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Leonardo's Swans
''Leonardo's Swans'' is an international bestseller by Karen Essex, published by Doubleday in 2006. The novel tells the story of the rivalry between the powerful Este sisters, Beatrice and Isabella, princesses of the House of Ferrara, as they competed for the attentions of both the Duke of Milan and Leonardo da Vinci when the artist was court painter in the High Renaissance. Also included are excerpts from Leonardo's own journals and letters, which reflect the contents of each chapter. The ''Washington Post'' praised Essex’ portrayal of Leonardo. “Leonardo's character is one of the great surprises of this book, and in portraying him the author never seems to engage in post-Dan Brown opportunism. The reader may be constantly reminded of Leonardo's genius, but he is an understated figure, a brilliant but disorganized mind whose twitchy intelligence makes him interested in starting countless projects but able to finish few. One of the pleasures of reading this book is learning ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doubleday (publisher)
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores. In 2009 Doubleday merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is now part of Penguin Random House. In 2019, the official website presents Doubleday as an imprint, not a publisher. History The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday in partnership with Samuel Sidney McClure. McClure had founded the first U.S. newspaper syndicate in 1884 (McClure Syndicate) and the monthly ''McClure's Magazine'' in 1893. One of their first bestsellers was ''The Day's Work'' by Rudyard Kipling, a short story collection that Macmillan published in Britain late in 1898. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karen Essex
Karen Essex is an American historical novelist, a screenwriter, and journalist. Early life and education Essex was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a teenager, she got involved with the theatre and focused her collegiate studies on costume design and theatrical history at Tulane University. She later attended an interdisciplinary graduate program at Vanderbilt University, and in 1999, received an MFA. in Writing at Goddard College in Vermont. Career Film production After college, Essex briefly modeled in Europe before returning to the U. S. where she found an entrée into the film industry as a costume designer. She moved into executive positions, becoming vice-president of a subsidiary of Blake Edwards Entertainment and senior vice-president of Force Ten Productions, a bi-coastal company that financed Broadway, Off-Broadway, and motion pictures. By the early 1990s, she had given birth to her only child and had resigned from film production to pursue a career in writing. Wr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occasionally leather). It has a flexible, sewn spine which allows the book to lie flat on a surface when opened. Modern hardcovers may have the pages glued onto the spine in much the same way as paperbacks. Following the ISBN sequence numbers, books of this type may be identified by the abbreviation Hbk. Hardcover books are often printed on acid-free paper, and they are much more durable than paperbacks, which have flexible, easily damaged paper covers. Hardcover books are marginally more costly to manufacture. Hardcovers are frequently protected by artistic dust jackets, but a "jacketless" alternative has increased in popularity: these "paper-over-board" or "jacketless" hardcover bindings forgo the dust jacket in favor of printing the cove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Este
The House of Este ( , , ) is a European dynasty of North Italian origin whose members ruled parts of Italy and Germany for many centuries. The original House of Este's elder branch, which is known as the House of Welf, included dukes of Bavaria and of Brunswick. This branch produced Britain's Hanoverian monarchs, as well as one Emperor of Russia (Ivan VI) and one Holy Roman Emperor (Otto IV). The original House of Este's younger branch, which is simply called the House of Este, included rulers of Ferrara (1240–1597), and of Modena (–1859) and Reggio (1288–1796). This branch's male line became extinct with the death of Ercole III in 1803. Origins According to Edward Gibbon, the family originated from the Roman Attii family, which migrated from Rome to EsteThe miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon Vol 3 page 172 to defend Italy against the Ostrogoths. However, there is little evidence to support this hypothesis. The names of the early members of the family indicate that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beatrice D'Este
Beatrice d'Este (29 June 1475 – 3 January 1497), was Duchess of Bari and Milan by marriage to Ludovico Sforza (known as "il Moro"). She was one of the most important personalities of the time and, despite her short life, she was a major player in Italian politics. A woman of culture, an important patron, a leader in fashion: alongside her illustrious husband she made Milan one of the greatest capitals of the European Renaissance. With her own determination and bellicose nature, she was the soul of the Milanese resistance against the enemy French during the first of the Italian Wars, when her intervention was able to repel the threats of the Duke of Orléans, who was on the verge of conquering Milan.; ; ; ; . Life Childhood Birth She was born on 29 June 1475 in the Castello Estense of Ferrara, second child of Ercole I d'Este and Eleonora d'Aragona. The Duke of Ferrara longed for a male heir, so her birth was welcomed as a disgrace. Childhood in Naples (1477-1485) T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabella D'Este
Isabella d'Este (19 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) was Marchioness of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by numerous women. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella", while author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women". Diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world". She served as the regent of Mantua during the absence of her husband Francesco II Gonzaga and during the minority of her son Federico. She was a prolific letter-writer and maintained a lifelong correspondence with her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga. Isabella grew up in a cultured family in the city-state of Ferrara. She received a fine classical education and as a girl met many famous humanist scholars and artists. Due to the vast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he also became known for #Journals and notes, his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and paleontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist ideal, and his List of works by Leonardo da Vinci, collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary, Michelangelo. Born Legitimacy (family law), out of wedlock to a successful Civil law notary, notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, Tuscany, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Supper (Leonardo Da Vinci)
''The Last Supper'' ( it, Il Cenacolo or ) is a mural painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to . The painting represents the scene of the Last Supper of Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of Johnspecifically the moment after Jesus announces that one of his apostles will betray him. Its handling of space, mastery of perspective, treatment of motion and complex display of human emotion has made it one of the Western world's most recognizable paintings and among Leonardo's most celebrated works. Some commentators consider it pivotal in inaugurating the transition into what is now termed the High Renaissance. The work was commissioned as part of a plan of renovations to the church and its convent buildings by Leonardo's patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. In order to permit his inconsistent painting schedule and frequent revisions, it is painted with materials that allowed for regular alterations: tempera on gesso, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Virgin Of The Rocks
The ''Virgin of the Rocks'' ( it, Vergine delle rocce), sometimes the ''Madonna of the Rocks'', is the name of two paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, with a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, the earlier of the two, is unrestored and hangs in the Louvre in Paris. The other, which was restored between 2008 and 2010, hangs in the National Gallery, London. The works are often known as the Louvre ''Virgin of the Rocks'' and London ''Virgin of the Rocks'' respectively. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were originally painted on wooden panels, but the Louvre version has been transferred to canvas. Both paintings show the Mary and child Jesus with the infant John the Baptist and an angel Uriel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2006 Novels
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second smallest composite number, behind 4; its proper divisors are , and . Since 6 equals the sum of its proper divisors, it is a perfect number; 6 is the smallest of the perfect numbers. It is also the smallest Granville number, or \mathcal-perfect number. As a perfect number: *6 is related to the Mersenne prime 3, since . (The next perfect number is 28.) *6 is the only even perfect number that is not the sum of successive odd cubes. *6 is the root of the 6-aliquot tree, and is itself the aliquot sum of only one other number; the square number, . Six is the only number that is both the sum and the product of three consecutive positive numbers. Unrelated to 6's being a perfect number, a Golomb ruler of length 6 is a "perfect ruler". Six is a con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels About Artists
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Novels
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema, and television, as well as video games and graphic novels. An essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past and pays attention to the manners, social conditions and other details of the depicted period. Authors also frequently choose to explore notable historical figures in these settings, allowing readers to better understand how these individuals might have responded to their environments. The historical romance usually seeks to romanticize eras of the past. Some subgenres such as alternate history and historical fantasy insert intentionally ahistorical or speculative elements into a novel. Works of historical fiction are sometimes criticized for lack of authe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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