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Spring (painting)
''Spring'' is an 1894 oil-on-canvas painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, which has been in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, since 1972. The painting relates the Victorian custom of children collecting flowers on May Day back to an Ancient Roman spring festival, perhaps Cerealia or Floralia or Ambarvalia, although the details depicted in the painting do not correspond to any single Roman festival. It was the inspiration for the scene of Julius Caesar's triumphal entry into Rome in the 1934 film ''Cleopatra''. Description The tall narrow painting depicts a procession of women and children along a Roman street and down some marble steps. Spectators cheer from the classical buildings of polychrome marble to either side, some throwing down flowers. The participants in the procession are garlanded with bright flowers, with some also bearing baskets of flowers or branches of blossom, and other playing musical instruments: a flute, pan pipes, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in London, England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters. Though admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, his work fell into disrepute after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been re-evaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century British art. Biography Early life Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capriccio (art)
In painting, a capriccio (, plural: ''capricci'' ; in older English works often anglicized as "caprice") means an architectural fantasy, placing together buildings, archaeological ruins and other architectural elements in fictional and often fantastical combinations. These paintings may also include staffage (figures). Capriccio falls under the more general term of landscape painting. This style of painting was introduced in the Renaissance and continued into the Baroque. By the late 18th century the term, had expanded to mean any image with an equivalent degree of fantasy, for example as used in the titles of print series by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Goya, both of which focus on figures rather than architecture. The term is also used for other types of art with an element of fantasy (as capriccio in music). Capriccio Style There are several etymologies that have been put forward for "capriccio", one of which being derived from the Italian word "capretto" which roughly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. Several historical people are featured in his poems, such as Sappho ("Sapphics"), Anactoria ("Anactoria"), and Catullus ("To Catullus"). Biography Swinburne was born at 7 Chester Street, Grosvenor Place, London, on 5 April 1837. He was the eldest of six children born to Captain (later Admiral) Charles Henry Swinburne (1797–1877) and Lady Jane Henrietta, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, a wealthy Northumbrian family. He grew up at East Dene in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. The Swinburnes also had a London home at Whitehall G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried under of volcanic ash and pumice in the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Largely preserved under the ash, the excavated city offered a unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried, although much of the detailed evidence of the everyday life of its inhabitants was lost in the excavations. It was a wealthy town, with a population of ca. 11,000 in AD 79, enjoying many fine public buildings and luxurious private houses with lavish decorations, furnishings and works of art which were the main attractions for the early excavators. Organic remains, including wooden objects and human bodies, were interred in the ash. Over time, they decayed, leaving voids that archaeologists found could be used as moulds to make plaste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equestrian Statue
An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a difficult and expensive object for any culture to produce, and figures have typically been portraits of rulers or, in the Renaissance and more recently, military commanders. History Ancient Greece Equestrian statuary in the West dates back at least as far as Archaic Greece. Found on the Athenian acropolis, the sixth century BC statue known as the Rampin Rider depicts a ''kouros'' mounted on horseback. Ancient Middle and Far East A number of ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Persian reliefs show mounted figures, usually rulers, though no free standing statues are known. The Chinese Terracotta Army has no mounted riders, though cavalrymen stand beside their mounts, but smaller Tang Dynasty pottery tomb Qua figures often include them, at a rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Centaurs
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being as wild as untamed horses, and were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. Centaurs are subsequently featured in Roman mythology, and were familiar figures in the medieval bestiary. They remain a staple of modern fantastic literature. Etymology The Greek word ''kentauros'' is generally regarded as being of obscure origin. The etymology from ''ken'' + ''tauros'', 'piercing bull', was a euhemerist suggestion in Palaephatus' rationalizing text on Greek mythology, ''On Incredible Tales'' (Περὶ ἀπίστων), which included mounted archers from a village called ''Nephele'' eliminating a herd of bulls that were the scourge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lapiths
The Lapiths (; grc, Λαπίθαι) are a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, whose home was in Thessaly, in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion. Mythology Origin The Lapiths were an Aeolian tribe who, like the Myrmidons, were natives of Thessaly. The genealogies make them a kindred people with the centaurs: In one version, Lapithes (Λαπίθης) and Centaurus (Κένταυρος) were said to be twin sons of the god Apollo and the nymph Stilbe, daughter of the river god Peneus. Lapithes was a valiant warrior, but Centaurus was a deformed being who later mated with mares from whom the race of half-man, half-horse centaurs came. Lapithes was the eponymous ancestor of the Lapith people, and his descendants include Lapith warriors and kings, such as Ixion, Pirithous, Caeneus, and Coronus, and the seers Ampycus and his son Mopsus. In the ''Iliad'' the Lapiths send forty crewed ships to join the Greek fleet in the Trojan War, commanded by Polypoetes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taurus (astrology)
Taurus () is the second astrological sign in the modern zodiac. It spans from 30° to 60° of the zodiac. This sign belongs to the Earth element or triplicity, and has a feminine or negative polarity, as well as a fixed modality, quality, or quadruplicity. It is a Venus-ruled sign along with Libra. The Moon is in its exaltation here at exactly 3°. The Sun transits this sign from approximately April 20 until May 20 in western astrology. History The sign of Taurus is associated with several myths and bull worship from several ancient cultures. It was the first sign of the zodiac established among the Mesopotamians, who called it "The Great Bull of Heaven," as it was the constellation through which the Sun rose on the vernal equinox at that time, that is the Early Bronze Age, from about 4000 BC to 1700 BC. Astrological associations Taurus is the fixed modality of the three earth signs, the others being Virgo and Capricorn. See also *Astronomical symbols *Chinese zodia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aries (astrology)
Aries () (Greek: Κριός riós Latin for "ram") is the first astrological sign in the zodiac, spanning the first 30 degrees of celestial longitude (0°≤ <30°), and originates from the Aries constellation. Under the tropical zodiac, the Sun transits this sign from approximately March 21 to April 19 each year. This time duration is exactly the first month of the (Arabic Hamal/Persian /Pashto Wray). According to the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arch Of Constantine
The Arch of Constantine ( it, Arco di Costantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome dedicated to the emperor Constantine the Great. The arch was commissioned by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in AD 312. Situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, the arch spans the ''Via Triumphalis'', the route taken by victorious military leaders when they entered the city in a triumphal procession. Dedicated in 315, it is the largest Roman triumphal arch, with overall dimensions of high, wide and deep. It has three bays, the central one being high and wide and the laterals by each. The arch is constructed of brick-faced concrete covered in marble. The three bay design with detached columns was first used for the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum (which stands at the end of the triumph route) and repeated in several other arches now lost. Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the sculptural decoratio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently filled with decorative elements. Meaning There are four or five accepted and cognate meanings of the term ''spandrel'' in architectural and art history, mostly relating to the space between a curved figure and a rectangular boundary – such as the space between the curve of an arch and a rectilinear bounding moulding, or the wallspace bounded by adjacent arches in an arcade and the stringcourse or moulding above them, or the space between the central medallion of a carpet and its rectangular corners, or the space between the circular face of a clock and the corners of the square revealed by its hood. Also included is the space under a flight of stairs, if it is not occupied by another flight of stairs. In a building with more than one floor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
