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Bjornstierne Martinus Bjornson was a Norvegian poet and writer. He received the Nobel Prize in Literatur in 1903. He was influential in Norwegian public life. He is also celebrated for his lyrics to the Norvegian anthem.

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Anastasia Kuzmina

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Marc Chagall

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Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, 24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, engraver, illustrator and draftsman whose immersion in the colorful and theatrical Parisian life of the late 19th century , gave a collection of fascinating, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of the time.

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Εναλλαγή του πίνακα περιεχομένων

Από τη Βικιπαίδεια, την ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια

Ο Ανρί ντε Τουλούζ-Λωτρέκ ( Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, 24 Νοεμβρίου 1864 - 9 Σεπτεμβρίου 1901) ήταν Γάλλος ζωγράφος, χαράκτης, εικονογράφος και σχεδιαστής, του οποίου η εμβάθυνση στην πολύχρωμη και θεατρική παριζιάνικη ζωή στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα, έδωσε μία συλλογή από συναρπαστικές, κομψές και προκλητικές εικόνες της σύγχρονης και μερικές φορές παρακμιακής ζωής εκείνης της εποχής.

Γεννήθηκε στο Αλμπί, πόλη της νότιας Γαλλίας και ήταν γιος του Κόμη Αλφόνσου και της Κόμισσας Αντέλ ντε Τουλούζ-Λωτρέκ (Adèle de Toulouse-Lautrec), γόνος ιστορικής και αριστοκρατικής οικογένειας, η οποία ωστόσο την περίοδο της γέννησης του, είχε ήδη χάσει μέρος του παλαιότερου κύρους της. Οι γονείς ήταν πρώτα ξαδέρφια, πρακτική που ήταν ευρύτερα διαδεδομένη εκείνη την εποχή προκειμένου να διατηρηθεί η περιουσία της οικογένειας μεταξύ των μελών της. Το γεγονός αυτό ωστόσο οδηγούσε σε γενετικές ανωμαλίες, όπως και στην περίπτωση του Λωτρέκ, του οποίου τα πόδια σταμάτησαν να αναπτύσσονται φυσιολογικά, μετά από ρήξεις που υπέστη στο αριστερό και δεξί του πόδι, σε ηλικία 12 και 14 ετών αντίστοιχα. Το ύψος του Λωτρέκ έφθανε μόλις το 1,5 μέτρο ενώ σε αντίθεση με τα πόδια του, το υπόλοιπο σώμα του είχε φυσιολογική ανάπτυξη.

Εξαιτίας αυτής της ανωμαλίας στη σωματική του διάπλαση, αδυνατούσε να ακολουθήσει μία συμβατική κοινωνική ζωή, γεγονός που πιθανά λειτούργησε καταλυτικά στο να αφοσιωθεί στη ζωγραφική. Αποτέλεσε σημαντικό καλλιτέχνη του μετα-ιμπρεσιονισμού ενώ θεωρείται από πολλούς και ο επίσημος εικονογράφος της νυχτερινής ζωής εκείνης της εποχής - της λεγόμενης Μπελ Επόκ ( belle epoque) - στα καμπαρέ του Παρισιού. Οι πίνακές του χαρακτηρίζονταν από έντονα χρώματα και ανθρώπινες παρουσίες. Θεωρείται επιπλέον ένας από τους πρωτοπόρους στην τέχνη της αφίσας, γνωστός κυρίως για τις αφίσες που φιλοτέχνησε για το καμπαρέ Μουλέν Ρουζ ( Moulin Rouge). Ασχολήθηκε ακόμα με την τεχνική της λιθογραφίας, επηρεασμένος από την ιαπωνική τέχνη και τα ιαπωνικά χαρακτικά.

Έζησε κυρίως στη Μονμάρτρη, που αποτελούσε το κυρίαρχο κέντρο της καλλιτεχνικής δημιουργίας. Στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος της ζωής του αντιμετώπισε πρόβλημα αλκοολισμού και πέθανε σε ηλικία 36 ετών, έχοντας προσβληθεί από σύφιλη.

Πίνακες

Αφίσες

1. ↑ 1,0 www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=lautrec&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&subjectid=500029114.1,1 1,2 1,3

2. ↑ 2,0 The Fine Art Archive . cs.isabart.org/person/7751. Ανακτήθηκε στις 1 Απριλίου 2021.2,1

3. ↑ 3,0 vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500029114.3,1 3,2 3,3 3,4 3,5 3,6

4. ↑ 11784. Ανακτήθηκε στις 4 Δεκεμβρίου 2019.

5. (↑ Ολλανδικά) RKDartists . 78002. Ανακτήθηκε στις 18 Νοεμβρίου 2021.

6. ↑ 6,0 Leo van de Pas: (Αγγλικά) Genealogics . 2003.6,1

7. ↑ www.theartstory.org/artist/toulouse-lautrec-henri/life-and-legacy/#biography_header.

8. ↑ uncg-lis.libguides.com/postimpressionismpainters/toulouselautrec.

Matthias Arnold (μφ. Μαρία Μπάστα), Τουλούζ Λωτρέκ: 1864-1901 Το θέατρο της ζωής, εκδ. Γνώση 2005

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Ανρί ντε Τουλούζ-Λωτρέκ - Βικιπαίδεια

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Εναλλαγή του πίνακα περιεχομένων Από τη Βικιπαίδεια, την ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια Ο Ανρί ντε Τουλούζ-Λωτρέκ ( Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, 24 Νοεμβρίου 1864 - 9 Σεπτεμβρίου 1901) ήταν Γάλλος ζωγράφος, χαράκτης, εικονογράφος και σχεδιαστής, του οποίου η εμβάθυνση στην πολύχρωμη και θεατρική παριζιάνικη ζωή στα τέλη του 19ου αιώνα, έδωσε μία συλλογή από συναρπαστικές, κομψές και προκλητικές εικόνες της σύγχρονης και μερικές φορές παρακμιακής ζωής εκείνης της εποχής.

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Vincent Willem van Gogh 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Not commercially successful in his career, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, which eventually led to his suicide at age thirty-seven.

Born into an upper-middle class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet, and thoughtful. As a young man, he worked as an art dealer, often traveling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in predominantly Roman Catholic southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having moved back home with his parents. His younger brother Theo supported him financially; the two kept a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, contain few signs of the vivid colour that distinguished his later work. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were reacting against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work developed he created a new approach to still lifes and local landscapes. His paintings grew brighter as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in the South of France in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include series of olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers.

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver, dying from his injuries two days later.

Van Gogh was commercially unsuccessful during his lifetime, and he was considered a madman and a failure. As he became famous only after his suicide, he came to be seen as a misunderstood genius in the public imagination.[6] His reputation grew in the early 20th century as elements of his style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists. He attained widespread critical and commercial success over the ensuing decades, and is remembered as an important but tragic painter whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings to have ever sold, and his legacy is honoured by a museum in his name, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

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Sunflowers (F.458), repetition of the 4th version (yellow background), August 1889.[1] Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛntˈʋɪləɱvɑŋˈɣɔx] ; 30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold, symbolic colours, and dramatic, impulsive and highly expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Only one of his paintings was known by name to have been sold during his lifetime. Van Gogh became famous after his suicide at age 37, which followed years of poverty and mental illness.

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful, but showed signs of mental instability. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion, and spent time as a missionary in southern Belgium. Later he drifted in ill-health and solitude. He was keenly aware of modernist trends in art and, while back with his parents, took up painting in 1881. His younger brother, Theo, supported him financially, and the two of them kept up a long correspondence by letter.

Van Gogh's early works consisted of mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, Van Gogh moved to Arles in south of France in February 1888 with the goal of establishing an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, Van Gogh's art changed. His paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local olive groves, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in the fall of 1888.

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions. Though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor when, in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression persisted, and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a revolver, dying from his injuries two days later.

Van Gogh's art gained critical recognition after his death and his life story captured public imagination as an emblem of misunderstood genius, due in large part to the efforts of his widowed sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. His bold use of color, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant garde artistic groups like the Fauves and German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh's work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings to have ever sold, and his legacy is honoured by a museum in his name, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.

The most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is his correspondence with younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890. Theo van Gogh was an art dealer and provided his brother with financial and emotional support as well as access to influential people on the contemporary art scene.

Theo kept all of Vincent's letters to him; but Vincent kept only a few of the letters he received. After both had died, Theo's widow Jo Bonger-van Gogh arranged for the publication of some of their letters. A few appeared in 1906 and 1913; the majority were published in 1914. Vincent's letters are eloquent and expressive, have been described as having a "diary-like intimacy", and read in parts like autobiography. Translator Arnold Pomerans wrote that their publication adds a "fresh dimension to the understanding of Van Gogh's artistic achievement, an understanding granted to us by virtually no other painter".

There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to Theo and around 40 from Theo to Vincent. There are 22 to his sister Wil, 58 to the painter Anthon van Rappard, 22 to Émile Bernard as well as individual letters to Paul Signac, Paul Gauguin, and the critic Albert Aurier. Some are illustrated with sketches. Many are undated, but art historians have been able to place most in chronological order. Problems in transcription and dating remain, mainly with those posted from Arles. While there, Vincent wrote around 200 letters in Dutch, French, and English. There is a gap in the record when he lived in Paris as the brothers lived together and had no need to correspond.

The highly paid contemporary artist Jules Breton was frequently mentioned in Vincent's letters. In 1875 letters to Theo, Vincent mentions he saw Breton, discusses the Breton paintings he saw at a Salon, and discusses sending one of Breton's books but only on the condition that it be returned. In a March 1884 letter to Rappard he discusses one of Breton's poems that had inspired one of his own paintings. In 1885 he describes Breton's famous work The Song of the Lark as being "fine". In March 1880, roughly midway between these letters, Van Gogh set out on an 80-kilometre trip on foot to meet with Breton in the village of Courrières; however, he was apparently intimidated by Breton's success and/or the high wall around his estate. He turned around and returned without making his presence known. It appears Breton was unaware of Van Gogh or his attempted visit. There are no known letters between the two artists and Van Gogh is not one of the contemporary artists discussed by Breton in his 1891 autobiography Life of an Artist.

Early years

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh (1822-1885), a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and his wife, Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819-1907). Van Gogh was given the name of his grandfather and of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth. Vincent was a common name in the Van Gogh family. The name had been borne by his grandfather, the prominent art dealer Vincent (1789-1874), and a theology graduate at the University of Leiden in 1811. This Vincent had six sons, three of whom became art dealers, and may have been named after his own great-uncle, a sculptor (1729-1802).

Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague, and his father was the youngest son of a minister. The two met when Anna's younger sister, Cornelia, married Theodorus's older brother Vincent (Cent). Van Gogh's parents married in May 1851, and moved to Zundert. His brother Theo was born on 1 May 1857. There was another brother, Cor, and three sisters: Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina (known as "Wil"). In later life, Van Gogh remained in touch only with Willemina and Theo. Van Gogh's mother was a rigid and religious woman who emphasized the importance of family to the point of claustrophobia for those around her. Theodorus's salary as a minister was modest, but the Church also supplied the family with a house, a maid, two cooks, a gardener, a carriage and horse; his mother Anna instilled in the children a duty to uphold the family's high social position.

Van Gogh was a serious and thoughtful child. He was taught at home by his mother and a governess, and in 1860, was sent to the village school. In 1864, he was placed in a boarding school at Zevenbergen, where he felt abandoned, and he campaigned to come home. Instead, in 1866, his parents sent him to the middle school in Tilburg, where he was also deeply unhappy. His interest in art began at a young age. He was encouraged to draw as a child by his mother, and his early drawings are expressive, but do not approach the intensity of his later work. Constant Cornelis Huijsmans, who had been a successful artist in Paris, taught the students at Tilburg. His philosophy was to reject technique in favour of capturing the impressions of things, particularly nature or common objects. Van Gogh's profound unhappiness seems to have overshadowed the lessons, which had little effect. In March 1868, he abruptly returned home. He later wrote that his youth was "austere and cold, and sterile".

In July 1869, Van Gogh's uncle Cent obtained a position for him at the art dealers Goupil & Cie in The Hague. After completing his training in 1873, he was transferred to Goupil's London branch on Southampton Street, and took lodgings at 87 Hackford Road, Stockwell. This was a happy time for Van Gogh; he was successful at work and, at 20, was earning more than his father. Theo's wife, Jo Van Gogh-Bonger, later remarked that this was the best year of Vincent's life. He became infatuated with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, but she rejected him after confessing his feelings; she was secretly engaged to a former lodger. He grew more isolated and religiously fervent. His father and uncle arranged a transfer to Paris in 1875, where he became resentful of issues such as the degree to which the art dealers commodified art, and he was dismissed a year later.

Van Gogh's home in Cuesmes; while there he decided to become an artist

In April 1876, he returned to England to take unpaid work as a supply teacher in a small boarding school in Ramsgate. When the proprietor moved to Isleworth in Middlesex, Van Gogh went with him. The arrangement was not successful; he left to become a Methodist minister's assistant. His parents had meanwhile moved to Etten; in 1876 he returned home at Christmas for six months and took work at a bookshop in Dordrecht. He was unhappy in the position and spent his time doodling or translating passages from the Bible into English, French, and German. He immersed himself in Christianity, and became increasingly pious and monastic. According to his flatmate of the time, Paulus van Görlitz, Van Gogh ate frugally, avoiding meat.

To support his religious conviction and his desire to become a pastor, in 1877, the family sent him to live with his uncle Johannes Stricker, a respected theologian, in Amsterdam. Van Gogh prepared for the University of Amsterdam theology entrance examination; he failed the exam and left his uncle's house in July 1878. He undertook, but also failed, a three-month course at a Protestant missionary school in Laken, near Brussels.

In January 1879, he took up a post as a missionary at Petit-Wasmes in the working class, coal-mining district of Borinage in Belgium. To show support for his impoverished congregation, he gave up his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to a homeless person and moved to a small hut, where he slept on straw. His humble living conditions did not endear him to church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood". He then walked the 75 kilometres (47 mi) to Brussels, returned briefly to Cuesmes in the Borinage, but he gave in to pressure from his parents to return home to Etten. He stayed there until around March 1880, which caused concern and frustration for his parents. His father was especially frustrated, and advised that his son be committed to the lunatic asylum in Geel.

Van Gogh returned to Cuesmes in August 1880, where he lodged with a miner until October. He became interested in the people and scenes around him, and he recorded them in drawings after Theo's suggestion that he take up art in earnest. He traveled to Brussels later in the year, to follow Theo's recommendation that he study with the Dutch artist Willem Roelofs, who persuaded him - in spite of his dislike of formal schools of art - to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. He registered at the Académie in November 1880, where he studied anatomy and the standard rules of modelling and perspective.

Etten, Drenthe and The Hague

Kee Vos-Stricker with her son Jan c.  1879-80

Van Gogh returned to Etten in April 1881 for an extended stay with his parents. He continued to draw, often using his neighbours as subjects. In August 1881, his recently widowed cousin, Cornelia "Kee" Vos-Stricker, daughter of his mother's older sister Willemina and Johannes Stricker, arrived for a visit. He was thrilled and took long walks with her. Kee was seven years older than he was and had an eight-year-old son. Van Gogh surprised everyone by declaring his love to her and proposing marriage. She refused with the words "No, nay, never" (" nooit, neen, nimmer"). After Kee returned to Amsterdam, Van Gogh went to The Hague to try to sell paintings and to meet with his second cousin, Anton Mauve. Mauve was the successful artist Van Gogh longed to be. Mauve invited him to return in a few months and suggested he spend the intervening time working in charcoal and pastels; Van Gogh returned to Etten and followed this advice.

Late in November 1881, Van Gogh wrote a letter to Johannes Stricker, one which he described to Theo as an attack. Within days he left for Amsterdam. Kee would not meet him, and her parents wrote that his "persistence is disgusting". In despair, he held his left hand in the flame of a lamp, with the words: "Let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame." He did not recall the event well, but later assumed that his uncle had blown out the flame. Kee's father made it clear that her refusal should be heeded and that the two would not marry, largely because of Van Gogh's inability to support himself.

Mauve took Van Gogh on as a student and introduced him to watercolour, which he worked on for the next month before returning home for Christmas. He quarrelled with his father, refusing to attend church, and left for The Hague. In January 1882, Mauve introduced him to painting in oil and lent him money to set up a studio. Within a month Van Gogh and Mauve fell out, possibly over the viability of drawing from plaster casts. Van Gogh could afford to hire only people from the street as models, a practice of which Mauve seems to have disapproved. In June Van Gogh suffered a bout of gonorrhoea and spent three weeks in hospital. Soon after, he first painted in oils, bought with money borrowed from Theo. He liked the medium, and he spread the paint liberally, scraping from the canvas and working back with the brush. He wrote that he was surprised at how good the results were.

Rooftops, View from the Atelier The Hague, 1882, private collection

By March 1882, Mauve appeared to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and he stopped replying to his letters. He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik (1850-1904), and her young daughter. Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this. On 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem. When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him, and considered moving the family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children.

Poverty may have pushed Sien back into prostitution; the home became less happy and Van Gogh may have felt family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. Sien gave her daughter to her mother and baby Willem to her brother. Willem remembered visiting Rotterdam when he was about 12, when an uncle tried to persuade Sien to marry to legitimise the child. He believed Van Gogh was his father, but the timing of his birth makes this unlikely. Sien drowned herself in the River Scheldt in 1904.

In September 1883, Van Gogh moved to Drenthe in the northern Netherlands. In December driven by loneliness, he went to live with his parents, then in Nuenen, North Brabant.

Emerging artist

Nuenen and Antwerp (1883-1886)

In Nuenen, Van Gogh focused on painting and drawing. Working outside and very quickly, he completed sketches and paintings of weavers and their cottages. Van Gogh also completed The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen, which was stolen from the Singer Laren in March 2020. From August 1884, Margot Begemann, a neighbour's daughter ten years his senior, joined him on his forays; she fell in love and he reciprocated, though less enthusiastically. They wanted to marry, but neither side of their families were in favour. Margot was distraught and took an overdose of strychnine, but survived after Van Gogh rushed her to a nearby hospital. On 26 March 1885, his father died of a heart attack.

Van Gogh painted several groups of still lifes in 1885. During his two-year stay in Nuenen, he completed numerous drawings and watercolours and nearly 200 oil paintings. His palette consisted mainly of sombre earth tones, particularly dark brown, and showed no sign of the vivid colours that distinguished his later work.

There was interest from a dealer in Paris early in 1885. Theo asked Vincent if he had paintings ready to exhibit. In May, Van Gogh responded with his first major work, The Potato Eaters, and a series of " peasant character studies" which were the culmination of several years of work. When he complained that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, his brother responded that they were too dark and not in keeping with the bright style of Impressionism. In August his work was publicly exhibited for the first time, in the shop windows of the dealer Leurs in The Hague. One of his young peasant sitters became pregnant in September 1885; Van Gogh was accused of forcing himself upon her, and the village priest forbade parishioners to model for him.

He moved to Antwerp that November and rented a room above a paint dealer's shop in the rue des Images ( Lange Beeldekensstraat). He lived in poverty and ate poorly, preferring to spend the money Theo sent on painting materials and models. Bread, coffee and tobacco became his staple diet. In February 1886, he wrote to Theo that he could only remember eating six hot meals since the previous May. His teeth became loose and painful. In Antwerp he applied himself to the study of colour theory and spent time in museums-particularly studying the work of Peter Paul Rubens-and broadened his palette to include carmine, cobalt blue and emerald green. Van Gogh bought Japanese ukiyo-e woodcuts in the docklands, later incorporating elements of their style into the background of some of his paintings. He was drinking heavily again, and was hospitalised between February and March 1886, when he was possibly also treated for syphilis.

After his recovery, despite his antipathy towards academic teaching, he took the higher-level admission exams at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and, in January 1886, matriculated in painting and drawing. He became ill and run down by overwork, poor diet and excessive smoking. He started to attend drawing classes after plaster models at the Antwerp Academy on 18 January 1886. He quickly got into trouble with Charles Verlat, the director of the academy and teacher of a painting class, because of his unconventional painting style. Van Gogh had also clashed with the instructor of the drawing class Franz Vinck. Van Gogh finally started to attend the drawing classes after antique plaster models given by Eugène Siberdt. Soon Siberdt and Van Gogh came into conflict when the latter did not comply with Siberdt's requirement that drawings express the contour and concentrate on the line. When Van Gogh was required to draw the Venus de Milo during a drawing class, he produced the limbless, naked torso of a Flemish peasant woman. Siberdt regarded this as defiance against his artistic guidance and made corrections to Van Gogh's drawing with his crayon so vigorously that he tore the paper. Van Gogh then flew into a violent rage and shouted at Siberdt: 'You clearly do not know what a young woman is like, God damn it! A woman must have hips, buttocks, a pelvis in which she can carry a baby!' According to some accounts, this was the last time Van Gogh attended classes at the academy and he left later for Paris. On 31 March 1886, which was about a month after the confrontation with Siberdt, the teachers of the academy decided that 17 students, including Van Gogh, had to repeat a year. The story that Van Gogh was expelled from the academy by Siberdt is therefore unfounded.

Paris (1886-1888)

Van Gogh moved to Paris in March 1886 where he shared Theo's rue Laval apartment in Montmartre and studied at Fernand Cormon's studio. In June the brothers took a larger flat at 54 rue Lepic. In Paris, Vincent painted portraits of friends and acquaintances, still life paintings, views of Le Moulin de la Galette, scenes in Montmartre, Asnières and along the Seine. In 1885 in Antwerp he had become interested in Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints and had used them to decorate the walls of his studio; while in Paris he collected hundreds of them. He tried his hand at Japonaiserie, tracing a figure from a reproduction on the cover of the magazine Paris Illustre, The Courtesan or Oiran (1887), after Keisai Eisen, which he then graphically enlarged in a painting.

After seeing the portrait of Adolphe Monticelli at the Galerie Delareybarette, Van Gogh adopted a brighter palette and a bolder attack, particularly in paintings such as his Seascape at Saintes-Maries (1888). Two years later, Vincent and Theo paid for the publication of a book on Monticelli paintings, and Vincent bought some of Monticelli's works to add to his collection.

Van Gogh learned about Fernand Cormon's atelier from Theo. He worked at the studio in April and May 1886, where he frequented the circle of the Australian artist John Russell, who painted his portrait in 1886. Van Gogh also met fellow students Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - who painted a portrait of him in pastel. They met at Julien "Père" Tanguy's paint shop, (which was, at that time, the only place where Paul Cézanne's paintings were displayed). In 1886, two large exhibitions were staged there, showing Pointillism and Neo-impressionism for the first time and bringing attention to Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Theo kept a stock of Impressionist paintings in his gallery on boulevard Montmartre, but Van Gogh was slow to acknowledge the new developments in art.

Conflicts arose between the brothers. At the end of 1886 Theo found living with Vincent to be "almost unbearable". By early 1887, they were again at peace, and Vincent had moved to Asnières, a northwestern suburb of Paris, where he got to know Signac. He adopted elements of Pointillism, a technique in which a multitude of small coloured dots are applied to the canvas so that when seen from a distance they create an optical blend of hues. The style stresses the ability of complementary colours - including blue and orange - to form vibrant contrasts.

While in Asnières Van Gogh painted parks, restaurants and the Seine, including Bridges across the Seine at Asnières. In November 1887, Theo and Vincent befriended Paul Gauguin who had just arrived in Paris. Towards the end of the year, Vincent arranged an exhibition alongside Bernard, Anquetin, and probably Toulouse-Lautrec, at the Grand-Bouillon Restaurant du Chalet, 43 avenue de Clichy, Montmartre. In a contemporary account, Bernard wrote that the exhibition was ahead of anything else in Paris. There, Bernard and Anquetin sold their first paintings, and Van Gogh exchanged work with Gauguin. Discussions on art, artists, and their social situations started during this exhibition, continued and expanded to include visitors to the show, like Camille Pissarro and his son Lucien, Signac and Seurat. In February 1888, feeling worn out from life in Paris, Van Gogh left, having painted more than 200 paintings during his two years there. Hours before his departure, accompanied by Theo, he paid his first and only visit to Seurat in his studio.

Artistic breakthrough

Arles (1888-89)

Ill from drink and suffering from smoker's cough, in February 1888 Van Gogh sought refuge in Arles. He seems to have moved with thoughts of founding an art colony. The Danish artist Christian Mourier-Petersen became his companion for two months, and, at first, Arles appeared exotic. In a letter, he described it as a foreign country: "The Zouaves, the brothels, the adorable little Arlésienne going to her First Communion, the priest in his surplice, who looks like a dangerous rhinoceros, the people drinking absinthe, all seem to me creatures from another world."

The time in Arles became one of Van Gogh's more prolific periods: he completed 200 paintings and more than 100 drawings and watercolours. He was enchanted by the local countryside and light; his works from this period are rich in yellow, ultramarine and mauve. They include harvests, wheat fields and general rural landmarks from the area, including The Old Mill (1888), one of seven canvases sent to Pont-Aven on 4 October 1888 in an exchange of works with Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard, Charles Laval and others. The portrayals of Arles are informed by his Dutch upbringing; the patchworks of fields and avenues are flat and lacking perspective, but excel in their use of colour.

In March 1888, he painted landscapes using a gridded "perspective frame"; three of the works were shown at the annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants. In April, he was visited by the American artist Dodge MacKnight, who was living nearby at Fontvieille. On 1 May 1888, for 15 francs per month, he signed a lease for the eastern wing of the Yellow House at 2 place Lamartine. The rooms were unfurnished and had been uninhabited for months.

On 7 May, Van Gogh moved from the Hôtel Carrel to the Café de la Gare, having befriended the proprietors, Joseph and Marie Ginoux. The Yellow House had to be furnished before he could fully move in, but he was able to use it as a studio. He wanted a gallery to display his work and started a series of paintings that eventually included Van Gogh's Chair (1888), Bedroom in Arles (1888), The Night Café (1888), Café Terrace at Night (September 1888), Starry Night Over the Rhone (1888), and Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (1888), all intended for the decoration for the Yellow House.

Van Gogh wrote that with The Night Café he tried "to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime". When he visited Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in June, he gave lessons to a Zouave second lieutenant - Paul-Eugène Milliet - and painted boats on the sea and the village. MacKnight introduced Van Gogh to Eugène Boch, a Belgian painter who sometimes stayed in Fontvieille, and the two exchanged visits in July.

Gauguin's visit (1888)

Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers: Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, Van Gogh hoped for friendship and to realize his idea of an artists' collective. Van Gogh prepared for Gauguin's arrival by painting four versions of Sunflowers in one week. "In the hope of living in a studio of our own with Gauguin," he wrote in a letter to Theo, "I'd like to do a decoration for the studio. Nothing but large Sunflowers."

When Boch visited again, Van Gogh painted a portrait of him, as well as the study The Poet Against a Starry Sky.

In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait he painted. On 17 September, he spent his first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House. When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the Décoration for the Yellow House, probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook. He completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair.

After much pleading from Van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October and, in November, the two painted together. Gauguin depicted Van Gogh in his The Painter of Sunflowers; Van Gogh painted pictures from memory, following Gauguin's suggestion. Among these "imaginative" paintings is Memory of the Garden at Etten. Their first joint outdoor venture was at the Alyscamps, when they produced the pendants Les Alyscamps. The single painting Gauguin completed during his visit was his portrait of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh and Gauguin visited Montpellier in December 1888, where they saw works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Musée Fabre. Their relationship began to deteriorate; Van Gogh admired Gauguin and wanted to be treated as his equal, but Gauguin was arrogant and domineering, which frustrated Van Gogh. They often quarrelled; Van Gogh increasingly feared that Gauguin was going to desert him, and the situation, which Van Gogh described as one of "excessive tension", rapidly headed towards crisis point.

Hospital in Arles (December 1888)

Local newspaper report dated 30 December 1888 recording van Gogh's self-mutilation

The exact sequence that led to the mutilation of van Gogh's ear is not known. Gauguin said, fifteen years later, that the night followed several instances of physically threatening behaviour. Their relationship was complex and Theo may have owed money to Gauguin, who suspected the brothers were exploiting him financially. It seems likely that Vincent realised that Gauguin was planning to leave. The following days saw heavy rain, leading to the two men being shut in the Yellow House. Gauguin recalled that Van Gogh followed him after he left for a walk and "rushed towards me, an open razor in his hand." This account is uncorroborated; Gauguin was almost certainly absent from the Yellow House that night, most likely staying in a hotel.

After an altercation on the evening of 23 December 1888, Van Gogh returned to his room where he seemingly heard voices and either wholly or in part severed his left ear with a razor causing severe bleeding. He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to a woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented. Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital, where he was treated by Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training. The ear was brought to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed. Van Gogh researcher and art historian Bernadette Murphy discovered the true identity of the woman named Gabrielle, who died in Arles at the age of 80 in 1952, and whose descendants still live just outside Arles. Gabrielle, known in her youth as "Gaby," was a 17-year-old cleaning girl at the brothel and other local establishments at the time Van Gogh presented her with his ear.

Van Gogh had no recollection of the event, suggesting that he may have suffered an acute mental breakdown. The hospital diagnosis was "acute mania with generalised delirium", and within a few days, the local police ordered that he be placed in hospital care. Gauguin immediately notified Theo, who, on 24 December, had proposed marriage to his old friend Andries Bonger's sister Johanna. That evening, Theo rushed to the station to board a night train to Arles. He arrived on Christmas Day and comforted Vincent, who seemed to be semi-lucid. That evening, he left Arles for the return trip to Paris.

During the first days of his treatment, Van Gogh repeatedly and unsuccessfully asked for Gauguin, who asked a policeman attending the case to "be kind enough, Monsieur, to awaken this man with great care, and if he asks for me tell him I have left for Paris; the sight of me might prove fatal for him." Gauguin fled Arles, never to see Van Gogh again. They continued to correspond, and in 1890, Gauguin proposed they form a studio in Antwerp. Meanwhile, other visitors to the hospital included Marie Ginoux and Roulin.

Despite a pessimistic diagnosis, Van Gogh recovered and returned to the Yellow House on 7 January 1889. He spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and delusions of poisoning. In March, the police closed his house after a petition by 30 townspeople (including the Ginoux family) who described him as le fou roux "the redheaded madman"; Van Gogh returned to hospital. Paul Signac visited him twice in March; in April, Van Gogh moved into rooms owned by Dr Rey after floods damaged paintings in his own home. Two months later, he left Arles and voluntarily entered an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Around this time, he wrote, "Sometimes moods of indescribable anguish, sometimes moments when the veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant."

Van Gogh gave his 1889 Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey to Dr Rey. The physician was not fond of the painting and used it to repair a chicken coop, then gave it away. In 2016, the portrait was housed at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and estimated to be worth over $50 million.

Saint-Rémy (May 1889 - May 1890)

Van Gogh entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum on 8 May 1889, accompanied by his caregiver, Frédéric Salles, a Protestant clergyman. Saint-Paul was a former monastery in Saint-Rémy, located less than 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Arles, and it was run by a former naval doctor, Théophile Peyron. Van Gogh had two cells with barred windows, one of which he used as a studio. The clinic and its garden became the main subjects of his paintings. He made several studies of the hospital's interiors, such as Vestibule of the Asylum and Saint-Rémy (September 1889), and its gardens, such as (May 1889). Some of his works from this time are characterised by swirls, such as The Starry Night. He was allowed short supervised walks, during which time he painted cypresses and olive trees, including Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above, Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background 1889, Cypresses 1889, Cornfield with Cypresses (1889), Country road in Provence by Night (1890). In September 1889, he produced two further versions of Bedroom in Arles and The Gardener.

Limited access to life outside the clinic resulted in a shortage of subject matter. Van Gogh instead worked on interpretations of other artist's paintings, such as Millet's and Noonday Rest, and variations on his own earlier work. Van Gogh was an admirer of the Realism of Jules Breton, Gustave Courbet and Millet, and he compared his copies to a musician's interpreting Beethoven.

His Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré) (1890) was painted after an engraving by Gustave Doré (1832-1883). Tralbaut suggests that the face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting looking towards the viewer is Van Gogh himself; Jan Hulsker discounts this.

Between February and April 1890, Van Gogh suffered a severe relapse. Depressed and unable to bring himself to write, he was still able to paint and draw a little during this time, and he later wrote to Theo that he had made a few small canvases "from memory ... reminisces of the North". Among these was Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset. Hulsker believes that this small group of paintings formed the nucleus of many drawings and study sheets depicting landscapes and figures that Van Gogh worked on during this time. He comments that this short period was the only time that Van Gogh's illness had a significant effect on his work. Van Gogh asked his mother and his brother to send him drawings and rough work he had done in the early 1880s so he could work on new paintings from his old sketches. Belonging to this period is Sorrowing Old Man ("At Eternity's Gate"), a colour study Hulsker describes as "another unmistakable remembrance of times long past". His late paintings show an artist at the height of his abilities, according to the art critic Robert Hughes, "longing for concision and grace".

After the birth of his nephew, Van Gogh wrote, "I started right away to make a picture for him, to hang in their bedroom, branches of white almond blossom against a blue sky."

1890 Exhibitions and recognition

See also Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890

Albert Aurier praised his work in the Mercure de France in January 1890 and described him as "a genius". In February, Van Gogh painted five versions of L'Arlésienne (Madame Ginoux), based on a charcoal sketch Gauguin had produced when she sat for both artists in November 1888. Also in February, Van Gogh was invited by , a society of avant-garde painters in Brussels, to participate in their annual exhibition. At the opening dinner a Les XX member, Henry de Groux, insulted Van Gogh's work. Toulouse-Lautrec demanded satisfaction, and Signac declared he would continue to fight for Van Gogh's honour if Lautrec surrendered. De Groux apologised for the slight and left the group.

From 20 March to 27 April 1890, Van Gogh was included in the sixth exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in the Pavillon de la Ville de Paris on the Champs-Elysées. Van Gogh exhibited ten paintings. While Van Gogh's exhibit was on display with the Artistes Indépendants in Paris, Claude Monet said that his work was the best in the show.

Auvers-sur-Oise (May-July 1890)

In May 1890, Van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Rémy to move nearer to both Dr Paul Gachet in the Paris suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise and to Theo. Gachet was an amateur painter and had treated several other artists - Camille Pissarro had recommended him. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "iller than I am, it seemed to me, or let's say just as much."

The painter Charles Daubigny moved to Auvers in 1861 and in turn drew other artists there, including Camille Corot and Honoré Daumier. In July 1890, Van Gogh completed two paintings of Daubigny's Garden, one of which is likely his final work.

During his last weeks at Saint-Rémy, his thoughts returned to " memories of the North", and several of the approximately 70 oils, painted during as many days in Auvers-sur-Oise, are reminiscent of northern scenes. In June 1890, he painted several portraits of his doctor, including Portrait of Dr Gachet, and his only etching. In each the emphasis is on Gachet's melancholic disposition. There are other paintings which are probably unfinished, including Thatched Cottages by a Hill.

In July, Van Gogh wrote that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow". He had first become captivated by the fields in May, when the wheat was young and green. In July, he described to Theo "vast fields of wheat under turbulent skies".

He wrote that they represented his "sadness and extreme loneliness" and that the "canvases will tell you what I cannot say in words, that is, how healthy and invigorating I find the countryside". Wheatfield with Crows, although not his last oil work, is from July 1890 and Hulsker discusses it as being associated with "melancholy and extreme loneliness". Hulsker identifies seven oil paintings from Auvers that follow the completion of Wheatfield with Crows.

Article on Van Gogh's death from L'Écho Pontoisien, 7 August 1890

On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. The shooting may have taken place in the wheat field in which he had been painting, or in a local barn. The bullet was deflected by a rib and passed through his chest without doing apparent damage to internal organs - possibly stopped by his spine. He was able to walk back to the Auberge Ravoux, where he was attended to by two doctors. One of them, Dr Gachet, served as a war surgeon in 1870 and had extensive knowledge of gunshots. Vincent was possibly attended to during the night by Dr Gachet's son Paul Louis Gachet and the innkeeper, Arthur Ravoux. The following morning, Theo rushed to his brother's side, finding him in good spirits. But within hours Vincent's health began to fail, suffering from an infection resulting from the wound. He died in the early hours of 29 July. According to Theo, Vincent's last words were: "The sadness will last forever".

Vincent and Theo's graves at Auvers-sur-Oise Cemetery

Van Gogh was buried on 30 July, in the municipal cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. The funeral was attended by Theo van Gogh, Andries Bonger, Charles Laval, Lucien Pissarro, Émile Bernard, Julien Tanguy and Paul Gachet, among twenty family members, friends and locals. Theo suffered from syphilis, and his health began to decline further after his brother's death. Weak and unable to come to terms with Vincent's absence, he died on 25 January 1891 at Den Dolder and was buried in Utrecht. In 1914, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger had Theo's body exhumed and moved from Utrecht to be re-buried alongside Vincent's at Auvers-sur-Oise.

There have been numerous debates as to the nature of Van Gogh's illness and its effect on his work, and many retrospective diagnoses have been proposed. The consensus is that Van Gogh had an episodic condition with periods of normal functioning. Perry was the first to suggest bipolar disorder in 1947, and this has been supported by the psychiatrists Hemphill and Blumer. Biochemist Wilfred Arnold has countered that the symptoms are more consistent with acute intermittent porphyria, noting that the popular link between bipolar disorder and creativity might be spurious. Temporal lobe epilepsy with bouts of depression has also been suggested. Whatever the diagnosis, his condition was likely worsened by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and alcohol.

Style and works

Artistic development

Van Gogh drew and painted with watercolours while at school, but only a few examples survive and the authorship of some has been challenged. When he took up art as an adult, he began at an elementary level. In early 1882, his uncle, Cornelis Marinus, owner of a well-known gallery of contemporary art in Amsterdam, asked for drawings of The Hague. Van Gogh's work did not live up to expectations. Marinus offered a second commission, specifying the subject matter in detail, but was again disappointed with the result. Van Gogh persevered; he experimented with lighting in his studio using variable shutters and different drawing materials. For more than a year he worked on single figures - highly elaborate studies in black and white, which at the time gained him only criticism. Later, they were recognised as early masterpieces.

In August 1882, Theo gave Vincent money to buy materials for working en plein air. Vincent wrote that he could now "go on painting with new vigour". From early 1883, he worked on multi-figure compositions. He had some of them photographed, but when his brother remarked that they lacked liveliness and freshness, he destroyed them and turned to oil painting. Van Gogh turned to well-known Hague School artists like Weissenbruch and Blommers, and he received technical advice from them as well as from painters like De Bock and Van der Weele, both of the Hague School's second generation. He moved to Nuenen after a short period of time in Drenthe and began work on several large paintings but destroyed most of them. The Potato Eaters and its companion pieces are the only ones to have survived. Following a visit to the Rijksmuseum Van Gogh wrote of his admiration for the quick, economical brushwork of the Dutch Masters, especially Rembrandt and Frans Hals. He was aware many of his faults were due to lack of experience and technical expertise, so in November 1885 he travelled to Antwerp and later Paris to learn and develop his skills.

Theo criticised The Potato Eaters for its dark palette, which he thought unsuitable for a modern style. During Van Gogh's stay in Paris between 1886 and 1887, he tried to master a new, lighter palette. His Portrait of Père Tanguy (1887) shows his success with the brighter palette and is evidence of an evolving personal style. Charles Blanc's treatise on colour interested him greatly and led him to work with complementary colours. Van Gogh came to believe that the effect of colour went beyond the descriptive; he said that "colour expresses something in itself". According to Hughes, Van Gogh perceived colour as having a "psychological and moral weight", as exemplified in the garish reds and greens of The Night Café, a work he wanted to "express the terrible passions of humanity". Yellow meant the most to him, because it symbolised emotional truth. He used yellow as a symbol for sunlight, life, and God.

Van Gogh strove to be a painter of rural life and nature; during his first summer in Arles he used his new palette to paint landscapes and traditional rural life. His belief that a power existed behind the natural led him to try to capture a sense of that power, or the essence of nature in his art, sometimes through the use of symbols. His renditions of the sower, at first copied from Jean-François Millet, reflect the influence of Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on the heroism of physical labour, as well as Van Gogh's religious beliefs: the sower as Christ sowing life beneath the hot sun. These were themes and motifs he returned to often to rework and develop. His paintings of flowers are filled with symbolism, but rather than use traditional Christian iconography he made up his own, where life is lived under the sun and work is an allegory of life. In Arles, having gained confidence after painting spring blossoms and learning to capture bright sunlight, he was ready to paint The Sower.

Van Gogh stayed within what he called the "guise of reality" and was critical of overly stylised works. He wrote afterwards that the abstraction of Starry Night had gone too far and that reality had "receded too far in the background". Hughes describes it as a moment of extreme visionary ecstasy: the stars are in a great whirl, reminiscent of Hokusai's , the movement in the heaven above is reflected by the movement of the cypress on the earth below, and the painter's vision is "translated into a thick, emphatic plasma of paint".

Between 1885 and his death in 1890, Van Gogh appears to have been building an oeuvre, a collection that reflected his personal vision and could be commercially successful. He was influenced by Blanc's definition of style, that a true painting required optimal use of colour, perspective and brushstrokes. Van Gogh applied the word "purposeful" to paintings he thought he had mastered, as opposed to those he thought of as studies. He painted many series of studies; most of which were still lifes, many executed as colour experiments or as gifts to friends. The work in Arles contributed considerably to his oeuvre: those he thought the most important from that time were The Sower, Night Cafe, Memory of the Garden in Etten and Starry Night. With their broad brushstrokes, inventive perspectives, colours, contours and designs, these paintings represent the style he sought.

Major series

Van Gogh's stylistic developments are usually linked to the periods he spent living in different places across Europe. He was inclined to immerse himself in local cultures and lighting conditions, although he maintained a highly individual visual outlook throughout. His evolution as an artist was slow, and he was aware of his painterly limitations. He moved home often, perhaps to expose himself to new visual stimuli, and through exposure develop his technical skill. Art historian Melissa McQuillan believes the moves also reflect later stylistic changes, and that Van Gogh used the moves to avoid conflict, and as a coping mechanism for when the idealistic artist was faced with the realities of his then current situation.

Van Gogh said portaiture was his greatest interest. "What I'm most passionate about, much much more than all the rest in my profession", he wrote in 1890, "is the portrait, the modern portrait." It is "the only thing in painting that moves me deeply and that gives me a sense of the infinite." He wrote to his sister that he wished to paint portraits that would endure, and that he would use colour to capture their emotions and character rather than aiming for photographic realism. Those closest to Van Gogh are mostly absent from his portraits; he rarely painted Theo, Van Rappard or Bernard. The portraits of his mother were from photographs.

Van Gogh painted Arles' postmaster Joseph Roulin and his family repeatedly. In five versions of La Berceuse ( The Lullaby), Van Gogh painted Augustine Roulin quietly holding a rope that rocks the unseen cradle of her infant daughter. Van Gogh had planned for it to be the central image of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers.

Self-portraits

Van Gogh created more than 43 self-portraits between 1885 and 1889. They were usually completed in series, such as those painted in Paris in mid-1887, and continued until shortly before his death. Generally the portraits were studies, created during periods when he was reluctant to mix with others, or when he lacked models, and so painted himself.

The self-portraits reflect a high degree of self-scrutiny. Often they were intended to mark important periods in his life; for example, the mid-1887 Paris series were painted at the point where he became aware of Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Signac. In Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, heavy strains of paint spread outwards across the canvas. It is one of his most renowned self-portraits of that period, "with its highly organized rhythmic brushstrokes, and the novel halo derived from the Neo-impressionist repertoire was what Van Gogh himself called a 'purposeful' canvas".

They contain a wide array of physiognomical representations. Van Gogh's mental and physical condition is usually apparent; he may appear unkempt, unshaven or with a neglected beard, with deeply sunken eyes, a weak jaw, or having lost teeth. Some show him with full lips, a long face or prominent skull, or sharpened, alert features. His hair is sometimes depicted in a vibrant reddish hue and at other times ash colored.

Van Gogh's self-portraits vary stylistically. In those painted after December 1888, the strong contrast of vivid colors highlight the haggard pallor of his skin. Some depict the artist with a beard, others without. He can be seen with bandages in portraits executed just after he mutilated his ear. In only a few does he depict himself as a painter. Those painted in Saint-Rémy show the head from the right, the side opposite his damaged ear, as he painted himself reflected in his mirror.

Van Gogh painted several landscapes with flowers, including roses, lilacs, irises, and sunflowers. Some reflect his interests in the language of colour, and also in Japanese ukiyo-e. There are two series of dying sunflowers. The first was painted in Paris in 1887 and shows flowers lying on the ground. The second set was completed a year later in Arles and is of bouquets in a vase positioned in early morning light. Both are built from thickly layered paintwork, which, according to the London National Gallery, evoke the "texture of the seed-heads".

In these series, Van Gogh was not preoccupied by his usual interest in filling his paintings with subjectivity and emotion; rather, the two series are intended to display his technical skill and working methods to Gauguin, who was about to visit. The 1888 paintings were created during a rare period of optimism for the artist. Vincent wrote to Theo in August 1888:

I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers ... If I carry out this plan there'll be a dozen or so panels. The whole thing will therefore be a symphony in blue and yellow. I work on it all these mornings, from sunrise. Because the flowers wilt quickly and it's a matter of doing the whole thing in one go.

The sunflowers were painted to decorate the walls in anticipation of Gauguin's visit, and Van Gogh placed individual works around the Yellow House's guest room in Arles. Gauguin was deeply impressed and later acquired two of the Paris versions. After Gauguin's departure, Van Gogh imagined the two major versions of the sunflowers as wings of the Berceuse Triptych, and included them in his Les XX in Brussels exhibit. Today the major pieces of the series are among his best known, celebrated for the sickly connotations of the colour yellow and its tie-in with the Yellow House, the expressionism of the brush strokes, and their contrast against often dark backgrounds.

Cypresses and olives

Fifteen canvases depict cypresses, a tree he became fascinated with in Arles. He brought life to the trees, which were traditionally seen as emblematic of death. The series of cypresses he began in Arles featured the trees in the distance, as windbreaks in fields; when he was at Saint-Rémy he brought them to the foreground. Vincent wrote to Theo in May 1889: "Cypresses still preoccupy me, I should like to do something with them like my canvases of sunflowers"; he went on to say, "They are beautiful in line and proportion like an Egyptian obelisk."

In mid-1889, and at his sister Wil's request, Van Gogh painted several smaller versions of Wheat Field with Cypresses. The works are characterised by swirls and densely painted impasto, and include The Starry Night, in which cypresses dominate the foreground. In addition to this, other notable works on cypresses include Cypresses (1889), Cypresses with Two Figures (1889-90), and Road with Cypress and Star (1890).

During the last six or seven months of the year 1889, he had also created at least fifteen paintings of olive trees, a subject which he considered as demanding and compelling. Among these works are Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (1889), about which in a letter to his brother Van Gogh wrote, "At last I have a landscape with olives". While in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh spent time outside the asylum, where he painted trees in the olive groves. In these works, natural life is rendered as gnarled and arthritic as if a personification of the natural world, which are, according to Hughes, filled with "a continuous field of energy of which nature is a manifestation".

The Flowering Orchards (also the Orchards in Blossom) are among the first groups of work completed after Van Gogh's arrival in Arles in February 1888. The 14 paintings are optimistic, joyous and visually expressive of the burgeoning spring. They are delicately sensitive and unpopulated. He painted swiftly, and although he brought to this series a version of Impressionism, a strong sense of personal style began to emerge during this period. The transience of the blossoming trees, and the passing of the season, seemed to align with his sense of impermanence and belief in a new beginning in Arles. During the blossoming of the trees that spring, he found "a world of motifs that could not have been more Japanese". Vincent wrote to Theo on 21 April 1888 that he had 10 orchards and "one big [painting] of a cherry tree, which I've spoiled".

During this period Van Gogh mastered the use of light by subjugating shadows and painting the trees as if they are the source of light - almost in a sacred manner. Early the following year he painted another smaller group of orchards, including View of Arles, Flowering Orchards. Van Gogh was enthralled by the landscape and vegetation of the south of France, and often visited the farm gardens near Arles. In the vivid light of the Mediterranean climate his palette significantly brightened.

Wheat fields

Van Gogh made several painting excursions during visits to the landscape around Arles. He made paintings of harvests, wheat fields and other rural landmarks of the area, including The Old Mill (1888); a good example of a picturesque structure bordering the wheat fields beyond. At various points, Van Gogh painted the view from his window - at The Hague, Antwerp, and Paris. These works culminated in The Wheat Field series, which depicted the view from his cells in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.

Many of the late paintings are sombre but essentially optimistic and, right up to the time of Van Gogh's death, reflect his desire to return to lucid mental health. Yet some of his final works reflect his deepening concerns. Writing in July 1890, from Auvers, Van Gogh said that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow".

Van Gogh was captivated by the fields in May when the wheat was young and green. His Wheatfields at Auvers with White House shows a more subdued palette of yellows and blues, which creates a sense of idyllic harmony.

About 10 July 1890, Van Gogh wrote to Theo of "vast fields of wheat under troubled skies". Wheatfield with Crows shows the artist's state of mind in his final days; Hulsker describes the work as a "doom-filled painting with threatening skies and ill-omened crows". Its dark palette and heavy brushstrokes convey a sense of menace.

Reputation and legacy

Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, 1889

After Van Gogh's first exhibitions in the late 1880s, his reputation grew steadily among artists, art critics, dealers and collectors. In 1887, André Antoine hung Van Gogh's alongside works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, at the Théâtre Libre in Paris; some were acquired by Julien Tanguy. In 1889, his work was described in the journal Le Moderniste Illustré by Albert Aurier as characterised by "fire, intensity, sunshine". Ten paintings were shown at the Société des Artistes Indépendants, in Brussels in January 1890. French president Marie François Sadi Carnot was said to have been impressed by Van Gogh's work.

After Van Gogh's death, memorial exhibitions were held in Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. His work was shown in several high-profile exhibitions, including six works at ; in 1891 there was a retrospective exhibition in Brussels. In 1892, Octave Mirbeau wrote that Van Gogh's suicide was an "infinitely sadder loss for art ... even though the populace has not crowded to a magnificent funeral, and poor Vincent van Gogh, whose demise means the extinction of a beautiful flame of genius, has gone to his death as obscure and neglected as he lived."

Theo died in January 1891, removing Vincent's most vocal and well-connected champion. Theo's widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger was a Dutchwoman in her twenties who had not known either her husband or her brother-in-law very long and who suddenly had to take care of several hundreds of paintings, letters and drawings, as well as her infant son, Vincent Willem van Gogh. Gauguin was not inclined to offer assistance in promoting Van Gogh's reputation, and Johanna's brother Andries Bonger also seemed lukewarm about his work. Aurier, one of Van Gogh's earliest supporters among the critics, died of typhoid fever in 1892 at the age of 27.

Painter on the Road to Tarascon, August 1888 (destroyed by fire in the Second World War)

In 1892, Émile Bernard organised a small solo show of Van Gogh's paintings in Paris, and Julien Tanguy exhibited his Van Gogh paintings with several consigned from Johanna van Gogh-Bonger. In April 1894, the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris agreed to take 10 paintings on consignment from Van Gogh's estate. In 1896, the Fauvist painter Henri Matisse, then an unknown art student, visited John Russell on Belle Île off Brittany. Russell had been a close friend of Van Gogh; he introduced Matisse to the Dutchman's work, and gave him a Van Gogh drawing. Influenced by Van Gogh, Matisse abandoned his earth-coloured palette for bright colours.

In Paris in 1901, a large Van Gogh retrospective was held at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, which excited André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, and contributed to the emergence of Fauvism. Important group exhibitions took place with the Sonderbund artists in Cologne in 1912, the Armory Show, New York in 1913, and Berlin in 1914. Henk Bremmer was instrumental in teaching and talking about Van Gogh, and introduced Helene Kröller-Müller to Van Gogh's art; she became an avid collector of his work. The early figures in German Expressionism such as Emil Nolde acknowledged a debt to Van Gogh's work. Bremmer assisted Jacob Baart de la Faille, whose catalogue raisonné L'Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh appeared in 1928. Van Gogh's fame reached its first peak in Austria and Germany before World War I, helped by the publication of his letters in three volumes in 1914. His letters are expressive and literate, and have been described as among the foremost 19th-century writings of their kind. These began a compelling mythology of Van Gogh as an intense and dedicated painter who suffered for his art and died young. In 1934, the novelist Irving Stone wrote a biographical novel of Van Gogh's life titled Lust for Life, based on Van Gogh's letters to Theo. This novel and the 1956 film further enhanced his fame, especially in the United States where Stone surmised only a few hundred people had heard of Van Gogh prior to his surprise best-selling book.

In 1957, Francis Bacon based a series of paintings on reproductions of Van Gogh's The Painter on the Road to Tarascon, the original of which was destroyed during the Second World War. Bacon was inspired by an image he described as "haunting", and regarded Van Gogh as an alienated outsider, a position which resonated with him. Bacon identified with Van Gogh's theories of art and quoted lines written to Theo: "[R]eal painters do not paint things as they are ... [T]hey paint them as they themselves feel them to be."

Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings. Those sold for over US$100 million (today's equivalent) include Portrait of Dr Gachet, Portrait of Joseph Roulin and Irises. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a copy of Wheat Field with Cypresses in 1993 for US$57 million by using funds donated by publisher, diplomat and philanthropist Walter Annenberg. In 2015, L'Allée des Alyscamps sold for US$66.3 million at Sotheby's, New York, exceeding its reserve of US$40 million.

Minor planet 4457 van Gogh is named in his honour.

In October 2022, two activists protesting the effects of the fossil fuel industry on climate change threw a can of tomato soup on Van Gogh's Sunflowers in the National Gallery, London, and then glued their hands to the gallery wall. As the painting was covered by glass it was not damaged.

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh's nephew and namesake, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890-1978), inherited the estate after his mother's death in 1925. During the early 1950s he arranged for the publication of a complete edition of the letters presented in four volumes and several languages. He then began negotiations with the Dutch government to subsidise a foundation to purchase and house the entire collection. Theo's son participated in planning the project in the hope that the works would be exhibited under the best possible conditions. The project began in 1963; architect Gerrit Rietveld was commissioned to design it, and after his death in 1964 Kisho Kurokawa took charge. Work progressed throughout the 1960s, with 1972 as the target for its grand opening.

The Van Gogh Museum opened in the Museumplein in Amsterdam in 1973. It became the second most popular museum in the Netherlands, after the Rijksmuseum, regularly receiving more than 1.5 million visitors a year. In 2015 it had a record 1.9 million. Eighty-five percent of the visitors come from other countries.

Nazi-looted art

During the Nazi period (1933-1945) a great number of artworks by Van Gogh changed hands, many of them looted from Jewish collectors who were forced into exile or murdered. Some of these works have disappeared into private collections. Others have since resurfaced in museums, or at auction, or have been reclaimed, often in high-profile lawsuits, by their former owners. The German Lost Art Foundation still lists dozens of missing van Goghs and the American Alliance of Museums lists 73 van Goghs on the Nazi Era Provenance Internet Portal.

References

General and cited sources

Arnold, Wilfred Niels (2004). "The illness of Vincent van Gogh". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 13 (1): 22-43. doi:10.1080/09647040490885475. PMID 15370335. S2CID 220462421. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018.

Blumer, Dietrich (2002). "The Illness of Vincent van Gogh". American Journal of Psychiatry. 159 (4): 519-526. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.519. PMID 11925286.

Cohen, Ben (2003). "A Tale of Two Ears". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 96 (6): 305-306. doi:10.1177/014107680309600615. PMC . PMID 12782701.

Davies, Christopher (2007). Divided by a Common Language: A Guide to British and American English. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-547-35028-8. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017.

Doiteau, Victor; Leroy, Edgard (1928). La Folie de Vincent Van Gogh (in French). Éditions Aesculape. OCLC 458125921.

Dorn, Roland (1990). Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles [Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Series of Works for the Yellow House in Arles] (in German). Olms Verlag. ISBN 978-3-487-09098-6.

Other editions: ISBN 978-3-923641-31-4 (German); ISBN 978-90-6630-247-1(Dutch)

Farr, Dennis; Peppiatt, Michael; Yard, Sally (1999). Francis Bacon: A Retrospective. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-2925-8.

; ISBN 978-963-7063-33-6 (Hungarian)

Grant, Patrick (2014). The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study. Athabasca University Press. ISBN 978-1-927356-74-6. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017.

Hemphill, R. E. (1961). "The illness of Vincent van Gogh". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 54 (12): 1083-1088. doi:10.1177/003591576105401206. PMC . PMID 13906376. S2CID 38810743.

Naifeh, Steven W.; Smith, Gregory White (2011). Van Gogh: The Life. Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50748-9.

Perry, Isabella H. (1947). "Vincent van Gogh's illness: a case record". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 21 (2): 146-172. PMID 20242549.

Pickvance, Ronald (1974). "(exh. cat)". English Influences on Vincent van Gogh, an exhibition organised by the Fine Art Department, University of Nottingham and the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1974-5. Arts Council. University of Nottingham, 1974/75.

Pickvance, Ronald (1984). "(exh. cat)". Van Gogh in Arles. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-87099-375-6. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rovers, Eva (2007). "'He Is the Key and the Antithesis of so Much': Helene Kröller-Müller's Fascination with Vincent van Gogh". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. 33 (4): 258-272. JSTOR 25608496.

Selz, Peter Howard (1968). German Expressionist Painting. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02515-8. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017.

Sund, Judy (1988). "The Sower and the Sheaf: Biblical Metaphor in the Art of Vincent van Gogh". The Art Bulletin. 70 (4): 660-676. doi:10.2307/3051107. JSTOR 3051107.

Van der Wolk, Johannes (1987). De schetsboeken van Vincent van Gogh [The Sketchbooks of Vincent van Gogh] (in Dutch). Meulenhoff/Landshoff. ISBN 978-90-290-8154-2.

Van Gogh, Vincent (2009). Leo Jansen; Hans Luijten; Nienke Bakker (eds.). Vincent van Gogh - The Letters. Van Gogh Museum & Huygens ING.

Van Heugten, Sjraar (1996). Vincent van Gogh: tekeningen 1: Vroege jaren 1880-1883 [Vincent van Gogh: Drawings 1: Early years 1880-1883] (in Dutch). V+K. ISBN 978-90-6611-501-9.

Van Uitert, Evert (1981). "Van Gogh's Concept of His Oeuvre". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. 12 (4): 223-244. doi:10.2307/3780499. JSTOR 3780499.

Weikop, Christian (2007). "Exhibition Reviews: Van Gogh and Expressionism. Amsterdam and New York". The Burlington Magazine. 149 (1248): 208-209. JSTOR 20074786.

External links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch: [ˈvɪnsɛntˈʋɪləɱvɑŋˈɣɔx] ; 30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

# data[].attributes.body
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon, and earned her enduring popularity.

Diana was born into the British nobility, and grew up close to the royal family on their Sandringham estate. In 1981, while working as a nursery teacher's assistant, she became engaged to Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana's marriage to Charles suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. They separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. Their marital difficulties were widely publicised, and the couple divorced in 1996.

As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of Elizabeth II and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages were initially centred on children and the elderly, but she later became known for her involvement in two particular campaigns: one involved the social attitudes towards and the acceptance of AIDS patients, and the other for the removal of landmines, promoted through the International Red Cross. She also raised awareness and advocated for ways to help people affected by cancer and mental illness. Diana was initially noted for her shyness, but her charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the acrimonious collapse of her marriage. Considered photogenic, she was a leader of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s.

Diana's death in a car crash in Paris in 1997 led to extensive public mourning and global media attention. An inquest returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" following Operation Paget, an investigation by the London Metropolitan Police. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

# data[].attributes.body
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Prince William and Prince Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon, and earned her enduring popularity.

Diana was born into the British nobility, and grew up close to the royal family on their Sandringham estate. In 1981, while working as a nursery teacher's assistant, she became engaged to Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II. Their wedding took place at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 and made her Princess of Wales, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. The couple had two sons, William and Harry, who were then respectively second and third in the line of succession to the British throne. Diana's marriage to Charles suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. They separated in 1992, soon after the breakdown of their relationship became public knowledge. Their marital difficulties were widely publicised, and the couple divorced in 1996.

As Princess of Wales, Diana undertook royal duties on behalf of Elizabeth II and represented her at functions across the Commonwealth realms. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work. Her patronages were initially centred on children and the elderly, but she later became known for her involvement in two particular campaigns: one involved the social attitudes towards and the acceptance of AIDS patients, and the other for the removal of landmines, promoted through the International Red Cross. She also raised awareness and advocated for ways to help people affected by cancer and mental illness. Diana was initially noted for her shyness, but her charisma and friendliness endeared her to the public and helped her reputation survive the acrimonious collapse of her marriage. Considered photogenic, she was a leader of fashion in the 1980s and 1990s.

Diana's death in a car crash in Paris in 1997 led to extensive public mourning and global media attention. An inquest returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" following Operation Paget, an investigation by the London Metropolitan Police. Her legacy has had a deep impact on the royal family and British society.

# data[].attributes.body
actor Freddie Highmore is famous in England for his role as dr shaun murphy in the good doctor a medical drama, he also played charlie in charie and the chocolate factory and he even played in lesser known shows/movies like almost friends.he has also gone unoticed in finding the neverlands as Peter Lewelyn Davis

# data[].attributes.body
Leonard Euler (Leonhard Euler, April 15, 1707 – September 18, 1783) was a pioneering Swiss mathematician and physicist. He made important discoveries in areas such as infinite calculus and graph theory. He also established modern mathematical terminology and notation, mainly in the field of mathematical analysis, such as the concept of a mathematical function.[23] He is also famous for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics and astronomy.

# data[].attributes.body
Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France. He founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741, and in 1742 proposed the Centigrade temperature scale which was later renamed Celsius in his honour.

# data[].attributes.body
Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria (Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie; 24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898), nicknamed Sisi (also spelled Sissi,[1]) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on 24 April 1854 until her assassination in 1898.

Elisabeth was born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach but enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage, she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth's daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a son to the imperial couple, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved Elisabeth's standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. As a result, she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The death of Elisabeth's only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which the Empress never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had the palace Achilleion built on the Greek island of Corfu. The palace featured an elaborate mythological motif and served as a refuge, which Elisabeth visited often. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty. Elisabeth also developed a restrictive diet and she wore extremely tight-laced corsets to keep her waist very small.

In 1897, her sister, Sophie, died in an accidental fire at the Bazar de la Charité charity event in Paris. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress.

# data[].attributes.location_name
XXCR+FC Καντίκιοϊ/Επαρχία Κωνσταντινούπολης, Τουρκία

# data[].attributes.body
Basil II Porphyrogenitus (Greek: Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος Basileios Porphyrogennetos;[note 2] 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (Greek: ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος, ho Boulgaroktónos),[note 3] was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII[note 4] were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas (r. 963–969) and John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985.[note 5] His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor.[note 6]

The early years of Basil's reign were dominated by civil wars against two powerful generals from the Byzantine Anatolian aristocracy: first Bardas Skleros and later Bardas Phokas, which ended shortly after Phokas's death and Skleros's submission in 989. Basil then oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire and the complete subjugation of the First Bulgarian Empire, its foremost European foe, after a long struggle. Although the Byzantines had made a truce with the Fatimid Caliphate in 987–988, Basil led a campaign against the Caliphate that ended with another truce in 1000. He also conducted a campaign against the Khazar Khaganate that gained the Byzantine Empire part of Crimea and a series of successful campaigns against the Kingdom of Georgia.

Despite near-constant warfare, Basil distinguished himself as an administrator, reducing the power of the great land-owning families who dominated the Empire's administration and military, filling its treasury, and leaving it with its greatest expanse in four centuries. Although his successors were largely incapable rulers, the Empire flourished for decades after Basil's death. One of the most important decisions taken during his reign was to offer the hand of his sister Anna Porphyrogenita to Vladimir I of Kiev in exchange for military support, thus forming the Byzantine military unit known as the Varangian Guard. The marriage of Anna and Vladimir led to the Christianization of the Kievan Rus and the incorporation of later successor states of Kievan Rus' within the Byzantine cultural and religious tradition. Basil is seen as a Greek national hero but is a despised figure among Bulgarians.

Physical appearance and personality

The courtier and historian Michael Psellos, who was born towards the end of Basil's reign, gives a description of Basil in his Chronographia. Psellos describes him as a stocky man of shorter-than-average stature who nevertheless was an impressive figure on horseback. He had light-blue eyes, strongly arched eyebrows, luxuriant side whiskers—which he had a habit of rolling between his fingers when deep in thought or angry—and in later life a scant beard. Psellos also states that Basil was not an articulate speaker and had a loud laugh that convulsed his whole frame.[8][9] Basil is described as having ascetic tastes and caring little for the pomp and ceremony of the Imperial court, typically wearing a sombre, dark-purple robe furnished with few of the gems that usually decorated imperial costumes. He is also described as a capable administrator who left a well-stocked treasury upon his death.[10] Basil supposedly despised literary culture and affected scorn for the learned classes of Byzantium.[11]

According to the 19th century historian George Finlay, Basil saw himself as "prudent, just, and devout; others considered him severe, rapacious, cruel, and bigoted. For Greek learning he cared little, and he was a type of the higher Byzantine moral character, which retained far more of its Roman than its Greek origin".[12] The modern historian John Julius Norwich wrote of Basil: "No lonelier man ever occupied the Byzantine throne. And it is hardly surprising: Basil was ugly, dirty, coarse, boorish, philistine and almost pathologically mean. He was in short deeply un-Byzantine. He cared only for the greatness of his Empire. No wonder that in his hands it reached its apogee".[13]

Early life and rule (960-976)

Coronation of Basil as co-emperor, from the Madrid Skylitzes

Coin of Nikephoros II (left) and Basil II (right)

Basil II was born in 958.[3][14][15] He was a porphyrogennetos ("born into the purple"), as were his father Romanos II[16] and his grandfather Constantine VII;[17] this was the appellation used for children who were born to a reigning emperor.[18] Basil was the eldest son of Romanos and his Laconian Greek second wife Theophano,[19] who was the daughter of a poor tavern-keeper named Krateros[20][21] and may have originated from the city of Sparta.[22] He may have had an elder sister named Helena (born c. 955).[23] Romanos succeeded Constantine VII as sole emperor upon the latter's death in 959.[24] Basil's father crowned him as co-emperor on 22 April 960,[3] and his brother Constantine (born 960 or 961, eventually to rule as sole emperor Constantine VIII in 1025–1028) in 962 or 963.[25][26] Only two days after the birth of his youngest child Anna,[27][28] Romanos II died on 15 March 963 at 24 years of age. His unexpected death was commonly thought at the time to be the result of poisoning with hemlock;[29] the chroniclers Leo the Deacon and John Skylitzes imply that Theophano was responsible,[16] and according to Skylitzes, she had been complicit in an earlier attempt by Romanos II to poison Constantine VII.[30]

Basil and Constantine were too young to rule in their own right when Romanos died in 963.[31] Therefore, although the Byzantine Senate confirmed them as emperors with their mother as the nominal regent, de facto power passed for the time into the hands of the parakoimomenos Joseph Bringas.[3][29][7] Theophano did not trust Bringas, however, and another enemy of the powerful parakoimomenos was Basil Lekapenos,[29][32] an illegitimate, eunuch son of Emperor Romanos I–[33][34]Basil's great-grandfather.[35] Lekapenos himself had been parakoimomenos to Constantine VII and megas baioulos to Romanos II.[36] Yet another enemy of Bringas was the successful and widely popular general Nikephoros Phokas, who had just returned from his conquest of the Emirate of Crete and a highly successful raid into Cilicia and Syria, which culminated in the sack of Aleppo.[29][32] Phokas was proclaimed emperor by his men in July and marched on Constantinople. Bringas tried to bring in troops to stop his rival's advance, but the capital's populace supported Nikephoros. Bringas fled, leaving his post to Lekapenos, and on 16 August 963 Nikephoros Phokas was crowned emperor.[37][38]

On 20 September, Phokas married Theophano, but problems resulted; it was a second marriage for each spouse and Nikephoros was thought to be the godfather of Basil or his brother, perhaps both. Although Polyeuctus, the patriarch of Constantinople, disapproved of the marriage, the Church declared it to be valid. With it, Nikephoros secured his legitimacy and became the guardian of Romanos' sons.[30][39] He was murdered in December 969 by Theophano[31] and his nephew John Tzimiskes, who then became emperor John I[40] and exiled Theophano.[41] John married Theodora, a sister of Romanos II.[42] Basil II acceded to the throne as effective ruler and senior emperor when John died on 10 January 976.[43] He immediately had his mother brought back from her convent.[44]

Sole emperor (976-1025)

Rebellions in Anatolia and alliance with Rus'

Histamenon of Basil II (left) and Constantine VIII (right)

Basil was a very successful soldier on horseback and through his achievement he proved himself to be an able general and a strong ruler. In the early years of his reign, administration remained in the hands of Basil Lekapenos. As president of the Byzantine Senate, Lekapenos was a wily, gifted politician who hoped the young emperors would be his puppets. The younger Basil waited and watched without interfering, devoting himself to learning the details of administrative business and military science.[45] Nikephoros II and John I were brilliant military commanders but proved to be poor administrators. Towards the end of his reign, John I had belatedly planned to curb the power of the great landowners; his death, which occurred soon after he spoke out against them, led to rumors that he had been poisoned by Lekapenos, who had illegally acquired vast estates and feared an investigation and punishment.[46] At the start of his reign, the failures of his immediate predecessors left Basil II with a serious problem: Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas, members of the wealthy military elite of Anatolia, had sufficient means to undertake open rebellion against his authority.[31]

Skleros and Phokas, both of whom were experienced generals, wanted to assume the Imperial position that Nikephoros II and John I had held, and thus return Basil to the role of impotent cypher. Basil, showing a penchant for ruthlessness, took to the field himself and suppressed the rebellions of both Skleros (979) and Phokas (989)[47] with the help of 12,000 Georgians of Tornikios and David III Kuropalates of Tao.[48] The fall of Lekapenos occurred between the rebellions in 985;[31] he was accused of plotting with the rebels and was punished with exile and the confiscation of his property.[34][49]

Clash between the armies of Bardas Skleros and Bardas Phokas at Pankaleia, miniature from the Madrid Skylitzes.

The relationship between the two generals was complicated; Phokas was instrumental in defeating the rebellion of Skleros but when Phokas later rebelled, Skleros returned from exile to support him. When Phokas died in battle,[50] Skleros, whom Phokas had imprisoned, assumed the leadership of the rebellion.[51] Basil's brother Constantine—who had no interest in politics, statecraft, or the military[52]–led troops alongside Basil; this was the only military command Constantine would hold. The campaign ended without combat[53] when Skleros was forced to surrender to Basil in 989.[51] Skleros was allowed to live but he died blind, either through disease or from being blinded as punishment for his insurrection.[54]

These rebellions had a profound effect on Basil's outlook and methods of governance. Psellos describes the defeated Skleros giving Basil the following advice, which he took to heart: "Cut down the governors who become over-proud. Let no generals on campaign have too many resources. Exhaust them with unjust exactions, to keep them busied with their own affairs. Admit no woman to the imperial councils. Be accessible to no-one. Share with few your most intimate plans."[55]

To defeat these dangerous revolts, Basil formed an alliance with Prince Vladimir I of Kiev,[56] who in 988 had captured Chersonesos, the Empire's main base in the Crimean Peninsula. Vladimir offered to evacuate Chersonesos and to supply 6,000 of his soldiers as reinforcements to Basil. In exchange, he demanded to be married to Basil's younger sister Anna.[57] At first, Basil hesitated. The Byzantines viewed all of the peoples of Northern Europe—namely Franks and Slavs—as barbarians. Anna objected to marrying a barbarian ruler because such a marriage would have no precedent in Imperial annals.[58]

Vladimir had researched various religions, having sent delegates to various countries. Marriage was not his main reason for choosing Christianity. When Vladimir promised to baptize himself and to convert his people to Christianity, Basil finally agreed. Vladimir and Anna were married in Crimea in 989. The Rus' warriors taken into Basil's army were instrumental in ending the rebellion; they were later organized into the Varangian Guard.[56] This marriage had important long-term implications, marking the beginning of the process by which the Grand Duchy of Moscow many centuries later would proclaim itself "The Third Rome", and claim the political and cultural heritage of the Byzantine Empire.[59]

Campaigns against the Fatimid Caliphate

Once the internal strife was quelled, Basil turned his attention to the Empire's other enemies. The Byzantine civil wars had weakened the Empire's position in the east, and the gains of Nikephoros II and John I had nearly been lost to the Fatimid Caliphate.[31] In 987–988, a seven-year truce with the Fatimids was signed; it stipulated an exchange of prisoners, the recognition of the Byzantine emperor as protector of Christians under Fatimid rule and of the Fatimid Caliph as protector of Muslims under Byzantine control, and the replacement of the name of the Abbasid caliph with that of the Fatimid caliph in the Friday prayer in the mosque at Constantinople.[60] This lasted until the long-time vizier Yaqub ibn Killis died in 991. Fatimid caliph Al-Aziz Billah chose to pursue a more aggressive stance in Syria and appointed Manjutakin as governor of Damascus.[61]

Manjutakin's attacks, and Basil's first expedition to Syria

Encouraged by the defectors after the death of emir Sa'd al-Dawla, Al-Aziz decided to renew his attacks on the Hamdanid Emirate of Aleppo, a Byzantine protectorate, perhaps expecting Basil would not interfere. Manjutakin invaded the emirate, defeated a Byzantine force under the doux of Antioch Michael Bourtzes in June 992, and laid siege to Aleppo. The city easily resisted. In early 993, after thirteen months of campaigning, a lack of supplies forced Manjutakin to return to Damascus.[62]

In 994, Manjutakin resumed his offensive and in September scored a major victory at the Battle of the Orontes against Bourtzes. Bourtzes' defeat forced Basil to intervene personally in the East; with his army, he rode through Asia Minor to Aleppo in sixteen days, arriving in April 995. Basil's sudden arrival and the exaggeration of his army's strength circulating in the Fatimid camp caused panic in the Fatimid army, especially because Manjutakin, expecting no threat, had ordered his cavalry horses to be dispersed around the city for pasture. Despite having a considerably larger and well-rested army, Manjutakin was at a disadvantage. He burned his camp and retreated to Damascus without battle.[63] The Byzantines besieged Tripoli unsuccessfully and occupied Tartus, which they refortified and garrisoned with Armenian troops. Al-Aziz now prepared to take to the field in person against the Byzantines and initiated large-scale preparations but they were abandoned upon his death.[64][65]

Second expedition to Syria, and peace

Warfare between the two powers continued as the Byzantines supported an anti-Fatimid uprising in Tyre. In 998, the Byzantines under Damian Dalassenos, the successor of Bourtzes, launched an attack on Apamea but the Fatimid general Jaysh ibn al-Samsama defeated them in battle on 19 July 998.[63] This defeat drew Basil back into the conflict; he arrived in Syria in October 999 and remained there for three months. Basil's troops raided as far as Heliopolis, placed a garrison at Larissa,[66] and burnt three minor forts in the vicinity of Abu Qubais, Masyath and Arca. The siege of Tripoli in December failed while Emesa was not threatened.[67] Basil's attention was diverted to developments in Georgia following the murder of David III Kuropalates; he departed for Cilicia in January and dispatched another embassy to Cairo.[35]

In 1000, a ten-year truce was concluded between the two states.[68][69] For the remainder of the reign of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021), relations remained peaceful as al-Hakim was more interested in internal affairs. Even the acknowledgement of Fatimid suzerainty by Abu Muhammad Lu'lu' al-Kabir of Aleppo in 1004 and the Fatimid-sponsored installment of Aziz al-Dawla as the city's emir in 1017 did not lead to a resumption of hostilities, especially because al-Kabir continued to pay tribute to the Byzantines and al-Dawla quickly began acting as an independent ruler.[70] Al-Hakim's persecution of Christians in his realm and especially the 1009 destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at his orders strained relations and, along with Fatimid interference in Aleppo, provided the main focus of Fatimid–Byzantine diplomatic relations until the late 1030s.[71]

Conquest of Bulgaria

Main article: Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria

Military campaigns during the Byzantine-Bulgarian War.

Basil sought to restore former territories of the Byzantine Empire. At the start of the second millennium, he fought Samuel of Bulgaria, his greatest adversary. Bulgaria had been partly subjugated by John I after the invasion of Svyatoslav I of Kiev but parts of the country had remained outside Byzantine control under the leadership of Samuel and his brothers.[72]

Because the Bulgars had been raiding Byzantine lands since 976, the Byzantine government sought to cause dissension among them by allowing the escape of their captive emperor Boris II of Bulgaria. This ploy failed so Basil used a respite from his conflict with the nobility to lead a 30,000-strong army into Bulgaria and besiege Sredets (Sofia) in 986.[73][74] Taking losses and worried about the loyalty of some of his governors, Basil lifted the siege and returned for Thrace but he fell into an ambush and suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of the Gates of Trajan.[74] Basil escaped with the help of his Varangian Guard and attempted to recover his losses by turning Samuel's brother Aron against him. Aron was tempted by Basil's offer of his sister Anna in marriage, but the negotiations failed when Aron discovered the bride he was sent was an imposter. By 987, Samuel had eliminated Aron. Another brother of Samuel, called David, was killed in 976 by the Vlachs, the guards of caravans, between Prespa and Kastoria.[75] Although the titular emperor Roman of Bulgaria was captured in 991, Basil lost Moesia to the Bulgarians.[35][76]

The Armenian prince Gregory Taronites is ambushed by the Bulgarians near Thessalonica.

While Basil was distracted with internal rebellions and recovering the military situation on his eastern frontier, Samuel had extended his rule from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea, recovering most of the territory that was controlled by Bulgaria before the invasion of Svyatoslav. He also conducted damaging raids into Byzantine territory as far as central Greece. In 996, the Byzantine general Nikephoros Ouranos defeated a Bulgarian army raid at the Battle of Spercheios in Thessaly. Samuel and his son Gabriel narrowly escaped capture.[77]

Beginning in 1000, Basil was free to focus on a war of conquest against Bulgaria, which he fought with grinding persistence and strategic insight. In 1000, the Byzantine generals Nikephoros Xiphias and Theodorokanos took the former Bulgarian capital Great Preslav, and the towns Lesser Preslav and Pliskova.[78] In 1001, Basil, operating from Thessalonica, regained control of Vodena, Verrhoia and Servia.[79] The following year, he based his army in Philippopolis and occupied the length of the military road from the western Haemus Mountains to the Danube, cutting off communications between Samuel's Macedonian heartland and Paristrion (the lands south of the lower Danube). Following this success, Basil laid siege to Vidin, which fell after a prolonged resistance.[80] Samuel reacted to the Byzantine campaign by launching a large-scale raid into the heart of Byzantine Thrace and took the major city of Adrianople by surprise.[81]

After turning homeward with his extensive plunder, Samuel was intercepted near Skopje by a Byzantine army commanded by Basil, whose forces stormed the Bulgarian camp, defeating the Bulgarians and recovering the plunder from Adrianople. Skopje surrendered shortly after the battle,[31] and Basil treated its governor Romanos with overt kindness.[82] In 1005, the governor of Dyrrhachium Ashot Taronites surrendered his city to the Byzantines.[31] The defection of Dyrrhachium completed the isolation of Samuel's core territories in the highlands of western Macedonia. Samuel was forced into an almost entirely defensive stance; he extensively fortified the passes and routes from the coastlines and valleys held by the Byzantines to the territory remaining in his possession. During the next few years, the Byzantine offensive slowed and no significant gains were made, although an attempt by the Bulgarians to counter-attack in 1009 was defeated at the Battle of Kreta, to the east of Thessalonica.[35]

Byzantine victory over the Bulgarians at the Battle of Kleidion, from the Madrid Skylitzes

In 1014, Basil was ready to launch a campaign aimed at destroying Bulgarian resistance. On 29 July 1014, in the Battle of Kleidion, he and his general Nikephoros Xiphias outmaneuvered the Bulgarian army,[83] which was defending one of the fortified passes.[84] Samuel avoided capture through the valor of his son Gabriel. Having crushed the Bulgarians, Basil exacted his vengeance cruelly—he was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and fully blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving one one-eyed man in each cohort to lead the rest back to their ruler. A possible reason for this vengeance was that, in Byzantine eyes, the Bulgarians were rebels against their authority, and blinding was the usual punishment meted out to rebels.[85] Samuel was struck down by the sight of his blinded army and died two days later[34] on 6 October 1014 after suffering a stroke.[83]

Bulgaria fought on for four more years, its resistance fired by Basil's cruelty, but it submitted in 1018.[35][86] This submission was the result of continued military pressure and a successful diplomatic campaign aimed at dividing and suborning the Bulgarian leadership. This victory over the Bulgarians and the later submission of the Serbs fulfilled one of Basil's goals; the Empire regained its ancient Danubian frontier for the first time in 400 years.[35]

Triumph of Basil II through the Forum of Constantine, from the Madrid Skylitzes

The rulers of neighbouring Croatia, Krešimir III and Gojslav, who were previously allies of Bulgaria, accepted Basil's supremacy to avoid the same fate as Bulgaria;[87] Basil warmly received their offers of vassalage and awarded them the honorary title of patrikios.[88] Croatia remained a tributary state to Basil until his death in 1025.[89] Before returning to Constantinople, Basil celebrated his triumph in Athens.[35][90][91][92] He showed considerable statesmanship in his treatment of the defeated Bulgarians, giving many former Bulgarian leaders court titles, positions in provincial administration, and high commands in the army. In this way, he sought to absorb the Bulgarian elite into Byzantine society. Because Bulgaria did not have a monetary economy to the same extent as Byzantium, Basil decided to accept Bulgarian taxes in kind.[93] Basil's successors reversed this policy, a decision that led to considerable Bulgarian discontent and rebellion later in the 11th century.[94]

Khazar campaign

The Pontic steppes, c. 1015. The areas in blue are those possibly still under Khazar control. The positioning of the rump of the Bulgarian state in 1015 is incorrect on this map.

Although the Kievan Rus' had broken the power of the Khazar Khaganate in the 960s, the Byzantines had not been able to fully exploit the power vacuum and restore their dominion over Crimea and other areas around the Black Sea. In 1016, Byzantine armies in conjunction with Mstislav of Chernigov attacked the Crimea,[35] much of which had fallen under the control of the Khazar successor kingdom of George Tzoul based at Kerch. Kedrenos reports that Tzoul was captured and the Khazar successor kingdom was destroyed. Subsequently, the Byzantines occupied southern Crimea.[95]

Campaigns against Georgia

Main article: Byzantine–Georgian wars

The integrity of the Byzantine Empire was threatened after a full-scale rebellion led by Bardas Skleros broke out in 976. After winning a series of battles, the rebels conquered Asia Minor. In the urgency of the situation, Georgian prince David III of Tao aided Basil; after a decisive loyalist victory at the Battle of Pankaleia, he was rewarded by lifetime rule of key imperial territories in eastern Asia Minor. David's rebuff of Basil in Bardas Phokas' revolt of 987, however, evoked Constantinople's distrust of the Georgian rulers. After the revolt's failure, David was forced to make Basil the legatee of his extensive possessions. In 1001, after the death of David of Tao, Basil inherited Tao, Phasiane and Speri.[96] These provinces were then organized into the theme of Iberia with the capital at Theodosiopolis. This forced the successor Georgian Bagratid ruler Bagrat III to recognize the new rearrangement. Bagrat's son George I, however, inherited a longstanding claim to David's succession. George, who was young and ambitious, launched a campaign to restore the Kuropalates's succession to Georgia and occupied Tao in 1015–1016. He entered in an alliance with the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim, forcing Basil to refrain from an acute response to George's offensive. The Byzantines were also involved in a relentless war with the Bulgarians, limiting their actions to the west. As soon as Bulgaria was conquered in 1018 and al-Hakim was dead, Basil led his army against Georgia. Preparations for a larger-scale campaign against the Kingdom of Georgia were set, beginning with the re-fortification of Theodosiopolis.[35]

A miniature depicting the defeat of the Georgian king George I ("Georgios of Abasgia") by the Basil II. Madrid Skylitzes, fol. 195v.

In late 1021, Basil, at the head of a large Byzantine army reinforced by the Varangian Guard, attacked the Georgians and their Armenian allies, recovering Phasiane and continuing beyond the frontiers of Tao into inner Georgia.[97] King George burned the city of Oltisi to prevent it falling to the enemy and retreated to Kola. A bloody battle was fought near the village Shirimni at Lake Palakazio on 11 September; the emperor won a costly victory, forcing George I to retreat northwards into his kingdom. Basil plundered the country and withdrew for winter to Trebizond.[98]

Several attempts to negotiate the conflict failed. George received reinforcements from the Kakhetians and allied himself with the Byzantine commanders Nikephoros Phokas Barytrachelos and Nikephoros Xiphias in their abortive insurrection in the emperor's rear. In December, George's ally the Armenian king Senekerim of Vaspurakan, who was being harassed by the Seljuk Turks, surrendered his kingdom to the emperor.[99] During early 1022, Basil launched a final offensive, defeating the Georgians at the Battle of Svindax. Menaced both by land and sea, George agreed to a treaty that handed over Tao, Phasiane, Kola, Artaan and Javakheti, and left his infant son Bagrat as Basil's hostage.[100]

Fiscal policies

Basil II (left) and Constantine VIII (right) in a Bari Exultet roll, produced during Basil's late reign.[note 7]

In 992, Basil concluded a treaty with the Doge of Venice Pietro II Orseolo under terms reducing Venice's custom duties in Constantinople from 30 nomismata to 17 nomismata. In return, the Venetians agreed to transport Byzantine troops to southern Italy in times of war.[102][note 8] According to one estimate, a Byzantine landowning farmer might expect a profit of 10.2 nomismata after paying dues for half of his best-quality land.[104] Basil was popular with the country farmers,[105] the class that produced most of his army's supplies and soldiers. To assure this continued, Basil's laws protected small agrarian property owners and lowered their taxes. Despite the almost constant wars, Basil's reign was considered an era of relative prosperity for the class.[35][106]

Seeking to protect the lower and middle classes, Basil made ruthless war upon the system of immense estates in Asia Minor[34]—which his predecessor Romanos I had endeavored to check[49]—by executing a legal decree in January 996 that limited rights to property ownership. If the owner of an estate could prove that he claimed his estate prior to the Novels of Romanos, he would be allowed to keep it. If a person had illegally seized an estate following the Novels of Romanos, he would have his rights to the estate declared null and the legal owners could reclaim it.[107] In 1002, Basil also introduced the allelengyon tax[108] as a specific law obliging the dynatoi (wealthy landholders) to cover for the arrears of poorer tax-payers. Though it proved unpopular with the wealthier sections of Byzantine society,[109] Basil did not abolish the tax;[110] the emperor Romanos III abolished the allelengyon in 1028.[108] By 1025, Basil—with an annual revenue of 7 million nomismata—was able to amass 14.4 million nomismata (or 200,000 pounds/90 tonnes of gold) for the Imperial treasury due to his prudent management.[111][112] Despite his attempts to control the power of the aristocracy, they again took control of the government following his death.[113]

Military policies

Basil II was praised by his army[114] because he spent most of his reign campaigning with it rather than sending orders from Constantinople, as had most of his predecessors. This allowed his army to be largely supportive of him, often making his stance in political and church matters unquestionable. He lived the life of a soldier to the point of eating the same daily rations as the rest of the army. He also took the children of dead army officers under his protection and offered them shelter, food and education.[115] Many of these children became his soldiers and officers, taking the places of their fathers.[116] One of them, Isaac Komnenos, later became emperor himself.

Basil did not innovate in terms of military organization: in the conquered territories he introduced both the small themes or strategiai, centred around a fortress town, that were such a common feature of the 10th-century reconquests of the East under Phokas and Tzimiskes,[117] as well as the extensive regional commands under a doux or katepano (Iberia in 1000,[118] Asprakania or Upper Media in 1019/22,[119] Paristrion in 1000/20,[120] Bulgaria in 1018,[121] and Sirmium in 1019[122]). The exact size of the army under Basil II is unknown, but estimates put it as high as 110,000 men, excluding the imperial tagmata in Constantinople; a considerable force, compared with the nominal establishment force of c. 120,000 in the 9th–10th centuries, or the 150,000–160,000 of the field armies under Justinian I.[123] At the same time, however, under Basil the practice began of relying on allied states—most notably Venice—for naval power, beginning the slow decline of the Byzantine navy during the 11th century.[124]

Later life, death and burial

The Byzantine Empire at the death of Basil II in 1025

Basil II later secured the annexation of the sub-kingdoms of Armenia and a promise that its capital and surrounding regions would be willed to Byzantium following the death of its king Hovhannes-Smbat.[125] In 1021, he also secured the cession of the Kingdom of Vaspurakan by its king Seneqerim-John, in exchange for estates in Sebasteia.[99] Basil created a strongly fortified frontier in those highlands. Other Byzantine forces restored much of Southern Italy, which had been lost during the previous 150 years.[126]

Basil was preparing a military expedition to recover the island of Sicily when he died on 15 December 1025,[note 9] having had the longest reign among any Byzantine or Roman emperor.[132] At the time of his death, the Empire stretched from southern Italy to the Caucasus and from the Danube to the Levant, which was its greatest territorial extent since the Muslim conquests four centuries earlier.[133] Basil was to be buried in the last sarcophagus available in the rotunda of Constantine I in the Church of the Holy Apostles but he later asked his brother and successor Constantine VIII to be buried in the Church of St. John the Theologian (i.e., the Evangelist) at the Hebdomon Palace complex outside the walls of Constantinople.[35][86] The epitaph on Basil's tomb celebrated his campaigns and victories. His final resting place carried the following inscription: "From the day that the King of Heaven called upon me to become the Emperor, the great overlord of the world, no one saw my spear lie idle. I stayed alert throughout my life and protected the children of the New Rome, valiantly campaigning both in the West and at the outposts of the East ... O, man, seeing now my tomb here, reward me for my campaigns with your prayers".[115] In 1260, during the unsuccessful Nicean Byzantine siege of Constantinople, then held by the Latin Empire, a corpse was found, upright in a corner of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, with a shepherd's flute placed in its mouth. An inscription allowed the Nicaean soldiers to identify the corpse as the remains of Basil II. The body of Basil II was transferred to the Monastery of the Saviour at Selymbria. The following year Constantinople was recovered by the Byzantines.[134]

Legacy

Assessment

Personifications of Serbia and Croatia in front of Basil II, painting by Joakim Marković, 18th century.

An assessment of the reign in the eyes of the subsequent generations is given by Psellos:

He crushed rebellions, subdued the feudal landowners, conquered the enemies of the Empire, notably in the Danubian provinces and the East. Everywhere the might of Roman arms was respected and feared. The treasury was overflowing with the accumulated plunder of Basil's campaigns. Even the lamp of learning, despite the emperor's known indifference, was burning still, if somewhat dimly. The lot of ordinary folk in Constantinople must have been pleasant enough. For most of them life was gay and colourful, and if the city's defensive fortifications were at some points in disrepair they had no cause to dread attacks.[135]

Basil II's reign is one of the most significant in Byzantine history. His constant military campaigns led to the zenith of Byzantine power in the Middle Ages.[31][136] The restoration of the Danubian frontier helped establish a more stable and secure border for the empire in Europe, maintaining a stronger barrier against Hungarian and Pecheneg raiders. The conquest of Bulgaria and the submission of the South Slavs created relative peace for the empire's Balkan lands, keeping larger cities—including Constantinople—safe from the previously frequent sieges and looting. Basil's military experience that allowed him to eventually turn the war against Bulgaria in the Byzantine Empire's favor were gained through the revolts of Phokas and Skleros in Anatolia that challenged his throne and sometimes got close to deposing him.[137] Basil's creation of the Varangian Guard provided him and his successors with an elite mercenary force capable of changing battle outcomes and boosting morale that became feared by the emperor's enemies.[138]

At this time, the Macedonian Renaissance was taking effect, seeing the rise of classical Greek scholarship being assimilated into Christian art and the study of ancient Greek philosophy being widespread.[139][140] The studies of these subjects, and the enlargement projects of the emperors, greatly expanded the library of the University of Constantinople, which again established itself as the main source of learning for its day.[141] Though he was not a man of literature, Basil was a relatively pious ruler who involved himself in the construction of churches, monasteries and, to some extent, cities.[142]

Literary works, eulogies and poems were made by the great cities of the Byzantine Empire that mostly tried to juxtapose the classic past of kingdoms and empires with the new expansion of Basil II in which he was compared with many important figures of the east such as Cyrus the Great and Artaxerxes.[143] He was also particularly compared with Alexander the Great who was believed to be Basil's ancestor.[143] Classical works such as "The Persians" by the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus were among the most recited in the empire during the expansion given the different confrontations against the caliphates that the Byzantines indiscriminately and classically called "Medes".[144][145] Despite the great expansion during his reign, his military and non-scholastic character led him to be criticized and related to the ancient Spartan monarchs or tyrants who at that time were remembered for being men of action, cruelty and decision who, like Basil, paid little attention to promoting the arts or literary culture and preferred a military environment.[146]

Basil II lacked heirs[147] due to the "dearth of cousins found within the Macedonian dynasty",[42][note 10] so he was succeeded by his brother Constantine and his family, who proved to be ineffective rulers. Nevertheless, fifty years of prosperity and intellectual growth followed because the funds of state were full, the borders were safe from intruders, and the Empire remained the most powerful political entity of the age. At the end of Basil II's reign, the Byzantine Empire had a population of approximately 12 million people.[149]

Although they were beneficial, Basil's achievements were reversed very quickly. Many of the Georgian, Armenian and Fatimid campaigns were undone after the succession crisis and eventual civil war after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.[150] Because many of the empire's governors went to the capital with their soldiers to seize power after the capture of emperor Romanos IV,[151] the Anatolian frontier was largely left undefended against the Seljuk Empire.[152] The Normans permanently pushed the Byzantines from Southern Italy in April 1071.[153]

Modern views and depictions in literature

Seal of the Greek Macedonian Committee during the Greek Struggle for Macedonia, depicting Basil II (front) and Alexander the Great

Bulgarian commentator Alexander Kiossev wrote in Understanding the Balkans: "The hero [of] a nation might be the villain of its neighbour ... The Byzantine emperor Basil the Murderer [sic] of Bulgarians, a crucial Greek pantheon figure, is no less important as [a] subject of hatred for our national mythology".[154] During the 20th century in Greece, interest in Basil II led to a number of biographies and historical novels about him. One of these is Basil Bulgaroktonos (1964) by historical fiction writer Kostas Kyriazis [el]. Written as a sequel to his previous work Theophano (1963) which focuses on Basil's mother, it examines Basil's life through three fictional narrators and has been continuously reprinted since 1964.[155] Rosemary Sutcliff's 1976 historical fiction novel Blood Feud depicts Basil II from the point of view of a member of his recently created Varangian Guard.[156]

Penelope Delta's second novel Ton Kairo tou Voulgaroktonou (In the Years of the Bulgar-Slayer)[157] is also set during the reign of Basil II.[158] It was inspired by correspondence with the historian Gustave Schlumberger, a renowned specialist on the Byzantine Empire, and published in the early years of the 20th century, a time when the Struggle for Macedonia again set Greeks and Bulgarians in bitter enmity with each other.[159]

Ion Dragoumis, who was Delta's lover and was deeply involved in that struggle, in 1907 published the book Martyron kai Iroon Aima (Martyrs' and Heroes' Blood), which is resentful towards anything remotely Bulgarian. He urges Greeks to follow the example of Basil II: "Instead of blinding so many people, Basil should have better killed them instead. On one hand these people would not suffer as eyeless survivors, on the other the sheer number of Bulgarians would have diminished by 15 000, which is something very useful." Later in the book, Dragoumis foresees the appearance of "new Basils" who would "cross the entire country and will look for Bulgarians in mountains, caves, villages and forests and will make them flee in refuge or kill them".[160]

In the video game Civilization VI, Basil leads the Byzantine Empire as part of the New Frontier season pass.[161]

Chrysa Sakel the illustrator of the graphic novel Theophano: A Byzantine Tale has released a comic book series about her son Basil II called Basil Basileus.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Basil II

See also

Byzantine Empire portal

List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church were under communion as the Chalcedonian Church until the East-West Schism of 16 July 1054.[1]

Regnal numbers were never used in the Byzantine Empire. Instead, the Byzantines used nicknames and patronymics to distinguish rulers of the same name. The numbering of Byzantine emperors is a purely historiographical invention, beginning with Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.[2] In his lifetime and later, Basil was distinguished from his namesake predecessor by the surnames the Younger (Greek: ὁ νέος, romanized: ho neos) and, most often, the Purple-born (Greek: ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, romanized: ho porphyrogennetos).[3][4]

Basil's blinding of Bulgarian prisoners after the Battle of Kleidion, although it may have been exaggerated, helped give rise to his epithet "the Bulgar Slayer" (Greek: ὁ Βουλγαροκτόνος, romanized: ho Boulgaroktonos).[5] Stephenson (2000, p. 62) and Magdalino (2003, p. 10) believe the epithet to have entered common usage among the Byzantines at the end of the 12th century, when the Second Bulgarian Empire broke away from Byzantine rule and Basil's martial exploits became a theme of Imperial propaganda. It was used by the historian Niketas Choniates and the writer Nicholas Mesarites, and consciously inverted by the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan, who called himself "Roman-slayer" (Greek: Ρωμαιοκτόνος, romanized: Rhomaioktonos).[6]

The Roman and Byzantine Empires had a number of rulers named Constantine, many of whom are usually not counted using regnal numbers because they were never senior or sole emperor. Five emperors named Constantine ruled during the Macedonian era: Constantine, the eldest son and co-ruler of Basil I; Constantine VII the Porphyrogenitus; Constantine Lekapenos, a son and co-ruler of Romanos I; Constantine VIII; and Constantine IX Monomachos.[2]

Basil Lekapenos' control of power until 985 has caused some historians, such as Antonopoulou, Kotzabassi & Loukaki (2015, p. 274) and Schulman (2002, p. 51) to date Basil II's reign from 985 to 1025, although these are only exceptions.

Basil II technically "ruled" as senior emperor for 5 months in 963, between the death of Romanos II (15 March) and the coronation of Nikephoros II (16 August). This would give him a total reign of 50 years and 4 months, although these months in 963 are usually not counted as part of his actual reign.[3][7]

These portraits of Basil II and Constantine VIII are generally believed to be reliable.[25] Constantine is portrayed as having a longer beard, which coincides with how he's depicted in later coinage.[101]

The Edict on Maximum Prices issued during Diocletian's reign placed the cost on carpets from Cappadocia "at 3000 denarii, a price 30-fold the cost of a modios of wheat and thus approximately the value of perhaps two middle Byzantine nomismata".[103]

This is the universally accepted date for Basil's death.[3][15][126] The date is found in the Skylitzes' (and Cedrenus') chronicle archived in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.[127] Two latter copies, from the 15th century, give 12 December.[127][128] Two others, from the 13th century, give 13 December.[129][130] The 1839 edition of the CSHB uses the Paris manuscript, but forgets to translate the full date (Δεκεμβρίῳ γὰρ μηνί ιεʹ), a mistake that is repeated in the 2010 translation.[131]

1. Basil's father; grandfather, Constantine VII; and great-grandfather, Leo VI, each had either no siblings or childless siblings.[42] Basil himself was unmarried[148] and childless,[42][148] and his brother Constantine VIII's three daughters—Eudokia, Zoë and Theodora—all remained childless as well.[42]

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Kaldellis 2017, p. 65.

Vogt 1923a, p. 79.

Brubaker & Tougher 2016, p. 313.

Talbot & Sullivan 2005, p. 22, 220.

Vogt 1923b, p. 84.

Stephenson 2010, p. 34

Bury 1911, p. 476

Ringrose 2004, p. 130

Ringrose 2004, p. 130.

Magdalino 2003, p. 36.

Shephard 2000, p. 596.

Cartwright 2018a.

Holmes 2005, p. 465.

Magdalino 2003, p. 46.

Norwich 1991, p. 231.

Norwich 1991, pp. 242–243.

Stephenson 2010, p. 6.

Sewter 1953, p. 43.

Stephenson 2000, p. 60.

Cross, Morgilevski & Conant 1936, p. 479.

Leong 1997, p. 5.

Morson 1998.

Lev 1995, p. 202.

Kennedy 2004, pp. 324–325.

Whittow 1996, pp. 379–380.

Wortley 2010, p. 322.

Kennedy 2004, p. 325.

Lev 1995, pp. 201–203.

Magdalino 2003, p. 86.

Stevenson 1926, p. 252.

Lev 1995, pp. 203–205.

Stephenson 2010, p. 32.

Lev 1995, p. 205.

Lev 1995, pp. 203, 205–208.

Talbot & Sullivan 2005, p. 3.

Holmes 2005, p. 402.

Stephenson 2010, p. 14.

Wortley 2010, p. 312.

Norwich 1981, p. 158.

Finlay 1856, p. 440–441.

Wortley 2010, p. 326.

Finlay 1856, p. 442.

Finlay 1856, pp. 442–443.

Wortley 2010, p. 328.

Finlay 1856, p. 443.

Stephenson 2010, p. 3.

Stephenson 2010, p. 26.

ODB, pp. 297–298.

Cartwright 2018c.

Stephenson 2000, p. 74.

Wortley 2010, p. 339.

Fine 1991, pp. 277–278.

Stephenson 2000, p. 76.

Holmes 2005, p. 60.

Stephenson 2010, p. 104.

Stephenson 2000, p. 77.

Harris 2015, p. 192.

Mango 2002, p. 180.

Holmes 2005, p. 2.

Magdalino 2003, p. 65.

Wortley 2010, p. 347.

Mango 2002, p. 309.

Holmes 2005, p. 483.

Spatharákīs 1976, pp. 91−95.

Vogt 1923b, p. 94

Norwich 1981, p. 158

Holmes 2003

Cooper & Decker 2012, p. 96.

Laiou 2007, p. 303.

Stephenson 2000, p. 280.

Magdalino 2003, p. 79.

Vogt 1923b, p. 92.

Makris 2006.

ODB, "Allelengyon" (A. Cutler), p. 69.

Thomas & Thomas 1987, p. 165.

Sewter 1953, p. 19.

Magdalino 2003, p. 85.

Stephenson & Hoppenbrouwers 2014, p. 9.

Stephenson 2010, p. 66.

Herrin 2013, p. 219.

Holmes 2005, p. 260.

Kühn 1991, pp. 61ff..

Kühn 1991, p. 187.

Kühn 1991, p. 192.

Kühn 1991, p. 223.

Kühn 1991, p. 227.

Kühn 1991, p. 233.

Haldon 1999, pp. 100–103.

Haldon 1999, pp. 90–91.

Treadgold 1997, p. 528–529.

Hussey 1998.

Thurn 1973, p. 868 (note 84).

Schreiner 1975, p. 158. Δεκεμβρίου ιβ'.

Grierson 1962, p. 58.

Schreiner 1975, p. 165. Δεκεμβρίου ιγ'.

Wortley 2010, p. 348.

Rogers 2010, p. 126.

Holmes 2005, p. 23.

Stephenson 2010, p. 95.

Sewter 1953, p. 12.

Wortley 2010, p. 28.

Mango 2002, p. 199.

Blöndal & Benedikz 2007, p. 171.

Mango 2002, p. 277.

Magdalino 2003, p. 256.

Lawler 2011, p. 118.

Holmes 2005, p. 280.

Manafis 2020,[page needed].

Magdalino 2004, pp. 611–643.

Moennin 2016, pp. 159–189.

Ševčenko 1968.

Magdalino 2003, p. 66.

Sewter 1953, pp. 29–30.

Treadgold 1997, p. 570.

Holmes 2005, p. 206.

Holmes 2005, p. 203.

Mango 2002, p. 310.

Mango 2002, p. 189.

Kiossev 2000.

Kyriazis 1964.

Sutcliff 1976.

Beaton 1999, p. 103.

Stephenson 2000, p. 120.

Danforth 1998.

Dragoumis 1907.

Civilization 2020.

ODB, "Macedonian dynasty" genealogical table, p. 1263.

Garland 2002, pp. 126, 128

ODB, "Lekapenos" (A. Kazhdan), pp. 1203–1204.

1. Charanis 1963, p. 35.

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External links

Media related to Basileios II at Wikimedia Commons

Riccardi, Lorenzo, «Un altro cielo»: l'imperatore Basilio II e le arti, in "Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte", 61 (III serie, XXIX), 2006 [2011] (ISSN 0392-5285), pp. 103–146.

Riccardi, Lorenzo, Observations on Basil II as Patron of the Arts, in Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art, I, Collection of articles. Materials of the Conference of Young Specialists (St. Petersburg State University, 1–5 December 2010), St. Petersburg 2011 (ISBN 978-5-288-05174-6), pp. 39–45.

| Basil II Macedonian Dynasty Born: 958 Died: 15 December 1025
Regnal titles
| Preceded byRomanos II | Byzantine emperor
960–1025
with Romanos II in 960–963, Nikephoros II in 963–969
and John I in 969–976 as senior emperors,
and Constantine VIII as junior co-emperor | Succeeded byConstantine VIII

v

t

e

Roman and Byzantine emperors and ruling empresses

Authority control

Categories:

Basil II

10th-century Byzantine emperors

11th-century Byzantine emperors

Macedonian dynasty

Byzantine people of the Arab–Byzantine wars

Byzantine people of the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

950s births

1025 deaths

Porphyrogennetoi

Medieval child monarchs

960s in the Byzantine Empire

970s in the Byzantine Empire

980s in the Byzantine Empire

990s in the Byzantine Empire

1000s in the Byzantine Empire

1010s in the Byzantine Empire

1020s in the Byzantine Empire

Sons of Byzantine emperors

This page was last edited on 18 April 2023, at 22:13

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Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was elected as president of Iceland in 1980 – and was the first female in the world to win a national presidential election. She was re-elected a further 3 times before retiring in 1996.

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On July 18, 1976, Nadia Comaneci made history in world gymnastics, as she became the first athlete to score a perfect 10 at the Olympic Games. The incredible success was registered at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In fact, by the time the 1976 Olympics ended, she had earned seven perfect tens, three gold medals, as well as a bronze and a silver medal. She continued her dominance through the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, winning two more gold medals and two silver.

Although she retired from competition in 1984 and left Romania to settle in the U.S. a few years later, in 1989, Nadia Comaneci continued to promote gymnastics around the world while also getting involved in events promoting Romania abroad.

The same as in Hagi’s case, the Romanians frequently say Nadia Comaneci’s name when they talk about great athletes, and the foreigners often associate her name with Romania, as she managed to do something that most athletes dream of doing: to put Romania on the world map.

The list of Romanian female gymnast with great achievements is quite long, however, among them Simona Amanar, Larisa Iordache, Sandra Izbasa, Catalina Ponor, Andreea Raducan, and Diana Bulimar.

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Ταλίν, Εσθονία

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Tiit Sokk (born 15 November 1964) is a retired Estonian professional basketball player and current coach. Often cited as one of the very best European point guards of his generation, he is widely recognized as the greatest Estonian basketball player in history. Elected to the Hall of fame of Estonian basketball in 2010. [1]

Professional career

Sokk was awarded the Estonian best male athlete award in 1988. He won the Soviet Union League title in 1991 with Kalev Tallinn, and ended his career as a player in 1997, after playing a season with Aris in Greece.

National team career

Sokk's most notable achievement was winning the Olympic gold medal as a member of the Soviet Union national team at the 1988 Summer Olympics.[2] He also won two FIBA World Cup silver medals in 1986 and 1990, as well as the bronze medal at EuroBasket 1989. [3]

Coaching careerAfter his playing career, Sokk founded a basketball school in Estonia, and coached in the

Estonian Basketball League. He also was head coach of the Estonia national team during two different stints from (2004–2007) and (2009–2019).

# data[].attributes.body
Roman Kasev was born on May 21, 1914 in Vilnius. He was the son of Arieh Leib Kacew and Mina Owczynska[13], both Jewish. Roman grew up with his mother after his father abandoned them in 1925 and until 1928 they lived with his mother's family in Warsaw. Romain Kassev (already called Romain, but not yet Gary) arrived with his mother in Nice, at the age of 14 and amid a strong climate of anti-Semitism and xenophobia, which prevailed in France in the 1930s[14]. His mother became manageress at the Mermonts boarding house.Romain attended Massena High School. He distinguished himself in the French language, and was even awarded in 1931 and 1932, but "in other subjects, apart from German, which he speaks and writes very well, he is average"After a short stay in Aix-en-Provence, Romain Cassev went to Paris to do his legal studies. After toil and suffering, he received his degree in 1938, while at the same time preparing to enlist in the French army. He read until dawn and spent most of his time writing. At that time he published his first short stories in Grenquar, a weekly French magazine, with a political and literary content: "Gary strongly refused the generous fees (...) when the magazine expressed fascist and anti-Semitic ideas. He wrote a letter to the editor of the magazine to declare: "I do not eat of this bread."He received French citizenship in 1935 and was called up to serve in the air force in 1938. In 1940, he joined the Free France where he served in the Free French Air Force. During this period, Romain Kashev chooses the martial name "Gary" (meaning burn! in Russian), which will also become his nickname. At the end of the war he was a second lieutenant and received the title of Companion of Liberty.After the end of hostilities, he begins a career as a diplomat in the service of France. He lived in Bulgaria, Switzerland, New York (at the United Nations, 1952-54), Bolivia, then as French consul in Los Angeles from 1957 to 1961, when he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and landscape elements wrapped in fabric, including the Wrapped Reichstag, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Running Fence in California, and The Gates in New York City's Central Park.[1]

Born in Bulgaria and Morocco, respectively, the pair met and married in Paris in the late 1950s. Originally working under Christo's name, they later credited their installations to both "Christo and Jeanne-Claude". Until his own death in 2020, Christo continued to plan and execute projects after Jeanne-Claude's death in 2009.

Their work was typically large, visually impressive, and controversial, often taking years and sometimes decades of careful preparation – including technical solutions, political negotiation, permitting and environmental approval, hearings and public persuasion. The pair refused grants, scholarships, donations or public money, instead financing the work via the sale of their own artwork.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude described the myriad elements that brought the projects to fruition as integral to the artwork itself, and said their projects contained no deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic impact; their purpose being simply for joy, beauty, and new ways of seeing the familiar.

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KEVIN DE BRUYNE

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Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;[b] born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the establishment of the office on 20 July 1994, making him the longest-sitting European president.[4][5]

Before his political career, Lukashenko worked as director of a state farm (sovkhoz), and served in the Soviet Border Troops and in the Soviet Army.

Lukashenko continued state ownership of key industries in Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and retained important Soviet-era symbolism, which can be seen in the coat of arms and national flag of Belarus, adopted following a controversial 1995 referendum, which were based on those of the Byelorussian SSR. Following the same referendum, Lukashenko was given more power with the ability to dismiss the Supreme Soviet of Belarus and another referendum in 1996 allowed Lukashenko to further consolidate power. The Russian language was also given the same status as Belarusian, and economic ties with Russia were strengthened, which furthermore led to the creation of the Union State with Russia, which allows Belarusians to freely travel to, work, and study in Russia, and vice versa. However, relations with Russia have not always run smoothly under his tenure, such as during the Milk War.[6]

Lukashenko heads an authoritarian government and has referred to himself as the "last dictator" in Europe.[7] Elections are not considered to be free and fair by international monitors, opponents of the regime are repressed, and the media is not free,[8][9] leading to sanctions on Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials being imposed.[10] His disputed victory in the country's 2020 presidential election led to widespread allegations of vote rigging, which strongly amplified anti-government protests, the largest during his rule.[5] Following the contested election, Lukashenko is not recognized by the United Kingdom, the European Union, or the United States as the legitimate president of Belarus

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HELOMUT RAHN

Helmut Rahn (16 August 1929 – 14 August 2003), known as Der Boss (The Boss), was a German footballer who played as a forward. He became a legend for having scored the winning goal in the final of the 1954 FIFA World Cup (West Germany vs. Hungary 3–2). Rahn, along with the German team, were decorated by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972.

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Bolshoye Maslennikovo, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia

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Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was a former Soviet cosmonaut who became famous as the first woman in history to travel in space. This trip took place on June 16 to 19, 1963. Tereskova was selected from over 400 candidates to command the Vostok 6 spacecraft.

# data[].attributes.body
Even though official documents give her date of birth as 23 July, Amália herself maintained that her birthday was actually 1 July 1920.[5] The baptism certificate of Rodrigues is in the Parish Church of Fundão, and the document was published in the Journal of Fundão after the singer's death, following its discovery in an investigation by Salvado J. Travassos.

She was born in Pena, a parish of Lisbon, Portugal. Her father was Albertino de Jesus Rodrigues, originally from the Castelo Branco district in Central Portugal, and her mother was Lucinda da Piedade Rebordão, of Fundão parish, also in the Castelo Branco district. Her maternal family had roots in Souto da Casa, a parish in Fundão, where Rodrigues's grandfather worked as a blacksmith. According to the testimony of José Filipe Duarte Gonçalves, her sister, Celeste, was born in Lisbon (in addition to another child who died). Rodrigues grew up in poverty and doing odd jobs such as selling fruit on Lisbon's quays.[citation needed]

Singing career

Rodrigues started singing around 1935. Her first professional engagement in a fado venue took place in 1939, and she was a guest in stage revues.[6] Around that time she met Frederico Valério, a classically trained composer who recognised Amália's potential and composed numerous melodies especially designed for her- adding orchestral accompaniments. Such as 'Fado do Ciúme', 'Ai Mouraria', 'Que Deus Me Perdoe', and 'Não Sei Porque Te Foste Embora.'

By the early 1940s, Amália had become a famous singer in Portugal. Rodrigues began acting with a debut film in 1946 titled 'Capas Negras' followed by her best known movie, 'Fado' (1947).[7]

She gained popularity in Spain and Brazil (where, in 1945, she made her first recordings on Brazilian label Continental) where she spent some time and Paris (1949) where she resided. In 1950, while performing at the Marshall Plan international benefit shows, she introduced the song 'April in Portugal' to international audiences, under its original title "Coimbra".[citation needed]

In the early 1950s, the involvement of Portuguese poet David Mourão-Ferreira marked a new phase in her career where leading poets were writing specifically for her.[8]

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Tre Kronor, Storkyrkobrinken, 111 28 Stockholm, Σουηδία

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Gustavus Adolphus (9 December [N.S 19 December] 1594 – 6 November [N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as Gustav II Adolf or Gustav II Adolph,[1] was King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, and is credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). During his reign, Sweden became one of the primary military forces in Europe during the Thirty Years' War, helping to determine the political and religious balance of power in Europe. He was formally and posthumously given the name Gustavus Adolphus the Great (Swedish: Gustav Adolf den store; Latin: Gustavus Adolphus Magnus) by the Riksdag of the Estates in 1634.[2][3][4]

He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in modern history, with use of an early form of combined arms.[5] His most notable military victory was the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. With his resources, logistics, and support, Gustavus Adolphus was positioned to become a major European leader,[6] but he was killed a year later at the Battle of Lützen. He was assisted in his efforts by Count Axel Oxenstierna, the Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, who also acted as regent after his death.

Coming to the throne at the age of 16, Gustavus Adolphus inherited three wars from his father Charles IX of Sweden; border conflicts with Russia and Denmark-Norway, and a dynastic struggle with his first cousin, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.[7] Of these, the Danish war was the most serious.[8] During his reign, Sweden rose from the status of a Baltic Sea basin regional power to one of the great powers of Europe and a model of early modern era government. Gustavus Adolphus is known as the "father of modern warfare",[9] or the first modern general. He taught a number of other military commanders, such as Lennart Torstensson, who would go on to expand the boundaries and the power of Swedish Empire after Gustavus Adolphus's death. Spoils meant he became a successful bookraider in Europe, targeting Jesuit collections.[10]

His contributions to Sweden's rise in power included reformation of the administrative structure. For example, he began Parish Registration of the population, so that the central government could more efficiently tax and conscript the people.[11] He is also widely commemorated by Protestants in Europe as the main defender of their cause during the Thirty Years' War, with multiple churches, foundations and other undertakings named after him, including the Gustav-Adolf-Werk.[12][13]

Biographical details

Gustavus Adolphus was born in Stockholm on 9 December 1594, eldest son of Duke Charles of the House of Vasa and his second wife, Christina of Holstein-Gottorp. At the time, his cousin Sigismund was both King of Sweden and Poland. The Protestant Duke Charles forced the Catholic Sigismund to abandon the throne of Sweden in 1599, part of the preliminary religious strife before the Thirty Years' War, and reigned as regent before taking the throne as Charles IX of Sweden in 1604. Crown Prince Gustav Adolph had Gagnef-Floda in Dalecarlia as a duchy from 1610. Upon his father's death in October 1611, a sixteen-year-old Gustavus inherited the throne, being declared of age and able to reign himself at seventeen as of 16 December.[14] He also inherited an ongoing succession of occasionally belligerent dynastic disputes with his Polish cousin, Sigismund III, who persisted in his effort to regain the Swedish throne.[15]

Gustavus Adolphus leading a cavalry charge

In a round of this dynastic dispute, Gustavus Adolphus invaded Livonia when he was 31, beginning the Polish–Swedish War (1626–29). His reign became known from his actions a few years later when, in June 1630, he landed in Germany, marking the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. Gustavus Adolphus intervened on the anti-Imperial side, which at the time was losing to the Holy Roman Empire and its Catholic allies; the Swedish forces would quickly reverse that situation.[16]

Gustavus Adolphus was married to Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg,[a] the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and chose the Prussian city of Elbing as the base for his operations in Germany. He died in the Battle of Lützen in 1632. His death was a great loss to the Lutheran side, resulting in large parts of Germany and other countries, which had been conquered for Lutheranism, to be reconquered for Catholicism (via the Counter-Reformation). His involvement in the Thirty Years' War gave rise to the nickname ″the Lion from the North″.[17]

Reputation

See also: Military of the Swedish Empire

Historian Ronald S. Love wrote that in 1560–1660 there were "a few innovators, notably Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, whom many scholars credit with revolutionary developments in warfare and with having laid the foundations of military practice for the next two centuries."[18] Scholars consider him an extremely able military commander.[19] His integration of infantry, cavalry, logistics, and particularly his use of artillery, earned him the title of the "Father of Modern Warfare".

Future commanders who studied and admired Gustavus Adolphus include Napoleon I of France and Carl von Clausewitz. His advancements in warfare made Sweden the dominant Baltic power for the next hundred years (see Swedish Empire). He is also the only Swedish monarch to be styled "the Great". This decision was made by the Swedish Estates of the Realm when they convened in 1633, making him officially called Gustavus Adolphus the Great (Gustavus Adolphus Magnus).

The Lion of the North: Gustavus Adolphus depicted at the turning point of the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) against the forces of Count Tilly.

Gustavus Adolphus was the main figure responsible for the success of Swedish arms during the Thirty Years' War and led his nation to great prestige. As a general, Gustavus Adolphus employed mobile artillery on the battlefield, as well as very aggressive tactics, where attack was stressed over defense, and mobility and cavalry initiative were emphasized.

Among other innovations, he installed an early form of combined arms in his formations, where the cavalry could attack from the safety of an infantry line reinforced by cannon, and retire again within to regroup after their foray. Inspired by the reform of Maurice of Nassau, he adopted much shallower infantry formations than were common in the pike and shot armies of the era, with formations typically fighting in 5 or 6 ranks, occasionally supported at some distance by another such formation—the gaps being the provinces of the artillery and cavalry as noted above.[20][21]

His artillery were themselves different—in addition to the usual complements of heavy cannon, he introduced light mobile guns for the first time into the Renaissance battlefield. These were grouped in batteries supporting his more linearly deployed formations, replacing the cumbersome and unmaneuverable traditional deep squares (such as the Spanish tercios that were up to 50 ranks deep) used in other pike and shot armies of the day. In consequence, his forces could redeploy and reconfigure very rapidly, confounding his enemies.[20][21] He created the modern Swedish Navy, which transported troops and supplies to the Continental battlefront.[22]

Carl von Clausewitz and Napoleon Bonaparte considered him one of the greatest generals of all time, an evaluation agreed with by George S. Patton and others. He was also renowned for his constancy of purpose and the equality of his troops—no one part of his armies was considered better or received preferred treatment, as was common in other armies where the cavalry were the elite, followed by the artillery, and both disdained the lowly infantry. In Gustavus Adolphus's' army the units were extensively cross-trained. Both cavalry and infantry could service the artillery, as his heavy cavalry did when turning captured artillery on the opposing Catholic tercios at First Breitenfeld.[22]

Pikemen could shoot—if not as accurately as those designated musketeers—so a valuable firearm could be kept in the firing line. His infantrymen and gunners were taught to ride, if needed. Napoleon thought highly of the achievement and copied the tactics. However, recent historians have challenged his reputation. B. H. Liddell Hart says it is an exaggeration to credit him with a uniquely disciplined conscript army, or call his the first military state to fight a protracted war on the continent. He argues that he improved existing techniques and used them brilliantly. Richard Brzezinski says his legendary status was based on inaccurate myths created by later historians. Many of his innovations were developed by his senior staff.[22]

Political philosophy

Engraving of Gustavus Adolphus

Gustavus Adolphus' politics also show progressive tendencies:[citation needed] for example, in 1631, in the conquered territory of Estonia he forced the local nobility into granting more individual rights to the commoners. He also encouraged education, opening a school in Tallinn in 1631, today known as Gustav Adolf Grammar School (Estonian: Gustav Adolfi Gümnaasium).[23] On 30 June 1632, Gustavus Adolphus signed the decree for the foundation of Academia Dorpatensis in Estonia, today known as the University of Tartu.[24]

Despite significant hardships for the common people, the period of Swedish rule over Estonia has been idealized in local folklore as the "good old Swedish times", which has been attributed to comparisons with the harder times that followed under the Russian rule.[25]

On 27 August 1617, his speech before his coronation included the following statement:

I had carefully learned to understand, about that experience which I could have upon things of rule, how fortune is failing or great, subject to such rule in common, so that otherwise I would have had scant reason to desire such a rule, had I not found myself obliged to it through God’s bidding and nature. Now it was of my acquaintance, that inasmuch as God had let me be born a prince, such as I then am born, then my good and my destruction were knotted into one with the common good; for every reason then, it was now my promise that I should take great pains about their well-being and good governance and management, and thereabout bear close concern.[26]

Military commander

Gustavus Adolphus inherited three wars from his father when he ascended the throne: against Denmark-Norway, which had attacked Sweden earlier in 1611; against Russia, due to Sweden having tried to take advantage of the Russian Time of Troubles; and against Poland-Lithuania, due to King Charles's having deposed King Sigismund III, his nephew, as King of Sweden.

The war against Denmark-Norway (Kalmar War) was concluded in 1613 with a peace that did not cost Sweden any territory, but it was forced to pay a heavy indemnity to Denmark-Norway (Treaty of Knäred). During this war, Gustavus Adolphus let his soldiers plunder towns and villages, and as he met little resistance from Danish forces in Scania, they pillaged and devastated twenty-four Scanian parishes. His memory in Scania has been negative because of that fear.[27] The largest destroyed settlement was the Town Væ, which two years later was replaced by Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV as the nearby Christiansted (after the Swedification process, spelled Kristianstad), the last Scanian town to be founded by a Danish king.[28][29]

Gustavus Adolphus at Breitenfeld in 1631

The war against Russia (Ingrian War) ended in 1617 with the Treaty of Stolbovo, which excluded Russia from the Baltic Sea. The final inherited war, the war against Poland, ended in 1629 with the Truce of Altmark, which transferred the large province of Livonia to Sweden and freed the Swedish forces for the subsequent intervention in the Thirty Years' War in Germany, where Swedish forces had already established a bridgehead in 1628.

The electorate of Brandenburg was especially torn apart by a quarrel between the Protestant and Catholic parties. The Brandenburg minister and diplomat baron Samuel von Winterfeld [de] influenced Gustavus Adolphus to support and protect the Protestant side in Germany. When Gustavus Adolphus began his push into northern Germany in June–July 1630, he had just 4,000 troops. He was soon able to consolidate the Protestant position in the north, however, using reinforcements from Sweden and money supplied by France at the Treaty of Bärwalde.[30]

After Swedish plundering in Brandenburg (1631) endangered the system of retrieving war contributions from occupied territories, "marauding and plundering" by Swedish soldiers was prohibited.[30] Meanwhile, a Catholic army under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly was laying waste to Saxony. Gustavus Adolphus met Tilly's army and won a decisive victory at the First Battle of Breitenfeld in September 1631. He then marched across Germany, establishing his winter quarters near the Rhine, making plans for the invasion of the rest of the Holy Roman Empire.

In March 1632, Gustavus Adolphus invaded Bavaria, an ally of the Emperor. He forced the withdrawal of his Catholic opponents at the Battle of Rain, marking the high point of the campaign. In the summer of that year, he sought a political solution that would preserve the existing structure of states in Germany, while guaranteeing the security of its Protestants. But achieving these objectives depended on his continued success on the battlefield.

Gustavus Adolphus is reported[according to whom?] to have entered battle without wearing any armor, proclaiming, "The Lord God is my armor!" However, it is more likely that he simply wore a padded cuirass rather than going into battle wearing no battle protection whatsoever. In 1627, near Dirschau in Prussia, a Polish soldier shot him in the muscles above his shoulders. He survived, but the doctors could not remove the bullet, so from that point on, he could not wear iron armor and two fingers of his right hand were paralyzed.[31][page needed] The plate cuirass normally worn by important officers at that time was replaced by a buff coat made of moose hide, which would have serious consequences later.[32]

Death and aftermath

Death of Gustavus at Lützen by Carl Wahlbom (1855)

On 6 November 1632, Gustavus encountered the Imperial Army under Albrecht von Wallenstein at Lützen, in what would prove to be one of the most significant battles of the Thirty Years' War. Gustavus was killed when, at a crucial point in the battle, he became separated from his troops while leading a cavalry charge on his wing.[33] Lützen was a victory for the Protestants, but cost them their leader, which caused their campaign to lose direction and finally suffer a crushing defeat at Nördlingen.

Towards 1:00 pm, in the thick mix of gun smoke and fog covering the field, the king was separated from his fellow riders and suffered multiple shots. A bullet crushed his left arm below the elbow. Almost simultaneously his horse suffered a shot to the neck that made it hard to control. In the mix of fog and smoke from the burning town of Lützen the king rode astray behind enemy lines. There he sustained yet another shot in the back, was stabbed and fell from his horse.

Lying on the ground, he received a final, fatal shot to the temple. His fate remained unknown for some time. However, when the gunnery paused and the smoke cleared, his horse was spotted between the two lines, Gustavus Adolphus himself not on it and nowhere to be seen. His disappearance stopped the initiative of the hitherto successful Swedish right wing, while a search was conducted. His partly stripped body was found an hour or two later, and evacuated from the field in a Swedish artillery wagon.

As late as the 19th century several stories were retold about Gustav Adolphus's death. In most of them the assassin was named as Prince Francis Albert of Saxe-Lauenburg [de], who was next to the king on the occasion and was thought to be acting on behalf of the enemy. When King Charles XII of Sweden was shown purported evidence in 1707 he dismissed the theory out of doubt that "any prince could be so ungrateful".[34]

In February 1633, the Riksdag of the Estates gave him the title "Gustavus Adolphus the Great", or Gustav Adolf den Store in Swedish, the only Swedish monarch to be so honoured.

Gustavus Adolphus's lit de parade, by F. and J. Strachen, Wolgast 1633.

Gustavus Adolphus's sarcophagus at Riddarholm Church

As those Vasa princes who descended from deposed monarchs were excluded from the throne and Gustavus Adolphus's younger brother had died ten years before, his young daughter Christina became his successor, with Maria Eleonora and other ministers governing on her behalf. He left one other known child, his illegitimate son Gustav, Count of Vasaborg.

Legacy

Gustav Adolf Grammar School in Tallinn, 2007

Gustavus Adolphus is widely commemorated by Protestants in Europe as the main defender of their cause during the Thirty Years' War, with multiple churches, foundations and other undertakings named after him. He became a symbol of Swedish pride, and his name is attached to city squares in major Swedish cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Helsingborg. Gustavus Adolphus Day is celebrated in Sweden and Finland each year on 6 November, the day the king died at Lützen. One of the traditions on this day is the Gustavus Adolphus pastry. In Finland, the day is also called "the Swedish day". Gustavus Adolphus College, a Lutheran college in St. Peter, Minnesota, is also named for him.

A GAW Flag in the Protestant church of Sopron, Hungary

The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) of the Evangelical Church in Germany, founded on the bicentennial celebration of the Battle of Lützen, has as its object the aid of other churches and commemorates Gustavus' legacy. It is responsible for taking care of the Diaspora work of the EKD and has separate branches internationally. The organization in Austria is called the Gustav-Adolf-Verein. The project of forming such a society was first broached in connection with the bicentennial celebration of the Battle of Lützen on 6 November 1832.[35]

A proposal to collect funds for a monument to Gustavus Adolphus was agreed to, and it was suggested by Superintendent Grossmann that the best memorial to Gustavus Adolphus would be the formation of a union for propagating his ideas. It quickly gained popularity in Germany. The lack of political correctness received some criticism; however, the organization used GAW as its brand in the meanwhile. The Swedish royal family visited the GAW headquarters in Leipzig on the 400th birthday of Gustavus Adolphus, in 1994.[35]

Evaluations

The Columbia Encyclopedia sums up his record:

In military organization and strategy, Gustavus (sic) was ahead of his time. While most powers relied on mercenary troops, he organized a national standing army that distinguished itself by its discipline and relatively high moral standards. Deeply religious, the king desired his soldiers to behave like a truly Christian army; his stern measures against the common practices of looting, raping, and torture were effective until his death. His successes were due to this discipline, his use of small, mobile units, the superiority of his firearms, and his personal charisma. Although he was deeply interested in the internal progress of his kingdom, much of the credit for the development of Swedish industry and the fiscal and administrative reforms of his reign belongs to Oxenstierna.[36]

The German Socialist Franz Mehring wrote a biography of Gustavus Adolphus with a Marxist perspective on the actions of the Swedish king during the Thirty Years' War. In it, he makes a case that the war was fought over economics and trade rather than religion. The Swedes discovered huge deposits of copper, which were used to build brass cannon. The cottage-industrial growth stimulated an armaments industry.[citation needed]

In his book "Ofredsår" ("Years of Warfare"), the Swedish historian and author Peter Englund argues that there was probably no single all-important reason for the king's decision to go to war. Instead, it was likely a combination of religious, security, as well as economic considerations. This view is supported by German historian Johannes Burkhardt, who writes that Gustavus entered the 30 Years War exactly 100 years after the publication of the Confessio Augustana, the core confession of faith of the Lutheran Church, and let himself be praised as its saviour. Yet Gustavus Adolphus's own "manifesto of war" does not mention any religious motivations at all but speaks of political and economic reasons.[37]

Sweden would have to maintain its integrity in the face of several provocations and aggressions by the Habsburg Empire. The manifesto was written by scholar Johann Adler Salvius in a style common of the time that promotes a "just war". Burkhardt argues that traditional Swedish historiography constructed a defensive interest in security out of that by taking the manifesto's text for granted. But to defend Stockholm, the occupation of the German Baltic territories would have been an extreme advance and the imperial Baltic Sea fleet mentioned as a threat in the manifesto had never reached more than a quarter of the size of the Swedish fleet.[37]

Moreover, it was never maintained to challenge Sweden but to face the separatist Netherlands. So if ruling the Baltic Sea was a goal of Swedish strategy, the conquests in Germany were not a defensive war but an act of expansion. From Swedish Finland, Gustavus Adolphus advanced along the Baltic Sea coast and eventually to Augsburg and Munich and he even urged the Swiss Confederacy to join him. This was no longer about Baltic interests but the imperial capital of Vienna and the alpine passes that were now in close reach of the Swedish army.[37]

Burkhardt points out that the Gothic legacy of the Swedes, coalesced as a political program. The Swedish king was also "Rex Gotorum" (Latin: King of the Goths), and the list of kings was traced back to the Gothic rulers to construct continuity. Prior to his embarkment to northern Germany, Gustavus urged the Swedish nobility to follow the example of conquests set by their Gothic ancestors. Had he lived longer, it would have been likely that Gustavus had reached out for the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire.[37]

Issue

Name Born Died Notes
| (Illegitimate) By Margareta Slots
| Gustav  | 24 May 1616
Stockholm  | 25 October 1653
Wildeshausen  | Married Countess Anna Sofia Wied-Runkel and had issue.
| By Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (11 November 1599 – 28 March 1655)
| A daughter  | 24 July 1621
Stockholm  | Stillborn, buried in Riddarholmskyrkan.
| Christina  | 16 October 1623
Stockholm  | 21 September 1624
Stockholm  | Heiress presumptive to the thrones of Sweden and Denmark; buried in Riddarholmskyrkan.
| A son  | May 1625
Gripsholm Castle  | Stillborn, buried in Riddarholmskyrkan.
| Christina  | 8 December 1626
Stockholm  | 19 April 1689
Rome  | Queen of Sweden (1632 – 1654), never married; buried in Basilica of Saint Peter.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Gustavus Adolphus

Gallery

Bust of King Gustav Adolph on campus at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota

Image of King Gustav Adolph on a wall of Stockholm Palace

Stockholm statue at square named for him

With his wife

Cathedral memorial in Borlänge

Death location memorial in Lützen

Portrait by Servatius de Kock from 1632

Portrait on leather wallpaper by Crispijn van de Passe the Younger and Marten van den Heuvel

In music and fiction

The Swedish composer Franz Berwald composed the choral work Gustaf Adolph den stores seger och död vid Lützen (Gustav Adolf the Great's Victory and Death near Lützen) in 1845.[38] He is also the protagonist of Max Bruch’s 1898 choral work Gustav Adolf.[39]

He is also a significant supporting character in the best-selling[40] alternate history book series, 1632, written by American historian, writer, and editor Eric Flint (first published in 2000).[41][42]

The song The Lion From the North from the album Carolus Rex, released by Swedish Power Metal Band Sabaton is about Gustav II[43]

See also

Gustavus Adolphus Day

History of Sweden

Rise of Sweden as a Great Power

Axel Oxenstierna

Gustav of Vasaborg

Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustav Adolf Grammar School

Notes

1. See Wedding of Gustav II Adolf and Maria Eleonora.

References

Williamson, David (1988). Debrett's Kings and Queens of Europe. pp. 124, 128, 194, 207. ISBN 0-86350-194-X.

Nils Ahnlund/Michael Roberts Gustav Adolf the Great American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York, 1940

Anders Fryxell Gustaf II Adolf Norstedts, Stockholm, 1894 p. 435

Lis Granlund Riddarholmskyrkan, de svenska konungarnas gravkyrka Riksmarskalksämbetet, 1980 ill. p. 14 (GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS MAGNUS)

In Chapter V of Clausewitz' On War, he lists Gustavus Adolphus as an example of an outstanding military leader, along with: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Alexander Farnese, Charles XII, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.

Stephen J. Lee, Aspects of European History 1494–1789 (2nd ed. 1984) pp. 109–14.

Svensk Uppslagsbok, 1950,vol 5,column 353, article "Gustav; 2. Gustav II Adolf" Quote: (Swedish) "Av de tre krig, det danska, det ryska och det polska, G. ärvde..." In English "Of the three wars, the Danish, the Russian and the Polish, Gustav II Adolphus inherited...

Same source, and the quote continues "hotade det första rikets existens". English "... did the first one endanger the existence of the realm."

Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (1890). Gustavus Adolphus: A History of the Art of War from Its Revival After the Middle Ages to the End of the Spanish Succession War, with a Detailed Account ... of Turenne, Conde, Eugene and Marlborough. Boston and New York: Da Capo Press Inc. ISBN 978-0-306-80863-0. Archived from the original on 19 April 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2015.

Murray 2009, p. 118.

T. K. Derry, History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland (1979) pp. 110–24.

Huffman, John (14 March 2022). "Gustavus Adolphus: The Lion of the North". Discerning History. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022.

"Gustavus Adolphus". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2022.

Ålund, Otto Wilhelm (1894). Gustaf II Adolf: Ett 300-årsminne berättadt för ung och gammal : Med öfver 100 illustr. och flera kartor (in Swedish). Stockholm: Alb. Bonnier. p. 12. SELIBR 1627779.

Garstein, Oskar (1992). Rome and the Counter Reformation in Scandinavia: The Age of Adolphus Gustavus and Queen Christina of Sweden, 1622–1656. Leiden: Brill. p. 30. ISBN 9789004093959. Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2022.

DuBuis, Marc C. (30 September 2015). "Swedish Intervention and Conduct in the Thirty Years' War". Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 4 April 2023.

Six, Ronald (15 October 2015). "Gustavus Adolphus: Lion of the North". Warfare History Network. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.

Ronald S. Love, "'All the King's Horsemen': The Equestrian Army of Henri IV, 1585–1598." The sixteenth century journal (1991): 511

Encyclopædia Britannica. 1979. p. 502. ISBN 0852293399.

Boyd L. Dastrup, The Field Artillery: History and Sourcebook (1994) p 11.

Michael Roberts, "The Military Revolution, 1560–1660" in Clifford J. Rogers, ed., The Military Revolution Debate (1995) pp. 13–24,

Jorgensen 2013, p. 218.

"Gustav Adolfi Gümnaasium – Ajalugu". www.gag.ee (in Estonian). Gustav Adolf Grammar School. Archived from the original on 23 February 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2010.

"Facts about the History of the University of Tartu". University of Tartu. 10 July 2009. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2010.

"Kas vana hea rootsi aeg oli ikka nii hea, kui rahvasuu räägib?". Eesti Ekspress (in Estonian). Archived from the original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2011.

Tal och skrifter av konung Gustav II Adolf, Norstedts, Stockholm, 1915, pp. 58–59,

Roberts 1992, p. 33.

Moberg, Wilhelm. "Hur historien förfalskas or "How history is falsified" – short story by famous Wilhelm Moberg who asked to see the King's letter written to his cousin Johan at Swedish National Archive, and then wrote about it". Archived from the original on 27 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.

Swedish National Archive (the original document can be seen there in Stockholm, and a copy at the same institution at Lund), Kungsbrev 1600-tal, Kings' Letters, 17th Century

Prinz, Oliver C. (2005). Der Einfluss von Heeresverfassung und Soldatenbild auf die Entwicklung des Militärstrafrechts. Osnabrücker Schriften zur Rechtsgeschichte (in German). Vol. 7. Osnabrück: V&R unipress. pp. 40–41. ISBN 3-89971-129-7. Referring to Kroener, Bernhard R. (1993). "Militärgeschichte des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit bis 1648. Vom Lehnskrieger zum Söldner". In Neugebauer, Karl-Volker (ed.). Grundzüge der deutschen Militärgeschichte (in German). Vol. 1. Freiburg: Rombach. p. 32.

Kuosa, Tauno (1963). Jokamiehen Suomen historia II. Sata sotaista vuotta [Everyman's Finnish History II: Hundred Warlike Years] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Werner Söderström Publishing Ltd.

Grönhammar & Nestor 2011.

Jeremy Murray, "The English-Language Military Historiography of Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years’ War, 1900–Present." Western Illinois Historical Review 5 (2013): 1–30 online Archived 31 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine.

Anders Fryxell in Gustaf Adolf, Norstedts, Stockholm 1894 p. 414-16

"Die Chronik" [The chronicle]. www.gustav-adolf-werk.de (in German). Gustav-Adolf-Werk. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.

"Gustavus II" The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Burkhardt, Johann. "Ein Gotenkönig als Friedenskaiser? (lit.: A King of Goths as Emperor of Peace?)". Damals (in German). Vol. 42, no. 8/2010. Abstract in German Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.

"Franz Berwald (1796–1868) Gustaf Adolf den stores seger och död vid Lützen". swedishmusicalheritage.com. Levanter Musikarv. Archived from the original on 11 December 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2022.

Hackenberg, Albert. "Gustav Adolf, op. 73". repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de. Musikproduktion Hoeflich. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.

"Publisher's Web Books Spur Hardcover Sales". The New York Times. 19 March 2001. Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.

"Uchronia: The Assiti Shards (1632) Series". www.uchronia.net. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.

"1632 (Ring of Fire, book 1) by Eric Flint". www.fantasticfiction.com. Archived from the original on 12 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021.

1. "The Lion From The North". Sabaton Official Website. Archived from the original on 15 February 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2023.

Bibliography

Ahnlund, Nils, Gustav Adolf the Great, trans. Michael Roberts., Princeton, 1940.

Brzezinski, Richard, The Army of Gustavus Adolphus. (Osprey, 1993). ISBN 1-85532-350-8. excerpt

Brzezinski, Richard. Lützen 1632: Climax of the Thirty Years’ War (Praeger, 2005).

Dupuy, Trevor Nevitt. The Military Life of Gustavus Adolphus: Father of Modern War (Franklin Watts, 1969).

Earle, E.M. ed. Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, 1948.

Grönhammar, Ann; Nestor, Sofia (2011). The Royal Armoury in the cellar vaults of the Royal Palace. HathiTrust Digital Library. ISBN 978-9187594304.

Grundberg, Malin [in Swedish] (2005). Ceremoniernas makt: Maktöverföring och genus i Vasatidens kungliga ceremonier (in Swedish). Nordic Academic Press. ISBN 91-89116-73-9.

Murray, Stuart (2009). The Library: An Illustrated History. War and a Golden Age: Skyhorse Publishing.

Nordstrom, Byron J. "Gustavus II Adolphus (Sweden) (1594–1632; Ruled 1611–1632)" Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World: Europe, 1450 to 1789, 2004.

Rangström, Lena (2015). Dödens teater: Kungliga svenska begravningar genom fem århundraden (in Swedish). Atlantis. ISBN 978-91-7353-785-8.

Ringmar, Erik. Identity, Interest and Action: A Cultural Explanation of Sweden's Intervention in the Thirty Years' War. (Cambridge, 1996).

Roberts, Michael. Gustavus Adolphus, A History of Sweden 1611–1632 (two volumes) (London: Longmans, Green, 1953–1958).

Roberts, Michael (1992). Gustavus Adolphus. Profiles in Power (2nd ed.). London: Longman. ISBN 0582090008.

Roberts, Michael. Gustavus Adolphus and the Rise of Sweden (London: English Universities Press, 1973).

Roberts, Michael. The Military Revolution 1560–1660, (Belfast: M. Boyd, 1956).

Roberts, Michael. Sweden as a great power 1611–1697 (London: St. Martin's Press, 1968)

Schürger, André. The Battle of Lützen: an examination of 17th century military material culture (University of Glasgow 2015) [1].

Historiography

Ekman, Ernst. "Three Decades of Research on Gustavus Adolphus" Journal of Modern History 38#3 (1966), pp. 243–255 DOI: 10.2307/1877349 online

Jorgensen, Christer (2013). "Gustavus Adolphus II". In Charles Messenger (ed.). Reader's Guide to Military History. Routledge. pp. 218–19. ISBN 9781135959708.

Murray, Jeremy. "The English-Language Military Historiography of Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years’ War, 1900–Present," Western Illinois Historical Review (Spring 2013) vol 5. online

Thomson, Erik. "Beyond the Military State: Sweden’s Great Power Period in Recent Historiography." History Compass 9.4 (2011): 269–283. online[dead link]

External links

Media related to Gustav II Adolf of Sweden at Wikimedia Commons

Works by or about Gustavus Adolphus at Internet Archive

Works by Gustavus Adolphus at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

The Great and Famous Battle of Lutzen..., transcription

Texts on Wikisource:

"Gustavus II". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.

"Gustavus II. Adolphus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 735–736.

"Gustavus II. Adolphus". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

"Gustavus II., Adolphus". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.

| Gustav II AdolfHouse of Vasa Born: 9 December 1594 Died: 6 November 1632
Regnal titles
| Preceded byCharles IX | King of Sweden
1611–1632  | Succeeded byChristina

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e

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Authority control

Categories:

1594 births

1632 deaths

17th-century Swedish monarchs

Burials at Riddarholmen Church

Candidates for the Polish elective throne

Crown Princes of Sweden

Dukes of Södermanland

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden

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This page was last edited on 8 May 2023, at 15:58 (UTC

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LUCAS MODRIC

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He was born in Reus, but studied and worked in Barcelona where his most important works are also located, which stand out for their design.

One of his most important works is the Güell Palace, (its construction began in 1886 and was completed in 1888). The design of the building was commissioned to Gaudí by don Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, a prominent figure in the economic, political and social life of the city and a strong influence on politics.[17][18]
The last and one of his characteristic works is the Sagrada Familia church, which was left unfinished due to the death of the architect.
Gaudi's works give a special character to Barcelona and are poles of attraction for visitors and scholars.

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olodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy[a] (also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy;[b] born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019.

Born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine. Prior to his acting career, he obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University. He then pursued a career in comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and TV shows including the TV series Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played a fictional Ukrainian president. The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular. A political party with the same name as the TV show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95.

Zelenskyy announced his candidacy in the 2019 presidential election on the evening of 31 December 2018, alongside the New Year's Eve address of then-president Petro Poroshenko on the TV channel 1+1. A political outsider, he had already become one of the frontrunners in opinion polls for the election. He won the election with 73.23 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating Poroshenko. He has positioned himself as an anti-establishment and anti-corruption figure. As president, Zelenskyy has been a proponent of e-government and of unity between the Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking parts of the country's population.[4]: 11–13 His communication style makes extensive use of social media, particularly Instagram.[4]: 7–10 His party won a landslide victory in the snap legislative election held shortly after his inauguration as president. During the first two years of his administration, Zelenskyy oversaw the lifting of legal immunity for members of parliament (the Verkhovna Rada),[5] the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession, and some limited progress in tackling corruption in Ukraine.[6][7][8]

During his presidential campaign, Zelenskyy promised to end Ukraine's protracted conflict with Russia, and he has attempted to engage in dialogue with Russian president Vladimir Putin.[9] His administration faced an escalation of tensions with Russia in 2021, culminating in the launch of an ongoing full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy's strategy during the Russian military buildup was to calm the Ukrainian populace and assure the international community that Ukraine was not seeking to retaliate.[10] He initially distanced himself from warnings of an imminent war, while also calling for security guarantees and military support from NATO to "withstand" the threat.[11] After the start of the invasion, Zelenskyy declared martial law across Ukraine and a general mobilisation of the armed forces. His leadership during the crisis has won him widespread international praise, and he has been described as a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.[12][13] Zelenskyy was named the Time Person of the Year for 2022, and opinion polls in Ukraine have ranked him as Ukraine's greatest president.[14][15][16][17]

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Adila Sedraïa (born 26 June 1984), known as Indila, is a French singer and songwriter. She collaborated with many musicians on vocals and songwriting prior to releasing her first single, "Dernière danse" ("Last Dance"), in November 2013, which reached SNEP Top 2 in France. She released her first album Mini World in February 2014.

Early life

Adila Sedraïa was born on 26 June 1984, in Paris. Her mother was a caregiver, while her grandmother sang at weddings; she has two older sisters. Indila describes herself as a "child of the world" as she claims to be of Egyptian, Cambodian, Indian and Algerian descent. Prior to her singing career, she worked as a tour guide at the Marché international de Rungis.[6] She explained that her stage name comes from her insatiable love for India.

In addition to her native French, Indila has provided vocals in English, including "Dreamin'" with Youssoupha and "Bye Bye Sonyé" with DJ Abdel, and sung Hindi-language refrains in Criminel by TLF and Thug mariage by Rohff.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Bristol, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch CBE (born 19 July 1976) is an English actor. Known for his work on screen and stage, he has received various accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award. He has also been nominated for two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2014, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2015, he was appointed a CBE at Buckingham Palace for services to the performing arts and to charity.

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Kylian Mbappé Lottin (born 20 December 1998) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the France national team. Regarded as one of the best players in the world, he is renowned for his dribbling abilities, exceptional speed, and finishing.[2][3]

Born in Paris and raised in nearby Bondy, Mbappé began his senior club career in 2015 playing for Monaco, where he won the Ligue 1 title. In 2017, aged 18, Mbappé signed for Paris Saint-Germain on an eventual permanent transfer worth €180 million, making him the second-most-expensive player and most expensive teenage player of all time.[4] There, he won four Ligue 1 titles and three Coupes de France, including a domestic quadruple in the 2019–20 season, as well as leading the club to its first ever UEFA Champions League Final in 2020. He is the club's all-time top goalscorer and third all-time in assists.

At international level, Mbappé made his senior debut for France in 2017, at age 18. At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Mbappé became the youngest French player to score at a World Cup, and became the second teenager, after Pelé, to score in a World Cup Final. He finished as the joint second-highest goalscorer as France won the tournament, and won the FIFA World Cup Best Young Player and French Player of the Year for his performances. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, France reached the final; Mbappé won the Golden Boot and Silver Ball and set the record for most goals scored in World Cup finals.

Mbappé was named to the FIFA FIFPro World11 in 2018, 2019 and 2022, the UEFA Team of the Year in 2018 and the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season in 2016–17, 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22. He was awarded the Golden Boy in 2017. Mbappé has won Ligue 1 Player of the Year three times, and has finished as the Ligue 1 top scorer for four seasons; in the 2021–22 season, he became the first player to finish as both Ligue 1 top scorer and top assist provider. He was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Toki, Cem Yıldırım, Tire/Επαρχία Σμύρνης, Τουρκία

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Cem Yalçın Yıldırım (born 8 July 1961)[1] is a Turkish mathematician who specializes in number theory. He obtained his B.Sc from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey and his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1990.[2] His advisor was John Friedlander. He is currently a faculty member at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey.

In 2005([3]), with Dan Goldston and János Pintz, he proved, that for any positive number ε there exist primes p and p′ such that the difference between p and p′ is smaller than ε log p.

Formally;

lim inf n → ∞p n + 1− p nlog ⁡ p n= 0

where p n denotes the nth prime number. In other words, for every c > 0, there exist infinitely many pairs of consecutive primes p n and p n₊₁ which are closer to each other than the average distance between consecutive primes by a factor of c, i.e., p n₊₁ − p n < c log p n.

This result was originally reported in 2003 by Dan Goldston and Cem Yıldırım but was later retracted.[4][5] Then Janos Pintz joined the team and they completed the proof in 2005.

In fact, if they assume the Elliott–Halberstam conjecture, then they can also show that primes within 16 of each other occur infinitely often, which is related to the twin prime conjecture.

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Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, born between 25 August and 31 October 1451 and passed away 20 May 1506, whose ambition changed the world. Columbus sailed west in search of a trading route and ended up discovering the Caribbean and subsequently South America; his discovery began the European colonization of North and South America.

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Edinburgh, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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Sir Michael Caine CBE (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films over a career spanning seven decades and is considered a British film icon. He has received various awards including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. As of 2017, the films in which Caine has appeared have grossed over $7.8 billion worldwide.  Caine is one of only five male actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in five different decades. In 2000, he received a BAFTA Fellowship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to cinema.

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Zinedine Yazid Zidane (French: Zinédine Yazid Zidane;[4] born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most successful coaches in the world. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, ball control, and technique. He received many individual accolades as a player, including being named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2003, and winning the 1998 Ballon d'Or.

Zidane started his career at Cannes before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Ligue 1 at Bordeaux. In 1996, he moved to Italian team Juventus, where he won several trophies including two Serie A titles. He moved to Real Madrid for a world record fee at the time of €77.5 million in 2001, which remained unmatched for the next eight years. In Spain, Zidane won several trophies, including a La Liga title and the UEFA Champions League. In the 2002 Champions League final, he scored a left-foot volleyed winner that is considered one of the greatest goals in the competition's history.

Capped 108 times by France, Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring twice in the final, and was named to the All-Star team. This triumph made him a national hero in France and he received the Legion of Honour in 1998. He won UEFA Euro 2000 and was named Player of the Tournament. He also received the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup, despite his infamous sending off in the final against Italy for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest. He retired as the fourth-most capped player in French history.

In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world's greatest living players compiled by Pelé, and in the same year was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. Zidane is one of nine players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or. He was the ambassador for Qatar's successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, the first Arab country to host the tournament.

After retiring as a player, Zidane began his coaching career at Real Madrid Castilla. He remained in the position for two years before taking the helm of the first team in 2016. In his initial two and a half seasons, Zidane became the first coach to win the Champions League three times in a row, won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup twice each, as well as a La Liga title and a Supercopa de España. This success led to Zidane being named Best FIFA Men's Coach in 2017. He resigned in 2018, but returned to the club in 2019 and won another La Liga and a Supercopa de España title before leaving again in 2021.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Genova, Γένοβα, Ιταλία

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Christopher Columbus[b] (/kəˈlʌmbəs/;[2] between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian[c] explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and European colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, filmmaker, retired professional bodybuilder, and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. Time magazine named Schwarzenegger one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.[5][6]

Schwarzenegger began lifting weights at the age of 15 and went on to win the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and subsequently won the Mr. Olympia title seven times. He is widely regarded as either the greatest or one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time,[7][8] and has written many books and articles about bodybuilding.[9] The Arnold Sports Festival, considered the second-most important bodybuilding event after Mr. Olympia, is named after him.[10] He appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron (1977). Schwarzenegger retired from bodybuilding and gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action star, with his breakthrough in the sword and sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian (1982), a box-office hit with a sequel in 1984.[11] After playing the title character in the science fiction film The Terminator (1984), he starred in the sequels Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). His other successful action films included Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), Red Heat (1988), Total Recall (1990), and True Lies (1994), in addition to comedy films such as Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), and Jingle All the Way (1996).[12] He is the founder of the film production company Oak Productions.[13]

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Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone Buonaparte died 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a Corsican-born French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the de facto leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy endures to this day, as a highly celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many liberal reforms that have persisted in society, and is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His campaigns are still studied at military academies worldwide. Between three and six million civilians and soldiers died in what became known as the Napoleonic Wars.

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Arjen Robben (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɑrjən ˈrɔbə(n)] (listen); born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a winger. He was known for his dribbling skills, speed, ball control and long-range shots. Robben is regarded as one of the best players of his generation and was often lauded as among the best wingers in the world in his prime.

Robben first came to prominence with Groningen, for whom he was player of the year for the 2000–01 Eredivisie season. Two years later he signed for PSV, where he became the Netherlands' Young Player of the Year and won an Eredivisie title.[4] The following season Robben's signature was pursued by leading clubs, and after protracted transfer negotiations, he joined Chelsea in 2004. Robben's Chelsea debut was delayed through injury, but upon returning to fitness, he helped Chelsea bring home two consecutive Premier League titles, and was the Premier League Player of the Month in November 2005.[5][6] After a third season in England which was punctuated by injury, Robben signed for Real Madrid in a transfer worth €35 million.

In August 2009, Robben transferred to Bayern Munich for a fee of around €25 million.[7] In his first season in Munich, Bayern won the league title, Robben's fifth league title in eight years. Robben scored the winning goal in the 2013 UEFA Champions League final, being named to the Squad of the Season. In 2014, he was named to the FIFPro World XI and the UEFA Team of the Year, and fourth place in the Ballon d'Or.[8] In Germany, he won 20 trophies, including eight Bundesliga titles and five DFB Pokals. During his long tenure at Bayern, Robben was also known for his fruitful partnership with fellow winger Franck Ribéry – together they were affectionately referred to by the nickname Robbery.[9][10] On 15 July 2021, Robben announced his retirement from professional football.[11]

Robben started in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, which the Netherlands lost to Spain. He also appeared at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships, and the 2006 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. In the latter, he won the Bronze Ball and was named to the All-Star Team.

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Málaga, Ισπανία

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Pablo Ruiz Picasso[a][b] (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture,[8][9] the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

# data[].attributes.location_name
Birmingham, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Forbes magazine ranked him as one of the highest-paid actors in 2014.

Born in Wales to English parents, Bale had his breakthrough role at age 13 in Steven Spielberg's 1987 war film Empire of the Sun. After more than a decade of performing in leading and supporting roles in films, he gained wider recognition for his portrayals of serial killer Patrick Bateman in the black comedy American Psycho (2000) and the titular role in the psychological thriller The Machinist (2004). In 2005, he played superhero Batman in Batman Begins and again in The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), garnering acclaim for his performance in the trilogy, which is one of the highest-grossing film franchises.

Bale continued in starring roles in a range of films outside his work as Batman, including the period drama The Prestige (2006), the action film Terminator Salvation (2009), the crime drama Public Enemies (2009), the epic film Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) and the superhero film Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). For his portrayal of boxer Dicky Eklund in the 2010 biographical film The Fighter, he won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Further Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations came for his work in the black comedy American Hustle (2013) and the biographical dramedies The Big Short (2015) and Vice (2018). His performances as politician Dick Cheney in Vice and race car driver Ken Miles in the sports drama Ford v Ferrari (2019) earned him a second win and a fifth nomination respectively at the Golden Globe Awards.

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Μαδρίτη, Ισπανία

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Μαδρίτη, Ισπανία

# data[].attributes.subject
Μαδρίτη, Ισπανία

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Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the Baroque period (c. 1600–1750). He began to paint in a precise tenebrist style, later developing a freer manner characterized by bold brushwork. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family and commoners, culminating in his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).

Velázquez's paintings became a model for 19th-century realist and impressionist painters. In the 20th century, artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Francis Bacon paid tribute to Velázquez by re-interpreting some of his most iconic images.

Most of his work entered the Spanish royal collection, and by far the best collection is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, though some portraits were sent abroad as diplomatic gifts, especially to the Austrian Habsburgs.

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Συνεισφέροντες στα εγχειρήματα Wikimedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ντιέγο Βελάθκεθ - Βικιπαίδεια

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Από τη Βικιπαίδεια, την ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια

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Πέλλα, Ελλάδα

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Alexander III of Macedon (Ancient Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος, romanized: Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great,[a] was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon.[a] He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India.[2] He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders.[3][4]

Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control over Thrace and Illyria before marching on the city of Thebes, which was subsequently destroyed in battle. Alexander then led the League of Corinth, and used his authority to launch the pan-Hellenic project envisaged by his father, assuming leadership over all Greeks in their conquest of Persia.[5][6]

In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Persian Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted for 10 years. Following his conquest of Asia Minor, Alexander broke the power of Achaemenid Persia in a series of decisive battles, including those at Issus and Gaugamela; he subsequently overthrew Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety.[b] After the fall of Persia, the Macedonian Empire held a vast swath of territory between the Adriatic Sea and the Indus River. Alexander endeavored to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea" and invaded India in 326 BC, achieving an important victory over Porus, an ancient Indian king of present-day Punjab, at the Battle of the Hydaspes. Due to the demand of his homesick troops, he eventually turned back at the Beas River and later died in 323 BC in Babylon, the city of Mesopotamia that he had planned to establish as his empire's capital. Alexander's death left unexecuted an additional series of planned military and mercantile campaigns that would have begun with a Greek invasion of Arabia. In the years following his death, a series of civil wars broke out across the Macedonian Empire, eventually leading to its disintegration at the hands of the Diadochi.

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Grigore Vieru Boulevard, Κισινάου, Μολδαβία

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Gregore Vieru was a Moldavian poet, writer and unionist advocate. Known for his poems and books for children. His poetry is characterized by vivid natural scenery, patriotism, as well as a venerated image of the scared mother. Vieru wrote in the Romanian language. In 1993, he was elected a correspodent member of the Romanian Academy.
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His first publishing debut was in 1957, a booklet of poems for children, «Alarma» («Alarm»), appreciated by literary critics.The following year, Vieru graduated from the Ion Creangă Pedagogical State University in Chișinău with a degree in history and philology. He was employed as an editor in the magazine called «Scînteia Leninistă» («The Leninist Spark») designed for children, currently it is called «Noi» («We»), and the newspaper «Tînărul leninist» («The Young Leninist»), currently «Florile Dalbe» («Glowing Flowers»).

In 1959, he became editor at the «Nistru» («Dniester») magazine, currently «Basarabia», a publication of the Writers' Union of Moldova.

From 1960 to 1963, he served as editor in chief of the «Cartea Moldovenească» («Moldavian book») publishing house.

In 1967, Vieru's book «Poetry for Readers of All Ages» (published in 1965) was awarded the Moldavian Prize for Youth Literature. The following year, his book «Your Name» became part of the contemporary literature curriculum in Moldavian universities

He wrote another children's story/picture book «Bread and Dew» which features Doru, a 4 or 5-year-old boy who lives in Chișinău with his parents.

Many moldavian composers were inspired by the poetry of Grigore Vieru (songbook «Poftim de intrați», «Cine crede» etc.), the poet himself is the author of a lot of melodies («Să crești mare» etc.) and since 1964 he began to collaborate with composer Yulia Tsibulskaya («Soare, soare», «Clopoțeii», «Stea-stea, logostea», «Ramule-neamule», «Cîntînd cu iubire» etc.).

He was a frequent guest of the «Poetry House»in Cociulia village, Cantemir District. The famous book for preschoolers «Albinuța» was also written here.

1968 was turning point for the poet's destiny; this year became remarkable by the volume of lyrical «Numele Tău» («Your name»), with an introductory written by Ion Druță. The book was appreciated by literary critics as the most original poetic appearance. In the year of it publishing, it became a subject of the study at the university within the courses designated for the contemporary national literature. Three poems in the volume are entitled: Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga, Brâncuși, and another two are dedicated to Nicolae Labiș and Marin Sorescu. For the first time, in the post war period, such dedications has appeared in the Bessarabian lyrics.
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On January 16, 2009 Vieru suffered a serious traffic accident[3] and was admitted to the Emergency Hospital in Chișinău. Grigore Vieru was in critical condition with polytrauma, closed cranio-cerebral trauma, cerebral contusion, and closed chest trauma, contusion of the heart and lungs and contusion of the abdominal organs, with minimal chances of survival.[4] The road accident took place on the night of January 15 to 16, at 1:30 am on the R-3 route Chișinău – Hâncești – Cimișlia – Basarabeasca.[5] At the driver’s seat was Gheorghe Munteanu, emeritus artist of the Republic of Moldova and deputy director of the "Joc" folk dance troop of Chișinău, who being in an easier state.[4] At the time, he was out with friends celebrating the birthday of Mihai Eminescu, a 19th-century Romanian poet. Vieru died on January 18, 2009, in the Emergency Hospital in Chișinău two days after the accident, following a cardiac failure from which he could not be resuscitated.[6][7]

Grigore Vieru was buried on January 20, 2009, in Chișinău, at the Central Cemetery on Armeana street. The funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people, the divisions of Grigore Vieru, as professor Dan Dungaciu called them in his article.[8] Chișinău had not known such funerals since the burial of the spouses Doina and Ion Aldea Teodorovici. The day of January 20, 2009, was declared a day of mourning in the Republic of Moldova, at 10:00 the whole republic having a moment of silence. Vieru's funeral was also broadcast live by Teleradio Moldova.

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Antoine Griezmann (born 21 March 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the France national team. A versatile player, he is known for his attacking, passing and supportive defence, and has played as an attacking midfielder, winger, and striker in his career.

Griezmann began his senior club career with Real Sociedad, winning the Segunda División in his first season. In 2014, he joined Atlético Madrid for a then-club record €30 million and won the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup, the Supercopa de España, and La Liga Best Player. He was nominated for the Ballon d'Or and Best FIFA Men's Player in 2016 and 2018.[3][4] In 2019, Griezmann was the subject of a record association football transfer when he signed for Barcelona in a transfer worth €120 million, becoming the fifth-most expensive player of all time.[5] There, he won a Copa del Rey, before returning to Atlético Madrid in 2021, becoming the club's all-time third-highest goalscorer.

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afael Nadal Parera (Catalan: [rəf(ə)ˈɛl nəˈðal pəˈɾeɾə], Spanish: [rafaˈel naˈðal paˈɾeɾa];[6] born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 14 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).[1] He has been ranked world No. 1 for 209 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. He also holds the record for most consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, having never left the Top 10 from April 2005 to March 2023, a total of 912 weeks. Nadal has won a joint-record 22 Grand Slam men's singles titles, including a record 14 French Open titles. He has won 92 ATP singles titles, including 36 Masters titles, with 63 of these on clay courts. Nadal is one of only two men to complete the Career Golden Slam in singles.[b] His 81 consecutive wins on clay is the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era.

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Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (Dutch: [ˈjoːɦɑŋ ˈkrœyf] (listen), internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. One of the greatest players of all time, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974.[4] Cruyff was a proponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels, which Cruyff also employed as a manager. Because of the far reaching impact of his playing style and his coaching ideas, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern football. For his achievements as a manager, he is also viewed as one of the greatest managers of all time.[5][6][7][8][9]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dutch football rose from a semi-professional and obscure level to become a powerhouse in the sport.[10][11] Cruyff led the Netherlands to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup with three goals and three assists; he received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.[12][13] After finishing third in UEFA Euro 1976, Cruyff refused to play in the 1978 FIFA World Cup after a kidnapping attempt targeting him and his family in their Barcelona home dissuaded him from football.[14] At club level, Cruyff started his career at Ajax, where he won eight Eredivisie titles, three European Cups, and one Intercontinental Cup, where he had two assists in the final.[15][16] In 329 matches for Ajax, he scored 257 goals and provided more than 170 assists. In 1973, he moved to Barcelona for a world record transfer fee, helping the team win La Liga in his first season and winning the Ballon d'Or. In 180 official matches for Barcelona, he scored 60 goals and provided 83 assists.[17] After retiring from playing in 1984, Cruyff became highly successful as manager of Ajax and later Barcelona; he remained an advisor to both clubs after his coaching tenures. His son Jordi also played football professionally for Barcelona.

In 1999, Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century in an election held by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, and came second behind Pelé in their World Player of the Century poll.[18] He came third in a vote organised by the French magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect their Football Player of the Century. He was included in the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, and in 2004 was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.

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Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party,[a] becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.[b] During his dictatorship, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned with a sentence of five years. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.

By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the German Reichstag but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. The former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism. On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died and Hitler replaced him as the head of state and government. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which initially gave him significant popular support.

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Nottingham, Νότιγχαμ, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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William Shakespeare (bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted

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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970), commonly known in France simply as "le général" ("the general"), was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to restore democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969.

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Βαστερνορλάντ, Σουηδία

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Zlatan Ibrahimović born 3 October 1981 is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range shots, and excellent technique and ball control. He is regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and is one of the most decorated active footballers in the world,[a] having won 34 trophies in his career. He has scored over 570 career goals, including more than 500 club goals, and has scored in each of the last four decades.

Ibrahimović began his career at Malmö FF in 1999, and signed for Ajax two years later, where he gained a reputation as one of the most promising forwards in Europe. He departed two years later to sign for Juventus before joining domestic rivals Inter Milan in 2006, where he won three consecutive Serie A titles. In the summer of 2009, he moved to Barcelona in one of the world's most expensive transfers. After just one season, he returned to Italy having signed for Inter's rival Milan. With them, he won the Serie A title in his debut season. In 2012, Ibrahimović joined Paris Saint-Germain, leading them to their first Ligue 1 title in 19 years and soon establishing himself as a leading figure in their dominance of French football. During his four-season stay in France, he won four consecutive Ligue 1 titles, was the top scorer in Ligue 1 for three seasons and became PSG's all-time leading goalscorer at the time. In 2016, he joined Manchester United on a free transfer and won his first European honour in his debut season. Ibrahimović joined American club LA Galaxy in 2018 and rejoined Milan in 2020, winning his fifth Serie A title in 2022.

Ibrahimović is one of eleven players to have made 100 or more appearances for the Swedish national team, over a 20-year international career. He is the country's all-time leading goalscorer with 62 goals. He represented Sweden at the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups, as well as the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 UEFA European Championships. He has been awarded Guldbollen (the Golden Ball), given to the Swedish player of the year, a record 12 times, including 10 consecutive times from 2007 to 2016. Ibrahimović's 35-yard bicycle kick goal for Sweden against England won the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award, and is often considered one of the best goals of all time

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cristiano ronaldo is the greatest player to ever raise football

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In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is dos Santos and the second or paternal family name is Aveiro.

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Évariste Galois (25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory,[2] two major branches of abstract algebra. He was a staunch republican and was heavily involved in the political turmoil that surrounded the French Revolution of 1830. As a result of his political activism, he was arrested repeatedly, serving one jail sentence of several months. For reasons that remain obscure, shortly after his release from prison he fought in a duel and died of the wounds he suffered.[3]

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Manchester, Μάντσεστερ, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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Jacob Harry Maguire (born 5 March 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

Maguire came through the youth system at Sheffield United before graduating to the first team in 2011. He made 166 appearances for United and was the club's Player of the Year three seasons in succession, also featuring in the PFA Team of the Year for League One as many times. In 2014, he transferred to Hull City for £2.5 million, before being loaned to Wigan Athletic in 2015. He joined Leicester City in 2017 for an initial fee of £12 million and in the 2017–18 season he played in every minute and was named Player of the season. Maguire moved to Manchester United in 2019 for a fee believed to be £80 million, a world-record amount for a defender, and within six months was appointed club captain.

Maguire played one match for the England national under-21 team in 2012. In 2017, he made his senior debut and he was chosen for the England's squads for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, and UEFA Euro 2020, earning a place in the Team of the Tournament in the latter.

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Leonidas I (/liˈɒnɪdəs, -dæs/; Greek: Λεωνίδας; died 19 September 480 BC) was a Greek king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed descent from the mythological demigod Heracles. Leonidas I was a son of King Anaxandridas II. He succeeded his half-brother King Cleomenes I to the throne in c. 489 BC. His co-ruler was King Leotychidas. He was succeeded by his son, King Pleistarchus.

Leonidas had a notable role in the Second Greco-Persian War, leading the allied Greek forces to a last stand at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) while attempting to defend the pass from the invading Persian army. He died during the battle and entered myth as the leader of the 300 Spartans. While the Greeks lost this battle, they were able to expel the Persian invaders in the following year.

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Λονδίνο, Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο

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Charles III is the King of the United Kingdom and 14 other states of the Commonwealth of Nations. He is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

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Πέλλα, Ελλάδα

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Alexander of Macedon
July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to the throne in 336 BC at the age of 20, and spent most of his ruling years conducting a lengthy military campaign throughout Western Asia and Egypt. By the age of 30, he had created one of the largest empires in history, stretching from Greece to northwestern India.[2] He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be one of history's greatest and most successful military commanders.

Until the age of 16, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. In 335 BC, shortly after his assumption of kingship over Macedon, he campaigned in the Balkans and reasserted control over Thrace and Illyria before marching on the city of Thebes, which was subsequently destroyed in battle. Alexander then led the League of Corinth, and used his authority to launch the pan-Hellenic project envisaged by his father, assuming leadership over all Greeks in their conquest of Persia.

In 334 BC, he invaded the Achaemenid Persian Empire and began a series of campaigns that lasted for 10 years. Following his conquest of Asia Minor, Alexander broke the power of Achaemenid Persia in a series of decisive battles, including those at Issus and Gaugamela; he subsequently overthrew Darius III and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in its entirety.[b] After the fall of Persia, the Macedonian Empire held a vast swath of territory between the Adriatic Sea and the Indus River. Alexander endeavored to reach the "ends of the world and the great outer sea''and invaded India in 326 BC, achieving an important victory over Porus, an ancient Indian king of present-day Punjab, at the Battle of the Hydaspes. Due to the demand of his homesick troops, he eventually turned back at the Beas River and later died in 323 BC in Babylon, the city of Mesopotamia that he had planned to establish as his empire's capital.
Alexander is surely one of the most powerful general the world had ever seen. Some people even say that if he didn't die that early the world would be much deferent that it is now. To the Persians he was Alexander the ''accursed'' but to the west, he was imortalized as Alexander the great.
by An.

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Born in Ukraine, she moved with her family to Bologna. In 2009 he reached the podium at the Italian Championships in the 16/18 age category, while the following year he won the Cup and the Latin Dance Super Cup and competed in the final of the Italian Championships. Her latest success came in 2010 when she competed in the under 21 Latin dance semi-final in Blackpool.

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Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky in Russian. In Italian also referred to as Theodore Dostoevsky (Moscow, November 11, 1821 - St. Petersburg, February 9, 1881) was a Russian writer and philosopher.

He is considered, together with Tolstoy, one of the greatest Russian novelists and thinkers of all time.

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Il servizio di Google, offerto senza costi, traduce all'istante parole, frasi e pagine web dall'italiano

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Hans Christian Andersen

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Marc Chagall, whose Hebrew name was Moishe Segal and the Russian one Mark Zacharovič Šagal, later transcribed in French as Chagall (Lëzna, July 7, 1887 - Saint-Paul-de-Vence, March 28, 1985), was a Russian painter naturalized French of Hasidic Jewish origin.

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Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, simply known as Pablo Picasso (Malaga, October 25, 1881 - Mougins, April 8, 1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor and lithographer, among the most influential of the 20th century.

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Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature

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Born in Scutari, where he attended his first lessons at the Jesuit College, Koliqi moved to Italy to study in Brescia and then at the University of Padua, where he devoted himself to the study of the Albanian popular epic. He began writing under pseudonyms, such as Hilushi, Hilush Vilza and Borizani.

In the 1920s and 1930s Koliqi was the founder of important journals in Albania, such as the journals Illyria and Ora e Maleve (The mountain fairy, 1923) and the periodical Shejzat (Pleiadi, Roam), interested in the geography and culture of the Village. He was also Minister of Education during the Albanian reign during the Italian occupation of Albania (1939-1943), when he sent two hundred teachers to establish Albanian schools in Kosovo.

Together with Mitrush Kuteli he is considered the founder of modern Albanian prose. He translated the works of the great Italian poets into Albanian: Dante Alighieri, Petrarca, Ludovico Ariosto, Torquato Tasso, Giuseppe Parini, Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo. He distinguished himself in the translation of an anthology of Italian poetry in 1963.

In his books such as Hija e Maleve (1929), Tregtar flamujsh (1935) and Pasqyrat e Narçizit (1946), Koliqi introduces a unique spirituality to Albanian literature. His works were later censored and banned during the Albanian communist regime of Enver Hoxha.

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Κρακοβία, Πολωνία

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Stanisław Herman Lem
The Polish futurist writer is known all over the world. Such famous works as "Solaris", "Eden", "Voice of the Lord" and others belong to him.He was born in 1921 in the then Polish city of Lvov. During the German occupation he miraculously did not end up in the ghetto thanks to forged documents. After the end of World War II, he moved to Kraków as part of the repatriation program, where he studied medicine. At 46, Lem publishes his first story, and already at 51, his debut novel "Astronauts" is published, which immediately made him famous.The author's entire work can roughly be divided into several groups. One is serious works in the spirit of science fiction... The other he wrote as a satirical writer. These are grotesque works like Cyberiad and Peace on Earth.

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Johann Baptist Strauss II ( 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son, was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include "The Blue Danube", "Kaiser-Walzer", "Tales from the Vienna Woods", "Frühlingsstimmen", and the "Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka". Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known.

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Στοκχόλμη, Σουηδία

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Princess Martha of Sweden
was Crown Princess of Norway as the spouse of the future King Olav V from 1929 until her death in 1954. The current King Harald V is her only son.

Princess Märtha was also a sister of Queen Astrid of Belgium, and a maternal aunt of Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg, King Baudouin of Belgium and King Albert II of Belgium.
Märtha was born at her parents' home of Arvfurstens Palats in Stockholm on 28 March 1901, the second child of Prince Carl of Sweden, Duke of Västergötland, and his wife Princess Ingeborg of Denmark. Her father was the younger brother of King Gustav V of Sweden, making her a first cousin twice removed of the present King of Sweden, and her mother was the younger sister of King Christian X of Denmark and of King Haakon VII of Norway.

Märtha had an elder sister, Princess Margaretha of Denmark, a younger sister, Queen Astrid of the Belgians, and a younger brother, Prince Carl Bernadotte. Märtha grew up to be much more confident and outgoing and so the daughter most admired by her mother.

As a child, Märtha was taught at home by private tutors and completed in-depth courses in childcare and first aid.[3] She and her sisters were occasionally seen shopping unaccompanied on the streets of Stockholm.

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Rollo died between 928 and 923. He was a Viking,
as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, today a region in northern France. He emerged as the outstanding warrior among the Norsemen who had secured a permanent foothold on Frankish soil in the valley of the lower Seine. After the Siege of Chartres in 911, Charles the Simple, the king of West Francia, granted them lands between the mouth of the Seine and what is now Rouen in exchange for Rollo agreeing to end his brigandage, swearing allegiance to him, religious conversion and a pledge to defend the Seine's estuary from Viking raiders.

The name Rollo is first recorded as the leader of these Viking settlers in a charter of 918, and he continued to reign over the region of Normandy until at least 928. He was succeeded by his son William Longsword in the Duchy of Normandy that he had founded.[6] The offspring of Rollo and his followers, through their intermingling with the indigenous Frankish and Gallo-Roman population of the lands they settled, became known as the "Normans". After the Norman conquest of England and their conquest of southern Italy and Sicily over the following two centuries, their descendants came to rule England, much of Ireland, Sicily and Antioch from the 11th to 13th centuries, leaving behind an enduring legacy in the histories of Europe and the Near East.

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Tre Kronor, Storkyrkobrinken, 111 28 Stockholm, Σουηδία

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Charles Xl of Sweden was king of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721).

He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp. His father died when he was four years old, so Charles was educated by his governors until his coronation at the age of seventeen. Soon afterward, he was forced out on military expeditions to secure the recently acquired dominions from Danish troops in the Scanian War. Having successfully fought off the Danes, he returned to Stockholm and engaged in correcting the country's neglected political, financial, and economic situation. He managed to sustain peace during the remaining 20 years of his reign. Changes in finance, commerce, national maritime and land armaments, judicial procedure, church government, and education emerged during this period.[3] Charles XI was succeeded by his only son Charles XII, who made use of the well-trained army in battles throughout Europe.

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Antti Yrjö Hammarberg (14 September 1943 – 14 January 1991), professionally known as Irwin Goodman, was a popular Finnish rock and folk singer. In the late 1960s he was widely known as a protest singer. He recorded over 300 songs, most of which were his own compositions, with lyrics written by Vexi Salmi. Irwin Goodman started as a protest song singer in the folk boom of the mid-1960s; his humorous songs, often mocking the authorities, became favorites of the Finnish people, to the extent that small Irwin singalike contests are still held by some pubs for entertainment. Goodman had continuing troubles with Finnish tax authorities and had ever-worsening problems with alcohol. His escapades were eagerly followed by sensationalist magazines such as Hymy.

Goodman died of a heart attack while on the way from Vyborg to Hamina, Finland. The story of his life was turned into a feature film, Rentun Ruusu, in 2001.

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Simo Hayha (17 December 1905- 1 April 2002) also known as ''the white death'' is know as the deadliest sniper in history. He is believed to have killed over 500 enemy soldiers during the Winter War with all of them being Soviets. He used a Finnish-prodused M/28-30 rifle as his weapon.

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Conservative 1940 to 1945, 1951 to 1955

Winston Churchill was an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War. He served as Conservative Prime Minister twice - from 1940 to 1945 (before being defeated in the 1945 general election by the Labour leader Clement Attlee) and from 1951 to 1955.

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Ismail Kadarè born on January 28, 1936 in Gjirokastro is an Albanian writer, poet, essayist and screenwriter. During the communist regime he was a member of the People's Assembly for 12 years (1970-82). He began by writing poetry, but it was the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army, that made him the dominant literary figure in Albania and brought him international fame.His novels often explore themes related to Albanian history and life under the communist regime. Some of his most famous books include "The General of the Dead Army", "The Palace of Dreams" and "The Broken April".Ismail Kadare is considered a writer of great importance in European and world literature, for the depth and complexity of his writings, for his ability to represent Albanian history and culture and for his attention to the universal themes of human life.

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James Joyce was a poet, writer and playwright.

He was born a Rathgar.

A month later he moved to Paris. The idea was to become a doctor and he enrolled at the Sorbonne. After for month, her mother fell ill with cancer and Joyce was forced return to Ireland.

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QUEEN ELISABETH
Queen Elizabeth loved purebred dog Welsh Corgi Pembroke.

She reigned on the throne for 70 years and the queen have 4 children: Carlo III, Edward, Andrew and Anna.

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Stephen the Great (Borzești, 1433 – Suceava, 2 July 1504), was voivode of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504, thus becoming the longest-ruling Moldavian ruler. Ștefan defended his kingdom against the expansionist ambitions of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire. The long war against the Turks and the great military success in the Battle of Vaslui made him very popular in Europe, so much so that Pope Sixtus IV named him verus christianae fidei athleta ("true champion of the Christian faith"). Revered as a saint by the Orthodox Church,

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Napoleone Bonaparte

was born in Ajaccio in Corsica on 15 August 1769, from a family of little nobility, he was a French politician, general and founder of the first French emperorwas born in ajaccio in Corsica on 15 August 1769, from a family of little nobility, he was a French politician, general and founder of the first French emperor.

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Maria Sklodowska Curie was a physical, chimical, maths and naturasist French.
She was born in Warsaw, Poland on 7th November 1867.
She lived in Poland, but she moved between Poland and Russia for her study.
In 1891 she moved to Paris and she gradueted in math and physical.
in 1903 she's a first woman got a Nobel prize.
In 1907 after her husband's dead's, she's tought at Sorbona University.
In 1911 her's  got a Nobel prize for a chimical.
She died on 4 July in 1934 in France.

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He was a famous poet, philologist, writer, journalist and politician.
He was born on 15 jenuary 1850 in Romania and he was died on 15 june 1889.
Eminescu as the godfather and founder of the modern Romanian language. Eminescu is unanimously celebrated as the greatest and most representative of Romanian poets.

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Leonardo Da Vinci (Firenze)

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Harry Houdini (/huːˈdiːni/, born Erich Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician Robert-Houdin (1805–1871).

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. He composed over 600 works, including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musical family.

The Austrian composer may have only been alive for 35 short years, but that was more than enough time to write some of our most famous classical music today. ...

Queen of the Night aria – The Magic Flute. ...

Overture – The Marriage of Figaro. ...

Sull'aria – The Marriage of Figaro.

The Austrian composer may have only been alive for 35 short years, but that was more than enough time to write some of our most famous classical music today. ...

Queen of the Night aria – The Magic Flute. ...

Overture – The Marriage of Figaro. ...

Sull'aria – The Marriage of Figaro.

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Spyros Louis (won the first modern-day Olympic marathon at the 1896 Summer Olympics. )

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Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor of France)

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Vangelis Papathanasiou (Musician Composer)

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Ioannis Kapodistrias (the first head of state of independent Greece 1827)

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Giannoulis Chalepas (Sculptor)

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Pythagoras (founder of Mathematics)

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Aristotle (384 BC-322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher. He was the teacher of Plato and the master of Alexander. He was born in a city named Stagira. Aristotle was composed on many topics, including physics, spirituality, poetry, drama, music, logic, political science, ethics, biology. Aristotle carried forward the work of his master Plato.

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Aristotle (; Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs, pronounced Ancient Greek [aristotélɛːs]; 384-322 BC) was an philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology and the arts. As the founder of the Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum in Athens, he began the wider Aristotelian tradition that followed, which set the groundwork for the development of modern science.

Little is known about Aristotle's life. He was born in the city of Stagira in northern Greece during the Classical period. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, and he was brought up by a guardian. At 17 or 18 he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there till the age of 37 ( c. 347 BC). Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls.

Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him. His teachings and methods of inquiry have had a significant global impact, and as a result, his philosophy has exerted an influence across the world and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion.

Aristotle's views profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. The influence of his physical science extended from late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, and was not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics were developed. Some of Aristotle's zoological observations found in his biology, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the octopus, were disbelieved until the 19th century. He influenced Judeo-Islamic philosophies during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher", and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as simply "The Philosopher", while the poet Dante called him "the master of those who know". His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, and were studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and Jean Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century. In addition, his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.

In general, the details of Aristotle's life are not well-established. The biographies written in ancient times are often speculative and historians only agree on a few salient points.

Aristotle was born in 384 BC in Stagira, Chalcidice, about 55 km (34 miles) east of modern-day Thessaloniki. His father, Nicomachus, was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. While he was young, Aristotle learned about biology and medical information, which was taught by his father. Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was about thirteen, and Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. Although little information about Aristotle's childhood has survived, he probably spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy.

At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy. He probably experienced the Eleusinian Mysteries as he wrote when describing the sights one viewed at the Eleusinian Mysteries, "to experience is to learn" [παθείν μαθεĩν]. Aristotle remained in Athens for nearly twenty years before leaving in 348/47 BC. The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the Academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus, although it is possible that he feared the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens at that time and left before Plato died. Aristotle then accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. After the death of Hermias, Aristotle travelled with his pupil Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island and its sheltered lagoon. While in Lesbos, Aristotle married Pythias, either Hermias's adoptive daughter or niece. They had a daughter, whom they also named Pythias. In 343 BC, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander.

"Aristotle tutoring Alexander" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal Academy of Macedon. During Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, he gave lessons not only to Alexander but also to two other future kings: Ptolemy and Cassander. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest, and Aristotle's own attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants". By 335 BC, Aristotle had returned to Athens, establishing his own school there known as the Lyceum. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira. They had a son whom Aristotle named after his father, Nicomachus. If the - an uncritical compilation from the Middle Ages - is accurate, he may also have had an , Palaephatus of Abydus.

Portrait bust of Aristotle; an Imperial Roman (1st or 2nd century AD) copy of a lost bronze sculpture made by Lysippos

This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works. He wrote many dialogues, of which only fragments have survived. Those works that have survived are in treatise form and were not, for the most part, intended for widespread publication; they are generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include , Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, , and . Aristotle studied and made significant contributions to "logic, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, biology, botany, ethics, politics, agriculture, medicine, dance, and theatre."

Near the end of his life, Alexander and Aristotle became estranged over Alexander's relationship with Persia and Persians. A widespread tradition in antiquity suspected Aristotle of playing a role in Alexander's death, but the only evidence of this is an unlikely claim made some six years after the death. Following Alexander's death, anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens was rekindled. In 322 BC, Demophilus and Eurymedon the Hierophant reportedly denounced Aristotle for impiety, prompting him to flee to his mother's family estate in Chalcis, on Euboea, at which occasion he was said to have stated: "I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy" - a reference to Athens's trial and execution of Socrates. He died in Chalcis, Euboea of natural causes later that same year, having named his student Antipater as his chief executor and leaving a will in which he asked to be buried next to his wife.

Theoretical philosophy

With the Prior Analytics, Aristotle is credited with the earliest study of formal logic, and his conception of it was the dominant form of Western logic until 19th-century advances in mathematical logic. Kant stated in the Critique of Pure Reason that with Aristotle logic reached its completion.

In words

In
terms[D]

In equations[E]

All men are mortal.

All Greeks are men.

∴ All Greeks are mortal.

M a P

S a M

S a P

What is today called Aristotelian logic with its types of syllogism (methods of logical argument), Aristotle himself would have labelled "analytics". The term "logic" he reserved to mean dialectics. Most of Aristotle's work is probably not in its original form, because it was most likely edited by students and later lecturers. The logical works of Aristotle were compiled into a set of six books called the around 40 BC by Andronicus of Rhodes or others among his followers. The books are:

1. Categories

2. On Interpretation

3. Prior Analytics

4. Posterior Analytics

5. Topics

6. On Sophistical Refutations

Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco, The School of Athens. Aristotle holds his Nicomachean Ethics and gestures to the earth, representing his view in immanent realism, whilst Plato gestures to the heavens, indicating his Theory of Forms, and holds his Timaeus.

The order of the books (or the teachings from which they are composed) is not certain, but this list was derived from analysis of Aristotle's writings. It goes from the basics, the analysis of simple terms in the Categories, the analysis of propositions and their elementary relations in On Interpretation, to the study of more complex forms, namely, syllogisms (in the Analytics) and dialectics (in the Topics and Sophistical Refutations). The first three treatises form the core of the logical theory stricto sensu: the grammar of the language of logic and the correct rules of reasoning. The Rhetoric is not conventionally included, but it states that it relies on the Topics.

The word "metaphysics" appears to have been coined by the first century AD editor who assembled various small selections of Aristotle's works to the treatise we know by the name Metaphysics. Aristotle called it "first philosophy", and distinguished it from mathematics and natural science (physics) as the contemplative ( theoretikē) philosophy which is "theological" and studies the divine. He wrote in his Metaphysics (1026a16):

if there were no other independent things besides the composite natural ones, the study of nature would be the primary kind of knowledge; but if there is some motionless independent thing, the knowledge of this precedes it and is first philosophy, and it is universal in just this way, because it is first. And it belongs to this sort of philosophy to study being as being, both what it is and what belongs to it just by virtue of being.

Aristotle examines the concepts of substance ( ousia) and essence ( to ti ên einai, "the what it was to be") in his Metaphysics (Book VII), and he concludes that a particular substance is a combination of both matter and form, a philosophical theory called hylomorphism. In Book VIII, he distinguishes the matter of the substance as the substratum, or the stuff of which it is composed. For example, the matter of a house is the bricks, stones, timbers, etc., or whatever constitutes the potential house, while the form of the substance is the actual house, namely 'covering for bodies and chattels' or any other differentia that let us define something as a house. The formula that gives the components is the account of the matter, and the formula that gives the differentia is the account of the form.

Immanent realism

Plato's forms exist as universals, like the ideal form of an apple. For Aristotle, both matter and form belong to the individual thing (hylomorphism).

Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle's philosophy aims at the universal. Aristotle's ontology places the universal ( katholou) in particulars ( kath' hekaston), things in the world, whereas for Plato the universal is a separately existing form which actual things imitate. For Aristotle, "form" is still what phenomena are based on, but is "instantiated" in a particular substance.

Plato argued that all things have a universal form, which could be either a property or a relation to other things. When one looks at an apple, for example, one sees an apple, and one can also analyse a form of an apple. In this distinction, there is a particular apple and a universal form of an apple. Moreover, one can place an apple next to a book, so that one can speak of both the book and apple as being next to each other. Plato argued that there are some universal forms that are not a part of particular things. For example, it is possible that there is no particular good in existence, but "good" is still a proper universal form. Aristotle disagreed with Plato on this point, arguing that all universals are instantiated at some period of time, and that there are no universals that are unattached to existing things. In addition, Aristotle disagreed with Plato about the location of universals. Where Plato spoke of the forms as existing separately from the things that participate in them, Aristotle maintained that universals exist within each thing on which each universal is predicated. So, according to Aristotle, the form of apple exists within each apple, rather than in the world of the forms.

Potentiality and actuality

Concerning the nature of change () and its causes, as he outlines in his and On Generation and Corruption (319b-320a), he distinguishes coming-to-be ( genesis, also translated as 'generation') from:

1. growth and diminution, which is change in quantity;

2. locomotion, which is change in space; and

3. alteration, which is change in quality.

Aristotle argued that a capability like playing the flute could be acquired - the potential made actual - by learning.

Coming-to-be is a change where the substrate of the thing that has undergone the change has itself changed. In that particular change he introduces the concept of potentiality () and actuality (entelecheia) in association with the matter and the form. Referring to potentiality, this is what a thing is capable of doing or being acted upon if the conditions are right and it is not prevented by something else. For example, the seed of a plant in the soil is potentially ( dynamei) a plant, and if it is not prevented by something, it will become a plant. Potentially beings can either 'act' ( poiein) or 'be acted upon' ( paschein), which can be either innate or learned. For example, the eyes possess the potentiality of sight (innate - being acted upon), while the capability of playing the flute can be possessed by learning (exercise - acting). Actuality is the fulfilment of the end of the potentiality. Because the end ( telos) is the principle of every change, and potentiality exists for the sake of the end, actuality, accordingly, is the end. Referring then to the previous example, it can be said that an actuality is when a plant does one of the activities that plants do.

For that for the sake of which ( to hou heneka) a thing is, is its principle, and the becoming is for the sake of the end; and the actuality is the end, and it is for the sake of this that the potentiality is acquired. For animals do not see in order that they may have sight, but they have sight that they may see.

In summary, the matter used to make a house has potentiality to be a house and both the activity of building and the form of the final house are actualities, which is also a final cause or end. Then Aristotle proceeds and concludes that the actuality is prior to potentiality in formula, in time and in substantiality. With this definition of the particular substance (i.e., matter and form), Aristotle tries to solve the problem of the unity of the beings, for example, "what is it that makes a man one"? Since, according to Plato there are two Ideas: animal and biped, how then is man a unity? However, according to Aristotle, the potential being (matter) and the actual one (form) are one and the same.

Epistemology

Aristotle's immanent realism means his epistemology is based on the study of things that exist or happen in the world, and rises to knowledge of the universal, whereas for Plato epistemology begins with knowledge of universal Forms (or ideas) and descends to knowledge of particular imitations of these. Aristotle uses induction from examples alongside deduction, whereas Plato relies on deduction from principles.

Natural philosophy

Aristotle's "natural philosophy" spans a wide range of natural phenomena including those now covered by physics, biology and other natural sciences. In Aristotle's terminology, "natural philosophy" is a branch of philosophy examining the phenomena of the natural world, and includes fields that would be regarded today as physics, biology and other natural sciences. Aristotle's work encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry. Aristotle makes philosophy in the broad sense coextensive with reasoning, which he also would describe as "science". However, his use of the term science carries a different meaning than that covered by the term "scientific method". For Aristotle, "all science ( dianoia) is either practical, poetical or theoretical" ( Metaphysics 1025b25). His practical science includes ethics and politics; his poetical science means the study of fine arts including poetry; his theoretical science covers physics, mathematics and metaphysics.

Five elements

In his On Generation and Corruption, Aristotle related each of the four elements proposed earlier by Empedocles, earth, water, air, and fire, to two of the four sensible qualities, hot, cold, wet, and dry. In the Empedoclean scheme, all matter was made of the four elements, in differing proportions. Aristotle's scheme added the heavenly aether, the divine substance of the heavenly spheres, stars and planets.

Aristotle describes two kinds of motion: "violent" or "unnatural motion", such as that of a thrown stone, in the Physics (254b10), and "natural motion", such as of a falling object, in On the Heavens (300a20). In violent motion, as soon as the agent stops causing it, the motion stops also: in other words, the natural state of an object is to be at rest, since Aristotle does not address friction. With this understanding, it can be observed that, as Aristotle stated, heavy objects (on the ground, say) require more force to make them move; and objects pushed with greater force move faster. This would imply the equation

,

incorrect in modern physics.

Natural motion depends on the element concerned: the aether naturally moves in a circle around the heavens, while the 4 Empedoclean elements move vertically up (like fire, as is observed) or down (like earth) towards their natural resting places.

Aristotle's laws of motion. In Physics he states that objects fall at a speed proportional to their weight and inversely proportional to the density of the fluid they are immersed in. This is a correct approximation for objects in Earth's gravitational field moving in air or water.

In the Physics (215a25), Aristotle effectively states a quantitative law, that the speed, v, of a falling body is proportional (say, with constant c) to its weight, W, and inversely proportional to the density, ρ, of the fluid in which it is falling:;

Aristotle implies that in a vacuum the speed of fall would become infinite, and concludes from this apparent absurdity that a vacuum is not possible. Opinions have varied on whether Aristotle intended to state quantitative laws. Henri Carteron held the "extreme view" that Aristotle's concept of force was basically qualitative, but other authors reject this.

Archimedes corrected Aristotle's theory that bodies move towards their natural resting places; metal boats can float if they displace enough water; floating depends in Archimedes' scheme on the mass and volume of the object, not, as Aristotle thought, its elementary composition.

Aristotle's writings on motion remained influential until the Early Modern period. John Philoponus (in Late antiquity) and Galileo (in Early modern period) are said to have shown by experiment that Aristotle's claim that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object is incorrect. A contrary opinion is given by Carlo Rovelli, who argues that Aristotle's physics of motion is correct within its domain of validity, that of objects in the Earth's gravitational field immersed in a fluid such as air. In this system, heavy bodies in steady fall indeed travel faster than light ones (whether friction is ignored, or not), and they do fall more slowly in a denser medium.

Newton's "forced" motion corresponds to Aristotle's "violent" motion with its external agent, but Aristotle's assumption that the agent's effect stops immediately it stops acting (e.g., the ball leaves the thrower's hand) has awkward consequences: he has to suppose that surrounding fluid helps to push the ball along to make it continue to rise even though the hand is no longer acting on it, resulting in the Medieval theory of impetus.

Four causes

Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from four causes: in the case of a table, the wood used (material cause), its design (formal cause), the tools and techniques used (efficient cause), and its decorative or practical purpose (final cause).

Aristotle suggested that the reason for anything coming about can be attributed to four different types of simultaneously active factors. His term aitia is traditionally translated as "cause", but it does not always refer to temporal sequence; it might be better translated as "explanation", but the traditional rendering will be employed here.

Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood. It is not about action. It does not mean that one domino knocks over another domino.

The formal cause is its form, i.e., the arrangement of that matter. It tells one what a thing is, that a thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put, the formal cause is the idea in the mind of the sculptor that brings the sculpture into being. A simple example of the formal cause is the mental image or idea that allows an artist, architect, or engineer to create a drawing.

The efficient cause is "the primary source", or that from which the change under consideration proceeds. It identifies 'what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed' and so suggests all sorts of agents, non-living or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of "cause" as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. In the case of two dominoes, when the first is knocked over it causes the second also to fall over. In the case of animals, this agency is a combination of how it develops from the egg, and how its body functions.

The final cause (telos) is its purpose, the reason why a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause is the purpose or function that something is supposed to serve. This covers modern ideas of motivating causes, such as volition. In the case of living things, it implies adaptation to a particular way of life.

Aristotle describes experiments in optics using a camera obscura in , book 15. The apparatus consisted of a dark chamber with a small aperture that let light in. With it, he saw that whatever shape he made the hole, the sun's image always remained circular. He also noted that increasing the distance between the aperture and the image surface magnified the image.

Chance and spontaneity

According to Aristotle, spontaneity and chance are causes of some things, distinguishable from other types of cause such as simple necessity. Chance as an incidental cause lies in the realm of accidental things, "from what is spontaneous". There is also more a specific kind of chance, which Aristotle names "luck", that only applies to people's moral choices.

In astronomy, Aristotle refuted Democritus's claim that the Milky Way was made up of "those stars which are shaded by the earth from the sun's rays," pointing out partly correctly that if "the size of the sun is greater than that of the earth and the distance of the stars from the earth many times greater than that of the sun, then... the sun shines on all the stars and the earth screens none of them." He also wrote descriptions of comets, including the Great Comet of 371 BC.

Geology and natural sciences

Aristotle was one of the first people to record any geological observations. He stated that geological change was too slow to be observed in one person's lifetime. The geologist Charles Lyell noted that Aristotle described such change, including "lakes that had dried up" and "deserts that had become watered by rivers", giving as examples the growth of the Nile delta since the time of Homer, and "the upheaving of one of the Aeolian islands, previous to a volcanic eruption."' Aristotle also made many observations about the hydrologic cycle and meteorology (including his major writings "Meteorologica"). For example, he made some of the earliest observations about desalination: he observed early - and correctly - that when seawater is heated, freshwater evaporates and that the oceans are then replenished by the cycle of rainfall and river runoff ("I have proved by experiment that salt water evaporated forms fresh and the vapor does not when it condenses condense into sea water again.")

Empirical research

Aristotle was the first person to study biology systematically, and biology forms a large part of his writings. He spent two years observing and describing the zoology of Lesbos and the surrounding seas, including in particular the Pyrrha lagoon in the centre of Lesbos. His data in History of Animals, Generation of Animals, Movement of Animals, and Parts of Animals are assembled from his own observations, statements given by people with specialized knowledge such as beekeepers and fishermen, and less accurate accounts provided by travellers from overseas. His apparent emphasis on animals rather than plants is a historical accident: his works on botany have been lost, but two books on plants by his pupil Theophrastus have survived.

Aristotle reports on the sea-life visible from observation on Lesbos and the catches of fishermen. He describes the catfish, electric ray, and frogfish in detail, as well as cephalopods such as the octopus and paper nautilus. His description of the hectocotyl arm of cephalopods, used in sexual reproduction, was widely disbelieved until the 19th century. He gives accurate descriptions of the four-chambered fore-stomachs of ruminants, and of the ovoviviparous embryological development of the hound shark.

He notes that an animal's structure is well matched to function, so, among birds, the heron, which lives in marshes with soft mud and lives by catching fish, has a long neck and long legs, and a sharp spear-like beak, whereas ducks that swim have short legs and webbed feet. Darwin, too, noted these sorts of differences between similar kinds of animal, but unlike Aristotle used the data to come to the theory of evolution. Aristotle's writings can seem to modern readers close to implying evolution, but while Aristotle was aware that new mutations or hybridizations could occur, he saw these as rare accidents. For Aristotle, accidents, like heat waves in winter, must be considered distinct from natural causes. He was thus critical of Empedocles's materialist theory of a "survival of the fittest" origin of living things and their organs, and ridiculed the idea that accidents could lead to orderly results. To put his views into modern terms, he nowhere says that different species can have a common ancestor, or that one kind can change into another, or that kinds can become extinct.

Scientific style

Aristotle did not do experiments in the modern sense. He used the ancient Greek term pepeiramenoi to mean observations, or at most investigative procedures like dissection. In Generation of Animals, he finds a fertilized hen's egg of a suitable stage and opens it to see the embryo's heart beating inside.

Instead, he practiced a different style of science: systematically gathering data, discovering patterns common to whole groups of animals, and inferring possible causal explanations from these. This style is common in modern biology when large amounts of data become available in a new field, such as genomics. It does not result in the same certainty as experimental science, but it sets out testable hypotheses and constructs a narrative explanation of what is observed. In this sense, Aristotle's biology is scientific.

From the data he collected and documented, Aristotle inferred quite a number of rules relating the life-history features of the live-bearing tetrapods (terrestrial placental mammals) that he studied. Among these correct predictions are the following. Brood size decreases with (adult) body mass, so that an elephant has fewer young (usually just one) per brood than a mouse. Lifespan increases with gestation period, and also with body mass, so that elephants live longer than mice, have a longer period of gestation, and are heavier. As a final example, fecundity decreases with lifespan, so long-lived kinds like elephants have fewer young in total than short-lived kinds like mice.

Classification of living things

Aristotle recorded that the embryo of a dogfish was attached by a cord to a kind of placenta (the yolk sac), like a higher animal; this formed an exception to the linear scale from highest to lowest.

Aristotle distinguished about 500 species of animals, arranging these in the History of Animals in a graded scale of perfection, a nonreligious version of the scala naturae, with man at the top. His system had eleven grades of animal, from highest potential to lowest, expressed in their form at birth: the highest gave live birth to hot and wet creatures, the lowest laid cold, dry mineral-like eggs. Animals came above plants, and these in turn were above minerals. He grouped what the modern zoologist would call vertebrates as the hotter "animals with blood", and below them the colder invertebrates as "animals without blood". Those with blood were divided into the live-bearing ( mammals), and the egg-laying ( birds, reptiles, fish). Those without blood were insects, crustacea (non-shelled - cephalopods, and shelled) and the hard-shelled molluscs ( bivalves and gastropods). He recognised that animals did not exactly fit into a linear scale, and noted various exceptions, such as that sharks had a placenta like the tetrapods. To a modern biologist, the explanation, not available to Aristotle, is convergent evolution. Philosophers of science have generally concluded that Aristotle was not interested in taxonomy, but zoologists who studied this question in the early 21st century think otherwise. He believed that purposive final causes guided all natural processes; this teleological view justified his observed data as an expression of formal design.

Psychology

Aristotle proposed a three-part structure for souls of plants, animals, and humans, making humans unique in having all three types of soul.

Aristotle's psychology, given in his treatise ( peri psychēs), posits three kinds of soul ("psyches"): the vegetative soul, the sensitive soul, and the rational soul. Humans have a rational soul. The human soul incorporates the powers of the other kinds: Like the vegetative soul it can grow and nourish itself; like the sensitive soul it can experience sensations and move locally. The unique part of the human, rational soul is its ability to receive forms of other things and to compare them using the (intellect) and logos (reason).

For Aristotle, the soul is the form of a living being. Because all beings are composites of form and matter, the form of living beings is that which endows them with what is specific to living beings, e.g. the ability to initiate movement (or in the case of plants, growth and chemical transformations, which Aristotle considers types of movement). In contrast to earlier philosophers, but in accordance with the Egyptians, he placed the rational soul in the heart, rather than the brain. Notable is Aristotle's division of sensation and thought, which generally differed from the concepts of previous philosophers, with the exception of Alcmaeon.

In On the Soul, Aristotle famously criticizes Plato's theory of the soul and develops his own in response to Plato's. The first criticism is against Plato's view of the soul in the Timaeus that the soul takes up space and is able to come into physical contact with bodies. 20th-century scholarship overwhelmingly opposed Aristotle's interpretation of Plato and maintained that he had misunderstood Plato. Today's scholars have tended to re-assess Aristotle's interpretation and have warmed up to it. Aristotle's other criticism is that Plato's view of reincarnation entails that it is possible for a soul and its body to be mis-matched; in principle, Aristotle alleges, any soul can go with any body, according to Plato's theory. Aristotle's claim that the soul is the form of a living being is meant to eliminate that possibility and thus rule out reincarnation.

According to Aristotle in ' On the Soul, memory is the ability to hold a perceived experience in the mind and to distinguish between the internal "appearance" and an occurrence in the past. In other words, a memory is a mental picture ( phantasm) that can be recovered. Aristotle believed an impression is left on a semi-fluid bodily organ that undergoes several changes in order to make a memory. A memory occurs when stimuli such as sights or sounds are so complex that the nervous system cannot receive all the impressions at once. These changes are the same as those involved in the operations of sensation, Aristotelian common sense', and thinking.

Aristotle uses the term 'memory' for the actual retaining of an experience in the impression that can develop from sensation, and for the intellectual anxiety that comes with the impression because it is formed at a particular time and processing specific contents. Memory is of the past, prediction is of the future, and sensation is of the present. Retrieval of impressions cannot be performed suddenly. A transitional channel is needed and located in past experiences, both for previous experience and present experience.

Because Aristotle believes people receive all kinds of sense perceptions and perceive them as impressions, people are continually weaving together new impressions of experiences. To search for these impressions, people search the memory itself. Within the memory, if one experience is offered instead of a specific memory, that person will reject this experience until they find what they are looking for. Recollection occurs when one retrieved experience naturally follows another. If the chain of "images" is needed, one memory will stimulate the next. When people recall experiences, they stimulate certain previous experiences until they reach the one that is needed. Recollection is thus the self-directed activity of retrieving the information stored in a memory impression. Only humans can remember impressions of intellectual activity, such as numbers and words. Animals that have perception of time can retrieve memories of their past observations. Remembering involves only perception of the things remembered and of the time passed.

Senses, perception, memory, dreams, action in Aristotle's psychology. Impressions are stored in the sensorium (the heart), linked by his laws of association (similarity, contrast, and contiguity).

Aristotle believed the chain of thought, which ends in recollection of certain impressions, was connected systematically in relationships such as similarity, contrast, and contiguity, described in his laws of association. Aristotle believed that past experiences are hidden within the mind. A force operates to awaken the hidden material to bring up the actual experience. According to Aristotle, association is the power innate in a mental state, which operates upon the unexpressed remains of former experiences, allowing them to rise and be recalled.

Aristotle describes sleep in On Sleep and Wakefulness. Sleep takes place as a result of overuse of the senses or of digestion, so it is vital to the body. While a person is asleep, the critical activities, which include thinking, sensing, recalling and remembering, do not function as they do during wakefulness. Since a person cannot sense during sleep they cannot have desire, which is the result of sensation. However, the senses are able to work during sleep, albeit differently, unless they are weary.

Dreams do not involve actually sensing a stimulus. In dreams, sensation is still involved, but in an altered manner. Aristotle explains that when a person stares at a moving stimulus such as the waves in a body of water, and then looks away, the next thing they look at appears to have a wavelike motion. When a person perceives a stimulus and the stimulus is no longer the focus of their attention, it leaves an impression. When the body is awake and the senses are functioning properly, a person constantly encounters new stimuli to sense and so the impressions of previously perceived stimuli are ignored. However, during sleep the impressions made throughout the day are noticed as there are no new distracting sensory experiences. So, dreams result from these lasting impressions. Since impressions are all that are left and not the exact stimuli, dreams do not resemble the actual waking experience. During sleep, a person is in an altered state of mind. Aristotle compares a sleeping person to a person who is overtaken by strong feelings toward a stimulus. For example, a person who has a strong infatuation with someone may begin to think they see that person everywhere because they are so overtaken by their feelings. Since a person sleeping is in a suggestible state and unable to make judgements, they become easily deceived by what appears in their dreams, like the infatuated person. This leads the person to believe the dream is real, even when the dreams are absurd in nature. In De Anima iii 3, Aristotle ascribes the ability to create, to store, and to recall images in the absence of perception to the faculty of imagination, phantasia.

One component of Aristotle's theory of dreams disagrees with previously held beliefs. He claimed that dreams are not foretelling and not sent by a divine being. Aristotle reasoned naturalistically that instances in which dreams do resemble future events are simply coincidences. Aristotle claimed that a dream is first established by the fact that the person is asleep when they experience it. If a person had an image appear for a moment after waking up or if they see something in the dark it is not considered a dream because they were awake when it occurred. Secondly, any sensory experience that is perceived while a person is asleep does not qualify as part of a dream. For example, if, while a person is sleeping, a door shuts and in their dream they hear a door is shut, this sensory experience is not part of the dream. Lastly, the images of dreams must be a result of lasting impressions of waking sensory experiences.

Practical philosophy

Aristotle's practical philosophy covers areas such as ethics, politics, economics, and rhetoric.

Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than theoretical study, i.e., one aimed at becoming good and doing good rather than knowing for its own sake. He wrote several treatises on ethics, most notably including the Nicomachean Ethics.

Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper function ( ergon) of a thing. An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see, because the proper function of an eye is sight. Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a function specific to humans, and that this function must be an activity of the ( soul) in accordance with reason (). Aristotle identified such an optimum activity (the virtuous mean, between the accompanying vices of excess or deficiency) of the soul as the aim of all human deliberate action, eudaimonia, generally translated as "happiness" or sometimes "well-being". To have the potential of ever being happy in this way necessarily requires a good character ( ēthikē ), often translated as moral or ethical virtue or excellence.

Aristotle taught that to achieve a virtuous and potentially happy character requires a first stage of having the fortune to be habituated not deliberately, but by teachers, and experience, leading to a later stage in which one consciously chooses to do the best things. When the best people come to live life this way their practical wisdom () and their intellect () can develop with each other towards the highest possible human virtue, the wisdom of an accomplished theoretical or speculative thinker, or in other words, a philosopher.

In addition to his works on ethics, which address the individual, Aristotle addressed the city in his work titled Politics. Aristotle considered the city to be a natural community. Moreover, he considered the city to be prior in importance to the family, which in turn is prior to the individual, "for the whole must of necessity be prior to the part". He famously stated that "man is by nature a political animal" and argued that humanity's defining factor among others in the animal kingdom is its rationality. Aristotle conceived of politics as being like an organism rather than like a machine, and as a collection of parts none of which can exist without the others. Aristotle's conception of the city is organic, and he is considered one of the first to conceive of the city in this manner.

Aristotle's classifications of political constitutions

The common modern understanding of a political community as a modern state is quite different from Aristotle's understanding. Although he was aware of the existence and potential of larger empires, the natural community according to Aristotle was the city () which functions as a political "community" or "partnership" ( koinōnia). The aim of the city is not just to avoid injustice or for economic stability, but rather to allow at least some citizens the possibility to live a good life, and to perform beautiful acts: "The political partnership must be regarded, therefore, as being for the sake of noble actions, not for the sake of living together." This is distinguished from modern approaches, beginning with social contract theory, according to which individuals leave the state of nature because of "fear of violent death" or its "inconveniences".

In Protrepticus, the character 'Aristotle' states:

For we all agree that the most excellent man should rule, i.e., the supreme by nature, and that the law rules and alone is authoritative; but the law is a kind of intelligence, i.e. a discourse based on intelligence. And again, what standard do we have, what criterion of good things, that is more precise than the intelligent man? For all that this man will choose, if the choice is based on his knowledge, are good things and their contraries are bad. And since everybody chooses most of all what conforms to their own proper dispositions (a just man choosing to live justly, a man with bravery to live bravely, likewise a self-controlled man to live with self-control), it is clear that the intelligent man will choose most of all to be intelligent; for this is the function of that capacity. Hence it's evident that, according to the most authoritative judgment, intelligence is supreme among goods.

As Plato's disciple Aristotle was rather critical concerning democracy and, following the outline of certain ideas from Plato's Statesman, he developed a coherent theory of integrating various forms of power into a so-called mixed state:

It is ... constitutional to take ... from oligarchy that offices are to be elected, and from democracy that this is not to be on a property-qualification. This then is the mode of the mixture; and the mark of a good mixture of democracy and oligarchy is when it is possible to speak of the same constitution as a democracy and as an oligarchy.

-  Aristotle. Politics, Book 4, 1294b.10-18

To illustrate this approach, Aristotle proposed a first-of-its-kind mathematical model of voting, albeit textually described, where the democratic principle of "one voter-one vote" is combined with the oligarchic "merit-weighted voting"; for relevant quotes and their translation into mathematical formulas see.

Aristotle made substantial contributions to economic thought, especially to thought in the Middle Ages. In , Aristotle addresses the city, property, and trade. His response to criticisms of private property, in Lionel Robbins's view, anticipated later proponents of private property among philosophers and economists, as it related to the overall utility of social arrangements. Aristotle believed that although communal arrangements may seem beneficial to society, and that although private property is often blamed for social strife, such evils in fact come from human nature. In Politics, Aristotle offers one of the earliest accounts of the origin of money. Money came into use because people became dependent on one another, importing what they needed and exporting the surplus. For the sake of convenience, people then agreed to deal in something that is intrinsically useful and easily applicable, such as iron or silver.

Aristotle's discussions on retail and interest was a major influence on economic thought in the Middle Ages. He had a low opinion of retail, believing that contrary to using money to procure things one needs in managing the household, retail trade seeks to make a profit. It thus uses goods as a means to an end, rather than as an end unto itself. He believed that retail trade was in this way unnatural. Similarly, Aristotle considered making a profit through interest unnatural, as it makes a gain out of the money itself, and not from its use.

Aristotle gave a summary of the function of money that was perhaps remarkably precocious for his time. He wrote that because it is impossible to determine the value of every good through a count of the number of other goods it is worth, the necessity arises of a single universal standard of measurement. Money thus allows for the association of different goods and makes them "commensurable". He goes on to state that money is also useful for future exchange, making it a sort of security. That is, "if we do not want a thing now, we shall be able to get it when we do want it".

Rhetoric and poetics

The Blind Oedipus Commending his Children to the Gods (1784) by Bénigne Gagneraux. In his Poetics, Aristotle uses the tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophocles as an example of how the perfect tragedy should be structured, with a generally good protagonist who starts the play prosperous, but loses everything through some hamartia (fault).

Aristotle's Rhetoric proposes that a speaker can use three basic kinds of appeals to persuade his audience: (an appeal to the speaker's character), (an appeal to the audience's emotion), and (an appeal to logical reasoning). He also categorizes rhetoric into three genres: epideictic (ceremonial speeches dealing with praise or blame), forensic (judicial speeches over guilt or innocence), and deliberative (speeches calling on an audience to make a decision on an issue). Aristotle also outlines two kinds of rhetorical proofs: (proof by syllogism) and paradeigma (proof by example).

Aristotle writes in his Poetics that epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambic poetry, painting, sculpture, music, and dance are all fundamentally acts of ("imitation"), each varying in imitation by medium, object, and manner. He applies the term mimesis both as a property of a work of art and also as the product of the artist's intention and contends that the audience's realisation of the mimesis is vital to understanding the work itself. Aristotle states that mimesis is a natural instinct of humanity that separates humans from animals and that all human artistry "follows the pattern of nature". Because of this, Aristotle believed that each of the mimetic arts possesses what Stephen Halliwell calls "highly structured procedures for the achievement of their purposes." For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, and poetry with language. The forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is a dramatic imitation of men worse than average; whereas tragedy imitates men slightly better than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation - through narrative or character, through change or no change, and through drama or no drama.

While it is believed that Aristotle's Poetics originally comprised two books - one on comedy and one on tragedy - only the portion that focuses on tragedy has survived. Aristotle taught that tragedy is composed of six elements: plot-structure, character, style, thought, spectacle, and lyric poetry. The characters in a tragedy are merely a means of driving the story; and the plot, not the characters, is the chief focus of tragedy. Tragedy is the imitation of action arousing pity and fear, and is meant to effect the catharsis of those same emotions. Aristotle concludes Poetics with a discussion on which, if either, is superior: epic or tragic mimesis. He suggests that because tragedy possesses all the attributes of an epic, possibly possesses additional attributes such as spectacle and music, is more unified, and achieves the aim of its mimesis in shorter scope, it can be considered superior to epic. Aristotle was a keen systematic collector of riddles, folklore, and proverbs; he and his school had a special interest in the riddles of the Delphic Oracle and studied the fables of Aesop.

Views on women

Aristotle's analysis of procreation describes an active, ensouling masculine element bringing life to an inert, passive female element. The biological differences are a result of the fact that the female body is well-suited for reproduction, which changes her body temperature, which in turn makes her, in Aristotle's view, incapable of participating in political life. On this ground, proponents of feminist metaphysics have accused Aristotle of misogyny and sexism. However, Aristotle gave equal weight to women's happiness as he did to men's, and commented in his Rhetoric that the things that lead to happiness need to be in women as well as men.

Transmission

More than 2300 years after his death, Aristotle remains one of the most influential people who ever lived. He contributed to almost every field of human knowledge then in existence, and he was the founder of many new fields. According to the philosopher Bryan Magee, "it is doubtful whether any human being has ever known as much as he did".

Among countless other achievements, Aristotle was the founder of formal logic, pioneered the study of zoology, and left every future scientist and philosopher in his debt through his contributions to the scientific method. Taneli Kukkonen, observes that his achievement in founding two sciences is unmatched, and his reach in influencing "every branch of intellectual enterprise" including Western ethical and political theory, theology, rhetoric, and literary analysis is equally long. As a result, Kukkonen argues, any analysis of reality today "will almost certainly carry Aristotelian overtones ... evidence of an exceptionally forceful mind." Jonathan Barnes wrote that "an account of Aristotle's intellectual afterlife would be little less than a history of European thought".

Aristotle has been called the father of logic, biology, political science, zoology, embryology, natural law, scientific method, rhetoric, psychology, realism, criticism, individualism, teleology, and meteorology.

What follows is an overview of the transmission and influence of his texts and ideas into the modern era.

His successor, Theophrastus

Frontispiece to a 1644 version of Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum, originally written around 300 BC

Aristotle's pupil and successor, Theophrastus, wrote the History of Plants, a pioneering work in botany. Some of his technical terms remain in use, such as carpel from carpos, fruit, and pericarp, from pericarpion, seed chamber. Theophrastus was much less concerned with formal causes than Aristotle was, instead pragmatically describing how plants functioned.

Later Greek philosophy

The immediate influence of Aristotle's work was felt as the Lyceum grew into the Peripatetic school. Aristotle's students included Aristoxenus, Dicaearchus, Demetrius of Phalerum, Eudemos of Rhodes, Harpalus, Hephaestion, Mnason of Phocis, Nicomachus, and Theophrastus. Aristotle's influence over Alexander the Great is seen in the latter's bringing with him on his expedition a host of zoologists, botanists, and researchers. He had also learned a great deal about Persian customs and traditions from his teacher. Although his respect for Aristotle was diminished as his travels made it clear that much of Aristotle's geography was clearly wrong, when the old philosopher released his works to the public, Alexander complained "Thou hast not done well to publish thy acroamatic doctrines; for in what shall I surpass other men if those doctrines wherein I have been trained are to be all men's common property?"

Hellenistic science

After Theophrastus, the Lyceum failed to produce any original work. Though interest in Aristotle's ideas survived, they were generally taken unquestioningly. It is not until the age of Alexandria under the Ptolemies that advances in biology can be again found.

The first medical teacher at Alexandria, Herophilus of Chalcedon, corrected Aristotle, placing intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. Though a few ancient atomists such as Lucretius challenged the teleological viewpoint of Aristotelian ideas about life, teleology (and after the rise of Christianity, natural theology) would remain central to biological thought essentially until the 18th and 19th centuries. Ernst Mayr states that there was "nothing of any real consequence in biology after Lucretius and Galen until the Renaissance."

Byzantine scholars

Greek Christian scribes played a crucial role in the preservation of Aristotle by copying all the extant Greek language manuscripts of the corpus. The first Greek Christians to comment extensively on Aristotle were Philoponus, Elias, and David in the sixth century, and Stephen of Alexandria in the early seventh century. John Philoponus stands out for having attempted a fundamental critique of Aristotle's views on the eternity of the world, movement, and other elements of Aristotelian thought. Philoponus questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, noting its flaws and introducing the theory of impetus to explain his observations.

After a hiatus of several centuries, formal commentary by Eustratius and Michael of Ephesus reappeared in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, apparently sponsored by Anna Comnena.

Medieval Islamic world

Islamic portrayal of Aristotle, c. 1220

Aristotle was one of the most revered Western thinkers in early Islamic theology. Most of the still extant works of Aristotle, as well as a number of the original Greek commentaries, were translated into Arabic and studied by Muslim philosophers, scientists and scholars. Averroes, Avicenna and Alpharabius, who wrote on Aristotle in great depth, also influenced Thomas Aquinas and other Western Christian scholastic philosophers. Alkindus greatly admired Aristotle's philosophy, and Averroes spoke of Aristotle as the "exemplar" for all future philosophers. Medieval Muslim scholars regularly described Aristotle as the "First Teacher". The title was later used by Western philosophers (as in the famous poem of Dante) who were influenced by the tradition of Islamic philosophy.

Medieval Europe

With the loss of the study of ancient Greek in the early medieval Latin West, Aristotle was practically unknown there from c. AD 600 to c. 1100 except through the Latin translation of the Organon made by Boethius. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, interest in Aristotle revived and Latin Christians had translations made, both from Arabic translations, such as those by Gerard of Cremona, and from the original Greek, such as those by James of Venice and William of Moerbeke.

After the Scholastic Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica, working from Moerbeke's translations and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher", the demand for Aristotle's writings grew, and the Greek manuscripts returned to the West, stimulating a revival of Aristotelianism in Europe that continued into the Renaissance. These thinkers blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christianity, bringing the thought of Ancient Greece into the Middle Ages. Scholars such as Boethius, Peter Abelard, and John Buridan worked on Aristotelian logic.

According to scholar Roger Theodore Lafferty, Dante built up the philosophy of the with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly through quotations in the works of Albert Magnus. Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the Nicomachean Ethics.

Medieval Judaism

Moses Maimonides (considered to be the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism) adopted Aristotelianism from the Islamic scholars and based his Guide for the Perplexed on it and that became the basis of Jewish scholastic philosophy. Maimonides also considered Aristotle to be the greatest philosopher that ever lived, and styled him as the "chief of the philosophers". Also, in his letter to Samuel ibn Tibbon, Maimonides observes that there is no need for Samuel to study the writings of philosophers who preceded Aristotle because the works of the latter are "sufficient by themselves and [superior] to all that were written before them. His intellect, Aristotle's is the extreme limit of human intellect, apart from him upon whom the divine emanation has flowed forth to such an extent that they reach the level of prophecy, there being no level higher".

Early Modern scientists

William Harvey's De Motu Cordis, 1628, showed that the blood circulated, contrary to classical era thinking.

In the Early Modern period, scientists such as William Harvey in England and Galileo Galilei in Italy reacted against the theories of Aristotle and other classical era thinkers like Galen, establishing new theories based to some degree on observation and experiment. Harvey demonstrated the circulation of the blood, establishing that the heart functioned as a pump rather than being the seat of the soul and the controller of the body's heat, as Aristotle thought. Galileo used more doubtful arguments to displace Aristotle's physics, proposing that bodies all fall at the same speed whatever their weight.

18th and 19th-century science

The English mathematician George Boole fully accepted Aristotle's logic, but decided "to go under, over, and beyond" it with his system of algebraic logic in his 1854 book The Laws of Thought. This gives logic a mathematical foundation with equations, enables it to solve equations as well as check validity, and allows it to handle a wider class of problems by expanding propositions of any number of terms, not just two.

Charles Darwin regarded Aristotle as the most important contributor to the subject of biology. In an 1882 letter he wrote that "Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere schoolboys to old Aristotle". Also, in later editions of the book " On the Origin of Species', Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle; the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles.

Surviving works

Corpus Aristotelicum

First page of a 1566 edition of the Nicomachean Ethics in Greek and Latin

The works of Aristotle that have survived from antiquity through medieval manuscript transmission are collected in the Corpus Aristotelicum. These texts, as opposed to Aristotle's lost works, are technical philosophical treatises from within Aristotle's school. Reference to them is made according to the organization of Immanuel Bekker's Royal Prussian Academy edition ( Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica, Berlin, 1831-1870), which in turn is based on ancient classifications of these works.

Loss and preservation

Aristotle wrote his works on papyrus scrolls, the common writing medium of that era. His writings are divisible into two groups: the " exoteric", intended for the public, and the " esoteric", for use within the Lyceum school. Aristotle's "lost" works stray considerably in characterization from the surviving Aristotelian corpus. Whereas the lost works appear to have been originally written with a view to subsequent publication, the surviving works mostly resemble lecture notes not intended for publication. Cicero's description of Aristotle's literary style as "a river of gold" must have applied to the published works, not the surviving notes. A major question in the history of Aristotle's works is how the exoteric writings were all lost, and how the ones now possessed came to be found. The consensus is that Andronicus of Rhodes collected the esoteric works of Aristotle's school which existed in the form of smaller, separate works, distinguished them from those of Theophrastus and other Peripatetics, edited them, and finally compiled them into the more cohesive, larger works as they are known today.

According to Strabo and Plutarch, after Aristotle's death, his library and writings went to Theophrastus (Aristotle's successor as head of the Lycaeum and the Peripatetic school). After the death of Theophrastus, the peripatetic library went to Neleus of Scepsis.

Some time later, the Kingdom of Pergamon began conscripting books for a royal library, and the heirs of Neleus hid their collection in a cellar to prevent it from being seized for that purpose. The library was stored there for about a century and a half, in conditions that were not ideal for document preservation. On the death of Attalus III, which also ended the royal library ambitions, the existence of Aristotelian library was disclosed, and it was purchased by Apellicon and returned to Athens in about 100 BCE.

Apellicon sought to recover the texts, many of which were seriously degraded at this point due to the conditions in which they were stored. He had them copied out into new manuscripts, and used his best guesswork to fill in the gaps where the originals were unreadable.

When Sulla seized Athens in 86 BCE, he seized the library and transferred it to Rome. There, Andronicus of Rhodes organized the texts into the first complete edition of Aristotle's works (and works attributed to him). The Aristotelian texts we have to day are based on these.

Depictions

Aristotle has been depicted by major artists including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Justus van Gent, Raphael, Paolo Veronese, Jusepe de Ribera, Rembrandt, and Francesco Hayez over the centuries. Among the best-known depictions is Raphael's fresco The School of Athens, in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where the figures of Plato and Aristotle are central to the image, at the architectural vanishing point, reflecting their importance. Rembrandt's Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, too, is a celebrated work, showing the knowing philosopher and the blind Homer from an earlier age: as the art critic Jonathan Jones writes, "this painting will remain one of the greatest and most mysterious in the world, ensnaring us in its musty, glowing, pitch-black, terrible knowledge of time."

The Aristotle Mountains in Antarctica are named after Aristotle. He was the first person known to conjecture, in his book Meteorology, the existence of a landmass in the southern high-latitude region, which he called Antarctica. Aristoteles is a crater on the Moon bearing the classical form of Aristotle's name.

References

1. See ^ Shields 2012, pp. 3-16; Düring 1957 covers ancient biographies of Aristotle.

2. That these dates (the first half of the Olympiad year 384/383 BC, and in 322 shortly before the death of Demosthenes) are correct was shown by ^ August Boeckh (Kleine Schriften VI 195); for further discussion, see Felix Jacoby on 244 F 38. Ingemar Düring, Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical Tradition, Göteborg, 1957, p. 253

3. This ^ type of syllogism, with all three terms in 'a', is known by the traditional (medieval) mnemonic Barbara.

4. Rhett Allain notes that ^ Newton's First Law is "essentially a direct reply to Aristotle, that the natural state is not to change motion.

5. Leonard Susskind comments that Aristotle had clearly never gone ^ ice skating or he would have seen that it takes force to stop an object.

6. Drabkin quotes numerous passages from ^ Physics and On the Heavens (De Caelo) which state Aristotle's laws of motion.

7. For a different reading of social and economic processes in the ^ Nicomachean Ethics and Politics see Polanyi, Karl (1957) "Aristotle Discovers the Economy" in Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies: Essays of Karl Polanyi ed. G. Dalton, Boston 1971, 78-115.

8. Aristotle: ^ Nicomachean Ethics 1102a26-27. Aristotle himself never uses the term "esoteric" or "acroamatic". For other passages where Aristotle speaks of exōterikoi logoi, see W.D. Ross, Aristotle's Metaphysics (1953), vol. 2 pp= 408-410. Ross defends an interpretation according to which the phrase, at least in Aristotle's own works, usually refers generally to "discussions not peculiar to the Peripatetic school", rather than to specific works of Aristotle's own.

9. "^ veniet flumen orationis aureum fundens Aristoteles", (Google translation: "Aristotle will come pouring forth a golden stream of eloquence").

10. ^ Compare the medieval tale of Phyllis and Alexander above.

1. ^ Borchers, Timothy A.; Hundley, Heather (2018). Rhetorical theory : an introduction (Second ed.). Long Grove, Illinois. ISBN 978-1-4786-3580-2. OCLC 1031145493.

2. ^ Aristotle (1952). Meteorologica, Chapter II. Translated by Lee, H.D.P. (Loeb Classical Library ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 156.

3. ^ Lennox, James G. (2001). Aristotle's Philosophy of Biology: Studies in the Origins of Life Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 346. ISBN 0-521-65976-0.

4. ^ Sandford, Stella (3 December 2019). "From Aristotle to Contemporary Biological Classification: What Kind of Category is "Sex"?". Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory. 22 (1): 4-17. doi:10.33134/rds.314. ISSN 2308-0914. S2CID 210140121.

5. ^ Voultsiadou, Eleni; Vafidis, Dimitris (1 January 2007). "Marine invertebrate diversity in Aristotle's zoology". Contributions to Zoology. 76 (2): 103-120. doi:10.1163/18759866-07602004. ISSN 1875-9866. S2CID 55152069.

6. ^ von Lieven, Alexander Fürst; Humar, Marcel (2008). "A Cladistic Analysis of Aristotle's Animal Groups in the "Historia animalium"". History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences. 30 (2): 227-262. ISSN 0391-9714. JSTOR 23334371. PMID 19203017.

7. ^ Laurin, Michel; Humar, Marcel (2022). "Phylogenetic signal in characters from Aristotle's History of Animals". Comptes Rendus Palevol (in French). 21 (1): 1-16. doi:10.5852/cr-palevol2022v21a1. S2CID 245863171.

8. ^ On the Soul I.3 406b26-407a10. For some scholarship, see Carter, Jason W. 2017. 'Aristotle's Criticism of Timaean Psychology' Rhizomata 5: 51-78 and Douglas R. Campbell. 2022. "Located in Space: Plato's Theory of Psychic Motion" Ancient Philosophy 42 (2): 419-442.

9. ^ On the Soul I.3.407b14-27. Christopher Shields summarizes it thus: "We might think that an old leather-bound edition of Machiavelli's The Prince could come to bear the departed soul of Richard Nixon. Aristotle regards this sort of view as worthy of ridicule." See Shields, C. 2016. Aristotle: De Anima. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The quotation is from page 133.

10. ^ Garner., Dwight (14 March 2014). "Who's More Famous Than Jesus?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021.

11. * "the father of logic": Wentzel Van Huyssteen, Encyclopedia of Science and Religion: A-I, p. 27 ^

"the father of biology": S. C. Datt, S. B. Srivastava, Science and society, p. 93.

"the father of political science": N. Jayapalan, Aristotle, p. 12, Jonathan Wolff, Lectures on the History of Moral and Political Philosophy, p. 48.

the "father of zoology": Josef Rudolf Winkler, A Book of Beetles, p. 12

"the father of embryology": D.R. Khanna, Text Book Of Embryology, p. 2

"the father of natural law": Shellens, Max Solomon (1959). "Aristotle on Natural Law". Natural Law Forum. 4 (1): 72-100. doi:10.1093/ajj/4.1.72.

"the father of scientific method": Shuttleworth, Martyn. "History of the Scientific Method". Explorable., Riccardo Pozzo (2004) The impact of Aristotelianism on modern philosophy. CUA Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-8132-1347-9

"the father of psychology": Margot Esther Borden, Psychology in the Light of the East, p. 4

"the father of realism": Russell L. Hamm, Philosophy and Education: Alternatives in Theory and Practice, p. 58

"the father of criticism": Nagendra Prasad, Personal Bias in Literary Criticism: Dr. Johnson, Matthew Arnold, T.S. Eliot, p. 70. Lord Henry Home Kames, Elements of Criticism, p. 237.

"the father of meteorology":"What is meteorology?". Meteorological Office."94.05.01: Meteorology". Archived from the original on 21 July 2016.

"the father of individualism": Allan Gotthelf, Gregory Salmieri, A Companion to Ayn Rand, p. 325.

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Further reading

The secondary literature on Aristotle is vast. The following is only a small selection.

External links

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Aristotle (; Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs, pronounced Ancient Greek [aristotélɛːs]; 384-322 BC) was an philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology and the arts.