LA DONNA DELLA SALUTE AND SAN GIORGIO BY J.M.W. TURNER

ITS THE MOST EXPENSIVE PAINTING BY A BRITISH PAINTER 4 ALL TIME. THE COST WAS 2 MILLION POUNDS IN AN AUCTION AT APRIL 2006

COLLOSEUM OF ROME (History of Coliseum)

Even today, in a world of skyscrapers, the Colosseum is hugely impressive. It stands as a glorious but troubling monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Inside it, behind those serried ranks of arches and columns, Romans for centuries cold-bloodedly killed literally thousands of people whom they saw as criminals, as well as professional fighters and animals.

'... the amphitheatre and its associated shows are the quintessential symbols of Roman culture.'

Indeed, it was the amphitheatre's reputation as a sacred spot where Christian martyrs had met their fate that saved the Colosseum from further depredations by Roman popes and aristocrats - anxious to use its once glistening stone for their palaces and churches. The cathedrals of St Peter and St John Lateran, the Palazzo Venezia and the Tiber's river defences, for example, all exploited the Colosseum as a convenient quarry.

As a result of this plunder, and also because of fires and earthquakes, two thirds of the original have been destroyed, so that the present Colosseum is only a shadow of its former self, a noble ruin.

The Colosseum was started in the aftermath of Nero's extravagance and the rebellion by the Jews in Palestine against Roman rule. Nero, after the great fire at Rome in AD 64, had built a huge pleasure palace for himself (the Golden House) right in the centre of the city. In 68, faced with military uprisings, he committed suicide, and the empire was engulfed in civil wars.

The eventual winner Vespasian (emperor 69-79) decided to shore up his shaky regime by building an amphitheatre, or pleasure palace for the people, out of the booty from the Jewish War - on the site of the lake in the gardens of Nero's palace. The Colosseum was a grand political gesture. Suitably for that great city, it was the largest amphitheatre in the Roman world, capable of holding some 50,000 spectators.

Eventually there were well over 250 amphitheatres in the Roman empire - so it is no surprise that the amphitheatre and its associated shows are the quintessential symbols of Roman culture.



The Coliseum, also known as "Amphitheatre Flavio", built on the order of the Imperator Vespasiano in the honour of the grandiosity of his empire, was inaugurated by his son, Tito, in 80 after Christ with celebrations 100 days long.

The name Coliseum probably comes from the big bronze statue of about 38 metres, known as the "Colosso" (giant), that Nerone wanted built on his image in the Domus Aurea. The work, representing the Imperator in the pants of the God Apollo, wanted to call back to the mind, with its extraordinary dimensions, the prestige and the fascination that another symbol of the Antiquity had had: the Colosso of Rhodes.
The statue was moved by the Imperator Adriano close to the Amphitheatre and afterwards modified in its lines in order to look like to various imperators on one hand, and then, on the other hand, with the addition of a "crown of sun rays", to the God Sun. However, it was only in the Middle Ages, with the oblivion of the imperial magnificence and of the aristocratic "gens", that the name Coliseum started to take the place, in the common diction, of the name of "Amphitheatre Flavio".
The Coliseum, projected by Rabirio or maybe Gaudenzio, was welcoming long combats between gladiators, executions and hunting spectacles. More or less 80000 spectators were following the combats that could go on from the sunrise to the sunset and also up to the deepest night when the gladiators were fighting illuminated by the light of the torches.
According to the chronicles of the time it looks like that the fights preferred by the public were the chaotic melange of tens of gladiators invented by the Imperator Claudio, called "sportule". All the religious celebrations, the recurrence and the military victories were celebrated, during the imperial era, with the combats of the gladiators. To defend the spectators from the ferocious animals they were installing a metallic fence, while during the most sunny days or the raining days, the public was protected by a big blue "velario" with yellow stars operated by a team of sailors of the fleet of Capo Miseno and of Ravenna.




In general, to the Coliseum are also associated the persecutions suffered by the Christian martyrs, also if, according to recent studies, there are not documented proofs demonstrating the effective existence of massacres and slaughters inside the walls of the Amphitheatre Flavio. In any case, in 313 after Christ, the Imperator Constantine proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire, obviously forbidding the executions of Christians but also the combats between gladiators and the hunting spectacles.
During the following centuries the Coliseum initially became a cemetery, and then a fortress called "Frangipane" and finally a sort of cava for the construction materials. The degradation of the structure due to fires, earthquakes and sacks was stopped by Pope Benedetto XIV who consecrated the Amphitheatre to the Via Crucis and forbade any ulterior spoliation.

TAJ MAHAL OF INDIA

History of Taj Mahal:

The history of Taj Mahal, a monument which has been described as 'poetry in marble' was constructed by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. He erected this mausoleum in the memory of his beloved wife, Arjumand Bano Begum, popularly known as Mumtaz Mahal, who died in A.D. 1630. According to the history of Taj Mahal it is believed that her dying wish to her husband was "to build a tomb in her memory such as the world had never seen before." Indeed, centuries later, no tomb has been able to even remotely equal the glory of the marvelous Taj.

A study of the history of Taj Mahal reveals that it was started in A.D. 1631 and completed at the end of 1648 A.D. It is believed that the Taj is a result of twenty thousand workmen toiling day and night for twenty two whole years. A small town was built for the laborers called 'Mumtazabad' - named after the deceased empress. The town is now known as Taj Ganj.

Amanat Khan Shirazi was the calligrapher of Taj Mahal, his name occurs at the end of an inscription on one of the gates of the Taj. Poet Ghyasuddin had designed the verses on the tombstone, while Ismail Khan Afridi of Turkey was the dome maker. Muhammad Hanif was the superintendent of Masons. The designer of Taj Mahal was Ustad Ahmad Lahauri.

The material for the construction of the Taj was brought in from all over India and central Asia. It is believed that it took a fleet of 1000 elephants to transport it to the site! The history of Taj Mahal provides us with fascinating details about Mughal history and architecture.

Red sandstone was brought from Fatehpur Sikri, Jasper from Punjab, Jade and Crystal from China, Turquoise from Tibet, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire from Sri Lanka, Coal and Cornelian from Arabia and diamonds from Panna. In all 28 kind of rare, semi precious and precious stones were used for inlay work in the Taj Mahal. The chief building material, the white marble was brought from the quarries of Makrana, in Rajasthan. Thus the history of Taj Mahal shows us the organizing capacity of the Mughal Empire and the vision of Emperor Shah Jahan, who was able to bring together many skilled artisans to create this beautiful monument to eternal love.

DORA MAAR WITH A CAT BY PABLO PICASSO

IT COSTED 46 .4 MILLILON OF POUNDS...........

BAL AU MOULIN DE LA GALETTE BY PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR

THE PAINTING COST 42 MILLION OF POUNDS.............

PORTRAIT OF DU DR GACHET BY VINCENT VAN GOGH

THE 3RD HIGHEST RATED PAINTING COS 44.5 MILLION POUNDS AT A AUCTION AT MAY 1990

MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS BY SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS

SIR PETER PAUL IS THE PAINTER IT WAS COSTED 45 MILLION POUNDS.

BOY WITH A PIPE BY PABLO PICASSO(1881-1973)

THIS IS THE MOST COSTLY PAINTING EVER WHICH RATED 52 MILLION POUNDS IN A AUCTION AT MAY 2004

SISTINE CHAPPEL CEILLING BY MICHELANGELO(1475-1564)

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by Guy Shaked

“I’ve already grown a goiter at this drudgery...
and the brush that is always above my face,
by dribbling down, makes it an ornate pavement...
Giovanni, from now on defend my dead painting, and my honor,
since I’m not in a good position, nor a painter.” [1]

In this sonetto caudato Michelangelo describes his resentment at working on the Sistine Chapel. He described himself as a sculptor who was forced to paint, not a painter.

His response to those who forced him to paint, perhaps led by Bramante, an advisor to the Pope [2], was to paint a sculpture gallery, which he may have preferred to make in stone for the Vatican. The figures, seated on stone chairs, like the figure of Moses that Michelangelo had made for Pope Julius’s tomb, would not have been too difficult to sculpt in marble. The prophets and sibyls of the Sistine Chapel are representations of statues of prophets and sibyls, and no Biblical scenes are depicted, as one would expect in a painting.

The sculpture gallery Michelangelo painted is quite similar to the Vatican's sculpture galleries, where one walks between rows of Greek and Roman statues on pedestals set along the walls on both sides.

The prophets on their seats display only minimal motion, since their contribution to mankind is their spoken word, written down as their teachings (as in the case of Moses).

In the wall niches between the painted marble statues are painted seated gnudi on columns with their backs turned to us.

The sculpture gallery Michelangelo painted on the ceiling sides surrounds the inner “ceiling” he made in the center of his painting, where he depicted episodes from Genesis and the creation of the world. These scenes (figures in mid-air, some wet with water, tree branches) could not be sculpted but only painted.

The opening scene of the ceiling depicts God, in mid-air like Michelangelo, but of course without supporting scaffolds, creating his own ultimate flesh-and-bone sculpture: Man.

Unlike the theme of the seated prophets, the theme of the ceiling paintings is action. God, according to Michelangelo, is creating Man with his touch rather than his word, as in the biblical account. Michelangelo, who substituted God’s words with his immediate action, displays the enormous difference between the seven days when God’s words operated and the time when the words of prophets and sibyls prevailed: human words are to be written down rather than translated into immediate action; they may materialize later or never.

This is indeed a critique of Pope Julius' treatment of Michelangelo’s work on his tomb, for the agreement between the two was initially kept but was later breached, because, Michelangelo believed, the agreement was made of human rather than divine words.

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel