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Alphonse Mucha(24 July 1860 - 14 July1939)

12/2/2020

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Name:                          Alphonse Mucha
​original name:            Alfons Maria Mucha
birth place:                 Ivancice, Moravia, Austria Empire
birth date:                   24 July 1860
zodiac sign:                 Leo

death place:                Praque, Czechoslovakia
death date:                 14 July 1939
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Profile of Alphonse Mucha

Alfons Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.

In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926.

​In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Brno.
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Biography of Alphonse Mucha

Brno
Alphonse Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in the small town of Ivančice in southern Moravia, then a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, (currently a region of the Czech Republic). His father was a court usher, and his mother was a miller's daughter.

Alphonse Mucha showed an early talent for drawing; a local merchant who was impressed by his work provided him free paper, a luxury at time.

In 1871, Mucha became a chorister at the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Brno, where he received his secondary school education. He became devoutly religious, and wrote later, "For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies."

Mucha grew up in an environment of intense Czech nationalism in all the arts, from music to literature and painting and designed flyers and posters for patriotic rallies.

His singing abilities allowed him to continue his musical education at the Gymnázium Brno in the Moravian capital of Brno, but his true ambition was to become an artist. He found some employment designing theatrical scenery and other decorations. In 1878 he applied without success to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but was rejected and advised "to find a different career".
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Vienna
In 1880, at the age of 19, he traveled to Vienna, the political and cultural capital of the Empire, and found employment as an apprentice scenery painter for a company which made sets for Vienna theaters. While in Vienna, he discovered the museums, churches, palaces and especially theaters, for which he received free tickets from his employer. He also discovered Hans Makart, a very prominent academic painter, who created murals for many of the palaces and government buildings in Vienna, and was a master of portraits and historical paintings in grand format. His style turned Mucha in that artistic direction and influenced his later work. He also began experimenting with photography, which became an important tool in his later work.

To his misfortune, a terrible fire in 1881 destroyed the Ringtheater, the major client of his firm. Later in 1881, almost without funds, he took a train as far north as his money would take him. He arrived in Mikulov in southern Moravia, and began making portraits, decorative art and lettering for tombstones. His work was appreciated, and he was commissioned by Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, a local landlord and nobleman, to paint a series of murals for his residence at Emmahof Castle, and then at his ancestral home in the Tyrol, Gandegg Caste. (The paintings at Emmahof were destroyed by fire in 1948, but his early versions in small format exist and are now on display at the museum in Brno.)

Mucha showed his skill at mythological themes, the female form, and lush vegetal decoration. Count Belasi, who was also an amateur painter, took Mucha on expeditions to see art in Venice, Florence and Milan, and introduced him to many artists, including the famous Bavarian romantic painter, Wilhelm Kray, who lived in Munich.
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Munich
Count Belasi decided to bring Mucha to Munich for formal training, and paid his tuition and cost of living at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Mucha moved there in September, 1885.

It is not clear how Mucha actually studied at the Munich Academy, but he did become friends with a number of notable Slavic artists there, including the Czechs Karel Vítězslav Mašek, Ludek Marold and the Russian Leonid Pasternak, father of the famous novelist Boris Pasternak. He founded a Czech students' club, and contributed political illustrations to nationalist publications in Prague.

​In 1886 he received a notable commission for a painting of the Czech patron saints Cyril and Methodius, from a group of Czech emigrants, including some of his relatives, who had founded a Roman Catholic church in the town of Pisek, North Dakota. He was very happy with the artistic environment of Munich: he wrote to friends, "Here I am in my new element, painting. I cross all sorts of currents, but without effort, and even with joy. Here, for the first time, I can find the objectives to reach which used to seem inaccessible." However, he found he could not remain forever in Munich; the Bavarian authorities imposed increasing restrictions upon foreign students and residents. Count Belasi suggested that he travel either to Rome or Paris. With Belasi's financial support, he decided in 1887 to move to Paris.
Alphonse Mucha's illustration for Robert de Flersilsee's  book Princesse de Tripoli
Alphonse Mucha's illustration for Robert de Flersilsee's book Princesse de Tripoli
Paris
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Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he enrolled in the Académie Julian and the following year, 1889, Académie Colarossi. The two schools taught a wide variety of different styles. His first professors at the Academie Julien were Jules Lefebvre who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings, and Jean-Paul Laurens, whose specialties were historical and religious paintings in a realistic and dramatic style. At the end of 1889, as he approached the age of thirty, his patron, Count Belasi, decided that Mucha had received enough education and ended his subsidies.

When he arrived in Paris, Mucha found shelter with the help of the large Slavic community. He lived in a boarding house called the Crémerie at 13 rue de la Grand Chaumerie, whose owner, Charlotte Caron, was famous for sheltering struggling artists; when needed she accepted paintings or drawings in place of rent.

Mucha decided to follow the path of another Czech painter he knew from Munich, Ludek Marold, who had made a successful career as an illustrator for magazines. In 1890 and 1891, he began providing illustrations for the weekly magazine La Vie popular, which published novels in weekly segments. His illustration for a novel by Guy de Maupassant, called The Useless Beauty, was on the cover of the 22 May 1890 edition. He also made illustrations for Le Petit Français Illustré, which published stories for young people in both magazine and book form. For this magazine he provided dramatic scenes of battles and other historic events, including a cover illustration of a scene from the Franco-Prussian War which was on the 23 January 1892 edition.

His illustrations began to give him a regular income. He was able to buy a harmonium to continue his musical interests and his first camera, which used glass-plate negatives. He took pictures of himself and his friends, and also regularly used it to compose his drawings. He became friends with Paul Gauguin, and shared a studio with him for a time when Gauguin returned from Tahiti in the summer of 1893. In late autumn 1894 he also became friends with the playwright August Strindberg, with whom he had a common interest in philosophy and mysticism.

His magazine illustrations led to book illustration; he was commissioned to provide illustrations for Scenes and Episodes of German History by historian Charles Seignobos. Four of his illustrations, including one depicting the death of Frederic Barbarossa, were chosen for display at the 1894 Paris Salon of Artists. He received a medal of honor, his first official recognition.

Mucha added another important client in the early 1890s; the Central Library of Fine Arts, which specialized in the publication of books about art, architecture and the decorative arts. It later launched a new magazine in 1897 called Art et Decoration, which played an early and important role in publicizing the Art Nouveau style. He continued to publish illustrations for his other clients, including illustrating a children's book of poetry by Eugène Manuel, and illustrations for a magazine of the theater arts, called La Costume au théâtre.
Alphonse Mucha working on a poster for publishing house Cassan (1896)
Alphonse Mucha working on a poster for publishing house Cassan (1896)
At the end of 1894 his career took a dramatic and unexpected turn when he began to work for French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt.

​As Mucha later described it, on 26 December 1894 Bernhardt made a telephone call to Maurice de Brunhoff, the manager of the publishing firm Lemercier which printed her theatrical posters, ordering a new poster for the continuation of the play Gismonda. The play, by Victorien Sardou, had already opened with great success on 31 October 1894 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin. Bernardt decided to have a poster made to advertise the prolongation of the theatrical run after the Christmas break and insisting it be ready by 1 January 1897. Because of the holidays, none of the regular Lemercier artists were available.

When Bernhardt called, Mucha happened to be at the publishing house correcting proofs. He already had experience painting Bernhardt; he had made a series of illustrations of her performing in Cleopatra for Costume au Théâtre in 1890. When Gismonda opened in October 1894, Mucha had been commissioned by the magazine Le Gaulois to make a series of illustrations of Bernhardt in the role for a special Christmas supplement, which was published at Christmas 1894, for the high price of fifty centimes a copy.

Brunhoff asked Mucha to quickly design the new poster for Bernhardt. The poster was more than life-size; a little more than two meters high, with Bernhardt in the costume of a Byzantine noblewoman, dressed in an orchid headdress and floral stole, and holding a palm branch in the Easter procession near the end of the play. One of the innovative features of the posters was the ornate rainbow-shaped arch behind the head, almost like a halo, which focused attention on her face; this feature appeared in all of his future theater posters. Probably because of a shortage of time, some areas of the background were left blank instead of his usual decoration. The only background decoration were the Byzantine mosaic tiles behind her head. The poster featured extremely fine draftsmanship and delicate pastel colors, unlike the typical brightly-colored posters of the time. The top of the poster, with the title, was richly composed and ornamented, and balanced the bottom, where the essential information was given in the shortest possible form; just the name of the theater.
Poster of Sarah Bernhardt as Gismonda (1895) by Alphonse Mucha
Poster of Sarah Bernhardt as Gismonda (1895) by Alphonse Mucha
Poster for an evening of theater honoring Sarah Bernhardt (1896)
Poster for an evening of theater honoring Sarah Bernhardt (1896)
The poster appeared on the streets of Paris on 1 January 1895 and caused an immediate sensation. Bernhardt was pleased by the reaction; she ordered four thousand copies of the poster in 1895 and 1896, and gave Mucha a six-year contract to produce more. With his posters all over the city, Mucha found himself quite suddenly famous.

Following Gismonda, Bernardt switched to a different printer, F. Champenois, who, like Mucha, was put under contract to work for Bernhardt for six years. Champenois had a large printing house on Boulevard Saint Michel which employed three hundred workers, with twenty steam presses. He gave Mucha a generous monthly salary in exchange for the rights to publish all his works. With his increased income, Mucha was able to move to a three-bedroom apartment with a large studio inside a large historic house at 6 rue du Val-de-Grâce originally built by François Mansart.

Mucha designed posters for each successive Bernhardt play, beginning with a reprise of one of her early great successes, La Dame aux Camelias (September 1896), followed by Lorenzaccio (1896); Medea (1898); La Tosca (1898) and Hamlet (1899). He sometimes worked from photographs of Bernhardt, as he did for La Tosca.
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In addition to posters, he designed theatrical programs, sets, costumes, and jewelry for Bernhardt. The enterprising Bernhardt set aside a certain number of printed posters of each play to sell to collectors.
The success of the Bernhardt posters brought Mucha commissions for advertising posters. He designed posters for JOB cigarette papers, Ruinart Champagne, Lefèvre-Utile biscuits, Nestlé baby food, Idéal Chocolate, the Beers of the Meuse, Moët-Chandon champagne, Trappestine brandy, and Waverly and Perfect bicycles. With Champenois, he also created a new kind of product, a decorative panel, a poster without text, purely for decoration. They were published in large print runs for a modest price. The first series was The Seasons, published in 1896, depicting four different women in extremely decorative floral settings representing the seasons of the year. In 1897 he produced an individual decorative panel of a young woman in a floral setting, called Reverie, for Champenois. He also designed a calendar with a woman's head surrounded by the signs of the zodiac, The rights were resold to Léon Deschamps, the editor of the arts review La Plume, who brought it out with great success in 1897. The Seasons series was followed by The Flowers The Arts (1898), The Times of Day (1899), Precious Stones (1900), and The Moon and the Stars (1902).Between 1896 and 1904 Mucha created over one hundred poster designs for Champenois. These were sold in various formats, ranging from expensive versions printed on Japanese paper or vellum, to less expensive versions which combined multiple images, to calendars and postcards.

His posters focused almost entirely on beautiful women in lavish settings with their hair usually curling in arabesque forms and filling the frame. His poster for the railway line between Paris and Monaco-Monte-Carlo (1897) did not show a train or any identifiable scene of Monaco or Monte-Carlo; it showed a beautiful young woman in a kind of reverie, surrounded by swirling floral images, which suggested the turning wheels of a train.

The fame of his posters led to success in the art world; he was invited by Deschamps to show his work in the Salon des Cent exhibition in 1896, and then, in 1897, to have a major retrospective in the same gallery showing 448 works. The magazine La Plume made a special edition devoted to his work, and his exhibition traveled to Vienna, Prague, Munich, Brussels, London, and New York, giving him an international reputation
 "I had not found any real satisfaction in my old kind of work. I saw that my way was to be found elsewhere, little bit higher. I sought a way to spread the light which reached further into even the darkest corners. I didn't have to look for very long. The Pater Noster (Lord's Prayer): why not give the words a pictorial expression?"

-- Alphonse Mucha

Alphonse Mucha made a considerable income from his theatrical and advertising work, but he wished even more to be recognized as a serious artist and philosopher. He was a devoted Catholic, but also was interested in mysticism.

Le Pater was published on 20 December 1899, only 510 copies were printed. The original watercolor paintings of the page were displayed in the Austrian pavilion at the 1900 Exposition. He considered Le Pater to be his printed masterpiece, and referred to it in the New York Sun of 5 January 1900 as a work into which he had "put his soul".
Cover of Le Pater (1899) by Alphonse Mucha
Cover of Le Pater (1899) by Alphonse Mucha
In 1899 Alphonse Mucha also collaborated with the jeweler Georges Fouquet to make a bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt in the form of a serpent, made of gold and enamel, similar to the costume jewelry Bernhardt wore in Medea. The Cascade pendant designed for Fouquet by Mucha (1900) is in the form of a waterfall. After the 1900 Exposition, Fouquet decided to open a new shop and asked Mucha to design the interior.

The centerpieces of the design were two peacocks, the traditional symbol of luxury, made of bronze and wood with colored glass decoration. To the side was a shell-shaped fountain, with three gargoyles spouting water into basins, surrounding the statue of a nude woman. The salon was further decorated with carved moldings and stained glass, thin columents with vegetal designs, and a ceiling with molded floral and vegetal elements. It marked a summit of Art Nouveau decoration. (The Salon opened in 1901, just as tastes were beginning to change, moving away from Art Nouveau to more naturalistic patterns. It was taken apart in 1923, and a replaced by a more traditional shop design. Fortunately most of the original decoration was preserved, and was donated in 1914 and 1949 to the Carnavalet Museum in Paris, where it can be seen today.)
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1900, Universal Exposition, Paris
The Paris Universal Exposition of 1900, famous as the first grand showcase of the Art Nouveau, gave Mucha an opportunity to move in an entirely different direction, toward the large-scale historical paintings which he had admired in Vienna. It also allowed him to express his Czech patriotism.
His work appeared in many forms at the Exposition. He designed the posters, menus, displays for the jeweler and perfume maker, with statuettes and panels of women depicting the scents of rose, orange blossom, violet and buttercup. His more serious art works, including his drawings for Le Pater, were shown in the Austrian Pavilion and in the Austrian section of the Grand Palais.

His work at the Exposition earned him the title of Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph I from the Austrian government, the Legion of Honor from the French Government. During the course of the Exposition, Mucha proposed another unusual project. The Government of France planned to take down the Eiffel Tower, built especially for the Exposition, as soon as the Exposition ended. Mucha proposed that, after the Exposition, the top of the tower should be replaced by a sculptural monument to humanity be constructed on the pedestal. The tower proved to be popular with both tourists and Parisians, and the Eiffel Tower remained after the Exhibit ended.
Mucha's next project was a series of seventy-two printed plates of watercolors of designs, titled Documents Decoratifs, which were published in 1902 by the Librarie central des beaux-arts. They represented ways that floral, vegetal and natural forms could be used in decoration and decorative objects, featuring plates of elaborate jewel designs for brooches and other pieces, with swirling arabesques and vegetal forms, with incrustations of enamel and colored stones.
Painting of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia (1908)
Painting of Josephine Crane Bradley as Slavia (1908)
"You must have been very surprised by my decision to come to America, perhaps even amazed. But in fact I had been preparing to come here for some time. It had become clear to me that that I would never have time to do the things I wanted to do if I did not get away from the treadmill of Paris, I would be constantly bound to publishers and their whims...in America, I don't expect to find wealth, comfort, or fame for myself, only the opportunity to do some more useful work."

-- Alphonse Mucha in his letter to his family

In March 1904 Mucha sailed for New York with letters of introduction from Baroness Salomon de Rothschild. He intended to find funding for his grand project, The Slav Epic, which he had conceived during the 1900 Exposition.

At one Pan-Slavic banquet in New York City, he met Charles Richard Crane, a wealthy businessman and philanthropist, who was a passionate Slavophile and became Mucha's most important patron. 

He made a few trips to USA between 1904 and 1910, usually staying for five to six months. In 1906, he returned to New York with his new wife, (Marie/Maria) Chytilová, and they remained in the U.S. until 1909 and their first child, Jaroslava, was born in New York in 1909.

His principal income in the United States came from teaching, and artistically, the trip was not a success;  His finest work in America is often considered to be his portrait of Josephine Crane Bradley, the daughter of his patron, in the character of Slavia, in Slavic costume and surrounded by symbols from Slavic folklore and art. 
During his long stay in Paris, Mucha had never given up his dream of being a history painter, and to illustrate accomplishments of the Slavic peoples of Europe. He made the decision to return to his old country, still then part of the Austrian Empire. 

His first project in 1910 was the decoration of the reception room of the mayor of Prague.  He designed and created a series of large-scale murals for the domed ceiling and walls with athletic figures in heroic poses, depicting the contributions of Slavs to European history over the centuries, and the theme of Slavic unity. These paintings on the ceiling and walls were in sharp contrast to his Parisian work, and were designed to send a patriotic message.

The Lord Mayor's Hall was finished in 1911, and Mucha was able to devote his attention to what he considered his most important work; The Slav Epic, a series of large painting illustrating the achievements of the Slavic peoples over history. The series had twenty paintings, half devoted to the history of the Czechs, and ten to other Slavic peoples. The canvases were enormous; the finished works measured six by eight meters.
He created the twenty canvases between 1912 and 1926. He worked throughout the First World War, when the Austrian Empire was at war with France, despite wartime restrictions, which made canvas hard to obtain. He continued his work after the war ended, when the new Republic of Czechoslovkia was created. The cycle was completed in 1928 in time for the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic
Alphonse Mucha in Prague (1928)
Alphonse Mucha in Prague (1928)
In the political turmoil of the 1930s, Mucha's work received little attention in Czechoslovakia. However, in 1936 a major retrospective was held in Paris at the Jeu de Paume museum, with 139 works, including three canvases from the Slav Epic.

Hitler and Nazi Germany began to threaten Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. Mucha began work on a new series, a triptych depicting the Age of Reason, the Age of Wisdom and the Age of Love, which he worked on from 1936 to 1938, but never completed. 
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On 15 March 1939, the German army paraded through Prague, and Hitler, at Prague castle, declared lands of the former Czechoslovakia to be part of the Greater German Reich as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Mucha's role as a Slav nationalist and Freemason made him a prime target. He was arrested, interrogated for several days, and released. By then his health was broken. He contracted pneumonia and died on 14 July 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. Though public gatherings were banned, a huge crowd attended his interment in the Slavín Monument of Vyšehrad cemetery, reserved for notable figures in Czech culture.
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Alessandro Preziosi(19 April 1973, Napoli Italy)

8/2/2020

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Name:               Alessandro Preziosi
Birth place:      Naples, Italy
Birth date:   
    19 april 1973
Nationality:      Italian
Languages:      Italian, English
​Height:             1,87m

Elegant character
2003-2004: TV series Elisa di Rivombrosa as Fabrizio Ristori.
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2007 film I Vicerè as principle character Consalvo
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In 1894, Italian Writer Federico de Roberto (Napoli, 16 gennaio 1861 – Catania, 26 luglio 1927) wrote the novel I Vicerè.It was the story about Uzeda, a Sicilian princely family in 19th century Sicily faithful to the Bourbon kings, begins to lose its power, with the Unification of Italy in 1861 and the rise to power of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele II, ).  In 2007 Italian director Roberto Faenza adapted it into a historical film with the same title, and Alessandro Preziosi played the principle character Consalvo.
Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè as  Consalvo
Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè
Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè as  Consalvo
Alessandro Preziosi in film I Vicerè as Consalvo
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Anouk Aimée(27 April 1932)

6/2/2020

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name:                           Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus
birth place:                  Paris France
birth date:                    27 April 1932
zodiac sign:                  Taurus
languages:                    French, Italian, English
​you can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older.

- Anouk Aimée​
Anouk Aimée in film 8½(Huit et demi), 1963
Anouk Aimée in film 8½(Huit et demi), 1963

​Profile of Anouk Aimée

Anouk Aimée ( born 27 April 1932) is a French film actress, who has appeared in 70 films since 1947, having begun her film career at age 14. In her early years she studied acting and dance besides her regular education. Although the majority of her films were French, she also made a number of films in Spain, Great Britain, Italy and Germany, along with some American productions.

Among her films are Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), after which she was considered a "rising star who exploded" onto the film world. She subsequently acted in Fellini's 8½ (1963), Jacques Demy's Lola (1961), George Cukor's Justine (1969), Bernardo Bertolucci's Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) and Robert Altman's Prêt à Porter (1994). She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her acting in Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman, 1966). The film brought her international fame.

She won the Award for Best Actress at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. In 2002 she received an honorary César Award, France's national film award.

​Aimée was noted for her "striking features" and beauty, and considered "one of the hundred sexiest stars in film history," according to a 1995 poll conducted by Empire Magazine. She has often portrayed a femme fatale with a melancholy aura. In the 1960s, Life magazine wrote that "after each picture her enigmatic beauty lingered" in the memories of her audience, and called her "the Left Bank's most beautiful resident."

Biography of ​Anouk Aimée

Anouk Aimée in the film La Maison sous la mer, 1947 directed by Henri Calef
Anouk Aimée in the film La Maison sous la mer, 1947 directed by Henri Calef
1947:  When she was about 14 years old, Anouk Aimée was spotted by French film director Henri Calef in a Chinese restaurant in Paris while having dinner with her mother, Henri Calef casted Anouk in his film La Maison sous la mer in 1947, which will be her debut of the cinema world.
Anouk ​Aimée in film Un homme et une homme in 1966
Anouk ​Aimée in film Un homme et une homme in 1966
1966: Un homme et une femme (A Man and a Woman) is a 1966 French film written and directed by Claude Lelouch and starring Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Written by Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven, the film is about a young widow and widower who meet by chance at their children's boarding school and whose budding relationship is complicated by the memories of their deceased spouses. 

The film won several awards, including the Palme d'Or at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, two Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress - Drama for Anouk Aimée.
Anouk ​Aimée in film Justine, 1969 directed by George Cukor
Anouk ​Aimée in film Justine, 1969 directed by George Cukor
I am still haunted by two things she quoted. They seemed to say more about her than anything else I experienced with her during the three weeks I knew her on the film:
Quote from Treblinka: "The Jews are prone to anguish but seldom given to despair."
And a quote by an anonymous Jewish poet to his wife when the Nazis came to get them: "Till now we have lived with fear, now we can know hope."

- Eve Arnold, photojournalist on Anouk ​Aimée
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The 2000s: In 2002, Anouk Aimée received an honorary César Award, France's national film award, and in 2003 received an honorary Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
"The more the years go by, the less I know. But if you give explanations and understand everything, then nothing can happen. What helps me go forward is that I stay receptive,  I feel that anything can happen."

​​- Anouk Aimée
Anouk Aimée in 1963  Picture
Anouk Aimée in 1963 Picture
​Filmography of Anouk ​Aimée1946 : La Maison sous la mer de Henri Calef , Anouk
1947 : La Fleur de l'âge de Marcel Carné , Inachevé
1949 : Les Amants de Vérone de André Cayatte , Giorgia Maglia (Juliette)
1949 : La Salamandre d'or de The Golden Salamander , Ronald Neame
1951 : Conquête du froid de Jean Vidal , court métrage
1951 : Nuit d'orage Noche de tormenta de Jaime de Maroya Marcel Jauniaux , voix
1952 : La Bergère et le ramoneur de Paul Grimault , la bergère voix
1952 : Le Rideau cramoisi sketch du film Les Crimes de l'amour de Alexandre Astruc , Albertine
1952 : L'Homme qui regardait les trains The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By de Harold French , Jeanne
1954 : Forever my heart de Bernard Knowles , La femme légère épi. Happy Birthday
1955 : Les Mauvaises Rencontres, de Alexandre Astruc ,, Catherine
1955 : L'Amour ne meurt jamais Ich suche dich de O.W. Fischer , Françoise Maurer
1955 : Contraband Spain Contrabando de Lawrence Huntington Jaime Salvador , Elena Vargas
1956 : Nina de Rudolph Jugert , Nina Iwanowa
1956 : Strese-Mann de Alfred Braun , Annette Stein
1957 : Tous peuvent me tuer de Henri Decoin , Isabelle
1957 : Pot-Bouille de Julien Duvivier , Marie
1957 : Montparnasse 19 ou Les Amants de Montparnasse de Jacques Becker , Jeanne Hébuterne
1959 : Le Voyage The Journey de Anatole Litvak , Eva
1959 : La Tête contre les murs de Georges Franju , Stéphanie
1959 : Les Dragueurs de Jean-Pierre Mocky , Jeanne
1960 : Quai Notre-Dame de Jacques Berthier , l'Antiquaire
1960 : La Dolce Vita de Federico Fellini , Maddalena
1961 : Lola de Jacques Demy , Lola (Cécile)
1961 : Le Jugement dernier de Vittorio De Sica , Irène
1961 : L'Imprévu L'Imprevisto de Alberto Lattuada , Claire
1961 : Sodome et Gomorrhe ( Sodoma e Gomorra) de Robert Aldrich et Sergio Leone , la reine Bera
1961 : Le Farceur de Philippe de Broca , Hélène Laroche
1963 : Le Terroriste Il terrorista de Gianfranco De Bosio , Anna Braschi
1963 : Le Jour le plus court Il giorno più corto de Sergio Corbucci ,
1963 : Les Grands Chemins de Christian Marquand , Anna
1963 : Le Coq du village de Alessandro Blasetti ,
1963 : Le Succès Il successo de Dino Risi , Laura
1963 : Huit et demi (Otto e mezzo) de Federico Fellini , Luisa Anselmi
1964 : La Fugue (La fuga) de Paolo Spinola , Luisa
1964 : Le Sexe des anges (Le voci bianche) de Pasquale Festa Campanile Massimo Franciosa , Lorenza
1965 : Le Scandale (Lo scandalo) de Anna Gobbi ,
1965 : Les Saisons de notre amour Le stagioni de nostro amore de Florestano Vancini ,
1965 : Il morbidone de Massimo Franciosa , Valeria
1966 : Un homme et une femme de Claude Lelouch, Anne Gauthier
1967 : Vivre pour vivre de Claude Lelouch
1968 : Un soir, un train de André Delvaux , Anne
1968 : Model Shop de Jacques Demy , Lola
1968 : Le Rendez-vous The appointment de Sidney Lumet , Carla
1969 : Justine de George Cukor , Justine
1976 : Si c'était à refaire de Claude Lelouch , Sarah Gordon
1978 : Mon premier amour de Elie Chouraqui , Jane
1980 : Le Saut dans le vide (Salto nel vuoto), de Marco Bellocchio , Marta Ponticelli
1981 : La Tragédie d'un homme ridicule de Bernardo Bertolucci , Barbara Spaggiari
1982 : Qu'est-ce qui fait courir David ? de Élie Chouraqui , Hélène
1983 : Le Général de l'armée morte (Il Generale dell'armata morte), de Luciano Tovoli , la comtesse Betsy Di Brenni
1984 : Le Succès à tout prix Success is the best revenge de Jerzy Skolimowski , Monique
1984 : Viva la vie! de Claude Lelouch , Anouk
1986 : Un homme et une femme : vingt ans déjà de Claude Lelouch , Anne Gauthier
1987 : Papa et moi Arrivederci e grazie de Giorgio Capitani , Laura
1988 : La Table tournante de Paul Grimault Jacques Demy , la bergère Voix
1988 : Arriverderci e grazie de Giorgio Capitani ,
1990 : Béthune : the making of a hero ou Docteur Norman Béthune de Phillip Borsos , Marie-France Coudaire
1990 : Il y a des jours... et des lunes de Claude Lelouch , Son propre rôle
1991 : L'Amour maudit de Leisenbohg de Edouard Molinaro , Claire Hell Télévision
1993 : Rupture(s) de Christine Citti , Marthe
1993 : Les Marmottes de Elie Chouraqui , Françoise
1995 : Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinéma de Agnès Varda , L'actrice d'un jour
1995 : Prêt-à-porter Ready to wear de Robert Altman , Simone Lowenthal
1995 : Dis-moi oui de Alexandre Arcady , Claire Charvet
1995 : L'Univers de Jacques Demy de Agnès Varda , Son propre rôle
1996 : Hommes, femmes, mode d'emploi de Claude Lelouch , La veuve
1997 : Riches, belles, etc. de Bunny Schpoliansky , La fée
1997 : Salomon de Roger Young , Bethsabée
1999 : 1999 Madeleine de Laurent Bouhnik , Eve
1999 : I Love L. A. de Mika Kaurismäki , Son propre rôle
1999 : Une pour toutes de Claude Lelouch , La femme du musicien
2001 : Festival in Cannes de Henry Jaglom , Millie Marquand
2002 : Napoléon de Yves Simoneau ,
2003 : La Petite prairie aux bouleaux de Marceline Loridan-Ivens , Myriam
2004 : Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants de Yvan Attal , La mère de Vincent
2006 : De particulier à particulier de Brice Cauvin , Nelly
​2009 : Celle que j'aime de Elie Chouraqui , Une consommatrice dans un café
2010 : Ces amours-là de Claude Lelouch , Mme Blum
2011 : Tous les soleils de Philippe Claudel , Agathe
2012 : Mince alors ! de Charlotte de Turckheim , Maman

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Alessandro Tersigni(11 October 1979)

1/2/2020

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Alessandro Tersigni(11 October 1979) Italian actor
Name:                 Alessandro Tersigni
Birth place:        Rome, Italy
Birth date:         11 october 1979

Nationality:        Italian
Languages:        Italian, English
Height(Alto):     182cm
Weight(Peso):    85kg

Alessandro Tersigni(11 October 1979) Italian actor

Biografia

Nel 2007, dopo aver lavorato come vigile del fuoco per qualche tempo, ottiene notorietà perché partecipa alla settima edizione del reality show di Canale 5 Grande Fratello in cui ha ottenuto il secondo posto: successivamente Tersigni intraprende una carriera come attore, recitando in vari film per il cinema e soprattutto in fiction televisive di Mediaset e Rai.

Dopo l'esordio cinematografico nel film Scusa ma ti voglio sposare, regia di Federico Moccia, dove ha fatto una comparsa, è protagonista del film 5 (Cinque), diretto da Francesco Dominedò. Tra i suoi lavori sul piccolo schermo, ricordiamo le serie televisive I Cesaroni, Un medico in famiglia e Il paradiso delle signore.
Alessandro Tersigni, Il paradiso delle signore
Alessandro Tersigni, Il paradiso delle signore
Nel 2010 Tersigni conosce la ballerina Maria Stefania Di Renzo, ex concorrente della seconda edizione del talent show di Canale 5 Amici di Maria De Filippi, con cui si è sposato il 9 luglio 2016. 
Alessandro Tersigni e la moglie Maria Stefania Di Renzo
Alessandro Tersigni e la moglie Maria Stefania Di Renzo

Biography

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"Il mio sogno è recitare al cinema, a fianco di attori e registi in grado di darmi nuovi insegnamenti. Il lavoro è come una scuola, mi permette di crescere“.
Alessandro Tersigni(11 October 1979) Italian actor
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Adolph von Menzel (December 8, 1815 – February 9, 1905)

30/1/2020

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Adolph von Menzel
Adolph von Menzel

Profile of Adolph von Menzel

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (December 8, 1815 – February 9, 1905) was a German Realist artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German painters of the 19th century,and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany. First known as Adolph Menzel, he was knighted in 1898 and changed his name to Adolph von Menzel.
sketches (Skizzen) of a young woman by Adolph von Menzel
sketches (Skizzen)
studies of a young woman by Adolph von Menzel
studies of a young woman by Adolph von Menzel
portrait of Emilie (Retrato de Emilia) by Adolph von Menzel
portrait of Emilie (Retrato de Emilia) by Adolph von Menzel

Biography of Adolph von Menzel

Adolph Menzel was born to German parents in Breslau, Prussian Silesia (now Poland), on December 8, 1815. His father was a lithographer and intended to educate his son as a professor; however, he would not thwart his taste for art. After resigning his teaching post, Menzel senior set up a lithographic workshop in 1818.
In 1830 his family moved to Berlin, and in 1832 Adolph was forced to take over the lithographic business on the death of his father. In 1833, he studied briefly at the Berlin Academy of Art, where he drew from plaster casts and ancient sculptures; thereafter Menzel was self-taught. Louis Friedrich Sachse of Berlin published his first work in 1833, an album of pen-and-ink drawings reproduced on stone, to illustrate Goethe's little poem, Kunstlers Erdenwallen. He executed lithographs in the same manner to illustrate Denkwürdigkeiten aus der brandenburgisch-preussischen Geschichte; The Five Senses and The Prayer, as well as diplomas for various corporations and societies.
Two swans (Deux cygnes)nby Adolph von Menzel
Two swans (Deux cygnes)
From 1839 to 1842, he produced 400 drawings, largely introducing to Germany the technique of wood engraving, to illustrate the Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (History of Frederick the Great) by Franz Kugler. He subsequently brought out Friedrichs der Grossen Armee in ihrer Uniformirung (The Uniforms of the Army under Frederick the Great), Soldaten Friedrichs der Grossen (The Soldiers of Frederick the Great); and finally, by order of King Frederick William IV, he illustrated the works of Frederick the Great, Illustrationen zu den Werken Friedrichs des Grossen (1843–1849). The artist had a deep sympathy for the Prussian king. In one of his letters to Johann Jakob Weber, he said that it was his intention to represent the monarch as a man who was both hated and admired—simply as he was, in other words, as a man of the people. Through these works, Menzel established his claim to be considered one of the first, if not actually the first, of the illustrators of his day in his own line.
balcony room, 1845 by Adolph von Menzel
balcony room, 1845
In the meantime, Menzel had also begun to study, unaided, the art of painting, and he soon produced a great number and variety of pictures. His paintings consistently demonstrated keen observation and honest workmanship in subjects dealing with the life and achievements of Frederick the Great, and scenes of everyday life, such as In the Tuileries, The Ball Supper, and At Confession. Among those considered most important of these works are Iron Rolling Mill (1872–1875) and The Market-place at Verona. When invited to paint The Coronation of William I at Koenigsberg, he produced an exact representation of the ceremony without regard to the traditions of official painting.

During Menzel's life, his paintings were appreciated by Otto von Bismarck and William I, and after his death they were appropriated for use as electoral posters by Adolf Hitler. In late Twentieth century, his biggest fan is Karl Langerfeld, who admitted Aldolph von Menzel is his favorite painter.
Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci, detail. 1852
Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci, detail. 1852
If these historical illustrations anticipated the qualities of early Impressionism, it is paintings such as The French Window and The Palace Garden of Prince Albert, both painted in the mid- 1840s, that now appeal as "among the most freely observed of mid-nineteenth century images." Such genre paintings evidence associations with French and English art. Though he was primarily an excellent draughtsman, art historian Julius Meier-Graefe considered him to be a "proto-impressionist" painter, whose graphic work hindered his painterly potentials. Private drawings and watercolors made of dead and dying soldiers in 1866 on the battlefields of the Austro-Prussian War are unsparing in their realism, and have been described by art historian Marie Ursula Riemann-Reyher as "unique in German art of the time."
Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci. 1852
Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci. 1852
The paintings which were available to the public garnered recognition not only within Germany, but from the French avant-garde as well: Edgar Degas admired and copied his work, calling him "the greatest living master", and Louis Edmond Duranty wrote of his art:
In a word, the man is everywhere independent, sincere, with sure vision, a decisive note that can sometimes be a little brutal....While being perfectly healthy he has the neurosis of truthfulness....The man who has measured with a compass the buttons on a uniform from the time of Frederick, when it is a matter of depicting a modern shoe, waistcoat, or coiffure, does not make them by approximations but totally, in their absolute form and without smallness of means. He puts there everything that is called for by the character (of the object). Free, large, and rapid in his drawing, no draftsman is as definitive as he.
Tafelrunde im Jahr 1850 / The round table, 1850 by Adolph von Menzel
Tafelrunde im Jahr 1850 / The round table, 1850 by Adolph von Menzel
And the poet Jules Laforgue described him as "no taller than a cuirassier-guard's boot, bedecked with pendants and orders, not missing a single one of these parties, moving among all these personages like a gnome and like the greatest enfant terrible for the chronicler."

In Germany Menzel received many honors, and in 1898 he became the first painter to be admitted to the Order of the Black Eagle; by virtue of receiving the Order, Menzel was raised to the nobility, becoming "Adolph von Menzel". He was also made a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London.
Picture
His popularity in his native country, owing especially to history painting, was such that few of his major paintings left Germany, as many were quickly acquired by museums in Berlin. Menzel's graphic works and drawings were more widely disseminated; these, along with informal paintings not initially intended for display, have largely accounted for his posthumous reputation.

Although he traveled in order to find subjects for his art, to visit exhibitions, and to meet with other artists, Menzel spent most of his life in Berlin, and was, despite numerous friendships, by his own admission detached from others. It is likely that he felt socially estranged for physical reasons alone—Menzel had a large head, and stood about four foot six inches.
Frontispicio en Goldenes Buch de la ciudad de Bad Kissingen de Nicht-Kurgast Adolph Menzel, 5 de agosto de 1889.
Aldolph von Menzel died on 9 February 1905 in Berlin, his funeral arrangements were directed by the Kaiser, who walked behind his coffin.
Menzel's tomb in Berlin
Menzel's tomb in Berlin
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Alexandre Cabanel (28 September 1823-23 January 1889)

30/1/2020

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Alexandre Cabanel, Autoportrait (1852), Montpellier, musée Fabre.
Alexandre Cabanel, Autoportrait (1852), Montpellier, musée Fabre.
birth place:            Montpellier France
birth date:              28 September 1823
zodiac sign:            Libras

death place:           Paris France
death date:            23 January 1889

Alexandre Cabanel, né le 28 septembre 1823 à Montpellier et mort le 23 janvier 1889 à Paris 8e1, est un artiste peintre français, considéré comme l'un des grands peintres académiques, du Second Empire, dont il est l'un des artistes les plus admirés.
1863 Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus
1863 Alexandre Cabanel - The Birth of Venus

Biographie

Fils d'un modeste menuisier, Alexandre Cabanel commence son apprentissage à l’école des beaux-arts de Montpellier dans la classe de Charles Matet conservateur du musée Fabre. Doté d'une bourse, il s'installe à Paris en 1839.

Il entre en 1840 à l'École des beaux-arts de Paris où il est l'élève de François-Édouard Picot.

Après deux échecs, Cincinnatus recevant les ambassadeurs de Rome en 1843 et Le Christ au Jardin des Oliviers en 1844, il est lauréat d'un second prix de Rome en 1845 et pensionnaire de la villa Médicis jusqu'en 1850.

À Montpellier, il réalise les portraits d'un certain nombre de membres de familles fortunées comme la famille Marès. À la fois peintre d'histoire et peintre de genre, il évolue au fil des années vers des thèmes romantiques, telle Albaydé, en 1848, inspirée par Les Orientales de Victor Hugo publié en 1829.

Il reçoit les insignes de chevalier de la Légion d'honneur en 1855.

La célébrité lui vient avec la Naissance de Vénus exposée au Salon de 1863 qui est immédiatement achetée par Napoléon III pour sa collection personnelle et qui entre au musée du Luxembourg en 1881 (le tableau est conservé à Paris au musée d'Orsay). Il passe un contrat avec la maison Goupil pour la commercialisation de reproductions en gravure de la Naissance de Vénus.

En 1863, Cabanel est élu membre de l'Académie des beaux-arts au fauteuil X.

En janvier 1864, il est nommé professeur-chef d'atelier de peinture à l'École des beaux-arts de Paris et promu au rang d’officier de la Légion d'honneur.

Lors de l'Exposition universelle de 1867, il est décoré de la croix de chevalier de première classe de l'ordre du Mérite de Saint-Michel de Bavière à la suite de son Paradis perdu commandé pour le Maximilianeum de Munich par Louis II de Bavière.

Entre 1868 et 1888, il est dix-sept fois membre du jury du Salon, dont les années 1869, 1873, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1881.

Il reçoit la médaille d'honneur du Salon en 1865, pour le Portrait de l'Empereur, ainsi qu'en 1867 et en 1878.
Ses œuvres sont recherchées par les célébrités européennes et les collectionneurs américains qui lui commandent leurs portraits.

En tant que peintre officiel et membre du jury, où il fait preuve d'une farouche opposition à l'égard de toute tendance novatrice, Cabanel est régulièrement critiqué et mis en opposition avec les naturalistes et les impressionnistes, en particulier avec Édouard Manet dont Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, alors intitulé Le Bain, puis La Partie carrée, avait été refusé au Salon de 1863, alors que Cabanel triomphait avec sa Naissance de Vénus. Il est régulièrement brocardé par Émile Zola ou Joris-Karl Huysmans.

Cependant, il intervient en 1881 lors de la présentation du portrait de Pertuiset, Le chasseur de lions d'Édouard Manet et défend celui-ci en s'écriant « Messieurs, il n’y en a pas un parmi nous qui soit fichu de faire une tête comme ça en plein air ! »

Il est promu au rang de commandeur de la Légion d'honneur en 1884 et est élu associé de l'Académie Royale de Belgique le 6 janvier 1887.

Ses obsèques ont lieu à Paris le 26 janvier 1889 puis son corps est transporté à Montpellier au cimetière Saint-Lazare où il est inhumé le 28 janvier 1889. Un monument est érigé en 1892 par l'architecte Jean Camille Formigé orné d'un buste en marbre de Paul Dubois et une sculpture, Regret, d'Antonin Mercié.

Une rue porte son nom à Paris, la rue Alexandre-Cabanel dans le 15e arrondissement, à Montpellier, à Béziers ainsi qu'à Toulon.
Alexandre Cabanel, ca.1865. Photograph by Charles Reutlinger
Alexandre Cabanel, ca.1865. Photograph by Charles Reutlinger

English version

Self-portrait  of Alexandre Cabanel (1847)
Self-portrait of Alexandre Cabanel (1847)
Alexandre Cabanel was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of the L'art pompier and Napoleon III's preferred painter.
Echo (1874) by Alexandre Cabanel
Echo (1874) by Alexandre Cabanel
Harmonie (1877) by Alexandre Cabanel
Harmonie (1877) by Alexandre Cabanel
Ophelia (1883) by Alexandre Cabanel
Ophelia (1883) by Alexandre Cabanel

Biogrophy of Alexandre Cabanel

Cabanel entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris at the age of seventeen, and studied with François-Édouard Picot. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1844, and won the Prix de Rome scholarship in 1845 at the age of 22. Cabanel was elected a member of the Institute in 1863. He was appointed professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and taught there until his death.

He was closely connected to the Paris Salon: "He was elected regularly to the Salon jury and his pupils could be counted by the hundred at the Salons. Through them, Cabanel did more than any other artist of his generation to form the character of belle époque French painting". His refusal together with William-Adolphe Bouguereau to allow the impressionist painter Édouard Manet and many other painters to exhibit their work in the Salon of 1863 led to the establishment of the Salon des Refusés by the French government. Cabanel won the Grande Médaille d'Honneur at the Salons of 1865, 1867, and 1878.

A successful academic painter, his 1863 painting The Birth of Venus is one of the best known examples of 19th-century academic painting. The picture was bought by the emperor Napoleon III; there is also a smaller replica (painted in 1875 for a banker, John Wolf) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was given to them by Wolf in 1893.
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Antonio Canova (1 November 1757-13 October 1822)

30/1/2020

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Antonio Canova(1757-1822) self portrait 1790
Antonio Canova(1757-1822) self portrait 1790
name:                  Antonio Canova
birth place:         Possagno, Republic of Venice
birth date:           1 November 1757
zodiac sign:         Scopio
death place:        Venice, Lombardy-Venetia
death date:         13 October 1822

Picture

Profile of Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists, his artwork was inspired by the Baroque and the classical revival, but avoided the melodramatics of the former, and the cold artificiality of the latter.
Picture
Picture

Biography of Antonio Canova

In 1757, Antonio Canova was born in the Venetian Republic city of Possagno to Pietro Canova, a stonecutter. In 1761, his father died. A year later, his mother remarried. As such, in 1762, he was put into the care of his paternal grandfather Pasino Canova, who was a stonemason, owner of a quarry, and was a "sculptor who specialised in altars with statues and low reliefs in late Baroque style". He led Antonio into the art of sculpting.

At the age of nine, he executed two small shrines of Carrara marble, which are still extant, and appears to have been constantly employed under his grandfather.
​In 1770, he started his apprenticeship first with Giuseppe Bernardi,  then with Giovanni Ferrari until he began his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. At the Academy, he won several prizes and was given his first workshop within a monastery by some local monks.

During this time, Antonio Canova started to receive from the Venetian elite and he opened his own studio at Calle Del Traghetto at S. Maurizio in 1779. ​​
Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix by Antonio Canova
Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix by Antonio Canova
Canova arrived in Rome, on 28 December 1780, and spent his time studying and sketching the works of Michelangelo.

Between 1783 – 1785, Canova arranged, composed, and designed a funerary monument dedicated to Clement XIV for the Church of Santi Apostoli.  It was finished in 1787 and secured Canova's reputation as the pre-eminent living artist. ​​
Cupid and Psyche, 1794
Cupid and Psyche, 1794
Antonio Canova systematically promoted his reputation by publishing engravings of his works and having marble versions of plaster casts made in his workshop, and by1800, Antonio Canova was the most celebrated artist in Europe. 

He became so successful that he had acquired patrons from across Europe including France, England, Russia, Poland, Austria and Holland, as well as several members from different royal lineages, and prominent individuals.  

​Among his patrons were Napoleon and his family, for whom Canova produced much work, including several depictions between 1803 and 1809. The most notable representations were that of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, and Venus Victrix which was portrayal of Pauline Bonaparte.
In 1802, Canova was assigned the post of 'Inspector-General of Antiquities and Fine Art of the Papal State', a position formerly held by Raphael. One of his activities in this capacity was to pioneer the restoration of the Appian Way by restoring the tomb of Servilius Quartus. In 1808 Canova became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands.

In 1815, he was named 'Minister Plenipotentiary of the Pope,'and was tasked with recovering various works of art that were taken to Paris by Napoleon.
Bust of Peace, 1814
Bust of Peace, 1814
Bust of Peace, 1814
Bust of Peace, 1814
In 1816, Canova returned to Rome with some of the art Napoleon had taken. He was rewarded with several marks of distinction: he was appointed President of the Accademia di San Luca, inscribed into the "Golden Book of Roman Nobles" by the Pope's own hands, and given the title of Marquis of Ischia, alongside an annual pension of 3000 crowns.
Hebe by Antonio Canova, 1817
Hebe by Antonio Canova, 1817
Three Graces, 1814-1817, (original in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
Three Graces, 1814-1817, (original in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
At the end of the decade, Canova decided to build a personified statue of Religion and a temple to house it. He designed, financed, and partly built the structure, a combination of the Parthenon and the Pantheon in  Possagno, his birth place. 

On 11 July 1819, Canova laid the foundation stone for Tempio Canoviano, dressed in red Papal uniform and decorated with all his medals, and he would continue to supersize the construction of Tempio Canoviano until the end of his life by regularly going back to Possagno.

The temple was first opened in 1830, and finally completed in 1836.
Antonio Canova self portrait
Antonio Canova self portrait
On 13 October 1822, Antonio Canova died in Venice at the age of 64. Before his death, he has instructed his brother to use his entire estate to complete the Tempio Canoviano in Possagno.

On 25 October 1822, his body was placed in the Tempio Canoviano. His heart was interred at the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, and his right hand preserved in a vase at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.


His memorial service was so grand that it rivalled the ceremony that the city of Florence held for Michelangelo in 1564.
Antonio Canova by Canova studio, c. 1813
Antonio Canova by Canova studio, c. 1813
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Antonio Vivaldi (4 March 1678-28 July 1741)

29/1/2020

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Probable portrait of Italian Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi, c. 1723.[1]
Probable portrait of Vivaldi, c. 1723.

Profile of Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher, and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian Republic, he is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. He composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas. His best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons. Many of his compositions were written for the all-female music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children. Vivaldi had worked there as a Catholic priest for 1 1/2 years and was employed there from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. Vivaldi also had some success with expensive stagings of his operas in Venice, Mantua and Vienna. Ten years after meeting the Emperor Charles VI, Vivaldi moved to Vienna, hoping for royal support. However, the Emperor died soon after Vivaldi's arrival, and Vivaldi himself died, in poverty, less than a year later.

Biography of Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born on 4 March 1678 in Venice, then the capital of the Venetian Republic.

Vivaldi's parents were Giovanni Battista Vivaldi and Camilla Calicchio, as recorded in the register of San Giovanni in Bragora.

His father Giovanni Battista was a barber then became a professional violinist and was one of the founders of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, an association of musicians. He Antonio to play the violin and then tour Venice playing the violin with him.
San Giovanni in Bragora, Sestiere di Castello, Venice, where Vivaldi was given the supplemental baptismal rites
San Giovanni in Bragora, Sestiere di Castello, Venice, where Vivaldi was given the supplemental baptismal rites
Vivaldi's health was problematic. One of his symptoms, strettezza di petto ("tightness of the chest"), has been interpreted as a form of asthma.This did not prevent him from learning to play the violin, composing, or taking part in musical activities, although it did stop him from playing wind instruments. In 1693, at the age of fifteen, he began studying to become a priest.He was ordained in 1703, aged 25, and was soon nicknamed il Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest". (Rosso is Italian for "red", and would have referred to the color of his hair, a family trait.)

Not long after his ordination, in 1704, he was given a dispensation from celebrating Mass because of his ill health. but he formally remained a member of the priesthood.
Commemorative plaque beside the Ospedale della Pietà
Commemorative plaque beside the Ospedale della Pietà
In September 1703, Vivaldi became maestro di violino (master of violin) at an orphanage called the Pio Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice.

Vivaldi wrote concertos, cantatas and sacred vocal music while working in Ospedale della Pietà. These sacred works, which number over 60, are varied: they included solo motets and large-scale choral works for soloists, double chorus, and orchestra.

In 1704, in addition to maestro di violino, Vivaldi also became teacher of viola all'inglese and one time maestro di coro, composing an oratorio or concerto at every feast and teach the orphans both music theory and how to play certain instruments.

His work was not always recognized by the Ospedale, however, and he was forced to become freelance musician in 1709 because the board of directors fired him, but they had to ask him back after one year, and in 1716 Antonio Vivaldi was promoted to maestro de' concerti (music director) and became responsible for all of the musical activity of the institution.
Antonio Vivaldi portrait young
Antonio Vivaldi portrait
As a composer Vivaldi's breakthrough came with his first collection of 12 concerti for one, two, and four violins with strings, L'estro armonico (Opus 3), which was published in Amsterdam in 1711 by Estienne Roger, dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany who sponsored many musicians including Alessandro Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel. L'estro armonico was a resounding success all over Europe.

Meanwhile Vivaldi started his career as an opera composer as a sideline, and his first opera, Ottone in villa (RV 729) was performed at the Garzerie Theater in Vicenza in 1713 instead of Venice where he worked. In 1737, in a letter written by Vivaldi to his patron Marchese Bentivoglio, Vivaldi made reference to his "94 operas". Only around 50 operas by Vivaldi have been discovered, and no other documentation of the remaining operas exists. Although Vivaldi may have been exaggerating, it is plausible that, in his dual role of composer and impresario, he may have either written or been responsible for the production of as many as 94 operas.
Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (July 20, 1671 in Darmstadt – August 11, 1736 in Vienna)
Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (July 20, 1671 in Darmstadt – August 11, 1736 in Vienna)
In 1717 or 1718, Vivaldi was offered a prestigious new position as Maestro di Cappella of the court of prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, governor of Mantua, in the northwest of Italy.

It was during this period Vivaldi wrote the famous Le quattro stagioni (Four Seasons), four violin concertos that give musical expression to the seasons of the year. Though three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows motifs from a Sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldi's contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The inspiration for the concertos was probably the countryside around Mantua. They were a revolution in musical conception: in them Vivaldi represented flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), barking dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, silent nights, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating children, and warming winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music. They were published as the first four concertos in a collection of twelve, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Opus 8, published in Amsterdam by Michel-Charles Le Cène in 1725. , governor of Mantua, in the northwest of Italy. He moved there for three years and produced several operas, among them Tito Manlio (RV 738).

It was during this period in Mantua that Vivaldi wrote the Four Seasons, four violin concertos that give musical expression to the seasons of the year. Though three of the concerti are wholly original, the first, "Spring", borrows motifs from a Sinfonia in the first act of Vivaldi's contemporaneous opera Il Giustino. The inspiration for the concertos was probably the countryside around Mantua. They were a revolution in musical conception: in them Vivaldi represented flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), barking dogs, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, storms, drunken dancers, silent nights, hunting parties from both the hunters' and the prey's point of view, frozen landscapes, ice-skating children, and warming winter fires. Each concerto is associated with a sonnet, possibly by Vivaldi, describing the scenes depicted in the music. They were published as the first four concertos in a collection of twelve, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione, Opus 8, published in Amsterdam by Michel-Charles Le Cène in 1725.

Charles of Austria (1685-1740), last Habsburg emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Charles of Austria (1685-1740)
Apart from prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt Vivaldi also received commissions from other European nobility and royalty at the height of his career.

The serenata (cantata) Gloria e Imeneo (RV 687) was commissioned in 1725 by the French ambassador to Venice in celebration of the marriage of Louis XV. The following year, another serenata, La Sena festeggiante (RV 694), was written for and premiered at the French embassy as well, celebrating the birth of the French royal princesses, Henriette and Louise Élisabeth. Vivaldi's Opus 9, La cetra, was dedicated to Emperor Charles VI. In 1728, Vivaldi met the emperor while the emperor was visiting Trieste to oversee the construction of a new port. Charles admired the music of the Vivaldi the Red Priest so much that he gave Vivaldi the title of knight, a gold medal and an invitation to Vienna.

In 1930, Vivaldi traveled to Vienna and Prague ccompanied by his father, but it was almost 10 years later he decided to leave Venice for Vienna. By then his compositions were no longer held in such high esteem as they once had been in Venice as changing musical tastes quickly made them outmoded, and Vivaldi chose to sell off sizeable numbers of his manuscripts at paltry prices to finance his migration to Vienna.

Shortly after his arrival in Vienna, however, Charles VI died, which left the composer without any royal protection or a steady source of income. Less than a year later, Vivaldi died in July 1741, aged 63.
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was one of the most productive composers of the Baroque era.
Antonio Vivaldi
During his lifetime, Vivaldi was popular in many countries throughout Europe, including France, but after his death his popularity dwindled. After the end of the Baroque period, Vivaldi's published concerti became relatively unknown, and were largely ignored. Even his most famous work, The Four Seasons, was unknown in its original edition during the Classical and Romantic periods.
A composition by Vivaldi is identified by RV number, which refers to its place in the "Ryom-Verzeichnis" or "Répertoire des oeuvres d'Antonio Vivaldi", a catalog created in the 20th century by the musicologist Peter Ryom.

The violin concerto Four Seasons of 1723, part of Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione ("The Contest between Harmony and Invention"), is Antonio Vivaldi's most famous work, it depicts moods and scenes from each of the four seasons. This work has been described as an outstanding instance of pre-19th century program music.

Vivaldi wrote more than 500 other concertos. About 350 of these are for solo instrument and strings, of which 230 are for violin, the others being for bassoon, cello, oboe, flute, viola d'amore, recorder, lute, or mandolin. About forty concertos are for two instruments and strings, and about thirty are for three or more instruments and strings.

As well as about 46 operas, Vivaldi composed a large body of sacred choral music, such as Magnificat. Other works include sinfonias, about 90 sonatas and chamber music.
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)  was deeply influenced by the music of Antonio Vivaldi
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)
Vivaldi's music was innovative. He brightened the formal and rhythmic structure of the concerto, in which he looked for harmonic contrasts and innovative melodies and themes.

Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi's concertos and arias (recalled in his St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and cantatas). Bach transcribed six of Vivaldi's concerti for solo keyboard: three for organ, and one for four harpsichords, strings, and basso continuo (BWV 1065) based upon the concerto for four violins, two violas, cello, and basso continuo (RV 580).
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Princess Alexandra of Kent, the Honorable Lady of Ogilvy(25 December 1936)

27/1/2020

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Princess Alexandra of Kent
Princess Alexandra of Kent

Biography of Princess Alexandra

Princess Alexandra,The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel ) is a member of the British royal family.

Alexandra was born to Prince George, Duke of Kent(brother of King George VI) and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. She is a first cousin of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, and since her mother Princess Marina was a first cousin of the queen's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, she is also his first cousin once removed.

Alexandra is the widow of businessman Sir Angus Ogilvy, to whom she was married from 1963 until his death in 2004. 
Princess Alexandra was born on 25 December 1936 at 3 Belgrave Square, London. Her parents were Prince George, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. She was named after her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra; her grandmother, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia; and both of her maternal aunts, Countess Elizabeth of Törring-Jettenbach and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia. 
rincess Alexandra as baby with her mother Princess Marina
rincess Alexandra as baby with her mother Princess Marina
As a male-line granddaughter of the British monarch, Princess Alexandra was styled as a British princess with the prefix Her Royal Highness. At the time of her birth, she was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, behind her cousins Elizabeth and Margaret, her uncle the Duke of Gloucester, her father the Duke of Kent, and her elder brother Prince Edward. She was born two weeks after the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII.

The Princess was baptised in the Private Chapel of Buckingham Palace, on 9 February 1937, and her godparents were King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (her paternal uncle and aunt); the Queen of Norway (her grand-aunt); Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (her maternal grandmother); Princess Olga of Yugoslavia (her maternal aunt); the Princess Beatrice (her paternal great-grand-aunt); the Earl of Athlone (her paternal grand-uncle); and Count Karl Theodor of Toerring-Jettenbach (her maternal uncle by marriage). ​
Princess Alexandra with her father Prince George, Duke of Kent and her mother Princess Marina
Princess Alexandra with her father Prince George, Duke of Kent and her mother Princess Marina
Princess Alexandra spent most of her childhood at her family's country house, Coppins, in Buckinghamshire. She lived with her grandmother, Queen Mary, the widow of George V, during World War II at Badminton. Her father was killed in an aeroplane crash near Caithness, Scotland on 25 August 1942 while serving in the Royal Air Force. Princess Alexandra has the distinction of being the first British princess to have attended a boarding school, Heathfield School near Ascot. She then studied in Paris. She was also trained at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

On 20 November 1947, Princess Alexandra served as bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousins, the then-Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh. 

​She was also a bridesmaid at the 1962 wedding of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and her second cousin, Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark.
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Princess Alexandra and her fiance Angus Ogilvy after their engagement was announced.
On 24 April 1963, Princess Alexandra married the Hon. Angus James Bruce Ogilvy (1928–2004), the second son of the 12th Earl of Airlie and Lady Alexandra Coke, at Westminster Abbey. Ogilvy presented Alexandra with an engagement ring made of a cabochon sapphire set in gold and surrounded by diamonds on both sides.

The wedding ceremony was attended by the royal family and was broadcast worldwide on television, watched by an estimated 200 million people.

The bride wore a wedding gown of Valenciennes lace of intricate pattern of oak leaves and acorns from her late grandmother Princess Nicholas of Greece, with matching veil and train, designed by John Cavanagh (who has also created the wedding gown of Alexandra's sister-in-law, Katharine, the current Duchess and dressed her mother Princess Marina), anchored by City of London diamond fringe tiara worn by her mother on her own wedding. ​
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, LondonPrincess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London

Princess Alexandra made her way with her brother, the Duke of Kent, from Kensington Palace to the church. Angus Ogilvy declined the Queen's offer to be created an earl upon marriage, so their children carry no titles.
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent on her wedding, 24 April 1963, wearing the all lace wedding gown Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent on her wedding, 24 April 1963, wearing the all lace wedding gown Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, Londo
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, Londo
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent and Angus Ogilvy on their wedding with the flower girls, 24 April 1963, wearing the all lace wedding gown Westmin
Princess Alexandra of Kent and Angus Ogilvy on their wedding with the flower girls, 24 April 1963, wearing the all lace wedding gown Westmin
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra of Kent and the Hon. Angus Ogilvy on their wedding, 24 April 1963, Westminster Abbey, London
Princess Alexandra and her husband Hon. Angus Ogilvy with their two children
Princess Alexandra and her husband Hon. Angus Ogilvy with their two children
Angus Ogilvy was knighted in 1988 (when Princess Alexandra assumed the style of The Hon. Lady Ogilvy), later being sworn of the Privy Council in 1997. ​​
Princess Alexandra with her husband Sir Angus Ogilvy
Princess Alexandra with her husband Sir Angus Ogilvy
Since the late 1950s, Princess Alexandra has carried out an extensive programme of engagements in support of the Queen, both in the United Kingdom and overseas. Taking part in roughly 120 engagements each year, Princess Alexandra was one of the most active members of the royal family. She made 110 engagements in 2012.

​However, in late June 2013 she cancelled her engagements due to arthritis.  In November 2016, one month ahead of her 80th birthday, the Queen held a reception at Buckingham Palace in honour of the work of Princess Alexandra's charities.

As of 2017, she is still listed on the official website of the British Monarchy as a working member of the Royal Family, attending numerous ceremonial and charitable engagements.
Princess Alexandra with Queen Elizabeth II on reception held by the Queen at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Princess´s patronages.
Princess Alexandra with Queen Elizabeth II on reception held by the Queen at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Princess´s patronages.
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Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto(28 July, 1945)

27/1/2020

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Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto in 1960
Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto in 1960
Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto by Richard Avedon
Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto by Richard Avedon
Born in the castle of Grazzano Visconti of Vigolzone, Piacenza, Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto is the daughter of Adolfo Caracciolo, a Neapolitan noble, and of Anna Visconti di Modrone, a family of nobility in Milan. And she is also the niece of the director Luchino Visconti.
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Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto for Vogue, 1966, photo by Richard Avedon
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Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto for Vogue US, 1965, photo by Henry Clarke
Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto for Vogue US, 1965, photo by Henry Clarke
In 1975 Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto married Umberto Agnelli, brother of Gianni Agnelli, and thus became sister-in-law of her cousin Marella Agnelli, wife of Gianni Agnelli. She had two children from the marriage: Andrea (1975) and Anna (1977).
In 1975 Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto married Umberto Agnelli, brother of Gianni Agnelli, and thus became sister-in-law of her cousin Marella Agnelli, wife of Gianni Agnelli. She had two children from the marriage: Andrea (1975) and Anna (1977).
Umberto Agnelli with his brother Gianni Agnelli, 1968
Allegra and Marella, the sister of Caracciolo
Allegra and Marella, the sister of Caracciolo
Being called 'Donna Allegra', Allegra Agnelli lived a very low profiled life in Turin with her husband and their children until 2004, when her husband Umberto Agnelli died and she became widow.
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Like her sister-in-law Marella Agnelli, Allegra Agnelli is known for her beauty and timeless elegant style and lives a priviledged life of socialite, but she is also dedicated for public causes, like animal protection and cancer researches.
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In 2004, Allegra Agnelli received an honorary degree in Veterinary Medicine University of Turin. This is due to her persistent commitment to animals. And in the same year, the then President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, presented her with the Gold Medal of Merit of Public Health. - Always Ciampi, a year later, awarded her the 2005 Peace Prize.
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Amal Clooney (Amal Alamuddin, February 1978)

25/1/2020

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Original name:        Amal Alamuddin; Arabic: أمل علم الدين
birth place:              Beirut
birth date:                3 February January 1978 
zodiac sign:              Aquarius
Height:                     
175 cm /  5' 9"
Weight:                    54 kg / 119 lbs
Measurements:       34"-26"-35"
           
Occupation:            Athlete, Socialite
Languages:             English, Arabics, French
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Profile of Amal Clooney

Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin; Arabic: أمل علم الدين‎; born 3 February 1978) in Lebanon.

Her father was the owner of COMET travel agency. Her mother, Bariaa Miknass, is a foreign editor of the Pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat and a founder of the public relations company International Communication Experts, which is part of a larger company that specialises in celebrity guest bookings, publicity photography, and event promotion. 

The birth of Amal has been difficult according to her mother and came during a lull in Lebanon's civil war, so her father named her Amal – Arabic for "hope" and 
when she was two years old, the family left for England and settled in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.
Amal Alamuddin while a young and brillant student at the Dr Challoner’s High School.
Amal Alamuddin while a young and brillant student at the Dr Challoner’s High School.

Biography of Amal Clooney

She studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she received an Exhibition and the Shrigley Award.
Amal Alamuddin as a college freshers photo at St Hugh's Oxford University in 1996
Amal Alamuddin as a college freshers photo at St Hugh's Oxford University in 1996
​In 2000, Clooney graduated with a BA degree in Jurisprudence.

The following year, in 2001, she entered New York University School and received the Jack J. Katz Memorial Award for excellence in entertainment law.

After graduation, Amal worked at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City for three years as part of the Criminal Defense and Investigations Group, where her clients included Enron and Arthur Andersen.
In 2010, she returned to Britain and became a barrister in London at Doughty Street Chambers. specialising in international law and human rights, and over the years, she has worked for some high profile clients such as Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in his fight against extradition; the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko; Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy; and Nobel Prize laureate Nadia Murad.

In 2013 Clooney was appointed to a number of United Nations commissions, including as adviser to Special Envoy Kofi Annan on Syria and as Counsel to the 2013 Drone Inquiry by UN human rights rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC into the use of drones in counter-terrorism operations.

On 25 February 2014, the UK Attorney General's Office appointed Clooney for the period 2014 to 2019 to the C Panel of the Public International Law Panel of Counsel.
Amal Clooney in Venice, 2014
Amal Clooney in Venice, 2014
On 28 April 2014, Amal was engaged to Hollywood actor George Clooney whom she met in July 2013.

On 7 August 2014, the couple obtained marriage licences in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London and married on 27 September 2014 in Venice's city hall  following a high-profile wedding ceremony.

In October 2014, The Clooneys bought the Mill House on an island in the River Thames at Sonning Eye in England at a cost of around £10 million.
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Amal Clooney at Golden Globe ceremony wearing black Dior evening gown
Apart from her attorney work and special UN commissions, Amal Clooney occasionally teach classes of human rights at universities and gives lectures on international criminal law.
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​After her marriage, she is also engaged in philanthropy with her husband George Clooney. They co-founded the Clooney Foundation for Justice in late 2016 to advance justice in courtrooms, communities, and classrooms around the world. She also helped in various causes through sponsorship, scholarship and donation on her own or with her husband
​In June 2017, Amal Clooney gave birth to twins: daughter Ella and son Alexander.
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In April 2019, Clooney became a special envoy at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, advising the Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt on global media freedom. In her role as media freedom special envoy, Clooney will chair a panel of international lawyers to 'develop and promote legal mechanisms to prevent and reverse media abuses'.
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Prince Aly Salman Aga Khan (1911-1960)

24/1/2020

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Profile of Ali Khan

Prince Ali Salman Aga Khan (13 June 1911 – 12 May 1960), known as Aly Khan, was a son of Sultan Mahommed Shah, Aga Khan III, the leader of the Nizārī Ismaili Muslims, a sect of Shia Islam, and the father of Aga Khan IV.

A socialite, racehorse owner and jockey, he was the third husband of actress Rita Hayworth. After being passed over for succession as Aga Khan, he served as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations from 1958 to 1960, where he became a vice president of the General Assembly.

His first name was typically spelled "Aly" in the press. The titles of prince and princess, which are claimed by children of the Aga Khan by virtue of their descent from the Qajar king Fath Ali Shah of the Iranian (Persian) Qajar dynasty, were recognized as courtesy titles by the British government in 1938.
Aly Khan photo by Bassano Ltd in 1929
Aly Khan photo by Bassano Ltd in 1929

Biogrophy of Ali Khan

Aly Khan was born in Turin, Italy, the younger son and only surviving child of the Aga Khan III and Cleope Teresa "Ginetta" Magliano. His father was born in Karachi, British India (now in modern-day Pakistan). His mother was an Italian bellerina. Aly Khan was educated by private tutors in India and France during his childhood and later trained in England as a lawyer.
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​1936: First marriage
Aly Khan married his first wife the Hon. Joan Barbara Guinness (née Yarde-Buller, 1908–1997). She was the former wife of Group Captain Thomas Loel Guinness, a member of Parliament, and a daughter of the 3rd Baron Churston. The wedding took place in Paris on 18 May 1936, a few days after Joan Guinness's divorce became absolute. Before the wedding, the bride converted to Islam and took the name Tajuddawlah.

​The couple were married by civil ceremony in May 1936 and they divorced in 1949, partly due to Aly's extramarital affairs with other women, in particular Pamela Churchill.
Aly Khan at his wedding, 1936
Aly Khan at his wedding, 1936
​1939: military 
​In 1939, Prince Aly Aga Khan joined the French Foreign Legion and served with its cavalry division in Egypt and the Middle East. In 1940, he joined the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, becoming a lieutenant colonel in 1944. That same year, he participated in the Allied landing in the south of France with the United States Seventh Army, serving as a liaison officer with the rank of captain; for this, he was made an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1950.

He also was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the United States Bronze Star Medal.

Prince Aly Khan was installed as the 1st Colonel of the Regiment of the newly raised 4 Cavalry Regiment (1 November 1956), Pakistani Army in a military ceremony during 1957 and he retained this honor until his death.
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1949: second marriage and Rita Hayworth 
Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth American actress on their wedding day
Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth American actress on their wedding day
On 27 May (civil) and 28 May (religious) 1949, in Cannes, France, Aly Khan married American film star Rita Hayworth, who left her film career to marry him.
Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth American actress on their wedding day cutting the wedding cake
Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth American actress on their wedding day cutting the wedding cake
On 2 September 1951, Hayworth filed for divorce from Khan on the grounds of "extreme cruelty, entirely mental in nature." And they divorced in 1953.
Aly Khan and Gene Tierney
Aly Khan and Gene Tierney
​While still married to Rita Hayworth, Khan began a relationship with American film and stage actress Gene Tierney. After about a year, Tierney separated from the Prince and moved back to the United States to tend to her mental health.
Death: 1960
Aly Khan at meeting of United Nations, 1960
Aly Khan at meeting of United Nations, 1960
On 12 May 1960, a little more than two years after his appointment as Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN, Aly Khan sustained massive head injuries in an automobile accident in Suresnes, France, a suburb of Paris, when the car he was driving collided with another vehicle at the intersection of boulevard Henri Sellier and rue du Mont Valerien, while he and his pregnant fiancée, Bettina, were heading to a party. He died shortly afterward at Foch Hospital in Suresnes. 

Aly Khan was first buried on the grounds of Château de l'Horizon, his home in the south of France, where it was intended that he would remain until a mausoleum was built for him in Syria. His remains were removed to Damascus, Syria, on 11 July 1972, and he was reinterred in Salamiyah, Syria.

Style:

Racing outfits:
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Party outfits:
Prince Aly Khan with Princess Grace Kelly on a party in Marbella Spain
Prince Aly Khan with Princess Grace Kelly on a party in Marbella Spain
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Aly Khan with his fiancee Bettina Graziani at Paris Theatre Show
Aly Khan with his fiancee Bettina Graziani at Paris Theatre Show
Aly khan and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor on his party
Aly khan and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor on his party
Formal outfits:
Aly Khan with Rita Hayworth in striped suit
Aly Khan with Rita Hayworth in striped suit
Aly Khan at Aly Khan hospital in Mumbai, India
Aly Khan at Aly Khan hospital in Mumbai, India
Prince Aly Khan is departing his hotel during his visit to Lourenço Marques in 1958
Prince Aly Khan is departing his hotel during his visit to Lourenço Marques in 1958
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Alina Cojocaru (27 May 1981)

22/1/2020

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​Profile of Alina Cojocaru

​Alina Cojocaru (born 27 May 1981) is a Romanian ballet dancer. As of November 2013, she is a principal dancer with the English National Ballet.
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​Biography of Alina Cojocaru

At the age of 7 or 8 Alina Cojocaru began gymnastic classes in the hope to grow taller, Later she began ballet classes, despite never having seen a live ballet and progressed at the age of 9 to a Bucharest ballet school which acted as a feeder for the Romanian State Ballet school. Later the same year she took and passed the entrance exam for the school and a few months later was chosen by the director of the Kiev Ballet school to take part in a student exchange.
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She left her family to train at Kiev Ballet school school without speaking any Russian. Initially, Cojocaru and the other Romanian students were taught separately, before being integrated with the other students in the third year.

The ballet school gave a public performance every six months and it was in one of these performances that Cojocaru made her debut, dancing the role of Amor in Don Quixote.

In January 1997, aged 15, she competed in the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition. There, she was awarded a six-month scholarship to train at the Royal Ballet School in London. She moved to London later that year to commence her training, but did not speak any English.
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After completing her six month training with the Royal Ballet School, Cojocaru was offered a contract to join The Royal Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. She was also offered a contract to join the Kiev Ballet as principal. She subsequently joined Kiev Ballet in November 1998 and stayed for one season, dancing a variety of roles.
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Whilst dancing with Kiev Ballet, Cojocaru re-applied to the Royal Ballet in London, but was only invited to audition for the corps de ballet. She was offered a contract after the audition and joined the company in November 1999. She was subsequently promoted to principal dancer in 2001 by Sir Anthony Dowell after her performance of Giselle, one of the youngest in Royal Ballet history.
Alina Cojocaru in Giselle
Alina Cojocaru in Giselle
In 2004, Cojocaru received the Prix Benois de la Danse for her portrayal of Cinderella.

One of the highlights of her career is her partnership with Danish principal dancer, Johan Kobborg. The partnership began in 2001 when they danced together in Romeo and Juliet after Cojocaru filled in for an injured Miyako Yoshida. Since then, Kobborg and Cojocaru's partnership has been named one of the greatest in the history of ballet, and they have danced together at Covent Garden and worldwide.
Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Photo by Alastair Muir
Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg in Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House Photo by Alastair Muir
In 2005, it was publicly announced that they were in a romantic relationship. In May 2011, Cojocaru was making a guest appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, but her dance partner was injured so Kobborg flew over unexpectedly to fill in and surprised Cojocaru when he proposed to her on her 30th birthday. Their engagement was announced shortly afterward. ​​​​
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In February 2012 Alina premiered her Alina Cojocaru - Dream Project, in Tokyo, Japan, which she directed and staged, while performing along side friends and colleagues from the Tokyo Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, English National Ballet and Royal Ballet. 

In the same year, Cojocaru became the first ballerina to receive the Prix Benois de la Danse twice, this time for John Neumeier's Liliom with the Hamburg Ballet. The lead role of Julie also marked the first time a full-length ballet was created around Cojocaru.
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In June 2013, she announced that she and Kobborg would leave The Royal Ballet at the end of 2012/13 season. ​​
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In July 2013, Cojocaru joined the English National Ballet as a principal dancer. But she continues to perform as a guest artist with companies worldwide, and is a regular guest with the Hamburg Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

Alina's second Dream Project took place in July 2014. In 2015 Alina presented a charity Gala at the Lincoln Center NY. 


In May 2017, Cojocaru announced on Twitter that she and Kobborg are expecting their first child. On 10 October 2017, Kobborg announced via Twitter that Cojocaru had given birth to their daughter Thalia Chulpan.
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Anthony Andrews (British, 12 January 1948)

22/1/2020

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Anthony Andrews portrait by Allan Warren
Anthony Andrews portrait by Allan Warren
Anthony Colin Gerald Andrews is an English actor best known for his role as Lord Sebastian Flyte in the 1981 ITV miniseries Brideshead Revisited (1981), for which he won Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Awards, and was nominated for an Emmy.
​Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes (née Cooper), a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, an arranger and conductor for the BBC. He grew up in North Finchley London. At the age of eight he took dancing lessons, making his stage debut as the White Rabbit in a stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

After a series of jobs that included catering, farming and journalism, he secured a position at the Chichester Theatre where he worked as an assistant stage manager and later as a stand-in producer.

Andrews auditioned in 1968 for a production of Alan Bennett's new play, Forty Years On, which featured John Gielgud as the headmaster of a British public school during the First World War period. Andrews was cast as Skinner, one of twenty schoolboys.

In 1974 he played Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge in the TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. In 1975 he had a leading role in the Spanish film Las adolescentes (The Adolescents), opposite Koo Stark.
Anthony Andrews as Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge TV series Upstairs, Downstairs, 1974
Anthony Andrews as Lord Robert, Marquis of Stockbridge TV series Upstairs, Downstairs, 1974
From 1974-1975, Anthony Andrews played Steerforth in TV series David Copperfield. And in 1979, Andrews was the main star of the ITV television series Danger UXB, in which he played a British bomb disposal officer in the London Blitz.The series first aired in the United Kingdom in 1979 on the ITV network.
Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982
Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982
In 1982 Anthony Andrews played the leading role of Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited adapted by Evelyn Waugh's novel of same name. He won a Golden Globe and BAFTA TV Award for his performance and was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982
Anthony Andrews as Lord Sebastian Flyte in TV series Brideshead Revisited, 1982
In the United States, Andrews is best known for his portrayal of the titular character in Ivanhoe as well as that of Sir Percy Blakeney(Scarlet Pimpernel) in the 1982 film The Scarlet Pimpernel, which he played opposite American actress Jane Seymour.
Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney(Scarlet Pimpernel) in film The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1982
Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney(Scarlet Pimpernel) in film The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1982
In 1988, Anthony Andrews teamed up with Jane Seymour again to star in The Woman He Loved, a British HTV made-for-television romantic drama film for ITV. This time Anthony Andrews played Prince of Wales, King Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor)
Anthony Andrews as King Edward VIII in tv film The Woman He Loved, 1982
Anthony Andrews as King Edward VIII in tv film The Woman He Loved, 1982
With his fine features, tall and slim figure and natural elegance, Anthony Andrews was constantly casted as an British aristocrat, but it seems he was tired of the typecast after the film The woman he loved. And for the next three decades Anthony Andrews avoided any aristocratic roles according to him, and in 2010 he even successfully portrayed the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in the acclaimed film The King's Speech staring Colin Firth.
Anthony Andrews as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin film The King's Speech, 2010
Anthony Andrews as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin film The King's Speech, 2010
But it seemed playing aristocrat is part of Anthony Andrews's destiny, and in 2105, he played Lord Hazelwood in TV series The Syndicate
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