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Passemant Astronomical Clock
The Passemant astronomical clock is an astronomical clock designed by Claude-Simeon Passemant in the eighteenth century. It is displayed in the ''Salon de la pendule'' in the petit appartement du roi on the first floor of Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France. The clock set the official time in France for the first time in the kingdom's history. Description The clock is an exceptional rococo work over in height, crowned with a moving celestial sphere. It shows the date, time, real time average phases of the moon and Heliocentrism, Copernican planetary motion. The large astronomical dials mark the rising and setting of the sun and moon every day. Earth is represented by a bronze globe on which all countries are engraved with the main cities. This globe is placed among the rocks and waterfalls, which serve as a universal horizon. The mechanism is designed to be able to display the date until the end of the year 9999. Creators The clock mechanism was designed by engineer Claude ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philippe Caffieri (1714–1774)
Philippe Caffiéri (1714–1774) was a French sculptor. The son of Jacques Caffieri, he was received as a ''maître fondeur-ciseleur'', joined his father's workshop and sometimes signed his independent works, especially after the death of his father in 1755, P.CAFFIERI. The younger Philippe's style was gradually modified by the new taste for Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was .... Like his father, he drew large sums from the crown, usually after giving many years credit, while many other years were needed by his heirs to get in the balance of the royal indebtedness. References 1714 births 1774 deaths 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 18th-century French male artists {{France-sculptor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnomon Of Saint-Sulpice
The Gnomon of Saint-Sulpice is an astronomical measurement device located in the Church of Saint-Sulpice (''Église Saint-Sulpice'') in Paris, France. It is a gnomon, a device designed to cast a shadow on the ground in order to determine the position of the sun in the sky. In early modern times, other gnomons were also built in several Italian and French churches in order to better calculate astronomical events. Those churches are Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, San Petronio in Bologna, and the Church of the Certosa in Rome. These gnomons ultimately fell into disuse with the advent of powerful telescopes.''The sun in the church: cathedrals as solar observatories'' J. L. Heilbron p.21/ref> Structure The gnomon of Saint-Sulpice is composed of different parts that span the breadth of the transept of the church. The Church itself is a huge building, the second largest church in Paris after Notre-Dame de Paris. The system is first built around a meridian, a line which is strictly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Ferdinand D'Albert D'Ailly
Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly (31 December 1714 – 23 September 1769), Duke of Picquigny and then Duke of Chaulnes from 1744, was a French astronomer, physicist and freemason. Early life Michel Ferdinand d'Albert d'Ailly was the younger son of Marie Anne Romaine de Beaumanoir and Louis Auguste d'Albert d'Ailly, 4th Duke of Chaulnes (1676–1744). His elder brother was Charles François d'Albert d'Ailly, 5th Duke of Chaulnes (1707–1731). His paternal grandfather was Charles Honoré d'Albert, 3rd Duke of Luynes. Among his cousins were Charles Philippe d'Albert de Luynes, the 4th Duke of Luynes as well as the astronomer Paul d'Albert de Luynes, Cardinal and Archbishop of Sens. Career He commanded the light cavalry of the ''Maison du Roi'' ( en, King's Household). In 1750 he became the king's commissioner to the Estates of Brittany and persuaded the assembly to accept the Vingtième tax. Scientific interests As an astronomer and physicist he was particularly interested i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Château De Choisy
The Château de Choisy was a royal French residence in the commune of Choisy-le-Roi in the Val-de-Marne department, not far from Paris. The commune was given its present name by Louis XV, when he purchased the manor of Choisy and its château in October 1739. The Château of La Grande Mademoiselle The site had been purchased well before 1680 by Louis XIV's first cousin Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier, "La Grande Mademoiselle". She laid out 40,000 ''livres'' for the property, and swept away an existing ''corps de logis'', according to her ''Mémoires'', and had a new house built to plans of Jacques Gabriel—"who made ''my'' house to ''my'' fashion" Mlle Montpensier noted, "without any ornament or 'architecture'" an assertion that overlooked sculptural enrichments in the pediment, by Étienne Le Hongre. The Château de Choisy was set in an elaborate series of gardens laid out by André Le Nôtre. He was called in before the few existing buildings were sw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis XV Of France
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) on 15 February 1723, the kingdom was ruled by his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom. His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715). In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Academy Of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academy of Sciences, Academies of Sciences. Currently headed by Patrick Flandrin (President of the Academy), it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France. History The Academy of Sciences traces its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose a small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, near the present-day Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque Nationals, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there in the two rooms assigned to the group. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence were relatively informal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Jacques Caffieri
Jean-Jacques Caffieri (29 April 1725 – 22 June 1792) was a French sculptor. He was appointed ''sculpteur du Roi'' to Louis XV and later afforded lodgings in the Galeries du Louvre. He designed the fine ''rampe d'escalier'' which still adorns the Palais Royal. He is better known for his portrait busts, in terracotta or marble: his bust of Madame du Barry is at the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. He made a name with his busts of Pierre Corneille and Jean Racine for the foyer of the Comédie Française. Life He was born in Paris and came from a family of sculptors from Italy, who had moved to France during cardinal Mazarin's regency. His father Jacques Caffieri and his elder brother Philippe Caffieri (1714-1774), Philippe Caffieri were also sculptors. Jean-Jacques remained unmarried and had no children. A pensionary at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1749 to 1753, as well as a student of François Lemoyne, he joined the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in France in 1757. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomical Clock
An astronomical clock, horologium, or orloj is a clock with special mechanisms and dials to display astronomical information, such as the relative positions of the Sun, Moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. Definition The term is loosely used to refer to any clock that shows, in addition to the time of day, astronomical information. This could include the location of the Sun and Moon in the sky, the age and Lunar phases, the position of the Sun on the ecliptic and the current zodiac sign, the sidereal time, and other astronomical data such as the Moon's nodes (for indicating eclipses) or a rotating star map. The term should not be confused with ''astronomical regulator'', a high precision but otherwise ordinary pendulum clock used in observatories. Astronomical clocks usually represent the Solar System using the geocentric model. The center of the dial is often marked with a disc or sphere representing the Earth, located at the center of the Solar Sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heliocentrism
Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at the center. The notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun had been proposed as early as the third century BC by Aristarchus of Samos, who had been influenced by a concept presented by Philolaus of Croton (c. 470 – 385 BC). In the 5th century BC the Greek Philosophers Philolaus and Hicetas had the thought on different occasions that our Earth was spherical and revolving around a "mystical" central fire, and that this fire regulated the universe. In medieval Europe, however, Aristarchus' heliocentrism attracted little attention—possibly because of the loss of scientific works of the Hellenistic period. It was not until the sixteenth century that a mathematical model of a heliocentric system was presented by the Renaissance mathema ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, and ''trompe-l'œil'' frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Louis XIV style. It was known as the "style Rocaille", or "Rocaille style". It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, Central Europe and Russia. It also came to influence the other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware, glassware, painting, music, and theatre. Although originally a secular style primarily used for interiors of private residences, the Rococo had a spiritual aspect to it which led to its widespread use in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
