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Victoria Memorial
The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building on the Maidan in Central Kolkata, built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, Empress of India from 1876 to 1901. The largest monument to a monarch anywhere in the world, it stands in 64 acres of gardens and is now a museum under the control of the Ministry of Culture. History Following the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, suggested that a fitting memorial to the late Queen-Empress should be created in Calcutta, now called Kolkata, then the capital of British India. He proposed the construction of a grand building with a museum and gardens. Curzon said, The government officials, princes, politicians, and people of India responded generously to Lord Curzon's appeal for funds, and the total cost of construction of the monument, amounting to one crore, five lakhs of Rupees (₹), was entirely derived from their voluntary subscriptions. The site c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Façade
A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, as it sets the tone for the rest of the building. From the engineering perspective, the façade is also of great importance due to its impact on Efficient energy use, energy efficiency. For historical façades, many local zoning regulations or other laws greatly restrict or even forbid their alteration. Etymology The word is a loanword from the French , which in turn comes from the Italian language, Italian , from meaning 'face', ultimately from post-classical Latin . The earliest usage recorded by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is 1656. Façades added to earlier buildings It was quite common in the Georgian architecture, Georgian period for existing houses in English towns to be give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, and the Supreme Court of India. New Delhi is a municipality within the NCT, administered by the NDMC, which covers mostly Lutyens' Delhi and a few adjacent areas. The municipal area is part of a larger administrative district, the New Delhi district. Although colloquially ''Delhi'' and ''New Delhi'' are used interchangeably to refer to the National Capital Territory of Delhi, both are distinct entities, with both the municipality and the New Delhi district forming a relatively small part of the megacity of Delhi. The National Capital Region is a much larger entity comprising the entire NCT along with adjoining districts in neighbouring states, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad. The foundation stone of New Delhi was l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal; it also houses the tomb of Shah Jahan himself. The tomb is the centrepiece of a complex, which includes a mosque and a guest house, and is set in formal gardens bounded on three sides by a crenellated wall. Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643, but work continued on other phases of the project for another 10 years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around ₹32 million, which in 2020 would be approximately 70 billion (about US $1 billion). The construction project employed some 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by the court architect to the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allegorical Sculpture
Allegorical sculpture are sculptures of personifications of abstract ideas as in allegory. Common in the western world, for example, are statues of Lady Justice representing justice, traditionally holding scales and a sword, and the statues of Prudence, representing Truth by holding a mirror and squeezing a serpent. This approach of using the human form and its posture, gesture, clothing and props to wordlessly convey social values and themes. It may be seen in funerary art as early as 1580. They were used on Renaissance monuments when patron saints became unacceptable. Particularly popular were the four cardinal virtues and the three Christian virtues, but others such as fame, victory, hope and time are also represented. The use of allegorical sculpture was fully developed under the École des Beaux-Arts. It is sometimes associated with Victorian art, and is commonly found in works dating from around 1900. Notable allegorical sculptures *The Four cardinal virtues, by Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nike (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nike (; grc, Νίκη, lit=victory, ancient: , modern: ) was a goddess who personified victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics. She is often portrayed in Greek art as Winged Victory in the motion of flight; however, she can also appear without wings as "Wingless Victory" when she is being portrayed as an attribute of another deity such as Athena.Suidas. ''The Suda on Line: Byzantine Lexicography''. Translated by Whitehead, David, et al. (2014). Accessed 9 December 2022. https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-html/ In Greek literature Nike is described as both an attribute and attendant to the gods Zeus and Athena. Nike gained this honored role beside Zeus during the Titanomachy where she was one of the first gods to offer her allegiance to Zeus. At Athens, Nike became a servant to Athena as well as an attribute of her due to the prominent status Athena held in her patron city. The fusion of the two goddesses at Athens has contributed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Jerome Esch
Vincent Jerome Esch, (20 July 1876 – 9 December 1950) was a British architect who worked in India. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Indo-Sarcenic architectural style, which developed during the British rule in the Indian subcontinent. Born in London, he moved to India in 1898, and was appointed assistant engineer on the Bengal Nagpur Railway before setting himself up as an architect in Calcutta. He was later appointed as the assistant to William Emerson, who had been chosen to design the monumental Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta. Esch was given the role of Superintending Architect and made major contributions to the design of the building. In 1914, he was invited to Hyderabad by the Nizam, to design some major public buildings. He designed the Kacheguda railway station, the High Court, the City College, and the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad. He was in Hyderabad until 1921, then returned to Calcutta. He later returned to England, and died in 1950. Early life an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Prain
Sir David Prain (11 July 1857 – 16 March 1944) was a Scottish botanist who worked in India at the Calcutta Botanical Garden and went on to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Life Born to David Prain, a saddler, and his wife Mary Thomson, in Fettercairn, Scotland, in 1857, Prain attended the Fettercairn Parish School and then Aberdeen Grammar School. He then studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, where he gained his M.A. in 1878. After teaching for two years at Ramsgate College, he returned to Aberdeen and thence to the University of Edinburgh, earning an MB ChM in 1883 with highest honours. He was demonstrator of anatomy at the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1882 and 1883, and at the University of Aberdeen in 1883 and 1884. In 1884 Prain was recommended to Sir George King (1840–1909), home on leave from his position as director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Calcutta and looking for a medical student with botanical interests to enter the Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Redesdale
Baron Redesdale, of Redesdale in the County of Northumberland, is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was firstly created in 1802 for lawyer and politician Sir John Mitford (later Freeman-Mitford). He was Speaker of the House of Commons between 1801 and 1802 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1802 and 1806. His only son, the second Baron, served as Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords from 1851 to 1886. In 1877, he was created Earl of Redesdale, in the County of Northumberland, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Lord Redesdale never married, and on his death in 1886 both titles became extinct. The Earl bequeathed his substantial estates to his first cousin twice removed, the diplomat, politician and writer Sir Algernon Freeman-Mitford, the great-grandson of historian William Mitford, who was the elder brother of the first Baron Redesdale. The Redesdale title was revived when Algernon Freeman-Mitford was raise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makrana Marble
Makrana marble is a type of white marble, popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It is mined in the town of Makrana in Rajasthan, India, and was used in the construction of several iconic monuments such as the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. The Makrana Marble is listed as a Global Heritage Stone Resource by International Union of Geological Sciences Geology In the Makrana area, marble is found as five steeply-dipping bands. They form part of the Ajmer Formation of the Delhi Supergroup, which is a sequence of sedimentary rocks that was deposited in the Delhi Basin during the Proterozoic. About 1450 Ma (million years ago) these rocks were affected by the Delhi Orogeny, causing the metamorphism that transformed the original limestones to marble and the folding that caused the steep dip and the current outcrop pattern. Properties Makrana is regarded as the oldest place in India with a marble quarry. Upon mining, Makrana marble is not subjected t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deccan Plateau
The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges. A rocky terrain marked by boulders, its elevation ranges between , with an average of about .Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2014), ''Deccan plateau India''Encyclopaedia Britannica/ref> It is sloping generally eastward. Thus, its principal rivers—the Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri (Cauvery)—flow eastward from the Western Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. The plateau is drier than the coastal region of southern India and is arid in places. It produced some of the major dynasties in Indian history, including the Pallavas, Satavahana, Vakataka, Chalukya, and Rashtrakuta dynasties, also the Western Chalukya Empire, the Kadambas, the Yadava dynasty, the Kakatiya Empire, the Musunuri Nayakas regime, the Vijayana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Egyptian Architecture
Spanning over three thousand years, ancient Egypt was not one stable civilization but in constant change and upheaval, commonly split into periods by historians. Likewise, ancient Egyptian architecture is not one style, but a set of styles differing over time but with some commonalities. The best known example of ancient Egyptian architecture are the Egyptian pyramids, while excavated temples, palaces, tombs, and fortresses have also been studied. Most buildings were built of locally available mud brick and limestone by levied workers. Monumental buildings were built using the post and lintel method of construction. Many buildings were aligned astronomically. Columns were typically adorned with capitals decorated to resemble plants important to Egyptian civilization, such as the papyrus plant. Ancient Egyptian architectural motifs have influenced architecture elsewhere, reaching the wider world first during the Orientalizing period and again during the nineteenth-century E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Venetian Gothic Architecture
Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading network. Very unusually for medieval architecture, the style is both at its most characteristic in secular buildings, and the great majority of survivals are secular. The best-known examples are the Doge's Palace, Venice, Doge's Palace and the Ca' d'Oro. Both feature loggias of closely spaced small columns, with heavy tracery with quatrefoil openings above, decoration along the roofline, and some coloured patterning to plain wall surfaces. Together with the ogee arch, capped with a relief ornament, and ropework reliefs, these are the most iconic characteristics of the style. Ecclesiastical Gothic architecture tended to be less distinctively Venetian, and closer to that in the rest of Italy. The beginning of the style probably goes ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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