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NOVAK 4. REMINISCENCE OF BOKA KOTORSKA: Kotor, Ital.
Cattaro, town (1991 pop. 5,620) in
Montenegro, former Yugoslavia, on the Bay of Kotor, an inlet of the
Adriatic. It is a seaport and a tourist center. The town was colonized by Greeks
(3d cent. B.C.) and later belonged to the Roman and Byzantine empires. In 1797
it passed to Austria and became an important naval base; in 1918 it was
transferred to Yugoslavia, but although Croatian, the town became a part of
Serbian Montenegro and is now Serb. It has a medieval fort and town walls and a
16th-century cathedral. As the oldest town in Montenegro, it is a
state-protected historical monument. The Boka Kotorska (Gulf of
Kotor), the grandest natural feature of the Adriatic coast, is a deeply indented
and irregularly-shaped fjord surrounded by steep and lofty mountains that rise
ever higher towards the interior. The contrast between the intense green of the
luxuriant vegetation at sea level and the denuded rocks of the mountains is
enhanced by the changing colours of the sea, particularly striking effects being
gained in winter when the higher mountains are clothed with snow. The abrupt
changes in height give the region a violent and changeable climate with an
unusually heavy rainfall and frequent thunderstorms. A road encircles the shores
of the gulf, but by far the finest impression of its majesty is gained from the
water: the most spectacular marine vistas in Europe outside Norway is your
reward. The awe-inspiring heights of the Njegosi Mts. rise to a climax at Mt.
Lovcen (5684 ft) behind Kotor. Hercegnovi, the outermost town (3800 inhab.) of
the Boka Kotorska, occupies a position of romantic beauty on precipitous cliffs
at the sea's edge. The old walled town is noted for its luxuriant sub-tropical
vegetation and is the leading resort in the Kotor region.
NOVAK 5. PORTRAIT OF JOHN RUSKIN:
 |
John Ruskin (1819-1900). |
John Ruskin was born on 8 February 1819 at 54 Hunter Street,
London, the only child of Margaret and John James Ruskin. His father, a
prosperous, self-made man who was a founding partner of Pedro Domecq sherries,
collected art and encouraged his son's literary activities, while his mother, a
devout evangelical Protestant, early dedicated her son to the service of God and
devoutly wished him to become an Anglican bishop. Ruskin, who received his
education at home until the age of twelve, rarely associated with other children
and had few toys. During his sixth year he accompanied his parents on the first
of many annual tours of the Continent. Encouraged by his father, he published
his first poem, "On Skiddaw and Derwent Water," at the age of eleven, and four
years later his first prose work, an article on the waters of the Rhine. In
1836, the year he matriculated as a gentleman-commoner at Christ Church, Oxford,
he wrote a pamphlet defending the painter Turner against the periodical critics,
but at the artist's request he did not publish it. While at Oxford (where his
mother had accompanied him) Ruskin associated largely with a wealthy and often
rowdy set but continued to publish poetry and criticism; and in 1839 he won the
Oxford Newdigate Prize for poetry. The next year, however, suspected consumption
led him to interrupt his studies and travel, and he did not receive his degree
until 1842, when he abandoned the idea of entering the ministry. This same year
he began the first volume of Modern Painters after reviewers of the annual Royal
Academy exhibition had again savagely treated Turner's works, and in 1846, after
making his first trip abroad without his parents, he published the second
volume, which discussed his theories of beauty and imagination within the
context of figural as well as landscape painting. On 10 April 1848 Ruskin
married Euphemia Chalmers Gray, and the next year he published The Seven Lamps
of Architecture, after which he and Effie set out for Venice. In 1850 he
published The King of the Golden River, which he had written for Effie nine
years before, and a volume of poetry, and in the following year, during which
Turner died and Ruskin made the acquaintance of the Pre-Raphaelites, the first
volume of The Stones of Venice. The final two volumes appeared in 1853, the
summer of which saw Millais, Ruskin, and Effie together in Scotland, where the
artist painted Ruskin's portrait. The next year his wife left him and had their
marriage annulled on grounds of non-consummation. On their wedding-night, is the
story, he was so startled by the discovering that his wife had hair on her
genitals, unlike the Greek statues he admired so much, that he fled the bedroom.
Later Effie married the Pre-Raphaelite Millais. During this difficult year,
Ruskin defended the Pre-Raphaelites, became close to Rossetti, and taught at the
Working Men's College. In 1855 Ruskin began Academy Notes, his reviews of the
annual exhibition, and the following year, in the course of which he became
acquainted with the man who later became his close friend, the American Charles
Eliot Norton, he published the third and fourth volumes of Modern Painters and
The Harbours of England. He continued his immense productivity during the next
four years, producing The Elements of Drawing and The Political Economy of Art
in 1857, The Elements of Perspective and The Two Paths in 1859, and the fifth
volume of Modern Painters and the periodical version of Unto This Last in 1860.
During 1858, in the midst of this productive period, Ruskin decisively abandoned
the evangelical Protestantism which had so shaped his ideas and attitudes, and
he also met Rose La Touche, a young Irish Protestant girl with whom he was later
to fall deeply and tragically in love. Throughout the 1860s Ruskin continued
writing and lecturing on social and political economy, art, and myth, and during
this decade he produced the Fraser's Magazine "Essays on Political Economy"
(1863); revised as Munera Pulveris, 1872), Sesame and Lilies (1865), The Grown
of Wild Olive (1866), The Ethics of the Dust (1866), Time and Tide, and [2/3]
The Queen of the Air (1869), his study of Greek myth. The next decade, which
begins with his delivery of the inaugural lecture at Oxford as Slade Professor
of Fine Art in February 1870, saw the beginning of Fors Clavigera, a series of
letters to the working men of England, and various works on art and popularized
science. His father had died in 1864 and his mother in 1871 at the age of
ninety. In 1875 Rose la Touche died insane, and three years later Ruskin
suffered his first attack of mental illness and was unable to testify during the
Whistler trial when the artist sued him for libel. In 1880 Ruskin resigned his
Oxford Professorship, suffering further attacks of madness in 1881 and 1882; but
after his recovery he was re-elected to the Slade Professorship in 1883 and
delivered the lectures later published as The Art of England (1884). In 1885 he
began Praeterita, his autobiography, which appeared intermittently in parts
until 1889, but he became increasingly ill, and Joanna Severn, his cousin and
heir, had to bring him home from an 1888 trip to the Continent. He died on 20
January 1900 at Brantwood, his home near Coniston Water. In 1999 a curator of
the Tate Museum in London discovered 2 sketchbooks of the painter J.M.W. Turner
with a letter of Ruskin where he writes he had burned hundreds of erotic
drawings of Turner, entrusted to him to inventory, because he found them
'grossly obscene' and it would be impossible that somebody would possess them
legally. The 2 sketchbooks ,with a.o. a drawing of a lesbian couple, were only
saved, to prove that Turner had a sick mind.
The home of John Ruskin from 1872
until his death in 1900, Brantwood, the most beautifully situated house in the
Lake District with the finest lake and mountain views in England, became an
intellectual powerhouse and one of the greatest literary and artistic centres in
Europe.The house is filled with Ruskin's drawings and watercolours, together
with much of his original furniture, books and personal items. Brantwood has 250
acres of wonderful woodland gardens, lakeshore meadows and moorland hilltop.The
gardens cover more than 30 acres below and above the house, from the famous
Harbour Walk to the Professor's Garden where Ruskin experimented with native
flowers and fruit. During the mid-19th cent. Ruskin was the virtual dictator of
artistic opinion in England, but Ruskin's reputation declined after his death,
and he has been treated harshly by 20th-century critics. Although it is
undeniable that he was an extravagant and inconsistent thinker (a reflection of
his lifelong mental and emotional instability), it is equally true that he
revolutionized art criticism and wrote some of the most superb prose in the
English language.
`Ruskin was one of the most
remarkable of men, not only of England and our time but of all countries and all
times. He was one of those rare men who think with their hearts, and so he
thought and said not only what he himeself had seen and felt, but what everyone
will think and say in the future` Tolstoy.
`I believe that I discovered some of my deepest convictions reflecting on
this great book of Ruskin's (Unto This Last), and this is why the book so
captured me and and made me transform my life.` Gandhi.
Some quotations from John
Ruskin (1819-1900):
1. 'He is the greatest
artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the
greatest ideas'.
Modern Painters.
Vol. i. Part i. Chap. ii.
Sect. 9.
2. `Pride is
at the bottom of all great mistakes'.
Modern Painters. Vol. iv. Part v. Chap. xxii.
3. `You were made for enjoyment,
and the world was filled with things which you will enjoy, unless you are too proud to be pleased with
them, or too grasping to care for what you can not turn to other account
than mere delight'.
Stones of Venice. Vol. i. Chap. ii. Sect. 2.
4. `He who has truth at his heart
need never fear the want of persuasion on his tongue'.
Stones of Venice.
Vol. ii. Chap. iv. Sect. 99, Chap. xcix
5. `That
treacherous phantom which men call Liberty'.The Seven Lamps of Architecture.
Chap. vii. Sect. 21.
6. `Work first and then rest'. The Seven
Lamps of Architecture. The Lamp of Beauty.
7. `The greatest efforts of the race have
always been traceable to the love of praise, as
its greatest catastrophes to the love of
pleasure'.
Sesame and Lilies. Part i. iii.
8. `A little group of wise hearts is better
than a wilderness of fools'. Crown of Wild Olive War.
9.
`Fine art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart go together'.
The Two Paths. Lecture ii.
10. `Engraving is, in brief terms, the Art of
Scratch'. Ariadne.
NOVAK 6. NOCTURNE IN LIBOCE: Liboce is a part of
Prague 6, west of Hradcany. It consist of Horni (=Upper) Liboc and
Dolni (=Lower) Liboc. An important site in Horni Liboc is the
Hvezda (Star), preserve with Summer Palace (Obora Hvezda s letohradkem). The
preserve was founded in 1534 by King Ferdinand I. Game was kept here until the
beginning of the 19th century, when the preserve was changed into a
park. In 1555 to 1557 Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol had built here at his expense
the royal Hvezda Summer Palace on a ground-plan of the form of a six-pointed
star. The design was from the architects Giovanni Maria Aostalli, Giovanni
Lucchese und Hans Tirol. Das ursprüngliche Dach wurde Ende
des 18. Jahrhunderts durch ein flaches Zeltdach ersetzt. Its ceilings have rich stucco
decorations showing mythological and historical scenes. After WW 2 Pavel Janak
had renovated the building, a wooden dome was added over the hall on the second
stock. Since 1951 the building has housed the Alois Jirasek and Mikulas Aleš
Museum. Alois Jirasek (1851-1930)
is the greatest Czech writer of historical novels and plays. The artist Mikulas
Aleš (1852-1913) depicted important periods of Czech history in his numerous
works. Both were leading personalities of Czech cultural life. The Hvezda
Preserve lies below Bila Hora (White Mountain), inscribed in Czech history due
to the fact that in 1620 it was the scene of the first decisive encounter of the
Thirty Years War, the tragic battle which resulted in the loss of the national
and state independence of the Czech nation for a period of almost hundred years.
) Here the Estates troops were defeated on 8 November 1620. Archeological finds
from this battle and prominent military maps and weapons form a special
exposition devoted to the Battle of the White Mountain and the Thirty Year`s
War. In 1962 the area of the battle-field and the palace was proclaimed a
National Cultural Monument. The Church of our Lady on the White Mountain (Kostel
Panny Marie na Bile Hore), a picturesque Baroque church with cloisters and rich
sculptural an painted ceiling decoration. It was built in 1704-1714 near a
chapel founded immediately after the victory of the Hapsburgs at the Battle of
the White Mountain. Also in Liboc, north of the Europska road is the
Divoká Šárka (Wild Šárka) Nature Reserve. The area along the slopes
(particularly the right-hand slope) of the Šárka Brook approximately from the
Džban gorge to Čertův mlýn. Cadastre: Prague 6 - Dolní
Liboc. Area: 25.346 ha.
Elevation: 255 - 360 m above sea level. Valuable landscape element, significant
for its geological origin and geomorphology (rock gorges in lydites originated
epigenetically) with the remains of thermophilous and cryophilous flora and
fauna. Lydites exposed by the steep cut of the Šárka Brook with two gorges.
Together with the Proterozoic shales they form characteristic rock formations
with Ordovician strata in the east and local loess drifts. The first site on
which the Archaean microfossils were found in lydites. Mosaic of soils ranging
from mezotrophic to acid rankers to medium-nutritive brown soils and loess brown
earths. The sunny rocky steppes are the habitat of a number of steppe and
forest-steppe mollusk and insect species, the cold valley floor and the foot of
the northern rock exposure of mountain species. The traces of centennial human
influence can be observed most in the woods. The original woods were mostly
felled (sprout management). At present due to natural succession and tree
planting the area is covered with dwarfed heather oak, woods, hornbeam oak woods
and primarily with planted mixed woods comprising false acacia, pine, larch, red
oak and spruce. The area has been settled since the Paleolithic. Above the
Džbán gorge there was a prehistoric settlement as well as a Slavonic stronghold
with still preserved mounds and the finds testifying to a number of agricultural
cultures reaching back to the Neolithic. The area, formerly exploited for forest
and agricultural purposes, is used for recreation at present. It forms part of
the Šárka - Lysolaje natural park.
NOVAK 8. VENETIAN NOCTURNE: Venice, Ital. Venezia,
city (1991 pop. 309,422), capital of Venetia and of Venice prov., NE Italy,
built on 118 alluvial islets within a lagoon in the Gulf of Venice (an arm of
the Adriatic Sea). The city is connected with the mainland, 2.5 mi (4 km) away,
by a rail and highway bridge. Between the islands run about 150 canals, mostly
very narrow, crossed by some 400 bridges. The Grand Canal, shaped like a
reversed letter S, is the main traffic artery; its chief bridge is the Rialto,
named after the island that was the historical nucleus of Venice. Gondolas, the
traditional means of transport, have been superseded by small river boats (vaporetti),
but there are numerous lanes (calles), public squares, and a few streets. Houses
are built on piles. Venice is a tourist, commercial, and industrial center. The
tourist trade is stimulated by many annual festivals, including ones devoted to
painting, motion pictures, drama, and contemporary music. The Venice Biennale,
which exhibits various kinds of modern art every other year, has been held there
since 1895. Manufactures include lace, jewelry, flour, and Murano glass, and the
city is a center for shipbuilding. Porto Marghera, the modern port of Venice
(founded in the 1920s), located on the mainland, is a major shipping facility
and also has considerable industry
The center of animation in Venice is
St. Mark’s Square and the Piazzetta, which leads from the square to the sea. On
the square are St. Mark’s Church; the Gothic Doges’ Palace (14th–15th cent.),
from which the Bridge of Sighs (c.1600) leads to the former prisons; the Old and
New Law Courts (16th–17th cent.); the campanile (325 ft/99 m high; built in the
10th cent.; rebuilt after it collapsed in 1902); the Moors’ Clocktower (late
15th cent.); the elegant Old Library (1553); St. Moses’ Church; and the twin
columns supporting the statues of St. Theodore stepping on a crocodile and of a
winged lion of St. Mark (the emblem of Venice). On an island facing the
Piazzetta is the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore (1566–1610) and on a nearby tip
of land is the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (17th cent.). Among the city’s
numerous other points of interest are the churches of Santa Maria Gloriosa del
Frari (with paintings by Titian), San Zanipolo (1234–1430), and San Zaccaria
(with a Madonna by Bellini); the Academy of Fine Arts, with fine paintings by
Bellini, Carpaccio, Mantegna, Giorgione, Veronese, and others; the Scuola di San
Rocco, with a series of paintings by Tintoretto; the Scuola degli Schiavoni,
with paintings by Carpaccio; and the palaces Ca’ d’Oro (1440; late Gothic),
Rezzonico (1680), and Pesaro (1710; baroque). The fashionable beach resort of
Lido di Venezia is on a nearby island. Founding and Rise of Venice:
With Istria, Venice formed a province of the Roman Empire. In the 6th cent.
refugees fleeing the Lombard invaders of N Italy sought safety on the largely
uninhabited islands. The communities organized themselves (697) under a doge
[Lat. dux=leader]. Favorably situated for handling seaborne trade between East
and West, the communities grew, and by the 9th cent. they had formed the city of
Venice. The city secured (10th cent.) most of the coast of Dalmatia, thus
gaining control of the Adriatic, and began to build up its eastern empire,
obtaining trade and other privileges in the ports of the eastern Mediterranean.
The influence of the Middle East, particularly Byzantium, which characterizes
much Venetian art and architecture, is most clearly expressed in Saint Mark’s
Church (rebuilt 1063–73), located on the city’s principal square. In 1204 the
doge, Enrico Dandolo led the host of the Fourth Crusade in storming
Constantinople. Strategic points in the Ionian, the Aegean, and the E
Mediterranean were taken, notably Crete (1216). The great traveler Marco Polo
represented the enterprising spirit of Venice in the 13th and 14th cent. After
defeating (1380) its rival Genoa in the War of Chioggia, Venice was indisputably
the leading European sea power; its sea consciousness was expressed in the
symbolic marriage ceremony of the doges with the Adriatic, celebrated with great
pomp on the huge gilded gondola, the Bucentaur. All citizens shared in the
prosperity, but the patrician merchants obtained political privileges.
Membership in the great council, which by then had replaced the general
citizenry as an electorate in the election of the doges, became restricted to an
oligarchy. In reaction to an unsuccessful conspiracy in 1310, the Council of Ten
was instituted to punish crimes against the state. The Ten, by means of a
formidable secret police, acquired increasing power, and the doge became a
figurehead. In the 15th cent. Venice, known as the “queen of the seas,” reached
the height of its power. The city engaged in a rich trade, especially as the
main link between Europe and Asia; all Venetia on the mainland was conquered;
and Venetian ambassadors, creators of the modern diplomatic service, made the
power of the city felt at every court of the known world. The arsenal (founded
1104; rebuilt in the 15th and 16th cent.), where ships were built, was one of
the world’s wonders.
The decline of Venice
can be dated from the fall (1453) of Constantinople to the Turks, which greatly
reduced trade with the Levant, or from the discovery of America and of the Cape
of Good Hope route to Asia, which transferred commercial power to Spain and
other nations to the west of Italy. The effects were not felt immediately,
however, and Venice continued its proud and lavish ways. In the Italian Wars, it
challenged both the emperor and the pope; the League of Cambrai, formed (1508)
by Pope Julius II to humble Venice, merely resulted in a few minor losses of the
city’s territory; the naval victory of Lepanto (1571) gave Venice renewed
standing by undoing Turkish sea power.
The Renaissance marked the
height of Venice’s artistic glory. Architects like the Lombardo family, Jacopo
Sansovino, and Palladio, and the Venetian school of painting, which besides its
giants—Titian and Tintoretto—also included Giovanni Bellini, Jacopo Palma (Palma
Vecchio), and Veronese, gave Venice its present aspect of a city of churches and
palaces, floating on water, blazing with colour and light, and filled with art
treasures. Freedom of expression was complete except to those who actively
engaged in politics; the satirist Aretino, the “scourge of princes,” chose
Venice as his place of residence, and John of Speyer, Nicolas Jenson, and Aldus
Manutius made the city a center of printing.
The fall of Cyprus (1571), Crete (1669),
and the Peloponnesus (1715; see Greece) to the Turks ended Venetian dominance in
the East Mediterranean. Although the dramatist Goldoni and painters such as
Tiepolo and Canaletto still made Venice the most original artistic city of
18th-century Italy, they represented to some extent the decadence that
accompanied the city’s commercial and military decline. Politics in 18th-century
Venice was aristocratic and stagnant. When, in 1797, Napoleon I delivered Venice
to Austria in the Treaty of Campo Formio, the republic fell without fighting.
During the Risorgimento, however, Venice played a vigorous role under the
leadership of Daniele Manin; having expelled the Austrians in 1848, it
heroically resisted siege until 1849. In 1866, Venice and Venetia were united
with the kingdom of Italy. Since the 1950s, the city has been
increasingly swamped by periodic floods, in part because it is sinking.
Increased air pollution from cars and industrial smoke has contributed to the
deterioration of the ancient buildings and works of art, and the high phosphorus
and nitrogen content of the lagoon has stimulated algal growth, which has
depleted marine life. Such environmental problems have led to a steady
depopulation of Venice to the mainland over the past several decades. A major
international aid program, begun in the mid-1960s by UNESCO, has searched for
ways to preserve Venice; several government studies of Venice’s problems have
also been undertaken. In 1988, engineers began testing prototypes for a
mechanical barrage, which could be raised in time of flooding to close the
lagoon.
Some notes about the city:
St. Mark's
Square (Piazza S.Marco) is the
only true square in Venice (the others open areas are campi ). It was called "the drawing room of the world" by Musset and has been the
scene of some of the most important religious and political activities of the Serenissima as well as the center of Venetian social life for almost a
millennium.
The Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
got its present form after radical changing during the 14th and 16th
century. It was the Doge's residence and at the same time seat of many
different political and social institutions. The first floor was occupied by
minor institutions, such as the Avogaria or lawyers offices, where law cases
were examined; the Chancellery; the Censors and Provveditori della Milizia
del Mar (Naval Offices) which oversaw the care and equipping of ships. The
Grand Council chamber, the largest room of the palace, the Ballot chamber,
where the committee met to elect the Doge, and the Doge's apartments are
located on the second floor. The Sala del Collegio, where foreign
ambassadors were received, and rooms used by the state security service like
the Council of Ten are located on the third floor. The Bussola chamber is a
small room with a box where citizens could submit written complaints against
other citizens. The Sala dei Tre Capi (Three Chiefs Room) was used by three
components of the Council of Ten, who kept that place only for one month.
The State Inquisitor Room was used to interrogate prisoners.
Throughout
Europe the Serenissima's government was considered a model of
stability, honesty and demonstrated the possibility of combining the
monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, in the figures of the Doge, the Senate
and the Grand Council. The Doge represented the unity of the Republic. He
was elected for life by the Grand Council, chosen from among the greatest
Venetian families and in general was older than 70. The Doge's powers were
very limited. He could not make any decisions in the absence of the six
Councillors of the six sestieri of the city of Venice. He could not leave
Venice unless he was accompanied by at least two Councilors.
The actions of the Doge were controlled by the
Seignory, which consisted of the six Councilors, the three heads of the supreme
tribunal and the Doge himself. Moreover the Doge had to pay for all official
festivities organized in the Doge's Palace, for any restoration work done in the
Palace and often had to pay for military operations, without getting money from
the State. In fact it was not for a desire for money or power that made
Venetians desire to be Doge, but for the honor of covering the highest position
of the Republic and all the noble families wished for the the privilege of
having a Doge in their family as this insured that their name would be
remembered through out history. Also some commoners made extraordinary services
to the State or payed substantial sums to the government or to impoverished
nobles to buy titles of nobility and to have their name written in the Golden
Book so that they could be members of the Grand Council and in this way hope for
a nomination as Doge. There is one dark spot in the history of the Doges of the
Serenissima. After the election of Doge Marin Falier, he tried to lead a popular
conspiracy and was executed by order of the Council of Ten. The Council of Ten
in fact were responsible for decisions about crimes against the State and about
decisions requiring absolute secrecy. They also prevented the ambitions of
influential citizens from threatening the Venetian Republic. In the Ballot
Chamber of the Doge's Palace, where the portraits of the Doges are exhibited,
the portrait of Marin Falier is replaced by a black veil in remembrance of his
crime. In Venice no single institution monopolized power because no single
decision making body could operate unchecked by another and the quick rotation
of all offices made it difficult for a single individual or faction to
appropriate power or to be corrupted because their time in office is not long
enough to be useful for such a purpose. Frauds in casting ballots have been
known to happen in Venice, before ballots were cast, Grand Council members
milled about in front of the palace, on the "broglio", where the most powerful
tried to buy the votes of impoverished nobles, called the barnabotti. It is from
this practice that the the word broglio (entanglement) came in to use and is
still used today.
The New and Old Procuratie, bordering the
Square, was the offices of the 9 Procurators, the most important citizens of
Venice after the Doge. They were controlling the Square, the Basilica and the 6
sections of the city, called sestieri . In 1585 the Venetian ambassador to
Istanbul told the Senate that the Turkish were drinking a hot black drink, made
by a seed called Kahavè and that people had difficulty in falling asleep after
drinking this beverage. This seed was brought back to Venice and in 1638 it was
roasted, ground and sold at an expensive price from a special café shop which
was located directly under the Procurator. In a short time the café shops
opened all of the city and by the end of the next century there were 24 such
café's in St.Mark's Square alone. These café's soon became the favorite place
among intellectuals to meet and drink coffee. Gambling, another favorite past
time of the Venetian nobility also went on in the café's. The popularity of
these places grew more and more, and in 1720 one of the most elegant: "Caffè
alla Venezia trionfante" opened it's doors. This Café of the Triumphant Venice
was a popular meeting point for both foreign and national high society. Such
notables as Carlo Goldoni, the brothers Gozzi and Antonio Canova often spent
many hours in this café. The café's first owner was Floriano Francesconi and
therefore the café was affectionately called "Florian". In 1775 G. Quadri
decided to open a new café shop in front of the Florian on the opposite side of
the Square and promised to serve only real Turkish Café. For a long time the
shop had a bad reputation, driving the owner to near bankruptcy, but in 1830 the
nobility recognized the Café Quadri as having fine service and quality coffee
and it's reputation for quality remains today.
"El paron de casa" (the lord
of the house): so Venetians called the bell tower of St. Mark. On
July 14, 1902 it collapsed. It didn't do any damage to the Basilica either even
though it stands just a few feet from its entrance. Inside the bell tower there
are 5 large cast iron bells. Each bell has a name and a purpose; Marangona rang
mornings and evenings at the beginning and end of the work day, Maleficio rang
for capital executions, Nona rang at the 9th hour, Trottiera called magistrates
to meetings in the Palazzo Ducale, and the bell of Pregadi called senators to
the Palace.
The clocktower:The clock shows the hours in
Roman numerals, the phases of the moon and the Zodiac. It also gives indications
to sailors about the tides and which months are more favorable for sailing. The
Serenissima gave a large reward to the Ranieri brothers who constructed the
clock tower, but legend has it that later their eyes were removed in order to
keep them from repeating such a wonder.
The Bridge of Sighs
received its name in the 17th century, because the prisoners who passed through
it on their way to the prison cells on the other side would most likely see the
beautiful sight of the lagoon and the island of S.Giorgio and freedom for the
last time.
The streets in Venice generally have ancient and above all
curious names which reflect different work that was done in the area (like
Calle del "Pestrin", which means milkman, of "Pistor", which means baker, of "Fruttarol",
which means fruit seller, etc.), commercial activities (like "Mercerie", where
you could buy fabrics, "Frezzerie", where they made arrows, Calle "Fiubera"
where they made buckles for shoes, etc.) and the origins of inhabitants (like
Calle dei "Preti", the street of priests, or "Muneghe", meaning nuns, or "Ragusei",
which refers to the people from Ragusa, Dubrovnik nowadays, who lived in that
area of Venice, riva dei "Schiavoni", the "big slaves", refers to
slaves brought from the Dalmatan Coast, etc.). There are also many stories about
places names. The Riva di Biasio comes from Biagio who was thought to be the
owner of a little XVI century restaurant (an "osteria"). Biasio was well-known
by all the sailors as a good cook, especially for his delicious meat dishes.
However Biasio became infamous when a customer found a baby's finger in his
plate. Another story about Biasio reports him to be a butcher who sold human
instead of animal meat. However the story about his death is very clear. He was
condemned to death by the Serenissima Republic, tortured on a boat crossing the
width of the Grand Canal. Then, as a warning to all Venetians, he was tied
between the two columns of the Piazzetta and publicly beheaded. Biasio was then
cut into four parts hung on four hooks on the four cardinal points of Venice so
that everyone could see him and remember his crime. On a lighter note, Campiello
Mosca (meaning fly) has its origin not in relation to the annoying insects, but
in reference to the false beauty spots, called mosche. These beauty spots were
worn by both men and women and were very important during the period of the
Serenissima as they were used as silent and secret messages depending where they
were placed on the wearers face, following a precise code. A woman who wore a
beauty spot near an eye would mean: "I'm irresistible".
Arsenal.
Perhaps the most famous
institution of Venice is the arsenal, whose history and activity has continued
unbroken from the earliest days of the republic down to the present time. The
arsenal was founded about the year 1104 by the doge The Ordelap Falier. Before
that date Venetian shipping was built at the spot near the piazzetta, known as
the terra nova, where the royal gardens now are. The arsenal, which was famous
in Dante’s day, received its first enlargement in 1304,when, on the design of
Andrea Pisano, new building sheds and the rope walk or Tana were erected.
Pisano’s building sheds, nine in a row, with peculiarly shaped roofs, were still
standing intact—one of the most interesting medieval monuments of Venice—until a
century ago, but-they have been modified past recognition. In 1325 the second
addition the arsenale nuovo was made, and a third, in 1473; a fourth, the
Riparto delle Galeazze, about 1539; and in 1564 the fifth enlargement, the Canal
delle Galeazze e Vasca, took place. After the fall of the republic the arsenal
continued to occupy the attention of the various governments. In 1810 the site
of the suppressed convent and church of the Celestia was added. The entire
circuit of the arsenal, about two miles in extent, is protected by a lofty wall
with turrets. The main door of the arsenal is the first example in Venice of the
purely classical style. It is a noble portal, erected in 1460, apparently from
designs by Fra Giocondo, with the lion of St Mark in the attic. The statuary,
with Sta Giustina on the summit of the tympanum, was added in 1571 and 1578. The
design was modified in 1688 so as to represent a triumphal arch in honour of
Morosini Peloponnesiaco, who brought from Athens to Venice the four lions in
Pentelic marble which now stand before the gate. (On the largest of these lions
is cut a runic inscription recording an attack on the Piraeus in the 11th
century by Norse warriors of the Varangian guard, under Harold Hardrada,
afterwards—I047 king of Norway). The arsenal suffered frequently and severely
from fires, the worst being those of 1509 and 1569; yet such was the wealth of
Venice that in the following year she put upon the seas the fleet that crushed
the Turks at Lepanto in 1571.
Gild Halls. Among the most remarkable buildings in Venice are the scuole, or
gild halls, of the various confraternities. They were pious foundations created
for mutual benefit and for purposes of charity. The scuole were divided into the
six scuole grandi, so called from their numbers, wealth and privileges, and the
scuole minori or fraglie, which in most cases were associated with an art or
craft. The scuole minori were usually attached to some church in the quarter
where the particular trade flourished. They had their special altar dedicated to
the patron of the gild, a private burying place, and a room in which they held
their chapter. The six scuole grandi, San Teodoro, S. Maria della Carità, S.
Giovanni Evangelista, San Marco, della Misericordia and San Rocco, on the other
hand, built themselves magnificent gild halls.
The Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista and the Scuola di San Marco are both masterpieces of the Lombardesque style.
The Scuola di San Marco is now a part of the town hospital, and besides its
façade it is remarkable for the handsome carved ceiling in the main hall (1463).
Other beautiful ceilings are to be found in the great hall and the hail of the
Albergo in the Scuola della Carità, now the Accademia. They are the work of
Marco Cozzi of Vicenza and were executed between 1461, and 1464. The design of
the former is a trellis crossing the ceiling diagonally; in each of the lacunae
is carved a cherubim with eight wings; the figures and the trellis are gilded;
the ground is a rich ultramarine. But the most magnificent of these gild halls
is the Scuola di San Rocco, designed by Bartolomeo Buono in 1517 and carried out
by Scarpagnino and Sante Lombardo. The façade on the Campo is large and pure in
conception. The great staircase and the Inwer and upper halls contain the
unrivalled series of paintings by Tintoretto, which called forth such unbounded
enthusiasm on the part of Ruskin.
Public
Monuments.—Venetian sculpture is for the most part ancillary to
architecture; for example, Antonio Rizzo’s ‘Adam and Eve’ (1464), which face the
Giants`Staircase in the ducal palace, are parts of the decorative scheme;
Sansovino’s splendid monument to Tornaso Rangone is an essential feature of the
façade of San Giuliano. The most successful Venetian sculpture is to be found in
the many noble sepulchral private monuments. The jealousy of the Venetian
republic forbade the erection of monuments to her great men. The sole exception
is the superb equestrian statue in honour of the General Bartolonieo Colleoni,
which stands on the Campa SS. Giovanni e Paolo. By his
will Colleoni left his vast fortune to Venice on condition that a monument
should be raised to him at St Mark’s. He meant the great piazza, but by a
quibble the republic evaded the concession of so unique an honour and claimed to
have fulfilled the conditions of the bequest by erecting the monument at the
Scuola of St Mark. The republic entrusted the work to the Florentine Verrocchio,
who dying before the statue was completed begged the government to allow his
pupil Lorenzo di Credi to carry it to a conclusion. The Venetians, however,
called in Alessandro Leopardi, who cast the great equestrian group and added the
pure and graceful pedestal. The monument was unveiled on the 21st of March 1496.
Campanili. Among the more striking features of Venice we must reckon the
campanili (singular campanile) or bell-towers. These were at one time more
numerous than at the present day; earthquakes and subsidence of foundations have
brought many of them down, the latest to fall being the great tower of San Marco
itself, which collapsed on July 14th, I906.
Its reconstruction was at once undertaken, and completed in 1910. In a few other
cases, for example at San Giorgio Maggiore, the fallen campanili were restored;
but for the most part they were not replaced. The Venetian campanile usually
stands detached from the church. It is almost invariably square; the only
examples of round campanili in this part of Italy are to be found at Ravenna and
at Caorle to the east of Venice; while inside Venice itself the solitary
exception to the square plan was the campanile of San Paternian, built in 999
and now demolished, which was a hexagon. The campanile is usually a plain brick
shaft with shallow pilasters running up the faces. It has small angle-windows to
light the interior inclined plane or staircase, and is not broken into storey's
with grouped windows as in the case of the Lombard bell-towers. Above the shaft
comes the arcaded bell-chamber, frequently built of Istrian stone; and above
that again the attic, either round or square or octagonal, carrying either a
cone or a pyramid or a cupola, sometimes surmounted by a cross or a gilded angel
which serves as a weathercock. Cressets used to be kept burning at night on some
of the campanili to serve as beacons for those at sea. Among the existing
campanili the oldest are San Geremia, dating from the 11th century, San Samuele
from the 12th, San Barnaba and San Zaccaria from the 13th. The campanile of S.
Giovanni Elemosinario at Rialto, ruined in 1361, rebuilt between 1398 and 1410 is called by Ruskin “the most interesting
piece of central Gothic remaining comparatively intact in Venice".
The word Fondao (derived through Arabic from the Greek ) , as applied to
some of the Venetian palaces, denotes the mercantile headquarters of a foreign
trading nation. Those still existing are the Turkish and the German (F. de’
Tedescin), the latter converted into a post office.
The glass manufactory
of Murano, a small island to the north of Venice, was a great
source of revenue to the republic. Glass drinking cups and ornamental vessels,
‘some decorated with enamel painting, and “silvered” mirrors were produced in
great quantities from the 14th century downwards, and exported. Like many other
arts in Venice, that of glass-making appears to have been imported from Moslem
countries, and the influence of Oriental design can be traced in much of the
Venetian glass. The art of making stained-glass windows was not practiced by the
Venetians; almost the only fine glass in Venice is that in a south transept
window in the Dominican church, which, though designed by able Venetian
painters, is obviously the work of foreigners. The ancient glass-bead industry (conterie),
which some years since suffered severely from over-production, has now regained’
its position through the union of the different factories, by which the output
is controlled in such a way as to render trade profitable. Similarly, the glass
industry has revived. New amalgams and methods of colouring have been
discovered, and fresh forms have been diligently studied. Special progress has,
been made in the production of mirrors, electric lamps, candelabra and mosaics.
Venice became very celebrated
in the 15th century for textiles. Its damasks and other silk stuffs with
patterns of extraordinary beauty surpassed in variety and splendor those of the
other chief centres of silk-weaving, such as Florence and Genoa. In addition to
the native stuffs, an immense quantity of costly Oriental carpets, wall-hangings
and other textiles was imported into Venice, partly for its own use, and partly
for export throughout western Europe. On occasions of festivals or pageants the
balconies, the bridges, the boats, and even the façades of the houses, were hung
with rich Eastern carpets or patterned textiles in gold and coloured silk.
The
secret of lace-making was believed to have been lost, but the late Signor
Fambri discovered at Chioggia an old woman who knew it, and placed her at the
head of a lace school. Fambri was ruined by his enterprise, but other
manufacturers, more expert than he, drew profit from his initiative, and founded
flourishing factories at Pellestrina and Burano.
Under the republic, and
until modern times, the water supply, of Venice was furnished by the
storage of rain-water, supplemented by, water brought from the Brenta in boats.
The famous Venetian wells for storing rain-water from the roofs and streets,
consisted of a closed basin with a water-tight stratum of clay at the bottom,
upon which a slab of stone was laid; a brick shaft of radiating bricks laid in a
permeable jointing material of clay and sand was then built. At some distance
from the shaft a square water-tight wall was built, and the space between it and
the shaft was filled in with sand, which was purified of all saline matter by
repeated washings; on the ground-level perforated stones set at tile four
corners of the basin admitted the rain-water, which was discharged from the
roofs by lead pipes; this water filtered through the sand and percolated into
the shaft of the well, whence it was drawn in copper buckets. The water supply,
introduced in 1884, is brought from the commune of Trebaseleghe, where it is
collected from 120 artesian wells. It is carried under the lagoon to Sant’
Andrea, where the reservoirs are placed.
The church is ruled by the
patriarch of Venice, the metropolitan of the province formed by the Veneto. The
patriarch of Venice is usually raised to the purple. The patriarchate dates from
1451, when on the death of Domenico Michiel, patriarch of Grado, the seat of
that honour was transferred from desolate and insalubrious Grado to the
cathedral church of Castello in Venice, and Michiel’s successor, Lorenzo
Giustinian, assumed the title of patriarch of Venice. On the fall of the
republic St Mark’s became the cathedral church of the patriarch. There are many
parishes in the city of Venice, in the lagoon islands and on the littoral.
The dawn of Venice
and something about its waterways and bridges: Venice occupies one of the most remarkable sites in the world. At the
head of the Adriatic, between the mountains and the sea, lies that part of the
Lombard plain known as the Veneto. The whole of this plain has been formed by
the debris swept down from the Alps by the rivers Po, Ticino, Oglio, Adda,
Mincio, Adige, Brenta, Piave, Livenza, Tagliamento and Isonzo. The substratum of
the plain is a bed of boulders, covered during the lapse of ages by a deposit of
rich alluvial soil. The rivers when they debouch from the mountains assume an
eastern trend in their effort to reach the sea. The result is that the plain is
being gradually extended in an easterly direction, and cities like Ravenna,
Adria and Aquileia, which were once seaports, lie now many miles inland. The
encroachment of land on sea has been calculated at the rate of about three miles
in a thousand years. A strong current sets round the head of the Adriatic from
east to west. This current catches the silt brought down by the rivers and
projects it in long banks, or lidi, parallel with the shore. In process of time
some of these banks, as in the case of Venice, raised themselves above the level
of the water and became the true shore-line, while behind them lay large
surfaces of water, called lagoons, formed partly by the fresh water brought down
by the fivers, partly by the salt-water tide which found its way in by the
channels of the river mouths.
Along the coast -line, roughly speaking
between the Apennines at Rimini and the Carnic Alps at Trieste, three main
systems of lagoons were thus created, the lagoon of Grado or Marano to
the east, the lagoon of Venice in the middle, and the lagoon of Comacchio to the
south-west. All three are dotted with small islands, possibly the remains of
sorpe earlier lido. These islands are little else than low mud banks, barely
rising above the water-level. On a group of these mud banks about the middle of
the lagoon of Venice stands the city of Venice. It would be difficult to imagine
a site less adapted for the foundation and growth of a great community. The soil
is an oozy mud which can only be made capable of carrying buildings by the
artificial means of pile-driving; there is no land fit for agriculture or the
rearing of cattle; the sole food supply is, fish from the lagoon, and there is no
drinking-water save such as could be stored from the rainfall. Yet the group of
islands called Rialto, in mid-Venetian lagoon, were first the asylum and then
the magnificent and permanent home of a race that took a prominent part in the
medieval and Renaissance history of Europe. The local drawbacks and difficulties
once surmounted, Venice by her geographical position became the seaport nearest
the heart of Europe.
As to the ethnography of the race little is
known that is certain. It has frequently been said that the lagoon population
was originally composed of refugees from the mainland seeking asylum from the
incursions of Huns, Goths and Lombards; but it is more probable that, long
before the date of the earliest barbarian inroad, the lagoon islands already had
a population of fisher folk. In any case we may take it that the lagoon-dwellers
were racially identical with the inhabitants of the neighboring mainland, the
Heneti or Veneti. The dwellings of the primitive settlers in the lagoons were,
in all probability, rude huts made of long reeds, such as may be seen to this
day in the lagoon of Grado. A ditch was cut deep into the mud so as to retain
the water at low tide, and there the boats of the fishermen lay. The ground was
made solid and protected from corrosion by a palisade of wattled osiers, thus
creating the earliest form of the fonda-menta, or quay, which funs along the
side of so many Venetian canals and is so prominent a feature in the
construction of the city. Gradually, as time went on, and probably with the
influx of refugees from the mainland, bricks made of lagoon mud came to take the
place of wattle and reeds in the construction of the houses. Groups of
dwellings, such as are still to be seen on some of the small canals at Burano,
clustered together along the banks of the deeper channels which traverse the
lagoon islands and give access to the tide. It is these channels which
determined the lines of construction; the dwellings followed their windings, and
that accounts for the extraordinarily complex network of calles and canals,
which characterizes modern Venice.
The whole site of Venice
is dominated by the existence of one great main canal, the Canal Grande
(=Grand Canal), which, winding through the town in the shape of the
letter S, divides it into two equal parts. This great canal was probably at
one time the bed of a river flowing into the lagoons near Mestre. The
smaller canals all serve as arteries to the Grand Canal. One other broad
canal, once the bed of the Brenta, divides the island of the Gradecca from
the rest of the city and takes its name from that island. The ordinary
Venetian house was built round a courtyard, and was one storey high; on the
roof was an open loggia for drying clothes; in front, between the house and
the water, ran the fondamenta. The earliest churches were built with
cemeteries for the dead; and thus we find the nucleus of the city of Venice,
little isolated groups of dwellings each on its separate islet, scattered,
as Cassiodorus says, like sea-birds nests over
the face of the waters. Some of the islets were still uninhabited; covered
with a dense low growth which served as cover for game and even for wolves.
With the destruction of the mainland cities by repeated
barbarian invasions, and thanks to the gradual development of Venice as a centre
of coasting trade in the northern Adriatic, the aspect of the city changed.
Brick and more rarely stone took the place of wood and wattle. The assaults of
the Dalmatian pirates, attracted by the growing wealth of the city, necessitated
the building of strong castellated houses. Of which no example has come down to
our day, but we may gather what they were like from Petrarch's description of
his house on the Riva degli Schiavoni, with its two flanking towers, probably
retaining the primitive form, and also from the representations of protecting
towers which occur in Carpaccio's pictures. The canals too were guarded by
chains stretched across their mouths and by towers in some eases, as, for
example, in the case of the Torricelli Canal, which takes its name from these
defense works. These houses
clustered round the churches which now began to be. The canals between
these dusters of houses were deepened and cleared out, and in some cases trees
were planted along the banks, or fondamenta; we hear of the cypresses on San
Giorgio Maggiore, of an ancient mulberry tree at San Salvadore, of a great elder
tree near the Procuratie Vecchie where the magistrates were wont to tie their
horses. There were vineyards and orchards (broli) on land reclaimed from the
sea, and lying between the various clusters of houses, which had not yet been
consolidated into one continuous city.
The canals were, crossed by, wooden
bridges without steps, and in the case of the wide Grand Canal the bridge at
Rialto was carried on boats, gradually, however, stone bridges came into use.
The earliest of these was the bridge of San Zaccaria, mentioned in
a document of 1170. The Rialto bridge was designed in 1178 by Nicolo Barattieri,
and was carried on pontoons. In 1255 and 1264 it was rebuilt, still in wood. It
was carried on beams and could be raised in the middle, as we see it in
Carpaccio’s picture of “The Miracle of the Cross.” The present bridge, the work
of Antonio or Giovanni Contino, whose nickname was da Ponte, dates from 1588,
and cost 250,000 ducats. The same
architect was responsible for the lofty
“Bridge of Sighs” (1595) connecting the ducal palace with the state prisons
(1591—97) on the opposite side of the narrow canal: on the east of the Rio del
Palazzo. The early bridges were inclined
planes and could easily be crossed by horses. It was not till the city became
more populous and when stone-stepped bridges were introduced that the use of
horses died out. As late as 1365 the Doge Lorenzo Celsi owned a famous stud of
chargers, and in 1490 the Doge Michele Steno’s stables, where the present Zecca
stands, were famous throughout Italy. In 1392 a law put an end to riding in the
Merceria, on account of the crowd, and all horses and mules were obliged to
carry bells to warn foot-passengers. The lanes and alleys of the early city were
unpaved and filthy with slops from the houses. But in the 13th century ,the
Venetians began to pave the more frequented streets with brick. Ferries or
traghelli for crossing the canals were also established as early as the 13th
century; we find record of ferries at San Gregorio, San Felice, San Tomà, San
Samuele, and so on, and also of longer ferries to the outlying islands like
Murano and Chioggia, or to the mainland at Mestre and Fusina. The boatmen early
erected themselves into gilds.
The characteristic conveyances on the canals of Venice—which take the place of
cabs in other cities—are the gondolas, fiat-bottomed boats, some 30 ft.
long by 4 or 5 ft. wide, curving out of the water at the ends, with ornamental
bow and stern pieces and an iron beak (Jerro), resembling a halberd, which is
the highest part of the boat. The gondolier stands on a poppa at the stern with
his face towards the bow, and propels the gondola with a single oar. There is a
low cabin (Jeize) for passengers; the ordinary gondolas can take four or six
persons, and larger ones (barca or battello) take eight. Gondolas are mentioned
as far back as 1094, and, prior to a sumptuary edict passed by the great council
in the 16th century, making black their compulsory colour, they were very
different in appearance from now. Instead of the present boat, with its heavy
black cabin and absence of colouring, the older forms had an awning of rich
stuffs or gold embroideries, supported on a light arched framework open at both
ends; this is the gondola still seen at Carpaccio’s and Gentile Bellini’s
pictures (c. 1500). Since 1880 services of omnibus steamers (now municipal) have
also been introduced.
Byzantine Architecture. We can trace the
continuous growth of Venice through. the successive styles of Byzantine, Gothic,
early Renaissance and late Renaissance architecture. The whole subject is
magnificently treated in Ruskin’s Stones of Venice. The two most striking
buildings in Venice, St Mark’s and the Doge’s Palace, at once give us an example
of the two earlier styles, the Byzantine and the Gothic, at least in their
general design, though both are so capricious in development and in decoration
that they may more justly be considered as unique specimens rather than as
typical examples of their respective styles. In truth, owing to its isolated
position on the very verge of Italy, and to its close connexion with the East,
Venetian architecture was an independent development. Though displaying a
preponderance of Oriental characteristics, it retained a quality of its own
quite unlike the styles evolved by other Western countries.
The Byzantine
style prevailed in Venice during the 11th and 12th centuries. The arches of this period are
semicircular and usually highly stilted. Sculptured ornamentation, flowing
scrollwork of semi-conventional foliage mingled with grotesque animals, bieds or
dragons, is freely applied to arches and string courses. The walls are built of
solid brickwork and then covered with thin slabs of rich and costly marbles.
Sculptured panels, with conventional motives, peacocks, eagles devouring hares,
peacocks drinking from a cup on a tall pillar, are let into both exterior and
interior walls, as are roundels of precious marbles, sawn from columns of
porphyry, verd antique, &c. The
adoption of veneer for decoration prohibited any deep cutting, and almost all
the sculpture is shallow. Only, in the capitals, which are of extraordinary
richness and variety, do we get any deep or bold relief. Dentil moldings, of
which examples may still be seen in the remains of the palace of Blachernae at
Constantinople, are characteristic of Venetian ornamentation at this period, and
remain a permanent feature in Venetian architecture down to the 11th century.
The dome is the leading idea or motif in Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture;
the domes are placed over square, not circular apartments, and their bases are
brought, to a circle by means of pendentives. In exterior elevation the chief
effect is produced by the grouping of the domes. In the interior the effect is
gained by broad masses of chromatic decoration in marble-veneer and mosaics on a
gold ground to cover the walls and vaults, and by elaborate pavements of opus
sectile and, opus Alexandrinum.
Owing to the marshy site the
foundations of buildings in Venice offered considerable difficulties. A
trench was dug in the soft upper mud until the stratum of stiff blue clay was
reached. Piles of elm, oak, white poplar or larch were driven into this clay to
the depth of 16 to 20 ft. or until absolute resistance was encountered. The
heads of the piles were from 10 to 11 in. in diameter and they were driven in
almost in contact. On this surface of pile heads was laid a platform of two
layers of squared oak beams, and on this again the foundations proper were
built. In some cases, however, as for example in the ducal palace itself, if the
clay appeared sufficiently firm, the piles were dispensed with and the
foundations went up directly from the oak platform which rested immediately on
the clay. During the middle ages the walls of Venetian buildings were
constructed invariably of brick. They were usually solid, but in some cases they
were built a sacco— that is to say, two thin outer walls were built and the
space between them was filled with grouted rubble. The delicate creamy Istrian
stone, which is now so prominent a feature in Venetian architecture, did not
come into common use till after the 11th century, when the Istrian coast became
permanently Venetian. Before the
mortar used in Venice was made of lime from Istria, which possessed no hydraulic
qualities and was consequently very perishable, a fact which to a large extent
accounts for the fall of the Campanile of San Marco. But when Venice took
possession of the mainland her builders were able to employ a strong hydraulic
dark lime from Albettone, which formed a durable cement, capable of resisting
salt water and the corrosive sea air.
The church of St Mark’s,
originally the private chapel of the doge, is unique among the buildings of the
world in respect of its unparalleled richness of material and decoration. A law
of the republic required every merchant trading to the East to bring back some
material for the adornment of the fane. Indeed, the building has been compared
to the treasure den of a gang of “sea sharkers,” and from a museum of sculpture
of the most varied kind, nearly every century from the 4th down to the latest
Renaissance being represented. The present church is the third on this site.
Soon after the concentration at Rialto a small wooden church was erected about
the year 828 for the reception of the relics of St Mark, which had been brought
from Alexandria when the Moslems pulled down the church where he was buried.
In order to justify the
removal of St.Mark's body, legend states that when the Evangelist went to the
lagoon, an angel came and said: "Pax tibi Marce, Evangelista meus" (Translation
from Latin : peace to you, Mark my Evangelist), showing in this way that God had
determined Venice as the final resting place of the Saint. The Venetians acted
to fulfill the divine profecy. St Mark then became the patron saint of Venice in place of St Theodore.
This church was burned in 976 along with the ducal palace in the insurrection
against the Doge Candiano IV, Pietro Orseolo and his successors rebuilt the
church on a larger scale in the form of a basilica with three eastern apses and
no transept, and Byzantine workmen were employed. As the state grew in wealth
and importance the church grew with it. About the year 1063 the Doge Contarini
resolved to remodel St Mark’s. There can be no doubt that Byzantine artists had
a large share in the work, but it is equally certain that Lombard workmen. were
employed along with the Orientals, and thus St Mark’s became, as it were, a
workshop in which two styles, Byzantine and Lombard, met and were fused
together, giving birth to a new style, peculiar to the district, which may
fairly be called Veneto-Byzantine.
In plan St Mark’s is a Greek cross
of equal arms, covered by a dome in the centre, 42 ft. in diameter, and by a
dome over each of the arms. The plan is derived from the Church of the Holy
Apostles at Constantinople, now covered by the mosque of Mahommed II., and bears
a strong resemblance to the plan of St Front at Périgueux in France (1120). The
addition of a narthex before the main front and a vestibule on the northern side
brings the whole western arm of the cross to a square on plan. In elevation the
façade seems to have connexion with the five-bayed façade of the Kahriyeh Jamè,
or mosaic mosque, at Constantinople. The exterior façade is enriched with marble
columns brought from Alexandria and other cities of the East, and bearing in
many cases incised graffiti. Mosaics are employed to decorate the spandrils of
the arches. Only one of the onginal mosaics now exists, the one over the doorway
at the north-western, or St Alipio, angle. Its subject, which is of high
historical value as a record of costume, represents the translation of the body
of St Mark, and gives us a view of the west façade of the church as it was at
the beginning of the 13th century before the addition of the ogee gables, with
alternating crockets and statues, and the intermediate pinnacled canopies placed
between the five great arches of the upper storey.
The top of the narthex
forms a wide gallery, communicating with the interior at the triforium level. In
the centre of this gallery stand the four colossal
bronze horses which belonged probably to some Graeco-Roman triumphal
quadriga, and were brought to Venice by the Doge Enrico Dandolo after the fall
of Constantinople in 1204 . Their heads were separated
from the bodies to make the transportation easier. After arriving in
Venice, the cuts between neck and head were hidden by collars. They were cast in
almost pure copper, harder to melt but easier to gild. In 1797 after Napoleon
Bonaparte declared the official end of the Venetian Republic he sold the
Venetian territories to Vienna but before leaving the city the French looted all
that they could carry including the four horses. They were returned by the
French Government only after 1815 and restored by Francis of Austria.
Mosaic
is the essential decoration of the church, and the architectural details are
subordinated to the colour scheme. These mosaics belong to very various dates.
The Doge Domenico Selvo began the decoration of the church in 1071, though it is
uncertain whether any of his work can be now identified. The mosaics of the
domes would seem to belong to the 12th century, probably before 1150. The
mosaics of the atrium date from 1200 to 1300; the subjects are taken from Old
Testament story. The baptistery mosaics represent the life of St John. The
mosaics in the chapel of St Isidore (finished by Andrea Dandolo), giving us the
life of the saint, were executed in 1355. In the sacristy is a series of
10th-century mosaics, arid in other parts of the church are inferior and later
mosaics from cartoons by later Venetian masters. Below the mosaics the walls and
arches are covered with rare marb1es- porphyries and alabaster from ancient
columns sawn into slices and so arranged in broad bands as to produce a rich
gamut of colour. The eastern crypt, or confessio, extends under the whole of the
choir and has three apses, Iike the upper church. The body of St Mark formerly
rested here, but is now within the high altar. Below the nave is another crypt.
The floors of both crypts have sunk considerably and are often under water; this
settlement accounts for the inequalities of the pavement. The original part of
the magnificent mosaic pavement probably dates from the middle of the 12th
century, if we may judge from the pavement at Murano, exactly similar in style,
material and workmanship, which bears the date 1140. The pavement consists
partly of opus Alexandrinum of red and green porphyry mixed with marbles, partly
of tesselated work of glass and marble tesserae. The choir stands about 4 ft.
above the nave and is separated from it by a marble rood-screen, on the
architrave of which stand fourteen figures, the signed work of Jacobello and
Pietro Paolo delle Masegne, 1394.
The Pala d’oro, or retable of the
high altar, is one of the chief glories of St Mark’s. It is one of the most
magnificent specimens of goldsmiths’ and jewellers’ work in existence. It was
ordered in 976 at Constantinople by the Doge Pietro I. Orseolo, and was enlarged
and enriched with gems and modified in form, first by a Greek artificer in 1105,
and then by Venetians between 1209 and 1345. It is composed of figures of
Christ, angels, prophets and saints, in Byzantine enamel run into gold plates.
The treasury of St Mark’s contains a magnificent collection of church plate and
jewels.
Fine examples of Venetian Byzantine palaces—at least of the
façades—are still to be seen on the Grand Canal and in some of the small canals.
The interiors have been modified past recognition of their original disposition.
The Byzantine palace seems to have had twin angle-towers—geminas angulares
lurres—such as those of the Ca’ Molin on the Riva degii Schiavoni, where
Petrarch lived. The restored (1830) Fondaco’ dei Turchi (13th century), now the
Musco Civico, also has two angle-towers. The palaces façades presented
continuous colonnades on each floor with semicircular high stilted arches,
leaving a very small amount of wall space. The buildings were usually
battlemented in fantastic form. A good specimen may be seen in Lazzaro
Sebastiani’s picture of the piazzetta, in the Museo Civico. There on the right
we see the handsome building of the old bakery, occupying the site of the
present library; it has two arcades of Saracen arches and a fine row of
battlements. Other specimens still in existence are the municipal buildings,
Palazzo Loredan and Palazzo Farsetti—if, indeed, these are not to be considered
rather as Romanesque—and the splendid Ca’ da Mosto, all on the Grand Canal. The
richest ornamentation was applied to the arches and string courses, while
plaques of sculpture, roundels and coats of arms adorned the façades. The
remains of a Byzantine façade now almost entirely built into a wall in the Rio
di Ca’ Foscari offer us excellent illustration of this decorative work.
Square of St Mark . At first the original campo was limited to the parvis of
the Basilica, because of the presence of a canal, "Rio Batario", which divided
the present Square in two parts. The part of the Square now between the
Procuratie, was once the vegetable garden of S.Zaccaria monastery with the
6th-century church of S S.Geminiano church in the middle. The first enlargement
of the square was effected by Doge Sebastiano Ziani in 1176 for the meeting of
Pope Alexander III and the Emperor Barbarossa by filling in Rio Batario and the
dock: the church was rebuilt on a new site. A small new Square was built with
the columns of S.Marco and S.Todaro, the city's patron saints, overlooking St.
Mark's Basin. The alteration of the Square was all done over the course of one
century, adapting to the growing power and wealth of Venice. The present form
reflects the works of many famous architects such as Sansovino, Longhena,
Scamozzi, Rizzo and Tirani. Lastly, the square was extended southwards in the
16th century, when the new palace of the procurators was built by Scamozzi.
Gentile Bellini’s picture shows a line of houses reaching up to the great
campanile. Napoleon I in 1805—10 pulled down the church of S. Geminiano and
built a new block at the west end of the square. The treasury of St Mark was
originally one of the towers belonging to the old ducal palace.
Alessandro Leopardo was the creator (1505) of the three, handsome
bronze sockets in front of St Mark’s which held the flagstaffs of the banners of
Cyprus, Morea and Crete, when the republic was mistress of those territories. By
the side of the sea in the piazzetta, on to which the west façade of the ducal
palace faces, stand two ancient columns of Egyptian granite, one red and the
other grey. These great monoliths were brought as trophies to Venice by Doge
Domenico Michieli in 1126, after his victories in Syria. In 1180 they were set
up with their present fine capitals and bases by a Lombard engineer, Niccolo de’
Barattieri. The grey column is surmounted by a fine bronze lion of Byzantine
style, cast in Venice for Doge Ziani about 1178 (this was carried off to Paris
by Napoleon in 1797, and sent back in pieces in 1816; but in 1893 it was put
together again); and in 1329 a marble statue of St Theodore, standing upon a
crocodile, was placed on the other column. Gothic architecture. Venetian Gothic, both
ecclesiastical and domestic, shares most of the characteristics of north Italian
Gothic generally, though in domestic architecture it displays one peculiarity
which we shall presently note. The material, brick and terra-cotta, is the
determining cause of the characteristics of north Italian Gothic. Flatness and
lack of deep shadows, owing to the impossibility of obtaining heavy cornices in
that material, mark the style. The prevalence of sunlight led to a restriction
of the windows and exaggeration of wall space. The development of tracery was
hindered both by the material and by the relative insignificance of the windows.
On the other hand, the plastic quality of terracotta suggested an abundance of
delicate ornamentation on a small scale, which produced its effect by its own
individual beauty without broad reference to the general scheme. Coloued
marbles and frescoes served a like purpose. The exteriors of the north Italian
Gothic churches are characterized by the flatness, of the roof; the treatment of
the west façade as a screen wall, masking the true lines of the aisle roofs; the
great circular window in the west front for lighting the nave; the absence of
pinnacles owing to the unimportance of the buttresses; the west-end porches with
columns resting on lions or other animals. The peculiarity of Venetian domestic
Gothic to which we have referred is this: we frequently find tracery used to
fill rectangular, not arched, openings. The result is that the tracery itself
has to support the structure above it—is, in fact, constructional—whereas in
most other countries~the tracery is merely, as it were, a pierced screen filling
in a constructional arch. Hence the noticeable heaviness of Venetian tracery.
Among the many Gothic churches of Venice the largest are the Franciscan
church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Fran (started 1250) and the Dominican
church of SS Giovanni e Paolo (1260—1400). The Fran is remarkable for its
fine choir-stalls and for the series of six eastern chapels which from outside
give a very good example of Gothic brickwork, comparable with the even finer
apse of the church of San Gregorio. The church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo
was the usual burying-place of the doges, and contains noble mausoleums of
various dates. Besides these two churches we may mention Santo Stefano,
an interesting building of central Gothic, the best ecclesiastical example of it in
Venice. The apse is built over a canal. The west entrance is later than the rest
of the edifice and is of the richest Renaissance Gothic.
But it is in the domestic architecture
of Venice that we find the most striking and characteristic examples of Gothic.
The introduction of that style coincided with the consolidation of the Venetian
constitution and the development of Venetian commerce both in the Levant and
with England and Flanders. The wealth which thus accrued found architectural
expression in those noble palaces, so characteristic of Venice, which line the
Grand and smaller canals. They are so numerous that we cannot do more than call
attention to one or two. The most striking example is undoubtedly the
Ca d`Oro, so called from the profusion of gold employed on its
façade. It was built for Marino Contarini II 1421, rather a late period in the
development of the style. Marino kept a minute entry of his expenses,
a document of the highest value, not merely for the history of the building, but
also for the light it throws on the private life of the great patricians who
gave to Venice such noble examples of art. Contarini was to some extent his own
architect.
He had the assistance of Marco d`Amadio and of Matteo de Raverti the
supervisor , who were joined later on by Giovanni Buono and his son Bartolomeo.
Other artists, of whom we know nothing else, such as Antonio Busetto, Antonio
Foscolo, Gasparino Rosso, Giacomo da Como, Marco da Legno and others created
this masterpiece of decorated architecture. By the year 1431 the façade was
nearly completed, and Contarini made a bargain with Martino and Giovanni Benzon
for the marbles to cover what was yet unfinished. The façade is a triumph of
graceful elegance. But Contarini was not content to leave the marbles as they were. He desired to have the façade of his
house in colour. The contract for this work, signed with Master Zuan de Franza,
conjures up a vision of the Ca d’ Oro ablate with colour and gleaming with the
gold ornamentation from which it took its name.
Other notable examples of
this style are the Palazzo Ariani at San Raffaelle, with its handsome
window in a design of intersecting circles; the beautiful window with the
symbols of the four Evangelists in the spandrils, in the façade of a house at
San Stae; the row of three Giustinian palaces at S. Barnaba; the flamboyant
balconies of the Palazzo Contarini Fasan; the Palazzo Bernardo on a side
canal near S. Polo, a late central Gothic building (1380-1400) which Ruskin
describes as “of the finest kind and superb in its effect of colour when seen
from the side. Taken as a whole, after the ducal palace this is the noblest
effect of all in Venice".
Early Renaissance.Towards the close
of the 15th century Venetian architecture began to feel the influence of the
classical revival; but, lying far from Rome. and retaining still her connexion
with the East, Venice did not fall under the sway of the classical ideals either
so quickly or so completely as most Italian cities. Indeed, in this as in the
earlier styles, Venice struck out a line for herself and developed a style of
her own, known as Lombardesque, after the family of the Lombardi (Solari)
who came from Carona on the Lake of Lugano and may be said to have created it.
The essential point about the style is that it is intermediary between Venetian
Gothic and full Renaissance. We find it retaining some traces of Byzantine
influence in the decorated surfaces of applied marbles, and in the roundels of
porphyry and verd-antique, while it also retained certain characteristics of
Gothic, as, for instance, in the pointed arches of the Renaissance façade in the
courtyard of the Ducal Palace designed by Antonio Rizzo (1499). Special
notes of the style are the central grouping of the windows, leaving
comparatively solid spaces on each side, which gives the effect of main building
with wings; the large amount of window space; the comparative flatness of the
façades; the employment of a cornice to each storey; the effect of light and
shade given by the balconies; and in churches by the circular pediments on the
façades. The most perfect example of this style in ecclesiastical architecture
is the little Church of the Miracoli built by Pietro Lombardo in 1480.
The church is without aisles, and has a semicircular roof, and the choir is
raised twelve steps above the floor of the nave. The walls, both internally and
externally, are encrusted with marbles. The façade has the characteristic
circular pediment with a large window surrounded by three smaller windows
separated by two ornamental roundels in coloured marble and of geometric design.
Below the pediment comes an arcade with flat pilasters, which runs all round the
exterior of the church. Two of the bays contain round-headed windows; the other
three are filled in with white marble adorned by crosses and roundels in
coloured marble. The lower order contains the flat plastered portal with two
paneled spaces on each side. Similar results are obtained in the magnificent,
façade of the Scuola di San Marco, at SS. Giovanni e Paolo, which has six
semicircular pediments of varying sire crowning the six hays, in the upper order
of which are four noble Romanesque windows. The lower order contains the
handsome portal with a semicircular pediment, while four of the remaining bays
are filled with quaint scenes in surprisingly skilful perspective. The façade of
San Zaccaria (1444—1500), the stately design of Antonio Gambello and
Mauro Coducci, offers some slight modifications in the use of the semicircular
pediment, the line of the aisle roof being indicated by quarter-circle pediments
abutting on the façade of the nave; San Salvadore, the work of Tullio
Lombardo (1530), is severer and less highly ornamented than the preceding
examples, but its plan is singularly impressive, giving the effect of great
space in a comparatively small area. In this connexion we must mention the
Scuola of S. Giovanni Evangelista at the Fran, with its fore-court and screen
adorned by pilasters delicately decorated with foliage in low relief, and its
noble staircase whose double flights unite on a landing under a shallow cupola.
This also was the work of Pietro Lombardo and his son TulIio.
Early
Renaissance palaces occur frequently in Venice and form a pleasing contrast
with those in the Gothic style. The Palazzo Dario with its dedication,
Urbis genio, the superb Manzoni-Montecuculi-Polignac, with its friezes of
spread-eagles in low relief, and the Vendramini-Calergi or Non nobis palace,
whose façade is characterized by its roundheaded windows of grouped twin lights
between columns, are among the more important; though beautiful specimens, such
as the Palazzo Trevisan on the Rio della Paglia are to be found all over
the city.
Later Renaissance. When we come to the fully
developed Renaissance, architecture in Venice ceases to possess that peculiarly
individual imprint which marks the earlier styles. It is still characterized by
great splendor; the Library of San Marco, built by Jacopo Sansovino in
1536, is justly considered the most sumptuous example of Renaissance
architecture in the world. It is rich, ornate, yet hardly florid, distinguished
by splendid effects of light and shade, obtained by a far bolder use of
projections than had hitherto been found in the somewhat flat design of Venetian
façades. The columned, round-headed windows are set in deeply between the
pillars which carry the massive entablature, and this again is surmounted by a
balustrade with obelisks at each angle and figures marking the line of each bay.
The Istrian stone of which the edifice is built has taken a fine patina, which
makes the whole look like some richly embossed casket in oxidized silver.
The full meaning of the change which had come over Venetian architecture,
of the gulf which lies between the early Lombardesque style, so purely
characteristic of Venice, and the fully developed classical revival, which now
assumed undisputed sway, may best be grasped by comparing the Old and the New
Procuratie. Not more than eighty years separate these two buildings, the Old
Procuratie were built by Bartolomeo Buopo about 1500, the New by Scamozzi in
1580, yet it is clear that each belongs to an entirely different world of
artistic ideas. The Procuratie Vecchie is perhaps the longest arcaded façade in
the world and certainly shows the least amount of wall space; the whole design
is simple, the moulding and ornamentation severe. The Procuratie Nuove, which
after all is merely Scamozzi’s continuation of Sansovino’s library, displays all
the richness of that ornate building.
Among the churches of this period
we may mention San Geminiano, designed by Sansovino, and destroyed at the
beginning of the 19th century to make room for the ball-room built by Napoleon
for Eugene Beauharnais.
The churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and of
the Redentore, a votive church for liberation from the plague, are both
by Palladio. In 1632 Baldassare Longhena built the fine church of Santa Maria
della Salute, also a votive church, erected by the state to commemorate the
cessation of the plague of 1630. This noble pile, with a large and handsome
dome, a secondary cupola over the altar, and a striking portal and flight of
steps, occupies one of the most conspicuous sites in Venice on the point of
land that separates the mouth of the Guidecca from the Grand Canal. In plan it
is an octagon with chapels projecting one on each side. The volute buttresses,
each crowned with a statue, add quaintly but happily to the general effect.
After Longhena’s date church architecture in Venice declined upon the dubious
taste of baroque; the façades of San Moisè and of
Santa Maria del Giglio are good specimens of this style. The palaces of
the later Renaissance are numerous and frequently grandiose though frigid in
design. The more remarkable are Sansovino’s Palazzo Corner, Longhena’s
massive and imposing Palazzo Pesaro, the Palazzo Rezzonico,
designed by Longhena with the third storey added by Mássari, Sammicheli’s
Palázzo Corner at San Polo, and Massari’s well-proportioned and dignified
Palazzo Grassi at San Samuele, built in 1740.
NOVAK 9. ENTRANCE OF A HOUSE, PARIS:
Paris began as a
settlement on an island in the Seine (Île de la Cité) some 2,000 years ago. The
first settlers were the Parisii, a Celtic tribe which clearly grew to be of some
size: Julius Caesar dispatched 8,000 soldiers to subdue it in 52 BC. According
to Caesar’s “Commentaries”, the Parisii burned down their settlement rather than
surrender it to the Romans. But Caesar’s men re-built it and erected a wall
around the dwellings. The Romans named the island Lutetia (“Midwater-Dwelling”).
Under Roman rule Lutetia became rather impressive: by the 1st century AD
it extended to the Left Bank (the Latin Quarter) of the Seine and boasted a
forum, amphitheatre and baths. The Romans renamed the settlement “Paris”.
Christianity reached
Paris with the arrival of St Denis in the third century. This early
missionary established a number of churches. But he was killed by the Roman
authorities. According to some accounts he was first thrown to the lions,
then hung from a cross and finally beheaded. The site of his execution was
later named “Mons Martyrum” (today it is called Montmartre).
In 486
Paris fell to Clovis the Frank and the city became the seat of Merovingian
power. This dynasty of “long-haired kings” was followed
by the Carolingians, whose Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, took the royal
court elsewhere and left Paris under the rule of his counts.
By 700 the
city boasted numerous churches and monasteries and spread out to the Right
Bank. But it had become a provincial city, largely ignored by the Frank
rulers. Throughout the 8th century, Paris was sacked repeatedly by Vikings.
The Parisians retreated to the Île de la Cité, and re-built the Roman walls,
which were by now in ruins. Frustrated by lack of protection from the
empire, they elected their count, Odo, to be their king.
He was
succeeded by a Carolingian, but the French monarchy had made a start. In 987
Hugh Capet, an able Parisian count and great-nephew of Odo, was crowned King
of West Francia and made the city his capital.
Both as a hub for
commerce and as an intellectual centre, Paris leapt forward in stature. |
By the time of Philip II
(1180-1223), Notre Dame had been built (1163) and the first guilds were in
operation. Guild activities would soon dominate economic life and even social
order, with artisans splitting into over 100 different trades and watched over
by a prevot. One guild had a monopoly on river trade, and was able to demand
taxes on goods that came down the Seine. Under Philip, the Roman walls were
again restored and Les Halles was built as a warehouse where merchants could
sell their goods. The king also built himself a new home—a chateau he called the
Louvre—on the Right Bank. Paris developed into three distinct parts. The Left
Bank attracted scholars to its great monasteries (St-Germain-des-Près and St-Geneviève)
and became the intellectual district. The University of Paris was officially
established there in the early 13th century. The Right Bank housed the city’s
mercantile quarter and the Île de la Cité was the seat of city administration.
The population of Paris swelled over the Middle Ages, as thousands flocked from
all over France to this centre of growth and commercial activity.
The 14th century was a
difficult time for the city. France was badly hit by the Black Death
(1348-49)—at least a third of its population succumbed to the bacillus.
Thousands of soldiers died in the Hundred Years War with England. And there
was a string of popular uprisings, led by tradesmen keen to break away from
royal control.
The unsuccessful “Maillotin uprising”, a tax revolt in
1382, resulted in the suspension of Paris’s municipal government for 79
years.
Another revolt in 1418 led to a Burgundian occupation of Paris.
Hard on its heels came the English, whose victorious king, Henry V, had just
signed the Anglo-Burgundian alliance of 1419.
In 1422 the infant Henry
VI was crowned king of France in Notre Dame. Joan of Arc made a vain attempt
to drive the English out of Paris in 1429. That job was done by Charles
VII’s constable, Richemont, in 1436, five years after Joan was burnt at the
stake. But it wasn’t until 1453 that the English were fully expelled from
France: Charles VII, the third Valois king, re-captured Bordeaux in October
of that year.
By 1515 printing had arrived in Paris and the city’s
population had swelled to 170,000. The re-location of the royal court from
Touraine to Paris in 1528 gave the city a lift.
Inspired by the
Italian Renaissance, Francis I (1515-47) patronized great artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci, building up a collection of art in the Louvre. The
Notre-Dame bridge, Paris accounting office and Hôtel des Tournelles were all
constructed (or re-constructed) in the early 16th century. |
Paris took centre stage in the
religious wars between Roman Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) in the 1560s.
The Sorbonne, a stronghold of religious orthodoxy, advocated harsh measures to
repress heresy. Many Parisians took up the battle cry with gruesome relish. On
August 23rd, 1572 (St Bartholomew’s Day), 3,000 Huguenots were slaughtered in
the city at the instigation of the Catholic Guise family. Catholics took the
offensive again 16 years later, chasing Henry III out of Paris and forcing him
to lay siege to his own city. Throughout the conflict Parisians mounted a
defense against his eventual successor, Henry IV, a Huguenot. The city submitted
to Henry IV only in 1594 following his conversion to Catholicism. He is reputed
to have said: “Paris is well worth a mass!” No other French monarch has been reviled
as much as Henry III. The king’s behavior outraged Parisians, who branded him a
homosexual and a practitioner of black magic. Although the latter is unlikely,
the allegation that Henry was a homosexual—or at least a transvestite—is
probably true. Henry IV (1589-1610) embarked on an energetic programme of
building and improving the city. He oversaw building work on the Tuileries, the
great gallery of the Louvre, the Hôtel de Ville, the Pont Neuf and the Place
Royale (now called the Place des Vosges). He was also responsible for laying out
Paris’s first geometric squares. Mansions for the wealthy sprang up in the
Marais district.Francois Ravaillac, a Catholic fanatic, killed Henry IV in 1610.
Ravaillac’s punishment was severe. He was burnt with red-hot pincers, boiled in
hot oil, and then had his arms and legs attached to horses moving in different
directions. Under Louis XIV (1643-1715) and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, his clever
minister of finance, Parisians saw some improvements to their city. Although the
king detested Paris and preferred to reside at Versailles, he allowed Colbert to
build boulevards
(the Champs-Elysées) and fine squares (Place Vendômes and
Place des Victoires), and take control of the city’s administration. In 1631
Paris got its first newspaper, La Gazette. A daily paper, Le Journal de la
ville de Paris, followed in 1672. The arts were covered by Le
Mercure galant, a literary journal. During this period, Parisian theatre
flourished. Moliere's satirical farces vied for audiences and royal favour with
Racine’s tragedies. But throughout
the Enlightenment era, poverty in Paris grew more desperate. By 1637 the
population had exceeded 400,000. Inner-city streets were congested and
insanitary, filled with cramped tenements. In 1749 Voltaire called for water
fountains, wider roads and more public buildings, but no action was taken.
Equally punishing, the hated Wall of the Farmers General – a defensive cordon
which levied taxes on all goods entering the city – was built around Paris in
1786.
During the 18th century
wealthy Parisians became infatuated with experimental science. Among them was
the abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet, a physicist. In 1746 Nollet used iron wire to
connect a line of 700 Carthusian monks. When Nollet discharged his Leyden Jar (a
device for storing static electricity), the shocked monks reportedly
simultaneously leapt into the air. Although these problems didn’t directly cause
the revolution of 1789, there is little doubt that Parisian dissatisfaction
drove it forward. It was, after all, Parisians who stormed the Bastille on July
14th and Parisians who guillotined the French king on January 21st 1793. During
the Terror which followed the execution of Louise XVI, some 20,000 Parisians
went under the guillotine, titles were abolished and churches were destroyed. In
1799 Parisians launched the coup that put Napoléon Bonaparte in control. Bonaparte was crowned Emperor in Notre
Dame cathedral, established a court at the Tuileries and oversaw the building of
the Pont des Arts, the Bourse, the Rue de Rivoli and the Ourcq canal. He built
the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate his military victories and filled the Louvre
with treasures looted during his wars. He also revamped the municipal
bureaucracy. But Napoleon’s ambitions extended far beyond improving Paris.
Indeed, his zealous expansionism over-stretched the French army and finally
proved his downfall. Early 19th-century Paris experienced a population boom.
Between 1815 and 1851 France’s population grew from 29m to 36m. This had a
profound effect on the capital, for it was the cities that absorbed the
thousands of migrants unable to find work in the countryside. Industrialization,
which had started under Napoleon, promised to ease the strain. Paris acquired
gas lighting, an omnibus service and its first railway (in 1837). In the 1830s
the city was also the scene of frequent struggles between monarchists and
republicans. In July 1830 1,800 people died in street fighting that lasted for
three days (known as les trois glorieuses), after the would-be absolutist King
Charles X and his first minister, Prince Polignac, dissolved the legislative
Chamber and ordered an end to the free press. Although this was a working-class
revolution, the most notable beneficiary was the Paris bourgeoisie. A new
constitutional monarch, Louis-Philippe, was installed. He could be seen
regularly strolling in the Tuileries gardens, sporting a top hat, tails and a
green umbrella. His first minister, François Guizot, told Paris businessmen to
“get rich and leave politics to me.” But there were simply not enough jobs to go
round. Although Paris had 65,000 enterprises in 1848, only 7,000 of them had
over ten employees. Unemployment and overcrowding created appalling living
conditions. Only one in five houses had running water. In 1832 cholera wiped out
some 20,000 Parisians. In 1848 a survey revealed that 65% of the city’s
population were too poor to be taxed. Working conditions were abysmal, but
strikes and trade unions were illegal. The plight of the poor was captured by
two great novelists of the day, Honoré de Balzac and Victor Hugo. Revolution
came once more in 1848, this time as part of a wave of republicanism sweeping
Europe. In February citizens and insurrectionists, eventually strengthened by
the defection of the National Guard, battled loyalist troops and forced King
Louis-Philippe to flee the city and abdicate. A shaky Provisional Government was
nervously declared, and the ensuing months saw bitter electoral and street
battles between conservative, moderate and radical factions, revolving around
the symbolic centre of the Hôtel de Ville. The worst conflict ranged over the
six “June days” of 1848, which saw the killing, by metropolitan and provincial
troops, of 4,000 working-class insurrectionists protesting at high unemployment
and the dissolution of the National Workshops scheme. Many of the survivors were
sent to labour camps in Algeria.
Into this chaos stepped
Louis-Napoleon, the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, who had just returned from
virtual exile in London. He was soon elected President of the Republic and, when
his term expired in December 1851, he carried out a relatively peaceful
coup-d’état. A year later he declared himself Emperor Napoléon III, bringing an
ignoble end to the Third Republic. Wary of further unrest in Paris, Napoléon III
embarked on a major programme of public works. He appointed Baron Haussmann, a
Protestant from Alsace, to carry out his plans. Haussmann drove 85 miles of
boulevards through Paris’s cramped districts, lining them with
government-designed houses and shops. Haussmann also overhauled the city’s
long-neglected water supply and sewer system. By the end of the 2nd Empire
tourists were flocking to visit the great sewer, which Haussmann dubbed his
“Cloaca Maxima”.Napoléon III created some of Paris’s most famous landmarks and
parks. The Bois de Boulogne, a royal forest, in the west, and the Bois de
Vincennes, in the south-east, gave the city green spaces. The Gare du Nord and
Gare de L’Est, two large railway stations were opened. This Paris remained
physically more or less unchanged until the second world war. Until 1870
Parisians tossed their rubbish onto the streets for collection the following
morning. When a city prefect named Poubelle demanded that landlords should
provide containers for this refuse in 1884, they responded by naming them
“poubelle” in his honour. The word has stuck and is now used by French people to
mean a dustbin. In 1870 Napoléon III blundered into a war against Prussia. The
over-confident and disorganized French army was quickly routed, and
Napoléon—together with some 83,000 troops—was captured on September 2nd and
deposed. Resistance continued under a new Republican government in Paris. On
September 19th Bismarck’s army surrounded and laid siege to the city. As food
supplies ran out, conditions in the city degenerated. Hundreds died of
starvation during the harsh winter of 1870-71. A 23-night-long bombardment
further dented morale, killing and injuring some 400 Parisians. Some historians
have noted that the rich suffered little during the siege. There was no shortage
of wine, and restaurants continued to serve the wealthy, who occasionally had to
make do with dishes containing elephant (from the zoo) or rat. On January 28th
1871 Paris finally surrendered. A royalist-dominated National Assembly was
elected to negotiate peace. This alarmed Republicans, who feared a restoration
of the monarchy. Thus, the Paris Commune was established, and this revolutionary
municipal government ruled the city for 72 days. Its downfall came after seven
days of street battles between the Communards and government troops, which left
20,000 insurrectionists dead. Arson attacks by both sides destroyed many of
Paris’s landmarks including the Hôtel de Ville and the Tuileries Palace. The
destruction was so striking that Thomas Cook organised tours of British visitors
to Paris to view the damage. Given the damage inflicted upon it during the days
of the Commune, Paris recovered remarkably quickly. The glorious achievements of
the late-19th century in culture, art and literature earned this period the name
La Belle Époque. The Paris Opéra (1875), Trocadéro (1878), the Tour Eiffel
(1889) and an underground railway system all opened during this period.
Customers flocked to the new department stores (grands magasins) lining the
boulevards: Galeries Lafayette, Au Printemps and Samaritaine. The pioneering work
of Louis Pasteur, a bacteriologist, and the physicists Pierre and Marie Curie
put the University of Paris in the spotlight. Advances were made in a
then-primitive technology known as the cinema. Artists and writers, French and
foreign, made Paris their home. Among these were the founders of Cubism,
Impressionism and Fauvism, and many avant-garde poets and writers such as
Apollinaire, Laforgue and Max Jacob. The carefree spirit of the 1890s was
captured by the can-can dancers at the Moulin Rouge, which opened in 1889.
The first world war brought
the Belle Époque to an abrupt close. In September 1914, German armies came
within 15 miles of Paris. The French held them off, using taxis to shuttle
troops from Paris to the front line (and earning the name “taxicab army”).
Post-war peace conventions were held in the French capital, and the body of an
unknown solider was entombed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in 1919.In the
aftermath of the war and during the Depression, Paris became a hotbed of radical
politics. By 1935 over 400,000 people were unemployed. The French Communist
Party and far-right Fascist groups thrived in the fraught economic climate. In
1934 Léon Blum (later the first socialist French premier) narrowly escaped being
lynched by Fascist rioters outside the Chamber of Deputies. As the population
continued to grow, under-funded city services began to struggle and urban decay
set in. In June 1940 the German army, fresh from invading Belgium and the
Netherlands, entered Paris. Nazi soldiers marched down the Champs Elysée and
raised the Swastika flag at the Hôtel de Ville. The French army was too
overwhelmed to try to defend the city. Hundreds of thousands of Parisians fled.
Luckily, Paris escaped destruction during the occupation: Hitler was reluctant
to damage the city (“Wasn’t Paris beautiful?” he remarked at the end of a brief
visit). A hardy underground resistance movement emerged to assist with the
Liberation in August 1944. On August 25 General de Gaulle took charge of Paris.
Like so many other European
cities, Paris suffered from chronic post-war housing shortages. Of the 17 slum
areas designed for clearance by Baron Haussmann, most were still intact in the
1950s. Shantytowns grew up in the Parisian suburbs to house war refugees. In
1962 the French colony of Algeria gained independence and nearly 1million
African immigrants flooded into France. In 1961 Parisian police shot at a crowd
of Algerian civil rights demonstrators. The unofficial death toll was later
revealed to be around 300.In the 1960s Greater Paris had a population of around
7m. Better urban planning became essential. In an effort to ease congestion and
over crowding in central Paris, de Gaulle’s administration oversaw the
development of suburbs (cité jardins) and encouraged industrial firms to re
locate. Small-scale industries, such as haute couture and jewellery- and
furniture-making, continued to flourish in the city. Paris got its first
skyscraper in 1973. At 56 storey's high, the Tour Montparnasse was the tallest
building in Europe at the time. A ring road was built (périphérique), the metro
was extended and public buildings were cleaned up. By 1976 over 7m of the city’s
9m inhabitants lived in surrounding suburbs. On the outskirts of Paris, vast
housing estates (grand ensembles), were built to accommodate up to 10,000
families. Education however, remained badly overstretched, with overcrowded
facilities and inefficient administration. Student discontent was expressed in
les événements of May 1968. This student uprising, which began in the Latin
Quarter, spread across the country and led to a general strike by 9m workers.
Improvements to the city centre continued: the Centre Georges Pompidou, designed
by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano opened in 1977. Under Jacques Chirac, mayor of
Paris at the time, the Gare d’Orsay was successfully transformed into an art
gallery. A socialist president, Francois Mitterrand, came to power in 1981. He
oversaw the building of I.M. Pei’s striking glass pyramid and at the entrance of
the Louvre and moved the Ministry of Finance to Bercy in eastern Paris. The
strong economy of the late 1990s brought unemployment below 10%.
NOVAK 11. HYDE PARK IN LONDON: Oxford
Street leads to Marble Arch (originally intended as a monument to Nelson)
formerly erected in 1828 by John Nash before Buckingham Palace, but as
proved-owing to an error in the plans-too small for the state coach to pass
beneath it, it was in 1851 moved to its present position where it formed an
entrance to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is the largest and most central of the
chain of parks, stretches from Whitehall to Kensington, covers an area of some
275 acres, is five miles round and provides an agreeable and shady walk of
nearly three miles across. Until the time of James I it was still the deer park
that Henry VII had made it, but Charles I laid out the ring, which became the
setting for the fashionable world of their carriages. It was later the scene of
duels and the haunt of cut-throats, but during the reign of George II, Queen
Caroline caused it to be turned into the pleasant rural park it is today: she
added the Serpentine Lake (100 acres: in summer there is bathing at the Lido) in
1733. Rotten Row, once a race-course, is a sandy track
reserved solely for horsemen. Kensington
Gardens is joined to Hyde Park on the West and its green
expense of 270 acres, covered with tall shady trees, conveys the impression of
being deep in the country rather than in the heart of one of the largest cities
in the world. Admirers of James Barrie will wish to visit the statue of Peter
Pan (George Frampton) on the W. bank of the Long Water (as the upper part of the
Serpentine is known). In the S. of the park are the Dutch gardens. On the W.
side of Kensington Gardens stands the Kensington Palace,
which in 1689 as Nottingham House was acquired by King William III. The S.
façade and the N.-W. wing and the orangery were built by Wren who had been
instructed by the King to convert it into another Versailles: the remaining
portions are however later Georgian additions as it was never completed. Until 1760 when George II died, it was a
royal residence. Over the years, Hyde Park has developed a tradition of hosting
both local and national events, celebrations and performances. There are links
with the military through the presence of Knightsbridge barracks on its boundary
and the continuing practice of firing Gun Salutes from the Parade Ground. The
Serpentine Lake is much used for boating and swimming, and Rotten Row, the world
famous riding track, was the first public road to be lit at night in England.
NOVAK
12. AT THE CIRCUS IN PARIS:
The term "circus", meaning a large public entertainment featuring
performing animals, clowns, feats of skill and daring, pageantry, etc. has its
roots in the Roman word, circus, meaning a ring or circle. The Roman circus,
however, was not so much of a fun place to perform. Often the star performers
were eaten by lions, or killed in bloody combat. Originally designed as a
sporting event where Roman soldiers could match their skills and prowess against
one another in an olympian fashion it quickly evolved into pure carnage. The
bloodier the spectacle the more popular it became. People killing people,
animals killing animals, animals killing people. It reached its gruesome height
under the Emperor Nero. With the final decline of the Roman Empire the event
disappeared, but some of its terminology and legacy survived. Modern blood
sports can trace their origins back to the Roman arena - bull fighting and cock
fighting, for example. Words like circus, arena, and colosseum are Roman terms
to describe a place of mass entertainment.
With the decline of the Roman
Empire many of its former vassal states, like Britain, were left defenseless
and unable to protect themselves from invasions from aggressive peoples such as
the Saxons, Jutes, Angles, and, later, the Vikings. Communications broke down
and left small communities isolated - a period in European history known as the
Dark Ages. Groups of traveling entertainers began appearing - going from village
to village bringing news, singing songs, and telling stories, after the Saxon
fashion. For many these travelers were the only source of information and became
very popular. In England these performers were called "gleemen"; eventually
known as minstrels. Later in the Middle Ages, after the 1066 invasion by
the Normans, a new entertainer appeared - the jugglour or jongleur. They
supplanted the minstrels in popularity, but, like the rest of the country, the
Saxon and Norman performers soon combined their skills and language.
By the
time of Queen Elizabeth I most of the earlier problems of invasion, turmoil, and
isolation had been resolved and the country settled down to a more secure and
prosperous life. Wandering vagabonds were seen as a threat and laws were passed
to curtail their gypsy life. Minstrels and other traveling entertainers no
longer had a place in Tudor society. They were equated with "Rogues, Vagabonds,
and Sturdy Beggars". All were subject to punishment, but performers quickly
adapted to this statute and the ever changing needs of developing communities.
Instead of performing on street corners and village greens, they began working
in new more permanent locations designed specifically for such events.
In
the seventeenth century country fairs were a popular event with the English
populace. They became the major venue for performers to show off their skills.
These fairs were not the well organized, smooth running operations we know
today. They tended to be riotous and noisy events, and it took a rough and
strong individual to be successful at them, but they provided the perfect forum
for acrobats, jugglers, rope dancers, and bear trainers. Also, riding
exhibitions became a regular feature.
At this time more permanent facilities
became available for the performer. Many of these were adjacent to established
enterprises such as Sadler's Wells - named for a Mr.Sadler who, in 1683,
discovered a "medical" spring in his garden outside of London by the New River.
Performers were encouraged to entertain his patrons in the garden and it is
recorded that a well known rider, William Stokes, introduced performing horses
to Sadler's Wells in the late 17th century. Today, of course, Sadler's Wells is
a world famous Opera House. There were others but the first accredited circus
building, and organized circus, had to wait until 1769.
Although by the
middle of the 18th Century much of what is considered important to a
circus was already in place, it took one man to put it all together in the
correct environment to invent the modern circus. That man was one Philip
Astley.
Astley was not born into a performing family. His father was a
cabinet maker from Newcastle-Under-Lyme, England, and, from the time Philip was
born, on January 8th, 1742, his future seemed to be assured - master cabinet
maker and carpenter. However, he was not particularly interested in wood but was
in love with horses. At the age of seventeen he borrowed a horse and joined the
Fifteenth Dragoons as a rough rider and horse breaker. Two years later his
regiment was sent overseas to serve under the King of Prussia where he proved
his daring and bravery. At Hamburg he saved a horse that had fallen overboard
from their ship; at Emsdorf he captured the enemy standard; at Warburg he saved
the life of the wounded Duke of Brunswick. By 1766 he was Sergeant Major Astley,
stood over 6 feet tall with a huge frame and booming voice that, along with his
extrovert nature and daredevil reputation, made him a celebrity.
About this
time he decided that he wanted to start a riding school to teach the nobility
art d'equitation. Unfortunately he lacked the funding but heard of an innkeeper
who had financed the purchase of his business with the proceeds of trick riding
exhibitions. A perfect solution for a perfect equestrian. Thus, accompanied by
his regimental commanders white charger, Gibraltar, which he had been presented
with upon his discharge, he sort out an appropriate location to begin plying his
vocation.
Islington, on the north side of London, was a large area dedicated
to recreation and many riding masters, down on their luck, entertained there,
demonstrating their skills to attract clients for their riding schools. When
Astley arrived there he discovered he needed to learn the art of presenting a
show, so he hired on as a horse breaker. During this period he purchased two
more horses and got married to a horsewoman named "Petsy". In 1768 he moved to
the south side of the Thames and set up his riding school - opening it with a
demonstration of both his and his wife's riding skills. Shortly after he was
charging 6 pence admission. With the profits made from this simple beginning he
was able to purchase some land near Westminster bridge, and built the first
circus building. Originally it was more an open field surrounded by a kind of
covered grandstand. Later he covered the whole area with a roof.
Astley's
greatest contribution to the modern circus was not so much combining his riding
act with other performers (clowns, for example) but for the circus ring itself.
Prior to Astley most riding exhibitions were presented in a linear fashion - the
performer riding past his aud- ience as he performed a trick, then having to
turn around, or ride back around the other side, before presenting the next
trick. When Astley decided that a covered grandstand was needed he realized it
would be more advantageous to both performer and audience if the rider worked in
a circle. The rider could move from trick to trick without interruption and the
people could see everything going on and a larger audience could attend as they
sat all around the perform- ance arena. Also, as Astley discovered, by riding in
a circle he could use the centrifugal force to aid his performance. With
experimentation he discovered the optimum size of the ring to be 42 feet.
Charles Hughes, a former rider at Astleys, opened a competing company in
1782 - not too far from Astley's booming enterprise - much to the chagrin of
Astley. Hughes needed a name for his company. Why he chose the name he did is
open to debate - perhaps he was a scholar of ancient history, or, more likely,
after the large circular track used for exercising horses in Hyde Park. Whatever
the case, he called his company (drum roll!), "The Royal Circus".
Astley was
responsible for introducing the circus into many European countries, and several
cities established permanent circus buildings. In 1782, Astley opened Paris
first circus, the Amphitheatre Anglois. The first circus in Russia was presented
in 1793 at the royal palace in Saint Petersburg.
This new form of
entertainment finally crossed the Atlantic when, on April 3rd, 1793, the first
complete circus program was presented in a building on the southwest corner of
12th and Market streets, Philadelphia, by John Bill Ricketts. Ricketts, a
British equestrian, went on to present circuses in New York and Boston, and the
show continued, under varying names, through the first decade of the 19th
century. George Washington saw a Ricketts show in 1797 and sold them a horse.
The early traveling shows were very simple - in contrast to the flashy city
shows. Usually a simple musical accompaniment of a violin, or two, with a
juggler, a rope dancer, and a few acrobats - possibly some display of
horsemanship.. The show set up in a field and took up collections. Later they
worked in an enclosed space and charged admission. The advent of improved tent
technology (in the 1820's) and the railways (in America) changed everything.
While other acts were added to the show, the riding act was still the main
attraction and this led to another standard feature of the modern circus - the
ring- master. Though today the ringmaster tends to be the announcer, occasional
foil of the clowns, and generally keeping the show flowing, originally his job
was to keep the horses running correctly around the ring as the rider worked his
tricks - hence his traditional riding costume.
France, the history of the
Cirqus Voltaire: In the most rebellious of times during 1771, one of the
authors of the new time was Voltaire, a scholarly rascal with a vivid tongue and
sharp quill. Along with other men of valor, began a movement of "Enlightenment"
based in the scientific revolution of Galileo and Newton from the previous
century. They felt the universe was infinite and that the spirit of man should
be free to wander as well. Voltaire himself then brought together a group of the
most talented street performers and philosophers of modern day France and
founded the "Troupe des Voltaire" or Voltaire's Group in 1772. The men would
speak from inside the masterful "ring" and voice their ideas to France and the
World through the audience. This new name, "Cirqus Voltaire" was adopted and
first spoken by Voltaire himself during a tense game of "9 Hole" Bagatelle at
the Cafe Procope in Paris. Along with their romantic works of the pen, the
Cirqus talent included jugglers, tiger tamers, high wire fellows, an old lady,
and of course the lightning-ball walkers and throwers. The "Group des Voltaire"
had the most marvelous acts, those of electricity, fire and passion, the same
that willed France toward revolution in 1789.
"M.Voltaire" (Francois Marie
Arouet,1694 - 1778). Born in Paris, Voltaire was the most influential writer
and philosopher of the French Enlightenment. A man of noble background, he was
inclined to aristocracy. He adopted the name Voltaire after his imprisonment in
the Bastille (1717-1718) for writing satiric verse. Jailed again briefly in the
Bastille in 1726, he was exiled to England for three years, then lived in France
and Germany, and returned to Paris in 1772. Best known for his classical
tragedies, he was also a poet and a correspondent of tremendous value. Voltaire
was also known as a fighter for social reform. As a leader of the philosophies,
he tried to reform the hierarchical French Ancient Regime, and the system of
criminal justice and taxation. Voltaire opposed persecution and rejected
materialism in favor of determinism. He pioneered modern historiography with his
valuable historical works, such as the History of Charles XII, Age of Louis XIV,
and Essay on Manners. The frivolity of the Cirqus had always appealed to his
manner, and took on the task of forming his own.
During the 19th century
European circuses and American circus began a divergence. The circus in England,
and the other parts of Europe, continued in much the same manner as before, that
is, a single ring. Towns are closer together so most traveling shows could
travel with horse drawn carriages as they made their way around the country.
Tent shows remained compact as the audiences, drawn from the surrounding
villages, tended to be small, albeit appreciative. In the United States,
however, conditions were very different. Distances between communities were much
longer. Fortunately the new railways allowed traveling shows to commute the vast
distances more effectively - the great train shows were born. Also, as the shows
tended to be tied to the railway lines the audiences were drawn from larger
areas and to accommodate the bigger attendance's the circus owners added extra
rings with bigger and bigger tents - or tops. The small circus show became an
event with a large cast of performers, more extravagant animals, production
numbers, and side shows. From this point forward the United States led the way
and European shows, though still tending towards a single ring, began to follow
with their own more extravagant productions. Some of the best shows in the 19th
century were, in America, the Mount Pitt circus and the troupes of the American
animal tamer Isaac Van Amburgh, the American chemist and inventor Gilbert
Spaulding, and the American Clown Dan Rice.
With the increased cost of
production came an increased awareness for the need to publicize the show more
effectively. An advance crew would show up way ahead of the show to post bills
and placards to advertise the upcoming event. When the show arrived in the area
the performers would parade through the town with the horses and elephants all
decked out in their finery. Vendors would ply the crowd with circus programs and
confections as clowns cavorted about and helped create the carnival atmosphere
of fun and anticipation. In fact the parade became as much a part of the circus
as the actual show itself. Special decorated wagons were built for the occasion
and the steam calliope was introduced.
By the end of the century the
circus was an established, and much sort after, form of family entertainment.
Many entrepreneurs appeared, such as P.T.Barnum, who turned what was originally
an incidental form of entertainment into a grand production. In 1871 he teamed
up with circus producer W.C.Coup and produced a huge show in Brooklyn, N.Y.,
advertised as "The Greatest Show On Earth". Ten years later he went into
partnership with the best organizer in the business, James Bailey. Their show
was so huge it needed three rings. Barnum cashed in on the popularity of circus
animals and exhibited unusual and unique creatures such as the world's largest
elephant, Jumbo, which he reputedly paid $30,000.
In 1884 the five Ringling
brothers started their first circus. During the following years they purchased
six other shows including, in 1907 (after the death of Bailey), Barnum &
Baileys. Another show John Ringling purchased in 1914 was, incidentally, the
British version of the Hanneford Circus to acquire the Hanneford riding act.
The first combined show, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, was in
1918. By this time the Hannefords were starring performers with the Ringling
show and worked in the first combined Ringling show.
Created to be at the
centre of social life of the middle class society of XIX century, the "fixed
circus" originated as a race-course where expert riders would fight in front
of numerous spectators and supporters. Also, it became the theatre of athletic
and acrobatic shows. Similar buildings sprang up all over Europe during those
years, such as the "Renz" circus of Berlin in 1855 or the "Fernando" circus of
Paris in 1875.
The fixed-circus is basically composed of an approximately
14 meter circular arena surrounded by stands, premises for the public, stables
and management offices. Boxes and galleries above the stands were often
included, as well as an anti-chamber to the arena where horses could be saddled
and all the performers could gather.
NOVAK 1904AP3. SELF PORTRAIT:
 |
T.F. Šimon (1877-1942). |
NOVAK 16. SQUARE IN KRAKOW: CRACOW (Pol. Krakov; Ger. Krakau, in English also
Krakow). Info from 1911 at the time T F
Šimon visited the town.: a town and episcopal see of Austria, in
Galicia, 212 m. W. by N. of Lemberg by rail. Pop. (1900) 91,310, of which 21,000
were Jews, 5000 Germans and the remainder Poles. Although in regard to its
population it is only the second place in Galicia, Kracow is the most
interesting town in the whole of Poland. No other Polish town possesses so many
old and historic buildings, none of them contains so many national relics, or
has been so closely associated with the development and destinies of Poland as
Cracow. And the ancient capital is still the intellectual centre of the Polish
nation.
| Cracow is situated in a fertile plain on
the left bank of the Vistula (which becomes navigable here) and occupies a
position of great strategical importance. It consists of the old inner town
and seven suburbs. The only relics of the fortifications of the old town,
whose pifice is now occupied by shady promenades, is the Florian’s Gate and
the Rondell, a circular structure, built in 1498. Cracow has 39
churches—about half the number it formerly had—and 25 convents for monks and
nuns. Of these the most important is the Stanislaus cathedral, in Gothic
style, consecrated in 1359, and built on the Wawel, the rocky eminence to
the S.W. of the old town. Here the kings of Poland were crowned, and this
church is also the Pantheon of the Polish nation, the burial place of its
kings and its great men. Here lie the remains of John Sobieski, of Thaddaeus
Kosciuszko, of Joseph Po~iatowski and of Adam Mickiewicz. Here also are
conserved the remains of St Stanislaus, the patron saint of the Poles, who,
as bishop of Cracow, was slain before the altar by King Boleslaus in 1079. |
The cathedral is adorned with many valuable
objects of art, paintings and sculptures, by such artists as Veit Stoss, Guido
Reni, Peter Vischer, and Thorwaldsen. Part of the ancient Polish regalia is also
kept here. The Gothic church of St Mary, founded in 1223, rebuilt in the I4th
century with several chapels added in the 15th
and 16th centuries, was restored in 1889—1893, and decorated with
paintings from the designs by Matejko. It contains a huge high altar, the
masterpiece of Veit Stoss, who was a native of Cracow, executed in 1477—1489; a
colossal stone crucifix, dating from the end of the 15th century, and
several sumptuous tombs of noble families from the 16th and i7th
centuries. The Dominican church, a Gothic building of the 13th
century, but practically rebuilt after a fire in 1850; the Franciscan church,
also of the I3th century, also much modernized; the church of St Florian of the
12th century, rebuilt in 1768, which contains the late-Gothic altar
by Veit Stoss, executed in 1518, during his last sojourn in Cracow; the church
of St Peter, with a colossal dome, built 1597, after the model of that of St
Peter at Rome, and the beautiful Augustinian church in the suburb of Kazimierz,
are all worth mentioning.
Of the principal secular buildings, the
royal castle (Zamek Krolowsk), a huge building, begun in the 13th
century, and successively enlarged by Casimir the Great and by Sigismund I.
Jagiello (1510—1533), is situated on the Wawel, and was until 1610 the
residence of the Polish kings. It suffered much from fires and other
disasters, and from 1846 onward was used as a barracks and a military
hospital; it has now, however, been cleared out and restored. The
Jagellonian university, now housed in a magnificent Gothic building erected
in 1881—1887, was attended in 1901 by 1255 students, and had 175 professors
and lecturers. The language of instruction is Polish. It is the second
oldest university in Europe—the oldest being that of Prague—and was famous
during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was founded by
Casimir the Great in 1364, and completed by Ladislaus Jagiello in 1400. Its
rich library is now housed in the old university buildings, erected in the
15th century, in the beautiful Gothic court of which a bronze
statue of Copernicus was placed in 1900. The Polish Academy of Science,
founded in 1872, is housed in the new university buildings.
|
In the Ring-Platz, or the principal
square, opposite the church of St Mary, is the Tuchhaus (cloth-hall) , a
building erected in 1257, several times renovated and enlarged, most
recently in 1879, which contains the Polish national museum of art.
Behind it is a Gothic tower, the only relic of the old town hall, demolished
in 1820.
The Czartoryski museum contains a large collection of objects
of art, a rich library and a precious collection of manuscripts, relating to
the history of Poland. |
Among the manufactures of the town are
machinery, agricultural implements, chemicals, soap, tobacco, etc. But Cracow is
more important as a trading than as an industrial centre. Its position on the
Vistula and at the junction of several railways makes it the natural market for
the exchange of the products of Silesia, Hungary and Russian and Austrian
Poland. Its trade in timber, salt, textiles, cattle, wine and agricultural
produce of all kinds is very considerable. In the neighbourhood of Cracow there
are mines of coal and zinc, and not far away lies the village of Krzeszowice
with sulphur baths. About 21/2 m. N.W. lies the Kosciuszko Hill, a mound of
earth 100 ft. high, thrown up in 1820—1823 on the Borislava hill (1093 ft.), in
honour of Thaddaeus Kosciuszko, the hero of Poland. On the opposite bank of the
Vistula, united to Cracow by a bridge, lies the town of Podgorze (pop. 18,142);
near it is the Krakus Hill, smaller than the Kosciuszko Hill, and a thousand
years older than it, erected in honour of Krak, the founder of Cracow. About 8
m. S.E. of Cracow is situated Wieliczka, with its famous salt mines.
History: tradition
assigns the foundation of Cracow to the mythical Krak, a Polish prince who is
said to have built a stronghold here about A.D. 700. Its early history is,
however, entirely obscure. In the latter part of the 10th century it
was annexed to the Bohemian principality, but was recaptured by Boleslaus
Chrobry, who made it the seat of a bishopric, and it became the capital of one
of the most important of the principalities into which Poland was divided from
the 12th century onwards. The city was practically ruined during the
first Tatar invasion in 1241, but the introduction of German colonists restored
its prosperity, and in 1257 it received “Magdeburg rights,” i.e. a civic
constitution modelled on that of Magdeburg. In this year the Tuchhalle was
built. The town, however, had yet to pass through many vicissitudes. It suffered
again from Tatar invasions; in 1290 it was captured by Wenceslaus II. of Bohemia
and was held by the Bohemians until, in 1305, the Polish king. Ladislaus Lokietek recovered it from
Wenceslaus III. Ladislaus made it his capital, and from this time until 1764 it
remained the coronation and burial place of the Polish kings, even after the
royal residence had been removed by Siegmund III. (1587— 1632) to Warsaw. On the
third partition of Poland in 1795 Austria took possession of Cracow; but in 1809
Napoleon wrested it from that power, and incorporated it with the duchy of
Warsaw, which was placed under the rule of the king of Saxony. In the campaign
of 1812 the emperor Alexander made himself master of this and the other
territory which formed the duchy of Warsaw. At the general settlement of the
affairs of Europe by the great powers in 18I5, it was agreed that Cracow and the
adjoining territory should be formed into a free state; and, by the Final Act of
the congress signed at Vienna in 1815, the town of Cracow, with its territory,
is declared to be for ever a free, independent and “strictly neutral city, under
the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia.” In February 1846, however, an
insurrection broke out in Cracow, apparently a ramification of a widely spread
conspiracy throughout Poland. The senate and the other authorities of Cracow
were unable to subdue the rebels or to maintain order, and, at their request,
the city was occupied by a corps of Austrian troops for the protection of the
inhabitants. The three powers, Russia, Austria and Prussia, made this a pretext
for extinguishing this independent state; and as the outcome of a conference at
Vienna (November 1846) the three courts, contrary to the assurance previously
given, and in opposition to the expressed views of the British and French
governments, decided to extinguish the state of Cracow and to incorporate it
with the dominions of Austria.
Modern Times:
After the World War I Cracow became a part of the Republic of Poland till
September 1939 when Hitler’s Third Reich and Stalin’s Soviet Union invaded the
country and divided it between themselves. On the German-occupied territory the
Nazis created a protectorate with their governor-general’s residence in Crakow.
Fortunately, the historic city survived almost intact the Soviet offensive in
January 1945. Under the communists 1948-1989 the city (1994 est. pop. 751,500)
became an important river port and (notorious polluting) industrial center, it
has varied manufactures including metals, machinery, textiles, and chemicals.
One of East Europe’s largest iron and steel plants is near the city.
Jews: By the eve of the Second World War
Cracow was the home of 60.000 Jews. All but 2.000 of them survived the
Holocaust, whose epicentre of Auschwitz was only a few miles away. Situated in the South of the country,
Cracow was one of the most important medieval centres of Poland, including a
period as capital from 1320-1596. It was, therefore, also an influential centre
of Jewish life from the earliest time of Jewish settlement. From 1846-1918, the
city was part of Austrian-controlled Galicia and developed a thriving culture
and social life. Jews were given the right to reside anywhere in the city in
1867, although many still lived in the old Jewish district of Kazimierz. The
Jewish population grew and, by the eve of the Second World War, had risen to
60,000, roughly 25 per cent of the total population of the city. The Nazis
invaded Cracow on 6 September 1939 and it became the capital of the
Generalgouvernment. Cracow was, therefore, the centre from which all anti-Jewish
restrictions were issued. On 28 November, a Judenrat (Jewish Council) was
established with Dr Marek Biebestein as its chairman and Dr Willhelm Goldblatt
as his deputy. Both men were arrested in the summer of 1940 and replaced by Dr
Arthur Rosensweig. In December, as part of a series of terror operations, Jews
were expelled to surrounding towns, Jewish properties were raided and several
synagogues burnt down. The Cracow Ghetto was established on 3 March 1941 in an
area in the southern part of the city known as Podgorze. On 20 March it was
sealed off by a wall and barbed wire. The ghetto covered an area no more than
600 x 400 metres. The ghetto inhabitants were joined by thousands of other Jews
from neighbouring communities, creating major overcrowding with four to five
persons to a room and poor sanitary conditions. As in other ghettos, Jewish
self-help organisations were set up to alleviate the suffering of the Jews.
During this period, the Nazis set up factories to exploit the available Jews –
including some outside the ghetto where Jews were escorted to everyday,
returning in the evening. Prior to the major deportations of May 1942, the
Germans launched a terror campaign against the intelligentsia of the ghetto,
including 50 Jews who were sent to Auschwitz. Between 28 May and 8 June, 6,000
Jews were deported to the Belzec death camp. During this major “aktion,” the
Judenrat was disbanded and its functions taken over by the Kommissariat, a new
committee of Jews appointed by the Nazis. Arthur Rosensweig, the former head of
the Judenrat had refused to carry out the orders of the Nazis and was sent in
the early deportations. In mid-October the Germans ordered the Kommissariat to
compile a list of a further 4,000 names for deportation. When they refused, a
second “aktion” was carried out, including the hospital, the home for the aged
and orphanage. Seven thousand were deported to Belzec and Auschwitz and 600 shot
during the course of the rounding up. The remaining Jews were divided between
those who worked and those who did not. The former were sent, in March 1943, to
the Plaszow camp and the latter were deported and killed. Only a few of those
sent to Plaszow actually survived the war. Those who did included the “Schindler
Jews”, saved through the actions of the German industrialist, Oskar Schindler,
who was later awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” title by Yad Vashem, the
Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem. Throughout
the period of the ghetto, a Jewish underground existed in Krakow led by members
from the Akiva and Hashomer Hatzair youth movements. The main focus of their
work was educational and publishing a newspaper, HeChalutz HaLochem (The
Fighting Pioneer). In October 1942, the underground established
the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB, Jewish Fighting Organisation) independent
of the Warsaw ZOB, setting its goal as armed resistance against the Nazis.
However, the ZOB decided not to launch an armed uprising in the ghetto since
there was not sufficient room in the cramped area of the ghetto. Instead, they
launched raids against the Nazis in the Aryan side of the city, the most famous
being when 11 Nazi officers were killed by members of the ZOB in the Cyganeria
cafe in the centre of the city. Operations were also hampered by hostility from
the local Polish underground, which objected to the Jewish efforts. Units of the
Cracow ZOB left the city and crossed the border to Slovakia and then to Budapest
where they joined up with the underground members from the Hanoar Hatzioni youth
movement. There was also a branch of Zegota, the Polish underground committee,
established in Cracow to help Jews escape and survive. It was headed by an
activist from the Polish Socialist party, Stanislaw Dobrowolski. The Cracow
Zegota helped several hundreds of Jews escape. Only 2,000 Cracow Jews survived
the Holocaust. However, after the war, many Jews who had previously fled to the
Soviet Union settled in Cracow – boosting the Jewish community to 10,000
members. Later problems of the Jewish community in Poland resulted in the number
dropping steadily through the following decades.
NOVAK 17. PORTRAIT
OF ARTHUR NOVAK:
|
Arthur Novak. |
NOVAK 20. THÉÂTRE DU VAUDEVILLE:
Vaudeville is originally a light song, derived from the drinking and love
songs formerly attributed to Olivier Basselin and called
Vau ( or Vaux) de Vire. Vaudeville, like many forms of theatre,
dance, and music, had its origins in Europe, became
famous in Paris, but got
its highest triumphs in USA. Similar to the English music hall, American
vaudeville was a stage entertainment consisting of unrelated songs, dances,
acrobatic and magic acts, and humorous skits and sketches. From humble
origin in barrooms and “museums,” vaudeville came to be the attraction in
hundreds of theaters throughout the United States from 1881, when Tony
Pastor gave the first “big time” vaudeville show in New York City, until
1932, when its greatest center, the Palace Theatre, became a movie theater.
Such headliners as George M. Cohan, Harry Houdini, Eva Tanguay, W. C.
Fields, Fay Templeton, Will Rogers, Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante,
Irene Franklin, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen began their careers
by playing the circuits. There was an invigorating influx of performers from
England and France who were a major influence on the growing sophistication
and high quality of vaudeville. The popularity of radio and motion pictures
caused vaudeville’s decline, but television brought about a revival of
vaudeville revues. |
NOVAK 25. COCOTTE:
[The following essay is from
"Topographical Pleasures of
Paris: French National Identity according to La Vie Parisienne”, by
Elizabeth K. Menon, Assistant Professor, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN.]
The last quarter of the nineteenth century in France saw women
making significant progress in terms of personal freedoms. Women played a variety of roles within
an increasingly modern society.
No longer just wife and mother, women entered the public arena
through work, leisure activities including shopping and
participation in feminist organizations.
But in popular illustrated journals, male artists preferred to
reposition the visibility of contemporary women, by focusing on an
intriguing duality of the period—the visualization of vice and
virtue in a wide range of popular images. This interest lead to the investigation of a
variety of “types” of women, primarily based on their occupation,
including barmaids, dance hall performers, singers, delivery girls
and other professions that collectively provided a thinly disguised
network of unregulated prostitution. The prostitute became the
primary focus of male fantasies of female sexuality—fantasies that
were fueled by the ambiguous nature of the prostitute’s attraction.
She was a mixture of pleasure and danger, the “known” and the
“unknown.” In the 1880s, in the periodical La Vie Parisienne,
a series of fantastic topographical illustrations addressed the ambiguity of love in Paris
by literally mapping
the shifting territory of the prostitute. While some scholars have claimed La Vie Parisienne
was the "playboy of its day," it was in fact an elaborate
publication designed to “advertise” the pleasures of Paris to those in the
provinces and abroad.
Articles and illustrations were meant for both women and men. It is true, however, that the majority
of the illustrations focused upon women—their habits and their
fashions. A consideration of illustrations
ranging from the 1880s to the turn of the century demonstrate a
progressive change from a generalized notion of Paris as providing a
fantasy of love to very specific locations and types of women who
were available for a price. When the 1880 illustrations are compared
to later (more topographically accurate) illustrations, it becomes
clear that a movement was afoot examining specific geographical spaces and social
pleasures available to visitors to Paris in preparation for the
Exposition Universelle of 1900.
The December 10, 1881 article
initiating the series explained that the maps were meant as a tongue-in-cheek
guide for the inexperienced in love and proposed Paris to be a "new cythera."
Cythera was the island where Venus came to shore following her improbable birth. The island was envisioned by Watteau in
the 18th century as the scene for aristocratic erotic fantasies (`Embarkation
from Cythera`, Paris, Musée du Louvre).
The composition of the first map, envisioned as the sail of a boat
[figure 1, Nouvelle Geographie du Pays de Tendre (La Vie Parisienne, 1881)]
clearly references Watteau's rococo masterpiece and proposes that the upper-middle classes are
marking their power within society by writing themselves into a fantasy
previously intended only for those of court society. The first map gives a "birds-eye view"
of the entire "pays du tendre" (which resembles the country of France) and
successive maps give a closer look at the various distinct provinces. The first of these is The High-Life (next to the
"Virtue Mountains" and bordered by the abyss of Mariage on one side; the river "Tendre"
on the other). Second is the The
Theater, folowed by The "Haute-Bicherie" and the "Basse-Bicherie" The capital of the "City of Love" is
"new-Cythera," is situated precisely on the equator (and occupies roughly the
position of Paris). The accompanying article describes the capital as providing
the grace and charm of a civilization at its height, with a government modified
to a great degree by universal suffrage, since the "new cythera" is the only
city where women have been given the right to vote. Remember, however, that
women were not granted this right
until the 20th century—but in 1881 there was the repeal of a certain key
law instituted by the Jacobins which had forbade women to meet in groups of more
than three (supposedly permitting sewing groups but not subversive political
activity). Many artists reacted to the repeal of this law much like prophets of
doom, speculating that women would begin to run amok and that male livelihood
would be threatened, as would the power of France (through depopulation). A
watercolor by Henry Somm, titled “Droits de la Femme” [figure 2] illustrates
this position. The title is placed
inside a circle that suggests a full moon and a halo simultaneously, suggestive
of an “alternative religion” like witchcraft. The fashionable woman holds the
scales of justice in one hand, but this is not a representation of “blind”
justice. With her other hand she
uses a pistol to murder miniaturized men that fall in a crumpled heap near her
feet. Both the nearly-balanced
scales and the burning candles suggest the passing of judgment. The ground is littered with dead bodies.
One of the figures floating safely (for the moment) behind her back is dressed
as a minister, indicating the source of law changes.
Others artists located
feminine power in the sexuality of the prostitute—one reason that she became the
focus of so much literature and visual culture during this period. The artist of the map
illustrations in La Vie Parisienne (known only as Sahib) took a different
approach to the law by trivializing its effect. To underscore this point, the
primary industries of New Cythera include perfumeries, jewelers, flowers,
lingerie, pastry shops and
furniture stores (underscoring the "needs" of a domesticated woman). Offered to
the tourists are luxury hotels with exits on several streets (to facilitate
rendezvous and avoid jealous husbands).
A second map (Figure 3)
details the central area called "Le High Life" occupied by the
upper-middle classes. "New Cythera"
is located at the upper left and features no less than six "venuses." Amusements
such as horseback riding, ice skating, lawn tennis, and dinner in a cabaret are
positioned to the south of "grand
chic railway" line, while
participation in politics, the
academy and the "Island of the Bas-Bleus" is to the north—successfully
relegating them to the "fringe" in this map yet indicates that their higher class level and political focus.
"Feminist-movement” bashing was not uncommon during this period of increasing
visibility and agitation by women’s rights activists.
The politically motivated illustrator André Gill, for example, depicted
feminist writer Maria Deraismes as a crazed absinthe drinker on the cover of Les
Hommes d’aujourd’hui. [Les Hommes d’Aujourd’hui, no.
103, ca. 1881 (cover)].
Alfred Le Petit, who also was
best known for his political caricatures, showed feminist activist Hubertine
Auclert leading an assault on “the bastille of man’s rights” on the cover of Les
Contemporains. [Les Contemporains, no. 15,
1893 (cover). The caricature of
Hubertine Auclerc (sic) produced by Alfred le Petit (1841-1909) for Les
Contemporains suggests that women’s rights could only be obtained by
compromising male rights. This is
why Auclert is depicted on horseback leading a feminine assault upon the
“Bastille des droits de l’homme.”
The accompanying poem claims that it is the “bearded sex” who drafted the
“rights of man” and Hubertine, who possesses breasts might make claims to equal
rights, but in the end “..les droits les plus sûrs sont les droits du plus
fort”—meaning that while she might in theory have an argument, it is in no way
as “solid” as the bastille erected by men.] While feminist agitators
supported the notion of the family and decried prostitution, sex-workers were
nevertheless viewed as more “liberated” and therefore suspect—even dangerous—to
the patriarchal French nineteenth-century society. Prostitutes were feared for the diseases
many of them carried, but also for the power they appeared to wield over their
clients. Unlike the images of
specific women’s rights agitators, the effect of increasing freedoms for the
“average” or in our case “mythical” varieties of prostitutes played on a set of ambiguities inherent
to her position within society, midway between fantasy and reality. A series of islands located on the high
life map compare virtuous and non-virtuous love: isle des soupers, ile des
rendezvous vs. isle des maris, gouffre du mariage (abyss) and the rochers de la
vertue. (rocks). The third map (figure 4) describes the Theater Province which can
be accessed by the same "Grand Chic" railway running along the outskirts and the fourth, which stretches from the
Theater province to the "Haute Bicherie" (indicating overlap between the two)
situates various levels of prostitution. The liaison between the theater
district and haute bicherie confirms that many women from the theater and ballet
arrived at prostitution through their theatrical professions. The map shows that there are many
ways to arrive at the "little hotel" -- a game of baccarat, the circus, etc. From the Bal de l' Opera
one can arrive at the "ile des soupers" This latter island contains
symbols which provide a key to the importance of this particular map and makes
the connection with prostitution clear.
This folded piece of paper which was meant to resemble a chicken, is a
symbol for a fictional woman (but based in reality) known as a "cocotte".
Originally a children's toy, the paper cocotte had its origin in Spain
(where it was called a pajarita), not in Japan.
Japanese origami techniques, although known in France, were difficult for
children to master. Through a complicated punning relationship
dependent on the French use of double and triple entendres, the "cocotte"
was determined to be a toy, disposable, a "chick" and easy prey for the French
male on the make. Yet she was
different things to different artists and literati who utilized her as a type.
To some she was literally a prostitute, to others she was a naive girl who too
quickly succumbed to masculine advances, and to others still she was cold,
calculating and downright dangerous. The cocotte was part of a
system used by artists and advertisers which divided images of women into "good"
or "bad" through the use of gender stereotypes.
Victor Jozé, writer for La Plume, defined the separate spheres that men and
women should inhabit. Man's world
was the public, physical place of activity; woman's the private, emotional seat
of maternity. Any migration
of the female away from that emotional world, Jozé believed, would result in the
inversion of "natural order" and create a dangerous social condition. Called the femme nouvelle by art critics
Camille Mauclair and Marius-Ary Leblond, the characteristics of the potentially
dangerous woman were three: she was independent, critical and mobile. The "cocotte," a feminine type
made of part fantasy and part reality, not only provided a challenge to
patriarchal order but also posed a threat to the very masculinity of the male
population in France during the latter nineteenth century. A journal illustration by
Henri Gray titled "La Cocotte" (and subtitled Un
joujoux dangereux) [Figure 5], shows the dual nature of this icon. Here a woman "wears" the folded paper
symbol as a dress, but her monocle identifies her as sympathetic with the
feminist movement. Her male
customers are represented by winged hearts with top hats, who have been
delivering bags of money. Their
payment has not kept them from harm, however, as one of the flying hearts lays
dead from a gunshot wound at the woman's feet. Developed first in the media of popular
art, literature and theater, the "cocotte" as feminine type evolved from
a benign "easy woman" to a decadent and dangerous sister of the imaginary "evil
woman" called the femme-fatale, as shown in Gray's version. Significantly both the "cocotte"
and the "femme-fatale" originate in popular culture sources of the 1860's and
are gradually transformed during the period of the French Third Republic into
sinister visions of femininity. The
visualization of feminine evil was part and parcel of a much larger cultural
context which included a mass-produced consumer culture, a burgeoning high-fashion industry and
changes in the private and public relationships between the sexes. Through the examination of this larger
context that the "cocotte" can come to be understood as a volatile
mixture of fashion and the feminine body,
embodying both an advertisement of sensuality and a warning against
indulgence in physical pleasure.
Perhaps most of all, the figure serves as a visual manifestation of
conflicting masculine impulses towards women in general and the then burgeoning
women's rights movement in particular. This information provides an
important context for the inclusion of the symbol prominently in Sahib's third
map. The "Basse Bicherie" (the fourth map in the series, Figure 6)
describes an altogether different (e.g. lower) level of prostitution, complete with the
absinthe river, the cancan and "Lapinville"--all identified with lower-class
activities. The grand chic railway does
not run through this section of the map.
Here are located various brasseries and the most popular hair colour among
cabaret performers (chignons rouges) is identified. We can compare the collective
information in the maps of the "pays tendre" with other illustrations published
in La Vie Parisienne which sought to literally locate various types of
prostitution within society.
Ferdinand Bac, in his Femmes Automatiques
[figure 7] for La Vie Parisienne (1892) suggests a museum setting where
customers can animate various women by introducing a coin. The subtitle reads “you get what you pay
for.” Included are a dancer
(similar to those often seen in Degas’ works), a chamber maid, a famous actress
and a barmaid reflected in a mirror as she is approached by a customer. This illustration makes clear that these
women each had dual roles, that of a sex worker masked with a so-called
“legitimate” profession. The
“level” upon which they existed was based partially upon their social class and
the perceived rarity of that second profession (the famous actress “costs” much
more than the barmaid, who can be had for a package of cigarettes, so we are
informed by the caption). Also featured
in Bac’s image is a dancer from the Moulin Rouge. The specific costumes of the men shown
approaching the women indicate that the “consumption” of these various feminine
types (visually as well as literally) was accomplished primarily by members of the bourgeoisie and
members of the military—which makes sense given the way that varying income
levels fostered the stratification of prostitution in Paris. The artist Gerbault suggested
that it was possible to gauge the level of virtue vs. vice in a woman by how she lifted her skirt
[Figure 8], in an image published in Vie Parisienne
in 1897. Positioned from “high” to “low” (left to right), the women are
also suggestive of different areas of Paris. The “trottin” is positioned in the
middle, indicative of her special attraction—men did not know how “experienced”
she was, and their excitement was stimulated by a belief that they would be her
first. Gerbault also includes the
dancer of the chahut and the lowest form of streetwalker who raises her skirt
only slightly and glares at the customer. The dancer is identified in the text
as from the Moulin Rouge. Her
contorted, erotic movements produced during the dance are equated with more
specialized sexual pleasures that can be obtained later in the evening.
Collectively the image shows the continued downward spiral of women caught in
the cycle of prostitution.
An artist
by the name of Job, also working for La Vie Parisienne, went even further with a
series called “Pronostics et Resultats” (1893). To him, the easiest way to see what you might
get was to show the women with and without clothes. In this estimation, the Trottin fares
quite well (as a well-kept secret ripe for exploration) and the bar maid is
determined to yield an ugly truth once the corseted costume is removed. A map
reproduced in La Vie Parisienne in 1897
(Figure 9) demonstrates how some of these activities came to dominate the
very heart of Paris. They did so
through a proliferation of brasseries, where drink and sex could be accessed
through the bar maids who worked there.
Highlighted are the very real raillines (as compared to the fantasy train
in the earlier maps) destined to bring visitors into the capital, and the
numerous brasseries which sprung up to take advantage of the vast numbers of
revelers. In fact this map
proposes that all of the major monuments of Paris including the Arc du Triomphe,
Louvre and Stock Market have been transformed into brasseries). Also identified are entertainments
provided by theaters and the region of Montmartre -- the text claims that the
"legitimate" theater has essentially been abandoned for the red-light pleasures
of Montmartre… just as the "legitimate" monuments of Paris have been compromised
by the brasseries and consumption of liquor. The association of women with alcohol
was similarly taken up in images found in the popular press. Henri Gray in his image “Bock Nature”
for the periodical Le Boulevardier (1882) [Figure 10] makes a connection made between the
availability of liquor, cigarettes and sex. Gray’s caption reads “Boum Voila! serve
hot,” explaining in an instant the
significance of Edouard Manet's similarly structured `Bar at the Folies Bergere` (1882).
The attention paid in the map to the area of Montmartre (the
identification of the Moulin Rouge, the Chat Noir and Aristide Bruant)
demonstrate how it had become of capital of pleasure and vice (or, in the
language of the earlier maps, a New Cythera which one voyaged to from the center
of Paris). On the outskirts
of Paris, and not subjected to strict regulation of sex or alcohol, Montmartre,
first the bastion of the workers, eventually became a destination for the middle
classes looking for excitement tinged with a sense of danger. This places Montmartre at the crux of
changing value systems that would have a lasting impact on future generations in
France and elsewhere, as idea of classes being relegated to strictly-defined
spheres of existence gave way. The
maps published in La Vie Parisienne provide a visual key to popular imagery,
satire and new ways of seeing Paris in the years leading up to the 1900
Universal Exposition. La Vie
Parisienne promotes — both in the maps and in other related images — a fantastic
vision of French nationalism — an
identity intertwined with the pleasures of drink and prostitution which
flourished in the latter years of the 19th- century.
Through all ages man
suppressed woman. The macho-man thinks women are inferior and worth no
more then a dog. In the 19th century Europe, still dominated by the church,
refused women the life they liked. So no education and human rights for women.
If a woman lost her job, or unmarried got a child, she mostly had only one
way to survive: to sell her body and soul. Around 1900 Paris the rate of
unemployment was very high, and especially for women it was hard to find a
normal job. Without protection of the family and out of work they
were only a toy for men. The quote 'Paris, a city of joy' was a lie; for
most people, and especially for women, it was just a city of misery.
The next story by
De Maupassant illustrates very well how horrible and selfish men
can treat women; it is about a dog, but read for dog 'woman'.
Mademoiselle
Cocotte`, a moving story by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893, French novelist
and poet):
We were just leaving the
asylum when I saw a tall, thin man in a corner of the court who kept on calling
an imaginary dog. He was crying in a soft, tender voice: "Cocotte! Come here,
Cocotte, my beauty!" and slapping his thigh as one does when calling an animal.
I asked the physician, "Who is that man?" He answered: "Oh! he is not at all
interesting. He is a coachman named Francois, who became insane after drowning
his dog."
I insisted: "Tell me his story. The most simple and humble things
are sometimes those which touch our hearts most deeply."
Here is this man's
adventure, which was obtained from a friend of his, a groom:
There was a
family of rich bourgeois who lived in a suburb of Paris. They had a villa in the
middle of a park, at the edge of the Seine. Their coachman was this Francois, a
country fellow, somewhat dull, kind- hearted, simple and easy to deceive.
One
evening, as he was returning home, a dog began to follow him. At first he paid
no attention to it, but the creature's obstinacy at last made him turn round. He
looked to see if he knew this dog. No, he had never seen it. It was a female dog
and frightfully thin. She was trotting behind him with a mournful and famished
look, her tail between her legs, her ears flattened against her head and
stopping and starting whenever he did.
He tried to chase this skeleton away
and cried:
"Run along! Get out! Kss! kss!" She retreated a few steps, then
sat down and waited. And when the coachman started to walk again she followed
along behind him.
He pretended to pick up some stones. The animal ran a
little farther away, but came back again as soon as the man's back was turned. Then the
coachman Francois took pity on the beast and called her. The dog approached
timidly. The man patted her protruding ribs, moved by the beast's misery, and he
cried: "Come! come here!" Immediately she began to wag her tail, and, feeling
herself taken in, adopted, she began to run along ahead of her new master.
He
made her a bed on the straw in the stable, then he ran to the kitchen for some
bread. When she had eaten all she could she curled up and went to sleep.
When his employers heard of this the next day they allowed the
coachman to keep the animal. It was a good beast, caressing and faithful,
intelligent and gentle.
Nevertheless Francois adored Cocotte, and he kept
repeating: "That beast is human. She only lacks speech."
He had a magnificent
red leather collar made for her which bore these words engraved on a copper
plate: "Mademoiselle Cocotte, belonging to the coachman Francois."
She was
remarkably prolific and four times a year would give birth to a batch of little
animals belonging to every variety of the canine race. Francois would pick out
one which he would leave her and then he would unmercifully throw the others
into the river. But soon the cook joined her complaints to those of the
gardener. She would find dogs under the stove, in the ice box, in the coal bin,
and they would steal everything they came across.
Finally the master, tired
of complaints, impatiently ordered Francois to get rid of Cocotte. In despair
the man tried to give her away. Nobody wanted her. Then he decided to lose her,
and he gave her to a teamster, who was to drop her on the other side of Paris,
near Joinville-le-Pont. Cocotte returned the same day. Some decision
had to be taken. Five francs was given to a train conductor to take her to
Havre. He was to drop her there.
Three days later she returned to the stable,
thin, footsore and tired out.
The master took pity on her and let her stay.
But other dogs were attracted as before, and one evening, when a big dinner
party was on, a stuffed turkey was carried away by one of them right under the
cook's nose, and she did not dare to stop him.
This time the master
completely lost his temper and said angrily to Francois: "If you don't throw
this beast into the water before to-morrow morning, I'll put you out, do you
hear?"
The man was dumbfounded, and he returned to his room to pack his
trunk, preferring to leave the place. Then he bethought himself that he could
find no other situation as long as he dragged this animal about with him. He
thought of his good position, where he was well paid and well fed, and he
decided that a dog was really not worth all that. At last he decided to rid
himself of Cocotte at daybreak.
He slept badly. He rose at dawn, and taking a
strong rope, went to get the dog. She stood up slowly, shook herself, stretched
and came to welcome her master.
Then his courage forsook him, and he began to
pet her affectionately, stroking her long ears, kissing her muzzle and calling
her tender names. But a neighboring clock struck six. He could no
longer hesitate. He opened the door, calling: "Come!" The beast wagged her tail,
understanding that she was to be taken out.
They reached the beach, and he
chose a place where the water seemed deep. Then he knotted the rope round the
leather collar and tied a heavy stone to the other end. He seized Cocotte in his
arms and kissed her madly, as though he were taking leave of some human being.
He held her to his breast, rocked her and called her "my dear little Cocotte, my
sweet little Cocotte," and she grunted with pleasure.
Ten times he tried to
throw her into the water and each time he lost courage.
But suddenly he made
up his mind and threw her as far from him as he could. At first she tried to
swim, as she did when he gave her a bath, but her head, dragged down by the
stone, kept going under, and she looked at her master with wild, human glances
as she struggled like a drowning person. Then the front part of her body sank,
while her hind legs waved wildly out of the water. Finally those also
disappeared. Then, for five minutes, bubbles rose to the surface as though the
river were boiling, and Francois, haggard, his heart beating, thought that he
saw Cocotte struggling in the mud, and, with the simplicity of a peasant, he
kept saying to himself: "What does the poor beast think of me now?"
He almost
lost his mind. He was ill for a month and every night he dreamed of his dog. He
could feel her licking his hands and hear her barking. It was necessary to call
in a physician. At last he recovered, and toward the 2nd of June his employers
took him to their estate at Biesard, near Rouen.
There again he was near the
Seine. He began to take baths. Each morning he would go down with the groom and
they would swim across the river.
One day, as they were disporting themselves
in the water, Francois suddenly cried to his companion: "Look what's coming! I'm
going to give you a chop!"
It was an enormous, swollen corpse that was
floating down with its feet sticking straight up in the air.
Francois swam up
to it, still joking: "Whew! it's not fresh. What a catch, old man! It isn't
thin, either!" He kept swimming about at a distance from the animal that was in
a state of decomposition. Then, suddenly, he was silent and looked at it:
attentively. This time he came near enough to touch, it. He looked fixedly at
the collar, then he stretched out his arm, seized the neck, swung the corpse
round and drew it up close to him and read on the copper which had turned green
and which still stuck to the discolored leather: "Mademoiselle Cocotte,
belonging to the coachman Francois.
The dead dog had come more than a hundred
miles to find its master.
He let out a
frightful shriek and began to swim for the beach with all his might, still
howling; and as soon as he touched land he ran away wildly, stark naked, through
the country. He was insane"!
NOVAK 26. PORTRAIT
OF GAUTRON DU COUDRAY: (Victor)
Gautron du Coudray (Nevres/France 1868-1958). Poet, historian,
painter and geologist.
NOVAK 27. PORTRAIT OF
OTOKAR SPANIEL:
 |
Otokar Spaniel. |
NOVAK 29. STREET IN LONDON:
London, capital of Great Britain, SE England, on both sides of the Thames
River. Greater London (1991 pop. 6,378,600), c.620 sq mi (1,610 sq km), consists
of the Corporation of the City of London (1991 pop. 4,000), usually called the
City, plus 32 boroughs. The City is the old city of London and is the modern
city's commercial centre; it is also referred to as the "Square Mile" because of
its area. London is one of the world's foremost financial, commercial,
industrial, and cultural centres. The Bank of England, Lloyd's, the stock
exchange, and numerous other banks and investment companies have their
headquarters there, primarily in the City, but increasingly at Canary Wharf. The
financial services sector is a major source of overall employment in London.
London still remains one of the world's greatest ports.
The best-known
streets of London are Fleet Street, the Strand, Piccadilly, Whitehall, Pall Mall,
Downing Street, and Lombard Street. Bond and Regent streets and Covent Garden
are noted for their shops. Buckingham Palace is the royal family's London
residence. Municipal parks include Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park
(which houses the London Zoo), and St. James's and Green parks. Museums include
the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery, the
Tate Gallery, and the Wallace Collection. London also has numerous art galleries
and plays a major role in the international art market. The British Library, one
of the world's great reference resources, is located there. The city is rich in
other artistic and cultural activities.
History: Little is known of
London prior to A.D. 61, when, according to the Roman historian Tacitus, the
followers of Queen Boadicea rebelled and slaughtered the inhabitants of the
Roman fort Londinium. Roman authority was soon restored, and the first city
walls were built, remnants of which still exist. After the final withdrawal of
the Roman legions in the 5th cent., London was lost in obscurity. Celts, Saxons,
and Danes contested the general area, and it was not until 886 that London again
emerged as an important town under the firm control of King Alfred, who rebuilt
the defences against the Danes and gave the city a government.
London put up
some resistance to William I in 1066, but he subsequently treated the city well.
During his reign the White Tower, the nucleus of the Tower of London, was built
just east of the city wall. Under the Normans and Plantagenet's (see Great
Britain), the city grew commercially and politically and during the reign of
Richard I (1189-99) obtained a form of municipal government from which the
modern City Corporation developed. In 1215, King John granted the city the right
to elect a mayor annually.
The guilds of the Middle Ages gained control of
civic affairs and grew sufficiently strong to restrict trade to freemen of
the city. The guilds survive today in 80 livery companies, of which members
were once the voters in London's municipal elections.
Medieval London saw the foundation of the Inns of Court and the construction of Westminster
Abbey.
By the 14th cent. London had become the political capital of
England. It played no active role in the Wars of the Roses (15th cent.). The
reign of Elizabeth I brought London to a level of great wealth, power, and
influence as the undisputed centre of England's Renaissance culture. This
was the time of Shakespeare (and the Globe Theatre) and the beginnings of
overseas trading companies such as the Muscovy Company. With the advent
(1603) of the Stuarts to the throne, the city became involved in struggles
with the crown on behalf of its democratic privileges, culminating in the
English civil war.
In 1665, the great plague took some 75,000 lives. A
great fire in Sept., 1666, lasted five days and virtually destroyed the
city. Sir Christopher Wren played a large role in rebuilding the city. He
designed more than 51 churches, notably the rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral.
Other notable churches include the gothic Southwark Cathedral, St. Paul's
Church (1633; designed by Inigo Jones), St. Martin-in-the-Fields (18th
cent.), and Westminster Cathedral.
Much of the business of London as
well as literary and political discussion was transacted in coffeehouses,
forerunners of the modern club.
Until 1750, when Westminster Bridge was
opened, London Bridge, first built in the 10th cent., was the only bridge to
span the Thames. Since the 18th cent., several other bridges have been
constructed; the Tower Bridge was completed in 1894.
|
In the 19th cent., London began a period of
extraordinary growth. The area of present-day Greater London had
about 1.1 million people in 1801; by 1851, the population had
increased to 2.7 million, and by 1901 to 6.6 million. During the
Victorian era, London acquired tremendous prestige as the capital of
the British Empire and as a cultural and intellectual centre.
Britain's free political institutions and intellectual atmosphere
made London a haven for persons unsafe in their own countries. The
Italian Giuseppe Mazzini, the Russian Aleksander Herzen, and the
German Karl Marx were among many politically controversial figures
who lived for long periods in London.
Many buildings of central
London were destroyed or damaged in air raids during World War II.
These include the Guildhall (scene of the lord mayor's banquets and
other public functions); No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's
residence; the Inns of Court; Westminster Hall and the Houses of
Parliament; St. George's Cathedral; and many of the great halls of
the ancient livery companies. Today there are numerous blocks of new
office buildings and districts of apartment dwellings constructed by
government authorities. The growth of London in the 20th cent. has
been extensively planned.
NOVAK 31. IN KRAKOW: See note Novak 16.
NOVAK 35. OXFORD
CIRCUS: : Oxford Street, including
New Oxford Street, in London (See note Novak 29) is over a mile and a half
long, and, with Holborn, forms the main channel of intercourse between the West
End and the City proper between the fashionable residential quarter and the
counting-house of London's vast city. Oxford Street follows the path of an old
Roman road that was quite literally the road to Oxford. It was named officially
in 1720. By 1738 Oxford Street was a thriving and internationally famous
shopping street. Its popularity grew even further with the arrival of horse
buses in 1833 and the Central Line Tube in 1900.The central point of Oxford
Street is Regent (or Oxford) Circus - not far from the top of Regent
Street where the line of east and west communication crosses one of the lines
which connect the north and south. Finally, Oxford Street ends at the Marble
Arch, Hyde Park, and continues on by the Bayswater Road into the West Country,
this being the old coach route to the district now served from Paddington by the
Great Western Railway. George IV's favorite designer, John Nash designed the
broad avenues of Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Carlton House Terrace, and
Oxford Circus, as well as the ongoing creation of Buckingham transformation of
Buckingham House into a palace worthy of a monarch.
NOVAK 36. AT THE WHISTLER EXHIBITION:
Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903). American-born painter and
graphic artist, active mainly in England. James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born
on 10th of July 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the third son of West Point
graduate and civil engineer Major George Washington Whistler, and his second
wife Anna Matilda McNeill. After brief stays in Stonington, Connecticut, and
Springfield, Massachusetts, the Whistlers moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where
the Major served as an civil engineer for the construction of a railroad line to
Moscow. James Abbott was aged nine when his family moved to Russia, and he spent
several of his childhood years there, studying drawing at the Imperial Academy
of Science. He soon became an inveterate traveler. In 1848 he went to live with
his sister and her husband in London, and after his father's death the following
year the family returned to the United States and settled in Pomfret,
Connecticut. Whistler enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West
Point in 1851, where he excelled in Robert W. Weir's drawing class. He was
dismissed from the academy in 1854 for "deficiency in chemistry", and after
brief periods working for the Winans Locomotive Works in Baltimore, and the
drawings division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (he learnt
etching as a US navy cartographer), resolved to become an artist and moved to
Europe permanently in 1855. Whistler settled in Paris first, where he studied at
the Ecole Impériale et Spéciale de Dessin, before entering the Académie Gleyre.
He made copies in the Louvre, acquired a lasting admiration for Velázquez, and
became a devotee of the cult of the Japanese print and oriental art and
decoration in general. Through his friend Fantin-Latour he met Courbet, whose
Realism inspired much of his early work. The circles in which he moved can be
gauged from Fantin-Latour's Homage to Delacroix, in which Whistler is portrayed
alongside Baudelaire, Manet, and others. He quickly associated himself with
avant-garde artists, and was influenced by Courbet's realism, as well as the
seventeenth century Dutch and Spanish schools. With Henri Fantin-Latour and
Alphonse Legros, he founded the Société des Trois. After Whistler's At The Piano
(Taft Museum, Cincinnati) was rejected at the Salon of 1859 he moved to London,
but often returned to France. At the Piano was well received at the Royal
Academy exhibition in 1860 and he soon made a name for himself, not just because
of his talent, but also on account of his flamboyant personality. He was famous
for his wit and dandyism, and loved controversy. His life-style was lavish and
he was often in debt. He began work on a series of etchings. There Whistler was
influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, and he befriended Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Oscar Wilde was also among his famous friends. Whistler greatly admired Dutch
masters such as Jan Steen, Rembrandt and Ruysdael. In 1858 he visited Holland to
view the Nightwatch. Indeed, he became a frequent traveler to the Netherlands,
visiting The Hague, Dordrecht and Domburg and producing numerous etchings of one
of his favorite cities: Amsterdam. He achieved international notoriety when
Symphony No. 1, The White Girl was rejected at both the Royal Academy and the
Salon, but was a major attraction at the famous Salon des Refusés in 1863.
Thereafter Courbet's influence waned, and Orientalism and to a lesser extent
classicism--became increasingly pronounced elements in his work. Whistler
maintained close ties with France during the London years, and painted at
Trouville with Courbet, Daubigny, and Monet in 1865. In 1866 he went to South
America, where he painted seascapes in Valparaiso, Chile. After returning to
Europe he commenced work on a series of monumental figure compositions for
called the Six Projects (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), that reflect
the influence of the English artist Albert Moore. In 1869 Whistler began to sign
his paintings with a butterfly monogram composed of his initials. In 1872 he
painted his well-known Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the
Artist's Mother, that was later acquired by the French government. During the
early 1870s he painted his famous "Nocturne" series, views of the Thames.
Whistler's art is in many respects the opposite to his often aggressive
personality, being discreet and subtle, but the creed that lay behind it was
radical. He believed that painting should exist for its own sake, not to convey
literary or moral ideas, and he often gave his pictures musical titles to
suggest an analogy with the abstract art of music: `Art should be independent of
all claptrap-- should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or
ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion,
pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it,
and that is why I insist on calling my works "arrangements" and "harmonies".' He
was a laborious and self-critical worker, but this is belied by the flawless
harmonies of tone and colour he created in his paintings, which are mainly
portraits and landscapes, particularly scenes of the Thames. No less original
was his work as a decorative artist, notably in the Peacock Room (1876-77) for
the London home of the Liverpool shipping magnate Frederick Leyland (now
reconstructed in the Freer Gallery, Washington), where attenuated decorative
patterning anticipated much in the Art Nouveau style of the 1890s. Whistler's
Peacock Room, or Harmony in Blue and Gold (1876-1877, Freer Gallery of Art),
done for Leyland, exerted a strong influence on the Aesthetic movement's
interior design. In 1877 the critic John Ruskin denounced Whistler's Nocturne in
Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875; Detroit Institute of Arts), accusing
him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face", and Whistler sued him for
libel the following year. He won the action, but the awarding of only a
farthing's damages with no costs was in effect a justification for Ruskin.
Potential patrons were repelled by the negative publicity surrounding the case,
and the expense of the trial led to Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879. His house was
sold and he proceeded to Italy with a commission from the Fine Arts Society to
make twelve etchings of Venice. He spent a year in Venice (1879-80),
concentrating on the etchings-- among the masterpieces of 19th-century graphic
art-- that helped to restore his fortunes when he returned to London. His
eccentricity of pose and dress, combined with his artistic arrogance, sharp
tongue, and bitter humour, made him one of the most talked-about men in London,
and his motes were quoted everywhere. He followed up his quarrel with Ruskin by
publishing a satirical pamphlet. Whistler v. Ruskin: Art v. Art Critics. In 1885
he gave his Ten o'clock Lecture in London, afterwards embodied in The Gentle Art
of Making Enemies (1890). The substance of this flippantly written and amusing
outburst was an insistence on the liberty of the artist to do what was right in
his artistic eyes, and the inability of the public or the critics to have any
ideas about art worth considering at all. In 1895 another quarrel, with Sir
William Eden, whose wife's portrait Whistler had painted, but refused to hand
over, came into the courts in Paris; and Whistler, though allowed to keep his
picture, was condemned in damages. After returning to England in 1880 he painted
a wide variety of subjects, continued with his interest in the graphic arts, and
promulgated his aesthetic theories in print and in the Ten O'Clock lecture
(1885); his polemical The Gentle Art of Making Enemies was published in 1890. In
1886 he was elected president of the Society of British Artists, but despite
some successes his revolutionary ideas ran afoul of the conservative members,
and he was voted out of office within two years. During the late 1880s and 1890s
Whistler achieved recognition as an artist of international stature. His
paintings were acquired by public collections, he received awards at
exhibitions, and he was elected to such prestigious professional associations as
the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. His portrait of Thomas Carlyle was
bought by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1891 for 1,000 guineas and soon
afterwards his most famous work, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the
Painter's Mother (1871), was bought by the French state (it is now in the Musée
d'Orsay, Paris) and he was made a member of the Légion d'Honneur. In 1898 he was
elected president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and
Gravers. He made a happy marriage in 1888 to Beatrix Godwin, widow of the
architect E.W. Godwin, with whom Whistler had collaborated, but she died only
eight years later. He withdrew from an active social life around the time his
wife Beatrice Godwin died of cancer in 1896. In 1903, the year of his death, a
memorial exhibition was held in Boston; the following year similar
retrospectives were held by the International Society in London, and the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In later years he lived mainly in Paris, but he
returned to London in 1902; he died on the 17th of July 1903 at 74 Cheyne Walk,
Chelsea. Whistler's paintings are related to Impressionism (although he was more
interested in evoking a mood than in accurately depicting the effects of light),
to Symbolism, and to Aestheticism, and he played a central role in the modern
movement in England. His aesthetic creed was explained in his Ten O'clock
Lecture (1885) and this, and much else on art and society, was republished in
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890). His first etchings, those known as "
The French Set," were the means of bringing him under the notice of certain
people interested in art, but the circulation of these first, like that of his
later etchings, has always, of necessity, been more limited than their fame. The
impressions from each plate are generally few. It was still in etching that
Whistler continued his labors, and, coming to London in 1850, it appears, he
almost at once addressed himself to the chronicle of the quaint riverside
buildings and the craft of the great stream-the "Thames below Bridge." The "
French Set" had included De Hooch-like or Nicholas Maes-like genre pieces, such
as " La Vieille aux loques," the " Marchande de moutarde," and " The Kitchen,"
this last incomparably improved and perfected by the retouching that was
accomplished a quarter of a century after the first performance. The Thames
series of sixteen etchings, wrought chiefly in 1859, disclosed a new vision of
the river, in which there was expressed, with perfect draughtsman ship, with a
hitherto unparalleled command of vivacious line, the form of barge and clipper,
of warehouse, wharf and waterside tavern. " The Pool," " Thames Police " and "
Black Lion Wharf " are perhaps the finest of this series. Before it was begun,
Whistler, ere he left Paris, had proceeded far with a plate, existing only in
the state of trial proof, and, in that, of extreme rarity. It is called " Paris,
lie de la Cite," and has distinct and curious manifestations of a style to be
more generally adopted at a later period. For several years after the completion
of the " Sixteen Etchings," Whistler etched comparatively little; but about 1870
we find him entering what has been described as his " Leyland period," on
account of his connexion with the wealthy ship-owner and art patron, Mr Frederick
R. Leyland, of Prince's Gate, whose house became famous for Whistler's Peacock
Room, painted in 1877. In that period he worked greatly in dry-point. The "
Model Resting," one of the most graceful of his figure pieces, and " Fanny
Leyland "-an exquisite instance of girl portraiture-are notable performances of
this time. To it also belong the largely conceived dry-points, so economical of
means and endowed with so singular a unity of effect, the "London Bridge " and "
Price's Candle-works." A little later came the splendid visions of the then
disappearing wooden bridges of Battersea and Putney, and the plate " The Adam
and Eve," which records the river-front of old Chelsea. This, however, is only
seen in perfection in the most rare proofs taken before the publication by the
firm of Hogarth. From these plates we pass almost imperceptibly to the period of
the Venetian etchings, for in 1879, at the instance of the Fine Art Society,
Whistler made a sojourn in Venice, and here he wrought, or, to speak accurately,
commenced, not only the set of prints known as the " Venice Set," but also the "
Twenty-six Etchings "-likewise chiefly, though not wholly, of Venice-issued
later by the firm of Dowdeswell. One or two of the minor English subjects of the
" Twenty-six Etchings "-those done after the artist's return from Venice-give
indications of the phase reached more clearly in certain little prints executed
a few years later, and, with perhaps one exception, never formally published. "
Fruit Shop," " Old Clothes Shop," and " Fish Shop, busy Chelsea," belong to this
time. Later, and bent upon doing justice to quite different themes, which demand
different methods, the ever flexible artist again changes his way, and-not to
speak of the dainty little records of the places about the Loire, which in
method have affinity with the pieces last named-we have " Steps, Amsterdam," "
Nocturne", "Dance House," with its magical suggestion of movement and light, and
the admirable landscape "Zaandam." With the mention of these things may fitly
close a sketch of Whistler's periods in etching; but before proceeding to other
branches of his work, the main characteristics of the whole series of etchings
(of which, in Wedmore's Whistler's Etchings, nearly 300 examples are described)
should be briefly indicated. These main characteristics are precision and
vivacity; freedom, flexibility, infinite technical resource, at the service
always of the most alert and comprehensive observation; an eye that no picturesqueness of light and shade, no interesting grouping of line, can ever
escape-an eye that is emancipated from conventionality, and sees these things
therefore with equal willingness in a cathedral and a mass of scaffolding, in a
Chelsea shop and in a suave nude figure, in the facade of a Flemish palace and
in a " great wheel " at West Kensington. Mr. Whistler's pictures have as a chief
source of their attractiveness those mental qualities of alertness and
emancipation. Charm of colour and of handling enhance the hold which they obtain
upon such people of taste as may be ready to receive them. There are but very
few of them, however, at least very few oil pictures, when one considers the
number of years since the artist began to labor; and one notable fact must be
at once understood-the admitted masterpieces in painting belong almost entirely
to the earlier time. " Sarasate " is an exception, and " Lady Archibald
Campbell," and in its smaller, but still charming, way " The Little Rose of Lyme
Regis "; but even these-save the " Little Rose "-are of 1885 or thereabouts. A
few years earlier than they are the " Connie Gilchrist," the " Miss Alexander,"
and the " Rosa Corder," and the Thames " Nocturnes "; but we go farther back to
reach the " Portrait of the Painter's Mother," which is now in the Luxembourg;
the " Portrait of Carlyle," now at Glasgow; the " Cremorne Gardens," the "
Nocturne, Valparaiso Harbour," the " Music Room," with little Miss Annie Haden
standing by the piano while her mother plays, and the " White Girl," or " Little
White Girl," in which Whistler shows the influence, but never the domination, of
the Japanese. Of the slight but always exquisitely harmonious studies in water
color, undertaken by Whistler in his middle period, none call for special
notice. To the middle time, too, belong, not perhaps all of his slight but
delicately modeled pastels of the figure, but at least his more universally
accepted pastels of Venetian scenes, in which he caught the sleepy beauty of the
Venetian by-way. In pastel, as in painting, in water color and in etching,
Whistler has never been unmindful of the particular qualities of the medium in
which he has worked, nor of the applicability of a given medium to a given
subject. The result, accordingly, is not now a victory and now a failure, now a
" hit " and now a " miss," but rather a succession of triumphs great and small.
One other medium taken up by Whistler must now be mentioned. His lithographs-his
drawings on the stone in many instances, and in others his drawings on that "
lithographic paper " which with some people is the easy substitute for the stone
to-day-are perhaps half as numerous as his etchings. Mr. T. R. Way has catalogued
about a hundred. Some of the lithographs are of figures slightly draped; two or
three of the very finest are of Thames subjects-including a " nocturne " at
Limehouse, of unimaginable and poetic mystery; others are bright and dainty
indications of quaint prettiness in the old Faubourg St Germain, and of the
sober lines of certain Georgian churches in Soho and Bloomsbury. An initiator in
his own generation, and ever tastefully experimental, Whistler no doubt has
found enjoyment in the variety of the mediums he has worked in, and in the
variety of subjects he has brilliantly tackled. The absence of concentration in
the Whistlerian temperament, the lack of great continuity of effort, may
probably prove a drawback to his taking exactly the place as a painter of oil
pictures, which, in other circumstances, his genius and his taste would most
certainly have secured for him. Whistler must be accounted, in oil painting, a
master exquisite but rare. But the number and the range of his etched subjects
and the extraordinary variety of perception and of skill which he has brought to
bear upon the execution of his nearly three hundred coppers, ensure, and have
indeed already compassed, the acceptance of him as a master among masters in
that art of etching. See also 'Catalogue of Memorial Exhibition' of 1905 by the International Society in London; the Czech artists and
close-friends Tavik Frantisek Šimon and Hugo Boettinger visited this exhibition
that influenced them highly.
NOVAK 37. Tower Bridge:
|
Tower Bridge,
south east of the Tower of London, crosses the Thames at one end of the
Pool. 150,000 vehicles cross it every day. Over 900 times a year the roadway
parts and lifts to let tall ships, cruise liners and other large craft pass
through Tower Bridge was completed in 1894, after 8 years of construction. It
is one of the landmarks of London and it is interesting
because the lower spam between the two gothic towers is so built as to
enable it to be raised in 1 minute ½
(the spam is 200ft.) to allow passage for vessels making for the open sea;
the two towers are 120 ft. in height over the piers, and the footway 142 ft.
Originally, London Bridge was the only crossing over the Thames. As London
grew, more bridges were added, but these were all to the west of London
Bridge, since the area east of London Bridge had become a busy port. |
As London grew, more bridges
were added, but these were all to the west of London Bridge, since the area east
of London Bridge had become a busy port. In the 19th century, the east end
of London became so densely populated that public pressure mounted for a bridge
to the east of London Bridge, as journeys for pedestrians and vehicles were
being delayed literally by hours. Finally in 1876, the Corporation of London,
who were responsible for that part of the Thames, decided that the problem could
be put off no longer. The big problem for the Corporation of London was how to
build a bridge downstream from London Bridge without disrupting river traffic
activities. To get as many ideas as possible, the "Special Bridge or Subway
Committee" was formed in 1876, and opened the design of the new crossing to
public competition. Over 50 designs were put forward for consideration. However,
it wasn't until October 1884 that Horace Jones, the City Architect, in
collaboration with John Wolfe Barry, offered the chosen design for Tower Bridge
as a solution.
It took 8 years, 5 major contractors and the relentless
labour of 432 construction workers to build Tower Bridge. Two massive piers had
to be sunk into the river bed to support the construction, over 11,000 tons of
steel provided the framework for the towers and walkways. This was then clad in
Cornish granite and Portland stone, both to protect the underlying steelwork and
to give the bridge a more pleasing appearance. When it was built, Tower Bridge
was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever built ("bascule"
comes from the French for "see-saw"). It was a hydraulically operated bridge,
using steam to power the enormous pumping engines. The energy created was then
stored in six massive accumulators so that, as soon as power was required to
lift the bridge, it was readily available. The accumulators fed the driving
engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the
system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum 86
degrees. Nowadays, the bascules are still operated by hydraulic power, but since
1976 they have been driven by oil and electricity rather than steam. The
original pumping engines, accumulators and boilers are on show as part of The
Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge has a fascinating history. Here are a few
interesting facts: 1910 - the high-level walkways, which were
designed so that the public could still cross the bridge when it was raised,
were closed down due to lack of use. Most people preferred to wait at the bottom
and watch the bascules rise up! 1912 - during an
emergency, Frank McClean had to fly between the bascules and the high-level
walkways in his Short biplane, to avoid an accident. 1952 - a
London bus had to leap from one bascule to the other when the bridge began to
rise with the bus still on it. 1977 - Tower Bridge was painted
red, white and blue to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee. (Before that, it
was painted a chocolate brown colour). 1982 - Tower Bridge
opened to the public for the first time since 1910, with a permanent exhibition
inside the Gothic towers to discover the fascinating history of the bridge
called The Tower Bridge Experience. You can visit the original Victorian engine
rooms. From the two high-level walkways, 142ft above the River Thames, you can
enjoy sweeping views of today’s London skyline. Historic city landmarks such as
St Paul's and the Tower of London vie for attention with skyscrapers (detested by
many, i.e. Prince Charles) and, in the distance down-river, Canary Wharf. The
enclosed walkways were incorporated in the bridge design to allow pedestrians to
cross even while the main deck was lifted.
NOVAK 41. PORTRAIT OF THE SCULPTOR BOHUMIL KAFKA:
 |
. |
Bohumil Kafka. |
NOVAK 43.
BOOK-STALLS IN PARIS: See note Novak 56.
NOVAK 1904AP1. PORTRAIT OF MY WIFE VILMA IN A HAT:
 |
Vilma Kracikova. * 3 january 1882 - † Prague
4 january 1959.
Daughter of
Vaclav Kracik († 1912) and Eleonora Soumarova
(† ca. 1935). |
NOVAK 1905AP7. AT THE ACADÉMIE COLAROSSI, PARIS:Académie
Colarossi is an art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi.
First located on the Île de la Cité, it moved in the 1870s to 10 rue de la
Grande-Chaumière in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The Academy was
established in the 19th century as an alternative to the government-sanctioned
École des Beaux Arts that had, in the eyes of many promising young artists at
the time, become far too conservative. Along with its
equivalent Académie Julian, and unlike the official École, the Colarossi school
accepted female students and allowed them to draw from the nude male model.
Among the female attendees are Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani's muse, and the
woman who would become Rodin's source of inspiration, model, confidante and
lover, Camille Claudel. Noted also for its classes in life sculpting, the school
attracted many foreign students, including a large number from the United States.
In 1910, the progressive Academy appointed the New Zealand artist Frances
Hodgkins (1869-1947) as its first female teacher. Among its other instructions
was the influential French sculptor Jean Antoine Injalbert and the
Japanese-influenced painter Raphael Collin. In 1922 sculptor Henry Moore
attended, although not as a student. Moore took life-drawing (no instruction)
classes here, open to the general public, paid for with a book of inexpensive
tickets. The evening classes were progressively timed -- one hour, then 20
minutes, then five minutes, then one -- to develop various drawing skills.
The school closed in the 1930s. In the same years, Madame
Colarossi burned the priceless school archives in retaliation for her husband's
philandering.
Notable Graduates:
Austria
Zofia Albinowska-Minkiewiczowa - Aloys Wach
Belarus Eugeniusz Żak
Bulgaria Pascin
Canada Octave Bélanger - Frederic Marlett
Bell-Smith - Emily Carr - William Henry Clapp - Ralston Crawford -
Joseph-Charles Franchère - Prudence Heward - Yvonne Housser - Francesco Iacurto
- Donald Cameron Mackay - George Loftus Noyes - Maurice Prendergast - George
Agnew Reid - Boardman Robinson - Marc Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté - Sydney
Strickland Tully
People's Republic of China Georgette Chen
Liying
Czech Republic František Bílek - Josef
Čapek - Otokar Lebeda - Alfons Mucha
Denmark Emilie Mundt - Marie Luplau
Estonia Adamson-Eric - Konrad Mägi - Nikolai
Triik - Eduard Wiiralt
Finland Vaino Alfred Blomstedt - Elin
Danielson-Gambogi - Johannes Haapasalo - Helene Schjerfbeck - Ellen Thesleff
France Hélène de Beauvoir - Camille Claudel
- André Dunoyer de Segonzac - Georges d’Espagnat - Maurice Estève - Fabien
Fabiano - Charles Filiger - Paul Gauguin - Marcel Gromaire - André Guinebert -
Jeanne Hébuterne - Jean Lurçat - Charles Peccatte - Joseph Rossi - Claude-Émile
Schuffenecker - Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen - Edmond Tapissier
Germany Karl Albert Buehr - Joseph Enseling
- George Grosz - Hans Hofmann - Wilhelm Lehmbruck - Paula Modersohn-Becker
Hungary Emile Lahner
Ireland Eileen Gray - Georgina Moutray Kyle
Italy Romaine Brooks - Amedeo Modigliani
Japan Seiki Kuroda - Henry Sugimoto-
Keiichirô Kume
Lithuania Aaron Harry Gorson - Jacques
Lipchitz
Norway Nikolai Astrup - Jean Heiberg - Anund
Hovde - Olaf Gulbransson - Wilhelm Rasmussen - Knut Skinnarland - Aage Storstein
- Jens Munthe Svendsen - Gunnar Utsond - Ingebrigt Vik - Gustav Wentzel
New Zealand Sydney Lough Thompson
Poland Stanisław Jackowski - Max Kalish -
Alfons Karpiński - Józef Mehoffer - Mela Muter - Włodzimierz Tetmajer - Max
Weber - Stanisław Wyspiański
Romania Reuven Rubin
Russia Gleb W. Derujinsky - Alexander
Golovin - Anna Golubkina - Eugene Lanceray - Konstantin Somov
Spain Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa
Sweden Carl Eldh - Olga Milles - Arvid
Nyholm - Jenny Nyström - Helmer Osslund - Hanna Pauli - Gustaf Theodor Wallén
Switzerland Fritz Glarner - Louis
Soutter-Max Uehlinger
Turkey Zühtü Müridoğlu
Uruguay Juan José Calandria
United Kingdom Lamorna Birch - John Duncan
Fergusson - Mina Loy - Laura Muntz Lyall - Cedric Morris - Samuel Peploe - Dod
Procter - Robert William Service - Sydney Curnow Vosper
United States Lucy Bacon - Cecilia Beaux -
Charles Bittinger - Clara Miller Burd - George Conlon - Edward Cucuel - Rinaldo
Cuneo - Charles Demuth - Eyre de Lanux - Lyonel Feininger - John Bond Francisco
- Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller - Frederic Milton Grant - Marion Greenwood - Clarence
Hinkle - Elizabeth Orton Jones - Walt Kuhn - Isamu Noguchi - Lilla Cabot Perry -
Stanton Macdonald-Wright - Elenore Plaisted Abbott - Gordon Samstag - Alice
Schille - Janet Scudder - Armstrong Sperry - Helena Sturtevant - Challis Walker
- John Whorf - Charles Morris Young - Mahonri Young
Other students:
Gustave Claude Etienne Courtois
Camilo Egas
Robert Bachmann
Heinz Witte-Lenoir
Clara Westhoff
Richard E. Miller
René François-Xavier Prinet
Thea Schleussner
(Source:Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
NOVAK 45.
SELF-PORTRAIT (Small): See
biography of the artist Tavik
Frantisek Šimon at the website.
 |
T.F Šimon (1877-1942). |
NOVAK 46. PORTRAIT OF MY WIFE
VILMA:
 |
 |
Vilma Kracikova. * 3 january 1882 - † Prague
4 january 1959.
Daughter of
Vaclav Kracik († 1912) and Eleonora Soumarova
(† ca. 1935). |
NOVAK 47. BEACH OF
LE PORTEL: Le Portel is a village, south of
Boulogne-sur-Mer [ Flemish "Bonen"], French Flandres. Fishing-harbour and
seaside place with beautiful beach with fine sand between 25m high rocks at the
Opal Coast .In the 13th century Le Portel [Lat. portus=harbour + dimin. suffix
-ellem; so: the small harbour (compared with the harbour of Boulogne)].The
village from the past is found back in the novel "Gongolph l'Abandonné" by René
Bazin. Fine view on the harbour of Boulogne and the rock-coast until Cape
Grauwnes.
En 1208, Le Portel faisait partie
du fief de Tihen, allié du duc de Flandre. Ce domaine s'étendait sur la Salle,
Outreau, Manihen, Alprech, Ningles et Equihen. Ce n'est qu'en 1339 qu'apparaît
pour la première fois le nom de Le Portel dans le compte du domaine de Boulogne
rendu à Marguerite d'Evreux. On y apprend l'existence d'un "four banal". En
1415, on y précise que les marins de Le Portel contribuaient à l'entretien du
feu de la tour d'Odre (phare romain construit sous Caligula) depuis la St Michel
jusqu'à Pâques. En 1545, le maréchal Du Biez y établit son quartier général dans
la tentative de François 1er de reprendre Boulogne occupée par les anglais.
Petit village de pêcheurs en 1725, la population de Le Portel s'élevait à 120
feux, elle s'accrut rapidement au cours des 18e et 19e siècles. En 1803, pour
défendre les préparatifs d'un débarquement en Angleterre, Bonaparte ordonna la
construction sur le socle rocheux de l'Heurt d'un fort dont nous voyons encore
les vestiges. Les travaux commencèrent le 24 mai 1803 et furent achevés le 16
juillet 1804. La défaite de la marine française à Trafalgar et les préparatifs
de guerre de la Prusse et de la Russie détournèrent Napoléon de son projet.
Après l'épopée napoléonienne, le fort fut désarmé sous la Restauration.
Construite tardivement, la première église de Le Portel fut édifiée et financée
grâce aux marins portelois avec "la part de Dieu", chaque marin et patron de
bateau abandonnait 1/8 du produit de sa pêche pour sa construction. Le hameau de
Le Portel rattaché primitivement à Outreau fut érigé en commune le 13 juin 1856
par décret impérial.La pêche a été de tous temps la principale activité
économique. En 1850, 35 à 40 bateaux de pêche sortaient de la gare de Le Portel.
Pour protéger cette flotille, on construisit un brise-lames appelé aujourd'hui
"épi" à l'ouest de la plage. La première pierre fut posée le 28 août 1867. Les
travaux durèrent un peu plus de trois ans et fûrent entièrement terminés en
novembre 1870 pour un coût de 103000 francs or. Ainsi protégée, la plage de Le
Portel qui s'ensabla au fil des ans devint une plage fréquentée par de nombreux
estivants. Les 8 et 9 septembre 1943, Le Portel subit des bombardements qui
détruisirent près de 90% des habitations et firent plus de 500 morts. Le général
De Gaulle se rendit sur les ruines de Le Portel le 12 août 1945. La ville reçut
la croix de guerre avec étoile d'argent pour son sacrifice. Après guerre, Le
Portel fut reconstruit et redevint une station familiale réputée et très
fréquentée pour sa plage de sable fin. Aujourd'hui (jan. 2003), la commune
comprend plus de 10 700 Portelois, et sa population double en période estivale.
NOVAK 48. BEACH IN OSTENDE: Info from 1911: Ostende [Flemish
Oostende], a town of Belgium in the province of West Flanders. Pop. (1904)
41,181. It is the most fashionable seaside resort and the second port of the
kingdom. Situated on the North Sea it forms almost the central point on the 42
m. of sea--coast that belong to Belgium. In the middle ages it was strongly
fortified and underwent several sieges; the most notable was that of 1601—1604,
when it only surrendered by order of the states to Spinola. In. 1865 the last
vestiges of its ramparts were removed, and since that date, but more especially
since 1898, a new town has been created. The digue or parade, constructed of
solid granite, extends for over a m. along the shore in a southerly direction
from the long jetty which protects the entrance to the port. A fine casino and
the royal chalet are prominent objects along the sea front, and the sea-bathing
is unsurpassed. In the rear of the town is a fine park to which a race-course
has been added. Extensive works were begun in. 1900 for the purpose of carrying
the harbour back 2 m., and a series of large docks were excavated and extensive
quays constructed. The docks accommodate ships of large tonnage. Apart from
these docks Ostend has a very considerable passenger and provision traffic with
England, and is the headquarters of the Belgian fishing fleet, estimated to
employ 400 boats and 1600 men and boys. Ostend is in direct railway
communication with Brussels, Cologne and Berlin. It is also the starting point
of several light railways along the coast and to the southern towns of Flanders.
NOVAK
49.
RIVA DEGLI SCHIAVONI,
VENICE: From San Marco Square go right after the Doge`s Palace,
now you are on Riva degli Schiavoni, the promenade along the lagoon.
Before the building of the bridge that connects Venice with the mainland
in 1846, all visitors from abroad approached the town from the sea, most of them
landing on the Riva degli Schiavoni or the Piazzetta di San Marco. See
also note Novak 8.
NOVAK
50. BIRD-MARKET (IN VERONA):
Verona (1991 pop.
255,824), capital of Verona prov., Venetia, NE Italy, on the Adige River. It is
a transportation junction and a major industrial and agricultural center, with
noted annual agricultural fairs. Its diversified manufactures include food and
paper products, textiles, metals, machinery, and chemicals. Handicrafts using
metal and marble, and the making of wine are two other important industries.
Verona’s position on the Brenner road to central Europe has given it commercial
and strategic importance since Roman times. The date of its founding s obscure,
but it was an important settlement before its conquest by Rome in 89 B.C. During
the barbarian invasions of Rome (5th–6th cent. A.D.) Odoacer made it his
fortress, and Theodoric later made it his favorite residence. Verona later
became the seat of a Lombard duchy and then of Frankish counts. In the 12th
cent. it was made a free commune. Along with other communes of Venetia, Verona
formed (1164) the Veronese League, which joined (1167) the Lombard League in
opposing Emperor Frederick I. Ezzelino da Romano ruled the city from 1226 to
1259. The story of Romeo and Juliet embodies the strife between the Guelphs (of
whom Romeo’s family were members) and the Ghibellines (Juliet’s family) that
tore Verona in the 13th and 14th cent. The Ghibelline Della Scala (or Scaligeri)
family became lords of Verona in the 1260s; under Can Francesco (Can Grande)
della Scala (1291–1329) the city reached its greatest power. His successors
gradually lost all the city’s possessions, and in 1387 Verona fell to Milan.
Venice conquered Verona in 1405, and the city fared well under Venetian rule (to
1797). During the Renaissance, Verona produced major artists, e.g., the
architects Giocondo and Sanmichele and the painters Pisanello and Paolo
Veronese, who embellished both Verona and Venice. In the 19th cent. Austria,
which then ruled Venetia, made Verona one of its chief fortresses in N Italy.
The Congress of Verona was held there in 1822. After Austrian rule of Venetia
was ended as a result of the Austro-Prussian War (1866), Verona joined the
kingdom of Italy. Because of its strategic position Verona was the target of
heavy Allied bombings in World War II and suffered considerable damage. It was
further damaged by retreating Germans in April, 1945.
Among the numerous
points of interest in Verona (some reconstructed after 1945):
The
basilica of S. Zeno (an early bishop of Verona
who became its patron saint), which stands outside the ancient city, is one of
the most interesting Romanesque churches in Italy. The church was remodelled in
1139, to which period much of the existing structure belongs, including the
richly sculptured west front and the open confessio or crypt, which occupies the
eastern half of the church, raising the choir high above the nave. The nave,
dating from the 11th century, is supported by alternate columns and pillars,
and contains frescoes of the 11th-14th centuries. The cloisters of S. Zeno,
rebuilt in 1123, are an interesting example of brick and marble construction.
Like many other churches in Verona, S. Zeno is mainly built of mixed brick and
stone in alternate bands: four or five courses of fine red brick lie between
bands of hard cream-colored limestone or marble, forming broad stripes of red
and white all over the wall. A similarly effect in red and white is produced by
building the arches of windows and doors with alternating voussoirs in brick and
marble. The neighbourhood of Verona is especially rich in fine limestone and
marbles of many different kinds, especially a close-grained cream-colored marble
and a rich mottled red marble, which are largely used, not only in Verona, but
also in Venice and other cities of the province. The same quarry produces both
kinds, and indeed the same block is sometimes half red and half white. On the
north side of the church is a lofty tower, called the tower of Peppin; while the
slender brick campanile on the south dates from 1045 to 1178.
The cathedral, consecrated in 1187 by Pope
Urban III., stands at the northern extremity of the ancient city, by the bank of
the Adige; it is inferior in size and importance to S. Zeno, but has a fine
12th-century west front of equal interest, richly decorated with naïve
Romanesque sculpture (1135). The rest of the exterior is built in bands of red
and white, with slightly protecting pilasters along the walls; it has a noble
cloister, with two storey's of arcading. The campanile by Sanmichele is
unfinished. Its baptistery, rebuilt early in the 12th century, is a quite
separate building, with nave and apse, forming a church dedicated to S. Giovanni
in Fonte. Pope Lucius III., who held a council at Verona in 1184, is buried in
the cathedral, under the pavement before the high altar.
The Dominican
church of S. Anastasia is a mine of wealth in early examples of painting and
sculpture, and one of the finest buildings in Italy of semi-Gothic style. It
consists of a nave in six bays, aisles, transepts, each with two eastern
chapels, and an apse, all vaulted with simple quadripartite brick groining. It
was begun in 1261, but not completed till 1422, and is specially remarkable for
its very beautiful and complete scheme of coloured decoration, much of which is
contemporary with the building. The vaults are gracefully painted with floriated
bands along the ribs and central patterns in each cell, in rich soft colours on
a white plastered ground. The eastern portion of the vaulting, including the
choir and one bay of the nave, has the older and simpler decorations; the rest
of the nave has more elaborate painted ornament—foliage mixed with figures of
Dominican saints, executed in the 15th century. There are many fine frescoes in
the interior ranging from c. 1300 (knights kneeling before the Virgin) to the
15th century, including Pisanello’s beautiful painting of St George. This church
also contains a large number of fine sculptured tombs of the 14th and 15th
centuries, with noble effigies and reliefs of saints and sacred subjects. It is
mainly built of red brick, with fine nave columns of red and white marble and an
elaborate marble pavement inlaid in many different patterns. Its general
proportions are specially noble, and the exterior view is good.
The church of S. Fermo
Maggiore comes next in interest. With
the exception of the crypt, which is older, the existing edifice was rebuilt in
1313. The façade is of brick and marble used alternately. The plan is unusual,
consisting of a large nave without aisles, the span being between 45 and 50 ft.;
it also has two shallow transepts and an apsidal east end. The roof, which
is magnificent, is the finest example of a class which as a rule is
only found in Venetia or in churches built by Venetian architects in Istria and
other subject provinces: the framing is concealed by coving or barrel-vaulting
in wood, the surface of which is divided into small square panels, all painted
and gilt, giving a very rich effect. In this case the 14th and 15th century
painted decorations are well preserved. Delicate patterns cover all the
framework of the paneling and fill the panels themselves; at two stages, where
there is a check in the line of the coving, rows of half-figures of saints are
minutely painted on blue or gold grounds, forming a scheme of indescribably
splendid decoration. A simpler roof of the same class exists at S. Zeno; it is
trefoil shaped in section, with a tie-beam joining the cusps. The church of S.
Maria in Organo, dating from 1481, with a façade of 1592 from Sanmichele’s
designs, contains paintings by various Veronese masters, and some fine
choir-stalls of 1499 by Fra Gioconda. Though not built till after his death,
the church of S. Giorgio in Braida, on the other side of the
river, was also designed by Sanmichele, and possesses many good pictures of the
Veronese school. The Romanesque church of S. Lorenzo, restored in
1896--I898, contains old frescoes. S. Stefano is another Romanesque
church, probably of the 11th century. There are several other fine churches in
Verona, some of early date. One of the 14th century is dedicated to Thomas a
Becket of Canterbury.
The strongly fortified castle (Castel Vecchio)
built by the Della Scala lords in the 14th century stands dn the line of the
wall of Theodoric, close by the river.
A very picturesque battlemented
bridge leads from it to the other shore, and end. There are four other
bridges across the Adige: one, the graceful Ponte di Pietra, rests upon ancient
foundations, while the two arches nearest to the left bank are Roman; but it has
been frequently restored. Remains of another ancient ‘bridge were found in the
river itself in 1891 behind S. Anastasia. The 16th-century lines of
fortification enclose a very much larger area than the Roman city, forming a
great loop to the west, and also including a considerable space on the left bank
of the river. In the latter part of the city, on a steep elevation, stands the
castle of St Peter, originally founded by Theodoric, on the site,
perhaps, of the earliest citadel, mostly rebuilt by Gian Galeazzo Visconti in
1393, and dismantled by the French after 1800. This and the other fortifications
of Verona were rebuilt or repaired by the Austrians, but are no longer kept up
as military defenses. Verona, which is the chief military centre of the Italian
province of Venetia, is now being surrounded with a circle of forts far outside
the obsolete city walls.
The early palaces of Verona, before its
conquest by Venice, were of noble and simple design, mostly built of fine red
brick, with an inner court, surrounded on the ground floor by open arches like a
cloister, as, for example, the Palazzo della Ragione, an assize court, begun in
the 12th century. The arches, round or more often pointed in form, were
decorated with moulded terra-cotta enrichments, and often with alternating
voussoirs of marble. The Scaligeri Palace is a fine example, dating from the
14th century, with, in the cortile, an external staircase leading to an upper
loggia, above the usual arcade on the ground floor. It has a lofty campanile,
surmounted by a graceful octagonal upper storey. This palace is said to have
been mainly built by Signorio (Della Scala) about 1370. After the conquest by
Venice the domestic buildings of Verona became feeble copies of Venetian
palaces, in which one form of window, with an ogee arch, framed by the dentil
moulding, is almost always used. The monotony and lifelessness of this form of
architecture are shown in the meaningless way in which details, suited only to
the Venetian methods of veneering walls with thin marble slabs, are copied in.
the solid marbles of Verona. From the skill of Fra Giocondo, Verona was for many
years one of the chief centres in which the most refined and graceful forms of
the early Renaissance were developed.
The town hall, with its light
open loggia of semicircular arches on the ground floor, was designed by Fra
Giocondo towards the end of the 15th century; its sculptured enrichments of
pilasters and friezes are very graceful, though lacking the vigorous life of the
earlier medieval sculptured ornamentation. Verona contains a number of handsome
palaces designed by Sanmichele in the 16th century. The finest are those of the
Bevilacqua, Canossa and Pompeii families. The last of these is now the property
of the city, and contains a gallery with some good pictures, especially of the
Verona, Padua and Venice schools. As in Venice, many of the 16th-century palaces
in Verona had stuccoed façades, richly decorated with large fresco paintings,
often by very able painters. Verona, perhaps, had as many of these paintings as
any town in Italy, but comparatively few are preserved and those only to a small
extent. The domestic architecture of Verona cannot thus be now fairly estimated,
and seems monotonous, heavy and uninteresting. The house of the painter Niccolo
Giolfino still has its frescoes in a good state of preservation, and gives a
vivid notion of what must once have been the effect of these gorgeous pictured
palaces. The Episcopal palace contains the ancient and valuable chapter library.
The Piazza delle Erbe (fruit and vegetable market)
and the Piazza dei Signori, adjoining one another in the oldest part of
the city, are very picturesque and beautiful squares, being surrounded by many
fine medieval buildings, several of them of a public character (Palazzo dei
Giureconsulti, Palazzo della Ragione and the lofty Torre Civica, 273 ft. high),
while in the north-east corner of the latter Piazza is the fine early
Renaissance Palazzo del Consiglio (1476—1492), probably designed by Fra
Giocondo. In the former Piazza a copy of the lion of Venice has been erected.
The Roman remains of Verona surpass those of
any other city of northern Italy. The most conspicuous of them is the great
Roman amphitheatre, a building perhaps of the end of the 1st remains century AD,
which in general form closely resembled the Colosseum in Rome. Almost the whole
of its external arcades, with three tiers of arches, have now disappeared; it
was partly thrown down by an earthquake in 1184, and subsequently used to supply
building materials. Many of its blocks are still visible in the walls of various
medieval buildings. The interior, with seats for about 25,000 people, has been
frequently restored, till nothing of the old seats exists. There are also
remains of a well-preserved Roman theatre, close to the left bank of the river.
A number of fine sculptures were found in the square in front of the cathedral
in 1890, and architectural fragments belonging to some public building. In
1884—86 portions of a number of fine mosaic pavements were discovered extending
over a very large area under the cloister and other parts of the cathedral,
about 7 ft. below the present ground level. They had geometric patterns with
birds, trees, etc., and bore inscriptions in mosaic with the names of the
donors. Parts of them had been discovered previouily. They seem to belong to two
different buildings, both early churches of the 5th and 6th centuries AD. There
are the two triumphal arches, Porta
dei Bosari and Porta dei Leoni. The Museo Lapidario contains a fine collection
of Roman and Etruscan inscriptions and sculpture, mostly collected and published
by Scipione Maffei in the 18th century.
Veronese Art—In many respects
the resemblance between Verona and Florence is very striking; in both cases we
have a strongly fortified city built in a fertile valley, on the banks of a
winding river, with suburbs on higher ground, rising close above the main city.
In architectural magnificence and in wealth of sculpture and painting Verona
almost rivaled the Tuscan city, and, like it, gave birth to a very large number
of artists who distinguished themselves in all branches of the fine arts.
Painting in Verona may
be divided into four periods. The first period is characterized by wall
paintings of purely native style, Painting closely resembling the early
Christian pictures in the catacombs of Rome. Examples dating from the 10th to
the11th century have been discovered hidden by whitewash on the oldest parts of
the nave walls of the church of S. Zeno. They are a very interesting survival of
the almost classical Roman style of painting, and appear to be quite free from
the generally prevalent byzantine influence. The Byzantine period seems to have
lasted during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Giottesque period begins
contemporaneously with Altichiero da Zevio and Giacomo degli Avanzi, whose chief
works were executed during the second half of the 14th century. These two
painters were among the ablest of Giotto’s followers, and adorned Verona and
Padua with a number of very beautiful frescoes, rich in composition, delicate in
colour, and remarkable for their highly finished modelling and detail. To the
fourth period belong several important painters. Pisanello or Vittore Pisano, a charming
painter and the greatest medalist of Italy, was probably a pupil of Altichiero.
Most of his frescoes in Verona have perished; but one of great beauty still
exists in a very perfect state in the church of S. Anastasia, high over the
arched opening into one of the eastern’ chapels of the south transept. The scene
represents St George and the Princess after the conquest of the Dragon, with
accessory figures, the sea, a mountainous landscape and an elaborately painted
city in the background. The only other existing fresco by Pisanello is an
Annunciation in S. Fermo Maggiore. Other painters include Liberale da Verona, Domenico and
Francesco Morone, Girolamo dai Libri (1474—1556), etc. Domenico del Riccio, usually
nicknamed Brusasorci (1494—1567), was a prolific painter whose works are very
numerous in Verona. Paolo Cagliari or Paul Veronese, and the Bonifagios, though
natives of Verona, belong rather to the Venetian school.
Verona is specially
rich in early examples of decorative sculpture. The first period is that
of northern or Lombardic influence, exemplified in the very interesting series
of reliefs which cover the western façades of the church of S. Zeno and the
cathedral, dating from the 12th century. These reliefs represent both sacred
subjects and scenes of war and hunting, mixed with grotesque monsters, such as
specially delighted the rude, vigorous nature of the Lombards; they are all
richly decorative in effect, though strange and unskillful in detail. Part of the
western bronze doors of S. Zeno are especially interesting as being among the
earliest important examples in Italy of cast bronze reliefs. They are frequently
stated to be of beaten bronze, but they are really castings, apparently by the
cire perdue process. They represent scenes from the life of S. Zeno, are rudely
modeled, and yet very dramatic and sculpturesque in style. Parts of these doors
are covered with bronze reliefs of scenes from the Bible, which are of still
earlier date, and were probably brought to Verona from the Rhine provinces. Many
of the 12th century reliefs and sculptured capitals in S. Zeno are signed by the
sculptor but these merely constitute lists of names about whom nothing is known.
In the 13th century the sculpture seems to have lost the Lombard vigour, without
acquiring any qualities of superior grace or refinement. The font in the
baptistery near the cathedral is an early example of this. Each side of the
octagon is covered with a large relief of a Biblical subject, very dull in style
and coarse in execution. The font itself is interesting for its early form, one
common in the chief baptisteries of northern Italy: like an island in the centre
of the great octagonal tank is a lobed marble receptacle, in which the
officiating priest stood while he immersed the catechumens. A movable wooden
bridge must have been used to enable the priest to cross the water in the
surrounding tank. The next period is that of Florentine influence. This is
exemplified in the magnificently sculptured tombs of the Della Scala lords,
designed with steadily grooving splendor, from the simple sarcophagus of Martino
I. down to the elaborate erection over the tomb of the fratricide San Signorio,
adorned with statuettes of the virtues, to the possession of which he could lay
so little claim. The recumbent effigies and decorative details of these tombs
are very beautiful, but the smaller figures of angels, saints and virtues are
rather clumsy in proportion. The latest tomb, that of Can Signorio, erected
during his lifetime (c. 1370), is signed “Boninus de Campigliono Mediolanensis
Dioecesis.” This sculptor, though of Milanese origin, belongs really to the
school of the Florentine Andrea Pisano. One characteristic of the 14th and 15th
centuries in Verona was the custom, also followed in other Lombardic cities, of
setting large equestrian statues over the tombs of powerful military leaders, in
some cases above the recumbent effigy of the dead man, as if to represent him in
full vigor of life as well as in death. That which crowns the canopy over the
tomb of Can Grande is a very noble, though somewhat quaint, work. In the 15th
century the influence of Venice became paramount, though this was really only a
further development of the Florentine manner, Venice itself having been directly
influenced in the 14th century by many able sculptors from Florence. The
architecture of Verona, like its sculpture, passed through Lombard, Florentine
and Venetian stages. The church of S. Zeno and the cathedral, both of which were
mainly rebuilt in the 12th century, are noble examples of the Lombardic style,
with few single-light windows, and with the walls decorated externally by series
of pilasters, and by alternating bands of red and white, in stone or brick.
NOVAK 52.
PALAZZO DI DESDEMONA, VENICE: See also note Novak 8.
Know to the
Venetians as the Canalazzo, the Grand Canal sweeps through Venice, following the
course of an ancient river bed. On the left bank: PALAZZO CONTARINI FASAN,
fourth façade after the Rio Alberto, facing the Santa Maria della Salute on the
other bank, is a smaller edifice, richly decorated with flamboyant gothic
architectural elements (1475). On the first floor are very interesting drawings.
This palazzo is also called 'Casa di Desdemona', who was,
according to the legend, killed by her jealous husband Othello. The palazzo is
striking, on the one hand because of the large Contarini coat of arms, on the
other hand because of the unique balconies. This kind of tracery is singular in
Venice. The decorative richness surpasses the usual and can only be compared to
the (unfortunately reconstructed) balconies of the Ca'd'Oro. The legend (or
truth?) says that this palazzo was the birthplace of Desdemona, seducing
daughter of a Venetian senator, who later married the very jealous moor Othello.
Shakespeare wrote "Othello" about the story in 1603. The play was based on a
1565 Italian novella by Giraldi Cinthio. Shakespeare developed characters,
themes, and language in his own style for his own purpose (significantly,
turning Othello from a villain into a tragic hero). Actors: duke of Venice,
Brabantio, a senator. Other Senators.Gratiano, brother to Brabantio.Lodovico,
kinsman to Brabantio.Othello, a noble Moor in the service of the Venetian
state.Cassio, his lieutenant Iago, his ancient. Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman.
Montano, Othello's predecessor in the government of Cyprus.Clown, servant to
Othello. Desdemona, daughter to Brabantio and wife to Othello. Emilia, wife to
Iago.Bianca, mistress to Cassio. Sailor, Messenger, Herald, Officers, Gentlemen,
Musicians, and Attendants. Plot: Act I: In the quiet night of Venice, two
men--Iago, the ensign to the valiant Moorish general Othello, and Roderigo, a
rejected suitor of the lady Desdemona--plot against Othello. Iago, who pretends
to love the Moor but actually hates him, tells Roderigo that Desdemona has
eloped with Othello. They Awaken Barbantio, Desdemona's father, with lewd images
of his daughter and Othello. Iago departs, leaving Roderigo to guide Barbantio's
vengeful hand to Othello. Iago "warns" Othello that Barbantio is coming, but
messengers from the Duke arrive first to summon Othello. Othello commands
Barbantio's men and his own to put up their swords, and they go together to the
palace. The Duke's council, worried by the warlike movements of the Turkish
fleet, welcomes Othello warmly--only to hear Barbantio accuse their general of
stealing Desdemona by sorcery. Othello eloquently defends his courtship, and
Desdemona loving confirms her husband's story. The Duke advises the embittered
Barbantio to be content. The council sends Othello to protect Cyprus. Desdemona
is to follow. Iago advises a hopeless Roderigo to raise money and pursue
Desdemona to Cyprus. Alone, Iago unfolds his yet-undeveloped plan to do injury
to Cassio (who was promoted to a post Iago covets), and to poison Othello's mind
with innuendoes about his wife and Cassio. Act II: Cassio lands at Cyprus in the
midst of a raging storm, which has destroyed the Turkish fleet. After Othello
lands, Iago tells Roderigo that Desdemona now loves Cassio, and incites the
jealous fool to provoke Cassio to violence. That evening, Iago uses the
celebration of Othello's nuptials to advance his plan. First, he gets Cassio
intoxicated; then he stands back as the governor of Cyprus, Montano, is injured
trying to protect Roderigo from Cassio's drunken pursuit. Othello, called from
Desdemona's side, angrily dismisses Cassio from his service. Pretending good
will, Iago encourages Cassio to plead for reinstatement through Desdemona. Act
III: Cassio seeks an audience with Desdemona. When they are interrupted by
Othello and Iago, Cassio departs hastily; leaving Desdemona to plead for him.
Working with these slight weapons--Cassio's flight and Desdemona's impassioned
plea--Iago mounts a subtle, artful, and brilliantly sustained attack on
Othello's faith in Desdemona. He recalls her betrayal of her father; he preys on
Othello's unfamiliarity with the behavior of Venetian women; he even implies
that something perverse drove Desdemona to marry a Moor. When Desdemona and
Emilia return, the distraught Othello pleads a headache. Desdemona attempts to
soothe him with her handkerchief, but he knocks it form her hand. Emilia sees
the fallen handkerchief, which was Othello's first gift to Desdemona, remembers
that Iago has often asked her to steal it, and gives it to him. When Othello
demands that Iago prove Desdemona's faithlessness, Iago claims that he has seen
Cassio carrying Desdemona's handkerchief. Ensnared, Othello swears vengeance.
Later, Cassio's mistress, Bianca, angry that he has neglected her, suspiciously
eyes Cassio's new-found handkerchiefwhich Iago has hidden in Cassio's room. Act
IV: Driven to distraction by Iago's vivid lies about the lovers, Othello falls
into an epileptic fit. When he recovers, Iago inflames him further by engaging
Cassio in conversation about Bianca while Othello, eavesdropping, thinks that
Cassio is boasting of having seduced Desdemona. Bianca storms in and jealously
hurls the handkerchief at Cassio. Othello, convinced of his wife's guilt, vows
to kill her. Lodovico arrives with the Duke's orders for Othello to return to
Venice, leaving Cyprus in Cassio's command. Desdemona's pleasure at seeing
Cassio honored enrages Othello; he strikes her. Iago hints to the stunned
Lodovico that Othello is going mad. Meanwhile, in Desdemona's chamber, Othello
rages at Emilia and Desdemona. Iago encounters a new problem when Roderigo
decides to give up Desdemona if only she will return his gifts. Iago, who has
squandered the presents, convinces Roderigo to win Desdemona by killing Cassio.
That evening, Othello orders Desdemona to await him alone and in bed. As she
prepares for sleep, Desdemona sings a wistful song taught to her by a maid who
was forsaken by her lover. Act V: Iago reassures a nervous Roderigo that he will
help to murder Cassio. The fight proceeds, and Roderigo injures Cassio before he
himself is wounded. Hearing Roderigo's cries for help, Iago stabs the poor fool
to death. In Desdemona's bedchamber, Othello gazes down at the innocent beauty
of his sleeping wife. She awakens; he commands her to pray before dying. Despite
her pleas for life, he smothers her with a pillow. A horrified Emilia enters.
Othello justifies himself, citing the handkerchief as proof. Stunned, Emilia
reveals Iago's guilt. In a frenzy of hatred, Iago kills her. He is arrested, and
Othello tries unsuccessfully to kill him; despite demands for an explanation of
his treachery, Iago remains silent. Before Othello is led away to face justice,
he begs his listeners to speak of him "as one that lov'd not wisely but too
well." He then draws a concealed weapon, stabs himself, and kisses Desdemona as
he dies.
NOVAK 53. BRIC-A-BRAC: Bric-a-brac is a French word, formed by a kind of onomatopoeia,
meaning a heterogeneous collection of odds and ends; or by reduplication from
brack, refus. Today: objects of virtue, a collection of old furniture,
china, plate and curiosities.
Novak 1906AP2. PORTRAIT OF
PROFESSOR JAROSLAV GOLL:
 |
 |
Jarosav Goll (1846 Chlumec nad
Cidlinou - 1929 Prague ).
Czech historian, pedagogue, poet, and diplomat |
NOVAK 56. QUAI
MONTEBELLO, PARIS: From 1802-1813 Napoleon had for economic
reasons built 2 km of quays in Paris, the quai d'Orsay, the quai des Invalides,
the quai des Tuileries and the quai Debilly. The quai des Orfèvres was prolonged
until the quai Saint- Louis. The Quai Montebello was completed in 1813. Along the Quai de Montebello
you find the famous book-stalls (in French `bouquinistes`) :
Centuries ago book merchants on the Ile de la Cité, resentful of ambulatory
vendors who congregated on the island bridges and usurped their business, forced
a decree outlawing such activity on the island. The vendors responded by simply
setting up shop on the left bank quai - beyond the island's jurisdiction but
still close to the action. The first booksellers were set
up shortly after the opening of Pont-Neuf at the beginning of the 17th century.
They were regularly chased away by royal ordinances. It wasn’t until 1891 that
they were allowed to leave their bookstalls on the parapet, instead of removing
them every evening. Today the city gives concessions; the size and the colour of
the stalls are regulated. The bookstalls are more or less specialized (following
is a rough indication of some stalls). Along the Seine, there are
four kilometers of bookstalls, outdoor libraries that are unique in the world.
Right bank: ancient photos, 'bandes dessinées', literature are in the stalls
along Quai de la Mégisserie; history, cinema are quai de Gesvres, detective
stories and science fiction quai de l'Hôtel-De-Ville. No stalls are allowed in
front of the Louvre, because of a prohibition by the former minister of culture,
Malraux. Left Bank: you can find old records, cards, newspapers and literature
on the quai des Grands-Augustins; unusual books and engravings quai
Saint-Michel; engravings and old books Quai Montebello; detective
stories and science fiction, posters and items for movie fans Quai de la
Tournelle.
NOVAK 61. LOAFERS BY THE SEINE: The Seine River
is a 482 mi. (776 km)-long river in north central France that flows through the
heart of Paris. The river rises in Burgundy and winds northwest through the
Ile-de-France. This region — with Paris in its center — is the historical heart
of the country. From Paris the Seine flows northwest through a farmland region
and past Rouen to the port of Le Havre, where it empties into the English
Channel. The drainage area of the Seine is about 30,500 sq. mi. (79,000 sq km).
Its main tributaries are the Marne, Aube, Loing, and Oise rivers. Navigable for
about 350 mi. (560 km), the Seine has been a great commercial artery since Roman
times, and is linked by canals to the Loire, Rhine, and Rhône rivers.
Info from 1909: the Seine flows for nearly 8 m. through Paris. As it enters
and as it leaves the city it is crossed by a viaduct used by the circular
railway and for ordinary traffic; that of Point du Jour has two storey's of
arches. Three bridges—the Passerelle de l’Estacade,
between the Ile St Louis and the right bank, the Pont des Arts and the
Passerelle Debilly (close to the Trocadéro)—are for foot passengers only;
all the others are for carriages as well. The most famous, and in its actual
state the oldest, is the Pont Neuf, begun in 1578, the two portions of
which rest on the extremity of the island called La Cite, the point at which the
river is at its widest (863 ft.). On the embankment below the Pont Neuf stands
the equestrian statue of Henry IV. Between La Cite and the left bank the width
of the lesser channel is reduced to 95 ft. The river has a width of 540 ft. as
it enters Paris and of 446 ft. as it leaves it. After its entrance to the city
it passes under the bridges of Tolbiac, Bercy and
Austerlitz, that of Sully, those of Marie and Louis
Philippe between the Ile St Louis and the right bank; that of LaTourneile
between the Ile St Louis and the left bank; that of St Louis between
the Ile St Louis and La Cite. The Cite communicates with the right bank by the
Pont d’Arcole, the Pont Notre-Dame, built on foundations of the
15th century, and the Pont au Change, owing its name to the shops of the
money-changers and goldsmiths which bordered its medieval predecessor; with the
left bank by that of the Archevêché, the so-called Pont au Double, the
Petit Pont and the Pont St Michel, the original of which was built
towards the end of the 14th century. Below the Pont Neuf come the Pont des
Arts, Pont du Carrousel, Pont Royal (a fine stone structure
leading to the Tuileries), and those of Solférino, La Concorde,
Alexandre III. (the finest and most modern bridge in Paris, its
foundation-stone having been laid by the czar Nicholas II. in 1896),
Invalides, Alma, lena (opposite the Champ de Mars),
Passy, Grenelle and Mirabeau. The Seine has at times caused
disastrous floods in the city, as in January 1910.
NOVAK 63. PORTRAIT
OF MY WIFE
VILMA (= Vilma Kracekova): See note Novak 46.
 |
Vilma Kracikova. * 3 january 1882 - † Prague
4 january 1959.
Daughter of
Vaclav Kracik († 1912) and Eleonora Soumarova
(† ca. 1935). |
NOVAK 65.
REMINISCENCE
FROM ETAPLES: Info from 1911: Etaples
[Flemish “Stapel”] a town of French Flanders, in the department of
Pas-de-Calais, on the right bank of the estuary of the Canche [Flemish
“Kwinte”], 3 m. from the Straits of Dover, 17 m. S. of Boulogne [Flemish
"Bonen"] by rail. Pop. (1906) 5136. Etaples has a small picturesque fishing and
commercial port which enjoyed a certain importance during the middle ages.
Boat-building is carried on. There is an old church with a statue of the Virgin
much revered by the sailors. The fishing-quarter looks very Flemish. The Canche
is crossed by a bridge over 1600 ft. in length. Le Touquet, in the midst of pine
woods, and the neighbouring watering-place of Paris-Plage, 31/2 m. W. of Etaples
at the mouth of the estuary, are much frequented by English and French visitors
for golf, tennis and bathing; from here the Roman squadrons left for Brittany
(England). Etaples itself is a centre
for artists. Antiquarian discoveries in the vicinity of Etaples have led to the
conjecture that it occupies the site of the Gallo-Roman port of Quentovicus, or
Quentowic. Till the end of the 9th century this name was in use.[ At
the other side of The Channel is the English Kent]. In 841 and 844 completely
destroyed by the Vikings. In the 9th century it was called Stapulas
(=stapel-place). In 1172 a castle was built; in 1492 a treaty was signed here
between Henry VII, king of England, and Charles VIII, king of France; in 1614
dismantled. Nowadays: Etaples is together with sister-town Le Touquet
also known as "Paris-Plage", Paris Beach and host luxurious hotels and posh real
estates. Etaples is known for it's fish market.
NOVAK 66. BÂTEAUX MOUCHES IN PARIS: Les Bâteaux-Mouches: To
the first visitors to the Eiffel Tower in 1889, from high above in the
crows nest, the lantern-decked barges which ferried tourists across the Seine
looked like tiny fireflies flitting back and forth across the water. They called
them Bâteaux-Mouches then and, although now they are enormous glass-enclosed
cruisers, the name has stuck and they still ply up and down the river providing
tourists with magnificent vistas of the illuminated monuments of Paris on either
side. The boats leave every half hour until 10:30 from the Pont de l'Alma on the
Right Bank.
NOVAK 67. CANAL GRANDE IN
VENICE: See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 68. BRIDGE IN VENICE:
See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 71. SUR LE
QUAI, PARIS: See note Novak 56.
NOVAK 73. PONT
MARIE, PARIS:
See note Novak 386.
NOVAK 76. LES
GRANDS BOULEVARDS, PARIS: The great boulevards form a large area
of a circle from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Madeleine, a distance of
nearly 3 miles. They have been laid out on the side of Charles V`s walls (E. of
St Denis Gate), and on the site of those of Louis XII (in the West). Work began
on them under Louis XIV, but is particularly since the 18th century, that they
have played a fundamental part in Parisian life. In the 19th century in
particalar, their cafés, shops and theatres displayed a true Parisian picture.
The first omnibus route to run in the capital, from Madeleine to Bastille,
followed them from end to end. The East-ends of these boulevard always had
a more popular character than the West-end which was frequented by elegant
society people. Since 1918, the well-to-do have turned from these boulevards to
the Champs Elysées, but they are still very busy.
NOVAK 75.
TORRE DELL' OROLOGIO,
VENICE: See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 77. PIAZZA
DEL ERBE, VERONA: The picturesque Piazza delle Erbe
in Verona is one of the finest in Italy, which for two thousend years has
been a teeming centre of life. It was situated at the intersection of the
'Cardus Maximus' and the 'Decumanus Maximus' and was also the site of the Forum.
Round the square stand the sumptuous Palazzo Maffei (1668), flanked by the Torre
del Gardello (1370), the historic houses of the Mazzanti and the Scaligeri with
frescoes and great flowered balconies, the four-cornered tower of the Carceri
(prison) which next to the medieval Palazzo del Commune of which the facade is
neo-classical in style, and the Casa del Mercanti which was built by Alberto
della Scala (1301). In the centre of the piazza are a small Gothic building
which bears the coats of arms of the Visconti, a 16th-century tribune or
berline dei Podesta, St Mark's column (1523) and (most beautiful of all) the
Fountain of the Madonna of Verona erected by Cansignorio della Scala (1368),
decorated with allegorical heads of Roman kings and emperors and surmounted by
the Roman statue of Madonna of Verona. For more about Verena see note
Novak 50.
NOVAK 78.
TRAGHETTO IN VENICE: In Venice a typical and fast
way to travel from one side to the other of the city is the "Traghetto",
a public service by gondola to cross the Grand Canal. Normally they are located
close to the vaporetto boat-stop , and you can recognize it from a green sign
which says "Traghetto". The main ferry-gondola points are: Railway station
(morning only), Rialto Market (all day long) Rialto Riva del Vin (morning only),
S.Tomà (all day long), Ca' Rezzonico (morning only ), S. Marco (morning only).
Transportation in Venice means transportation by water. Everything in the city
is moved either by boat or on foot. No cars are allowed and you won't see any
bicycles or mopeds, except on Lido. For more about Venice see note Novak 8.
NOVAK 79. LAGOON IN VENICE:
See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 80.
ANTIQUE HORSES AT SAINT
MARCO, VENICE: See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 84.
ARCADE
IN UHELNY TRH: See note Novak 124.
NOVAK 88. JELENI
PRIKOP AND HRADCANY:
NOVAK 89. RIVA
DEGLI SCHIAVONI, VENICE: See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 91. VENETIAN
ALLEY AT NIGHT: See note Novak 8.
NOVAK 92.
BOOK-STALLS IN PARIS: See note Novak 56.
NOVAK 93. ARC DE
TRIOMPHE, PARIS: In the middle of the
Place Charles de Gaulle, at the border of the 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissement
stands the Arc de Triomphe (arch of triumph). It was commissioned by
Napoleon 18 February 1806 to commemorate his victories, but he was ousted before
the arch was completed. In fact, it wasn't completed until 1836 during the reign
of Louis-Philippe. The Arc de Triomphe is engraved with names of generals who
commanded French troops during Napoleon's regime.
The 50 meters high arch,
designed by Jean Chalgrin, is adorned with many reliefs, most of them
commemorating previous battles. Among them are the battle of Abukir, Napoleons
victory over the Turkish and the Battle of Austerlitz, where Napoleon defeated
the Austrians. The best known relief is the Departure of the Volunteers in 1792,
also known as the Marseillaise. At the top of the arch are 30 shields, each of
them bears the name of one of Napoleon's successful battles.
The arch also includes the Grave of the Unknown Soldiers from the first World
War.
Standing at the end of the Champs-Elysées, it is now one of the most
famous landmarks in Paris, together with the Eiffel Tower symbol of France's
capital.
Twelve
streets radiate from the circular square. The streets are named after
French military leaders. The arch features an observatory from where a great
view over Paris.
[Novak 532 has the same subject. See also note Novak 351]
NOVAK 96.
NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS IN SNOW: Notre-Dame in
Paris is one of the masterpieces of Gothic art in Western Europe.
Its stainglasses and the huge interior are really stunning artistic
experiences of mystical dimension. Located on the Cité island and
surrounded by the Seine river, Notre-Dame is a flagship in the
Parisian landscape and provides a magnificent view of the city from
the top of its towers. Proceeded by a Gallo-Roman temple to Jupiter,
a Christian basilica, and a Romanesque church, construction of
Notre-Dame de Paris began in 1163 during the reign of Louis
VII. Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone. The idea to
replace the Romanesque church occupying the site - the Cathedral of
St. Etienne (founded by Childebert in 528) - was that of Bishop
Maurice de Sully (who died in 1196). (Some accounts claim that there
were two churches existing on the site, one to the Virgin Mary, the
other to St. Stephen.) Construction was completed roughly 200 years
later in about 1345.
The choir was completed in
1182; the nave in 1208, and the west front and towers circa 1225-1250. A
series of chapels were added to the nave during the period 1235-50, and
during 1296-1330 to the apse (Pierre de Chelles and Jean Ravy). The transept
crossings were build in 1250-67 by Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil
(also the architect of the Sainte-Chapelle). It was essentially completed
according to the original plans.
The reigns of Louis XIV (end of the
17th century) and Louis XV saw significant alterations including the
destruction of tombs, and stained glass.
At the end of the 18th century,
during the Revolution, many of the treasures of the cathedral were either
destroyed or plundered. Only the great bells avoided being melted down, and
the Cathedral was dedicated first to the cult of Reason, and to the cult of
the Supreme being. The church interior was used as a warehouse for the
storage of forage and food. |
After falling into disrepair, a
restoration program overseen by Lassus (died 1857) and Viollet-le-Duc, was
carried out in 1845. This program lasted 23 years, and included the construction
of the spire and the sacristy. During the Commune of 1871, the Cathedral was
nearly burned by the Communards - and some accounts suggest that indeed a huge
mound of chairs was set on fire in its interior. Whatever happened, the Notre
Dame survived the Commune essentially unscathed.
In 1991, a 10 year program
of general maintenance and restoration had begun.
Notre-Dame is 130 meters
long, 48 meters wide and 35 meters high. Its pillars have a diameter of up
to 5 meters and its rose windows 10 meters. The twin towers culminate 69
meters and 386 stairs above the ground. The south tower houses the 13 tons
Emmanuel bell.
During its history, Notre Dame has been the site of
numerous official and other ceremonial occasions. These include:
1239:
The Crown of Thorns placed in the Cathedral by St. Louis during the
construction of Sainte-Chapelle.
1302: Philip the Fair opens the
first States General here.
1430: Henri VI of England is crowned
here. Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France after her marriage to François II,
and is crowned here.
1572: Marguerite of Valois is married to the
Huguenot Henri of Navarre here.
2 December 1804: After the
anointment by Pius VII, Napoléon seizes the crown from the pontiff and
crowns first himself, then Josephine.
26 August 1944: The Te Deum
Mass celebrates the liberation of Paris.
12 November 1970; The Requiem Mass of General de Gaulle is held
here. 31 May 1980: After the Magnificat of this day, Pope John
Paul II celebrates Mass on the parvis in front of the Cathedral. |
NOVAK 98. OLD PASSERELLE DE
L`ESTACADE IN WINTER:
| The French word ‘estacade’
means a structure to facilitatesecuring alongside a river or canal
bank. A 'passerelle' is a small bridge. The
Passerelle de l’Estacade over de Seine in Paris, between the Ile St
Louis and the right bank, was constructed in 1818 in order give the boats a
shelter against the ice in winter. It was destroyed during
the flood of January 1910. But only in 1938 it was demolished
definitive.It was one of the three
bridges for foot passengers only (the others were the Pont des Arts and the
Passerelle Debilly, close to the Trocadéro). |
NOVAK 99. PORTE
SAINT-MARTIN, PARIS:
NOVAK 102. CARNIVAL
IN PARIS: In Novak`s original Czech catalogue
this work of art is wrongly called Mi-Carême, in English Mid-Lent.
Lent is the penitential season preceding Easter,
observed with forty days of fast in memory of Christ's forty days of
fast in the desert. Lent consists of forty weekdays and six Sundays.
The name is derived from the Middle English Lente, and refers to the
lengthening of the daylight hours.
The Schema of Septuagesima
& Lent; the progression of Lent can be understood as follows:
Pre-Lent:
Septuagesima Sunday. Exile and the need for
asceticism. (Depositio of the Alleluia the night before.) Third
Sunday before Lent
Sexagesima Sunday. The perils of exile (persecution)
and the fruits of asceticism (the Word being sown into our hearts).
Second Sunday before Lent
Shrovetide. The three days before Ash
Wednesday, which was once a time for confession and absolution.
Thursday after Sexagesima: Carnival
Quinquagesima Sunday
(Carnival, or Shrove Sunday). "We are going up to Jerusalem" -- a
setting of the stage for the pilgrimage of Lent, and the one thing
we must bring with us: charity.
Shrove Monday. Monday before Ash
Wednesday. Also called Rose Monday. In Denmark, today is called
Fastelavn. In Germany and Austria today coincides with Fasching (or
Feast of Fools).
Shrove Tuesday. Day before Ash Wednesday. Today
is the last day of Shrovetide, and a time of merrymaking before
Lent. Also known as Mardi Gras.
Lent:
Ash Wednesday.
The solemn season begins with a reminder of our mortality and our
profound need for repentance and conversion. 46 days before Easter.
The Day of Ashes, is the first day of Lent, occurring forty days
before Easter not counting Sundays. The ancient custom on this day
is for the faithful to receive on the forehead the sign of a cross
marked with blessed ashes. The palms from the previous Palm Sunday
are burned and the ashes are blessed for the ceremony before the
Mass.
First Sunday of Lent. The model for our fasting, Christ in
the desert, and the kinds of temptations we can expect to encounter.
Commemorates the restoration of the use of icons in the church (842
AD), and the triumph over all heresies.
Lenten Embertide
(Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday). See Ember Days, etc.
Second
Sunday of Lent. As Paul exhorts us to keep up our progress, we hear
the story of the Transfiguration as a heartening foretaste of
Christ's ultimate triumph.
Third Sunday of Lent. Christ again
foreshadows His victory (this time over the devil), but as we move
closer to Passiontide, He also hints at the way in which this will
be done.
Mid-Lent:
Wednesday before Laetare Sunday:
beginning of Mid-Lent.
Fourth Sunday of Lent (a.k.a. Laetare, or
Mid-Lent Sunday). A note of joy is struck, for having died to sin
with Christ during Lent, we will rise again with Him and be part of
His mystical Body, the Church which is the new Jerusalem. Thus the
Introit: "Rejoice, Jerusalem."
Wednesday after Laetare Sunday:
end of Mid-Lent.
Passiontide:
(First) Passion Sunday. The
Jews' growing hatred of Christ recorded in today's Gospel makes
plain His imminent death. Fifth Sunday in Lent. Two weeks before
Easter. Also known as Judica.
Friday after Passion Sunday: Feast
of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A special
commemoration, one week before Good Friday, of Mary's com-passion
for (literally, "suffering with") Her innocent son.
(Second
Passion or) Palm Sunday. Christ's triumphant entrance into Jerusalem
and the account of His Passion according to St. Matthew.
Holy
Week:
Monday of Holy Week. The Gospel for the Mass gives an
account of Judas' character, foreshadowing his act of betrayal.
Tuesday of Holy Week. The account of Christ's Passion according to
St. Mark.
Spy Wednesday. The account of Christ's Passion
according to St. Luke during the daily Mass; and the nocturnal
office of Tenebrae, a sustained reflection on the treachery of
Judas, the privation of holiness, and the need for conversion.
Maundy Thursday. A celebration of the institution of the Eucharist
and the priesthood.
Good Friday. A mournful commemoration of the
death of our Lord.
Holy Saturday. During the morning and
afternoon, a mournful remembrance of our Lord in the tomb.
Pre-Lenten Customs:
1. The Depositio. As Septuagesima (Latin
for "seventy") is seventy days before Easter, it typologically
commemorates the seventy years of exile spent by the Jews in
Babylon. As Psalm 136 attests, God's chosen people did not deem it
fit to sing their joyous songs from Sion during the Babylonian
exile, and neither do Catholics during theirs. The joyful "Alleluia"
is thus laid to rest for seventy days until it rises again in the
Easter Vigil. As mentioned elsewhere, this dismissal, or depositiio,
of the Alleluia can take place formally in a special ceremony. After
the Saturday office of None or at some point of the afternoon on the
day before Septuagesima Sunday, the choir gathers in the church
where it carries a plaque or banner bearing the word "Alleluia"
through the church as it sings the touching hymn, "Alleluia, dulce
carmen" (part of which is quoted elsewhere). It is then solemnly
"buried" in some place in the church. In the Middle Ages this
procession could become quite elaborate. Sometimes the "Alleluia"
plaque would be in the shape of a coffin, while in parts of France,
a straw man with the word "Alleluia" was even burned in effigy in
the churchyard. A simpler ceremony based on the same principles,
however, can easily be held in one's home or parish.
2. Voluntary
Fasting. As mentioned elsewhere, it was customary for some
Christians to voluntarily begin fasting in preparation for the Great
Fast of Lent. Their fasts would become progressively more ascetic,
culminating in the abstinence of meat beginning on the Thursday
before Ash Wednesday. The name for this period, which ends the day
before Ash Wednesday, is "Carnival," from the Latin carne levarium,
meaning "removal of meat."
3. Shrovetide. It might sound odd that
during the period of "Carnival" there occurs some of the most
decadent feasting of the liturgical year. There is, however, a pious
(if not somewhat convoluted) logic behind this consumption. Because
not only meat but lacticinia (dairy products) were originally
prohibited during Lent, Christians knew that they had to eat these
foods before Ash Wednesday or they would spoil. The last days before
Lent were thus spent in eating copious amounts of fat dishes. From
this necessity comes England's famous Shrove Tuesday Pancakes and
northern England's Collop Monday (a collop is made of sliced meat
and eggs fried in butter). This also gave rise to the most famous
(or infamous, depending on your point of view) Christian party of
all: Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday," is the French
celebration of the final day before Lent. In the USA it is
associated mostly with the Cajun and Creole cuisine of New Orleans,
two culinary traditions that provide a myriad of spicy, delicious
dishes. One of the more interesting customs of the New Orleans Mardi
Gras is the baking of a King's Cake, in which is placed a small doll
of the Infant Jesus. The person whose piece of cake has the doll
must provide the cake for next year's party.
4. Forty Hours'
Devotion. Because the Shrovetide celebrations became prone to excess
and scandal, Pope Benedict XIV instituted in 1748 the Forty Hours of
Carnival, especially in those areas prone to such reveling. During
this devotion the Blessed Sacrament is exposed during the day and
Benediction held in the evening.
Lenten Customs & Observances:
1. The Great Fast: Of all the observances of Lent, the chief among
these is the Great Fast. So intertwined are the two, in fact, that
the Fathers of the Church sometimes used the terms interchangeably.
This solemn obligation is believed to be of Apostolic origin and
takes its precedent, as we mentioned above, from the examples of
Moses, Elias, and Jesus Christ. The Great Fast used to consist of
both abstinence and fasting. Christians were expected to abstain not
only from flesh meat, but from all things that come from flesh, e.g.
milk, cheese, eggs, and butter. Eastern rite Christians still
observe this practice, while the Western church gradually kept only
abstinence from meat (reference to all lacticinia, or "milk foods"
was dropped in the 1919 Roman Code of Canon Law). Both East and
West, however, agree on the importance of fasting. Originally this
meant taking only one meal a day, though the practice was modified
over the centuries. The preconciliar practice in the U.S. was for
all able-bodied Catholics ages 21 to 60 to have one full meal a day
which could include meat, and two meatless meals which together
could not equal one full meal. Snacking between meals was
prohibited, though drinking was not. Ash Wednesday, Fridays and the
Ember Days were days of total abstinence from meat, while Sundays
were completely exempted from all fasting and abstaining. The idea
behind the Great Fast -- as well as other periods of fasting -- is
that by weakening the body it is made more obedient to the soul,
thereby liberating the soul to contemplate higher things. St.
Augustine gives perhaps the best example: if you have a particularly
high-spirited horse, you train it at the times when it is too weak
to revolt. It is our opinion that this venerable practice should
still be taken seriously. Even though current ecclesiastical law has
reduced the fast from forty days to two and eliminated the
thirty-three days of partial abstinence, this does not mean that
observing the Great Fast is not salubrious or praiseworthy. This
said, however, the Great Fast should not be adhered to
legalistically. In the words of St. John Chrysostom: "If your body
is not strong enough to continue fasting all day, no wise man will
reprove you; for we serve a gentle and merciful Lord who expects
nothing of us beyond our strength."
2. Other Forms of Asceticism.
Since Lent recapitulates time spent in the desert, other forms of
asceticism have accrued to its observance. Unessential travel and
diversion are discouraged. In former times, certain forms of
entertainment, such as live theatre and secular music, were banned,
as was the holding of court. Weddings were also forbidden in the
early Church; even after this changed, the Solemn Nuptial Blessing
could not be given during a Lenten wedding. Finally, married couples
were once admonished to abstain from conjugal relations during this
time (as they were admonished to do during all solemn fasts and
feasts). Again, the principle is the same: withdrawal from the
preoccupations of the flesh in order to focus on the spirit.
3.
Good Works. Lent is traditionally considered a particularly good
time for performing corporal works of mercy (e.g., almsgiving,
peacemaking, etc.). The importance of supplementing ascetical denial
with active virtues is underscored in the Gospel for the Third
Sunday of Lent (Luke 11.14-28), in which a man who has had a demon
exorcized from him later becomes repossessed by the demon and seven
other unclean spirits. Christ's point seems to be that holy
practices such as fasting do indeed remove bad things from one's
soul, but this is ultimately to no avail if the soul is not then
filled with good things. This understanding is also operative in the
Collect for the First Sunday of Lent: " O God, who by the yearly
Lenten observance dost purify Thy Church, grant to Thy household
that what they strive to obtain from Thee by abstinence, they may
achieve by good works".
4. Mourning& Veiling. Akin to the
asceticism of Lent is its mournful tone. The Church is traditionally
draped in purple or black, its organ silenced, and its altar bereft
of any flowers. At home medieval Catholics would avoid frivolity or
hilarity, and would wear black during either Holy Week or Good
Friday. There is a special mourning custom that also begins on
Passion Sunday and ends when the Gloria is sung during the Easter
Vigil Mass: covering all sacred images (crucifixes, statues, etc.)
with purple cloth in both church and home. This might seem
counterintuitive, since one would expect to gaze at a crucifix more
during the season when the Passion is being considered. Yet the
Roman rite teaches by absence as well as by presence. In an odd way,
being denied access to the sacred images alerts you to their
presence all the more, in the same way that not having the sacrifice
of the Mass on the one day you would expect it the most, i.e., Good
Friday, makes one all the more aware of the Sacrifice that took
place on that day. Covering sacred images also adds immensely to the
sense of sorrow and compunction that should naturally accompany this
sombre period.
5. Confession and Holy Communion. One of the
Precepts of the Church is to receive the sacraments of Penance and
Holy Communion at least once a year, during Lent or Paschal tide. As
mentioned above, Catholics once dedicated the three days prior to
Lent as a special time to go to confession. Shrovetide arose from
the desire to prepare for the holy asceticism of the Great Fast.
Once Lent begins, however, confession should still be sought out:
since Lent is a time for frequent and frank examinations of
conscience, confession is a sacrament that should be liberally taken
advantage of during this time.
6. Stations of the Cross. Though
technically only the last fourteen days of Lent explicitly consider
the sufferings of our Lord, the Stations of the Cross (a.k.a. the
Way of the Cross) have long been a popular Lenten devotion for any
or all of the forty days (though they tend to be done on Fridays).
These fourteen scenes from the via dolorosa, the sorrowful path that
Christ took while carrying His cross to Golgotha, help direct one's
heart to the mysterium fidei of our Lord's selfless sacrifi.
7.
Mid-Lent Customs. Mid-Lent, the week from the Wednesday before to
the Wednesday after Laetare Sunday, is a note of joy within the
context of sorrow. The perfect symbol of this complex emotion is the
rose vestments worn on Laetare Sunday instead of penitential purple
or exultant white. Rose stands somewhere in between, as a sort of
joyous variation of purple. The last day of Mid-Lent is when
catechumens would learn the Apostles' Creed for the first time; the
days leading up to that great revelation were thus for them a cause
for gladness. This spirit eventually permeated to the rest of the
community as "a measure of consoling relaxation... so that the
faithful might not break down under the severe strains of the Lenten
fast but may continue to bear the restrictions with a refreshed and
easier heart" (Pope Innocent III (d. 1216)). Mid-Lent customs
predominantly involve pre-Christian celebrations concerning the
"burial" of winter, where flower decorations and the like betoken
the joyous end of the cold and dark. There are also customs
involving either matchmaking or announcing the engagements of young
couples. In either case, a joyous meal is celebrated during this
time.
In England Laetare Sunday came to be known as "Mothering"
Sunday because it was the day that apprentices and students were
released from their duties to visit their mother church, i.e., the
church in which they had been baptized and brought up. This custom
tied into the theme of Mother Jerusalem
8. Passiontide Customs.
The main custom for Passiontide, as mentioned above, is the veiling
of all sacred images in home and church with purple cloth. This
custom originated in ancient times, when the images in the papal
chapel of the Vatican were covered after the words of the Passion
Sunday Gospel, "Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple" (Jn
8.59), were pronounced.
9. Holy Week Customs. Spring Cleaning.
Just as the Hebrews cleaned and swept the whole house in preparation
for the Pasch (Passover), so too is there an ancient custom in
Christianity that the first three weekdays of Holy Week be a time
for the year's most thorough cleaning. Everything is to be scrubbed
and polished, and all work is to be completed by Wednesday evening
(in time for Tenebrae).
Attending Tenebrae. Tenebrae
consists of the divine office of Matins and Lauds for Maundy
Thursday. It is generally held on the night of "Spy Wednesday" of
Holy Week, so-called because it is believed to be the night on which
Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord. The service thus explores the
nature of Judas' betrayal, the mental anguish of our suffering Lord,
and the desecration of what was once holy and beautiful. Its
ceremonies include the use of a "hearse," a triangular candelabrum
that holds fifteen candles which are successively existinguished
during the liturgy until the entire church is enveloped in darkness.
Only one candle remains lit at the end, which is hidden by the
Epistle side of the altar before the Miserere is chanted. The
service concludes with a banging noise, followed by silence. The
extinction of the fourteen candles calls to mind the fourteen holy
men mentioned in the Bible who, from the foundation of the world to
the very threshold of Christ's coming, were slain by their own
wicked brethren. The hiding of the fifteenth candle, on the other
hand, signifies the murder and resurrection of Christ Himself, while
the banging noise commemorates the confusion of nature when its
Creator died (Mt. 27.51).
Attending Maundy Thursday Mass.
There were originally three separate Masses for Maundy Thursday. The
first, no longer in use, is the Mass of Remission, whereby the
public penitents who had been doing special penance during Lent were
received back into the Church. The second is the Chrism Mass, when
the bishop blesses the holy oils to be used for the year. The third
is the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, in which the Church
celebrates the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. The
special ceremonies for this exultant Mass (the Gloria returns and
white vestments are used) include the priest's washing the feet of
twelve men, the removal of the Eucharist to the Altar of Repose, and
the stripping of the altars.
The Last Supper. The Maundy
Thursday Vigil. After the Blessed Sacrament is "laid to rest" in a
special tabernacle on the Altar of Repose, it is customary for the
church to stay open all night and for private devotion to take
place. A variation of this custom is to visit seven such shrines
during the night in imitation of the Sette Chiese of the Roman
Stations (see Stations). This custom was quite popular in American
cities like Boston until the late 1960s. "Clean" Thursday Customs.
Because it was the day that penitents and catechumens were cleansed
of their sins (and allowed to bathe again), Maundy Thursday is known
in some parts of the world as "Clean" Thursday. The idea of
cleanliness also extended to the rest of the faithful. In a time
when bathing did not happen every day, Clean Thursday became the
occasion for thoroughly cleansing the body in preparation for
Easter.
Washing of Feet: There is also a charming legend
that after the bells are rung for the Gloria during the Mass of the
Last Supper, "they fly to Rome" where -- depending on who is telling
the story -- they either are blessed by the Pope and sleep on the
roof of St. Peter's Holy Saturday night, or are given Easter eggs to
return with them on Sunday morning.
Attending the Good Friday
Service. The sacrifice of the altar is not offered on the day
commemorating the sacrifice of the cross, and though communion may
be distributed, the faithful are discouraged from receiving it
without good reason. Instead, a mournful service is conducted. The
priest, vested in black, reads several passages from the Bible,
including the Passion account from the Gospel of John. Afterwards,
the "Solemn Prayers" or "Collects" are offered on behalf of all
classes of men, from the Church to the heathen. This is followed by
the veneration of the cross, during which time the dolorous
"Reproaches" are chanted. The service concludes with the "Mass of
the Presanctified," a solemn communion rite.
Forty Hours'
Devotion: It is traditionally believed that the duration of time
from Christ's death until His Resurrection is forty hours, from 3
p.m. on Good Friday until 7 a.m. Easter Sunday. As early as the 100s
it was customary for some of the faithful to fast and keep vigil
during this entire period.
Other Good Friday Customs. If a
devotion of forty hours could not be done, many Catholics observed
Good Friday as a day of austerity as best they could. Fasting more
than was required was common. Attending the Three Hours' Devotion,
or Seven Last Words of Christ, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. (the hours our
Lord hung upon the cross), has also been popular. Liturgically
speaking, this is a relatively new observance, begun in Peru in the
early 1700s, but it is a very effective one. An older tradition that
has lamentably been forgotten, on the other hand, is that of the
Holy Sepulchre, a special shrine set up to house either the Blessed
Sacrament or a crucifix which the faithful could visit on Good
Friday and Holy Saturday.
NOVAK 104. OLD
HARBOUR OF AMSTERDAM: The etching shows the "Damrak", the last
part of the Amstel, before it flows in `t IJ, before the Dam. Amsterdam,
city (1994 pop. 724,096), constitutional capital and largest city of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands, North Holland prov., W Netherlands, on the IJ, an inlet of
the IJsselmeer. The city derives its name from the fact that it is situated
where the small, bifurcated Amstel River (which empties into the IJ) is joined
by a sluice dam (originally built c.1240). The city is cut by about 40
concentric and radial canals that are flanked by streets and crossed by 400
bridges. The canals give the city its nickname, "Venice of the North." Because
of the underlying soft ground,
Amsterdam is built on
wooden and concrete piles. The many old and picturesque houses along the
canals, once patrician dwellings, are now mostly offices and warehouses.
The main streets of Amsterdam are the Dam, really a square, on which stand
the Nieuwe Kerk (15th-17th cent.) and the 17th-century Royal Palace
(formerly the City Hall, since 1808 Paleis op de Dam); the Damrak, with the
stock exchange (completed 1903); and the Kalverstraat and Leidschestraat,
which are the chief shopping centers. Notable buildings are the Oude Kerk
[old church], built in 1334; the weighhouse (15th cent.); the city hall
(16th cent.); and the Beguinage (Dutch Begijnenhof), or almshouses, of the
17th cent. |
An ethnically diverse city,
Amsterdam has many new residents, u.o. from former Dutch colonies,
including Indonesia and Suriname. A major port, Amsterdam is also the seat of
one of the world's chief stock exchanges, a center of the diamond-cutting
industry, and one of the great commercial, intellectual, and artistic capitals
of Europe. Its manufactures include clothing, printed materials, and metal
goods. Amsterdam is connected with the North Sea by the North Sea Canal (opened
in 1876), which can accommodate large oceangoing vessels, and by the older North
Holland Canal (opened 1824). The Amsterdam-Rhine Canal connects the city with
the Rhine delta and thus with industrial NW Germany, with which there is
considerable transit trade. Amsterdam is a major road and rail hub and is served
by nearby Schiphol airport. Tourism is an important industry.
Culture:
Rembrandt and the other Dutch masters are best represented in the world famous
Rijksmuseum, or National Museum, founded in 1808 by Louis Bonaparte. Among the
many other notable museums are the municipal museum, the Van Gogh museum, the
house of Anne Frank, and Rembrandt's house. Amsterdam is also famous for the
Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Univ. of Amsterdam, which was founded as an academy
in 1632 and achieved university status in 1876, is the largest center of
learning in the Netherlands. The city is also the site of the Free Univ. (1880;
Calvinist History: Amsterdam was chartered c.1300 and in 1369 joined the
Hanseatic League. Having accepted the Reformation, the people in 1578 expelled
the pro-Spanish magistrates and joined the independence-oriented Netherland
provinces. The commercial decline of Antwerp and Ghent and a large influx of
refugees from many nations (in particular of Flemish merchants, Jewish diamond
cutters and merchants, and French Huguenots), contributed to the rapid growth of
Amsterdam after the late 16th cent. The Peace of Westphalia (1648), by closing
the Scheldt (Escaut) to navigation, further stimulated the city's growth at the
expense of the Spanish Netherlands. Amsterdam reached its apex as an
intellectual and artistic center in the 17th cent., when, because of its
tolerant government, it became a center of liberal thought and book printing.
The city was captured by the French in 1795 and became the capital of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was ruled by Louis Bonaparte. The constitution
of 1814 made it the capital of the Netherlands; the sovereigns are usually sworn
in at Amsterdam but reside in a palace in The Hague, the seat of government.
During World War II Amsterdam was occupied by German troops (1940-45) and
suffered severe hardship. Most of the city's Jews (c.75,000 in 1940) were
deported and killed by the Germans. Since the 1960s Amsterdam has become known
for political and social activism.
[Novak 116, 117, 182, 212, 239 and 326
depict Amsterdam, too.]
NOVAK 106.
FIRST FLIGHT OF THE AEROPLANE, PARIS: December
17, 1903: the Wright Brothers make history as the first to fly a powered
aircraft. With Orville Wright at the controls, the Wright Flyer stays aloft for
12 seconds, covering a distance of 120 feet. Three more flights take place at
Kitty Hawk that day, the longest lasting 59 seconds and covering 852 feet
October 23, 1906: Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont makes the first
successful European airplane flight. His plane, the 14bis, flies a distance of
about 200 feet in Paris. With many sceptical of the Wright Brothers'
flights, Santos-Dumont is hailed at the time as the first to fly.
January
13, 1908: In a field near Paris, Henry Farman becomes the first to
officially fly a one-kilometre circular course, the world's longest distance at
the time. Farman's plane was created by pioneering French aircraft designers
Gabriel and Charles Voisin.
July 4, 1908: Piloting his plane, the June
Bug, Glenn Curtiss wins a silver trophy and national acclaim for becoming the
first American to officially fly a distance over one kilometre. Of course,
Wilbur Wright had already flown more than 24 miles three years earlier, but his
flight over an Ohio farm was not witnessed.
August 8, 1908: The Wright
Brothers begin a series of flying demonstrations in France which amaze audiences
and bring worldwide acclaim. Far superior to European planes which could only
stay aloft for only a minute or two, the Wright Flyer in one demonstration
circled an airfield 77 times for two and a half hours.
September 17, 1908:
Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, a member of Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial
Experiment Association, becomes the first person ever killed from an airplane
crash. Selfridge was a passenger of Orville Wright's when one of the propellers
cracked at 150 feet in the air, sending the biplane nose first into the ground.
January 7, 1909: Paris; the Aéro-Club de France grants its first 15 pilots'
licenses: number 1 is Louis Blériot and number 15 is Wilbur Wright.
April
6, 1909: France; the first machine wholly designed by air pioneer Henry
Farman took to the air at Bouy, France for its initial test flight. The HF 1
biplane is the first aircraft to incorporate practical ailerons attached to the
trailing edges of the wings.
June 12, 1909: Paris; Louis Blériot
flies his Blériot XII monoplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux with two passengers,
Santos-Dumont and André Fournier. This marks the first time a pilot has flown
with two passengers.
July 13, 1909: France; flying 25.6 miles in his
Blériot XI, Louis Blériot wins the Aéro-Club's Prix du Voyage of 4,500FF.
July 25, 1909: After several failed attempts, French aviator Louis Blériot
becomes the first to fly across the English Channel. Flying his Blériot XI, he
covers the 23-mile distance in 37 minutes. Louis Blériot takes off from
Sangatte, France at 4:35am. Thirty-seven minutes later he lands his Blériot XI
monoplane at Dover, Kent, England. Louis Blériot therefore wins the £1,000 Daily
Mail prize for the first Channel crossing by airplane in daylight.
August
22 - 29, 1909: World's first international aviation meeting held at Reims,
France
Following hard on the heels of Louis Blériot's successful crossing of
the English Channel, the first ever international aviation meeting was organised
at Rheims in August 1909. The event was sponsored by the great French champagne
houses, such as Bolinger and Mumm, and so the venue was in the heart of the
Champagne region of France. It was also partly inspired by Henry Farman's
historic cross-country flight the year before from Bouy to Rheims. The 'Great
Week of Aviation' was intended to be a showcase of man's conquest of the air and
progress in aeronautics. There would be display flights, record attempts and
races. Public interest in aviation was at fever pitch during the summer of 1909
and so the meeting was eagerly anticipated. A rectangular course of 10 km (6
miles) was marked out on a large plain near the village of Bétheny, 5 km (3
miles) from Rheims, and grandstands, public enclosures and aircraft sheds were
erected. The stands could hold 5,000 and included a restaurant that could seat
600 diners at a time. The course was marked by tall pylons at each corner, and a
take-off area was designated in front of the sheds so that the aeroplanes could
become airborne before they joined the course. Special trains were laid on to
bring the crowds of spectators from Paris. Some 38 aeroplanes were entered for
the competitions to be held over the week, which included speed, distance and
altitude contests. The most prestigious competition, however, would be the first
race for the Gordon Bennett International Aviation Cup. This was to be an annual
competition in which pilots would represent their countries in a speed trial
over 20 km. The pilots included some of the most famous French aviators, such as
Blériot, Farman and Latham, but Wilbur and Orville Wright (who were in Europe)
declined to participate in such 'amusements'. It fell to Glen Curtiss to
represent the USA in the Gordon Bennett competition. Six Wright Flyers were
present, though, with two being flown by Paul Tissandier and the Comte de
Lambert, who were pupils of Wilbur. Alberto Santos-Dumont was due to appear at
Rheims with his Demoisellebut was unable to attend. Captain Ferber, who was a
serving army officer, was forced to fly under the pseudonym of "Monsieur de Rue"
in order to satisfy his superiors. George Cockburn, a Scot and founding member
of the Aero Club of Great Britain, was the only British pilot at the meeting.
The Meeting opened on Sunday 22 August and ran for eight days until Sunday 29
August 1909. Pilots were required to fly between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. - when
the public enclosures would be fullest - but this meant that there could be no
competitive flying during the periods of the day when the wind was calmest: just
after dawn and at dusk. In 1909 most pilots favoured flying in a dead calm if at
all possible, and so in recognition of this the organising committee arranged a
system of coloured flags to indicate to the public whether they were likely to
see flying on any given day. A black flag meant that the wind was too strong for
any flying; a white flag meant that flying was possible; and a red flag meant
that aeroplanes had already flown or were in the air. The flags were sited along
the road to Bétheny and in the town of Rheims itself. The meeting was
unanimously agreed to have been a great success. So it had been, and it had left
its mark on the public consciousness. Despite the many forced landings, the
memorable flights that had been made were truly impressive. Farman's flight of
112 miles on the Friday, Curtiss' battle with Blériot in the Gordon Bennett Cup,
and Latham's altitude record all demonstrated that aviation was past its
experimental phase. This was also the event that triggered 19-year-old Roland
Garros's decision to give up the piano and become a pilot. In addition, there
was a 9-year-old present among the participants who was initiated into the
thrills and adventure of aviation. His name was Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The
Channel crossing had been no lucky fluke. The range of aeroplanes was not
limited to 22 miles. In fact, if progress continued at this rate there was no
limit to what might be achieved. Quite suddenly, airships had started to look
rather slow and flimsy. The aeroplane was beginning to look like the future.
August 28, 1909: France; Hubert Latham, who came in second to Henry Farman
in the distance race at Reims with a 96-mile flight, had the crowd gasping when
he soared to a new record altitude of 512-feet in his monoplane, the 1909
Lavavasseur "Antoinette VII", and carrying off a 10,000FF prize
France
possessed a community of wealthy investors and industrialists, like oil magnate
Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe and Andre Michelin, who were dedicated to the
development of aviation. These patrons were clustered around the Aero-Club de
France, an organization that could focus their efforts. They realized that
progress required financial incentives, and they opened their purses
accordingly. In 1908-1909, for example, French pilots won $200,000 in prize
money, most of it contributed by French patrons. By 1914, the Aero-Club was
offering prizes worth $500,000, a princely sum for the period. By themselves,
patrons, no matter how generous, could have done little to promote the cause of
aviation. But France also had a critical mass of talented aircraft designers,
many of them scientifically trained.
25th September 1909: French
president Fallieres inaugurated the first international aeronautics salon at the
Grand Palais in Paris, 318 of the 333 exhibitors were French. In only
three days, 10,000 visitors flocked to see the exhibit. The Bleriot XI flown in
the English Channel crossing was on display at the main entrance.
NOVAK 110. SHIP WITH
MELONS, VENICE: See about Venice note Novak 8.
About
Melons and Cantaloupes: True cantaloupes are not netted, have deep grooves,
a hard warty rind, and orange or green flesh. These are grown only in Europe
where the population easily makes the distinction between muskmelons and
cantaloupes. Muskmelons that most Americans call cantaloupes have a distinct
netted or webbed rind.
Food historians have been befuddled when it comes to
determining the exact origin of the melon. Some say it was in Persia that the
melon was first eaten; others say Afghanistan while still other historians
pinpoint Armenia. Cantaloupes were cultivated in Egypt and across to Iran and
Northwest India dating as far back to Biblical times, about 2400 BCE. Egyptian
paintings dating back to that period include fruits that are identified as
melons. In the ancient world no distinction was made between melons that were
netted, such as the cantaloupe, or non-netted, as in the honeydew. When Moses
led the Hebrew people into the desert where they wandered for 40 years, one of
the foods they craved was melons, possibly a variety of cantaloupe. In Numbers
11:5 the Hebrews remembered, "the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the
cucumbers, and the melons." In the Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic completed about
2000 BCE, the hero, a Babylonian king named for the poem, ate "cassia melons," a
name indicating the fruit had a spicy aromatic flavor. The Assyrians were well
acquainted with melons. They grew them in the garden of King Merodach-Baladan.
In the city of Ur a resident named Ur-Nammu planted them in his garden as well.
The fruits are depicted on the festive tables of several Assyrian bas reliefs,
though it is unclear whether they are cantaloupes. Melons are also listed in an
Assyrian Herbal. A Middle Eastern proverb states, "He who fills his stomach with
melons is like he who fills it with light--there is baraka (a blessing) in
them." All throughout the Middle East, dried and roasted melon seeds have long
been a favorite snack. Between 200 to100 BCE, even the Chinese royalty were
enjoying melon seeds. In a more recent archeological site discovered in 1973, a
perfectly preserved female body was found in the province of Hunan in a nested
coffin that was buried sixty feet deep. Melon seeds were found in her esophagus,
stomach, and intestines. The woman was identified as the wife of the Marquis of
Tai during the Han dynasty, pinpointing the date at about 125 BCE. In the first
century CE, Pliny, The Elder, a Roman naturalist and writer, wrote about a plant
called melopepo that grows on a vine that does not hang like the cucumber, but
rather lies on the ground. He describes its fruit as spherical and yellowish and
even notes that it detaches easily from the stem--all qualities that describe
the cantaloupe. At the foot of Mt. Vesuvius in ancient Sicily a wall painting
depicting melons cut in half was discovered in the city Herculaneum. This city,
close to Pompeii, was buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 CE but many treasures
were found practically unharmed. Galen, a second century Greek physician,
discusses the medical benefits of melons in his writings. About the third
century CE, the Romans were importing their melons from Armenia. These were not
the large, weighty melons we know today, rather they were about the size of
oranges. Some people were also growing the melons, since there were Roman
manuals that gave specific directions on their cultivation. Apicius, Ancient
Rome's first cookbook author, included melons in his Imperial cuisine. These
were eaten raw, while gourds, also considered melons, were cooked. Charlemagne
was one who appreciated new fruits and vegetables and continually added new
cultivars to his garden. About 800 CE, melons were a new addition to his royal
gardens. He probably discovered them in Spain where they were planted a century
before by the Moors. In spite of Charlemagne's love of this fruit, melons didn't
become popular in France until much later. En route to China, sometime around
1254 to 1324 CE, Marco Polo traveled to the city of Shibarghan in Afghanistan.
There he found what he considered "the best melons in the world in very great
quantity which they dry in this manner: they cut them all around in slices like
strips of leather, then put them in the sun to dry, when they become sweeter
than honey. And you must know that they are an article of commerce and find a
ready sale through all the country around." Albertus Magnus, European writer of
thirteenth century, clearly describes the watermelon and the pepo, a term used
by Europeans to refer to the cantaloupe. When the Roman Empire collapsed, Italy
no longer received shipments of melons from Asia Minor. Historians tell us it
wasn't until about the fourteenth century that melons returned to Italy, still
in their orange-size portions. At that point the Italians took their cultivation
seriously, and melons began to expand in size and weight.
During the
fifteenth century, cantaloupes were growing in popularity in the southern part
of Spain. Melon seeds were brought in by the Arabs who settled in Andalusia.
From there they were introduced to the New World on Columbus's second voyage in
1493 when he took melon seeds to Haiti. One of his journal entries dated 1494,
records that he found cantaloupes growing in the Galapagos from a planting only
two months prior. The Indians of Central and South America were delighted to
discover a new fruit and eagerly adopted cantaloupes into their cultivated
gardens. By the1600's cataloupes were grown in North America from Florida to New
England, but the melons did not attain popular acceptance until the 19th
century. It was not until after the Civil War, which ended in 1865, that
cantaloupes became a major crop in United States. Sometime during the sixteenth
century, melon seeds from Armenia were planted in the Papal gardens of
Cantaloupo, a city near Tivoli close to Rome. According to historians,
cantaloupes acquired their name here where this species was first grown in
Europe.
In the seventeenth century, melons were becoming a popular fruit in
France and Italy, but could only be grown in the southern regions, and then only
under glass to capture enough warmth for them to mature. At that time the French
were referring to melons as "sucrins," meaning sugar. Charles Estienne, printer
and publisher, reveals the secret of success to growing sweet melons. He says,
"gardeners watered them with honeyed or sweetened water." Even Jean de la
Quintinie, gardener to Louis XIV, planted seven varieties of melons under glass.
In the mid1800's Navahos in the United States Southwest were growing cantaloupes
whose seeds probably arrived via Latin America. On a trip to Armenia some time
during the1900's, British novelist Michael Arlen learned it was the Armenians
who introduced the casaba melon into California. That variety of melon acquired
its name from the city of Kasaba, in Turkey, where it was also cultivated. On
France's 1881 official records, the Netted Gem, our familiar cantaloupe, was
first exported to the United States. It wasn't until 1895 that commercial
production of the cantaloupe actually began, surprisingly, in the state of
Colorado. We can also thank the French for the bringing us the honeydew melon
about 1900, a variety they called White Antibes winter melon.
Today,
cantaloupes grown in California come from one of two regions: the Imperial
Valley and the San Joaquin Valley. In the Imperial Valley, a more desert-like
area, the melons are planted in December through March. In the San Joaquin
Valley, in Central California, plantings begin in February and continue through
July. Between these two areas, local cantaloupes are available from May through
October.
Cantaloupes in Many Cultures:
In the United States,
cantaloupes are eaten uncooked, often as dessert or as part of a fruit cup
presented as an appetizer. In the Orient, melons are commonly cooked and eaten
as vegetables; however, these are not the sweet varieties familiar to cantaloupe
and honeydew fanciers. The Chekiang melon is one variety grown from Thailand to
Southeast China. Pickled, this melon keeps for several months and serves as a
tasty condiment. Dried melon seeds are a common snack in Central and South
America, China, as well as the Middle East from Iran to Egypt.
One of
Apicius's recipes describes raw melons served with a sauce of "pepper,
pennyroyal, honey or condensed must, broth and vinegar. Once in a while one adds
silphium." Silphium is possibly asafoetida, an herb used in the cuisine of
India. Some people sprinkle their cantaloupes with salt and pepper, others add a
dash of powdered ginger. Citrus lovers feel that a sprinkle of lemon or lime
juice adds a definitive enhancement to the cantaloupe.
Melon's Medicinal
Benefits : Medieval alchemists claimed that melons "promoted blood
moderately, and suited phlegmatic and bilious temperaments." It was said that
they relieved "the pain of calculi and cleansed the skin, but caused flux from
the belly which could be treated with syrup of vinegar." A Chinese herbal claims
that sweet melons cool fevers, moisten the lungs, and benefit the urine. In
addition, the seeds will clear phlegm and benefit the intestines. Sweet melons
are also prescribed to relieve tuberculosis cough, and constipation. For a
toothache caused by wind and heat, take six grams of melon skin, add water and
steam till cooked. When cool, use as a mouth rinse. Cantaloupes may be helpful
to people with heart disease because they contain an anticoagulant called
adenosine. With their very high beta carotene content, cantaloupes rank high as
an anticarcinogenic food. Abundant in potassium, cantaloupes may be beneficial
for those with high blood pressure. Because of their high water content, they
serve as a diuretic.
Growing: The term muskmelon crops up often when
referring to cantaloupes. Historically, the cantaloupes grown in the United
States were called muskmelons. However, today, growers in the U.S. use both
words interchangeably.
Cantaloupes are the melons that mature in late spring
and early summer and are netted with green and yellow rinds.
Late summer
maturing, specialty melons referred to as winter melons, include casaba,
crenshaw, Christmas, and canary varieties.
The
scientific name for cantaloupe is Cucumis melo with seven different
botanical variations. The Reticulatus variation is our familiar cantaloupe.
Others in the cantaloupe group are the Galia, Persian, and Charentais.
Cantaloupensis, the true cantaloupe, has a completely different appearance and
is only grown in Europe.
Cucumis melo var inodoras referred to as Winter
Melons, are those that mature in late summer. These include casaba, crenshaw,
Christmas, canary and honeydew melons. Cantaloupes are also members of the
Curcurbit (Curcurbitaceae) family that includes watermelons, squashes, pumpkins,
gourds, and cucumbers. The curcurbit family members can readily cross-pollinate
with other varieties of that same family, so farmers are careful to keep them
apart. To explain, if you have planted two varieties of cucumbers close
together, bees may carry pollen from one to the other. You won't see anything
unique in that planting season. However, if you save the seeds from those plants
and plant them the following year, you may discover a strange looking cucumber
or two.
Cantaloupes, called vine crops, thrive in hot and even humid regions.
Since they are heat loving, you can imagine they are very frost sensitive. Most
melons are annuals, though a few are perennials.
Botanically, the melon
family is a pepo, a more European term, with many variations on a theme. The
salad members of this family include cucumbers. Cooking members include pumpkins
and squashes. Dessert members include watermelon, muskmelons, honeydews, and
cantaloupes.
Our familiar cantaloupe, or muskmelon, was developed by W. Altee
Burpee Company in 1881. Because of its very netted rind, the cantaloupe earned
the variety name of Netted Gem
Today, California grows 70% of the U.S.
muskmelon crop, with Texas and Arizona second and third in production.
Muskmelons produce two kinds of flowers, "perfect flowers" that have both male
and female parts, and staminate flowers that have only male parts. The vines
produce large, attractive flowers that last only one day.
Pollination by bees
is a must for fruit to set. Most melon growers will have one or two honeybee
hives per acre next to melon fields for ideal melon production. Early plantings
are best grown on well-drained sandy loam or silt loam soil with a more alkaline
ph, about 6.0 to 6.5 because these soils warm more quickly. During the main
growing season, loam and loam clay soils are preferred because they hold
moisture longer, allowing for a longer growing season. More acidic soil produces
weaker plants with fewer melons. Harvesting of cantaloupes is mostly done by
hand beginning in May. Nature has created the perfect built-in system of
determining when the melons are just ripe for picking. When the sugar content
reaches its peak, a buffer layer develops between the stem and the melon,
forming a shield that prevents more nutrients from entering the melon. Only
those that separate easily from the vine with light pressure are considered
mature. The peak season is June through August. Cantaloupes are considered quite
perishable. Once the melons are picked, growers quickly cool them through
forced-air cooling or a hydrocooling system, from 50 degrees F (10 degrees C) to
39.2 degrees F (4 degrees C) until they are transported by truck to local
markets or across the United States and Canada. A small number of these melons
travel across the Pacific to Asian markets.
Below are a number of melon
varieties that will be familiar to you. Some are considered specialty melons
that are rare to see in the supermarket. Farmers' markets are the place to
experience these unusual varieties.
Honeydew: Smooth, creamy white
rind with a pubescence (a soft, invisible, downy texture that disappears when
ready to eat), light green flesh, juicy, sweet. Newer varieties include orange
fleshed honeydews. 5 to 7 lbs. Casaba: Matures late summer. The skin is
corrugated and pale to bright yellow or greenish yellow, not netted or ribbed.
Flesh is white or cream colored, sweet, considered spicy, and very juicy. 7 to 8
lbs. Crenshaw: Late summer maturing. Has elongated shape, rough skin,
corrugated with yellow and green mottled coloring. Flesh is pale pinkish orange,
sweet distinctive flavor. Large 7 to 10 lbs. Canary: Late summer
maturing. Oval shape similar to crenshaw, bright yellow corrugated rind. Flesh
is pale green to white with pale orange seed cavity, mild and delicately sweet.
6 to 7 lbs.
Santa Claus or Christmas: Elongated shape similar to
canary but with mottled green and yellow rind and green flesh. Its name is
derived from its long keeping qualities. 6 to 7 lbs.
Charentais: Small
European melon also known as Chaca, French or Italian melon. Slightly elongated.
Can be smooth or slightly netted, gray or gray-blue rind with dark green
furrows. Flesh is deep orange, firm and sweet.1 1/2 to 2 lbs.
Persian:
Late summer maturing. Similar to cantaloupe but with a more rounded shape. Dark
green rind with slight tan cracks and sparse netting. Flesh is orange-pink,
sweet and firm. 5 to 6 lbs.
Ogen: Netted rind turns golden yellow when
fully mature. Very fragrant with sweet flesh. Small, 3 to 5 lbs.
Galia:
Netted rind like cantaloupes, green flesh similar to honeydew
Sharlyn:
Netted rind greenish orange in colour. Has white flesh and a sweet flavor that
combines the qualities of honeydew and cantaloupe.
Nutrition: The
ideal summer fruit, cantaloupe's cooling ability is not so surprising when we
realize its weight is 95% water, while the sugar content is only 5%. Cantaloupe
is a dieter's delight! It's extremely low in calories, has almost zero fat, and
its flavor is positively ambrosial. One fourth of a medium cantaloupe has only
about 50 calories and provides 80% of the RDA for both vitamins A and C.
Cantaloupe really shines when it comes to vitamin A. That one fourth of a medium
cantaloupe provides a hearty 4450 I.U. That same quarter of a cantaloupe also
provides 2% of the RDA for both iron and calcium, offers 1 gram of fiber and 1
gram of protein. Though it's hardly mentioned, cantaloupe provides a moderate
amount of B vitamins, including 23.4 mcg of folic acid. It's not bad on the
minerals either. That one-fourth cantaloupe provides 426 mg. of potassium and
15.2 mg of calcium. Cantaloupe is higher in vitamin A and C than honeydew
or the winter melons such as casaba or crenshaw.
Purchasing: Though
the harvest season for cantaloupes in California is usually May through October,
many fruits arriving at supermarkets from Central and South America, extend
melon availablity year round. Those that travel here from Chile, however, are
not as sweet as our locally grown melons. When cantaloupes are harvested, they
are considered fully matured, or ripe, but still firm. Occasionally, they are
harvested too early. Once they leave the vine, they do not increase in sweetness
since they have no starch reserves to convert to sugar. However, they do "ripen"
or soften. In order to select the perfect cantaloupe, learn to recognize the
characteristics of ideal ripeness. First, look at the rind. It should have a
slightly golden colour rather than a greenish tone. Then, examine the stem end. A
slight indentation indicates a "full slip" or ripeness.
Press gently on the
blossom end of the melon. It should be slightly soft. At room temperature, the
blossom end should also have a sweet melon fragrance, indicating it is ready to
eat. The fragrance test is challenging in the supermarket since melons are kept
well chilled
If the melon has a section that is whiter or smoother than the
rest of the surface, most likely it's where it rested on the ground during its
growing. It shouldn't affect the flavor or quality.
Avoid melons with a rough
stem end or with portions of a stem still attached, called a peduncle. They may
have been harvested too early. Also avoid melons with sunken areas that indicate
overipeness and the beginning of mold.
A ripe honeydew will have a skin with
a slightly sticky quality. Casaba and Crenshaw should have a yellow skin and a
slight softness when firmly pressed at the blossom end.
Storage: For
best flavor, "ripen" cantaloupes at a room temperature of approximately 70
degrees Fahrenheit (21.1 C) for about two to four days. Once they have reached
desired softness, store them in the refrigerator where they can keep 10 to 14
days.
Cantaloupes are sensitive to ethylene gases and can overripen quickly.
If you've purchased two or three melons on sale, store them on the kitchen
counter, check them daily for ripeness, and refrigerate them as soon as you
judge them ready.
The winter melons, casaba, crenshaw, canary, and honeydew,
can be stored up to a month in the refrigerator.
Preparation: Begin by
cutting the cantaloupe in half. Using a spoon, scoop out and discard the seeds.
Remove and discard the strings as well. The melon can then be cut into slices,
quarters, wedges, or chunks. For special occasions, you may want to create melon
balls using a handy tool called a melon baller.
Raw: Nothing could be
simpler than starting your day with a quarter of a cantaloupe. For a flavor
variation, squeeze a little juice from a fresh lime over the top. Equip yourself
with a spoon and enjoy scooping mouthfuls of one of the most succulent of
fruits.
NOVAK 111. CATHEDRAL
OF CHARTRES: [See note Novak 446]
NOVAK 113. PASSERELLE DE
L`ESTACADE, PARIS:
See note Novak 98.
NOVAK 115. PORTRAIT OF OTTO GUTTFREUND:
|
Gutfreund
(1889-1927) grew up in a
Czech and Jewish environment
in the small town Dvůr
Králové in northern Bohemia
. After attending a school
of ceramics in Bechyne, he
studied at the Prague school
of decorative and applied
arts from 1906 to 1909.
Subsequently, he went to
Emile-Antoine Bourdelle in
Paris, who taught the
sculpture class at the
private 'Académie de la
Grande Chaumière'. Otto
Gutfreund worked in
Bourdelle's studio until
1910. After visiting several
European cities, Otto
Gutfreund returned to Prague
in 1910, where he joined a
group of artists known as 'Skupina
výtvarných umelcu v Praze',
whose first of four
exhibitions took place at
the Prague parish hall in
1912. In 1913 Gutfreund
showed some sculptures at
the first 'Deutscher
Herbstsalon', in Herwarth
Walden's Berlin gallery 'Der
Sturm' and in the Munich 'Goltz-Salon'.
Gutfreund further developed
Cubist tendencies together
with the Czech painters Emil
Filla and Bohumil Kubista
and became one of the
leading cubist sculptors
alongside Picasso and
Archipenko. After serving in
the war, when he was
interned in a camp in
Provence, Otto Gutfreund
made a living doing odd jobs
in Paris from 1918.
Gutfreund gradually
recovered his creativity and
returned to Prague in 1920.
In 1921 he joined the
artist's association 'SVU
Mánes'. After a short
Constructivist phase around
1919 Gutfreund returned to
figuration in the 1920s. In
1926 he was appointed
professor of architectural
sculpture at the Prague
school for decorative and
applied arts. One year later
Otto Gutfreund drowned in
the river Moldau on June 2,
1927. www.otto-gutfreund-com |
 |
NOVAK 116. CANAL
IN AMSTERDAM: See note Novak 104.
NOVAK 117. OLD HOUSES
IN AMSTERDAM:
See note Novak 104.
NOVAK 124. UHELNY TRH,
PRAGUE: Old Coal Market in Prague.
In about 1230 a new market quarter,
Havelske Mesto or St Gall's Town (named for the 7th century Irish
monk who helped introduce Christianity to Europe), was laid out for
the pleasure of the German merchants invited into Prague by
Wenceslas I. Modern-day Rytirska and Havelska streets were at that
time a single plaza, surrounded by arcaded merchants' houses.
Specialist markets included those for coal (Uhelny Trh) at
the west end and for fruit (Ovocny Trh) at the east end.
NOVAK 125.
PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER:
NOVAK 127. LE STRYGE , NOTRE-
DAME DE PARIS: The
Stryga (le stryge in French) is probably the most
famous Notre-Dames chimera. Stryga is derived from a Greek word
meaning 'bird of the night' or 'vampire'. In oriental tradition it is an
evil nocturnal spirit. See also note Novak 96 and Novak
185.
NOVAK 128. BRETON PASTORALE: Brittany, Breton Breiz, Fr.
Bretagne, region and former province, NW France. It is a peninsula between the
English Channel (N) and the Bay of Biscay (S) and comprises five departments,
Ille-et-Vilaine, Côtes-d’Armor, Finistère, Morbihan, and Loire-Maritime.
The
coast, particularly at the western tip, is irregular and rocky, with natural
harbors (notably at Brest, Lorient, and Saint-Malo) and numerous islands.
Important rivers include the Loire, Odet, Vilaine, and Sèvre Nantaise. The
emigration of the young has resulted in a serious decline in the region’s
population. Brittany and the Breton people have retained many old customs and
traditions. Breton, their Celtic language (akin to Welsh), is spoken in
traditionalist Lower (i.e., western) Brittany outside the cities. Brittany has remarkable stone calvaries, some built at the close of
the 16th cent. to ward off the plague. Many megalithic monuments, formerly
ascribed to the druids, dot the Breton landscape, notably at Carnac. These
sights and the local traditions (old-fashioned peasant dress and high lace
headgear, processions, and pilgrimages), which its inhabitants jealously
maintain, have made Brittany an outstanding tourist attraction.
The economy of the region is based on agriculture, fishing and
tourism. Apples, from which the distinctive Breton cider is made, are grown
extensively inland. Industry includes shipbuilding at Saint-Nazaire and Nantes,
food processing, and automobile manufacturing. A major space telecommunications
center is at Pleuneur-Bodou. There is a nuclear power plant in the Arrée Mts.
and a tidal power station at Rance.
A part of ancient Armorica,
the area was conquered by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars and became part of
the province of Lugdunensis. It received its modern name when it was
settled (c.500) by Britons whom the Anglo-Saxons had driven from Britain. Breton
history is a long struggle for independence—first from the Franks (5th–9th
cent.), then from the dukes of Normandy and the counts of Anjou (10th–12th
cent.), and finally from England and France.
In 1196, Arthur I,
an Angevin, was acknowledged as duke. King John of England, who presumably
murdered him (1203), failed to obtain the duchy, which passed to Arthur’s
brother-in-law, Peter I (Peter Mauclerc). The extinction of his direct line led
to the War of the Breton Succession (1341–65), a part of the Hundred Years War
(1337–1453). With the end of the Breton war, the dukedom was won by the house of
Montfort. The dukes of Montfort tried to secure Brittany’s neutrality between
France and Britain during the remainder of the Hundred Years War. The
unsuccessful rebellion of Duke Francis II against the French crown led to the
absorption of Brittany into France after the accession of his daughter, Anne of
Brittany, in 1488. King Francis I formally incorporated the duchy into France in
1532. Brittany’s provincial parliament met at Rennes, and its provincial assembly
remained powerful until the French Revolution. The 16th and 17th cent. were
generally peaceful in Brittany, but the region, never reconciled to centralized
rule, became one of the early centers of revolt in 1789. However, its staunch
Catholicism and conservatism soon transformed it into an anti-Revolutionary
stronghold; the Chouans (anti-Revolutionary peasants) were never fully subdued,
and in S Brittany and the neighboring Vendée the Revolutionary government
resorted to ruthless reprisals. Breton nationalism grew in the 19th cent. and
was fueled by the anticlericalism of the Third Republic. The Breton autonomists,
long successfully repressed by the French government, nevertheless resisted
German bids for collaboration in World War II. During the 1970s, Breton
nationalists once again protested the French repression of Breton culture.
[Novak 162, 163, 172, 173, 176, 184, 191, 192, 200, 439, 445 and 449 depict
Breton subjects, too.]
NOVAK 129. PLACE DE LA
CONCORDE, PARIS: At 8 hectares, the octagonal Place de la
Concorde is the largest square in Paris. It is situated between the
Tuileries and the Champs-Elysées.
After the Peace of Aachen
from 1748, the end of the Austrian Succession Wars, the town decided
to erect an equestrian statue at a square in honour of Louis XV.
The
square was designed as a
moat-skirted octagon in 1755 by Jacques Ange Gabriel. He had won competition
set by the échevins of Paris for a king-flattering Place Louis XV. The river
end was left open, and on the inland side; two matching buildings were
planned together with a bridge and a beautiful street, the Rue Royale.
The ground floor was arcaded and the facade was nimbly adapted from the
Louvre colonnade, all with a refinement typical of the era.
Although Gabriel built eight
giant pedestals around the periphery of his place, they remained untenanted
until Louis-Philippe gave them statues representing provincial capitals going
clockwise from the Navy Ministry (Ministère de la Marine).
It was known
as the place Louis XV. In 1792, during the French revolution, the statue
by Bouchardon was replaced by another, large statue, called 'Liberté'
(freedom) and the square was called Place de la Révolution. A guillotine was
installed at the center of the square and in a time span of only a couple of
years, more then 1000 people were beheaded here. Amongst them many famous people
like King Louis XVI, Marie-Antionette, and revolutionary Robespierre, just to
name a few. After the revolution the square was renamed several times until
1830, when it was given the current name 'Place de la Concorde' to symbolize the end of a
troubled era and the hope of a better future.
NOVAK 130. PONT DU
CARROUSEL, PARIS: The name "Pont du Carrousel"
in fact covers two separate structures which came one after other
and which were called different things at different times. The
construction of the first bridge began in 1831 and it was first of
all called the Pont des Saint Pères, after the street of the same
name which gave onto the Seine at this point. However, when it was
opened by King Louis Philippe in 1834, it was given its present name
of "Pont du Carrousel". It is also sometimes called the "Pont du
Louvre" because it reaches the right bank in front of the Louvre
Palace. This first structure comprised a major technical innovation.
It was designed by the engineer Polonceau, who fought tooth and nail
to have his project accepted in the face of opposition from the
partisans of a suspension bridge. He even went as far as to finance
the initial foundation work from his own pocket. The very
lightweight structure consisted of three equal main arches, each of
which itself comprised five composite wood and cast iron arches
supporting a wooden deck. Although daring, this structure was
nonetheless fragile, and in 1883, the bridge was closed for six
months for replacement of some of the beams and cross-members. The
technicians took this opportunity to suggest replacing the wooden
deck with beaten iron, which was in fact done, but not before 1906.
However, the structure was still extremely flexible and with the
growth in the volume and weight of traffic, it shook and bounced
disconcertingly. Having finally become too narrow to handle the
growth in traffic, the decision was finally taken to rebuild it
completely in 1930, when it was at the same time relocated a few
dozen metres further downstream, aligned with the entrance to the
Louvre. Construction of the new bridge, designed by the engineers
Malet and Lang, began in July 1935 and was completed in July 1939.
Like its predecessor, it consisted of three arches, although this
time of unequal span. Its length was increased to 33 m. At least
three episodes are worth relating from the historical viewpoint.
Firstly, the name of the bridge. As we saw earlier, this was called
the Pont des Saints Pères and then Pont du Carrousel. In 1906,
however, the town council gave it back its first name. Another
mishap: a few years after its construction in 1847, the first bridge
was decorated by groups of statues from the sculptor Petitot at its
four corners. When renovation work was carried out in 1906,
modification of the entrances to the bridge meant that they had to
be moved. The statues were only re-installed on new pedestals in
1908. The third anecdote concerns the new bridge. When completed in
1939, the question of lighting arose. After a number of debatable
projects, the ironworker Raymond Subes designed a system of
telescopic obelisks which would raise up the lights at nightfall.
Although chiefly made of strategic materials such as bronze, the
systems were built under the occupation, but the decision was taken
to wait for better days before installing them. There were hidden in
1941 in a space in the abutments and were only brought out in 1946.
Unfortunately, the fragility of the mechanisms made them unsuitable
for intensive use and they are, at least for the time being,
unserviceable.
Construction date modern bridge (TF Šimon
drawed the old bridge in 1910): July 1935 to July 1939.
Total
length: 168 m.
Address: Quai des Tuileries, Quai Voltaire, 75007
Paris.
NOVAK 131. PORTE SAINT-DENIS: At the end of r. Faubourg St-Denis, the grand Porte St-Denis looms
triumphantly. Built in 1672 to celebrate the victories of Louis XIV in Flanders
and the Rhineland, the gate imitates the Arch of Titus in Rome. Once the site of
a medieval entrance to the city, the present arch now serves as a rotary for
traffic and a gathering place for pigeons and loiterers alike.
In the words
of André Breton, c'est très belle et très inutile (it's very beautiful and very
useless).
On July 28, 1830, it was the scene of intense fighting as
revolutionaries scrambled to the top and rained cobblestones on the monarchist
troops below.
NOVAK 132.
BOULEVARD SAINT-DENIS:
NOVAK 134. APSE OF NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS: From Roman times to the
12th century various churches were built succesively on the present site of
Notre Dame, one of which had been consecrated to the virgin. Prayers have been
offered on this site for 2000 years. We come to 1163. Maurice de Sully, so named
from his native district, Sully sur Loire, son of a peasant woman who gathered
wood, came to Paris to study theology and became bishop of Paris in 1160.
Intelligent and enterprising, he wanted to rebuilt a cathedral that was too
small. In 1163, Pope Alexander III placed the first stone. Ceremonies in 1182
and 1185, at which Maurice de Sully had the joy to be present, marked the chief
stages in the building. He died in 1196, without having seen the roofs or the
facades. Eudes de Sully, his successor (no relation) continued his work. In 1250
the North Tower was finished. The architect who planned the work is unknown.
Henceforth Notre Dame de Paris was to rival, in fame and beauty, the Basilica of
St Denis. The first Capetian kings, Louis VII, Philip Augustus came here to
worship. The body of St Louis, brought back from Africa, lay here before being
buried at St Denis. Beautiful and perfect though it was, the cathedral not
entirely meet with the approval of the Parisian population. The Guilds, in
particular, wished for chapels built at their own expense and reserved for their
exclusive use. Then the side facades and pedestals wre transformedto
satisfy as many as possible of the benefactors. That is why Notre Dame is
entirely surrounded with chapels. Thus what we see to-day, except for the parts
destroyed in the 17th and 18th centuries, is a 12th century church, tranformed
in the 13th/14th century.
The choir was completed in 1182; the nave in 1208, and the west front and towers
circa 1225-1250. A series of chapels were added to the nave during the period
1235-50, and during 1296-1330 to the apse (Pierre de Chelles and Jean
Ravy). The transept crossings were build in 1250-67 by Jean de Chelles and
Pierre de Montreuil (also the architect of the Sainte-Chapelle). It was
essentially completed according to the original plans. The six-part rib vaults and
the thin elements articulating the wall are typically Early Gothic. The
appearance of the interior was radically transformed in the mid-13th century
when the small clerestory windows typical of the Early Gothic style were
enlarged downward and filled with High Gothic tracery. The enlargement caused the removal of the unusual
triforium. Originally the interior had the four-story elevation common to many
Early Gothic churches, and the triforium had large round openings instead of the
normal arcades. The choir, apse and chancel were
completed first so that there would be a place for services though the later
stages of construction. Seen from the exterior, the building appears to be High
Gothic. Notable features include the profusion of colonnettes and tracery
screens, the horizontal and vertical ordering of the facades, the imposing size
of the rose windows, and the delicacy of the flying buttresses.
The Chapels
of the Chancel and the Apse are each dedicated to a saint whose story is related
by paintings, sculptures and stained glass. For more about Notre Dame see note
Novak 96 and Novak 185.
NOVAK 138.
KRIZOVNICKE NAMESTI: In French 'PLACE DES CHEVALIERS DE LA CROIX'.
NOVAK 139.
BRIDGE TOWER OF STARE MESTO AND Křižovnické náměstí:
In French 'TOUR DU PONT (RIVE DROITE) ET
L`EGLISE DES CHEVALIERS DE LA CROIX'.
NOVAK 140. HUSOVA TRIDA: In French 'RUE DE
DOMINICAINS'.
NOVAK 141. UNGELT:
In French 'ENTRÈE DE LA COUR DE TYN'.
NOVAK 142.
COURT OF THE CONVENT OF SAINT AGNES: In French ' ANCIEN CLOISTRE
STE. AGNÈS'
NOVAK 143.
HOROLOGE OF STARE MESTO: The Horologe
(Astronomical Clock; in
Czech: Orloj) of Prague: One of the most striking buildings in
Prague is the Old Town Hall, founded in 1338 after King John of Luxemburg agreed
to set up a town council. In 1364 the tower, 69.5m high was added, and offers
spectacular views of the city. The clock dates from the beginning of the 15th
century; on the hour, a procession of the Twelve Apostles appears in the window
in the upper part drawing a crowd of spectators. In the lower part are 12
medallions with the signs of the zodiac, a calendar created by Josef Manes. The
combined beauty of the Orloj, the hourly mechanical 'show' and above all - the
crowds that gather below it, even with still 15 minutes to go... make it a most
fascinating event to watch and to be part of.
What does the Orloj actually
do? The clock is divided into
three parts: The walk of the apostle - top. The Sphere or Clock Dial - center.
The calendar - lower part.
The walk of the Apostles.
The Apostles come out of
the windows in the upper part of the Orloj.
From the left window: St. Paul appears first
holding a sword and a book. St. Thomas follows carrying a spear. St. Judas
Thaddeus
holds a book in his left hand. St. Šimon follows holding a saw being the patron
saint of lumberjacks. St. Bartholomew appears with a book and is the patron
saint of tanners, tailors and shoemakers. St. Barnabas (Nathael) comes last
carrying a papyrus.
From the right window:
First is St. Peter with a key and he is the patron saint to fishermen,
locksmiths and clockmakers. St. Mathew is next with an axe and is the patron
saint for builders, carpenters, blacksmiths and butchers. St. John can be seen
castigating a snake being the patron saint of printers and writers. St. Andrew
with a cross. St. Philip with another cross and is the patron saint for hatters.
St. Jacob with a tool for working flax being the patron saint of linen traders.
The show goes as follows: In the lower parts are the other fixed
statues - Death represented by a skeleton pulls the bell cord with one hand
holding the clessidra in the other.
The Apostles come out in a procession -
this happens in the top part of the Orloj. When done
they then go back inside. Once the windows close, a cockerel flaps and crows in
an alcove and then the chimes of the hour can be heard. This parody is
accompanied by the Turk shaking his head, by the Miser watching his bag and
Vanity admiring himself in a mirror.
The other eight figures: On both sides of the clock dial and of
the calendar there is a pair of moving statues. The four figures at the top, in
the medieval times were seen as the four menacing elements for the city of
Prague. These have moving parts although they themselves remain where they stand
all the time.
Left top to the clock dial:
The Vain- Vanity
(admiring himself in a mirror).
The Miser (holding onto his bag of gold).
Right top to the clock dial:
Death (rings the bell).
A Turk - also
called The Piper.
The four figures at the bottom, represent virtues
and are immobile.
Left bottom to the Calendar: A Chronicler; an Angel.
Right bottom to the Calendar: An Astronomer; a Philosopher.
The Sphere or
Clock Dial:
The Sphere or clock dial is the central part of the Orloj and
represents the astronomical phenomena such as sunrise and sunset, ancient Czech
and present day time, movements of the Sun and the Moon and other relative
celestial configurations. The dial shows three mutually independent
movements: the mean revolutions of the Sun, the mean
revolutions of the Moon and the
apparent revolutions of the stars (the ecliptic, to be more precise).The horizon
is indicated by the boundary of blue and red; in the left part the day-break (AVRORA)
with a rising border (ORTVS), in the right part the twilight (CREPVSCVLVM) with
a setting border (OCCASVS). The dark circle at the bottom displays the
astronomical night. Three pointers rotate around this dial: one for the Sun, one
for the Moon, the third is for
zodiac.
The Clockwork:
In the
clockwork there are three great co-axial wheels of the same diameter, driven by
the same pinion, with 365, 366 and 379 cogs. The first of these gearing the
zodiac and the indicator with the asterisk rotates once a sidereal day. The
second gears the indicator of the Sun and rotates once a mean solar day. The
third gearing the Moon's pointer rotates accordingly with the mean apparent
motion of the Moon. The ball, half silvered and half black, rotates every
synodic month and displays its phase.
The Calendar: The Calendar is
the bottom part of the Orloj with month symbols painted by Josef Manes in 1805.
The originals of these can be found on the sides of the stairway of the Prague
Museum of History.
Basic concept: The concept of the Orloj as an
astronomical clock, was to represent the course of the sun and stars just like
the real thing and the main task was to show with precision the exact point in
the afternoon when the sun was at it's highest. This is why the Orloj was always
timed to the real sun time using sun dials (vertical sticks dependant on sun and
shadow to measure time). In times when clock works were imprecise in maintaining
their continuous precision, it was necessary to keep correcting them, comparing
clocks with other clocks and the best way to do this was according to the then
sun clock measurements - the sun dials. Initially- clocks, the Orloj included,
were 'tuned' according to the local sun position and had to be continually
'corrected' accordingly. In fact there were two sun dials on both sides of the
location of the Orloj clock and the remains of these on the Old Town Hall walls
were visible untill 1911 when they were removed. As the development of
clockwork mechanisms progressed, soon clocks could run with more precision than
sun dials and were based on the central local sun position.
Astronomers then came to worry about
time precision by synchronizing the precision of clocks according to star
configurations and their movement around the Earth. Further developments
in clockwork mechanisms made it necessary or viable to be able to divide time
into units.
The Orloj, also known as The
Prague Astronomical Clock is one of the oldest European clocks of its kind (the
first ever originated in Padua in 1344 and a second in Strassburg in 1354) and
continues to hold its exceptional position. It is unique in being the oldest of
those where the original clockwork has been in operation from the beginning to
the present time for six centuries, and even the astronomical dial shaped like
an astrolabe survives in the original form. Interestingly, the Clock initially
showed exclusively astronomical data and there were no irrelevant little
mechanical figures to entertain the common people but only "the pure art of
astronomy".
Legends. There are many
legends surrounding this Clock, the most famous of which is about the master
clockmaker Hanus himself. It is said that the Old Town Councillors had his
eyes burnt out with a hot poker, so that he would not be able to build another
such instrument elsewhere, which could overshadow the beauty and the fame of the
Prague Clock. Master Hanus then allegedly asked his apprentice to take him to
the clock, which he deliberately damaged so seriously, that nobody could repair
it. Those who tried either died in doing so, or have gone mad. In reality, the
Clock was not very reliable and often did not work, in spite of extensive
repairs. A further legend gives the Skeleton magical power of foretelling the
future and says that if the clock is left damaged for a long time, hard times
will result for the Czech nation. Orloj History. The original tower
housing the present day Orloj was built in 1381.The initial clock was installed
in 1410 by clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan with the astronomer and professor of
mathematics at Prague Charles University - Jan (Ondrejuv) Sindel (see below).
The craftsman Hanus Carolinum. - originally accredited with the Orloj concept
actually only did some repairs in 1490 and in this second phase is reputed to
have added the calendar dial under the astronomical dial. At that time - the
entire facade of the Orloj was richly decorated with striking Vladislav Gothic -
which is the Czech equivalent of Flamboyant Gothic - stone sculptures. The
important exceptions are the sculptures flanking the astronomical dial and mask
and figures on its architrave which were created at the beginning of the 15th
century by members of the Masonic lodge of stonemasons and sculptors led by
Peter Parler. Between 1552 and 1560 major repairs were done by Jan Taborsky.
Around 1566 the Orloj was completely mechanized and the tasks of the Orlojners
were to wind all four mechanisms, to monitor the working of the clock and to
'fix' any errors or breakdowns when the mechanisms went out of sync. In the
following years the Orloj was neglected and damaged and at the beginning of the
17th century - around 1613 was repaired by watchmaker Kristof Svarcpach. After
that the Orloj kept running from bad to worse until it stopped completely. Small
repairs were undertaken after the thirty year war (1618-1648) in 1648 but got
the Orloj running for only a few weeks at a time. Towards the end of the 17th
century the new statues were added - moving statues in particular the Death that
tolls the bell by the side of the astronomical dial and immobile ones alongside
the calendar dial were added, but there was no money for major repairs and worse
still, no capable watchmaker was found to do more technical repairs. Worse to
come - in 1787 the whole mechanism nearly went for sale as scrap iron.
Watchmaker Jan Landesberg partially came to the rescue trying to repair the
mechanical part ... but he was not very successful. He managed to repair the
clock part but the astronomical calendar and other parts of the mechanism had to
wait another hundred years. Major restructuring of the whole Orloj in the
1860s gave it the present day aspect. In 1861, when the clock stopped working
the Orloj was up for sale once again as the 'Town' didn't have the 4000 gold
pieces necessary to save and repair it. Fortunately, a collective sum was raised
and the Orloj was not sold. Unfortunately in 1864 due to a fire the
Apostles statues from Eduard Veveleho were destroyed. In 1865, Jan Holoub under
the supervision of watchmaker Ludvìk Hainze from Prague and under advice from F.
Bohm repaired Orloj. During this repair (end 1865) a new calendar disc was
installed, made by the well-known Czech painter Josef Manes. The cycle of twelve
medallions of the Months and the same number of medaillons of zodiacal signs is
one of his culminating works. These today have been replaced by a copy from
Bohumil Cilli and the originals are in the City Museum. On the 4th of January
1866 Alexander Dumas, on his way to Dresden with his daughter, stopped in Prague
and paid a visit to the Orloj. On the 18th of August 1866 the Orloj was
unveiled amidst festivities as 'he' had been finally repaired to the state that
we know today only to be closed down to have all the mechanisms re-lubricated ,
the last defects repaired and mainly to connect it all together so that the
calendar plate would also work.
From
the 14th
September 1866
the Orloj was maintained by Ludvik Heinz, after whose death in
1874 the maintenance was done by his son Ludvik Heinz and from the year 1901 in
turn his nephew - another Ludvik Heiz. In 1945 the whole structure - tower,
mechanism - was damaged during the final phases of WWII and the Prague uprising.
During the fighting in Prague the Germans directed artillery fire at the Old
Town Hall and even used fire grenades. The entire building burnt down and
with it the complete City archives burnt to ashes. Nevertheless, a number of
self-sacrificing persons managed to repair the authentic old clockwork. The
original figures of the Apostles have been replaced by the creations of the
sculptor Vojtech Sucharda after the end of the Second World War. The
Orloj was renewed in every respect in its original form three years later in
1948- on the 1st of July, and once again started to function and to chime with
new statues and new versions (copies) of the Mànes calendar in place. The last
main repair was undertaken in the spring of 1979
.
Basic facts about Johannes Sindel: He was born probably in 1375 in
Hradec Kralove (Bohemia).
He became a bachelor in 1395 and in February 1399 master (magister
arcium) on Prague University. He was the rector of the school at St. Nicholas in
the Small Town in Prague from 1406, later he was a teacher of mathematics in
Wien, where he studied on the Faculty of Medicine. After his return to Prague he
became professor of astronomy on Charles University. Later, in 1410, he became a
doctor of medicine, the rector of Prague University and private physician of the
king Wenceslas IV. He was also a friend of John Hus. In the period of Hussite
wars he was in exile in the Moravian town Olomouc and later he was the physician
of the town of Nurnberg (1423-1436 ?) and then - from 1432 - private physician
of the emperor Sigismund. In 1436 he returned to Prague and became the dean of
Vyšehrad capitol in 1441. He died between 1455 and 1458. Magister
Iohannes is renowned as the astronomer in collaboration with whom the clockmaker
Nicolaus of Kadan constructed the famous Astronomical Clock of Prague in 1410.
According to testimony of Tycho Brahe, Sindel also performed valuable
astronomical observations. Recently, Sindel's theoretical treatises on the
construction and the use of astronomical instruments were identified. Critical
edition of his treatise 'Canones pro eclipsibus Solis et Lune per instrumentum
ad hoc factum inveniendis Magistri Iohannis Sindel' (it means 'The rules for a
calculation of Sun's and Moon's eclipses according to the instrument invented by
Iohannes Sindel') is now in preparation.
NOVAK 159. LORETA: (Prague 1, Loretanske
namesti). Ever since it's construction in 1626-31, the Loreto (in Czech
Loreta) has been an important place of pilgrimage. It was commissioned by
Katerina of Lobkowicz, a Czech aristocrat who was very keen to promote the
Legend of the Santa Casa of Loreto (see below). The Santa Casa was enclosed by
cloisters in 1661, and a Baroque facade of the front wing was rebuilt by
Christoph and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer in 1720-22. The Baroque Church of the
Nativity of Our Lord was added in 1734-35. The amazing stories about the Loreto
were part of Ferdinand II's campaign to re-catholicize the Czechs. Within the
Loreto is the Church of the Nativity, where gruesome relics, including fully
clothes skeletons with death masks can be seen, and the Bell Tower which has
enclosed a set of 27 bells cast in 1694. The most valuable item of the
liturgical treasury is the so-called Prague Sun, a monstrance weighing over 12
kg and embellished with more than 6,000 diamonds. The Legend of Santa Casa: The
original house, said to be where the Archangel Gabriel told Mary about the
future birth of Jesus, is in the small Italian town of Loreto. It is believed
the angels transported the house from Nazareth to Loreto in 1278. Catholics
promoted the legend and 50 replicas were built in Bohemia and Moravia. This
replica, the most magnificent, became the most important and received many
visitors.
NOVAK 160. ZLATA ULICKA: The Golden Lane. One of the most picturesque
streets in Prague, it is lined with tiny cottages which were built in the late
16th century for the Castle's guards. Named 'The Golden Lane' after the
goldsmiths who lived here in the 17th century. One side of this narrow street
has brightly painted houses which were built right into the Castle walls. They
were constructed in the late 1500's for the guards of Rudolph II. A century
later the goldsmiths modified them before moving in themselves. By the 19th
century had turned into a slum and was populated by Prague's most poor and the
criminal community. In the 1950's it's remaining tenants were moved and the Lane
restored. Most of the houses were converted into shops selling Bohemian glass,
books and other souvenirs for tourists. Golden Lane has been home to some
well-known writers including Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Seifert, a Nobel
prize-winning poet.
NOVAK 162. BRETON
POTTERS: See note Novak 128.
NOVAK 163. BRETON
CLOG-SELLERS: See note Novak 128.
NOVAK 164. CHÂTEAU DE
CHENONCEAU: Chenonceaux, small
agricultural community in the department of Indre-et-Loire in northwestern
France,18 miles east of Tours. Located on the Cher River, Chenonceaux is best
known as the site of the 16th-century Château de Chenonceau, which is
situated on the north bank of the river. Known as "Château de Femmes" or "the
castle of six ladies" for the succession of powerful French noblewomen of
Chenonceau, who each made an impact on the castle, forming it into the lovely
château we see today... the most romantic Château in Loire Valley. The estate of Chenonceau is mentioned
for the first time in writing towards the end of the eleventh century. In 1230, Guillaume de
Marques, the first Lord of Chenonceau, built a fortified manor on the
Cher river. Its foundation stood on pilings embedded into the granite bed of
the river bottom. A series of moats provided security to the inhabitants.
From the thirteenth century to fifteenth century the estate of Chenonceau
would remain the property of de Marques decedents.
In 1411, a royal order to
punish Jean Marques for an act of sedition included an order for the
destruction of the manor. The feudal manor was rebuilt. In 1420,
Jean I of Marks joined with the Duke of Burgundy against the
Dauphin (future King Charles VII). He accommodated an English garrison
at Chenonceau. Chenonceau was seized by the King’s Marshal and was partially
destroyed. His son,
Jean II of Marks, succeeded his father. In 1431, Jean II of Marks
paid homage to King Charles VII for the return of Chenonceau which had been
seized from his father Jean I. He was granted the authorization to rebuild
the manor in 1432. In 1433, he rebuilt the manor faithful to its original
layout (a rectangular four-towered block with steeply pitched roofs) and a
fortified communal mill built on piers across the Cher river. Jean II’s son,
Pierre de Marques, made the final succession of de Marques family in
1460. The de Marques family built the first medieval manor at Chenonceau and
were the Lords of Chenonceau for over 200 years; this came to an end when
Pierre de Marques, due to financial debt, sold Chenonceau to Thomas
Bohier in 1499.
A descendent of the de Marques,
an heiress, exercised her right of redemption and bought Chenonceau back from
Bohier. Meanwhile Thomas started buying the land that surrounded the manor, and
in 1512, he again purchased the manor, now in a state of ruin. Thomas Bohier was
the General Controleur of Finances for Kings Charles VIII, Louis XII and
François I. In 1515, he demolished the castle-keep and the fortified mill of
the Marques family only keeping the donjon. He started extensive
construction of a third generation castle at Chenonceau. He made
modifications to the donjon and the systems of moats. Using the piles of the
old mill as foundation stones for the new structure, a vast square building,
with a turret flanking each corner, was built in the middle of the river
reincorporating the previous square plan of the forecourt of the old
medieval castle. The château spans the whole width of the river. Known as,
Tour des Marques, the donjon built in 1230, and a well (decorated with a
chimaera and an eagle - the emblem of the Marques family) that sits next to
the Tower are the only surviving part of the original manor. The Tower was
completely restored in Renaissance style, from the fenêtres with pilasters
and pediments, to the decorated attic windows. The Tower sits to the right
of the entrance of the new centrally planned château. By 1517, Chenonceau
still retained some severity of its military style, but inspired by the
fashion of the time its exterior ornamentation added unusual elegance to its
gothic appearance. The first phase of construction, the keep and wing beside
the river Cher were completed in 1521.
In 1576, according to the plans of Philibert de l'Orme, Catherine
de Medici built a gallery on the bridge of Diane de Poitiers; 60 metres
long, 6 metres wide, lit by 18 windows, with its sandy chalk tiled and slate
floor and exposed joists ceiling, it is a magnificent ball- room. It was
inaugurated in 1577 during festivities hosted by Catherine de Medici in
honour of her son King Henry III.
At each end, two very beautiful
Renaissance chimneys, of which one is only decorative surrounding the
Southern door which leads to the left bank of the Cher. During the First
World War, Monsieur Gaston Menier, owner of Chenonceau, installed at his own
expense, a hospital whose different services occupied all of the château's
rooms. During the Second World War, many people took advantage of the
privileged location of the Gallery, whose Southern door provided access to
the free zone, whilst the château's entrance was in the occupied zone.
Since Thomas was often away on
business, his wife, Katherine Briconnet, personally took over the
construction of Chenonceau. She greatly influenced the design of the building;
building it in Renaissance style. Katherine introduced new innovations in
building the castle, the gracefulness and conveniences of the château are owed
to her. Features such as straight wide stairs and large bright kitchens were
Katherine’s ideas. She made most of the architectural choices, designing the
section of the château (the turreted pavilion) that parallels the Cher River,
including the Tower and the Monumental Entrance, and she built one of the first
straight staircases in France. By 1522, the castle was completed and the
surrounding estate laid out. Chenonceau was now worthy of receiving the notables
of the Kingdom. It was Katherine who established her authority over the estate,
taking readily to court life. The King, François I, was twice a guest at
the castle.
At the entrance to the
château, a salamander, the emblem of François I, is sculpted above the main
door with the inscription "François, by the grace of God, King of France and
Claude, Queen of the French." On the left is the coat-of-arms of Thomas
Bohier and on the right are the coat-of-arms of
Katherine Briconnet.The hall is covered with a series of rib vaults
whose keystrokes, detached from each other form a broken line. Made in 1515,
it is one of the most beautiful examples of decorative sculpting from the
French Renaissance period. The hall, said to be designed by Katherine
Briconnet, leads to four rooms, including the bedroom of César de Vendôme....and
across from this room is the bedroom of Catherine dé Medici and a
study richly decorated by Italian Renaissance paintings. The Italian style
oak coffer ceiling dates from 1525, with small hanging keys, is one of the
first of this type known in France. It has the initials T.B.K. the initials
of the original owners. François I’s bedroom has one
of the most
beautiful Renaissance chimneys. On the mantelpiece you can see the motto of
Thomas Bohier - ‘S’il vient à point, me souviendra’ (if the building is
finished, it will preserve the memory of the man who built it) - which
echoes his coat-of-arms above the door. There are three 15th century French
credence tables and a 16th century Italian cabinet, exceptional with its
mother-of-pearl and fountain-pen engraved ivory incrustations a wedding
present to François II and
Mary Stuart. At the right of the chimney is "The Three Graces" by
Van Loo which represents the "Mesdemoiselles” from Nesle. Three
sisters, successive favourites of King Louis XV: Madame di Châteauroux,
Vintimille, Mailly.
In the Guards’ Room Thomas
Bohier’s arms decorate the 16th century chimney. Above the sixteenth century
oak door is the motto of Thomas Bohier and Katherine Briconnet: "S’il vient à
point, me souviendra’." The walls are draped with sixteenth century Flemish
tapestries with scenes of castle life, a marriage proposal, and a hunt. There
are Gothic and Renaissance chests that during the 16th century would had held
silverware, crockery and tapestries with which the Court moved from one
residence to another. The remains of a sixteenth century majolica can be found
on the floor, and the exposed ceiling joists have two intertwining "C’s" of
Catherine dé Medici. The entrance hall is characterized by triangular ribbed
vaults. The sixteenth century rooms are decorated with beautiful arrays of
Flemish tapestries, paintings and furniture along with classic French chimneys
and gorgeous timbered ceilings. The most original innovation of the château is
the sixteenth century straight staircase - built in France based on an Italian
model. It is covered with a pitch vault with ribs intersecting at right angles,
the groins are decorated with keystones, the coffers are decorated with human
figures, fruits and flowers. The staircase with two banisters intersected by a
landing forming a loggia with a balustrade from which you can discover a view of
the Cher.
The Hall is tiled with
small baked clay tiles stamped with a fleur de lis crossed by a dagger.
Catherine dé Medici hung Italian marble medallions above the doors.
Each are carved in the likeness of Roman Emperors. Each room’s detail is
decorated differently from the heavy beams in the vaulted ceilings and the
fabric wall coverings to the designs on the floors. There is a fabulous
flower arrangement in every room from the castle’s garden, individual
shutters on each window. The kitchens are located in the huge bases which
form the first two piers sitting on the bed of the Cher. There is a large
rotisserie in the kitchen with an ingenious clockwork mechanism that used a
heavy weight suspended over the river to drive the mechanism. The pantry is
a low room; the ribs of two cross vaults intersect. Its 16th century chimney
is the château’s largest, next to the bread oven. The pantry serves both the
Dining Room reserved for château staff, the Butchery in which you can still
see the hooks for handing game and the blocks for cutting it up, and finally
the Larder. A bridge leading to the kitchen
also served the pantry by crossing from one pier to another. Boats with
supplies could deliver foodstuffs to the château. The chapel was consecrated
by Cardinal Bohier, a relative of Thomas. Above the door of the
chapel is a statue of the Virgin. The leaves of this oak door represent
Christ and Saint Thomas, and repeat the works of the Gospel according to
Saint John: ‘Lay you finger here’ ‘You are my Lord and my God’.
The original stained glass
windows were destroyed by bombs in 1944. They were replaced by the works of
Max Ingrand, a master glassworker, in 1954. Dominating the nave, the
Royal Gallery from where the queens attended mass shows the date 1521. You can
still read the inscriptions on the walls left by Queen Mary Stewart’s Scottish
guards: On the right as you enter dated 1543 ‘Man’s anger does not accomplish
God’s Justice’ and 1546 ‘Do not let yourself be won over by Evil’.
Thomas Bohier
died in 1524 leaving the castle unfinished. His wife and son completed
construction of the château before Catherine’s death in 1526. His son Antoine
inherited Château de Chenonceau. In 1535, Antoine
Bohier made arrangements with King François I to exchange the
château in payment for financial debts. Château de Chenonceau became a
possession of King François I in 1535 and thereafter remained a royal
residence. The High Constable of Montmorency took possession of the
castle in the name of François I. The King, however, who was at the time
engaged in the building of Chambord, was only moderately interested in the
castle of Chenonceau and did not effect any improvements.
The King’s
second son Henry, Duke of Orleans, was as child held captive for four
years in a cell in Spain. After his release Henry was a rebellious youth,
insolent and rude, and the King realized something had to be done. He needed
someone to refine young Henry and guide him in the graces of the Court. The
King called upon Diane de Poitiers, descendent from the Comtes de
Poitiers an ancient sovereign family; she was highly educated and cultured.
Set in her were the highest principles of honor and wisdom. During this time
Henry developed a strong affection for Diane.
In 1515, she married Louis
de Breze, who became one of the foremost dignitaries of the kingdom as
"Comte de Maulevrier" (Count of Maulevrier), "Seigneur d’ Anet" (Lord of Anet),
"Grand Senechal of Normandy" (Grand Marshal of Normandy) "and “Grand Huntsman of
France”. He was fifty-six, forty
years older than Diane. Through her marriage and thanks to her beauty and
intelligence, she was called to the court of France where she had access to the
highest circles.
She became Lady of Honor
to Queen Claude, the King’s wife. Her husband’s friendship with
King François I and their mutual love of hunting, brought the King
and Queen to Anet, Diane and her husband’s home. Diane shared her elderly
husband’s enthusiasm for hunting. She acquired a reputation as a huntress.
There are many paintings and sculptures of Diane depicting her as a very
healthy, robust, athletically toned woman. Diane’s husband,
Louis de
Breze, died at Anet on July 23, 1531. Diane mourned him sincerely,
erecting a magnificent tomb for him
in the Rouen Cathedral. She went
into mourning which she never abandoned; her attire was confined to black
and white. The death of her husband did not change her position at the
French court, she remained "La Grande Senechale”.
The young King anxious to
please his favourite and to give her a residence worthy of her, gave Château de
Chenonceau and the Crown Jewels as a gift to his beloved mistress Diane de
Poitiers. The castle, however, belonged to the Crown and Diane would have to
wait until 1555 and to resort to legal artifices and other subtle procedures to
become its legitimate owner. In 1551, Diane was made Duchess of Valentinois and
became one of the most influential women in the Kingdom. In 1552, Diane’s
efforts were rewarded by the visit of the King and his Court to Chenonceau. With
the help of the bailiff, André Béreau, Diane ran her then prosperous
estate with unmistakable authority. Even if the expenditure was onerous,
receipts from the farm produce, royalties from vassals and fines imposed by the
castle court enabled to balance the budget. In 1555, the profits made through
the cultivation of the estate and the confident knowledge that the castle was
hers encouraged Diane of Poitiers to further embellish her property. She
undertook new works and resuscitated the former owners’ idea of enlarging the
castle and building a bridge to span the river Cher. Diane de Poitiers loved
Chenonceau, she devoted much of her time and money turning Chenonceau into one
of the finest royal palaces in France. Her bedroom "The Queen`s Room” is a
delightful blend of style and luxury. The room is dominated by Diane de
Poitiers’ bed which is believed to have an extraordinary effect on those who lay
on it. There are also two impressive Flemish tapestries of exceptional beauty.
Her fireplace is decorated with royal symbols made of pure gold. She designed
and laid out beautiful gardens for which Chenonceau became famous. In 1556 she
enlarged Chenonceau by building a five arch bridge over the Cher river;
Philibert de l'Orme, a famous French designer, had the brilliant idea of linking
this garden, via the Château and a long gallery, to a new garden on the south
side of the river. Although she loved him deeply, Henry was more in love with
his mistress. This severely bothered Catherine, but she did not cause problems
or create a stir. She kept her personal feelings and attitudes to herself.
Henry II suffered a fatal wound in a jousting tournament accident. He
lingered for eleven days before succumbing to his injuries. He died in 1559,
leaving his fifteen year old son, François II, King of France. Until her
husband’s death Catherine endured the domination of his mistress Diane.
Catherine attained her victory when Henry was fatally wounded. As he lay dying,
Catherine resumed control of him and was in charge of access to him. He called
out for Diane, but she was not summoned. She was also uninvited to the funeral.
The King’s death came as a fatal blow to Diane. Hardly had the King breathed his
last when Diane, measuring the extent of her misfortune and expecting the worst,
sent back the crown jewels to the Queen Mother (Catherine), humbly asking
forgiveness for her sins. Diane tried to prevent Catherine's appropriation of
the castle by attempting to give it to
Mary of Scotland wife of François II, but her husband died prematurely.
Catherine contented herself by reclaiming Chenonceau but gave Chaumont to Diane
in exchange. Diane was far removed from the court.
She contracted a sudden illness and died on the 25th of April, 1566 at Anet six
years after Henry died.
Though the ages, very
few women were successful in making an impact on the world, but of the few
of these women who were able to break from tradition made an immense impact
on the society of their time and upon history in general. One of these women
is Catherine de Medici, an Italian woman who eventually became Queen
of France. Catherine was born in Florence on April 13, 1519 into the richest
non-royal family in Europe, the Dé Medici family, who for three centuries
were among the most powerful in the world. They were the supreme rulers of
Florence, and later of Tuscany. They patronized the arts and produced three
Popes and enough royal marriages throughout Europe to ensure their lasting
influence. She was the granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent and
was the niece of two Popes, Leo X, and
Clement VII. Her parents were Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino and
the French Countess, Madeline de la Tour d’ Auvergne. Both of her
parents died shortly after her birth leaving her as the sole heiress to all
of the possessions and holdings of the Medici family. Her father’s relative
Cardinal Guilio de Medici came to Florence to take control of the
Florentine government and to care for the young Catherine. Pope Leo X
sent her to Rome to live with a family connected with the papacy. When she
was six she was brought back to Florence and all of the splendor of the de
Medici wealth. In 1527, when Catherine was eight years old the Medici palace
in Florence was attacked by an angry mob of Florentines. Her relatives who
lived with her in the palace decided to flee.
The rebel leaders would let
them leave only if they left young Catherine behind. A valuable hostage
Catherine was placed in several convents in around the city. While in these
convents she was educated by the nuns. She became fluent in Greek and Latin, and
received an education that allowed her to be one of the best-educated women of
her time. The Florentine rebellion was finally crushed by Guilio de Medici, now Pope Clement
VII, Catherine was sent to Rome to live with him. Once in Rome her marriage
arrangements were made as part of an Italian-French dynastic alliance. At age
fourteen Catherine was described as small and slender, with fair hair, thin and
not pretty in the face, but with the eyes peculiar to all the Medici. Catherine
grew up around the artistic splendors of the Medici villas and took particular
delight in the banquets, balls, tromfi and intermezzi given by her powerful
Florentine relatives. In a letter to her future father-in-law, Catherine stated
that she greatly enjoyed Italian court dances, and hoped that she might be
allowed to learn those of the French court, of which she had heard glowing
reports. As a teenager, she was small and thin, not quite 5 feet in height. She
was painfully plain, with indelicate features and eyes too large for her face.
Catherine had nothing to say about her betrothal to the Duke of Orleans -
par for the royal matchmaking course. On the other hand, the Duke was to become
the next King of France, Henry II. Catherine would be his Queen. The
thought itself was almost too thrilling to contemplate. The young Catherine
began feeling insecure. The French court was, perhaps, the most splendid on the
earth. Those who populated it were so elegant, so glamorous. How could tiny,
plain Catherine possibly charm the inventors of such a world? How could she make
a dramatic and impervious impression on the fabulous French Court? In
desperation, young Catherine dé Medici sought the aid of an ingenious Florentine
artisan. For hundreds of years, scholars have tried in vain to discover his
name. All we know is that he had a brilliant reputation, and he was there when
Catherine needed him. Not unlike the fabled Cinderella, Catherine confided in
this clever, fairy godfather -- at best, she would be ignored, at worst she
would be ridiculed -- unless she dazzled all at her first French Ball. And the
artisan smiled. He would produce a creation that would cast a spell over the
entire French nation. On September 1, 1553, Catherine dé Medici bade her
homeland farewell and embarked on her journey to Paris. The wedding was even
more jubilant and spectacular than she had imagined it, and an aristocratic
multitude clamored to meet her. Their first opportunity would be at the Royal
Ball. Catherine’s appearance created a sensation. The men, it is said, were
staggered by this sensuous Florentine Queen. The women were breathless with
envy. There was, all agreed, something indefinably alluring in her walk, a
subtle undulation, a gently seductive sway, the like of which the French had
never seen. What sorcery had this enchanting young woman brought to their court?
Of course, we know that the source of the magic was a gifted artisan back home
in Florence -- a man whose name was long ago forgotten -- the fairy godfather of
Catherine dé Medici -- her cobbler. For Catherine, he had concocted that which
would later be called the world’s most potent aphrodisiac -- a device which not
only endowed her with serpentine grace, but gave her the physical stature she
could not otherwise posses. Catherine’s arrival in France, she was only a girl of
14 wearing modern high-heeled shoes, caused quite a stir. After her marriage to
Henry of Orleans, she traveled and saw much of France. King François
I, now her father-in-law soon realized what a wonderful traveling companion
his new daughter-in-law was. Other than François, Catherine had not a friend in
all of France and was not looked highly upon by the French people, especially
the nobles, who called her ‘that Italian woman’.
The death of King François’
eldest son, the Dauphin François in 1536 caused quite a commotion
throughout France. The French did not want an Italian woman to become their
queen. Many hoped for Catherine to do something wrong to keep her from ever
reaching the throne. Many thought that she would never have children and that
her time in there would be short, but between the years 1543 and 1555
Catherine had ten children, three of which died in infancy. Of those
that survived three of them, François, Charles and Henry would later serve as
Kings of France. In 1547, Catherine’s beloved father-in-law, François I
died. Her teenage husband became King Henry II of France, and Catherine was now
the Queen. Catherine’s severe unpopularity with the French people became greater
than ever. Their new queen was not of royal blood and she was Italian -- not a
good combination according to the French. Catherine survived Henry II by thirty
years and was Queen Mother to the next three Kings of France.
After Henry’s
death, Catherine’s eldest son, François II, became King of France. Like
his father he was weak of mind. He ruled for seventeen months before his death
in 1560. Catherine’s second son, Charles IX, became King of France at the
age of ten. This allowed Catherine to become Queen Regent of France, and she
served as such until Charles IX’s death. She also served as Queen Regent for her
third son, Henry III. During her reign, Catherine dé Medici faced many
problems including the religious wars involving the Huguenots in France and the
French hatred toward her. She overcame such obstacles, managed to uphold the
power of the monarchy, and protected the claims of the Valois dynasty. As Queen
Mother, Catherine played a major part in French government and twice ruled as
Regent. She had three sons who became Kings and arranged her daughter’s marriage
to the King of Spain. Catherine’s first son François II, married (1558)
to Mary Queen of Scots at Notre Dame in Paris, but they spent the first
few months of their marriage at the Chateau de Chenonceau., he died after just
one year on the throne (1560). His wife Mary, age sixteen, returned to Scotland
she would later be beheaded by her cousin, Elizabeth I, Queen of England.
Her second son, Charles IX, was married to
Anne of Austria, ruled during the massacre (1572), died at the age
twenty-four (1574). Her favorite of all her sons was Henry III, through her efforts he was elected King
of Poland (1573). He returned after the death of his brother and was crowned
Henry III of France (1574).
Catherine lived at
Chenonceau after the death of her husband. The gardens were finished in 1568 and
inaugurated with a great fete together with the ratification of the peace of
Amboise. The gardens had flowers, fruits and vegetables which at the
time were considered exotic such as melons and artichokes. The château became
her favorite residence; she decided to enlarge the castle. Catherine tried to
erase the presence of Diane. In Diane de Poitiers bedroom the
chimney of Jean Goujon, a French sculptor, has the initials of Henry II
and Catherine dé Medici: ‘H’ and ‘C’ which intertwined could form the ‘D’ of
Diane de Poitiers.
Catherine’s bedroom has beautiful sixteenth century sculpted
furniture and is decorated with a series of sixteenth century Flemish tapestries
retracing Samson’s life. They are remarkable for their edges filled with
animals symbolizing proverbs and fables, for example ‘The Crayfish and the
Oyster’ or ‘Skill is greater than Cunning’. She completed the gallery started by
Philibert de l'Orme, transforming it into a magnificent two storied Italian
style ballroom in 1570; it took eight years to complete. The floor of the
gallery is laid with enameled tiles of slate and chalk and at each end are two
beautiful Renaissance chimneys. Lit by eighteen windows it leads to the larger
rooms, such as the drawing room, and bedrooms of François I and Louis XIII, who
was the last King to come to the château.
Pure gold and crimson
tapestries decorate the Louis XIII chamber, with its wonderful fireplace and
the portrait of Louis XIV in a magnificently carved and gilded frame." According
to legend Catherine kept a cabinet filled with a variety of Italian poisons for
she believed that ‘a pinch of some-thing strong’ was preferable to uproar and
mayhem in her cozy little study. Catherine built the magnificent stables and the
splendid Italian gardens which adorn the lands of the castle. The Château was used extensively by
Catherine and other French Royalty for festivities and hunts. Catherine loved to
entertain and as her favorite get away, she gave many beautiful parties in honor
of her three sons, all Kings of France. The castle became a royal residence
where lavish entertainments were given, the most famous one being the feast for
François II and Mary Stewart in 1558. In 1577, during the feast given by
Catherine in honor of her son, the new King, Henry III, the grand gallery of the
castle with its arches that spanned the Cher was inaugurated. Two other queens
were also present: Louise, Henry III’s wife, and Marguerite de Navaree, the wife
of the future Henry IV. The reception with its songs, dances, shows and concerts
remains the climax of the golden era of Chenonceau. She was a political realist
who sought compromise between the Roman Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants).
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, of the Huguenots was caused in part
by her political miscalculation. It is estimated 3,000 Protestants were killed
in Paris and 70,000 in all of France. Catherine had always placed the interests
of her children and her family first. When her youngest son died in 1584 and
Henry III had no children, she tried in vain to keep the royal family of Valois
from extinction. Catherine learned from her son Henry III that he had rid
himself of his rival, the Duke of Guise through assassination (1588). Her
surprise was tragic. Catherine died in January 5, 1589 at the age of seventy
from pneumonia. It is said that she was strong enough to overcome her illness,
but her disappointment with her favorite son caused her to die of a broken
heart. Henry III was assassinated in 1589, he was the last male member of the
house of Valois. In 1589, on her death bed, Catherine left Chenonceau to her
daughter-in-law, Queen Louise of Lorraine, Henry III’s wife. Although Louise had
married a man who preferred men to her, she was a loving and considerate wife.
At the shock of her husband’s murder she was overcome with grief, "she became
melancholy and never recovered. Louise’s bedroom is on the second floor of the
château, unforgettable for the poignancy of its sadness. Her bedroom has been
reconstructed around the original ceiling. It is painted black and decorated
with mourning objects: silver tears, widow’s cordons, crowns of thorns and the
religious scene - a 16th century painting on wood - which decorated the chimney.
The furniture is from the 16th century." Royal protocol required she wore white
(the royal colour for mourning) which she wore for the rest of her life. She was
soon called the "White Queen" by the villagers, for which she became known.
Symbolically, she stored all the velvet and satin dresses for the feasts in a
large chest in the gallery. After years of extravagant parties and royal
celebrations, years of light and music, silence and darkness fell upon
Chenonceau. Sadly, the Queen is said to have murmured nothing but prayer for
eleven years and grieved for the rest of her. She died there in 1601.
In 1624, César, the son of
King Henry IV, (Henry IV, succeeded Henry III in 1589, he was the first Bourbon
Monarch of France) Duke of Vendôme became owner of the estate and his wife,
Françoise of Lorraine, Duchess of Vendôme, was entrusted with its
management. She endeavored to maintain the estate and to keep the castle in good
repair. On the ceiling of the Five Queens’ bedroom is the coat-of-arms of King
Henry IV and Gabrielle d’Estrees who was Henry IV’s mistress, and César’s
mother. The Five Queens’ bedroom is named in memory of Catherine dé Medici’s
daughters, Queen Margaret (married Henry of Navarre in 1572, who became King
Henry VI in 1589, she agreed to have the marriage annulled in 1599) and
Elisabeth of France (wife of Phillip II of Spain), her daughter-in-laws, Mary
Stuart, Queen of Scots (wife of King François II), Elisabeth of Austria (wife of
King Charles IX) and Louise of Lorraine (wife of King Henry III). "The 16th
century coffer ceiling displays the Five Queens’ coats-of-arms. The chimney is
from the Renaissance period. The walls are covered with a 16th century Flemish
tapestry suite representing the siege of Troy and the kidnapping of Helene,
Circus Games in the Coliseum and the crowing of King David. Another tapestry
shows as episode from the life of Samson. The furniture is made up of a large
four poster bed, two Gothic credence tables topped with the heads of two women
in polychrome wood and a studded travel chest.
During the whole of the
17th century, the heirs to Queen Louise and their descendants
succeeded one another as owners of Chenonceau without managing to
recapture its former glory. The castle that the Valois had been so fond of was
abandoned by the Bourbons.
Louis XIV was the last of the Ancien Régime to go
there, which he did on July 14, 1650. The castle passes from César Duc de
Vendôme, to his son, Louis de Vendôme, then his grandson, Louis-Joseph Duc de
Vendôme, to Philippe V, King of Spain and finally Louis de Condé (1720).
In
1720, the Duke of Bourbon bought the castle. Year by year, the contents - the
furniture, the paintings and the books - were dispersed. Numerous statues were
given to the Palace of Versailles.
In 1733, Claude Dupin
(a descendent from the old Berry family) bought the castle from the Duke of
Bourbon. His wife (a daughter of a rich financier) Louise Dupin
surrounded herself with brilliant and exhilarating company in Chenonceau. Once
again Chenonceau had its former splendor and became an important pole of
literary activity. Madame Dupin held salons which were attended by the
luminaries of French society. Her son was tutored by Jean Jacques Rousseau;
his book, Emile, was written for the boy. Madame Dupin lived to an advanced age
and was much loved by the people of the area. When the French Revolution came,
they defended the Chateau and Madame Dupin. During the French Revolution, the
castle was spared due to the fact that it was the only bridge.
Magnanimous and much loved by the inhabitants of the village, Madame Dupin
reestablished the court life of the castle and imbued the estate with a happy
prosperity.
In 1864, Madame Pelouze
was the sixth and last woman of
"Château de Femmes", she began restoration work on Chenonceau that would
last ten years. Marguerite Pelouze took possession of Chenonceau
which had been sold to her husband, the famous chemist, Théophile
Pelouze, by Madame Dupin’s heirs. The fortunes of the castle were
once again in the hands of an energetic and dedicated woman. In
1864, after the death of her husband, Madame Pelouze proceeded with
some very important construction work until 1878. She entrusted the
architect Rouget with the task of giving the castle the appearance
which it presumably had at the beginning of the 16th century. Many
of the alterations carried out by Catherine dé Medici were thus
destroyed. The caryatids of the façade of the castle were removed
and relocated to the park. In 1913, a sale by the order of the court
was followed by the conveyance of the castle to a rich manufacturer,
Henri Menier, the founder’s grandson of the chocolate firm of the
same name. The estate of Chenonceau has since that date stayed in
the same family. In 1914-1918, Mr. Gaston Menier set up, at his own
expense, a temporary hospital, using all the rooms of the castle as
wards for the sick. The gallery in particular was an important space
in attending the wounded. The castle thus played a role in the Great
War. In 1940-1942, the great flood of the Cher in 1940 devastated
Diane’s garden, which was not replanted until the fifties. During
the Nazi Occupation a great number of people took advantage of the
unusual situation of Chenonceau and its gallery, because the south
side of the castle opened on to unoccupied France, while the
entrance was in occupied France.
In 1951, Mr.
Hubert Menier and his wife decided to end the long slumber in which
Chenonceau had found itself and to revive the memories of five
centuries of glory. In 1952, they entrusted a young agronomist,
Bernard Voisin, with the preservation of the castle, which was then
in a miserable condition. The ravages of time as well as man’s
neglectfulness had left the buildings, the roofs and the gardens in
a dilapidated state. But the enthusiasm of Bernard Voisin paid
dividends. He successfully reconditioned the castle and its numerous
outbuildings, protecting them from the rain, and managed to restore
the beauty and the prosperity of the gardens and the surrounding
vineyards. Little by little Chenonceau was given a new lease of
life. It could now be open to the public, bearing witness to five
centuries of history and culture. Chenonceau has fully
recovered its glory. With its one million visitors every year, and
with the exception of the Palace of Versailles, it is the most
visited castle in France.
NOVAK 166. ÉGLISE SAINT- SÉVERIN IN PARIS: St. Séverin`s Church in the Quartier Latin has
been dedicated successively to two St. Séverins; the first was a 6th century
hermit. The second, St Séverin dÀugane (in Valais) lived under Clovis; the
church has its relics. Several churches in succession have been built on the
site of the present building. One of them disappeared a the 9th century fire
during the Norman invasion. The fourth Crusade was preached in its successor (in
the 13th cent.). The present church is Gothic, and its oldest parts date from
the 13th cent. St. Séverin, made famous by Huysmans, is one of Paris`churches
best loved by artists and writers, owing to the grace and simplicity of its
architecture, the beauty of the stained glass of its fine windows, and of the
poetry of its old charnel houses.
The church is very wide (112 ft. against a
length of 164 ft.), as there was not sufficient space to build it otherwise.
There is no transept. The double deambulatory is remarkable for its arches; the
ribs, descending in clusters above the columns are like a dense forest. Note
especially the famous central pillar with its spiral ribs. In the 17th century
the chancel and the nave were altered to conform to the style of the day; the
veneering is from that date. Several of the capitals are interesting (notably
those of the north power wall, and the first three galleries of the nave). The
chapels were decorated with frescos in the 19th cent., notably by the Flangrin
brothers.
NOVAK 167. QUAI DE LA
TOURNELLE IN WINTER: See note Novak 247.
NOVAK 170. ROSETTE OF NOTRE
DAME DE PARIS: The brilliant
exterior of Notre-Dame de Paris is in sharp contrast to the unexpectedly
dark interior. Once you grow accustomed to the dim light--which is mainly
provided by the glow of hundreds of votives and chandeliers that do little to
alleviate the darkness--the Gothic columns and arches of the cathedral draw your
eyes heavenwards and inevitably towards the jeweled lights of the windows. The
beautiful stained glass of the cathedral becomes even more so because of the
contrast with the gloom. Standing beneath the central spire, one can view all
three of the rose windows that grace the cathedral. The west rose window
that sits above the entrance to the cathedral is centered around an image of the
Virgin and Child who are surrounded by more secular images: the virtues and
vices, labors of the year, the signs of the Zodiac and the four seasons. These
themes are detailed in the stonework surrounding the doorways into the
cathedral. The rose window in the North transept is dedicated to the Old
Testament but concludes its theme with another depiction of the Virgin and Child
as the central rosette. Glass prophets, judges, kings, and high-priests surround
this central figure. The rose window in the South transept is dedicated to the
New Testament. Christ is the central figure, and the petals of the rose show a
mixture of apostles, martyrs, angels, and gospel scenes.
Stained glass and rose windows
in particular have been a source of great beauty and inspiration throughout the
centuries. The origins of the rose window has many roots, however, it is
definitely a phenomenon of the French Gothic period. The window itself is a
descendant of the Roman oculus--which is a small round opening in a wall. During
the Romanesque period, this opening developed into a window (such as seen in the
remains of the keep at Chepstow on the Welsh border). In church architecture,
the oculus was usually found on the west façade. An oculus may be plain or have
three or four petals in the shape of a trefoil or quatrefoil. Finally, during
the 12th century, as the architectural advances of the Gothic period allowed
greater and greater openings to be created for cathedral and church windows, the
size of this round window increased until it reached it's greatest
dimensions--the entire width of the nave. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory the
Great had made a plea that scriptural scenes be depicted on the walls of
churches for the benefit of the unlettered faithful. A Synod at Arras in 1025
reiterated the recommendation, for "this enables illiterate people to learn what
books cannot teach them.". The domes of Early Christian and Byzantine churches
often utilize a radial design around Christ or the Virgin and Child. Those
powerful images in mosaic and in frescoes would have been a large influence on
the concept of the giant rose windows that appeared in Paris following the first
three Crusades. With advancements in construction, glass eventually replaced
wall space and the paintings on church walls were replaced with glass. Stained
glass and rose windows owe much of their design and themes to those early
paintings and the religious art of the Byzantine and Christian churches of the
Middle East.
The abbey church of Saint-Denis is considered the first
Gothic building. Abbot Suger commissioned the church to his own specifications,
and upon its completion in 1144, was awed by the splendor of the stained glass
that transformed 'that which is material to that which is immaterial.' By the
time Saint-Denis was completed, stained glass had been in use for over a hundred
years in relatively small windows in selected parts of certain churches. The
combination of stained glass with ribbed vaulting that allowed greater space,
flying buttresses that allowed greater height for walls opened the building in
ways that the heavy, solid Romanesque style of building could never achieve.
However, Saint-Denis did not have a rose window--it merely led the way. The
first rose window was probably created about the year 1200. Within 50 years, its
use in cathedrals had propagated throughout France--mainly in the north. Some
rose windows appeared in England, Italy, Spain, and Germany, but they are
primarily French in origin.
What is the meaning behind a rose window?
Many contemporary authors wax on about Jungian psychology and the rose window as
a mandala, which represents the "expression of human aspiration towards
wholeness and coherence". Mandalas
have existed in Eastern religion and philosophy for centuries, and in modern
thinking, the medieval rose window serves much the same purpose. The rose window
operates on many levels: spiritual, meditative, and emotional. Abbot Suger's
observations underscore how deep an emotional and spiritual chord is struck by
the play of light that passes through the glass. The instructional aspect of
rose windows is plainly visible by the subjects chosen for display in each
petal--the medieval calendar year, the virtues and vices, the saints, etc. In
much the same way the center of Eastern mandalas depict the "godhead" or divine
aspect of the world, so do rose windows. Typically Christ or the Virgin and
Christ are found in the central rosette of most windows. In eastern philosophy,
there are many paths to reach the divine, and these are represented by "gates"
at the cardinal points of the mandala. By the same token, saints depicted in the
petals of a rose window can be seen as intermediaries (or paths) to Christ.
Simply following the tracery with the eye and taking in the patterns found in a
rose window can put one into a very calm or meditative mood. Meditation is very
much like and is be very conducive to prayer. Although placing one into a
meditative or prayerful state may not have been a direct intent of the rose
window, it is certainly a benefit!
The basis of many churches is
geometry and proportion. Numbers had a metaphysical significance, and were
thought to have occult power. Every aspect of the medieval cathedral utilized
that significance: the number of pillars in the choir, the ratio of the levels of
in the triforium, etc. Rose windows are no exception to this rule.
1: the unity of all
things, symbolized by a circle
2: duality and the paradox of opposites
3: the triangle,
stability transcending duality
4: the square, matter, elements, winds,
seasons, directions
5: the pentacle, man, ,magic, Christ's wounds
6:
equilibrium and balance of the soul, Solomon's Seal
7: the mystic
number, the ages, planets, virtues, gifts of the Spirit, and the liberal arts
8: the octagon, baptism and rebirth
12: Perfection, universe, time, the
apostles, the Zodiac, tribes of Israel, and the precious stones in the
foundations of New Jerusalem
Rose windows utilize geometry
on three levels: manifest, hidden, and symbolic. The visual impact of the rose
window is manifest. Every space is defined by another smaller geometric figure -
a trefoil, a quatrefoil, rosette, or spherical triangle. Even the glasswork
itself adds to this geometry. The hidden geometry defines the exact placement of
every major feature of the rose window-relating to the radial elements,
concentric divisions, and all to the center. The symbolic geometry is found in
the the numerical significance in the chart above. Circles, squares, triangles,
stars, and, of course, the 12 major divisions typically found in rose windows
all point to the finite and infinite, earth and heaven, or matter and spirit. Of
course, the geometric significance is rather an intellectual one and probably
lost on most people other than in the pleasing proportions and the way the
window draws the eye. Often, there is a more direct significance in
the theme of the scenes depicted in a rose window. Common images were: the
seasons and the months/labors of the year; the Zodiac; the elements; the virtues
and the vices; the Apostles. Some rose windows were very specific in their
theme. For instance, that in the north transept of Notre Dame portrays the
kings and prophets of the Old Testament. The south window at Beauvais depicts
Creation according to Genesis and then a sequence of stories leading from the
Temptation in the Garden to the beginning of Exodus. The west window of Chartres
depicts the Last Judgement, as does the rose window at Sainte Chapelle in Paris.
Several books, collectively known as On Divers Arts, attributed to the
monk, Theophilus Presbyter, were written in the mid-twelfth century. This is an
extremely valuable work as it details many different medieval crafts and their
practical application. The second book of On Divers Arts, The Art of the Worker
in Glass, outlines the entire process of creating a stained glass window,
including the building of the kilns and furnaces.
Glassmaking:
Theophilus indicates three furnaces are required: 1) a furnace for working the
glass (this is where the glass is melted and worked; 2) an annealing (or cooling
furnace); and 3) the furnace for spreading the glass sheets. Glass-makers of the
twelfth century appear to have used a compound comprised of about 50% silica (as
opposed to the 75% silica compound modern glassmakers use). An important item of
note here is the chemical composition of the glass. Theophilus's method only
outlines the use of sand and beech wood ashes. Unbeknownst to him, utilizing
other types of ash and various metals would have produced additional colors.
However, Theophilus managed to develop several different colored glasses simply
by changing the duration of the glass working process: white, saffron-yellow,
various shades of red, and finally, purple. Research has shown these colors to
be the result of high concentrations of manganese in the beech wood ashes coupled
with varying iron content picked up from the clay posts used to work the glass.
He does note how the French make shades of blue, green, and purple, claiming
that they use glass vessels and mosaics from "ancient pagan buildings" by
melting those same vessels down with white glass to make colored sheets of
glass. The medieval window maker was instructed to make a smooth flat wooden
board large enough to work "two sections of each window" on it. The board was to
then be dusted with chalk, watered and rubbed with a cloth to fill in the gaps
and to provide a light-colored work surface. The window section was then drawn
on the board directly with compasses with lead or tin tips. A cartoon of the
final look of the window was then drawn with red or black pigment on the board
and indicating the space needed (the borders) for the lead cams (the leading
between pieces of glass). The next step was to take the glass to be used and to
transfer the cartoon onto the glass itself. Usually this was chalk ground with
water that was applied with a brush. The glass was then cut to its shape using
an iron cutting tool that had been heated "red-hot", and then trimmed with a
grazing iron. Pigment was applied as necessary to achieve specific colors and
effects (such as shadowing and highlighting). Lettering was created by covering
the surface with an opaque pigment, and then writing the letters (etching) in
the pigment with the handle of a brush. Once the glass was painted, the pigment
was then fused to the glass by firing the glass in a kiln. The fired glass is
then returned to the cartoon and laid out according to the plan. At this point,
the lead cams were inserted in between the pieces of glass and soldered
together. Although the glass provides the colour and much of the beauty of a
stained glass window, the tracery framing the window is equally important. It
provides the overall pattern and enhances the theme of the window. Tracery, of
course, is the bailiwick of the stonemason. The art of the stonemason is a study
in and of itself. Medieval rose windows are quite clearly an
ostentatious religious display. Many church windows were provided or sponsored
by wealthy patrons. Quite often, an heraldic display of arms was included in the
window to show who the benefactor was. The rose window in the south transept of
the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris displays signs of the zodiac and scenes
from the medieval calendar year, as do many other rose windows. Some rose
windows are almost simple colour designs and the effect of the tracery becomes
more important.
For more information about Notre Dame see note Novak
96 and Novak 185.
NOVAK 172. LE
MONT SAINT-MICHEL: Normally approached from
either Pontorson (9 km S.) or Pontaubault (15 km E.), the Mont St. Michel
is one of the great curiosities of France, and rarely free from swarms of
sightseers, particularly during the summer. The Bay of Mont St Michel measures
some 21 km in width between Cancale in Brittany and Granville in Normandy, and
consists of a vast sandy tract (La Grève), which the rising tide covers with
great rapidity. Although long excursions may be made over the sands at low tide,
it is essential to go accompanied by a guide, owing not only to such tidal
dangers but also to the not infrequent areas of quicksand. One of the scenes in
the Bayeux Tapestry depicts Harold rescuing some Normand soldiers from the
quicksand at the mouth of the
Couësnon when on their march against Duc Conan of Brittany.
A tour around the base of the Mont by the sands can be made in
approx. 30 minutes on foot at low tide, but some wading through shallows may be
necessary. At high tide one may make the more attractive circuit by water. On
the W. flank of the islet is the Tour Gabriel (1534); on the N.W. the
Chapelle St. Aubert (13 or 14th century), and on the N. is the
Fontaine St-Aubert, said to have been discovered by that saint in the 8th
century and used for the water supply of the monastery until seven centuries
later. To the N. of the Mont is the quaintly shaped granite islet of
Tombelaine, where a chapel and a cell of the abbey were established in 1137.
The English several times seized this vantage point, but were finally expelled
in 1450 by the Constable de Richemont. In the 17th C Fouquet acquired
the islet and converted the priory into a château; but after his disgrace (1666)
Louis XIV had it pulled down, and only a few ruins remain.
A long causeway,
built in 1879, joins the Mont to the mainland, on the far end of which are
obligatory car parks.
The Mont St Michel consists of an isolated
granite cone, almost 80 m high, rising abruptly from the sands, against the base
of which are plastered the village houses, above which a series of immense
buttresses flank the ancient abbey perched on its summit. The historical
associations of this shrine of the archangel Michael--the saint of high
places--are hardly inferior in interest to its physical aspect, by day, or
night, particularly at high tide when the moonlight is reflected in the
surrounding waves. The main pilgrimage is on Michaelmas Day (the 29th of
September, properly named the day of St. Michael and All Angels), when the place is
inconveniently crowded.
History: Mont St-Michel was originally called
‘Mont-Tombe’, and like neighboring Tombelaine, was doubtless one of the
sea-tombs whither, according to Celtic mythology, the souls of the dead were
ferried in an invisible bark. In 708 an apparition of St Michael to St Aubert,
Bishop of Avranches, commanded the building of an oratory on the summit, which
gave place to the Carolingian church (10th C) and Romanesque basilica
(11-12th C). The shrine was from early times a place of pilgrimage,
and in 966 Richard I of Normandy installed the Benedictines, who formed the
monastery. It contributed a number of vessels for the Conqueror's fleet for the
invasion of England, and in the 12th C, under its abbot Robert de
Torigni, became a celebrated seat of learning. Henry I here effectively resisted
his two elder brothers. Henry II here held court and received the homage of the
turbulent Bretons whom he had subdued. In 1203 the French king sent an
expedition against the Mont, when some of its buildings were burnt, for which
Philippe Auguste compensated the monks royally, and with the proceeds the
‘Merveille’was built, while Louis IX, who visited the abbey in 1254 contributed
towards the cost of its fortification.
Mont St-Michel took increasingly the
character of an ecclesiastical fortress, with a garrison maintained at the joint
charge of both king and abbot. It was the only stronghold which held out when
the rest of Normandy was overrun by the armies of Henry V, and withstood two
sieges under Louis d’Estouteville (in 1417 an 1423), and a third English assault
was beaten off in 1434. In 1469 Louis XI added to the prosperity of the
monastery by founding the Royal Order of St Michael. In 1591 it successfully
resisted Montgomery with his Calvinist troops. Indiscipline having crept into
the confraternity, the monks were replaced in 1622 by others of the congregation
of St Maur. From 1790 to 1863 the buildings were used as a state prison, and in
1874 passed into the hands of the Commission des Monuments Historiques, after
which they were thoroughly restored. The church was again used for religious
services in 1922.
Although on a smaller
scale, St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, which bears so remarkable a
resemblance to this monastery was one of its foreign dependencies.
Unfortunately its insularity is constantly threatened by the
retirement of the sea from the bay and the encroachment of the ‘herbu’. Fresh
water is a precious commodity, as there is only one well to eke out the supply
of rain-water. At the far end of the
causeway a wooden footbridge leads to the Porte de l’Avancée, the only
opening in the ramparts, within which, to the l. is the Corps de Garde (1530),
housing the tourist-office. A second gatehouse is flanked by two bombards
abandoned by the English in 1434, who fired from them stone balls 30 cm in
diameter. An inner gate, the picturesque Porte du Roi
(15th C) is surmounted by a house used as the Mairie, and
preserves its portcullis, battlements, and carvings of shells and salmon that
figure respectively an abbey and town emblems.
We follow the
ascending Grande Rue, the only thoroughfare, overhung by gabled houses
almost entirely occupied by restaurants and/or souvenir shops. Some distance
uphill (l.) is the Parish Church, founded in the 11th C, just
beyond which is a house said to have been built by Du Guesclin in 1366 for his
wife Tiphane Raguenol. A Romanesque portal in a garden wall, further on, is a
relic of the earliest fortress. The street now becomes stepped as we approach
the Abbey, with its enceinte of crenellated walls, the final flight of
which is known as the Grand-Degré, which ascends to the only entrance, a
fortified gateway beneath the late 14th C Châtelet. The
Escalier du Gouffre leads up to the Salle des Gardes beyond which is the
Aumônerie, a Gothic vaulted hall with a central row of pillars,
which served as a a victualling hall as well as an almonry, and contains the
lower opening of a shaft by which provisions were hauled up to the refectory.
The tour starts by ascending
the 90 steps of the Grand-Degré Intérieur to the terrace of the
church, skirting (r.) the exterior of the Choir, and (l.) the
Abbot`s Lodge, begun c. 1250, and continued in the 14th
C. These buildings are connected to the church by two bridges.
Further on (r.) is the early 16th C
Cistern (rebuilt), and at the top of the steps the terrace known as the ‘Saut-Gautier’,
after an unfortunate prisoner who went mad and leapt from it.
Passing a 13th C side portal of the church we reach the
main Terrace, on the wind-blown site of the destroyed bays of the
nave. The views are superb, and the river Couësnon is seen below
meandering through the sands and ‘herbu’.
The church,
with the W. front added after 1780, consists of two parts: the
Norman Romanesque nave and transepts in the massive style of
1020-1135, in which the r.-hand aisle retains its Romanesque
barrel-vaulting; the l.-hand aisle has ogival vaulting; and the
Flamboyant choir, replacing its Romanesque predecessor which
collapsed in 1421. It dates from 1456-1521, and is surrounded by
aisles and radiating chapels, and is supported by enormous flying
buttresses adorned by a profusion of pinnacles. The moulding of the
arches are carried down the piers, uninterrupted by capitals. The
lofty clerestory is pierced by large windows, and the triforium is
glazed. The chapels surrounding the apse contain examples of 16th
C carving. From the second chapel to the r. a stair ascends to an
outer platform, from which the remarkable Escalier de
Dentelle leads to an upper balustrade. The church is surmounted
by a spire (1895), rising 152 m above sea level, topped by a gilded
St Michael and the Dragon, by Frémiet.
We next enter the Cloister, forming the
W. half of the upper storey of the ‘Merveille’, as the
monastery is frequently called, its immense three-storied N. façade
dating from 1203-28. The cloisters are supported by a double row of
pointed arches resting on slender granite pillars, leaving a narrow
groined vault between the rows, the pillars of the outer arches
placed opposite the point of the inner. Their capitals are of a
plain bell form with circular abacus, common in English work, but
rare in France, and the spandrels are filled with a variety of
carved foliage and flowers. On the S. side is the Lavatory,
while the large arches on the W. were to have been the entrance to a
chapter-house that was never built.
To the E. is the Refectory (1225), a large hall lighted by tall
narrow windows, and with a restored wooden roof. On the wall to the
r. is the stone Lector’s Seat. Dishes were raised from the kitchens
through a circular aperture.
Returning through the
cloister, we are lead down through a series of passages to the
Chapelle de St-Étienne
(12th C with 13th C vaulting), off which a
huge wooden wheel used for hoisting victuals is shown. Another
corridor leads to the
Crypte des Gros-Pilliers (15th C), named after its massive
columns, 4,8 m round, which support
the choir of the church above; the cisterns in its corner hold 1,219
tonnes of water. Other 11-12th C crypts preserve parts of
the 10th C Carolingian church. We next visit the Salle
des Chevaliers (below the cloister), an imposing hall of four
finely vaulted aisles (1215-20), originally the scriptorium, but
after 1469 used for the early chapters of the Order of St Michael.
Beneath the refectory is the Salles des Hôtes (1213), the
main guest-chamber, with two huge fireplaces, and a central range of
columns. On a lower storey is the Cellier (below the Salle des
Chevaliers), and below the Salle des Hôtes, the Aumônerie, whence we
return to the Salle des Gardes, and make our exit.
[Parts
of the Merveille not usually shown are the 11-12th C
Promenoir des Moines, the 11th C Dormitory, the Escalier
de Dentelle and the oubliettes.]
To the r. of the exit, a lane
passes a Museum containing a remarkable collection of
watch-cocks, and the arcaded Maison de la Truie qui File, to
regain the Grande Rue; alternatively we may descend directly to the
causeway by a flight of steps, or continue to the W., climbing down
to the Terrasse de la Gire. A third descent may be made from the
Grand-Degré, passing (l.) the entrance to the abbey gardens
(fee), before turning l. and down to the
Tour du Nord (14th C), thence passing in turn the Tour Boucle
(mid-15th C), Tour Cholet, Tour Basse, Tour de la Liberté,
and the Tour de l`Arcade.
[Novak 176 and
Novak 439 depict Mont St Michel, too.]
NOVAK 173. BRETON COAST:
See note Novak 128.
NOVAK 175. LITTLE EVA:
 |
Eva Šimon (1908-1997).
|
Eva
Šimonova , the
daughter of Tavik František
Šimon, * Paris 18-07-1908, †
Prague 29-05-1997, married to the painter
Cyril Bouda. "Praha je nejkrásnìjší mìsto na
svìtì... a hned potom Florencie" (Prag ist die schönste Stadt der Welt ... und
sofort danach Florenz), Cyril Bouda. Cyril Bouda wurde am 14. November 1901 in
Kladno geboren und gilt als der perfekteste Künstler unter den tschechischen
Graphikern und als Meister des Kupferstichs. Sein künstlerisches Talent bekam er
quasi mit in die Wiege gelegt: sein Vater Alois war Zeichenprofessor, seine
Mutter Anna stammte aus der bekannten tschechischen Bildhauer-Familie Sucharda
uns sein Taufpate war kein Geringerer als Mikoláš Aleš. Auch seine künstlerische
Ausbildung erhielt er bei den bedeutendsten tschechischen Künstlern: von
1919-1923 studierte er bei František Kysela, danach von 1923-1926 bei Max
Švabinský, was sich im Stil seiner Werke durchaus nachvollziehen lässt.
Schließlich war er von 1929-1935 Assistent bei Tavik František Šimon. Ab 1945
hatte er selbst als Kunstprofessor an der Pädagogischen Fakultät der
Karlsuniversität in Prag großen Einfluss auf viele tschechische Künstler. Sein
breites graphisches Werk ist von einem traditionellen Stil geprägt und hat
seinen Schwerpunkt in mehr als 700 Buchillustrationen. Er illustrierte eine
Vielzahl von internationalen Schriftstellern, so die Märchen von H.C. Andersen,
Oscar Wildes "Gespenst von Canterville" oder "Gullivers Reisen" von Jonathan
Swift. Neben seinen Buchillustration umfasst sein graphisches Werk mehr als 1300
Blätter in den verschiedensten Techniken. In dem Buch "Ceská grafika XX.
století" wird über ihn und seinen graphischen Stil folgendermaßen geschrieben:
"Einer der bedeutendsten Vertreter unserer Graphik war Cyril Bouda, dessen
klassizistische Kunstauffassung sich aus dem Erleben der italienischen
Renaissance herleitete und sich ab Beginn der 20er Jahre entfaltete. Zum
Ausgangspunkt seines Werkes wurde die vollendete Zeichnung, die es ihm
ermöglichte, Ansichten von Städten und wunderschöne Stilleben aufs genaueste zu
erfassen. Mit feinem Humor und reicher Phantasie widmete er sich auch der
Buchillustration." Aber auch andere künstlerische Ausdrucksformen fanden sein
Interesse, was sich in mehr als 400 Ölgemälden ausdrückt sowie in Wandteppichen,
Kirchenfenster, Theaterkulissen, Mosaiken, Zeichentrickfilmen oder Plakaten.
Schließlich sind auch insgesamt 50 Briefmarkenentwürfe zu nennen. Als
Briefmarkenentwerfer ist Bouda beinahe zu den Klassikern der tschechischen
Briefmarkenkunst zu zählen, da seine erster Entwurf bereits vor dem zweiten
Weltkrieg erschien. Er stellt eine Falken - das Wappentier der Turnervereinigung
SOKOL - dar und wurde am 25.1.1938 als Gedenkmarke zu den Sokol-Winterspielen
herausgegeben. Unter seinen zahlreichen Briefmarkenentwürfen fallen vor allem
seine Städtebilder und Landschaftsdarstellungen auf. Seine Liebe zur Briefmarke
wird auch in einem Zitat über ihn deutlich: 'Potìší ho výzva k vypracování
návrhu na známky. Ale ještì víc ho potìší, když na dopis, který píše známým,
mùže nalepit svou známku' (Es freut ihn die Aufforderung zur Ausarbeitung
eines Briefmarkenentwurfs. Aber noch mehr freut es ihn, wenn er auf einen Brief,
den er einem Bekannten schreibt, seine Marke kleben kann). Cyril Bouda starb am
29. August 1984 in Prag. Sein künstlerisches Talent und seine Liebe zur
Briefmarkenkunst hat er an seinen Sohn Jirí Bouda weiter vererbt.
Jirí
Bouda: Graphiker und
Briefmarkenstecher, geboren am 6. Mai 1934 in Prag. Als Sohn seines
berühmten Vaters Cyril Bouda und seiner Mutter Eva
Šimonava, die Tochter von der
grossen Maler Tavik František
Šimon (1977-1942) und einer Großmutter aus der
Künstlerfamilie der Sucharda, liegt Jirí Bouda die Graphikkunst quasi im Blut.
Thematischer
Mittelpunkt seines graphischen Werkes ist häufig das Thema "Eisenbahn" und
Lokomotiven. Zahlreiche tschechische Eisenbahn-Fans haben Bilder Jirí Boudas an
der Wand hängen. Auch unter den ca. 15 bisherigen Briefmarkenentwürfen taucht
häufiger dieses Thema auf. Bereits seine erste Briefmarke aus dem Jahr 1982
zeigt eine Eisenbahn-Motiv. Eine weitere Ausgabe aus dem Jahr 1995 erinnert an
den 150. Jahrestag der ersten Eisenbahn von Olmütz (Olomouc) nach Prag. Bekannt
sind von ihm vor allem eine ganze Reihe Motive der ersten Dauermarkenserie der
Tschechischen Republik mit Städtebildern, die Bouda in der Tradition vieler
Stadtansichten seines Vaters nicht nur entworfen, sondern auch selbst gestochen
hat.
NOVAK 176.
LE MONT SAINT-MICHEL IN THE
FOG: See note Novak 172.
NOVAK 177. LA SAINTE CHAPELLE, PARIS:
Ste-Chapelle remains the foremost example of flamboyant Gothic architecture
and a tribute to the craft of medieval stained glass. Construction of the chapel
began in 1241 to house the most precious of King Louis IX's possessions: the
Crown of Thorns from Christ's Passion. Bought along with a section of the Cross
by the Emperor of Constantinople in 1239 for the ungodly sum of 135,000 pounds,
the crown required an equally princely home. Although the crown itself---minus a
few thorns that St-Louis gave away in exchange for political favors---has been
moved to Notre Dame, Ste-Chapelle is still a wonder to explore.
In the
comparatively simple Lower Chapel a few "treasures," platter-sized portraits of
saints, remain beneath the blue vaulted ceiling and gold stars. No mastery of
the lower Chapel's dim gilt can prepare the visitor for the Upper Chapel, where
light pours through walls of stained glass and frescoes of saints and martyrs
shine.
Read from bottom to top, left to right, the 1136 windows narrate the
Bible from Genesis to the Apocalypse.
The flood of colored light from the
windows creates one of the most breathtaking sights in Paris.
NOVAK 178.
CATHÉDRALE NOTRE-DAME IN PARIS: See note Novak 96.
NOVAK 179.
NOCTURNE IN AURAY, BRITTANNY: See note Novak 128 about
Brittany. Auray nestling at the end of a ria, has 10.911
inhabitants (2000), called Alréens. It is situated in the Morbihan dept., NW
France, in Brittany, on the shores of the river Loch. Oysters are bred, food is
canned, and furniture is manufactured. The coast of the
Morbihan region is intersected by several elongated estuaries. Geographers call
them "Rias", but the locals simply call them "Rivières" (rivers).
Underneath its walls the decisive battle of the War of the Breton Succession
took place (1364). [North of Auray, the troops of Charles de Blois, were badly
positioned in the marshlands. The English, Olivier de Clisson and Jean de
Montfort held the dominating position. Charles attacks, going against the
opinion of Du Guesclin, his superior. It's a catastrophe. The army is completely
crushed, and his body is picked up off the battlefield. Du Guesclin tries to save
the day and fights obstinately. The English chief sees him and manages to get
him to surrender. Olivier de Clisson manages to get away - one-eyed - from the
heat of the battle.]
It is an attractive town, because of its harbour, its
attractive view while walking along the Loch, and its old town quarter of St
Goustan with its beautiful houses dating from the 15th century. Sightseeing's are
the Town Hall (1776), the former prison (18th C) which now holds the "History
centre" in which the towns past is detailed, the Congregation chapel (1672)
(currently occupied by the Tourist Office), the interior of the St. Gildas
church (1641) where you can admire is beautiful reredos from Laval, the St.
Esprit (Holy Spirit) and the St. Cado chapels (14th C and 16th C respectively).
he G. Cadoudal mausoleum,
The St. Goustan port is a real gem which one
can first catch a glimpse of from the up above the Loch (Auray river), from
which there is a magnificent panoramic view of the river.
You can go quietly
down to the little bridge (1295) using the ramps which have been built where the
old castle was. The square is lined with beautiful timber framed houses dating
back to the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. They remind us of the ports
commercial development during the 14th C, when it commissioned ships for
Newfoundland, and most of all its importance in the 16th C because of its trade
in merchandise such as salt, wine, leather, etc. Indeed it is here that Benjamin
Franklin landed in 1776, as indicates the one of the quays which is named after
him, when he came to negotiate an alliance between the two countries. The church
(1469) has a beautiful paneled vessel in the form of the hull of a boat.
The
remains of Cadoual can be seen in the mausoleum, at the gates of Auray, where
you will learn about the deeds of this royalist conspirator.
Cadoudal
- the son of a farmer from the area of Auray, was 22 when in 1793 the Chouan
revolt broke out. He gets totally involved. The Vendéens are beaten, but the
battle continues in Morbihan. He is arrested, put in prison. He escapes taking
up his activities again, and participates in the Quiberon affair. On the Champ
des Martyrs, also near Auray, some 800 royalists, who had landed at Quiberon,
were massacred (1795). Cadoudal surrenders to Hoche in 1796 and goes back to the
countryside in 1799. The troops that hound him go as far as pulling down hedges
and mounds - the frequent hideaways for the Chouans. Bonaparte grants him his
favour and makes him a general. The fighting doesn't end until 1804. Cadoudal
goes to Paris to try and kidnap the first consul. He is arrested and given the
death sentence and subsequently executed. His body is used for dissection by
students. The great surgeon Larrey keeps the skeleton, mounted on iron wires.
North of the town is the famous Basilica of Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, built in
Renaissance style in the 19th cent. Pilgrimages to the shrine have occurred
every July 26 since the 17th cent., when a peasant, Yves Nicolazic, claimed to
have seen a vision of St. Anne.
NOVAK 181. LOAVERS
BY THE SEINE, PARIS: See note Novak 161.
NOVAK 182.
AN AMSTERDAM RAGMAN: See note Novak 104.
NOVAK 183.
HARBOUR OF DORDRECHT,
HOLLAND:
NOVAK 184.
OLD BRETON WOMAN:
See note Novak 128. [Novak 162, 163, 173, 191, 192, 200 and 434 have also a
Breton subject]
NOVAK 185. FACADE
OF NOTRE-DAME, PARIS: The principal facade,
from bottom upwards, is composed as follows: from l. to r. : Portal
of the Virgins, Portal of the Last Judgement, Portal of St
Anne. Above these portals, the gallery of the 28 kings of Judea and
Israel extends the whole length, representing, according to medieval
custom, the kings in 13th cent. dress and crowned like European
kings. This Kings` Gallery is surmounted, both l. and r., by a
pointed bay enclosing two windows and a small rose-window. In the
middle, the large rose; to the left a statue of Adam; to the r. a
statue of Eve. Revolutionary vandalism attacked the statues of
the facades in particular; the statues of the Gallery of Kings,
mistaken for Capetian kings, although they were Christ's ancestors,
were beaten down. Those that we see now, like the portals, are
restorations. [The feast of the Goddess Reason was celebrated under
the vaults of Notre Dame, 10 nov. 1798. Then it was used to store
provisions. Napoleon, in 1802, returned Notre Dame to the Catholic
church and was consecrated two years later. David in a famous
painting, immortalized this scene in which the cathedral was
returned to its proper function.] In the front of the large rose,
Virgin with Child Jesus between two angels. Dominating this
arrangement of stained glass and statues, and also running the whole
length, is a gallery with balustrades supported by a gallery with
small pillars. To l. and r., the wall is adorned with towers. The
balustrade is decorated with the famous chimeras where , without
betraying the spirits of the middle ages, the skill of the sculptor
Viollet le Duc, is displayed; the famous vampire is well-known.
Finally we come to the two towers, separated by a gallery of small
pillars. The North tower (to the left) is slightly broader than the
South tower which holds the bell known as the "bourdon" of Notre
Dame. According to the original plan, these two towers should have
spires, as at Chartres, but they were never built. The principal
facade emphasizes the union that prevailed, in the 13th, 14th and
15th centuries, between architecture, sculpture and stained-glass.
For more about Notre Dame see note Novak 96 and Novak 134.
NOVAK 186. MARKET-PLACE
IN NICE: (Info from 1911) NICE, a
city of France, the chief town of the department of the Alpes Maritimes, and
previous to 1860 the capital of the county of Nice (Nizza) in the kingdom of
Sardinia, 739 m. by rail from Paris. Pop. (1901) 127,027, of whom 105,109 were
permanent residents; in winter-time there is a large influx of visitors. It
occupies a fine position at the mouth of the Paillon (Paglione), a stream (often
dried up in summer) which, after a course of 20 m., enters the northern end of
the Baie des Anges. A steep isolated limestone hill, 308 ft. in height, running
back for some distance from the shore, forms the historical nucleus of the town.
Formerly crowned by a castle, which, previous to its destruction by the duke of
Berwick in 1706, was one of the strongest fortresses on the coast, it is now
laid out as a public pleasure-ground, and planted with aloe, cactus, agave and
palm. Towards its south-west corner stands a tower (Tour Bellanda or Clerissy)
dating, it is said from the 5th century. The old town stretches along the
western base of the hill; the ‘town
of the 18th century’ occupies the round farther west, which slopes gently
towards the Paillon; and away to the north-east and north and west beyond the
stream lie the ever-growing quarters of the modern city. To the east of the
hill, and thus out of sight of the more fashionable districts, the commercial
quarter surrounds the port.
The whole frontage of Nice is composed of fine
embankments: the quai des Ponchettes, constructed in 1770 round the base of
the castle hill, is continued westward by the Quai du Midi to the public gardens
and the municipal casino, whence the Promenade des Anglais (so called because it
was begun in 1822-1824 at the cost of the English colony), a boulevard 85 ft.
wide, extends or more than a mile to the mouth of the Magnan, and in 1904 was
prolonged to the Var. A pier projecting into the sea from the promenade contains
a " crystal palace." The course of the Paillon also is embanked on both sides,
and at one part the Place Massena, one of the largest public squares in the
city, and the principal resort of foreign visitors, and the Avenue Massena
(leading thence to the Promenade des Anglais) have been laid out across the
stream. Besides a Roman Catholic cathedral—Ste Reparate, dating from 1650—Nice
possesses two Russian churches, two synagogues and an Anglican chapel.
Architecturally the most remarkable church is Notre Dame du Voeu, a modern
Gothic building with two towers 213 ft. high, erected by the town in 1835 to
commemorate its preservation from cholera. The secular buildings include the
town hall, the prefecture, the theatres, the hospitals, the lycee (founded by
the Jesuits in the 17th century), the natural history museum, the library
(especially rich in theology), and, at some distance from the town, the
astronomical and meteorological observatory on Mont Gros (1220 ft.).
The industrial
establishments comprise perfumery factories, distilleries, oil-works,
furniture and woodwork factories, confectionery works, soap-works, tanneries and
a national tobacco factory employing several hundred persons. Besides the vine,
the trees principally cultivated in the neighbourhood are the olive, the orange,
the mulberry and the carob; and the staple exports are oil, agricultural
produce, fruits and flowers.
Nice now joins on the north-east the
ancient Episcopal town of Cimiez, in which are situated the largest and most
elegantly appointed hotels. Reckoning from east to west the town is surrounded
by a girdle of beautiful towns—Carabacel, St Etienne, St Philippe and Les
Beaumettes. On the east of the port lie Montboron, Riquier and St Roch, the last
partly occupied by barracks. The entrances to the port of Nice and the outer
pier have been improved; that of the outer port is 300 ft. wide, and that of the
inner 220 ft. The area of the port is about 15 acres, the length of quayage
available 3380 ft., the depth of water 20 ft., its trade, mostly coastal, being
shared principally between French and Italian vessels, the arrivals being about
1235 vessels of some 300,000 tons annually. Nice is an Episcopal see (first
mentioned at the end of the 4th century) which since 1860 is in the
ecclesiastical province of Aix en Provence. It is the headquarters of a military
division forming part of the corps d'armée of Marseilles.
Protected towards
the north by hills which rise stage behind stage to the main ridge of the Alps,
Nice is celebrated for the mildness of its climate. The mean temperature
is 60° Fahr., that of winter being 49°, of spring 56°, of summer 72° and of
autumn 63°. For a few nights in winter the mercury sinks below freezing point,
but snow is practically unknown, falling, on an average, only half a day in the
year. The highest reading of the thermometer is rarely above 90°. There are
sixty-seven days with rain in the course of the year; but it usually falls in
heavy showers which soon leave the sky clear again, though the whole annual
amount exceeds 32 in. Fine days and rainy days are almost equally distributed
throughout the different seasons. The winds are very variable, sometimes
changing several times a day. Apart from the ordinary land and sea breezes, the
most frequent is the east wind, which is especially formidable during autumn.
The south-west wind (called Libeccio; or wind of Lybia) is moist and warm; the
north-east (or Gregaou, Greek), which is happily rare, brings storms of hail and
even snow in winter. The mistral (from the north-west) and the tramontane (from
the north) are generally stopped by the mountains; but when they do reach the
city they raise intolerable dust-storms. For two thousand years the climate of
Nice has been considered favourable in chest complaints. Those who are requiring
rest, and those suffering from gout, asthma, catarrhs, rachitic affections,
scrofula, stone, also experience benefit; but the reverse is the case when heart
disease, nervous disorders or ophthalmia are concerned. Autumn is the best
season; in spring the sudden changes of temperature demand great care. Means of
passing the time pleasantly are fairly abundant. The city is at its liveliest
during the carnival festivities, in which, as at Rome, battles are waged with
sweetmeats and flowers.
History: Nice (Nicaea) was
founded about two thousand years ago by the Phocaeans of Marseilles, and
received its name in honour of a victory over the neighbouring Ligurians. It
soon became one of the busiest trading stations on the Ligurian coast; but as a
city it had an important rival in the town of Cemenelum, which continued to
exist till the time of the Lombard invasions, and has left its ruins at Cimiez,
25 m. to the north. In the 7th century Nice joined the Genoese league formed by
the towns of Liguria. In 729 it repulsed the Saracens; but in 859 and 880 they
pillaged and burned it, and for the most of the 10th, century remained masters
of the surrounding country. During the middle ages Nice had its share in the
wars and disasters of Italy. As an ally of Pisa it was the enemy of Genoa, and
both the king of France and the emperor endeavoured to subjugate it; but in
spite of all it maintained its municipal liberties. In the course of the 13th
and 14th centuries it fell more than once into the hands of the counts of
Provence; and at length in 1388 it placed itself under the protection of the
counts of Savoy. The maritime strength of Nice now rapidly increased till it was
able to cope with the Barbary pirates; the fortifications were largely extended
and the roads to the city improved. During the struggle between Francis I. and
Charles V. great damage was caused by the passage of the armies invading
Provence; pestilence and famine raged in the city for several years. It was in
Nice that the two monarchs in 1538 concluded, through the mediation of Paul
III., a truce of ten years; and a marble cross set up to commemorate the arrival
of the pope still gives its name, Croix de Marbre, to part of the town. In 1543
Nice was attacked by the united forces of Francis I. and Barbarossa; and, though
the inhabitants, with admirable courage, repulsed the assault which succeeded
the terrible bombardment, they were ultimately compelled to surrender, and
Barbarossa was allowed to pillage the city and to carry off 2500 captives.
Pestilence appeared again in 1550 and 1580. In 1600 Nice was taken by the duke
of Guise. By opening the ports of the countship to all nations, and proclaiming
full freedom of trade, Charles Emmanuel in 1626 gave a great stimulus to the
commerce of the city, whose noble families took part in its mercantile
enterprises. Captured by Catinat in 1691, Nice was restored to Savoy in 1696;
but it was again besieged by the French in 1705, and in the following year its
citadel and ramparts were demolished. The treaty of Utrecht in 1713 once more
gave the city back to Savoy; and in the peaceful years which followed the " new
town" was built. From 1744 till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) the French
and Spaniards were again in possession. In 1775 the king of Sardinia destroyed
all that remained of the ancient liberties of the commune. Conquered in 1792 by
the armies of the French Republic, the county of Nice continued to be part of
France till 1814; but after that date it reverted to Sardinia. At the beginning
of the French Revolution the city was a haven for Royalist émigrés By a treaty
concluded in 1860 between the Sardinian king and Napoleon III. it was again
transferred to France, and the cession was ratified after a plebiscite by over
25,000 electors out of a total of 30,700.
Modern
info: 1990 pop. 345,674.
Nice is the most famous resort on the French Riviera. Although the economy
depends mainly on the tourist trade, the electronics industry as well as other
manufactures are important. The old port of Nice handles both commercial fishing
and passenger service to Corsica. The new port, west of the city, handles more
commercial shipping. Nice also has one of France’s major airports. The Carnival
of Nice marks the height of the city’s festival season. It was claimed and
occupied by Mussolini during World War II.
NOVAK 187.
BOURSE DES VALEURS:
See note Novak 193.
NOVAK 188. RUE
MOUFFETARD, PARIS: Rue Mouffetard, 5th
Arrondissement, Paris. This narrow street is 605 meters long and no
more than six meters wide; it is an ancient section of the Roman
road to Italy, by way of Lyon - and has had this name since the 13th
century. Actually it has had several variations of this name
including 'Mostard,' and Saint-Marcel, but a lot of people simply
call in 'La Mouff' today. Rue Mouffetard runs on a gentle slope from
the Place de la Contrescarpe down to the Square St. Medard. The
street has become a major attraction for Parisians - especially
young ones - and tourists alike. Houses, some date from the 12th
century, line the street, with cafes, food shops, and a morning
market that spills out onto the congested street. While it is open
to traffic, it functions for the most part as a pedestrian street -
which is a big part of its charm. The market fills its lower half
every morning, and people come to do their daily shopping. After the
market closes, restaurants open up, offering a wide variety of
ethnic foods and more stereotypically French food at cafes and
creperies.
NOVAK 190. SELF-PORTRAIT
(PROFILE):
 |
 |
T. F. Šimon (1877-1942). |
NOVAK
191. BRETON
FISH-SALESWOMAN: See note Novak 128.
NOVAK 192. FISHER-MEN IN CONCARNEAU, BRITTANY : Concarneau is an
important holiday resort and fishing port in western France in the department of
Finistère. The town occupies a picturesque situation on an inlet opening into
the Bay of La Forét. The old portion (Ville-close) stands on an island, and is
surrounded by ramparts, parts of which are believed to date from the 14th
century. It is an important centre of the sardine, mackerel and lobster
fisheries. Sardine-preserving, boat-building and the manufacture of
sardine-boxes are carried on. Chief town in the area, Concarneau has 19 000
inhabitants (2000) and offers well-equipped commercial and sporting facilities
all year round. Its imposing ramparts shelter the yachting centre which main
advantage is to be right in the town centre. In a well sheltered bay, Concarneau
offers several safe and sandy beaches.
In the heart of the town, the
fishing port is very lively especially in the morning. The unloading of
the fish from the trawlers starts at 11 p.m. and auctioning takes places from
6.30 a.m. the first five days of the weeks. Everyday in the indoor market, fresh
fish, lobster, fruits and vegetables can be found by even the most demanding of
customers. Don’t miss the colourful and varied open-air market which takes place
in front of the Ville-close on Mondays and Fridays (8 a.m. till 1 p.m.). The
culinary traditions of the old Concarneau canneries are carried on by 3 small
factories which have top quality products on sale (fish soup, scallops,
sardines...).
History: The small island sheltered in
the heart of a bay abundant in fish, was inhabited as far back as prehistoric
times, with a population of fishermen. Up until the 10th century, the unique
defenses of the village were moats with fortified trenches topped by wooden
stakes.
Up until the 10th century, the unique defenses of the
village were moats with fortified trenches topped by wooden stakes. In 1451, the
town walls were rebuilt and in 1491 the marriage of Anne of Brittany and the
King of France made Concarneau a royal strong-hold.
In 1540 ,
within the Ville-close could be found: the church and it’s cemetery, a hospital,
a communal oven, a public well, the market place and of course, large barracks
and an accompanying prison. In 1619 ,the governor having been accused of
plotting against Louis XIII, had his lieutenant hung in front of the town gate.
This event was to mark the end of Concarneau’s grand military role. Under the
orders of Vauban, the ramparts underwent important changes at the beginning of
the 17th century : removal of the tower roofs to install the artillery and
construction of a « Ravelin », 300 years later the exterior view is almost
unchanged except the construction of a new belfry at the beginning of the
century.
As well as the garrison, Concarneau consisted of a
population of fishermen. The fish was pressed, dried and sent by horse and cart
to the inland towns.
In 1795, 300 fishing boats were recorded but
this relative affluence was stopped short by the wars of the Empire and the
coastal blockades. The first canning factories appeared in 1851 so that the
standard of living went up again and in 1900, 30 factories employing 2 000
workers out of a population of 7 000, were recorded. The tuna fished during the
summer, enabled the factories to continue working for most of the year.
The disappearance in 1905 of the large shoals of sardines meant the
fleet of 800 trawlers plunged into chaos. The « Filets Bleus » Charity was
founded during this period to come to the aid of the fisherman’s families who
were most in distress. After the first World War, the small boats gave way to
the scallops and the sails slowly but surely gave way to engines. Trawl fishing
became an all year round operation and in 1925 the development of the inner
harbour was decided. During the German occupation, large trawlers sheltering
from Boulogne and Lorient marked the beginning of a generation of ships
especially designed for the high seas.
About Brittany see note Novak
128. Novak 434 also depicts Concarneau.
NOVAK 193.
BOURSE DES VALEURS: The Paris Stock Exchange
(Bourse des Valeurs). Napoleon ordered the creation of the Bourse, which is
situated between the Palais Royal and the Grands Boulevards in the commercial
center of Paris. He enlisted the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart
(1739-1813) who was known for his designs of private homes, a theater and of the
Hôtel de Condé. The Bourse was the final work of Brongniart begun in 1807 and
completed in 1825. Although he made all of the designs, he died in 1813 and
another architect, Labarre succeeded him in the project.
The architecture of the Bourse is
both impressive and imposing. There are sixty four columns on the outside of the
building in the classical Greek style. The columns surround the construction
like a Greek temple. It is a Corinthian peristyle which signifies the imperial
glory, and these columns are more than ten meters high. On the inside, there are
arches which seem Gothic or perhaps roman and which evoke the memory of grand
European empires, like that of Napoleon the first.
The Bourse remains in use
today, and is the home of the CAC-40 - the equivalent of the Dow Jones
Industrial Average.
[Novak 187 depicts the 'Bourse des Valeurs', too. Novak
400 depicts the 'Bourse de Commerce'.]
NOVAK 197. BOUQUINISTES,
IN SPRING (BOOKSELLERS IN
SPRING): See note Novak 56.
NOVAK 198. GATE OF THE ARAB QUARTER IN
TANGIER: (info from 1909) Tangier
(also Tanger; locally Tanjah), a seaport of Morocco, on the Straits of Gibraltar,
about 14 m. E. of Cape Spartel, nestles between two eminences at the N.W.
extremity of a spacious bay. The town, which has a population of about 40,000,
presents a picturesque appearance from the sea, rising gradually in the form of
an amphitheatre, with the citadel, the remainder of the English mole and York
Castle to the right: in the central valley is the commercial quarter, while to
the left along the beach runs the track to Tetuan. Though rivalry between
European Powers led to many public works being delayed, through the action of
the public Sanitary Association the streets, which are narrow and crooked, have
been re-paved as well as cleaned and partially lighted, and several new roads
have been made outside the town. In some of the older streets European shops
have replaced the picturesque native cupboards; drinking dens have sprung up at
many of the corners, while telephones and electric light have been introduced by
private companies, and European machinery is used in many of the corn-mills,
etc. The main thoroughfare leads from Bab el Marsa (Gate of the Port) to the
Bab el Sok (Gate of the Market-place) known to the English as Port Catherine.
The sok presents a lively spectacle, especially upon Thursdays and Sundays.
Tangier is almost destitute of manufactures, and while the trade is considerable
for Morocco, it is confined chiefly to imports, about two-fifths of which come
from Great Britain and Gibraltar, and one quarter from France. The exports are
chiefly oxen, meat, fowls and eggs for Gibraltar and sometimes for Spain, with
occasional shipments of slippers and blankets to Egypt. Most of the trade, both
wholesale and retail, is in the hands of the Jews. The harbour formed by the Bay
of Tangier is an extensive one, the best Morocco possesses, and good in all
weathers except during a strong east wind, but vessels of any size have to
anchor a mile or so out as the shore to the west is shallow and sandy, and to
the east, rocky and shingly. Since 1907 a basin with an outer and inner mole has
been built. It does not, however, accommodate large vessels. The climate is
temperate and healthy, and good for consumptives. As the seaport nearest to
Europe, Tangier is the town in the empire in which the effects of progress are
most marked, and since the end of the 18th century it has been the diplomatic
headquarters. The nucleus of a cosmopolitan society thus formed has expanded
into a powerful community enjoying privileges and immunities unknown to natives
not receiving its protection. The steadily increasing number of visitors has
induced the opening of first-class hotels, and necessitated extensive building
operations, resulting in the immigration of some thousands of artisans, chiefly
Spanish. The number of European inhabitants (1905) was about 9000 (7500
Spaniards); of Jews about 10,000. |
