The Agony And The Ecstasy (novel)
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The Agony And The Ecstasy (novel)
''The Agony and the Ecstasy'' (1961) is a biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti written by American author Irving Stone. Stone lived in Italy for years visiting many of the locations in Rome and Florence, worked in marble quarries, and apprenticed himself to a marble sculptor. A primary source for the novel is Michelangelo's correspondence, all 495 letters of which Stone had translated from Italian by Charles Speroni and published in 1962 as ''I, Michelangelo, Sculptor''. Stone also collaborated with Canadian sculptor Stanley Lewis, who researched Michelangelo's carving technique and tools. The Italian government lauded Stone with several honorary awards for his cultural achievements highlighting Italian history. Stone wrote a dozen biographical novels, but this one and ''Lust for Life'' (1934) are best known, in large part because both had major Hollywood film adaptations. Part of the 1961 novel was adapted to film in '' The Agony and the Ecstasy'' (1965), starring Ch ...
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ...
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Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of ''My Fair Lady'' in 1957. In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy '' Storm in a Teacup'' (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in ''Major Barbara'' (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included '' Blithe Spirit'' (1945), '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1946), ''The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'' (1947), ''Cleopatra'' (1963), ''My Fair Lady'' (1964), reprising his ...
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Bacchus (Michelangelo)
''Bacchus'' (1496–1497) is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet Michelangelo. The statue is somewhat over life-size and represents Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, in a reeling pose suggestive of drunkenness. Commissioned by Raffaele Riario, a high-ranking Cardinal and collector of antique sculpture, it was rejected by him and was bought instead by Jacopo Galli, Riario's banker and a friend to Michelangelo. Together with the ''Pietà'', the ''Bacchus'' is one of only two surviving sculptures from the artist's first period in Rome. Description Bacchus is depicted with rolling eyes, his staggering body almost teetering off the rocky outcrop on which he stands. Sitting behind him is a satyr, who eats the bunch of grapes slipping out of Bacchus's left hand. With its swollen breast and abdomen, the figure of Bacchus suggested to Giorgio Vasari "both the slenderness of a young man and the fleshiness and roundness of a woman", and ...
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Raffaele Riario
Raffaele Sansoni Galeoti Riario (3 May 1461 – 9 July 1521) was an Italian Cardinal of the Renaissance, mainly known as the constructor of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and the person who invited Michelangelo to Rome. He was a patron of the arts. He was also the first adolescent to be elevated in the College of Cardinals in the history of the Holy See. Early career and Pazzi Conspiracy Born in poverty in Savona, Riario was the son of Antonio Sansoni and Violante Riario, a niece of Francesco della Rovere, who became Pope Sixtus IV in 1471. Being the relative of a Pope Sixtus IV, he was created Cardinal of San Giorgio in Velabro on 10 December 1477 and was named Administrator of several dioceses: (diocese of Cuenca, diocese of Pisa, diocese of Salamanca, diocese of Treguier, diocese of Osma). These gave him a handsome income, and no obligations except to appoint a vicar. He was then only sixteen years old and a student of canon law at the University of Pisa. While returnin ...
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Crucifix (Michelangelo)
Two different crucifixes, or strictly, wooden ''corpus'' figures for crucifixes, are attributed to the High Renaissance master Michelangelo, although neither is universally accepted as his. Both are relatively small figures which would have been produced in Michelangelo's youth. Santo Spirito figure One is a polychrome wood sculpture possibly finished in 1492 which had been lost from view by scholars until it re-emerged in 1962; in 2001 new investigations appeared to confirm the attribution to Michelangelo. It was perhaps made for the high altar of the Church of Santo Spirito di Firenze in Florence, Italy. The work is especially notable for the fact that this Christ is naked. History Michelangelo Buonarroti was a guest of the convent of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito (Florence) when he was seventeen years old, after the death of his protector Lorenzo de' Medici. Here he could make anatomical studies of the corpses coming from the convent's hospital; in exchange, he is said to ...
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Santo Spirito, Florence
The Basilica di Santo Spirito ("Basilica of the Holy Spirit") is a church in Florence, Italy. Usually referred to simply as Santo Spirito, it is located in the Oltrarno quarter, facing the square with the same name. The interior of the building – internal length 97 meters – is one of the preeminent examples of Renaissance architecture. History Early history The land for the Augustinian church and convent was donated by Speziale and Acolti to Aldebrandino, a prior of the Augustinian establishment in Arcetri in 1250. The plot was located on the south bank of Arno in the ''sesto'' (one of the six ''sestieri'' of Florence) Oltrarno, within the communal walls of 1173–1175, but in a sparsely populated area. It became more accessible with construction of the Holy Trinity bridge (Ponte Santa Trinita) in 1252. The Augustinians started the church and the convent in the same year, incorporating an old church of San Romolo in the complex. It was originally dedicated to Mary, All ...
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Girolamo Savonarola
Girolamo Savonarola, OP (, , ; 21 September 1452 – 23 May 1498) or Jerome Savonarola was an Italian Dominican friar from Ferrara and preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He was known for his prophecies of civic glory, the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor. In September 1494, when Charles VIII of France invaded Italy and threatened Florence, such prophecies seemed on the verge of fulfilment. While Savonarola intervened with the French king, the Florentines expelled the ruling Medicis and, at the friar's urging, established a "popular" republic. Declaring that Florence would be the New Jerusalem, the world centre of Christianity and "richer, more powerful, more glorious than ever", he instituted an extreme puritanical campaign, enlisting the active help of Florentine youth. In 1495 when Florence refused to join Pope Alexander VI's Holy League agai ...
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Battle Of The Centaurs (Michelangelo)
''Battle of the Centaurs'' is a relief sculpture by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo, created around 1492. It was the last work Michelangelo created while under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, who died shortly after its completion. Inspired by a classical relief created by Bertoldo di Giovanni, the marble sculpture represents the mythic battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. A popular subject of art in ancient Greece, the story was suggested to Michelangelo by the classical scholar and poet Poliziano. The sculpture is exhibited in the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy. ''Battle of the Centaurs'' was a remarkable sculpture in several ways, presaging Michelangelo's future sculptural direction. Michelangelo had departed from the then current practices of working on a discrete plane to work multidimensionally. It was also the first sculpture Michelangelo created without the use of a bow drill and the first sculpture to reach such a state of completion with t ...
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Madonna Of The Steps
The ''Madonna of the Stairs'' (or ''Madonna of the Steps'') is a relief sculpture by Michelangelo in the Casa Buonarroti, Florence. It was sculpted around 1490, when Michelangelo was about fifteen. This and the ''Battle of the Centaurs'' were Michelangelo's first two sculptures. The first reference to the ''Madonna of the Stairs'' as a work by Michelangelo was in the 1568 edition of Giorgio Vasari's ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects''.Madonna of the stairs in Casa Buonarroti The sculpture is exhibited at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy. Description The work is an obvious homage to the stiacciato low reliefs of Donatello, as Vasari also noted, both in technique and sizes plans with millimeter thickness variations, both in iconography, starting from the scale pattern with pronounced steps and handrails foreshortened, visible for example in the ''Feast of Herod'' in Lille. The figure of the Madonna, sitting on a square stone block, and in prof ...
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Platonic Academy (Florence)
The Accademia Platonica di Firenze or Platonic Academy of Florence was an informal discussion group which formed around Marsilio Ficino in the Florentine Renaissance of the fifteenth century. History In about 1462 Cosimo de' Medici established the young Marsilio Ficino at Montevecchio, a villa close to his own Villa di Careggi in the Florentine countryside. There Ficino, who was an ardent Neo-Platonist, was to study ancient Greek and work on translating the works of Plato into Latin. Ficino became the central figure of an informal group of people interested in his work, who both corresponded and met for intellectual discussions at Montevecchio, at Careggi, or perhaps in Florence itself. It was never a formal body – it had no statutes and kept no records of membership – and there is no contemporary evidence that it was ever known as a "Platonic academy". Arnaldo della Torre identified about a hundred people as participants in the group, among them Alessandro Braccesi, Dem ...
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Head Of A Faun
''Head of a Faun'' is a lost sculpture by Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo, dating from c. 1489. His first known work of sculpture in marble, it was sculpted when he was 15 or 16 as a copy of an antique work with some minor alterations. According to Giorgio Vasari's biography of the artist, it was the creation of this work that secured the young Michelangelo the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici. See also *List of works by Michelangelo Sources *''Artists Life — Michelangelo'', page 14,15 — Enrica Crispino, 2001, Giunti Editore. *''The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti'', page 23 — John Addington Symonds, BiblioBazaar. *''Michael Angelo: Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists'', Fordham University External links ''The Boy Michelangelo carving the Head of the Faun''- Sculpture of Cesare Zocchi (end of nineteenth century). It is in Casa Buonarroti Casa Buonarroti is a museum in Florence, Italy. The building was a property owned by the sculptor Michelangelo, which he le ...
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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 ...
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