Adaneth - Arts & Literature

Episode 8: The Palazzo della Pilotta is a vaste complex of edifices located between Piazzale della Pace and the Lungoparma in the historical centre of Parma, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. Its name derives from the game of pelota played at one time by Spanish soldiers stationed in Parma. La Pilotta, an imposing palace symbol of the Farnese ducal power, historical and civil center of the city of Parma, is today a unique monumental complex. Originally conceived as a container for the services of the Farnesian court capable of integrating the system of ducal residences, the construction of the monumental Palazzo della Pilotta probably began around 1583, during the last years of the duchy of Ottavio Farnese (1547-1586) based on a project of Francesco Paciotto from Urbino. The long corridors were arranged orthogonally to delimit a real "citadel", connected with the destroyed Ducal Palace and with that of the Garden, located on the other bank of the Parma Torrent. Its system of internal courtyards and the rustic brick wall were intended to contain warehouses, stables, barracks, as well as a grandiose armory room later transformed into a court theatre. The complex derives its name from the noble game of "pelota" which was played in its courtyards on special occasions of representation. Already home to a selected ducal picture gallery and a book collection in the Farnesian era, the Pilotta, during the duchy of Don Filippo di Borbone (1748-1765), hosted the Academy of Fine Arts with its artistic collection, from which it would then have originates the National Gallery, the Palatine Library, the Archaeological Museum and the Bodonian Museum. The existing complex includes three courts: the Cortile di San Pietro Martire (now best known as Cortile della Pilotta), Cortile del Guazzatoio (originally della pelota) and the Cortile della Racchetta. The Pilotta was to house a large hall, later turned into the Teatro Farnese, the stables and the grooms' residences, the Academy Hall and other rooms. After the end of the Farnese family rule of Parma, much of the movable assets of the palace were removed by then Duke Charles I, later King of Spain, and taken to Naples in the 1730s. The Biblioteca Palatina was established here by 1769. Elizabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain, was born here in 1692. By 2015, the building spaces had been taken up by a number of cultural institutions and museums, including in addition to the library: - National Archaeological Museum - Liceo artistico statale Paolo Toschi (an art school named after Paolo Toschi) - Museo Bodoniano (a museum dedicated to Giambattista Bodoni) - Teatro Farnese - Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Episode 5: The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica or National Gallery of Ancient Art is an art museum in Rome, Italy. It is the principal national collection of older paintings in Rome – mostly from before 1800; it does not hold any antiquities. It has two sites: the Palazzo Barberini and the Palazzo Corsini. The Palazzo Barberini was designed for Pope Urban VIII, a member of the Barberini family, by the sixteenth-century architect Carlo Maderno on the old location of Villa Sforza. Its central salon ceiling was decorated by Pietro da Cortona with the visual panegyric of the Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power. The Palazzo Corsini, formerly known as Palazzo Riario, is a fifteenth-century palace, rebuilt in the eighteenth century by the architect Ferdinando Fuga for Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini. The National Galleries of Ancient Art are a museum and two galleries: Palazzo Barberini and the Corsini Gallery which preserve over 5000 works of art including paintings, sculptures, sketches, decorative arts from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. The heritage of the National Galleries was formed in 1883 with the donation to the State of the Corsini collection, then located in Palazzo Corsini. The collection was soon enriched with works from prestigious Roman collections, so much so that in 1949 the Italian State purchased Palazzo Barberini to open the new headquarters of the National Gallery in 1953. The Corsini Gallery today only displays works from the Corsini collection and constitutes the only eighteenth-century collection remaining in Rome in its original context: the palace purchased by the family in 1736, under the pontificate of Clement XII Corsini. The building, famous for having hosted Queen Christina of Sweden in the seventeenth century, was transformed into a real palace by the architect Ferdinando Fuga. The recent layout of the museum has relocated the paintings exactly as they had been arranged by Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, the first and main creator of the collection, on the basis of the 1771 inventory of the rooms. By visiting the Gallery it is therefore possible to enter the apartments of an eighteenth-century cardinal, including the famous Alcove of Christina of Sweden, and admire masterpieces such as Caravaggio's Saint John the Baptist, Salvator Rosa's Prometheus, Rubens' Saint Sebastian or the mysterious Throne Corsini. ​ The gallery's collection includes works by Bernini, lla galleria comprende lavori di Bernini, Caravaggio, van Dyck, Holbein, Beato Angelico, Lippi, Lotto, Preti, Poussin, El Greco, Raffaello, Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Rubens, Murillo, Ribera e Tiziano.

Episode 6: The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria is housed in the Palazzo dei Priori, Perugia, in central Italy. Located on the upper floors of the Palazzo dei Priori, the exhibition spaces occupy two floors and the collection comprises the greatest representation of the Umbrian School of painting, ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, strongest in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. The collection is presented in 40 exhibition rooms in the Palazzo. The collection's origins lie in the foundation of the Perugian Accademia del Disegno in the mid-16th century. The Academy was originally based in the Convento degli Olivetani at Montemorcino, where it began to assemble a collection of paintings and drawings. The town became part of the French department of Trasimène in 1798 and its religious houses were suppressed. This suppression was repeated by the united Kingdom of Italy from the 1860s onwards - both suppressions shifted a large number of paintings and artworks from church to state ownership. In 1863, the civic paintings collection was formally named after Pietro Vannucci, but the problem of establishing an appropriate site to house the collection was not solved until 1878, when it moved into the third floor of the Palazzo dei Priori in the town centre. With the addition of acquisitions, donations and bequests, the pinacoteca became the Regia Galleria Vannucci in 1918, under the patronage of the king. The name was later changed to Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria. Over the years the entire complex of Palazzo dei Priori has been repeatedly affected by renovations and functional adaptation. The museum path, inaugurated in its current form in 2006, occupies an area of 4000 square meters on two floors. Chronologically ordered, the permanent collection has Renaissance and Medieval paintings and sculptures from Italian artists such as Arnolfo di Cambio, Nicola Pisano, Giovanni Pisano, Duccio, Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, Giovanni Boccati and Piero della Francesca. The particular attention of the collection is given to the Umbrian masters; Benedetto Bonfigli, Bartolomeo Caporali, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Perugino, Pintoricchio and their students and followers.

Episode 7: Galleria Borghese is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist attraction. The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese Collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621). The building was constructed by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a country villa at the edge of Rome. Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St Jerome Writing, Sick Bacchus and others. Additional paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci. In 1808, Prince Camillo Borghese, Napoleon's brother-in-law, was forced to sell the Borghese Roman sculptures and antiquities to the Emperor. The result is that the Borghese Gladiator, renowned since the 1620s as the most admired single sculpture in Villa Borghese, must now be appreciated in the Musée du Louvre. The "Borghese Hermaphroditus" is also now in the Louvre. The Borghese villa was modified and extended down the years, eventually being sold to the Italian government in 1902, along with the entire Borghese estate and surrounding gardens and parkland. Galleria Borghese includes twenty rooms across two floors. The main floor is mostly devoted to classical antiquities of the 1st–3rd centuries AD (including a famous 320–30 AD mosaic of gladiators found on the Borghese estate at Torrenova, on the Via Casilina outside Rome, in 1834), and classical and neo-classical sculpture such as the Venus Victrix. The main floor's main large room, called the Salone, has a large trompe-l'œil ceiling fresco in the first room by the Sicilian artist Mariano Rossi makes such good use of foreshortening that it appears almost three-dimensional. The fresco depicts Marcus Furius Camillus relieving the siege of the Capitoline Hill by the Gauls. The grotteschi decorations were painted by Pietro Rotari, and the animal decorations by Venceslaus Peter Boemo. The first room off the Salone, is the Camera di Cerere, with marble vase depicting Oedipus and the Sphinx. The second room has a ceiling frescoed by Francesco Caccianiga with the Fall of Phaeton. The third room houses Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. Many of the sculptures are displayed in the spaces for which they were intended, including many works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which comprise a significant percentage of his output of secular sculpture, starting with early works such as the Goat Amalthea with Infant Jupiter and Faun (1615) and Aeneas, Anchises & Ascanius (1618–19) to his dynamic Rape of Proserpine (1621–22), Apollo and Daphne (1622–25) and David (1623) which are considered seminal works of baroque sculpture. Also in Villa Borghese gardens or nearby are the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, which specialises in 19th- and 20th-century Italian art, and Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of pre-Roman objects, mostly Etruscan, excavated around Rome.

Episode 4: The Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Bargello or Palazzo del Popolo ("Palace of the People"), is a former barracks and prison in Florence, Italy. Since 1865, it has housed the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, a national art museum. Construction began in 1255. The palace was built to house first the Capitano del Popolo and later, in 1261, the 'podestà', the highest magistrate of the Florence City Council. This Palazzo del Podestà, as it was originally called, is the oldest public building in Florence. This austere crenellated building served as model for the construction of the Palazzo Vecchio. In 1574, the Medici dispensed with the function of the Podestà and housed the bargello, the police chief of Florence, in this building, hence its name. It was employed as a prison; executions took place in the Bargello's yard until they were abolished by Grand Duke Peter Leopold in 1786, but it remained the headquarters of the Florentine police until 1859. When Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor Peter Leopold was exiled, the makeshift Governor of Tuscany decided that the Bargello should no longer be a jail, and it then became a national museum. The original two-story structure was built alongside the Volognana Tower in 1256. The third storey, which can be identified by the smaller blocks used to construct it, was added after the fire of 1323. The building is designed around an open courtyard with an external staircase leading to the second floor. An open well is found in the centre of the courtyard. The Bargello opened as a national museum (Museo Nazionale del Bargello) in 1865, displaying the largest Italian collection of Gothic and Renaissance sculptures (14–17th century). The museum houses masterpieces by Michelangelo, such as his Bacchus, Pitti Tondo (or Madonna and Child), Brutus and David-Apollo. Its collection includes Donatello's David, Amore-Attis and St. George Tabernacle, Vincenzo Gemito's Pescatore ("fisherboy"), Jacopo Sansovino's Bacchus, Giambologna's Architecture and his Mercury and many works from the Della Robbia family. Benvenuto Cellini is represented with his bronze bust of Cosimo I. There are a few works from the Baroque period, notably Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 1636-7 Bust of Costanza Bonarelli. The museum also has a fine collection of ceramics (maiolica), textile, tapestries, ivory, silver, armour and coins. The formerly lost right-hand panel of the Franks Casket is held by the museum. It also features the competing designs for The Sacrifice of Isaac (Sacrificio di Isacco) that were made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi to win the contest for the second set of doors of the Florence Baptistery (1401). Honolulu Hale's interior courtyard, staircase, and open ceiling were modeled after the Bargello.

A 2019 production dedicated to the great Italian museums. Audio in Italian with English subtitles. The Italian National Museums contain masterpieces of unparalleled beauty and compose timeless stories and languages. In this episode, Fabrizio Bentivoglio tells us about the Brera art gallery. Episode 1: The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of the Brera Academy, which shares the site in the Palazzo Brera. The Palazzo Brera owes its name to the Germanic braida, indicating a grassy opening in the city structure: compare the Bra of Verona. The convent on the site passed to the Jesuits (1572), then underwent a radical rebuilding by Francesco Maria Richini (1627–28). When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the palazzo remained the seat of the astronomical Observatory and the Braidense National Library founded by the Jesuits. In 1774 the herbarium of the new botanical garden was added. The buildings were extended to designs by Giuseppe Piermarini, who was appointed professor in the Academy when it was formally founded in 1776, with Giuseppe Parini as dean. Piermarini taught at the Academy for 20 years, while he was controller of the city's urbanistic projects, like the public gardens (1787–1788) and piazza Fontana (1780–1782). For the better teaching of architecture, sculpture and the other arts, the Academy initiated by Parini was provided with a collection of casts after the Antique, an essential for inculcating a refined Neoclassicism in the students. Under Parini's successors, the abate Carlo Bianconi (1778–1802) and artist Giuseppe Bossi (1802–1807), the Academy acquired the first paintings of its Pinacoteca during the reassignment of works of Italian art that characterized the Napoleonic era. Raphael's Sposalizio (the Marriage of the Virgin) was the key painting of the early collection, and the Academy increased its cultural scope by taking on associates across the First French Empire: David, Pietro Benvenuti, Vincenzo Camuccini, Canova, Thorvaldsen and the archaeologist Ennio Quirino Visconti. The opening of the new "Reale Pinacoteca" was celebrated on 15 August 1809, Napoleon's birthday. The paintings were displayed in three of the four Napoleonic halls with pavilion vaults. Fundamental paintings by Bellini, Mantegna, Carpaccio, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto had entered the gallery. The Romantic era witnessed the triumph of academic history painting, guided at the Academy by Francesco Hayez, and the introduction of the landscape as an acceptable academic genre, inspired by Williamo's Davias and his more known cousin Giuseppe Bisi, while the Academy moved towards becoming an institution for teaching the history of art. In 1903, the Pinacoteca opened 19 new rooms that allowed the exhibition of over 100 newly acquired works, such as Bramante's frescoes from the Visconti Panigarola house. The Brera Observatory hosted the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli for four decades, and the Orto Botanico di Brera is a historic botanical garden located behind the Pinacoteca. Episode 2: https://rumble.com/v47uq8q-musei-parco-archeologico-di-ercolano-archeological-site-of-herculaneum-epis.html

Episode 2: The Archeological site of Herculaneum (in Italian: Scavi di Ercolano) is the area south of the town centre of modern Ercolano where the Roman town of Herculaneum has been excavated. Herculaneum was destroyed and buried by lava and mud during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 together with Pompeii, Stabiae and Oplontis. In 1997 the Herculaneum site was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Although Herculaneum was discovered before Pompeii, the excavation was so difficult that it was repeatedly interrupted in favour of the easier excavation of Pompeii. Herculaneum is smaller and less famous than Pompeii, but better preserved due to the different volcanic materials that covered the town. In Herculaneum there are many wooden remains (doors, furniture, beams) and organic goods (fruit, bread, seeds, rope) that were burnt in Pompeii. Many Herculaneum buildings still retain their upper floors either entirely or in part. The excavated area of Herculaneum consists of only one quarter of the entire ancient town because the rest of the site still lies beneath modern Ercolano. The Basilica Pontificia of Santa Maria a Pugliano, in Piazza Pugliano, is the main church of Ercolano and the oldest in town and the area all around Mt. Vesuvius. The Miglio d’Oro is the leg of Corso Resina ( the old Strada Regia per le Calabrie) in Ercolano from the Archeological Site of Herculaneum leading to Torre del Greco where are lined the largest, the finest and the most sumptuous villas designed by the best architects of that time and built in the 18th century by the noble families of the Kingdom of Naples around the Royal Palace of Portici. The most famous are Villa Campolieto, Villa Favorita and Villa Aprile. All the villas had backside gardens and woods, some of them rivaling with the ones of the Royal Palace. Since the time of Roman Herculaneum, the area has attracted famous artists, poets, writers and philosophers. Episode 3: https://rumble.com/v47uv4r-musei-mann-the-national-archaeological-museum-of-naples-episode-3.html

Episode 3: The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Italian: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, abbr. MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes works from Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, and especially Roman artifacts from the nearby Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum sites. From 1816 to 1861, it was known as Real Museo Borbonico ("the Royal Bourbon Museum"). The building was built as a cavalry barracks in 1585. From 1616 to 1777 it was the seat of the University of Naples. During the 19th century, after it became a museum, it suffered many changes to the main structure. The museum hosts extensive collections of Greek and Roman antiquities. Their core is from the Farnese Collection, which includes a collection of engraved gems (including the Farnese Cup, a Ptolemaic bowl made of sardonyx agate and the most famous piece in the "Treasure of the Magnificent", and is founded upon gems collected by Cosimo de' Medici and Lorenzo il Magnifico in the 15th century) and the Farnese Marbles. Among the notable works found in the museum are the Menologium Rusticum and the Herculaneum papyri, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, found after 1752 in Villa of the Papyri. The greater part of the museum's classical sculpture collection largely comes from the Farnese Marbles, important since they include Roman copies of classical Greek sculpture, which are in many cases the only surviving indications of what the lost works by ancient Greek sculptors such as Calamis, Kritios and Nesiotes looked like. A major collection of ancient Roman bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri is housed at the museum. These include the Seated Hermes, a sprawling Drunken Satyr, a bust of Thespis, another variously identified as Seneca or Hesiod, and a pair of exceptionally lively runners. The museum's Mosaic Collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities. This includes the Alexander Mosaic, dating from c. 100 BC, originally from the House of the Faun in Pompeii. It depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Another mosaic found is that of the gladiatorial fighter depicted in a mosaic found from the Villa of the Figured Capitals in Pompeii. With 2,500 objects, the museum has one of the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Italy, smaller only than those in Turin, Florence and Bologna. It is made up primarily of works from two private collections, assembled by Cardinal Stefano Borgia in the second half of the 18th century, and Picchianti in the first years of the 19th. he collection provides an important record of Egyptian civilization from the Old Kingdom (2700-2200 B.C.) up to the Ptolemaic-Roman era. The Secret Cabinet (Gabinetto Segreto) (Gabbinete) or Secret Room is the name the Bourbon Monarchy gave the private rooms in which they held their fairly extensive collection of erotic or sexual items, mostly deriving from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Access was limited to only persons of mature age and known morals. The rooms were also called Cabinets of matters reserved or obscene or pornographic. After the revolution of 1848, the government of the monarchy even proposed the destruction of objects, fearful of the implications of their ownership, which would tarnish the monarchy with lasciviousness. The then director of the Royal Bourbon Museum instead had access to the collection terminated, and the entrance door was provided with three different locks, whose keys were held respectively by the Director of the Museum, the Museum Controller, and the Palace Butler. The highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the collection would vanish from memory. In September 1860, when the forces of Garibaldi occupied Naples, he ordered that the collection be made available for the general public to view. Since the Royal Butler was no longer available, they broke into the collection. Limiting viewership and censorship have always been part of the history of the collection. Censorship was restored during the era of the Kingdom of Italy, and peaked during the Fascist period, when visitors to the rooms needed the permission of the Minister of National Education in Rome. Censorship persisted in the postwar period up to 1967, abating only after 1971 when the Ministry was given the new rules to regulate requests for visits and access to the section. Completely rebuilt a few years ago with all of the new criteria, the collection was finally opened to the public in April 2000. Visitors under the age of 14 can tour the exhibit only with an adult. Episode 4: https://rumble.com/v47v1co-musei-musei-del-barghello-national-museum-of-barghello-episode-4.html

A 2011 documentary Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange, that chronicles the cinematic journey of the iconic film "A Trip to the Moon" (1902).

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le voyage dans la lune)is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure film directed by Georges Méliès. This is the black & white versions with voice over. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon and its 1870 sequel Around the Moon, the film follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. Méliès leads an ensemble cast of French theatrical performers as the main character Professor Barbenfouillis, in the overtly theatrical style for which he became famous. A Trip to the Moon was an internationally popular success on its release and was extensively pirated by other studios, especially in the United States. Its unusual length, lavish production values, innovative special effects, and emphasis on storytelling were markedly influential on other filmmakers and ultimately on the development of narrative film as a whole. The film remains Méliès' best known, and the moment in which the capsule lands in the Moon's eye remains one of the most iconic and frequently referenced images in the history of cinema. It is widely regarded as the earliest example of the science fiction film genre and, more generally, as one of the most influential films in cinema history.

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le voyage dans la lune)is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure film directed by Georges Méliès. No hand-colored prints of A Trip to the Moon were known to survive until 1993, when one was given to the Filmoteca de Catalunya by an anonymous donor as part of a collection of two hundred silent films.[94] It is unknown whether this version, a hand-colored print struck from a second-generation negative, was colored by Elisabeth Thuillier's lab, but the perforations used imply that the copy was made before 1906. The flag waved during the launching scene in this copy is colored to resemble the flag of Spain, indicating that the hand-colored copy was made for a Spanish exhibitor. In 1999, Anton Gimenez of the Filmoteca de Catalunya mentioned the existence of this print, which he believed to be in a state of total decomposition, to Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange of the French film company Lobster Films. Bromberg and Lange offered to trade a recently rediscovered film by Segundo de Chomón for the hand-colored print, and Gimenez accepted. Bromberg and Lange consulted various specialist laboratories in an attempt to restore the film, but because the reel of film had apparently decomposed into a rigid mass, none believed restoration to be possible. Consequently, Bromberg and Lange themselves set to work separating the film frames, discovering that only the edges of the film stock had decomposed and congealed together, and thus that many of the frames themselves were still salvageable. Between 2002 and 2005, various digitisation efforts allowed 13,375 fragments of images from the print to be saved. In 2010, a complete restoration of the hand-colored print was launched by Lobster Films, the Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema, and the Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. The digitised fragments of the hand-colored print were reassembled and restored, with missing frames recreated with the help of a black-and-white print in the possession of the Méliès family, and time-converted to run at an authentic silent-film speed, 16 frames per second. The restoration was completed in 2011 at Technicolor's laboratories in Los Angeles. Restoration costs were $1 million. The restored version premiered on 11 May 2011, eighteen years after its discovery and 109 years after its original release, at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, with a new soundtrack by the French band Air.

1. The Astronomer's Dream, or the Man in the Moon (French: La Lune à un mètre, literally "The Moon from One Meter Off") is an 1898 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. Based on one of his stage magic acts, and starring Méliès himself, the film presents a varied assortment of images and imaginings dreamed by the astronomer of the title, focusing on themes of astronomy and especially the Moon. In an observatory, an astronomer is studying at his desk. Satan appears, then a caped woman appears and makes him vanish before disappearing herself. The astronomer draws a globe on a blackboard. The globe develops a sun-like head and limbs and starts to move on the blackboard. Objects the astronomer attempts to interact with transform or move away from him. The Moon suddenly appears in the building as a large face, eating the astronomer's telescope. Two small clowns tumble from its mouth, but the upset astronomer throws them back in. As the astronomer attempts to attack the Moon, it instantly moves back to the sky. All objects the astronomer astronomer tries to use to attack the Moon vanish in thin air. Once the astronomer sits back down, the Moon becomes a crescent and the mythological goddess Phoebe (i.e., Selene) appears from it. The astronomer attempts to embrace her, but she flies up to the sky. A woman appears in the crescent of the Moon and reclines into its C shape, but as the astronomer tries to reach her, the Moon appears as a prominent face again and he inadvertently jumps into its mouth. The moon spits out distinct body parts of the astronomer. Satan reappears, but he is sent away by the caped woman again. She quickly puts the astronomer back together, piece by piece. Then, in the observatory, the astronomer wakes up. 2. The Eclipse: Courtship of the Sun and Moon (originally L'éclipse du soleil en pleine lune) is a French silent film made in 1907 by director Georges Méliès. A professor of astronomy gives a lecture instructing on an impending solar eclipse. The class rushes to an observation tower to witness the event, which features an anthropomorphic Sun and Moon coming together. The Moon and the Sun lick their lips in anticipation as the eclipse arrives, culminating in a romantic encounter between the two celestial bodies. Various heavenly bodies, including planets and moons, hang in the night sky; a meteor shower is depicted using the ghostly figures of girls. The professor of astronomy, shocked by all he has witnessed, topples from the observation tower. Fortunately, he lands in a rain barrel, and is revived by his students. Cast & Characters: Mlle. Bodson as Comet Manuel as The Class Supervisor Georges Méliès as Professor of Astronomy

A 2008 Art documentary written, directed and hosted by Peter Greenaway. An 'essayistic' documentary in which Greenaway's fierce criticism of today's visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt's Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its thirty-four painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage. Greenaway leads us through Rembrandt's paintings into seventeenth-century Amsterdam. He paints a world that is democratic in principle, but is almost entirely ruled by twelve families. The notion exists of these regents as charitable and compassionate entities. However, reality was different.

The Golden Age of Spanish painting began in the late sixteenth century and flourished throughout the seventeenth century, coinciding with the Dutch Golden Age. While the Netherlands was revolting against Spanish rule, Spain was developing its own artistic signature. Philip II, an absolute monarch in a society dominated by the Catholic Church, commissioned the construction of El Escorial in 1563. The enormous palace and monastery complex near Madrid was decorated by great Spanish and Italian masters. Spain’s unimaginable wealth, amassed largely during the country’s period of colonial gold fever – Spain called itself ‘the Empire on which the sun never sets’ – brought painters abundant commissions for the king, churches and private collectors. Spanish art flourished. The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, has the largest and most diverse collection of Spanish art outside Spain. The Small Skylight Room and the adjoining Spanish Room in the New Hermitage house the collection's most valuable Spanish paintings. They include works by El Greco, Jose Ribera, Francisco de Zurbaran, Diego Velazquez, Bartolome Murillo and Francisco de Goya. Among these masterpices are: The Apostles Peter and Paul (late 1580s) by El Greco; Nailing Christ to the Cross (1582), by F. Ribalta, the founder of the Spanish school of Dramatic Realism; Saints Sebastian and Irene (1682) by Jose Ribera; St Lawrence (1636), King St Fernando III (1630s) and The Childhood of the Virgin (late 1650s-1660s) by Francisco de Zurbaran; Luncheon (1630s) and Portrait of Count Olivares (c.1640) by Diego Velazquez. In addition, the Hermitage's Spanish collection includes 13 works by Bartolome Esteban Murillo including two Biblical epics - Isaac Blessing Jacob and Jacob's Ladder (1665-1670), The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1665-1670) - and the genre painting Boy with a Dog (1650). The late-18th, early 19th century Spanish school is represented by Goya's Portrait of Antonia Zarate (1811).

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg houses a relatively small but choice collection of 15th- to 19th-century British paintings, among them Thomas Gainsborough's vibrant Portrait of a Lady in Blue (c. 1770) and his rival Sir Joshua Reynolds' vast Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents (c. 1786), commissioned by the Russian Empress Catherine II. The Hermitage collection features over 450 items, including very rare works by masters of the English school. Including portraits from the famed War Gallery created by English painter George Dawe, who was awarded a prestigious commission to produce more than 300 images of Russian generals for the Gallery of 1812 in the historic Winter Palace, now part of the museum complex. The 17th/18th century portraitist, Sir Godfrey Kneller, is represented by Portrait of Grinling Gibbons, and Portrait of John Locke. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, is represented by The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpents (1786-1788) (a work commissioned by Russian Czarina Catherine II to symbolise young Russia's growing strength), The Continence of Scipio (1788-1789) and Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus (1788). Other English paintings include: Venus Comforting Cupid, Stung by a Bee, and Portrait of George, Prince of Wales, and Prince Frederick, Duke of York (1778) by Benjamin West, the second President of the Royal Academy; Portrait of a Lady in Blue (1780) by Thomas Gainsborough; The Iron Forge (1773) and Firework Display at the Castel Sant Angelo (The Girandola) (1778-1779) by Joseph Wright of Derby, to name but a few.

The Hermitage houses its collection of 17th Century Dutch painting in six rooms. They include 20 masterpieces by Rembrandt, as well as some of the greatest genre paintings by a range of Dutch Realist artists, such as Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael (landscapes); Jan Steen, Gerald ter Borch, Pieter de Hooch, Adriaen, and Isaac van Ostade (genre paintings), Paulus Potter (animal paintings), Willem Claesz Heda and Willem Kalf (still life), as well as two portraits by Frans Hals. A special display room is devoted to paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, featuring some of his greatest portrait paintings and historical works, including: Flora (1634), The Descent from the Cross (1634), Abraham's Sacrifice (1635), David and Jonathan (1642); The Holy Family (1645), Portrait of an Old Man in Red (1652-4), and The Return of the Prodigal Son (1668-9).

The seventeenth century marked the Golden Age of Flemish painting. Flemish painting occupies four rooms on the first floor in the New Hermitage. Being one of the largest collections in the world, it contains the works by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens and Frans Snyders, the famous artists of the 17th -century. On the first floor of the New Hermitage is displayed more than 500 pictures by leading members of the Flemish school, including: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Frans Snyders. Among the 20 masterpieces by Rubens are Perseus and Andromeda (1620-1621), Portrait of a Lady-in-Waiting to the Infanta Isabella (1623-1625), The Union of Earth and Water (Antwerp and the Scheldt) and Bacchus (1638-1640), as well as over 20 drawings. The work of the celebrated Flemish portrait painter Anthony van Dyck is represented in the Hermitage by 24 paintings, most of which being displayed in the adjoining room. Large-scale paintings by Frans Snyders from the “Shops”series, the hunt scene paintings by Paul de Vos and “The Bean King” by Jacob Jordaens give an insight into the diversity of subject genres practiced by 17th-century Flemish masters.

The Hermitage has one of the world’s largest collections of Dutch seventeenth- and eighteenth-century painting. Today it consists of over one and a half thousand pictures. Many of the masterpieces, by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Paulus Potter, Frans van Mieris, Gerard ter Borch and Pieter de Hooch, a diptych (1430s) by Robert Campin (Master of Flemalle), considered to be one of his masterpieces; St Luke Drawing the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden; and The Healing of the Blind Man of Jericho (1531) by Lucas Van Leyden. The exhibition of Dutch painting is one of the largest in the Hermitage collection. It occupies six rooms on the first floor in the New Hermitage. Being the largest in area, the Tent- Roofed Hall represents the diversity of genres practiced in 17th-century Dutch art. Exhibited here are the works by the famous landscape artists Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael, the genre painters Jan Steen, Gerard Terborch, Pieter de Hooch, Adriaen and Isaac van Ostade, the animalist Paulus Potter, the masters of still-life painting Willem Claesz Heda and Willem Kalf. The portraits by Frans Hals are on view as well. A separate room displays the works by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. The Hermitage boasts the largest collection of works by the great Dutch artist, which is represented by paintings on biblical and mythological subjects, as well as by portraits. Among its examples of the German school of the Northern Renaissance, the museum also has a rare work (Portrait of a Young Man) by the talented German portraitist Ambrosius Holbein, elder brother of Hans Holbein, as well as five works by the celebrated German portrait painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, including his masterpieces Venus and Cupid (1509) and The Virgin and Child under an Apple Tree (c.1525), together with the beautiful Portrait of a Lady (1526). 16th-century portraiture includes the Portrait of Palatine Otheinrich (1540s) by the painter and engraver Georg Pencz, a pupil of Albrecht Durer, and a characteristic twin portrait, by Christoph Amberger.

A 2011 Art documentary series directed by Vladimir Ptashchenko, with English narration. This series contains 6 films about European art of the Middle Ages. Italian Renaissance, Netherlandish painting, Great Flemings, 17th century Dutch painting, English art, Golden Age of Spanish painting. The film will help to compare creations created in different European traditions and understand art in its various manifestations. The Hermitage has a wide collection of Italian art, lodged in 30 rooms in both the New and Old Hermitage, encompassing its development from the 13th century to the beginning of the 19th century. The pride of the collection are works by the great masters of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian and Michelangelo. The collection represents diverse artistic schools and trends in Italian art, as well as creative work of many outstanding painters of the time. Of just ten or twelve original works by Leonardo known in the world today, Russia possesses two, both in the Hermitage: Madonna with a Flower (The Benois Madonna, 1478) and Madonna Litta (1490-1491). Raffaello Sanzio - Raphael - is also represented by two works: Madonna Conestabile (1502-1503) and The Holy Family (1506). In addition, there are copies of Raphael's famous frescoes in the Vatican Gallery, the Raphael Loggias. The originals were painted by the artist's pupils after his design in 1518-1519. Giorgione's Judith is widely recognized as among the artist's most perfect creations. Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian, who dominated the Venetian school of art during the first half of the 16th century, is represented mainly by works from his mature period (1559-1570). Other Italian artists whose works are exhibited at The Hermitage include: the revolutionary Caravaggio; the fresco painter and landscape artist Annibale Carracci, leader of the classical Bolognese school; the Neapolitan decorative artist Luca Giordano; the flamboyant etcher Salvatore Rosa; the Novaro artist Gianmaria Crespi known as Il Cerano; the fresco genius Giambattista Tiepolo; and the view-painter Francesco Guardi.

A 2021 Documentary directed by Giovanni Piscaglia, hosted by Jeremy Irons. To mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death, this documentary explores the complex relationship between Napoleon, culture and art. It is about the language he used to build a new imperial iconography and a new architectural style, in a reconstruction that will also allow us to reflect on the relationship between power and image mediated by art, as well as look at the regimes of the twentieth century and the world today. A unique tour from Brera Academy in Milan to the Louvre in Paris in the company of the best art historian experts and Jeremy Irons who passes his fascination to the viewers. Produced by 3D Produzioni, Nexo Digital with the support of Gallerie d’Italia Intesa Sanpaolo Bank.

Dal Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, il tradizionale concerto di Capodanno diretto dal Maestro Fabio Luisi con arie, duetti e passi corali interpretati dai solisti Eleonora Buratto (soprano) e Fabio Sartori (tenore) e dal Coro del Teatro La Fenice. Ad impreziosire l'evento momenti di danza con gli allievi della Scuola di Ballo dell'Accademia Teatro alla Scala, su coreografie di Frédéric Olivieri. Track List: Giuseppe Verdi: I Due Foscari "Alla Gioia...Tace Il Vento, E' Quieta L'Onda" (Il Coro) Giacomo Puccini: Manon Lescaut (Intermezzo) Giacomo Puccini: Tosca "E Lucevan le Stelle" (Fabio Sartori) Giacomo Puccini: Tosca "Vissi d'Arte" (Eleonora Buratto) Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata "Di Madride Noi Siam Mattadori" (Il Coro) Che Spettacolo la TV - Omaggio ai 70 anni della Televisione Italiana: Arrangiamento di Stefano Pierini Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly "Coro a Bocca Chiusa" (Il Coro) Giacomo Puccini: Madama Butterfly "Un Bel Dì Vedremo" (Eleonora Buratto) Giacomo Puccini: Turandot "Nessun Dorma" (Fabio Sartori) Amilcare Ponchielli: La Gioconda "Danza delle Ore" Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco "Va' Pensiero" (Il Coro) Giacomo Puccini: Turandot "Diecimilla anni al nostro imperatore" ('Padre augusto, conosco il nome dello straniero! Il suo nome è… Amor!') (Eleonora Buratto) Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata "Libiam Ne' Lieti Calici" (Eleonora Buratto, Fabio Sartori, Il Coro) Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice Direttore Fabio Luisi Maestro del coro Alfonso Caiani Soprano Eleonora Buratto Tenore Fabio Sartori Gli allievi della Scuola di Ballo dell'Accademia Teatro alla Scala Coreografie di Frédéric Olivieri.

The wonderful music of the Strauss family in the traditional New Year's concert at the Goldener Saal, Wiener Musikverein. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Herbert von Karajan Kathleen Battle (soprano) Vienna State Ballet. Track list: Johann Strauss, Jr (1825-1899): Der Zigeunerbaron Overture Josef Straus (1827-1879): "Soharenklange" op.235 Johann Strauss, Jr : "Annen-Polka" op.117 Josef Strauss : "Delirien- Walzer" op.212 Johan Strauss, Jr : Die Fledermaus Overture Johann Strauss, Sr (1804-1849): "Beliebte Annen-Polka op.137 Polka Francaise Johann Strauss, Jr : "Vergnugungszug" op.281 Johann(Jr.) & Josef Strauss : "Pizzicato Polka" Johann Strauss, Jr : "Kaiser-Walzer" op.43 Johann Strauss, Jr : "Perpetuum Mobile" op.257 Musikalischer Scherz Johann Strauss, Jr : "Unter Donner und Blitz" op. 324 Polka Schnell Johann Strauss, Jr: "Fruhlingsstimmen" op.410 Walzer; Kathleen Battle, soprano Josef Strauss : "Ohne Sorgen" op.271 Polka Schnell Johann Strauss, Jr : "An der schonen, blauen Donau" op.314 Walzer Johann Strauss, Jr : "Radetzky-Marsch" op.228

ACT III - Scene 3: The bridal chamber Following the good wishes of their attendants, Elsa and her husband are left alone for the first time. Their delight in one another is soon undermined by her regrets that she cannot call her husband by his name and her fears that he may leave her. A hysterical vision of the swan returning to take him away leads to the fatal question. Telramund bursts in with his followers and is killed by Lohengrin, who tells the nobles to bring the body before the king. He calls Elsa's ladies to dress her and tells her he will answer her question before the king. Scene 4: The banks of the Scheldt The king thanks the people for their support in defending Germany against the heathen. The body of Telramund is carried in, followed by Elsa and her husband, who tells the king he will not be able to lead the people of Brabant into battle. He is absolved from blame for Telramund's death. Explaining that Elsa has been tricked into asking the forbidden question, he answers it: he is one of the champions of the Holy Grail, who are sent out into the world to defend the cause of right. But they must leave once their identities are known. He is Lohengrin, son of Parsifal, who wears the crown of the Grail. He prophesies that Germany will never be conquered by the eastern hordes. The swan appears and Lohengrin bids farewell to Elsa, telling her that if he had been able to stay, her bother Godfrey, who is not dead, would have returned. Ortrud exults at her success in driving Lohengrin away and that Godrey must remain in the form of the swan as a result of her witchcraft. Lohengrin kneels in prayer and when he takes the chain from the neck of the swan, it is transformed into Godfrey. Elsa falls lifeless as Lohengrin leaves, his boat now drawn by a white dove.

Composer: Richard Wagner Librettist: Richard Wagner Premiere: 28 August 1850, Weimar (Grand Ducal Court Theatre) Language: German Subtitles: English Director: Brian Large Act III: https://rumble.com/v44445k-wagner-lohengrin-domingo-studer-lloyd-abbado-wiener-staatsoper-1990-act-iii.html Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain. It is part of the Knight of the Swan tradition. Cast & Characters: Lohengrin: Plácido Domingo Elsa, Princess of Brabant: Cheryl Studer Henry the Birdcatcher, German king: Robert Lloyd Friedrich Telramund, Count of Brabant: Hartmut Welker Ortrud, his wife: Dunja Vejzovic Royal herald: Georg Tichy 4 Brabant knights: Bojidar Nikolov, Franz Kasemann, Claudio Otelli, Peter Koves 4 pages: Silvia Panzenbock, Ingrid Sieghart, Ulrike Erfurt, Johanna Graupe The chorus of the Vienna state opera The orchestra of the Vienna state opera Chorus master Helmuth Froschauer Conductor Claudio Abbado ACT II - Scene 2: The fortress of Antwerp Telramund blames Ortrud for his downfall, as she had told him that she saw Elsa drown her young brother, but she convinces him that he was defeated by magic rather than divine intervention. She claims that the stranger's magic would fail if he could be made to reveal his name - or even if the tip of a finger were to be cut off. As only Elsa can ask him to reveal his name, Ortrud plans to undermine her confidence. Elsa appears on the balcony and Otrud, calling to her from the darkness, succeeds in winning her pity, invoking the pagan gods in triumph as Elsa prepares to let her in. Ortrud begs Elsa to intercede for Telramund and suggests that as the stranger arrived by magic, so he may leave by magic, but Elsa's faith is unshaken. At dawn the herald proclaims the banishment of Telramund and announces that the king has invested the crown of Brabant in Elsa's husband, who will lead the Brabantians into battle. Four nobles mutter their resentment at this decision and Telramund offers to lead them in rebellion. As Elsa is about to enter the church for her wedding Ortrud claims that she must yield pride of place to her, since her husband has been falsely accused and is of noble birth, whereas no one knows anything about Elsa's husband. Claiming that he would be revealed a fraud if he had to divulge the source of his power, she challenges Elsa to ask the question. Telramund accuses the strange knight of witchcraft and asks his name and lineage, but he is answerable to Elsa alone. Telramund whispers to Elsa that if she were to let him cut off the tip of the stranger's finger his secret would be known and he would never leave her. She rejects the advice and goes into the church with her husband, who orders Telramund and Ortrud to leave.

A Christmas classic revisited in dance form at the Finnish National Opera: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Recorded on 9 December 2023 at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet. It's the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a grumpy, miserly old man who, on Christmas Eve, is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. A magical tale popular with all ages, adapted into a ballet by an all-British artistic team including composer Sally Beamish and choreographer David Bintley. Director: Jussi Buckbee Choreography: David Bintley Director: Anna Fleischle Composer: Sally Beamish Costumes: Anna Fleischle Music director: Paul Murphy Finnish National Ballet Finnish National Opera Orchestra