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Madonna Of The Caves (Mantegna)
The ''Madonna of the Caves'' (Italian – ''Madonna delle Cave'') is a tempera on panel painting measuring 32 cm 29.6 cm. It was painted in 1488-1490 by the Italian painter Andrea Mantegna and is now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It is named after a stone quarry in the right-hand background, where workers are carving out a capital, a slab, part of a column shaft and a sarcophagus, perhaps alluding to Christ future flagellation and burial. The rock on which the Virgin sits may also be intended to represent the summit of Calvary, whilst in the left-hand background are a shepherd and his flock, farmers gathering hay from a field, a castle and a road leading to a distant walled city. Fiocco argues that the background is based on Carrara whilst Kristeller instead identifies it with Monte Bolca between Vicenza and Verona. Some interpret the shift from dark to light moving from right to left across the background as an allegory of redemption through Christ and the Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence of a fundamentally sculptural approach to painting. He also led a workshop that was the leading producer of prints in Venice before 1500. Biography Youth and education Mantegna was born in Isola di Carturo, Venetian Republic close to Padua (now Italy), second son of a carpenter, Biagio. At the age of 11, he became the apprentice of Paduan painter Francesco Squarcione. Squarcione, whose original profession was tailoring, appears to have had a remarkable enthusiasm for ancient art, and a faculty for acting. Like his famous compatriot Petrarca, Squarcione was an ancient Rome enthusiast: he traveled in Italy, and perhaps a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico anno 2013, datISTAT/ref> Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Ital ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uffizi Gallery
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) 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 also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance. After the ruling House of Medici died out, their art collections were given 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, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public, formally becoming a museum in 1865. History The building of the Uffizi complex was begun by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 for Cosimo I de' Medici so as to accommodate the offices of the Florentine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempera
Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first century AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as "tempera paint", although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint. Etymology The term ''tempera'' is derived from the Italian ''dipingere a tempera'' ("paint in distemper"), from the Late Latin ''distemperare'' ("mix thoroughly"). History Tempera painting has been found on early Egyptian sarcophagus decorations. Many of the Fayum mummy portraits use tempera, sometimes in combina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calvary
Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. The exact location of Calvary has been traditionally associated with a place now enclosed within one of the southern chapels of the multidenominational Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a site said to have been recognized by the Roman empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, during her visit to the Holy Land in 325. Other locations have been suggested: in the 19th century, Protestant scholars proposed a different location near the Garden Tomb on Green Hill (now "Skull Hill") about north of the traditional site and historian Joan Taylor has more recently proposed a location about to its south-southeast. Biblical references and names The English names Calvary and Golgotha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrara
Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest of Florence. Its motto is ''Fortitudo mea in rota'' (Latin: "My strength is in the wheel"). Toponymy The word ''Carrara'' likely comes from the pre-Roman (Celtic languages, Celtic or Ligurian language (ancient), Ligurian) element ''kar'' (stone), through Latin ''carrariae'' meaning 'quarries'. History There were known settlements in the area as early as the ninth century BC, when the Apuan Ligures lived in the region. The current town originated from the borough built to house workers in the marble quarries created by the ancient Rome, Romans after their conquest of Liguria in the early second century BC. Carrara has been linked with the process of quarrying and carving marble since the Roman Age. Marble was exported from the nearby ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monte Bolca
Monte Bolca is a lagerstätte near Verona, Italy that was one of the first fossil sites with high quality preservation known to Europeans, and is still an important source of fossils from the Eocene. Geology Monte Bolca was uplifted from the Tethys Ocean floor during the formation of the Alps, in two stages: one 24 million years ago, and one between 30 and 50 million years ago. The entire formation consists of of limestone, all of which contain fossils, but interspersed in which are the lagerstätte layers that contain the highly preserved specimens. Within these layers, the fish and other specimens are so highly preserved that their organs are often completely intact in fossil form, and even the skin colorWilliams, MattTaphonomy of Monte Bolca University of Bristol can sometimes be determined. The normal rearrangement of the specimens caused by mud-dwelling organisms in the layer before it turned to stone has been avoided—it is assumed that the mud in question was low in ox ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vicenza
Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a thriving and cosmopolitan city, with a rich history and culture, and many museums, art galleries, piazzas, villas, churches and elegant Renaissance '' palazzi''. With the Palladian Villas of the Veneto in the surrounding area, and his renowned ''Teatro Olimpico'' (Olympic Theater), the "city of Palladio" has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. In December 2008, Vicenza had an estimated population of 115,927 and a metropolitan area of 270,000. Vicenza is the third-largest Italian industrial centre as measured by the value of its exports, and is one of the country's wealthiest cities, in large part due to its textile and steel industries, which employ tens of thousands. Additionally, about one fifth of the country's gold a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the second largest in northeastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona covers an area of and has a population of 714,310 inhabitants. It is one of the main tourist destinations in northern Italy because of its artistic heritage and several annual fairs and shows as well as the Opera, opera season in the Verona Arena, Arena, an ancient Ancient Rome, Roman Amphitheatre, amphitheater. Between the 13th and 14th century the city was ruled by the Scaliger, della Scala Family. Under the rule of the family, in particular of Cangrande I della Scala, the city experienced great prosperity, becoming rich and powerful and being surrounded by new walls. The Della Scala era is survived in numerous monuments around Verona. Two of William Shakespeare's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing, and the basis for biographies of several Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Vasari designed the ''Tomb of Michelangelo'' in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence that was completed in 1578. Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto's new manner of painting as a ''rinascita'' (rebirth), author Jules Michelet in his ''Histoire de France'' (1835) suggested adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term ''Renaissance'' (rebirth, in French) to distinguish the cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and still is in use today. Life Vasari was born prematurely on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo, Tuscany. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco I De' Medici
Francesco I (25 March 1541 – 19 October 1587) was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was a member of the House of Medici. Biography Born in Florence, Francesco was the son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor of Toledo. He served as regent for his father Cosimo after he retired from his governing duties in 1564. Marriage to Joanna of Austria On 18 December 1565, Francesco married Joanna of Austria, youngest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and his wife Anne of Bohemia and Hungary. By all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful. In 1578, Joanna died at the age of thirty-one, after falling down a flight of stairs while pregnant with their eighth child. Bianca Cappello Soon after Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco went on to marry his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, after aptly disposing of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorenzo De' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (''Lorenzo il Magnifico'' ) by contemporary Florentines, he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets. As a patron, he is best known for his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. He held the balance of power within the Italic League, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on the Italian peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with the mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the Golden Age of Florence. On the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan to stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in the name of the balance of the Italian League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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