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Hercules (Piero Della Francesca)
''Hercules'' is a fresco fragment by Piero della Francesca, his only known secular work and probably originally part of a cycle of mythological figures. It dates to sometime after 1465 and is now in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, which acquired it from Joseph Lindon Smith, who in turn bought it from the Florentine art dealer Elia Volpi. History It was rediscovered during the second half of the 18th century in a room of the artist's family home on via delle Aggiunte in Sansepolcro. Removing it from the wall and transporting it caused some further damage. It passed onto the art market, passing through the hands of Florentine art dealer Elia Volpi before being acquired in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner via Joseph Lindon Smith in 1903. It depicts Hercules as a nude with a lion-skin, standing in front of a basin, holding a club and with his left hand on his hip and his legs in an asymmetric contraposto pose. Typical in Piero's work, this solemn, static, languid, and r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piero Della Francesca
Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes ''The History of the True Cross'' in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo. Biography Early years Piero was born Piero di Benedetto in the town of Borgo Santo Sepolcro, modern-day Tuscany, to Benedetto de' Franceschi, a tradesman, and Romana di Perino da Monterchi, members of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family. His father died before his birth, and he was called Piero della Francesca after his mother, who was referred to as "la Francesca" due to her marriage into the Franceschi family (similar to how Lisa Gherardini became kno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose will called for her art collection to be permanently exhibited "for the education and enjoyment of the public forever." An auxiliary wing designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, adjacent to the original structure near the Back Bay Fens, was completed in 2012. In 1990, thirteen of the museum's works were stolen; the crime remains unsolved, and the works, valued at an estimated $500 million, have not been recovered. A $10 million reward for information leading to the art's recovery remains in place. History The museum was built in 1898–1901 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts in the style of a 15th-century Venetian palace. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Lindon Smith
Joseph Lindon Smith (October 11, 1863 – October 18, 1950)), was an American painter, best known for his extraordinarily faithful and lively representations of antiquities, especially Egyptian tomb reliefs. He was a founding member of the art colony at Dublin, New Hampshire. Background Smith was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on October 11, 1863, to Henry Francis Smith, a wholesale lumberman, and Emma Greenleaf Smith. Interested in studying art, he was schooled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the fall of 1883, Smith sailed to Paris with his friend and fellow student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Frank Weston Benson; They shared an apartment in Paris while they studied at the Académie JulianFaith Bedford"The sporting art of Frank W. Benson" (David R. Godine, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 2000 ). Page 20. . (1883–85) under William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jules Joseph Lefebvre, and Gustave Boulanger. "The noise level in the Académie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sansepolcro
Sansepolcro, formerly Borgo Santo Sepolcro, is a town and ''comune'' founded in the 11th century, located in the Italian Province of Arezzo in the eastern part of the region of Tuscany. Situated on the upper reaches of the Tiber river, the town is the birthplace of the painters Piero della Francesca, Raffaellino del Colle (a pupil of Raphael), Matteo di Giovanni, Santi di Tito and Angiolo Tricca. It was also the birthplace of the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli, and of Matteo Cioni, who translated Piero della Francesca's treatise about perspective in painting (''De prospectiva pingendi'') into Latin. Today, the economy of the town is based on agriculture, industrial manufacturing, food processing and pharmaceuticals. It is the home of Buitoni pasta, founded by Giulia Buitoni in 1827. History According to tradition the founding of the town came about through two 9th-century pilgrims to the Holy Land, Arcanus and Giles, who returned to the region and built a chapel dedicated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elia Volpi
Elia is a name which may be a variant of the names Elias, Elijah, Eli or Eliahu, and may refer to: People * Aelia (gens) or Elia, a ''gens'' of Ancient Rome Mononymic * Elia or Elijah, a biblical prophet * Elia, a pen-name of Charles Lamb First name * Elia Abu Madi, (1890–1957), Lebanese poet *Elia Barceló (born 1957), Spanish writer *Elia Goode Byington (1858–1936), American journalist * Elia Cmíral (born 1950), Czech film composer *Elia Dalla Costa (1872–1961), Italian cardinal and Archbishop of Florence * Elia del Medigo (1458–1493), Greek rabbi *Elia Favilli (born 1989), Italian cyclist *Elia Frosio (1913–2005), Italian cyclist *Elia Galera (born 1973), Spanish actress *Elia Kaiyamo (born 1951), Namibian politician * Elia Kazan (1909–2003), American director and producer * Elia Legati (born 1986), Italian football player *Elia Levita (1469–1549), German Hebrew scholar * Elia Liut (1894–1952), Italian aviator *Elia Luini (born 1979), Italian rower * Elia M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabella Stewart Gardner
Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Gardner possessed an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Dennis Miller Bunker, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Dodge MacKnight, Okakura Kakuzo and Francis Marion Crawford. Gardner created much fodder for the gossip columns of the day with her reputation for stylish tastes and unconventional behavior. The Boston society pages called her by many names, including "Belle," "Donna Isabella," "Isabella of Boston," and "Mrs. Jack". Her surprising appearance at a 1912 concert (at what was then a very formal Boston Symphony Orchestra) wearing a white headband emblazoned with "Oh, you Red Sox" was reported at the time to have "almost caused a panic", and still remains i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name ''Hercules''. In later Western art and literature and in popular culture, ''Hercules'' is more commonly used than ''Heracles'' as the name of the hero. Hercules is a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him. This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition. Mythology Birth and early life In Roman mythology, although Hercules was seen as the champion of the weak and a great protector, his personal problems started at birth. Juno sent two witches to prevent the birth, but they were tricked by one of Alcmene's servants and sent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contraposto
''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane. First appearing in Ancient Greece in the early 5th century BCE, contrapposto is considered a crucial development in the history of Ancient Greek art (and, by extension, Western art), as it marks the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition. The style was further developed and popularized by sculptors in the Hellenistic and Imperial Roman periods, fell out of use in the Middle Ages, and was later revived during the Renaissance. Michelangelo's statue of ''David'', one of the most iconic sculptures in the world, is a famous example of contrapposto. Definition Contrapposto was historically an important sculptural development, for its appearance marks the first time in Western a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The History Of The True Cross
''The History of the True Cross'' or ''The Legend of the True Cross'' is a sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest, and an early Renaissance masterpiece. Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacobus de Voragine, the ''Golden Legend'', is the triumph of the True Cross – the legend of the wood from the Garden of Eden becoming the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. This work demonstrates Piero's advanced knowledge of perspective and colour, his geometric orderliness and skill in pictorial construction. History Dating of the frescoes is uncertain, but they are believed to date from after 1447, when the Bacci family, commissioners of the frescoes, are recorded as having paid an unknown painter. It would have been finished around 1466. Most of the choir was painted in the early- to mid-1450s. Although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paintings In The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. In art, the term ''painting ''describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting"). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf, and even whole objects. Painting is an important form in the visual arts, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture (as in gestural painting), narration (as in narrative art), and abstraction (as in abstract art). Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting), photographic, abstract, nar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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