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Vertumnus (Arcimboldo)
''Vertumnus'' is an oil painting produced by the Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo in 1591 that consists of multiple fruits, vegetables and flowers that come together to create a portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Although Arcimboldo's colleagues commented that ''Vertumnus'' was scherzo, or humorous, there were intentional political meanings behind the piece, particularly regarding the choice of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Arcimboldo's choice to include these items was also an intentional reference to the Roman god, Vertumnus. ''Vertumnus'' was presented to Rudolf II after its completion. It was looted by the Swedish army after the Thirty Years' War. Although art historians lost track of ''Vertumnus'' after this shift, it reappeared in 1845 in Sweden in Skokloster Castle, where it remains. Historical context Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II During Rudolf II's 29-year rule in Hungary and Bohemia, art was celebrated and praised. His time as Holy Roman Emperor, now n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Giuseppe Arcimboldo, also spelled Arcimboldi (; 5 April 1527 – 11 July 1593), was an Italian Renaissance painter best known for creating imaginative portrait Human head, heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. These works form a distinct category from his other productions. He was a conventional court painter of portraits for three Holy Roman Emperors in Vienna and Prague; also producing religious subjects and, among other things, a series of coloured drawings of exotic animals in the imperial menagerie. He specialized in grotesque symbolical compositions of fruits, animals, landscapes, or various inanimate objects arranged into human forms. The still life portraits were clearly partly intended as curiosities to amuse the court, but critics have speculated as to how seriously they engaged with Platonism in the Renaissance, Renaissance Neo-Platonism or other intellectual currents of the day. Biography Giuseppe's father, Biagio Arci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artichoke
The artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus''),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the other names: French artichoke, globe artichoke, and green artichoke in the United States, is a variety of a species of thistle cultivated as food. The edible portion of the plant consists of the flower buds before the flowers come into bloom. The budding artichoke flower-head is a cluster of many budding small flowers (an inflorescence), together with many bracts, on an edible base. Once the buds bloom, the structure changes to a coarse, barely edible form. Another variety of the same species is the cardoon, a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean region. Both wild forms and cultivated varieties (cultivars) exist. Description This vegetable grows to tall, with arching, deeply lobed, silvery, glaucous-green leaves long. The flowers develop in a large head from an edible bud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabinet Of Curiosities
Cabinets of curiosities ( and ), also known as wonder-rooms ( ), were encyclopedic collections of objects whose categorical boundaries were, in Renaissance Europe, yet to be defined. Although more rudimentary collections had preceded them, the classic cabinets of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century. The term ''Cabinet (architecture), cabinet'' originally described a room rather than a Cabinet (furniture), piece of furniture. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings), and antiquities. In addition to the most famous and best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe formed collections that were precursors to museums. Cabinets of curiosities served not only as collections to reflect the particular interests of their c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 33: "[16c: from the feminine of ''Americus'', the Latinized first name of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). The name ''America'' first appeared on a map in 1507 by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, referring to the area now called Brazil]. Since the 16th century, the term "New World" has been used to describe the Western Hemisphere, often referred to as the Americas. Since the 18th century, it has come to represent the United States, which was initially colonial British America until it established independence following the American Revolutionary War. The second sense is now primary in English: ... However, the term is open to uncertainties: ..." The term arose in the early 16th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Of Medici
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually in trade until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe in the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century. In 1532, the family acquired the hereditary title Duke of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany after territorial expansion. The Medici ruled the Grand Duchy from its inception under the builder Cosimo I de' Medici, Cosimo I until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gian Gastone de' Medici. The Medici produced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean Basin, with wild subspecies in Africa and western Asia; modern Cultivar, cultivars are traced primarily to the Near East, Aegean Sea, and Strait of Gibraltar. The olive is the type species for its genus, ''Olea'', and lends its name to the Oleaceae plant family, which includes species such as Syringa vulgaris, lilac, jasmine, forsythia, and Fraxinus, ash. The olive fruit is classed botanically as a drupe, similar to the cherry or peach. The term oil—now used to describe any Viscosity, viscous Hydrophobe, water-insoluble liquid—was virtually synonymous with olive oil, the Vegetable oil, liquid fat made from olives. The olive has deep historical, economic, and cultural significance in the Mediterranean; Georges Duhamel (author), George ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pomegranate
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punica, Punicoideae, that grows between tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it is thought to have originated from Afghanistan and Iran before being introduced and exported to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. It was introduced into Spanish America in the late 16th century and into California by New Spain, Spanish settlers in 1769. It is widely cultivated throughout West Asia and the Caucasus region, South Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, north and tropical Africa, the drier parts of Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean Basin. The fruit is typically in season in the Northern Hemisphere from September to February, and in the Southern Hemisphere from March to May. The pomegranate and its juice are variously used in baking, cooking, juice blends, garnish (food), garnishes, non-alcoholic drinks, and cocktails. Etymology The name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus''''.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century. Plums are likely to have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans, with origins in Eastern Europe, East European and Caucasus Mountains, Caucasian mountains and China. They were brought to Great Britain, Britain from Asia, and their cultivation has been documented in Andalusia, southern Spain. Plums are a diverse group of species, with trees reaching a height of when pruned. The fruit is a drupe, with a firm and juicy flesh. China is the largest producer of plums, followed by Romania and Serbia. Japanese or Chinese plums dominate the fresh fruit market, while European plums are also common in some regions. Plums can be eaten fresh, dried to make prunes, used in Fruit preserves, jams, or fermented into fruit wine, wine and distilled into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mulberries
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinate taxa, though the three most common are referred to as white, red, and black, originating from the color of their dormant buds and not necessarily the fruit color (''Morus alba'', '' M. rubra'', and '' M. nigra'', respectively), with numerous cultivars and some taxa currently unchecked and awaiting taxonomic scrutiny. ''M. alba'' is native to South Asia, but is widely distributed across Europe, Southern Africa, South America, and North America. ''M. alba'' is also the species most preferred by the silkworm. It is regarded as an invasive species in Brazil, the United States and some states of Australia. The closely related genus ''Broussonetia'' is also commonly known as mulberry, notably the paper mulberry (''Broussonet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world.''The Fig: its History, Culture, and Curing'', Gustavus A. Eisen, Washington, Govt. print. off., 1901 ''Ficus carica'' is the type species of the genus ''Ficus'', which comprises over 800 tropical and subtropical plant species. A fig plant is a deciduous tree or large shrub, growing up to tall, with smooth white bark. Its large leaves have three to five deep lobes. Its fruit (referred to as syconium, a type of is tear-shaped, long, with a green fruit that may ripen toward purple or brown, and sweet soft reddish flesh containing numerous crunchy seeds. The milky sap of the green parts is an irritant to human skin. In the Northern hemisphere, fresh figs are in season from late August to early Octob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chestnut
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description Chestnut trees are of moderate growth rate (for the Chinese chestnut tree) to fast-growing for American and European species. Their mature heights vary from the smallest species of chinkapins, often shrubby,''Chestnuts, Horse-Chestnuts, and Ohio Buckeyes'' . In Yard and Garden Brief, Horticulture department at University of Minnesota. to the giant of past American forests, '' C. dentata'' that could reach . Between these extremes ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabbage
Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B. oleracea'' var. ''oleracea''), and belongs to the " cole crops" or brassicas, meaning it is closely related to broccoli and cauliflower (var. ''botrytis''); Brussels sprouts (var. ''gemmifera''); and Savoy cabbage (var. ''sabauda''). A cabbage generally weighs between . Smooth-leafed, firm-headed green cabbages are the most common, with smooth-leafed purple cabbages and crinkle-leafed savoy cabbages of both colours being rarer. Under conditions of long sunny days, such as those found at high northern latitudes in summer, cabbages can grow quite large. , the heaviest cabbage was . Cabbage heads are generally picked during the first year of the plant's life cycle, but plants intended for seed are allowed to grow a second year and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
