Ricicli pericolosi

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Byzantium 330-1453

This ambitious exhibition, a collaboration between the Royal Academy of Arts and the Benaki Museum in Athens, provides a grand-scale survey of 1,000 years of history. Highlighting the splendours of the Byzantine Empire, 'Byzantium 330–1453' incorporates over 300 objects. Some of the works have never been displayed in public before

Out of Print e la censura d'opera

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Development of Mechanical Knowledge in China

A joint research project conducted by the Partner Group of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Data base machine drawing

Australian museum believes painting may be of Lucrezia Borgia

CBC News

Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, by Dosso Dossi, c 1518. The painting was originally thought to be a portrait of a young man by an unknown painter.
A painting owned by the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has been identified as a portrait of Lucrezia Borgia, an infamous figure of the Italian Renaissance. The oil painting, purchased in 1965, was formerly called Portrait of a Young Man and was thought to be by a Northern Italian painter.
On Tuesday, however, the gallery announced it had discovered the painting was by famed Renaissance artist Dosso Dossi who lived 1486-1542.
Gallery paintings conservator Carl Villis conducted extensive research to reach the conclusion the work was by Dossi.
"If it is accepted for what we believe it to be, then it will be highly-significant because it will be incredibly rare," he said. "We believe this to be the only formal painted portrait of Lucrezia Borgia." He discovered that Dossi was one of the few Italian painters to create oval portraits and forensic tests revealed an unusual primer unique to the painter.
The curator also discovered that Dossi had painted a group of ovals between 1515 and 1520 in the Este court in Ferrara, where Lucrezia lived. Only a handful of high-born women would have been considered important enough to be painted at the time. The Borgia family were known for their political scheming, and Lucrezia has a reputation a seductress and manipulator, perhaps undeserved.
She was the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and became Duchess of Ferrara, a position where she proved to be an able administrator. The gallery says there is evidence Lucrezia was of gentle disposition, unlike her scheming family. There are several clues that the painting is of a woman, including the background of myrtle and flowers. The dagger may be reference to an earlier Lucrezia, who took her own life after she was raped.
"Generations of art historians have attempted to identify portraits of Lucrezia Borgia, but this appears to be the only one which contains direct personal references to this intriguing historical figure," Villis said. "The only reliable likeness of her features we have is on a portrait medal in bronze, made in 1502. The facial profile on the medal bears a striking resemblance to our portrait."
Curators around the world have taken an interest in the painting since Villis made his discovery. The gallery refused to speculate on the value of the painting.

Salam Bombay !!!

I am an Indian & I woke up to the heart wrenching news of siege at the financial capital of my homeland ..........Mumbai on 27/11/08.
Like an average human being I rushed & grabbed my cell phone , frantically started calling all my dear ones/ acquaintances , relieved to hear their familiar voices at the other end, reversing my worst fears & whoa.....I couldn't have been more thankful to god.

Day progressed & in midst of my daily chores i kept following the news channels closely & its then that the reality dawned on me ,i felt so petty as a human, comparison being with my co-countrymen , an average Mumbaikar , people witnessing the massacre of hundreds of innocent citizens , kins anxiously waiting outside the arena of luxury hotels exemplifying epitomes of patience & civic behaviour , motivating our fighters NSG /ATS / INDIAN NAVY commandos, army personnel, providing them with food & tea as a gesture of thanks when most of us would have preferred not to step out of our dens. People of Mumbai who flocked the roads & gathered to bid our heroes their due ADIEU. Families who put the mourning on hold to pay homage to martyrs who embraced death with their chin up, laid their life in honor of my nation, fought ferociously & took the bullet on their chest............you truly are the heroes.

I whole heartedly wanted to hug our media persons who braved gunshots, grenade attacks, indiscriminate firing to enable the world to see how India is bleeding at the hands of few wretched minds & most importantly how the spirit of India refuses to fall prey to the designs of these fanatics...........my heart shouts "Bharat maata ki jai".
Moving ahead & thinking beyond the cliche of engaging in drawing room politics, posing intellectuals looking for the scapegoat, shrugging shoulders & shirking the responsibility to be borne by every individual citizen, taking cue from my co-citizens in Mumbai, i decided to reach out to the people in need of a platform to vent out, to provide a resting shoulder to many unknown friends , to wipe the tears off a few unseen faces, to make mumbai feel supported & loved , to make an average Mumbaikar who felt beaten on its journey back to normalcy; feel appreciated & motivated................I bow to the undying spirit of this city. Mumbaikars have reinforced the image of india that the world comes looking at, Mumbai is perseverance, resilience, patience, humanity, morality personified. You truly are the best ............................... SALAAM BOMBAY!!

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