Sant Martí de Dosquers

Sant Martí de Dosquers és l'església parroquial del poble de Dosquers, dedicada a Sant Martí, al municipi de Maià de Montcal (Garrotxa) protegit com a bé cultural d'interès local.

Descripció

Absis de l'església

 

És un edifici romànic d'una sola nau i absis semicircular que presenta construccions annexes, d'època posterior, que modifiquen la seva primitiva estructura: dues capelles a tramuntana i dues a migdia més una sagristia a l'angle sud-est. A ponent hi ha la porta d'accés al temple, protegida per una cornisa semicircular i formada per arcs en degradació; la llinda i el timpà són llisos. Damunt hi ha una finestra amb arquivoltes i cornisa. L'absis va ser sobrealçat, i per la part de migdia s'observen les ampliacions del temple. A l'interior destaca l'arc triomfal que uneix la nau amb l'absis. El campanar antigament era d'espadanya i fou convertint en torre amb finestres d'arc de mig punt; s'hi accedeix per una escala exterior.[1]

 

La pica baptismal del segle xviii situada als peus de la nau lateral dreta no té cap tipus d'ornamentació. La porta té gravada la data 1766. Mesura 54 cm de diàmetre i 103 d'alçada. La pica d'aigua beneïda, vuitavada, que es conserva a l'entrada del temple. Mesura 32,5 cm de diàmetre i 26cm d'alçada total (sense el suport).[1]

Història

 

De l'església de Sant Martí de Dosquers se'n tenen notícies documentals des del segle xiii. És citada, el 1278, en el testament del bisbe de Girona, Pere de Castellnou, com a "Sancti Martini de Duobus cheriis". Havia estat possessió de la seu episcopal, exercint el bisbe, que tenia castell en el lloc, la jurisdicció civil.[1]

 

L'any 1722, durant el viatge que realitzà el bisbe de Girona, Josep de Taverner i d'Ardena, l'església perdé el permís per a celebrar dues misses diàries sense cap justificació.

Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a Roman Catholic cathedral from around 1175 to replace an earlier church on the site since 705, it became an Anglican cathedral when King Henry VIII split from Rome. It is moderately sized for an English cathedral. Its broad west front and large central tower are dominant features. It has been called "unquestionably one of the most beautiful" and "most poetic" of English cathedrals.

 

Its Gothic architecture is mostly inspired from Early English style of the late 12th to early 13th centuries, lacking the Romanesque work that survives in many other cathedrals. Building began about 1175 at the east end with the choir. Historian John Harvey sees it as Europe's first truly Gothic structure, breaking the last constraints of Romanesque. The stonework of its pointed arcades and fluted piers bears pronounced mouldings and carved capitals in a foliate, "stiff-leaf" style. Its Early English front with 300 sculpted figures is seen as a "supreme triumph of the combined plastic arts in England". The east end retains much ancient stained glass. Unlike many cathedrals of monastic foundation, Wells has many surviving secular buildings linked to its chapter of secular canons, including the Bishop's Palace and the 15th-century residential Vicars' Close It is a Grade I listed building.

 

The earliest remains of a building on the site are of a late-Roman mausoleum, identified during excavations in 1980. An abbey church was built in Wells in 705 by Aldhelm, first bishop of the newly established Diocese of Sherborne during the reign of King Ine of Wessex. It was dedicated to St Andrew and stood at the site of the cathedral's cloisters, where some excavated remains can be seen. The font in the cathedral's south transept is from this church and is the oldest part of the present building. In 766 Cynewulf, King of Wessex, signed a charter endowing the church with eleven hides of land. In 909 the seat of the diocese was moved from Sherborne to Wells.

 

The first bishop of Wells was Athelm (909), who crowned King Æthelstan. Athelm and his nephew Dunstan both became Archbishops of Canterbury. During this period a choir of boys was established to sing the liturgy. Wells Cathedral School, which was established to educate these choirboys, dates its foundation to this point. There is, however, some controversy over this. Following the Norman Conquest, John de Villula moved the seat of the bishop from Wells to Bath in 1090. The church at Wells, no longer a cathedral, had a college of secular clergy.

 

The cathedral is thought to have been conceived and commenced in about 1175 by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, who died in 1191. Although it is clear from its size that from the outset, the church was planned to be the cathedral of the diocese, the seat of the bishop moved between Wells and the abbeys of Glastonbury and Bath, before settling at Wells. In 1197 Reginald's successor, Savaric FitzGeldewin, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, officially moved his seat to Glastonbury Abbey. The title of Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury was used until the Glastonbury claim was abandoned in 1219.

 

Savaric's successor, Jocelin of Wells, again moved the bishop's seat to Bath Abbey, with the title Bishop of Bath. Jocelin was a brother of Hugh (II) of Lincoln and was present at the signing of the Magna Carta. Jocelin continued the building campaign begun by Reginald and was responsible for the Bishop's Palace, the choristers' school, a grammar school, a hospital for travellers and a chapel. He also had a manor house built at Wookey, near Wells. Jocelin saw the church dedicated in 1239 but, despite much lobbying of the Pope by Jocelin's representatives in Rome, did not live to see cathedral status granted. The delay may have been a result of inaction by Pandulf Verraccio, a Roman ecclesiastical politician, papal legate to England and Bishop of Norwich, who was asked by the Pope to investigate the situation but did not respond. Jocelin died at Wells on 19 November 1242 and was buried in the choir of the cathedral; the memorial brass on his tomb is one of the earliest brasses in England. Following his death the monks of Bath unsuccessfully attempted to regain authority over Wells.

 

In 1245 the ongoing dispute over the title of the bishop was resolved by a ruling of Pope Innocent IV, who established the title as the "Bishop of Bath and Wells", which it has remained until this day, with Wells as the principal seat of the bishop. Since the 11th century the church has had a chapter of secular clergy, like the cathedrals of Chichester, Hereford, Lincoln and York. The chapter was endowed with 22 prebends (lands from which finance was drawn) and a provost to manage them. On acquiring cathedral status, in common with other such cathedrals, it had four chief clergy, the dean, precentor, chancellor and sacristan, who were responsible for the spiritual and material care of the cathedral.

 

The building programme, begun by Reginald Fitz Jocelin, Bishop in the 12th century, continued under Jocelin of Wells, who was a canon from 1200, then bishop from 1206. Adam Locke was master mason from about 1192 until 1230. It was designed in the new style with pointed arches, later known as Gothic, which was introduced at about the same time at Canterbury Cathedral. Work was halted between 1209 and 1213 when King John was excommunicated and Jocelin was in exile, but the main parts of the church were complete by the time of the dedication by Jocelin in 1239.

 

By the time the cathedral, including the chapter house, was finished in 1306, it was already too small for the developing liturgy, and unable to accommodate increasingly grand processions of clergy. John Droxford initiated another phase of building under master mason Thomas of Whitney, during which the central tower was heightened and an eight-sided Lady chapel was added at the east end by 1326. Ralph of Shrewsbury followed, continuing the eastward extension of the choir and retrochoir beyond. He oversaw the building of Vicars' Close and the Vicars' Hall, to give the men who were employed to sing in the choir a secure place to live and dine, away from the town and its temptations. He had an uneasy relationship with the citizens of Wells, partly because of his imposition of taxes, and he surrounded his palace with crenellated walls, a moat and a drawbridge.

 

John Harewell raised money for the completion of the west front by William Wynford, who was appointed as master mason in 1365. One of the foremost master masons of his time, Wynford worked for the king at Windsor, Winchester Cathedral and New College, Oxford. At Wells, he designed the western towers of which north-west was not built until the following century. In the 14th century, the central piers of the crossing were found to be sinking under the weight of the crossing tower which had been damaged by an earthquake in the previous century. Strainer arches, sometimes described as scissor arches, were inserted by master mason William Joy to brace and stabilise the piers as a unit.

 

By the reign of Henry VII the cathedral was complete, appearing much as it does today (though the fittings have changed). From 1508 to 1546, the eminent Italian humanist scholar Polydore Vergil was active as the chapter's representative in London. He donated a set of hangings for the choir of the cathedral. While Wells survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries better than the cathedrals of monastic foundation, the abolition of chantries in 1547 resulted in a reduction in its income. Medieval brasses were sold, and a pulpit was placed in the nave for the first time. Between 1551 and 1568, in two periods as dean, William Turner established a herb garden, which was recreated between 2003 and 2010.

 

Elizabeth I gave the chapter and the Vicars Choral a new charter in 1591, creating a new governing body, consisting of a dean and eight residentiary canons with control over the church estates and authority over its affairs, but no longer entitled to elect the dean (that entitlement thenceforward belonged ultimately to the Crown). The stability brought by the new charter ended with the onset of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I. Local fighting damaged the cathedral's stonework, furniture and windows. The dean, Walter Raleigh, a nephew of the explorer Walter Raleigh, was placed under house arrest after the fall of Bridgwater to the Parliamentarians in 1645, first in the rectory at Chedzoy and then in the deanery at Wells. His jailor, the shoe maker and city constable, David Barrett, caught him writing a letter to his wife. When he refused to surrender it, Barrett ran him through with a sword and he died six weeks later, on 10 October 1646. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the choir before the dean's stall. During the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell no dean was appointed and the cathedral fell into disrepair. The bishop went into retirement and some of the clerics were reduced to performing menial tasks.

 

In 1661, after Charles II was restored to the throne, Robert Creighton, the king's chaplain in exile, was appointed dean and was bishop for two years before his death in 1672. His brass lectern, given in thanksgiving, can be seen in the cathedral. He donated the nave's great west window at a cost of £140. Following Creighton's appointment as bishop, the post of dean went to Ralph Bathurst, who had been chaplain to the king, president of Trinity College, Oxford and fellow of the Royal Society. During Bathurst's long tenure the cathedral was restored, but in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, Puritan soldiers damaged the west front, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave.

 

Restoration began again under Thomas Ken who was appointed by the Crown in 1685 and served until 1691. He was one of seven bishops imprisoned for refusing to sign King James II's "Declaration of Indulgence", which would have enabled Catholics to resume positions of political power, but popular support led to their acquittal. Ken refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III and Mary II because James II had not abdicated and with others, known as the Nonjurors, was put out of office. His successor, Richard Kidder, was killed in the Great Storm of 1703 when two chimney stacks on the palace fell on him and his wife, while they were asleep in bed.

 

By the middle of the 19th century, a major restoration programme was needed. Under Dean Goodenough, the monuments were moved to the cloisters and the remaining medieval paint and whitewash removed in an operation known as "the great scrape". Anthony Salvin took charge of the extensive restoration of the choir. Wooden galleries installed in the 16th century were removed and the stalls were given stone canopies and placed further back within the line of the arcade. The medieval stone pulpitum screen was extended in the centre to support a new organ.

 

In 1933 the Friends of Wells Cathedral were formed to support the cathedral's chapter in the maintenance of the fabric, life and work of the cathedral. The late 20th century saw an extensive restoration programme, particularly of the west front. The stained glass is currently under restoration, with a programme underway to conserve the large 14th-century Jesse Tree window at the eastern terminal of the choir.

 

In January 2014, as part of the Bath film festival, the cathedral hosted a special screening of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. This provoked some controversy, but the church defended its decision to allow the screening.

 

In 2021, a contemporary sculpture by Anthony Gormley was unveiled on a temporary plinth outside the cathedral.

 

Since the 13th century, Wells Cathedral has been the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Its governing body, the chapter, is made up of five clerical canons (the dean, the precentor, the canon chancellor, the canon treasurer, and the archdeacon of Wells) and four lay members: the administrator (chief executive), Keeper of the Fabric, Overseer of the Estate and the chairman of the cathedral shop and catering boards. The current bishop of Bath and Wells is Peter Hancock, who was installed in a service in the cathedral on 7 June 2014. John Davies has been Dean of Wells since 2016.

 

Employed staff include the organist and master of choristers, head Verger archivist, librarian and the staff of the shop, café and restaurant. The chapter is advised by specialists such as architects, archaeologists and financial analysts.

 

More than a thousand services are held every year. There are daily services of Matins, Holy Communion and Choral Evensong, as well as major celebrations of Christian festivals such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and saints' days. The cathedral is also used for the baptisms, weddings and funerals of those with close connections to it. In July 2009 the cathedral undertook the funeral of Harry Patch, the last British Army veteran of World War I, who died at the age of 111.

 

Three Sunday services are led by the resident choir in school terms and choral services are sung on weekdays. The cathedral hosts visiting choirs and does outreach work with local schools as part of its Chorister Outreach Project. It is also a venue for musical events such as an annual concert by the Somerset Chamber Choir.

 

Each year about 150,000 people attend services and another 300,000 visit as tourists. Entry is free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation towards the annual running costs of around £1.5 million in 2015.

 

Construction of the cathedral began in about 1175, to the design of an unknown master-mason. Wells is the first cathedral in England to be built, from its foundation, in Gothic style. According to art historian John Harvey, it is the first truly Gothic cathedral in the world, its architects having entirely dispensed with all features that bound the contemporary east end of Canterbury Cathedral and the earlier buildings of France, such as the east end of the Abbey of Saint Denis, to the Romanesque. Unlike these churches, Wells has clustered piers rather than columns and has a gallery of identical pointed arches rather than the typically Romanesque form of paired openings. The style, with its simple lancet arches without tracery and convoluted mouldings, is known as Early English Gothic.

 

From about 1192 to 1230, Adam Lock, the earliest master-mason at Wells for whom a name is known, continued the transept and nave in the same manner as his predecessor. Lock was also the builder of the north porch, to his own design.

 

The Early English west front was commenced around 1230 by Thomas Norreys, with building and sculpture continuing for thirty years. Its south-west tower was begun 100 years later and constructed between 1365 and 1395, and the north-west tower between 1425 and 1435, both in the Perpendicular Gothic style to the design of William Wynford, who also filled many of the cathedral's early English lancet windows with delicate tracery.

 

The undercroft and chapter house were built by unknown architects between 1275 and 1310, the undercroft in the Early English and the chapter house in the Geometric style of Decorated Gothic architecture. In about 1310 work commenced on the Lady Chapel, to the design of Thomas Witney, who also built the central tower from 1315 to 1322 in the Decorated Gothic style. The tower was later braced internally with arches by William Joy. Concurrent with this work, in 1329–45 Joy made alterations and extensions to the choir, joining it to the Lady Chapel with the retrochoir, the latter in the Flowing Decorated style.

 

Later changes include the Perpendicular vault of the tower and construction of Sugar's Chapel, 1475–1490 by William Smyth. Also, Gothic Revival renovations were made to the choir and pulpitum by Benjamin Ferrey and Anthony Salvin, 1842–1857.

 

Wells has a total length of 415 feet (126 m). Like Canterbury, Lincoln and Salisbury cathedrals, it has the distinctly English arrangement of two transepts, with the body of the church divided into distinct parts: nave, choir, and retro-choir, beyond which extends the Lady Chapel. The façade is wide, with its towers extending beyond the transepts on either side. There is a large projecting porch on the north side of the nave forming an entry into the cathedral. To the north-east is the large octagonal chapter house, entered from the north choir aisle by a passage and staircase. To the south of the nave is a large cloister, unusual in that the northern range, that adjacent the cathedral, was never built.

 

In section, the cathedral has the usual arrangement of a large church: a central nave with an aisle on each side, separated by two arcades. The elevation is in three stages, arcade, triforium gallery and clerestory. The nave is 67 feet (20 m) in height, very low compared to the Gothic cathedrals of France. It has a markedly horizontal emphasis, caused by the triforium having a unique form, a series of identical narrow openings, lacking the usual definition of the bays. The triforium is separated from the arcade by a single horizontal string course that runs unbroken the length of the nave. There are no vertical lines linking the three stages, as the shafts supporting the vault rise above the triforium.

 

The exterior of Wells Cathedral presents a relatively tidy and harmonious appearance since the greater part of the building was executed in a single style, Early English Gothic. This is uncommon among English cathedrals where the exterior usually exhibits a plethora of styles. At Wells, later changes in the Perpendicular style were universally applied, such as filling the Early English lancet windows with simple tracery, the construction of a parapet that encircles the roof, and the addition of pinnacles framing each gable, similar to those around the chapter house and on the west front. At the eastern end there is a proliferation of tracery with repeated motifs in the Reticulated style, a stage between Geometric and Flowing Decorated tracery.

 

The west front is 100 feet (30 m) high and 147 feet (45 m) wide, and built of Inferior Oolite of the Middle Jurassic period, which came from the Doulting Stone Quarry, about 8 miles (13 km) to the east. According to the architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor, it is "one of the great sights of England".

 

West fronts in general take three distinct forms: those that follow the elevation of the nave and aisles, those that have paired towers at the end of each aisle, framing the nave, and those that screen the form of the building. The west front at Wells has the paired-tower form, unusual in that the towers do not indicate the location of the aisles, but extend well beyond them, screening the dimensions and profile of the building.

 

The west front rises in three distinct stages, each clearly defined by a horizontal course. This horizontal emphasis is counteracted by six strongly projecting buttresses defining the cross-sectional divisions of nave, aisles and towers, and are highly decorated, each having canopied niches containing the largest statues on the façade.

 

At the lowest level of the façade is a plain base, contrasting with and stabilising the ornate arcades that rise above it. The base is penetrated by three doors, which are in stark contrast to the often imposing portals of French Gothic cathedrals. The outer two are of domestic proportion and the central door is ornamented only by a central post, quatrefoil and the fine mouldings of the arch.

 

Above the basement rise two storeys, ornamented with quatrefoils and niches originally holding about four hundred statues, with three hundred surviving until the mid-20th century. Since then, some have been restored or replaced, including the ruined figure of Christ in the gable.

 

The third stages of the flanking towers were both built in the Perpendicular style of the late 14th century, to the design of William Wynford; that on the north-west was not begun until about 1425. The design maintains the general proportions, and continues the strong projection of the buttresses.

 

The finished product has been criticised for its lack of pinnacles, and it is probable that the towers were intended to carry spires which were never built. Despite its lack of spires or pinnacles, the architectural historian Banister Fletcher describes it as "the highest development in English Gothic of this type of façade."

 

The sculptures on the west front at Wells include standing figures, seated figures, half-length angels and narratives in high relief. Many of the figures are life-sized or larger. Together they constitute the finest display of medieval carving in England. The figures and many of the architectural details were painted in bright colours, and the colouring scheme has been deduced from flakes of paint still adhering to some surfaces. The sculptures occupy nine architectural zones stretching horizontally across the entire west front and around the sides and the eastern returns of the towers which extend beyond the aisles. The strongly projecting buttresses have tiers of niches which contain many of the largest figures. Other large figures, including that of Christ, occupy the gable. A single figure stands in one of two later niches high on the northern tower.

 

In 1851 the archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell published his analysis of the iconography, numbering the nine sculptural divisions from the lowest to the highest. He defined the theme as "a calendar for unlearned men" illustrating the doctrines and history of the Christian faith, its introduction to Britain and its protection by princes and bishops. He likens the arrangement and iconography to the Te Deum.

 

According to Cockerell, the side of the façade that is to the south of the central door is the more sacred and the scheme is divided accordingly. The lowest range of niches each contained a standing figure, of which all but four figures on the west front, two on each side, have been destroyed. More have survived on the northern and eastern sides of the north tower. Cockerell speculates that those to the south of the portal represented prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament while those to the north represented early missionaries to Britain, of which Augustine of Canterbury, St Birinus, and Benedict Biscop are identifiable by their attributes. In the second zone, above each pair of standing figures, is a quatrefoil containing a half-length angel in relief, some of which have survived. Between the gables of the niches are quatrefoils that contain a series of narratives from the Bible, with the Old Testament stories to the south, above the prophets and patriarchs, and those from the New Testament to the north. A horizontal course runs around the west front dividing the architectural storeys at this point.

 

Above the course, zones four and five, as identified by Cockerell, contain figures which represent the Christian Church in Britain, with the spiritual lords such as bishops, abbots, abbesses and saintly founders of monasteries on the south, while kings, queens and princes occupy the north. Many of the figures survive and many have been identified in the light of their various attributes. There is a hierarchy of size, with the more significant figures larger and enthroned in their niches rather than standing. Immediately beneath the upper course are a series of small niches containing dynamic sculptures of the dead coming forth from their tombs on the Day of Judgement. Although naked, some of the dead are defined as royalty by their crowns and others as bishops by their mitres. Some emerge from their graves with joy and hope, and others with despair.

 

The niches in the lowest zone of the gable contain nine angels, of which Cockerell identifies Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. In the next zone are the taller figures of the twelve apostles, some, such as John, Andrew and Bartholomew, clearly identifiable by the attributes that they carry. The uppermost niches of the gable contained the figure of Christ the Judge at the centre, with the Virgin Mary on his right and John the Baptist on his left. The figures all suffered from iconoclasm. A new statue of Jesus was carved for the central niche, but the two side niches now contain cherubim. Christ and the Virgin Mary are also represented by now headless figures in a Coronation of the Virgin in a niche above the central portal. A damaged figure of the Virgin and Christ Child occupies a quatrefoil in the spandrel of the door.

 

The central tower appears to date from the early 13th century. It was substantially reconstructed in the early 14th century during the remodelling of the east end, necessitating the internal bracing of the piers a decade or so later. In the 14th century the tower was given a timber and lead spire which burnt down in 1439. The exterior was then reworked in the Perpendicular style and given the present parapet and pinnacles. Alec Clifton-Taylor describes it as "outstanding even in Somerset, a county famed for the splendour of its church towers".

 

The north porch is described by art historian Nikolaus Pevsner as "sumptuously decorated", and intended as the main entrance. Externally it is simple and rectangular with plain side walls. The entrance is a steeply arched portal framed by rich mouldings of eight shafts with stiff-leaf capitals each encircled by an annular moulding at middle height. Those on the left are figurative, containing images representing the martyrdom of St Edmund the Martyr. The walls are lined with deep niches framed by narrow shafts with capitals and annulets like those of the portal. The path to the north porch is lined by four sculptures in Purbeck stone, each by Mary Spencer Watson, representing the symbols of the Evangelists.

 

The cloisters were built in the late 13th century and largely rebuilt from 1430 to 1508 and have wide openings divided by mullions and transoms, and tracery in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The vault has lierne ribs that form octagons at the centre of each compartment, the joints of each rib having decorative bosses. The eastern range is of two storeys, of which the upper is the library built in the 15th century.

 

Because Wells Cathedral was secular rather than monastic, cloisters were not a practical necessity. They were omitted from several other secular cathedrals but were built here and at Chichester. Explanations for their construction at these two secular cathedrals range from the processional to the aesthetic. As at Chichester, there is no northern range to the cloisters. In monastic cloisters it was the north range, benefiting most from winter sunlight, that was often used as a scriptorium.

 

In 1969, when a large chunk of stone fell from a statue near the main door, it became apparent that there was an urgent need for restoration of the west front. Detailed studies of the stonework and of conservation practices were undertaken under the cathedral architect, Alban D. R. Caroe and a restoration committee formed. The methods selected were those devised by Eve and Robert Baker. W. A. (Bert) Wheeler, clerk of works to the cathedral 1935–1978, had previously experimented with washing and surface treatment of architectural carvings on the building and his techniques were among those tried on the statues.

 

The conservation was carried out between 1974 and 1986, wherever possible using non-invasive procedures such as washing with water and a solution of lime, filling gaps and damaged surfaces with soft mortar to prevent the ingress of water and stabilising statues that were fracturing through corrosion of metal dowels. The surfaces were finished by painting with a thin coat of mortar and silane to resist further erosion and attack by pollutants. The restoration of the façade revealed much paint adhering to the statues and their niches, indicating that it had once been brightly coloured.

 

The particular character of this Early English interior is dependent on the proportions of the simple lancet arches. It is also dependent on the refinement of the architectural details, in particular the mouldings.

 

The arcade, which takes the same form in the nave, choir and transepts, is distinguished by the richness of both mouldings and carvings. Each pier of the arcade has a surface enrichment of 24 slender shafts in eight groups of three, rising beyond the capitals to form the deeply undulating mouldings of the arches. The capitals themselves are remarkable for the vitality of the stylised foliage, in a style known as "stiff-leaf". The liveliness contrasts with the formality of the moulded shafts and the smooth unbroken areas of ashlar masonry in the spandrels. Each capital is different, and some contain small figures illustrating narratives.

 

The vault of the nave rises steeply in a simple quadripartite form, in harmony with the nave arcade. The eastern end of the choir was extended and the whole upper part elaborated in the second quarter of the 14th century by William Joy. The vault has a multiplicity of ribs in a net-like form, which is very different from that of the nave, and is perhaps a recreation in stone of a local type of compartmented wooden roof of which examples remain from the 15th century, including those at St Cuthbert's Church, Wells. The vaults of the aisles of the choir also have a unique pattern.

 

Until the early 14th century, the interior of the cathedral was in a unified style, but it was to undergo two significant changes, to the tower and to the eastern end. Between 1315 and 1322 the central tower was heightened and topped by a spire, which caused the piers that supported it to show signs of stress. In 1338 the mason William Joy employed an unorthodox solution by inserting low arches topped by inverted arches of similar dimensions, forming scissors-like structures. These arches brace the piers of the crossing on three sides, while the easternmost side is braced by a choir screen. The bracing arches are known as "St Andrew's Cross arches", in a reference to the patron saint of the cathedral. They have been described by Wim Swaan – rightly or wrongly – as "brutally massive" and intrusive in an otherwise restrained interior.

 

Wells Cathedral has a square east end to the choir, as is usual, and like several other cathedrals including Salisbury and Lichfield, has a lower Lady Chapel projecting at the eastern end, begun by Thomas Witney in about 1310, possibly before the chapter house was completed. The Lady Chapel seems to have begun as a free-standing structure in the form of an elongated octagon, but the plan changed and it was linked to the eastern end by extension of the choir and construction of a second transept or retrochoir east of the choir, probably by William Joy.

 

The Lady Chapel has a vault of complex and somewhat irregular pattern, as the chapel is not symmetrical about both axes. The main ribs are intersected by additional non-supporting, lierne ribs, which in this case form a star-shaped pattern at the apex of the vault. It is one of the earliest lierne vaults in England. There are five large windows, of which four are filled with fragments of medieval glass. The tracery of the windows is in the style known as Reticulated Gothic, having a pattern of a single repeated shape, in this case a trefoil, giving a "reticulate" or net-like appearance.

 

The retrochoir extends across the east end of the choir and into the east transepts. At its centre the vault is supported by a remarkable structure of angled piers. Two of these are placed as to complete the octagonal shape of the Lady Chapel, a solution described by Francis Bond as "an intuition of Genius". The piers have attached shafts of marble, and, with the vaults that they support, create a vista of great complexity from every angle. The windows of the retrochoir are in the Reticulated style like those of the Lady Chapel, but are fully Flowing Decorated in that the tracery mouldings form ogival curves.

 

The chapter house was begun in the late 13th century and built in two stages, completed about 1310. It is a two-storeyed structure with the main chamber raised on an undercroft. It is entered from a staircase which divides and turns, one branch leading through the upper storey of Chain Gate to Vicars' Close. The Decorated interior is described by Alec Clifton-Taylor as "architecturally the most beautiful in England". It is octagonal, with its ribbed vault supported on a central column. The column is surrounded by shafts of Purbeck Marble, rising to a single continuous rippling foliate capital of stylised oak leaves and acorns, quite different in character from the Early English stiff-leaf foliage. Above the moulding spring 32 ribs of strong profile, giving an effect generally likened to "a great palm tree". The windows are large with Geometric Decorated tracery that is beginning to show an elongation of form, and ogees in the lesser lights that are characteristic of Flowing Decorated tracery. The tracery lights still contain ancient glass. Beneath the windows are 51 stalls, the canopies of which are enlivened by carvings including many heads carved in a light-hearted manner.

 

Wells Cathedral contains one of the most substantial collections of medieval stained glass in England, despite damage by Parliamentary troops in 1642 and 1643. The oldest surviving glass dates from the late 13th century and is in two windows on the west side of the chapter-house staircase. Two windows in the south choir aisle are from 1310 to 1320.

 

The Lady Chapel has five windows, of which four date from 1325 to 1330 and include images of a local saint, Dunstan. The east window was restored to a semblance of its original appearance by Thomas Willement in 1845. The other windows have complete canopies, but the pictorial sections are fragmented.

 

The east window of the choir is a broad, seven-light window dating from 1340 to 1345. It depicts the Tree of Jesse (the genealogy of Christ) and demonstrates the use of silver staining, a new technique that allowed the artist to paint details on the glass in yellow, as well as black. The combination of yellow and green glass and the application of the bright yellow stain gives the window its popular name, the "Golden Window". It is flanked by two windows each side in the clerestory, with large figures of saints, also dated to 1340–45. In 2010 a major conservation programme was undertaken on the Jesse Tree window.

 

The panels in the chapel of St Katherine are attributed to Arnold of Nijmegen and date from about 1520. They were acquired from the destroyed church of Saint-Jean, Rouen, with the last panel having been purchased in 1953.

 

The large triple lancet to the nave west end was glazed at the expense of Dean Creighton at a cost of £140 in 1664. It was repaired in 1813, and the central light was largely replaced to a design by Archibald Keightley Nicholson between 1925 and 1931. The main north and south transept end windows by James Powell and Sons were erected in the early 20th century.

 

The greater part of the stone carving of Wells Cathedral comprises foliate capitals in the stiff-leaf style. They are found ornamenting the piers of the nave, choir and transepts. Stiff-leaf foliage is highly abstract. Though possibly influenced by carvings of acanthus leaves or vine leaves, it cannot be easily identified with any particular plant. Here the carving of the foliage is varied and vigorous, the springing leaves and deep undercuts casting shadows that contrast with the surface of the piers. In the transepts and towards the crossing in the nave the capitals have many small figurative carvings among the leaves. These include a man with toothache and a series of four scenes depicting the "Wages of Sin" in a narrative of fruit stealers who creep into an orchard and are then beaten by the farmer. Another well-known carving is in the north transept aisle: a foliate corbel, on which climbs a lizard, sometimes identified as a salamander, a symbol of eternal life.

 

Carvings in the Decorated Gothic style may be found in the eastern end of the buildings, where there are many carved bosses. In the chapter house, the carvings of the 51 stalls include numerous small heads of great variety, many of them smiling or laughing. A well-known figure is the corbel of the dragon-slaying monk in the chapter house stair. The large continuous capital that encircles the central pillar of the chapter house is markedly different in style to the stiff-leaf of the Early English period. In contrast to the bold projections and undercutting of the earlier work, it has a rippling form and is clearly identifiable as grapevine.

 

The 15th-century cloisters have many small bosses ornamenting the vault. Two in the west cloister, near the gift shop and café, have been called sheela na gigs, i. e. female figures displaying their genitals and variously judged to depict the sin of lust or stem from ancient fertility cults.

 

Wells Cathedral has one of the finest sets of misericords in Britain. Its clergy has a long tradition of singing or reciting from the Book of Psalms each day, along with the customary daily reading of the Holy Office. In medieval times the clergy assembled in the church eight times daily for the canonical hours. As the greater part of the services was recited while standing, many monastic or collegiate churches fitted stalls whose seats tipped up to provide a ledge for the monk or cleric to lean against. These were "misericords" because their installation was an act of mercy. Misericords typically have a carved figurative bracket beneath the ledge framed by two floral motifs known, in heraldic manner, as "supporters".

 

The misericords date from 1330 to 1340. They may have been carved under the direction of Master Carpenter John Strode, although his name is not recorded before 1341. He was assisted by Bartholomew Quarter, who is documented from 1343. They originally numbered 90, of which 65 have survived. Sixty-one are installed in the choir, three are displayed in the cathedral, and one is held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. New stalls were ordered when the eastern end of the choir was extended in the early 14th century. The canons complained that they had borne the cost of the rebuilding and ordered the prebendary clerics to pay for their own stalls. When the newly refurbished choir opened in 1339 many misericords were left unfinished, including one-fifth of the surviving 65. Many of the clerics had not paid, having been called to contribute a total sum of £200. The misericords survived better than the other sections of the stalls, which during the Protestant Reformation had their canopies chopped off and galleries inserted above them. One misericord, showing a boy pulling a thorn from his foot, dates from the 17th century. In 1848 came a complete rearrangement of the choir furniture, and 61 of the misericords were reused in the restructured stalls.

 

The subject matter of the carvings of the central brackets as misericords varies, but many themes recur in different churches. Typically the themes are less unified or directly related to the Bible and Christian theology than small sculptures seen elsewhere within churches, such as bosses. This applies at Wells, where none of the misericord carvings is directly based on a Bible story. The subjects, chosen either by the woodcarver, or perhaps by the one paying for the stall, have no overriding theme. The sole unifying elements are the roundels on each side of the pictorial subject, which all show elaborately carved foliage, in most cases formal and stylised in the later Decorated manner, but with several examples of naturalistic foliage, including roses and bindweed. Many of the subjects carry traditional interpretations. The image of the "Pelican in her Piety" (believed to feed her young on her own blood) is a recognised symbol for Christ's love for the Church. A cat playing with a mouse may represent the Devil snaring a human soul. Other subjects illustrate popular fables or sayings such as "When the fox preaches, look to your geese". Many depict animals, some of which may symbolise a human vice or virtue, or an aspect of faith.

 

Twenty-seven of the carvings depict animals: rabbits, dogs, a puppy biting a cat, a ewe feeding a lamb, monkeys, lions, bats, and the Early Christian motif of two doves drinking from a ewer. Eighteen have mythological subjects, including mermaids, dragons and wyverns. Five are clearly narrative, such as the Fox and the Geese, and the story of Alexander the Great being raised to Heaven by griffins. There are three heads: a bishop in a mitre, an angel, and a woman wearing a veil over hair arranged in coils over each ear. Eleven carvings show human figures, among which are several of remarkable design, conceived by the artist specifically for their purpose of supporting a shelf. One figure lies beneath the seat, supporting the shelf with a cheek, a hand and a foot. Another sits in a contorted manner supporting the weight on his elbow, while a further figure squats with his knees wide apart and a strained look on his face.

 

Some of the cathedral's fittings and monuments are hundreds of years old. The brass lectern in the Lady Chapel dates from 1661 and has a moulded stand and foliate crest. In the north transept chapel is a 17th-century oak screen with columns, formerly used in cow stalls, with artisan Ionic capitals and cornice, set forward over the chest tomb of John Godelee. There is a bound oak chest from the 14th century, which was used to store the chapter seal and key documents. The bishop's throne dates from 1340, and has a panelled, canted front and stone doorway, and a deep nodding cusped ogee canopy above it, with three-stepped statue niches and pinnacles. The throne was restored by Anthony Salvin around 1850. Opposite the throne is a 19th-century octagonal pulpit on a coved base with panelled sides, and steps up from the north aisle. The round font in the south transept is from the former Saxon cathedral and has an arcade of round-headed arches, on a round plinth. The font cover was made in 1635 and is decorated with the heads of putti. The Chapel of St Martin is a memorial to every Somerset man who fell in World War I.

 

The monuments and tombs include Gisa, bishop; † 1088; William of Bitton, bishop; † 1274; William of March, bishop; † 1302; John Droxford; † 1329; John Godelee; † 1333; John Middleton, died †1350; Ralph of Shrewsbury, died †; John Harewell, bishop; † 1386; William Bykonyll; † c. 1448; John Bernard; † 1459; Thomas Beckington; † died 1464; John Gunthorpe; † 1498; John Still; † 1607; Robert Creighton; † 1672; Richard Kidder, bishop; † 1703; George Hooper, bishop; † 1727 and Arthur Harvey, bishop; † 1894.

 

In the north transept is Wells Cathedral clock, an astronomical clock from about 1325 believed to be by Peter Lightfoot, a monk of Glastonbury. Its mechanism, dated between 1386 and 1392, was replaced in the 19th century and the original moved to the Science Museum in London, where it still operates. It is the second oldest surviving clock in England after the Salisbury Cathedral clock.

 

The clock has its original medieval face. Apart from the time on a 24-hour dial, it shows the motion of the Sun and Moon, the phases of the Moon, and the time since the last new Moon. The astronomical dial presents a geocentric or pre-Copernican view, with the Sun and Moon revolving round a central fixed Earth, like that of the clock at Ottery St Mary. The quarters are chimed by a quarter jack: a small automaton known as Jack Blandifers, who hits two bells with hammers and two with his heels. At the striking of the clock, jousting knights appear above the clock face.

 

On the outer wall of the transept, opposite Vicars' Hall, is a second clock face of the same clock, placed there just over seventy years after the interior clock and driven by the same mechanism. The second clock face has two quarter jacks (which strike on the quarter-hour) in the form of knights in armour.

 

In 2010 the official clock-winder retired and was replaced by an electric mechanism.

 

The first record of an organ at this church dates from 1310. A smaller organ, probably for the Lady Chapel, was installed in 1415. In 1620 an organ built by Thomas Dallam was installed at a cost of £398 1s 5d.

 

The 1620 organ was destroyed by parliamentary soldiers in 1643. An organ built in 1662 was enlarged in 1786 and again in 1855. In 1909–1910 an organ was built by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, with the best parts of the old organ retained. It has been serviced by the same company ever since.

 

Since November 1996 the cathedral has also had a portable chamber organ, by the Scottish makers, Lammermuir. It is used regularly to accompany performances of Tudor and baroque music.

 

The first recorded organist of Wells was Walter Bagele (or Vageler) in 1416. The post of organist or assistant organist has been held by more than 60 people since. Peter Stanley Lyons was Master of Choristers at Wells Cathedral, and Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School in 1954–1960. The choral conductor James William Webb-Jones, father of Lyons's wife Bridget (whom he married in the cathedral), was Headmaster of Wells Cathedral School in 1955–1960. Malcolm Archer was the appointed Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1996 to 2004. Matthew Owens was the appointed organist from 2005 to 2019.

 

There has been a choir of boy choristers at Wells since 909. Currently there are 18 boy choristers and a similar number of girl choristers, aged from eight to fourteen. The Vicars Choral was formed in the 12th century and the sung liturgy provided by a traditional cathedral choir of men and boys until the formation of an additional choir of girls in 1994. The boys and girls sing alternately with the Vicars Choral and are educated at Wells Cathedral School.

 

The Vicars Choral currently number twelve men, of whom three are choral scholars. Since 1348 the College of Vicars had its own accommodation in a quadrangle converted in the early 15th century to form Vicar's Close. The Vicars Choral generally perform with the choristers, except on Wednesdays, when they sing alone, allowing them to present a different repertoire, in particular plainsong.

 

In December 2010 Wells Cathedral Choir was rated by Gramophone magazine as "the highest ranking choir with children in the world". It continues to provide music for the liturgy at Sunday and weekday services. The choir has made many recordings and toured frequently, including performances in Beijing and Hong Kong in 2012. Its repertoire ranges from the choral music of the Renaissance to recently commissioned works.

 

The Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir is a mixed adult choir of 25 members, formed in 1986 to sing at the midnight service on Christmas Eve, and invited to sing at several other special services. It now sings for about 30 services a year, when the Cathedral Choir is in recess or on tour, and spends one week a year singing as the "choir in residence" at another cathedral. Although primarily liturgical, the choir's repertoire includes other forms of music, as well as performances at engagements such as weddings and funerals.

 

The cathedral is home to Wells Cathedral Oratorio Society (WCOS), founded in 1896. With around 160 voices, the society gives three concerts a year under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers at the cathedral. Concerts are normally in early November, December (an annual performance of Handel's Messiah) and late March. It performs with a number of specialist orchestras including: Music for Awhile, Chameleon Arts and La Folia.

 

The bells at Wells Cathedral are the heaviest ring of ten bells in the world, the tenor bell (the 10th and largest), known as Harewell, weighing 56.25 long hundredweight (2,858 kg). They are hung for full-circle ringing in the English style of change ringing. These bells are now hung in the south-west tower, although some were originally hung in the central tower.

 

The library above the eastern cloister was built between 1430 and 1508. Its collection is in three parts: early documents housed in the Muniment Room; the collection predating 1800 housed in the Chained Library; and the post-1800 collection housed in the Reading Room. The chapter's earlier collection was destroyed during the Reformation, so that the present library consists chiefly of early printed books, rather than medieval manuscripts. The earlier books in the Chained Library number 2,800 volumes and give an indication of the variety of interests of the members of the cathedral chapter from the Reformation until 1800. The focus of the collection is predominantly theology, but there are volumes on science, medicine, exploration, and languages. Books of particular interest include Pliny's Natural History printed in 1472, an Atlas of the World by Abraham Ortelius, printed in 1606, and a set of the works by Aristotle that once belonged to Erasmus. The library is open to the public at appointed times in the summer and presents a small exhibition of documents and books.

 

Three early registers of the Dean and Chapter edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners – Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III) and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) – were published in 1907. They contain with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land back to the 8th century, well before hereditary surnames developed in England, and acts of the Dean and Chapter and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

 

Adjacent to the cathedral is a large lawned area, Cathedral Green, with three ancient gateways: Brown's Gatehouse, Penniless Porch and Chain Gate. On the green is the 12th-century Old Deanery, largely rebuilt in the late 15th century by Dean Gunthorpe and remodelled by Dean Bathurst in the late 17th century. No longer the dean's residence, it is used as diocesan offices.

 

To the south of the cathedral is the moated Bishop's Palace, begun about 1210 by Jocelin of Wells but dating mostly from the 1230s. In the 15th century Thomas Beckington added a north wing, now the bishop's residence. It was restored and extended by Benjamin Ferrey between 1846 and 1854.

 

To the north of the cathedral and connected to it by the Chain Gate is Vicars' Close, a street planned in the 14th century and claimed to be the oldest purely residential street in Europe, with all but one of its original buildings intact. Buildings in the close include the Vicars Hall and gateway at the south end, and the Vicars Chapel and Library at the north end.

 

The Liberty of St Andrew was the historic liberty and parish that encompassed the cathedral and surrounding lands closely associated with it.

 

The English painter J. M. W. Turner visited Wells in 1795, making sketches of the precinct and a water colour of the west front, now in the Tate gallery. Other artists whose paintings of the cathedral are in national collections are Albert Goodwin, John Syer and Ken Howard.

 

The cathedral served to inspire Ken Follett's 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth and with a modified central tower, featured as the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral at the end of the 2010 television adaptation of that novel. The interior of the cathedral was used for a 2007 Doctor Who episode, "The Lazarus Experiment", while the exterior shots were filmed at Southwark Cathedral.

 

An account of the damage to the cathedral during the Monmouth Rebellion is included in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 historical novel Micah Clarke.

 

The cathedral provided scenes for the 2019–2020 television series The Spanish Princess.

In the Old Testament of the Bible caterpillars are feared as pest that devour crops. They are part of the "pestilence, blasting, mildew, locus" because of their association with the locust, thus they are one of the plagues of Egypt. Jeremiah names them as one of the inhabitants of Babylon. The English word caterpillar derives from the old French catepelose (hairy cat) but merged with the piller (pillager). Caterpillars became a symbol for social dependents. Shakespeare's Bolingbroke described King Richard's friends as "The caterpillars of the commonwealth, Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away". In 1790 William Blake referenced this popular image in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell when he attacked priests: "as the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lay his curse on the fairest joys".[32]

 

The role of caterpillars in the life stages of butterflies was badly understood. In 1679 Maria Sibylla Merian published the first volume of The Caterpillars' Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, which contained 50 illustrations and a description of insects, moths, butterflies and their larvae.[33] An earlier popular publication on moths and butterflies, and their caterpillars, by Jan Goedart had not included eggs in the life stages of European moths and butterflies, because he had believed that caterpillars were generated from water. When Merian published her study of caterpillars it was still widely believed that insects were spontaneously generated. Merian's illustrations supported the findings of Francesco Redi, Marcello Malpighi and Jan Swammerdam.[34]

 

Butterflies were regarded as symbol for the human soul since ancient time, and also in the Christian tradition.[35] Goedart thus located his empirical observations on the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies in the Christian tradition. As such he argued that the metamorphosis from caterpillar into butterfly was a symbol, and even proof, of Christ's resurrection. He argued "that from dead caterpillars emerge living animals; so it is equally true and miraculous, that our dead and rotten corpses will rise from the grave."[36] Swammerdam, who in 1669 had demonstrated that inside a caterpillar the rudiments of the future butterfly's limbs and wings could be discerned, attacked the mystical and religious notion that the caterpillar died and the butterfly subsequently resurrected.[37] As a militant Cartesian, Swammerdam attacked Goedart as ridiculous, and when publishing his findings he proclaimed "here we witness the digression of those who have tried to prove Resurrection of the Dead from these obviously natural and comprehensible changes within the creature itself."[38]

 

Since then the metamorphoses of the caterpillar into a butterfly has in Western societies been associated with countless human transformations in folktales and literature. There is no process in the physical life of human beings that resembles this metamorphoses, and the symbol of the caterpillar tends to depict a psychic transformation of a human. As such the caterpillar has in the Christian tradition become a metaphor for being "born again".[39]

 

Famously, in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a caterpillar asks Alice "Who are you?". When Alice comments on the caterpillar's inevitable transformation into a butterfly, the caterpillar champions the position that in spite of changes it is still possible to know something, and that Alice is the same Alice at the beginning and end of a considerable interval.[40] When the Caterpillar askes Alice to clarify a point, the child replied "I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly... for I can't but understand it myself, to begin with, and being so many different sizes in a day is very confusing". Here Carroll satirizes René Descartes, the founder of Cartesian philosophy, and his theory on innate ideas. Descartes argued that we are distracted by urgent bodily stimuli that swamp the human mind in childhood. Descartes also theorised that inherited preconceived opinions obstruct the human perception of the truth.[41]

 

More recent symbolic references to caterpillars in popular media include the Mad Men season 3 episode "The Fog", in which Betty Draper has a drug-induced dream, while in labor, that she captures a caterpillar and holds it firmly in her hand.[42] In The Sopranos season 5 episode "The Test Dream", Tony Soprano dreams that Ralph Cifaretto has a caterpillar on his bald head that changes into a butterfly.

One of the several windmills at Kinderdijk Netherlands stands still in the morning sun. These were built back in 1738 to keep water out of fields and villages nearby and some are still used and operational to this day. Most of the heavy duty of pumping the water is now on the backs of two modern pumping stations. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since the early 1990's. They are really something to see up close and personal!

A splendid folio Victorian family Bible published by the Glasgow firm Blackie & Son. Monumental volumes like this could be acquired even by those of modest income thanks to increased mechanisation of book production in the nineteenth century. The illustrations here are eclectic, with artists ranging from Titian to P.J. de Loutherbourg, R.A. (1740-1812); the nine by John Martin (1789-1854) (e.g. the frontispiece and title-page vignette displayed) are the most memorable.

 

Glasgow University Library Sp Coll Euing Dv-a.7

Alex Skolnick is letting the riffs and hair fly!

 

Alex desencadena los riffs y deja que su cabello se suelte con elllos.

Nice shot of Dave Lombardo on drums

 

Una toma buena de Dave Lombardo en la batería

© Steve Johnston // www,rockmusicphotographer.co.uk

IMG_0384

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

SWFEC Special Guest Chat: Shawnlei Breeding – Manager, Audubon Florida EagleWatch Program, April 11, 2019 8pm

 

Essec09 (Admin): SWFEC would like to extend a very warm welcome to Audubon Florida EagleWatch Program Manager, Shawnlei Breeding. We are very excited to have her join us this evening. Many of our SWFEC viewers provided questions earlier for Shawnlei. She will try to answer as many as time allows. The first part of the session will address the questions that were already submitted.

 

Essec09 (Admin): Welcome to SWFEC Shawnlei!

GinnyLWI (Admin): Good evening Shawnlei , we are all so looking forward to this special chat this evening.

MsSmith57 (Admin): Good evening and a huge SWFEC welcome to you Shawnlei

purpleagle (Admin): Good evening Shawnlei! We are so excited to have you here with us this evening for our special chat session!

RobertoD (Admin): Welcome, and thank you Shawnlei We are all excited to have you here!

icecream247 (Admin): Good evening Shawnlei. So happy you were able to join us this evening.

Sue_Lyons (Admin): Hello Shawnlei, thank you so much for spending time with us tonight! We are looking forward to learning from you

samour17 (Admin): Good evening Shawnlei and looking forward to this evening.

Shelli22 (Admin): Hi Shawnlei...I'm stoked to hear what you have to share with us!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hello everyone! Thank you so much for the warm welcome! And thank you to the Pritchetts for inviting me! I’m honored to get to spend some time with you to answer your questions and chat about eagles! I was asked to briefly share a bit about myself. I received a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma and had always dreamed of working with animals but fell into an administrative job for a number of years before switching gears to pursue that dream. I worked for a few years as a vet tech and then was hired as a Zookeeper at the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, FL. Then I accepted a position with Disney’s Animal Kingdom where I was a Bird Keeper in their Avian Research Center for 12 years.

During that time I went back to school to get a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Central Florida. That experienced opened doors which lead me to my current position with the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. I’ve always loved Audubon and was so excited to get to work with them! So now that you now a bit about me, let's get started!

 

HOeagletfan1: thank you Shawnlei for joshing us and sharing your Eagle wisdom with us !

LCampbell75: Good Evening Shawlei...So nice to have you to chat with us tonight!!! Thanks for coming!!

Deen622: Good evening Mods and Shawnlei!

MagEagle9: I couldn't be more blessed to 'work' with this lady! Welcome my friend!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thank you!

SueUMc: Good evening Shawnlei- much appreciation!

cats3eagles: Thank you for being here with us tonight Shawnlei!

Janet1: Good evening Shawlei. So nice to have you here tonight

Peggy180: Good evening, Shawnee, thank you for joining us tonight!

Carrie Brooks: GE what a treat!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Here's our first question.... Peggy Main asks: Shawnlei, thank you for your time with us! What has been the most challenging part of your job(s)?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Great question, Peggy. Everyone brings their own unique strengths to their role, so I suspect the answer might be different if you asked my predecessors. But for me, the most challenging part of the role has probably been the people side of things. People who love eagles are REALLY passionate about them. And it’s not uncommon in the world of conservation for there to be many different (and strongly held opinions) on how to accomplish our goals, or what our focus should be. I’m a peacemaker at heart, so I had to quickly learn that I can’t please everyone. I receive mean emails and get yelled at on a fairly regular basis and have had to learn not to take it personally, which is hard. I try to remind myself of the passion that is behind the emotion. I've definitely learned and grown so much! And the challenges have made me a better person. And leader.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Next up. Lauren Roberts asks: Hi Shawnlei and SWFL mods! I am an Eagle Watch volunteer and would just like to make a comment. Anyone that is thinking of volunteering, please do so! Your observations and reporting can help with studies and give insight to all the people, like Shawnlei, that are able to reach out to all organizations to help these amazing creatures! If you're already watching nests, why not let your observations be known! You might just see something that all eagles can benefit from!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thank you for all you do as a volunteer! EagleWatch started 26 years ago with the goal of protecting nesting eagles in Florida We started in 3 counties with 22 volunteers and are now in 40+ counties with over 300 volunteers! Lauren makes a great point about the importance of the nest data we collect. This information is useful for showing general trends in the population. For example, EagleWatch data will show if the number of chicks surviving to fledge at the nests we watch is starting to decline. Then can delve further into the data to determine possible causes of that decline (disturbance, nest location, habitat, water quality).

 

vlpritchett (Moderator): Hey Shawnlei, This is Ginnie Pritchett McSpadden. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. So excited to see what viewers are asking and your thoughts on Bald Eagles in our state o FL!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thanks, Ginnie!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Babs Liberty asks: Could you explain the process of when someone in the Eagle Watch program sees a problem at or in a nest including the process of what happens after that as far as who is contacted & how they determine the rehab facility the eaglet goes to? Is it always Audubon or others? SWFEC could you post that great link about the program in the chat maybe at the end for the next two days? Thanks!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Babs! EagleWatch volunteers are trained to respond to a variety of potential problems at a nest, from human disturbance to injured eagles. For nest disturbances by humans, volunteers are asked to call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Hotline Alert: 888-404-3922. FWC is the law enforcement in our state for the federal laws protecting eagles and will send out an officer to determine if the law is being violated. Anyone can call this number if they have a concern about something happening near an active nest. FWC may also be contacted if you encounter an injured eagle. My office is at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and we work closely with many licensed raptor rehab facilities around the state. These organizations will often contact me when they recover an injured eagle. If it is a young eagle, I share our nest information to help them find a home for the young one if it can’t go back to its own nest. Some of the rehabbers we work with may not have a license to hold an eagle for treatment so will transfer it to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey or another facility in their area that is licensed to rehab an eagle. Thankfully we have a broad network of caring rehabilitation facilities across the state! To learn more about EagleWatch, visit: cbop.audubon.org/conservation/about-eaglewatch-program.Yo... find information about EagleWatch as well as opportunities to support the amazing work that they do at the Raptor Trauma Clinic, which treats over 700 injured birds of prey each year. About 70-80 of those patients are Bald eagles

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Mohammed Abul Magd asks: This year I have noticed an increased violence against protected birds. Vultures and eagles shot by arrows and guns. In your point of view, why is that? And what measures do we need to implement in order to stop this?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Mohammed! At times it certainly feels like there has been an increase in violent acts against protected birds, but our intake data at the Center for Birds of Prey indicates no significant increase in these types of events. Looking back at 10 years of our intake records, only 1% of the patients had been shot. I suspect we are hearing about them more because of the prevalence of social media and the rapidity with which these types of stories are passed along. But it’s a good reminder for people that Bald eagles and other protected birds still face challenges and need our help.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): DaveinMissouri asks: SBAudubon, would you be able to have any influence on asking manufacturers of lead bullets and fishing tackle to not use lead bullets for hunting. For fishing use alternative weights, not lead, and don't discard line or weights in the water. Maybe more warnings to hunters and fishermen on the products and better education when receiving a hunting or fishing license. Thank you for being here and for any help on this subject!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Great suggestion, Dave. These are both difficult battles to fight. I think it will take everyone raising their voice together and sharing the numbers of birds affected---and the stories behind those numbers of the birds that have been affected by lead poisoning or hung up in fishing line. Whenever I get a chance to speak somewhere I always touch on ways we can help raptors and I raise both of these points-stop using lead bullets and don’t cut the line. If a few people are reached and then share it in their realm of influence, perhaps we can change it at the grass roots level. Sort of like the societal pressure for restaurants to stop using straws. These are definitely topics of concern for our state and the federal wildlife agencies.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Androcat asks: Of the EagleWatch eaglets/fledglings, what diseases/health issues/injuries/or necropsy results are most commonly seen? Part 2. Have any EagleWatch fledglings that have come into care had lead exposures show up in the blood work done while in care?

SBAudubon (Moderator): I like your user name! Androcat.

As I mentioned, my office is at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. Most of the eaglets we receive in our Raptor Trauma Clinic have fallen out of their nest for whatever reason. Surprisingly, they don’t often break any bones in the fall like you would expect. Generally after a round of meds to treat any internal parasites and some fluids and good food to fatten them up, they can be released. Other issues we’ll see with eaglets are Avian Pox, which is spread by mosquitos and causes wart-like lesions on the dry skin around their eyes, beak and feet. Sometimes the pox lesion will grow so large it will cover an eye or their nares. It’s treatable but can internalize and be fatal. But we’ve also seen cases of an eaglet in a nest with a bad case of pox and he got over it on his own. A couple of years ago, we got permission from US Fish and Wildlife to use a high-reach lift to rescue an eaglet from a nest that had a treble fishing lure with one hook caught in his beak and the other hook caught in his foot. He was basically hog-tied and was unable to eat. Thankfully the EagleWatch volunteers noticed something was wrong and we were able to rescue him and treat his wounds. He was released back at his nest a few weeks later. In general, the leading cause of injury for adult raptors we see in our Clinic is impact related issues, usually from car strikes. We also see a number of eagles who get secondary poisoning from consuming euthanized animals that aren’t properly buried at a landfill. This can be fatal if they aren’t rescued in time. But thankfully with just a couple of days of fluids to flush their system, they are usually as good as new! We do see lead toxicity in some of the birds.We are fortunate to have our own machine to test for lead levels, thanks to the generosity of some of our corporate donors. It allows us to quickly determine if they have lead in their system so we can start the treatment early. They usually recover from it with treatment. We usually see lead issues in birds that come from more rural areas where they may scavenge on a carcass that has been shot with lead bullets.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Donna LaFleur asks: Was that were BOB was?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Yes! Bob was a famous patient at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey for about a year. Because of his injuries, he was no longer able to fly so was not releasable to the wild. We all wished we could’ve kept him at the Center but we just didn’t have room. So a lengthy search was made for the perfect forever home for Bob. (Bob was an adult Bald eagle) While we searched, Bob lived in our 100ft flight barn where he hung out with all of the other eagles that came through on their way to being released back into the wild. Including Peace, the young eagle from the American Eagle Foundation NE Florida Eagle Cam.

Bob now lives at the Ecotarium in Worcester, MA. We all miss him but are so happy for him to have a great home.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): mdofmich asks: Any studies being done on three adult eagle nests?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Aren’t those fascinating? Several cases of three adult eagle nests have been documented but I’m not aware of any published studies on them. Often when you see something unusual like that in breeding behavior, it’s an adaptation to a limitation—not enough females for males or vice versa. And perhaps its enough of a challenge in those areas to provide enough food for the young that they tolerate a helper. But that’s my own speculation. One thing I’ve learned is to never say “birds never do that” or “birds always do that”. Because they will always surprise you! It’s one of the many reasons I love working with them.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Androcat: Q#1. Of the EagleWatch nests, are there any banded nesting adults, and if so, were the numbers of the bands able to be read to determine any history of the banded eagle parent? Part 2 of this question: If any EagleWatch fledglings have been banded in care, have there been any band sightings or returns (interested in where it migrated to or returned to, or what happened).

SBAudubon (Moderator): Androcat is back with another great question! The Audubon Center for Birds of Prey has a banding permit and we do band every Bald eagle we treat before release with a silver federal band. That band has a 9 digit unique code but unfortunately is almost impossible to read enough of the code to positively ID the bird. But having said that, we do have a number of nests monitored by EagleWatch that have banded adults. One nest in Lake County has a banded adult that we suspect is one we know. The breeding male had been rescued on the ground near this nest a few years before and then was banded and released. After that, a banded adult showed up at the nest the next season. We haven’t been able to confirm it’s him, but it makes sense that it probably is him. His patient number was 007. Like James Bond. The nest is in a neighborhood on the lake and all of the residents keep a close eye on that family. They love 007!

Two years we started an auxiliary banding program with the juvenile eagles we treat and release. In addition to the silver federal band, young eagles get a colored band on their other leg with an easy-to-read code in large white letters and numbers. Many of these banded juveniles are seen near their release location for the next few days but then take off on their migration. It can take up to 8 years on average for the first band resighting but we’ve been fortunate to receive a couple of reports of our banded youngsters being seen. Last July we got a report from West Virginia for one of our fledglings who had been released a month earlier in Lake county. That was our first report of one of a band outside of Florida! I think everyone heard me scream from excitement a mile away! This fall I got a photo from an EagleWatch volunteer in Pinellas County of one our bird who was banded two years ago and released in Orange County. That was encouraging to see that he had survived his first two years. So keep your eyes out for our birds! They either have a black band with two white numbers over a white A, or a green band with a white K over two white numbers.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Judy Shepherd asks: What is it like to be holding or standing right next to a bald eagle? I'm assuming you have based on the photo.

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Judy! It’s as amazing as you probably can imagine. I am fortunate to get to handle our eagle ambassadors at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. They are so large and majestic. It’s really cool to be that close to them. Handling them is not without its challenges, though. They are 8-10 lbs, so I had to start lifting weights to carry them. And they are still wild animals, and like any wild animal, they can be dangerous. I’ve learned to read their moods and respect their power and capabilities. But I try to never take it for granted that I have this privilege. Insider tip: their call is really loud when it’s right in your ear. And they have bad breath.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Valerie Seyforth Clayton asks: Where do we think Florida Eagles go when they fledge? Where do we think our adult adults go when they are out of the area? (June, July, Aug)

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Valerie! Valerie is one of our dedicated EagleWatch volunteers in the Florida panhandle!

OrchrdHs asked as similar question: What is the longest distance a banded bald eagle has been recorded as traveling seasonally from/to Florida?

So I thought I would address them together. In 1998 USFWS to put a satellite tracking device on a pre-fledgling in a nest in Polk county. When she fledged, she flew all the way north to Canada and spent the summer there, returning to Florida for the winter (where she traveled around the Central Florida region, going as far south as Lake Okeechobee and visiting both coasts). She made this migration for the next 3 years until the transmitter fell off. In 2014 she was badly injured in a territory fight in Deltona and was rescued and transferred to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. Unfortunately, she had to have part of her right wing amputated so she is a permanent resident at our Center—at the ripe young age of 21! Her name is Tallulah. Last year I received a photo of a banded eagle from an Orlando resident. The eagle also had the remnants of a satellite tracking pack on her back. I was able to track down the researcher who banded the bird. He said she was banded as an adult in Maine in 2015 and the tracking data indicated she spent her winters in Orlando and returned to Maine in the spring (their breeding season). Her pack has stopped transmitting the previous year. So it appears that FL eagles mostly migrate up the Atlantic flyway as far as Canada

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Peggy180 asks: How does the hormone ghrelin make birds feel they have to migrate? What happens if a bird does not have enough to eat and is not full. Will that stop them from migrating?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Peggy 180! That’s an interesting question. Migration is such a complex behavior, influenced by many factors that are still not well understood. And different bird species have different migratory patterns. In Piping plovers, the female leaves before the young have fledged, leaving the male behind to finish raising the young. When the young make their first flight south, they don’t follow their dad or even stick together. They take off seemingly not knowing where they are going. So for some, migration seems very instinctual while for other birds it is more of a societal cue—they learn the route from older birds by following them.

Body condition is certainly an important factor when a bird prepares to migrate. That’s why fattening up on their wintering grounds is so important. And why I always encourage parents of young children to teach their kids not to chase birds on the beach. Many of these birds are exhausted after migrating or are resting and preparing to start the trip. Using up energy and fat stores to run or fly away from being chased by humans puts them at risk of not being fit enough to survive the journey. But from what I’ve read, it sounds like ghrelin plays a role in signaling to some birds when they are fat enough to start that journey. But for truly migratory species, I think there are other important signals the birds receives that would drive it to start the migratory journey even if it’s not full. Sadly, not all birds survive their migration. Birds with insufficient fat stores may not make it back or if they do, they may be in too poor of a condition to defend a nest and raise a family. I’ve done shorebird surveys in February and have seen numbers of weak or deceased seabirds on the beach who didn’t make it. It’s heart-breaking to witness but reminds me how fragile life is and what a tough life it is out there for many birds.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Judy Jirasek asks: Why do some states like Florida have so many eagles and some states don't have many? I live in Central Texas and we don't have eagles here. There are so many lakes and rivers throughout the state so I don't understand why Texas doesn't have many.

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Judy from Texas! I’ve asked that question about tarantulas in Florida. Our climate is a lot like many of the Central American countries where you find tarantulas in great numbers. But we don’t have any in Florida. Why not? But that’s a question for another time. From a strict biology standpoint, the size of a population in an area is the result of the carrying capacity of its historic range, along with the birth and death and rate of immigration and emigration. That’s a long sentence to say if there aren’t a lot of eagles in Texas, it may simply be that historically there never were many there and the birth and death rate of those who live there is roughly equal so that the population is static. It could also be something related to climate or food source, two important factors in determining where species breed. Florida has one of the largest Bald eagle populations in the lower 48 states and biologists often wonder what our carrying capacity may be. i.e. will we reach a point where there is not enough nesting or foraging sites to sustain the population. When that happens, you will often see the range of a species start to spread as the adventurous birds strike out to stake their claim on the edge of the historic range. Over time, if they are successful, the range will continue to creep outwards.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Selena Elizondo-Cepeda asks: What states have best Eagle Nest results?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Great question, Selena. Florida’s population is doing well. Last season, for the nests that EagleWatch monitors, they fledged 1.3 chicks per nesting attempt. Nests that were successful fledged 1.65 young per nest. I don’t have great statistics for other states to compare with but have read that some states are seeing a decline in the number of nests that are hatching and fledgling two young. They speculated that this may be due to reaching its carrying capacity for that area. In Florida, the majority of the nests we monitor still produce 2 young, and each year ~10% of our nests hatch and fledge 3 young. That’s a testament to the large prey base here, that eagles can catch enough food to successfully raise three voracious eagles.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Annie Keeley asks: When Juvies leave the Northern States for winter do they return and fly together?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Research studies indicate that Bald eagles don’t migrate together. They may share common stopover spots for foraging and refueling as they travel, but ultimately they make the journey alone.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Carl Berube asks: Are there any current studies or research taking place on migration of young/sub-adult eagles on the east coast? And are there documented cases of a sub-adult eagle returning permanently to the nest area they hatched at?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Carl, a study published in 2008 using satellite tracking indicated that sub-adults migrate up the Atlantic Flyway as far as Canada. Their routes varied somewhat going north and returning south during the first year or two, but as they aged, they showed more fidelity to a set route, indicating they were gaining experience in migrating as they aged. A study in 2014 based on banding data indicates that Bald eagles in general tend to disperse from 40-90 miles from where they were born to breed, with females dispersing greater distances than males (which is a typical life strategy for many species of bird to promote genetic diversity). However, one of our EagleWatch volunteers reported a banded adult at a newly documented nest in Martin County a year ago. When I reported the band to the researcher, I learned that the male was banded as a chick in a nest in Polk County in 2000. Our report was the first time he’d been seen since then! So 18 years later he had traveled 118 miles SE from where he hatched to breed.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Jackie Brown asks: Do you believe the parents and their off springs would recognize each other- if the kids came back into the area after leaving for a period of time?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Eagles seem to have a way or recognizing others. Mates indicate some level of recognition in that they mate for life and return to each other each season. They will often tolerate juvenile birds who visit their nest, even if not their own young. Last season we have several nests that we monitored that had an extra fledgling show up and join the family for a few days and the parents took them in. The parents were OK with it although the young in the nest seemed annoyed. We use this to our advantage in the rehab community so that we are able to rehome young eagles into foster nests if they can’t go back to their own nest or family for some reason. Our Clinic supervisor likes to joke that the adults either can’t count or don’t care.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Linda L. Reid asks: Are there statistics on the percentage of juvies who make it to 5 years old! I heard it is low and that is sad!!! Looking forward to the chat session! And JudyJirasek: What is the lastest statistics for a young Eagle surviving to adulthood and how do you know?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Linda and Judy! You all had similar questions so thought I would address them together. The most dangerous time for a young Bald eagle is the first year. Recent studies using satellite tracking in several states indicate survival rates of 60-75% that first year. If birds survive that first year, their mortality rate drops to 10-15%into adulthood. We know these statistics thanks to bird banding.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Daunelle Danish asks: If a bald eagle pair abandon a nest will another bald eagle pair most likely move into that nest?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Daunelle! Another EagleWatch volunteer! Having a breeding territory is incredibly valuable to a nesting pair, so much so that they will defend it to their death. So it would be unusual for a pair to abandon a territory. What is more likely is that they may be ejected for the territory by another pair that takes their nest, or a mate dies and the survivor finds another mate in the area. Sometimes you’ll have a nest that hasn’t been active in several years that is suddenly active again. Is it the same pair or a new one? It’s hard to say with any certainty unless the eagles are banded.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Isabelle Brunelle asks: How does the eagle know/determine the sex of another eagle for "bonding" purposes?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Eagles are dimorphic, meaning the females are substantially larger than the males, so those physical cues would play a big role. Behavioral clues likely also play a role. Females are much more dominant and aggressive. I would imagine there a number of nuances that the human eye doesn’t notice that eagles pick up on that signal whether the other bird is male or female.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): NHDalGal asks: Are altercations between eagles, when fighting for territory or a nest, usually female vs.female or male vs. male? If yes, is this because males may not prevail in a fight with a female because females are larger than males?

SBAudubon (Moderator): That’s a great question, and one that I hadn’t really thought about before! I know that both adults defend the nest and will fight but I have not read anything in the literature that says males only fight males and females only fight females. It would make sense if that is true for the reason you mentioned, the size difference. Anecdotally, with eagles we see that come into the Center as the result of a territory fight, it does seem that they are from same-sex fights. If anyone’s heard of females fighting males, let me know!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Pamela Dorman Wright asks: Hi, Shawnlei and mods! Since eagles have moved from "endangered" to "protected" status, is there a designated point at which they will no longer fall under the "protected" parameters? Thanks and I hope your chat will be available for later viewing!

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Pamela, Thanks for the question. As you know, eagles were once on the brink of extinction but made an incredible come-back when laws were put in place to protect them. Their numbers have increased enough that they were removed from the federal list of Threatened and Endangered species just over 10 years ago. But Bald eagles are still protected by a federal law known as the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act has recently loosened some of their permitting processes based on data that indicates the population is doing well. The permits issued are directly related to the size and health of the populations. These permits allow for "take" of eagles or their nests. So if anything, I think the authorities may allow more take permits in the future if the population continues to do well and grow. The data that EagleWatch collects is used to help track the status of the population in Florida and is shared with both state and federal authorities. Because of America’s affinity for our national bird, I suspect eagles will always be protected in some measure.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Bonnie Rinehart asks: I always wonder how do they get water when young?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Good question! As with most raptors, they majority of the moisture they need from the food they consume as chicks in the nest. But as adults you will sometimes see them getting a drink from a pond, but if anything, they are usually bathing. They like to keep it clean!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Daunelle Danish asks: Hi Shawnlei, question: is there such thing of infertility in young bald eagles and if yes, do they hatch with that condition or could it be caused by injury, or both?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Infertility can affect birds of any age. Sometimes it is a genetic defect they are born with and sometimes it develops later in life due to injury or other health issues. As with most animals, birds enter a period of senescence in their later years where they are no longer reproductive.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Christine Napoline Lonabaugh asks: Do we know how old Harriet is? How long can she breed?

SBAudubon (Moderator): The wonderful moderators helped me with these questions. Here is what they said: The adults are not banded,so there is no way of knowing their exact age. Based on local viewers who have watched Harriet over the years, Harriet is at least 20 years of age. She has been seen at this nest since 2006. If she is the same female that nested across the street she could be in her mid 20s - this is taking into consideration that eagles mature and usually begin breeding at around five years of age.

Regarding how long they can breed, if they are healthy, I would imagine that like most birds, they can breed for much of their adult life. They are a long-lived species, living into their late 30’s/early 40’s in the wild.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Babs Liberty asks: Are the Eagle Watch training programs online or at specific locations. If online, can one sign up for the training but not actually join the program (for educational purposes)? Is there a cost? How many sessions are there? Is the training a one-time event or at different times during the year. I will try to think of more questions.

SBAudubon (Moderator): EagleWatch volunteer trainings are held in the fall and are mostly in-person at 8-10 locations around the state. I also held several online web trainings for the first time last year to reach those who live in areas that I don’t make it to for trainings. The trainings are focused on what we do, protocols, etiquette, etc. You are certainly welcome to sign up to attend. There is no cost to attend and no requirement that you continue on to volunteer. If you’re interested in being notified of the training dates and locations, email me at eaglewatch@audubon.org to be added to our email list.

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thank you so much for your time and for the great questions.

 

beju: Did Bob go to a zoo, there as some talk last year it could be a possibility

SBAudubon (Moderator): Yes! Bob went to the Ecotarium in Massachusetts. It's a zoological and educational facility.

 

MagEagle9: Would you explain what 'take' means in the permitting process?

PamW2017: Shawnlei - Can you explain what a "take" permit is?

Opalillie Colligan: Hi. What does it mean to "take" of eagles or their nests?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thanks, yes

"Take" is the term used when a permit is issued to remove a nest (which is illegal without a permit, even if the nest is not being used). The other type of take permit covers work near a nest that may cause the nest to fail or may cause loss of life for an adult or the young

 

MelodyCS: Are internal parasites common? And if not treated, is it life threatening?

SBAudubon (Moderator): Internal parasites seem to be fairly common. At a low level they are not a concern. But if the bird is weakened or the load gets too high, it could potentially be fatal.

 

WPBEgal: Do you only monitor nests or do you take information on frequent eagle sightings in an area?

SBAudubon (Moderator): We only collect nest data. Ebird is a great resource for posting your eagle sightings

 

samour17 (Admin): Good evening Shawnlei. I am curious if the possible banding of all eaglets has been discussed for future studies similar to those being done at the Catalina Islands for their reintroduction program.

SBAudubon (Moderator): Currently our permit only allows us to band young eagles that come to our clinic for treatment. So we don’t actively climb up to the nest and band young in the nest like come research projects do. The color of the band we put on the eaglet is based on what type of nest they came from: green bands for eaglets from nests in trees and black bands for eaglets from nests on artificial structures (cell towers, power line transmission towers, platforms). The goal of our study is to determine if the type of nest they hatched in influences their nest choice at maturity. Because it takes juveniles 5 years to reach sexual maturity, this is a long term study, so I suspect we’ll focus on these methods for the foreseeable future. Great question!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thank you again for having me! I hope you will consider visiting the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey the next time you are in the Central Florida area! You may visit our website for more information: cbop.audubon.org/visit-us. And don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or ever need help with an injured eagle or eagle nest issue. I can be reached via email at 407-644-0190 or eaglewatch@audubon.org.

Essec09 (Admin): I want to thank you for sharing your evening with us Shawnlei. It was so informative and I really enjoyed it. We will be posting this session on SWFEC’s Flickr account by this weekend so that everyone will be able to read it. Thank you again! It was so nice “meeting you”. And thank you to the Pritchetts for setting this session up!

 

icecream247 (Admin): thank you Shawnlei, Very informative.

MtGal30: TY Shawnlei, Ginnie, Modsquad,Pritchett's n Peepers. I learned so much more about BE's tonight. Thoughtful questions were featured with some surprising answers!

DaveinMissouri: Thank you so much Shawnlei for taking time to be here tonight, it was very interesting seeing your answers to the questions being asked! Please come back when you can!

Sue_Lyons (Admin): Shawnlei thank you so much, this has been enlightening and educational - we so appreciate your time tonight!

 

SBAudubon (Moderator): Good night everyone!

 

Joanne Campbell: Thank you!

WPBEgal: Thank you Shawnlei!

Jackie Brown: Welcome Shawnie and thank you for coming to SWFE chat tonight.

MsSmith57 (Admin): Thank you Shawnlei, so much great information, Good night.

Megster: Thank you for joining this most special group of Admins and chatters Shawnllei

BckEE: Hello, Shawnlei! Welcome, and thank you!

Babs628: Thanks, Shawnlei, for joining this great chat with us tonight. Looking forward to all of the educational information you will be sharing with us tonight.

Gail Siebler: SB Audubon. Welcome to the SW world. I know you will enjoy it here. Such nice folks to share your info and ideas with.

vlpritchett (Moderator): Thank you Shawnlei and everyone for joining us tonight!

Sharon Davis: Nice to have you with us tonight shawnlei it's hard to pronounce really don't have any questions I'll just read

Valerie Seyforth Clayton: Hi Shawnlei this is Valerie. Thank you for all you do. I monitor 9 nests in the Panhandle for Eagle watch.My love of eagles began with E9. Thank you Shawnlei for all you do. Thank you to Dick Pritchett for the cam. Love my H and M15

HOeagletfan1: Night all and thanks Shawnlei SEDs

EJsbe: Thank you Shawnlei!

MelodyCS: A big thank you

Elaine Herbert: Welcome, Shawnlei! we are excited to have you with us!

Daunelle Danish: Thank you Shawnlei

Deen622: Thank you Shawnlei so much valuable information learned alot!

Susan Kiser: Thank you so very much for all of this very informative info Shawnlei! I am copying/pasting it to OpenOffice right now and I can't wait to read it later!

Ilene Horwitz: Thank you for so much information, Shawnlei, the hour flew by!

dadsjazz (Admin): Thanks so much for all the very valuable information!

monieagl11: Thank You Shawnlei so much was so informative

Essec09 (Admin): There are a few questions that Shawnlei wasn't able to get to. We will forward them to her by email and post the answers if she is able to answer them. Thank you all for joining us this evening. Was a wonderful, informative session.

purpleagle (Admin): Thank you Shawnlei for sharing your evening with us. I'm sure that you were able to answer many of our viewers questions !

E9Lover2: Thank you Shawnie for all the amazing knowledge you shared with us tonight. Hope you will visit with us again maybe next session?

RobertoD (Admin): Shawnlei, thank you very much for all of the information about migration! It’s my favorite subject Especially for mentioning Piping Plovers, and how you encourage parents with children to not chase after birds on the beach. I work and live on a barrier island off the SC coast and we do see Plovers migrating through each year. They stop here to refuel on the eggs of Horseshoe Crabs. Our problem here is dogs off of leashes which is difficult to control. I manage to get photos each year of banded Piping Plovers and am always fascinated by the data that I get back when I report the sightings. Thank you so much for being here tonight!

MelodyCS: I'm still giggling at, eagles have bad breath lol

LNBirdLady: Hello everyone. Thank you for all your information tonight. FYI, I visited Bob at the Ecotarium last summer. He had a new young female eagle joining him who was named Dianne after the author of the book Eagle One who raised eaglets in MA.

Peggy180: Thank you so much, Shawnlei. That information was absolutely fascinating!

SoarFreeE9: Thank you Shawnlei!!

beju: Thank you so very muchShawnlei

 

Macky Miller: I am a firm believer that protecting our precious wildlife has to start with the young. Our moderators have sessions with the schools. Have schools been receptive to your coming in and talking to the students? Have you been able to get younger children involved? I suspect they would, in turn, go back home and bring their parents into the picture. Hope I'm not off the wall with my thinking. I thank you for being here tonight.

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi Macky! So true. Children are the future! And we do get many opportunities through the Center for Birds of Prey to go into schools and talk about the importance of eagles and other raptors and how we can help protect them. One of our EagleWatch volunteers is a grade school technology teacher and she uses the SW FL Eagle cam in her classroom. It’s really heartwarming to hear her stories.

 

jsheptwo: Shawnlei, thank you SO much....this has just been fascinating and so much wonderful information. I found the point about eagles scavaging on euthanized animals not buried deeply enough somewhat disturbing. Would that possibly be as a result of farmers leaving their euthanized animals out?

SBAudubon (Moderator): You make a good point. I had assumed that farmers were required to property dispose of euthanized animals. If not, that could certainly be one of the causes. But in most cases when we’ve received an eagle that has signs of secondary barbiturate poisoning (the chemical used to euthanize animals), they are found at a landfill or within half a mile of a landfill. Landfills are supposed to properly bury euthanized animals they receive. So when we identify a landfill that is a repeat offender, we work with them and the Florida Dept of Environmental Protection to help them address the issue.

 

Janet1: Thank you Shawnlei for all the information have a good night

JudyJirasek: Very informative thank you very much

Shannon Jemison Price: Thank you, Shawnlei! What a wonderful session tonight. Thank you for all you do and for your time tonight.

hootie-hoo: Shawnlei, Thank you for sharing your evening with us! DaveM great question about lead awareness!

katbate: Great, informative session. Thank you so much

Androcat: Thank you Shawnlei! Favorite chat session ever! Thank you Pritchett family for yet another gift!

PamW2017: Shawnlie - Many thanks for answering our questions! Very informative, and hope you can come back some time.

Carol Guarco Myers: Thank you all for coordinating. What a great hour! Time flies!

trusteagles: Thank you so much, Shawnlei. As Essec said, it was a pleasure to meet you. I learned so much tonight. Thank you,Ginnie, for making this happen.

NHDalGal: Wow! This was an awesome addition to our chat. I hope we can do things like this again. Thank you to Shawnlei and the Pritchetts for making this available to us.

TinEar: I think the operative word tonight was "take" which startled several people apparently. I also though it meant to hunt/kill/harvest and was a bit alarmed at first until getting Shawnlei's explanation.

Pat Kwap Kemble: Thank you Shawnlei for teaching us so much about eagles.

OrchrdHs: Super interesting and reminds us that there is still so much to learn about these magnificent birds. Adding notes to my eagle journal and now I have more ideas for research and then can share with others who are interested in BEs. Thanks so much!

Tom Sawyer: Thank you to Shawnlei for all the great information! I would like to see an answer to Sams last question myself? That was an interesting and very relevant question regarding banding considerations.

Beverly Morden Hall: Shawnlie thank you so much. I can't wait to read it all GAIN. iT IS FACINATING

lucybird: Thanks all for this special chat. It was so very informative. What a treat Thank you Ginni P for putting this together WOW.

Eagletoe06: Many thanks to Ginnie Pritchett & Shawnlei! Very informative & great statistics! Always learning!

Lauren Roberts: Thank you to the Pritchetts for having Shawnlei join us tonight. And thank you, Shawnlei. She is the BEST! I'm having computer issues and was afraid I would miss it. SO back to work on that for me. Thank you Mods for getting that all set up for us! SEDs all!

scurtis123: Thank you to our hosts and speaker, and other eagle fans here!

TinEar: Shawnlie certainly opened the door for those interested to further their eagle education with the free training classes held around the state of FL. Here's your opportunity.

Jackie Brown: Thanks Eagle Squad for having our guess Shawnlei with is tonight. Thanks Pritchett family for providing us the opportunity to always learn about our eagle family.

Babs628: That was very enjoyable, educational and thought-provoking. Definitely a copy & paste to keep for reference. Thank you, Shawnlei & the SWFEC & Pritchett family for arranging this great Q & A.

AndrewNH26: Thank you Shawnlie << Notice the 3 Eagles in oct on cam 2 nodding yes to eveything you shared Lol

TaraTrac: Please thank Shawnlei for this informative and inspiring talk! The timing couldn't be better because I'm signing up for an introductory class and nest viewing by our East Bay Regional Park Dist. citizen Raptor Research program, with a focus on bald eagles. Thanks Essec, SueL, Roberto, Sam for hosting her. And GE viewers.....great talk, huh?

Nancy Phillips: Thanks Pritchett's and all involved in this chat, Shawnlie was so interesting and I learned a lot more about our great Eagles, great chat!

MagEagle9: Thank you Ginnie for the great idea of this chat with Shawnlei and thank you Essec and awesome mods for making it happen! I get to work with her thru EagleWatch and the days I volunteer at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. I was blessed to spend the morning with her at 2 eagle releases! That is what it is all about-getting them back home! I hope to meet you the next time you visit our amazing center Ginnie! If any of you are ever near central Florida it is well worth the visit!

 

floridafox: Hi all question: Why is it unlawful to pick up an eagle feather from the ground it doesn’t seem to affect any natural events in an Eagles life ty

SBAudubon (Moderator): Hi floridafox! You are referring to the federal law that protects eagles and all of their body parts so that it is illegal to own an eagle feather or any body part without a federal permit. I didn’t realize until I came to this position that even deceased eagles found on the road, or wherever they may be found, must be properly disposed of. FWC often brings deceased eagles to our Clinic for processing. We have to report the death to US Fish and Wildlife and they direct us as to what to do with the body—either send it to a lab for necropsy to determine if the cause of death was something illegal or to the eagle repository where the remains are made available to American Indians for use in their religious ceremonies. So it’s quite a process. I suspect the law is as strict as it is because allowing the collection of eagle feathers could be a slippery slope—was the feather found on the ground or did someone shoot the eagle to get the feather and then hide the remains? Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people out there and as is often the case, our laws are shaped to prevent the worst.

 

LCampbell75: Those were great questions...I learned a lot... thanks for doing this...and why do you guys name the eagles and we at SWEFC don't??

SBAudubon (Moderator): Thanks! Are you referring to my story about Bob and Peace? We don’t actually name our eagle patients at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. Peace was named by the folks at the NE FL Eagle Cam, which is operated by the American Eagle Foundation, and they do name their eagles. When Peace came to our clinic for treatment, all of their camera followers began watching the live feed from our flight barn and they are the ones who gave the name Bob to the adult eagle who “fostered” Peace. We refer to our patients by their patient number. Although we do go on to name any non-releasable raptors who become permanent residents at our facility. At that point, they become family.

 

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

  

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.

 

This stained glass window, showing Old Testament scenes, was made in 1610 by the glass-painters Richard Butler of Southwark, 'Lewis Dolphin, a French painter' (probably Louis Dauphin) and Martin van Bentheim of Emden, Holland. At Hatfield House, Hertfordshire.

 

The scenes depicted, starting at the top and looking from left to right, are as follows:

Visit of the Angel to Abraham; Moses in the bulrushes; Solomon and the Queen of Sheba;

Jacob's dream;

Jonah and the whale;

Passover of the Israelites; Samson and Delilah;

Abraham offering up Isaac; Naaman in the River Jordan; David and Goliath;

Elisha raising the son of the Shunamite woman;

and Elijah in the fiery chariot.

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

Calumet

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

It was nice to see Dave Lombardo on drums with Testament.

 

Fue muy agradable ver a Dave Lombardo en la batería con Testament.

pictionid68639663 - title--bible with metal cover the new testament of the bible in brown leather with front metal cover-- - catalog091011 - filename--bible with metal cover the new testament of the bible in brown leather with front metal cover---Image from the SDASM Curatorial Collection.Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

 

arte.tv/hellfest

© Gwendal Le Flem

Fotos Nuevas Septiembre 2011

 

catedraleseiglesias.com

© Álbum 0076

By Catedrales e Iglesias

Arquidiócesis de Puebla

 

Beato Sebastián de Aparicio

Capilla Interior Convento San Francisco de Asís

Puebla de los Ángeles,Estado de Puebla,México

Blvd. Héroes del 5 de mayo y 14 Ote. 1009

C.P. 72000

RR. PP. FRANCISCANOS

Tel. 222 235 83 08

 

La capilla anexa al presbiterio alberga la pequeña escultura de la Virgen Conquistadora que trajo consigo Hernán Cortés y el cuerpo incorrupto del Beato Sebastián de Aparicio.

 

Es aquí donde los peregrinos vienen a venerar los restos del Beato Sebastián de Aparicio (1502-1600). Su momia se expone en una urna ataúd de vidrio.

Aunque todavía no se ha canonizado, los poblanos lo consideran el santo patrono de los choferes y todos aquellos que manejan vehículos.

 

Beato Sebastián de Aparicio, el de las carretas

Vida de el Frayle lego Sebastián de Aparicio

 

Resumen del Texto copiado de

hispanidad.tripod.com/hechos14.htm

 

Un santo analfabeto

 

Conocemos bien la santa vida del Beato Sebastián de Aparicio, pues al morir en 1600 la fama de santidad de este gallego-mexicano es tan grande, que ya en 1603 el rey Felipe III escribe al obispo de Tlaxcala para que haga información procesal de su vida y milagros. Y el obispo, en 1604, le remite la biografía escrita por fray Juan de Torquemada. Muy tempranas son también las vidas escritas por el médico Bartolomé Sánchez Parejo, fray Bartolomé de Letona (1662) y fray Diego de Leyva (1685). En ellas y en otros antiguos documentos se apoyan las recientes biografías de los franciscanos Alejandro Torres (19682), Gaspar Calvo Moralejo (19762) y Matías Campazas (19852), según las cuales va mi relato.

 

El 20 de enero de 1502, en el pueblo gallego de Gudiña, en el matrimonio de Juan Aparicio y Teresa del Prado, nace después de dos niñas un varón, al que le ponen por nombre el santo del día: Sebastián. Nada hace presagiar que la vida de este niño va a ser tan preciosa. En realidad no es sino un chico gallego como otros tantos, que nunca aprenderá a leer y a escribir -la escuela entonces era cosa de pocos-, y que desde niño, en cambio, será instruido en las oraciones, en el catecismo, y en las muy diversas artes campesinas: hacer leña, cuidar los animales, regar, cultivar el campo, arreglar el carro, las cercas y tejados, y tantas cosas más que va a seguir ejercitando toda su vida. A los cinco o seis años, aquejado de una grave enfermedad contagiosa, y aislado por su madre en una choza solitaria, recibe en la noche la visita misteriosa de una loba que le libra de su tumor. Según Sánchez Parejo, el mismo Sebastián «refirió este suceso varias veces a sus amigos, cuando ya era fraile»

 

Un hombre casto

 

Pasada la adolescencia entre los suyos, emigra a Castilla en su primera juventud, buscando trabajo. Lo encuentra en Salamanca, en la casa de una viuda joven y rica, que se enamoró perdidamente del mozo. Asistido por la gracia del Salvador, huyó Sebastián a tiempo de aquel incendio de lujuria, sin chamuscarse en él siquiera. En la extremeña Zafra, entra al servicio de Pedro de Figueroa, pariente del Duque de Feria.

 

También de allí, alertado por Cristo, hubo de huir Sebastián, pues una de las hijas del amo comenzó a rondarle con exceso. Así dispuso la Providencia que se llegara Sebastián a Sanlúcar de Barrameda, de donde partían los barcos hacia América. Allí sirvió siete años, muy bien pagado, en una casa fuerte, lo que le permitió enviar a sus hermanas las dotes matrimoniales entonces en uso. En este lugar venció otra vez, sostenido por Cristo, violentos asedios femeninos, que procedieron esta vez de la hija del dueño y también de una joven de Ayamonte. De estos sucesos dio noticia él mismo, siendo ya fraile.

 

Se ve que las mujeres sentían gran atracción por este joven gallego. Pero aún era más amado y preferido por nuestro Señor Jesucristo.

 

Puebla de los Angeles

 

A los 31 años, en 1533, se decide Sebastián a entrar en la corriente migratoria hacia América, y se radica hasta 1542 en la ciudad mexicana de Puebla de los Angeles, fundada por Motolinía dos años antes con cuarenta familias, precisamente para acoger emigrantes españoles. Llega, pues, cuando la ciudad está naciendo, y todo tipo de trabajo y profesión son necesarios...

 

Sebastián cultiva, sin gran provecho, trigo y maíz. Pero pronto inicia una labor de más envergadura. Por aquellos años el ganado caballar y vacuno llevado por los españoles se ha multiplicado de tal modo que es ya, concretamente en la región de Puebla, ganado cimarrón. Sebastián, iniciador del charro mexicano, se dedica a perseguir novillos, lacearlos y domarlos, para formar con ellos buenas yuntas de bueyes.

 

Por otra parte, por Puebla pasan interminables caravanas que del puerto de Veracruz se dirigen a la ciudad de México, siguiendo un camino ya abierto desde 1522. Asociado Sebastián con otro gallego, probablemente carpintero, forma una pequeña sociedad de carretas de transporte -quizá la primera del Nuevo Mundo-, que evita a los indígenas el duro trabajo de portear cargas. Más aún, conseguido el permiso de la Audiencia Real, abre aquel camino al tráfico rodado, trabajando de ingeniero y de peón, y enseñando a trabajar a indios y españoles. Las carretas de Aparicio, durante siete años, recorren sin cesar aquellas primeras «carreteras» de América, como buenas carretas gallegas, chirriantes y seguras...

La casa de Aparicio en Tlalnepantla fue testigo de muchas obras de misericordia, así corporales como espirituales. En efecto, en palabras del doctor Pareja, era «refrigerio de sedientos, hartura de hambrientos, posada de peregrinos, alivio de caminantes, albergue y roca de los miserables indios» (Calvo 77). Allí Aparicio enseñaba a trabajar, daba aperos y semillas, perdonaba deudas, arreglaba carretas, enseñaba las oraciones, se esforzaba en aprender la lengua de los indios...

 

En su forma de vivir, no obstante su riqueza, se distinguía por una austeridad desconcertante. Vestía como cualquiera, aunque sabía trajearse adecuadamente en las ocasiones señaladas. No tenía cama, sino que dormía sobre un petate o en una manta tendida al suelo. Comía como la gente pobre tortillas de maíz con chile y poco más, y añadía algo de carne cocida en domingos y fiestas. No pocas veces pasaba la noche a caballo, protegiendo su hacienda de animales malignos, y alguna vez le vieron dormido sobre su montura, apoyado en su lanza. Todos los días rezaba el rosario, y de su tierra gallega conservó siempre una gran devoción al santo Señor Santiago.

 

Chapultepec y Atzcapotzalco, dos bodas

 

A los 55 años pasó Aparicio a vivir al pueblo de Atzcapotzalco, donde un hidalgo, con más pretensiones que riquezas, trató de conseguirle como rico y honesto marido para su hija. Aparicio preguntó al padre cuál era la dote que pretendían para la joven, y cuando supo que eran 600 pesos, los entregó al padre y él quedó libre de ulteriores apremios.

 

Pocos años después ha de trasladarse a Chapultepec, donde la abundancia de ganado requería su presencia. Allí tiene una enfermedad muy grave y recibe los últimos sacramentos, pensando ya en morirse. Recuparada la salud, muchos le recomiendan que se case. Tras muchas dudas y oraciones, acepta el consejo, y a los 60 años, en 1562, se casa con la hija de un amigo vecino de Chapultepec en la iglesia de los franciscanos de Tacuba, haciendo con su esposa vida virginal. Pensando estaban sus suegros en entablar proceso para obtener la nulidad del matrimonio, cuando la esposa muere, en el primer año de casados, y Aparicio, después de entregar a sus suegros los 2.000 pesos de la dote, de nuevo se va a vivir a Atzcapotzalco.

 

Un segundo matrimonio contrajo a los 67 años en Atzcapotzalco, con una «indita noble y virtuosa, llamada María Esteban», hija jovencita, como su primera esposa, de un amigo suyo. Fue también éste un matrimonio virginal, como Sebastián lo asegura en cláusula del testamento hecho entonces: «Para mayor gloria y honra de Dios declaro que mi mujer queda virgen como la recibí de sus padres, porque me desposé con ella para tener algún regalo en su compañía, por hallarme mal solo y para ampararla y servirla de mi hacienda». Para ésta, como para su primera esposa, fue como un padre muy bueno.

 

Pero tampoco esta felicidad terrena había de durarle, pues antes del año la esposa muere en un accidente, al caerse de un árbol donde recogía fruta. Aparicio la quiso mucho, como también a su primera esposa, y de ellas decía muchos años después que «había criado dos palomitas para el cielo, blancas como la leche».

 

Los extraños caminos del Señor

 

Sebastián de Aparicio, humilde y casto al estilo de San José, debió sentir como éste muchas veces profundas perplejidades ante los planes de Dios sobre él. Siempre inclinado a la austeridad de vida, el Señor ponía en sus manos la riqueza. Siempre inclinado al celibato, la Providencia le llevaba a dos matrimonios, seguidos -nuevo desconcierto- de prematura viudez. Pasando por graves enfermedades, el Señor le daba larga vida... Muchas veces se preguntaría Sebastián «¿pero qué es lo que el Señor quiere hacer conmigo?». Y una y otra vez su perplejidad tomaría forma de súplica incesante: «enséñame, Señor, tu camino, para que siga tu verdad» (Sal 85,11)...

 

Una gravísima enfermedad ahora le inclina a hacer su testamento, dejando todos sus bienes a los dominicos de Atzcapotzalco, con el encargo de que parte de su hacienda se empleara en favor de sus queridos indios mexicanos. Pero la salud vuelve completamente, y aumenta el desconcierto interior en Sebastián, a quien Dios da al mismo tiempo graves enfermedades y muy larga vida. Cada vez está más ajeno a sus tierras y ganados, y pasa más horas de oración en la iglesia. Cada vez son más largas y frecuentes sus visitas al convento franciscano de Tlanepantla. Una voz interior, probablemente antigua, le llama con fuerza siempre creciente a la vida religiosa, pero esta inclinación no halla en sí mismo sino dudas, y se ve contrariada por los consejos de sus amigos, incluso por las evasivas y largas de su mismo confesor.

 

Tiene ya 70 años, y aún no conoce su vocación definitiva. ¿Cómo se explica esto?... «¿Qué he de hacer, Señor?» (Hch 22,10). ¿Será que una pertinaz infidelidad a la gracia, obstinadamente mantenida durante tantos años, le ha impedido conocer su verdadera vocación? ¿O será más bien que esta misma vida suya, llena de zig zags, no es sino fidelidad a un misterioso plan divino?... Todo hace pensar que Sebastián de Aparicio pasó realmente las moradas, las Moradas del Castillo interior teresiano, con todas sus purificaciones e iluminaciones progresivas, hasta llegar a la cámara real, donde había de consumarse su unión con el Señor.

 

Verdaderamente la vida de Sebastián de Aparicio nos asegura una vez más que los caminos de la Providencia divina son misteriosos. Si él mantuvo su castidad virginal incólume en dos matrimonios y tras los graves peligros pasados en Salamanca, San Lúcar y Zafra; si guardó su devoción cristiana viviendo solo y en continuos viajes de carretero; si conservó su corazón de pobre en medio de no pequeñas riquezas, es porque siempre estuvo guardado y animado por el mismo Cristo. Ahora bien, si continuamente fue guiado por el Señor, esto nos lleva a pensar que su extraña y cambiante vida no fue sino el desarrollo fiel de un misterioso plan divino. Quiso Dios que Sebastián de Aparicio fuera todo lo que fue hasta llegar a fraile franciscano.

 

Portero de clarisas en México

 

El tiempo de «Aparicio el Rico» ha terminado ya definitivamente. Este hombre bueno, aunque parezca cosa imposible, «en todo el tiempo que fue señor de carros y labranza ganó cosa mal ganada -dice el doctor Parejo-, ni que le remordiese la conciencia a la restitución» (Calvo 81). Un verdadero milagro de la gracia de Cristo. Él mismo, ya viejo, pudo decir con toda verdad: «Siempre he trabajado por el amor de Dios» (Calvo 48).

 

Las clarisas de México, a poco de su fundación, pasan por graves penurias económicas. Y el confesor de Aparicio sugiere a éste que les ayude con sus bienes y sus conocimientos de la Nueva España. La respuesta es inmediata: «Padre, delo por hecho; mas de mi persona ¿qué he de hacer?»... El mismo confesor le indica la posibilidad de que sirviera a las clarisas como donado, portero y mandadero. Aquí es cuando Sebastián comienza a entrever la claridad de la vida religiosa... A fines de 1573, ante notario, cede todos sus bienes, que ascendían a unos 20.000 pesos, a las clarisas, y sólo de mala gana, por contentar a su precavido confesor, deja 1.000 pesos a su disposición por si no persevera.

 

Y entonces, cuando en México los numerosos conocidos de Sebastián empiezan a no entender nada de su vida, viendo que el antiguo empresario y rico hacendado se ha transformado en modesto criado de un convento femenino de clausura, entonces es precisamente cuando a él se le van aclarando las cosas: por fin su vida exterior va coincidiendo con sus inclinaciones interiores más profundas y persistentes. Es la primera vez que ocurre en su vida.

 

Fraile francisco

 

La vocación religiosa de Sebastián, después de más de un año de mandadero y sacristán de las clarisas, queda probada suficientemente, y el 9 de junio de 1574, a los 72 años de edad, es investido del hábito franciscano en el convento de México. Los buenos frailes de San Francisco, que le conocían y estimaban hacía mucho tiempo, tuvieron la generosidad de recibir a este anciano, que probablemente estimarían próximo a su fin... Pero el buen hermano lego Sebastián da en el noviciado muestras no solo de oración y virtud, sino también de laboriosidad: barre, friega, cocina, atiende a cien cosas, siempre con serena alegría.

 

Sin embargo, en este año de noviciado fray Sebastián va a sufrir no poco, por una parte de la convivencia, no siempre respetuosa, de sus jóvenes compañeros de noviciado, y por otra, sobre todo, de las impugnaciones del Demonio... Y además de todo esto, sus hermanos de comunidad no acaban de ponerse de acuerdo sobre la conveniencia de admitirlo definitivamente a la profesión religiosa, pues aunque reconocen su bondad, lo ven muy anciano para tomar sobre sí las austeridades de la Regla franciscana. En ese tiempo tan duro para él, fray Sebastián tiene visiones de San Francisco y de su querido apóstol Santiago, el de Galicia, que le confirman en su vocación. Al referir con toda sencillez estas visiones a un novicio que dudaba de volverse al mundo, confirmó a éste en su vocación.

 

Finalmente, llegado el momento, y después de tres días de deliberación, deciden recibirlo, de modo que el 13 de junio de 1575 recita la solemne fórmula:

 

«Yo, fray Sebastián de Aparicio, hago voto y prometo a Dios vivir en obediencia, sin cosa alguna propia y en castidad, vivir el Evangelio de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, guardando la Regla de los frailes menores».

 

Y un fraile firma por él, pues es analfabeto.

 

Mendigo de Dios en Puebla

 

Fray Sebastián, ya fraile, con toda la alegría del Evangelio en el pecho, y con sus 73 años, se va a pie a su primer destino, Santiago de Tecali, convento situado a unos treinta kilómetros al este de Puebla. En este pueblo de unos 6.000 vecinos, siendo el único hermano lego, sirve un año de portero, cocinero, hortelano y limosnero.

 

Pero en seguida le llaman a Puebla de los Angeles, donde el gran convento franciscano, con su centenar de frailes, empeñados en mil tareas de evangelización y educación de los indios, necesitan un buen limosnero. Aquí, donde había comenzado su vida seglar en Nueva España, va a transcurrir el resto de su vida.

 

A sus 75 años, con el sombrero de paja a la espalda, el hábito remendado, la bota, «su compañera», siempre al hombro, el rosario en una mano y la aguijada en la otra para conducir sus bueyes, fray Sebastián retoma su carreta y se hace de nuevo a los caminos, recorriendo sin cesar una región de unos 250 kilómetros a la redonda, esta vez para recoger ayudas no sólo para los frailes de su comunidad, sino también para los pobres que en el convento se atienden día a día. «Ahí viene Aparicio», se decían con alegría los que le veían llegar. Y su fórmula era: «Guárdeos Dios, hermano, ¿hay algo que dar, por Dios, a San Francisco?»... «Aparicio el Rico» se ha transformado de verdad en un «fraile mendicante».

 

A los otros limosneros les dice siempre: «No pidáis a los pobres, que harto hacen los miserables en sustentarse en su pobreza». Más aún, él daba a los pobres muchas veces su propia ropa o les repartía de los bienes que había reunido para el convento. El superior no veía clara la conveniencia de tal proceder, pero fray Sebastián le decía: «Más que me dé cien azotes, que no tengo de dejar de dar lo que me piden por amor de Dios».

 

A los sesenta años había comenzado el Hermano Aparicio a beber algo de vino, que «casi no era nada». Y ahora, ya fraile y penitente, siempre llevaba consigo la bota, quizá para que no le tuvieran por santo, quizá para reconfortarse en momentos de agotamiento, tal vez para ambas cosas. Un día del Corpus se encontró con él don Diego Romano, obispo de Tlaxcala, y como le apreciaba mucho, le dijo a fray Sebastián si podía ayudarle en algo. No tuvo mucho que pensar el buen fraile. Acercándole la bota, le dijo: «Que me llenéis esta pobretilla» (Calvo 150)...

 

A la sombra de la Cruz

 

El viejito que los frailes franciscos han recibido por pura generosidad, va a servirles de limosnero 23 años, de los 75 a los 98. Siempre de aquí para allá, muchas noches las pasa al sereno, a la luz de las estrellas, al cobijo de su carreta. Incluso cuando estaba en el convento, no necesitaba celda y prefería dormir en el patio bajo su carro. El padre Alonso Ponce, Comisario General franciscano, en una Relación breve de 1586, decía de fray Sebastián:

 

«Siendo de casi 90 años de edad, anda con su carreta de cuatro bueyes, sin ayuda ninguna de fraile español, ni indio, ni otra persona, acarreando leña y maíz y otras cosas necesarias para el sustento de aquel convento, y nunca le hace mal dormir en el campo al sol, ni al agua, antes este es su contento y regalo, y cuando está en el convento ha de tener la puerta de la celda abierta y ver el cielo desde la cama en que duerme, porque de otra manera se angustia y muere; si se le moja la ropa nunca se la quita, sino que el mismo cuerpo la enjuga, y si por estar sucia la ha de lavar, sin aguardar a que se seque se la viste y él la enjuga y seca con el calor del cuerpo, sin que de nada de esto se le renazca enfermedad, ni indisposición alguna» (Campaza 40).

 

Los datos son ciertos, pero no parece tan exacta la apreciación idílica de los mismos. En realidad fray Aparicio pasó en estos años de ancianidad, siempre de camino, innumerables penalidades. A veces sus penitencias eran consideradas como manías; pero eran en realidad mortificaciones. Así, poco antes de morir, le dice a su mismo superior: «Piensa, padre Guardián, que el dormir yo en el campo y fuera de techado es por mi gusto; no, sino porque este bellaco gusanillo del cuerpo padezca, porque si no hacemos penitencia, no iremos al cielo» (Calvo 108).

 

Y según refiere el doctor Pareja, a un fraile que le aconsejaba ofrecerlo todo a Dios, le responde: «Hartos días ha que se lo he ofrecido, y bien veo que si no fuera por su amor, era imposible tolerarlo; porque os certifico, Padre, que ando tan molido y cansado, que ya no hay miembro en el cuerpo que no me duela; y a un puedo certificaros que hasta los cabellos de la cabeza siento que me afligen, cuando de noche me quiero acostar o tomar algún reposo» (Campazas 40).

 

Consolado por los ángeles

 

También es cierto que el Hermano Aparicio se vio asistido muchas veces por consolaciones celestiales, como suele suceder tantas veces a los santos, cuando por amor de Dios renuncian a todo placer mundano. Él tuvo, concretamente, una gran devoción a los ángeles, especialmente al de su guarda, y experimentó muchas veces sus favores.

 

El mismo fray Sebastián contó al provincial Alonso de Cepeda una anécdota bien significativa. Le refirió que «caminando para Puebla hizo noche junto a una gran barranca que está en el camino de Huejotzingo. Y estando acostado en el suelo, debajo de una carreta, como acostumbraba, era tanta el agua que llovía que corrían arroyos hacia él, sin poderlo remediar, ni hacer otra diligencia más que ofrecer a Dios nuestro Señor aquel trabajo que padecía, con una total resignación y conformidad con su voluntad santísima».

 

Pero Dios acudió en auxilio de su siervo. Un hermosísimo mancebo se apareció y con una vihuela comenzó a tocar tan suave y dulcemente, que le pareció estar en la gloria, olvidándose de la incomodidad de la lluvia, y levantándose para acercarse al músico, éste se iba retirando, hasta que saltando la barranca de un salto, desapareció, dejando a Aparicio muy consolado» (Campazas 57). Otra vez, con la carreta atascada en el barro, se le presenta un joven vestido de blanco para ofrecerle su ayuda. «¡Qué ayuda me podéis dar vos, le dice, cuando ocho bueyes no pueden sacarla!». Pero cuando ve que el joven sacaba el carro con toda facilidad, comenta en voz alta: «¡A fe que no sois vos de acá!» (Campazas 71)...

 

Fueron numerosas las ocasiones en que a fray Sebastián, como a Cristo después del ayuno en el desierto, «se acercaron los ángeles y le servían» (Mt 4,11), o como en la agonía de Getsemaní, «un ángel del cielo se le apareció para confortarle» (Lc 22,43).

 

Impugnado por los demonios

 

Como también es normal en quienes han vencido ya el mundo y la carne, fray Sebastián experimentó terribles impugnaciones del Demonio en muchas ocasiones. En la hacienda de Tlanepantla, agarrado a las astas de un toro furioso, luchó a brazo partido contra el Demonio. En las clarisas de México los combates contra el Maligno era tan fuertes que la abadesa le puso una noche dos hombres para su defensa, pero salieron tan molidos y aterrados por dos leones que por nada del mundo aceptaron volver a cumplir tal oficio.

 

Ya de fraile, según cuenta el doctor Pareja, el demonio «le quitaba de su pobre cama la poca ropa con que se cubría y abrigaba, y, echándosela por la ventana del dormitorio, lo dejaba yerto de frío y en punto de acabársele la vida. Otras veces, dándole grandes golpazos, lo atormentaba y molía; otras lo cogía en alto y, dejándolo caer como quien juega a la pelota, lo atormentaba, inquietándolo; de manera que muchas veces se vio desconsoladísimo y afligido» (Campazas 31).

 

Los ataques continuaron en muchas ocasiones. En una de ellas los demonios le dijeron que iban a despeñarlo porque Dios les había dado orden de hacerlo. A lo que respondió fray Sebastián muy tranquilo: «Pues si Dios os lo mandó ¿qué aguardáis? Haced lo que Él os manda, que yo estoy muy contento de hacer lo que a Dios le agrada»...

 

Tan acostumbrado estaba nuestro Hermano a estos combates, que al Provincial de los Descalzos, fray Juan de Santa Ana, le dijo que ya no le importaban nada, «aunque viese más demonios que mosquitos». Y poco antes de morir, a los hermanos que le recomendaban acogerse a Dios para librarse de los asedios del Malo les dice: «Gracias a Dios, ha mucho tiempo que ese maldito no llega a mí, por haberle ya muchas veces vencido».

 

«Florecillas» de fray Sebastián

 

De los 568 testigos que depusieron en el proceso que la Iglesia hizo a su muerte, y de otros relatos, nos quedan muchas anécdotas, de las que referiremos algunas. Al mismo fray Juan de Santa Ana, buen amigo suyo, le contó fray Sebastián esta anécdota:

 

«Habéis de saber que todas las veces que voy al convento, procuro llevar a los coristas y estudiantes fruta u otra cosa que merienden, y cuando no lo hago me esconden las herramientas de las carretas (que sin duda las letras deben hacer golosos a los mozos), y esta vez que no les llevé nada, me cercaron con mucho ruido y alboroto; me pusieron tendido sobre una tabla, diciendo que ya estaba muerto, y cantando lo que cantan cuando entierran a los muertos, me llevaban por el claustro adelante a enterrar entre las coles de la huerta, donde tenían ya hecho el hoyo. Acertolo a ver desde su corredor el Guardián, que era entonces el R. P. fray Buenaventura Paredes, y preguntó: -¿Dónde lleváis a Aparicio? Y respondieron: -Padre nuestro, está muerto y lo llevamos a enterrar. Entonces dije yo: -Padre Guardián, ¿yo estoy muerto? Y visto por el Guardián que había yo respondido, les dijo: -¿Pues cómo habla si está muerto? A lo cual los dichos coristas dijeron: -Padre nuestro, muchos muertos hablan y uno de ellos es el Hermano Aparicio. Y por último el Guardián les mandó que me dejasen, que de otra suerte ya estuviera enterrado» (Campazas 47).

 

En una ocasión un religioso le exhortaba a amar a Dios, ya que Dios tanto le quería. A lo que fray Sebastián respondió con dudosa exactitud teológica, pero con toda veracidad de corazón: «Más le quiero yo a Él, pues sólo por Él he trabajado toda mi vida, sin descansar un punto, y por su amor me dejaría hacer pedazos». Aquel gallego analfabeto, pura bondad para todos, tenía en cambio sus problemas para amar a los judíos, y alegaba: «No son nuestros prójimos los que no creen en Jesucristo, sino herejes». Y cuando le hacían ver que Jesucristo, la Virgen María y San José, así como los santos apóstoles, eran judíos, respondía conteniendo su indignación: «Mirad que decís herejía»...

 

El Hermano Aparicio, tan devoto de la Eucaristía, sufría no poco a veces por no poder estar siempre presente en los oficios litúrgicos. Por eso en ocasiones, cuando estaba con el ganado en el monte, lo dejaba abandonado y se iba al convento a la hora de la misa. Y a los que ponían objeciones les decía: «Allá queda mi Padre San Francisco, cuya hacienda es ésa; él la guardará, y yo os aseguro que no faltará nada». Como así fue siempre.

 

Regresaba fray Sebastián con su carro bien cargado de Tlaxcala a Puebla, cuando se le rompió un eje. No habiendo en el momento remedio humano posible, invoca a San Francisco, y el carro sigue rodando como antes. Y a uno que le dice asombrado al ver la escena: «Padre Aparicio, ¿qué diremos de esto?», le contesta simplemente: «Qué hemos de decir, sino que mi Padre San Francisco va teniendo la rueda para que no se caiga» (Campazas 53-4).

 

Señorío fraternal sobre los animales

 

En realidad, fray Sebastián era bueno con todos, con los novicios de coro, a quienes les llamaba «novillos», y también con los mismos novillos, a quienes les decía «coristillas». Tenía sobre los animales un ascendiente verdaderamente sorprendente. A sus bueyes, Blanquillo, Aceituno..., hasta una docena que tenía, o al jefe de ellos, Gachupín, les hablaba y reconvenía como a hermanos pequeños, y le hacían caso siempre. Cuando se le meten a comer en una milpa, y una mujer se acerca gritando desolada, fray Sebastián le tranquiliza: «No se preocupe, hermana, mis bueyes no hacen daño». Y éstos obedientes se retiran, dejando los maizales intactos.

 

En otra ocasión, acarreando piedra para la construcción del convento de Puebla, un buey se le cansó hasta el agotamiento, y hubo que desuncirlo. Fray Sebastián entonces, por seguir con el trabajo, se acerca a una vaca que está por allí paciendo con su ternero, le echa su cordón franciscano al cuello, y sin que ella se resista, la pone al yugo y sigue en su trabajo. Y al ternerillo, que protesta sin cesar con grandes mugidos, le manda callar y calla. El antiguo domador de novillos los amansa ahora en el nombre de Jesús o de San Francisco.

 

Regresando una vez de Atlixco con unas carretas bien cargadas de trigo, se detiene el Hermano Aparicio a descansar, momento que las hormigas aprovechan para hacer su trabajo. «Padre, le dice un indio, las hormigas están hurtando el trigo a toda prisa, y si no lo remedia, tienen traza de llevárselo todo». Fray Sebastián se acerca allí muy serio y les dice: «De San Francisco es el trigo que habéis hurtado; ahora mirad lo que hacéis». Fue suficiente para que lo devolvieran todo.

 

A un hermano le confesaba una vez: «Muchas veces me coge la noche en la sabana y, sin otra ayuda que la misericordia de Dios, como me veo solo y tan enfermo, vuelvo los ojos al cielo, al Padre universal de la clemencia, y dígole: «Ya sabe que esto que llevo en esta carreta es para el sustento de vuestros siervos y que estos bueyes que me ayudan a jalar la carreta son de San Francisco; también sabéis mi imposibilidad para poderlos guardar y recoger esta noche, y así los pongo en vuestras manos y dejo en vuestra guardia para que me los guardéis y traigáis en pastos cercanos, donde con facilidad los halle». Con esto me acuesto debajo de la carreta y paso la noche; y a la mañana, cuando me levanto con el cuidado de buscarlos, los veo tan cerca de mí que, llamándolos, se vienen al yugo y los unzo, y sigo mi jornada» (Calvo 146).

 

«No perder a Dios de vista»

 

Fray Sebastián de Aparicio, con todas estos prodigios, nada tenía de hombre excéntrico; bien al contrario, su vida estaba perfectamente centrada en su centro, que es Dios. Desde Él actuaba siempre, y con Él y para Él vivía en todo momento. Y si San Francisco mandaba en su Regla a todos los hermanos legos rezar 76 Padrenuestros cada día, ésta era, con el Ave María, la oración continua del Hermano Aparicio. No salía de ahí, y en el «hágase tu voluntad» él decía todo lo que tenía que decir, y no tenía más que pensar o expresar. Fray Sebastián era, como bien dice Calvo Moralejo, «el Santo del Padre Nuestro» (131).

 

Noches enteras pasaba en oración de rodillas, mirando al cielo. «No tenía horas determinadas de oración, refiere el padre Letona, porque la tenía continua. en especial los últimos años de su vida andaba siempre tan absorto en Dios que no atendía a las palabras y preguntas que le hacían... Los 24 años que vivió en el convento de Puebla, jamás durmió debajo de techado, sino siempre en campo raso por no perder de vista el cielo» (Campazas 87). Varias veces le vieron, frailes y seglares, elevado durante la oración en éxtasis, pero lo más común era verle entre sus bueyes, a veces, cuando no podía menos, hasta en días de fiesta.

 

«Lo que yo hago -le confesaba a un fraile- es hacer lo que me manda la obediencia: duermo donde puedo, como lo que Dios me envía, visto lo que me da el convento; pero lo mejor es no perder a Dios de vista, que con eso vivo seguro». Y a esto añadía: «Si no fuera así, ¿quién había de pasar la vida que yo paso? A Él ofrezco los trabajos ordinarios de cada día, y a mi Padre San Francisco, por quienes los hago; ellos me lo reciban en descuento de mis pecados para que con eso me salve».

 

Como decía su biógrafo Sánchez Parejo, «toda su confianza y cuidado estaba puesto en sólo Dios. Él era su compañía, su comida, su bebida, su techo y amparo y, como dijo su padre San Francisco, y todas mis cosas» (Calvo 133).

 

Devoto seguro de la Virgen María

 

El Señor, San Francisco, el apóstol Santiago, y la dulcísima Virgen María... Muchos testigos afirmaron que la mano de fray Sebastián de Aparicio, siempre que no estaba ocupada en algún trabajo, se ocupaba en pasar una y otra vez el Rosario de la Virgen, sin cansarse de ello nunca.

 

En una fiesta de la Virgen, llega fray Sebastián al convento de Cholula en el momento de la comunión, y allá se acerca a comulgar, desaliñado y con la bota al cinto, recogiéndose después a dar gracias. En ello está cuando se le aparece la Virgen, y él la contempla arrobado... Cuando el padre Sancho de Landa se le interpone, le dice el hermano Aparicio: «Quitáos, quitáos, ¿no veis aquella gran Señora, que baja por las escaleras? ¡Miradla! ¿No es muy hermosa?». Pero el padre Sancho no ve nada: «¿Estás loco, Sebastián?... ¿Dónde hay mujer?»... Luego comprendió que se trataba de una visión del santo Hermano (Compazas 89).

 

98 años...

 

El 20 de enero, día de San Sebastián, de 1600, el Hermano Aparicio cumple 98 años, y una vez honrado su patrono, está trabajando con sus carretas. Todavía le aguantaba la salud, aunque una antigua hernia le daba cada vez más sufrimientos. El 20 de febrero, viene a casa desde el monte de Tlaxcala con un carro de leña, cuando los dolores de la hernia se le agudizan hasta producirle náusea y vómitos. Se las arregla, quién sabe cómo, para llegar al convento de Puebla, donde fray Juan de San Buenaventura, también gallego, le recibe, espantándose de verle tan desfallecido.

 

Allá queda fray Sebastián en el patio, bajo la carreta, en el lugar acostumbrado. Pero el padre Guardián le obliga a guardar cama en la enfermería. Cinco días dura allí, sobre la cama inusual. Y a su paisano fray Juan de San Buenaventura se le queja: «¿Qué os parece?, cómo no me quieren dejar donde tengo consuelo»... Él, de hacía tiempo, como los indios, tenía preferencia por sentarse directamente en el suelo: «Mejor está la tierra sobre la tierra», solía decir.

 

Pide entonces que le traigan a la celda el Santísimo, y que le dejen adorarlo postrado en tierra. Más tarde el padre Guardián le acerca el crucifijo, para que le pida perdón al Señor por sus pecados: «¿Ahora habíamos de aguardar a eso? -le dice fray Sebastián-. Muchos días ha que somos viejos amigos»... Otro fraile le pone en guardia contra posibles asaltos del demonio: «Ya está vencido -le responde-. Todo lo veo en paz. El Señor sea bendito».

 

El 25 de febrero, con 98 años, postrado en tierra, al modo de San Francisco, fray Sebastián de Aparicio entrega a Dios su espíritu al tiempo que dice «Jesús».

 

En seguida se abre su proceso de beatificación, y llegan a documentarse hasta 968 milagros... Por fin, tras tantas demoras, en 1789 es declarado Beato, y desde entonces su cuerpo incorrupto -parece un hombre dormido, de unos 60 años- descansa en una urna de plata y cristal en el convento franciscano de Puebla de los Angeles. Hay en la plaza, sin esperar a Roma, un hermoso monumento en granito y bronce, con una inscripción bien clara:

 

San Sebastián de Aparicio

 

Precursor de los caminos de América

 

1502-1600

Vespa PX 125

 

وصی کردن کیخسرو گودرز کشواد را، و اموال و املاک بخش کردن نوکران را، شاهنامه فردوسی، لاهیجان، 1493-1494 ترسایی، آبرنگ، گواش، مرکب و طلا بر روی کاغذ

چو آمدش رفتن بتنگي فراز

يکي گنج را درگشادند باز

چو بگشاد آن گنج آباد را

وصي کرد گودرز کشواد را

بدو گفت بنگر بکار جهان

چه در آشکار و چه اندر نهان

Persian (Gilan, Lahijan)

Kai Khusraw Giving His Testament from the Shahnama of Firdausi, 1494

Opaque watercolor on paper

Calligraphy in nastaliq script with chapter heading in naskh

Kai Khusraw Giving His Testament was removed from a volume of the Persian national epic, the Shahnama, executed for Sultan Mirza Ali, ruler of Gilan. This enormous manuscript once contained about 350 miniatures, which are now dispersed. Rendered in one of the manuscript's two distinct painting styles, the Worcester page exemplifies the "big-headed" type, named after its most singular characteristic. Although no artists' names are recorded, the scribe is Salik ibn Said. The literal translation of the title given in the text over the painting is "Kai Khusraw appointing Gudarz-e Keshvad executor and distributing properties and possessions."

The Shahnama relates that Shah Kai Khusraw sank into depression after defeating all his enemies and was told by an angel in a dream to depart this world. Despite the pleas of his courtiers, he dictated his last wishes and vanished in a snowstorm. Here the depressed ruler is shown surrounded by seven warriors.

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© Gwendal Le Flem

Testament

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© Gwendal Le Flem

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain

13900 North Dove Mountain Boulevard

Marana, Arizona

 

**In the Beginning**

 

In 1926, Missourian Eugene Cayton arrived in Tucson to improve his health. He acquired what was then known as Ruelas Canyon in the Tortolita Mountains and established the T Bench Bar Ranch. "Cush" Cayton built for his wife, Inez, a stone house atop one of the smaller peaks. The stone house is still there on top of the hill overlooking Dove Mountain Boulevard near the eighth and ninth holes of the Gallery Golf Club. The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain was developed by John MacMillan, majority owner of Palo Verde Partners and opened in 2003.

 

The Cayton’s ranched the land until 1984. In 1985 David Mehl’s Cottonwood Properties Inc. Acquired the 1,300 acres of desert land and thus began Mehl's vision of Dove Mountain as an upscale golf community. David Mehl and his late brother George founded Tucson-based Cottonwood Properties in 1972. Its purpose was to invest in and develop quality real estate in the Tucson, Arizona area. David Mehl graduated from the University of Arizona in 1972.

 

In the early 1980’s Cottonwood Properties was the master developer of the 790 acre Westin La Paloma resort community in the foothills of Tucson. The development consisted of the 487 room Westin La Paloma Resort & Hotel and the 27 hole Jack Nicklaus signature golf course. Cottonwood owned the hotel until 1988 when it sold the hotel to the Aoki Corp., the Japan-based construction company that owned Westin. Aoki spent $200 million to acquire 3 hotels - the Inter-Continental at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, the Inter-Continental at Buckhead in Atlanta, and an equity interest in the Westin La Paloma.

 

**Pygmy Owl**

 

In March 1997 the Pygmy Owl was added to the list of endangered species under federal law. In 1999 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service dealt a set-back to the development. Environmental protections for the ferruginous pygmy owl forced Cottonwood to scale back plans at Dove Mountain. The numbers of homes were scaled back from 13,000 to 6,500 and the numbers of proposed resorts were reduced to one from 3 or 4. Cottonwood also contributed several million dollars to a conservation fund managed by the federal agency.

 

In 1999 the Tucson Citizen quoted David Mehl ”By making density reductions, we are developing at a density compatible with the pygmy owl.. In areas where it’s not, then we’re offering to pay to make up for it.”

 

**The Development**

 

Cottonwood committed some twenty years of planning into making Dove Mountain a premiere golf resort community.

 

In the late 1990’s Cottonwood Properties partnered with Scottsdale-based Greenbrier Southwest Corp. and began planning a 500-room Hyatt resort hotel for Dove Mountain. The hotel was designed and the developers received a verbal commitment for the financing on Sept. 10, 2001. The next day, September 11, 2001, the world changed and the idea for the Hyatt Resort was shelved.

 

The principals of Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, Tim and Casey Bolinger, previously served with Woodbine Southwest Corporation in Phoenix from 1991-1998. They managed the planning, zoning, financing, development and marketing of the 730-acre Kierland master-planned community, including Kierland Commons and the Westin Kierland Resort.

 

Greenbrier Southwest developed a much smaller project – the Hidden Meadow Ranch in Greer, Arizona. Opened in 2002, the rustic ranch (transformed from a church youth camp) has 12 luxury cabins starting at $500 a night including meals.

 

In August 2007 a building permit was issued for a Ritz-Carlton resort and spa to be built in Dove Mountain in Marana. The building permit cost $309,643.10 and was applied for by Dove Mountain Hotel Co. LLC. Also, Tucson Water approved a water main extension, a 290,000-gallon reservoir and a booster station that would serve the proposed 250-room hotel.

 

The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain and The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain were announced as the largest branded resort/residential community managed by the Ritz Carlton hotel company. The $160 million hotel will be the second Ritz-Carlton in Arizona, joining the The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix.

 

The Ritz Carlton press release announced that HKS Hill Glazier Architects of Palo Alto, California will design the hotel as a low-rise, four story building embracing the feel of the desert southwest. The main building of adobe block, straw-flecked stucco, clay tile and native stone will include 226 guest rooms and suites. Separate buildings nearby will feature 24 individual casita rooms and suites.

 

In addition a $60-million Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course with 27-holes was planned for a late 2008 opening. The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain now hosts the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship beginning in February 2009 (The PGA Tour has committed to The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain through the 2013 event). When George and David Mehl hired Nicklaus in 1983 to design the Westin La Polama Golf Course, it was Nicklaus’s 26th golf course on his design resume. With Dove Mountain completed Nicklaus has designed over 200 golf courses around the world.

 

**Grand Opening**

 

The Ritz Carlton’s pre-opening General Manager – Michael McMahon - aims to have the resort become the first in the Tucson area to achieve AAA's highest rating of five diamonds. Previously McMahon was General Manager The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, Naples, Florida.

 

The hotel’s opening general manager was Allan Federer. In March 2011 Federer moved to the Ritz-Carlton Dubai as General Manager. Replacing Federer is Liam Doyle – who previously was general manager at the Sherbourne Dublin, Ireland and Hotel Manager at the Ritz-Carlton South Beach.

 

The Ritz-Carlton Grand Opening Press Release reported that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was in attendance at the December 18, 2009 event. Speakers at the event included owner and developer David Mehl of Cottonwood Properties, senior vice president of operations for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., Hank Biddle, and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain resort general manager, Allan Federer.

 

“This day is a landmark event not only for the town of Marana, but for the State of Arizona,” stated general manager Allan Federer. “Over twenty years ago, David and his brother George Mehl had a vision to build the finest resort in the country. All it took was the right partners and the perfect location. With the help of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. and co-developer Greenbrier Southwest Corporation, it became a reality. Now the world has the opportunity to visit a place like no other, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.”

 

Following the official ribbon-cutting seventy-two white doves were released symbolizing the property as the 72nd within The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. portfolio.

 

At full operation the hotel has 450 employees. It has 44,000 square feet of meeting space including a 9,000 square foot main ballroom.

 

The hotel’s opening Chef de Cuisine was Joel Harrington. Harrington previously was chef de cuisine of Fearing's at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. Harrington graduated from CIA in Hyde Park, NY and worked with Marcus Samuellson at Aquavit in NYC.

 

Replacing Harrington is Chef David Serus who previously served as Executive Sous-Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay and Executive Chef of The Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C. Serus’ role encompass all hotel culinary activities, including those at CORE Kitchen & Wine Bar, Cayton’s Restaurant, Ignite Lobby Lounge, Turquesa Latin Grill, To Go, In-Room Dining, banquets, and catering.

 

**Two Landmark 200 Year Old Saguaros**

 

When Wild Burro Canyon was selected for the perfect hotel site, where balcony views of the Tortolita Mountains would be maximized, it was discovered that two majestic Saguaros, each estimated to be close to 200 years old, would have been lost. This was unacceptable to ownership. After three more months of analysis, the final solution was to simply shift the whole facility 25 feet. Today, as hotel guests behold the box canyon views from Ignite or CORE Kitchen and Wine Bar, they enjoy these two landmark cacti, which rise majestically overhead and stand in testament to the preservation of the High Sonoran Desert. “These cacti are sacred and add to our sense of place,” said Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. “Guests gaze in awe and wonder at the desert’s version of a redwood, adding to the memories they will have of this beautiful property.”

 

Photos and text compiled by Dick Johnson

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

March, 2012

 

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© Gwendal Le Flem

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© Gwendal Le Flem

Leica M8.2

35mm Summicron f/2.0 1/8 sec

 

The question allegedly posed by Roman Procurator Pontious Pilate to Jesus during his trial, shortly before his crucifixion.

 

This second century fragment of papyrus is kept at the John Rylands Library on Deansgate in Manchester. it is only a few inches in width and height and it has writing on both sides (meaning it was originally part of a ‘codex’ or book rather than a scroll. The fragment of papyrus was among a group acquired on the Egyptian market in 1920 by Bernard Grenfell although the original transcription and translation of the fragment of text was not carried out until 1934, by Colin H. Roberts.

 

It is thought to date from around 117AD to 138AD and is the earliest fragment of the New Testament Bible in existence.

 

It has been suggested that the writer of this particular manuscript (P52), could have been copying from the actual Gospel of St. John, the original of which, is no longer in existence. Other people have argued that this fragment could be from the actual Gospel itself although the paleographic evidence seems to support the former school of thought rather than the latter.

 

Dating such a small fragment can be quite tricky however with most letters of the greek alphabet present, it is possible to compare the scribing style with other contemporary documents that exist in libraries and collections around the world. On the Papyrus there are a total of 114 legible letters which are visible on the two sides, representing 18 out of the 24 letters of the Greek Alphabet.

 

The full text from John 18:31-33 (pictured) would read:

 

ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ ΗΜΙΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙ

OYΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο ΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙ-

ΠΕΝ ΣHΜΑΙΝΩΝ ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟ-

ΘΝHΣΚΕΙΝ ΕΙΣΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩ-

ΡΙΟΝ Ο ΠIΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝ

ΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ O ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥ-

ΔAΙΩN

...

the Jews, "For us it is not permitted to kill

anyone," so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he sp-

oke signifying what kind of death he was going to

die. Entered therefore again into the Praeto-

rium Pilate and summoned Jesus

and said to him, "Thou art king of the

Jews?"

 

The obverse of the fragment contains verses, 37 and 38:

 

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΕΓΩ ΕΙΣ TOΥΤΟ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΑΙ

ΚΑΙ (ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ) ΕΛΗΛΥΘΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΜΑΡΤY-

ΡΗΣΩ ΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΑΣ Ο ΩΝ EΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΗΘΕI-

ΑΣ ΑΚΟΥΕΙ ΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΦΩΝΗΣ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΩ

Ο ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΚAΙ ΤΟΥΤO

ΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΞΗΛΘΕΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΙΟΥ-

ΔΑΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΩ ΟΥΔEΜΙΑΝ

ΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΑΙΤΙΑΝ

...

a King I am. For this I have been born

and (for this) I have come into the world so that I would

testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth

hears of me my voice." Said to him

Pilate, "What is truth?" and this

having said, again he went out unto the Jews

and said to them, "I find not one

fault in him."

 

The Rylands Manuscript Papyrus (P52) is kept on public display at the library.

 

The importance of this document to the history of Christianity should not be underestimated. Although little of the full codex survives, the early dating and undeniable content coupled with the geographic dispersal from the presumed site of the actual Gospels authorship (Ephesus, Turkey) means that logically, the date of authorship for the Gospel of John itself must be at least a few years prior to the date attributed to the Rylands Fragment.

 

Until the discovery and study of P52, Crtitics of St. Johns Gospel often argued that the work was likely to be pseudepigraphal (not actually written by St. John himself) although P52 now allows actual authorship dates for the Gospel to c.90AD. Such a date can be considered quite consistant with the existance of the proposed author and Disciple of Jesus Christ.

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© Gwendal Le Flem

In his journal (published by Baron R. Portalis, see Literature), Danloux described in remarkable detail his meeting with the present sitter’s mother, Sophia Lambert (née Whyte; d.1839) as well as the commissioning and execution of not only the present portrait, but also that of Mrs. Lambert (sold Paris, Sotheby's, 19 June 2006, lot 79):

 

“I have had a visit from M. Dellon, who tells me he had dined the previous evening with Mme. Lambert, daughter-in-law of Chevalier Lambert, the Paris banker, at the home of the Margrave (Prince) of Anspach. A rendezvous was made at my home [June 15, 1795], because she wanted to see my works. She arrived just after, recognized all the portraits of her acquaintances, asked my price and said she would present her husband to me.”

 

Danloux also records the step by step process of the creation of this beautiful portrait, in eighteen seperate entries dating from 14 June to 3 August 1800, commenting not only on its progress, but also on the character of the young boy himself. Danloux’s day-by-day accounts of the execution of this work are less fully articulated, but no less informative, and even show his artistic process as he works through the painting of the hand:

 

"le 14 juin 1800 : J’ai ébauché Lady Lambert et son fils.

Le 18 juin 1800 : Mme Lambert m’envoie son fils par son mari. Je travaille à son portrait. L’enfant est fort bien élevé. Elle vient elle-même à deux heures. L’après diner j’ébauche le fond du tableau.

 

Le 24 juin 1800 : Revenu chez moi, j’y trouve Sir Honble Lambert avec son fils. J’y travaille à peine, l’enfant ne se tenant pas. La mère arrive ensuite, mais je suis fatigué et je travaille à son portrait avec le même déplaisir…

Le 28 juin 1800 : Sir Honble Lambert vient avec son fils pour prendre séance. L’enfant ne se tient pas ; Lady Lambert arrive et ne reste qu’une demie heure.

Le 1er juillet 1800 : Sir honble Lambert est venu, je finis l’habit de son fils. Je ne fais rien qui vaille et le recommencerai.

 

Le portrait du jeune Lambert a été retrouvé chez le révérend W.H. Lambert, à Santon House près d’Hertford. Henry John Lambert, 5e Baronnet, né en Aout 1792, avait alors 8 ans. La veste est gris français, la ceinture bleu clair, le col à jabot. S. H. Lambert-Grey, Enville Hall, Stourbridge, possède plusieurs portraits de la famille de la main de Danloux. Celui de Lady Lambert est au pastel.

 

Le 5 juillet 1800 : J’ai travaillé au petit Lambert ; je l’ai fini quant à la tête.

Le 7 juillet 1800 : Lady Lambert vient. Je la recommence et je la finis dans la matinée. Elle en est contente…

Le 8 juillet 1800 : Je retouche au petit Lambert.

Le 10 juillet 1800 : Je travaille au fond du petit Lambert.

Le 17 juillet 1800 : J’ébauche le corps de Lady Lambert.

Le 19 juillet 1800 : Je travaille encore au portrait du petit Lambert que son père m’amène, voulant toujours voir si il y a quelque chose à y faire. Il me donne deux billets d’opéra.

Le 3 aout 1800 : Je peins la main du petit Lambert d’après Jules : Je ne sais ce que je fais."

 

Danloux studied with both Joseph-Marie Vien and Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié and met Jacques-Louis David during a trip to Rome in the late 1770s. The influence of these artists, encountered in his formative years, remained palpable on Danloux for the rest of his career; it is particularly evident in his expressive faces and capacity for conveying human emotion. Danloux soon established himself as a talented genre painter and portraitist, spending time in both Italy and France. In 1785 he moved to Paris where he met the Baronne d'Etigny, who helped him obtain a number of importrant portrait commissions and two years later he married the Baronne's adopted daughter Marie-Pierrerre-Antoinette de Saint Redan. After eighteen months in Italy, the couple settled in Paris but were forced to flee to London in 1791 to escape the Revolution. By then, Danloux was at the height of his career; adapting to life in London with ease, he swiftly became renowned in the city's artistic and collecting circles alike, and this elegant portrait is a testament to his popularity among the English aristocracy at the turn of the century.

The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus is a marble Early Christian sarcophagus used for the burial of Junius Bassus, who died in 359. It has been described as "probably the single most famous piece of early Christian relief sculpture." The sarcophagus was originally placed in or under Old St. Peter's Basilica, was rediscovered in 1597 and is now below the modern basilica in the Museo Storico del Tesoro della Basilica di San Pietro (Museum of Saint Peter's Basilica) in the Vatican. The base is approximately 4 x 8 x 4 feet.

 

Together with the Dogmatic sarcophagus in the same museum, this sarcophagus is one of the oldest surviving high-status sarcophagi with elaborate carvings of Christian themes, and a complicated iconographic programme embracing the Old and New Testaments.

 

Junius Bassus was an important figure, a senator who was in charge of the government of the capital as praefectus urbi when he died at the age of 42 in 359. His father had been Praetorian prefect, running the administration of a large part of the Western Empire. Bassus served under Constantius II, son of Constantine I. Bassus, as the inscription on the sarcophagus tells us, converted to Christianity shortly before his death - perhaps on his deathbed. Many still believed, like Tertullian, that it was not possible to be an emperor and a Christian, which also went for the highest officials like Bassus.

 

The style of the work has been greatly discussed by art historians, especially as its date is certain, which is unusual at this period. All are agreed that the workmanship is of the highest quality available at the time, as one might expect for the tomb of such a prominent figure.

 

The sarcophagus in many respects shows fewer features of the Late Antique style of sculpture typified in the Arch of Constantine of several decades earlier: "The sculpture ignores practically all the rules obeyed by official reliefs. Some figures are portrayed frontally, but certainly not all, and they are not shown in a thoroughly Late Antique manner; the scenes are three-dimensional and have depth and background .... drapery hangs on recognizable human forms rather than being arranged in predetermined folds; heads are varied, portraying recognisably different people." The sarcophagus has been seen as reflecting a blending of late Hellenistic style with the contemporary Roman or Italian one, seen in the "robust" proportions of the figures, and their slightly over-large heads.

 

The setting in the niches casts the figures against a background of shadow, giving "an emphatic chiaroscuro effect".

 

Ernst Kitzinger finds "a far more definite reattachment to aesthetic ideals of the Graeco-Roman past" than in the earlier Dogmatic Sarcophagus and that of the "Two Brothers", also in the Vatican Museums. The form continues the increased separation of the scenes; it had been an innovation of the earliest Christian sarcophagi to combine a series of incidents in one continuous (and rather hard to read) frieze, and also to have two registers one above the other, but these examples show a trend to differentiate the scenes, of which the Junius Bassus is the culmination, producing a "multitude of miniature stages", which allow the spectator "to linger over each scene", which was not the intention of earlier reliefs which were only "shorthand pictographs" of each scene, only intended to identify them. He notes a "lyrical, slightly sweet manner" in the carving, even in the soldiers who lead St Peter to his death, which compares to some small carvings from the Hellenized east in the Cleveland Museum of Art, though they are several decades older. Even allowing for "the gradual appropriation of a popular type of Christian tomb by upper-class patrons whose standards asserted themselves increasingly both in the content and in the style of these monuments", Kitzinger concludes that the changes must reflect a larger "regeneration" in style.

 

The carvings are in high relief on three sides of the sarcophagus, allowing for its placement against a wall. The column and many parts of the figures are carved completely in the round. The arrangement of relief scenes in rows in a columnar framework is an introduction from Asia Minor at about this time. No portrait of the deceased is shown, though he is praised in lavish terms in an inscription; instead, the ten niches are filled with scenes from both the New and Old Testaments, plus one, the Traditio Legis, that has no Scriptural basis.

 

The scenes on the front are: Top row: Sacrifice of Isaac, Judgement or Arrest of Peter, Enthroned Christ with Peter and Paul (Traditio Legis), and a double scene of the Trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate, who in the last niche is about to wash his hands. Bottom row: Job on the dunghill, Adam and Eve, Christ's entry into Jerusalem, Daniel in the lion's den (heads restored), Arrest or leading to execution of Paul.

 

The tiny spandrels above the lower row show scenes with all participants depicted as lambs: on either side of Christ entering Jerusalem are the Miracle of the loaves and fishes and the Baptism of Jesus. The other scenes may be the Three youths in the fiery furnace, the Raising of Lazarus, Moses receiving the tablets and Moses striking the rock.

 

The sides have more traditional Roman scenes of the Four Seasons represented by putti performing seasonal tasks such as harvesting grapes. On a damaged plaque surmounting the lid is a poem praising Bassus in largely secular terms, and the inscription running along the top of the body of the sarcophagus identifies him, and describes him as a "neophyte", or recent convert. Further small reliefs on the lid, and heads at the corners, are badly damaged, they showed scenes of feasts and a burial procession typical of pagan sarcophagi; it is possible the lid was not created to match the base.

 

Scenes with Christ: The emphasis on scenes of judgement may have been influenced by the career of Bassus as a magistrate, but all the scenes shown can be paralleled in other Christian works of the period.

 

In all the three scenes where he appears Christ is a youthful, beardless figure with shortish hair (though longer than that of other figures), which is typical of Christian art at this period. The angel standing behind Abraham in the Sacrifice of Isaac is depicted similarly, and without wings. Christ appears in the centre of both rows; in the top row as a law-giver or teacher between his chief followers, Peter and Paul (the Traditio Legis), and on the bottom entering Jerusalem. Both scenes borrow from pagan Roman iconography: in the top one Jesus is sitting with his feet on a billowing cloak representing the sky, carried by Caelus, the classical personification of the heavens. Christ hands Peter a scroll, probably representing the Gospels, as emperors were often shown doing to their heirs, ministers or generals.

 

Before Pilate Christ also carries a scroll, like a philosopher. Pilate, perhaps worried by Jesus's reputation for miracles, is making the gesture Italians still use to ward off the evil eye. Pilate has a mild and passive appearance, contrasting strongly with the powerful and determined expression of the figure in low relief profile behind him on the wall, the only figure in these scenes depicted in this style and technique. If he is not just one of Pilate's subordinate officers, he may be intended as a portrait or statue of the emperor; Roman official business was usually conducted before such an image, upon which (under the deified pagan emperors) any oaths required were made.

 

The lower scene loosely follows the entry ("adventus") of an emperor to a city, a scene often depicted in Imperial art; Christ is "identified as imperator by the imperial eagle of victory" in the conch moulding above the scene. There was already a tradition, borrowed from pagan iconography, of depicting Christ the Victor; in this work that theme is linked to the Passion of Jesus, of which the entry to Jerusalem is the start, a development that was to play a great part in shaping the Christian art of the future.

 

The inclusion of the pagan figure of Caelus may seem strange, but he was not an important figure in Ancient Roman religion, so was evidently considered as a harmless pictorial convention by the Christian designer of the composition, as well as one of the elements showing continuity with Roman tradition. From the following century personifications of the River Jordan often appear in depictions of the Baptism of Jesus, and the manuscript Chronography of 354, just a few years older than the sarcophagus and made for another elite Christian, is full of personifications of cities, months and other concepts. The putti in the Chronography also relate closely to those on the sides of the sarcophagus.

 

Other scenes: The Old Testament scenes depicted were chosen as precursors of Christ's sacrifice in the New Testament, in an early form of typology. Adam and Eve are shown covering their nakedness after the Fall of Man, which created the original sin and hence the need for Christ to be sacrificed for our sins. Adam and Eve themselves made no sacrifices, but behind Eve is a lamb, and beside Adam a sheaf of wheat, referring to the sacrifices of their two sons, Cain and Abel. Just to the right of the middle is Daniel in the lion's den, saved by his faith, and on the left is Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac. Job is seen at the point when he has lost everything, but retains his faith; his wife and a "comforter" look on anxiously. Christians saw these as foreshadowings of the sacrifice of God's only son, Jesus, though the Crucifixion itself, a rare subject up until the 5th century, is not depicted.

 

The scenes prior to the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, both common in Early Christian art, show the same avoidance of the climactic moments which were usually chosen in later Christian art. But they demonstrate to the viewer how the heavenly crown could be achieved by ordinary Christians, although the Imperial persecutions were now over. Both scenes also took place in Rome, and this local interest is part of the balance of Christian and traditional Roman gestures that the sarcophagus shows. The reeds behind Paul probably represent the boggy area of the city where Paul's execution was traditionally believed to have happened. Peter's execution was believed to have happened close to his grave, which was within a few feet of the location of the sarcophagus; both executions were believed to have occurred on the same day.

  

Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcophagus_of_Junius_Bassus

  

The hoodoos, or slim spires of eroded limestone, at Zion National Park are a bit different than those found at Bryce and elsewhere. The cap on top is volcanic rock.

 

View on Black

ST STEPHEN'S CHURCH (Riebeeck Square, Cape Town) This building dates from 1801. It was originally a theatre open to all races but in 1829 slaves and free blacks were no longer allowed to attend. Ironically, this theatre was later used as a mission church for freed slaves. This caused a public outcry and the windows of the church were shattered by stone-throwing ex-theatre patrons. Because of this, the church was named after the martyr St Stephen, who was stoned to death. (Holy Bible - New Testament; Deacon Stephen - Acts of the Apostles 7:55-60) It is unusual in the Dutch Reformed Church to name a parish after a martyr. Although I am not a member of this church (denomination) I was baptised there when I was a babe. :-)

Source: www.capegateway.gov.za Amended

*VIEW LARGE

A mesmerizing close-up of a ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), showcasing its dazzling array of colors and intricate feather patterns. Its iridescent green and blue head shimmers in the light, while the fiery red facial patch and piercing golden eye exude an air of alertness and intensity. The crisp white neck ring adds a striking contrast, framing the bird’s regal profile. A true testament to nature’s artistry, this portrait captures the wild beauty and bold character of one of the countryside’s most iconic game birds

Testament performing at the O2 Institute Birmingham.

Jacopo Chimenti, called Empoli (1551-1640), active in Florence

Susanna in the bath, 1600

As the Old Testament tells, went the beautiful Susanna on a hot day to her garden to take a bath. There she was spied upon by two men. They were waiting for the moment when Susanna would send her maidens away to seduce her.

Susanna, however, resisted virtuously and entered history and art as the hero of chastity and godliness.

 

Jacopo Chimenti, genannt Empoli (1551-1640), tätig in Florenz

Susanna im Bade, 1600

Wie das Alte Testament erzählt, ging die schöne Susanna an einem heißen Tag in ihren Garten, um ein Bad zu nehmen. Dort belauerten sie zwei Männer. Sie warteten auf den Augenblick, da Susanna ihre Mägde wegschicken würde, um sie zu verführen.

Tugendhaft widerstand jedoch Susanna und ging in Geschichte und Kunst als Heldin der Keuschheit und Gottesfurcht ein.

 

Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum

Federal Museum

Logo KHM

Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture

Founded 17 October 1891

Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria

Management Sabine Haag

www.khm.at website

Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.

The museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.

History

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery

The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building .

Architectural History

The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währingerstraße/ Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the grain market (Getreidemarkt).

From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience with of Joseph Semper at the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.

Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.

Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper moved to Vienna in the sequence. From the beginning, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, built in 1878, the first windows installed in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade from 1880 to 1881 and built the dome and the Tabernacle. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.

The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made ​​the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times .

Kuppelhalle

Entrance (by clicking the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)

Grand staircase

Hall

Empire

The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891 , the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol will need another two years.

189, the farm museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:

Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection

The Egyptian Collection

The Antique Collection

The coins and medals collection

Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects

Weapons collection

Collection of industrial art objects

Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)

Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.

Restoration Office

Library

Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.

1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his " Estonian Forensic Collection " passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d' Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.

The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The farm museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.

Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.

First Republic

The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.

It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.

On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House" , by the Republic. Of 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.

Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.

With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Collection of ancient coins

Collection of modern coins and medals

Weapons collection

Collection of sculptures and crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Picture Gallery

The Museum 1938-1945

Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.

With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the empire.

After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to perform certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. This was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.

The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.

The museum today

Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.

In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.

Management

1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials

1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director

1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director

1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director

1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief in 1941 as first director

1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation

1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation

1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director

1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation

1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director

1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director

1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director

1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director

1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director

1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director

1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director

1990: George Kugler as interim first director

1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director

Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director

Collections

To the Kunsthistorisches Museum are also belonging the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.

Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)

Picture Gallery

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Vienna Chamber of Art

Numismatic Collection

Library

New Castle

Ephesus Museum

Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Arms and Armour

Archive

Hofburg

The imperial crown in the Treasury

Imperial Treasury of Vienna

Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage

Insignia of imperial Austria

Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire

Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece

Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure

Ecclesiastical Treasury

Schönbrunn Palace

Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna

Armory in Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle

Collections of Ambras Castle

Major exhibits

Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:

Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438

Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80

Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16

Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526

Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24

Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07

Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)

Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75

Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68

Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06

Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508

Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32

The Little Fur, about 1638

Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559

Kids, 1560

Tower of Babel, 1563

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564

Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565

Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565

Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565

Bauer and bird thief, 1568

Peasant Wedding, 1568/69

Peasant Dance, 1568/69

Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567

Cabinet of Curiosities:

Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543

Egyptian-Oriental Collection:

Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut

Collection of Classical Antiquities:

Gemma Augustea

Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós

Gallery: Major exhibits

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthistorisches_Museum

The final iteration of the P5 appeared in September 1967. Now powered by the 3,528-cubic-centimetre (215.3 cu in) Rover V8 engine also used in the 3500, the car was badged as the "3.5 Litre", and commonly known as the 3½ Litre. The final letter in the "P5B" model name came from Buick, the engine's originator. Rover did not have the budget to develop a new engine, hence they chose to redevelop the lightweight aluminium engine available from Buick.

 

Output of 160 hp (120 kW) was claimed along with improved torque. When introduced in 1967 the Buick designed V8 produced 160 PS (118 kW; 158 hp) at 5,200 rpm and 210 lb⋅ft (280 N⋅m) of torque at 2,600 rpm.

 

The exterior was mostly unchanged, apart from bold '3.5 Litre' badging, a pair of fog lights which were added below the head lights, creating a striking 4 light array, and the fitting of chrome Rostyle wheels with black painted inserts. The P5B existed as both the 4-door coupé and saloon body style until end of production. Production ended in 1973, by when 9,099 coupés and 11,501 saloons had been built.

 

The 3½ Litre saloon variant was a favourite of high-ranking Government Ministers, and served as Prime Ministerial transport for Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher. As testament to their suitability, the last batch of P5Bs to roll off the Rover line in June 1973 was purchased by the British government and placed in storage, to be released for government use as required.

 

As for most of the models built his November, the Rover P5B 3.5 Litre is a major redesign of a previously created model. In LUGNuts there was a build challenge named 'Redo or Redemption' just for this type of build.

Testament at Nummirock 2015, Finland

Willam Bettison, a Hull newspaper owner, lived in a large house on this site and demanded his dinner was served as soon as he arrived home from work. In the 1800's it was a lengthy process to prepare a meal so his solution was to build a large tower in the gardens of Newbegin House; Bettison’s home in the centre of Hornsea, so his servents could spot his carriage on the horizon, giving the cook enough time to prepare his food. This tower, known as Bettison's Folly, stands as testament to the fact that nothing can come between a man and his food!

 

It incorporates a cranked up flagpole, initially installed to convey private messages. During WWII the tower was an air raid look-out point and siren (Hull was the most heavily bombed UK city after London). The siren was still in use in the late 1950s when a new siren was erected on the new firestation on Southgate.

 

Newbegin House was demolished in 1966 but the folly survived.

The Folly is decorated with locally made "treacle" bricks, highly fired for durability and subject to misshaping. It is unique in having the UK’s only full length extending flagpole. It is believed to have been constructed by a local builder. The interior has ladders which give access to the castellated roof. As a nod to William Bettison’s brewing business, glass beer bottles have been embedded as windows.

 

Nowadays, Bettison's Folly is a Grade II listed building and stands in the middle of a new housing estate off Newbegin, the main street. It is rarely open to the public.

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Originally taken and posted for the GWUK group.