Cats represent the Egyptian goddess Bastet. The goddess was thought to offer protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits. She was also thought as supporting family, music, love, joy and dance. Bastet was also the wife of Anubis, the embalming god (the âsecond in chargeâ in the underworld after Osiris).

 

Nowadays the world is flooded by news of an infection spreading fast throughout. No matter how deadly the real risk of this disease may be, the entire globe gets surrounded and paralyzed with fear, fear of death that is. Will this massive-scale fear suffocate our economy, our democracy, our human rights and, eventually, us all…?! People seem to have already stopped smiling, stopped falling in love, stopped being happy, therefore, stopped maintaining a strong and healthy immune system (depression is known to lower oneâs immune defenses).

 

This shot attempts to create an abstract impression in order to remind the viewer that there is still Hope (represented by a symbol of protection) for mankind and for our constitutional rights, even in the current turmoil and imbroglio of Fear spinning or propagated around our world. The feral cat was shot on Meteora, Greece; the Meteora rock formations are geologically unique and listed in UNESCO world heritage sites.

 

May the Light be with us all!

2021 represents a significant milestone in the history of the Phoenix Railway-Photographic Circle with the celebration of our 50th anniversary by publishing a book to showcase some of the members work, past and present, from 1971 to the present day. The book contains 14 chapters and 144 pages of photographs depicting the work of over 50 accomplished railway photographers with many differing styles and approaches. It takes an alternative view on photographing the railway scene over the past 50 years. The book, called 50 Years of Phoenix will be published on 14th May 2021 with pre-orders now being taken – click on this link to order your copy: www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/product/view/productCode/15554

 

Why not take a look at the PRPC web site at www.phoenix-rpc.co.uk/index.html.

Statue representing the signing of the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender at the Mujibnagar Memorial Monument and Complex.

 

Place : Meherpur , Khulna , Bangladesh.

I never got a chance to photograph any of the BN trains on the Cuba Sub. before the merger took place so this was a nice sight for 2015. Glad it still had the BN herald on the nose.

 

BNSF 3135 leads the 816 local west on the BNSF Cuba Sub. as it over powers the nine cars in tow. Currently approaching the crossing near Mp. 32 just east of Pacific, Mo., for the past few months this shot was rough or impossible due to a wrecked coal hopper which blocked most of this scene. Thankfully it was cut up about 3 weeks ago, now to just get rid of that pile of ballast and the left over coal from that hopper......

Units in consist: BNSF 3135, 2837, & 2019.

SSC 05/01/2019 -- something that represents a New Years Resolution .

Well here is a first as I have never gone down the new year resolution thing , so I have had to generate one especially for the challenge . I am keen on wildlife and the garden is deliberately allowed to be wildlife friendly , the bird feeders have attracted many species of birds I am pleased to say . Thing is though the birds tend to sit high up in trees around or in the hedge you can see growing over the fence/wall when I am out with the camera .

So one thing this challenge has motivated me to do is to get my head round using my mobile phone connecting to the new camera so I can watch from indoors and press the shutter from afar . This morning is the first bright morning this week but very cold so I only set up for a short time and had a goldfinch on one feeder , a starling on the bird table , a sparrow on another feeder , a jay on the bird table and a bluetit on a perch/twig of the tree -- BUT only one at a time so it was a case of choose a shot out of the series . Sometimes there can be 15 to 20 birds at once consisting of half a dozen species at once , but never when you are set up for them !!!

Also there can be the squirrels who take advantage of all the goodies and hang upside down on the peanut feeder or nick bits from the table . We have had in the past a few foxes passing through , but not for a while now same as the more rare sightings of the hedgehog .

Thus for SSC my new year's resolution will be to continue my caring for the wildlife that comes into the garden !!

And while on the subject - Do Not Forget the last weekend of January is The Great Garden Birdwatch for the RSPB and all you need to do is spend one hour and count the birds that visit your garden . Details on the RSPB website !!

 

Look out in the shot for all the notes in the shot .

 

A suitable find and a new song to me - stand on one leg and enjoy !

 

youtu.be/KZd9BLWS8XU

This Chandra image shows the Carina Nebula, a star-forming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way a mere 7,500 light years from Earth. Chandra's sharp X-ray vision has detected over 14,000 stars in this region, revealed a diffuse X-ray glow, and provided strong evidence that massive stars have already self-destructed in this nearby supernova factory.

 

The lower energy X-rays in this image are red, the medium energy X-rays are green, and the highest energy X-rays are blue. The Chandra survey has a large field of 1.4 square degrees, made of a mosaic of 22 individual Chandra pointings. In total, this image represents 1.2 million seconds -- or nearly two weeks -- of Chandra observing time. A great deal of multi-wavelength data has been used in combination with this new Chandra campaign, including infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope (VLT).

 

Several pieces of evidence support the idea that supernova production has already begun in this star-forming region. Firstly, there is an observed deficit of bright X-ray sources in Trumpler 15, suggesting that some of the massive stars in this cluster were already destroyed in supernova explosions. Trumpler 15 is located in the northern part of the image, as shown in a labeled version, and is one of ten star clusters in the Carina complex. Several other well known clusters are shown in the labeled image.

 

The detection of six possible neutron stars, the dense cores often left behind after stars explode in supernovas, provides additional evidence that supernova activity is ramping up in Carina. Previous observations had only detected one neutron star in Carina. These six neutron star candidates are too faint to be easily picked out in this large-scale image of Carina.

 

Credit: NASA/CXC/Penn State/L. Townsley et al.

 

Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/carina/

 

Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

 

Read more about Chandra:

www.nasa.gov/chandra

 

p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!

Limestone sculptures from the sanctuary of Zeus Thenatas at Amnisos representing an eagle and a falcon. They were probably placed on top of tall rectangular columns in the sanctuary area in order to be visible from a distance. They were the symbols respectively of Zeus and Hera, as can be deduced frim their depiction together with the two great gods of the Greek pantheon in various representations. Archaic period, mid 6th cent. BC

 

La più bella collezione di arte e cultura minoica nel mondo, unico per bellezza e completezza è ospitato nel Museo di Herakleion; Uno dei più grandi, più importanti e più visitati musei della Grecia, e tra i più importanti d'Europa.

la mostra del museo contiene più di 15.000 reperti, che abbraccia un periodo di 5000 anni, dal neolitico al periodo greco romano.

  

The most magnificent collection of Minoan art and culture in the world, unique in beauty and completeness is housed in the Museum of Herakleion; One of the largest, most important and most visited museums in Greece, and among the most important in Europe.

The museum's exhibition contains more than 15,000 artefacts, covering a period of 5,000 years, from neolithic era to Graeco Roman period.

 

This represents how I viewed this touching scene. I was focused on this pair and oblivious to everything else. The older gentleman was holding hands and leading the blind younger man as they walked the streets in Jaipur India. Photo taken on Nov 9, 2019

Ellora represents the epitome of Indian rock-cut architecture. The 34 "caves" are actually structures excavated out of the vertical face of the Charanandri hills. Buddhist, Hindu and Jain rock-cut temples and viharas and mathas were built between the 5th century and 10th century.

 

The Jain caves at Ellora belong to the ninth and tenth centuries. They all belong to the Digambara sect.[13] Jain caves reveal specific dimensions of Jain philosophy and tradition. They reflect a strict sense of asceticism – they are not relatively large as compared to others, but they present exceptionally detailed art works.

Eusebi Arnau (1864-1933)

National Art Museum of Catalonia

Barcelona, Spain

The Type 21 "Habu" APC represents the latest in domestic Japanese APC design. The Type 21, named after an indigenous pit viper, was designed with a wider wheelbase than most other 8x8 APCs to give greater stability at higher speeds. The vehicle is optimized for extremely rapid deployment along paved surfaces (a valuable asset for defending the long nation), as well as a powerful cross-country capability. The Type 21 is powered by the latest generation of hybrid-electric engine, to reduce fuel consumption (and thus, dependence on foreign oil), and in its base configuration is armed with a standard .50 caliber RWS. The Type 21 is also a highly modular vehicle, with the entire section aft of the engine and driver's compartment able to be taken off and replaced with various modules in less than two hours. Other versions under development are an MLRS, recovery vehicle, mortar, and even a howitzer variant.

 

I've been planning on making a "wide and low" APC for a long time now, nearly 3 years, actually. However, I finally got my act together and decided on an 11-stud wide design which I felt accommodated the look I was looking for without being as wide as an MBT. I do certainly intend on making those other variants in the future too, and it is high on my list of things to build. Lastly, thanks for being patient with me between uploads - I actually have two other projects that I am waiting to build before posting, too, so stay on the lookout for those coming in mid-late December.

Represented in individual photos are 6 birds which were in the trees by Ft. Mason West Battery in San Francisco, CA It took us awhile to notice them because they were so still, but once we did we were surprised how many we found.

I love this couple and their beautiful family.

  

093

April 28, 2011.

I want a cup of tea like that

No time to take anything good

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday because I don't think I could endure school for much longer.

 

if you want to ask anything

Foregrounding Métis history and aesthetic practices, this painting includes around150,000 to 250,000 bead-like dots and blends Belcourt’s knowledge of beadwork traditions with her expertise in medicinal plants. Various plants are represented, as well as insects, raindrops, dew and birds. The patterns have been adapted from nature, with several inspired by traditional Métis floral beadwork. A visual ode to water, the work recognizes the life that water brings to everything and everyone.

"Ces peintures représentant une vision naïve et décalée de la vie parisienne tel que se l'imagine le touriste lambda" a expliqué le jeune réunionnais Jace .....Pour ma part, je ne suis pas fan.

J'aurais aimé que les panneaux deviennent un lieu d'exposition libre. Cette exposition éphémère sera remplacée cet automne par "des panneaux vitrés", a précisé Bruno Julliard, premier adjoint au maire de Paris.

 

Et pour celles et ceux qui voudraient avoir une meilleur vision sur le compte PRO de Flickr :

www.macg.co/logiciels/2015/07/yahoo-relance-flickr-pro-av...

flickriver.com/photos/javier1949/popular-interesting/

 

Plaza Mayor de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

 

Edificio de Servicios “Plaza Mayor”. C/ Einstein s/n Campus de Cantoblanco. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

 

MTM Arquitectos “Madrid Territorio Mutante” Javier Fresneda & Javier Sanjuán.

Coordinador del Proyecto: Miguel García-Redondo Villar. Arquitectos MTM: Carmen Antón, Laura Casas, Ana Arriero, Jesús Barranco, Álvaro Maestro. Concurso, Proyectos Básico y de Ejecución 2007. Obras 2009-2012

 

MTM Arquitectos describe el proyecto desde la Memoria del mismo:

Objetivo de la obra: Plaza Mayor. La ciudad donde construimos esta Plaza Mayor tiene un apellido específico, es una Ciudad Universitaria. La Universidad Autónoma de Madrid ha crecido alrededor de un espacio central de encuentro y circulación, un bulevar verde convertido en su espina dorsal. En uno de sus extremos la estación de cercanías que comunica con la madrileña Puerta del Sol; en el otro, la “Plaza Mayor”.

 

La “Plaza Mayor” es el nuevo centro de servicios de la Universidad por lo que debe manifestar su carácter simbólico y representativo, sirviendo de referencia dentro de la estructura del Campus. La Plaza se soluciona en continuidad con el lugar, proponiendo un nuevo paisaje, soporte de las actividades existentes e incitador de nuevas situaciones. Apoyándonos en el desnivel existente en la parcela y la potencia del bulevar verde que conforma el acceso a las facultades históricas, se construye una plataforma plegada. El bulevar se prolonga así a través de una calle jardín equipada, girando alrededor de una plaza.

 

Sobre el nivel del terreno natural, por debajo de la rasante, se implanta el aparcamiento, reduciendo al máximo el volumen de excavación, facilitando su ventilación natural a través de los taludes vegetados perimetrales existentes. Respetando estos “amortiguadores naturales” y sobre el nivel inferior, se construyen dos plataformas intermedias donde se produce la agrupación de programas y la variedad de accesos peatonales a nivel de las calles. Las torres de comunicación se elevan funcionando como hitos urbanos dentro del conjunto, creando un punto de inflexión perimetral que anuncian los 7 puentes. Torres y puentes son entradas, conexiones y acontecimientos que incitan a descubrir el vacío interior: la “Plaza Mayor”. Dentro, a su alrededor, los grandes vuelos construyen calles cubiertas que incrementan la versatilidad del espacio protegiendo de sol y la lluvia.

 

Hay cinco elementos materiales que refuerzan la continuidad bulevar, calle y plaza: El pavimento público: hormigón desactivado in situ y prefabricado, plantación vegetal, césped artificial y pavimentos de caucho. El final del bulevar existente es el comienzo del proyecto y desde ahí una lengua continua de hormigón recorre todo el sistema, rampas, plataformas y escaleras. Sobre esta se recorta la huella de otras actividades y otros materiales.

 

El cerramiento al exterior de la plaza: policarbonato gris atérmico cargado de resinas metalizadas, piel homogénea y cambiante, desde sus tratamientos específicos y los matices introducidos por las condiciones atmosféricas. El cerramiento al interior: Vidrios en cámara incoloros que abren la actividad al interior como un mercado contemporáneo de servicios. Las compartimentaciones interiores: vidrios laminados, ligeros, y casi imperceptibles, que intentan desaparecer, reforzando la percepción unitaria de cada isla sobre las plataformas; compartimentaciones que no llegan físicamente a tocar la piel exterior de vidrio y policarbonato. Los puntos de color que forman los vidrios templados, en azules, verdes y oros, agrupados formando gemas, puntúan los volúmenes uniformes alrededor de la paleta de grises y tostados utilizados en toda la obra.

 

Las plataformas, son la infraestructura a la espera de incorporar un programa. La solución estructural facilita la coexistencia de una geometría irregular y quebrada, diferente en cada nivel, los distintos usos programáticos inicialmente requeridos y la continuidad de movimientos entre ellos. Ante un problema complejo la solución estructural es sencilla: un básico sistema de retícula de pilares portantes y losas postesadas de hormigón. La retícula de 5x5 m se mostró la más eficiente y la que mejor se adaptaba a las singularidades de las diferentes plataformas, desde el nivel inferior con la distribución funcional de los aparcamientos, hasta las superiores, más liberadas, permiten reducir la presencia de pilares y adoptar luces de hasta 12,00 m o voladizos de 5,00 m, al compensar los esfuerzos y variar sus diámetros.

 

La prolongación del paisaje natural que identifica al Campus Universitario se consigue a través de la última plataforma-cubierta. La cubierta ya no lo es, adopta un nuevo carácter más urbano, artificial y equipado. Las situaciones y relaciones que se dan en el bulevar del Campus se reinterpretan y transforman, proponiendo ahora nuevas áreas de oportunidad e intercambio para estudiantes, profesores y visitantes, dotándolo de nuevos soportes e instalaciones para que el espacio sea vivido, valorado y usado de forma continua. Los materiales sobre la nueva calle se adaptarán a las nuevas topografías configurando dunas, pliegues, playas o recortes; con texturas diversas, blandas, rugosas, peludas y colores acentuados, verdes, naranjas, negros, o arena, con líneas de iluminación, báculos elevados conectados al reloj solar, terrazas y kioscos. Y como con la soltura del primer croquis, se dibuja una línea naranja que con su geometría no lineal desmaterializa el borde convirtiéndolo en una línea de conexión con el paisaje del campus y con la lejana presencia de la sierra madrileña.

 

La ONCE y el Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid (COAM) han otorgado a esta Plaza Mayor el primer premio del “Concurso para la selección de actuaciones de Arquitectura e Ingeniería con una Accesibilidad ejemplar” por ser un ejemplo de máxima calidad en el campo de la arquitectura y la ingeniería a nivel nacional, dando prioridad al acceso de personas con discapacidad.

Además de su fácil accesibilidad, otro de los criterios fundamentales de la construcción del edificio es la máxima funcionalidad, eficiencia energética y singularidad de sus dependencias. 26 paneles térmicos y 92 paneles fotovoltaicos permiten el ahorro energético y la optimización de los recursos medioambientales del edificio y se destinan al abastecimiento parcial de las instalaciones.

Las características arquitectónicas del edificio contemplan un diseño que alberga 4.000 m2 distribuidos en cuatro plantas, de las cuales la mitad están cubiertas por soportales y en cuyo sótano se ubican cerca de 200 plazas de aparcamiento. Los servicios disponibles en las instalaciones son la Oficina de Orientación y Atención al Estudiante, la Sección de Acceso, Admisión y Traslados, la Sección de Becas y Ayudas al Estudio, la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales y Movilidad, la Oficina de Acogidas Internacionales, la Oficina de Acción Solidaria y Cooperación, la Oficina de Prácticas Externas y Orientación para el Empleo, el Centro de Atención a Usuarios y la Oficina de Ecocampus. Además se encuentran operativos un auditorio y una sala de exposiciones, Cafeterías/Restaurantes, Farmacia/Óptica, Librería/Papelería, Agencia de Viajes, entidad bancaria y Centro de Servicios Documentales.

 

En palabras de Alberto Campo Baeza, miembro del jurado del concurso "Los arquitectos en un tour de force nada fácil, han planteado y han resuelto con rigor y con brillantez un problema crucial en la arquitectura contemporánea, en la siempre debatida relación entre arquitectura y naturaleza. Les pedían unos edificios para alojar diferentes servicios de la Universidad y ellos les han dado una Plaza Mayor. ...han inclinado y plegado y girado y torcido, siempre con criterio, y han construido, insisto, un trozo de Naturaleza en continuidad con lo existente. Han construido su propio paisaje..."

  

www.mtmarquitectos.com/

mtmarquitectos-blog-curriculum.blogspot.com.es/

www.metalocus.es/content/es/blog/edificio-de-servicios-pl...

212.145.146.10/ejercicio/concursos/concursos_ocam/120517_...

www.bienalarquitectura.es/index.php/portfolio/fre0182/

 

 

Elementals represent an evolution divergent from that of humans. They are the metaphysical forces behind nature which assist earth’s ecology to function better. Their realms are harmonized into the earth but are not composed of the gross matter that constitutes humans. Because of the different vibrations of their composition, nature spirits can sometimes be seen by humans whose ajna, or third-eye chakra has been enhanced through recitations of specific prayers or mantras. Such mantras increase the harmony of consciousness and telepathy. Elementals are the archetypal spiritual intelligence behind all species. Contact with the plant kingdom is in fact contact with a more universal being.

 

denniscordell.zenfolio.com

 

also:

 

www.elephantjournal.com/2020/12/some-notes-on-nature-spir...

leco-vita.blogspot.jp/2015/05/ja.html

Killing two birds with one stone, here, as this shot is primarily for the Macro Mondays challenge on the subject of 'Stripes', but also manages to (sort of) fulfil the 101 Pictures subject 71. Represent a TV programme

- Le Bali Bird Park est une attraction touristique de Bali. Il est situé dans la régence de Gianyar et a une superficie de 2 000 mètres carrés. Le parc abrite plus de 1 300 oiseaux représentant plus de 250 espèces dans une volière fermée.

- Le Bali Bird Park a pour objectif de devenir un « centre d’excellence » pour la reproduction des oiseaux de paradis et des étourneaux de Bali. De nombreux oiseaux nichent dans le parc tout au long de l’année.

 

Le parc a été aménagé de manière à créer des habitats naturels. Il abrite une collection botanique diversifiée, avec 52 espèces différentes de palmiers, des arbres fruitiers rares de la jungle, des cycadales, des bambous et des cactus. Trois lacs du parc abritent diverses espèces d'oiseaux aquatiques. Il existe 60 enclos à oiseaux avec des habitats pour abriter la collection.

 

- Merci pour vos passages sur les vues, favoris et commentaires.

- Thanks all for the views, favs and comments, very appreciated.

 

- Mes vidéos ICI : www.youtube.com/@Poulbeau19/videos

New series of pictures taken in my city. They represents mural paintings conducted this year in my city by various and talented artists. You can find them on the event LongArtStreet on instagram and facebook!

El capitel que representa la Matanza de los Santos Inocentes, situado en el lado norte del arco triunfal de ingreso al presbiterio es, sin lugar a dudas, el elemento más emblemático de este templo y uno de los más interesantes del románico palentino. Aparecen en una escena corrida a lo largo de sus tres caras visibles cinco soldados ataviados con cota de malla ejecutando otros tantos infantes ante la presencia impotente de sus madres, las cuales manifiestan su gesto de desconsuelo llevando las manos a sus rostros. En uno de los ángulos se reconoce la efigie de Herodes, coronado, vestido con túnica, realizando con un dedo de su mano izquierda un autoritario ademán que lo identifica como instigador de la escena y con la mano derecha clavando su espada en el costado de uno de los inocentes.

 

La ermita de Santa Cecilia de Aguilar de Campoo (Palencia) está situada en la ladera sureste del cerro del Castillo. El templo actual, de estilo románico, se construyó entre los siglos XII a XIII, pero entre los siglos XVI y XVIII se acometieron reformas en las que se sustituyó el ábside original, y en la década de 1960 fue restaurado cuando estaba en estado de ruina. Presenta planta cuadrada irregular, con tres naves separadas por arquerías apuntadas y la nave central se cierra con bóveda de crucería. Entre la nave principal y la cabecera se halla la esbelta y elegante torre que consta de tres pisos, en los que se abren los dos superiores amplios ventanales. La portada se sitúa en el muro sur, cubierta por un tejadillo, y dispone de cuatro arquivoltas de medio punto constituidas por medias cañas y baquetones. En el interior sobresalen sus capiteles historiados, entre los que destaca el dedicado a la Matanza de los Inocentes.

 

101456

 

The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 1683. Our world famous collections range from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art, telling human stories across cultures and across time.

 

The Ashmolean’s collections are extraordinarily diverse, representing most of the world’s great civilisations, with objects dating from 8000 BC to the present day. Among many riches we have the world’s greatest collection of Raphael drawings, the most important collection of Egyptian pre-Dynastic sculpture and ceramics outside Cairo, the only great Minoan collection in Britain, outstanding Anglo-Saxon treasures, and the foremost collection of modern Chinese painting in the Western world.

The represents the kind of views many of my vintage National Geographic magazines from the 1915 to 1920 era would proudly portray as the modern and efficient "Future Of Industry". By the mid 1970s, they looked awfully tired and dated.

 

I remember reading a book about Jersey City written in the 1930s describing it as a industrial city "without trees". Of course... who needed trees and the niceties of life when you've got countless brick warehouses, hundreds of factories and endless railroads which sliced through every neighborhood? It was all about business, pure business.

 

The same place today:

www.google.com/maps/@40.7220077,-74.0380614,3a,75y,194.68...

 

This is a still from a work scan of a Super 8 movie some friends and I shot. When the high-def DVD version returns back from the professional movie scanner, I'll post more images from this film.

Representantes de colegios de Loja fueron capacitados en expresión y derecho internacional para exposición de ideas en una sesión formal de la ONU.

This high-resolution image shows newly discovered frost at the top of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire Solar System. The frost appears blue on the floor of the volcano’s caldera (summit crater) and around its northern rim. It is absent on the well-lit steep slopes seen on the left of this image.

 

This frost was recently discovered by ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express missions. The researchers spotted frost on not only Olympus Mons but on the other Tharsis volcanoes of Arsia Mons, Ascraeus Mons and Ceraunius Tholus. This is the first time that water frost has been found near Mars’s equator, a part of the planet where it was thought improbable for frost to exist.

 

The landscape on the right side of the image is filled with wrinkle ridges that lie inside the caldera, while the rippled structures on the centre-left are collapsed caldera rim terraces.

 

The image is false colour, meaning that the colours shown here are not those that would be seen by the human eye. This is because the CaSSIS instrument onboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is sensitive to near-infrared light (which is invisible to our eyes), and the image has stretched contrast to better show the details of the terrain. In this false-colour image the water ice frost appears blue. False-colour images are really useful for scientists, revealing more information than can be seen with the human eye. Read more on how CaSSIS constructs its blue-hued images, and how this allows us to explore the Red Planet.

 

The image resolution is 4.5 m/pixel, and the Local Solar Time is 7:11 AM.

 

Read more

 

[Image description: This rectangular slice of Mars shows the terrain atop Mars’s volcano Olympus Mons. Rippled, uneven, stepped terrain can be seen, with different illuminations. The right-hand side of the image is blue-toned, representing the newly discovered water ice frost.]

 

Credits: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

 

This photo represents me moving on and starting new.

 

I wanted to create this new account because I really need a fresh start. I created my old Flickr account back in 2009 and, frankly, I loathe my old Flickr URL. It's so bad.

 

But, please check out some of my old work! There are some hidden gems in there:)

 

I plan on uploading more. There have been a lot of broken sets that I've never finished and I really want to restart them or just trash them. So yes, I will get back to my Deadly Seven;)

 

xoxoxox!!

  

Facebook | Tumblr | Formspring | Youtube

My initial idea was to represent a lighthouse, but it turned out so attractive, so I put some shells and stones to compose, a dramatic tonality in the edit gave a special touch, I love this photograph, I hope I can do others with the same feeling.

 

Enjoy more about my photographic and artistic adventures.

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Displate: Murielarts

displate.com/murielarts/photography-room?art=5d507f8ae5789

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Instagram Arts: @muriell.vii

www.instagram.com/muriel.vii/ | www.instagram.com/mikeuriell/

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Église Notre-Dame-des-Neiges de L'Alpe d'Huez. Une petite chapelle, construite en 1940, plantée au centre de l'Alpe d'Huez, était consacrée au culte marial. Trop petite pour accueillir les nombreux touristes des Jeux olympiques de 1968, le curé Jaap Reuten, Hollandais, imagine le projet d'une nouvelle église et demande en 1960 à Jean Le Boucher et à l'architecte Jean Marol (1930-2010) de faire construire une église en forme de tente (représentant celle du patriarche Abraham). De magnifiques vitraux entourent la nef, de forme ovale, représentant la vie de Jésus-Christ d'après l'évangile de saint Marc, réalisés par l'artiste Arcabas.

The oldest part of the complex is represented by the Shrine of San Vittore in Golden Sky , built in the fourth century by Bishop Maternus to preserve the remains of St. Victor and important example of early Christian architecture. Adjacent to it, heading north, the bishop of Milan Ambrose built, between 379 and 386, the Martyrum Basilica, the first version of the early Christian basilica, whose name came from the fact that it was built in an area where martyrs of the Roman persecutions had been buried. The name was changed to the present one later when Ambrose was buried inside it. The current version of the Romanesque basilica with three naves with vaulted ribbed cruise, is characterized by an alternating system of major and minor pillars that allow the transition from four spans in the main nave to eight in the lateral naves. However, there is no agreement on the exact dating of almost all structural parts of the basilica, in the light of the many changes that have taken place over the centuries. The absidiale part is in any case the oldest part, assigned to the centuries VIII, IX or X depending on the author. The church was heavily damaged during the bombings of the Second World War, which destroyed in 1943 especially the outside of the porch, damaged the dome of the basilica and other areas of the basilica complex, and caused the loss of significant art works, including a fresco by Tiepolo that decorated the ceiling of the sacristy. Immediately after the war the restoration works took start. They were completed in the fifties, bringing the church to its former glory.

 

Дата строительства базилики Св. Амвросия теряется в далеком 4 веке н. э., времени бескомпромиссной борьбы никейского и арианского исповеданий христианства. Ее основатель — один из четырех отцов церкви Амвросий Медиоланский, равно почитаемый католиками и православными. Поводом послужило обретение им поблизости утерянных столетием ранее останков Гервасия и Протасия, замученных во времена Нерона. Отсюда и второе название храма — базилика Мучеников. Сам святитель тоже нашел последний приют в саркофаге между раками найденных им мощей.

Represents an aeroplane operated by the Air Fighting Development Unit, based at Duxford in 1942, although an original photograph in the Imperial War Museum archives shows AA937 to have had ‘clipped’ wingtips when operating with the AFDU.

Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire, UK

17th October 2020

Pointe er long, Locmariaquer, 11 octobre 2020, 19h11-2

Curiosa esta composición a la que no sé muy bien como clasificar, si como teco JSV o como siderúrgico JSV. Contenedores lleva, pocos pero lleva, pero la mayor parte de la composición está representada por plataformas cargadas de barras de hierro así que....

Représentation

This was made a few weeks ago but I was waiting for some modulex. Today I was able to get some and took some quick shots of the MOC.

 

It represents a kid's room, based on my own childhood room, with some doodles hanged on the walls, lots of toys on the floor, lots of comics and a real mess :)

 

My favourite parts are the mini Imperial Shuttle and the flowers pot hanged next to the window. What's yours (if any!)? :)

 

Hope you like it!

Representing Whatley Quarry's aggregates business passing by Hungerford Common are the returning 11.25 Allington ARC Sdgs empties with 59201 met by a Cl59/1 upon the loaded 13.24 Dagenham Dock ARC running 56min early.

13th September 2019

London Bus Museum Spring Gathering 13 April 2025. The unhappy sight of a modernised Green Line coach painted in all-over NBC leaf green represents a sad period in the London bus scene. RF48 is a 1951 AEC Regal IV with Metro-Cammell body. The banked race track forms a backdrop.

The Glasshouse is an international centre for musical education and concerts on the Gateshead bank of Quayside in northern England. Opened in 2004 as Sage Gateshead and occupied by North Music Trust The venue's original name honours a patron: the accountancy software company The Sage Group.

 

History

Planning for the centre began in the early 1990s, when the orchestra of Sage Gateshead, Royal Northern Sinfonia, with encouragement from Northern Arts, began working on plans for a new concert hall. They were soon joined by regional folk music development agency Folkworks, which ensured that the needs of the region's traditional music were taken into consideration and represented in Sage Gateshead's programme of concerts, alongside Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, classical, jazz, acoustic, indie, country and world, Practice spaces for professional musicians, students and amateurs were an important part of the provision.

 

The planning and construction process cost over £70 million, which was raised primarily through National Lottery grants. The contractor was Laing O'Rourke. The centre has a range of patrons, notably Sage Group which contributed a large sum of money to have the building named after it. Sage plc has helped support the charitable activities of Sage Gateshead since its conception. The venue opened over the weekend 17–19 December 2004.

 

Sage Gateshead was developed by Foster and Partners following an architectural design competition launched in 1997 and managed by RIBA Competitions. Over 100 architects registered their interest and 12 – a mixture of local, national and international talent – were invited to prepare concept designs. A shortlist of six was then interviewed with Foster and Partners unanimously selected as the winner. The Design has gone on to win a number of awards: the RIBA Inclusive Design Award, Civic Trust Award and The Journal North East Landmark of the Year Award.

 

As a conference venue, the building hosted the Labour Party's Spring conference in February 2005 and the Liberal Democrat Party conference in March 2012. On 18 August 2009, Sage Gateshead was selected to host the 2010 and 2011 National Union of Students annual conference. The 2010 Annual Conference took place 13–15 April 2010.

 

In 2022 The Sage Group announced that they were also sponsoring a new development that is being built next to Sage Gateshead which will be called The Sage. Sage Gateshead announced that they will be finding a new name for the venue prior to The Sage opening in 2024. On 13 September 2023 the venue announced its new name, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music.

 

Building

The centre occupies a curved glass and stainless steel building designed by Foster and Partners, Buro Happold (structural engineering), Mott MacDonald (engineering consultants) and Arup (acoustics), with views of Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides, the Tyne Bridge and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

 

The Glasshouse contains three performance spaces; a 1,700-seater, a 450-seater, and a smaller rehearsal and performance hall, the Northern Rock Foundation Hall. The rest of the building was designed around these three spaces to allow for maximum attention to detail in their acoustic properties. Structurally it is three separate buildings, insulated from each other to prevent noise and vibration travelling between them. The gaps between them may be seen as one walks around inside. A special 'spongy' concrete mix was used in the construction, with a higher-than-usual air capacity to improve the acoustic. These three buildings are enclosed (but not touched) by the now-famous glass and steel shell. Sage One was intended as an acoustically perfect space, modelled on the Musikverein in Vienna. Its ceiling panels may be raised and lowered and curtains drawn across the ribbed wooden side walls, changing the sound profile of the room to suit any type of music. Sage Two is a smaller venue, possibly the world's only ten-sided performance space.

 

The building is open to the public throughout the day.

 

Concerts

The Glasshouse will host concerts from a wide range of internationally famous artists, and those who have played at the venue include Above and Beyond, Blondie, James Brown, Bonobo, Andy Cutting, De La Soul, Nick Cave, George Clinton, Bill Callahan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Dillinger, Grace Jones, Gretchen Peters, Elbow, Explosions in the Sky, the Fall, Herbie Hancock, Mogwai, Morrissey, Mumford & Sons, Pet Shop Boys, Sunn O))), Nancy Sinatra, Snarky Puppy, Sting, Yellowman, Shane Filan of Westlife and others. In February 2015, it was one of the hosts of the second annual BBC Radio 6 Music Festival.

 

It is also home to Royal Northern Sinfonia, of which The Guardian wrote there is "no better chamber orchestra in Britain", and frequently hosts other visiting orchestras from around the world. The current music director for Royal Northern Sinfonia is the pianist and conductor Lars Vogt. In late 2014, Royal Northern Sinfonia collaborated with John Grant, performing at Sage Gateshead, and other venues throughout the UK. Recordings from this tour were made available as a limited edition CD and 12" record via Rough Trade Records in 2015.

 

Opinion

There has been popular debate surrounding what was Sage Gateshead. The venue is popular in the local area because of its concerts, and also its accessible learning courses for all ages and its constant interaction with local schools and academies through programmes such as Sing Up and the option of school visits.

 

Awards

2019: UK National Lottery 25th Birthday Award - Best Arts, Culture and Film

2019: Julie's Bicycle Creative Green 2 Star

2019: Gold Standard - Attitude is Everything

2018: Gold Award for Inclusive Tourism (North East Tourism Awards)

2018: Gold Award for Business Tourism (Visit England Awards for Excellence)

2005: Local Authority Building of the Year

2005: British Construction Industry Awards

2005: RIBA Award for Inclusive Design

 

Gateshead is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The town shares the Millennium Bridge, Tyne Bridge and multiple other bridges with Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Historically part of County Durham, under the Local Government Act 1888 the town was made a county borough, meaning it was administered independently of the county council.

 

In the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 120,046 while the wider borough had 200,214.

 

History

Gateshead is first mentioned in Latin translation in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People as ad caput caprae ("at the goat's head"). This interpretation is consistent with the later English attestations of the name, among them Gatesheued (c. 1190), literally "goat's head" but in the context of a place-name meaning 'headland or hill frequented by (wild) goats'. Although other derivations have been mooted, it is this that is given by the standard authorities.

 

A Brittonic predecessor, named with the element *gabro-, 'goat' (c.f. Welsh gafr), may underlie the name. Gateshead might have been the Roman-British fort of Gabrosentum.

 

Early

There has been a settlement on the Gateshead side of the River Tyne, around the old river crossing where the Swing Bridge now stands, since Roman times.

 

The first recorded mention of Gateshead is in the writings of the Venerable Bede who referred to an Abbot of Gateshead called Utta in 623. In 1068 William the Conqueror defeated the forces of Edgar the Ætheling and Malcolm king of Scotland (Shakespeare's Malcolm) on Gateshead Fell (now Low Fell and Sheriff Hill).

 

During medieval times Gateshead was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham. At this time the area was largely forest with some agricultural land. The forest was the subject of Gateshead's first charter, granted in the 12th century by Hugh du Puiset, Bishop of Durham. An alternative spelling may be "Gatishevede", as seen in a legal record, dated 1430.

 

Industrial revolution

Throughout the Industrial Revolution the population of Gateshead expanded rapidly; between 1801 and 1901 the increase was over 100,000. This expansion resulted in the spread southwards of the town.

 

In 1854, a catastrophic explosion on the quayside destroyed most of Gateshead's medieval heritage, and caused widespread damage on the Newcastle side of the river.

 

Sir Joseph Swan lived at Underhill, Low Fell, Gateshead from 1869 to 1883, where his experiments led to the invention of the electric light bulb. The house was the first in the world to be wired for domestic electric light.

 

In the 1889 one of the largest employers (Hawks, Crawshay and Company) closed down and unemployment has since been a burden. Up to the Second World War there were repeated newspaper reports of the unemployed sending deputations to the council to provide work. The depression years of the 1920s and 1930s created even more joblessness and the Team Valley Trading Estate was built in the mid-1930s to alleviate the situation.

 

Regeneration

In the late noughties, Gateshead Council started to regenerate the town, with the long-term aim of making Gateshead a city. The most extensive transformation occurred in the Quayside, with almost all the structures there being constructed or refurbished in this time.

 

In the early 2010s, regeneration refocused on the town centre. The £150 million Trinity Square development opened in May 2013, it incorporates student accommodation, a cinema, health centre and shops. It was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup in September 2014. The cup was however awarded to another development which involved Tesco, Woolwich Central.

 

Governance

In 1835, Gateshead was established as a municipal borough and in 1889 it was made a county borough, independent from Durham County Council.

 

In 1870, the Old Town Hall was built, designed by John Johnstone who also designed the previously built Newcastle Town Hall. The ornamental clock in front of the old town hall was presented to Gateshead in 1892 by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time. He was also one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria. The old town hall also served as a magistrate's court and one of Gateshead's police stations.

 

Current

In 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, the County Borough of Gateshead was merged with the urban districts of Felling, Whickham, Blaydon and Ryton and part of the rural district of Chester-le-Street to create the much larger Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead.

 

Geography

The town of Gateshead is in the North East of England in the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, and within the historic boundaries of County Durham. It is located on the southern bank of the River Tyne at a latitude of 54.57° N and a longitude of 1.35° W. Gateshead experiences a temperate climate which is considerably warmer than some other locations at similar latitudes as a result of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream (via the North Atlantic drift). It is located in the rain shadow of the North Pennines and is therefore in one of the driest regions of the United Kingdom.

 

One of the most distinguishing features of Gateshead is its topography. The land rises 230 feet from Gateshead Quays to the town centre and continues rising to a height of 525 feet at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sheriff Hill. This is in contrast to the flat and low lying Team Valley located on the western edges of town. The high elevations allow for impressive views over the Tyne valley into Newcastle and across Tyneside to Sunderland and the North Sea from lookouts in Windmill Hills and Windy Nook respectively.

 

The Office for National Statistics defines the town as an urban sub-division. The latest (2011) ONS urban sub-division of Gateshead contains the historical County Borough together with areas that the town has absorbed, including Dunston, Felling, Heworth, Pelaw and Bill Quay.

 

Given the proximity of Gateshead to Newcastle, just south of the River Tyne from the city centre, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as being a part of Newcastle. Gateshead Council and Newcastle City Council teamed up in 2000 to create a unified marketing brand name, NewcastleGateshead, to better promote the whole of the Tyneside conurbation.

 

Economy

Gateshead is home to the MetroCentre, the largest shopping mall in the UK until 2008; and the Team Valley Trading Estate, once the largest and still one of the larger purpose-built commercial estates in the UK.

 

Arts

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art has been established in a converted flour mill. The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, previously The Sage, a Norman Foster-designed venue for music and the performing arts opened on 17 December 2004. Gateshead also hosted the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990, rejuvenating 200 acres (0.81 km2) of derelict land (now mostly replaced with housing). The Angel of the North, a famous sculpture in nearby Lamesley, is visible from the A1 to the south of Gateshead, as well as from the East Coast Main Line. Other public art include works by Richard Deacon, Colin Rose, Sally Matthews, Andy Goldsworthy, Gordon Young and Michael Winstone.

 

Traditional and former

The earliest recorded coal mining in the Gateshead area is dated to 1344. As trade on the Tyne prospered there were several attempts by the burghers of Newcastle to annex Gateshead. In 1576 a small group of Newcastle merchants acquired the 'Grand Lease' of the manors of Gateshead and Whickham. In the hundred years from 1574 coal shipments from Newcastle increased elevenfold while the population of Gateshead doubled to approximately 5,500. However, the lease and the abundant coal supplies ended in 1680. The pits were shallow as problems of ventilation and flooding defeated attempts to mine coal from the deeper seams.

 

'William Cotesworth (1668-1726) was a prominent merchant based in Gateshead, where he was a leader in coal and international trade. Cotesworth began as the son of a yeoman and apprentice to a tallow - candler. He ended as an esquire, having been mayor, Justice of the Peace and sheriff of Northumberland. He collected tallow from all over England and sold it across the globe. He imported dyes from the Indies, as well as flax, wine, and grain. He sold tea, sugar, chocolate, and tobacco. He operated the largest coal mines in the area, and was a leading salt producer. As the government's principal agent in the North country, he was in contact with leading ministers.

 

William Hawks originally a blacksmith, started business in Gateshead in 1747, working with the iron brought to the Tyne as ballast by the Tyne colliers. Hawks and Co. eventually became one of the biggest iron businesses in the North, producing anchors, chains and so on to meet a growing demand. There was keen contemporary rivalry between 'Hawks' Blacks' and 'Crowley's Crew'. The famous 'Hawks' men' including Ned White, went on to be celebrated in Geordie song and story.

 

In 1831 a locomotive works was established by the Newcastle and Darlington Railway, later part of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In 1854 the works moved to the Greenesfield site and became the manufacturing headquarters of North Eastern Railway. In 1909, locomotive construction was moved to Darlington and the rest of the works were closed in 1932.

 

Robert Stirling Newall took out a patent on the manufacture of wire ropes in 1840 and in partnership with Messrs. Liddell and Gordon, set up his headquarters at Gateshead. A worldwide industry of wire-drawing resulted. The submarine telegraph cable received its definitive form through Newall's initiative, involving the use of gutta-percha surrounded by strong wires. The first successful Dover–Calais cable on 25 September 1851, was made in Newall's works. In 1853, he invented the brake-drum and cone for laying cable in deep seas. Half of the first Atlantic cable was manufactured in Gateshead. Newall was interested in astronomy, and his giant 25-inch (640 mm) telescope was set up in the garden at Ferndene, his Gateshead residence, in 1871.

 

Architecture

JB Priestley, writing of Gateshead in his 1934 travelogue English Journey, said that "no true civilisation could have produced such a town", adding that it appeared to have been designed "by an enemy of the human race".

 

Victorian

William Wailes the celebrated stained-glass maker, lived at South Dene from 1853 to 1860. In 1860, he designed Saltwell Towers as a fairy-tale palace for himself. It is an imposing Victorian mansion in its own park with a romantic skyline of turrets and battlements. It was originally furnished sumptuously by Gerrard Robinson. Some of the panelling installed by Robinson was later moved to the Shipley Art gallery. Wailes sold Saltwell Towers to the corporation in 1876 for use as a public park, provided he could use the house for the rest of his life. For many years the structure was essentially an empty shell but following a restoration programme it was reopened to the public in 2004.

 

Post millennium

The council sponsored the development of a Gateshead Quays cultural quarter. The development includes the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, erected in 2001, which won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Architecture in 2002.

 

Former brutalism

The brutalist Trinity Centre Car Park, which was designed by Owen Luder, dominated the town centre for many years until its demolition in 2010. A product of attempts to regenerate the area in the 1960s, the car park gained an iconic status due to its appearance in the 1971 film Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. An unsuccessful campaign to have the structure listed was backed by Sylvester Stallone, who played the main role in the 2000 remake of the film. The car park was scheduled for demolition in 2009, but this was delayed as a result of a disagreement between Tesco, who re-developed the site, and Gateshead Council. The council had not been given firm assurances that Tesco would build the previously envisioned town centre development which was to include a Tesco mega-store as well as shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, offices and student accommodation. The council effectively used the car park as a bargaining tool to ensure that the company adhered to the original proposals and blocked its demolition until they submitted a suitable planning application. Demolition finally took place in July–August 2010.

 

The Derwent Tower, another well known example of brutalist architecture, was also designed by Owen Luder and stood in the neighbourhood of Dunston. Like the Trinity Car Park it also failed in its bid to become a listed building and was demolished in 2012. Also located in this area are the Grade II listed Dunston Staithes which were built in 1890. Following the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of almost £420,000 restoration of the structure is expected to begin in April 2014.

 

Sport

Gateshead International Stadium regularly holds international athletics meetings over the summer months, and is home of the Gateshead Harriers athletics club. It is also host to rugby league fixtures, and the home ground of Gateshead Football Club. Gateshead Thunder Rugby League Football Club played at Gateshead International Stadium until its purchase by Newcastle Rugby Limited and the subsequent rebranding as Newcastle Thunder. Both clubs have had their problems: Gateshead A.F.C. were controversially voted out of the Football League in 1960 in favour of Peterborough United, whilst Gateshead Thunder lost their place in Super League as a result of a takeover (officially termed a merger) by Hull F.C. Both Gateshead clubs continue to ply their trade at lower levels in their respective sports, thanks mainly to the efforts of their supporters. The Gateshead Senators American Football team also use the International Stadium, as well as this it was used in the 2006 Northern Conference champions in the British American Football League.

 

Gateshead Leisure Centre is home to the Gateshead Phoenix Basketball Team. The team currently plays in EBL League Division 4. Home games are usually on a Sunday afternoon during the season, which runs from September to March. The team was formed in 2013 and ended their initial season well placed to progress after defeating local rivals Newcastle Eagles II and promotion chasing Kingston Panthers.

 

In Low Fell there is a cricket club and a rugby club adjacent to each other on Eastwood Gardens. These are Gateshead Fell Cricket Club and Gateshead Rugby Club. Gateshead Rugby Club was formed in 1998 following the merger of Gateshead Fell Rugby Club and North Durham Rugby Club.

 

Transport

Gateshead is served by the following rail transport stations with some being operated by National Rail and some being Tyne & Wear Metro stations: Dunston, Felling, Gateshead Interchange, Gateshead Stadium, Heworth Interchange, MetroCentre and Pelaw.

 

Tyne & Wear Metro stations at Gateshead Interchange and Gateshead Stadium provide direct light-rail access to Newcastle Central, Newcastle Airport , Sunderland, Tynemouth and South Shields Interchange.

 

National Rail services are provided by Northern at Dunston and MetroCentre stations. The East Coast Main Line, which runs from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley, cuts directly through the town on its way between Newcastle Central and Chester-le-Street stations. There are presently no stations on this line within Gateshead, as Low Fell, Bensham and Gateshead West stations were closed in 1952, 1954 and 1965 respectively.

 

Road

Several major road links pass through Gateshead, including the A1 which links London to Edinburgh and the A184 which connects the town to Sunderland.

 

Gateshead Interchange is the busiest bus station in Tyne & Wear and was used by 3.9 million bus passengers in 2008.

 

Cycle routes

Various bicycle trails traverse the town; most notably is the recreational Keelmans Way (National Cycle Route 14), which is located on the south bank of the Tyne and takes riders along the entire Gateshead foreshore. Other prominent routes include the East Gateshead Cycleway, which connects to Felling, the West Gateshead Cycleway, which links the town centre to Dunston and the MetroCentre, and routes along both the old and new Durham roads, which take cyclists to Birtley, Wrekenton and the Angel of the North.

 

Religion

Christianity has been present in the town since at least the 7th century, when Bede mentioned a monastery in Gateshead. A church in the town was burned down in 1080 with the Bishop of Durham inside.[citation needed] St Mary's Church was built near to the site of that building, and was the only church in the town until the 1820s. Undoubtedly the oldest building on the Quayside, St Mary's has now re-opened to the public as the town's first heritage centre.

 

Many of the Anglican churches in the town date from the 19th century, when the population of the town grew dramatically and expanded into new areas. The town presently has a number of notable and large churches of many denominations.

 

Judaism

The Bensham district is home to a community of hundreds of Jewish families and used to be known as "Little Jerusalem". Within the community is the Gateshead Yeshiva, founded in 1929, and other Jewish educational institutions with international enrolments. These include two seminaries: Beis Medrash L'Morot and Beis Chaya Rochel seminary, colloquially known together as Gateshead "old" and "new" seminaries.

 

Many yeshivot and kollels also are active. Yeshivat Beer Hatorah, Sunderland Yeshiva, Nesivos Hatorah, Nezer Hatorah and Yeshiva Ketana make up some of the list.

 

Islam

Islam is practised by a large community of people in Gateshead and there are 2 mosques located in the Bensham area (in Ely Street and Villa Place).

 

Twinning

Gateshead is twinned with the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen in France, and the city of Komatsu in Japan.

 

Notable people

Eliezer Adler – founder of Jewish Community

Marcus Bentley – narrator of Big Brother

Catherine Booth – wife of William Booth, known as the Mother of The Salvation Army

William Booth – founder of the Salvation Army

Mary Bowes – the Unhappy Countess, author and celebrity

Ian Branfoot – footballer and manager (Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton)

Andy Carroll – footballer (Newcastle United, Liverpool and West Ham United)

Frank Clark – footballer and manager (Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest)

David Clelland – Labour politician and MP

Derek Conway – former Conservative politician and MP

Joseph Cowen – Radical politician

Steve Cram – athlete (middle-distance runner)

Emily Davies – educational reformer and feminist, founder of Girton College, Cambridge

Daniel Defoe – writer and government agent

Ruth Dodds – politician, writer and co-founder of the Little Theatre

Jonathan Edwards – athlete (triple jumper) and television presenter

Sammy Johnson – actor (Spender)

George Elliot – industrialist and MP

Paul Gascoigne – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesbrough)

Alex Glasgow – singer/songwriter

Avrohom Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Leib Gurwicz – rabbi, Dean of Gateshead Yeshiva

Jill Halfpenny – actress (Coronation Street and EastEnders)

Chelsea Halfpenny – actress (Emmerdale)

David Hodgson – footballer and manager (Middlesbrough, Liverpool and Sunderland)

Sharon Hodgson – Labour politician and MP

Norman Hunter – footballer (Leeds United and member of 1966 World Cup-winning England squad)

Don Hutchison – footballer (Liverpool, West Ham United, Everton and Sunderland)

Brian Johnson – AC/DC frontman

Tommy Johnson – footballer (Aston Villa and Celtic)

Riley Jones - actor

Howard Kendall – footballer and manager (Preston North End and Everton)

J. Thomas Looney – Shakespeare scholar

Gary Madine – footballer (Sheffield Wednesday)

Justin McDonald – actor (Distant Shores)

Lawrie McMenemy – football manager (Southampton and Northern Ireland) and pundit

Thomas Mein – professional cyclist (Canyon DHB p/b Soreen)

Robert Stirling Newall – industrialist

Bezalel Rakow – communal rabbi

John William Rayner – flying ace and war hero

James Renforth – oarsman

Mariam Rezaei – musician and artist

Sir Tom Shakespeare - baronet, sociologist and disability rights campaigner

William Shield – Master of the King's Musick

Christina Stead – Australian novelist

John Steel – drummer (The Animals)

Henry Spencer Stephenson – chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

Steve Stone – footballer (Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Portsmouth)

Chris Swailes – footballer (Ipswich Town)

Sir Joseph Swan – inventor of the incandescent light bulb

Nicholas Trainor – cricketer (Gloucestershire)

Chris Waddle – footballer (Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield Wednesday)

William Wailes – stained glass maker

Taylor Wane – adult entertainer

Robert Spence Watson – public benefactor

Sylvia Waugh – author of The Mennyms series for children

Chris Wilkie – guitarist (Dubstar)

John Wilson - orchestral conductor

Peter Wilson – footballer (Gateshead, captain of Australia)

Thomas Wilson – poet/school founder

Robert Wood – Australian politician

En 1834, le Louvre faisait l’acquisition d’une statue en bronze découverte au large de Piombino, en Toscane (fig. 1). Sa configuration générale évoquait de près celle de l’Apollon Payne Knight1, réplique miniature de l’image du dieu que Canachos de Sicyone avait élevée à Didymes, à une date que l’on savait déjà antérieure à la destruction du sanctuaire par Xerxès, et que l’on situe aujourd’hui entre 499 et 4942. Toutefois, la sculpture du Louvre portait sur son pied gauche une inscription qui la présentait comme une « dîme à Athéna » (fig. 2). Or il paraissait inconcevable que la statue d’une divinité, Apollon, fût dédiée à une autre divinité, Athéna. Pour Désiré Raoul-Rochette, qui fut le premier à l’étudier de manière approfondie, la statue représentait donc un éphèbe, et remontait à l’époque archaïque. La paléographie de la dédicace semblait certes postérieure à cette époque, mais y avait-il lieu de tirer argument chronologique d’une « inscription à-peu-près unique dans son genre, et consistant en deux mots seulement, où la lettre A est répétée six fois3 » ?

 

Fig. 1. L’Apollon dit « de Piombino »

Fig. 1. L’Apollon dit « de Piombino »

Agrandir Original (jpeg, 520k)

H. 115 cm, musée du Louvre, Br 2.

 

© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Les frères Chuzeville.

 

Fig. 2. La dédicace inscrite sur le pied gauche de la statue

Fig. 2. La dédicace inscrite sur le pied gauche de la statue

Agrandir Original (jpeg, 144k)

Telle que reproduite pour le compte de D. Raoul-Rochette dans les Monumens inédits publiés par l’Institut de correspondance archéologique I, Rome, Paris, 1829-1833, pl. LIX.

 

4 Letronne, 1834, p. 198-232, 235-236.

2Confrère et rival de Raoul-Rochette à l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Jean-Antoine Letronne était précisément de cet avis. Le style de la statue, notamment le modelé du dos et le travail des articulations, l’incitait en effet à y reconnaître une œuvre d’imitation, que la paléographie de la dédicace l’amenait à dater du iiie siècle avant J.-C. Cette même dédicace, en revanche, n’empêchait pas de considérer la statue comme un Apollon, puisque les Anciens avaient plus d’une fois dédié la statue d’un dieu à un autre dieu4.

 

5 Letronne, 1845, p. 128-176 (imprimé sous forme monographique en 1843).

3Éphèbe archaïque ou Apollon archaïsant ? La controverse en était à ce stade encore embryonnaire lorsque la statue commença à se couvrir d’altérations dont rien ne paraissait pouvoir entraver la progression. L’un des sous-conservateurs du Louvre, Jean-Joseph Dubois, s’avisa cependant que la cause du phénomène devait être cherchée dans les sédiments marins restés piégés à l’intérieur du bronze. Il fut donc décidé de faire sortir par les orbites de la statue tout ce qui ne pouvait être extrait à travers le trou pratiqué dans le talon gauche. C’est alors, en août 1842, que les ouvriers du musée découvrirent, au milieu d’un agglomérat de sable et de gravier auquel se mêlaient les résidus de l’âme de la statue, trois fragments d’une lame de plomb portant des lettres grecques (un quatrième fragment similaire avait été malencontreusement détruit). Aussitôt informé, Letronne y reconnut la signature de deux sculpteurs, dont les noms n’étaient ni entièrement conservés ni même restituables, mais qu’il tint pour les auteurs de la statue (fig. 3) : [.]ηνόδο[τος --- καὶ ---]φῶν ‛Ρόδ[ι]ος ἐπόο[υν]. La paléographie de cette nouvelle inscription interdisait de la faire remonter au-delà du ier siècle avant J.-C. : le bronze était donc bien une œuvre d’imitation, plus récente encore que la dédicace ne l’avait d’abord laissé supposer5.

 

Fig. 3a, b et c. Les fragments de la lame de plomb découverts à l’intérieur de la statue

Fig. 3a, b et c. Les fragments de la lame de plomb découverts à l’intérieur de la statue

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Tels que reproduits pour le compte de J.-A. Letronne dans les Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres XV, Paris, 1845, p. 139 et 143.

 

6 Piot, 1842a, p. 481-486.

4Telles étaient les principales conclusions de la communication que Letronne lut devant l’Académie le 30 septembre 1842. Quatre mois plus tard, alors que cette communication était encore inédite, Eugène Piot faisait paraître un article retentissant dans le premier numéro du Cabinet de l’amateur et de l’antiquaire, dont il était le directeur : il y insinuait que la lame présentée à l’Académie était un faux, inspiré par une inscription conservée au Cabinet des médailles6. La rumeur enfla, et désigna bien vite Dubois comme l’auteur de la supercherie.

 

7 Dubois 1843; Piot, 1842b, p. 529-540.

8 Voir principalement Raoul-Rochette, 1847, p. 101-309 ; Letronne, 1844, p. 439-444 ; Letronne, 1848, (...)

9 Longpérier, 1868, p. 17 ; voir infra, p. 67.

5Piot fut menacé d’un procès en diffamation, Dubois exigea un droit de réponse qui lui fut refusé ; il fit donc paraître à son propre compte une défense bien maladroite, à laquelle son adversaire répondit par de nouvelles accusations7. Quant à Raoul-Rochette et à Letronne, ils développèrent sur plusieurs centaines de pages la controverse entamée huit ans plus tôt8, mais moururent au milieu du xixe siècle sans que le débat ne fût tranché. Sur le plan social, Letronne fut incontestablement vainqueur : sa promotion à la tête de la Bibliothèque royale, qui fit de lui le supérieur hiérarchique de son rival – trop conservateur pour n’avoir rien à espérer de la Monarchie de Juillet et démis de ses fonctions aussitôt après la révolution de 1848 –, ne fut que l’une des étapes d’une très brillante carrière. Sur le plan scientifique, en revanche, l’avantage resta à Raoul-Rochette. On s’accorda en effet à regarder la statue comme un Apollon, mais on en fit une œuvre du vie ou du ve siècle avant J.-C., et ce d’autant plus facilement que la lame fut considérée comme perdue après avoir été déclarée fausse par la dernière personne à l’avoir examinée9.

 

10 Dow, 1941, p. 357-359.

11 Sismondo Ridgway, 1967, p. 43-75 ; cf. Sismondo Ridgway, 2004, p. 553 (réédition mise à jour d’une (...)

6Il fallut attendre le milieu du xxe siècle pour que la thèse de Letronne connût un premier regain de faveur, rendu possible par l’oubli dans lequel était désormais tombée la figure sulfureuse de Dubois. En 1941, Sterling Dow déclarait ainsi ne voir aucune raison de douter de l’authenticité de la lame de plomb. Néanmoins convaincu de l’archaïsme de la statue, il proposait de l’attribuer aux auteurs d’une réparation antique10. En 1967, au terme d’une analyse stylistique très poussée, qui rejoignait sur plus d’un point celle de Letronne, Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway conclut que l’Apollon de Piombino ne pouvait appartenir ni à l’époque archaïque ni au style sévère. Dans son opinion – maintes fois réaffirmée jusqu’en 2016 –, il ne pouvait s’agir que d’une œuvre du ier siècle avant J.-C., dont le style archaïsant était destiné à abuser les acheteurs du marché romain. Pour elle, les auteurs de la supercherie avaient revendiqué leur forfait en signant la lame de plomb cachée à l’intérieur de l’Apollon, mais s’étaient trahis en imitant imparfaitement l’écriture archaïque dans la dédicace apposée sur le pied de la statue11.

 

12 Bieber, 1970, p. 87 ; Richter, 1970, p. 144-145 ; Lauter, 1971, p. 600 ; Willers, 1975, p. 17 ; Fuc (...)

13 Soprintendenza speciale per i Beni archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia, inv. 22924. La notice (...)

14 Voir en dernier lieu, avec diverses nuances, Daehner, Lapatin dans Exp. Florence-Los Angeles-Washin (...)

15 Hallof, Kansteiner, 2015, p. 503-505.

16 Brendel, 1978, p. 306 ; Congdon, 1981, p. 61-62 ; Zagdoun, 1989, p. 147-148, 213 ; Kreikenbom, 1990 (...)

7La thèse de Sismondo Ridgway fut loin d’emporter une adhésion immédiate12. En 1978, on découvrit cependant une statue très semblable à l’Apollon de Piombino dans la maison de C. Iulius Polybius à Pompéi, où elle était utilisée comme trapézophore13. Cette trouvaille remarquable a paru confirmer la thèse de Sismondo Ridgway, qui prévaut largement aujourd’hui14, certains épigraphistes ayant même cru pouvoir arguer de la lame de plomb pour dater la statue du début du ier siècle après J.-C.15 Plusieurs savants continuent cependant à attribuer l’Apollon de Piombino aux vie-ve siècles16. Ni les uns ni les autres n’ont été en mesure d’établir l’origine de la statue, qui reste aujourd’hui imprécisément grecque quand elle n’est pas considérée comme étrusque.

 

8L’étude des inscriptions et l’analyse de la controverse ayant opposé Letronne à Raoul-Rochette permettent non seulement de lever cette double aporie, mais aussi d’appréhender la fonction exacte de l’Apollon de Piombino, bien différente de celle qu’on lui prête aujourd’hui.

 

La dédicace inscrite sur le pied gauche de la statue

17 Longpérier, A., 1868, p. 16.

9Le fil d’argent qui rehaussait la dédicace a en grande partie disparu, mais l’empreinte des lettres se distingue encore nettement sur deux lignes. Au-dessus de ces deux lignes, on en devine une troisième, aujourd’hui très abîmée. Adrien de Longpérier est parvenu à établir qu’elle portait le nom de Charidamos17, qui est donc l’auteur de la dédicace à Athéna : Χαρ̣ί̣δα̣µ̣ος̣ | Ἀθαναίαι̣ | δεκάταν (fig. 4-5).

 

Fig. 4. La dédicace inscrite sur le pied gauche de la statue

Fig. 4. La dédicace inscrite sur le pied gauche de la statue

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D’après A. de Longpérier, Notice des bronzes antiques exposés dans les galeries du Musée impérial du Louvre (ancien fonds et Musée Napoléon III). Première partie, Paris, 1868, p. 16.

 

Fig. 5. État de la dédicace en 2014

Fig. 5. État de la dédicace en 2014

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© RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Stéphane Maréchalle.

 

10Sur le plan de la paléographie, la forme de l’epsilon, du kappa, du nu et du sigma, comme la taille réduite des lettres rondes, permettent de placer l’inscription entre 200 et 50 avant J.-C. ; l’absence d’apices s’explique par la technique employée, qui associait gravure et incrustation. L’écriture ne peut en aucun cas être définie comme « archaïsante » ou « pseudo-archaïque », et n’autorise donc pas à faire de la statue un faux antique. Du point de vue de la morphologie, la préservation du A long montre en revanche que le dédicant de la statue s’exprimait dans un dialecte du groupe occidental, ce qui laisse certes un grand nombre de possibilités, mais permet au moins d’exclure l’Attique et l’Ionie.

 

18 Lindos 251, l. 4, fournit la dernière occurrence. Voir provisoirement Badoud 2015, p. 45.

11Si l’on considère maintenant la répartition des inscriptions mentionnant le nom de Charidamos, il s’avère que Rhodes fournit environ 30 % du corpus, bien plus qu’aucune autre cité, qu’aucune région même, du monde hellénophone. Or, dans la dédicace, Athéna est appelée Athanaia. Il s’agit là du vieux nom de la déesse, peu fréquent dans les inscriptions, si ce n’est, une nouvelle fois, à Rhodes, qui fournit à elle seule près de 70 % du corpus. À compter du iiie siècle, la forme Athanaia n’est plus usitée qu’à Lindos, d’où elle disparaît après 115 avant J.-C.18

 

19 Lindos 175 fournit la dernière occurrence ; la structure de l’inscription est presque celle de la d (...)

20 Voir infra, p. 70.

12Le dernier mot de l’inscription, dékata, est lui aussi digne d’intérêt, dans la mesure où le sanctuaire d’Athana Lindia a fourni une très riche série de dîmes offertes à la déesse, qui commence à l’époque archaïque pour s’achever, une nouvelle fois, au iie siècle avant J.-C.19 Le même mot prouve en outre que la statue n’est pas une offrande ancienne dont Charidamos se serait contenté de renouveler la dédicace, comme cela se produisait parfois20, mais qu’elle a tout au contraire été fabriquée grâce aux gains qu’il avait réalisés dans une opération quelconque. À en juger par sa seule dédicace, l’Apollon de Piombino est donc une statue archaïsante produite à Rhodes au iie siècle avant J.-C., et consacrée à Athana Lindia.

 

21 Alroth, 1989, p. 84.

13Letronne et Raoul-Rochette ont âprement débattu de l’usage de dédier ainsi (ou non) la statue d’un dieu à un autre dieu. Cet usage est aujourd’hui mieux compris, grâce notamment aux travaux de Brita Alroth, qui a forgé le concept de visiting god pour en rendre compte. L’historienne suédoise a en particulier montré que si certains dieux n’entretenaient aucune espèce de relation, d’autres se fréquentaient régulièrement. Elle se demandait à ce propos si Apollon n’était pas l’une des divinités les mieux représentées parmi les figurines de terre cuite dédiées à Athana Lindia21. L’identification des effigies, qu’elle considérait encore comme incertaine, et l’origine attribuée à l’Apollon de Piombino se renforcent désormais l’une l’autre.

 

La lame de plomb portant la signature des sculpteurs

22 Sismondo Ridgway 1967, p. 44, n. 12.

23 Dubois, 1843.

14Venons-en maintenant à la lame de plomb et à la polémique qui a entouré sa découverte. Le résumé qui en a été donné en 1967 montre à quel point celle-ci a été mal comprise : Dubois aurait été accusé d’avoir forgé le document pour jouer un tour à Letronne, mais ses fonctions et son âge au moment des faits le mettraient à l’abri de tout soupçon22. Tout au contraire, Dubois a été accusé d’avoir commis un faux pour servir les intérêts de Letronne dans ce qui est probablement la plus longue et la plus violente controverse qu’ait connue l’Académie, et son activité de faussaire ne fait absolument aucun doute, puisque lui-même l’a publiquement reconnue dans sa réponse au premier article de Piot. Dubois y assurait cependant que cette activité, limitée à quelques dessins frauduleusement vendus comme des copies de vases grecs, avait cessé depuis longtemps, et qu’il n’était pas l’auteur de la lame découverte dans l’Apollon23 ; faut-il le croire ?

 

24 Institut de France, ms 2231.

25 Supra, p. 66.

26 Supra, n. 24.

15L’étude de la correspondance de Piot24 montre que Raoul-Rochette et Charles Lenormant sont à l’origine des accusations lancées contre Dubois, à l’endroit duquel les deux conservateurs du Cabinet des médailles entretenaient, pour des raisons diverses, une animosité personnelle. Raoul-Rochette avait également été le protecteur d’Adrien de Longpérier, qui, devenu conservateur au Louvre, déclara la lame fausse et la fit retirer des vitrines du musée25. Le même Raoul-Rochette s’était cependant refusé à apporter publiquement son soutien à Piot lorsque celui-ci avait été pris à partie par Dubois et Letronne, se bornant à lui conseiller de retirer ses accusations s’il n’était pas en mesure de les étayer26.

 

27 Letronne, 1845, p. 143.

16Letronne, de son côté, avait bien vu que l’un des deux sculpteurs nommés dans l’inscription portait un nom en –phôn, et qu’il était originaire de Rhodes27. Or, compte tenu de l’état de la documentation au milieu du xixe siècle, il était rigoureusement impossible de présumer l’origine rhodienne de l’Apollon trouvé au large de Piombino : Letronne lui-même ne l’a d’ailleurs jamais envisagée. En d’autres termes, la signature inscrite sur la lame de plomb confirme l’analyse de la dédicace, laquelle établit en retour l’authenticité du document découvert par Dubois et publié par Letronne.

 

17L’examen matériel du document, longtemps considéré comme perdu, mais retrouvé à la faveur d’un récolement réalisé en 2009 – alors que je m’étais enquis de son sort –, permet d’aboutir indépendamment à la même conclusion, puisque les fragments présentent des concrétions qui recouvrent également le sillon des lettres de l’inscription (fig. 6a, b et c). La gravure de la lame est donc antérieure à l’immersion de la statue ; elle est bien antique, et ne peut plus être considérée comme l’œuvre d’un faussaire.

 

Fig. 6a, b et c. Les fragments de la lame de plomb, après restauration

Fig. 6a, b et c. Les fragments de la lame de plomb, après restauration

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Louvre, Br 2a-c.

 

© Musée du Louvre, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/ Hervé Lewandowski.

 

18Le document n’en pose pas moins trois problèmes majeurs. Le premier, que Letronne s’est employé à relativiser, est celui de sa paléographie, qui a paru nettement plus récente que celle de la dédicace ; le deuxième, qu’il a laissé entièrement ouvert, est celui de sa restitution ; le troisième, qu’il a tout simplement dissimulé, est celui de sa morphologie, la forme ἐπόουν demeurant à ce jour un hapax.

 

28 Lindos 617.

29 Voir par exemple Nilsson, 1909, p. 465, no 340.9 (193 av. J.-C.), et p. 362, no 33.10 (ca 116 av. J (...)

19D’un point de vue paléographique, les lettres, munies de grands apices, revêtent incontestablement un aspect tardif. Le nu et le pi ont des jambes égales ou presque, la barre du phi déborde en haut, le omikron et le oméga occupent toute la hauteur de la ligne ; surtout, le sigma affecte une forme carrée qui n’apparaît guère – à en juger par les publications – que dans une trentaine d’inscriptions rhodiennes, imputables, en règle générale, à l’époque impériale. La règle connaît certes au moins une exception, puisque le sigma carré est attesté à Lindos au iie siècle (?) avant J.-C.28 : cela pourra sembler trop peu pour soutenir une datation de la lame à l’époque hellénistique, mais il ne faut pas perdre de vue que la gravure de la pierre, où le ciseau percute un matériau dur, n’a guère de rapport avec celle du plomb, où la pointe incise un matériau mou, comme c’était également le cas dans la gravure des matrices en argile destinées à être imprimées, après cuisson, sur les anses des amphores commerciales rhodiennes. Les timbres amphoriques qui, par centaines de milliers, témoignent de ce procédé d’écriture sont aujourd’hui assez précisément datés pour établir que le sigma carré, encore inconnu au iiie siècle, a fait l’objet d’un usage discret, mais répété, tout au long du iie siècle29. La lame de plomb peut donc appartenir à cette époque (et plutôt à sa fin), tout comme la dédicace.

 

30 Voir désormais Badoud, Fincker, Moretti, 2016, p. 345-416 (base A).

31 Dow, 1941, p. 341-360.

32 Badoud, 2010, p. 125-143 ; Badoud, 2015, p. 304.

33 Badoud, 2015, p. 281, no 106.

34 AER I, 7.

20Venons-en maintenant à l’établissement du texte. On se souvient que le deuxième sculpteur était originaire de Rhodes ; l’adjectif ʻPόδιος étant au singulier dans l’inscription, le premier sculpteur avait une origine différente. Tout en déclarant ne pas croire à l’authenticité de la lame, Raoul-Rochette est le premier à avoir suggéré d’y reconnaître Mènodotos de Tyr, qui n’était alors attesté que sur une base de statue découverte à Athènes30, mais dont Dow a justement fait observer qu’il appartenait en réalité à une dynastie de bronziers établie à Rhodes31. Une nouvelle analyse de cette dynastie, dont le savant américain a donné une reconstitution erronée (qui amena à placer la prétendue restauration de l’Apollon vers 56 av. J.-C.), permet aujourd’hui d’affirmer que Mènodotos de Tyr a déployé son activité au tournant des iie et ier siècles avant J.-C., spécialement sur l’acropole de Lindos32. Parmi les très nombreux artistes attestés dans l’épigraphie rhodienne, il est le seul à pouvoir être identifié au premier sculpteur mentionné sur la lame de plomb. Que dire alors de son associé ? Jusqu’à présent, on ne connaissait aucun artiste rhodien dont le nom se terminât en –phôn, ce qui ne pouvait que renforcer les soupçons de faux pesant sur la lame ; mais en examinant le fonds d’estampages constitué au moment de l’occupation italienne du Dodécanèse, j’ai eu la chance de découvrir une inscription inédite, dont il m’a ensuite été possible de retrouver l’original au musée de Rhodes33. Il s’agit d’une base sur laquelle apparaît la signature d’un sculpteur nommé Xénophôn fils de Pausanias, de Rhodes, que la paléographie autorise tout à fait à identifier au –phôn de Rhodes mentionné sur la lame de plomb. Il y a plus : le monument sculpté par Xénophôn a été offert à Peithô, la déesse de la persuasion érotique, puis politique. Or, dans tout le monde grec, on ne connaît qu’une seule autre dédicace à Peithô, associée cette fois à Hermès ; non seulement cette dédicace provient de Rhodes, mais elle a été signée par Charmolas et son frère Mènodotos de Tyr34. Nous pouvons donc reconnaître en Xénophôn de Rhodes et Mènodotos de Tyr deux artistes contemporains, et rétablir leurs noms sur la lame de plomb.

 

35 Rossignol, 1850, p. 108-110, est le seul à avoir attiré l’attention sur ce problème, dont il arguai (...)

21Ne reste alors plus qu’un seul mot à examiner dans notre inscription : le verbe que Letronne lisait ἐπόο[υν], et qu’il présentait comme un « imparfait attique ». La forme n’a toutefois rien d’attique, et constitue même un barbarisme que l’on aurait eu beau jeu d’attribuer à un faussaire ignorant du grec, comme l’était Dubois, si Letronne n’en avait pas dissimulé l’incongruité derrière son autorité de philologue, et cela sans s’inquiéter du fait que la dédicace était rédigée dans un dialecte différent35. En réalité, la quatrième lettre du verbe n’est pas un omikron, mais un iota, qui se distingue nettement sur la lame, et à droite duquel apparaît encore la haste d’un êta. Il faut donc lire et restituer : [Μ]ηνόδο|[τος Τύριος καì Ξενο]|φῶν ‛Pόδ[ι|]ος ἐποί̣η̣[σαν], « Mènodotos de Tyr et Xénophôn de Rhodes ont fait (la statue). »

 

Un contexte singulier pour une pratique singulière

36 Letronne, 1845, p. 170.

37 Sismondo Ridgway 1967, p. 71 ; cf., en dernier lieu, Hemingway 2015, p. 69 ; Hurwit 2015, p. 21 ; C (...)

38 Bieber, 1970, p. 88.

22L’hypothèse d’une supercherie commise par Dubois écartée, comment expliquer qu’une lame de plomb portant la signature des auteurs de l’Apollon de Piombino ait été insérée dans la statue ? Letronne posait déjà la question : selon lui, les deux artistes, empêchés de signer la base destinée à accueillir l’ouvrage, ou craignant qu’il n’en fût un jour retiré, avaient recouru à ce procédé pour obtenir une « gloire à distance » lorsque sa destruction révélerait le plomb marqué à leurs noms36. Sismondo Ridgway et les archéologues qui considèrent avec elle l’Apollon de Piombino comme un faux antique ont imposé une explication légèrement différente : les deux sculpteurs, ne pouvant signer une œuvre qu’ils devaient faire passer pour archaïque, auraient ressenti le besoin d’affirmer leur paternité – ou leur fierté d’avoir dupé le client romain – d’une manière qui était destinée à demeurer indétectable37. Enfin, Margarete Bieber a suggéré que la lame pouvait avoir appartenu à une autre statue, et avoir été utilisée comme matériel de remplissage lors de la réparation de l’Apollon38.

 

39 Dow, 1941, p. 358.

40 Supra, p. 67-68.

23Cette dernière hypothèse, qui se contente de déplacer le problème qu’elle entend résoudre, peut être immédiatement écartée, puisque l’Apollon n’a pas subi les dommages qu’elle suppose. Parce qu’elle est éminemment contradictoire, l’idée qu’il ait fallu détruire la statue pour attirer l’attention sur ses auteurs ne peut pas davantage être retenue. Malgré sa popularité, celle qui ferait de la lame une marque de l’orgueil de faussaires antiques est tout aussi insatisfaisante, la marque en question ayant été conçue pour demeurer inaperçue. Tout en se méprenant sur le rôle joué par les deux sculpteurs, dans lesquels il voyait les auteurs d’une réparation antique, Dow se demandait s’il ne fallait pas considérer la lame comme « a reminder to the god of their work39 ». C’est à n’en pas douter le début de la bonne explication : au même titre, par exemple, qu’une partie des décors sculptés dans l’architecture religieuse, la signature, dissimulée aux yeux des humains, ne peut valoir que pour la divinité à laquelle la statue a été consacrée. Or, on l’a vu, la dédicace gravée sur le pied de l’Apollon démontre que la statue a été conçue, non pour duper le client romain, mais comme une offrande à Athéna40. Les deux inscriptions s’éclairent donc mutuellement : un léger détour permettra de réaliser à quel point.

 

41 Momigliano, 1951, p. 150-151.

42 D.Chr. 31.141.

24Dans un discours célèbre, prononcé à Rhodes sous le règne, semble-t-il, de Vespasien41, Dion Chrysostome a dénoncé une pratique qu’il jugeait impie, en s’appuyant sur des témoignages locaux pour la situer dans son évolution historique : à l’en croire, les Rhodiens avaient commencé par autoriser que l’on s’épargnât le coût de fabrication d’une statue honorifique (εἰκών) en en remployant une ancienne, si celle-ci était abîmée et désolidarisée de sa base ; cette mesure avait ensuite été étendue aux sculptures installées sur des bases anépigraphes, avant de finir par englober, à son époque, des œuvres conservant leur dédicace originelle42.

 

43 AER II, 66 (règne de Vespasien) ; Lindos 447 (règne de Nerva) ; Lindos 427 ; Lindos 556-558.

44 TRI 27, l. 30-44.

45 Lindos 2 (nouvelle édition du décret dans TRI 24). Sur la signification de l’inscription, voir Bres (...)

46 D.Chr. 31.89.

25Quelques bases d’époque impériale (dont la plus ancienne remonte précisément au règne de Vespasien) présentent une regravure de la dédicace qui illustre la dernière phase du processus évoqué par l’orateur43. Plus en amont, un décret nous apprend que, confrontés à des difficultés financières, les Lindiens résolurent de mettre aux enchères le droit d’apposer une nouvelle dédicace sur les bases de statues honorifiques (ἀνδριάντες) dont l’inscription avait disparu ou était devenue inintelligible44 : cela se passait en 22 après J.-C., époque qui marquait donc, à Lindos tout au moins, le début de la deuxième phase évoquée par Dion Chrysostome à propos de la ville de Rhodes. Continuons notre remontée : en 99 avant J.-C., la « Chronique de Lindos » se proposait de cataloguer les principales offrandes (ἀναθέματα) dont le temps, voire un accident, avait causé la ruine, ou rendu les dédicaces illisibles45. La décision de rédiger le catalogue des offrandes n’est pas mise en relation avec un quelconque remploi de leurs bases, qui ne semble avoir débuté qu’un siècle plus tard (car les statues honorifiques, consacrées aux dieux, étaient bien une catégorie d’offrandes, comme Dion Chrysostome le souligne pour mettre en relief le sacrilège commis par les Rhodiens46). Nous pourrions donc nous situer là dans la première phase décrite par l’orateur, celle où une statue-portrait désolidarisée de sa base pouvait être utilisée pour le compte d’un nouvel honorandus (et une effigie divine reconsacrée par un nouveau dédicant ?), ou un peu avant. Quoi qu’il en soit, l’existence d’offrandes inintelligibles était un sujet de préoccupation à l’endroit précis et au moment même où l’Apollon dit « de Piombino » venait d’être offert à Athéna. N’est-ce donc pas pour se prémunir contre l’usure du temps que Mènodotos et Xénophôn déposèrent leur signature dans la statue, et que Charidamos y fit graver sa dédicace ? Pour la divinité, les sculpteurs resteraient ainsi à jamais liés à leur ouvrage, et le commanditaire à son offrande.

 

De Lindos à Piombino

47 Badoud, 2011, p. 118.

48 D.C. 47.33.

49 TRI 25, l. 40-44.

50 Strab. 5.2.6.

26Déprédation ponctuelle, pillage ou achat : autant de manières d’expliquer que l’Apollon de Lindos ait été arraché à son sanctuaire. Au milieu du ier siècle avant J.-C., le consul P. Lentulus revenait ainsi de Rhodes, et sans doute plus précisément Lindos, avec une tête signée par Charès, qu’il fit exposer sur le Capitole47 ; devenus maîtres de Rhodes en 42, les partisans de Brutus allèrent jusqu’à piller les sanctuaires de la cité48 ; en 22 après J.-C., le décret de Lindos déjà mentionné interdisait d’enlever toute statue au sanctuaire d’Athéna, sauf dérogation49... Le fait est que l’Apollon fut chargé dans un navire qui fit naufrage au large de Populonia, ville presque abandonnée depuis les guerres civiles50 et qui n’était donc pas, selon toute vraisemblance, sa destination finale. Aux yeux de ses nouveaux propriétaires, la statue devait acquérir une valeur nouvelle, purement ornementale, dont témoigne le lampadophore découvert dans la maison de C. Iulius Polybius à Pompéi ; avant d’être ainsi réunis en Italie, les deux Apollons avaient revêtu des fonctions différentes dans deux sociétés qui ne l’étaient pas moins.

 

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This pic really represents how I've been feeling lately. I though I was alone in the middle of the dark, but I've discovered you can always do something to change it. It's like s bit of light in the middle of the darkness. I like the result, that's what I expected to get.Don't forget visiting my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BAriasPhotography

2021 represents a significant milestone in the history of the Phoenix Railway-Photographic Circle with the celebration of our 50th anniversary by publishing a book to showcase some of the members work, past and present, from 1971 to the present day.

 

The book contains 14 chapters and 144 pages of photographs depicting the work of over 50 accomplished railway photographers with many differing styles and approaches. It takes an alternative view on photographing the railway scene over the past 50 years.

 

The book, called 50 Years of Phoenix will be published on 14th May 2021 with pre-orders now being taken – click on this link to order your copy: www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/product/view/productCode/15554

 

Why not take a look at the PRPC web site at www.phoenix-rpc.co.uk/index.html.

Wooden stairs that lead from the main walkway through Aberdeen Harbour and Footdee down to the beautiful sands of Fittie Beach, I use them every time I visit to access and leave the beach , today the light caressed them and gave me the opportunity to capture them with my Nikon.

 

Footdee is an area of Aberdeen, Scotland known locally as "Fittie". It is an old fishing village at the east end of the harbour. The name is actually folk etymology. Far from being "Foot of the Dee/Fit o the Dee", it is actually a corruption of a former dedication to a "St Fothan".

 

The area has had a settlement as far back as the Medieval times and the first recorded reference to the area of Fittie was in the year 1398. This village was slightly further North than where Footdee is now located. It would have been near to where the St Clement's Church is located.

 

Footdee is a particularly interesting example of a planned housing development purpose-built to re-house Aberdeen's local fishing community. Laid out in 1809 by John Smith, then Superintendent Of The Town's Public Works. Smith went on to establish himself as one of Aberdeen's key architects. Occupying an isolated spit of land to the SE of Aberdeen's city centre, its regimented squares have been described as a cross between the neo-classical aspirations of Aberdeen and the close-knit fishing communities of the north-east.

 

The two squares of 'Fish Town' (known as Footdee), originally contained 28 single-storey thatched houses although this increased when the later Middle Row (circa 1837) and Pilot Square (circa 1855) were added. The entrances on each of the North and South squares were filled in the 1870s by William Smith (son of John and architect of Balmoral Castle). He also added additional storeys to the East and West sides of South Square creating a tenement feel. This was an attempt to ease crowding resulting from an influx of fishing families from other less prosperous areas and to help try to enforce the 'one-house-one-family' rule.

 

The Town Council decided to start selling the dwellings to occupiers in 1880, beginning a period of incremental development and reconstruction. Additional storeys and dormers were added piecemeal by the new owners as funds allowed. The result is one of individuality expressed within the constraints of a strictly formal plan and is a contributing factor to the special architectural and historical interest of Footdee as a whole.

 

Throughout the 19th century, 'tarry sheds' were added to the communal land within the squares opposite each dwelling and now every dwelling has its own shed. Originally constructed from drift wood and other found materials, the sheds have been built and rebuilt in an idiosyncratic manner over the years in a variety of materials with rendered brick now predominating slightly (2006). Some timber built sheds remain, predominantly on the North side of North Square.

 

North Square Mission Hall occupies the central area of the North Square, reflecting its significance as an integral part of village life. The building is plain, with simple detailing throughout, and as such, responds sympathetically to its setting and context. Known locally as 'the schoolie' the hall was built for general as well as religious purposes and continues to operate as a multi-purpose meeting space.

 

The entire Footdee village was added to the statutory list in 1967 as a single entity. The village was subsequently given Conservation Area status in 1968. At resurvey in 2006, each building within the Conservation Area was re-assessed separately. Key examples, demonstrating both individual architectural interest and representing the history and development of the village as a whole, were selected for listing.

 

On an 1828 map, the new housing squares were specifically labelled 'Fish Town'. 'Footdee' referred to the larger area from St. Clement's Church to 'Fish Town'. Later, the name 'Footdee' was erroneously used to refer specifically to the housing squares, with 'Fish Town' becoming forgotten.

 

On Tuesday 25 September 2012, Footdee became covered in foam from the sea after experiencing strong wind and rain conditions. The effect was like a blanket of snow and this made the UK national news.

sim build for represent (2017)