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Elephant And Obelisk
''Elephant and Obelisk'' is a statue of an elephant carrying an obelisk, designed by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was unveiled in 1667 in the Piazza della Minerva in Rome, adjacent to the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where it stands today. The obelisk The red granite obelisk was discovered in 1665 during excavations near the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It had probably been brought to Rome in the first century AD for the temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis that was located there. The obelisk was originally erected by Pharaoh Apries of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, about 580 BC, in his capital Sais. The obelisk is 5.47 meters tall and is the smallest of the 13 ancient obelisks present in Rome nowadays. Together with pedestal and elephant, the statue stands 12.69 meters tall. The obelisk is considered to be one of a pair, the other is in Urbino. The elephant statue The image possibly originated from the '' Hypnerotomachia Polyphili'' of 14 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theater: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches. As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vatican Library
The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally established in 1475, although it is much older—it is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. It has 75,000 codices from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, which include some 8,500 incunabula. The Vatican Library is a research library for history, law, philosophy, science, and theology. The Vatican Library is open to anyone who can document their qualifications and research needs. Photocopies for private study of pages from books published between 1801 and 1990 can be requested in person or by mail. Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) envisioned a new Rome with extensive public works to lure pilgrims and scholars to the city to begin its tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in his work. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain, Dalí received his formal education in fine arts in Madrid. Influenced by Impressionism and the Renaissance masters from a young age he became increasingly attracted to Cubism and avant-garde movements. He moved closer to Surrealism in the late 1920s and joined the Surrealist group in 1929, soon becoming one of its leading exponents. His best-known work, '' The Persistence of Memory'', was completed in August 1931, and is one of the most famous Surrealist paintings. Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948 where he announced his return to the Catholic fait ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph & Courier''. Considered a newspaper of record over '' The Times'' in the UK in the years up to 1997, ''The Telegraph'' generally has a reputation for high-quality journalism, and has been described as being "one of the world's great titles". The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since 19 April 1858. The paper had a circulation of 363,183 in December 2018, descending further until it withdrew from newspaper circulation audits in 2019, having declined almost 80%, from 1.4 million in 1980.United Newspapers PLC and Fleet Holdings PLC', Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1985), pp. 5–16. Its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C., and news bureaus in 151 countries in 201 locations. AFP transmits stories, videos, photos and graphics in French, English, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, and German. History Agence France-Presse has its origins in the Agence Havas, founded in 1835 in Paris by Charles-Louis Havas, making it the world's oldest news service. The agency pioneered the collection and dissemination of news as a commodity, and had established itself as a fully global concern by the late 19th century. Two Havas employees, Paul Julius Reuter and Bernhard Wolff, set up their own news agencies in London and Berlin respectively. In 1940, when German forces occupied France during World War II, the news agency was taken over by the authorities and renamed "Offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Raggi
Virginia Elena Raggi (; born 18 July 1978) is an Italian lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Rome from 2016 to 2021 as part of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). Raggi was both the first candidate from her party and first woman to be elected as mayor of Rome. Background Raggi was born and raised in the Appio-Latino quarter of Rome, and studied law at the Roma Tre University, specialising in judicial and extrajudicial civil law. Despite not having any prior political experience, she credits the birth of her son for sparking her involvement in politics. She was previously a member of local neighborhood boards before joining the Five Star Movement for Rome district XIV in 2011. At the time of her election Raggi lived with her family in the Ottavia suburb in Northern Rome. She is married to fellow M5S member Andrea Severini with whom she has one child, born in 2009. Election as mayor In the 2013 municipal election, Raggi was one of four members of the Five ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igiaba Scego
Igiaba Scego (born 20 March 1974 in Rome) is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin. Biography Igiaba Scego was born in Rome, Italy, in 1974, after her parents were forced to flee Somalia following the 1969 coup d'état of Siad Barre; Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician. She graduated in Foreign Literature at La Sapienza University of Rome and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at Roma Tre University. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration. Works She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature, such as ''Latinoamerica'', ''Carta'', ''El Ghibli'' and ''Migra''. Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali. In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, ''La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock''. In 2006 she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Umberto D
''Umberto D.'' () is a 1952 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Most of the actors were non-professional, including Carlo Battisti who plays the title role of Umberto Domenico Ferrari, a poor elderly man in Rome who is desperately trying to keep his rented room. His landlady (Lina Gennari) is evicting him and his only true friends, the housemaid (Maria-Pia Casilio) and his dog Flike (called 'Flag' in some subtitled versions of the film) are of no help. According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, this was De Sica's favorite of all his films. The movie was included in '' TIME'' magazine's "All-TIME 100 Movies" in 2005. The film's sets were designed by Virgilio Marchi. Plot Police disperse an organized street demonstration of elderly men demanding a raise in their meager pensions. One of the marchers is Umberto D. Ferrari, a retired government worker. He returns to his room and finds that his landlady has rented it out for an hour to an amorous c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Sicilian , demographics1_info1 = 98% , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , demographics1_title3 = , demographics1_info3 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code_type = ISO 3166 code , area_code = IT-82 , blank_name_sec1 = GDP (nominal) , blank_info_sec1 = €89.2 billion (2018) , blank1_name_sec1 = GDP per capita , blank1_info_sec1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by the presence of important road and rail transport infrastructures as well as by the main airport in Sicily, fifth in Italy. It is located on Sicily's east coast, at the base of the active volcano, Mount Etna, and it faces the Ionian Sea. It is the capital of the 58-municipality region known as the Metropolitan City of Catania, which is the seventh-largest metropolitan city in Italy. The population of the city proper is 311,584, while the population of the Metropolitan City of Catania is 1,107,702. Catania was founded in the 8th century BC by Chalcidian Greeks. The city has weathered multiple geologic catastrophes: it was almost completely destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake in 1169. A major eruption and lava flow from nearby Mount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palazzo Degli Elefanti
Palazzo degli Elefanti (English: "Elephants Palace") is a historical building in Catania, region of Sicily, southern Italy. It currently houses the city's Town Hall. In the past, the prior building was also known as the Palazzo Senatorio or Loggia Senatoria. History and description The main facade of the palace, faces the northern side of the rectangular Piazza del Duomo; while across the square, on the southern end stands the Palazzo del Seminario dei Chierici. The Palazzo degli Elefanti was begun in 1696 after the devastating earthquake of 1693. Construction was begun using the designs of Giovanni Battista Longobardo. The eastern, southern, and western façades were however designed at a later stage by Giovan Battista Vaccarini, a highly prolific architect of Catania during its urban reconstruction in the 18th-century, while the northern one was by Carmelo Battaglia. The staircase opening to the inner court with four porticoes was added in the late 18th century by Stefa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (3 February 1702 – 11 March 1768) was a Sicilian architect, notable for his work in the Sicilian Baroque style in his homeland during the period of massive rebuilding following the earthquake of 1693. Many of his principal works can be found in the area in and around Catania. Biography Vaccarini was born in Palermo. During the 1720s, he studied architecture in Rome, with the support of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, the great patron of Corelli. Vaccarini was mostly interested on combining the styles of Borromini and Bernini. This was an eclectic fusion of architectural principles that was common at the end of the 17th century, producing such notable buildings as Giovan Antonio de' Rossi's Palazzo Altieri, and Palazzo Asti-Bonaparte. Vaccarini returned to Sicily around 1730. His work seems then to have been influenced by the school of architecture of Alessandro Specchi, Francesco de Sanctis and Filippo Raguzzini, who tended to reject the classic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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