Tribute to Palateth and Jelle Ess ;)

Acrylics, Feltpen & Spraypaint on Canvas, 2019.

Singular Solutions AD64x professional high-end A/D converter which can be used together with a NeXT computer. It is managed via the DSP-interface of the NeXT. Capable of 48kHz recording and has S/P DIF. A machine like this was used for years at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague, The Netherlands for their performance recordings.

 

According to the Fall Software and Peripherals Guide (another item in this collection) it features 64 times oversampling delta-sigma conversion (low linearity error), independent digital AES/EBU input and output and microphone preamp with phantom power. What I know is that I have used this a few times and it gives excellent results.

Twelve Interlocking Bitruncated Triangularly Distorted Dipoles 96 units

3-fold view.

This version is an enormous improvement on the original prototype. All three edges here around each three unit vertex have different paper lengths, which is unique, in that it gives the model an “irregular look” even though the angles are all still regular. Visually, I don’t think I could have possibly hoped for a better outcome than what I ended up with, but I also have since discovered some things about dipoles worth mentioning.

First, the structure of a 3-point intersection is fundamentally less stable than that of a triangle, because all of the structural stress is placed on singular intersections. Therefore, having underestimated the significance of this fact, I ended up finding out the hard way that the three unit intersection locks in this design are not sufficient for higher order expansions.

Between my classes, I have been working on a 30-compound of these structures, which has led to a secondary discovery that was also rather unsurprising- dipoles, in themselves, are inefficient structures, squandering a tremendous amount of edge length on long tapered points. Although the visual attraction of such points shouldn’t be neglected in the design process, as the proportions are adjusted towards equalization of edge lengths, it becomes obvious that efficiency dictates that these structures become closer to triangular prisms with the top and bottom triangles replaced with 3-point intersections.

As a side note, aesthetically I think a good rule of thumb in the design process of Wireframes is to organize the different paper proportions whenever possible to be as close to each other in length as possible- very long paper proportions combined with very short proportions often end up looking “cobbled together” which negatively affects the visual homogeneity of the completed project.

Designed by me.

Folded out of copy paper.

 

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

Acrylics, Feltpen & Spraypaint on Canvas, 2019.

Frame:*SINGULAR CYCLES* peregrine

Rims:*VELOCITY* standalone 001 rim

Hub:*PAUL* thru-axle disk F hub & *PAUL* thru-axle disk word hub

Tires:*TERAVAIL* cannonball tire

Handle:*HUNTER* low rise bar

Stem:*NITTO* UI-12 ahead stem

Brake:*PAUL* klamper flat mount disc calliper

Seatpost:*NITTO* S65 seatpost

Saddle:*SELLE ANATOMICA* X2 leather saddle

Crank:*BLUE LUG* XMC triple crank set × *WOLF TOOTH COMPONENTS* drop stop chainring

Cog:*WHITE INDUSTRIES* eno single freewheel

Pedals:*SIM WORKS* taco pedal

Headset:*CANE CREEK* 110 headset

Grip:*BROOKS* cambium rubber grip

May 08' A better shot of this "shroom" went on to Explore!

Sprotbrough Flash nature reserve

My wife and I went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens this weekend. It was almost two years to the day that I proposed to her there so it was a fun time being nostalgic and enjoying the gardens.

  

Sony a7ii

Leica 50 Cron

f/2

1/640s

ISO 80

Frame:*SINGULAR* peregrine

Front wheel:*SON NABENDYNAMO* SON 28 disc × *VELO ORANGE* voyager rim

Rear wheel:*VELO ORANGE* disc hub × *VELO ORANGE* voyager rim

Tire:*PANARACER* gravel king SK

Handle:*NITTO* b355 kite bar

Stem:*NITTO* UI-75 stem

Grip:*RIVENDELL* Miesha's Portuguese Tree Cork Grips

Saddle:*GILLES BER* aspin leather saddle

Crank:*BLUE LUG* RMC track crank

Brake lever:*VELO ORANGE* cru brake lever

Brake:*TRP* spyre

Headset:*PHILWOOD*

Shifter:*RIVENDELL* S-2 bar end

Rack:*NITTO* M-1B BL special front rack × *WALD* front 137 basket small

Head light:*SON* Edelux II

 

rolleiflex 2.8E2 ... fuji pro160s

More San Francisco Madness

 

BYOBW 2013, Easter Sunday, as seen in Potrero Hill, San Francisco.

Rohloff Speedhub & White Ind. Mi6 Naben,

Acros Steuersatz,

Thomson Stütze und Vorbau,

Stahlrahmen gemufft

prandtl-glauert singularity: pressure change in humid air around an F/A-18F Super Hornet in transonic flight at the edge of supersonic. I'm not that smart... I looked it up on the "Google" ! Taken at our local and very well attended airshow- The Great Georgia Airshow 2009.

These are the Primal Deities that make up the Monsgnarl Pantheon, a group of evil deities that has maintained a firm domination of the Omega Octant planet Proolycoles, and its humanoids, the Huplegrars, for all of recorded history, back to before the Relative Calendar was invented. These deities are particularly malicious, ruthless and corruptive, as well as ancient, and there are five main ones, one representing each class of Primal Deity. These five were all present at the Pantheon's formation, and are the only deities who have consistently been part of it ever since. Other Primal Deities have joined the Monsgnarl Pantheon at various points in time, but all of them end up either leaving or being vanquished after some time. Currently, the Pantheon consists of only the main five, and has been this way for over a century. All attempts to retake planet Proolycoles from them, even those involving angels, have failed. The planet and its inhabitants, which are now severely and irreversibly corrupted, are now considered beyond help, and the "Monsgnarls" (as the deities are sometimes called) remain an active and significant threat to the rest of the Prime Galaxy, though they do not currently control any other planets in the same way they do Proolycoles.

 

• Dif'Elarah: The Elemental–Class deity among the group. Dif'Elarah is an electricity and lightning–based extra–corporeal being that identifies itself as female, though "she" exhibits few to no stereotypically feminine traits and is not associated with sexuality (which most "female" Primal Deities are), actually being the least perverted of the Monsgnarls. Her form stands nearly twenty feet tall, and is partially extra–corporeal and partially sub–corporeal. The sub–corporeal portions of her body are those that appear to be made of blue electric energy, and which are semi–amorphous; the ends of her "arms" can take the forms of either "hands" with multiple "fingers" or singular daggers of energy. Sparking bolts of lightning constantly spout and fume from the top and sides of her head, and her whole body rests upon a floating vortex of red–hot electricity. Physical contact with any part of her body is hazardous to one's health and is not advised. Dif'Elarah has the ability to dissipate into thin air and reappear within seconds at any point of her choosing within several miles. She can also transfer her essence into clouds, of which there are lots floating around the skies of Proolycoles at all times, which she then takes control over and induces the phenomenon of lightning in. She frequently commandeers clouds either to strike people down (something that only divine beings have the right to do), or to clear out patches of land for use as agricultural fields or sites for buildings, in a practice reminiscent of the ancient agricultural technique of "slash–and–burn". Dif'Elarah is considered the "guardian" of the planet Proolycoles from intruders who wish to overthrow the Monsgnarls, and whom she strikes down from the clouds (although she has also been known to do this to Huplegrars who are either "nonbelievers" or are otherwise considered liabilities, and possibly to random Huplegrars simply for fun), and also the goddess of agriculture, even though she is still a destructive force rather than a creative one even when she helps clear out fields. The durability value of Dif'Elarah's body is 15,000.

 

• Mias'Cento: The Mage–Class deity among the group. Mias'Cento is "male", and has a very humanoid form almost resembling that of the Aspimean, and a headpiece that represents the "head" of this facsimile of a mortal body. He has four independently–floating arms, although the lower pair could alternatively and easily be seen as representing legs. Instead of his entire headpiece being organic and vulnerable, the only truly living part of Mias'Cento's body is the exposed "brain" within his head. He speaks in a mischievous–sounding and moderately high–pitched voice, which emits through the grinning "teeth" on his upper–upper body, despite him having another, separate set of "teeth" immediately above these. Of course, neither are actually used for eating, which a Primal Deity is "above" the need to do. The purple glow surrounding the floating parts that make up his body is particularly bright and strong.

Mias'Cento's voice is indicative of his type of personality, but does not convey the extreme nature of this personality: he is a malicious trickster and prankster who often goes around casting harmful spells upon unsuspecting Huplegrars, most of which alter the bodies of their victims in some way, usually permanently. The effects of such spells range from non–beneficial mutations and severe scarring to (sometimes deadly) sickness and even transformation into inanimate objects (in which case the victim's consciousness remains alive within the object they have been turned into, only being released when the object is destroyed to a sufficient extent). Despite the horrific nature of some of these spells, to be changed by Mias'Cento is considered an "honor" by the Huplegrars. He even has a spell that can turn Huplegrars into other humanoid races, though the effects of this particular spell are temporary, and even then it is one of the hardest spells for the deity to cast, as it is so drastic and complex. Note that the greater the preexisting influence of Primal Deities on an individual, the more vulnerable they are to Mias'Cento's magic; since the Huplegrars are so utterly dominated by the Monsgnarls, he can do practically whatever he wants to them, but it is much harder for him to affect non–Huplegrars, and those who are closest to God are virtually immune.

To compensate for his openly antagonistic nature towards his own subjects, Mias'Cento is very open to granting "wishes" in exchange for favors and offerings that are less substantial than what most other wish–granting deities would demand for the same services.

Mias'Cento has been quoted several times as saying that he knows a dark secret relating to humanoids in general, and he laughs out loud whenever he mentions this. However, he has never revealed to anyone else, including his fellow deities, exactly what this alleged secret is.

Mias'Cento's (or rather, his brain's) durability value is 15,000 (making it one tough freaking brain!). This durability value is the same as Dif'Elarah's, and the two are fairly evenly–matched in other areas as well.

 

• Set'Ibutal: The Guardian–Class deity among the group. Set'Ibutal is extremely masculine and is one of the most distinctly humanoid Primal Deities ever, having a full, grounded body with both arms and legs. His form stands more than twenty feet tall, and is hunchbacked. Unlike most Guardian–Class deities, Set'Ibutal does more than just going around looking for challengers who seek to claim his artifact, the Gnarly Sword of Bursting, a large two–handed blade that, in addition to being supernaturally sharp and durable, sometimes creates small, controlled explosions upon impact with a foe's body. He is the leader of Proolycoles' warrior caste, which is equivalent to a military, and personally puts all Huplegrar warriors, who are assigned to that caste at birth based on being the most physically fit and promising among the population's infants by Junt'Vubis, through a rigorous, harsh and sometimes deadly training regime starting at the tender age of just four years. Set'Ibutal teaches them to be pitiless, vicious and brutally pragmatic in battle, and makes them push their bodies beyond their natural limits in order to build them up to great strength. Were he an angel and had more compassion, he would probably be the universe's greatest personal trainer. However, as it is he is evil and cruel like the other Monsgnarls, and frequently ends up getting his subjects killed, which he feels no remorse for, believing that they deserved to die for being weak and failing to live up to their destiny as warriors, and teaching his other subjects to think in the same way. At the age of fourteen, every young Huplegrar warrior who has survived all of Set'Ibutal's torturous training over ten whole years must face one more, final test from him to earn freedom and the respect and honor of being a full–fledged warrior: facing the deity in combat. During these fights, which are fought unarmed by both participants, Set'Ibutal deliberately uses only a fraction of his true power, and ends the fight when his opponent and subject has either fared well enough against him and landed enough blows to prove their worthiness, or is dead. Less than half of all Huplegrars who are assigned to the warrior caste survive all of Set'Ibutal's training; the majority of those who don't die during the final test of fighting him.

Set'Ibutal also personally leads all fully–qualified warriors who have survived his training during times of actual war, which are rare on Proolycoles, but which he actually, personally fights in when they do happen.

When he is not busy training warrior youth or fighting off planetary intruders, Set'Ibutal seeks those who believe themselves powerful and worthy enough to challenge him in full–out combat to the death, in which the deity does not hold back, over the Gnarly Sword of Bursting. He has "died" seven times, being defeated in one–on–one combat by freakishly powerful Huplegrar warriors who then claimed his artifact six of those times, and being slain by angels, who were later overpowered and killed by the other Monsgnarls and their forces, the other time. Like other Guardian–Class deities, Set'Ibutal is reborn when the individual who has defeated him and inherited his weapon dies and their soul becomes part of his consciousness. When he was killed by angels, said angels actually destroyed the Gnarly Sword of Bursting, hoping that doing so would vanquish the deity completely. However, he and his sword resurrected three years, two cycles and sixteen days later. This was subsequently discovered to be the "respawn time" for all Guardian–Class deities whose artifacts and bodies are both destroyed.

Set'Ibutal's durability value is 20,000.

 

• Junt'Vubis: The Serpentine–Class deity among the group, the leader of the Monsgnarl Pantheon, and also, appropriately, the most powerful Monsgnarl. Junt'Vubis is very large and heavy, and has a corporeal, organic form rather than one made of enchanted, possessed stone. He was always a Serpentine–Class deity, and never an Idol. He resides at all times in his throne room at the top of a 200–foot–tall golden–plated ziggurat that was built for him over a millennium ago at the center of the Huplegrars' capital city of Yeppus, which was also constructed under the Serpentine's supervision. Physically, Junt'Vubis is noted for the peculiar position in which he sits upon his belly, and for his very long, blue–haired neck. He has four arms, the lower pair of which has hands on both ends, and six symbolic dead insect wings on his back. His main power is telekinesis; in this very picture he is shown levitating several stones with the power of one arm, but that does not even begin to adequately illustrate the extent of his powers. If he wanted, Junt'Vubis could lift the entire golden structure atop which he sits into the air, tearing it out of the ground in which it is deeply and securely rooted. He can also telekinetically move living things and their body parts, both external and internal, and can indeed cause the internal organs of any normal humanoid within several miles of him to explode on a whim. Junt'Vubis can speak both externally and telepathically, and he has complete knowledge of every single word in both the English and Proolignarlish languages.

He is effectively the emperor of planet Proolycoles. All newborn Huplegrars are brought to him to be judged and placed into one of six castes: slave, peasant, citizen, aristocrat, prince or warrior. The first five of these castes are linear ranks, in order from lowest to highest, while the "warrior" caste is special. Any child that Junt'Vubis deems unfit for even the "slave" caste is devoured by him on the spot, being swallowed whole and dissolved instantaneously by his stomach acids, which are exponentially stronger than those of any mortal being. It has been suggested by multiple sources that he sometimes eats babies not because he actually considers them unfit to live, but because he likes to do so and/or because they are particularly satiating to his supernatural hunger. Aside from infants, Junt'Vubis also eats many other "foods", including both actual foods and inedible objects. Five meals are delivered to him daily by his personal slaves.

Junt'Vubis possesses a durability value of about 40,000. It would be accurate to call him the single most infamous Primal Deity in the Nava–Verse.

 

• Ness'Qilob: The Idol–Class deity among the group. Ness'Qilob is considered the weakest of the main five, and is certainly the dumbest. It is also the only completely genderless Monsgnarl, and the only one with Tikis: Frustration, Hunger and Violation. Its body is decorated mainly in greenish and purplish colors, and it has four tentacles coming out of its sides which serve as "arms", can extend and stretch to several times their natural length, and have millions of microscopic feelers on them. Its offensive abilities include laser beams of strength on par with the most advanced current humanoid–made energy weapons.

Ness'Qilob's "house" is a silver–plated altar in the center of a forest just to the West of Yeppus. A pathway has been cleared out through this forest leading up to said altar, where the Idol loiters around most of the day, often wandering off into other parts of the forest to eat the animals and chew on the trees. Huplegrars occasionally give or leave it offerings, which are absorbed into the deity's essence via route of consumption through its large, gapingly open mouth. Sometimes, random objects, usually food, come back up out of the mouth for people to take after multiple offerings are placed into the mouth at once. However, these objects are always of lesser value than the things that Ness'Qilob was just given.

Ness'Qilob is, as mentioned above, not very smart. It lacks the devious cunning and comprehensive, obscure knowledge that most Primal Deities possess, instead being a simple creature with simple, carnal desires that is content to act as a mere servant to Junt'Vubis, who uses it as a pet and enforcer. Its altar was deliberately built so that it would be just within the range of Junt'Vubis' telepathy, allowing him to summon Ness'Qilob at his leisure. The leader of the Monsgnarls frequently calls to it and orders it to bring him seemingly random things that he wants but which are located far away and would be difficult for his Huplegrar servants to fetch (not that they wouldn't be willing to try). Ness'Qilob is particularly ideal for fetching unusual things because of its photographic knowledge and memory of Proolycoles' entire layout, including where various things can generally be found, despite otherwise being lacking in the mental area. In exchange for doing him these periodic favors, Junt'Vubis gives Ness'Qilob free access to all female Huplegrars among the slave caste, and allows it to molest them with its tentacles, which they usually enjoy due to their own innate perversion which is a result of the Monsgnarls' general corruption. Surprisingly, Ness'Qilob only takes advantage of this privilege occasionally, rather than all the time.

Ness'Qilob has a durability value of 18,000.

San Lorenzo del Escorial

çPalacio del Escorial. Los tejados y galería patio interior.

  

De Wikipedia:

   

Monasterio de El Escorial

 

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial es un complejo que incluye un palacio real, una basílica, un panteón, una biblioteca y un monasterio. Se encuentra en la localidad de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, en la Comunidad de Madrid, España, y fue construido entre 1563 y 1584.

  

El palacio fue residencia de la Familia Real Española, la basílica es lugar de sepultura de los reyes de España y el monasterio -fundado por monjes jerónimos- está ocupado actualmente por frailes de la Orden de San Agustín. Es una de las más singulares arquitecturas renacentistas de España y de Europa. Situado en San Lorenzo de El Escorial, ocupa una superficie de 33.327 m², sobre la ladera meridional del monte Abantos, a 1028 m. de altitud, en la Sierra de Guadarrama. Está gestionado por Patrimonio Nacional.

Conocido también como Monasterio de San Lorenzo El Real, o, sencillamente, El Escorial, fue ideado en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI por el rey Felipe II y su arquitecto Juan Bautista de Toledo, aunque posteriormente intervinieron Juan de Herrera, Juan de Minjares, Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y Francisco de Mora. El rey concibió un gran complejo multifuncional, monacal y palaciego que, plasmado por Juan Bautista de Toledo según el paradigma de la Traza Universal, dio origen al estilo herreriano.

  

Fue considerado, desde finales del siglo XVI, la Octava Maravilla del Mundo, tanto por su tamaño y complejidad funcional como por su enorme valor simbólico. Su arquitectura marcó el paso del plateresco renacentista al clasicismo desornamentado. Obra ingente, de gran monumentalidad, es también un receptáculo de las demás artes.

  

Sus pinturas, esculturas, cantorales, pergaminos, ornamentos litúrgicos y demás objetos suntuarios, sacros y áulicos hacen que El Escorial sea también un museo. Su compleja iconografía e iconología ha merecido las más variadas interpretaciones de historiadores, admiradores y críticos. El Escorial es la cristalización de las ideas y de la voluntad de su creador, el rey Felipe II, un príncipe renacentista.

  

Juan de Herrera según una medalla de Jacome da Trezzo, 1578.

1557. Victoria sobre los franceses en la batalla de San Quintín.

1558. El emperador Carlos V muere en Yuste, cambiando en su testamento su deseo de ser enterrado en Granada por la petición a su hijo de crear un edificio ex novo para su tumba, en un lugar diferente a sus padres y abuelos. Felipe II designó una comisión multidisciplinar (médicos, arquitectos, canteros, etc.) para buscar el emplazamiento más idóneo en la Sierra de Guadarrama, el centro geográfico de la Península Ibérica.

1559. El 15 de julio el rey nombró arquitecto real a Juan Bautista de Toledo desde Gante y le encomendó la dirección de todas las obras de la Corona.

1560. La comisión busca alternativas para el emplazamiento del monasterio, barajando entre otras localizaciones Guisando, Aranjuez, Manzanares y la Alberquilla y la Fresneda, en las cercanías de El Escorial. En noviembre se elige el emplazamiento actual, a apenas 50 kilómetros de Madrid, en las inmediaciones de la Fuente de Blasco Sancho, próxima a El Escorial —entonces una pequeña aldea de la Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Segovia— para construir el edificio. El paraje disponía de abundante caza y leña, aire y aguas de buena calidad y canteras de granito y pizarra en las proximidades.

1561. Este año fue clave para la historia de El Escorial:

El monarca trasladó la capital de España desde Toledo a Madrid.

Encomendó el Monasterio de El Escorial a los monjes jerónimos. Tradicionalmente, la monarquía hispánica había estado muy vinculada a esta Orden religiosa.

Juan Bautista de Toledo empieza el diseño general del Monasterio: la conocida como la «Traza Universal».

1562. Felipe II comenzó a adquirir los terrenos colindantes para hacer del entorno del Monasterio un híbrido de territorio de realengo y abadengo, donde se pudieran compatibilizar los usos recreativos, agropecuarios y cinegéticos.

1563. En febrero se sumaron al proyecto, en calidad de adjuntos, Juan de Herrera y Juan de Valencia. El 23 de abril, festividad de San Jorge, se colocó la primera piedra del Monasterio, en los cimientos del refectorio del convento, bajo la silla del Prior, en la fachada meridional.

1567. Felipe II firmó el 22 de abril la Carta de Fundación y Dotación del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Pocos días después, el 19 de mayo, tras la finalización de la fachada del Jardín de los Frailes, gran parte de las dependencias del Monasterio y el Patio de los Evangelistas, moría Juan Bautista de Toledo.

Entre 1567 y 1569, la dirección del proyecto palaciego y monacal quedaba en manos de Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco, autor de la escalera principal.

1572. Juan de Herrera, con un protagonismo cada vez más creciente, asumió la reorganización del proyecto.

1575. El maestro cantero cántabro Juan de Nates colaboró junto a Diego de Sisniega y Francisco del Río en las obras.

1576. Herrera fue designado aposentador real, trazador principal, matemático e ingeniero de las obras de la Corona, incluidas las del Monasterio. A partir de la Traza Universal diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo, planteó soluciones que, como explicó en 1966 el arquitecto Fernando Chueca Goitia, tendían hacia la simplificación y geometrización del edificio. Las principales variaciones sobre la solución original fueron la construcción de una planta más en la fachada principal, que regularizaba la primera solución escalonada, la reducción del número de torres de sus fachadas y el cierre del Patio de Reyes con la "doble fachada" de la iglesia, donde se situó la Biblioteca Real.

1584. Se colocan en la portada de la Basílica las estatuas de David y Salomón. El 13 de septiembre se dieron por finalizadas oficialmente las obras, bajo la dirección de Francisco de Mora, a pesar de no estar concluida la Real Basílica. Ésta se culminó en 1586 después de once años de construcción.

1814. Superados los avatares de la Guerra de la Independencia, que supuso para el Monasterio el saqueo y la exclaustración, regresan los monjes de la Orden Jerónima. Con el restablecimiento de la Constitución de 1812 y el arranque del Trienio Liberal, vuelven a abandonar el Monasterio la mayoría de los monjes entre 1820 y 1824. El 1 de diciembre de 1837 parten los 150 monjes jerónimos tras entrar en vigor las leyes desamortizadoras de los bienes eclesiásticos. Posteriormente, tras un fallido intento de restauración, se crea un patronato de capellanes seculares.

1885. Luego de dos intervalos en que lo ocuparon los Padres Escolapios (desde 1869 el Colegio, y entre 1872 y 1875 la custodia completa del Monasterio) y otra vez los capellanes seculares, el rey Alfonso XII hace entrega del Monasterio a la Orden de San Agustín. Los Agustinos viven en el Monasterio hasta la actualidad.

  

Las causas fundacionales

 

"...nadie ve El Escorial sin llenarse de gloria, de orgullo nacional (...), él recuerda el poder, la riqueza, la civilización, los vastos conocimientos e influjo de esta gran nación en el siglo XVI (..), él excita la admiración y aun la envidia de las Naciones extranjeras."

(José Quevedo).

 

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial fue promovido por Felipe II, entre otras razones, para conmemorar su victoria en la batalla de San Quintín, el 10 de agosto de 1557, festividad de San Lorenzo. Esta batalla marcó el inicio del proceso de planificación que culminó con la colocación de la primera piedra el 23 de abril de 1563, bajo la dirección de Juan Bautista de Toledo. Le sucedió tras su muerte, en 1567, el italiano Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y, posteriormente, su discípulo Juan de Herrera. La última piedra se puso 21 años después, el 13 de septiembre de 1584.

 

El edificio surge por la necesidad de crear un monasterio que asegurase el culto en torno a un panteón familiar de nueva creación, para así poder dar cumplimiento al último testamento de Carlos V de 1558. El Emperador quiso enterrarse con su esposa Isabel de Portugal y con su nueva dinastía alejado de los habituales lugares de entierro de los Trastamara.

 

La Carta de Fundación, firmada por Felipe II el 22 de abril de 1567, cuatro años después del comienzo de las obras, señalaba que el Monasterio estaba dedicado a san Lorenzo, pero sin señalar directamente la batalla de San Quintín, probablemente para evitar citar una guerra como motivo de fundación de un edificio religioso: se «fundó a devoción y en nombre del bienaventurado Sact Lorenzo por la particular devoción» al santo del rey y «en memoria de la merced y victorial que en el día de su festividad de Dios comenzamos a recibir». Las «consideraciones» que cita el rey fueron el agradecimiento a Dios por los beneficios obtenidos, por mantener sus Reinos dentro de la fe cristiana en paz y justicia, para dar culto a Dios, para enterrarse en «una cripta» el propio rey, sus mujeres, hermanos, padres, tías y sucesores, y donde se dieran continuas oraciones por sus almas:

Reconocimiento de los «muchos y grandes beneficios que de Dios nuestro Señor habemos rescibido» y «cuánto Él ha servido de encaminar y guiar los nuestros hechos, e los nuestros negocios a su santo servicio».

 

Por «sostener y mantener estos nuestros Reinos es su sancta Fee y Religión, y en paz y en justicia».

Porque a Dios le agrada que le edifiquen y funden iglesias «donde su sancto nombre se bendice y alaba» y donde los religiosos den ejemplo de fe.

Para que «se ruega e interceda Dios Nuestro Señor por Nos e por los reyes nuestros antecesores e subcesores, e por el bien de nuestras ánimas», según la orden dada por el Emperador «en el cobdecilo que últimamente hizo nos cometió y remitió lo que tocaba a su sepultura y al lugar y parte donde su cuerpo y el de la Emperatriz y Reina, mi señora y madre, había de ser puestos y colocados».

Y para que «por sus ánimas se hagan y digan continuas oraciones, sacrificios, conmemoraciones e memorias.

 

Tampoco se pueden desdeñar otras razones para fundar el Monasterio, como la celebración de la primera victoria de Felipe II como rey, la afrenta que la mención a la Batalla de San Quintín -que se libró a apenas quince kilómetros de París- suponía hacia Francia, la veneración al mártir español san Lorenzo, en unos tiempos en los que la Reforma atacaba el culto a los santos y a las reliquias, o la necesidad de crear un centro unificador de la nueva fe que surgía del Concilio de Trento.

 

Orígenes de su planta

 

En julio de 1559 Juan Bautista de Toledo fue llamado a España por Felipe II para realizar toda una serie de obras de gran importancia para la realeza española. Una realeza que tendrá a partir de ahora una nueva concepción del estado moderno y para la que será necesaria la creación de un nuevo edificio que la representara. Juan Bautista será considerado el primer arquitecto del Monasterio de El Escorial y sus trazas sentarán las bases de lo que posteriormente será el lenguaje herreriano.

 

Las medidas del rectángulo de la planta, según señalaba el padre Sigüenza en 1605, son de 735x580 pies castellanos, es decir, 205x162 metros. La altura total del punto más elevado de la cruz tomada con respecto al pavimento de la iglesia es de 95 metros.

 

Las primeras trazas

 

En primera instancia se observa que las primeras trazas que se conservan de Juan Bautista de Toledo proponían un edificio con una imagen muy diferente al que se construyó definitivamente: torres en la mitad de la fachadas laterales (las huellas de la Torre de la Biblioteca aún son visibles en la fachada que da al Jardín, ya que se construyó en vida de Juan Bautista) y dos torres más en la portada principal, donde el Patio de Reyes quedaba abierto y dejaba ver en el fondo la portada de la Basílica. Sabemos por la documentación que se conserva de los priores del convento que al principio se preveían sólo cincuenta monjes en lugar de los cien finales, por lo que el proyecto original tenía una altura menos en la parte delantera.

 

En cuanto a la planta de la iglesia, el diseño se resolvía con unas naves de menores dimensiones que las actuales, rematadas con una capilla de ábside semicircular. No estando contento Felipe II con esta solución hará llamar a Francesco Paciotto que le aconsejará al monarca que el templo tenga el ábside plano. Finalmente el artífice de la solución definitiva fue Juan de Herrera, que construyó un templo cuadrado basado en la planta del Vaticano sobrepuesto a una planta basilical tradicional con el altar al final de la nave principal. A Herrera también se debe la imagen unitaria de las fachadas con menos torres y sin escalonamiento, lo que contribuyó a la potente imagen final del edificio.

La planta definitiva del edificio, con sólo cuatro torres en las esquinas y el Palacio Real haciendo de «mango», recuerda la forma de una parrilla, por lo que tradicionalmente se ha afirmado que se escogió esta traza en honor a San Lorenzo, martirizado en Roma en una parrilla, ya que el 10 de agosto de 1557, día de la festividad del santo, tuvo lugar la batalla de San Quintín. De ahí el nombre del conjunto y de la localidad creada a su alrededor.1

  

Antecedentes monásticos

 

Fernando Chueca Goitia explicó la disposición general del edificio dando gran importancia a la comprobada intervención de la orden jerónima en las primeras trazas de la obra, de la que resultaría el núcleo conventual de la iglesia y el claustro principal. La principal contribución de Juan Bautista de Toledo habría sido añadir los palacios privados y públicos, integrándolos en un esquema simétrico, mucho más propio del Renacimiento. Este primer esquema de palacio real adosado a un monasterio era costumbre entre los monarcas hispanos medievales, y lo utilizaron en los monasterios que usaban para retiros, lutos y descansos. Podemos encontrar muchos antecedentes, como Santo Tomás de Ávila, Guadalupe, Poblet, Santa Creus o Yuste, entre muchos otros.2

  

Modelos bíblicos: el Templo de Salomón

  

En realidad el origen arquitectónico de su planta es muy controvertido. Dejando a un lado la feliz casualidad de la parrilla, que no apareció hasta que Herrera cerró la fachada principal con la «falsa fachada» de la biblioteca y eliminó seis de las torres, la planta parece estar basada más bien en las descripciones del Templo de Salomón de la Biblia y del historiador judeo-romano Flavio Josefo.3 Esta idea debió ser modificada por las crecientes necesidades del convento y las funciones que Felipe II quiso que albergara el edificio (panteón, basílica, convento, colegio, biblioteca y palacio), por lo que hubo que duplicar las dimensiones iniciales del proyecto. Las estatuas de David y Salomón flanquean la entrada a la basílica recordando el paralelismo con el guerrero Carlos V y el prudente Felipe II. Del mismo modo, se pintan dos frescos de Salomón en el centro de las bóvedas de la Biblioteca y de la Celda del Prior, mostrando sus imágenes de mayor sabiduría y prudencia en el gobierno: el famoso episodio de la discusión con la Reina de Saba y la pelea de las dos madres por el hijo, al que Salomón propone partir en dos.

 

Muchos autores, siguiendo un famoso artículo de René Taylor, han buscado connotaciones ocultistas y mágicas en la comparación con el edificio bíblico, lo que parece difícil dado la inflexible religiosidad de Felipe II. Además, las connotaciones esotéricas del Templo de Salomón no aparecieron hasta dos siglos después, con la aparición de la masonería. La teoría más aceptada en la actualidad es la de que la similitud con el Templo de Jerusalén y la presencia de las estatuas de David y Salomón en su fachada buscaban subrayar la presencia real de Dios en la Eucaristía, idea negada por los protestantes y defendida en el Concilio de Trento. Recordemos que para la Reforma dicha presencia es meramente simbólica, ya que niegan que Dios esté presente en las hostias consagradas. También es muy posible que, como hizo Juan Bautista Villalpando a finales del XVI, se buscara dotar de un trasfondo bíblico a las ideas del Humanismo sobre la recuperación de la arquitectura pagana y las ideas sobre la modulación de Vitrubio, ya que el Templo de Jerusalén que describió Flavio Josefo se construyó durante la dominación romana de Judea.4

  

La arquitectura del Monasterio

  

El resultado final guarda reminiscencencias de los tres dominios que Felipe II había aprendido a amar en su juventud en Valladolid, Milán y Bruselas: la planta rectangular con sus cuatro torres en las esquinas, típica de los sobrios alcázares castellanos de piedra, la arquitectura clásica italiana en la basílica y las portadas, y los típicos tejados apizarrados flamencos. El edificio destaca por la potencia de su imagen, la sabia composición de su complejo programa funcional, el rigor arquitectónico de cada una de sus partes, la elegancia de la articulación arquitectónica entre las distintas piezas, la cuidada perfección de sus proporciones y sus ricos valores simbólicos. Debe destacarse también su impresionante unidad de estilo y el haberse realizado en el reducido plazo para entonces de 21 años. Los valores del proyecto son el orden, la jerarquización y la perfecta relación entre todas las partes de la composición, integrando monarquía, religión, ciencia y cultura en el eje principal: la Portada Principal con la estatua de San Lorenzo, la Biblioteca, los Reyes de Judá, la Basílica y el Palacio privado del rey. La teatralidad de este recorrido a través de este gran eje central para mostrar finalmente el Sagrario con la Eucaristía anticipa a la llegada del Barroco.

 

El estilo escogido fue el del Renacimiento, muy depurado y sin la profusa decoración plateresca. El orden arquitectónico predominante es el toscano, el más sencillo del clasicismo, y el dórico en la iglesia. Pese a su austeridad y aparente frialdad, el Monasterio de El Escorial fue un símbolo del salto entre una España medieval y otra moderna. Su arquitectura, el mejor ejemplo del Renacimiento español y modelo del estilo denominado "Herreriano" o "desornamentado", no puede dejarnos indiferente. Felipe II y sus arquitectos, de acuerdo con su gran cultura humanista aprendida en sus viajes por Italia, Alemania y los Países Bajos, contrapusieron el retorno al clasicismo romano al desbordante plateresco de la época. Se trata de una de las principales obras maestras de la arquitectura española, tal vez su página más brillante. Debe destacarse la fina sensibilidad de la fachada sur, superior a sus imitaciones del siglo XX en un tema tan difícil como es la repetición de tantas ventanas en un único lienzo.

 

Le Corbusier visitó el edificio, invitado en 1928 por García Mercadal y alabó su arquitectura, hasta el punto de que se ha señalado su semejanza con el proyecto del Mundaneum de 1929. Tras la celebración del Cuarto Centenario del Monasterio en 1984 se redescubrieron muchos detalles arquitectónicos del edificio, como la compleja geometría de los chapiteles herrerianos, la audaz bóveda plana, las bellas chimeneas siamesas o la ingeniosa solución espacial de la iluminación cenital de la linterna del convento. Pero no debemos olvidar el valor tradicionalmente reconocido a El Escorial: el hermoso Patio de los Evangelistas, con su espléndido ejercicio de bramantismo del templete central, la grandiosa cúpula trasdosada, la primera realizada sobre un tambor en España, la colosal escalera del convento, y los ejemplos del manierismo de la Basílica y de la fachada principal, entre otras muestras de gran arquitectura.5

  

Secciones del edificio

 

Las principales secciones en que se puede dividir el Real sitio son:

 

Biblioteca

 

Artículo principal: Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

 

Felipe II cedió a la Biblioteca del Monasterio los ricos códices que poseía y para cuyo enriquecimiento encargó la adquisición de las bibliotecas y obras más ejemplares tanto de España como del extranjero. Fue proyectada por el arquitecto Juan de Herrera cerrando el atrio de la Basílica y unificando la fachada principal, ya que Juan Bautista de Toledo la situaba en la desaparecida torre central de la Fachada Sur. Herrera también se ocupó de diseñar las estanterías que contiene. Se ubica en una gran nave de 54 metros de larga, 9 de ancha y 10 metros de altura con suelo de mármol y estanterías de ricas maderas nobles primorosamente talladas.

 

Arias Montano elaboró su primer catálogo y seleccionó algunas de las obras más importantes para la misma. Está dotada de una colección de más de 40.000 volúmenes de extraordinario valor. En 1616 se le concede el privilegio de recibir un ejemplar de cada obra publicada aunque nunca se llegó a cumplir de una forma demasiado rigurosa.

La bóveda de cañón del techo de la biblioteca está decorada con frescos representado las siete artes liberales, esto es: Retórica, Dialéctica, Música, Gramática, Aritmética, Geometría y Astrología. Entre los estantes de libros se colgaron retratos de diversos monarcas españoles, entre ellos el famoso Silver Philip (Felipe IV con traje castaño y plata) pintado por Velázquez, y que ahora está en la National Gallery de Londres. Los frescos de las bóvedas fueron pintados por Pellegrino Tibaldi, según el programa iconológico del Padre Sigüenza.

 

Palacio de Felipe II

 

El también denominado «Palacio de los Austrias» ocupa todo el mango de la parrilla de El Escorial y parte del patio Norte, construido en dos pisos alrededor del Presbiterio de la Basílica y en torno al Patio de Mascarones. Sigue el mismo esquema arquitectónico del Palacio de Carlos V en el Monasterio de Yuste. Actualmente sólo se pueden visitar los Cuartos Reales y la Sala de Batallas. En las dependencias privadas de los Reyes se pueden contemplar importantes obras pictóricas de la escuela española de principios del XVII, de la escuela italiana y veneciana del siglo XVI, y de las escuelas flamencas del XVI y XVII, entre ellos Los pecados capitales de El Bosco.

 

Antes de las habitaciones reales se atraviesan otras dependencias como el Salón de Embajadores, con interesantes objetos expuestos: morteros del siglo XVII, una mesa con incrustaciones de marfil, dos relojes solares en el pavimento, dos sillas plegables de madera chinas de la época Ming (ca. 1570) y los retratos de todos los monarcas de la Casa de Austria. Merecen especial mención las impresionantes puertas de marquetería, regalo del emperador Maximiliano II. Se expone también la supuesta silla-litera en la que Felipe II realizó su último viaje al Monasterio aquejado por la gota.

 

La «Casa del Rey» está formada por una serie de estancias decoradas con sobriedad, ya que fue el lugar de residencia del austero Felipe II. El dormitorio real, situado junto al altar mayor de la Basílica, cuenta con una ventana que permitía al rey seguir la misa desde la cama cuando estaba imposibilitado a causa de la gota que padecía. Está dividido en cuatro estancias: la sala principal, el escritorio, la austera alcoba y el lujoso oratorio.

 

Basílica

 

Artículo principal: Basílica de El Escorial.

 

Precedida por el Patio de los Reyes, es el verdadero núcleo de todo el conjunto, en torno al cual se articulan las demás dependencias.

 

Cripta

 

Artículo principal: Cripta Real del Monasterio de El Escorial.

 

Juan Gómez de Mora, según planos de Juan Bautista Crescenzi, reformó por orden de Felipe III la pequeña capilla funeraria de debajo del altar para albergar allí veintiséis sepulcros de mármol donde reposan los restos de los reyes y reinas de las casas de Austria y Borbón, con sólo algunas excepciones.

 

Relicarios

 

Siguiendo uno de los preceptos aprobados por el Concilio de Trento referente a la veneración de los santos, Felipe II dotó al Monasterio de una de las mayores colecciones de reliquias del mundo católico. La colección se compone de unas 7.500 reliquias, que se guardan en 507 cajas o relicarios escultóricos trazados por Juan de Herrera y la mayoría construidos, por el platero Juan de Arfe y Villafañe. Estos relicarios adoptan las más variadas formas: cabezas, brazos, estuches piramidales, arquetas etc. Las reliquias fueron distribuidas por todo el Monasterio concentrándose las más importantes en la Basílica. En el lado del Evangelio, bajo la protección del Misterio de la Anunciación de María, se guardan todos los huesos de los santos y mártires. En el lado opuesto, en el Altar de San Jerónimo, se sitúan los restos de los santos y mártires. Los restos sagrados se guardan en dos grandes armarios, decorados por Federico Zuccaro, que se encuentran divididos en dos cuerpos; se pueden abrir por delante, para ser expuestos al culto, y por detrás, para poder acceder a las reliquias.

 

Convento

 

El monasterio propiamente dicho ocupa todo el tercio sur del edificio. Fue ocupado originalmente por monjes jerónimos en 1567, aunque desde 1885 está habitado por los padres Agustinos, de clausura. El recinto se organiza en torno al gran claustro principal, el Patio de los Evangelistas, obra maestra diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo y que constituye una de las mejores páginas de arquitectura del Monasterio. Sus dos pisos están comunicados por la espectacular escalera principal, con las bóvedas decoradas por frescos de Luca Giordano. El ambicioso programa pictórico de sus soportales fue iniciado por Luca Cambiaso y continuado por Pellegrino Tibaldi. En el centro del claustro se levanta un hermoso templete realizado en granito, mármoles y jaspes de diferentes colores sobre traza de Juan de Herrera, influido por el tempietto de San Pietro in Montorio de Bramante. Las esculturas de los cuatro evangelistas fueron cinceladas por Juan Bautista Monegro de un solo bloque de mármol y sujetan un libro abierto con un fragmento de su Evangelio en la lengua en que fueron escritos.

 

Junto a las Salas Capitulares, destaca también la Celda Prioral Baja, con un fresco en el techo sobre El Juicio de Salomón de Francesco da Urbino, recordando al prior la necesidad de un gobierno justo al frente del Monasterio. La sacristía, aún en uso, con la Adoración de la Sagrada Forma de Sánchez Coello. En la Iglesia Vieja o de Prestado se conserva El Martirio de San Lorenzo de Tiziano, una de las obras maestras del renacimiento italiano, que Felipe II encargó para el retablo principal de la Basílica pero que descartó por su oscuro colorido, poco visible a cierta distancia.

 

Escalera principa

 

Sigue la típica tradición española de escalera imperial con un tramo principal dividido en dos a los lados a partir de la primera meseta, manteniendo el eje de simetría del convento y compatibilizando los tres pisos del Patio de los Evangelistas con los tres del convento mediante puertas discretas que permiten el paso a la zona más recogida y doméstica. Se suele atribuir a Bergamasco, aunque su proyecto fue modificado y desarrollado por Juan de Herrera. Su caja tiene una gran altura y cuenta con una cubierta propia que cubre la gran bóveda esquifada que ilumina desde arriba sus magníficos frescos.

 

Está decorada con frescos de Pellegrino Tibaldi, Luca Giordano y Luca Cambiaso, destacando La batalla de San Quintín y la Fundación de El Escorial, en la que aparece Felipe II discutiendo las trazas del Monasterio con Juan Bautista de Toledo y Juan de Herrera, junto al Obrero Mayor, el jerónimo Fray Antonio de Villacastín.

 

Salas capitulare

 

Destinadas actualmente a pinturas, eran las salas donde los monjes celebraban sus Capítulos, especie de confesiones mutuas para mantener la pureza de la congregación. Desde tiempos de Velázquez, que intervino en su decoración, albergaron importantes pinturas. A pesar del traslado de muchas al Museo del Prado, actualmente se exhiben varias tan importantes como La Última Cena y un San Jerónimo de Tiziano y La túnica de José de Velázquez. En febrero de 2009 se volvió a colgar en sus paredes el Martirio de San Sebastián de Van Dyck, recuperado dos siglos después de su sustracción durante la invasión napoleónica.

 

Su espléndida pinacoteca está formada por obras de las escuelas alemana, flamenca, veneciana, italiana y española, de los siglos XV, XVI y XVII. Incluye diversas obras de Pieter Coecke, pintor predilecto de Felipe II, así como de El Bosco, una Adoración de los pastores de Tintoretto y la famosa Crucifixión (o Gran Calvario) de Rogier van der Weyden.

 

Sala de las Batallas

 

Se trata de una galería de 60 x 6 metros, con 8 metros de altura, situada en la zona de los aposentos reales. En sus muros se representan pintadas al fresco algunas batallas ganadas por los ejércitos españoles. En el muro sur, solo interrumpido por dos puertas, se pintó de forma continua la batalla de La Higueruela (1431). Por el contrario, el muro norte aparece dividido por nueve ventanas creándose nueve espacios en los que se representaron otras tantas escenas de la guerra contra Francia (1557-1558), con el acento puesto en la batalla de San Quintín, vinculada a la fundación del propio monasterio. Por último, en los extremos se representaron dos escenas de una de las más recientes victorias de las tropas españolas: la batalla de la Isla Terceira librada entre la armada española dirigida por Álvaro de Bazán y la armada francesa (1582-1583). De la pintura se encargaron Niccolò Granello y su medio hermano Fabrizio Castello, Lazzaro Tavarone y Orazio Cambiaso, que abandonó pronto. Lo primero que se pintó fueron los grutescos de la bóveda, por los que los artistas cobraron ya en enero de 1585 y se dieron por terminados seis meses más tarde. En enero de 1587 se firmó el contrato para la pintura de la batalla de La Higueruela, que no se terminó hasta septiembre de 1589. El padre Sigüenza explica que se eligió representar esta batalla de la guerra de Granada por haberse hallado en el Alcázar de Segovia en un viejo arcón un lienzo de 130 pies en el que aparecía pintada la misma batalla en grisalla, y que habiendo gustado al rey, ordenó copiarla. Algunos meses después de acabada la pintura de la batalla de la Higueruela se resolvió completar la decoración de la sala, firmándose un nuevo contrato con Castello, Granello y Tavarone en febrero de 1590. Las batallas elegidas eran, por una parte, las de la guerra contra los franceses de 1557 y 1558, las únicas batallas a las que Felipe II había acudido en persona, y la toma de la isla Tercera en las Azores, con la que se completaba la incorporación de Portugal a la corona española. Para asegurar la veracidad histórica, a los pintores se les entregaron modelos de la formación de las escuadras y de sus uniformes proporcionados por Rodrigo de Holanda, yerno de Antonio de las Viñas.6

Museo de Arquitectura[editar · editar fuente]

Está situado en los sótanos del edificio, en la llamada por Juan de Herrera Planta de Bóvedas, y fue creado en el año 1963 como parte de las exposiciones del IV centenario de la colocación de la primera piedra. En sus once salas se muestran las herramientas, grúas y demás material empleado en la construcción del monumento, así como reproducciones de planos, maquetas y documentos relativos a las obras, con datos muy interesantes que explican la idea y gestación del edificio.

Jardines de los Frailes[editar · editar fuente]

  

Los Jardines de los Frailes

Mandados construir por Felipe II, que era un amante de la naturaleza, constituyen un lugar ideal para el reposo y la meditación. Manuel Azaña, que estudió en el colegio de los frailes agustinos de este monasterio, lo cita en sus Memorias y en su obra El jardín de los frailes. Es lugar de entretenimiento y estudio de los alumnos. El rey concebía sus jardines como un espacio productivo donde cultivar hortalizas y plantas medicinales, pero también los veía como una fuente de placer, con fuentes y flores. El monarca recopiló planos de jardines de Francia, Italia, Inglaterra y los Países Bajos, contratando a los mejores jardineros, tanto extranjeros como españoles. Este hoy austero jardín estaba originalmente repleto de flores, formando una especie de tapiz, por lo que fue comparado con las alfombras que se traían de Turquía o Damasco. También era un auténtico jardín botánico, con hasta 68 variedades diferentes de flores, muchas medicinales, y unas 400 plantas que se trajeron del Nuevo Mundo.

Al sudoeste del jardín se encuentra la Galería de Convalecientes o Corredor del Sol, un espacio amplio, aireado y lleno de luz diseñado para el reposo de los enfermos. Se apoya con una articulación arquitectónica poco conseguida en la Torre de la Botica, tal vez por la necesidad de garantizar la clausura a los monjes. Su sobria fachada hacia la lonja Oeste contrasta con la más abierta hacia los jardines, donde la solución arquitrabada con arcos sobre columnatas jónicas es única en el Monasterio.

 

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El Escorial

De Wikipedia:

 

Monasterio de El Escorial

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial es un complejo que incluye un palacio real, una basílica, un panteón, una biblioteca y un monasterio. Se encuentra en la localidad de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, en la Comunidad de Madrid, España, y fue construido entre 1563 y 1584.

El palacio fue residencia de la Familia Real Española, la basílica es lugar de sepultura de los reyes de España y el monasterio -fundado por monjes jerónimos- está ocupado actualmente por frailes de la Orden de San Agustín. Es una de las más singulares arquitecturas renacentistas de España y de Europa. Situado en San Lorenzo de El Escorial, ocupa una superficie de 33.327 m², sobre la ladera meridional del monte Abantos, a 1028 m. de altitud, en la Sierra de Guadarrama. Está gestionado por Patrimonio Nacional.

Conocido también como Monasterio de San Lorenzo El Real, o, sencillamente, El Escorial, fue ideado en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI por el rey Felipe II y su arquitecto Juan Bautista de Toledo, aunque posteriormente intervinieron Juan de Herrera, Juan de Minjares, Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y Francisco de Mora. El rey concibió un gran complejo multifuncional, monacal y palaciego que, plasmado por Juan Bautista de Toledo según el paradigma de la Traza Universal, dio origen al estilo herreriano.

Fue considerado, desde finales del siglo XVI, la Octava Maravilla del Mundo, tanto por su tamaño y complejidad funcional como por su enorme valor simbólico. Su arquitectura marcó el paso del plateresco renacentista al clasicismo desornamentado. Obra ingente, de gran monumentalidad, es también un receptáculo de las demás artes.

Sus pinturas, esculturas, cantorales, pergaminos, ornamentos litúrgicos y demás objetos suntuarios, sacros y áulicos hacen que El Escorial sea también un museo. Su compleja iconografía e iconología ha merecido las más variadas interpretaciones de historiadores, admiradores y críticos. El Escorial es la cristalización de las ideas y de la voluntad de su creador, el rey Felipe II, un príncipe renacentista.

Juan de Herrera según una medalla de Jacome da Trezzo, 1578.

1557. Victoria sobre los franceses en la batalla de San Quintín.

1558. El emperador Carlos V muere en Yuste, cambiando en su testamento su deseo de ser enterrado en Granada por la petición a su hijo de crear un edificio ex novo para su tumba, en un lugar diferente a sus padres y abuelos. Felipe II designó una comisión multidisciplinar (médicos, arquitectos, canteros, etc.) para buscar el emplazamiento más idóneo en la Sierra de Guadarrama, el centro geográfico de la Península Ibérica.

1559. El 15 de julio el rey nombró arquitecto real a Juan Bautista de Toledo desde Gante y le encomendó la dirección de todas las obras de la Corona.

1560. La comisión busca alternativas para el emplazamiento del monasterio, barajando entre otras localizaciones Guisando, Aranjuez, Manzanares y la Alberquilla y la Fresneda, en las cercanías de El Escorial. En noviembre se elige el emplazamiento actual, a apenas 50 kilómetros de Madrid, en las inmediaciones de la Fuente de Blasco Sancho, próxima a El Escorial —entonces una pequeña aldea de la Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Segovia— para construir el edificio. El paraje disponía de abundante caza y leña, aire y aguas de buena calidad y canteras de granito y pizarra en las proximidades.

1561. Este año fue clave para la historia de El Escorial:

El monarca trasladó la capital de España desde Toledo a Madrid.

Encomendó el Monasterio de El Escorial a los monjes jerónimos. Tradicionalmente, la monarquía hispánica había estado muy vinculada a esta Orden religiosa.

Juan Bautista de Toledo empieza el diseño general del Monasterio: la conocida como la «Traza Universal».

1562. Felipe II comenzó a adquirir los terrenos colindantes para hacer del entorno del Monasterio un híbrido de territorio de realengo y abadengo, donde se pudieran compatibilizar los usos recreativos, agropecuarios y cinegéticos.

1563. En febrero se sumaron al proyecto, en calidad de adjuntos, Juan de Herrera y Juan de Valencia. El 23 de abril, festividad de San Jorge, se colocó la primera piedra del Monasterio, en los cimientos del refectorio del convento, bajo la silla del Prior, en la fachada meridional.

1567. Felipe II firmó el 22 de abril la Carta de Fundación y Dotación del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Pocos días después, el 19 de mayo, tras la finalización de la fachada del Jardín de los Frailes, gran parte de las dependencias del Monasterio y el Patio de los Evangelistas, moría Juan Bautista de Toledo.

Entre 1567 y 1569, la dirección del proyecto palaciego y monacal quedaba en manos de Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco, autor de la escalera principal.

1572. Juan de Herrera, con un protagonismo cada vez más creciente, asumió la reorganización del proyecto.

1575. El maestro cantero cántabro Juan de Nates colaboró junto a Diego de Sisniega y Francisco del Río en las obras.

1576. Herrera fue designado aposentador real, trazador principal, matemático e ingeniero de las obras de la Corona, incluidas las del Monasterio. A partir de la Traza Universal diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo, planteó soluciones que, como explicó en 1966 el arquitecto Fernando Chueca Goitia, tendían hacia la simplificación y geometrización del edificio. Las principales variaciones sobre la solución original fueron la construcción de una planta más en la fachada principal, que regularizaba la primera solución escalonada, la reducción del número de torres de sus fachadas y el cierre del Patio de Reyes con la "doble fachada" de la iglesia, donde se situó la Biblioteca Real.

1584. Se colocan en la portada de la Basílica las estatuas de David y Salomón. El 13 de septiembre se dieron por finalizadas oficialmente las obras, bajo la dirección de Francisco de Mora, a pesar de no estar concluida la Real Basílica. Ésta se culminó en 1586 después de once años de construcción.

1814. Superados los avatares de la Guerra de la Independencia, que supuso para el Monasterio el saqueo y la exclaustración, regresan los monjes de la Orden Jerónima. Con el restablecimiento de la Constitución de 1812 y el arranque del Trienio Liberal, vuelven a abandonar el Monasterio la mayoría de los monjes entre 1820 y 1824. El 1 de diciembre de 1837 parten los 150 monjes jerónimos tras entrar en vigor las leyes desamortizadoras de los bienes eclesiásticos. Posteriormente, tras un fallido intento de restauración, se crea un patronato de capellanes seculares.

1885. Luego de dos intervalos en que lo ocuparon los Padres Escolapios (desde 1869 el Colegio, y entre 1872 y 1875 la custodia completa del Monasterio) y otra vez los capellanes seculares, el rey Alfonso XII hace entrega del Monasterio a la Orden de San Agustín. Los Agustinos viven en el Monasterio hasta la actualidad.

Las causas fundacionales

"...nadie ve El Escorial sin llenarse de gloria, de orgullo nacional (...), él recuerda el poder, la riqueza, la civilización, los vastos conocimientos e influjo de esta gran nación en el siglo XVI (..), él excita la admiración y aun la envidia de las Naciones extranjeras."

(José Quevedo).

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial fue promovido por Felipe II, entre otras razones, para conmemorar su victoria en la batalla de San Quintín, el 10 de agosto de 1557, festividad de San Lorenzo. Esta batalla marcó el inicio del proceso de planificación que culminó con la colocación de la primera piedra el 23 de abril de 1563, bajo la dirección de Juan Bautista de Toledo. Le sucedió tras su muerte, en 1567, el italiano Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y, posteriormente, su discípulo Juan de Herrera. La última piedra se puso 21 años después, el 13 de septiembre de 1584.

El edificio surge por la necesidad de crear un monasterio que asegurase el culto en torno a un panteón familiar de nueva creación, para así poder dar cumplimiento al último testamento de Carlos V de 1558. El Emperador quiso enterrarse con su esposa Isabel de Portugal y con su nueva dinastía alejado de los habituales lugares de entierro de los Trastamara.

La Carta de Fundación, firmada por Felipe II el 22 de abril de 1567, cuatro años después del comienzo de las obras, señalaba que el Monasterio estaba dedicado a san Lorenzo, pero sin señalar directamente la batalla de San Quintín, probablemente para evitar citar una guerra como motivo de fundación de un edificio religioso: se «fundó a devoción y en nombre del bienaventurado Sact Lorenzo por la particular devoción» al santo del rey y «en memoria de la merced y victorial que en el día de su festividad de Dios comenzamos a recibir». Las «consideraciones» que cita el rey fueron el agradecimiento a Dios por los beneficios obtenidos, por mantener sus Reinos dentro de la fe cristiana en paz y justicia, para dar culto a Dios, para enterrarse en «una cripta» el propio rey, sus mujeres, hermanos, padres, tías y sucesores, y donde se dieran continuas oraciones por sus almas:

Reconocimiento de los «muchos y grandes beneficios que de Dios nuestro Señor habemos rescibido» y «cuánto Él ha servido de encaminar y guiar los nuestros hechos, e los nuestros negocios a su santo servicio».

Por «sostener y mantener estos nuestros Reinos es su sancta Fee y Religión, y en paz y en justicia».

Porque a Dios le agrada que le edifiquen y funden iglesias «donde su sancto nombre se bendice y alaba» y donde los religiosos den ejemplo de fe.

Para que «se ruega e interceda Dios Nuestro Señor por Nos e por los reyes nuestros antecesores e subcesores, e por el bien de nuestras ánimas», según la orden dada por el Emperador «en el cobdecilo que últimamente hizo nos cometió y remitió lo que tocaba a su sepultura y al lugar y parte donde su cuerpo y el de la Emperatriz y Reina, mi señora y madre, había de ser puestos y colocados».

Y para que «por sus ánimas se hagan y digan continuas oraciones, sacrificios, conmemoraciones e memorias.

Tampoco se pueden desdeñar otras razones para fundar el Monasterio, como la celebración de la primera victoria de Felipe II como rey, la afrenta que la mención a la Batalla de San Quintín -que se libró a apenas quince kilómetros de París- suponía hacia Francia, la veneración al mártir español san Lorenzo, en unos tiempos en los que la Reforma atacaba el culto a los santos y a las reliquias, o la necesidad de crear un centro unificador de la nueva fe que surgía del Concilio de Trento.

Orígenes de su planta

En julio de 1559 Juan Bautista de Toledo fue llamado a España por Felipe II para realizar toda una serie de obras de gran importancia para la realeza española. Una realeza que tendrá a partir de ahora una nueva concepción del estado moderno y para la que será necesaria la creación de un nuevo edificio que la representara. Juan Bautista será considerado el primer arquitecto del Monasterio de El Escorial y sus trazas sentarán las bases de lo que posteriormente será el lenguaje herreriano.

Las medidas del rectángulo de la planta, según señalaba el padre Sigüenza en 1605, son de 735x580 pies castellanos, es decir, 205x162 metros. La altura total del punto más elevado de la cruz tomada con respecto al pavimento de la iglesia es de 95 metros.

Las primeras trazas

En primera instancia se observa que las primeras trazas que se conservan de Juan Bautista de Toledo proponían un edificio con una imagen muy diferente al que se construyó definitivamente: torres en la mitad de la fachadas laterales (las huellas de la Torre de la Biblioteca aún son visibles en la fachada que da al Jardín, ya que se construyó en vida de Juan Bautista) y dos torres más en la portada principal, donde el Patio de Reyes quedaba abierto y dejaba ver en el fondo la portada de la Basílica. Sabemos por la documentación que se conserva de los priores del convento que al principio se preveían sólo cincuenta monjes en lugar de los cien finales, por lo que el proyecto original tenía una altura menos en la parte delantera.

En cuanto a la planta de la iglesia, el diseño se resolvía con unas naves de menores dimensiones que las actuales, rematadas con una capilla de ábside semicircular. No estando contento Felipe II con esta solución hará llamar a Francesco Paciotto que le aconsejará al monarca que el templo tenga el ábside plano. Finalmente el artífice de la solución definitiva fue Juan de Herrera, que construyó un templo cuadrado basado en la planta del Vaticano sobrepuesto a una planta basilical tradicional con el altar al final de la nave principal. A Herrera también se debe la imagen unitaria de las fachadas con menos torres y sin escalonamiento, lo que contribuyó a la potente imagen final del edificio.

La planta definitiva del edificio, con sólo cuatro torres en las esquinas y el Palacio Real haciendo de «mango», recuerda la forma de una parrilla, por lo que tradicionalmente se ha afirmado que se escogió esta traza en honor a San Lorenzo, martirizado en Roma en una parrilla, ya que el 10 de agosto de 1557, día de la festividad del santo, tuvo lugar la batalla de San Quintín. De ahí el nombre del conjunto y de la localidad creada a su alrededor.1

Antecedentes monásticos

Fernando Chueca Goitia explicó la disposición general del edificio dando gran importancia a la comprobada intervención de la orden jerónima en las primeras trazas de la obra, de la que resultaría el núcleo conventual de la iglesia y el claustro principal. La principal contribución de Juan Bautista de Toledo habría sido añadir los palacios privados y públicos, integrándolos en un esquema simétrico, mucho más propio del Renacimiento. Este primer esquema de palacio real adosado a un monasterio era costumbre entre los monarcas hispanos medievales, y lo utilizaron en los monasterios que usaban para retiros, lutos y descansos. Podemos encontrar muchos antecedentes, como Santo Tomás de Ávila, Guadalupe, Poblet, Santa Creus o Yuste, entre muchos otros.2

Modelos bíblicos: el Templo de Salomón

En realidad el origen arquitectónico de su planta es muy controvertido. Dejando a un lado la feliz casualidad de la parrilla, que no apareció hasta que Herrera cerró la fachada principal con la «falsa fachada» de la biblioteca y eliminó seis de las torres, la planta parece estar basada más bien en las descripciones del Templo de Salomón de la Biblia y del historiador judeo-romano Flavio Josefo.3 Esta idea debió ser modificada por las crecientes necesidades del convento y las funciones que Felipe II quiso que albergara el edificio (panteón, basílica, convento, colegio, biblioteca y palacio), por lo que hubo que duplicar las dimensiones iniciales del proyecto. Las estatuas de David y Salomón flanquean la entrada a la basílica recordando el paralelismo con el guerrero Carlos V y el prudente Felipe II. Del mismo modo, se pintan dos frescos de Salomón en el centro de las bóvedas de la Biblioteca y de la Celda del Prior, mostrando sus imágenes de mayor sabiduría y prudencia en el gobierno: el famoso episodio de la discusión con la Reina de Saba y la pelea de las dos madres por el hijo, al que Salomón propone partir en dos.

Muchos autores, siguiendo un famoso artículo de René Taylor, han buscado connotaciones ocultistas y mágicas en la comparación con el edificio bíblico, lo que parece difícil dado la inflexible religiosidad de Felipe II. Además, las connotaciones esotéricas del Templo de Salomón no aparecieron hasta dos siglos después, con la aparición de la masonería. La teoría más aceptada en la actualidad es la de que la similitud con el Templo de Jerusalén y la presencia de las estatuas de David y Salomón en su fachada buscaban subrayar la presencia real de Dios en la Eucaristía, idea negada por los protestantes y defendida en el Concilio de Trento. Recordemos que para la Reforma dicha presencia es meramente simbólica, ya que niegan que Dios esté presente en las hostias consagradas. También es muy posible que, como hizo Juan Bautista Villalpando a finales del XVI, se buscara dotar de un trasfondo bíblico a las ideas del Humanismo sobre la recuperación de la arquitectura pagana y las ideas sobre la modulación de Vitrubio, ya que el Templo de Jerusalén que describió Flavio Josefo se construyó durante la dominación romana de Judea.4

La arquitectura del Monasterio

El resultado final guarda reminiscencencias de los tres dominios que Felipe II había aprendido a amar en su juventud en Valladolid, Milán y Bruselas: la planta rectangular con sus cuatro torres en las esquinas, típica de los sobrios alcázares castellanos de piedra, la arquitectura clásica italiana en la basílica y las portadas, y los típicos tejados apizarrados flamencos. El edificio destaca por la potencia de su imagen, la sabia composición de su complejo programa funcional, el rigor arquitectónico de cada una de sus partes, la elegancia de la articulación arquitectónica entre las distintas piezas, la cuidada perfección de sus proporciones y sus ricos valores simbólicos. Debe destacarse también su impresionante unidad de estilo y el haberse realizado en el reducido plazo para entonces de 21 años. Los valores del proyecto son el orden, la jerarquización y la perfecta relación entre todas las partes de la composición, integrando monarquía, religión, ciencia y cultura en el eje principal: la Portada Principal con la estatua de San Lorenzo, la Biblioteca, los Reyes de Judá, la Basílica y el Palacio privado del rey. La teatralidad de este recorrido a través de este gran eje central para mostrar finalmente el Sagrario con la Eucaristía anticipa a la llegada del Barroco.

El estilo escogido fue el del Renacimiento, muy depurado y sin la profusa decoración plateresca. El orden arquitectónico predominante es el toscano, el más sencillo del clasicismo, y el dórico en la iglesia. Pese a su austeridad y aparente frialdad, el Monasterio de El Escorial fue un símbolo del salto entre una España medieval y otra moderna. Su arquitectura, el mejor ejemplo del Renacimiento español y modelo del estilo denominado "Herreriano" o "desornamentado", no puede dejarnos indiferente. Felipe II y sus arquitectos, de acuerdo con su gran cultura humanista aprendida en sus viajes por Italia, Alemania y los Países Bajos, contrapusieron el retorno al clasicismo romano al desbordante plateresco de la época. Se trata de una de las principales obras maestras de la arquitectura española, tal vez su página más brillante. Debe destacarse la fina sensibilidad de la fachada sur, superior a sus imitaciones del siglo XX en un tema tan difícil como es la repetición de tantas ventanas en un único lienzo.

Le Corbusier visitó el edificio, invitado en 1928 por García Mercadal y alabó su arquitectura, hasta el punto de que se ha señalado su semejanza con el proyecto del Mundaneum de 1929. Tras la celebración del Cuarto Centenario del Monasterio en 1984 se redescubrieron muchos detalles arquitectónicos del edificio, como la compleja geometría de los chapiteles herrerianos, la audaz bóveda plana, las bellas chimeneas siamesas o la ingeniosa solución espacial de la iluminación cenital de la linterna del convento. Pero no debemos olvidar el valor tradicionalmente reconocido a El Escorial: el hermoso Patio de los Evangelistas, con su espléndido ejercicio de bramantismo del templete central, la grandiosa cúpula trasdosada, la primera realizada sobre un tambor en España, la colosal escalera del convento, y los ejemplos del manierismo de la Basílica y de la fachada principal, entre otras muestras de gran arquitectura.5

Secciones del edificio

Las principales secciones en que se puede dividir el Real sitio son:

Biblioteca

Artículo principal: Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Felipe II cedió a la Biblioteca del Monasterio los ricos códices que poseía y para cuyo enriquecimiento encargó la adquisición de las bibliotecas y obras más ejemplares tanto de España como del extranjero. Fue proyectada por el arquitecto Juan de Herrera cerrando el atrio de la Basílica y unificando la fachada principal, ya que Juan Bautista de Toledo la situaba en la desaparecida torre central de la Fachada Sur. Herrera también se ocupó de diseñar las estanterías que contiene. Se ubica en una gran nave de 54 metros de larga, 9 de ancha y 10 metros de altura con suelo de mármol y estanterías de ricas maderas nobles primorosamente talladas.

Arias Montano elaboró su primer catálogo y seleccionó algunas de las obras más importantes para la misma. Está dotada de una colección de más de 40.000 volúmenes de extraordinario valor. En 1616 se le concede el privilegio de recibir un ejemplar de cada obra publicada aunque nunca se llegó a cumplir de una forma demasiado rigurosa.

La bóveda de cañón del techo de la biblioteca está decorada con frescos representado las siete artes liberales, esto es: Retórica, Dialéctica, Música, Gramática, Aritmética, Geometría y Astrología. Entre los estantes de libros se colgaron retratos de diversos monarcas españoles, entre ellos el famoso Silver Philip (Felipe IV con traje castaño y plata) pintado por Velázquez, y que ahora está en la National Gallery de Londres. Los frescos de las bóvedas fueron pintados por Pellegrino Tibaldi, según el programa iconológico del Padre Sigüenza.

Palacio de Felipe II

El también denominado «Palacio de los Austrias» ocupa todo el mango de la parrilla de El Escorial y parte del patio Norte, construido en dos pisos alrededor del Presbiterio de la Basílica y en torno al Patio de Mascarones. Sigue el mismo esquema arquitectónico del Palacio de Carlos V en el Monasterio de Yuste. Actualmente sólo se pueden visitar los Cuartos Reales y la Sala de Batallas. En las dependencias privadas de los Reyes se pueden contemplar importantes obras pictóricas de la escuela española de principios del XVII, de la escuela italiana y veneciana del siglo XVI, y de las escuelas flamencas del XVI y XVII, entre ellos Los pecados capitales de El Bosco.

Antes de las habitaciones reales se atraviesan otras dependencias como el Salón de Embajadores, con interesantes objetos expuestos: morteros del siglo XVII, una mesa con incrustaciones de marfil, dos relojes solares en el pavimento, dos sillas plegables de madera chinas de la época Ming (ca. 1570) y los retratos de todos los monarcas de la Casa de Austria. Merecen especial mención las impresionantes puertas de marquetería, regalo del emperador Maximiliano II. Se expone también la supuesta silla-litera en la que Felipe II realizó su último viaje al Monasterio aquejado por la gota.

La «Casa del Rey» está formada por una serie de estancias decoradas con sobriedad, ya que fue el lugar de residencia del austero Felipe II. El dormitorio real, situado junto al altar mayor de la Basílica, cuenta con una ventana que permitía al rey seguir la misa desde la cama cuando estaba imposibilitado a causa de la gota que padecía. Está dividido en cuatro estancias: la sala principal, el escritorio, la austera alcoba y el lujoso oratorio.

Basílica

Artículo principal: Basílica de El Escorial.

Precedida por el Patio de los Reyes, es el verdadero núcleo de todo el conjunto, en torno al cual se articulan las demás dependencias.

Cripta

Artículo principal: Cripta Real del Monasterio de El Escorial.

Juan Gómez de Mora, según planos de Juan Bautista Crescenzi, reformó por orden de Felipe III la pequeña capilla funeraria de debajo del altar para albergar allí veintiséis sepulcros de mármol donde reposan los restos de los reyes y reinas de las casas de Austria y Borbón, con sólo algunas excepciones.

Relicarios

Siguiendo uno de los preceptos aprobados por el Concilio de Trento referente a la veneración de los santos, Felipe II dotó al Monasterio de una de las mayores colecciones de reliquias del mundo católico. La colección se compone de unas 7.500 reliquias, que se guardan en 507 cajas o relicarios escultóricos trazados por Juan de Herrera y la mayoría construidos, por el platero Juan de Arfe y Villafañe. Estos relicarios adoptan las más variadas formas: cabezas, brazos, estuches piramidales, arquetas etc. Las reliquias fueron distribuidas por todo el Monasterio concentrándose las más importantes en la Basílica. En el lado del Evangelio, bajo la protección del Misterio de la Anunciación de María, se guardan todos los huesos de los santos y mártires. En el lado opuesto, en el Altar de San Jerónimo, se sitúan los restos de los santos y mártires. Los restos sagrados se guardan en dos grandes armarios, decorados por Federico Zuccaro, que se encuentran divididos en dos cuerpos; se pueden abrir por delante, para ser expuestos al culto, y por detrás, para poder acceder a las reliquias.

Convento

El monasterio propiamente dicho ocupa todo el tercio sur del edificio. Fue ocupado originalmente por monjes jerónimos en 1567, aunque desde 1885 está habitado por los padres Agustinos, de clausura. El recinto se organiza en torno al gran claustro principal, el Patio de los Evangelistas, obra maestra diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo y que constituye una de las mejores páginas de arquitectura del Monasterio. Sus dos pisos están comunicados por la espectacular escalera principal, con las bóvedas decoradas por frescos de Luca Giordano. El ambicioso programa pictórico de sus soportales fue iniciado por Luca Cambiaso y continuado por Pellegrino Tibaldi. En el centro del claustro se levanta un hermoso templete realizado en granito, mármoles y jaspes de diferentes colores sobre traza de Juan de Herrera, influido por el tempietto de San Pietro in Montorio de Bramante. Las esculturas de los cuatro evangelistas fueron cinceladas por Juan Bautista Monegro de un solo bloque de mármol y sujetan un libro abierto con un fragmento de su Evangelio en la lengua en que fueron escritos.

Junto a las Salas Capitulares, destaca también la Celda Prioral Baja, con un fresco en el techo sobre El Juicio de Salomón de Francesco da Urbino, recordando al prior la necesidad de un gobierno justo al frente del Monasterio. La sacristía, aún en uso, con la Adoración de la Sagrada Forma de Sánchez Coello. En la Iglesia Vieja o de Prestado se conserva El Martirio de San Lorenzo de Tiziano, una de las obras maestras del renacimiento italiano, que Felipe II encargó para el retablo principal de la Basílica pero que descartó por su oscuro colorido, poco visible a cierta distancia.

Escalera principa

Sigue la típica tradición española de escalera imperial con un tramo principal dividido en dos a los lados a partir de la primera meseta, manteniendo el eje de simetría del convento y compatibilizando los tres pisos del Patio de los Evangelistas con los tres del convento mediante puertas discretas que permiten el paso a la zona más recogida y doméstica. Se suele atribuir a Bergamasco, aunque su proyecto fue modificado y desarrollado por Juan de Herrera. Su caja tiene una gran altura y cuenta con una cubierta propia que cubre la gran bóveda esquifada que ilumina desde arriba sus magníficos frescos.

Está decorada con frescos de Pellegrino Tibaldi, Luca Giordano y Luca Cambiaso, destacando La batalla de San Quintín y la Fundación de El Escorial, en la que aparece Felipe II discutiendo las trazas del Monasterio con Juan Bautista de Toledo y Juan de Herrera, junto al Obrero Mayor, el jerónimo Fray Antonio de Villacastín.

Salas capitulare

Destinadas actualmente a pinturas, eran las salas donde los monjes celebraban sus Capítulos, especie de confesiones mutuas para mantener la pureza de la congregación. Desde tiempos de Velázquez, que intervino en su decoración, albergaron importantes pinturas. A pesar del traslado de muchas al Museo del Prado, actualmente se exhiben varias tan importantes como La Última Cena y un San Jerónimo de Tiziano y La túnica de José de Velázquez. En febrero de 2009 se volvió a colgar en sus paredes el Martirio de San Sebastián de Van Dyck, recuperado dos siglos después de su sustracción durante la invasión napoleónica.

Su espléndida pinacoteca está formada por obras de las escuelas alemana, flamenca, veneciana, italiana y española, de los siglos XV, XVI y XVII. Incluye diversas obras de Pieter Coecke, pintor predilecto de Felipe II, así como de El Bosco, una Adoración de los pastores de Tintoretto y la famosa Crucifixión (o Gran Calvario) de Rogier van der Weyden.

Sala de las Batallas

Se trata de una galería de 60 x 6 metros, con 8 metros de altura, situada en la zona de los aposentos reales. En sus muros se representan pintadas al fresco algunas batallas ganadas por los ejércitos españoles. En el muro sur, solo interrumpido por dos puertas, se pintó de forma continua la batalla de La Higueruela (1431). Por el contrario, el muro norte aparece dividido por nueve ventanas creándose nueve espacios en los que se representaron otras tantas escenas de la guerra contra Francia (1557-1558), con el acento puesto en la batalla de San Quintín, vinculada a la fundación del propio monasterio. Por último, en los extremos se representaron dos escenas de una de las más recientes victorias de las tropas españolas: la batalla de la Isla Terceira librada entre la armada española dirigida por Álvaro de Bazán y la armada francesa (1582-1583). De la pintura se encargaron Niccolò Granello y su medio hermano Fabrizio Castello, Lazzaro Tavarone y Orazio Cambiaso, que abandonó pronto. Lo primero que se pintó fueron los grutescos de la bóveda, por los que los artistas cobraron ya en enero de 1585 y se dieron por terminados seis meses más tarde. En enero de 1587 se firmó el contrato para la pintura de la batalla de La Higueruela, que no se terminó hasta septiembre de 1589. El padre Sigüenza explica que se eligió representar esta batalla de la guerra de Granada por haberse hallado en el Alcázar de Segovia en un viejo arcón un lienzo de 130 pies en el que aparecía pintada la misma batalla en grisalla, y que habiendo gustado al rey, ordenó copiarla. Algunos meses después de acabada la pintura de la batalla de la Higueruela se resolvió completar la decoración de la sala, firmándose un nuevo contrato con Castello, Granello y Tavarone en febrero de 1590. Las batallas elegidas eran, por una parte, las de la guerra contra los franceses de 1557 y 1558, las únicas batallas a las que Felipe II había acudido en persona, y la toma de la isla Tercera en las Azores, con la que se completaba la incorporación de Portugal a la corona española. Para asegurar la veracidad histórica, a los pintores se les entregaron modelos de la formación de las escuadras y de sus uniformes proporcionados por Rodrigo de Holanda, yerno de Antonio de las Viñas.6

Museo de Arquitectura[editar · editar fuente]

Está situado en los sótanos del edificio, en la llamada por Juan de Herrera Planta de Bóvedas, y fue creado en el año 1963 como parte de las exposiciones del IV centenario de la colocación de la primera piedra. En sus once salas se muestran las herramientas, grúas y demás material empleado en la construcción del monumento, así como reproducciones de planos, maquetas y documentos relativos a las obras, con datos muy interesantes que explican la idea y gestación del edificio.

Jardines de los Frailes[editar · editar fuente]

Los Jardines de los Frailes

Mandados construir por Felipe II, que era un amante de la naturaleza, constituyen un lugar ideal para el reposo y la meditación. Manuel Azaña, que estudió en el colegio de los frailes agustinos de este monasterio, lo cita en sus Memorias y en su obra El jardín de los frailes. Es lugar de entretenimiento y estudio de los alumnos. El rey concebía sus jardines como un espacio productivo donde cultivar hortalizas y plantas medicinales, pero también los veía como una fuente de placer, con fuentes y flores. El monarca recopiló planos de jardines de Francia, Italia, Inglaterra y los Países Bajos, contratando a los mejores jardineros, tanto extranjeros como españoles. Este hoy austero jardín estaba originalmente repleto de flores, formando una especie de tapiz, por lo que fue comparado con las alfombras que se traían de Turquía o Damasco. También era un auténtico jardín botánico, con hasta 68 variedades diferentes de flores, muchas medicinales, y unas 400 plantas que se trajeron del Nuevo Mundo.

Al sudoeste del jardín se encuentra la Galería de Convalecientes o Corredor del Sol, un espacio amplio, aireado y lleno de luz diseñado para el reposo de los enfermos. Se apoya con una articulación arquitectónica poco conseguida en la Torre de la Botica, tal vez por la necesidad de garantizar la clausura a los monjes. Su sobria fachada hacia la lonja Oeste contrasta con la más abierta hacia los jardines, donde la solución arquitrabada con arcos sobre columnatas jónicas es única en el Monasterio.

San Lorenzo del Escorial

  

Palacio del Escorial. Los tejados y galería patio interior.

  

De Wikipedia:

   

Monasterio de El Escorial

 

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial es un complejo que incluye un palacio real, una basílica, un panteón, una biblioteca y un monasterio. Se encuentra en la localidad de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, en la Comunidad de Madrid, España, y fue construido entre 1563 y 1584.

  

El palacio fue residencia de la Familia Real Española, la basílica es lugar de sepultura de los reyes de España y el monasterio -fundado por monjes jerónimos- está ocupado actualmente por frailes de la Orden de San Agustín. Es una de las más singulares arquitecturas renacentistas de España y de Europa. Situado en San Lorenzo de El Escorial, ocupa una superficie de 33.327 m², sobre la ladera meridional del monte Abantos, a 1028 m. de altitud, en la Sierra de Guadarrama. Está gestionado por Patrimonio Nacional.

Conocido también como Monasterio de San Lorenzo El Real, o, sencillamente, El Escorial, fue ideado en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI por el rey Felipe II y su arquitecto Juan Bautista de Toledo, aunque posteriormente intervinieron Juan de Herrera, Juan de Minjares, Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y Francisco de Mora. El rey concibió un gran complejo multifuncional, monacal y palaciego que, plasmado por Juan Bautista de Toledo según el paradigma de la Traza Universal, dio origen al estilo herreriano.

  

Fue considerado, desde finales del siglo XVI, la Octava Maravilla del Mundo, tanto por su tamaño y complejidad funcional como por su enorme valor simbólico. Su arquitectura marcó el paso del plateresco renacentista al clasicismo desornamentado. Obra ingente, de gran monumentalidad, es también un receptáculo de las demás artes.

  

Sus pinturas, esculturas, cantorales, pergaminos, ornamentos litúrgicos y demás objetos suntuarios, sacros y áulicos hacen que El Escorial sea también un museo. Su compleja iconografía e iconología ha merecido las más variadas interpretaciones de historiadores, admiradores y críticos. El Escorial es la cristalización de las ideas y de la voluntad de su creador, el rey Felipe II, un príncipe renacentista.

  

Juan de Herrera según una medalla de Jacome da Trezzo, 1578.

1557. Victoria sobre los franceses en la batalla de San Quintín.

1558. El emperador Carlos V muere en Yuste, cambiando en su testamento su deseo de ser enterrado en Granada por la petición a su hijo de crear un edificio ex novo para su tumba, en un lugar diferente a sus padres y abuelos. Felipe II designó una comisión multidisciplinar (médicos, arquitectos, canteros, etc.) para buscar el emplazamiento más idóneo en la Sierra de Guadarrama, el centro geográfico de la Península Ibérica.

1559. El 15 de julio el rey nombró arquitecto real a Juan Bautista de Toledo desde Gante y le encomendó la dirección de todas las obras de la Corona.

1560. La comisión busca alternativas para el emplazamiento del monasterio, barajando entre otras localizaciones Guisando, Aranjuez, Manzanares y la Alberquilla y la Fresneda, en las cercanías de El Escorial. En noviembre se elige el emplazamiento actual, a apenas 50 kilómetros de Madrid, en las inmediaciones de la Fuente de Blasco Sancho, próxima a El Escorial —entonces una pequeña aldea de la Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Segovia— para construir el edificio. El paraje disponía de abundante caza y leña, aire y aguas de buena calidad y canteras de granito y pizarra en las proximidades.

1561. Este año fue clave para la historia de El Escorial:

El monarca trasladó la capital de España desde Toledo a Madrid.

Encomendó el Monasterio de El Escorial a los monjes jerónimos. Tradicionalmente, la monarquía hispánica había estado muy vinculada a esta Orden religiosa.

Juan Bautista de Toledo empieza el diseño general del Monasterio: la conocida como la «Traza Universal».

1562. Felipe II comenzó a adquirir los terrenos colindantes para hacer del entorno del Monasterio un híbrido de territorio de realengo y abadengo, donde se pudieran compatibilizar los usos recreativos, agropecuarios y cinegéticos.

1563. En febrero se sumaron al proyecto, en calidad de adjuntos, Juan de Herrera y Juan de Valencia. El 23 de abril, festividad de San Jorge, se colocó la primera piedra del Monasterio, en los cimientos del refectorio del convento, bajo la silla del Prior, en la fachada meridional.

1567. Felipe II firmó el 22 de abril la Carta de Fundación y Dotación del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Pocos días después, el 19 de mayo, tras la finalización de la fachada del Jardín de los Frailes, gran parte de las dependencias del Monasterio y el Patio de los Evangelistas, moría Juan Bautista de Toledo.

Entre 1567 y 1569, la dirección del proyecto palaciego y monacal quedaba en manos de Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco, autor de la escalera principal.

1572. Juan de Herrera, con un protagonismo cada vez más creciente, asumió la reorganización del proyecto.

1575. El maestro cantero cántabro Juan de Nates colaboró junto a Diego de Sisniega y Francisco del Río en las obras.

1576. Herrera fue designado aposentador real, trazador principal, matemático e ingeniero de las obras de la Corona, incluidas las del Monasterio. A partir de la Traza Universal diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo, planteó soluciones que, como explicó en 1966 el arquitecto Fernando Chueca Goitia, tendían hacia la simplificación y geometrización del edificio. Las principales variaciones sobre la solución original fueron la construcción de una planta más en la fachada principal, que regularizaba la primera solución escalonada, la reducción del número de torres de sus fachadas y el cierre del Patio de Reyes con la "doble fachada" de la iglesia, donde se situó la Biblioteca Real.

1584. Se colocan en la portada de la Basílica las estatuas de David y Salomón. El 13 de septiembre se dieron por finalizadas oficialmente las obras, bajo la dirección de Francisco de Mora, a pesar de no estar concluida la Real Basílica. Ésta se culminó en 1586 después de once años de construcción.

1814. Superados los avatares de la Guerra de la Independencia, que supuso para el Monasterio el saqueo y la exclaustración, regresan los monjes de la Orden Jerónima. Con el restablecimiento de la Constitución de 1812 y el arranque del Trienio Liberal, vuelven a abandonar el Monasterio la mayoría de los monjes entre 1820 y 1824. El 1 de diciembre de 1837 parten los 150 monjes jerónimos tras entrar en vigor las leyes desamortizadoras de los bienes eclesiásticos. Posteriormente, tras un fallido intento de restauración, se crea un patronato de capellanes seculares.

1885. Luego de dos intervalos en que lo ocuparon los Padres Escolapios (desde 1869 el Colegio, y entre 1872 y 1875 la custodia completa del Monasterio) y otra vez los capellanes seculares, el rey Alfonso XII hace entrega del Monasterio a la Orden de San Agustín. Los Agustinos viven en el Monasterio hasta la actualidad.

  

Las causas fundacionales

 

"...nadie ve El Escorial sin llenarse de gloria, de orgullo nacional (...), él recuerda el poder, la riqueza, la civilización, los vastos conocimientos e influjo de esta gran nación en el siglo XVI (..), él excita la admiración y aun la envidia de las Naciones extranjeras."

(José Quevedo).

 

El Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial fue promovido por Felipe II, entre otras razones, para conmemorar su victoria en la batalla de San Quintín, el 10 de agosto de 1557, festividad de San Lorenzo. Esta batalla marcó el inicio del proceso de planificación que culminó con la colocación de la primera piedra el 23 de abril de 1563, bajo la dirección de Juan Bautista de Toledo. Le sucedió tras su muerte, en 1567, el italiano Giovanni Battista Castello El Bergamasco y, posteriormente, su discípulo Juan de Herrera. La última piedra se puso 21 años después, el 13 de septiembre de 1584.

 

El edificio surge por la necesidad de crear un monasterio que asegurase el culto en torno a un panteón familiar de nueva creación, para así poder dar cumplimiento al último testamento de Carlos V de 1558. El Emperador quiso enterrarse con su esposa Isabel de Portugal y con su nueva dinastía alejado de los habituales lugares de entierro de los Trastamara.

 

La Carta de Fundación, firmada por Felipe II el 22 de abril de 1567, cuatro años después del comienzo de las obras, señalaba que el Monasterio estaba dedicado a san Lorenzo, pero sin señalar directamente la batalla de San Quintín, probablemente para evitar citar una guerra como motivo de fundación de un edificio religioso: se «fundó a devoción y en nombre del bienaventurado Sact Lorenzo por la particular devoción» al santo del rey y «en memoria de la merced y victorial que en el día de su festividad de Dios comenzamos a recibir». Las «consideraciones» que cita el rey fueron el agradecimiento a Dios por los beneficios obtenidos, por mantener sus Reinos dentro de la fe cristiana en paz y justicia, para dar culto a Dios, para enterrarse en «una cripta» el propio rey, sus mujeres, hermanos, padres, tías y sucesores, y donde se dieran continuas oraciones por sus almas:

Reconocimiento de los «muchos y grandes beneficios que de Dios nuestro Señor habemos rescibido» y «cuánto Él ha servido de encaminar y guiar los nuestros hechos, e los nuestros negocios a su santo servicio».

 

Por «sostener y mantener estos nuestros Reinos es su sancta Fee y Religión, y en paz y en justicia».

Porque a Dios le agrada que le edifiquen y funden iglesias «donde su sancto nombre se bendice y alaba» y donde los religiosos den ejemplo de fe.

Para que «se ruega e interceda Dios Nuestro Señor por Nos e por los reyes nuestros antecesores e subcesores, e por el bien de nuestras ánimas», según la orden dada por el Emperador «en el cobdecilo que últimamente hizo nos cometió y remitió lo que tocaba a su sepultura y al lugar y parte donde su cuerpo y el de la Emperatriz y Reina, mi señora y madre, había de ser puestos y colocados».

Y para que «por sus ánimas se hagan y digan continuas oraciones, sacrificios, conmemoraciones e memorias.

 

Tampoco se pueden desdeñar otras razones para fundar el Monasterio, como la celebración de la primera victoria de Felipe II como rey, la afrenta que la mención a la Batalla de San Quintín -que se libró a apenas quince kilómetros de París- suponía hacia Francia, la veneración al mártir español san Lorenzo, en unos tiempos en los que la Reforma atacaba el culto a los santos y a las reliquias, o la necesidad de crear un centro unificador de la nueva fe que surgía del Concilio de Trento.

 

Orígenes de su planta

 

En julio de 1559 Juan Bautista de Toledo fue llamado a España por Felipe II para realizar toda una serie de obras de gran importancia para la realeza española. Una realeza que tendrá a partir de ahora una nueva concepción del estado moderno y para la que será necesaria la creación de un nuevo edificio que la representara. Juan Bautista será considerado el primer arquitecto del Monasterio de El Escorial y sus trazas sentarán las bases de lo que posteriormente será el lenguaje herreriano.

 

Las medidas del rectángulo de la planta, según señalaba el padre Sigüenza en 1605, son de 735x580 pies castellanos, es decir, 205x162 metros. La altura total del punto más elevado de la cruz tomada con respecto al pavimento de la iglesia es de 95 metros.

 

Las primeras trazas

 

En primera instancia se observa que las primeras trazas que se conservan de Juan Bautista de Toledo proponían un edificio con una imagen muy diferente al que se construyó definitivamente: torres en la mitad de la fachadas laterales (las huellas de la Torre de la Biblioteca aún son visibles en la fachada que da al Jardín, ya que se construyó en vida de Juan Bautista) y dos torres más en la portada principal, donde el Patio de Reyes quedaba abierto y dejaba ver en el fondo la portada de la Basílica. Sabemos por la documentación que se conserva de los priores del convento que al principio se preveían sólo cincuenta monjes en lugar de los cien finales, por lo que el proyecto original tenía una altura menos en la parte delantera.

 

En cuanto a la planta de la iglesia, el diseño se resolvía con unas naves de menores dimensiones que las actuales, rematadas con una capilla de ábside semicircular. No estando contento Felipe II con esta solución hará llamar a Francesco Paciotto que le aconsejará al monarca que el templo tenga el ábside plano. Finalmente el artífice de la solución definitiva fue Juan de Herrera, que construyó un templo cuadrado basado en la planta del Vaticano sobrepuesto a una planta basilical tradicional con el altar al final de la nave principal. A Herrera también se debe la imagen unitaria de las fachadas con menos torres y sin escalonamiento, lo que contribuyó a la potente imagen final del edificio.

La planta definitiva del edificio, con sólo cuatro torres en las esquinas y el Palacio Real haciendo de «mango», recuerda la forma de una parrilla, por lo que tradicionalmente se ha afirmado que se escogió esta traza en honor a San Lorenzo, martirizado en Roma en una parrilla, ya que el 10 de agosto de 1557, día de la festividad del santo, tuvo lugar la batalla de San Quintín. De ahí el nombre del conjunto y de la localidad creada a su alrededor.1

  

Antecedentes monásticos

 

Fernando Chueca Goitia explicó la disposición general del edificio dando gran importancia a la comprobada intervención de la orden jerónima en las primeras trazas de la obra, de la que resultaría el núcleo conventual de la iglesia y el claustro principal. La principal contribución de Juan Bautista de Toledo habría sido añadir los palacios privados y públicos, integrándolos en un esquema simétrico, mucho más propio del Renacimiento. Este primer esquema de palacio real adosado a un monasterio era costumbre entre los monarcas hispanos medievales, y lo utilizaron en los monasterios que usaban para retiros, lutos y descansos. Podemos encontrar muchos antecedentes, como Santo Tomás de Ávila, Guadalupe, Poblet, Santa Creus o Yuste, entre muchos otros.2

  

Modelos bíblicos: el Templo de Salomón

  

En realidad el origen arquitectónico de su planta es muy controvertido. Dejando a un lado la feliz casualidad de la parrilla, que no apareció hasta que Herrera cerró la fachada principal con la «falsa fachada» de la biblioteca y eliminó seis de las torres, la planta parece estar basada más bien en las descripciones del Templo de Salomón de la Biblia y del historiador judeo-romano Flavio Josefo.3 Esta idea debió ser modificada por las crecientes necesidades del convento y las funciones que Felipe II quiso que albergara el edificio (panteón, basílica, convento, colegio, biblioteca y palacio), por lo que hubo que duplicar las dimensiones iniciales del proyecto. Las estatuas de David y Salomón flanquean la entrada a la basílica recordando el paralelismo con el guerrero Carlos V y el prudente Felipe II. Del mismo modo, se pintan dos frescos de Salomón en el centro de las bóvedas de la Biblioteca y de la Celda del Prior, mostrando sus imágenes de mayor sabiduría y prudencia en el gobierno: el famoso episodio de la discusión con la Reina de Saba y la pelea de las dos madres por el hijo, al que Salomón propone partir en dos.

 

Muchos autores, siguiendo un famoso artículo de René Taylor, han buscado connotaciones ocultistas y mágicas en la comparación con el edificio bíblico, lo que parece difícil dado la inflexible religiosidad de Felipe II. Además, las connotaciones esotéricas del Templo de Salomón no aparecieron hasta dos siglos después, con la aparición de la masonería. La teoría más aceptada en la actualidad es la de que la similitud con el Templo de Jerusalén y la presencia de las estatuas de David y Salomón en su fachada buscaban subrayar la presencia real de Dios en la Eucaristía, idea negada por los protestantes y defendida en el Concilio de Trento. Recordemos que para la Reforma dicha presencia es meramente simbólica, ya que niegan que Dios esté presente en las hostias consagradas. También es muy posible que, como hizo Juan Bautista Villalpando a finales del XVI, se buscara dotar de un trasfondo bíblico a las ideas del Humanismo sobre la recuperación de la arquitectura pagana y las ideas sobre la modulación de Vitrubio, ya que el Templo de Jerusalén que describió Flavio Josefo se construyó durante la dominación romana de Judea.4

  

La arquitectura del Monasterio

  

El resultado final guarda reminiscencencias de los tres dominios que Felipe II había aprendido a amar en su juventud en Valladolid, Milán y Bruselas: la planta rectangular con sus cuatro torres en las esquinas, típica de los sobrios alcázares castellanos de piedra, la arquitectura clásica italiana en la basílica y las portadas, y los típicos tejados apizarrados flamencos. El edificio destaca por la potencia de su imagen, la sabia composición de su complejo programa funcional, el rigor arquitectónico de cada una de sus partes, la elegancia de la articulación arquitectónica entre las distintas piezas, la cuidada perfección de sus proporciones y sus ricos valores simbólicos. Debe destacarse también su impresionante unidad de estilo y el haberse realizado en el reducido plazo para entonces de 21 años. Los valores del proyecto son el orden, la jerarquización y la perfecta relación entre todas las partes de la composición, integrando monarquía, religión, ciencia y cultura en el eje principal: la Portada Principal con la estatua de San Lorenzo, la Biblioteca, los Reyes de Judá, la Basílica y el Palacio privado del rey. La teatralidad de este recorrido a través de este gran eje central para mostrar finalmente el Sagrario con la Eucaristía anticipa a la llegada del Barroco.

 

El estilo escogido fue el del Renacimiento, muy depurado y sin la profusa decoración plateresca. El orden arquitectónico predominante es el toscano, el más sencillo del clasicismo, y el dórico en la iglesia. Pese a su austeridad y aparente frialdad, el Monasterio de El Escorial fue un símbolo del salto entre una España medieval y otra moderna. Su arquitectura, el mejor ejemplo del Renacimiento español y modelo del estilo denominado "Herreriano" o "desornamentado", no puede dejarnos indiferente. Felipe II y sus arquitectos, de acuerdo con su gran cultura humanista aprendida en sus viajes por Italia, Alemania y los Países Bajos, contrapusieron el retorno al clasicismo romano al desbordante plateresco de la época. Se trata de una de las principales obras maestras de la arquitectura española, tal vez su página más brillante. Debe destacarse la fina sensibilidad de la fachada sur, superior a sus imitaciones del siglo XX en un tema tan difícil como es la repetición de tantas ventanas en un único lienzo.

 

Le Corbusier visitó el edificio, invitado en 1928 por García Mercadal y alabó su arquitectura, hasta el punto de que se ha señalado su semejanza con el proyecto del Mundaneum de 1929. Tras la celebración del Cuarto Centenario del Monasterio en 1984 se redescubrieron muchos detalles arquitectónicos del edificio, como la compleja geometría de los chapiteles herrerianos, la audaz bóveda plana, las bellas chimeneas siamesas o la ingeniosa solución espacial de la iluminación cenital de la linterna del convento. Pero no debemos olvidar el valor tradicionalmente reconocido a El Escorial: el hermoso Patio de los Evangelistas, con su espléndido ejercicio de bramantismo del templete central, la grandiosa cúpula trasdosada, la primera realizada sobre un tambor en España, la colosal escalera del convento, y los ejemplos del manierismo de la Basílica y de la fachada principal, entre otras muestras de gran arquitectura.5

  

Secciones del edificio

 

Las principales secciones en que se puede dividir el Real sitio son:

 

Biblioteca

 

Artículo principal: Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

 

Felipe II cedió a la Biblioteca del Monasterio los ricos códices que poseía y para cuyo enriquecimiento encargó la adquisición de las bibliotecas y obras más ejemplares tanto de España como del extranjero. Fue proyectada por el arquitecto Juan de Herrera cerrando el atrio de la Basílica y unificando la fachada principal, ya que Juan Bautista de Toledo la situaba en la desaparecida torre central de la Fachada Sur. Herrera también se ocupó de diseñar las estanterías que contiene. Se ubica en una gran nave de 54 metros de larga, 9 de ancha y 10 metros de altura con suelo de mármol y estanterías de ricas maderas nobles primorosamente talladas.

 

Arias Montano elaboró su primer catálogo y seleccionó algunas de las obras más importantes para la misma. Está dotada de una colección de más de 40.000 volúmenes de extraordinario valor. En 1616 se le concede el privilegio de recibir un ejemplar de cada obra publicada aunque nunca se llegó a cumplir de una forma demasiado rigurosa.

La bóveda de cañón del techo de la biblioteca está decorada con frescos representado las siete artes liberales, esto es: Retórica, Dialéctica, Música, Gramática, Aritmética, Geometría y Astrología. Entre los estantes de libros se colgaron retratos de diversos monarcas españoles, entre ellos el famoso Silver Philip (Felipe IV con traje castaño y plata) pintado por Velázquez, y que ahora está en la National Gallery de Londres. Los frescos de las bóvedas fueron pintados por Pellegrino Tibaldi, según el programa iconológico del Padre Sigüenza.

 

Palacio de Felipe II

 

El también denominado «Palacio de los Austrias» ocupa todo el mango de la parrilla de El Escorial y parte del patio Norte, construido en dos pisos alrededor del Presbiterio de la Basílica y en torno al Patio de Mascarones. Sigue el mismo esquema arquitectónico del Palacio de Carlos V en el Monasterio de Yuste. Actualmente sólo se pueden visitar los Cuartos Reales y la Sala de Batallas. En las dependencias privadas de los Reyes se pueden contemplar importantes obras pictóricas de la escuela española de principios del XVII, de la escuela italiana y veneciana del siglo XVI, y de las escuelas flamencas del XVI y XVII, entre ellos Los pecados capitales de El Bosco.

 

Antes de las habitaciones reales se atraviesan otras dependencias como el Salón de Embajadores, con interesantes objetos expuestos: morteros del siglo XVII, una mesa con incrustaciones de marfil, dos relojes solares en el pavimento, dos sillas plegables de madera chinas de la época Ming (ca. 1570) y los retratos de todos los monarcas de la Casa de Austria. Merecen especial mención las impresionantes puertas de marquetería, regalo del emperador Maximiliano II. Se expone también la supuesta silla-litera en la que Felipe II realizó su último viaje al Monasterio aquejado por la gota.

 

La «Casa del Rey» está formada por una serie de estancias decoradas con sobriedad, ya que fue el lugar de residencia del austero Felipe II. El dormitorio real, situado junto al altar mayor de la Basílica, cuenta con una ventana que permitía al rey seguir la misa desde la cama cuando estaba imposibilitado a causa de la gota que padecía. Está dividido en cuatro estancias: la sala principal, el escritorio, la austera alcoba y el lujoso oratorio.

 

Basílica

 

Artículo principal: Basílica de El Escorial.

 

Precedida por el Patio de los Reyes, es el verdadero núcleo de todo el conjunto, en torno al cual se articulan las demás dependencias.

 

Cripta

 

Artículo principal: Cripta Real del Monasterio de El Escorial.

 

Juan Gómez de Mora, según planos de Juan Bautista Crescenzi, reformó por orden de Felipe III la pequeña capilla funeraria de debajo del altar para albergar allí veintiséis sepulcros de mármol donde reposan los restos de los reyes y reinas de las casas de Austria y Borbón, con sólo algunas excepciones.

 

Relicarios

 

Siguiendo uno de los preceptos aprobados por el Concilio de Trento referente a la veneración de los santos, Felipe II dotó al Monasterio de una de las mayores colecciones de reliquias del mundo católico. La colección se compone de unas 7.500 reliquias, que se guardan en 507 cajas o relicarios escultóricos trazados por Juan de Herrera y la mayoría construidos, por el platero Juan de Arfe y Villafañe. Estos relicarios adoptan las más variadas formas: cabezas, brazos, estuches piramidales, arquetas etc. Las reliquias fueron distribuidas por todo el Monasterio concentrándose las más importantes en la Basílica. En el lado del Evangelio, bajo la protección del Misterio de la Anunciación de María, se guardan todos los huesos de los santos y mártires. En el lado opuesto, en el Altar de San Jerónimo, se sitúan los restos de los santos y mártires. Los restos sagrados se guardan en dos grandes armarios, decorados por Federico Zuccaro, que se encuentran divididos en dos cuerpos; se pueden abrir por delante, para ser expuestos al culto, y por detrás, para poder acceder a las reliquias.

 

Convento

 

El monasterio propiamente dicho ocupa todo el tercio sur del edificio. Fue ocupado originalmente por monjes jerónimos en 1567, aunque desde 1885 está habitado por los padres Agustinos, de clausura. El recinto se organiza en torno al gran claustro principal, el Patio de los Evangelistas, obra maestra diseñada por Juan Bautista de Toledo y que constituye una de las mejores páginas de arquitectura del Monasterio. Sus dos pisos están comunicados por la espectacular escalera principal, con las bóvedas decoradas por frescos de Luca Giordano. El ambicioso programa pictórico de sus soportales fue iniciado por Luca Cambiaso y continuado por Pellegrino Tibaldi. En el centro del claustro se levanta un hermoso templete realizado en granito, mármoles y jaspes de diferentes colores sobre traza de Juan de Herrera, influido por el tempietto de San Pietro in Montorio de Bramante. Las esculturas de los cuatro evangelistas fueron cinceladas por Juan Bautista Monegro de un solo bloque de mármol y sujetan un libro abierto con un fragmento de su Evangelio en la lengua en que fueron escritos.

 

Junto a las Salas Capitulares, destaca también la Celda Prioral Baja, con un fresco en el techo sobre El Juicio de Salomón de Francesco da Urbino, recordando al prior la necesidad de un gobierno justo al frente del Monasterio. La sacristía, aún en uso, con la Adoración de la Sagrada Forma de Sánchez Coello. En la Iglesia Vieja o de Prestado se conserva El Martirio de San Lorenzo de Tiziano, una de las obras maestras del renacimiento italiano, que Felipe II encargó para el retablo principal de la Basílica pero que descartó por su oscuro colorido, poco visible a cierta distancia.

 

Escalera principa

 

Sigue la típica tradición española de escalera imperial con un tramo principal dividido en dos a los lados a partir de la primera meseta, manteniendo el eje de simetría del convento y compatibilizando los tres pisos del Patio de los Evangelistas con los tres del convento mediante puertas discretas que permiten el paso a la zona más recogida y doméstica. Se suele atribuir a Bergamasco, aunque su proyecto fue modificado y desarrollado por Juan de Herrera. Su caja tiene una gran altura y cuenta con una cubierta propia que cubre la gran bóveda esquifada que ilumina desde arriba sus magníficos frescos.

 

Está decorada con frescos de Pellegrino Tibaldi, Luca Giordano y Luca Cambiaso, destacando La batalla de San Quintín y la Fundación de El Escorial, en la que aparece Felipe II discutiendo las trazas del Monasterio con Juan Bautista de Toledo y Juan de Herrera, junto al Obrero Mayor, el jerónimo Fray Antonio de Villacastín.

 

Salas capitulare

 

Destinadas actualmente a pinturas, eran las salas donde los monjes celebraban sus Capítulos, especie de confesiones mutuas para mantener la pureza de la congregación. Desde tiempos de Velázquez, que intervino en su decoración, albergaron importantes pinturas. A pesar del traslado de muchas al Museo del Prado, actualmente se exhiben varias tan importantes como La Última Cena y un San Jerónimo de Tiziano y La túnica de José de Velázquez. En febrero de 2009 se volvió a colgar en sus paredes el Martirio de San Sebastián de Van Dyck, recuperado dos siglos después de su sustracción durante la invasión napoleónica.

 

Su espléndida pinacoteca está formada por obras de las escuelas alemana, flamenca, veneciana, italiana y española, de los siglos XV, XVI y XVII. Incluye diversas obras de Pieter Coecke, pintor predilecto de Felipe II, así como de El Bosco, una Adoración de los pastores de Tintoretto y la famosa Crucifixión (o Gran Calvario) de Rogier van der Weyden.

 

Sala de las Batallas

 

Se trata de una galería de 60 x 6 metros, con 8 metros de altura, situada en la zona de los aposentos reales. En sus muros se representan pintadas al fresco algunas batallas ganadas por los ejércitos españoles. En el muro sur, solo interrumpido por dos puertas, se pintó de forma continua la batalla de La Higueruela (1431). Por el contrario, el muro norte aparece dividido por nueve ventanas creándose nueve espacios en los que se representaron otras tantas escenas de la guerra contra Francia (1557-1558), con el acento puesto en la batalla de San Quintín, vinculada a la fundación del propio monasterio. Por último, en los extremos se representaron dos escenas de una de las más recientes victorias de las tropas españolas: la batalla de la Isla Terceira librada entre la armada española dirigida por Álvaro de Bazán y la armada francesa (1582-1583). De la pintura se encargaron Niccolò Granello y su medio hermano Fabrizio Castello, Lazzaro Tavarone y Orazio Cambiaso, que abandonó pronto. Lo primero que se pintó fueron los grutescos de la bóveda, por los que los artistas cobraron ya en enero de 1585 y se dieron por terminados seis meses más tarde. En enero de 1587 se firmó el contrato para la pintura de la batalla de La Higueruela, que no se terminó hasta septiembre de 1589. El padre Sigüenza explica que se eligió representar esta batalla de la guerra de Granada por haberse hallado en el Alcázar de Segovia en un viejo arcón un lienzo de 130 pies en el que aparecía pintada la misma batalla en grisalla, y que habiendo gustado al rey, ordenó copiarla. Algunos meses después de acabada la pintura de la batalla de la Higueruela se resolvió completar la decoración de la sala, firmándose un nuevo contrato con Castello, Granello y Tavarone en febrero de 1590. Las batallas elegidas eran, por una parte, las de la guerra contra los franceses de 1557 y 1558, las únicas batallas a las que Felipe II había acudido en persona, y la toma de la isla Tercera en las Azores, con la que se completaba la incorporación de Portugal a la corona española. Para asegurar la veracidad histórica, a los pintores se les entregaron modelos de la formación de las escuadras y de sus uniformes proporcionados por Rodrigo de Holanda, yerno de Antonio de las Viñas.6

Museo de Arquitectura[editar · editar fuente]

Está situado en los sótanos del edificio, en la llamada por Juan de Herrera Planta de Bóvedas, y fue creado en el año 1963 como parte de las exposiciones del IV centenario de la colocación de la primera piedra. En sus once salas se muestran las herramientas, grúas y demás material empleado en la construcción del monumento, así como reproducciones de planos, maquetas y documentos relativos a las obras, con datos muy interesantes que explican la idea y gestación del edificio.

Jardines de los Frailes[editar · editar fuente]

  

Los Jardines de los Frailes

Mandados construir por Felipe II, que era un amante de la naturaleza, constituyen un lugar ideal para el reposo y la meditación. Manuel Azaña, que estudió en el colegio de los frailes agustinos de este monasterio, lo cita en sus Memorias y en su obra El jardín de los frailes. Es lugar de entretenimiento y estudio de los alumnos. El rey concebía sus jardines como un espacio productivo donde cultivar hortalizas y plantas medicinales, pero también los veía como una fuente de placer, con fuentes y flores. El monarca recopiló planos de jardines de Francia, Italia, Inglaterra y los Países Bajos, contratando a los mejores jardineros, tanto extranjeros como españoles. Este hoy austero jardín estaba originalmente repleto de flores, formando una especie de tapiz, por lo que fue comparado con las alfombras que se traían de Turquía o Damasco. También era un auténtico jardín botánico, con hasta 68 variedades diferentes de flores, muchas medicinales, y unas 400 plantas que se trajeron del Nuevo Mundo.

Al sudoeste del jardín se encuentra la Galería de Convalecientes o Corredor del Sol, un espacio amplio, aireado y lleno de luz diseñado para el reposo de los enfermos. Se apoya con una articulación arquitectónica poco conseguida en la Torre de la Botica, tal vez por la necesidad de garantizar la clausura a los monjes. Su sobria fachada hacia la lonja Oeste contrasta con la más abierta hacia los jardines, donde la solución arquitrabada con arcos sobre columnatas jónicas es única en el Monasterio.

 

Rohloff Speedhub & White Ind. Mi6 Naben,

Acros Steuersatz,

Thomson Stütze und Vorbau,

Stahlrahmen gemufft

© 2011 James Duckworth

Rohloff Speedhub & White Ind. Mi6 Naben,

Acros Steuersatz,

Thomson Stütze und Vorbau,

Stahlrahmen gemufft

 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

PLEASE NOTE: -

“MUDA” is a singular word relating to one of the mercantile convoys sailing out of Venice each year.

“MUDE” is a plural word relating to several, or all, of the mercantile convoys sailing out of Venice each year.

 

27 leaves, leaf size 249mm x172mm (9 3/4ins. X 6 8/10ins.) with a text block of 172mm x 98mm (6 8/10ins. x 3 17/20ins.).

Single column, 29 lines in a superb, elegant, humanistic cursive minuscule script in black, probably all written by the same scribe. Many ascenders on the top line, and descenders on the bottom line, have been embellished.

 

This manuscript include two texts, the first being the Regulations of the Muda of Venice to Alexandria, and the second being the Journal of the Muda to Alexandria that set sail from Venice on 21st. May, 1504. The manuscript was probably written in that city in that year.

 

A FULL DESCRIPTION IS ATTACHED TO THE OVERVIEW.

 

Folio 1 recto (Original Folio 2 recto)

 

TRANSCRIPTION

 

(4)

dum me cationes nec dormire i terram.

(5)Balstarii Galear tibi comissar habere debeant uni andam galea -

rum ficut homines de remo : qui Balistarii debeant accipi p te

Capitaneum pagatores & tres de Xlta secundum usum, et cum

accipien??? no possit Patroni, vel alii pro eis ullo modo esse pre -

sentes, Intelligendo q dicti Balistarii nullum aliud officium h re

possint nec exercere, nisi officium Baliste sub pena libr .C.

pro quolibet contra faciete, & si fuerit accator habeat tertium

& Dominium reliquum, et teneantur dicti Balistarii esse ad cu -

stodiam, & debeant a punc tari sicut alii, & debeant esse a Xxti

rimis supra, & a Lta. Infra.

(6)Si soldanus, vel alii sui Barones fecerint tibi vel aliis aliqua dona

illa talia veniant in nostrum Dominium.

(7)Ordinatum est etiam, que arma, et remigium dictar galearu Cum

volver int palmizare non ponatur in terram, sed debeant palmi -

zare quotiens aportuerit particulariter, sed non omnes simul pone -

tibus illis pro qua quibus volverint palmizare. Remigium su -

um, & arma illa vel illas, quo non palmizabint ficut tibi. & pa -

tronis dictar galearum videbitur opus esse per securitate dictar

Galearum.

(8)Patroni dictarum Galearum non possint accipere a Mercatoribus

& aliis Civibus, & fidelibus nostris pro mensa ultra grossos quatu -

or in Die pro Quolibet eorum. Et pro famulis grossos duos per quo

libet & non plures ullo modo, non possendo ponere Bisantium

nec accipere pro eo nisi grossos XXXta.

(9)Et si levabis mercationes vel havere Capselle in Clarentia ut a

clarentia sn. Pro eundo in Alexandriam debet de dicto hauere

et mercantiis solui medium nabulum. Solvendo tamen to -

tum Cotimum mercationum.

 

POSSIBLE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

 

(4) ….... cannot sleep when on land.

(5) The armed galley should have one of the commissioners offer himself to the oarsmen of the galley, who will captain the nearest and for the armament should be taken three of the forty according to use, and when the agreed legal representative cannot in any way be present, or anyone else, not understanding what has been able to to be armed, to be able to exercise no other function except under the penalty of a plain duty to arm the one hundred weapons, any other to the contrary shall you do, and if he has been pressed, the rest of the third and their lordships should hold the said armoury to be, to keep, and should, like others, to seek from the point of , and should be from people of twenty years as provided above and from the ??. Below.

(6) If the sultan has given to you or to others any gifts, those things come to our lordships.

(7) It is also ordered that the weapons and arms when they turn the oar-blades, the crew should not place them on the ground, but should the oar-blades be particularly brought, but not all together laying them down where they wish. The oarsmen and their various weapons and the oar-blades that are yours through the assurance of the work of the patrons of the said galley and galleys.

(8) Merchants or other of the said citizens cannot take a galley, and to the faithful our thoughts turn spontaneously to each of them. And I would like two of them instead of servants and certainly not any more, and do not take money for them but expect not to be able to lay down for thirty days until Byzsantium.

(9) And if they will not trade not even to have the box clearly open. Instead of going into Alexandria it should not be said and merchants are paid for half the freight. By paying completely the whole Cotimum trade.

   

Frame:*SINGULAR CYCLES* peregrine

Rims:*VELOCITY* standalone 001 rim

Hub:*PAUL* thru-axle disk F hub & *PAUL* thru-axle disk word hub

Tires:*TERAVAIL* cannonball tire

Handle:*HUNTER* low rise bar

Stem:*NITTO* UI-12 ahead stem

Brake:*PAUL* klamper flat mount disc calliper

Seatpost:*NITTO* S65 seatpost

Saddle:*SELLE ANATOMICA* X2 leather saddle

Crank:*BLUE LUG* XMC triple crank set × *WOLF TOOTH COMPONENTS* drop stop chainring

Cog:*WHITE INDUSTRIES* eno single freewheel

Pedals:*SIM WORKS* taco pedal

Headset:*CANE CREEK* 110 headset

Grip:*BROOKS* cambium rubber grip

© All rights reserved. lindaplaisted.com

 

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.

Rohloff Speedhub & White Ind. Mi6 Naben,

Acros Steuersatz,

Thomson Stütze und Vorbau,

Stahlrahmen gemufft

Rohloff Speedhub & White Ind. Mi6 Naben,

Acros Steuersatz,

Thomson Stütze und Vorbau,

Stahlrahmen gemufft

Frame :*SINGULAR CYCLES* peregrine

Rear Wheel :*VELOCITY* atlas rim × *VELO ORANGE* disc hub

Tires :*FAIRWEATHER* for cruise tire

Handle :*NITTO* rivendell b357 choco bar

Stem :*NITTO* MT-31 side clamp stem

Seatpost :*NITTO* S65 seatpost

Saddle :*BROOKS* b17 standard

Brake :*TRP* spyre

Brake Lever :*DIA-COMPE* mx-2 BL limited brake lever

Crank :*BLUE LUG* RMC-II multi speed crank

Front Rack :*NITTO* M-1B BL special front rack

Rear Rack :*NITTO* rivendell big back rack 33R

Pedal :*MKS* PAMBDA pedal

Grip :*BLUE LUG* cotton cloth bar tape

Headset :*PHILWOOD* 1-1/8 headset

Head Light :*SON NABENDYNAMO* Edelux II

Housing :*NISSEN*

A lonenly birch on the Swedish mountain, Fulufjället. The mist was quite heavy the day and the vagley below was basically captured in the blue mist.

The image is shot using the Minolta 58mm 1.4 lens on a Sony A7rII.

My favorite non-interactive art at bm.

shows the mayan calendar among other things. 2012

for artist statement see www.galactivation.com/gallery.php?act=view_photo&id_p...

 

Hoxton Basement, London, N16NG / 7th, Nov - 11st, Nov, 2015

Frame :*SINGULAR* peregrine

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset

Wheels:*VELOCITY* blunt ss × *VELO ORANGE* disc hub

Tire :*SCHWALBE* g-one

Handle :*WHISKY* No.7 12F aluminum drop handlebar

Stem :*RITCHEY* classic stem

Saddle :*BROOKS* b17 standard

Seat Post :*BL SELECT* slit seatpost

Bar tape:*LIZARD SKINS* DSP 2.5 V2 bartape

Rack:*NITTO* m-1B front rack

Bag:*SWIFT INDUSTRIES*

Fender:*VELO ORANGE* wavy fenders

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

Frame :*SINGULAR* peregrine

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset

Wheels:*VELOCITY* blunt ss × *VELO ORANGE* disc hub

Tire :*SCHWALBE* g-one

Handle :*WHISKY* No.7 12F aluminum drop handlebar

Stem :*RITCHEY* classic stem

Saddle :*BROOKS* b17 standard

Seat Post :*BL SELECT* slit seatpost

Bar tape:*LIZARD SKINS* DSP 2.5 V2 bartape

Rack:*NITTO* m-1B front rack

Bag:*SWIFT INDUSTRIES*

Fender:*VELO ORANGE* wavy fenders

Frame:*SINGULAR* peregrine

Front wheel:*SON NABENDYNAMO* SON 28 disc × *VELO ORANGE* voyager rim

Rear wheel:*VELO ORANGE* disc hub × *VELO ORANGE* voyager rim

Tire:*PANARACER* gravel king SK

Handle:*NITTO* b355 kite bar

Stem:*NITTO* UI-75 stem

Grip:*RIVENDELL* Miesha's Portuguese Tree Cork Grips

Saddle:*GILLES BER* aspin leather saddle

Crank:*BLUE LUG* RMC track crank

Brake lever:*VELO ORANGE* cru brake lever

Brake:*TRP* spyre

Headset:*PHILWOOD*

Shifter:*RIVENDELL* S-2 bar end

Rack:*NITTO* M-1B BL special front rack × *WALD* front 137 basket small

Head light:*SON* Edelux II

 

Frame :*SINGULAR* peregrine

Headset :*CHRIS KING* nothreadset

Wheels:*VELOCITY* blunt ss × *VELO ORANGE* disc hub

Tire :*SIM WORKS* the homage tire

Crankset :*WHITE INDUSTRIES* VBC road crank set

Handle :*SURLY* terminal handlebar

Stem :*FAIRWEATHER* UI-71 integrated stem

Brake :*TRP* spyre × *FORAGER CYCLES* cable cherries

Brake Lever :*PAUL* canti lever

Shifter:*RIVENDELL* S-2 thumb shifter

Saddle :*GILLES BERTHOUD* aravis leather saddle

Seat Post :*NITTO* 83 seatpost

Grip :*DIMENSION* cork mountain grip × *BLUE LUG* acrylic cloth bar tape

Pedal :*MKS* XC-III bear trap pedal

The Postcard

 

A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted using a 2d. stamp in Weymouth, Dorset on Thursday the 4th. July 1957 to:

 

Miss Doswell,

77 Ryedale,

East Dulwich,

London SE.

 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"Dear Miss Doswell,

We are having a nice

holiday. We had a bad

storm on Tuesday night -

thunder and lightning

all night.

Nice yesterday and

today again.

We hope you are keeping

well.

We have just had a boat

trip around Portland

Harbour.

Best wishes,

Mr. & Mrs. Voak."

 

Weymouth

 

Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast. The town is 11 kilometres (7 mi) south of Dorchester and 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of the Isle of Portland. The town's population in 2011 was 52,300.

 

Weymouth is a tourist resort, and its economy depends on its harbour and visitor attractions; the town is a gateway situated halfway along the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms.

 

Weymouth Harbour has provided a berth for cross-channel ferries, and is home to pleasure boats and private yachts, and nearby Portland Harbour is home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games were held.

 

The history of the borough stretches back to the 12th century; including involvement in the spread of the Black Death, the settlement of the Americas, the development of Georgian architecture, and a major departure point for the Normandy Landings.

 

Greenhill Gardens

 

Greenhill Gardens in the Greenhill suburb of Weymouth is a public garden positioned at the edge of the town centre, sloping up from the beach and promenade.

 

The Gardens were originally part of the Wilton Estate and were handed over as a gift to the local council in 1902 for 'the benefit of the inhabitants of Weymouth.'

 

Bennett's Shelter

 

Within the gardens, Bennett's Shelter, a benevolent donation made by Mayor V. H. Bennett, was constructed in 1919. The original shelter had lower wooden sections that have since been replaced by Portland stone walling, whilst the upper timber structure and tiled roof are essentially in their original form. The shelter continues to provide shelter to today's visitors.

 

The Schneider Trophy Weathervane

 

The Schneider Trophy weathervane is a memorial to the former Weymouth College student, Lieutenant George Stainforth, who set a world record air speed in a Schneider Supermarine S6B seaplane in 1931. The weather vane was originally presented to Weymouth College in 1932 as a memorial to Stainforth. Made of hardwood and covered in a copper sheath, the vane was erected above Weymouth College chapel in 1932, but moved for safety at the start of World War II.

 

The weathervane was later presented to the Borough Council and placed in the gardens in May 1952. In 1996, the vane had to be taken down after the effects of years of sea spray and coastal winds had taken their toll; however it was restored in 1999 by a local marine engineer.

 

The Floral Clock

 

In 1936, a floral clock with a cuckoo type chime was built by Ritchie & Sons of Edinburgh. The Company also designed the famous floral clock in Princes Street Garden in Edinburgh.

 

It features an adjacent clock house, holding the original mechanism that keeps the clock ticking. The clock house has two holes in the side where the noise of a cuckoo comes out.

 

Since its creation, it has become one of the most popular features of the gardens.

 

The Wishing Well

 

In the late 1980's, a wishing well, donated by Melcombe Regis Rotary Club, was introduced into the lower gardens, and any monies thrown into the well are collected and presented to a local charity.

 

The Tennis Courts

 

In 2006, the council were considering plans to erect a large restaurant on the tennis courts in the Gardens. This plan was received with almost universal dismay, and was subsequently shelved.

 

The Floral Bedding Design

 

Each year a large crescent shaped bed is given over to a charity or organisation which is celebrating a significant anniversary. The Gardeners painstakingly plant out thousands of tiny bedding plants, and where necessary, use coloured gravel to replicate the selected organisation's logo.

 

Eleanor Boucher

 

The gardens were highlighted on national news in the summer of 2009 when pensioner Eleanor Boucher from Glastonbury, Somerset, found a postcard from Weymouth on her doormat of the gardens.

 

After looking at it for a few moments she realised she was there - sunning herself in the picture taken 17 years before as a photographer snapped the shot for the postcard as Boucher and her two daughters enjoyed a family day trip to Weymouth in 1992.

 

Seventeen years later, her brother-in-law and his wife, who were visiting the resort, picked out the postcard by chance without noticing her in the picture.

 

Jenny Seagrove

 

So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?

 

Well, the 4th. July 1957 marked the birth of the English actress Jenny Seagrove.

 

She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and first came to attention in the film Local Hero (1983), as well as playing the lead in a television dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance (1984).

 

Jenny starred in the thriller Appointment with Death (1988) and William Friedkin's horror film The Guardian (1990). She later played Louisa Gould in Another Mother's Son (2017).

 

Jenny is known for her role as the character of Jo Mills in the long-running BBC drama series Judge John Deed (2001–07). Her credits as a voiceover artist include a series of Waitrose television advertisements.

 

-- Jenny Seagrove - The Early Years

 

Jenny was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia) to British parents, Pauline and Derek Seagrove. Her father ran an import-export firm, which afforded the family a privileged lifestyle.

 

When Seagrove was less than a year old, her mother suffered a stroke, and was unable to care for her. Seagrove attended St. Hilary's School in Godalming, Surrey, from the age of nine.

 

After leaving school, Seagrove attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, in spite of her parents' wishes for her to have a career as a professional cook.

 

Seagrove developed bulimia in her early adulthood, but recovered:

 

"I could feel myself tearing my stomach,

and I kind of pulled out of it. It was a

very slow process."

 

-- Jenny Seagrove's Career

 

(a) Theatre

 

Seagrove's theatre work includes the title role in Jane Eyre at the Chichester Festival Theatre (1986); Ilona in The Guardsman at Theatr Clwyd (1992); and Bett in King Lear in New York, again at Chichester (1992).

 

Jenny played opposite Tom Conti in Present Laughter at the Globe Theatre (1993); Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the Comedy Theatre (1994); and Dead Guilty with Hayley Mills at the Apollo Theatre (1995).

 

She played in Hurlyburly for the Peter Hall Company when the production transferred from the London Old Vic to the Queen's Theatre (1997); co-starred with Martin Shaw in the Parisian thriller Vertigo (Theatre Royal Windsor October 1998) and then with Anthony Andrews (also Windsor, 1998).

 

In 2000 she appeared in Brief Encounter at the Lyric Theatre; followed by Neil Simon's The Female Odd Couple at the Apollo (2001). Again at the Lyric Theatre in 2002 she played the title role in Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, followed by a revival of David Hare's The Secret Rapture in 2003, and The Night of the Iguana two years later in 2005.

 

Coming to the West End from a UK tour, she played Leslie Crosbie in Maugham's The Letter at Wyndham's Theatre (2007), co-starring with Anthony Andrews.

 

In December 2007, Jenny played Marion Brewster-Wright in the Garrick Theatre revival of Alan Ayckbourn's dark, three-act comedy Absurd Person Singular.

 

In 2008, she and Martin Shaw starred in Murder on Air, at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.

 

In 2011, Jenny once again starred alongside Martin Shaw in The Country Girl at the Apollo Theatre, playing the part of Georgie Elgin.

 

In early 2014, she appeared as Julia in a revival of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels. The production was produced by her partner Bill Kenwright, and also starred Sara Crowe.

 

In 2015, she and Martin Shaw starred in an adaptation of Brief Encounter, using an original radio script from 1947 and staged as "A live broadcast from a BBC radio studio", at the Theatre Royal Windsor.

 

Returning to the West End in October 2017, Seagrove played Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist at the Phoenix Theatre.

 

(b) Film

 

Jenny Seagrove starred alongside Rupert Everett in the Academy Award-winning short film A Shocking Accident (1982), directed by James Scott. Her first major film appearance was in Local Hero (1983) in which she played a mysterious environmentalist with webbed feet.

 

Roles in a number of films including Savage Islands (1983) opposite Tommy Lee Jones, and Appointment with Death (1988) followed.

 

One of her lead starring roles was in The Guardian (1990), directed by William Friedkin, in which she played an evil babysitter.

 

In 2017, she played the lead role in Another Mother's Son, starring as Louisa Gould, a member of the Channel Islands resistance movement during World War II, who famously sheltered an escaped Russian slave worker in Jersey and was later gassed to death in 1945 at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

 

(c) Television

 

Seagrove first came to mass public attention in the 10-episode series of the BBC production Diana (1984) adapted from an R. F. Delderfield novel, in which she played the title role as the adult Diana Gaylord-Sutton (the child having been played in the first two episodes by Patsy Kensit).

 

Seagrove starred in two American-produced television miniseries based upon the first novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford: as Emma Harte in A Woman of Substance (1984) and Paula Fairley in Hold the Dream (1986).

 

Jenny portrayed stage actress Lillie Langtry in Incident at Victoria Falls (1992), a UK made-for-television film. As the female lead, Melanie James in the film Magic Moments (1989), she starred with John Shea, who played the magician Troy Gardner with whom she falls in love.

 

Seagrove, along with Simon Cowell, presented Wildlife SOS (1997), a documentary series about the work of dedicated animal lovers who save injured and orphaned wild animals brought into their sanctuary.

 

Most of Seagrove's filmed work since 1990 has been for television. Between 2001 and 2007, she appeared as QC Jo Mills in the series Judge John Deed. She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when she was surprised by Michael Aspel.

 

With John Thaw she guest starred in the episode "The Sign of Four" (1987) of the series Sherlock Holmes. She also guest starred in episodes of Lewis ("The Point of Vanishing", 2009) and Identity ("Somewhere They Can't Find Me", 2010).

 

A few years later, she appeared in the series Endeavour (the prequel to the Inspector Morse series), in the episode "Rocket" (2013).

 

-- Jenny Seagrove's Personal Life

 

Seagrove is an animal rights activist and an advocate for deregulation of the herbal remedy industry in the United Kingdom, and promotes a vegetarian diet.

 

Since 1994, her partner has been the theatrical producer Bill Kenwright, chairman of Everton F.C. The couple appeared together as contestants on a charity edition of ITV1's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, winning £1,000. They also appeared together on a celebrity edition of the BBC's Pointless which aired on 3 January 2014.

 

Seagrove was previously married to British and Indian actor Madhav Sharma from 1984 to 1988​, and then dated film director Michael Winner from 1989 until 1993.

 

-- Mane Chance Sanctuary

 

Mane Chance Sanctuary is a registered charity that provides care for rescued horses, based in Compton, Guildford. The charity aims:

 

"To provide sanctuary and relief from suffering

for horses, while promoting humane behaviour

to all animals and mutually beneficial relationships

with people who need them".

 

Mane Chance Sanctuary was established in 2011 by Seagrove, who stepped in to support a friend facing financial difficulties. Seagrove was able to secure land on Monkshatch Garden Farm, and has since grown the charity which today cares for over 30 horses using a unique system of equine welfare.

 

The charity's trustees include the actor Sir Timothy Ackroyd and the philanthropist Simrin Choudhrie. The chairman is James McCarthy.

 

In 2014, she performed a duet alongside singer Peter Howarth called The Main Chance, as part of a promotion for the Mane Chance Sanctuary.

 

Lonnie Donegan

 

Also on that day, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Gambling Man' by Lonnie Donegan.

 

Lonnie Donegan

 

Also on that day, the Number One chart hit record in the UK was 'Gambling Man' by Lonnie Donegan.

 

Anthony James Donegan MBE, who was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, on the 29th. April 1931, was known as Lonnie Donegan. He was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960's British pop and rock musicians.

 

Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival, but transitioned to skiffle in the mid-1950's, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song "Rock Island Line" which helped spur the broader UK skiffle movement.

 

Donegan had 31 UK top 30 hit singles, 24 were successive hits and three were number one. He was the first British male singer with two US top 10 hits.

 

Donegan received an Ivor Novello lifetime achievement award in 1995, and in 2000 he was awarded an MBE. Donegan was a pivotal figure in the British Invasion due to his influence in the US in the late 1950's.

 

-- Lonnie Donegan and Traditional Jazz

 

As a child growing up in the early 1940's, Donegan listened mostly to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.

 

Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest, and he bought his first guitar at 14 in 1945.

 

He learned songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' on the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun" by listening to BBC radio broadcasts. By the end of the 1940's he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.

 

Donegan first played in a major band after Chris Barber heard that he was a good banjo player and, on a train, asked him to audition. Donegan had never played the banjo, but he bought one for the audition, and succeeded more on personality than talent.

 

Lonnie's stint with Barber's trad jazz band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but while in the army at Southampton, he was the drummer in Ken Grinyer's Wolverines Jazz Band at a local pub.

 

A posting to Vienna brought him into contact with American troops, and access to US records and the American Forces Network radio station.

 

In 1952, he formed the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which played around London. On the 28th. June 1952 at the Royal Festival Hall they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson.

 

Donegan adopted Lonnie's first name as a tribute. He used the name at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall on the 2nd. June 1952.

 

In 1953, after cornetist Ken Colyer was imprisoned in New Orleans over a visa problem, he returned to Great Britain and joined Chris Barber's band. The band's name was changed to Ken Colyer's Jazzmen before making their first public appearance on the 11th. April 1953 in Copenhagen.

 

The following day, Chris Albertson recorded Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and the Monty Sunshine Trio—Sunshine, Barber, and Donegan—for Storyville Records. These were amongst Donegan's first commercial recordings.

 

-- Lonnie Donegan and Skiffle

 

While in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set.

 

He began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what posters called a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930's. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

 

With a washboard, tea-chest bass, and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie.

 

This proved popular, and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Lead Belly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.

 

The record was a hit in 1956, but because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money beyond his session fee. It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and it reached the Top Ten in the United States. It also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960's.

 

The Acoustic Music organisation made this comment about Donegan's "Rock Island Line":

 

"It flew up the English charts. Donegan had

synthesized American southern blues with simple

acoustic instruments: acoustic guitar, washtub bass,

and washboard rhythm. The new style was called

'Skiffle'.... and referred to music from people with

little money for instruments. The new style captivated

an entire generation of post-war youth in England."

 

Lonnie's next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on the 30th. October 1954.

 

Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band, and by the spring of 1955, had signed a recording contract with Pye.

 

Lonnie's next single "Lost John" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.

 

He appeared on television in the United States on the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show.

 

Returning to the UK, he recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in summer 1956, with songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

 

The skiffle style encouraged amateurs, and one of many groups that followed was the Quarrymen, formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man"/"Puttin' On the Style" single was number one in the UK in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.

 

Lonnie's Skiffle rendition of Hank Snow's Country song "Nobody's Child" was also the inspiration for Tony Sheridan's blues version which he recorded with the Beatles as his backing band.

 

Donegan went on to successes such as "Cumberland Gap" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight?", which was his biggest hit in the US.

 

Lonnie turned to music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" in 1960. This was not well received by skiffle fans, and unsuccessful in America, but it reached number one in the UK.

 

Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally Denny Wright or Les Bennetts playing lead guitar and singing harmony, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett—later Steve Jones—on upright bass, Nick Nichols—later Pete Appleby, Mark Goodwin, and Ken Rodway on drums or percussion, and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.

 

His last hit single on the UK chart was his cover version of "Pick a Bale of Cotton." Ironically, or perhaps appropriately, his fall from the chart coincided with the rise of The Beatles and the other beat music performers whom he inspired.

 

-- Lonnie Donegan's Later Career

 

Donegan recorded sporadically throughout the 1960's, including sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer, and the Jordanaires. After 1964 he was a record producer at Pye Records. Justin Hayward was one of the artists with whom he worked.

 

Donegan was not popular through the late 1960's and 1970's (although his "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" was recorded by Tom Jones in 1967 and Elvis Presley in 1976), and he began to play the American cabaret circuit.

 

A departure from his normal style was a cappella recording of "The Party's Over". Capella means a purely vocal recording with no musical backing.

 

Donegan reunited with the original Chris Barber band for a concert in Croydon in June 1975. A bomb scare meant that the recording had to be finished in the studio, after an impromptu concert in the car park. The release was titled The Great Re-Union Album.

 

He collaborated with Rory Gallagher on several songs, notably "Rock Island Line" with Gallagher performing most of the elaborate guitar work.

 

Lonnie had his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States, necessitating quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to prominence in 1978 when he recorded his early songs with Rory Gallagher, Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Brian May. The album was called Putting on the Style.

 

A follow-up featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan in less familiar country and western vein.

 

By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983, Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984 he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr Cinders.

 

More concert tours followed, with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 Lonnie had further bypass surgery following another heart attack.

 

In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008).

 

Donegan had a late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998, an acclaimed album featuring him singing with Morrison and Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr John.

 

Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999, and was made an MBE in 2000.

 

Donegan also appeared at Fairport Convention's annual music festival on the 9th. August 2001. His final CD was This Yere de Story.

 

-- Peter Donegan

 

Peter Donegan started touring as his father's pianist when he was aged 18. In 2019, Peter appeared on the show The Voice as a contestant, and dueted with Tom Jones with a song Lonnie had written for Tom, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again". Anthony Donegan also performs under the name, Lonnie Donegan Jr.

 

-- Lonnie Donegan's Private Life and Death

 

Donegan was the son of an Irish mother (Mary Josephine Deighan) and a Scots father (Peter John Donegan), a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra.

 

In 1933, when Donegan was aged 2, the family moved to East Ham in Essex. Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in the Second World War, and attended St. Ambrose College in Hale Barns. He lived for a while on Chiswick Mall in Middlesex.

 

Donegan married three times. He had two daughters (Fiona and Corrina) with his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter (Anthony and Juanita) with his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons (Peter, David and Andrew) with his third wife, Sharon whom he married in 1977.

 

Lonnie Donegan died on the 3rd. November 2002, aged 71, after having a heart attack in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire mid-way through a UK tour. He died before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with the Rolling Stones.

 

-- The Legacy of Lonnie Donegan

 

Mark Knopfler released a tribute to Lonnie Donegan titled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said that Lonnie was one of his greatest influences.

 

Donegan's music formed a musical starring his two sons. It was called Lonnie D – the musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show.

 

Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a band to perform his father's material, and has since linked with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass.

 

They made an album together in 2009 titled Here We Go Again. Lonnie Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, as Lonnie Donegan Junior, who also performed "World Cup Willie" for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

 

On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". In "Class of '58" he describes a British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.

 

In a 2023 video interview with Steve Houk, Al Stewart stated:

 

"'Rock Island Line' is a record that completely

changed the complexion of English society,

and changed my life and everybody else's".

 

Peter Sellers recorded Puttin' on the Smile featuring "Lenny Goonagain", who travels to the "Deep South" of Brighton and finds an "obscure folk song hidden at the top of the American hit parade", re-records it and reaches number one in the UK.

 

David Letterman pretended to try to remember Jimmy Fallon's name during the Tonight Show conflict between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, calling Fallon "Lonnie Donegan."

 

In the 2019 movie Judy, the actor John Dagleish portrays Lonnie Donegan, who replaces an ill Judy Garland. He is shown in the (entirely fictional) final scene generously allowing her to make one last appearance on stage.

 

-- Quotations Relating to Lonnie Donegan

 

"He was the first person we had heard of from

Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts,

and we studied his records avidly. We all bought

guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man."

– Paul McCartney

 

"He really was at the very cornerstone of English

blues and rock."

– Brian May.

 

"I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up,

I knew that. But the man who really made me

feel like I could actually go out and do it was

a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan."

– Roger Daltrey

 

"Remember, Lonnie Donegan started it

for you."

– Jack White's acceptance speech at

the Brit Awards.

 

-- Final Thoughts From Lonnie Donegan

 

"I'm trying to sing acceptable folk music. I want to

widen the audience beyond the artsy-craftsy crowd

and the pseudo intellectuals–but without distorting

the music itself." NME – June 1956

 

"You know in my little span of life I've come across

such a sea of bigotries and prejudices. I get so fed

up with it now. I feel I have to do something about it."

- BBC Panorama

 

"In Britain, we were separated from our folk music

tradition centuries ago, and were imbued with the

idea that music was for the upper classes. You had

to be very clever to play music. When I came along

with the old three chords, people began to think

that if I could do it, so could they. It was the

reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did

that." – Interview, 2002.

It seems incredible to me that there are any churches in East Kent, at least parish churches, that I had yet to visit and photograph. Especially along Stone Street, which I thought that nks to churches and orchids I knew very well. And yet as I cross-referenced between John Vigar's book and the county A-Z, I saw more and more churches I had to visit.

 

And that brings us to Elmstead.

 

Elmstead is less a viallage and more a dog leg in a single track lane, and the church sits in the dog leg. Being a small place, surely it would have a small church? No, the church is large with two leat to chapels, and an extraordinary timber topped tower.

 

You reach Elmstone by taking tiny fork off Stone Street and following the narrowest of lanes, which has high banks and hedges both sides with few passing places. Down through woods, down steep hills crossing streams and up hills the other side, and all the while the road coated with a thick layer of mud, so that one hoped you were still on the road not having driven into a field.

 

In time I passed the village sign, and no missing the church, a large flint built church, and the triple gabled east end facing towards the road. Behind the tower was partially hidden, but I could already see the wooden upper part.

 

And it was open, and filled with much of interest, especially the stone altar in the south aisle.

 

---------------------------------------------

 

An extremely worthwhile church in remote countryside. The tower is an unusual shape, being almost twice as wide as it is deep and capped by a wooden upper storey with stumpy spire. The church consists of nave, aisles, chancel and equal length chapels. The nave is Norman: the original arch to the tower is still recognisable although a fourteenth-century replacement has been built inside it. At the same time the present arcade was built on the existing piers. In the north aisle is a medieval vestry screen, in front of which is a Norman font. There are very fine altar rails, each baluster looking like an eighteenth-century candlestick. Between the main altar and chapel is a simple thirteenth-century sedilia. The south chapel altar has a twelfth-century mensa which was discovered in the churchyard in 1956. The east window (1880) commemorates Arthur Honeywood who was killed in the Afghan war - only a dog survived and was given an award by Queen Victoria! Honeywood's ancestor, Sir John (d. 1781), is also remembered in the church by a splendid marble bust signed by Scheemakers

 

www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Elmsted

 

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Parish Church. Late Cll or C12, C13 and C14, restored in 1877. Flint

with stone dressings. Plain tile roofs. West tower, nave with north

and south aisles, south porch, chancel with north and south chapels.

West tower: C13, with late Cll or C12 base: Medieval belfry. Single

stage, but north and south sides reduce in width about half way up

with plain-tile shoulders. Large stone north-west and south-west

quoins to lower half. Diagonal south-west buttress. Shingled timber-

framed belfry jettied to west. Splay-footed octagonal spire. Two

louvred three-light trefoil-headed windows to each face of belfry.

No tower windows to north or east. Broadly-pointed plain-chamfered

lancet towards top of west face, and another to south. Taller plain-

chamfered lancet West window. Plain-chamfered pointed-arched west doorway.

Nave: south elevation: continuous with south wall of tower base. C19

traceried three-light window. South aisle: C14 possibly with late Cll

or early C12 origins. Narrow and gabled, stopping short of west end nave.

Plinthless. Buttress towards east end. C14 or early C15 pointed west window

of two cinquefoil-headed lights, with tracery of vertical bars, and hoodmould.

One straight-headed C15 or C16 south window to east of porch, with two

cinquefoil-headed lights and rectangular hoodmould. South porch: medieval,

restored in C19. Coursed knapped flint. Gabled plain-tile roof.

Window with cambered head, to each side. Crown-post roof; two outer crown

posts plain. Broadly-chamfered rectangular central crown post with broach

stops and head braces. Chamfered tie-beams. Pointed-arched plain-chamfered

inner doorway with broach stops. Unchamfered pointed-arched outer doorway.

South chancel chapel: early C14. Continuous with south aisle, but with

chamfered stone plinth and lower eaves and ridge. East end flush with

chancel. Diagonal south-east buttress. Large straight-headed south window

with three cinquefoil-headed lights and moulded hoodmould. Similar two-

light east window. Chancel: C13, probably with late Cll or C12 origins.

Slightly narrower than nave. No plinth. Two buttresses. C15 or C16

untraceried east window with cambered head, three cinquefoil-headed lights,

and hoodmould. North chancel chapel: early C14. Flush with east end

of chancel. Plinthless. Diagonal north-east buttress. C14 pointed-arched

east window with three cinquefoil-headed lights, tracery of cusped intersecting

glazing bars with trefoils and quatrefoils, and with hoodmould. Pointed-

arched C14 north window with Y tracery and trefoil, without hoodmould.

North aisle: C14. More stone mixed with flint. Continuous with north

chancel chapel, and slightly overlapping tower. Plinthless. One untraceried

C15 or C16 north window, with cambered head, three cinquefoil-headed lights,

and hoodmould. Straight-headed west window with two cinquefoil-headed

lights and hoodmould. Small blocked plain-chamfered pointed-arched north

doorway. Rainwater heads dated 1877. Interior: Structure: two-bay early

C14 south arcade to nave, with doubly plain-chamfered pointed arches and

octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. Two-bay C14 north

arcade, similar to south arcade, but extending further to west and with

more intricately-moulded capitals. East end of south arcade rests on

late Cll or C12 pier of large ashlar blocks on plain-chamfered plinth,

and with top heavily corbelled to south side. Footings for further structure

to east and south. Small, probably pre-C14, stone quoins to east pier

of north arcade, capped by single block from which arch springs. Doubly

plain-chamfered pointed early C14 chancel arch, springing from moulded

rectangular capitals which break forwards unusually. Plain-chamfered

piers with broach stops. Two-bay early C16 north and south arcades to

chancel, with doubly hollow-chamfered four-centred arches and octagonal

columns with moulded capitals and bases. Early C14 pointed arch between

south chancel chapel and south aisle, with plain-chamfered inner order

and slightly ovolo-moulded outer order. Moulded rectangular capitals

slightly different from chancel-arch capitals, but similarly breaking

forwards under inner order of arch, each on image corbel. Piers slightly

hollow chamfered, with cushion stops to base and undercut trefoil to tops.

Doubly plain-chamfered pointed arch between north chancel chapel and north

aisle, springing from chamfered imposts which break forwards to centre

with rounded corbel under. Low, pointed C14 tower arch, with plain-chamfered

inner order springing from moulded semi-octagonal piers, and hollow-chamfered

outer order descending to ground with cushion and broach stops. Above

arch, exposed voussoirs of taller, broader, blocked, round-headed late

Cll or C12 tower arch. Roof: C19 crown-post roof to nave and north aisle.

Chancel and north chancel chapel roofs boarded in five cants. Plastered

barrel vault to south chancel chapel. Medieval crown-post roof to south,

with three cambered plain-chamfered tie-beams, with moulded octagonal

crown posts, sous-laces and ashlar pieces. Fittings: piscina in rectangular

recess towards east end of south chancel chapel. C13 piscina in moulded

recess with trefoiled head and moulded hoodmould, towards east end of

south wall of chancel. Image corbel to north wall of north chancel chapel.

Late Cll or C12 font, low, deep, octagonal, with two panels of blind

arcading to each side, circular central pier and eight slender perimeter

columns. Small C17 altar table. Hexagonal C17 pulpit with sunk moulded

panels, strapwork, fleur-de-lys frieze, and enriched cornice. Medieval

screen, probably of domestic origin, with close-studded partition under

moulded and brattished beam, across west end of north aisle. Laudian

altar rails with turned balusters. Monuments: Cartouche on south wall

of south chancel chapel, to Sir William Honeywood, d. 1748. Monument

on same wall, to Thomas Honeywood, d. 1622; grey-painted chalk in form

of triptych. Central section has moulded and pulvinated base, scrolled

base-plate and shield, and raised and moulded inscription panel in eared

surround, flanked by Composite columns. Above it, a recessed panel

with inverted scrolls, and triangular pediment with cherubs head and

achievements. Recessed flanking sections, each carved with angel in

husked surround, and with scrolled base plate and corniced pediment

with shields. Tablet on same wall, to Mary Honeywood, d. 1708, lettered

on a shroud with gilded fringe, cherubs' heads, and shield surmounted

by urn. Brass of a lady, part of a brass to Christopher Gay, d. 1507.

Monument on north wall of north chancel chapel, to William Honeywood,

d. 1669. Black marble inscription panel in a frame which breaks forwards

twice. Each back panel eared, the outer with inverted scrolls to base

and festoon to return sides. Festooned rectangular panel flanked by

acanthus consoles and with scrolled acanthus base plate under inscription

panel. Moulded cornice over oak-leaf frieze, breaking forwards three

times. Segmental pediment with achievements over central break. Monument

by Thomas Scheemakers on same wall, to Sir John Honeywood, d. 1781.

White marble. Rectangular inscription panel, flanked by reeded pilasters

which curve out at top to form consoles under flower paterae. Shaped

base plate, also with inscription. Moulded cornice surmounted by -sarcophagus

with bust above it, against grey marble obelisk back plate. (J. Jewman,

Buildings of England Series, North-east and East Kent, 1983 edn.)

  

Listing NGR: TR1178645546

 

www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-440965-church-of-st-j...

 

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ELMSTED

IS the next parish northward from Hastingligh lastdescribed, taking its name, as many other places do, which are recorded in the survey of Domesday, from the quantity of elms growing in it, elm signifying in Saxon, that tree, and stede, a place. The manor of Hastingligh claims over some part of this parish, which part is within the liberty of the duchy of Lancaster.

 

THIS PARISH is situated in a lonely unfrequented part of the country, above the down hills, in a healthy air. It lies mostly on high ground, having continued hill and dale throughout it. The soil is but poor, and in general chalk, and much covered with flints, especially in the dales, where some of the earth is of a reddish cast. The church stands on a hill in the middle of it, having a green, with the village near it, among which is the court-lodge: and at a small distance westward, Helchin-bouse, belonging to Sir John Honywood, but now and for some time past inhabited by the Lushingtons. Lower down in the bottom is Evington-court, in a dull ineligible situation, to which however the present Sir John Honywood has added much, and laid out some park-grounds round it. At a small distance is a small heath, called Evington-lees, with several houses round it. At the southern bounds of the parish lie Botsham, and Holt, both belonging to Sir John Honywood. At the north-east corner of it, near Stone-street, is a hamlet called Northlye, the principal farm in which belongs to Mr. Richard Warlee, gent. of Canterbury, about half a mile from which is Deane, or Dane manor-house; and still further Dowles-farm, belonging to Mr. John Rigden, of Faversham; near Stone-street is the manor of Southligh, now called Mizlings, by which name only it is now known here; and near the same street is Arundel farm, belonging to Thomas Watkinson Payler, esq. and at the southern extremity of the parish, the manor-house of Dunders, with the lands belonging to it, called the Park, formerly belonging to the Graydons, of Fordwich, of whom they were purchased, and are now the property of the right hon. Matthew Robinson Morris, lord Rokeby, who resides at Horton. There are but two small coppice woods in this parish, lying at some distance from each other, in the middle part of it.

 

There is a fair kept yearly in this parish on St. James's day, the 25th of July.

 

THE MANOR OF ELMSTED was in the year 811 bought by archbishop Wlfred, of Cenulf, king of Mercia, for the benefit of Christ-church, in Canterbury, L. S. A. which letters meant, that it should be free, and privileged with the same liberties that Adisham was, when given to that church. These privileges were, to be freed from all secular services, excepting the trinoda necessitas of repelling invasions, and the repairing of bridges and fortifications. (fn. 1)

 

There is no mention of this manor in the survey of Domesday, under the title of the archbishop's lands, and of those held of him by knight's service, and yet I find mention of its being held of him in several records subsequent to that time; for soon afterwards it appears to have been so held by a family who assumed their name from it, one of whom, Hamo de Elmested, held it of the archbishop, by knight's service. But they were extinct here before the middle of king Henry III,'s reign, when the Heringods were become possessed of it, as appears by the Testa de Nevil, bearing for their arms, Gules, three herrings erect, two and one, or; as they were formerly in the windows of Newington church, near Sittingborne. John de Heringod held it at his death in the 41st year of that reign. His grandson, of the same name, died in the next reign of king Edward I. without male issue, leaving three daughters his coheirs, of whom, Grace married Philip de Hardres, of Hardres, in this county; Christiana married William de Kirkby; and Jane married Thomas Burgate, of Suffolk: but he had before his death, by a deed, which bears the form of a Latin will, and, is without a date, settled this manor, with the other lands in this neighbourhood, on the former of them, Philip de Hardres, a man of eminent repute of that time, in whose successors the manor of Elmsted remained till the 13th year of King James I. when Sir Thomas Hardres sold the manor of Dane court, an appendage to this of Elmsted, in the north-east part of this parish, to Cloake, and the manor of Elmsted itself to Thomas Marsh, gent. of Canterbury, whose son ton, whose great-grandson of the same name, at his death left it to his two sons, Richard and John, the former of whom was of Faversham, and left an only daughter Elizabeth, married to Mr. James Taylor, of Rodmersham, who in right of his wife became possessed of his moiety of it, and having in 1787 purchased the other moiety of John Lushington, of Helchin, in this parish, (son of Richard above-mentioned) became possessed of the whole of this manor, and continues owner of it at this time.

 

THE MANOR OF DANE, now called Deane-court, above-mentioned, remained in the name of Cloake for some time afterwards, and in 1652 Mr. Samuel Cloake held it. It afterwards passed into the name of Elwes, in which it continued down to John Elwes, esq. of Marcham, in Berkshire, who died in 1789, and by will gave it to his nephew Thomas Timms, esq. the present owner of it.

 

THE YOKE OF EVINGTON is an estate and seat in the south-west part of this parish, over which the manor of Barton, near Canterbury, claims jurisdiction. The mansion of it, called Evington-court, was the inheritance of gentlemen of the same surname, who bore for their arms, Argent, a sess between three burganetts, or steel caps, azure; and in a book, copied out from antient deeds by William Glover, Somerset herald, afterwards in the possession of John Philipott, likewise Somerset, there was the copy of an old deed without date, in which William Fitzneal, called in Latin, Filius Nigelli, passed over some land to Ruallo de Valoigns, which is strengthened by the appendant testimony of one Robert de Evington, who was ancestor of the Evingtons, of Evington-court, of whom there is mention in the deeds of this place, both in the reigns of king Henry III. and king Edward I. After this family was extinct here, the Gays became possessed of it, a family originally descended out of France, where they were called Le Gay, and remained some time afterwards in the province of Normandy, from whence those of this name in Jersey and Guernsey descended, and from them again those of Hampshire, and one of them, before they had left off their French appellation, John le Gay, is mentioned in the leiger book of Horton priory, in this neighbourhood, as a benefactor to it. But to proceed; although Evington-court was not originally erected by the family of Gay, yet it was much improved by them with additional buildings, and in allusion to their name, both the wainscot and windows of it were adorned with nosegays. At length after the Gays, who bore for their arms, Gules, three lions rampant, argent, an orle of cross-croslets, fitchee, or. (fn. 2) had continued owners of this mansion till the beginning of the reign of king Henry VII. Humphry Gay, esq. alienated it to John Honywood, esq. of Sene, in Newington, near Hythe, and afterwards of St. Gregory's, Canterbury, where he died in 1557, and was buried in that cathedral.

 

The family of Honywood, antiently written Henewood, take their name from the manor of Henewood, in Postling, where they resided as early as Henry III.'s reign, when Edmund de Henewood, or Honywood, as the name was afterwards spelt, of that parish, was a liberal benefactor to the priory of Horton, and is mentioned as such in the leiger book of it. After which, as appears by their wills in the Prerogative-office, in Canterbury, they resided at Hythe, for which port several of them served in parliament, bearing for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between three hawks heads erased, azure; one of them, Thomas Honywood, died in the reign of king Edward IV. leaving a son John, by whose first wife descended the elder branch of this family, settled at Evington, and baronets; and by his second wife descended the younger branch of the Honywoods, seated at Petts, in Charing, and at Markshall, in Effex, which branch is now extinct. (fn. 3) John Honywood, esq. the eldest son of John above-mentioned, by his first wife, was the purchaser of Evington, where his grandson Sir Thomas Honywood resided. He died in 1622, and was buried at Elmsted, the burial place of this family. (fn. 4) He left by his first wife several sons and daughters; of the former, John succeeded him at Evington and Sene, and Edward was ancestor of Frazer Honywood, banker, of London, and of Malling abbey, who died s. p. in 1764. (fn. 5) Sir John Honywood, the eldest son, resided during his father's time at Sene, in Newington, and on his death removed to Evington. He served the office of sheriff in the 18th, 19th, and 20th years of king Charles I. Sir Edward Honywood, his eldest son, resided likewise at Evington, and was created a baronet on July 19, 1660. His great grandson Sir John Honywood, bart. at length in 1748, succeeded to the title and family estates, and afterwards resided at Evington, where he kept his shrievalty in 1752. On the death of his relation Frazer Honywood, esq. banker, of London, in 1764, he succeeded by his will to his seats at Malling abbey, and at Hampsted, in Middlesex, besides a large personal estate; after which he resided at times both here and at Hampsted, at which latter he died in 1781, æt. 71, and was buried with his ancestors in this church. He had been twice married; first to Annabella, daughter of William Goodenough, esq. of Langford, in Berk shire, whose issue will be mentioned hereafter; and secondly to Dorothy, daughter of Sir Edward Filmer, bart. of East Sutton, by whom he had two sons, Filmer Honywood, esq. of Marks-hall, in Essex, to which as well as other large estates in that county, and in this of Kent, he succeeded by the will of his relation Gen. Philip Honywood, and lately was M. P. for this county, and is at present unmarried; and John, late of All Souls college, Oxford, who married Miss Wake, daughter of Dr. Charles Wake, late prebendary of Westminster; and Mary, married to Willshire Emmett, esq. late of Wiarton. By his first wife Sir John Honywood had two sons and four daughters; William the eldest, was of Malling abbey, esq. and died in his father's life time, having married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Clack, of Wallingford, in Berkshire, by whom he had three sons and one daughter Annabella, married to R. G. D. Yate, esq of Gloucestershire; of the former, John was heir to his grandfather, and is the present baronet; William is now of Liminge, esq. and married Mary, sister of James Drake Brockman, esq. of Beechborough, and Edward married Sophia, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Long, of Suffolk. Edward, the second son, was in the army, and died without issue. The daughters were, Annabella, married to Edmund Filmer, rector of Crundal; and Thomasine, married to William Western Hugessen, esq. of Provenders, both since deceased. On Sir John Honywood's death in 1781, he was succeeded by his eldest grandson abovementioned, the present Sir John Honywood, bart. who resides at Evington, to which he has made great improvements and additions. He married Frances, one of the daughters of William, viscount Courtenay, by whom he has three daughters, Frances-Elizabeth, Charlotte-Dorothea, and Annabella-Christiana, and one son John, born in 1787. (fn. 6).

 

BOTTSHAM, antiently and more properly written Bodesham, is a manor in the western part of this parish. About the year 687 Swabert, king of Kent, gave among others, three plough-lands in a place called Bodesham, to Eabba, abbess of Minister, in Thanet, and in the reign of king Edward the Consessor, one Ælgeric Bigg gave another part of it to the abbey of St. Augustine, by the description of the lands called Bodesham, on condition that Wade, his knight, should possess them during his life. (fn. 7) The former of these continued in the monastery till the reign of king Canute, when it was plundered and burnt by the Danes. After which the church and lands of the monastery of Minster, and those of Bodesham among them, were granted to St. Augustine's monastery, and remained, together with those given as above-mentioned by Ælgeric Bigg, part of the possessions of it at the taking of the survey of Domesday, in which record it is thus described:

 

In Limowart left, in Stotinges hundred, Gaufrid holds Bodesham of the abbot. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates, and there are, with eight borderers, wood for the pannage of fifteen hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards twenty shillings, now four pounds, A certain villein held it.

 

Hugh, abbot of St. Augustine, and his chapter, in the year 1110, granted to Hamo, steward of the king's houshold, this land of Bodesham, upon condition that he should, if there should be occasion, advise and assist him and his successors in any pleas brought against him by any baron, either in the county or in the king's court.

 

Hamo above-mentioned, whose surname was Crevequer, had come over into this kingdom with the Conqueror, and was rewarded afterwards with much land in this county, and was made sheriff of it during his life, from whence he was frequently stiled Hamo Vicecomes, or the sheriff. He lived till the middle of king Henry I.'s reign; and in his descendants it most probably remained till it came into the possession of the family of Gay, or Le Gay as they were sometimes written, owners of the yoke of Evington likewise, in which it continued till it was at length sold with it, in the beginning of Henry VII.'s reign, to Honywood, as has been fully mentioned before; in whose descendants it still remains, being now the property of Sir John Honywood, bart. of Evington.

 

IN THE REIGN of king Edward I. Thomas de Morines held half a knight's fee of the archbishop in Elmsted, which estate afterwards passed into the family of Haut, and in the reign of king Edward III. had acquired the name of the Manor Of Elmsted, alias SOUTHLIGH. In which family of Haut it continued down to Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, who lived in the reign of king Henry VIII. and left two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, married to Thomas Culpeper, of Bedgbury; and Jane, to Thomas Wyatt. The former of whom, in the division of their inheritance, (fn. 8) became possessed of it; from his heirs it passed by sale to Best, and from thence again to Rich. Hardres, esq. of Hardres, whose descendant Sir Tho. Hardres, possessed it in king James I.'s reign; at length, after some intermediate owners, it passed to Browning, whose descendant M. John Browning, of Yoklets, in Waltham, is the present owner of this manor.

 

There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly relieved are about thirty, casually seventeen.

 

Elmsted is within the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Elham.

 

The church, which is dedicated to St. James, is a handsome building, consisting of three isles and three chancels, having a low pointed wooden steeple at the west end, in which are six bells. The chancels are open, one towards the other, the spaces between the pillars not being filled up, which gives the whole a light and airy appearance. In the middle chancel, which is dedicated to St. James, are memorials for the Taylors, who intermarried with the Honywoods, and for the Lushingtons, of Helchin; one for John Cloke, gent. of Northlye, obt. 1617. In the east window is a shield of arms, first and fourth, A lion rampant, or; second, On a fess, argent, three eros-croslets; third, obliterated. In another compartment of the window is the figure of an antient man sitting, in robes lined with ermine, a large knotted staff in his left hand. The north chancel is called the parish chancel, in which is an elegant monument, of white marble, with the bust of the late Sir John Honywood, bart.(a gentleman whose worthy character is still remembered with the highest commendation and respect, by all who knew him). He died much lamented by his neighbours and the country in general in 1781; and on the pavement are numbers of gravestones for the family of Honywood and their relatives. The south chancel, dedicated to St. John, belongs to Evington, in which there are several monuments, and numbers of gravestones, the pavement being covered with them, for the Honywood family, some of which have inscriptions and figures on brasses remaining on them. Underneath this chancel is a large vault, in which the remains of the family lie deposited. On the north side of this chancel is a tomb, having had the figures on it of a man between his two wives: and at each corner a shield of arms in brass for Gay. On the capital of a pillar at the east end of this tomb is this legend, in old English letters, in gold, which have been lately repaired: Pray for the sowlys of Xtopher Gay, Agnes and Johan his wifes, ther chylder and all Xtian sowlys, on whose sowlys Jhu have mcy; by which it should seem that he was the founder, or at least the repairer of this chancel. Underneath is carved a shield of arms of Gay. In the east window are two shields of arms, of modern glass, for Honywood. In the south isle is a monument for Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, obt. 1748. In the middle isle are several old stones, coffin shaped. William Philpot, of Godmersham, by will anno 1475, ordered that the making of the new seats, calledle pewis, in this church, should be done at his expence, from the place where St. Christopher was painted, to the corner of the stone wall on the north side of the church.

 

The church of Elmsted belonged to the priory of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, perhaps part of its original endowment by archbishop Lanfranc, in the reign of the Conqueror. It was very early appropriated to it, and was confirmed to the priory by archbishop Hubert, among its other possessions, about the reign of king Richard I. at which time this church, with five acres of arable, and five acres of wood, and the chapel of Dene, appear to have been esteemed as chapels to the adjoining church of Waltham, and the appropriation of it continued part of the possessions of the priory till the dissolution of it in king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it was surrendered into the king's hands, where this appropriation remained but a small time, for an act passed that year, to enable the king and the archbishop to make an exchange of estates, by which means it became part of the revenues of the see of Canterbury, and was afterwards demised by the archbishop, among the rest of the revenues of the above-mentioned priory, which had come to him by the above-mentioned exchange, in one great lease; under which kind of demise it has continued from time to time ever since. Philip, earl of Chesterfield, as heir to the Wottons, was lessee of the above estates, in which this parsonage was included; since whose decease in 1773, his interest in the lease of them has been sold by his executors to Geo. Gipps, esq. of Canterbury, who is the present lessee, under the archbishop, for them.

 

But the vicarage of this church seems never to have belonged to the priory of St. Gregory, and in the 8th year of Richard II. anno 1384, appears to have been part of the possessions of the abbot of Pontiniac, at which time it was valued at four pounds. How long it staid there, I have not found; but it became afterwards part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and remains so at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.

 

¶The vicarage of Elmsted is endowed with the tenths of hay, silva cedua, mills, heifers, calves, chicken, pigs, lambs, wool, geese, ducks, eggs, bees, honey, wax, butter, cheese, milk-meats, flax, hemp, apples, pears, swans, pidgeons, merchandise, fish, onions, fowlings, also all other small tithes or obventions whatsoever within the parish; and also with all grass of gardens or other closes, vulgarly called homestalls, although they should be at any time reduced to arable; and the tithes of all and singular feedings and pastures, even if those lands so lot for feedings and pastures should be accustomed to be ploughed, as often and whensoever they should at any time be let for the use of pasture; which portion to the vicar was then valued at twelve marcs. (fn. 9)

 

It is valued in the king's books at 61. 13s. 4d. It is now a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of forty-five pounds. In 1587 it was valued at thirty pounds, communicants one hundred and eighty. In 1640 it was valued at ninety pounds, the same number of communicants. There was an antient stipend of ten pounds, payable from the parsonage to the vicar, which was augmented with the like sum by archbishop Juxon, anno 15 Charles II. to be paid by the lessee of the parsonage; which sum of twenty pounds continues at this time to be paid yearly by the lesse. There was a yearly pension of 1l. 6s. payable from the vicar of Elmsted to the priory of St. Gregory; which still continues to be paid by him to the archbishop's lessee here.

 

www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol8/pp33-45

Foto de Sue Ponce Gómez

 

QUERER PARECER NOCHE

10 OCTUBRE 2018 - 27 ENERO 2019

 

COMISARIOS: BEATRIZ ALONSO Y CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ - PELLO

 

Nos debatimos, como siempre, entre el deseo y las apariencias, entre el querer y el parecer de una noche española que no nos deja ver del todo. Entre la nostalgia histórica de la que somos herederos y el momento histriónico que nos ha tocado vivir, es en lo barroco, en lo pardusco, en lo grasiento, donde hallamos algunas vías de negociación con una tradición que nos duele y nos esquiva. El relato de una ciudad sin imagen, en cuya oscuridad aparece también la claridad de una idea, la inspiración que le falta al texto o la serenidad y la concentración del silencio.

 

Querer parecer noche es una exposición que acoge diferentes formas de producción artística en Madrid para imaginar con ellas una oscuridad. En lugar de un análisis objetivo, levantamos un telón de anacronías y desfases; en lugar de un retrato de escena, nos abandonamos a las intuiciones e intrigas de palacio. Un delirio parcial, excéntrico, fruto quizá de la pasión o del secreto de alcoba, nos sirve para especular sobre aquello que hace singular a una ciudad que escapa continuamente a la continuidad. Sin una genealogía o escuela fuerte, todo lo que traza una línea temporal o narrativa es aquí, amor, ilusión o coincidencia.

La incisión que proponemos es una de las muchas posibles de un contexto, con sus distintas sensibilidades y maneras de hacer, donde la idea de lo local se construye a caballo entre quienes lo habitan y quienes están de paso. Un limbo o meseta, suspendida entre el norte y el sur, que se define por abrazar sin complejos el afuera a veces con más entusiasmo que lo que le crece dentro. Ante esta contradicción, también huimos de la ciudad para encontrarla: descendemos por las obras como por una torre de espejos, ecos y réplicas, y vamos tejiendo una trama ambigua, fragmentada, ojalá algo transformada, que incorpora la idea de escena a nuestros fantasmas cotidianos.

 

Pensamos entonces si se puede entender la producción artística en la ciudad desde el claroscuro: cuando tamizado, en la media tarde del verano más seco, el sol aprieta y los interiores se hunden en el querer parecer noche del visillo o la persiana. En medio de ese terror diurno o cegador, a la sombra de una cortina espesa, aparecen las ruinas de un último reino, el espejismo de un laberinto central o la visión de un monstruo de cerebro blando y corazón caliente, que parece más un sueño que una cosa real.

 

Hace casi un año que aceptamos el encargo de adentrarnos en las tripas de este Madrid subterráneo inventado por nosotros mismos. Recorriendo sus túneles húmedos, subiendo y bajando por sus pasadizos y recovecos, la hemos querido y dejado de querer unas mil veces. En la confusión de ese hacer marrón, torpe pero brillante, abrimos un corte en la corte para, como en la verbena, juntar lo propio y lo extraño. Intentaremos que, al menos durante un tiempo, se crucen las familias, se irriten las obras, se rocen las enemistades y sea necesario rascarse las formas de la ciudad. Un rumor de duermevela, un escalofrío en la nuca, un encogerse el estómago o el siseo de una serpiente. Donde cualquier parecido con la ficción es, además de muy real, la más valiosa de nuestras pertenencias.

 

La exposición forma parte de las diferentes celebraciones del 10º aniversario del Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo y pone en relación la obra de 58 artistas, de las cuales 20 son de nueva producción, con un peso mayoritario de la escena local.

 

PARTICIPAN

Ana Laura Aláez, Elena Alonso, Beatriz Alonso, Lara Almarcegui, Helena Almeida, Tamara Arroyo, Elena Asins, Antonio Ballester Moreno, Nora Barón, David Bestué, Alexander Calder, Jacobo Castellano, Ignacio Castro Rey, Paloma Checa Gismero, Manel Clot, June Crespo, Javier Cruz, Julián Cruz, Ángela Cuadra, Diego Delas, José Díaz, Miren Doiz, Iñaki Domingo, Marta Echaves, Mario Espliego, Patricia Esquivias, Marta Fernández Calvo, Carlos Fernández-Pello, Aurora Fernández Polanco, Javier Fresneda, Nuria Fuster, Fernando Gandasegui, Fernando García, Paula García - Masedo, Marian Garrido, Cristina Garrido, Karlos Gil, Rubén Grilo, Hisae Ikenaga, María Jerez, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Kaoru Katayama, Dai K.S., Juan López, Rubén M. Riera, Maruja Mallo, Isabel Marcos, Chus Martínez, Mariano Mayer, Fran Meana, Antonio Menchen, Joan Miró, Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, Momu & No Es, Guillermo Mora, Isabel de Naverán, Pablo Palazuelo, Kiko Pérez, Diego del Pozo, Gregorio Prieto, Alex Reynolds, Alfredo Rodríguez, Belén Rodríguez, Manuel Saiz, María Salgado, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Víctor Santamarina, Manuel Segade, Leonor Serrano Rivas, Teresa Solar, Julia Spínola, Miguel Ángel Tornero, José Val del Omar, Luis Vassallo, Roberto Vidal y Belén Zahera.

  

Photo by Iñaki Domingo

 

WANT TO LOOK NIGHT

OCTOBER 10, 2018 - JANUARY 27, 2019

 

COMMISSIONERS: BEATRIZ ALONSO AND CARLOS FERNÁNDEZ - PELLO

 

We debate, as always, between desire and appearances, between wanting and looking like a Spanish night that does not let us see at all. Between the historical nostalgia of which we are heirs and the histrionic moment that we have had to live, it is in the baroque, in the brownish, in the greasy, where we find some ways of negotiation with a tradition that hurts and dodges us. The story of a city without an image, in whose darkness there is also the clarity of an idea, the inspiration that the text lacks or the serenity and the concentration of silence.

 

Wanting to look like night is an exhibition that hosts different forms of artistic production in Madrid to imagine a darkness with them. Instead of an objective analysis, we raise a curtain of anachronisms and lags; instead of a scene portrait, we abandon ourselves to the intuitions and intrigues of the palace. A partial, eccentric delirium, perhaps the result of passion or the secrecy of the bedroom, helps us to speculate on what makes a city that continuously escapes continuity unique. Without a genealogy or strong school, everything that draws a timeline or narrative is here, love, illusion or coincidence.

The incision that we propose is one of the many possible of a context, with its different sensibilities and ways of doing, where the idea of ​​the local is built on horseback between those who inhabit it and those who are passing through. A limbo or plateau, suspended between the north and the south, which is defined by hugging without complexes outside sometimes with more enthusiasm than what grows inside. Faced with this contradiction, we also fled the city to find it: we descend through the works as through a tower of mirrors, echoes and replicas, and we are weaving an ambiguous, fragmented plot, hopefully something transformed, which incorporates the idea of ​​a scene to our everyday ghosts .

 

We think then if you can understand the artistic production in the city from the chiaroscuro: when sifted, in the mid-afternoon of the driest summer, the sun squeezes and the interiors sink into wanting to look like curtain night or blind. In the midst of that daytime or blinding terror, in the shadow of a thick curtain, the ruins of a last kingdom appear, the mirage of a central maze or the vision of a soft-brained, warm-hearted monster, which seems more like a dream than a real thing

 

Almost a year ago we accepted the order to enter the guts of this underground Madrid invented by ourselves. Walking through its wet tunnels, going up and down its passages and recesses, we have loved it and stopped loving it a thousand times. In the confusion of that doing brown, awkward but bright, we opened a cut in the court to, as in the verbena, gather the own and the strange. We will try that, at least for a while, the families cross, the works are irritated, the enmities are rubbed and it is necessary to scratch the forms of the city. A rumor of sleeping it, a chill in the neck, a shrinking stomach or the hiss of a snake. Where any resemblance to fiction is, in addition to very real, the most valuable of our belongings.

 

The exhibition is part of the different celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Dos de Mayo Art Center and relates the work of 58 artists, of which 20 are newly produced, with a majority weight of the local scene.

 

PARTICIPATE:

Ana Laura Aláez, Elena Alonso, Beatriz Alonso, Lara Almarcegui, Helena Almeida, Tamara Arroyo, Elena Asins, Antonio Ballester Moreno, Nora Barón, David Bestué, Alexander Calder, Jacobo Castellano, Ignacio Castro Rey, Paloma Checa Gismero, Manel Clot, June Crespo, Javier Cruz, Julián Cruz, Ángela Cuadra, Diego Delas, José Díaz, Miren Doiz, Iñaki Domingo, Marta Echaves, Mario Espliego, Patricia Esquivias, Marta Fernández Calvo, Carlos Fernández-Pello, Aurora Fernández Polanco, Javier Fresneda, Nuria Fuster, Fernando Gandasegui, Fernando García, Paula García - Masedo, Marian Garrido, Cristina Garrido, Karlos Gil, Rubén Grilo, Hisae Ikenaga, María Jerez, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Kaoru Katayama, Dai K.S., Juan López, Rubén M. Riera, Maruja Mallo, Isabel Marcos, Chus Martínez, Mariano Mayer, Fran Meana, Antonio Menchen, Joan Miró, Fran MM Cabeza de Vaca, Momu & No Es, Guillermo Mora, Isabel de Naverán, Pablo Palazuelo, Kiko Pérez, Diego del Pozo, Gregorio Prieto, Alex Reynolds, Alfredo Rodríguez, Belén Rodríguez, Manuel Saiz, María Salgado, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Víctor Santamarina, Manuel Segade, Leonor Serrano Rivas, Teresa Solar, Julia Spínola, Miguel Ángel Tornero, José Val del Omar, Luis Vassallo, Roberto Vidal y Belén Zahera.

  

ca2m.org/exposiciones/querer-parecer-noche