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The Liechtenstein Garden Palace is a Baroque palace at the Fürstengasse in the 9th District of Vienna, Alsergrund . Between the palace, where the Liechtenstein Museum was until the end of 2011, and executed as Belvedere summer palace on the Alserbachstraße is a park. Since early 2012, the Liechtenstein Garden Palace is a place for events. Part of the private art collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein is still in the gallery rooms of the palace. In 2010 was started to call the palace, to avoid future confusion, officially the Garden Palace, since 2013 the city has renovated the Palais Liechtenstein (Stadtpalais) in Vienna's old town and then also equipped with a part of the Liechtenstein art collection.
Building
Design for the Liechtenstein Garden Palace, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in 1687/1688
Canaletto: View of Palais Liechtenstein
1687 bought Prince Johann Adam Andreas von Liechtenstein a garden with adjoining meadows of Count Weikhard von Auersperg in the Rossau. In the southern part of the property the prince had built a palace and in the north part he founded a brewery and a manorial, from which developed the suburb Lichtental. For the construction of the palace Johann Adam Andreas organised 1688 a competition, in the inter alia participating, the young Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Meanwhile, a little functional, " permeable " project was rejected by the prince but, after all, instead he was allowed to built a garden in the Belvedere Alserbachstraße 14, which , however, was canceled in 1872.
The competition was won by Domenico Egidio Rossi, but was replaced in 1692 by Domenico Martinelli. The execution of the stonework had been given the royal Hofsteinmetzmeister (master stonemason) Martin Mitschke. He was delivered by the Masters of Kaisersteinbruch Ambrose Ferrethi , Giovanni Battista Passerini and Martin Trumler large pillars, columns and pedestal made from stone Emperor (Kaiserstein). Begin of the contract was the fourth July 1689 , the total cost was around 50,000 guilders.
For contracts from the years 1693 and 1701 undertook the Salzburg master stonemason John and Joseph Pernegger owner for 4,060 guilders the steps of the great grand staircase from Lienbacher (Adnet = red) to supply marble monolith of 4.65 meters. From the Master Nicolaus Wendlinger from Hallein came the Stiegenbalustraden (stair balustrades) for 1,000 guilders.
A palazzo was built in a mix of city and country in the Roman-style villa. The structure is clear and the construction very blocky with a stressed central risalite, what served the conservative tastes of the Prince very much. According to the procedure of the architectural treatise by Johann Adam Andreas ' father, Karl Eusebius, the palace was designed with three floors and 13 windows axis on the main front and seven windows axis on the lateral front. Together with the stems it forms a courtyard .
Sala terrene of the Palais
1700 the shell was completed. In 1702, the Salzburg master stonemason and Georg Andreas Doppler took over 7,005 guilders for the manufacture of door frame made of white marble of Salzburg, 1708 was the delivery of the fireplaces in marble hall for 1,577 guilders. For the painted decoration was originally the Bolognese Marcantonio Franceschini hired, from him are some of the painted ceilings on the first floor. Since he to slow to the prince, Antonio Belucci was hired from Venice, who envisioned the rest of the floor. The ceiling painting in the Great Hall, the Hercules Hall but got Andrea Pozzo . Pozzo in 1708 confirmed the sum of 7,500 florins which he had received since 1704 for the ceiling fresco in the Marble Hall in installments. As these artists died ( Pozzo) or declined to Italy, the Prince now had no painter left for the ground floor.
After a long search finally Michael Rottmayr was hired for the painting of the ground floor - originally a temporary solution, because the prince was of the opinion that only Italian artist buon gusto d'invenzione had. Since Rottmayr was not involved in the original planning, his paintings not quite fit with the stucco. Rottmayr 1708 confirmed the receipt of 7,500 guilders for his fresco work.
Giovanni Giuliani, who designed the sculptural decoration in the window roofing of the main facade, undertook in 1705 to provide sixteen stone vases of Zogelsdorfer stone. From September 1704 to August 1705 Santino Bussi stuccoed the ground floor of the vault of the hall and received a fee of 1,000 florins and twenty buckets of wine. 1706 Bussi adorned the two staircases, the Marble Hall, the Gallery Hall and the remaining six halls of the main projectile with its stucco work for 2,200 florins and twenty buckets of wine. Giuliani received in 1709 for his Kaminbekrönungen (fireplace crowning) of the great room and the vases 1,128 guilders.
Garden
Liechtenstein Palace from the garden
The new summer palace of Henry of Ferstel from the garden
The garden was created in the mind of a classic baroque garden. The vases and statues were carried out according to the plans of Giuseppe Mazza from the local Giovanni Giuliani. In 1820 the garden has been remodeled according to plans of Joseph Kornhäusel in the Classical sense. In the Fürstengasse was opposite the Palais, the Orangerie, built 1700s.
Use as a museum
Already from 1805 to 1938, the palace was housing the family collection of the house of Liechtenstein, which was also open for public viewing, the collection was then transferred to the Principality of Liechtenstein, which remained neutral during the war and was not bombed. In the 1960s and 1970s, the so-called Building Centre was housed in the palace as a tenant, a permanent exhibition for builders of single-family houses and similar buildings. From 26 April 1979 rented the since 1962 housed in the so-called 20er Haus Museum of the 20th Century , a federal museum, the palace as a new main house, the 20er Haus was continued as a branch . Since the start of operations at the Palais, the collection called itself Museum of Modern Art (since 1991 Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation ), the MUMOK in 2001 moved to the newly built museum district.
From 29 March 2004 till the end of 2011 in the Palace was the Liechtenstein Museum, whose collection includes paintings and sculptures from five centuries. The collection is considered one of the largest and most valuable private art collections in the world, whose main base in Vaduz (Liechtenstein) is . As the palace, so too the collection is owned by the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation .
On 15 November 2011 it was announced that the regular museum operating in the Garden Palace was stopped due to short of original expectations, visiting numbers remaining lower as calculated, with January 2012. The Liechtenstein City Palace museum will also not offer regular operations. Exhibited works of art would then (in the city palace from 2013) only during the "Long Night of the Museums", for registered groups and during leased events being visitable. The name of the Liechtenstein Museum will no longer be used.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Liechtenstein_(F%C3%BCrstengasse)
One executed hole in a rock .. just opposite the Apparatus - Ananas Comosus .. mysterious goings on here .
Beerwah
Sunshine Coast
Japan (April 19, 2022) - Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) 1st Airborne Brigade soldiers execute a static line jump near Narashino training field, Japan, during a bilateral jump training with the 36th Airlift Squadron, April 19, 2022. The goal of this event is to improve interoperability between the USAF and JGSDF by defense and information exchanges to deepen mutual understanding of each unit, and to further cement the U.S. and Japanese alliance. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Gustavo Castillo) 220419-F-VI983-0211
** Interested in following U.S. Indo-Pacific Command? Engage and connect with us at www.facebook.com/indopacom | twitter.com/INDOPACOM | www.instagram.com/indopacom | www.flickr.com/photos/us-pacific-command; | www.youtube.com/user/USPacificCommand | www.pacom.mil/ **
I apologize profusely, for many reasons.
1: This is not the idea I had in mind; I was unable to execute the proper pic I wanted, due to reasons explained in a sec.
2: The explanation is going to be lengthy.
3: This is late, and I'm sorry. =( My Sunday was not a great day. Firstly, the time change (springing forward an hour) always throws me off, and this year caught me off guard more than usual. Secondly, I didn't feel well all day today. Not at all.
Anyway, let me explain....
I have been employed with my company for four and a half years.
Six months into working for them, I was promoted to being an assistant manager.
A year later, I transferred stores, because one closer to home opened up.
I have been unhappy with the company for a long, long time.
The environment has become unhealthy for me, wearing me down and making me hate myself. It doesn't help when other managers (less experienced) are given opportunities I've never been allowed (like going home when they're having bad days; I am just told to suck it up and leave my problems at the door when I have a bad day). And when I tell my manager that I am unhappy working the closing shift all the time, he says there's nothing he can do; when I tell him I'm unhappy working there, he blows it off.
....well......
I have decided that I am leaving my job.
Really.
Quitting in the face of a recession, with no other immediate means of an income.
It's ballsy, and some would say it's stupid. Or selfish.
But honestly, I am still young, and I don't have to work in an environment that only makes me unhappy and drags me down.
I already have an issue with self esteem, and when I spend 35-40 hours a week in an environment that makes me feel stuck and that I am not good enough for improvement, I feel that place to be cancerous and not worth my time.
So I am leaving.
My boss doesn't know yet; his nephew is in town, and, having filled the recently-evacuated position of Freight Manager, he is taking five days off.
It will be difficult, I know.
But when I wrote my notice out, and saw it in my own handwriting, I was instantly liberated.
I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. I smiled a bunch more that night, and was even joking around with customers more than I had in a very long time.
I have enough money in my account to pay for the rest of the bill I still owe, and with the date I have chosen (April 10th) I still have two and a half paychecks coming.
I have faith that everything will be ok.
Anyway, the photo is meant to show the hazardous conditions that carrying those keys has produced. Sometimes, they feel really freaking heavy. (And I don't mean literally.)
I imagined more of a LOTR-type thing happening on my neck (you know, when a certain hobbit starts showing physical symptoms of the One Ring's weight) and then Jake suggested that I add in some nasty skin conditions.
Since it wasn't going to be the photo I had in mind anyway (wrong background, wrong angle) I decided that we'd play with that idea and see what came of it.
I found the nasty skin condition here.
I will upload the proper pic when I get a chance; hopefully after I feel better.
Wellcome Institute, Euston Road, London
Portugese executioner's mask, 1500.
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain;
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
- Charles Tichborne, born 1558, executed 1586
2012 was the year I started taking London seriously again.
The executioner's mask would at once preserve the anonymity of the executioner and induce terror in the victim and watching audience. It emphasised that the execution was being carried out by a disembodied, depersonalised state, rather than by an individual human being. This mask was in use from about the year 1500 until the abolition of public executions in the middle of the 19th Century, when it was acquired by the collector Henry Wellcome.
The mask was first used at a time when Portugal was the world's major economic, military, and political power. In 1498, Vasco de Gama had established for the Portugese nation the most advantageous of the trading links with India, during the scramble for wealth between merchants of the major western European nations. Over the next four years came the conquest of the larger part of the South American continent, which gave Portugal its biggest colony, Brazil.
Due to a crisis of succession, the increasing rapprochement between Portugal and its nearest and biggest rival, Spain, led to a union of the two crowns in 1580, after which the two countries were governed as a single kingdom. However, union with Spain dragged Portugal into the conflict of European wars, including the loss of its great and long-standing alliance with England, and so in 1680 there was a revolution under the House of Braganza, which declared Portugal a free nation.
But Portugal's days of economic success were over, and it would never again be a great world power. During the 18th century perhaps a third of its population of two million left the country to settle in Brazil. The Industrial Revolution in Europe pushed Portugal's economic fortunes even further below those of its rivals. By the start of the 20th Century the nation was bankrupt, and in 1910 another revolution deposed the House of Braganza and replaced it with a constitutional monarchy.
Portugal's economic problems began to be addressed, but there was further misfortune in the European recession after the First World War, as Portugal's African colonies, among them Angola and Mozambique, failed to provide the benefits that other European nations were enjoying from their colonies. In 1932, Portugal's constitutional monarchy was overthrown and replaced by a fascist dictatorship under Antonio Salazar.
The fascist Salazar government ensured that Portugal remained neutral during the Second World War, as was neighbouring fascist Spain. Fascism ruled Portugal under Salazar for 41 years until his death in 1973, the longest period of fascist rule in any European country (by comparison, Spain was under fascist rule for 36 years, Italy for 21 years). Salazar's rule lasted even longer than the authoritarian rule in the countries of the former Soviet Bloc, with the exception of the Soviet Union itself.
The end of fascism in Portugal in 1973 also meant the end of the death penalty.
Officers investigating the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford have executed a series of warrants in Little Hulton and Eccles.
In the early hours of this morning, Friday 16 October 2015, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Salford Division searched nine properties throughout the division in the hunt for firearms linked to the recent shootings in the area.
The warrants were executed as part of a Project Gulf operation designed to tackle organised crime. Gulf is part of Programme Challenger, the Greater Manchester approach to tackling organised criminality across the region.
Seven men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, ranging from possession with intent to supply to handling stolen goods.
A significant amount of Class A and Class B drugs were seized as part of the operation, though no firearms were found.
Detective Inspector Alan Clitherow said: “This series of warrants are just one element of the continuing and relentless operation being orchestrated to tackle organised crime gangs in Salford.
“They came about as a result of the on-going investigation into the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford, including the horrific attack of young Christian Hickey and his mother Jayne.
“We wanted to show our communities that we are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for those responsible for the abhorrent attack on an innocent child and his mother, and that we will not stand for the spate of shootings taking place on our streets in recent weeks.
“But there is still more to do and, as with any fight against organised crime groups embedded in our city, we need residents to come to us with information so we can put a stop to this criminality.
“There has been much said about people breaking this wall of silence in Salford, and once again I urge people to search their consciences and please come forward.
“You could provide the information that may help prevent any further innocent lives being touched by this senseless violence, and prevent further children being injured by thugs that many people within Salford seem so intent on protecting.
“I want to stress that if you come forward with what you know, we can offer you complete anonymity and I assure you that you will have our full support. Or if you don’t feel you can talk to police but you have information, you can speak to Crimestoppers anonymously.”
A dedicated information hotline has been set up on 0161 856 9775, or people can also pass information on by calling 101, or the independent charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Deadpool Review – A well executed Superhero film with great comic scenes
Directed by: Tim Miller
Produced by:20 century Fox
Starring : Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Stefan Kapičić
Rating – 3.5 /5
Plot
Plot is simple and ba...
Officers investigating the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford have executed a series of warrants in Little Hulton and Eccles.
In the early hours of this morning, Friday 16 October 2015, officers from Greater Manchester Police’s Salford Division searched nine properties throughout the division in the hunt for firearms linked to the recent shootings in the area.
The warrants were executed as part of a Project Gulf operation designed to tackle organised crime. Gulf is part of Programme Challenger, the Greater Manchester approach to tackling organised criminality across the region.
Seven men and one woman have been arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, ranging from possession with intent to supply to handling stolen goods.
A significant amount of Class A and Class B drugs were seized as part of the operation, though no firearms were found.
Detective Inspector Alan Clitherow said: “This series of warrants are just one element of the continuing and relentless operation being orchestrated to tackle organised crime gangs in Salford.
“They came about as a result of the on-going investigation into the recent spate of firearms discharges in Salford, including the horrific attack of young Christian Hickey and his mother Jayne.
“We wanted to show our communities that we are leaving no stone unturned in the hunt for those responsible for the abhorrent attack on an innocent child and his mother, and that we will not stand for the spate of shootings taking place on our streets in recent weeks.
“But there is still more to do and, as with any fight against organised crime groups embedded in our city, we need residents to come to us with information so we can put a stop to this criminality.
“There has been much said about people breaking this wall of silence in Salford, and once again I urge people to search their consciences and please come forward.
“You could provide the information that may help prevent any further innocent lives being touched by this senseless violence, and prevent further children being injured by thugs that many people within Salford seem so intent on protecting.
“I want to stress that if you come forward with what you know, we can offer you complete anonymity and I assure you that you will have our full support. Or if you don’t feel you can talk to police but you have information, you can speak to Crimestoppers anonymously.”
A dedicated information hotline has been set up on 0161 856 9775, or people can also pass information on by calling 101, or the independent charity, Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Police have today executed a number of warrants as part of an investigation into a disturbance in Oldham.
This morning (Wednesday 27 November 2019) officers visited 14 properties across Oldham and Crumpsall as well as a property in West Yorkshire.
Warrants were executed at Oldham and Crumpsall
13 men aged between 15 and 40 years of age were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.
The action comes as part of Operation Woodville – a long-running investigation into serious public disorder occurring on Saturday 18 May 2019 in the Limeside area of Oldham.
As part of ongoing enquiries, police have released the images of (26) people that they want to speak to.
Chief Superintendent Neil Evans of GMP’s Territorial Commander with responsibility for Oldham said: “As the scale of this morning’s operation demonstrates, we continue to treat May’s disturbance with the upmost seriousness.
“We have been in liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service since the early stages of the investigation and a team of detectives has been working to identify those whose criminal behaviour resulted in the ugly scenes witnessed.
“Investigators have been working alongside key local partners as part of our extensive enquiries. Specialist detectives from our Major Investigations Team as well as local officers have been involved in hours of work assessing evidence and information received from the public.
“While we have made a number of arrests, our enquiries remain very much ongoing.
“In conjunction with this morning’s positive action, we have released a number of images of people who we want to speak to concerning their actions on 18 May 2019.
“As we have previously said, we understand and respect the right to peaceful protest and counter-protest. However we will not tolerate it when this crosses into criminal behaviour.
“Accordingly, we can and will respond when that line is crossed.
“It remains a line of enquiry that a number of those who were involved with the disorder had travelled to Oldham from outside Greater Manchester.
“As such, we are continuing to liaise with our partners in neighbouring forces.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those who have already been in touch with officers.
“We must continue to work together as a community and support the justice process so that criminal behaviour is appropriately and proportionately challenged.”
Information can be left with police on 0161 856 6551 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Hermann Herdtle (1848-1926)
Chest for the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry
Vienna, 1894
Execution: Kölbl and Threm, oil painting by Prof. Rudolf Rössler
Limewood, softwood
Executed for the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, at the expense of the Hoftiteltaxfonds endowwnment
Hermann Herdtle (1848-1926)
Truhe für das k. k. Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie
Wien, 1894
Ausführung: Kölbl und Threm, Ölgemälde von Prof. Rudolf Rössler
Lindenholz, Weichholz
H 854/1895, ausgeführt für das k. k. Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie, zu Kosten des Hoftiteltaxfonds
The history of the Austrian Museum of Applied Art/Contemporary Art
1863 / After many years of efforts by Rudolf Eitelberger decides emperor Franz Joseph I on 7 March on the initiative of his uncle archduke Rainer, following the model of the in 1852 founded South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum, London) the establishment of the "k.u.k. Austrian Museum for Art and Industry" and appoints Rudolf von Eitelberger, the first professor of art history at the University of Vienna director. The museum should be serving as a specimen collection for artists, industrialists, and public and as a training and education center for designers and craftsmen.
1864/ on 12th of May, opened the museum - provisionally in premises of the ball house next to the Vienna Hofburg, the architect Heinrich von Ferstel for museum purposes had adapted. First exhibited objects are loans and donations from the imperial collections, monasteries, private property and from the k.u.k. Polytechnic in Vienna. Reproductions, masters and plaster casts are standing value-neutral next originals.
1865-1897 / The Museum of Art and Industry publishes the journal Communications of Imperial (k.u.k.) Austrian Museum for Art and Industry .
1866 / Due to the lack of space in the ballroom the erection of an own museum building is accelerated. A first project of Rudolf von Eitelberger and Heinrich von Ferstel provides the integration of the museum in the project of imperial museums in front of the Hofburg Imperial Forum. Only after the failure of this project, the site of the former Exerzierfelds (parade ground) of the defense barracks before Stubentor the museum here is assigned, next to the newly created city park at the still being under development Rind Road.
1867 / Theoretical and practical training are combined with the establishment of the School of Applied Arts. This will initially be housed in the old gun factory, Währinger street 11-13/Schwarzspanier street 17, Vienna 9.
1868 / With the construction of the building at Stubenring is started as soon as it is approved by emperor Franz Joseph I. the second draft of Heinrich Ferstel.
1871 / The opening of the building at Stubering takes place after three years of construction, 15 November. Designed according to plans by Heinrich von Ferstel in the Renaissance style, it is the first built museum building at the Ring. Objects from now on could be placed permanently and arranged according to main materials. / / The School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) moves into the house at Stubenring. / / Opening of Austrian arts and crafts exhibition.
1873 / Vienna World Exhibition. / / The Museum of Art and Industry and the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts are exhibiting together at Stubenring. / / Rudolf von Eitelberger organizes in the framework of the World Exhibition the worldwide first international art scientific congress in Vienna, thus emphasizing the orientation of the Museum on teaching and research. / / During the World Exhibition major purchases for the museum from funds of the Ministry are made, eg 60 pages of Indo-Persian Journal Mughal manuscript Hamzanama.
1877 / decision on the establishment of taxes for the award of Hoftiteln (court titels). With the collected amounts the local art industry can be promoted. / / The new building of the School of Arts and Crafts, adjoining the museum, Stubenring 3, also designed by Heinrich von Ferstel, is opened.
1878 / participation of the Museum of Art and Industry as well as of the School of Arts and Crafts at the Paris World Exhibition.
1884 / founding of the Vienna Arts and Crafts Association with seat in the museum. Many well-known companies and workshops (led by J. & L. Lobmeyr), personalities and professors of the School of Arts and Crafts join the Arts and Crafts Association. Undertaking of this association is to further develop all creative and executive powers the arts and craft since the 1860s has obtained. For this reason are organized various times changing, open to the public exhibitions at the Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry. The exhibits can also be purchased. These new, generously carried out exhibitions give the club the necessary national and international resonance.
1885 / After the death of Rudolf von Eitelberger, Jacob von Falke, his longtime deputy, is appointed manager. Falke plans all collection areas al well as publications to develop newly and systematically. With his popular publications he influences significantly the interior design style of the historicism in Vienna.
1888 / The Empress Maria Theresa exhibition revives the contemporary discussion with the high Baroque in the history of art and in applied arts in particular.
1895 / end of directorate of Jacob von Falke. Bruno Bucher, longtime curator of the Museum of metal, ceramic and glass, and since 1885 deputy director, is appointed director.
1896 / The Vienna Congress exhibition launches the confrontation with the Empire and Biedermeier style, the sources of inspiration of Viennese Modernism.
1897 / end of the directorate of Bruno Bucher. Arthur von Scala, director of the Imperial Oriental Museum in Vienna since its founding in 1875 (renamed Imperial Austrian Trade Museum 1887), takes over the management of the Museum of Art and Industry. / / Scala wins Otto Wagner, Felician of Myrbach, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Alfred Roller to work at the museum and School of Arts and Crafts. / / The style of the Secession is crucial for the Arts and Crafts School. Scala propagates the example of the Arts and Crafts Movement and makes appropriate acquisitions for the museum's collection.
1898 / Due to differences between Scala and the Arts and Crafts Association, which sees its influence on the Museum wane, archduke Rainer puts down his function as protector. / / New statutes are written.
1898-1921 / The Museum magazine Art and Crafts replaces the Mittheilungen (Communications) and soon gaines international reputation.
1900 / The administration of Museum and Arts and Crafts School is disconnected.
1904 / The Exhibition of Old Vienna porcelain, the to this day most comprehensive presentation on this topic, brings with the by the Museum in 1867 definitely taken over estate of the "k.u.k. Aerarial Porcelain Manufactory" (Vienna Porcelain Manufactory) important pieces of collectors from all parts of the Habsburg monarchy together.
1907 / The Museum of Art and Industry takes over the majority of the inventories of the Imperial Austrian Trade Museum, including the by Arthur von Scala founded Asia collection and the extensive East Asian collection of Heinrich von Siebold .
1908 / Integration of the Museum of Art and Industry in the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Public Works.
1909 / separation of Museum and Arts and Crafts School, the latter remains subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Education. / / After three years of construction, the according to plans of Ludwig Baumann extension building of the museum (now Weiskirchnerstraße 3, Wien 1) is opened. The museum thereby receives rooms for special and permanent exhibitions. / / Arthur von Scala retires, Eduard Leisching follows him as director. / / Revision of the statutes.
1909 / Archduke Carl exhibition. For the centenary of the Battle of Aspern. / / The Biedermeier style is discussed in exhibitions and art and arts and crafts.
1914 / Exhibition of works by the Austrian Art Industry from 1850 to 1914, a competitive exhibition that highlights, among other things, the role model of the museum for arts and crafts in the fifty years of its existence.
1919 / After the founding of the First Republic it comes to assignments of former imperial possession to the museum, for example, of oriental carpets that are shown in an exhibition in 1920. The Museum now has one of the finest collections of oriental carpets worldwide.
1920 / As part of the reform of museums of the First Republic, the collection areas are delimited. The Antiquities Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is given away to the Museum of Art History.
1922 / The exhibition of glasses of classicism, the Empire and Biedermeier time offers with precious objects from the museum and private collections an overview of the art of glassmaking from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. / / Biedermeier glass serves as a model for contemporary glass production and designs, such as of Josef Hoffmann.
1922 / affiliation of the museal inventory of the royal table and silver collection to the museum. Until the institutional separation the former imperial household and table decoration is co-managed by the Museum of Art and Industry and is inventoried for the first time by Richard Ernst.
1925 / After the end of the directorate of Eduard Leisching, Hermann Trenkwald is appointed director.
1926 / The exhibition Gothic in Austria gives a first comprehensive overview of the Austrian panel painting and of arts and crafts of the 12th to 16th Century.
1927 / August Schestag succeeds Hermann Trenkwald as director.
1930 / The Werkbund (artists' organization) Exhibition Vienna, a first comprehensive presentation of the Austrian Werkbund, takes place on the occasion of the meeting of the Deutscher (German) Werkbund in Austria, it is organized by Josef Hoffmann in collaboration with Oskar Strnad, Josef Frank, Ernst Lichtblau and Clemens Holzmeister.
1931 / August Schestag concludes his directorate.
1932 / Richard Ernst is new director.
1936 and 1940 / In exchange with the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History), the museum at Stubenring gives away part of the sculptures and takes over arts and crafts inventories of the collection Albert Figdor and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
1937 / The Collection of the Museum of Art and Industry is newly set up by Richard Ernst according to periods. / / Oskar Kokoschka exhibition on the 50th birthday of the artist.
1938 / After the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria by Nazi Germany, the museum is renamed into "National Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna".
1939-1945 / The museums are taking over numerous confiscated private collections. The collection of the "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" in this way also is enlarged.
1945 / Partial destruction of the museum building by impact of war. / / War losses on collection objects, even in the places of rescue of objects.
1946 / The return of the outsourced objects of art begins. A portion of the during the Nazi time expropriated objects is returned in the following years.
1947 / The "State Museum of Arts and Crafts in Vienna" is renamed into "Austrian Museum of Applied Arts".
1948 / The "Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of St. Stephen" organizes the exhibition The St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Museum of Applied Arts. History, monuments, reconstruction.
1949 / The Museum is reopened after repair of the war damages.
1950 / As last exhibition under director Richard Ernst takes place Great art from Austria's monasteries (Middle Ages).
1951 / Ignaz Schlosser is appointed manager.
1952 / The exhibition Social home decor, designed by Franz Schuster, makes the development of social housing in Vienna again the topic of the Museum of Applied Arts.
1955 / The comprehensive archive of the Wiener Werkstätte (workshop) is acquired.
1955-1985 / The Museum publishes the periodical ancient and modern art .
1956 / Exhibition New Form from Denmark, modern design from Scandinavia becomes topic of the museum and model.
1957 / On the occasion of the exhibition Venini Murano glass, the first presentation of Venini glass in Austria, there are significant purchases and donations for the collection of glass.
1958 / End of the directorate of Ignaz Schlosser
1959 / Viktor Griesmaier is appointed as new director.
1960 / Exhibition Artistic creation and mass production of Gustavsberg, Sweden. Role model of Swedish design for the Austrian art and crafts.
1963 / For the first time in Europe, in the context of a comprehensive exhibition art treasures from Iran are shown.
1964 / The exhibition Vienna around 1900 (organised by the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna) presents for the frist time after the Second World War, inter alia, arts and crafts of Art Nouveau. / / It is started with the systematic work off of the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte. / / On the occasion of the founding anniversary offers the exhibition 100 years Austrian Museum of Applied Arts using examples of historicism insights into the collection.
1965 / The Geymüllerschlössel (small castle) is as a branch of the Museum angegliedert (annexed). Simultaneously with the building came the important collection of Franz Sobek - old Viennese clocks, made between 1760 and the second half of the 19th Century - and furniture from the years 1800 to 1840 in the possession of the MAK.
1966 / In the exhibition Selection 66 selected items of modern Austrian interior designers (male and female ones) are brought together.
1967 / The Exhibition The Wiener Werkstätte. Modern Arts and Crafts from 1903 to 1932 is founding the boom that continues until today of Austria's most important design project in the 20th Century.
1968 / To Viktor Griesmaier follows Wilhelm Mrazek as director.
1969 / The exhibition Sitting 69 shows at the international modernism oriented positions of Austrian designers, inter alia by Hans Hollein.
1974 / For the first time outside of China Archaeological Finds of the People's Republic of China are shown in a traveling exhibition in the so-called Western world.
1979 / Gerhart Egger is appointed director.
1980 / The exhibition New Living. Viennese interior design 1918-1938 provides the first comprehensive presentation of the spatial art in Vienna during the interwar period.
1981 / Herbert Fux follows Gerhart Egger as director.
1984 / Ludwig Neustift is appointed interim director. / / Exhibition Achille Castiglioni: designer. First exhibition of the Italian designer in Austria
1986 / Peter Noever is appointed director and starts with the building up of the collection contemporary art.
1987 / Josef Hoffmann. Ornament between hope and crime is the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect and designer.
1989-1993 / General renovation of the old buildings and construction of a two-storey underground storeroom and a connecting tract. A generous deposit for the collection and additional exhibit spaces arise.
1989 / Exhibition Carlo Scarpa. The other city, the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of the architect outside Italy.
1990 / exhibition Hidden impressions. Japonisme in Vienna 1870-1930, first exhibition on the theme of the Japanese influence on the Viennese Modernism.
1991 / exhibition Donald Judd Architecture, first major presentation of the artist in Austria.
1992 / Magdalena Jetelová domestication of a pyramid (installation in the MAK portico).
1993 / The permanent collection is newly put up, interventions of internationally recognized artists (Barbara Bloom, Eichinger oder Knechtl, Günther Förg, GANGART, Franz Graf, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Peter Noever, Manfred Wakolbinger and Heimo Zobernig) update the prospects, in the sense of "Tradition and Experiment". The halls on Stubenring accommodate furthermore the study collection and the temporary exhibitions of contemporary artists reserved gallery. The building in the Weiskirchner street is dedicated to changing exhibitions. / / The opening exhibition Vito Acconci. The City Inside Us shows a room installation by New York artist.
1994 / The Gefechtsturm (defence tower) Arenbergpark becomes branch of the MAK. / / Start of the cooperation MAK/MUAR - Schusev State Museum of Architecture Moscow. / / Ilya Kabakov: The Red Wagon (installation on MAK terrace plateau).
1995 / The MAK founds the branch of MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, in the Schindler House and at the Mackey Apartments, MAK Artists and Architects-in-Residence Program starts in October 1995. / / Exhibition Sergei Bugaev Africa: Krimania.
1996 / For the exhibition Philip Johnson: Turning Point designs the American doyen of architectural designing the sculpture "Viennese Trio", which is located since 1998 at the Franz-Josefs-Kai/Schottenring.
1998 / The for the exhibition James Turrell. The other Horizon designed Skyspace today stands in the garden of MAK Expositur Geymüllerschlössel. / / Overcoming the utility. Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstätte, the first comprehensive biography of the work of the designer of Wiener Werkstätte after the Second World War.
1999 / Due to the Restitution Act and the Provenance Research from now on numerous during the Nazi time confiscated objects are returned.
2000 / Outsourcing of Federal Museums, transformation of the museum into a "scientific institution under public law". / / The exhibition Art and Industry. The beginnings of the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna is dealing with the founding history of the house and the collection.
2001 / In the course of the exhibition Franz West: No Mercy, for which the sculptor and installation artist developed his hitherto most extensive work, the "Four lemurs heads" are placed at the bridge Stubenbrücke, located next to the MAK. / / Dennis Hopper: A System of Moments.
2001-2002 / The CAT Project - Contemporary Art Tower after New York, Los Angeles, Moscow and Berlin is presented in Vienna.
2002 / Exhibition Nodes. symmetrical-asymmetrical. The historical Oriental Carpets of the MAK presents the extensive rug collection.
2003 / Exhibition Zaha Hadid. Architecture. / / For the anniversary of the artist workshop, takes place the exhibition The Price of Beauty. 100 years Wiener Werkstätte. / / Richard Artschwager: The Hydraulic Door Check. Sculpture, painting, drawing.
2004 / James Turrell's MAKlite is since November 2004 permanently on the facade of the building installed. / / Exhibition Peter Eisenmann. Barefoot on White-Hot Walls, large-scaled architectural installation on the work of the influential American architect and theorist.
2005 / Atelier Van Lieshout: The Disciplinator / / The exhibition Ukiyo-e Reloaded presents for the first time the collection of Japanese woodblock prints of the MAK on a large scale.
2006 / Since the beginning of the year, the birthplace of Josef Hoffmann in Brtnice of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK Vienna as a joint branch is run and presents annually special exhibitions. / / The exhibition The Price of Beauty. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet House brings the objects of the Wiener Werkstätte to Brussels. / / Exhibition Jenny Holzer: XX.
2007/2008 / Exhibition Coop Himmelb(l)au. Beyond the Blue, is the hitherto largest and most comprehensive museal presentation of the global team of architects.
2008 / The 1936 according to plans of Rudolph M. Schindler built Fitzpatrick-Leland House, a generous gift from Russ Leland to the MAK Center LA, becomes with the aid of a promotion that granted the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department the MAK Center, center of the MAK UFI project - MAK Urban Future Initiative. / / Julian Opie: Recent Works / / The exhibition Recollecting. Looting and Restitution examines the status of efforts to restitute expropriated objects from Jewish property from museums in Vienna.
2009 / The permanent exhibition Josef Hoffmann: Inspiration is in the Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice opened. / / Exhibition Anish Kapoor. Shooting into the Corner / / The museum sees itself as a promoter of Cultural Interchange and discusses in the exhibition Global:lab Art as a message. Asia and Europe 1500-1700 the intercultural as well as the intercontinental cultural exchange based on objects from the MAK and from international collections.
2011 / After Peter Noever's resignation, Martina Kandeler-Fritsch takes over temporarily the management. / /
Since 1 September Christoph Thun-Hohenstein is director of the MAK and declares "change through applied art" as the new theme of the museum.
2012 / With future-oriented examples of mobility, health, education, communication, work and leisure, shows the exhibition MADE4YOU. Designing for Change, the new commitment to positive change in our society through applied art. // Exhibition series MAK DESIGN SALON opens the MAK branch Geymüllerschlössel for contemporary design positions.
2012/2013 / opening of the newly designed MAK Collection Vienna 1900. Design / Decorative Arts from 1890 to 1938 in two stages as a prelude to the gradual transformation of the permanent collection under director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein
2013 / SIGNS, CAUGHT IN WONDER. Looking for Istanbul today shows a unique, current snapshot of contemporary art production in the context of Istanbul. // The potential of East Asian countries as catalysts for a socially and ecologically oriented, visionary architecture explores the architecture exhibition EASTERN PROMISES. Contemporary Architecture and production of space in East Asia. // With a focus on the field of furniture design NOMADIC FURNITURE 3.0. examines new living without bounds? the between subculture and mainstream to locate "do-it-yourself" (DIY) movement for the first time in a historical context.
2014 / Anniversary year 150 years MAK // opening of the permanent exhibition of the MAK Asia. China - Japan - Korea // Opening of the MAK permanent exhibition rugs // As central anniversary project opens the dynamic MAK DESIGN LABORATORY (redesign of the MAK Study Collection) exactly on the 150th anniversary of the museum on May 12, 2014 // Other major projects for the anniversary: ROLE MODELS. MAK 150 years: from arts and crafts to design // // HOLLEIN WAYS OF MODERN AGE. Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and the consequences.
The Bridge and Cascade.
Grade I listed.
List Entry Number: 1335352
Cascade I Bridge and cascade. Designed with a single arch by Robert Adam in 1761. Redesigned, with three arches in 1764. Executed 1770- 1771. Ashlar. The bridge has three round-arched spans with moulded hoodmoulds. Fluted roundels in the spandrels. Projecting piers with apsed niches and moulded sill band. The tops of the piers with swags. Fluted frieze and dentil cornice. Balustraded parapet the balusters divided into three units per span. Cast iron balusters. Steep road approaches with the end walls curving outwards and downwards. End piers. Rubblestone cascade to east.
Listing NGR: SK3126840716
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1335352
The Bridge by Robert Adam
Kedleston Hall is an English country house in Kedleston, Derbyshire, approximately four miles north-west of Derby, and is the seat of the Curzon family whose name originates in Notre-Dame-de-Courson in Normandy. Today it is a National Trust property.
The Curzon family have owned the estate at Kedleston since at least 1297 and have lived in a succession of manor houses near to or on the site of the present Kedleston Hall. The present house was commissioned by Sir Nathaniel Curzon (later 1st Baron Scarsdale) in 1759. The house was designed by the Palladian architects James Paine and Matthew Brettingham and was loosely based on an original plan by Andrea Palladio for the never-built Villa Mocenigo. At the time a relatively unknown architect, Robert Adam was designing some garden temples to enhance the landscape of the park; Curzon was so impressed with Adam's designs, that Adam was quickly put in charge of the construction of the new mansion.
World War II
In 1939, Kedleston Hall was offered by Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale for use by the War Department.[1] Kedleston Hall provided various facilities during the period 1939–45 including its use as a mustering point and army training camp. It also formed one of the Y-stations used to gather Signals Intelligence via radio transmissions which, if encrypted, were subsequently passed to Bletchley Park for decryption.
National Trust
In the 1970s the estate was too expensive for the Curzon family to maintain. When Richard Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale died, his cousin Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale offered the estate to the nation in lieu of death duties. A deal was agreed with the National Trust that it should take over Kedleston while still allowing the family to live rent-free in the 23-room Family Wing, which contained an adjoining garden and two rent-free flats for servants or other family members.
External design
The design of the three-floored house is of three blocks linked by two segmentally curved corridors. The ground floor is rusticated, while the upper floors are of smooth-dressed stone. The central, largest block contains the state rooms and was intended for use only when there were important guests in the house. The East block was a self-contained country house in its own right, containing all the rooms for the family's private use, and the identical West block contained the kitchens and all other domestic rooms and staff accommodation. Plans for two more pavilions (as the two smaller blocks are known) of identical size, and similar appearance were not executed. These further wings were intended to contain, in the south east a music room, and south west a conservatory and chapel. Externally these latter pavilions would have differed from their northern counterparts by large glazed Serlian windows on the piano nobile of their southern facades. Here the blocks were to appear as of two floors only; a mezzanine was to have been disguised in the north of the music room block. The linking galleries here were also to contain larger windows, than on the north, and niches containing classical statuary.
If the great north front, approximately 107 metres in length, is Palladian in character, dominated by the massive, six-columned Corinthian portico, then the south front (illustrated right) is pure Robert Adam. It is divided into three distinct sets of bays; the central section is a four-columned, blind triumphal arch (based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome) containing one large, pedimented glass door reached from the rusticated ground floor by an external, curved double staircase. Above the door, at second-floor height, are stone garlands and medallions in relief. The four Corinthian columns are topped by classical statues. This whole centre section of the facade is crowned by a low dome visible only from a distance. Flanking the central section are two identical wings on three floors, each three windows wide, the windows of the first-floor piano nobile being the tallest. Adam's design for this facade contains huge "movement" and has a delicate almost fragile quality.
Gardens and grounds
The gardens and grounds, as they appear today, are largely the concept of Robert Adam. Adam was asked by Nathaniel Curzon in 1758 to "take in hand the deer park and pleasure grounds". The landscape gardener William Emes had begun work at Kedleston in 1756, and he continued in Curzon's employ until 1760; however, it was Adam who was the guiding influence. It was during this period that the former gardens designed by Charles Bridgeman were swept away in favour of a more natural-looking landscape. Bridgeman's canals and geometric ponds were metamorphosed into serpentine lakes.
Adam designed numerous temples and follies, many of which were never built. Those that were include the North lodge (which takes the form of a triumphal arch), the entrance lodges in the village, a bridge, cascade and the Fishing Room. The Fishing Room is one of the most noticeable of the park's buildings. In the neoclassical style it is sited on the edge of the upper lake and contains a plunge pool and boat house below. Some of Adam's unexecuted design for follies in the park rivalled in grandeur the house itself. A "View Tower" designed in 1760 – 84 feet high and 50 feet wide on five floors, surmounted by a saucer dome flanked by the smaller domes of flanking towers — would have been a small neoclassical palace itself. Adam planned to transform even mundane utilitarian buildings into architectural wonders. A design for a pheasant house (a platform to provide a vantage point for the game shooting) became a domed temple, the roofs of its classical porticos providing the necessary platforms; this plan too was never completed. Among the statuary in the grounds is a Medici lion sculpture carved by Joseph Wilton on a pedestal designed by Samuel Wyatt, from around 1760-1770.
In the 1770s, George Richardson designed the hexagonal summerhouse, and in 1800 the orangery. The Long Walk was laid out in 1760 and planted with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees. In 1763, it was reported that Lord Scarsdale had given his gardener a seed from rare and scarce Italian shrub, the "Rodo Dendrone".
The gardens and grounds today, over two hundred years later, remain mostly unaltered. Parts of the estate are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, primarily because of the "rich and diverse deadwood invertebrate fauna" inhabiting its ancient trees.
Title: Chapel erected on spot where Maximilian was executed June 19, 1867
Creator: Unknown
Date: 1902
Part Of: Tourist album: Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah
Place: Cerro de las Campanas, Queretaro, Queretaro, Mexico
Description: This is one of 287 photographs in an album entitled, 'Tourist Album: Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah.'
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: gelatin silver, part of 1 album (287 gelatin silver prints); 9 x 29 cm on 28 x 35 cm mount
File: ag2000_1304_44a_1_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information and to view in high resolution, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/mex/id/2430
View the Mexico: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints Collection
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard bearing no publisher's name. The card has an undivided back.
The memorial at Cawnpore (present-day Kanpur), was devised by Charlotte, Countess Canning (1817-61) and her sister Louisa Anne Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford (1818-91).
The figure of an angel was executed by Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805-67), and the church-like screen by Colonel Sir Henry Yule (1820-89) and C. B. Thornhill.
The Siege of Cawnpore
The Siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege, and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad.
However, their evacuation from Cawnpore turned into a massacre, and most of the men were killed. As an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore, 120 British women and children captured by the Sepoy forces were killed in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre. Their remains were thrown down a nearby well in an attempt to hide the evidence.
Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the angry Company forces engaged in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians. The murders greatly embittered the British rank-and-file against the Sepoy rebels, and inspired the war cry "Remember Cawnpore!".
Background to The Massacre
Cawnpore was an important garrison town for the East India Company forces. Located on the Grand Trunk Road, it lay on the approaches to Sindh (Sind), Punjab and Awadh (Oudh).
By June 1857, the Indian rebellion had spread to several areas near Cawnpore, namely Meerut, Agra, Mathura, and Lucknow. However, the Indian sepoys at Cawnpore initially remained loyal.
The British General at Cawnpore, Hugh Wheeler, knew the local language, had adopted local customs, and was married to an Indian woman. He was confident that the sepoys at Cawnpore would remain loyal to him, and sent two British companies to besieged Lucknow.
The British contingent in Cawnpore consisted of around nine hundred people, including around three hundred military men, around three hundred women and children, and about one hundred and fifty merchants, business owners, salesmen, engineers and others. The rest were the native servants, who left soon after the commencement of the siege.
In the case of a rebellion by the sepoys in Cawnpore, the most suitable defensive location for the British was the magazine located in the north of the city. It had thick walls, ample ammunition and stores, and also hosted the local treasury.
However, General Wheeler decided to take refuge in the south of the city, in an entrenchment composed of two barracks surrounded by a mud wall. There was a military building site to the south of Cawnpore, where nine barracks were being constructed at the dragoon barracks. The British soldiers found it difficult to dig deep trenches, as it was the hot summer season.
The area also lacked good sanitary facilities, and there was only one well, which would be exposed to enemy fire in the event of an attack. Also, there were several buildings overlooking the entrenchment that would provide cover for the attackers, allowing them to easily shoot down on the defenders.
General Wheeler's choice of this location to make a stand remains controversial, given the availability of safer and more defensible places in Cawnpore. It is believed that he was expecting reinforcements to come from the southern part of the city.
He also assumed that, in the event of a rebellion, the Indian troops would probably collect their arms, ammunition and money, and would head to Delhi. He therefore did not expect a long siege.
The Rebellion at Fatehgarh
The first sign of the rebellion at Cawnpore came in the form of a rebellion at Fatehgarh, a military station on the banks of the Ganges. To disperse the Indian troops away from Cawnpore, and lessen the chances of a rebellion, General Wheeler decided to send them on various "missions". On one such mission, he sent the 2nd Oudh Irregulars to Fatehgarh. On the way to Fatehgarh, General Wheeler's forces under the command of Fletcher Hayes and Lieutenant Barbour met two more Englishmen, Fayrer and Carey.
On the night of the 31st. May 1857, Hayes and Carey departed to a nearby town to confer with the local magistrate. After their departure, the Indian troops rebelled and decapitated Fayrer. Barbour was also killed, as he tried to escape.
When Hayes and Carey came back the next morning, an older Indian officer galloped towards them and advised them to run away. However, as the Indian officer explained the situation to them, the rebel Indian cavalry troopers raced towards them. Hayes was killed as he tried to ride away, while Carey escaped to safety.
The Outbreak of Rebellion at Cawnpore
There were four Indian regiments in Cawnpore: the 1st., 53rd. and 56th. Native Infantry, and the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry. Although the sepoys in Cawnpore had not rebelled, the European families began to drift into the entrenchment as the news of rebellion in the nearby areas reached them. The entrenchment was fortified, and the Indian sepoys were asked to collect their pay one by one, so as to avoid an armed mob.
The Indian soldiers considered the fortification, and the artillery being primed, as a threat. On the night of the 2nd. June 1857, a British officer named Lieutenant Cox fired on his Indian guard while drunk. Cox missed his target, and was thrown into jail for a night.
The very next day, a hastily convened court acquitted him, which led to discontent among the Indian soldiers. There were also rumours that the Indian troops were to be summoned to a parade, where they were to be massacred. All these factors influenced them to rebel against the East India Company rule.
The rebellion began at 1:30 am on the 5th. June 1857, with three pistol shots from the rebel soldiers of the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry. Elderly Risaldar-Major Bhowani Singh, who chose not to hand over the regimental colours and join the rebel sepoys, was subsequently cut down by his subordinates.
The 53rd. and 56th. Native Infantry, which were apparently the most loyal units in the area, were awoken by the shootings. Some soldiers of the 56th. attempted to leave. The European artillery assumed that they were also rebelling, and opened fire on them. The soldiers of the 53rd. were also caught in the crossfire.
The 1st Native Infantry rebelled and left in the early morning of the 6th. June 1857. On the same day, the 53rd. Native Infantry also went off, taking with them the regimental treasure and as much ammunition as they could carry. Around 150 sepoys remained loyal to General Wheeler.
After obtaining arms, ammunition and money, the rebel troops started marching towards Delhi to seek further orders from Bahadur Shah II, who had been proclaimed the Badshah-e-Hind ("Emperor of India"). The British officers were relieved, thinking that they would not face a long siege.
Nana Sahib's Involvement
Nana Sahib was the adopted heir to Baji Rao II, the former peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy. The East India Company had decided that the pension and honours of the lineage would not be passed on to Nana Sahib, as he was not a natural born heir.
Nana Sahib had sent his envoy Dewan Azimullah Khan to London, to petition the Queen against the Company's decision, but failed to evoke a favourable response. In May 1857, Nana Sahib arrived in Cawnpore with 300 soldiers, stating that he intended to support the British: Wheeler asked him to take charge of the government treasury in the Nawabganj area.
Amid the chaos in Cawnpore in 1857, Nana Sahib entered the British magazine with his contingent. The soldiers of the 53rd. Native Infantry, who were guarding the magazine, were not fully aware of the situation in the rest of the city.
They assumed that Nana Sahib had come to guard the magazine on behalf of the British, as he had earlier declared his loyalty to the British, and had even sent some volunteers to be at the disposal of General Wheeler. However, Nana Sahib had joined the rebels.
After taking possession of the treasury, Nana Sahib advanced up the Grand Trunk Road. His aim was to restore the Maratha Confederacy under Peshwa tradition, and he decided to capture Cawnpore. On his way, Nana Sahib met with rebel soldiers at Kalyanpur. The soldiers were on their way to Delhi, to meet Bahadur Shah II.
Nana Sahib initially decided to march to Delhi and fight the British as a Mughal subordinate, but Azimullah Khan advised him that leading the rebels in Kanpur would increase his prestige more than serving a weak Muslim king.
Nana Sahib asked the rebel soldiers to go back to Cawnpore, and help him in defeating the British. The rebels were reluctant at first, but decided to join Nana Sahib, when he promised to double their pay and reward them with gold, if they were to destroy the British entrenchment.
The Attack on Wheeler's Entrenchment
On the 5th. June 1857, Nana Sahib sent a polite note to General Wheeler, informing him that he intended to attack on the following morning, at 10 am.
On the 6th. June, Nana Sahib's forces (including the rebel soldiers) attacked the British entrenchment at 10:30 am. The British were not adequately prepared for the attack, but managed to defend themselves for a long time, as the attacking forces were reluctant to enter the entrenchment.
Nana Sahib's forces had been led to falsely believe that the entrenchment had gunpowder-filled trenches that would explode if they got closer.
As the news of Nana Sahib's advances against the British garrison spread, several of the rebel sepoys joined him. By the 10th. June, he was believed to be leading around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers.
Up to 1,000 British troops, their families and loyal sepoys were holed up in General Wheeler's entrenchment in Kanpur for three weeks in June 1857 where they were constantly bombarded by Nana Sahib's army.
The British held out in their makeshift fort for three weeks with little water and food supplies. Many died as a result of sunstroke and lack of water. As the ground was too hard to dig graves, the British would pile the dead bodies outside the buildings, and dump them inside a dried well during the night.
The lack of sanitation facilities led to spread of diseases such as dysentery and cholera, further weakening the defenders. There was also a small outbreak of smallpox, although this was relatively confined.
During the first week of the siege, Nana Sahib's forces encircled the entrenchment, created loopholes and established firing positions in the surrounding buildings. Captain John Moore of the 32nd. (Cornwall) Light Infantry countered this by launching night-time sorties.
Nana Sahib withdrew his headquarters to Savada House, situated about two miles away. In response to Moore's sorties, Nana Sahib decided to attempt a direct assault on the British entrenchment, but the rebel soldiers displayed a lack of enthusiasm.
On the 11th. June, Nana Sahib's forces changed their tactics. They started concentrated firing on specific buildings, firing endless salvos of round shot into the entrenchment. They successfully damaged some of the smaller barrack buildings, and also tried to set fire to the buildings.
The first major assault by Nana Sahib's side took place on the evening of the 12th. June. However, the attacking soldiers were still convinced that the British had laid out gunpowder-filled trenches, and did not enter the area.
On the 13th. June, the British lost their hospital building to a fire, which destroyed most of their medical supplies and caused the deaths of a number of wounded and sick artillerymen who burned alive in the inferno. The loss of the hospital was a major blow to the defenders.
Nana Sahib's forces gathered for an attack, but were repulsed by the canister shots from artillery under the command of Lieutenant George Ashe. By the 21st. June, the British had lost around a third of their numbers.
Wheeler's repeated messages to Henry Lawrence, the commanding officer in Lucknow, could not be answered as that garrison was itself under siege.
The Attack on the 23rd. June 1857
The sniper fire and the bombardment continued until the 23rd. June 1857, the 100th. anniversary of the Battle of Plassey, which took place on the 23rd. June 1757 and was one of the pivotal battles leading to the expansion of British rule in India.
One of the driving forces of the sepoy rebellion was a prophecy which predicted the downfall of East India Company rule in India exactly one hundred years after the Battle of Plassey. This prompted the rebel soldiers under Nana Sahib to launch a major attack on the British entrenchment on the 23rd. June 1857.
The rebel soldiers of the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry led the charge, but were repulsed with canister shot when they approached within 50 yards of the British entrenchment. After the cavalry assault, the soldiers of the 1st. Native Infantry launched an attack on the British, advancing behind cotton bales and parapets.
They lost their commanding officer, Radhay Singh, to the opening volley from the British. They had hoped to get protection from cotton bales; however, the bales caught fire from the canister shot, and became a hazard to them.
On the other side of the entrenchment, some of the rebel soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat against 17 British men led by Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson. By the end of the day, the attackers were unable to gain an entry into the entrenchment. The attack left over 25 rebel soldiers dead, with very few casualties on the British side.
Surrender of the British Forces
The British garrison had taken heavy losses as a result of successive bombardments, sniper fire, and assaults. It was also suffering from disease and low supplies of food, water and medicine.
General Wheeler's personal morale had been low, after his son Lieutenant Gordon Wheeler was decapitated by a roundshot. With the approval of General Wheeler, a Eurasian civil servant called Jonah Shepherd slipped out of the entrenchment in disguise to ascertain the condition of Nana Sahib's forces, but he was quickly imprisoned by the rebel soldiers.
At the same time, Nana Sahib's forces were wary of entering the entrenchment, as they believed that it had gunpowder-filled trenches. Nana Sahib and his advisers came up with a plan to end the deadlock. On the 24th. June, they sent a female European prisoner, Mrs Rose Greenway, to the entrenchment with their message.
In return for surrender, Nana Sahib promised the safe passage of the British to the Satichaura Ghat, a landing on the Ganges from which they could depart for Allahabad. General Wheeler rejected the offer, because it had not been signed, and there was no guarantee that the offer was made by Nana Sahib himself.
The next day, the 25th. June, Nana Sahib sent a second note, signed by himself, through another elderly female prisoner, Mrs Jacobi. The British camp divided into two groups – one in favour of continuing the defence, while the second group was willing to trust Nana Sahib.
During the next 24 hours, there was no bombardment by Nana Sahib's forces. Finally, General Wheeler decided to surrender, in return for a safe passage to Allahabad. After a day of preparation, and burying their dead, the British decided to leave for Allahabad on the morning of the 27th. June 1857.
The Satichaura Ghat Massacre
On the morning of the 27th. June, a large British column led by General Wheeler emerged from the entrenchment. Nana Sahib sent a number of carts and elephants to enable the women, the children and the sick to proceed to the river banks.
The British officers and military men were allowed to take their arms and ammunition with them, and were escorted by nearly the whole of the rebel army. The British reached the Satichaura Ghat by 8 am. Nana Sahib had arranged around forty boats, belonging to a boatman called Hardev Mallah, for their departure to Allahabad.
The Ganges river was unusually dry at the Satichaura Ghat, and the British found it difficult to drift the boats away. General Wheeler and his party were the first aboard, and the first to manage to set their boat off.
There was some confusion, as the Indian boatmen jumped overboard after hearing bugles from the banks, and started swimming towards the shore. As they jumped, some fires on the boats were knocked over, setting a few of the boats ablaze.
Though controversy surrounds what exactly happened next at the Satichaura Ghat, and who fired the first shot, soon afterwards, the departing British were attacked by the rebel sepoys, and were either killed or captured.
The British boats were stuck on mudbanks preventing departure and, amid much confusion, the soldiers were subsequently captured or massacred by Nana Sahib's rebel army.
On the 27th. June 1857 many British men lost their lives, and the surviving women and children were taken prisoner by the rebels. To see a photograph of the Satichaura Ghat, also known as the Massacre Ghat, please search for the tag 88CMG66
Some of the British officers later claimed that the rebels had placed the boats as high in the mud as possible, on purpose to cause delay. They also claimed that Nana Sahib's camp had previously arranged for the rebels to fire upon and kill all the British.
However although the East India Company later accused Nana Sahib of the betrayal and murder of innocent people, no evidence has ever been found to prove that Nana Sahib had pre-planned or ordered the massacre.
Some historians believe that the Satichaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana Sahib and his associates. Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson, one of the four male survivors of the massacre, believed that the rank-and-file sepoys who spoke to him did not know of the killing to come.
After the fighting began, Nana Sahib's general Tatya Tope allegedly ordered the 2nd. Bengal Cavalry unit and some artillery units to open fire on the British. The rebel cavalry moved into the water, to kill the remaining British soldiers with swords and pistols.
The surviving men were killed, while the women and children were taken into captivity, as Nana Sahib did not approve of their killing. Around 120 women and children were taken prisoner and escorted to Savada House, Nana Sahib's headquarters during the siege.
By this time, two of the boats had been able to drift away: General Wheeler's boat, and a second boat which was holed beneath the waterline by a roundshot fired from the bank. The British people in the second boat panicked and attempted to make it to General Wheeler's boat, which was slowly drifting to safer waters.
General Wheeler's boat had around sixty people aboard, and was being pursued down the riverbanks by the rebel soldiers. The boat frequently grounded on the sandbanks. On one such sandbank, Lieutenant Thomson led a charge against the rebel soldiers, and was able to capture some ammunition.
Next morning, the boat again stuck on a sandbank, resulting in another charge by Thomson and eleven British soldiers. After a fierce fight on shore, Thomson and his men decided to return to the boat, but it was not where they expected it to be.
Meanwhile, the rebels had launched an attack on the boat from the opposite bank. After some firing, the British men on the boat decided to fly the white flag. They were escorted off the boat and taken back to Savada house. The surviving British men were made to sit on the ground, and Nana Sahib's soldiers got ready to fire on them. Their wives insisted that they would die with their husbands, but were pulled away.
Nana Sahib granted the British chaplain Moncrieff's request to read prayers before they died. The British were initially wounded by the guns, and then killed with swords. The women and children were confined to Savada House, to be reunited later with their remaining colleagues, who had been captured earlier, at Bibighar.
Being unable to find the boat, Thomson's party decided to run barefoot to evade the rebel soldiers. The party took refuge in a small shrine, where Thomson led a last charge. Six of the British soldiers were killed, while the rest managed to escape to the riverbank, where they tried to escape by jumping into the river and swimming to safety.
However, a group of rebels started clubbing them as they reached the bank. One of the soldiers was killed, while the other four, including Thomson, swam back to the centre of the river. After swimming downstream for a few hours, they reached shore, where they were discovered by some Rajput matchlockmen, who worked for Raja Dirigibijah Singh, a British loyalist.
These carried the British soldiers to the Raja's palace. These four British soldiers were the only male survivors from the British side, apart from Jonah Shepherd (who had been captured by Nana Sahib before the surrender). The four men included two privates named Murphey and Sullivan, Lieutenant Delafosse, and Lieutenant (later Captain) Mowbray Thomson.
The men spent several weeks recuperating, eventually making their way back to Cawnpore which was, by that time, back under British control. Murphey and Sullivan both died shortly after from cholera, Delafosse went on to join the defending garrison during the Siege of Lucknow, and Thomson took part in rebuilding and defending the entrenchment a second time under General Windham, eventually writing a first-hand account of his experiences entitled The Story of Cawnpore (London, 1859).
Another survivor of the Satichaura Ghat massacre was Amy Horne, a 17-year-old Anglo-Indian girl. She had fallen from her boat and had been swept downstream during the riverside massacre. Soon after scrambling ashore she met up with Wheeler's youngest daughter, Margaret.
The two girls hid in the undergrowth for a number of hours until they were discovered by a group of rebels. Margaret was taken away on horseback, never to be seen again (it was later rumoured that she survived and was married to a Muslim soldier) and Amy was led to a nearby village where she was taken under the protection of a Muslim rebel leader in exchange for converting to Islam. Just over six months later, she was rescued by Highlanders from Sir Colin Campbell's column on their way to relieve Lucknow.
The Bibighar Massacre
The surviving British women and children were moved from the Savada House to Bibighar ("The House of the Ladies"), a villa-type house in Cawnpore. Initially, around 120 women and children were confined to Bibighar. They were later joined by some other women and children, the survivors from General Wheeler's boat. Another group of British women and children from Fatehgarh, and some other captive European women were also confined to Bibighar. In total, there were around 200 women and children in Bibighar.
Nana Sahib placed the care of these survivors under a sex worker called Hussaini Khanum. She put the captives to grinding corn for chapatis. Poor sanitary conditions at Bibighar led to deaths from cholera and dysentery.
Nana Sahib decided to use these prisoners for bargaining with the East India Company. The Company forces, consisting of around 1,000 British, 150 Sikh soldiers and 30 irregular cavalry, had set out from Allahabad, under the command of General Henry Havelock, to retake Cawnpore and Lucknow.
The first relief force assembled under Havelock included the 64th. Regiment of Foot and the 78th. Highlanders, the 5th. Fusiliers, part of the 90th. Light Infantry, the 84th. (York and Lancaster), and EIC Madras European Fusiliers, brought up to Calcutta from Madras.
Havelock's initial forces were later joined by the forces under the command of Major Renaud and Colonel James Neill, which had arrived from Calcutta to Allahabad on the 11th. June. Nana Sahib demanded that the East India Company forces under General Havelock and Colonel Neill retreat to Allahabad. However, the Company forces advanced relentlessly towards Cawnpore. Nana Sahib sent an army to check their advance. The two armies met at Fatehpur on the 12th. July, where General Havelock's forces emerged victorious and captured the town.
Nana Sahib then sent another force under the command of his brother, Bala Rao. On the 15th. July, the British forces under General Havelock defeated Bala Rao's army in the Battle of Aong, just outside the Aong village.
On the 16th. July, Havelock's forces started advancing towards Cawnpore. During the Battle of Aong, Havelock was able to capture some of the rebel soldiers, who informed him that there was an army of 5,000 rebel soldiers with 8 artillery pieces further up the road. Havelock decided to launch a flank attack on this army, but the rebel soldiers spotted the flanking manoeuvre and opened fire. The battle resulted in heavy casualties on both sides, but cleared the road to Cawnpore for the British.
By this time, it became clear that Sahib's bargaining attempts had failed and the Company forces were approaching Cawnpore. Nana Sahib was informed that the British troops led by Havelock and Neill were indulging in violence against the Indian villagers. Pramod Nayar believes that the ensuing Bibighar massacre was a reaction to the news of violence being perpetrated by the advancing British troops. Other suggestions are that there was a fear of future identification of key ring leaders if the prisoners were liberated.
Nana Sahib and his associates, including Tatya Tope and Azimullah Khan, debated about what to do with the captives at Bibighar. Some of Nana Sahib's advisors had already decided to kill the captives at Bibighar, as revenge for the executions of Indians by the advancing British forces. The women of Nana Sahib's household opposed the decision and went on a hunger strike, but their efforts were in vain.
On the 15th. July, an order was given to murder the women and children imprisoned at Bibighar. The details of the incident, such as who ordered the massacre, are not clear.
The rebel sepoys executed the four surviving male hostages from Fatehghar, one of them a 14-year-old boy. But they refused to obey the order to kill women and the other children. Some of the sepoys agreed to remove the women and children from the courtyard, when Tatya Tope threatened to execute them for dereliction of duty. Nana Sahib left the building because he didn't want to be a witness to the unfolding massacre.
The British women and children were ordered to come out of the assembly rooms, but they refused to do so and clung to each other. They barricaded themselves in, tying the door handles with clothing. At first, around twenty rebel soldiers opened fire from the outside of the Bibighar, firing through holes in the boarded windows. The soldiers of the squad that was supposed to fire the next round were disturbed by the scene, and discharged their shots into the air. Soon after, upon hearing the screams and groans inside, the rebel soldiers threw down their weapons and declared that they were not going to kill any more women and children.
An angry Begum Hussaini Khanum denounced the sepoys' act as cowardice, and asked her aide to finish the job of killing the captives. Her lover hired butchers, who murdered the captives with cleavers; the butchers left when it seemed that all the captives had been killed.
However, a few women and children had managed to survive by hiding under the other dead bodies. It was agreed that the bodies of the victims would be thrown down a dry well by some sweepers. The next morning the rebels arrived to dispose of the bodies. and they found three women who were still alive, and also three children aged between four and seven years of age.
The surviving women were cast into the well by the sweepers, who had also been told to strip the corpses. The sweepers then threw the three little boys into the well one at a time, the youngest first. Some victims, among them small children, were therefore buried alive in a heap of butchered corpses. None survived.
Recapture and Retribution by the British
The Company forces reached Cawnpore on the 16th. July, and captured the city. A group of British officers and soldiers set out to the Bibighar, to rescue the captives, assuming that they were still alive. However, when they reached the site, they found it empty and blood-splattered, with the bodies of most of the 200 women and children having already been dismembered and thrown down the courtyard well or into the Ganges river.
Piles of children's clothing and women's severed hair blew in the wind and lodged in tree branches around the compound; the tree in the courtyard nearest the well was smeared with the brains of numerous children and infants who had been dashed headfirst against the trunk and thrown down the well.
The British troops were horrified and enraged. Upon learning of the massacre, the infuriated British garrison engaged in a surge of violence against the local population of Cawnpore, including looting and burning of houses, with the justification that none of the local non-combatants had done anything to stop the massacre.
Brigadier General Neill, who took command at Cawnpore, immediately began a program of swift and vicious drumhead military justice (culminating in summary execution) for any sepoy rebel captured from the city who was unable to prove he was not involved in the massacre.
Rebels confessing to or believed to be involved in the massacre were forced to lick the floor of the Bibighar compound, after it had been wetted with water by low caste people, while being whipped.
The sepoys were then religiously disgraced by being forced to eat (or force fed) beef (if Hindu) or pork (if Muslim). The Muslim sepoys were sewn into pig skins before being hanged, and low-caste Hindu street sweepers were employed to execute the high-caste Brahmin rebels to add additional religious disgrace to their punishment.
Some were also forced by the British to lick clean buildings stained with the blood of the recently deceased, before being publicly hanged.
Most of the prisoners had been hanged within direct view of the Bibighar well and buried in shallow ditches by the roadside. Others were shot or bayonetted, while some were also tied across cannons that were then fired, an execution method initially used by the rebels, and the earlier Indian powers, such as the Marathas and the Mughals.
It is unclear whether this method of execution was reserved for special prisoners, or whether it was merely done in the retributive spirit of the moment.
The massacre disgusted and embittered the British troops in India, with "Remember Cawnpore!" becoming a war cry for the British soldiers for the rest of the conflict. Acts of summary violence against towns and cities believed to harbour or support the rebellion also increased.
In one of the villages, the Highlanders caught around 140 men, women and children. Ten men were hanged without any evidence or trial. Another sixty men were forced to build the gallows of wooden logs, while others were flogged and beaten. In another village, when around 2,000 villagers came out in protest brandishing lathis, the British troops surrounded them and set the village on fire. Villagers trying to escape were shot dead.
Drunk British soldiers, enraged at the reports of atrocities committed against British civilians, committed mass rapes against the native women of Cawnpore.
Aftermath of The Massacre
On the 19th. July, General Havelock resumed operations at Bithoor. Major Stevenson led a group of Madras Fusiliers and Sikh soldiers to Bithoor and occupied Nana Sahib's palace without any resistance. The British troops seized guns, elephants and camels, and set Nana Sahib's palace on fire.
In November 1857, Tatya Tope gathered an army, mainly consisting of the rebel soldiers from the Gwalior contingent, to recapture Cawnpore. By the 19th. November, his 6,000-strong force had taken control of all the routes west and north-west of Cawnpore. However, his forces were defeated by the Company forces under Colin Campbell in the Second Battle of Cawnpore, marking the end of the rebellion in the Cawnpore area.
Nana Sahib disappeared and, by 1859, he had reportedly fled to Nepal. His ultimate fate was never determined. Up until 1888, there were rumours and reports that he had been captured and a number of individuals turned themselves in to the British claiming to be the aged Nana. As the majority of these reports turned out to be untrue, further attempts at apprehending him were abandoned.
British civil servant Jonah Shepherd, who had been rescued by Havelock's army, spent the next few years after the rebellion attempting to put together a list of those killed in the entrenchment. He had lost his entire family during the siege. He eventually retired to a small estate north of Cawnpore in the late 1860's.
Memorials
After the revolt was suppressed, the British dismantled Bibighar. They raised a memorial railing and cross at the site of the well in which the bodies of the British women and children had been dumped. Meanwhile, the British forces conducted a punitive action under the lead of General Autrum by blowing down Nana Sahib's palace in Bithoor with cannons, in which Indian women and children including Nana Sahib's young daughter Mainavati were burned alive.
Also, the inhabitants of Cawnpore were forced to pay £30,000 for the creation of the memorial as a 'punishment' for not coming to the aid of the British women and children in Bibighar.
The Angel of the Resurrection was created by Baron Carlo Marochetti and completed in 1865. It became the most visited statue in British India. The chief proponent and private funder was Charlotte, Countess Canning, wife of the first Viceroy of India, Earl Canning.
She approached her childhood friend, Marochetti, for suggestions for the statue. In turn, Marochetti proposed that other sculptors be invited. Following the Countess's death, Earl Canning took over the commission. Canning rejected a number of designs accepting, in the end, a version of Marochetti's Crimean War memorial at Scutari, Turkey. The understated figure is an angel holding two branches of palm fronds across her chest.
Despite assurances, 'The Angel' was damaged during the Independence celebrations of 1947, and she was later moved from her original site over the Bibighar well to a garden at the side of All Soul's Church, Cawnpore (Kanpur Memorial Church).
The remains of the circular ridge of the well can still be seen at the Nana Rao Park, built after Indian independence. The British also erected the All Souls Memorial Church in memory of the victims. An enclosed pavement outside the church marks the graves of over 70 British men captured and executed on the 1st. July 1857, four days after the Satichaura Ghat massacre. The marble Gothic screen with "mournful seraph" was transferred to the churchyard of the All Souls Church after Indian independence in 1947. The memorial to the British victims was replaced with a bust of Tatya Tope.
There is a plaque to Capt. W. Morphy and Lieut. Thomas Mackinnon who were killed on the 28th. November 1857 in Lichfield Cathedral.
An additional memorial detailing the losses suffered by the 32nd. Cornwall Regiment Light Infantry is located inside the west entrance to Exeter Cathedral.
Literary References
Many references to the event were made in later novels and films. Julian Rathbone describes the brutality of both British and Indian forces during the siege of Cawnpore in his novel 'The Mutiny'. In the novel, the Indian nurse Lavanya rescues an English child, Stephen, during the Satichaura Ghat massacre.
In 'Massacre at Cawnpore', V. A. Stuart describes the siege and the British defence through the eyes of the characters Sheridan, and his wife Emmy.
George MacDonald Fraser's 'Flashman in the Great Game' also contains lengthy scenes set in the entrenchment during the siege, and also during the ensuing escape.
Tom Williams' novel, 'Cawnpore', is also set against the background of the siege and massacre, which is seen from both the European and the Indian perspective.
The British press used the massacre to describe the brutality involved in the public feeding of reptiles at the London Zoological Garden. In 1876, the Editor of the Animal World drew Dr. P. L. Sclater's attention to this, and the press accused the Zoological Society of London of encouraging cruelty, and pandering to public brutality. One writer in the Whitehall Review of the 27th. April 1878 protested against "the Cawnpore Massacre enacted diurnally," and headed his article, "Sepoyism at the Zoo."
The castle is particularly, associated with Gerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare known as the "Wizard Earl", who became the male representative of the Geraldines when only twelve years of age after his half brother "Silken Thomas" the 10th earl, was executed at Tyburn in 1537. The "Wizard Earl" was sent to the continent to be educated, and following his return to Kildare his interest in alchemy caused much interest among his neighbours around Kilkea Castle and he was said to possess magic powers.
The castle in 1792
The Earl died in 1585 and is supposed to return to the castle every seventh year mounted on a silver-shod white charger.[1] In 1634 the castle was leased to the Jesuit Order by the widow of the 14th Earl of Kildare and they remained there until 1646. That year the order entertained the Archbishop Rinuccini, Papal Nuncio to the Confederation of Kilkenny at Kilkea.
In the early eighteenth century the 19th Earl of Kildare decided to make Carton House the family seat and Kilkea Castle was leased to a succession of tenants. One of these tenants was Thomas Reynolds, a Dublin silk merchant, who was a "friend" of the Kildare hero of 1798, Lord Edward FitzGerald, through whom Reynolds had become a United Irishman, only to become an informer. His role as informer did not prevent the castle which had been recently done up in fine style being sacked by military during the rebellion. After a fire in 1849 the 3rd Duke of Leinster, Lord Walter was a founder member of the Kildare Archaeological Society in 1891 and undoubtedly the greatest antiquarian Kildare has ever had. He was editor of the "Journals of the Association of the Preservation of the Memorial of Dead in Ireland" from 1904 until his death in 1923. After Carton was sold in 1949 Kilkea Castle became the seat of the 8th Duke of Leinster.
The castle is particularly, associated with Gerald, the 11th Earl of Kildare known as the "Wizard Earl", who became the male representative of the Geraldines when only twelve years of age after his half brother "Silken Thomas" the 10th earl, was executed at Tyburn in 1537. The "Wizard Earl" was sent to the continent to be educated, and following his return to Kildare his interest in alchemy caused much interest among his neighbours around Kilkea Castle and he was said to possess magic powers.
The castle in 1792
The Earl died in 1585 and is supposed to return to the castle every seventh year mounted on a silver-shod white charger.[1] In 1634 the castle was leased to the Jesuit Order by the widow of the 14th Earl of Kildare and they remained there until 1646. That year the order entertained the Archbishop Rinuccini, Papal Nuncio to the Confederation of Kilkenny at Kilkea.
In the early eighteenth century the 19th Earl of Kildare decided to make Carton House the family seat and Kilkea Castle was leased to a succession of tenants. One of these tenants was Thomas Reynolds, a Dublin silk merchant, who was a "friend" of the Kildare hero of 1798, Lord Edward FitzGerald, through whom Reynolds had become a United Irishman, only to become an informer. His role as informer did not prevent the castle which had been recently done up in fine style being sacked by military during the rebellion. After a fire in 1849 the 3rd Duke of Leinster, Lord Walter was a founder member of the Kildare Archaeological Society in 1891 and undoubtedly the greatest antiquarian Kildare has ever had. He was editor of the "Journals of the Association of the Preservation of the Memorial of Dead in Ireland" from 1904 until his death in 1923. After Carton was sold in 1949 Kilkea Castle became the seat of the 8th Duke of Leinster.
The Castle now[edit]
The castle and estate was finally sold by the Fitzgerald family in the early 1960s. Kilkea Castle was then run successfully as a hotel for decades, but entered Examinership in 2009, a victim of the 2008–2010 Irish financial crisis. It was closed and put up for sale [2] but has since sold and new owners are constructing a new website prior to reopening again.
Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
TECHNOLOGY
Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of room temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries in reaction to air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. The chemical processes are as follows:
calcination of limestone in a lime kiln: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
slaking of quicklime: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2
setting of the lime plaster: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later,[when?]new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, and a bag of soot (spolvero) banged on them on produce black dots along the lines. If the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata ("day's work"), and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, by a sort of seam that separates one from the next.
Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time - giving seven to nine hours working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day. If mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area - or to change them later, a secco.
A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark 'outlining' of his central figures within his frescoes.
In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were originally, nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes, these divisions may be seen from the ground. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has since fallen off.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master (or Master of the Isaac fresco, and thus a name used to refer to the unknown master of a particular painting) in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist.
OTHER TYPES OF WALL PAINTING
A secco or fresco-secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco meaning "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. It is important to distinguish between a secco work done on top of buon fresco, which according to most authorities was in fact standard from the Middle Ages onwards, and work done entirely a secco on a blank wall. Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than any a secco work added on top of them, because a secco work lasts better with a roughened plaster surface, whilst true fresco should have a smooth one. The additional a secco work would be done to make changes, and sometimes to add small details, but also because not all colours can be achieved in true fresco, because only some pigments work chemically in the very alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, works well in wet fresco.
It has also become increasingly clear, thanks to modern analytical techniques, that even in the early Italian Renaissance painters quite frequently employed a secco techniques so as to allow the use of a broader range of pigments. In most early examples this work has now entirely vanished, but a whole fresco done a secco on a surface roughened to give a key for the paint may survive very well, although damp is more threatening to it than to buon fresco.
A third type called a mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly dry intonaco - firm enough not to take a thumb-print, says the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo - so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced buon fresco, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.
The three key advantages of work done entirely a secco were that it was quicker, mistakes could be corrected, and the colours varied less from when applied to when fully dry - in wet fresco there was a considerable change.
For wholly a secco work, the intonaco is laid with a rougher finish, allowed to dry completely and then usually given a key by rubbing with sand. The painter then proceeds much as he would on a canvas or wood panel. The two types of fresco painting are buon fresco and fresco secco. Buon fresco is painting into wet plaster, which makes a painting last a long time. Fresco secco is painting onto dry plaster, which does not last as long.
HISTORY
ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The earliest known examples of frescoes done in the Buon Fresco method date at around 1500 BC and are to be found on the island of Crete in Greece. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation.
Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Frescoes were also painted in ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at Paestum, which was a Greek colony of the Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered on June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient
Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a symposium while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century B.C.) in the ruins of Pompeii, and others at Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.
Late Roman Empire (Christian) 1st-2nd-century frescoes were found in catacombs beneath Rome and Byzantine Icons were also found in Cyprus, Crete, Ephesus, Cappadocia and Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster.
Also a historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the Churches of Goreme Turkey.
INDIA
Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the Ajanta Caves were painted between c. 200 BC and 600 and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences
as Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave, Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques including tempera technique.
The later Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
The frescoes in Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings. Rang Mahal of Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of Draupti Cheer Haran, and Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called Chamba Rang Mahal.
SRI LANKA
The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of King Kashyapa I (ruled 477-495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the Ajanta Caves in India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. They are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today.
The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is “fresco lustro.” It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years.
Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references however refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
MIDDLE AGES
The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the liturgy. Romanesque churches in Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational -for the illiterate faithfuls- role, as can be seen in the MNAC in Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too, church wall paintings or kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden which was Danish at the time.
One of the rare examples of Islamic fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century Magotez.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Northern Romania (historical region of Moldavia) boasts about a dozen painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at Voroneţ (vo ro nets) (1487), Arbore (are' bo ray) (1503), Humor (hoo mor) (1530), and Moldoviţa (mol do vee' tsa) (1532). Suceviţa (sue che vee' tsa), dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent.
Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Henri Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the École de fresques at l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and decorated the Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris), Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the Musée Carnavalet.
The Foujita chapel in Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the School of Paris painter Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French Government.
MEXICAN MURALISM
José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Together with works by Orozco, Siqueiros, and others, Fernando Leal and Rivera's large wall works in fresco established the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.
CONSERVATION OF FRESCOES
The climate and environment of Venice has proved to be a problem for frescoes and other works of art in the city for centuries. The city is built on a lagoon in northern Italy. The humidity and the rise of water over the centuries have created a phenomenon known as rising damp. As the lagoon water rises and seeps into the foundation of a building, the water is absorbed and rises up through the walls often causing damage to frescoes. Venetians have become quite adept in the conservation methods of frescoes. The mold aspergillus versicolor can grow after flooding, to consume nutrients from frescoes.
The following is the process that was used when rescuing frescoes in La Fenice, a Venetian opera house, but the same process can be used for similarly damaged frescoes. First, a protection and support bandage of cotton gauze and polyvinyl alcohol is applied. Difficult sections are removed with soft brushes and localized vacuuming. The other areas that are easier to remove (because they had been damaged by less water) are removed with a paper pulp compress saturated with bicarbonate of ammonia solutions and removed with deionized water. These sections are strengthened and reattached then cleansed with base exchange resin compresses and the wall and pictorial layer were strengthened with barium hydrate. The cracks and detachments are stopped with lime putty and injected with an epoxy resin loaded with micronized silica.
WIKIPEDIA
A Tintin cover, featuring me (firing the Oerlikon cannon), as imagined and executed by my dad.
The description on the back of the painting reads:
Operation Cerberus, 2009
Gouache + ink on canvas
"Operation Cerberus" was the codename for the German squadron of ships which broke out of Brest to Germany via the English Channel. Also called the "Channel Dash".
Tintin pilots the Vosper MTB while Nat fires the 20mm Oerlikon at one of Galland's famed "Yellow Noses". Captain Haddock brings another 60-round drum magazine to Nat.
Scharnhorst, Prinz Eugen and a destroyer evade the onslaught of the MTB.
Homage to Hergé and Nat.
(Compare the water in Operation Cerberus to the water on The Red Sea Sharks, and the sky to that on the cover of the Black Island.)
A couple of years ago, he asked me for a list of potential custom Tintin scenarios to illustrate. Here is the list I generated:
1. Climbing up side of a Mosquito in flight suit, or running across an airfield towards some 1950s British jet fighter, or a souped-up Hawker Tempest or Sea Fury
2. Pushing through a secret door in a big library (like in the Black Island), revealing a storeroom full of crates of ammo and Schmeissers (or equivalent)
3. Firing a Bofors on the deck of a sub or destroyer,with the spider-web like gun sight, with big shell casings all over the deck
4. Being chased by a tank while driving an MG or an Austin-Healy
5. Driving a LRDG Land Rover with a bunch of Vickers machineguns,
maybe firing one with one hand at a runway full of parked Ju-88s
Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
TECHNOLOGY
Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of room temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries in reaction to air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. The chemical processes are as follows:
calcination of limestone in a lime kiln: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
slaking of quicklime: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2
setting of the lime plaster: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later,[when?]new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, and a bag of soot (spolvero) banged on them on produce black dots along the lines. If the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata ("day's work"), and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, by a sort of seam that separates one from the next.
Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time - giving seven to nine hours working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day. If mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area - or to change them later, a secco.
A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark 'outlining' of his central figures within his frescoes.
In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were originally, nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes, these divisions may be seen from the ground. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has since fallen off.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master (or Master of the Isaac fresco, and thus a name used to refer to the unknown master of a particular painting) in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist.
OTHER TYPES OF WALL PAINTING
A secco or fresco-secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco meaning "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. It is important to distinguish between a secco work done on top of buon fresco, which according to most authorities was in fact standard from the Middle Ages onwards, and work done entirely a secco on a blank wall. Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than any a secco work added on top of them, because a secco work lasts better with a roughened plaster surface, whilst true fresco should have a smooth one. The additional a secco work would be done to make changes, and sometimes to add small details, but also because not all colours can be achieved in true fresco, because only some pigments work chemically in the very alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, works well in wet fresco.
It has also become increasingly clear, thanks to modern analytical techniques, that even in the early Italian Renaissance painters quite frequently employed a secco techniques so as to allow the use of a broader range of pigments. In most early examples this work has now entirely vanished, but a whole fresco done a secco on a surface roughened to give a key for the paint may survive very well, although damp is more threatening to it than to buon fresco.
A third type called a mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly dry intonaco - firm enough not to take a thumb-print, says the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo - so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced buon fresco, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.
The three key advantages of work done entirely a secco were that it was quicker, mistakes could be corrected, and the colours varied less from when applied to when fully dry - in wet fresco there was a considerable change.
For wholly a secco work, the intonaco is laid with a rougher finish, allowed to dry completely and then usually given a key by rubbing with sand. The painter then proceeds much as he would on a canvas or wood panel. The two types of fresco painting are buon fresco and fresco secco. Buon fresco is painting into wet plaster, which makes a painting last a long time. Fresco secco is painting onto dry plaster, which does not last as long.
HISTORY
ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The earliest known examples of frescoes done in the Buon Fresco method date at around 1500 BC and are to be found on the island of Crete in Greece. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation.
Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Frescoes were also painted in ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at Paestum, which was a Greek colony of the Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered on June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient
Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a symposium while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century B.C.) in the ruins of Pompeii, and others at Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.
Late Roman Empire (Christian) 1st-2nd-century frescoes were found in catacombs beneath Rome and Byzantine Icons were also found in Cyprus, Crete, Ephesus, Cappadocia and Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster.
Also a historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the Churches of Goreme Turkey.
INDIA
Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the Ajanta Caves were painted between c. 200 BC and 600 and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences
as Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave, Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques including tempera technique.
The later Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
The frescoes in Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings. Rang Mahal of Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of Draupti Cheer Haran, and Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called Chamba Rang Mahal.
SRI LANKA
The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of King Kashyapa I (ruled 477-495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the Ajanta Caves in India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. They are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today.
The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is “fresco lustro.” It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years.
Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references however refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
MIDDLE AGES
The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the liturgy. Romanesque churches in Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational -for the illiterate faithfuls- role, as can be seen in the MNAC in Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too, church wall paintings or kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden which was Danish at the time.
One of the rare examples of Islamic fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century Magotez.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Northern Romania (historical region of Moldavia) boasts about a dozen painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at Voroneţ (vo ro nets) (1487), Arbore (are' bo ray) (1503), Humor (hoo mor) (1530), and Moldoviţa (mol do vee' tsa) (1532). Suceviţa (sue che vee' tsa), dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent.
Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Henri Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the École de fresques at l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and decorated the Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris), Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the Musée Carnavalet.
The Foujita chapel in Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the School of Paris painter Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French Government.
MEXICAN MURALISM
José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Together with works by Orozco, Siqueiros, and others, Fernando Leal and Rivera's large wall works in fresco established the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.
CONSERVATION OF FRESCOES
The climate and environment of Venice has proved to be a problem for frescoes and other works of art in the city for centuries. The city is built on a lagoon in northern Italy. The humidity and the rise of water over the centuries have created a phenomenon known as rising damp. As the lagoon water rises and seeps into the foundation of a building, the water is absorbed and rises up through the walls often causing damage to frescoes. Venetians have become quite adept in the conservation methods of frescoes. The mold aspergillus versicolor can grow after flooding, to consume nutrients from frescoes.
The following is the process that was used when rescuing frescoes in La Fenice, a Venetian opera house, but the same process can be used for similarly damaged frescoes. First, a protection and support bandage of cotton gauze and polyvinyl alcohol is applied. Difficult sections are removed with soft brushes and localized vacuuming. The other areas that are easier to remove (because they had been damaged by less water) are removed with a paper pulp compress saturated with bicarbonate of ammonia solutions and removed with deionized water. These sections are strengthened and reattached then cleansed with base exchange resin compresses and the wall and pictorial layer were strengthened with barium hydrate. The cracks and detachments are stopped with lime putty and injected with an epoxy resin loaded with micronized silica.
WIKIPEDIA
This is part of a well-executed anti-drone campaign in DUMBO. As of a few weeks ago, the street signs are still hanging and the stencils still up as well. The following is an email I got from the do'er on January of last year. It'll explain the backstory.
Subject: Operation Drone Freedom - Anonymity Extremely Important
Hi Everyone,
I am writing to you for a couple of reasons, first and foremost I am working on a project that I think you will appreciate and wanted to share with you.
As you may or may not know the United States has begun using unmanned arial drone technology over US skies, the same drones they use to bomb innocent civilians in pakistan and US citizens deemed terrorists such as Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen.
A notice to airmen was released advising pilots to look out for drones in the New York area from Dec. 1-Feb. 7
A common question is, what are they doing? Because of our co-opted media establishment, no information regarding domestic drone activity is released. We can only assume this is a further debasement of our constitutional liberties through unwarranted survaleance of the general public.
What I have done in response is to create the authoritarian message through street signs being posted throughout the city, Also created is the grass roots "street art" response through quotes of the founding fathers on subjects of liberty, justice and freedom. (Photos are included)
Now for my second reason for contacting you... Your generous assistance. My request is simple and I will forever be indebted to those that choose to participate.
In order for real public awareness to spread throughout the city and the country I am asking you to use the photos I have supplied to spread the word on this drone activity. Weather that be via email, Facebook, blog or PR contacts you may have, all avenues are acceptable and appreciated, in fact the more the merrier!
The attached photos are simple iPhone photos of the 6 current locations (many more are currently in the works), I have also included maps of the locations so if you would like to take your own photos you may. It is very important to me that my anonymity be maintained due to the legal ramifications of the actions taken. I have sent this to you because I trust you and feel that you too may consider this government activity suspect. If you choose to participate I ask that you pose as an observer of these signs inquiring on the legality of their message, Example; "NYPD using Drones in New York! That cant be legal! Please spread the word!"
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart and hope that together we can bring this conversation to the forefront.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Here's a recent times article about drones and the inherent privacy issues: www.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/technology/rise-of-drones-in-u...;
Then, continued with executing puja wali, or the culminating agenda to the Almighty God along with His manifestations and particularly to Lord Varuna as the master of the sea, resource of holy springs
Taken @Lembeng beach, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
I've had another great year, 2012 has been fun. I've had some great ideas and executed some of them. 2013 is a new year that'll bring some changes and some more fun! Thanks for being there guys, you make the hobby fun.
----
1. Dragon, 2. "Houston, We Have A Problem.", 3. Alexis And Althior's Room, 4. The Cave, 5. Geonosian Zombie, 6. Jets Training Camp, 7. Alien Guard, 8. Kragan, 9. Supreme Lord of the Bathroom!, 10. Batcave Review, 11. Maroon Stripe, 12. Chima Eagle Viper, 13. Gladiator!, 14. "Sweet Dreams", 15. Carrot, 16. Penguin, 17. Kragan, 18. Gladiator!, 19. Alien Viper, 20. 9491 Geonosian Cannon Review, 21. Elrond Review, 22. Citadel Attack, 23. LEGO Store Community Window, 24. Working On Mark IV..., 25. Duel On Musatfar, 26. Space Chicks, 27. Midi-Scale Venator V.2, 28. Captain America, 29. Bank Poison, 30. RC S250, 31. Landing On Otera, 32. KY R-550, 33. Four Seconds 'Till Impact, 34. Shapeways, 35. Riddles For The Ring, 36. Mini Space Fleet
Fresco (plural frescos or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco (Italian: affresco) is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
TECHNOLOGY
Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of room temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. Because of the chemical makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco, which itself becomes the medium holding the pigment. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster; after a number of hours, the plaster dries in reaction to air: it is this chemical reaction which fixes the pigment particles in the plaster. The chemical processes are as follows:
calcination of limestone in a lime kiln: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2
slaking of quicklime: CaO + H2O → Ca(OH)2
setting of the lime plaster: Ca(OH)2 + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
In painting buon fresco, a rough underlayer called the arriccio is added to the whole area to be painted and allowed to dry for some days. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later,[when?]new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held against the wall, and a bag of soot (spolvero) banged on them on produce black dots along the lines. If the painting was to be done over an existing fresco, the surface would be roughened to provide better adhesion. On the day of painting, the intonaco, a thinner, smooth layer of fine plaster was added to the amount of wall that was expected to be completed that day, sometimes matching the contours of the figures or the landscape, but more often just starting from the top of the composition. This area is called the giornata ("day's work"), and the different day stages can usually be seen in a large fresco, by a sort of seam that separates one from the next.
Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster. Generally, a layer of plaster will require ten to twelve hours to dry; ideally, an artist would begin to paint after one hour and continue until two hours before the drying time - giving seven to nine hours working time. Once a giornata is dried, no more buon fresco can be done, and the unpainted intonaco must be removed with a tool before starting again the next day. If mistakes have been made, it may also be necessary to remove the whole intonaco for that area - or to change them later, a secco.
A technique used in the popular frescoes of Michelangelo and Raphael was to scrape indentations into certain areas of the plaster while still wet to increase the illusion of depth and to accent certain areas over others. The eyes of the people of the School of Athens are sunken-in using this technique which causes the eyes to seem deeper and more pensive. Michelangelo used this technique as part of his trademark 'outlining' of his central figures within his frescoes.
In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty or even more giornate, or separate areas of plaster. After five centuries, the giornate, which were originally, nearly invisible, have sometimes become visible, and in many large-scale frescoes, these divisions may be seen from the ground. Additionally, the border between giornate was often covered by an a secco painting, which has since fallen off.
One of the first painters in the post-classical period to use this technique was the Isaac Master (or Master of the Isaac fresco, and thus a name used to refer to the unknown master of a particular painting) in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi. A person who creates fresco is called a frescoist.
OTHER TYPES OF WALL PAINTING
A secco or fresco-secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco meaning "dry" in Italian). The pigments thus require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall. It is important to distinguish between a secco work done on top of buon fresco, which according to most authorities was in fact standard from the Middle Ages onwards, and work done entirely a secco on a blank wall. Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than any a secco work added on top of them, because a secco work lasts better with a roughened plaster surface, whilst true fresco should have a smooth one. The additional a secco work would be done to make changes, and sometimes to add small details, but also because not all colours can be achieved in true fresco, because only some pigments work chemically in the very alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster. Blue was a particular problem, and skies and blue robes were often added a secco, because neither azurite blue nor lapis lazuli, the only two blue pigments then available, works well in wet fresco.
It has also become increasingly clear, thanks to modern analytical techniques, that even in the early Italian Renaissance painters quite frequently employed a secco techniques so as to allow the use of a broader range of pigments. In most early examples this work has now entirely vanished, but a whole fresco done a secco on a surface roughened to give a key for the paint may survive very well, although damp is more threatening to it than to buon fresco.
A third type called a mezzo-fresco is painted on nearly dry intonaco - firm enough not to take a thumb-print, says the sixteenth-century author Ignazio Pozzo - so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century this had largely displaced buon fresco, and was used by painters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo or Michelangelo. This technique had, in reduced form, the advantages of a secco work.
The three key advantages of work done entirely a secco were that it was quicker, mistakes could be corrected, and the colours varied less from when applied to when fully dry - in wet fresco there was a considerable change.
For wholly a secco work, the intonaco is laid with a rougher finish, allowed to dry completely and then usually given a key by rubbing with sand. The painter then proceeds much as he would on a canvas or wood panel. The two types of fresco painting are buon fresco and fresco secco. Buon fresco is painting into wet plaster, which makes a painting last a long time. Fresco secco is painting onto dry plaster, which does not last as long.
HISTORY
ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The earliest known examples of frescoes done in the Buon Fresco method date at around 1500 BC and are to be found on the island of Crete in Greece. The most famous of these, The Toreador, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation.
Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.
CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Frescoes were also painted in ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at Paestum, which was a Greek colony of the Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered on June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient
Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a symposium while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century B.C.) in the ruins of Pompeii, and others at Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.
Late Roman Empire (Christian) 1st-2nd-century frescoes were found in catacombs beneath Rome and Byzantine Icons were also found in Cyprus, Crete, Ephesus, Cappadocia and Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster.
Also a historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the Churches of Goreme Turkey.
INDIA
Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the Ajanta Caves were painted between c. 200 BC and 600 and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences
as Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include Bagh Caves, Ellora Caves, Sittanavasal, Armamalai Cave, Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques including tempera technique.
The later Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered.
Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture is applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments.
During the Nayak period the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by Rajaraja Cholan the Great.
The frescoes in Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of Mahabharat and Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings. Rang Mahal of Chamba (Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of Draupti Cheer Haran, and Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called Chamba Rang Mahal.
SRI LANKA
The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of King Kashyapa I (ruled 477-495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the Ajanta Caves in India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. They are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today.
The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is “fresco lustro.” It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years.
Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references however refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
MIDDLE AGES
The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the liturgy. Romanesque churches in Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational -for the illiterate faithfuls- role, as can be seen in the MNAC in Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too, church wall paintings or kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden which was Danish at the time.
One of the rare examples of Islamic fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century Magotez.
EARLY MODERN EUROPE
Northern Romania (historical region of Moldavia) boasts about a dozen painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at Voroneţ (vo ro nets) (1487), Arbore (are' bo ray) (1503), Humor (hoo mor) (1530), and Moldoviţa (mol do vee' tsa) (1532). Suceviţa (sue che vee' tsa), dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent.
Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Henri Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the École de fresques at l'École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and decorated the Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (Paris), Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the Musée Carnavalet.
The Foujita chapel in Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the School of Paris painter Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French Government.
MEXICAN MURALISM
José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, David Siqueiros and Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Together with works by Orozco, Siqueiros, and others, Fernando Leal and Rivera's large wall works in fresco established the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.
CONSERVATION OF FRESCOES
The climate and environment of Venice has proved to be a problem for frescoes and other works of art in the city for centuries. The city is built on a lagoon in northern Italy. The humidity and the rise of water over the centuries have created a phenomenon known as rising damp. As the lagoon water rises and seeps into the foundation of a building, the water is absorbed and rises up through the walls often causing damage to frescoes. Venetians have become quite adept in the conservation methods of frescoes. The mold aspergillus versicolor can grow after flooding, to consume nutrients from frescoes.
The following is the process that was used when rescuing frescoes in La Fenice, a Venetian opera house, but the same process can be used for similarly damaged frescoes. First, a protection and support bandage of cotton gauze and polyvinyl alcohol is applied. Difficult sections are removed with soft brushes and localized vacuuming. The other areas that are easier to remove (because they had been damaged by less water) are removed with a paper pulp compress saturated with bicarbonate of ammonia solutions and removed with deionized water. These sections are strengthened and reattached then cleansed with base exchange resin compresses and the wall and pictorial layer were strengthened with barium hydrate. The cracks and detachments are stopped with lime putty and injected with an epoxy resin loaded with micronized silica.
WIKIPEDIA
ift.tt/2fURyzP #George Junius Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944) was, at age 14, the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century[504 X 387] #history #retro #vintage #dh #HistoryPorn ift.tt/2ggkHYZ via Histolines
Herakles the Archer
Bronze
Émile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)
French (Paris), 1909
Herakles is seen preparing to shoot at the Stymphalian birds. This work, which established Bourdelle's reputation, was executed in 1909 following several small-scale studies, most of which were cast in bronze. The first cast of the monumental version was purchased by Prince Eugene of Sweden for his palace in Stockholm.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen C. Millett, 1924
24.232
**
Designed as a classical French garden and opened in 1990, the Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court serves as a framework for the presentation of large Italian and French sculptures, originally intended for the outdoors, dating from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. The arcaded south wall of the court was inspired by the Orangerie of Versailles, and the north wall incorporates the Museum's 1888 Italianate facade and carriage entrance of granite and red brick.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection contains more than two million works of art from around the world. It opened its doors on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Under their guidance of John Taylor Johnston and George Palmer Putnam, the Met's holdings, initially consisting of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 mostly European paintings, quickly outgrew the available space. In 1873, occasioned by the Met's purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum decamped from Fifth Avenue and took up residence at the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. However, these new accommodations were temporary; after negotiations with the city of New York, the Met acquired land on the east side of Central Park, where it built its permanent home, a red-brick Gothic Revival stone "mausoleum" designed by American architects Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mold. As of 2006, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building.
In 2007, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was ranked #17 on the AIA 150 America's Favorite Architecture list.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967. The interior was designated in 1977.
National Historic Register #86003556
Early morning raids saw four arrested as officers executed several drug warrants across Tameside.
Today (Wednesday 19 June 2019) warrants were executed across seven addresses as part of a crackdown on the supply of Class A and B drugs – codenamed Operation Leporine.
Following today’s action, two men – aged 21 and 27 – and two women – aged 21 and 52 - have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs.
Sergeant Stephanie O’Brien, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: “At present we have four people in custody and as part of this morning’s operation we have been able to seize a significant quantity of drugs.
“I would like to thank the team here in Tameside who, as part of Operation Leporine, have worked tirelessly in order to bring a sophisticated and audacious group of offenders to justice.
“The supply of illegal drugs blights communities and destroys people’s livelihoods; and I hope that today’s very direct and visible action demonstrates to the local community that we are doing all that we to make the streets of Tameside a safer place.
“It will remain a top priority for us to continue to tackle the influx of drugs in the area, however we cannot do this alone and I would appeal directly to the community and those most affected to please come forward with any information that could assist us in what continues to be an ongoing operation.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or alternatively reports can be made to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
Early morning raids saw four arrested as officers executed several drug warrants across Tameside.
Today (Wednesday 19 June 2019) warrants were executed across seven addresses as part of a crackdown on the supply of Class A and B drugs – codenamed Operation Leporine.
Following today’s action, two men – aged 21 and 27 – and two women – aged 21 and 52 - have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs.
Sergeant Stephanie O’Brien, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: “At present we have four people in custody and as part of this morning’s operation we have been able to seize a significant quantity of drugs.
“I would like to thank the team here in Tameside who, as part of Operation Leporine, have worked tirelessly in order to bring a sophisticated and audacious group of offenders to justice.
“The supply of illegal drugs blights communities and destroys people’s livelihoods; and I hope that today’s very direct and visible action demonstrates to the local community that we are doing all that we to make the streets of Tameside a safer place.
“It will remain a top priority for us to continue to tackle the influx of drugs in the area, however we cannot do this alone and I would appeal directly to the community and those most affected to please come forward with any information that could assist us in what continues to be an ongoing operation.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or alternatively reports can be made to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
Piero di Cosimo - Simonetta Vespucci as Cleopatra (c 1490)
which means, that the painting was executed about 14 years after her death.
Chantilly, Musée Condé
high resolution image
Yesterday (Wednesday 11 March 2020), officers from Greater Manchester Police and the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) executed a number of warrants at Great Ducie Street, Manchester.
Officers from GMP and the City of London Police - the national policing lead for fraud – worked alongside UK immigration, meaning a total of 100 officers and staff members were involved in the operation.
The search warrant, which developed from a previous operation that involved the sale and distribution of counterfeit items, saw thousands of labels, computer equipment and cash seized.
Detectives are currently exploring links between the counterfeit operation and Serious Organised Crime, helping to fund criminal activity beyond Greater Manchester.
15 people were arrested, after officers uncovered an estimated £7.5 million worth of branded clothing, shoes and perfume suspected to be counterfeit.
Chief Inspector Kirsten Buggy, of GMP’s North Manchester division, said: “Yesterday’s operation is one of the largest of its kind ever carried out in the area and has taken a meticulous amount of planning and preparation.
“I am thankful to colleagues from the City of London Police, who as the national policing lead for fraud, have worked in partnership with officers from GMP and helped bring about yesterday’s direct action. I am also grateful to those from UK Immigration for their help.
“Such partnerships are absolutely vital when tackling counterfeit operations, as they bring specialisms from across the country together in a bid to make an impactive and real difference. Steps such as yesterday are often only the start when it comes to investigating the scale of these operations and we will continue to work in conjunction with the City of London’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit to tackle this type of offending to its’ very core.
“It is important to recognise the far-reaching and serious impact of sophisticated and large scale counterfeit operations such as this one; and I would like to take this opportunity to remind members of the public of the repercussions of this kind of offending and the link to organised criminal activity. Please be under no illusion- this type of crime is not victimless.”
Police staff investigator Charlotte Beattie, of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
“The counterfeit goods business is a deceiving one and the key message to be take away from this operation, is that counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.
“An individual may think that when buying counterfeit goods they are only affecting a multi-million pound brand, and won’t matter, when in fact they are helping to fund organised criminal activity. Counterfeit goods also pose a health risk to individuals as they usually are not fit for purpose or have not gone through the legal health and safety checks.
“Working in partnership has ensured that today’s operation has been a success. We will continue to work with Greater Manchester Police and UK Immigration to tackle the scourge of the counterfeit goods problem.”
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was printed by L. Menard in 1926.
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna on the 2nd. November 1755. She was the last queen of France before the French Revolution.
Marie was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I.
Marie became Dauphine of France in May 1770 at the age of 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On the 10th. May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI, and she became queen.
Marie Antoinette's position at court improved when, after eight years of marriage, she started having children. She became increasingly unpopular among the people, however, with the French libelles accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, harbouring sympathies for France's perceived enemies - particularly her native Austria - and her children of being illegitimate.
The false accusations of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged her reputation further. During the Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker.
Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government had placed the royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789.
The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition had disastrous effects on French popular opinion. On the 10th. August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family to take refuge at the Assembly, and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on the 13th. August.
The Death of Louis XVI
On the 21st. September 1792, the French monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on the 21st. January 1793.
The Death of Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette's trial began on the 14th. October 1793, and two days later she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed, also by guillotine, on the Place de la Révolution on the 16th. October 1793.
The Palace of Fontainebleau
The Palace of Fontainebleau, or Château de Fontainebleau, is located 55 kilometers (34 miles) southeast of the centre of Paris.
The castle and subsequent palace served as a residence for French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III.
Francis I and Napoleon were the monarchs who had the most influence on the Palace as it stands today.
It became a national museum in 1927, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance.
The Medieval Palace
The earliest record of a fortified castle at Fontainebleau dates to 1137. It became a favorite residence and hunting lodge of the Kings of France because of the abundant game and many springs in the surrounding forest.
Fontainebleau took its name from one of the springs, la Fontaine de Bliaud, located now in the English Garden, next to the wing of Louis XV.
Fontainebleau was used by King Louis VII, for whom Thomas Becket consecrated the chapel in 1169; also by Philip II; by Louis IX (later canonised as Saint Louis), who built a hospital and a convent, the Couvent des Trinitaires, next to the castle; and by Philip IV, who was born and died in the castle.
The Renaissance Château of Francis I (1528–1547)
In the 15th. century some modifications and embellishments were made to the castle by Isabeau of Bavaria, the wife of King Charles VI, but the medieval structure remained essentially intact until the reign of Francis I (1494–1547).
He commissioned the architect Gilles Le Breton to build a palace in the new Renaissance style, recently imported from Italy. Le Breton preserved the old medieval donjon, where the King's apartments were located, but incorporated it into the new Renaissance-style Cour Ovale, built on the foundations of the old castle.
It included the monumental Porte Dorée, as its southern entrance. as well as a monumental Renaissance stairway, the Portique de Serlio, to give access the royal apartments on the north side.
Beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the Galerie François I, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitaires. He brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio from Italy, and the Florentine painter Rosso Fiorentino, to decorate the new gallery.
Between 1533 and 1539 Fiorentino filled the gallery with murals glorifying the King, framed in stucco ornament in high relief, and panelling sculpted by the furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi.
Another Italian painter, Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna, joined later in the decoration of the palace. Together their style of decoration became known as the first School of Fontainebleau. This was the first great decorated gallery built in France. Fontainebleau introduced the Renaissance to France.
In about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the château. Using land on the east side of the château purchased from the order of the Trinitaires, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard.
The château was surrounded by a new park in the style of the Italian Renaissance garden, with pavilions and the first grotto in France.
The Château of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1547–1570)
Following the death of Francis I, King Henry II decided to continue and expand the château. The King and his wife chose the architects Philibert de l'Orme and Jean Bullant to do the work.
They extended the east wing of the lower court and decorated it with the first famous horseshoe-shaped staircase which was built between 1547 and 1559. The staircase was subsequently re-built for Louis XIII by Jean Androuet du Cerceau in about 1632-1634.
In the Oval Court, they transformed the loggia planned by Francois into a Salle des Fêtes or grand ballroom with a coffered ceiling. Facing the courtyard of the fountain and the fish pond, they designed a new building, the Pavillon des Poeles (destroyed), to contain the new apartments of the King.
The decoration of the new ballroom and the gallery of Ulysses with murals by Francesco Primaticcio and sculptured stucco continued.
At Henri's orders the Nymphe de Fontainebleau by Benvenuto Cellini was installed at the gateway entrance of Château d'Anet, the domain of Henri's primary mistress Diane de Poitiers (the original bronze lunette is now in the Musée du Louvre, with a replica in place).
Following the death of Henry II in a jousting accident, his widow, Catherine de' Medici, continued the construction and decoration of the château. She named Primaticcio as the new superintendent of royal public works.
He designed the section known today as the wing of the Belle Cheminée, noted for its elaborate chimneys and its two opposing stairways. In 1565, as a security measure due to the Wars of Religion, she also had moat dug around the château to protect it against attack.
Château of Henry IV (1570–1610)
King Henry IV made more additions to the château than any King since Francis I. He extended the oval court toward the west by building two pavilions, called Tiber and Luxembourg.
Between 1601 and 1606, he remade all the façades around the courtyard, including that of the chapel of Saint-Saturnin, to give the architecture greater harmony. On the east side, he built a new monumental domed gateway, the Porte du Baptistère.
Between 1606 and 1609, he built a new courtyard, the Cour des Offices or Quartier Henry IV, to provide a place for the kitchens as well as residences for court officials.
Two new galleries, the Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the Galerie des Cerfs, were built to enclose the old garden of Diane. He also added a large Jeu de Paume, or indoor tennis court, the largest such court in the world.
A Second School of Fontainebleau painters and decorators went to work on the interiors. The architect Martin Fréminet created the ornate chapel of the Trinity, while the painters Ambroise Dubois and Toussaint Dubreuil created a series of heroic paintings for the salons. A new wing, named after its central building, La Belle Cheminée, was built next to the large carp pond.
Henry IV also devoted great attention to the park and gardens around the Château. The garden of the Queen or garden of Diane, created by Catherine de' Medici, with the fountain of Diane in the centre, was located on the north side of the palace.
Henry IV's gardener, Claude Mollet, who trained at Château d'Anet, created a large parterre of flower beds, decorated with ancient statues and separated by paths into large squares.
The fountain of Diana and the grotto were made by Tommaso Francini, who may also have designed the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden for Marie de Medici.
On the south side, Henry created a park, planted with pines, elms and fruit trees, and laid out a grand canal 1200 meters long, sixty years before Louis XIV built his own grand canal at Versailles.
The Château from Louis XIII through Louis XVI
King Louis XIII was born and baptized in the Château, and continued the works begun by his father. He completed the decoration of the chapel of the Trinity, and assigned the court architect Jean Androuet du Cerceau to re-construct the horseshoe stairway on the courtyard that had become known as the Cour de Cheval Blanc.
After his death, his widow, Anne of Austria, re-decorated the apartments within the Wing of the Queen Mothers (Aile des Reines Mères) next to the Court of the Fountain, designed by Primatrice.
King Louis XIV spent more days at Fontainebleau than any other monarch. He liked to hunt there every year at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
He made few changes to the exterior of the Château, but did build a new apartment for his companion Madame de Maintenon. He furnished it with major works of André-Charles Boulle. He also demolished the old apartments of the baths under the Gallery of Francis I to create new apartments for the royal princes.
The architect Jules Hardouin-Mansard built a new wing alongside the Galerie des Cerfs and the Galerie de Diane in order to provide more living space for the Court.
Louis XIV made major changes to the park and gardens; he commissioned André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau to redesign the large parterre into a French formal garden. He destroyed the hanging garden which Henry IV had built next to the large carp lake, and instead built a pavilion, designed by Le Vau, on a small island in the centre of the lake.
Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau at the Château on the 22nd. October 1685, revoking the policy of tolerance towards Protestants begun by Henry IV.
Louis welcomed many foreign guests at the Château, including the former Queen Christina of Sweden, who had just abdicated her crown. While a guest in the Château on the 10th. November 1657, Christina suspected her Master of the Horse and reputed lover, the Marchese Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi, of betraying her secrets to her enemies.
Her servants chased him through the halls of the Château and stabbed him to death. Louis XIV came to see her at the Château, did not mention the murder, and allowed her to continue her travels.
On the 18th. and 20th. May 1717, following the death of Louis XIV, the Russian Czar Peter the Great was a guest at Fontainebleau. A hunt for stags was organized for him, along with a banquet.
Although officially the visit was a great success, later memoires revealed that Peter disliked the French style of hunting, and that he found the Château too small, compared to the other royal French residences.
The routine of Fontainebleau also did not suit his tastes; he preferred beer to wine (and brought his own supply with him) and he liked to get up early, unlike the French Court.
The renovation projects of Louis XV were more ambitious than those of Louis XIV. To create more lodging for his enormous number of courtiers, in 1737–38 the King built a new courtyard, called the Cour de la Conciergerie or the Cour des Princes, to the east of the Galerie des Cerfs.
On the Cour du Cheval Blanc, the wing of the Gallery of Ulysses was torn down and gradually replaced by a new brick and stone building, built in stages in 1738–1741 and 1773–74, extending west toward the Pavilion and grotto of the pines.
Between 1750 and 1754, the King commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build a new wing along the Cour de la Fontaine and the carp lake.
The old Pavilion des Poeles was demolished and replaced by the Gros Pavilion, built of cream-colored stone. Lavish new apartments were created inside this building for the King and Queen. The new meeting room for the Royal Council was decorated by the leading painters of the day, including François Boucher, Carle Vanloo, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Alexis Peyrotte. A magnificent small theatre was created on the first floor of the wing of the Belle Cheminée.
King Louis XVI also made additions to the Château in order to create more space for his courtiers. A new building was constructed alongside the Gallery of Francis I; it created a large new apartment on the first floor, and a number of small apartments on the ground floor, but also blocked the windows on the north side of the Gallery of Francis I.
The apartments of Queen Marie-Antoinette were redone, a Turkish-style salon was created for her in 1777, a room for games in 1786–1787, and a boudoir in the arabesque style. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette made their last visit to Fontainebleau in 1786, on the eve of the French Revolution.
The Château during the Revolution and the First Empire
During the French Revolution the Château did not suffer any significant damage, but all the furniture was sold at auction. The buildings were occupied by the Central School of the Department of Seine-et-Marne until 1803, when Napoleon I installed a military school there.
As he prepared to become Emperor, Napoleon wanted to preserve as much as possible of the palaces and protocol of the Old Regime. He chose Fontainebleau as the site of his historic 1804 meeting with Pope Pius VII, who had travelled from Rome to crown Napoleon Emperor.
Napoleon had a suite of rooms decorated for the Pope, and had the entire Château refurnished and decorated. The bedroom of the Kings was transformed into a throne room for Napoleon. Apartments were refurnished and decorated for the Emperor and Empress in the new Empire style.
The Cour du Cheval Blanc was re-named the Cour d'Honneur. One wing facing the courtyard, the Aile de Ferrare, was torn down and replaced with an ornamental iron fence and gate, making the façade of the Palace visible.
The gardens of Diane and the gardens of the Pines were replanted and turned into an English landscape garden.
Napoleon's visits to Fontainebleau were not frequent, because he was occupied so much of the time with military campaigns. Between 1812 and 1814, the Château served as a very elegant prison for Pope Pius VII. On the 5th. November 1810, the chapel of the Château was used for the baptism of Napoleon's nephew, the future Napoleon III, with Napoleon serving as his godfather, and the Empress Marie-Louise as his godmother.
Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau, before abdicating there on the 4th. April 1814. On the 20th. April, after failing in an attempt to commit suicide, he gave an emotional farewell to the soldiers of the Old Guard, assembled in the Court of Honor. Later, during the One Hundred Days, he stopped there on the 20th. March 1815.
In his memoires, written while in exile on Saint Helena, he recalled his time at Fontainebleau:
"The true residence of Kings, the house of
the centuries. Perhaps it was not a rigorously
architectural palace, but it was certainly a place
of residence well thought out and perfectly
suitable. It was certainly the most comfortable
and happily situated palace in Europe.”
The Château during the Restoration and the Reign of Louis-Philippe (1815–1848)
Following the restoration of the Monarchy, Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X each stayed at Fontainebleau, but neither made any major changes to the palace. Louis-Philippe was more active, both restoring some rooms and redecorating others in the style of his period.
The Hall of the Guards and Gallery of Plates were redecorated in a Neo-Renaissance style, while the Hall of Columns, under the ballroom, was remade in a neoclassical style. He added new stained glass windows, made by the royal manufactory of Sèvres.
The Château During the Second Empire
Emperor Napoleon III, who had been baptised at Fontainebleau, resumed the custom of long stays at the Château, particularly during the summer. Many of the historic rooms, such as the Galerie des Cerfs, were restored to something like their original appearance, while the private apartments were redecorated to suit the tastes of the Emperor and Empress.
Numerous guest apartments were squeezed into unused spaces within the buildings. The old theatre of the palace, built in the 18th. century, was destroyed by a fire in the wing of the Belle Cheminée 1856. Between 1854 and 1857 the architect Hector Lefuel built a new theatre in the style of Louis XVI.
On the ground floor of the Gros Pavilion, the Empress Eugénie built a small but well-stocked museum, containing gifts from the King of Siam in 1861, and works of art taken during the pillage of the Summer Palace in Beijing.
The museum also featured paintings by contemporary artists, including Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and the sculptor Charles Henri Joseph Cordier. Close by, in the Louis XV wing, the Emperor established his office, and the Empress made her Salon of Lacquer.
These were the last rooms created by the royal residents of Fontainebleau. In 1870, during the Franco-German War, the Empire fell, and the Château was closed.
The Château from the Third Republic to the Present Day
During the Franco-Prussian War, the palace was occupied by the Prussians on the 17th. September 1870, and briefly used as an army headquarters by Frederic Charles of Prussia from March 1871.
Following the war, two of the buildings became the home of the advanced school of artillery and engineering of the French Army, which had been forced to leave Alsace when the province was annexed by Germany.
The Château was occasionally used as a residence by the Presidents of the Third Republic, and to welcome state guests including King Alexander I of Serbia (1891), King George I of Greece (1892) Leopold II of Belgium (1895) and King Alphonse XIII of Spain (1913).
It also received a visit by the last survivor of its royal residents, the Empress Eugenie, on the 26th. June 1920.
The façades the major buildings received their first protection by classification as historic monuments on the 20th. August 1913.
In 1923, following the Great War, the Château became the home of the Écoles d'Art Américaines, schools of art and music, which still exist today. In 1927 it became a national museum. Between the wars the upper floors of the wing of the Belle Cheminée, burned in 1856, were rebuilt by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
During World War II, Fontainebleau was occupied by the Germans on the 16th. June 1940, and occupied until the 10th. November 1940, and again from the 15th. May to the end of October 1941.
Following the war, part of the Château became a headquarters of the Western Union and later NATO's Allied Forces Central Europe/Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, until 1966.
The general restoration of the Château took place between 1964 and 1968 under President Charles De Gaulle and his Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture purchased the royal stables, and began their restoration.
Beginning in 2007, restoration began of the theatre of the Château, created by Napoleon III during the Second Empire. The project was funded by the government of Abu-Dhabi, and in exchange the theater was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan. It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014.
On the 1st. March 2015, the Chinese Museum of the Château was robbed by professional thieves. They broke in at about six in the morning, and, despite alarms and video cameras, in seven minutes stole about fifteen of the most valuable objects in the collection, including the replica of the crown of Siam given by the Siamese government to Napoleon III, a Tibetan mandala, and an enamel chimera from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736–1795).
The Grand Apartments at Fontainebleau
The Gallery of Francis I
The Gallery of Francis I is one of the first and finest examples of Renaissance decoration in France. It was originally constructed in 1528 as a passageway between the apartments of the King with the oval courtyard and the great chapel of the convent Trinitaires, but in 1531 Francis I made it a part of his royal apartments, and between 1533 and 1539 it was decorated by artists and craftsmen from Italy, under the direction of the painter Rosso Fiorentino, in the new Renaissance style.
The lower walls of the passage were the work of the master Italian furniture maker Francesco Scibec da Carpi; they are decorated with the coat of arms of France and the salamander, the emblem of the King. The upper walls are covered by frescoes framed in richly sculpted stucco. The frescoes used mythological scenes to illustrate the virtues of the King.
On the side of the gallery with windows, the frescoes represent Ignorance Driven Out; The Unity of the State; Cliobis and Biton; Danae; The Death of Adonis; The Loss of Perpetual Youth; and The Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithes.
On the side of the gallery facing the windows, the frescoes represent: A Sacrifice; The Royal Elephant; The Burning of Catane; The Nymph of Fontainebleau (painted in 1860–61 by J. Alaux to cover a former entry to the gallery); The Sinking of Ajax; The Education of Achilles and The Frustration of Venus.
The Ballroom
The Ballroom was originally begun as an open passageway, or loggia, by Francis I. In about 1552 King Henry II closed it with high windows and an ornate coffered ceiling, and transformed it into a room for celebrations and balls.
The 'H', the initial of the King, is prominent in the decor, as well as figures of the crescent moon, the symbol of Henry's mistress Diane de Poitiers.
At the western end is a monumental fireplace, decorated with bronze statues originally copied from classical statues in Rome. At the eastern end of the room is a gallery where musicians played during balls.
The decor was restored many times over the years. The floor, which mirrors the design of the ceiling, was built by Louis-Philippe in the first half of the 19th. century.
The frescoes on the walls and pillars were painted beginning in 1552 by Nicolo dell'Abate, following drawings by Primatice. On the garden side of the ballroom, they represent: The Harvest; Vulcan forging weapons for Love at the request of Venus; Phaeton begging the sun to let him drive his chariot; and Jupiter and Mercury at the home of Philemon and Baucis.
The frescoes on the side of the Oval Courtyard represent: The feast of Bacchus; Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus; The Three Graces dancing before the gods; and The wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus.
St. Saturnin's Chapel
Behind the ballroom, there is St. Saturnin's Chapel. The lower chapel was originally built in the 12th. century, but was destroyed and completely rebuilt under Francis I. The windows made in Sèvres were installed during Louis Philippe's period, and were designed by his daughter Marie, an artist herself.
The upper chapel was the royal chapel decorated by Philibert de l'Orme. The ceiling, made in the same style as the ballroom, ends with a dome.
Room of the Guards
A room for the guards was always located next to the royal bedchambers. The Salle des Gardes was built during the reign of Charles IX. Some traces of the original decor remain from the 1570's, including the vaulted ceiling and a frieze of military trophies attributed to Ruggiero d'Ruggieri.
In the 19th. century Louis Philippe turned the room into a salon, and redecorated it with a new parquet floor of exotic woods echoing the design of the ceiling, along with a monumental fireplace (1836), which incorporates pieces of ornament from demolished rooms that were built the 15th. and early 16th. century.
The bust of Henry IV, attributed to Mathieu Jacquet, is from that period, as are the two figures on either side of the fireplace. The sculpted frame around the bust, by Pierre Bontemps, was originally in the bedchamber of Henry II.
The decorations added by Louis Philippe include a large vase decorated with Renaissance themes, made by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory in 1832.
During the reign of Napoleon III, the hall was used as a dining room.
Stairway of the King
The stairway of the King was installed in 1748 and 1749, in the space occupied during the reign of Francis I by the bedroom of Anne de Pisseleu, the Duchess of Étampes, a favorite of the King.
It was designed by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who used many decorative elements from the earlier room, which had originally been decorated by Primatice.
The upper portion of the walls is divided into panels, oval and rectangular, with scenes representing the love life of Alexander the Great. The paintings are framed by large statues of women by Primatice. The eastern wall of the room was destroyed during the reconstruction, and was replaced during the reign of Louis Philippe in the 19th. century with paintings by Abel de Pujol.
The Queen's Bedroom
All of the Queens and Empresses of France from Marie de Medici to the Empress Eugènie slept in the bedchamber of the Queen. The ornate ceiling over the bed was made in 1644 by the furniture-maker Guillaume Noyers for the Dowager Queen Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, and bears her initials.
The room was redecorated by Marie Leszczynska, the Queen of Louis XV in 1746–1747. The ceiling of the alcove, the decoration around the windows and the wood panelling were made by Jacques Vererckt and Antoine Magnonais in the rocaille style of the day. The decoration of the fireplace dates to the same period.
The doors have an arabesque design, and were made for Marie-Antoinette, as were the sculpted panels over the doors, installed in 1787. The bed was also made especially for Marie Antoinette, but did not arrive until 1797, after the Revolution and her execution. it was used instead by Napoleon's wives, the Empress Josephine and Marie-Louise of Austria.
The walls received their ornamental textile covering, with a design of flowers and birds, in 1805. It was restored in 1968–1986 using the original fabric as a model.
The furniture in the room all dates to the First Empire. The balustrade around the bed was originally made for the throne room of the Tuileries Palace in 1804. The armchairs with a sphinx pattern, the consoles and screen and the two chests of drawers were placed in the room in 1806.
The Boudoir of Marie-Antoinette
The boudoir next to the Queen's bedroom was created for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1786, and permitted the Queen to have a measure of privacy.
The room is the best surviving example of the decorative style just before the French Revolution, inspired by ancient Roman models, with delicately painted arabesques, cameos, vases, antique figures and garlands of flowers against a silver background, framed by gilded and sculpted woodwork.
The room was made for the Queen by the same team of artists and craftsmen who also made the game room; the design was by the architect Pierre Rousseau (1751-1829); the wood panelling was sculpted by Laplace, and painted by Michel-Hubert Bourgeois and Louis-François Touzé.
Eight figures of the Muses were made in plaster by Roland; the ornate mantle of the fireplace was made by Jacques-François Dropsy, and decorated with glided bronze works by Claude-Jean Pitoin.
The mahogany parquet floor, decorated with the emblems of the Queen, was made by Bernard Molitor, and finished in 1787. The painted ceiling, by Jean-Simon Berthélemy, shows Aurora with a group of angels.
The furnishings were designed for the room by Jean-Henri Riesener, using the finest materials available; mother of pearl, gilded bronze, brass, satin and ebony. Some of the original furnishings remain, including the cylindrical desk and the table, which were made between 1784 and 1789.
The two armchairs are copies of the originals made by Georges Jacob which are now in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, while the footstool is the original.
The Throne Room of Napoleon (former bedroom of the King)
The Throne Room was the bedroom of the Kings of France from Henry IV to Louis XVI.
In 1808 Napoleon decided to install his throne in the former bedroom of the Kings of France in the location where the royal bed had been. Under the Old Regime, the King's bed was a symbol of royal authority in France and was saluted by courtiers who passed by it. Napoleon wanted to show the continuity of his Empire with the past monarchies of France.
The majority of the carved wood ceiling, the lower part of the wood panelling, and the doors date to the reign of Louis XIII. The ceiling directly over the throne was made at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.
Louis XV created the portion of the ceiling directly over the throne, a new chimney, sculpted wooden medallions near the fireplace, the designs over the doors, and the fine carved woodwork facing the throne (1752–54).
He also had the ceiling painted white and gilded and decorated with mosaics, to match the ceiling of the bedroom of the Queen.
Napoleon added the standards with his initial and the Imperial eagle. The decoration around the throne was originally designed in 1804 by Jacob-Desmalter for the Palace of Saint-Cloud, and the throne itself came from the Tuileries Palace.
The chimney was originally decorated with a portrait of Louis XIII painted by Philippe de Champaigne, which was burned in 1793 during the French Revolution. Napoleon replaced it with a portrait of himself, by Robert Lefèvre. In 1834, King Louis-Philippe took down Napoleon's picture and replaced with another of Louis XIII.
The Council Chamber
The Council Chamber, where the Kings and Emperors met their closest advisors, was close to the Throne Room. It was originally the office of Francis I, and was decorated with painted wooden panels showing following designs of Primatice, the virtues and the heroes of antiquity.
The room was enlarged under Louis XIV, and the decorator, Claude Audran, followed the same theme.
The room was entirely redecorated between 1751 and 1754 by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, with arcades and wooded panels showing the virtues, and allegories of the seasons and the elements, painted by Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre and Carle van Loo.
The painter Alexis Peyrotte added another series of medallions to the upper walls depicting floral themes, the sciences and arts. The five paintings on the vaulted ceiling were the work of François Boucher, and show the seasons and the sun beginning its journey and chasing away the night.
A half-rotonda on the garden side of the room was added by Louis XV in 1773, with a painted ceiling by Lagrenée depicting Glory surrounded by his children.
The room was used as a council chamber by Napoleon I, and the furnishings are from that time. The armchairs at the table for the ministers are by Marcion (1806) and the folding chairs for advisors are by Jacob-Desmalter (1808).
Apartment of the Pope and of the Queen-Mothers
The apartment of the Pope, located on the first floor of the wing of the Queen Mothers and of the Gros Pavillon, takes its name from the 1804 visit of Pope Pius VII, who stayed there on his way to Paris to crown Napoleon I the Emperor of France.
He stayed there again, involuntarily, under the close supervision of Napoleon from 1812 to 1814. Prior to that, beginning in the 17th. century it was the residence of the Queen Mothers Marie de' Medici and Anne of Austria.
It was also the home of the Grand Dauphin, the oldest son of Louis XIV. In the 18th. century it was used by the daughters of Louis XV, and then by the Count of Provence, the brother of Louis XVI.
During the First Empire it was used by Louis, the brother of Napoleon, and his wife Queen Hortense, the daughter of the Empress Josephine. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, it was used by his eldest son, the Duke of Orleans.
During the Second Empire, it was occupied by Stephanie de Bade, the adopted niece of Napoleon I. It was restored in 1859–1861, and used thereafter for guests of high rank. It was originally two apartments, which were divided or joined over the years depending upon its occupants.
The Grand Salon, the Antechamber to the Bedroom of the Queen-Mother (Mid-17th. century)
The Salon de Reception was the anteroom to the bedroom of Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and mother of Louis XIV. It features a gilded and sculpted ceiling divided into seven compartments, representing the sun and the known planets, along with smaller compartments for military trophies.
The room was created in 1558 by Ambroise Perret as the bedroom of Henry II in the pavilion des Poeles, a section of the Château that was later destroyed. Anne had it moved and decorated with her own emblems, including a pelican. The wood paneling in the room is probably from the same period.
The decor of the bedroom dates largely to the 1650's; it includes grotesque paintings in compartments on the ceiling, attributed to Charles Errard; richly carved wood paneling featuring oak leaves and putti; and paintings over the doors of Anne of Austria costumed as Minerva and Marie-Therese of Austria costumed as Abundance, both painted by Gilbert de Sève.
The bedroom was modified in the 18th. century by the addition of a new fireplace and sculptured borders of cascades of flowers around the mirrors added in 1784. During the Second Empire, painted panels imitating the style of the 17th. century were added above the mirrors and between the mirrors and the doors.
The Gallery of Diana
The Gallery of Diana, an eighty-metre (242 feet) long corridor now lined with bookcases, was created by Henry IV at the beginning of the 17th. century as a place for the Queen to promenade. The paintings on the vaulted ceiling, painted beginning in 1605 by Ambroise Dubois and his workshop, represented scenes from the myth of Diana, goddess of the Hunt.
At the beginning of the 19th. century, the gallery was in ruins. In 1810 Napoleon decided to turn it into a gallery devoted to the achievements of his Empire. A few of the paintings still in good condition were removed and put in the Gallery of Plates.
The architect Hurtault designed a new plan for the gallery, inspired by the Grand Gallery of the Louvre, featuring paintings on the ceiling illustrating the great events of Napoleon's reign.
By 1814 the corridor had been rebuilt and the decorative frames painted by Moench and Redouté, but the cycle of paintings on the Empire had not been started when Napoleon fell from power.
Once the monarchy was restored, King Louis XVIII had the gallery completed in a neoclassical style. A new series of the goddess Diana was done by Merry-Joseph Blondel and Abel de Pujol, using the painted frames prepared for Napoleon's cycle.
Paintings were also added along the corridor, illustrating the history of the French monarchy, painted in the Troubador style of the 1820's and 1830's, painted by a team of the leading academic painters.
Beginning in 1853, under Napoleon III, the corridor was turned into a library and most of the paintings were removed, with the exception of a large portrait of Henry IV on horseback by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse. The large globe near the entrance of the gallery, placed there in 1861, came from the office of Napoleon in the Tuileries Palace.
The Apartments of Napoleon
In 1804 Napoleon decided that he wanted his own private suite of apartments within the Palace, separate from the old state apartments. He took over a suite of six rooms which had been created in 1786 for Louis XVI, next to the Gallery of Francis I, and had them redecorated in the Empire style.
The Emperor's Bedroom
Beginning in 1808, Napoleon had his bedroom in the former dressing room of the King. From this room, using a door hidden behind the drapery to the right of the bed, Napoleon could go directly to his private library or to the offices on the ground floor.
Much of the original decor was unchanged from the time of Louis XVI; the fireplaces, the carved wooden panels sculpted by Pierre-Joseph LaPlace and the sculpture over the door by Sauvage remained as they were.
The walls were painted with Imperial emblems in gold on white by Frederic-Simon Moench. The bed, made especially for the Emperor, was the summit of the Empire style; it was crowned with an imperial eagle and decorated with allegorical sculptures representing Glory, Justice, and Abundance.
The Emperor had a special carpet made by Sallandrouze in the shape of the cross of the Legion of Honor; the branches of the cross alternate with symbols of military and civilian attributes.
The chairs near the fireplace were specially designed, with one side higher than the other, to contain the heat from the fire while allowing the occupants to see the decorations of the fireplace.
The painting on the ceiling of the room was added later, after the downfall of Napoleon, by Louis XVIII. Painted by Jean-Baptiste Regnault, it is an allegory representing The clemency of the King halting justice in its course.
The study was a small room designated as Napoleon's work room. In 1811 he added the camp bed, similar to the bed he used on his military campaigns, so he could rest briefly during a long night of work.
The salon of the Emperor was simply furnished and decorated. It was in this room, on the small table on display, that the Emperor signed his abdication in 1814.
The Theatre
Concerts, plays and other theatrical productions were a regular part of court life at Fontainebleau. Prior to the reign of Louis XV these took place in different rooms of the palace, but during his reign, a theatre was built in the Belle-Cheminée wing. It was rebuilt by the architect Gabriel, but was destroyed by a fire in 1856.
It had already been judged too small for the court of Napoleon III, and a new theatre was begun in 1854 at the far eastern end of the wing of Louis XIV. It was designed by architect Hector Lefuel in the style of Louis XVI, and was inspired by the opera theatre at the palace of Versailles and that of Marie-Antoinette at the Trianon Palace.
The new theatre, with four hundred seats arranged in a parterre, two balconies and boxes in a horseshoe shape, was finished in 1856. It has the original stage machinery, and many of the original sets, including many transferred from the old theatre before the fire of 1856.
The theatre was closed after the end of the Second Empire and was rarely used. A restoration began in 2007, funded with ten million Euros by the government of Abu-Dhabi. In exchange, the theatre was renamed after Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed al Nahyan.
It was inaugurated on the 30th. April 2014. The theatre can be visited, but it no longer can be used for plays because some working parts of the theater, including the stage, were not included in the restoration.
The Chinese Museum
The Chinese Museum, on the ground floor of the Gros Pavillon close to the lake, was among the last rooms decorated within the Chateau while it was still an imperial residence.
In 1867, the Empress Eugenie had the rooms remade to display her personal collection of Asian art, which included gifts given to the Emperor by a delegation sent by the King of Siam in 1861, and other objects taken during the destruction and looting of the Old Summer Palace near Beijing by a joint British-French military expedition to China in 1860.
The objects displayed in the antechamber include two royal palanquins given by the King of Siam, one designed for a King and the other (with curtains) for a Queen. Inside the two salons of the museum, some of the walls are covered with lacquered wood panels in black and gold, taken from 17th. century Chinese screens, along with specially designed cases to display antique porcelain vases.
Other objects on display include a Tibetan stupa containing a Buddha taken from the Summer Palace in China; and a royal Siamese crown given to Napoleon III.
The salons are lavishly decorated with both Asian and European furnishings and art objects, including silk-covered furnishings and Second Empire sculptures by Charles Cordier and Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk. The room also served as a place for games and entertainment; an old bagatelle game and a mechanical piano from that period are on display.
In addition to the Chinese Museum, the Empress created a small office in 1868, the Salon of Lacquerware, which was also decorated with lacquered panels and Asian art objects, on the ground floor of the Louis XV wing. This was the last room decorated before the fall of the Empire, and the eventual transformation of the Château into a museum.
The Chapel of the Trinity
The Chapel of the Trinity was built at the end of the reign of Francis I to replace the old chapel of the convent of the Trinitaires. It was finished under Henry II, but was without decoration until 1608, when the painter Martin Freminet was commissioned to design frescoes for the ceiling and walls.
The sculptor Barthèlemy Tremblay created the vaults of the ceiling out of stucco and sculpture. The paintings of Freminet in the central vaults depict the redemption of Man, from the appearance of God to Noah at the launching of the Ark (Over the tribune) to the Annunciation.
They surrounded these with smaller paintings depicting the ancestors of the Virgin Mary, the Kings of Judah, the Patriarchs announcing the coming of Christ, and the Virtues.
Between 1613 and 1619 Freminet and Tremblay added paintings in stucco frames between the windows on the sides of the chapel, depicting the life of Christ. Freminet died in 1619, and work did not resume until 1628.
The Trinity chapel, like Sainte-Chapelle in Paris other royal chapels, had an upper section or tribune, where the King and his family sat, with a separate entrance; and a lower part, where the rest of the Court was placed.
Beginning in 1628, the side chapels were decorated with iron gates and carved wood panelling, and the Florentine sculptor Francesco Bordoni began work on the marble altar. The figure to the left depicts Charlemagne, with the features of Henry II, while the figure on the right depicts Louis IX, or Saint Louis, with the features of Louis XIII, his patron.
Bordoni also designed the multicolored marble pavement before the altar and on the walls of the nave. The painting of the Holy Trinity over the altar, by Jean Dubois the Elder, was added in 1642.
In the mid-17th. century the craftsman Anthony Girault made the sculpted wooden doors of the nave. while Jean Gobert made the doors of the tribune where the Royal family worshipped.
In 1741 the royal tribune was enlarged, while ornate balconies of wrought iron were added between the royal tribune and the simpler balconies used by the musicians and those who chanted the mass. In 1779, under Louis XVI, the frescoes of Freminet illustrating the life of Christ, which had deteriorated with time, were replaced by new paintings on the same theme. The paintings were done in the same style by about a dozen painters from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
Under Napoleon, the old tabernacle of the chapel, which had been removed during the Revolution, was replaced by a new one designed by the architect Maximilien Hurtault.
Beginning in 1824, the chapel underwent a program of major renovation and restoration that lasted for six years. The twelve paintings of the life of Christ were removed, as well as the gates to the side chapels.
During the Second Empire, the wood panelling of the side chapels was replaced. The restoration was not completed until the second half of the 20th. century, when the twelve paintings, which had been scattered to different museums, were brought together again and restored in their stucco frames. Between 1772 and 1774, a small organ made by François-Henri Cilquot was installed on the left side of the chapel, near the altar.
On the 5th. September 1725, the chapel was the setting for the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Napoleon III was baptized there on 4 November 1810, and Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orleans, the son of King Louis-Philippe, was married there to Helene de Mecklembourg Schwerin on the 30th. May 1837.
The Gardens and the Park at Fontainebleau
From the time of Francis I, the palace was surrounded by formal gardens, representing the major landscaping styles of their periods; the French Renaissance garden, inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens; the French formal garden, the favorite style of Louis XIV; and, in the 18th. and 19th. century, the French landscape garden, inspired by the English landscape garden.
The Garden of Diana
The Garden of Diana was created during the reign of Henry IV; it was the private garden of the King and Queen, and was visible from the windows of their rooms.
The fountain of Diana was originally in the centre of the garden, which at that time was enclosed by another wing, containing offices and later, under, Louis XIV, an orangery. That building, and another, the former chancellery, were demolished in the 19th. century, thereby doubling the size of the garden.
From the 17th. until the end of the 18th. century, the garden was in the Italian and then the French formal style, divided by straight paths into rectangular flower beds centred on the fountains, and decorated with statues, ornamental plants and citrus trees in pots.
It was transformed during the reign of Napoleon I into a landscape garden in the English style, with winding paths and trees grouped into picturesque landscapes, and it was enlarged during the reign of Louis-Philippe. it was opened to the public after the downfall of Napoleon III.
The fountain in the centre was made by Tommaso Francini, the master Italian fountain-maker, whose work included the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.
The bronze statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt, with a young deer, was made by the Keller brothers in 1684 for another royal residence, at Marly. It is a copy of an antique Roman statue, Diana of Versailles, which was given by the Pope to King Henry IV, and which is now in the Louvre.
The original statue of the fountain, made by Barthelemy Prieur in 1602, can be seen in the Gallery of the Cerfs inside the palace. The sculptures of hunting dogs and deer around the fountain were made by Pierre Biard.
The Carp Lake, English Garden, Grotto and Spring
The lake next to the palace, with an area of four hectares, was made during the reign of Henry IV, and was used for boating parties by members of the Court, and as a source of fish for the table and for amusement.
Descriptions of the palace in the 17th. century tell of guests feeding the carp, some of which reached enormous size, and were said to be a hundred years old. The small octagonal house on an island in the center of the lake, Pavillon de l'Étang, was added during the reign of Louis XIV, then rebuilt under Napoleon I, and is decorated with his initial.
The English garden also dates back to the reign of Henry IV. In one part of the garden, known as the garden of pines, against the wing of Louis XV, is an older structure dating to Francis I; the first Renaissance-style grotto to be built in a French garden, a rustic stone structure decorated with four statues of Atlas.
Under Napoleon, his architect, Maximilien-Joseph Hurtault, turned this part of the garden into an English park, with winding paths and exotic trees, including catalpa, tulip trees, sophora, and cypress trees from Louisiana, and with a picturesque stream and boulders.
The garden also features two 17th. century bronze copies of ancient Roman originals, the Borghese gladiator and the Dying Gladiator. A path leads from the garden through a curtain of trees to the spring which gave its name to the palace, next to a statue of Apollo.
The Parterre and Canal
On the other side of the Château, on the site of the garden of Francis I, Henry IV created a large formal garden, or parterre Along the axis of the parterre, he also built a grand canal 1200 metres long, similar to one at the nearby château of Fleury-en-Biere.
Between 1660 and 1664 the chief gardener of Louis XIV, André Le Nôtre, and Louis Le Vau rebuilt the parterre on a grander scale, filling it with geometric designs and paths bordered with boxwood hedges and filled with colourful flowerbeds.
They also added a basin, called Les Cascades, decorated with fountains, at the head of the canal. Le Nôtre planted shade trees along the length of the canal, and also laid out a wide path, lined with elm trees, parallel to the canal.
The fountains of Louis XIV were removed after his reign. More recently, the Cascades were decorated with works of sculpture from the 19th. century. A large ornamental fountain was installed in the central basin in 1817.
A bronze replica of an ancient Roman statue, "The Tiber", was placed in the round basin in 1988. It replaced an earlier statue from the 16th. century which earlier had decorated the basin.
Two statues of sphinxes by Mathieu Lespagnandel, from 1664, are placed near the balustrade of the grand canal.
The saga of 640 Fifth Avenue began in 1878, when Henry William Vanderbilt, son and principal heir of the Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, engaged architect John B. Snook and decorator C.B. Atwood of the prestigious Herter Brothers firm to design and execute plans for twin mansions on the avenue. The finished building occupied the entire block between 51st and 52nd streets on the west side of Fifth Avenue. The northern half was occupied by residences for two of William's daughters; the southern half was reserved for Vanderbilt and his wife Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt.
This residence was designed at the end of the Victorian movement in America. It rich neo-Grec brownstone facade was alive with decorative detailing, such as balconied window projections and intricately carved entablatures above the windows on the second story. An elaborately carved floral frieze ran in tandem with the third floor, and similar decorative detailing ran across the first story level at the top of the windows. A perforated parapet balustrade topped all of this exuberant detailing.
The mansion's interiors were even more elaborately conceived. Overpowering in their intensity, the major interior spaces were filled with stone and mosaic walls and floors, and the most important rooms were decorated with murals by Jules' Joseph Lefebvre. Draperies and upholstery were of textures velvets and silks in rich jewel tones. The furniture, constructed of exotic woods, was often inlaid with ebony and mother-of-pearl. A marble and bronze clad central hall ran up to stained-glass ceiling by John La Farge. The collection in the art gallery predominantly comprised important works by French academic painters, such as Bouguereau, Tissot and Meissonier. M.S. Euen, the author of Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, privately printed by Vanderbilt, opined that everything inside 640 "sparkles and flashes with gold and color...with mother-of-pearl, with marble, with jewel effects in glass...and every surface is covered, one might say weighted, with ornament."
After Vanderbilt's death in 1885, the house continued to be inhabited by his widow. At her death 11 years later, his youngest son, George Washington Vanderbilt, inherited the mansion. By the end of the century, the house seemed dowdy. Most of the younger Vanderbilts' peers had long ago subscribed to the new classical design vernacular espoused by prominent architectural firms such as Carrere and Hastings and McKim, Mead and White. George soon made a series of changes to his father's house. He began by eliminating a few of the decorative excesses on the exterior, at the same time replacing the balustrade that surrounded it with something more classical that held baroque lanterns at each corner. Soon after this expensive work was completed, the City of New York decided to widen Fifth Avenue, forcing Vanderbilt to remove this new balustrade completely. That , coupled with the heavy debt incurred with the building of his enormous Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina, compelled him in 1905 to stop renovations. Soon thereafter he leased the house to Henry Clay Frick.
George Vanderbilt died in Washington D.C., in 1914. Because he left no direct male heir, per his father's will, 640 was passed on to his eldest nephew. Cornelius Vanderbilt III was the eldest son of George's oldest brother, Cornelius II. Neily, as family and friends always called him, was an unexpectant recipient because his father had disinherited him for marrying Grace Wilson, a society belle of the era.
After Cornelius II's death, Neily's younger brother, who inherited the lion's share of his father's estate,gave Neily an additional $6 million ($122 million USD 2007), thereby bringing his inheritance up to the level of his sisters and younger brother, Reginald. That money, combined with his wife's personal fortune, enabled this branch of the Vanderbilt family to live quite well in a Fifth Avenue house 677, two blocks north of his grandfather's mansion. But with Grace's burgeoning social career, defined by her position as the leading Mrs. Vanderbilt, it was fortunate that they inherited the mush larger house at 640.
As George Vanderbilt had sided with the senior Vanderbilts in their dislike of Grace, the younger Mrs. Vanderbilt had not stepped foot in the house since long before her 1896 marriage. On her first tour of the property after her husband's inheritance, Grace reputedly dubbed it "the Black Hole of Calcutta" and immediately called in one of society's favorite architects, Horace Trumbauer, to transform the house, cellar to attic.
The exterior changes included removal of all the first and second story double-hung windows and their accompanying surrounds and replacing them with balustraded French doors set in classical frames. The elaborate, heavily carved frieze work of the first and third floors was removed, and the house was extended and enlarged in the back. Probably the most obvious change was the addition of a single story entrance pavilion that was attached to the northern end of the Fifth Avenue facade. The brownstone veneer remained but was reinterpreted in an 18th century vernacular.
Inside, the heavy Herter Brothers interiors were completely gutted and replaced with the elegant and bright French 18th-century rooms so loved by "Her Grace". A marble lined foyer led into a soaring French Caen stone-lined great hall from which emanated most of the principal rooms for entertaining in the house. These included a Regence-inspired oak paneled library in which Grace served tea in the afternoons under a late 17th-century tapestry representing Alexander the Great's visit to Diogenes in Corinth. There was also an art gallery that continued to display William Henry Vanderbilt's collection of Millets, Meissoniers, and Corots. Nearby, the family dining room had beige-and-gold 18th century paneling that had come from Europe via their 677 Fifth Avenue home. For larger dinners, the Vanderbilts used 640's main dining room, whose Louis XV paneling had niches that held wine-cooling fountains and buffets of red Siena marble. A dining table that could extend to seat 60 stood in the center of an enormous modern Savonnerie carpet. For larger groups, Grace had this table removed and used numerous smaller tables instead.
The music room had finely detailed Louis XVI boiserie and a parquet de Versailles floor that was considered too beautiful to cover. The adjoining ballroom, with its paneling anchored by gilded Corinthian pilasters, was the largest room in the house. At a Vanderbilt ball, as many as 1,000 people might be invited to dance on its highly polished parquet floor.
The upper floors comprised family and guest bedrooms, along with Grace's famous pink boudoir and her husband's paneled walnut study with an adjacent soundproof engineering laboratory. In the basement were the kitchen, servant's dining room, laundry, and wine cellar, and bedrooms for most of the male staff members. The female servants were housed four flights away under the roof. The Vanderbilts generally employed a household staff of about 30, who were at their busiest during the non-stop entertaining that enveloped the household during the all-important winter season.
For really important affairs a red carpet was rolled out from the front door, over the sidewalk to the street. Supervising the front-of-the-house staff was the family butler, Gerald, who was so distinguished in appearance that arriving first-time guests, unfamiliar with their host, often confused the two. Alongside Gerald were six footmen, grandly arrayed in "Vanderbilt maroon" livery, consisting of jackets with gold-braided trim over matching knee britches and white stockings with black patent-leather pumps. To complete the 18th -century illusion, these footmen were required to either powder their own hair or don wigs. Maids in black dresses with frilly starched organdy capes and aprons carried hats, coats, and umbrellas to large dressing closets, which were designed to accommodate up to 700 coats. On a silver tray in the entrance hall, each male guest would find a little white envelope bearing his name. Inside he would find the name of the lady he would be escorting into dinner, or midnight supper if it were a ball.
Grace Vanderbilt's high Edwardian scale of entertaining never slackened, even during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Aside from her lavish balls, musicales, and dinner parties, as many as 100 people might drop by for tea during the season, and 1,000 would come pay their respects on Christmas Day. She was given a daily roster of who was staying in each guest room, and her often overtaxed staff would sometimes confuse incoming and outgoing guests' luggage. Her husband thought 640 resembled the family's business headquarters, Grand Central Terminal.
Vanderbilt began to find this nonstop entertaining draining. His parents had perhaps been right all along; he and Grace were unsuited for each other. Soon he began retreating to his yachts, where he would often find solace at the bottom of a bottle. At the beginning of World War II, Vanderbilt donated his oceangoing yacht, the Winchester, to the Canadian government to use as a submarine chaser. He then leased a much smaller boat that he kept more less permanently moored in Miami, where he died in 1942.
Vanderbilt's fortune was hard hit by the depression. In 1940, to raise capital, he sold 640 to the Astor Estate Office, with the proviso that his wife would be able to remain there until one year after his death, paying the Astor Estate Office a nominal rent. The house, whose neighborhood was already being commercialized at the time of the Trumbauer renovation, was then totally engulfed by towering skyscrapers. Even so, Grace was reluctant to leave the scene of so many social triumphs. Because of the war, the new owners of the property held off taking possession until 1945. In the fall of that year, refusing to leave the avenue that she had dominated for so long, Grace purchased the William Starr Miller mansion at 86th and Fifth Avenue. The following year, 640, the last great Vanderbilt mansions on the avenue, became victim to the wrecker's ball, replaced by a diminutive commercial structure that was little more than a taxpayer.
The Sanctury of the St Kilda Presbyterian Church features three beautiful 1880s Ferguson and Urie stained glass windows; Faith on the left, Charity in the middle and Hope on the right. All are executed in iridescent reds, yellows, greens and blues, to reflect the colour palate used in other Ferguson and Urie windows elsewhere around the church.
Built on the crest of a hill in a prominent position overlooking St Kilda and the bay is the grand St Kilda Presbyterian Church.
The St Kilda Presbyterian Church's interior is cool, spacious and lofty, with high ceilings of tongue and groove boards laid diagonally, and a large apse whose ceiling was once painted with golden star stenciling. The bluestone walls are so thick that the sounds of the busy intersection of Barkley Street and Alma Road barely permeate the church's interior, and it is easy to forget that you are in such a noisy inner Melbourne suburb. The cedar pews of the church are divided by two grand aisles which feature tall cast iron columns with Corinthian capitals. At the rear of the building towards Alma Road there are twin porches and a narthex with a staircase that leads to the rear gallery where the choir sang from. It apparently once housed an organ by William Anderson, but the space today is used as an office and Bible study area. The current impressive Fincham and Hobday organ from 1892 sits in the north-east corner of the church. It cost £1030.00 to acquire and install. The church is flooded with light, even on an overcast day with a powerful thunder storm brewing (as the weather was on my visit). The reason for such light is because of the very large Gothic windows, many of which are filled with quarry glass by Ferguson and Urie featuring geometric tracery with coloured borders. The church also features stained glass windows designed by Ferguson and Urie, including the impressive rose window, British stained glass artist Ernest Richard Suffling, Brooks, Robinson and Company Glass Merchants, Mathieson and Gibson of Melbourne and one by Australian stained glass artist Napier Waller.
Opened in 1886, the St Kilda Presbyterian church was designed by the architects firm of Wilson and Beswicke, a business founded in 1881 by Ralph Wilson and John Beswicke (1847 - 1925) when they became partners for a short period. The church is constructed of bluestone with freestone dressings and designed in typical Victorian Gothic style. The foundation stone, which may be found on the Alma Road facade, was laid by the Governor of Victoria Sir Henry Barkly on 27 January. When it was built, the St Kilda Presbyterian Church was surrounded by large properties with grand mansions built upon them, so the congregation were largely very affluent and wished for a place of worship that reflected its stature not only in location atop a hill, but in size and grandeur.
The exterior facades of the church on Barkley Street and Alma Road are dominated by a magnificent tower topped by an imposing tower. The location of the church and the height of the tower made the spire a landmark for mariners sailing into Melbourne's port. The tower features corner pinnacles and round spaces for the insertion of a clock, which never took place. Common Victorian Gothic architectural features of the St Kilda Presbyterian Church include complex bar tracery over the windows, wall buttresses which identify structural bays, gabled roof vents, parapeted gables and excellent stone masonry across the entire structure.
I am very grateful to the Reverend Paul Lee for allowing me the opportunity to photograph the interior of the St Kilda Presbyterian Church so extensively.
The architects Wilson and Beswicke were also responsible for the Brighton, Dandenong, Essendon, Hawthorn and Malvern Town Halls and the Brisbane Wesleyan Church on the corner of Albert and Ann Streets. They also designed shops in the inner Melbourne suburbs of Auburn and Fitzroy. They also designed several individual houses, including "Tudor House" in Williamstown, "Tudor Lodge" in Hawthorn and "Rotha" in Hawthorn, the latter of which is where John Beswicke lived.
The stained glass firm of Ferguson and Urie was established by Scots James Ferguson (1818 – 1894), James Urie (1828 – 1890) and John Lamb Lyon (1836 – 1916). They were the first known makers of stained glass in Australia. Until the early 1860s, window glass in Melbourne had been clear or plain coloured, and nearly all was imported, but new churches and elaborate buildings created a demand for pictorial windows. The three Scotsmen set up Ferguson and Urie in 1862 and the business thrived until 1899, when it ceased operation, with only John Lamb Lyon left alive. Ferguson and Urie was the most successful Nineteenth Century Australian stained glass window making company. Among their earliest works were a Shakespeare window for the Haymarket Theatre in Bourke Street, a memorial window to Prince Albert in Holy Trinity, Kew, and a set of Apostles for the West Melbourne Presbyterian Church. Their palatial Gothic Revival office building stood at 283 Collins Street from 1875. Ironically, their last major commission, a window depicting “labour”, was installed in the old Melbourne Stock Exchange in Collins Street in 1893 on the eve of the bank crash. Their windows can be found throughout the older suburbs of Melbourne and across provincial Victoria.
Early morning raids saw four arrested as officers executed several drug warrants across Tameside.
Today (Wednesday 19 June 2019) warrants were executed across seven addresses as part of a crackdown on the supply of Class A and B drugs – codenamed Operation Leporine.
Following today’s action, two men – aged 21 and 27 – and two women – aged 21 and 52 - have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs.
Sergeant Stephanie O’Brien, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: “At present we have four people in custody and as part of this morning’s operation we have been able to seize a significant quantity of drugs.
“I would like to thank the team here in Tameside who, as part of Operation Leporine, have worked tirelessly in order to bring a sophisticated and audacious group of offenders to justice.
“The supply of illegal drugs blights communities and destroys people’s livelihoods; and I hope that today’s very direct and visible action demonstrates to the local community that we are doing all that we to make the streets of Tameside a safer place.
“It will remain a top priority for us to continue to tackle the influx of drugs in the area, however we cannot do this alone and I would appeal directly to the community and those most affected to please come forward with any information that could assist us in what continues to be an ongoing operation.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or alternatively reports can be made to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been occupied since 1837 by University College, Durham after its previous role as the residence of the Bishops of Durham. Designated since 1986 as a cultural World Heritage Site in England, along with Durham Cathedral, the facility is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students. The castle stands on top of a hill above the River Wear on Durham's peninsula, opposite Durham Cathedral (grid reference NZ274423).
Construction of the Castle, which follows the usual motte and bailey design favoured by the Normans, began in 1072 under the orders of William the Conqueror, six years after the Norman conquest of England, and soon after the Normans first came to the North. The construction took place under the supervision of Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, until he rebelled against William and was executed in 1076. Stone for the new buildings was cut from the cliffs below the walls and moved up using winches.
The holder of the office of the Bishop of Durham, Bishop Walcher at the time, was appointed by the king to exercise royal authority on his behalf, with the castle being his seat. According to UNESCO,
Walcher "purchased the earldom [of Northumbria] and thus became the first of the Prince-Bishops of Durham, a title that was to remain until the 19th century, and was to give Durham a unique status in England. It was under Walcher that many of the Castle’s first buildings were constructed. As was typical of Norman castles, it consisted of a motte (mound) and an inner and outer bailey (fenced or walled area). Whether the motte and inner bailey were built first is unknown. There is also debate about whether or not Durham Castle was originally a stone or a wooden structure. Historic sources mention that its keep (fortified tower) was built of wood, but there is enough archaeological evidence to indicate that even in the late 11th century when it was first built, it had numerous stone buildings.
A UNESCO site describes the role of the Prince-Bishops in the "buffer state between England and Scotland":
From 1075, the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop, with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England, he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler, reaping the revenue from his territory, but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.
The Bishops of Durham would not be stripped of their temporal powers until the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 returned them to the Crown.
Another UNESCO report more specifically explains the need for a castle at this location:
"In defensive terms, Durham Castle was of strategic importance both to defend the troublesome border with Scotland and to control local English rebellions, which were common in the years immediately following the Norman Conquest, and led to the so-called Harrying of the North by William the Conqueror in 1069. ... the Castle was constructed 'to keep the bishop and his household safe from the attacks of assailants'. This makes sense – Robert de Comines (or Cumin), the first earl of Northumberland appointed by William the Conqueror, was brutally murdered along with his entourage in 1069".
In May 1080, the castle was attacked and besieged for four days by rebels from Northumbria; Bishop Walcher was killed. In 1177, King Henry II of England seized the castle after a disagreement with the then-bishop, Hugh de Puiset (sometimes known as Pudsey).
In the 12th Century, Bishop Pudsey (Hugh de Puiset) built the Norman archway and the Galilee of the cathedral. Other major alterations were made by Bishop Thomas Hatfield in the 1300s, including a rebuilding of the keep and enlargement of the keep mount.
The castle has a large Great Hall, originally called a Dining Hall, created by Bishop Antony Bek in the early 14th century; Bishop Hatfield added a wooden minstrels' gallery. The Hall was modified and enlarged, then reduced, in size by subsequent bishops. Today, the Hall is 14 metres (46 ft) high and over 30 metres (98 ft) long.
The Castle remained the bishop's palace for the Bishop of Durham until Auckland Castle was made the bishops' residence in 1832; the current bishop still maintains offices at that castle, roughly ten miles to the south. Subsequently, Durham castle was donated to the University of Durham by Bishop William Van Mildert and would later become the college. The college did not occupy the castle until 1837, after the next Bishop, Edward Maltby, had completed renovations of the building.
The Norman Chapel is the oldest accessible part of the castle built about 1078. Its architecture is Anglian in nature, possibly due to forced Anglian labour being used to build it. In the 15th century, its three windows were all but blocked up because of the expanded keep. It thus fell into disuse until 1841 when it was used as a corridor through which to access the keep. During the Second World War, it was used as a command and observation post for the Royal Air Force when its original use was recognised. (The cathedral was targeted for a Baedeker Blitz or bombing raid by Germany but escaped because fog rolled in and blocked the pilots' view.)
The chapel was re-consecrated shortly after the war and is still used for weekly services by the college.
Tunstall's Chapel, named after Cuthbert Tunstall, was built in the 16th century and is used for worship within the college. It was modified in the 17th Century by Bishop Cosin.
Durham Castle is jointly designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral, a short distance across Palace Green.
The UNESCO report provides specifics about the Castle's important aspects:
Within the Castle precinct are later buildings of the Durham Palatinate, reflecting the Prince-Bishops’ civic responsibilities and privileges. These include the Bishop’s Court (now a library), almshouses, and schools. Palace Green, a large open space connecting the various buildings of the site once provided the Prince Bishops with a venue for processions and gatherings befitting their status, and is now still a forum for public events.
Durham is a cathedral city and civil parish in the county of Durham, England. It is the county town and contains the headquarters of Durham County Council, the unitary authority which governs the district of County Durham. It had a population of 48,069 at the 2011 Census.
The city was built on a meander of the River Wear, which surrounds the centre on three sides and creates a narrow neck on the fourth. The surrounding land is hilly, except along the Wear's floodplain to the north and southeast.
Durham was founded in 995 by Anglo-Saxon monks seeking a place safe from Viking raids to house the relics of St Cuthbert. The church the monks built lasted only a century, as it was replaced by the present Durham Cathedral after the Norman Conquest; together with Durham Castle it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the 1070s until 1836 the city was part of the County Palatine of Durham, a semi-independent jurisdiction ruled by the prince bishops of Durham which acted as a geopolitical buffer between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross was fought half a mile west of the city, resulting in an English victory. In 1650, the cathedral was used to house Scottish prisoners after their defeat at the Battle of Dunbar. During the Industrial Revolution, the Durham coalfield was heavily exploited, with dozens of collieries operating around the city and in nearby villages. Although these coal pits have now closed, the annual Durham Miners' Gala continues and is a major event for the city and region. Historically, Durham was also known for the manufacture of hosiery, carpets, and mustard.
The city is the home of Durham University, which was founded in 1832 and therefore has a claim to be the third-oldest university in England. The university is a significant employer in the region, alongside the local council and national government at the land registry and passport office. The University Hospital of North Durham and HM Prison Durham are also located close to the city centre. The city also has significant tourism and hospitality sectors.
Toponymy
The name "Durham" comes from the Brythonic element dun, signifying a hill fort and related to -ton, and the Old Norse holme, which translates to island. The Lord Bishop of Durham takes a Latin variation of the city's name in his official signature, which is signed "N. Dunelm". Some attribute the city's name to the legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who in legend guided the monks of Lindisfarne carrying the body of Saint Cuthbert to the site of the present city in 995 AD. Dun Cow Lane is said to be one of the first streets in Durham, being directly to the east of Durham Cathedral and taking its name from a depiction of the city's founding etched in masonry on the south side of the cathedral. The city has been known by a number of names throughout history. The original Nordic Dun Holm was changed to Duresme by the Normans and was known in Latin as Dunelm. The modern form Durham came into use later in the city's history. The north-eastern historian Robert Surtees chronicled the name changes in his History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham but states that it is an "impossibility" to tell when the city's modern name came into being.
Durham is likely to be Gaer Weir in Armes Prydein, derived from Brittonic cajr meaning "an enclosed, defensible site" (cf. Carlisle; Welsh caer) and the river-name Wear.
History
Early history
Archeological evidence suggests a history of settlement in the area since roughly 2000 BC. The present city can clearly be traced back to AD 995, when a group of monks from Lindisfarne chose the strategic high peninsula as a place to settle with the body of Saint Cuthbert, that had previously lain in Chester-le-Street, founding a church there.
City origins, the Dun Cow story
Local legend states that the city was founded in A.D. 995 by divine intervention. The 12th-century chronicler Symeon of Durham recounts that after wandering in the north, Saint Cuthbert's bier miraculously came to a halt at the hill of Warden Law and, despite the effort of the congregation, would not move. Aldhun, Bishop of Chester-le-Street and leader of the order, decreed a holy fast of three days, accompanied by prayers to the saint. During the fast, Saint Cuthbert appeared to a certain monk named Eadmer, with instructions that the coffin should be taken to Dun Holm. After Eadmer's revelation, Aldhun found that he was able to move the bier, but did not know where Dun Holm was.
The legend of the Dun Cow, which is first documented in The Rites of Durham, an anonymous account about Durham Cathedral, published in 1593, builds on Symeon's account. According to this legend, by chance later that day, the monks came across a milkmaid at Mount Joy (southeast of present-day Durham). She stated that she was seeking her lost dun cow, which she had last seen at Dun Holm. The monks, realising that this was a sign from the saint, followed her. They settled at a wooded "hill-island" – a high wooded rock surrounded on three sides by the River Wear. There they erected a shelter for the relics, on the spot where Durham Cathedral would later stand. Symeon states that a modest wooden building erected there shortly thereafter was the first building in the city. Bishop Aldhun subsequently had a stone church built, which was dedicated in September 998. This no longer remains, having been supplanted by the Norman structure.
The legend is interpreted by a Victorian relief stone carving on the north face of the cathedral and, more recently, by the bronze sculpture 'Durham Cow' (1997, Andrew Burton), which reclines by the River Wear in view of the cathedral.
Medieval era
During the medieval period the city gained spiritual prominence as the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Bede the Venerable. The shrine of Saint Cuthbert, situated behind the High Altar of Durham Cathedral, was the most important religious site in England until the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury in 1170.
Saint Cuthbert became famous for two reasons. Firstly, the miraculous healing powers he had displayed in life continued after his death, with many stories of those visiting the saint's shrine being cured of all manner of diseases. This led to him being known as the "wonder worker of England". Secondly, after the first translation of his relics in 698 AD, his body was found to be incorruptible. Apart from a brief translation back to Holy Island during the Norman Invasion the saint's relics have remained enshrined to the present day. Saint Bede's bones are also entombed in the cathedral, and these also drew medieval pilgrims to the city.
Durham's geographical position has always given it an important place in the defence of England against the Scots. The city played an important part in the defence of the north, and Durham Castle is the only Norman castle keep never to have suffered a breach. In 1314, the Bishopric of Durham paid the Scots a 'large sum of money' not to burn Durham. The Battle of Neville's Cross took place around half a mile west of the city on 17 October 1346 between the English and Scots and was a disastrous loss for the Scots.
The city suffered from plague outbreaks in 1544, 1589 and 1598.
Bishops of Durham
Owing to the divine providence evidenced in the city's legendary founding, the Bishop of Durham has always enjoyed the formal title "Bishop by Divine Providence" as opposed to other bishops, who are "Bishop by Divine Permission". However, as the north-east of England lay so far from Westminster, the bishops of Durham enjoyed extraordinary powers such as the ability to hold their own parliament, raise their own armies, appoint their own sheriffs and Justices, administer their own laws, levy taxes and customs duties, create fairs and markets, issue charters, salvage shipwrecks, collect revenue from mines, administer the forests and mint their own coins. So far-reaching were the bishop's powers that the steward of Bishop Antony Bek commented in 1299 AD: "There are two kings in England, namely the Lord King of England, wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown, in sign of his regality in the diocese of Durham". All this activity was administered from the castle and buildings surrounding the Palace Green. Many of the original buildings associated with these functions of the county palatine survive on the peninsula that constitutes the ancient city.
From 1071 to 1836 the bishops of Durham ruled the county palatine of Durham. Although the term "prince bishop" has been used as a helpful tool in the understanding the functions of the bishops of Durham in this era, it is not a title they would have recognised. The last bishop to rule the palatinate, Bishop William Van Mildert, is credited with the foundation of Durham University in 1832. Henry VIII curtailed some of the bishop's powers and, in 1538, ordered the destruction of the shrine of Saint Cuthbert.
A UNESCO site describes the role of the bishops in the "buffer state between England and Scotland":
From 1075, the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop, with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England, he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler, reaping the revenue from his territory, but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.
Legal system
The bishops had their own court system, including most notably the Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge. The county also had its own attorney general, whose authority to bring an indictment for criminal matters was tested by central government in the case of R v Mary Ann Cotton (1873). Certain courts and judicial posts for the county were abolished by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. Section 2 of the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 and section 41 of the Courts Act 1971 abolished others.
Civil War and Cromwell (1640 to 1660)
The city remained loyal to King Charles I in the English Civil War – from 1642 to the execution of the king in 1649. Charles I came to Durham three times during his reign of 1625–1649. Firstly, he came in 1633 to the cathedral for a majestic service in which he was entertained by the Chapter and Bishop at great expense. He returned during preparations for the First Bishops' War (1639). His final visit to the city came towards the end of the civil war; he escaped from the city as Oliver Cromwell's forces got closer. Local legend stated that he escaped down the Bailey and through Old Elvet. Another local legend has it that Cromwell stayed in a room in the present Royal County Hotel on Old Elvet during the civil war. The room is reputed to be haunted by his ghost. Durham suffered greatly during the civil war (1642–1651) and Commonwealth (1649–1660). This was not due to direct assault by Cromwell or his allies, but to the abolition of the Church of England and the closure of religious institutions pertaining to it. The city has always relied upon the Dean and Chapter and cathedral as an economic force.
The castle suffered considerable damage and dilapidation during the Commonwealth due to the abolition of the office of bishop (whose residence it was). Cromwell confiscated the castle and sold it to the Lord Mayor of London shortly after taking it from the bishop. A similar fate befell the cathedral, it being closed in 1650 and used to incarcerate 3,000 Scottish prisoners, who were marched south after the Battle of Dunbar. Graffiti left by them can still be seen today etched into the interior stone.
At the Restoration in 1660, John Cosin (a former canon) was appointed bishop (in office: 1660–1672) and set about a major restoration project. This included the commissioning of the famous elaborate woodwork in the cathedral choir, the font cover and the Black Staircase in the castle. Bishop Cosin's successor Bishop Lord Nathaniel Crewe (in office: 1674–1721) carried out other renovations both to the city and to the cathedral.
18th century
In the 18th century a plan to turn Durham into a seaport through the digging of a canal north to join the River Team, a tributary of the River Tyne near Gateshead, was proposed by John Smeaton. Nothing came of the plan, but the statue of Neptune in the Market Place was a constant reminder of Durham's maritime possibilities.
The thought of ships docking at the Sands or Millburngate remained fresh in the minds of Durham merchants. In 1758, a new proposal hoped to make the Wear navigable from Durham to Sunderland by altering the river's course, but the increasing size of ships made this impractical. Moreover, Sunderland had grown as the north east's main port and centre for shipping.
In 1787 Durham infirmary was founded.
The 18th century also saw the rise of the trade-union movement in the city.
19th century
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 gave governing power of the town to an elected body. All other aspects of the Bishop's temporal powers were abolished by the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 and returned to the Crown.
The Representation of the People Act 2000 and is regarded as the second most senior bishop and fourth most senior clergyman in the Church of England. The Court of Claims of 1953 granted the traditional right of the bishop to accompany the sovereign at the coronation, reflecting his seniority.
The first census, conducted in 1801, states that Durham City had a population of 7,100. The Industrial Revolution mostly passed the city by. However, the city was well known for carpet making and weaving. Although most of the mediaeval weavers who thrived in the city had left by the 19th century, the city was the home of Hugh MacKay Carpets’ factory, which produced the famous brands of axminster and tufted carpets until the factory went into administration in April 2005. Other important industries were the manufacture of mustard and coal extraction.
The Industrial Revolution also placed the city at the heart of the coalfields, the county's main industry until the 1970s. Practically every village around the city had a coal mine and, although these have since disappeared as part of the regional decline in heavy industry, the traditions, heritage and community spirit are still evident.
The 19th century also saw the founding of Durham University thanks to the benevolence of Bishop William Van Mildert and the Chapter in 1832. Durham Castle became the first college (University College, Durham) and the bishop moved to Auckland Castle as his only residence in the county. Bishop Hatfield's Hall (later Hatfield College, Durham) was added in 1846 specifically for the sons of poorer families, the Principal inaugurating a system new to English university life of advance fees to cover accommodation and communal dining.
The first Durham Miners' Gala was attended by 5,000 miners in 1871 in Wharton Park, and remains the largest socialist trade union event in the world.
20th century
Early in the 20th century coal became depleted, with a particularly important seam worked out in 1927, and in the following Great Depression Durham was among those towns that suffered exceptionally severe hardship. However, the university expanded greatly. St John's College and St Cuthbert's Society were founded on the Bailey, completing the series of colleges in that area of the city. From the early 1950s to early 1970s the university expanded to the south of the city centre. Trevelyan, Van Mildert, Collingwood, and Grey colleges were established, and new buildings for St Aidan's and St Mary's colleges for women, formerly housed on the Bailey, were created. The final 20th century collegiate addition came from the merger of the independent nineteenth-century colleges of the Venerable Bede and St Hild, which joined the university in 1979 as the College of St Hild and St Bede. The 1960s and 70s also saw building on New Elvet. Dunelm House for the use of the students' union was built first, followed by Elvet Riverside, containing lecture theatres and staff offices. To the southeast of the city centre sports facilities were built at Maiden Castle, adjacent to the Iron Age fort of the same name, and the Mountjoy site was developed, starting in 1924, eventually containing the university library, administrative buildings, and facilities for the Faculty of Science.
Durham was not bombed during World War II, though one raid on the night of 30 May 1942 did give rise to the local legend of 'St Cuthbert's Mist'. This states that the Luftwaffe attempted to target Durham, but was thwarted when Cuthbert created a mist that covered both the castle and cathedral, sparing them from bombing. The exact events of the night are disputed by contemporary eyewitnesses. The event continues to be referenced within the city, including inspiring the artwork 'Fogscape #03238' at Durham Lumiere 2015.
'Durham Castle and Cathedral' was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. Among the reasons given for the decision were 'Durham Cathedral [being] the largest and most perfect monument of "Norman" style architecture in England', and the cathedral's vaulting being an early and experimental model of the gothic style. Other important UNESCO sites near Durham include Auckland Castle, North of England Lead Mining Museum and Beamish Museum.
Historical
The historic city centre of Durham has changed little over 200 years. It is made up of the peninsula containing the cathedral, palace green, former administrative buildings for the palatine and Durham Castle. This was a strategic defensive decision by the city's founders and gives the cathedral a striking position. So much so that Symeon of Durham stated:
To see Durham is to see the English Sion and by doing so one may save oneself a trip to Jerusalem.
Sir Walter Scott was so inspired by the view of the cathedral from South Street that he wrote "Harold the Dauntless", a poem about Saxons and Vikings set in County Durham and published on 30 January 1817. The following lines from the poem are carved into a stone tablet on Prebends Bridge:
Grey towers of Durham
Yet well I love thy mixed and massive piles
Half church of God, half castle 'gainst the Scot
And long to roam those venerable aisles
With records stored of deeds long since forgot.
The old commercial section of the city encompasses the peninsula on three sides, following the River Wear. The peninsula was historically surrounded by the castle wall extending from the castle keep and broken by two gatehouses to the north and west of the enclosure. After extensive remodelling and "much beautification" by the Victorians the walls were removed with the exception of the gatehouse which is still standing on the Bailey.
The medieval city was made up of the cathedral, castle and administrative buildings on the peninsula. The outlying areas were known as the townships and owned by the bishop, the most famous of these being Gilesgate (which still contains the mediaeval St Giles Church), Claypath and Elvet.
The outlying commercial section of the city, especially around the North Road area, saw much change in the 1960s during a redevelopment spearheaded by Durham City Council; however, much of the original mediaeval street plan remains intact in the area close to the cathedral and market place. Most of the mediaeval buildings in the commercial area of the city have disappeared apart from the House of Correction and the Chapel of Saint Andrew, both under Elvet Bridge. Georgian buildings can still be found on the Bailey and Old Elvet most of which make up the colleges of Durham University.
Executing a missed approach to 26R after the previous arrival failed to clear the runway in time.
ATL - Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Taken from the Renaissance Concourse Atlanta hotel
Jean Baptiste Carpeaux's Les Quatre Parties du monde soutenant la sphére céleste (Four Parts of the World Holding a Celestial Sphere), was executed from 1868 to 1872 for la fontaine de l'Observatoire (Observatory fountain) in Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens). This original half-size plaster model was exhibited in Salon de 1872.
Baron Haussmann, the prefect of Paris who gave the city the face we know today, commissioned Carpeaux to design the fountain in 1867. The sculptor chose the theme of the four parts of the world turning around the celestial sphere. Not only are the four allegories dancing in a ring, but they are also revolving on the spot, rejecting the static pose usially found in this type of representation Europe scarcely touches the ground, Asia, with her long pigtail, is seen almost from the back, Africa is in a three-quarter view and America, wearing a feather headdress, is facing the spectator but her body is turned to the side. This taste for movement is one of the features of Carpeaux's art. Carpeaux originally wantefd to give the figures a patina to match the skin color of the different races, but this was ruled out.
His passionate nature was quite the contrary of Neoclassic serenity. It was not until 1874, a year before Carpeaux died, that the bronze fountain was set up on the designated site. The tangle of legs displeased the public of the time. Two of the busts exist as separate works. Carpeaux turned the Chinese woman into a man and reproduced the statue in several different materials. The figure of Africa gave rise to a bust that Carpeaux exhibited with the inscription Why be born a slave? This reference to the abolition of slavery is also visible in the statue: America is standing on the broken chain of slavery wrapped around Africa's ankle.
The Musée d'Orsay (The Orsay Museum), housed in the former railway station, the Gare d'Orsay, holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces by popular painters such as Monet and Renoir. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.
Iran is planning to execute another protester, Mohammad Ghobadlou, for the crime of protesting. We call on the Western leaders to call out Iran’s regime to halt the execution.
#SayNoToHanging #MohammadGhobadlou
Flames blast from a D-30, 122 mm howitzer barrel after firing a round, as is typical with the Soviet-made weapon system. Afghan soldiers with the 4th Combat Support Kandak, 1st Brigade, 215th Corps, coordinated and executed their second live-fire artillery training exercise.
2nd Marine Division
Photo by Sgt. Earnest J. Barnes
Date Taken: 12.29.2011
Location: CAMP DWYER, AF
Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/hdiga5
At around 5.30am today (Tuesday 12 October) officers from GMP's Oldham Challenger Team executed three warrants at addresses across Newton Heath and Failsworth.
The warrants formed part of an ongoing investigation into the supply of class A drugs across Greater Manchester, as well as the criminal use of the encrypted communications platform Encrochat, often used by organised criminal groups.
During the raids, three men in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply cocaine and two of the men were further arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply amphetamine, entering into a money laundering agreement and possession of a prohibited weapon with intent to cause fear.
They remain in custody for questioning by detectives.
Following searches of all three properties, suspected class A and B drugs were recovered, along with over £3000 in cash, designer clothing, jewellery, phones and vehicles.
In July 2020, GMP alongside nearly every law enforcement agency across the UK came together as part of the National Crime Agency led 'Operation Venetic', focused on the takedown of 'Encrochat' - a sophisticated encrypted communications service used by OCG's.
GMP launched a series of intricate investigations bringing together 16 teams of officers from across all ten districts of Greater Manchester. Codenamed 'Operation Foam', the force wide operation has been in constant action for the past 15 months.
Detective Sergeant Alex Brown of GMP's Oldham Challenger Team, said: "Today's action is the culmination of months of intricate investigative work and is another positive result for the team in our endeavour to disrupt and dismantle the distribution and trade of drugs across our region.
"Thankfully today we have been able to remove what is suspected to be a large quantity of drugs from our community, and although we have three men in custody our searches and investigation will continue this morning and we will ensure all criminal assets are seized.
"An inordinate amount of work goes on behind the scenes to investigate the distribution of drugs and I hope today's arrests and seizures send a stark warning that GMP will do all in its power to pursue offenders and ensure no one benefits from ill-gotten gains and the sale of drugs.
"Often these investigations rely on intelligence passed to police by members of the public can often play a big part in investigations. If you have information that could aid our investigations into the trade of drugs across Greater Manchester then please get in touch with police."
Anyone with information should contact police on 101. Alternatively, details can be passed via our LiveChat function at www.gmp.police.uk or via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
You can access many of our services online at www.gmp.police.uk.
For emergencies only call 999, or 101 if it's a less urgent matter.
This morning, Thursday 2 February 2017, officers executed warrants at addresses across Miles Platting and Ancoats.
The warrants were executed as part of Operation Rudow a multi-agency operation targeting organised crime and the supply of drugs across Greater Manchester.
Chief Inspector Andy Cunliffe, of GMP’s City of Manchester team, said: "Drugs ruin lives and destroy communities. We will systematically root out and dismantle groups that seek to profit from flooding our streets with drugs.
"Today, we have made arrests after executing warrants across North Manchester.
"By sharing information with our partners, we are better equipped to tackle organised crime and make it impossible for them to profit from it.
"I'd like to thank the community who came forward with information that has proved vital in making this enforcement action a success.
“We still however, need people to come forward with information to prevent people from benefiting from the proceeds of crime at the demise of others. If you know about it, report it.
"Organised crime has no place on the streets of Greater Manchester and we will continue to work tirelessly to remove the scourge of criminal gangs."
Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Planned this outfit for days and finally got around to putting it on and getting a pic of it.
Shirt: Old Navy
Dress: Loft
Tights: Apt 9 via Kohl’s
Shoes: Madden Girl via DSW
Belt: Dressbarn
Early morning raids saw four arrested as officers executed several drug warrants across Tameside.
Today (Wednesday 19 June 2019) warrants were executed across seven addresses as part of a crackdown on the supply of Class A and B drugs – codenamed Operation Leporine.
Following today’s action, two men – aged 21 and 27 – and two women – aged 21 and 52 - have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A and B drugs.
Sergeant Stephanie O’Brien, of GMP’s Tameside district, said: “At present we have four people in custody and as part of this morning’s operation we have been able to seize a significant quantity of drugs.
“I would like to thank the team here in Tameside who, as part of Operation Leporine, have worked tirelessly in order to bring a sophisticated and audacious group of offenders to justice.
“The supply of illegal drugs blights communities and destroys people’s livelihoods; and I hope that today’s very direct and visible action demonstrates to the local community that we are doing all that we to make the streets of Tameside a safer place.
“It will remain a top priority for us to continue to tackle the influx of drugs in the area, however we cannot do this alone and I would appeal directly to the community and those most affected to please come forward with any information that could assist us in what continues to be an ongoing operation.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101, or alternatively reports can be made to the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website. www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
Bronze à patine brun foncé, hauteur : 276 cm, conçu en 1960 (épreuve fondue en 1980-1981).
La série de quatre femmes de grande taille que Alberto Giacometti a exécutée en 1960, chacune intitulée Grande femme et numérotée de I à IV, sont les plus grandes sculptures qu’Alberto ait jamais faites. Cette version, Grande femme II, détient réellement la distinction d’être la plus grande de toutes. Du fait de leur ampleur, ces quatre géantes se situent à l’autre extrême des minuscules sculptures que Giacometti rapporte de Suisse au lendemain de la guerre. De ce point de vue, elles marquent la fin d’un cycle ou plus spécifiquement l’aboutissement des recherches qu'il a conduites sur la représentation de la figure humaine dans l’espace. Elles sont aussi la dernière série que le sculpteur consacre au nu féminin.
Giacometti exécute ces quatre sculptures en réponse à une commande qui, si elle avait été honorée, aurait certainement été le couronnement de sa carrière, du moins son œuvre la plus célèbre. Giacometti est dans sa maison familiale à Stampa, en Suisse, lorsque, en décembre 1958, il reçoit un courrier de l’architecte new-yorkais Gordon Bunshaft (1909-1990) qui lui propose de réaliser une sculpture monumentale pour agrémenter la piazza installée au pied d’un gigantesque gratte-ciel au coeur de Manhattan. Le commanditaire du projet n’est autre que la Chase Manhattan Bank, l’une des plus importantes institutions financières au monde. Pour cette tour destinée à être le siège mondial de la banque, Bunshaft a imaginé un building d’acier et de verre de 60 étages dans le pur esprit de l’architecture internationale. Adjacente au bâtiment, une grande place est imaginée par l’architecte qui souhaite y installer une sculpture monumentale.
Bien qu’il ne se soit jamais rendu à New York, Alberto Giacometti répond positivement à ce projet. L’idée d’une œuvre monumentale érigée sur une place est au cœur de sa démarche. Dès le début des années 1930, il travaille à la création de sculptures en plein air comme en témoigne le Projet pour une place commandité par Charles et Marie-Laure de Noailles en 1931. Le sujet revient après-guerre. En 1948, la série des Place I et II concrétise les recherches sur la perception de l’artiste de la figure humaine dans l’espace. C’est précisément à ces œuvres que Bunshaft pense. Pour beaucoup d’amateurs, Giacometti est vu comme un poète des espaces urbains. À Louis Aragon, Alberto Giacometti a avoué être tenté de réaliser des œuvres monumentales sur une place publique. Il songe alors à une silhouette d’homme traversant la place et se mêlant aux passants.
Le projet de la Chase Manhattan Bank répond aussi à une autre aspiration comme Giacometti l’explique lui-même "j’avais toujours un peu le désir de savoir ce que je pourrais faire le plus grand possible. Quand un architecte m’a proposé de faire des sculptures pour une place, j’ai dit oui, parce que c’était une bonne occasion de liquider cette histoire" (in D. Sylvester, En regardant Giacometti, Paris, 2001, p. 187). Néanmoins, l’artiste prend vite conscience de la démesure de la ville et de ses gratte-ciels gigantesques. Il comprend que ses figures, placées à proximité immédiate des tours, doivent être très importantes. Giacometti ne veut pas que les figures dominent la place ou que les passants soient ridiculement petits au contact des œuvres. Surtout, il ne veut pas créer une grande sculpture qui n’impressionne que par sa taille.
L’échelle appropriée des figures le contrarie. Bunshaft lui suggère de prendre l’une de ses sculptures et d’en multiplier la taille par trente. Il s’y refuse: "Je suis tout à fait contre la pratique qui est très courante aujourd’hui de faire une petite sculpture et de la faire agrandir avec une machine" (ibid). Et puis ce qui l'intéresse est justement le défi de réaliser des œuvres de grande taille : "Ou je peux le faire à la grandeur que je veux, ou je ne peux pas" (ibid). Bien qu’il ait été utile de visiter le site, Giacometti décide de ne pas aller à New York. Ni l’importance du client, ni la célébrité assurée que lui apporterait ce projet ne peuvent perturber le rythme de travail établi par le sculpteur depuis si longtemps. Aussi Bunshaft décide-t-il d’envoyer à Giacometti un modèle à petite échelle du bâtiment et de la place, le sculpteur étant habitué à travailler en miniature.
Le 17 mars 1959, Giacometti écrit à Pierre Matisse, son marchand à New York : "Je travaille tous les jours presque à mon projet et je suis très impatient de le continuer demain. En tout cas qu’il marche ou pas pour l’architecte, cela me sert énormément pour tout mon travail et je suis très content de le faire" (cité in J. Russell, Matisse : Père et fils, Paris, 1999). Au printemps de cette même année, le projet se précise dans l’esprit de l’artiste. Il utilisera les trois éléments principaux de son répertoire figuratif résumant ainsi toutes ses recherches. Comme dans La place II de 1948, il y aura au moins une Femme debout et un Homme qui marche. La troisième sculpture sera une grosse tête masculine directement inspirée de celle de Diego. Giacometti commence par faire trois petites maquettes, puis les transcrit en plâtre à grande échelle.
Il écrit à Pierre Matisse, révélant le rythme effréné de ses efforts : "Depuis mon retour je travaille tout le temps à la même grande figure, plus que jamais réduit à une seule chose pour le moment, ce qui est tout à fait nécessaire. Lundi prochain, je vais faire les figures [du] projet pour la place. Je veux avoir tout fait dans la semaine, voir ce que ça donne ; directement assez grand, avec les bases. Foinet va me trouver un local ou une cour où on pourra les voir. Cela doit aller très vite ou rien, mais il faut que je travaille pour huit jours encore à ma figure et peut-être aussi à une tête commencée de Diego avant mon départ. C’est depuis avant 1947 la première fois où je me suis mis dans la situation de pouvoir tout recommencer, ce que je cherchais depuis longtemps" (ibid).
Malgré des efforts qui occupent Giacometti pendant plus d’un an, l’artiste n’est pas satisfait du résultat. L’échelle des sculptures le perturbe irrémédiablement. "Les difficultés à propos des sculptures de New York n’ont rien à voir avec le fait de la destination : banque, capitalisme, etc., comme tu sembles le penser. Non, cela ne me gêne pas du tout. C’est uniquement une question de sculpture, de dimensions, de proportions, defiguration, etc.", écrit-il à Pierre Matisse le 2 février 1960 (ibid). Il avouera à David Sylvester avoir réalisé pas moins de dix Grande Femme et près de quarante Homme qui marche sans jamais trouver satisfaction.
Quelques mois plus tard, Alberto Giacometti renonce au projet et s’en explique dans une lettre décisive à Pierre Matisse le 29 avril 1960 : "Tu vas être déçu et probablement peut-être fâché, et Bunshaft aussi : les sculptures sont fondues. Je les ai regardées à la fonderie, fait patiner, regardées sur le trottoir, dans la rue devant la fonderie, fait transporter à Garches dans le jardin de Susse (…). Toutes ont quelque chose de bien peut-être, mais toutes très à côté de ce que je voulais (ou que je croyais vouloir), tellement à côté, tellement mauvaises qu’il n’est pas question que je puisse les envoyer (…) Ca ne pouvait pas être autrement, je ne regrette pas un instant mon travail, au contraire, mais il m’est absolument impossible de présenter cela comme un projet valable pour une sculpture sur une place" (ibid).
Giacometti ne soumet pas ses sculptures à l’approbation de Bunshaft et décide lui-même qu’il ne pourra honorer la commande de la Chase Manhattan. Cependant, il ne renie absolument pas ces sculptures, au contraire. Elles débutent une nouvelle vie et vont désormais exister de façon autonome. La commande de la Chase Manhattan n’est pas vécue comme un échec, mais comme l’une des expériences les plus exaltantes du point de vue de la création. Certes, l’artiste abandonne parce qu’il n’est pas satisfait, mais l’a-t-il déjà été ? Les trois sculptures seront rapidement exposées à la galerie Pierre Matisse et chez Maeght. En 1962, à la Biennale de Venise, il installe la Grande tête, deux Homme qui marche et deux Grande femme au milieu d’une des salles d’exposition. En 1964, Alberto place les mêmes figures un peu différemment dans la Cour Giacometti à la Fondation Maeght à Vence, démontrant, mais était-ce nécessaire, que ces œuvres résument à elles seules l'œuvre du sculpteur. Avec le temps, la série des Grandes Femmes deviendra, avec l’Homme qui marche, l’une des plus emblématiques de l’artiste.
La tour et la place Chase Manhattan seront achevées en 1964 sans aucune sculpture. Giacometti finira par effectuer son premier voyage à New York, à l’occasion de la rétrospective que lui consacre le MOMA en octobre 1965. Emerveillé par la ville, Alberto Giacometti se rendra devant le building de la Chase Manhattan Bank et son esplanade vide. "Il avait l’air fasciné par la possibilité de réussir encore à créer une sculpture capable de tenir le coup devant l’écrasante façade. Il fit plusieurs visites, de jour comme de nuit ; il allait et venait, les yeux levés pour mieux jauger le site, écrit James Lord dans Giacometti Biographie, Paris, 1997. À son retour à Paris, il se décidera à travailler à une sculpture de très grande taille, bien plus que celles qu’il avait imaginées en 1960. Diego sera chargé de travailler à une armature pour supporter l’oeuvre mais l’artiste ne trouvera pas la force d’achever cette entreprise et décède en janvier 1966 (cf. Christie's).
By James Carswell, 1878-80, executed by P and W MacLellan. 10-bay segmentally arched engine shed over 6 tracks. Cast-iron columns, with Corinthian capitals to N end Bell-capital columns, supporting lattice beams below Cathedral Street. Delicate lattice arched overall spans 250' x 78' high, glazed with corrugated iron panels at sections. Decorative fan-glazed ends.
Current redevelopment of the station with the demolition of the brutalist office block that masked this since 1974, the fan-glazed ends have now been revealed. Not for long though since a modern glazed cubic version is unfortunately on it’s way.
The original station was opened at Queen Street in 1842 by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. Arched sheds of note were also to be found at St Pancras, Manchester, and Charing Cross, London. Queen Street is the only remaining large single span overall station in Scotland. The North British Hotel, George Square (now the Millennium) was opened in 1905.
The first Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window, "Regatta" is taken from the story "Serana: The Bush Fairy", from the book "Fairyland", published by A. and C. Black in London in 1926. The original illustration was executed in pen and ink, so it is brought to colourful life in the pink, brown, green and golden yellow stained glass panel. Juvenile faeries, both male and female, naughty pixies and frogs ride down a river in everything from canoes to improvised vessels made of nutshells, cups and lily pads with paper sails. One of two water police frogs in the bottom right of the panel hooks a naughty pixie as he sails by with his silver topped cane, making the whole scene quite a chaotic one. The faerie girls all wear contemporary 1920s sun dresses, and have either fashionable Marcelle Wave or bobbed hairstyles, which is contrary to the little boy faerie, who seems to have what we may consider to be more traditional faerie garb. The faerie girl at the top right of the melee even has a 1920s stub handled parasol to shade her! The canoe rowed by a frog with two girl faeries in it also has a connection to 1920s modernity, with a Chinese lantern hanging from the stern of the boat: a common site on punts at the time.
The second Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window features the excerpt from a poem; "When the children go away, leaving earth's gray lonely places, God I know has room for play, in his gracious starry spaces". The hand-painted panel features three Australian native koalas in natty moss green sporting tweeds and red checks playing a round of golf (most fashionable in the 1920s) with three cheeky pixies as their caddies. One of the green tweed koalas smokes a pipe. The red check koala appears not only to have nearly hit one of his companion koalas with his club, but has sent his ball flying right into the nose of a pixie spectator. A rabbit, two laughing kookaburras and a goanna watch the scene with amusement; the kookaburras especially! Peeping from over the ridge, a Metroland 1920s clubhouse with a red tile roof, white walls and dormer windows can just be seen. Executed with a muted palate of mossy greens, reddish browns, pink and golden yellow, the colours of the Australian bush in summertime are truly captured in this pane. All the characters come from the book "Fairyland", published by A. and C. Black in London in 1926.
The third Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Window features the excerpt from a poem; "While underneath in phantom shells, the fairy sailors go, and shining o'er the silent dells, the fairy beacons glow". It, and the painted panel above come from "Fairy Islands" from "Elves and Fairies" published by Thomas Lothian in Melbourne in 1910. The book illustration, much more Art Nouveau in influence than any of the others, is rich with night time blues. Yet the stained glass panel featuring six faeries riding down a river in nautilus shells beneath a silvery full moon, has highlights of pink and golden yellow. The girl faeries all wear Edwardian empire line dancing dresses, such as Isadora Duncan and Anna Pavlova wore, with belts of trailing yellow flowers. Whilst the water looks tranquil enough, the faeries are obviously moving swiftly down the river as their hair and dresses blow in the breeze, and the pink heath sprigs they carry all bend to the wind. The silhouettes of narrow gum trees stand against a full moon glimpsed between two steep banks.
In 1923 with Fitzroy still very much a working class area of Melbourne with pockets of poverty, the parish of St. Mark the Evangelist decided to address the need of the poor in the inner Melbourne suburb. Architects Gawler and Drummond were commissioned to design a two storey red brick Social Settlement Building. It was opened in 1926 by the Vicar of St. Mark the Evangelist, the Reverend Robert G. Nichols (known affectionately amongst the parish as Brother Bill). Known today as the Community Centre, the St. Mark the Evangelist Social Settlements Building looks out onto George Street and also across the St. Mark the Evangelist's forecourt. When it opened, the Social Settlement Building's facilities included a gymnasium, club rooms and children's library.
Opened in 1926, the children's library, which was situated in the corner room of the Social Settlements Building, is believed to be the first known free dedicated children's library in Victoria. The library was given to the children of Fitzroy by Mrs. T. Hackett, in memory of her late husband. The library contained over 3,000 books, as well as children's magazines and even comics. The Social Settlements Building was only erected because Brother Bill organised the commitment of £1,000.00 each from various wealthy businessmen and philanthropists around Melbourne. Mrs Hackett's contribution was the library of £1,000.00 worth of books. Another internationally famous resident of the neighbourhood, Australian children's book illustrator Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, then at the zenith of her career, was engaged by the relentless Brother Bill to create something for the library. Ida donated four stained glass windows each with a hand-painted panel executed by her, based upon illustrations from her books, most notably "Elves and Fairies" which was published to great acclaim in Australia and sold internationally in 1916 and "Fairyland" which had been published earlier that year. These four hand painted stained glass windows were equated to the value of £1,000.00, but are priceless today, as they are the only public works of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite ever commissioned that have been executed in this medium. Ida Rentoul Outhwaite was only ever commissioned to create one other public work; a series of four panels executed in watercolour with pencil underdrawing in 1910 for the Prince Henry Hospital's children's wards in Melbourne (now demolished). Of her panels, only two are believed still to be in existence, buried within the hospital archives. The four Ida Rentoul Outhwaite stained glass windows each depict faeries, pixies, Australian native animals and children, taken from her book illustrations. At the time of photographing, the windows - three overlooking George Street and one St. Mark the Evangelist's forecourt - were located in the community lounge, which served as a drop-in lounge and kitchen for Fitzroy's homeless and marginalised citizens. Today the space has been re-purposed as offices for the Anglicare staff who run the St. Mark's Community Centre, possibly as a way to protect the precious windows from coming to any harm. The only down-side to this is that they are not as easily accessed or viewed as when I photographed them, making my original visit to St. Mark the Evangalist in 2009 extremely fortuitous.
The Ida Rentoul Outhwaite Children's Library Stained Glass Windows are one of Australia's greatest hidden treasures, which seems apt when you consider that the pixies and faeries they depict are also often in hiding when we read about them in children's books and the faerie tales of our childhood. The fact that they are hidden, because it is necessary to enter a little-known and undistinguished building in order to see them, ensures their protection and survival. The windows are unique, not only because they are the only stained glass windows designed and hand-painted by Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, but because they are the earliest and only examples of stained glass art in Australia that deals with theme of childhood.
I am indebted to Peter Bourke who ran the St. Mark's Community Centre in 2009 for giving me the privilege of seeing these beautiful and rare windows created by one of my favourite children's book artists on a hot November afternoon, without me having made prior arrangements. I also appreciate him allowing me the opportunity to photograph them in great detail. I will always be grateful to him for such a wonderful and moving experience.
Ida Sherbourne Outhwaite (1888 - 1960) was an Australian children's book illustrator. She was born on the 9th of June 1888 in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton. She was the daughter of the of Presbyterian Reverend John Laurence Rentoul and his wife Annie Isobel. Her family was both literary and artistic, and as such, gifted Ida was encouraged from an early age to embrace her talent of drawing. Her elder sister, Annie Rattray Rentoul (1882 - 1978), was likewise encouraged to write, and both would later form a successful partnership. In 1903 six fairy stories written by Annie and illustrated by Ida were published in the ladies' journal "New Idea". The following year the Rentoul sisters collaborated on a book called "Mollie's Bunyip" which was received with instant success because it combined the idea of European faeries, witches and elves and the Australian bush. "Mollie's Staircase" followed in 1906. In 1908 the Rentoul sisters published their first substantial story book, "The Lady of the Blue Beads". On 9 December 1909 Ida married Arthur Grenbry Outhwaite (1875-1938), manager of the Perpetual Executors and Trustees Association of Australia Ltd. (Annie remained unmarried her entire life). After her marriage, Ida was known as Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, but did not publish anything substantial as she established her family and household until part way through the Great War. In 1916 she brought out her first coloured work; "Elves and Fairies", a de luxe edition produced entirely in Australia by Thomas Lothian. The success of the book, with its delicate watercolour plates, was due both to Ida's artistic talent and to the business acumen of her husband, who provided a £400.00 subsidy to ensure a high-quality production and consigned royalties to the Red Cross, thereby encouraging vice-regal patronage. "Elves and Fairies" is still her best known and loved work. Encouraged by her latest success, Ida travelled to Europe after hostilities ended and in 1920 exhibited in Paris and London. The critics compared her to other artists of the golden years of children's illustration such as Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac, thus sealing her international success. She signed a contract with British book publishers A. & C. Black who published five books for her over the next decade, including "The Enchanted Forest" (1921), with text by her husband, and, probably the most popular of all the Rentoul sisters' collaborations, "The Little Green Road to Fairyland" (1922). "The Fairyland of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite" (1926), another sumptuous volume, with text by her husband and sister, was less successful. A. & C. Black also produced a number of postcard series using her illustrations from "Elves and Fairies" as well as her other books published by them. In 1930 the last of her books published by A. & C. Black was released, but already times were changing, and the interest in Ida's work was rapidly fading. Angus & Robertson brought out two more books in 1933 and 1935 but they received relatively little attention. Her last two exhibitions, which between 1916 and 1928 were almost annual events, were held in 1933. The Second World War changed the world, and Ida and Annie's work was relegated to a bygone era, shunned and forgotten. Ida suffered the loss of both of her sons during the war, and she spent her last years sharing a flat in Caulfield with her sister, where, survived by her two daughters, she died on 25 June 1960. She did not live to see the resurgence of interest in her work some twenty-five years later, when in 1985, her picture of "The Little Witch" from "Elves and Fairies" was published on an Australian stamp, opening the fairy world of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite to a whole new generation of children and adults alike.
369 weeks lasted the Nazi regime in Vienna, during which more than 1,200 people, many for political reasons, were executed by the Guillotine.
369 Wochen dauerte das NS-Regime in Wien, während dessen mehr als 1.200 Menschen, viele aus politischen Motiven, durch die Guillotine exekutiert wurden.
Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters
The Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters (colloquially referred to as "landl" (Landesgericht)) is one of 20 regional courts in Austria and the largest court in Austria. It is located in the 8th District of Vienna, Josefstadt, at the Landesgerichtsstraße 11. It is a court of first respectively second instance. A prisoners house, the prison Josefstadt, popularly often known as the "Grey House" is connected.
Court Organization
In this complex there are:
the Regional Court for Criminal Matters Vienna,
the Vienna District Attorney (current senior prosecutor Maria-Luise Nittel)
the Jurists association-trainee lawer union (Konzipientenverband) and
the largest in Austria existing court house jail, the Vienna Josefstadt prison.
The Regional Criminal Court has jurisdiction in the first instance for crimes and offenses that are not pertain before the district court. Depending on the severity of the crime, there is a different procedure. Either decides
a single judge,
a senate of lay assessors
or the jury court.
In the second instance, the District Court proceeds appeals and complaints against judgments of district courts. A three-judge Court decides here whether the judgment is canceled or not and, if necessary, it establishes a new sentence.
The current President Friedrich Forsthuber is supported by two Vice Presidents - Henriette Braitenberg-Zennenberg and Eve Brachtel.
In September 2012, the following data have been published
Austria's largest court
270 office days per year
daily 1500 people
70 judges, 130 employees in the offices
5300 proceedings (2011) for the custodial judges and legal protection magistrates, representing about 40 % of the total Austrian juridical load of work
over 7400 procedures at the trial judges (30 % of the total Austrian juridical load of work)
Prosecution with 93 prosecutors and 250 employees
19,000 cases against 37,000 offenders (2011 )
Josefstadt prison with 1,200 inmates (overcrowded)
History
1839-1918
The original building of the Vienna Court House, the so-called civil Schranne (corn market), was from 1440 to 1839 located at the Hoher Markt 5. In 1773 the Schrannenplatz was enlarged under Emperor Joseph II and the City Court and the Regional Court of the Viennese Magistrate in this house united. From this time it bore the designation "criminal court".
Due to shortcomings of the prison rooms in the Old Court on Hoher Markt was already at the beginning of the 19th Century talk of building a new crime courthouse, but this had to be postponed because of bankruptcy in 1811.
In 1816 the construction of the criminal court building was approved. Although in the first place there were voices against a construction outside the city, as building ground was chosen the area of the civil Schießstätte (shooting place) and the former St. Stephanus-Freithofes in then Alservorstadt (suburb); today, in this part Josefstadt. The plans of architect Johann Fischer were approved in 1831, and in 1832 was began with the construction, which was completed in 1839. On 14 May 1839 was held the first meeting of the Council.
Provincial Court at the Landesgerichtsstraße between November 1901 and 1906
Johann Fischer fell back in his plans to Tuscan early Renaissance palaces as the Pitti Palace or Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence. The building was erected on a 21,872 m² plot with a length of 223 meters. It had two respectively three floors (upper floors), the courtyard was divided into three wings, in which the prisoner's house stood. In addition, a special department for the prison hospital (Inquisitenspital ) and a chapel were built.
The Criminal Court of Vienna was from 1839 to 1850 a city court which is why the Vice Mayor of Vienna was president of the criminal courts in civil and criminal matters at the same time. In 1850 followed the abolition of municipal courts. The state administration took over the Criminal Court on 1 Juli 1850. From now on, it had the title "K.K. Country's criminal court in Vienna".
1851, juries were introduced. Those met in the large meeting hall, then as now, was on the second floor of the office wing. The room presented a double height space (two floors). 1890/1891 followed a horizontal subdivision. Initially, the building stood all alone there. Only with the 1858 in the wake of the demolition of the city walls started urban expansion it was surrounded by other buildings.
From 1870 to 1878, the Court experienced numerous conversions. Particular attention was paid to the tract that connects directly to the Alserstraße. On previously building ground a three-storey arrest tract and the Jury Court tract were built. New supervened the "Neutrakt", which presented a real extension and was built three respectively four storied. From 1873 on, executions were not executed publicly anymore but only in the prison house. The first execution took place on 16 December 1876 in the "Galgenhof" (gallow courtyard), the accused were hanged there on the Würgegalgen (choke gallow).
By 1900 the prisoners house was extended. In courtyard II of the prison house kitchen, laundry and workshop buildings and a bathing facility for the prisoners were created. 1906/1907 the office building was enlarged. The two-storied wing tract got a third and three-storied central section a fourth floor fitted.
1918-1938
In the early years of the First Republic took place changes of the court organization. Due to the poor economy and the rapid inflation, the number of cases and the number of inmates rose sharply. Therefore, it was in Vienna on 1 October 1920 established a second Provincial Court, the Regional Court of Criminal Matters II Vienna, as well as an Expositur of the prisoner house at Garnisongasse.
One of the most important trials of the interwar period was the shadow village-process (Schattendorfprozess - nomen est omen!), in which on 14th July 1927, the three defendants were acquitted. In January 1927 front fighters had shot into a meeting of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, killing two people. The outrage over the acquittal was great. At a mass demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice on 15th July 1927, which mainly took place in peaceful manner, invaded radical elements in the Palace of Justice and set fire ( Fire of the Palace Justice), after which the overstrained police preyed upon peaceful protesters fleeing from the scene and caused many deaths.
The 1933/1934 started corporate state dictatorship had led sensational processes against their opponents: examples are the National Socialists processes 1934 and the Socialists process in 1936 against 28 "illegal" socialists and two Communists, in which among others the later leaders Bruno Kreisky and Franz Jonas sat on the dock.
Also in 1934 in the wake of the February Fights and the July Coup a series of processes were carried out by summary courts and military courts. Several ended with death sentences that were carried out by hanging in "Galgenhof" of the district court .
1938-1945
The first measures the Nazis at the Regional Criminal Court after the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 had carried out, consisted of the erection of a monument to ten Nazis, during the processes of the events in July 1934 executed, and of the creation of an execution space (then space 47 C, today consecration space where 650 names of resistance fighters are shown) with a guillotine supplied from Berlin (then called device F, F (stands for Fallbeil) like guillotine).
During the period of National Socialism were in Vienna Regional Court of 6 December 1938 to 4th April 1945 1.184 persons executed. Of those, 537 were political death sentences against civilians, 67 beheadings of soldiers, 49 war-related offenses, 31 criminal cases. Among those executed were 93 women in all age groups, including a 16-year-old girl and a 72-year-old woman who had both been executed for political reasons.
On 30 June 1942 were beheaded ten railwaymen from Styria and Carinthia, who were active in the resistance. On 31 July 1943, 31 people were beheaded in an hour, a day later, 30. The bodies were later handed over to the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Vienna and remaining body parts buried later without a stir at Vienna's Central Cemetery in shaft graves. To thein the Nazi era executed, which were called "Justifizierte" , belonged the nun Maria Restituta Kafka and the theology student Hannsgeorg Heintschel-Heinegg.
The court at that time was directly subordinated to the Ministry of Justice in Berlin.
1945-present
The A-tract (Inquisitentrakt), which was destroyed during a bombing raid in 1944 was built in the Second Republic again. This was also necessary because of the prohibition law of 8 May 1945 and the Criminal Law of 26 June 1945 courts and prisons had to fight with an overcrowding of unprecedented proportions.
On 24 March 1950, the last execution took place in the Grey House. Women murderer Johann Trnka had two women attacked in his home and brutally murdered, he had to bow before this punishment. On 1 July 1950 the death penalty was abolished in the ordinary procedure by Parliament. Overall, occured in the Regionl Court of Criminal Matters 1248 executions. In 1967, the execution site was converted into a memorial.
In the early 1980s, the building complex was revitalized and expanded. The building in the Florianigasse 8, which previously had been renovated, served during this time as an emergency shelter for some of the departments. In 1994, the last reconstruction, actually the annex of the courtroom tract, was completed. In 2003, the Vienna Juvenile Court was dissolved as an independent court, iIts agendas were integrated in the country's criminal court.
Prominent processes since 1945, for example, the Krauland process in which a ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei - Austrian People's Party) minister was accused of offenses against properties, the affair of the former SPÖ (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs - Austrian Socialist Party) Minister and Trade Unions president Franz Olah, whose unauthorized financial assistance resulted in a newspaper establishment led to conviction, the murder affairs Sassak and the of the Lainzer nurses (as a matter of fact, auxiliary nurses), the consumption (Konsum - consumer cooporatives) process, concerning the responsibility of the consumer Manager for the bankruptcy of the company, the Lucona proceedings against Udo Proksch, a politically and socially very well- networked man, who was involved in an attempted insurance fraud, several people losing their lives, the trial of the Nazi Holocaust denier David Irving for Wiederbetätigung (re-engagement in National Socialist activities) and the BAWAG affair in which it comes to breaches of duty by bank managers and vanished money.
Presidents of the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna since 1839 [edit ]
Josef Hollan (1839-1844)
Florian Philipp (1844-1849)
Eduard Ritter von Wittek (1850-1859)
Franz Ritter von Scharschmied (1859-1864)
Franz Ritter von Boschan (1864-1872)
Franz Josef Babitsch (1873-1874)
Joseph Ritter von Weitenhiller (1874-1881)
Franz Schwaiger (1881-1889)
Eduard Graf Lamezan -Salins (1889-1895)
Julius von Soos (1895-1903)
Paul von Vittorelli (1903-1909)
Johann Feigl (1909-1918)
Karl Heidt (1918-1919)
Ludwig Altmann (1920-1929)
Emil Tursky (1929-1936)
Philipp Charwath (1936-1938)
Otto Nahrhaft (1945-1950)
Rudolf Naumann (1951-1954)
Wilhelm Malaniu (1955-1963)
Johann Schuster (1963-1971)
Konrad Wymetal (1972-1976)
August Matouschek (1977-1989)
Günter Woratsch (1990-2004)
Ulrike Psenner (2004-2009)
Friedrich Forsthuber (since 2010)
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landesgericht_f%C3%BCr_Strafsachen_...
Vincennes Castle. The Holy Chapel. Grave of Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duke of Enghien. Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes.
The Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes is a Gothic chapel within the fortifications of the Chateau de Vincennes near Paris, France. It was founded in 1379 by Charles V of France to house relics of the passion of Christ. Its design by Raymond du Temple and Pierre de Montereau was based on that of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, although the version at Vincennes only had a single level (20m high) compared to the two levels of the Paris version.
On Charles V's death in 1380, work on the chapel continued under his successor Charles VI, under whose rule the choir, the two oratories, the sacristy and the treasury were all completed, with the treasury housing the relics. The nave's construction continued but the works slowed during the Hundred Years War. The facade was only completed in 1480, by Louis XI of France. Under Francis I of France, the ordinary almoner to the king, Guillaume Crétin, also served as the chapel's treasurer, before becoming cantor at the main Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The interior decoration was only finished under Henry II of France, who in 1551 moved the order of Saint Michael's base from Mont-Saint-Michel to Vincennes. The following year he inaugurated the chapel.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the interior decoration was destroyed, the stained glass windows smashed and the Baptistery of Saint Louis (long held in the chapel's treasury and used from at least as early as Louis XIII as the baptismal font for children of the French royal family) moved to the Louvre Museum.
The chapel houses the tombs of Bernardin Gigault (who died at Vincennes in 1694) and Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien. The latter was executed in 1804 in the moat of the Chateau de Vincennes, near a grave which had already been prepared; in 1816, his remains were exhumed and placed in the chapel.
Earlier this morning, Thursday 15 February 2018, a number of warrants were executed by GMP officers across Crumpsall, Harpurhey, Salford and Rochdale.
Following this morning’s action, 12 men and 1 woman are in custody after they were arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.
We have also recovered a significant amount of Class A drugs, bringing the total amount of drugs recovered as part of Operation Danube to an estimated value of £60,000.
GMP’s Chief Inspector Paul Walker, said: “The past three weeks of action are the result of months of hard work investigating organised crime in the area.
“Today’s arrests show our absolute commitment to tackling the issue of drugs on our streets and protecting our communities.
“I’d like to thank the public, as without people sharing information about drugs in their area, we could not have carried out such an extensive operation.
“Please continue to let us know about any suspicious activity at the earliest possible opportunity- today’s action shows just how seriously we take these reports.”
Anyone with information should contact police on 101 or through the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Six people have been arrested following warrants executed in Manchester as part of a crackdown on criminal groups involved in serious crime in Rochdale.
Seven addresses in #Moston, #Ardwick, #NewtonHeath, #Blackley, and #Openshaw were targeted this morning (Friday 5 February 2021) by officers from GMP Rochdale with support from neighbouring districts and the Tactical Aid Unit (TAU).
A cross bow with ammunition, three machetes and a stab proof vest was recovered from one address. An amount of cannabis was recovered at another address following a successful search by GMP's Tactical Dog Unit.
The action follows two serious assaults in Rochdale in December 2020 which detectives believe to be the result of a feud between two rival groups.
At around 7.15pm on 17 December, a teenager was stabbed on Tweedale Street, Rochdale, before he was taken to hospital with serious injuries. He was discharged three days later.
Over a week later on 28 December, just after 11.30pm, officers were also called to a report of stabbing followed by a road traffic collision on the same street.
A 21 year old man was hospitalised after sustaining lacerations to his arm & torso and also a broken arm. He was released two days later.
Enquiries are ongoing, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact police or Crimestoppers.
Detective Inspector Karl Ward, of GMP's Rochdale #Challenger team, said: "This morning's raids are the result of an extensive amount of investigative work following a concerning trend of serious assaults recently, particularly around the Freehold area of the town.
"It concerns me greatly to see young people involved in assaults where bladed weapons have been used to commit violent attacks. It is absolutely vital that we do all we can to remove this threat and to take such dangerous items off our streets.
"It is important that people feel safe in their communities, and we have done an enormous amount of work with our local authority partners to reduce the risk to young people living in the Freehold area.
"These arrests represent a positive step in sending that reassurance message. Knife crime will not be tolerated, and we will continue to work tirelessly to bring those who choose to engage in such activities to justice.
"While we have arrested six people today, I would encourage the public to continue to report incidents of concern so that we can take appropriate action with the assistance of our partner agencies."
Anyone with information should call 0161 856 8487. Details can be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Copie romaine en marbre, exécutée vers 130-140 après Jésus-Christ, de la statue en bronze créée par Léocharès entre 330 et 320 avant Jésus-Christ. L’attribution de l’original à Léocharès repose sur un passage de l’Histoire naturelle de Pline l’Ancien évoquant un « Apollon au diadème » (XXXIV, 79) et sur la mention par Pausanias d’une statue d’Apollon située devant le temple d’Apollon Alexikakos à Athènes (I, 3, 4). Elle est donc assez fragile, d’autant que les sandales d’Apollon renverraient plutôt au IIIe, voire au IIe s. av. JC : mais il s’agit là peut-être d’une simple retouche du copiste romain.
On ne sait pas exactement quand ni où cette statue a été découverte. Une première copie en aurait été faite en 1498 (Venise, Ca’ d’Oro). Elle est ensuite dessinée dans les jardins du cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, futur pape Jules II, dans un recueil de croquis antérieur à 1509.
3. Winckelmann évoque la statue dès 1755 et en propose une description enthousiaste dans son Histoire de l’Art chez les Anciens (1776).