist façade with a three-arcade portico. The interior has a nave, and houses a precious terracotta altar by Andrea della Robbia. The Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Biagio is on the road to Chianciano outside the city and it is a typical 16th century Tuscan edifice, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder on a pre-existing Pieve, between 1518 and 1545. It has a plan with a large dome over a terrace. The exterior, with two towers, is built in white travertine. Baroque church of Santa Lucia has an altarpiece by Luca Signorelli, the walls of the city date to around the 14th century. Marcellus II, pope of the Catholic Church St. Robert Bellarmine, a Roman Catholic Saint, Cardinal, agnes of Montepulciano, a Roman Catholic Saint
11.
Viticulture
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Viticulture is the science, production, and study of grapes. It deals with the series of events occur in the vineyard. It is a branch of the science of horticulture, for this reason, viticulture can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Viticulturists are often involved with winemakers, because vineyard management. A great number of varieties are now approved in the European Union as true grapes for wine-growing and viticulture, the earliest evidence of grape vine cultivation and winemaking dates back 7,000 years. The history of viticulture is closely related to the history of wine, evidence suggests that some of the earliest domestication of Vitis vinifera occurred in the area of the modern countries Georgia and Armenia. The oldest-known winery was discovered in the Areni-1 cave in Vayots Dzor, dated to c. 4100 BC, the site contained a wine press, fermentation vats, jars, and cups. Archaeologists also found V. vinifera seeds and vines, commenting on the importance of the find, McGovern said, The fact that winemaking was already so well developed in 4000 BC suggests that the technology probably goes back much earlier. There is also evidence of domestication in the Near East in the early Bronze Age. Evidence of ancient viticulture is provided by sources, plant remains, historical geography. The remnants of ancient wine jars have been used to determine the culture of wine consumption, in addition to winemaking, grapes have been grown for the production of raisins. With the ability to pollinate itself, over time the hermaphroditic vines were able to sire offspring that were consistently hermaphroditic, during this period, grape cultivation developed from an aspect of local consumption to an important component of international economies and trade. From 1200 BC to 900 BC, the Phoenicians developed viticulture practices that were used in Carthage. Around 500 BC, the Carthaginian writer Mago recorded such practices in a work that was one of the few artifacts to survive the Roman destruction of Carthage during the Third Punic War. The Roman statesman Cato the Elder was influenced by texts, and around 160 BC he wrote De Agricultura. Around 65 AD, the Roman writer Columella produced the most detailed work on Roman viticulture in his twelve-volume text De Re Rustica, columellas work is one of the earliest to detail trellis systems for raising vines off the ground. Columella advocated the use of stakes versus the previously accepted practice of training vines to grow up along tree trunks. Roman viticulturists were among the first to identify steep hillsides as one of the locations to plant vines, because cool air runs downhill
Rome, Italy
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Media related to Villa Medici (Rome) at Wikimedia Commons
