Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

26 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Basilica of the Holy House, Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House and tagged art, Basilica of the Holy House, Containing the Results of Personal Investigation of the Two Sanctuaries. London: E. Dillon. Leopardi, Floriano (1984). La Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto nei documenti dei secoli XII - XV (in Italian and Latin). Ancona: Stabilimento Tipografico Mierma. Grimaldi, Floriano (1993). La historia della Chiesa di Santa Maria de Loreto (in Italian). Loreto: Carilo. Hutchison, giacobbe giusti, Grimaldi, Karin (2018). The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18449-4., Monaldo (1841). La Santa Casa di Loreto: discussioni istoriche e critiche (in Italian). Lugano: presso Francesco Veladini e C. Vélez, William Antony (1863). Loreto and Nazareth: Two Lectures | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

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Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

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Basilica della Santa Casa Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House
The façade edifice of the Basilica della Santa Casa.
Location	Loreto, Marche, Italy
Denomination	Catholic Church
History
Status	Pontifical minor basilica
Architecture
Style	Late Gothic
Completed	16th century
Administration
Episcopal area	Territorial Prelature of Loreto

The Basilica della Santa Casa(English: Basilica of the Holy House) is a shrine of Marian pilgrimage in Loreto, Italy. The basilica is known for enshrining the house in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed by some Catholics to have lived. Pious devotees believe that the same house was flown over by Angelic beings from Jerusalem to Tersatto (Trsat in Croatia) then to Recanati before arriving at the current site. ^[1]^[2]

Pope Benedict XV designated the Blessed Virgin Mary under the same title to be Patroness of air passengers and auspicious travel on 24 March 1920. Accordingly, Pope Pius XIgranted a Canonical Coronation to the image of Our Lady of Loreto made of Cedar of Lebanon on 5 September 1922, replacing the torched image consumed in fire on 23 February 1921.

Historic structure

The basilica is a Late Gothic structure continued by Giuliano da Maiano, Giuliano da Sangallo and Donato Bramante.^[3] It is 93 meters long, 60 meters wide, and its campanile is 75.6 meters high.

The façade of the church was erected under Sixtus V, who in 1586 fortified Loreto and gave it the privileges of a town; his colossal statue stands on the parvis, above the front steps, a third of the way to the left as one enters. Over the principal doorway there is a lifesize bronze statue of the Virgin and Child by Girolamo Lombardo; the three superb bronze doors executed at the latter end of the 16th century under the reign of Paul V (1605–1621) are also by Lombardo, his sons and his pupils, among them Tiburzio Vergelli, who also made the fine bronze font in the interior. The doors and hanging lamps are by the same artists. The richly decorated campanile (1750 to 1754), by Vanvitelli,^[3] is of great height; the principal bell, presented by Leo X in 1516, weighs 11 tons. The interior of the church has mosaics by Domenichino and Guido Reni and other works of art, including statues by Raffaello da Montelupo. In the sacristies on each side of the right transept are frescoes, on the right by Melozzo da Forlì, on the left by Luca Signorelli and in both there are some fine intarsias; the basilica as a whole is thus a collaborative work by generations of architects and artists.

The Santa Casa

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

Marble screen around the Holy House

The main attraction of Loreto is the Holy House itself (in Italian, the Santa Casa di Loreto). It has been a Catholicpilgrimage destination since at least the 14th century and a popular tourist destination for non-Catholics as well.

Description

The “house” itself is a plain stone building, 8.5 m by 3.8 m and 4.1 m high; it has a door on the north side and a window on the west; and a niche contains a small black image of the Virgin and Child, in Lebanon cedar, and richly adorned with jewels. Around the house is a tall marble screen designed by Bramante and executed under Popes Leo X, Clement VII and Paul III, by Andrea Sansovino, Girolamo Lombardo, Bandinelli, Guglielmo della Porta and others in the baroque style. The four sides represent the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Arrival of the Santa Casa at Loreto and the Nativity of the Virgin, respectively. The treasury contains a large variety of rich and curious votive offerings. The architectural design is finer than the details of the sculpture. The apse is decorated with 19th-century German frescoes.

Tradition

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

Fresco by Melozzo da Forlì in the sacristy of St Marc

The documented history of the house can only be traced as far back as close of the Crusades, around the 14th century. An early brief reference is made in the Italia Illustrata of Flavius Blondus, secretary to Popes Eugene IV, Nicholas V, Calixtus IIIand Pius II; it is to be read in all its fullness in the Redemptoris mundi Matris Ecclesiæ Lauretana historia, by a certain Teremannus, contained in the Opera Omnia (1576) of Baptista Mantuanus.

The town of has been a popular pilgrimage site since the 13th century^{[citation needed]}. Late medieval religious traditions developed suggesting that this was the house in which the Christian Holy Family (Mary, Joseph and Jesus) had lived when in Judeaat the start of the first millennium c.e., and which was miraculously flown over to Loreto by four angels just before the final expulsion of the Christian Crusaders from the Holy Land in order to protect it from muslim soldiers. According to this narrative, the house at Nazareth in which Mary had been born and brought up, potentially received the Annunciation, and had lived during the Childhood of Christ and after his Ascension, was converted into a church by the Twelve Apostles. In 336, Empress Helena made a pilgrimage to Nazareth and allegedly directed that a basilica be erected over it, in which worship continued until the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. However, there is no firm historical evidence that Helena did in fact make such a intervention.

The tale further states that, threatened with destruction by Muslim soldiers, the house was miraculously carried by angels through the air and initially deposited in 1291 on a hill at Tersatto (now Trsat, a suburb of Rijeka, Croatia), where an appearance of the Virgin and numerous miraculous cures attested to its sanctity. These miracles were said to have been confirmed by investigations made at Nazareth by messengers from the governor of Dalmatia. In 1294, angels again carried it across the Adriatic Sea to the woods near Recanati (although the reasoning is not clear as to why this happened); from these woods (Latin lauretum, Italian Colle dei Lauri or from the name of its proprietress Laureta) the chapel derived the name which it still retains (sacellum gloriosæ Virginis in Laureto). From this spot it was afterwards removed to the present hill in 1295, with a slight adjustment being required to fix it in its current site. It is this house that gave the title Our Lady of Loreto sometimes applied to the Virgin; the miracle is occasionally represented in religious art wherein the house is borne by an angelic host.

Bulls in favour of the Shrine at Loreto were issued by Pope Sixtus IV in 1491, and by Julius II in 1507, the last alluding to the translation of the house with some caution (ut pie creditur et fama est). While, like most miracles, the translation of the house is not a matter of faith for Catholics, nonetheless, in the late 17th century, Innocent XIIappointed a missa cum officio proprio (a special Mass) for the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House, which as late as the 20th century was enjoined in the Spanish Breviary as a greater double^[jargon] on 10 December 10.

On 4 October 2012, Benedict XVI visited the Shrine to mark the 50th anniversary of John XXIII‘s visit. In his visit, Benedict formally entrusted the World Synod of Bishopsand the Year of Faith to the Virgin of Loreto. ^[4]^[5]^[6]

History

According to Herbert Thurston, in some respects the Lauretan tradition is “beset with difficulties of the gravest kind”, which were noted in a 1906 work on the subject. There are documents which indicate that a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin already existed at Loreto in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that is, 180 years before the time of the supposed translation; and there is no mention of the supposed miraculous translation of the Holy House in 1472. Thurston notes that papal confirmations of the Loreto tradition are relatively late (the first Bull mentioning the translation is that of Julius II in 1507), but that they are at first very guarded in expression, for Julius introduces the clause “ut pie creditur et fama est”.^[7] Thurston suggests that a miracle-working statue or picture of the Madonna was brought from Tersato in Illyria to Loreto by some pious Christians and was then confounded with the ancient rustic chapel in which it was harboured, the veneration formerly given to the statue afterwards passing to the building.^[7]

Finally, he draws comparisons to the shrine at Walsingham, the principal English shrine of the Blessed Virgin, the legend of “Our Lady’s house” (written down about 1465, and consequently earlier than the Loreto translation tradition) supposes that in the time of St. Edward the Confessor a chapel was built at Walsingham, which exactly reproduced the dimensions of the Holy House of Nazareth. When the carpenters could not complete it upon the site that had been chosen, it was transferred and erected by angels’ hands at a spot two hundred feet away.^[8]

In modern times, the Church traced the linguistic origins of the story to a local aristocratic family called “Angelos”, which were responsible for the transfer.^[9]According to Papal archivist Giuseppe Lapponi, it seems that a family by the name of Angeli saved the bricks of the Holy House from the Muslim invasion. Excavations beneath the House of Loreto found coins, two of which are connected to the Angeli family.^[10]

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of the Holy House

The venerated Marian image of Our Lady of Loreto. The cedar wood was timbered from the Vatican Gardens.

Our Lady of Loreto

Our Lady of Loreto is the title of the Virgin Mary with respect to the Holy House of Loreto. Her statue, carved from Cedar of Lebanon, is a “Black Madonna,” owing to centuries of lamp smoke. It, like the Holy House, is associated with miracles. In the 1600s a Mass and a Marian litany was approved. This “Litany of Loreto” is the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one of the five litanies approved for public recitation by the Church. In 1920 Pope Benedict XVdeclared the Madonna of Loreto patron saintof air travellers and pilots.^[11] The statue was commissioned after a fire in the Santa Casa in 1921 destroyed the original madonna, and it was granted a Canonical Coronation in 1922 by Pope Pius XI. Our Lady of Loreto is commemorated on December 10.

References

^ Donald Posner – Annibale Carracci a study in the reform of italian painting 1971 “The painting was originally in the basilica of the Santa Casa in Loreto.
^ History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Frederick Hartt, David G. Wilkins – 2010 “Sixtus’s nephews who appears in the group portrait, called Melozzo to Loreto, on the Adriatic coast, to decorate the sacristy of the basilica of the Santa Casa (fig. 14.26). “
^ Jump up to:^a ^b “Basilica della Santa Casa”, Fodor’s Archived October 29, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
^ “Pope at Marian shrine entrusts Year of Faith, synod to Mary”. Catholic News Service. 4 October 2012. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
^ Pastoral visit of Benedict XVI to Loreto Archived January 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
^ Benedict XVI, Prayer to Our Lady of Loreto Archived January 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Thurston, Herbert. “Santa Casa di Loreto.” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 10 December 2017
^ “The Month”, September 1901
^ Kerr, David (4 October 2012). “Pope entrusts Year of Faith, evangelization synod to Mary”. Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
^ Roten SM, Johann. “Our Lady of Loreto and Aviation”, International Marian Research Institute, University of Dayton.
^ Donovan, Colin B., “Our Lady of Loreto”, EWTN, August 2, 2005

Bibliography

Grimaldi, Floriano (1984). La Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto nei documenti dei secoli XII – XV (in Italian and Latin). Ancona: Stabilimento Tipografico Mierma.
Grimaldi, Floriano (1993). La historia della Chiesa di Santa Maria de Loreto (in Italian). Loreto: Carilo.
Hutchison, William Antony (1863). Loreto and Nazareth: Two Lectures, Containing the Results of Personal Investigation of the Two Sanctuaries. London: E. Dillon.
Leopardi, Monaldo (1841). La Santa Casa di Loreto: discussioni istoriche e critiche (in Italian). Lugano: presso Francesco Veladini e C.
Vélez, Karin (2018). The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto: Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-18449-4.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). “Santa Casa di Loreto”. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_della_Santa_Casa

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

15 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina, Le Triomphe de Galatée de Raphaël, Palais Farnèse, autre édifice ayant appartenu au cardinal et maintenant siège de l'ambassade de France en Italie Le Palazzo Farnese de Caprarola, également connu comme Villa Farnese Maison sous, Villa Farnesina and tagged a été construite entre 1508 et 1511 par l'architecte Baldassarre Peruzzidans le rione du Trastevere, art, autre édifice ayant appartenu au cardinal et maintenant siège de l'ambassade de France en Italie Le Palazzo Farnese de Caprarola, à Rome., également connu comme Villa Farnese Maison sous la Farnesina : construction aristocratique antique en partie sous les jardins de la villa Farnesina., banquier et trésorier du pape Jules II., giacobbe giusti, Palais Farnèse, pour le compte du Siennois Agostino Chigi, Rome, via della Lungara, Villa Farnesina, villa Farnesina (ou la villa della Farnesina ou plus simplement la Farnesina ou même la Farnésine) | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

Le Triomphe de Galatée de Raphaël

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

Présentation
Type	Villa, bâtiment d’habitation (d)
Style	Renaissance
Architecte	Baldassarre Peruzzi
Construction	1509-1511
Commanditaire	Agostino Chigi
Propriétaire	Italie
Statut patrimonial	Bien culturel en Italie (d)
Site web	www.villafarnesina.it

Localisation
Pays	Italie
Région	Latium
Commune	Rome
Adresse	Via della Lungara

Coordonnées	41° 53′ 37″ N, 12° 28′ 02″ E

Localisation sur la carte de Rome

La villa Farnesina (ou la villa della Farnesina ou plus simplement la Farnesina ou même la Farnésine), via della Lungara, à Rome, a été construite entre 1508 et 1511 par l’architecte Baldassarre Peruzzidans le rione du Trastevere, pour le compte du Siennois Agostino Chigi, banquier et trésorier du pape Jules II.

Historique

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

L’édifice

Après la mort d’Agostino Chigi, en 1520, la villa fut progressivement abandonnée, ses meubles, ses objets et ses tableaux vendus. Occupée par des lansquenets lors du sac de Rome en 1527, elle finit par être saccagée. On peut encore observer dans la salle des Perspectives des graffitis dus à ces lansquenets.

La villa fut acquise vers 1580 par le cardinal Alexandre Farnèse, qui lui donna son nom actuel.

Elle passe ensuite aux mains des Bourbons d’Espagne, héritiers des Farnèse au xviii^e siècle, avant de devenir la propriété du Royaume des Deux-Siciles également dirigé par les Bourbons.

Elle est sauvée de la ruine à la fin du xix^e siècle par Bermudez de Castro di Ripalta, ambassadeur d’Espagne qui en devient le nouveau propriétaire en 1861. Les travaux qu’il fait effectuer font disparaître certains revêtements d’origine, et l’agencement même de certaines pièces a été modifié.

En 1927, la Farnesina est acquise par l’État italien : entre 1929 et 1942, Mussolini y installe le siège de l’Académie d’Italie et y fait, à cette fin, réaliser une longue série de travaux de restructuration et de restauration divers.

La villa accueille aujourd’hui l’Accademia dei Lincei (qui compta Galilée parmi ses premiers membres). Elle est également le siège du Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (Conservatoire national du dessin et des estampes).

Architecture

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

Le Triomphe de Galatée de Raphaël

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnesina

La loggia de Psyché de Raphaël

Baldassarre Peruzzi renonce dans cette villa aux méthodes habituellement en usage, comme le faux marbre et les éléments architecturaux. Il utilise des perspectives peintes en peignant sur les murs des fresques représentant des scènes rupestres qui figurent un espace extérieur, comme vues au travers des colonnes et des voûtes, avec un effet illusionniste.

L’édifice en forme de U, dont la façade est ornée de piliers d’ordre toscan supportant une corniche festonnée de Putti (angelots), comprend deux niveaux et une loggia de plain-pied s’ouvrant sur un jardin par cinq arches (actuellement fermées par des châssis de verre).

La vaste loggia du rez-de-chaussée servait de scène pour les fêtes et les représentations théâtrales organisées par le résident.

De nombreuses fresques décorent les murs et les voûtes. Celles de la loggia sont un continuum du jardin : elles ont pour thème le cycle de L’histoire d’Amour et Psychée, tirée des écrits d’Apulée. Elles sont deRaphaël et de ses élèves (Raffaellino del Colle, Giovan Francesco Penni, Giulio Romano et Giovanni da Udine).

Dans une des salles contigües de la loggia se trouve la célèbre fresque représentant Le Triomphe de Galatée, peinte en 1513 par Raphaël. Le plafond de cette salle représente le Zodiaque et l’alignement des astres au jour de la naissance du commanditaire et propriétaire originaire des lieux, Agostino Chigi.

Au premier étage, on trouve la Salle des perspectives peinte comme une loggia et ouverte sur des paysages romains entre lesquels on aperçoit une vue de Trastevere. Dans une salle secondaire, la chambre à coucher d’Agostino Chigi, se trouve un cycle de fresques du Sodoma sur la vie d’Alexandre le Grand avec, notamment, les Noces d’Alexandre et de Roxane.

Voir aussi

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

Villa Farnesina, sur Wikimedia Commons

Palais Farnèse, autre édifice ayant appartenu au cardinal et maintenant siège de l’ambassade de France en Italie
Le Palazzo Farnese de Caprarola, également connu comme Villa Farnese
Maison sous la Farnesina : construction aristocratique antique en partie sous les jardins de la villa Farnesina.

(it) Informations générales de l’Accademia dei Lincei [archive]
(it) Page de VivaRoma.com [archive]
(fr) Un article consacré à l’œuvre gravée d’après Raphaël, il est question des fresques de la loggia [archive]
(en) « Fruits and Nuts of the Villa Farnesina » [archive], Jules Janick, James Troop Distinguished Professor in Horticulture at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Farnesina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

13 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Coffin David, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton University Press, 1979: 281-5 ^ Coffin, 1979: 281 ^ Coffin, 1979: 285 ^ Partridge, Loren W. "Vignola and the Villa Farnese at Cap, Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Villa Farnese, Caprarola and tagged art, Caprarola, giacobbe giusti, Villa Farnese | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

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Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

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Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

Palazzo Farnese aerial view

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Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

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Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

Side view of the main Southeastern front of Villa Farnese

The Villa Farnese, also known as Villa Caprarola, is a mansion in the town of Caprarola in the province of Viterbo, Northern Lazio, Italy, approximately 50 kilometres north-west of Rome. This villa should not be confused with the Palazzo Farneseand the Villa Farnesina, both in Rome. A property of the Republic of Italy, Villa Farnese is run by the Polo Museale del Lazio.

The Villa Farnese is situated directly above the town of Caprarola and dominates its surroundings. It is a massive Renaissance and Mannerist construction, opening to the Monte Cimini, a range of densely wooded volcanic hills. It is built on a five-sided plan in reddish gold stone; buttresses support the upper floors. As a centerpiece of the vast Farnese holdings, Caprarola has always been an expression of Farnese power, rather than a villa in the more usual agricultural or pleasure senses.

History

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

Prospetto principale di Palazzo di Caprarola by Giuseppe Vasi, c.1746-1748.

In 1504, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the future Pope Paul III, acquired the estate at Caprarola. He had designs made for a fortified castle or rocca by the architects Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi.^[1] Surviving plan drawings by Peruzzi show a pentagonal arrangement with each face of the pentagon canted inwards towards its center, to permit raking fire upon a would-be scaling force, both from the center and from the projecting bastions that advance from each corner angle of the fortress. Peruzzi’s plan also shows a central pentagonal courtyard and it is likely that the later development of the circular central court was also determined by the necessities of the pentagonal plan. The pentagonal fortress foundations, constructed probably between 1515 and 1530,^[2] became the base upon which the present villa sits; so the overall form of the villa was predetermined by the rocca foundations.

Subsequently, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, a grandson of Pope Paul III, and a man who was known for promoting his family’s interests, planned to turn this partly constructed fortified edifice into a villa or country house. In 1556, he commissioned Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola as his architect,^[3] building work commenced in 1559 and Vignola continued to work on the villa at Caprarola until his death in 1573.^[4] Farnese was a courteous man of letters; however, the Farnese family as a whole became unpopular with the following pope, Julius III, and, accordingly, Alessandro Farnese decided it would be politic to retire from the Vatican for a period. He therefore selected Caprarola on the family holding of Ronciglione, being both near and yet far enough from Rome as the ideal place to build a country house.

Design

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

The Scala Regia in the Villa Farnese

The villa is one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. Ornament is used sparingly to achieve proportion and harmony. Thus while the villa dominates the surroundings, its severe design also complements the site. This particular style, known today as Mannerism, was a reaction to the ornate earlier High Renaissance designs of twenty years earlier.

Vignola, the architect chosen for this difficult and inhospitable site, had recently proved his mettle in designing Villa Giulia on the outskirts of Rome for the preceding pope, Julius III. Vignola in his youth had been heavily influenced by Michelangelo. For the villa at Caprarola, his plans as built were for a pentagon constructed around a circular colonnaded courtyard.^[5] In the galleried court, paired Ionic columns flank niches containing busts of the Roman Emperors, above a rusticated arcade, a reworking of Bramante‘s scheme for the “House of Raphael”, in the Borgo rione, Rome. A further Bramantesque detail is the entablature that breaks forward over the columns, linking them above, while they stand on separate bases. The interior loggia formed by the arcade is frescoed with Raphaelesque grotesques, in the manner of the Vatican Logge. The gallery and upper floors were reached by five spiral staircases around the courtyard: the most important of these is the Scala Regia (“Royal Stairs”) rising through the principal floors.

Approach and entrance

The approach to the Villa Farnese is from the town’s main street, which is centred on the villa, to a piazza from which stairs ascend to a series of terraces beginning with the subterranean basementexcavated from the tuff, surrounded by steep curving steps leading to the terrace above. This basement floor in the foundations, which functioned as a carriage entrance in inclement weather, features a massive central column with a series of buttresses and retaining walls; on the exterior, large heavily grilled doors in the rusticated walls appear to lead into the guardrooms of a fortress, while above them a curved balustraded external double stairway leads to the terrace above. This in turn has a formal double staircase to the principal entrance on the Piano dei Prelati floor which is accessed from the broad terrace. This bastion-like floor, which appears in the elevation as a second ground floor, is rusticated, the main door a severe archflanked by three windows on each side. The facade at this level is terminated by massive solid corner projections.

Above this is the double-height piano nobile, where five huge arched windows incongruously dominate the facade over the front door; above this sit a further two floors for housing gentlefolk with servants above them, the numerous windows divided on the exterior by rusticated pilasters in dressed stone.

Giacobbe Giusti, Villa Farnese, Caprarola

Fasti Farnesiani ( Farnese Deeds”) by Taddeo Zuccari, portrays Francis I of France and Charles V

Interiors

The villa’s interiors are arranged over five floors, each floor designed for a different function. The main rooms are located on the first floor or piano nobile, where a large central loggia (now glazed in) looks down over the town, its main street and the surrounding countryside. This hall is known as the Room of Hercules on account of its fresco decorations,^[6]and was used as a summer dining hall. It has a grotto-like fountain with sculpture at one end. To either side of the loggia are two circular rooms: one is the chapel, the other accommodates the principal staircase or Scala Regia, a graceful spiral of steps supported by pairs of Ionic columns rising up through three floors and frescoed by Antonio Tempesta.

The two grand apartments at first floor level are symmetrically-matched in plan and complete the remaining enclosure of the courtyard. Each has a series of five rooms with state rooms, which begin with the largest reception hall nearest the entrance and proceed, with increasing intimacy and decreased size, to a bedroom, wardrobe and studiolo at the northern end; an ordered suite that would become standardized in the 17th century as the Baroque state apartment. The different orientations of these two apartments allows for a seasonal differentiation; the east, or summer apartment is associated with the active life, the west, or winter range with the contemplative life.^[7] The scrupulous symmetrical balance of the two apartments is carried through by their matching parterre gardens, each reached by a bridge across the moat and cut into the hillslope.

The suites are famous for their Mannerist frescoes. The iconographic program of frescoes expressing the glory of the Farnese was worked out by the humanists in Farnese’s court, notably his secretary, Annibale Caro;^[8] The fresco cycles portray the exploits of Alexander the Great, and of course of the Farnese themselves: in the Sala dei Fasti Farnesiani (the Room of Farnese Deeds), decorated by the brothers Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, the Farnese are depicted at all their most glorious moments, from floor to coffered ceiling.^[9] Other artists employed in fresco decoration include Giacomo Zanguidi (il Bertoia), Raffaellino da Reggio, Antonio Tempesta, Giacomo del Duca, and Giovanni De Vecchi.

Among the frescoed subjects of the contemplative winter suite is the famous “Room of the World Map” or Sala del Mappamondo, displaying the whole known world as it was in 1574 when the frescoes were completed.^[10] Above, the frescoed vault depicts the celestial spheres and the constellations of the zodiac.

Gardens

The gardens of the villa are as impressive as the building itself, a significant example of the Italian Renaissance garden period. The villa’s fortress theme is carried through by a surrounding moat and three drawbridges. Two facades of the pentagonal arrangement face the two gardens cut into the hill; each garden is accessed across the moat by a drawbridge from the apartments on the piano nobile and each is a parterre garden of box topiary with fountains. A grotto-like theatre was once here. A walk through the chestnut woods beyond, leads to the giardino segreto, or secret garden, with its well-known casino.

The Casino

The Casino, a small habitable summerhouse with two loggie for al fresco dining. It was built probably on designs by Giacomo del Duca, with later alterations were made to the area around the casino by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.^[11] The casino is approached by stairs contained between heavily rusticated grotto walls, with a central catena d’acqua, a cascaded rill or ‘water-staircase’, which the water flows down to a stone basin. At the top of the steps and set in an oval space are large statues of two reclining river gods to either side of a large central vase fountain. Stairs built into the oval walls lead up to the parterred terrace in front of the south facade of the casino. This part of the terrace is lined by stone herms with cypress trees. To the north of the casino is a private garden which steps up slightly and accommodates roses.

Today

Alessandro Farnese died in 1589 bequeathing his estates to relations – the Farnese dukes of Parma. The Cardinal’s fabulous collection was transferred eventually to Charles III of Spain in Naples. In the 19th century the villa became for a while the residence of the heir to the throne of the newly united Italy.

Elements of the villa’s Renaissance gardens have influenced many estate gardens of the 19th and 20th century by landscape designers, such as Beatrix Farrand, A.E. Hanson, and Florence Yoch. 1920s gardens with a catena d’acqua include the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills and ‘Las Tejas’ in Montecito, California, with the latter also having a casino in direct homage to the original at Villa Farnese.^[12]

Today the casino and its gardens are one of the homes of the President of the Italian Republic. The empty main villa, owned by the State, is open to the public. The numerous rooms, salons and halls with their marbles and frescoes, and the architecture of the great palazzo-like villa are still as impressive and daunting as they were first intended to be.

Filmography

Several scenes from the TV series Medici: Masters of Florence are set in Villa Farnese.^[13]
Several scenes from 2003 movie Luther Luther was filmed in Villa Farnese, featuring the central courtyard and Scala Regia.

References

^ Coffin David, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton University Press, 1979: 281-5
^ Coffin, 1979: 281
^ Coffin, 1979: 285
^ Partridge, Loren W. “Vignola and the Villa Farnese at Caprarola”, Part I The Art Bulletin 52.1 (March 1970:81-87), Part II
^ Partridge Loren W., “The Farnese Circular Courtyard at Caprarola: God, Geopolitics, Genealogy, and Gender”, The Art Bulletin 83.2 (June 2001:259-293)
^ Partridge, Loren W. “The Sala d’Ercole in the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, Part I” The Art Bulletin 53.4 (December 1971:467-486), “Part II” The Art Bulletin 54.1 (March 1972:50-62).
^ Baumgart, 1935 noted by Kish 1953:51; Coffin, 1979: 296-7.
^ Robertson, Clare. “Annibal Caro as Iconographer: Sources and Method Annibal Caro as Iconographer: Sources and Method” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 45 (1982:160-181); see also Baumgart, Fritz. “La Caprarola di Ameto Orti”, Studi Romanzi, 25(1935:80); in 240 Latin verses, La Caprarola of Ameto Orti (c 1585-89) describes the beauties of the Farnese castello.
^ Partridge, Loren W. “Divinity and Dynasty at Caprarola: Perfect History in the Room of Farnese Deeds”, The Art Bulletin 60.3 (September 1978:494-530).
^ Kish, G. ” ‘The Mural Atlas’ of Caprarola” Imago Mundi 10 (1953:51-56); the date 1574 is worked into the border of the map of Europe (p. 53); Kish identifies the sources in contemporary printed maps; the ideology of status, service, and personal merit behind the presentation of maps was interpreted by Partridge, Loren W. “The Room of Maps at Caprarola, 1573-75” The Art Bulletin, 77.3 (September 1995:413-444); the frescoes are revisited by Quinlan-McGrath, Mary. “Caprarola’s Sala della Cosmografi”, Renaissance Quarterly 50.4 (Winter 1997:1045-1100).
^ Coffin, 1979: 302 although later alterations were made to the area around the casino by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.
^ Streatfield, David. “California Gardens: Creating a New Eden.” Abbevile Press. New York, London, Paris. 1994. ISBN 1-55859-453-1. pp. 127. 107-11.
^ “Palazzo Farnese a Caprarola: le location della serie tv i Medici Masters of Florence”. 6 March 2017.

Murray, Peter J. (1963). The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. London: Batsford. pp. 240ff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Farnese

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12 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum., Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1, Shaki Caravanserai, Azerbaijan, Silk Road Atlas (University of Washington) The Silk Road, a historical overview by Oliver Wild The Silk Road Journal, a freely available scholarly journal run by Daniel Waugh The New Silk Road – a, The routes of the four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Maritime expeditions, during 1492 to 1504, to the Caribbean Islands and coast of Central America in North America., unesco and tagged 1993, 32. ^ "Ancient bottom wipers yield evidence of diseases carried along the Silk Road". The Guardian. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 2018-05-18. ^ Jerry Bentley, 33. ^ Miha Museum (Shiga, art, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Ancient Glass Research along the Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Fuxi (2009). Ancient Glass Research Along the Silk Road. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, giacobbe giusti, Japan), Japan) Volume 23 (March 2009). "Eurasian winds toward Silla". Archived from the original on 2016-04-09. ^ Jump up to:ab Gan, Liu (2010). The Silk Road in World History New York: Oxford University Press, Luce (2005). Silk Road: Monks, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, p. 11. ^ Jump up to:abc "Republic of Korea | Silk Road". en.unesco.org. Archivedfrom the original on 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2017-02-23. ^ Jerry Bentley, Silk Road, Sping Special Exhibition (14 March 2009). "Eurasian winds toward Silla". Archived from the original on 9 April 2016., Vadime (2001). The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. UNESCO Publishing / Berghahn Books. ISBN978-92-3-103652-1. ^ Boulnois, Warriors & Merchants. Hong Kong: Odyssey Books. p. 66. ISBN978-962-217-721-5. ^ Xinru, World Scientific ed.). p. 41. ISBN978-981-283-356-3. Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. ^ Elisseeff, ^ Miho Museum News (Shiga | Leave a comment

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Caravan on the Silk Road, 1380

Cresques Abraham – Atlas catalan

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Map showing Byzantium along with the other major silk road powers.

User:Aldan-2

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Extent of Silk Route/Silk Road. Red is land route and the blue is the sea/water route.

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Probable Greek soldier with a Greek mythological centaur in the Sampul tapestry,^[29] woollen wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum, China.

User:Ismoon

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (1st–2nd century CE)

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Dennis Jarvis

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province

The Real Bear

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Caravanserai of Sa’d al-Saltaneh

Creating User:Parastoo.Atrsaei

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Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.

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Sultanhani caravanserai

José Luis Filpo Cabana – Own work

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Taldyk pass

Gusjer

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Shaki Caravanserai, Azerbaijan

AudreyH

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Orbelian’s Caravanserai, Armenia

Dunphasizer

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Zeinodin Caravanserai

David Stanley

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bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia

Steven Isaacson

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Siege of Constantinople from Bibliothèque nationale mansucript Français 9087 (folio 207 v). The Turkish army of Mehmet II attacks Constantinople in 1453. Some soldiers are pointing canons to the city and others are pulling boats to the Golden Horn.

Bertrandon de la Broquière in Voyages d’Outremer –

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

The routes of the four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Maritime expeditions, during 1492 to 1504, to the Caribbean Islands and coast of Central America in North America.

https://wordpress.com/post/giacobbegiusti9.wordpress.com/15085

Silk Road Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1
Main routes of the Silk Road
Route information
Time period	Around 114 BCE – 1450s CE

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an-Tianshan
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, iv, vi
Designated	2014 (38th session)
Reference no.	1442
Region	Asia-Pacific

The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that connected the Eastand West. It was central to cultural interaction between the regions for many centuries.^[1]^[2]^[3]The Silk Road primarily refers to the terrestrial routes connecting East Asia and Southeast Asia with East Africa, West Asiaand Southern Europe.

The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning in the Han dynasty (207 BCE–220 CE). The Han dynasty expanded the Central Asian section of the trade routes around 114 BCE through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian.^[4] The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route.^[5]

Trade on the Road played a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China, Korea,^[6] Japan,^[2] the Indian subcontinent, Iran/Persia, Europe, the Horn of Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance political and economic relations between the civilizations.^[7]Though silk was the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, syncretic philosophies, sciences, and technologies. Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Road.^[8] In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network.^[9]

In June 2014, UNESCO designated the Chang’an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. The Indian portion is on the tentative site list.

Name

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunanprovince, China, dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE

The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Asian silk,^[10]^[11] a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network.^[12]^[13] The German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen (“the Silk Road(s)”) were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872.^[14]^[15]^[16] The term Silk Route is also used.^[17] Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century.^[16] The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938.^[16]

Use of the term ‘Silk Road’ is not without its detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians.^[18] Going as far as to call the whole thing a “myth” of modern academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the Mongol Empire.^[19]He notes that traditional authors discussing East-West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route a “silk” one in particular.^[16]

The southern stretches of the Silk Road, from Khotan to China, were first used for jade and not silk, as long as 5000 BCE, and is still in use for this purpose. The term “Jade Road” would have been more appropriate than “Silk Road” had it not been for the far larger and geographically wider nature of the silk trade; the term is in current use in China.^[20]

History

Precursors

Chinese and Central Asian contacts

Central Eurasia has been known from ancient times for its horse riding and horse breeding communities, and the overland Steppe Routeacross the northern steppes of Central Eurasia was in use long before that of the Silk Road.^[11] Archeological sites such as the Berel burial ground in Kazakhstan, confirmed that the nomadic Arimaspians were not only breeding horses for trade but also great craftsmen able to propagate exquisite art pieces along the Silk Road.^[21]^[22] From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel (“Balas Ruby”) mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early times.^{[citation needed]}

Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.

Some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a crucial role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade.^[23] The originating source seems sufficiently reliable, but silk degrades very rapidly, so it cannot be verified whether it was cultivated silk (which almost certainly came from China) or a type of wild silk, which might have come from the Mediterranean or Middle East.^[24]

Following contacts between Metropolitan China and nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (depictions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade and steatite.^{[citation needed]} An elite burial near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks.^[25] Similar animal-shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia (at Aluchaideng) and Shaanxi (at Keshengzhuang) in China.^[25]

The expansion of Scythian cultures, stretching from the Hungarian plain and the Carpathian Mountains to the Chinese Kansu Corridor, and linking the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, they also encouraged long-distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century, their language serving as a lingua franca for Asian trade as far back as the 4th century.^[26]^[27]

Persian Royal Road

Achaemenid Persian Empire at its greatest extent, showing the Royal Road.

By the time of Herodotus(c. 475 BCE), the Royal Road of the Persian Empire ran some 2,857 km (1,775 mi) from the city of Susa on the Karun (250 km (155 mi) east of the Tigris) to the port of Smyrna (modern İzmir in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea.^[28] It was maintained and protected by the Achaemenid Empire (c. 500–330 BCE) and had postal stations and relays at regular intervals. By having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages and traverse the length of the road in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months.^{[citation needed]}

Hellenistic era

Probable Greek soldierwith a Greek mythological centaur in the Sampul tapestry,^[29] woollen wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum, China.

The next major step in the development of the Silk Road was the expansion of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia. In August 329 BC, at the mouth of the Fergana Valley in Tajikistan, he founded the city of Alexandria Eschate or “Alexandria The Furthest”.^[30]

The Greeks remained in Central Asia for the next three centuries, first through the administration of the Seleucid Empire, and then with the establishment of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (250–125 BCE) in Bactria(modern Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan) and the later Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BCE – 10 CE) in modern Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of Euthydemus (230–200 BCE), who extended his control beyond Alexandria Eschate to Sogdiana. There are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE. The Greek historian Strabo writes, “they extended their empire even as far as the Seres (China) and the Phryni.”^[31]

The Hellenistic world and Classical Greek philosophy mixed with Eastern philosophies,^[32] leading to syncretisms such as Greco-Buddhism.

Chinese exploration of Central Asia

With the Mediterranean linked to the Fergana Valley, the next step was to open a route across the Tarim Basin and the Hexi Corridor to China Proper. This extension came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian^[33] (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu). Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana, the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxiana, the Bactrian country of Daxia with its remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and Kangju. He also made reports on neighbouring countries that he did not visit, such as Anxi (Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (Indian subcontinent) and the Wusun.^[34] Zhang Qian’s report suggested the economic reason for Chinese expansion and wall-building westward, and trailblazed the silk road, which is one of the most famous trade routes.^[35] After the defeat of the Xiongnu, however, Chinese armies established themselves in Central Asia, initiating the Silk Route as a major avenue of international trade.^[36] Some say that the Chinese Emperor Wubecame interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria, and the Parthian Empire: “The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan “Great Ionians“) and the possessions of Bactria (Ta-Hsia) and Parthian Empire (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China” (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History). Others^[37] say that Emperor Wu was mainly interested in fighting the Xiongnu and that major trade began only after the Chinese pacified the Hexi Corridor.

The Silk Roads’ origin lay in the hands of the Chinese. The soil in China lacked Selenium, a deficiency which contributed to muscular weakness and reduced growth in horses.^[38] Consequently, horses in China were too frail to support the weight of a Chinese soldier.^[39] The Chinese needed the superior horses that nomads bred on the Eurasian steppes, and nomads wanted things only agricultural societies produced, such as grain and silk. Even after the construction of the Great Wall, nomads gathered at the gates of the wall to exchange. Soldiers sent to guard the wall were often paid in silk which they traded with the nomads.^[40] Past its inception, the Chinese continued to dominate the Silk Roads, a process which was accelerated when “China snatched control of the Silk Road from the Hsiung-nu” and the Chinese general Cheng Ki “installed himself as protector of the Tarim at Wu-lei, situated between Kara Shahr and Kucha.” “China’s control of the Silk Road at the time of the later Han, by ensuring the freedom of transcontinental trade along the double chain of oases north and south of the Tarim, favoured the dissemination of Buddhism in the river basin, and with it Indian literature and Hellenistic art.”^[41]

A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (1st–2nd century CE)

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Bronze coin of Constantius II (337–361), found in Karghalik, Xinjiang, China

The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses (named “Heavenly horses”) in the possession of the Dayuan (literally the “Great Ionians”, the Greek kingdoms of Central Asia), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. “Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi [Parthia], Yancai [who later joined the Alans ], Lijian [Syria under the Greek Seleucids], Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and Tianzhu[northwestern India]… As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six.” (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History).These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire.^[42] The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiong Nu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BCE battle of Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese crossbowwas transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek gastraphetes provides an alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE, a “Han expedition into central Asia, west of Jaxartes River, apparently encountered and defeated a contingent of Roman legionaries. The Romans may have been part of Antony‘s army invading Parthia. Sogdiana (modern Bukhara), east of the Oxus River, on the Polytimetus River, was apparently the most easterly penetration ever made by Roman forces in Asia. The margin of Chinese victory appears to have been their crossbows, whose bolts and darts seem easily to have penetrated Roman shields and armour.”^[43] The Roman historian Florus also describes the visit of numerous envoys, which included Seres(China), to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, who reigned between 27 BCE and 14 CE:

Even the rest of the nations of the world which were not subject to the imperial sway were sensible of its grandeur, and looked with reverence to the Roman people, the great conqueror of nations. Thus even Scythians and Sarmatians sent envoys to seek the friendship of Rome. Nay, the Seres came likewise, and the Indians who dwelt beneath the vertical sun, bringing presents of precious stones and pearls and elephants, but thinking all of less moment than the vastness of the journey which they had undertaken, and which they said had occupied four years. In truth it needed but to look at their complexion to see that they were people of another world than ours.

— Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither (1866)

The Han army regularly policed the trade route against nomadic bandit forces generally identified as Xiongnu. Han general Ban Chao led an army of 70,000 mounted infantry and light cavalry troops in the 1st century CE to secure the trade routes, reaching far west to the Tarim basin. Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea and the borders of Parthia.^[44] It was from here that the Han general dispatched envoy Gan Ying to Daqin(Rome).^[45] The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were a “complex network of trade routes” that gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture.^[46]

A maritime Silk Route opened up between Chinese-controlled Giao Chỉ (centred in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi), probably by the 1st century. It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports in Roman Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The earliest Roman glassware bowl found in China was unearthed from a Western Han tomb in Guangzhou, dated to the early 1st century BCE, indicating that Roman commercial items were being imported through the South China Sea.^[47] According to Chinese dynastic histories, it is from this region that the Roman embassies arrived in China, beginning in 166 CE during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Emperor Huan of Han.^[48]^[49]^[50] Other Roman glasswares have been found in Eastern-Han-era tombs (25–220 CE) more further inland in Nanjing and Luoyang.^[51] P.O. Harper asserts that a 2nd or 3rd-century Roman gilt silver plate found in Jingyuan, Gansu, China with a central image of the Greco-Roman god Dionysus resting on a feline creature, most likely came via Greater Iran (i.e. Sogdiana).^[52] Valerie Hansen (2012) believed that earliest Roman coins found in China date to the 4th century, during Late Antiquity and the Dominate period, and come from the Byzantine Empire.^[53] However, Warwick Ball (2016) highlights the recent discovery of sixteen Principate-era Roman coins found in Xi’an (formerly Chang’an, one of the two Han capitals) that were minted during the reigns of Roman emperors spanning from Tiberius to Aurelian (i.e. 1st to 3rd centuries CE).^[54] It is true that these coins were found in China, but they were deposited there in the twentieth century, not in ancient times, and therefore they do not shed light on historic contacts between China and Rome.^[55] Roman golden medallions made during the reign of Antoninus Pius and quite possibly his successor Marcus Aurelius have been found at Óc Eo in southern Vietnam, which was then part of the Kingdom of Funan bordering the Chinese province of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam.^[56]^[57] Given the archaeological finds of Mediterranean artefacts made by Louis Malleret in the 1940s,^[57] Óc Eo may have been the same site as the port city of Kattigara described by Ptolemy in his Geography (c. 150 CE),^[56] although Ferdinand von Richthofen had previously believed it was closer to Hanoi.^[58]

Roman Empire

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road

Soon after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, regular communications and trade between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The Roman Empire inherited eastern trade routes that were part of the Silk Road from the earlier Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. With control of these trade routes, citizens of the Roman Empire received new luxuries and greater prosperity for the Empire as a whole.^[59] The Roman-style glassware discovered in the archeological sites of Gyeongju, capital of the Silla kingdom (Korea) showed that Roman artifacts were traded as far as the Korean peninsula.^[6] The Greco-Roman trade with India started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE continued to increase, and according to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos in Roman Egypt to India.^[60]The Roman Empire connected with the Central Asian Silk Road through their ports in Barygaza (known today as Bharuch ^[61]) and Barbaricum (known today as the cities of Karachi, Sindh, and Pakistan ^[62]) and continued along the western coast of India.^[63] An ancient “travel guide” to this Indian Ocean trade route was the Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea written in 60 CE.

The travelling party of Maës Titianus penetrated farthest east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularising contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome’s intermittent wars with Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organised, and protected by the ‘Great Powers.’ Intense trade with the Roman Empire soon followed, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by Seneca the Younger in his Phaedraand by Virgil in his Georgics. Notably, Pliny the Elder knew better. Speaking of the bombyx or silk moth, he wrote in his Natural Histories“They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk.”^[64] The Romans traded spices, glassware, perfumes, and silk.^[65]

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A Westerner on a camel, Northern Wei dynasty (386–534)

Roman artisans began to replace yarn with valuable plain silk cloths from China and the Silla Kingdom in Gyeongju, Korea.^[66]^[6]Chinese wealth grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose wealthy women admired their beauty.^[67] The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered decadent and immoral.

I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one’s decency, can be called clothes…. Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife’s body.^[68]

The West Roman Empire, and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, crumbled in the West around the 5th century.

The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within the Kushan Empire in the 1st to 3rd centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from Bactria and Taxila.^[69] They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China, and India, such as in the archeological site of Begram.

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Greek historian Procopius stated that two Nestorian Christian monks eventually uncovered the way silk was made. From this revelation, monks were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian(ruled 527–565) as spies on the Silk Road from Constantinople to China and back to steal the silkworm eggs, resulting in silk production in the Mediterranean, particularly in Thrace in northern Greece,^[70] and giving the Byzantine Empire a monopoly on silk production in medieval Europe. In 568 the Byzantine ruler Justin II was greeted by a Sogdianembassy representing Istämi, ruler of the Turkic Khaganate, who formed an alliance with the Byzantines against Khosrow I of the Sasanian Empire that allowed the Byzantines to bypass the Sasanian merchants and trade directly with the Sogdians for purchasing Chinese silk.^[71]^[72]^[73] Although the Byzantines had already procured silkworm eggs from China by this point, the quality of Chinese silk was still far greater than anything produced in the West, a fact that is perhaps emphasized by the discovery of coins minted by Justin II found in a Chinese tomb of Shanxi province dated to the Sui dynasty(581–618).^[74]

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Coin of Constans II (r. 641–648), who is named in Chinese sources as the first of several Byzantine emperorsto send embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty^[48]

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Map showing Byzantium along with the other major silk road powers.

Both the Old Book of Tangand New Book of Tang, covering the history of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907), record that a new state called Fu-lin (拂菻; i.e. Byzantine Empire) was virtually identical to the previous Daqin (大秦; i.e. Roman Empire).^[48] Several Fu-lin embassies were recorded for the Tang period, starting in 643 with an alleged embassy by Constans II(transliterated as Bo duo li, 波多力, from his nickname “Kōnstantinos Pogonatos”) to the court of Emperor Taizong of Tang.^[48]The History of Song describes the final embassy and its arrival in 1081, apparently sent by Michael VII Doukas (transliterated as Mie li sha ling kai sa, 滅力沙靈改撒, from his name and title Michael VII Parapinakēs Caesar) to the court of Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty (960–1279).^[48] However, the History of Yuan claims that a Byzantine man became a leading astronomer and physician in Khanbaliq, at the court of Kublai Khan, Mongol founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and was even granted the noble title ‘Prince of Fu lin’ (Chinese: 拂菻王; Fú lǐn wáng).^[75] The Uyghur Nestorian Christian diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma, who set out from his Chinese home in Khanbaliq (Beijing) and acted as a representative for Arghun (a grandnephew of Kublai Khan),^[76]^[77]^[78]^[79] traveled throughout Europe and attempted to secure military alliances with Edward I of England, Philip IV of France, Pope Nicholas IV, as well as the Byzantine ruler Andronikos II Palaiologos.^[80]^[78] Andronikos II had two half-sisters who were married to great-grandsons of Genghis Khan, which made him an in-law with the Yuan-dynasty Mongol ruler in Beijing, Kublai Khan.^[81] The History of Ming preserves an account where the Hongwu Emperor, after founding the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), had a supposed Byzantine merchant named Nieh-ku-lun (捏古倫) deliver his proclamation about the establishment of a new dynasty to the Byzantine court of John V Palaiologos in September 1371.^[82]^[48]Friedrich Hirth (1885), Emil Bretschneider (1888), and more recently Edward Luttwak (2009) presumed that this was none other than Nicolaus de Bentra, a Roman Catholic bishop of Khanbilaq chosen by Pope John XXII to replace the previous archbishop John of Montecorvino.^[83]^[84]^[48]

Tang dynasty reopens the route

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A Chinese sancai statue of a Sogdian man with a wineskin, Tang dynasty (618–907)

Although the Silk Road was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (141–87 BCE), it was reopened by the Tang Empire in 639 when Hou Junji conquered the Western Regions, and remained open for almost four decades. It was closed after the Tibetans captured it in 678, but in 699, during Empress Wu‘s period, the Silk Road reopened when the Tang reconquered the Four Garrisons of Anxi originally installed in 640,^[85] once again connecting China directly to the West for land-based trade.^[86] The Tang captured the vital route through the Gilgit Valley from Tibet in 722, lost it to the Tibetans in 737, and regained it under the command of the Goguryeo-Korean General Gao Xianzhi.^[87]

While the Turks were settled in the Ordos region (former territory of the Xiongnu), the Tang government took on the military policy of dominating the central steppe. The Tang dynasty (along with Turkic allies) conquered and subdued Central Asia during the 640s and 650s.^[88] During Emperor Taizong’s reign alone, large campaigns were launched against not only the Göktürks, but also separate campaigns against the Tuyuhun, the oasis states, and the Xueyantuo. Under Emperor Taizong, Tang general Li Jing conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. Under Emperor Gaozong, Tang general Su Dingfang conquered the Western Turkic Khaganate, which was an important ally of Byzantine empire.^[89] After these conquests, the Tang dynasty fully controlled the Xiyu, which was the strategic location astride the Silk Road.^[90] This led the Tang dynasty to reopen the Silk Road.

The Tang dynasty established a second Pax Sinica, and the Silk Road reached its golden age, whereby Persian and Sogdian merchants benefited from the commerce between East and West. At the same time, the Chinese empire welcomed foreign cultures, making it very cosmopolitan in its urban centres. In addition to the land route, the Tang dynasty also developed the maritime Silk Route. Chinese envoys had been sailing through the Indian Ocean to India since perhaps the 2nd century BCE,^[91] yet it was during the Tang dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea into Persia, Mesopotamia (sailing up the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq), Arabia, Egypt, Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.^[92]

Post-classical history

Caravan on the Silk Road, 1380

The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the Magyars, Armenians, and Chinese. The Silk Road reached its peak in the west during the time of the Byzantine Empire; in the Nile-Oxussection, from the Sassanid Empire period to the Il Khanate period; and in the sinitic zone from the Three Kingdoms period to the Yuan dynasty period. Trade between East and West also developed across the Indian Ocean, between Alexandria in Egypt and Guangzhou in China. Persian Sassanid coins emerged as a means of currency, just as valuable as silk yarn and textiles.^[93]

Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road, and pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development, were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilisations connected by the routes, taking on the trades of marauders or mercenaries.^{[citation needed]} “Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands and to forge strong military empires.”^[94]

Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870

The Sogdians dominated the East-West trade after the 4th century up to the 8th century, with Suyaband Talas ranking among their main centres in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. Their commercial interests were protected by the resurgent military power of the Göktürks, whose empire has been described as “the joint enterprise of the Ashina clan and the Soghdians”.^[69]^[95] A.V. Dybo noted that “according to historians, the main driving force of the Great Silk Road were not just Sogdians, but the carriers of a mixed Sogdian-Türkic culture that often came from mixed families.”^[96] Their trade, with some interruptions, continued in the 9th century within the framework of the Uighur Empire, which until 840 extended across northern Central Asia and obtained from China enormous deliveries of silk in exchange for horses. At this time caravans of Sogdians travelling to Upper Mongolia are mentioned in Chinese sources. They played an equally important religious and cultural role. Part of the data about eastern Asia provided by Muslim geographers of the 10th century actually goes back to Sogdian data of the period 750–840 and thus shows the survival of links between east and west. However, after the end of the Uighur Empire, Sogdian trade went through a crisis. What mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia was the trade of the Samanids, which resumed the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes.^[69]

The Silk Road gave rise to the clusters of military states of nomadic origins in North China, ushered the Nestorian, Manichaean, Buddhist, and later Islamic religions into Central Asia and China.

Islamic era and the Silk Road

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The Round city of Baghdadbetween 767 and 912 was the most important urban node along the Silk Road.

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A lion motif on Sogdian polychromesilk, 8th century, most likely from Bukhara

By the Umayyad era, Damascus had overtaken Ctesiphon as a major trade center until the Abbasid dynasty built the city of Baghdad, which became the most important city along the silk road.

At the end of its glory, the routes brought about the largest continental empire ever, the Mongol Empire, with its political centres strung along the Silk Road (Beijing in North China, Karakorum in central Mongolia, Sarmakhand in Transoxiana, Tabriz in Northern Iran, realising the political unification of zones previously loosely and intermittently connected by material and cultural goods.^{[citation needed]}

The Islamic world was expanded into Central Asiaduring the 8th century, under the Umayyad Caliphate, while its successor the Abbasid Caliphate put a halt to Chinese westward expansion at the Battle of Talas in 751 (near the Talas River in modern-day Kyrgyzstan).^[97] However, following the disastrous An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) and the conquest of the Western Regionsby the Tibetan Empire, the Tang Empire was unable to reassert its control over Central Asia.^[98] Contemporary Tang authors noted how the dynasty had gone into decline after this point.^[99] In 848 the Tang Chinese, led by the commander Zhang Yichao, were only able to reclaim the Hexi Corridor and Dunhuang in Gansu from the Tibetans.^[100] The Persian Samanid Empire (819–999) centered in Bukhara (Uzbekistan) continued the trade legacy of the Sogdians.^[97]The disruptions of trade were curtailed in that part of the world by the end of the 10th century and conquests of Central Asia by the Turkic Islamic Kara-Khanid Khanate, yet Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Buddhism in Central Asia virtually disappeared.^[101]

During the early 13th century Khwarezmia was invaded by the early Mongol Empire. The Mongol ruler Genghis Khan had the once vibrant cities of Bukhara and Samarkand burned to the ground after besieging them.^[102] However, in 1370 Samarkand saw a revival as the capital of the new Timurid Empire. The Turko-Mongol ruler Timur forcefully moved artisans and intellectuals from across Asia to Samarkand, making it one of the most important trade centers and cultural entrepôts of the Islamic world.^[103]

Mongol age

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Map of Marco Polo‘s travels in 1271–1295

The Mongol expansionthroughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-established the Silk Road (via Karakorum). It also brought an end to the dominance of the Islamic Caliphate over world trade. Because the Mongols came to control the trade routes, trade circulated throughout the region, though they never abandoned their nomadic lifestyle.

The Mongol rulers wanted to establish their capital on the Central Asian steppe, so to accomplish this goal, after every conquest they enlisted local people (traders, scholars, artisans) to help them construct and manage their empire.^[104]

The Mongol diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma visited the courts of Europe in 1287–88 and provided a detailed written report to the Mongols. Around the same time, the Venetian explorer Marco Polo became one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road to China. His tales, documented in The Travels of Marco Polo, opened Western eyes to some of the customs of the Far East. He was not the first to bring back stories, but he was one of the most widely read. He had been preceded by numerous Christian missionaries to the East, such as William of Rubruck, Benedykt Polak, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, and Andrew of Longjumeau. Later envoys included Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni de’ Marignolli, John of Montecorvino, Niccolò de’ Conti, and Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan Muslim traveller who passed through the present-day Middle East and across the Silk Road from Tabriz between 1325–1354.^[105]

In the 13th century efforts were made at forming a Franco-Mongol alliance, with an exchange of ambassadors and (failed) attempts at military collaboration in the Holy Land during the later Crusades. Eventually the Mongols in the Ilkhanate, after they had destroyed the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties, converted to Islam and signed the 1323 Treaty of Aleppo with the surviving Muslim power, the Egyptian Mamluks.^{[citation needed]}

Some studies indicate that the Black Death, which devastated Europe starting in the late 1340s, may have reached Europe from Central Asia (or China) along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire.^[106] One theory holds that Genoese traders coming from the entrepot of Trebizond in northern Turkey carried the disease to Western Europe; like many other outbreaks of plague, there is strong evidence that it originated in marmots in Central Asia and was carried westwards to the Black Sea by Silk Road traders.^[107]

Decline and disintegration

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Port cities on the maritime silk route featured on the voyages of Zheng He.^[108]

The fragmentation of the Mongol Empire loosened the political, cultural, and economic unity of the Silk Road. Turkmenimarching lords seized land around the western part of the Silk Road from the decaying Byzantine Empire. After the fall of the Mongol Empire, the great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated. Accompanying the crystallisation of regional states was the decline of nomad power, partly due to the devastation of the Black Death and partly due to the encroachment of sedentary civilisations equipped with gunpowder.^[109]

The consolidation of the Ottoman and Safavid empires in the West Asia led to a revival of overland trade, interrupted sporadically by warfare between them. The silk trade continued to flourish until it was disrupted by the collapse of the Safavid Empire in the 1720s.^[110]

New Silk Road

A silk banner from Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province; it was draped over the coffin of Lady Dai (d. 168 BCE), wife of the Marquess Li Cang (利蒼) (d. 186 BCE), chancellor for the Kingdom of Changsha.^[111]

After an earthquake that hit Tashkent in Central Asia in 1966, the city had to rebuild itself. Although it took a huge toll on their markets, this commenced a revival of modern silk road cities.^[112]

The Eurasian Land Bridge (a railway through China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia) is sometimes referred to as the “New Silk Road”.^[113] The last link in one of these two railway routes was completed in 1990, when the railway systems of China and Kazakhstan connected at Alataw Pass (Alashan Kou). In 2008 the line was used to connect the cities of Ürümqi in China’s Xinjiang Province to Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan.^[114] In October 2008 the first Trans-Eurasia Logistics train reached Hamburg from Xiangtan. Starting in July 2011 the line has been used by a freight service that connects Chongqing, China with Duisburg, Germany,^[115] cutting travel time for cargo from about 36 days by container ship to just 13 days by freight train. In 2013, Hewlett-Packardbegan moving large freight trains of laptop computers and monitors along this rail route.^[113] In January 2017, the service sent its first train to London. The network additionally connects to Madrid and Milan.^[116]^[117]

Belt and Road Initiative

In September 2013, during a visit to Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping introduced a plan for a New Silk Road from China to Europe. The latest iterations of this plan, dubbed the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), includes a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, with primary points in Ürümqi, Dostyk, Astana, Gomel, the Belarussian city of Brest, and the Polish cities of Małaszewicze and Łódź—which would be hubs of logistics and transshipment to other countries of Europe.^[118]^[119]^[120]^[121]

On 15 February 2016, with a change in routing, the first train dispatched under the scheme arrived from eastern Zhejiang Province to Tehran.^[122] Though this section does not complete the Silk Road–style overland connection between China and Europe, plans are underway to extend the route past Tehran, through Istanbul, into Europe.^[121] The actual route went through Almaty, Bishkek, Samarkand, and Dushanbe.^[121]

Routes

The Silk Road consisted of several routes. As it extended westwards from the ancient commercial centres of China, the overland, intercontinental Silk Road divided into northern and southern routesbypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur. Merchants along these routes where involved in “relay trade” in which goods changed “hands many times before reaching their final destinations.”^[123]

Northern route

The Silk Road in the 1st century

The Silk Road

The northern route started at Chang’an (now called Xi’an), an ancient capital of China that was moved further east during the Later Han to Luoyang. The route was defined around the 1st century BCE when Han Wudi put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes.^{[citation needed]}

The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan). The routes split again west of Kashgar, with a southern branch heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez(in modern Uzbekistan) and Balkh (Afghanistan), while the other travelled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley (in present-day eastern Uzbekistan) and then west across the Karakum Desert. Both routes joined the main southern route before reaching ancient Merv, Turkmenistan. Another branch of the northern route turned northwest past the Aral Sea and north of the Caspian Sea, then and on to the Black Sea.

A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to China many goods such as “dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; frankincense, aloes and myrrh from Somalia; sandalwood from India; glass bottles from Egypt, and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world.”^[124] In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk brocade, lacquer-ware, and porcelain.

Southern route

The southern route or Karakoram route was mainly a single route from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern times as the Karakoram Highway, a paved road that connects Pakistan and China.^{[citation needed]} It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs so travelers could complete the journey by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From Merv, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and the northern tip of the Syrian Desertto the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road travelled from Herat through Susato Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petraand on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.^{[citation needed]}

Southwestern route

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Woven silk textiles from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunanprovince, China, Western Han dynasty period, dated 2nd century BCE

The southwestern route is believed to be the Ganges/BrahmaputraDelta, which has been the subject of international interest for over two millennia. Strabo, the 1st-century Roman writer, mentions the deltaic lands: “Regarding merchants who now sail from Egypt…as far as the Ganges, they are only private citizens…” His comments are interesting as Roman beads and other materials are being found at Wari-Bateshwar ruins, the ancient city with roots from much earlier, before the Bronze Age, presently being slowly excavated beside the Old Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. Ptolemy’s map of the Ganges Delta, a remarkably accurate effort, showed that his informants knew all about the course of the Brahmaputra River, crossing through the Himalayasthen bending westward to its source in Tibet. It is doubtless that this delta was a major international trading center, almost certainly from much earlier than the Common Era. Gemstones and other merchandise from Thailand and Java were traded in the delta and through it. Chinese archaeological writer Bin Yang and some earlier writers and archaeologists, such as Janice Stargardt, strongly suggest this route of international trade as Sichuan–Yunnan–Burma–Bangladesh route. According to Bin Yang, especially from the 12th century the route was used to ship bullion from Yunnan (gold and silver are among the minerals in which Yunnan is rich), through northern Burma, into modern Bangladesh, making use of the ancient route, known as the ‘Ledo’ route. The emerging evidence of the ancient cities of Bangladesh, in particular Wari-Bateshwar ruins, Mahasthangarh, Bhitagarh, Bikrampur, Egarasindhur, and Sonargaon, are believed to be the international trade centers in this route.^[125]^[126]^[127]

Maritime route

Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route refer to the maritime section of historic Silk Road that connects China to Southeast Asia, Indonesian archipelago, Indian subcontinent, Arabian peninsula, all the way to Egypt and finally Europe.^[128]

The trade route encompassed numbers of bodies of waters; including South China Sea, Strait of Malacca, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The maritime route overlaps with historic Southeast Asian maritime trade, Spice trade, Indian Ocean trade and after 8th century – the Arabian naval trade network. The network also extend eastward to East China Sea and Yellow Sea to connect China with Korean Peninsula and Japanese archipelago.

Cultural exchanges

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The Nestorian Stele, created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China

Richard Foltz, Xinru Liu, and others have described how trading activities along the Silk Road over many centuries facilitated the transmission not just of goods but also ideas and culture, notably in the area of religions. Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam all spread across Eurasia through trade networks that were tied to specific religious communities and their institutions.^[129] Notably, established Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road offered a haven, as well as a new religion for foreigners.^[130]

The spread of religions and cultural traditions along the Silk Roads, according to Jerry H. Bentley, also led to syncretism. One example was the encounter with the Chinese and Xiongnu nomads. These unlikely events of cross-cultural contact allowed both cultures to adapt to each other as an alternative. The Xiongnu adopted Chinese agricultural techniques, dress style, and lifestyle, while the Chinese adopted Xiongnu military techniques, some dress style, music, and dance.^[131] Perhaps most surprising of the cultural exchanges between China and the Xiongnu, Chinese soldiers sometimes defected and converted to the Xiongnu way of life, and stayed in the steppes for fear of punishment.^[131]

Nomadic mobility played a key role in facilitating inter-regional contacts and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Roads.^[132]^[133]

Transmission of Christianity

The transmission of Christianity was primarily known as Nestorianism on the Silk Road. In 781, an inscribed stele shows Nestorian Christian missionaries arriving on the Silk Road. Christianity had spread both east and west, simultaneously bringing Syriac language and evolving the forms of worship.^[134]

Transmission of Buddhism

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A blue-eyed Central Asian monkteaching an East-Asian monk, Bezeklik, Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly Tocharian,^[135]although more likely Sogdian.^[136]^[137]

The transmission of Buddhism to China via the Silk Road began in the 1st century CE, according to a semi-legendary account of an ambassador sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor Ming (58–75). During this period Buddhism began to spread throughout Southeast, East, and Central Asia.^[138]Mahayana, Theravada, and Tibetan Buddhism are the three primary forms of Buddhism that spread across Asia via the Silk Road.^[139]

The Buddhist movement was the first large-scale missionary movement in the history of world religions. Chinese missionaries were able to assimilate Buddhism, to an extent, to native Chinese Daoists, which brought the two beliefs together.^[140] Buddha’s community of followers, the Sangha, consisted of male and female monks and laity. These people moved through India and beyond to spread the ideas of Buddha.^[141]As the number of members within the Sangha increased, it became costly so that only the larger cities were able to afford having the Buddha and his disciples visit.^[142] It is believed that under the control of the Kushans, Buddhism was spread to China and other parts of Asia from the middle of the first century to the middle of the third century.^[143] Extensive contacts started in the 2nd century, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin, due to the missionary efforts of a great number of Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian, or Kuchean.^[144]

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Bilingual edict (Greek and Aramaic) by Indian Buddhist King Ashoka, 3rd century BCE; see Edicts of Ashoka, from Kandahar. This edict advocates the adoption of “godliness” using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.

One result of the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road was displacement and conflict. The Greek Seleucids were exiled to Iran and Central Asia because of a new Iranian dynasty called the Parthians at the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, and as a result the Parthians became the new middle men for trade in a period when the Romans were major customers for silk. Parthian scholars were involved in one of the first ever Buddhist text translations into the Chinese language. Its main trade centre on the Silk Road, the city of Merv, in due course and with the coming of age of Buddhism in China, became a major Buddhist centre by the middle of the 2nd century.^[145] Knowledge among people on the silk roads also increased when Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty (268–239 BCE) converted to Buddhism and raised the religion to official status in his northern Indian empire.^[146]

From the 4th century CE onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to India to get improved access to the original Buddhist scriptures, with Fa-hsien‘s pilgrimage to India (395–414), and later Xuanzang (629–644) and Hyecho, who traveled from Korea to India.^[147] The travels of the priest Xuanzang were fictionalized in the 16th century in a fantasy adventure novel called Journey to the West, which told of trials with demons and the aid given by various disciples on the journey.

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A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from Sarnath, 3,000 km (1,864 mi) southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century

There were many different schools of Buddhism travelling on the Silk Road. The Dharmaguptakas and the Sarvastivadins were two of the major Nikaya schools. These were both eventually displaced by the Mahayana, also known as “Great Vehicle”. This movement of Buddhism first gained influence in the Khotanregion.^[146] The Mahayana, which was more of a “pan-Buddhist movement” than a school of Buddhism, appears to have begun in northwestern India or Central Asia. It formed during the 1st century BCE and was small at first, and the origins of this “Greater Vehicle” are not fully clear. Some Mahayana scripts were found in northern Pakistan, but the main texts are still believed to have been composed in Central Asia along the Silk Road. These different schools and movements of Buddhism were a result of the diverse and complex influences and beliefs on the Silk Road.^[148] With the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the initial direction of Buddhist development changed. This form of Buddhism highlighted, as stated by Xinru Liu, “the elusiveness of physical reality, including material wealth.” It also stressed getting rid of material desire to a certain point; this was often difficult for followers to understand.^[149]

During the 5th and 6th centuries CE, merchants played a large role in the spread of religion, in particular Buddhism. Merchants found the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism an appealing alternative to previous religions. As a result, merchants supported Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road, and in return the Buddhists gave the merchants somewhere to stay as they traveled from city to city. As a result, merchants spread Buddhism to foreign encounters as they traveled.^[150] Merchants also helped to establish diaspora within the communities they encountered, and over time their cultures became based on Buddhism. As a result, these communities became centers of literacy and culture with well-organized marketplaces, lodging, and storage.^[151] The voluntary conversion of Chinese ruling elites helped the spread of Buddhism in East Asia and led Buddhism to become widespread in Chinese society.^[152] The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

Transmission of art

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Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. Left: Greek Wind God from Hadda, 2nd century. Middle: Wind God from Kizil, Tarim Basin, 7th century. Right: Japanese Wind God Fujin, 17th century.

Many artistic influences were transmitted via the Silk Road, particularly through Central Asia, where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could intermix. Greco-Buddhist art represents one of the most vivid examples of this interaction. Silk was also a representation of art, serving as a religious symbol. Most importantly, silk was used as currency for trade along the silk road.^[153]

These artistic influences can be seen in the development of Buddhism where, for instance, Buddha was first depicted as human in the Kushan period. Many scholars have attributed this to Greek influence. The mixture of Greek and Indian elements can be found in later Buddhist art in China and throughout countries on the Silk Road.^[154]

The production of art consisted of many different items that were traded along the Silk Roads from the East to the West. One common product, the lapis lazuli, was a blue stone with golden specks, which was used as paint after it was ground into powder.^[155]

Commemoration

On 22 June 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the Silk Road a World Heritage Site at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage. The United Nations World Tourism Organization has been working since 1993 to develop sustainable international tourism along the route with the stated goal of fostering peace and understanding.^[156]

Bishkek and Almaty each have a major east-west street named after the Silk Road (Kyrgyz: Жибек жолу, Jibek Jolu in Bishkek, and Kazakh: Жібек жолы, Jibek Joly in Almaty).

Foreign language terms

Language	Text	Transliteration (if applicable)
Chinese	絲綢之路 (traditional) 丝绸之路(simplified)	Sīchóu zhī lù
Sanskrit / Hindi	कौशेय मार्ग	Kausheya Maraga
Persian	جاده ی ابریشم‎	Jâdeye Abrišam Shâhrâh-i Abrešim
Punjabi	ਕੌਸ਼ਿਆ ਮਾਰਗ‎	Kausheya Mārg
Urdu	شاہراہ ریشم‎	shah rah resham
Kannada	ರೇಶ್ಮೆ ದಾರಿ	Reshme dari
Kawi language	Sutra dalan
Tamil	பட்டு வழி	Paṭṭu vaḻi
Uzbek	إيباك يولي‎	Ipak yo’li
Turkmen	Ýüpek ýoly
Turkish	İpek yolu
Azeri	İpək yolu
Arabic	طريق الحرير‎	Tarīq al-Ḥarīr
Hebrew	דרך המשי‎	Derekh ha-Meshi
Greek	Δρόμος του μεταξιού	Drómos tou metaxioú’
Latin	Via Serica
Armenian	Մետաքսի ճանապարհ	Metaksi chanaparh
Tagalog	Daang Sutla, Daang Seda
Somali	Waddada Xariir
Korean	비단길	Bidangil
Sinhala	සේද මාවත	Sedha mawatha

Gallery

Silk Road and artifacts
Caravanserai of Sa’d al-Saltaneh
Sultanhani caravanserai
Sultanhani caravanserai
Shaki Caravanserai, Azerbaijan
Orbelian’s Caravanserai, Armenia
bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia
Taldyk pass
Zeinodin Caravanserai
Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel, sancai ceramic glaze, Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907)
The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1
A late Zhou or early Han Chinese bronze mirror inlaid with glass, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

A Chinese Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) bronze rhinoceros with gold and silver inlay
Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.

Giacobbe Giusti, Silk Road, Fall of Constantinople and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1

Green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) tomb, Guangxi, southern China

Notes

References

Citations

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^ Frachetti, Michael D.; Smith, C. Evan; Traub, Cynthia M.; Williams, Tim (8 March 2017). “Nomadic ecology shaped the highland geography of Asia’s Silk Roads”. Nature. 543 (7644): 193–98. Bibcode:2017Natur.543..193F. doi:10.1038/nature21696. ISSN 0028-0836. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
^ “Belief Systems Along the Silk Road,” Asia Society website, “Belief Systems Along the Silk Road”. Archived from the original on 2016-11-17. Retrieved 2016-11-17., retrieved on 14 November 2016.
^ von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-TurkistanArchived 2016-09-15 at the Wayback Machine. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, Tafel 19 Archived 2016-09-15 at the Wayback Machine. (Accessed 3 September 2016).
^ Ethnic Sogdians have been identified as the Caucasian figures seen in the same cave temple (No. 9). See the following source: Gasparini, Mariachiara. “A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin,Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine” in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica Juneja (eds), Transcultural Studies, Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp. 134–63. ISSN 2191-6411. See also endnote #32 Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine. (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
^ For information on the Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people, and their inhabitation of Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century), see Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford University Press, p. 98, ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3.
^ Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 69, 73.
^ Anderson, James A. (2009). “China’s Southwestern Silk Road in World History”. World History Connected. 6 (1). Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
^ Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 16.
^ Foltz, Richard C. (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St Martin’s Press. p. 37.
^ Xinru Liu, “The Silk Road in World History” (New york: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 51.
^ Xinru Liu, “The Silk Road in World History” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 42.
^ Foltz, “Religions of the Silk Road”, pp. 37–58
^ Foltz, Richard C. (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St Martin’s Press. p. 47.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Foltz, Richard C. (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St Martin’s Press. p. 38.
^ Silkroad Foundation; Adela C.Y. Lee. “Ancient Silk Road Travellers”. Archived from the original on 2009-08-06.
^ Foltz, Richard C. (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St Martin’s Press. p. 41.
^ Xinru Liu, “The Silk Road in World History” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 21.
^ Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 43–44.
^ Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 48.
^ Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 50.
^ Xinru, Liu,The Silk Road in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 21.
^ Foltz, Richard C. (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: St Martin’s Press. p. 45.
^ “The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade, and Transformation”. Art Institute of Chicago website. Archived from the original on 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2016-11-15.
^ “Objectives”. Archived from the original on 2013-03-15.

Sources

Baines, John and Málek, Jaromir (1984). Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, Time Life Books.
Boulnois, Luce (2004). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road. Translated by Helen Loveday with additional material by Bradley Mayhew and Angela Sheng. Airphoto International. ISBN 962-217-720-4 hardback, ISBN 962-217-721-2 softback.
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. (1999). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66991-X.
Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road, Palgrave Macmillan, 2nd edition, 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1
Harmatta, János, ed., 1994. History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 BC to 250. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.
Herodotus (5th century BCE): Histories. Translated with notes by George Rawlinson. 1996 edition. Ware, Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Editions Limited.
Hopkirk, Peter: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980, 1984. ISBN 0-87023-435-8
Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
Hulsewé, A.F.P. and Loewe, M.A.N. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E.J. Brill, Leiden.
Huyghe, Edith and Huyghe, François-Bernard: “La route de la soie ou les empires du mirage”, Petite bibliothèque Payot, 2006, ISBN 2-228-90073-7
Juliano, Annette, L. and Lerner, Judith A., et al. 2002. Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China: Gansu and Ningxia, 4th–7th Century. Harry N. Abrams Inc., with The Asia Society. ISBN 0-8109-3478-7, 0-87848-089-7.
Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1988). Die Seidenstrasse: Handelsweg and Kulturbruecke zwischen Morgen- and Abendland. Koeln: DuMont Buchverlag.
Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1993). Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia. Trans. & presented by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 0-06-064586-5.
Knight, E.F. (1893). Where Three Empires Meet: A Narrative of Recent Travel in: Kashmir, Western Tibet, Gilgit, and the adjoining countries. Longmans, Green, and Co., London. Reprint: Ch’eng Wen Publishing Company, Taipei. 1971.
Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-00-1
Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 1-886439-02-8
Litvinsky, B.A., ed. (1996). History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: 250 to 750. Paris, UNESCO Publishing.
Liu, Xinru (2001). “Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies.” Journal of World History, Volume 12, No. 2, Fall 2001. University of Hawaii Press, pp. 261–92. [2].
Liu, Li, 2004, The Chinese Neolithic, Trajectories to Early States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, Xinru (2010). The Silk Road in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516174-8, 978-0-19-533810-2.
McDonald, Angus (1995). The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China., San Francisco: HarperCollins
Malkov, Artemy (2007). The Silk Road: A mathematical model. History & Mathematics, ed. by Peter Turchin et al. Moscow: KomKniga. ISBN 978-5-484-01002-8
Mallory, J.P. and Mair, Victor H. (2000). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson, London.
Ming Pao. “Hong Kong proposes Silk Road on the Sea as World Heritage”, 7 August 2005, p. A2.
Osborne, Milton, 1975. River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 1866–73. George Allen & Unwin Lt.
Puri, B.N, 1987 Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi. (2000 reprint).
Ray, Himanshu Prabha, 2003. The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80455-8, 0-521-01109-4.
Sarianidi, Viktor, 1985. The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
Schafer, Edward H. 1963. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of T’ang Exotics. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1st paperback edition: 1985. ISBN 0-520-05462-8.
Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford.[3]
Stein, Aurel M., 1912. Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi. Low Price Publications. 1990.
Stein, Aurel M., 1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980.[4]
Stein Aurel M., 1928. Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran, 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981.
Stein Aurel M., 1932 On Ancient Central Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and Northwestern China. Reprinted with Introduction by Jeannette Mirsky. Book Faith India, Delhi. 1999.
Thorsten, Marie. 2006 “Silk Road Nostalgia and Imagined Global Community”. Comparative American Studies 3, no. 3: 343–59.
Waugh, Daniel. (2007). “Richthofen “Silk Roads”: Toward the Archeology of a Concept.” The Silk Road. Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2007, pp. 1–10. [5]
von Le Coq, Albert, 1928. Buried Treasures of Turkestan. Reprint with Introduction by Peter Hopkirk, Oxford University Press. 1985.
Whitfield, Susan, 1999. Life Along the Silk Road. London: John Murray.
Wimmel, Kenneth, 1996. The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia. Trackless Sands Press, Palo Alto, CA. ISBN 1-879434-48-2
Yan, Chen, 1986. “Earliest Silk Route: The Southwest Route.” Chen Yan. China Reconstructs, Vol. XXXV, No. 10. October 1986, pp. 59–62.
Yule (translator and editor), Sir Henry (1866). Cathay and the way thither: being a collection of medieval notices of China. Issue 37 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society. Printed for the Hakluyt society.

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

11 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名, Compare the Dactyls, "fingers", ancient masters of the art of metallurgy and magical healers. ^ Homer. Iliad, Book 11.831 ^ Xenophon. Cynegeticus. 1; Philostratus. Heroicus. 9, Icon. ii. 2; P, Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名, William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. s.v. Cheiron. London, 喀戎（希臘語：Χείρων，轉寫：Chiron）也譯奇戎，是希腊神话中非常著名的贤人，属于半人马族。介绍在希腊神话中，半人马居住于希腊中东部屏达 and tagged art, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名, CHIRONE, giacobbe giusti, 喀戎（希臘語：Χείρων，轉寫：Chiron）也譯奇戎，是希腊神话中非常著名的贤人，属于半人马族。介绍在希腊神话中，半人马居住于希腊中东部屏达 | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

The Education of Achilles by Chiron, fresco from Herculaneum, 1st century AD (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples).

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Chiron, Peleus and infant Achilles

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Peleus wrestling Thetis (who shapeshifts in fire and big cat), between Chiron and a Nereid. Side B of an Attic black-figure amphora, c. 510 BC.

User:Bibi Saint-Pol

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

La blessure à la jambe infligée par Héraclès à Chiron, visible ici, permet d’identifier cette statue à Chiron. C’est la première représentation d’un centaure en trois dimensions. vers 1000 av. J.-C., Musée archéologique d’Erétrie, Eubée, Grèce.

User:Jebulon

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Achilles and Chiron, detail from a sarcophagus. White marble, 2nd half of the 3rd century CE. From the Via Casilina in Torraccia.

User:Jastrow

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Thétis et Achille chez Chiron

User:Garitan

The Education of Achilles by Chiron, fresco from Herculaneum, 1st century AD (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples).

In Greek mythology, Chiron (/ˈkaɪrən/KY-rən; also Cheiron or Kheiron; Greek: Χείρων “hand”)^[1]was held to be the superlative centaur amongst his brethren, as he was called as the “wisest and justest of all the centaurs”.^[2]

Biography

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Chiron, Peleus and infant Achilles

Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature. His personal skills tend to match those of his foster father Apollo, who taught the young centaur the art of medicine, herbs, music, archery, hunting, gymnastics and prophecy, and made him rise above his beastly nature.^[3] Chiron was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine, and thus was credited with the discovery of botany and pharmacy, the science of herbs and medicine.^[4]

Like satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being wild, lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, violent when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents. Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind, because he was not related directly to the other centaurs^[5] due to his parentage. He was the son of the Titan Cronusand the Oceanid Philyra,^[4]^[6]^[7] and thus possible brother to Dolops^[8]and Aphrus, the ancestor and eponym of the Aphroi, i.e. the native Africans.^[9]Chiron lived predominantly on Mount Pelion; there he married the nymph Chariclo who bore him three daughters, Hippe(also known as Melanippe meaning the “black mare” or Euippe, “truly a mare”), Endeïs, and Ocyrhoe, and one son Carystus. A different source also stated that his wife was called Nais^{[citation needed]} while a certain Aristaeus was called his son.^[10]

Like the other centaurs, Chiron was later expelled by the Lapithaefrom his home; but sacrifices were offered to him there by the Magnesians until a very late period, and the family of the Cheironidae in that neighbourhood, who were distinguished for their knowledge of medicine, were regarded as his descendants.^[11]

Physical appearance

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Peleus wrestling Thetis (who shapeshifts in fire and big cat), between Chiron and a Nereid. Side B of an Attic black-figure amphora, c. 510 BC.

Although a centaur, Chiron’s physical appearance often differs somewhat from other centaurs, demonstrating his status and heritage. In traditional Greek representations of Chiron his front legs are human, rather than equine, this is in contrast to the traditional representation of centaurs, which have the entire lower body of a horse.^[12] This clearly sets Chiron apart from the other centaurs, making him easily identifiable. This difference may also have highlighted Chiron’s unique lineage, being the son of Cronus. Chiron is often depicted carrying a branch with dead hares he has caught hanging from it. Chiron is also often depicted wearing clothes, demonstrating he is more civilised and unlike a normal centaur (the only other occasional exceptions to this rule are the centaurs Nessusand Pholus).

The Education of Achilles wall painting, from the basilica in Herculaneum (top right), is one of the most common Roman depictions of Chiron, as he teaches Achilles the lyre. In this version we see Chiron with a fully equine lower body, in contrast to the ancient Greek representations. In addition to this reconfiguration, Chiron’s appearance is further altered with his ears. Whereas previously human, Chiron’s ears now match those of a satyr; folded over at the top. This rendering creates a more bestial version of Chiron, much more akin to a standard centaur. It may be possible that due to the rise of written sources, Roman artists were inspired by written descriptions of Chiron; simply using the word centaur, rather than having available traditional visual representations. This may then, not be a deliberate reworking of the Chiron myth on the part of the Romans, but simply a lost nuance of the character in its migration from Greece to Rome. As F. Kelsey writes; “The Chiron of our painting, … has a body like that of the other centaurs, but the prominence of the human element in his nature is no less marked; he is the wise and gentle teacher, the instructor of an art”.^[13] Chiron has retained an element of clothing and gained a laurel wreath, suggesting the artist wished to portray nobility, or even divinity, more consistent with the traditional view. It has also been suggested that this fresco is a reproduction of an actual statue in the Roman forum.

Mythology

Early years

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Amphora suggested to be Achilles riding Chiron. British Museum ref 1956,1220.1 .

According to an archaic myth,^[14] Chiron was sired by the Titan Cronus when he had taken the form of a horse^[15] and impregnated the nymph Philyra.^[16]

Chiron’s lineage was different from other centaurs, who were born from Ixion, consigned to a fiery wheel, and Nephele(“cloud”), which in the Olympian telling Zeus invented to look like Hera. Chiron was the son of Cronus and Philyra.

Soon after giving birth to Chiron, Philyra abandoned her child out of shame and disgust. Chiron, effectively orphaned, was later found by the god Apollo, who decided to take him in as his son. Apollo taught to him the art of music, lyre, archery, medicine and prophecy. Apollo’s twin sister, Artemis, later approved of his decision and taught him more about archery and hunting. Chiron’s uniquely peaceful character, kindness and intelligence is attributed to Apollo and also to Artemis.

Some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later subsumed into the Greek pantheon as a centaur.^{[citation needed]}

A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly revered as a teacher and tutor. Among his pupils were many culture heroes: Asclepius, Aristaeus, Ajax, Aeneas, Actaeon, Caeneus, Theseus, Achilles, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Perseus, sometimes Heracles, Oileus, and in one Byzantine tradition, even Dionysus.

According to Ptolemaeus Chennus of Alexandria “Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations.”^[17]

There is also a persistent link with Peleus throughout Chiron’s myth. This can be explained that the latter was the grandfather of Peleus through his daughter Endeis who married the king of Aegina, Aeacus. Chiron saved the life of Peleus when Acastus tried to kill him by taking his sword and leaving him out in the woods to be slaughtered by the centaurs. Chiron retrieved the sword for Peleus. Chiron then explained to Peleus how to capture the nymph Thetis, leading to their marriage.

Chiron is also connected with the story of the Argonauts, whom he received kindly when they came to his residence on their voyage, for many of the heroes were his friends and pupils.^[18]

Death

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Chiron and Achilles by John Singer Sargent (circa 1922-1925)

His nobility is further reflected in the story of his death, as Prometheus sacrificed his life, allowing mankind to obtain the use of fire. As the son of Cronus he was immortal, so it was left to Heracles to arrange a bargain with Zeusto exchange Chiron’s immortality for the life of Prometheus, who had been chained to a rock and left to die for his transgressions.^[19]Chiron was pierced with an arrow belonging to Heracles that had been treated with the blood of the Hydra, or, in other versions, poison that Chiron had given to the hero when he had been under the honorable centaur’s tutelage. According to a Scholium on Theocritus,^[20] this had taken place during the visit of Heracles to the cave of Pholus on Mount Pelion in Thessaly during his fourth labour, defeating the Erymanthian Boar. While they were at supper, Heracles asked for some wine to accompany his meal. Pholus, who ate his food raw, was taken aback. He had been given a vessel of sacred wine by Dionysus sometime earlier, to be kept in trust by the centaurs until the right time for its opening. At Heracles’ prompting, Pholus was forced to produce the vessel of sacred wine. The hero, gasping for wine, grabbed it from him and forced it open. Thereupon the vapors of the sacred wine wafted out of the cave and intoxicated the wild centaurs led by Nessus who had gathered outside. They attacked with stones and fir trees the cave which was located in the neighbourhood of Malea. Heracles was forced to shoot many arrows (poisoned with the blood of the Hydra) to drive them back. During the assault, Chiron was hit in the thigh by one of the poisoned arrows. After the centaurs had fled, Pholus emerged from the cave to observe the destruction. Being of a philosophical frame of mind, he pulled one of the arrows from the body of a dead centaur and wondered how such a little thing as an arrow could have caused so much death and destruction. In that instant, he let slip the arrow from his hand and it dropped and hit him in the hoof, killing him instantly. This, however, is open to controversy, because Pholus shared the “civilized centaur” form with Chiron in some art images, and thus would have been immortal.

Ironically, Chiron, the master of the healing arts, could not heal himself and willingly gave up his immortality. For this reason, his half-brother Zeus took pity of him thus placed him among the stars in the sky to be honored. The Greeks identified him as the constellation Centaurus.^[6]

In Ovid’s poem Fasti Ovid has the hero Hercules visiting Chiron’s home on Pelion while the child Achilles is there. While Chiron is examining Hercules’ weapons, one of the arrows dipped in Lernaean hydra venom falls on Chiron’s left foot and poisons him.

While the old man fingers the foul, poisoned shafts,

An arrow slips out and stabs his left foot.

Chiron groaned and hauled the iron from his flesh (5.397-99)

Chiron then tries to use herbs to heal himself, but fails. After nine days with a weeping Achilles looking on, Chiron passes into the stars. Chiron was made a promise by Zeus that as long as he was needed as a trainer of demigods, he will exist in this world. He lives on today as a constellation and an inspiration.

Students

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

A lekythos depicting Chiron and Achilles

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

The Education of Achilles, by Eugène Delacroix.

Throughout Greek mythology, there were many heroes who were trained by Chiron. Among the students of Chiron are:

Achilles – The son of Peleus. When Achilles’ mother Thetis left home and returned to the Nereids, Peleus brought his son Achilles to Chiron, who received him as a disciple, and fed him on the innards of lions and wild swine, and the marrow of she-wolves.
Actaeon – Actaeon, who was bred by Chiron to be a hunter, is famous for his terrible death. He was devoured by his own dogs after being turned into a deer for accidentally stumbling upon Artemis bathing. The dogs, ignorant of what they had done, came to the cave of Chiron seeking their master, and the Centaur fashioned an image of Actaeon in order to soothe their grief.
Aeneas – a Dardanian prince and son of Aphrodite by Anchises.
Ajax – A Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War. He is the son of Telamon and the half-brother of Teucer.
Aristaeus – The Muses were, according to some, those who taught Aristaeus the arts of healing and of prophecy. Aristaeus discovered honey and the olive. After the death of his son Actaeon, he migrated to Sardinia.
Asclepius – The great healing power of Asclepius is based on Chiron’s teaching. Artemis killed Asclepius’ mother Coronis on Apollo‘s orders while still pregnant after she had an affair, he snatched the child from the pyre and brought him to Chiron, who reared him and taught him the arts of healing and hunting.
Caeneus – A Lapith who fought in the Centauromachy.
Castor and Pollux – twin Spartan sons of Leda by Tyndareus and Zeus
Diomedes – King of Argos and one of the Achaean leaders.
Dionysus – god of wine and son of Zeus by the mortal Semele
Heracles – The son of Zeus. Some versions of Greek mythology state that Heracles was trained by Chiron.
Jason – In an early tradition,^[21] Aeson gave his son Jason to the Centaur Chiron^[22] to rear at the time when he was deposed by King Pelias. Jason is the captain of the Argonauts.
Machaon – son of Asclepius and a physician during the Trojan War.
Medus – Medus, who some call Polyxenus and others Medeus, is the namesake of the country Media. He was the son of Medea by Jason.^[23] Medus died in a military campaign against the Indians. Other versions of the story say he was the son of Aegeus, King of Athens.
Meleager – an Argonaut and leader of the Calydonian hunters.
Mnestheus
Nestor – King of Pylos and an Argonaut and also one of the Achaean Leaders.
Odysseus – King of Cephallenia and one of the Achaean Leaders.
Oileus – A member of the Argonauts.
Palamedes – prince of Euboea and one of the Achaean leaders.
Podalirius – son of Asclepius and a physician during the Trojan War.
Patroclus – Patroclus’ father, Menoetius, left him in Chiron’s cave to study (side by side with Achilles) the chords of the harp, learn to hurl spears and mount and ride upon the back of Chiron.
Peleus – Peleus, father of Achilles, was once rescued by Chiron: Acastus, son of Pelias, purified Peleus for having killed (undesignedly) his father-in-law Eurytion. However, Acastus’ wife, Astydameia, fell in love with Peleus, and when he refused her she told Acastus that Peleus had attempted to rape her. Acastus would not kill the man he had purified, but took him to hunt on Mount Pelion. When Peleus had fallen asleep, Acastus deserted him, hiding his sword. On arising and looking for his sword, Peleus was caught by the centaurs and would have perished, if he had not been saved by Chiron, who also returned him his sword after having sought and found it. Chiron arranged the marriage of Peleus with Thetis,^[24] bringing Achilles up for her. He also told Peleus how to conquer the Nereid Thetis who, changing her form, could prevent him from catching her. In other legends, it was Proteus who helped Peleus. When Peleus married Thetis, he received from Chiron an ashen spear, which Achilles took to the war at Troy.^[25] This heavy lance is the same with which Achilles healed Telephus by scraping off the rust.
Perseus – The son of Zeus. A Greek hero who was known for beheading Medusa.
Protesilaus – son of Iphiclus, who led the Phylacean fleet during the Trojan war
Telamon – A Greek king who is the father of Ajax and Teucer.
Theseus – The son of either Poseidon or king Aegeas of Athens. Known for slaying the Minotaur.

The Precepts of Chiron

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

The Education of Achillesby Donato Creti, 1714 (Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna)

A didactic poem, Precepts of Chiron, part of the traditional education of Achilles, was considered to be among Hesiod‘s works by some of the later Greeks. The Romanized Greek traveller of the 2nd century CE, Pausanias,^[26] noted a list of Hesiod’s works that were shown to him, engraved on an ancient and worn leaden tablet, by the tenders of the shrine at Helicon in Boeotia. But another, quite different tradition was upheld of Hesiod’s works, Pausanias notes, which included the Precepts of Chiron. Apparently it was among works from Acharnaewritten in heroic hexameters and attached to the famous name of Hesiod, for Pausanias adds “Those who hold this view also say that Hesiod was taught soothsaying by the Acharnians.” Though it has been lost, fragments in heroic hexameters that survive in quotations are considered to belong to it.^[27] The common thread in the fragments, which may reflect in some degree the Acharnian image of Chiron and his teaching, is that it is expository rather than narrative, and suggests that, rather than recounting the inspiring events of archaic times as men like Nestor^[28] or Glaucus^[29] might do, Chiron taught the primeval ways of mankind, the gods and nature, beginning with the caution “First, whenever you come to your house, offer good sacrifices to the eternal gods”. Chiron in the Precepts considered that no child should have a literary education until he had reached the age of seven.^[30] A fragment associated with the Precepts concerns the span of life of the nymphs, in the form of an ancient number puzzle:

“A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a stag’s life is four times a crow’s, and a raven’s life makes three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we, the rich-haired Nymphs, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder, outlive ten phoenixes.”^[31]

In human terms, Chiron advises, “Decide no suit, until you have heard both sides speak”.

The Alexandrian critic Aristophanes of Byzantium (late 3rd-early 2nd century BCE) was the first to deny that the Precepts of Chiron was the work of Hesiod.^[32]

Statius’ Achilleid

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

Chiron and Achilles. Lithograph after J.B. Regnault.

The Achilleid was to be an epic poem on the life of Achilles. However, its author, Statius, died during the writing of the second book late in the first century AD during the reign of the Emperor Domitian. The Achilleidshows the relationship between Chiron and his charge, Achilles. During Book One, the close relationship between Chiron and Achilles is made clear when Thetisspends the evening with them in Chiron’s cave on Mount Pelion, before leaving with Achilles. Chiron is shown in a paternal capacity, rather than that of merely a teacher, and is depicted as far from animal.

“Night draws to slumber. The huge Centaur collapses on stone and Achilles fondly twines himself about his shoulders, though his mother is there, preferring the familiar bosom.” (1.195-97).

Here, Statius is showing a loving relationship between the two characters, which the traditional view of Chiron never explored. Later, when describing what he ate when growing up, Achilles refers to Chiron as a parent; “thus that father of mine used to feed me” (2.102), the Latin used here is ‘pater’ so we may judge this an accurate translation. This further demonstrates the nature of the loving relationship between Chiron and Achilles. Statius here may be continuing a theme started by Ovid in Fasti several years earlier.

In Fasti, on Chiron’s death, Achilles says “’Live, I beg you; don’t leave me, dear father [pater]!’”(5.412), this would suggest that in Rome the reconfiguration of Chiron’s myth was as a loving and loved foster parent, rather than simply teacher. Chiron’s relationship with his pupil is used to demonstrate a Roman longing for the father-son relationship.

In addition to Chiron’s loving characteristics developed in Book One, Book Two of The Achilleid has Achilles describe many tasks Chiron would make him perform during his heroic education, including standing in fast flowing rivers;

“I stood, but the angry river and the mist of his broad rush took me back. He bore down on me with savage threats and scolded to shame me. I did not leave till ordered”(2.146-150).

There is a clear contrast here in the hardship and insults Chiron is directing at his pupil compared to his previous kindness. However, this duality can be seen as a demonstration of a traditional Roman education, especially a noble one; learning both military and refined arts. Centaurs in antiquity were often remembered for their battle with the Lapiths. Statius deliberately disassociates Chiron from this story with his description of Chiron’s cave on Pelion,

“Here are no darts that have tasted human blood, no ash trees fractured in festive combats, nor mixing bowls shattered upon kindred foes” (1.111-15).

Instead of combat, the emphasis is that Chiron’s weapons are only used for hunting and there are no signs of savage behaviour. In addition to Achilles’ descriptions of the physical lessons Chiron gives him he also refers to a more cultured education,

“He fixed in my mind the precepts of sacred justice”(2.163-4).

Statius creates an image of Chiron that is not only a loving father, but a strict and wise teacher, disassociated with the bestial aspects of centaurs.

Gallery

Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

References

^ Compare the Dactyls, “fingers”, ancient masters of the art of metallurgy and magical healers.
^ Homer. Iliad, Book 11.831
^ Xenophon. Cynegeticus. 1; Philostratus. Heroicus. 9, Icon. ii. 2; Pindar. Pythian Odes, 9.65.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia, Book 7.56.3
^ Homer, Iliad xi.831.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Hyginus. Poeticon Astronomicon, 2.38.1 ff
^ Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 2.1235 citing Pherecydes
^ Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface
^ Suda s.v. Aphroi
^ Greek Lyric IV: Bacchylides, Fragment 45 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes)
^ Plutarch. Symposiacs. iii. 1 ; Müller, Orchom. p. 249.
^ Hornblower & Spawforth (2004). The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
^ Kelsey, W. (January–March 1908). “Codrus’s Chiron and a Painting from Herculaneum”. American Journal of Archaeology. 12 (1): 30–38. doi:10.2307/496854. JSTOR 496854.
^ A quote from the lost Titanomachia, provided as a scholium on Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica I.554 (on-line quote); pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotheke 1. 8 – 9, may have drawn upon the same source.
^ Compare the stallion-Poseidon who sired the steed Arion upon Demeter.
^ Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheke, Book 1.2.4
^ “Ὡς Διόνυσος ἐρώμενος Χείρωνος, ἐξ οὗ καὶ μάθοι τούς τε κώμους καὶ τὰς βακχείας καὶ τὰς τελετάς.” (Ptolemaeus Chennus, New History, quoted in Photios of Constantinople, Library, 190.
^ Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautica Book 1.554; Orphic Argonautica.375ff
^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, ii.5.4.
^ Theocritus, Idyll vii.149
^ Fragment 40 (fr. 13 in the Loeb) of the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women(Theoi.com| on-line text in translation).
^ Pindar Third Nemean Ode, 54
^ Hesiod, Theogony 993: “And she was subject to Iason, shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains.”
^ Pindar, Eighth Isthmian Ode, 41.
^ Homer. Iliad, Book 16.143; 19.390
^ Pausanias, ix.31.4-5.
^ Hesiod II (1936). The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White (2nd ed.). Loeb Classical Library 503. pp. 73—.
^ In both Iliad and Odyssey.
^ In Iliad vi.155–203.
^ Fragment 4. The education of a girl was not considered. A literaryeducation, in the sense of study of written texts, could not have been possible in the time of Hesiod himself, in the late eighth century BC.
^ Precepts of Chiron, fr. 3
^ Hesiod II (Evelyn-White) 1936, fr. 4.

Sources

William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. s.v. Cheiron. London (1848)

「喀戎」的各地常用別名 Giacobbe Giusti, CHIRONE, 「喀戎」的各地常用別名

中国大陸	喀戎
臺灣	凱隆
港澳	奇倫

喀戎（希臘語：Χείρων，轉寫：Chiron）也譯奇戎，是希腊神话中非常著名的贤人，属于半人马族。

介绍

在希腊神话中，半人马居住于希腊中东部屏达思山和爱琴海之间、叫做忒萨利和阿耳卡狄亚的两个地区。他们经常因为放荡和好色而被描述成酒神狄俄倪索斯的追随者，他们中的一个例外便是喀戎。

傳說

凱隆是水仙女菲呂拉與克洛諾斯的孩子。無法接受凱隆樣貌的菲呂拉，請宙斯將自己變成菩提樹，拋棄了凱隆。
與其他兇殘野蠻的半人馬不同，凱隆以其和善及智慧著稱，所以在中文裏也常被美称为人马。他從阿波羅和阿緹蜜絲學習了音樂、醫術、狩獵…等各種技藝，爾後成為多位希腊英雄的導師，當中包括珀耳修斯、忒修斯、阿基里斯、伊阿宋和赫拉克勒斯。他也是医药之神阿斯克勒庇俄斯的老师。

赫拉克勒斯在一次追杀半人马强盗的过程中误伤了他的老师喀戎，使用的正是当年老师赠送的无坚不摧的箭，那支箭穿过一个半人马强盗的身体，射中了后面喀戎的膝蓋；喀戎本是不死之身，但赫拉克勒斯的箭浸泡了九头蛇许德拉毒血，喀戎感到疼痛的折磨超过死亡。当时普罗米修斯因為偷了天火給人類使用，正被宙斯綁在高加索山上受苦刑，喀戎决定将自己与普罗米修斯交换，自己放弃永生让普罗米修斯恢復自由，使两方都得以解脱。后被宙斯升上天空，成为人马座（罗马诗人奧維德: Fasti v.379）。

由于希腊人继承了苏美尔人的黄道星座体系，常有将黄道星座人马座（也称“射手座”）與后者半人马座相混淆。在埃拉托斯特尼的希腊神话体系中，半人馬座是缪斯女神们为了纪念陪伴她们的薩堤爾克洛托斯（Krotos）而请求宙斯将后者升上天空的星座。由于克洛托斯发明了射箭并擅长骑马狩猎，宙斯为成为星座的克洛托斯添了马身和弓箭。

天文學上的凱隆

凱隆在天文学上是指类似凱龍星（小行星2060号）的，又称“柯瓦尔天体”的天体，是一颗位于土星和天王星轨道之间的远日小行星。1977年由查爾斯·科瓦爾（C.T.Kowal）发现。

流行文化

喀戎在輕小說《Fate/Apocrypha》中以黒之陣營的「Archer」的職階登場，在故事中被描述以人類的身體現世以免真名被識破，寶具為「天蠍一射」；以後在手機遊戲《Fate/Grand Order》中沿用《Fate/Apocrypha》的資料，並且追加半人馬形態登場。

参见

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiron

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%96%80%E6%88%8E

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Constitutio Antoniniana

11 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Constitutio Antoniniana, Giacobbe Giusti,Constitutio Antoniniana, Late Antinquity" by Richard Lim in The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, p. 114. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History, book 78, chapter 9. ^ Car and tagged art, Constitutio Antoniniana, giacobbe giusti | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti,Constitutio Antoniniana

Giacobbe Giusti, Constitutio Antoniniana

Bust of emperor Caracalla. Cast in Pushkin Museum. The original was found in the surroundings of Rome, is part of the Farnese Collection, and is now in the National Archeological Museum, Neaples.

shakko – Trabajo propio

Giacobbe Giusti, Constitutio Antoniniana

Portrait of family of Septimius Severus – Altes Museum – Berlin – Germany 2017

The Constitutio Antoniniana (Latin for: “Constitution [or Edict] of Antoninus”) (also called the Edict of Caracalla or the Antonine Constitution) was an edict issued in 212,^[1] by the Roman Emperor Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given theoretical Roman citizenship and that all free women in the Empire were to be given the same rights as Roman women.

Before 212, for the most part only inhabitants of Italy held full Roman citizenship. Colonies of Romans established in other provinces, Romans (or their descendants) living in provinces, the inhabitants of various cities throughout the Empire, and small numbers of local nobles (such as kings of client countries) held full citizenship also. Provincials, on the other hand, were usually non-citizens, although some held the Latin Right.

Analysis

The Digest of Roman jurist Ulpian (c. 170 – 223) states, “All persons throughout the Roman world were made Roman citizens by an edict of the Emperor Antoninus Caracas,” (D. 1.5.17).

The context of the decree is still subject to discussion. According to historian and politician Cassius Dio (c. 155 AD – c. 235 AD), the main reason Caracalla passed the law was to increase the number of people available to tax. In the words of Cassius Dio: “This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honoring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes.”^[2] However, few of those that gained citizenship were wealthy, and while it is true that Rome was in a difficult financial situation, it is thought that this could not have been the sole purpose of the edict. It should also be noted that Cassius Dio generally saw Caracalla as a bad, contemptible emperor.

Another goal may have been to increase the number of men able to serve in the legions, as only full citizens could serve as legionaries in the Roman Army. In scholarly interpretations that agree with a model of moral degeneration as the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire, most famously the model followed by British historian Edward Gibbon, the edict came at the cost to the auxiliaries, which primarily consisted of non-citizen men, and led to barbarization of the Roman military^{[citation needed]}.

Additionally, before the edict, one of the main ways to acquire Roman citizenship was to enlist in the Roman Army, the completion of service in which would give the citizenship to the discharged soldier. The edict may have made enlistment in the army less attractive to most, and perhaps the recruiting difficulties of the Roman army by the end of the 3rd century were related to this^{[citation needed]}.

In the analyses of more recent scholars, the Constitutio Antoninianamarks a major milestone in the provincialisation of Roman law, meaning that the gap between private law in the provinces and private law in Italy narrowed. This is because, in granting citizenship to all men in the provinces, much private law had to be re-written to conform with the law that applied to Roman citizens in Rome. To these scholars, it therefore also marks the beginning of a process by which imperial constitutions became the primary source of Roman law.^[3]

Caracalla (/ˌkærəˈkælə/; Latin: Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus;^[1] 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), formally known as Antoninus, ruled as Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD. He was a member of the Severan Dynasty, the elder son of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna. Co-ruler with his father from 198, he continued to rule with his brother Geta, emperor from 209, after their father’s death in 211. He had his brother killed later that year, and reigned afterwards as sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Caracalla’s reign featured domestic instability and external invasions by the Germanic peoples.

Caracalla’s reign became notable for the Antonine Constitution(Latin: Constitutio Antoniniana), also known as the Edict of Caracalla, which granted Roman citizenship to nearly all free menthroughout the Roman Empire. The edict gave all the enfranchised men Caracalla’s adopted praenomen and nomen: “Marcus Aurelius”. Domestically, Caracalla became known for the construction of the Baths of Caracalla, which became the second-largest baths in Rome; for the introduction of a new Roman currency named the antoninianus, a sort of double denarius; and for the massacres he enacted against the people of Rome and elsewhere in the empire. In 216, Caracalla began a campaign against the Parthian Empire. He did not see this campaign through to completion due to his assassination by a disaffected soldier in 217. Macrinussucceeded him as emperor three days later.

The ancient sources portray Caracalla as a tyrant and as a cruel leader, an image that has survived into modernity. Dio Cassius (c. 155 – c. 235) and Herodian (c. 170 – c. 240) present Caracalla as a soldier first and as an emperor second. In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth started the legend of Caracalla’s role as the king of Britain. Later, in the 18th century, the works of French painters revived images of Caracalla due to apparent parallels between Caracalla’s tyranny and that ascribed to Louis XVI of France (r. 1774–1792). Modern works continue to portray Caracalla as a psychopathic and evil ruler, painting him as one of the most tyrannical of all Roman emperors.

References

^ “Late Antinquity” by Richard Lim in The Edinburgh Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, p. 114.
^ Cassius Dio, Roman History, book 78, chapter 9.
^ Caroline Humfress (2013). du Plessis, Paul, ed. Laws’ Empire: Roman Universalism and Legal Practice. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780748668175.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_Antoniniana

La Constitutio Antoniniana di Caracalla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracalla

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

11 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of Leonardo, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Il Verrocchio（Florence、1435 [1] - Venice、1488）と呼ばれるAndrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioneは、イタリアの彫刻家、画家、そして金細工人でした。 Andrea del Verro, Madonna with seated Child (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), Tobias and the Angel (National Gallery, London), Verrocchio's exhibition in Florence and tagged art, florence, giacobbe giusti, Il Verrocchio（Florence、1435 [1] - Venice、1488）と呼ばれるAndrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioneは、イタリアの彫刻家、画家、そして金細工人でした。 Andrea del Verro, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Verrocchio in Florence

Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

David (Bargello, Florenz)

יונתן יעקבי – אני יצרתי

Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Madonna with seated Child (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin)

Giacobbe Giusti, VERROCCHIO: Master of LEONARDO, March 9-July 14 Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Tobias and the Angel (National Gallery, London)

As the year marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death kicks into high gear, the Vinci artist’s name is everywhere. Palazzo Strozzi bucks the trend a bit, shifting the spotlight to Andrea del Verrocchio, a celebrated Renaissance artist who had a large workshop of which Leonardo was part; the pupil, of course, would go on to outshine the master. While offering keen insight into the germinal stages of Leonardo’s career, Verrocchio, Master of Leonardo will also have a special section at the Bargello highlighting pieces and key works from the many artists in Verrocchio’s 15th-century circle, including Domenico Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli. For more information, see http://www.palazzostrozzi.org.

09 March 2019 to 14 July 2019

“Verrocchio, Master of Leonardo”, is the name of the exhibition that will open at Palazzo Strozzi on March 9th. It will celebrate the 13th-century artist who taught, among others, to Leonardo Da Vinci. The exhibition is part of the events scheduled in 2019 for the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo, the genius that revolutionized the history of art and of science.

Verrocchio’s exhibition in Florence is the first retrospective that’s entirely dedicated to Andrea del Verrocchio and his circle of contemporaries and students, among whom is the young Leonardo.

There will be 120 works on display – paintings, drawings and sculptures –, of which six are by Leonardo and three will be displayed for the first time in Italy. It’s a unique occasion to learn about how Leonardo’s art began and where he got his first inspiration.

Among the works displayed for the very first time there are the “Madonna and Child” and “Madonna and Child and Angels”, normally on display at Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie and London’s National Gallery respectively. Other works include the David and the “Child with Dolphin”, sublime sculptures from the Museums of Bargello and of Palazzo Vecchio. These are wonderful masterpieces which show the incredible skills of Verrocchio in painting, sculpture and jewelry.

Il Verrocchio（Florence、1435 [1]  -  Venice、1488）と呼ばれるAndrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioneは、イタリアの彫刻家、画家、そして金細工人でした。


Andrea del Verrocchio、マドンナと子供のワークショップ、1470年頃、ニューヨーク、メトロポリタン美術館
主にLorenzo de 'Mediciの裁判所で活動し、彼の工房はLeonardo da Vinci、Sandro Botticelli、Pietro Perugino、Domenico Ghirlandaio、Francesco Botticini、Francesco di Simone Ferrucci、Lorenzo di Credi、Luca Signorelli、Bartoltao dellaなどの学生によって形成されました。彼は15世紀後半のフィレンツェに現れた様々な芸術的技法を用いて自分自身を測定する傾向において重要な役割を果たし、実際に彼の工房は多目的になり、絵画、彫刻、宝飾品、装飾の作品はフィレンツェのイタリア製品のすべて。

http://www.theflorentine.net/events-articles/2019/03/your-thursday-forecast-best-events-in-florence-61/

https://www.residencehilda.com/events/verrocchio-florence

WWW.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Moschophoros

10 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Athens, Acropolis 624 (Sculpture)". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-01. ^ Jump up to:a b "The Acropolis Museum, The Calf-Bearer, Kritios Boy". madeinatlantis.com. Retrieved 13 April 2, Giacobbe Giusti, Moschophoros, Moschophoros, Moschophoros (Greek: μοσχοφόρος "calf-bearer") is an ancient Greek statue commonly known as The Calf Bearer. It was excavated in fragments in the Perserschutt in the Acropolis of Athens and tagged Acropolis 624 (Sculpture)". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-01. ^ Jump up to:ab "The Acropolis Museum, art, Athens, Book 1. Cengage Learning, Fred S. (2012). Gardner's Art through the Ages: Backpack Edition, giacobbe giusti, Kritios Boy". madeinatlantis.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018. ^ Jump up to:ab Kleiner, Moschophoros, The Calf-Bearer | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, Moschophoros

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Giacobbe Giusti, Moschophoros

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Moschophoros (Greek: μοσχοφόρος “calf-bearer”) is an ancient Greek statue commonly known as The Calf Bearer. It was excavated in fragments in the Perserschutt in the Acropolis of Athens in 1864. The statue, dated c. 560 BC and estimated to have originally measured 1.65 meters (5.4 ft) in height, is now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

Giacobbe Giusti, Moschophoros

Condition

The condition of the Moschophoros is poor and broken in some areas. The legs are missing below the knees on both sides. The hands are broken off. The genitals and the left thigh have separated from the whole sculpture. The lower half of the face (the chin area) is chipped off. The foot with a plinth is connected to base. The calf is well preserved, while Moschophoros’s eyes are absent.The rest of the sculpture is in a fine state.^[1]

History

The sculpture was found on the Athenian Acropolis in 1864. In 1887, the base was discovered. It is made of permeable limestone, and its plinth was attached to the right foot of the sculpture.^[1]

The inscription on that plinth claims that this statue was dedicated by someone named Rhombos (possibly Kombos or Bombos; the beginning of the name is missing) to Athena, the goddess of wisdom. This suggests that the sponsor was a very well-to-do-man and a prominent citizen of Attica who offered his own likeness to Athena. He has a calf on his shoulders which represents the sacrificial offering he is about to give to the goddess.^[2]

Form and relevance

The Moschophoros stands with his left foot a little forward, like other kouroi. He has a thick beard, a symbol of adulthood. He wears a thin cloak. The sculpture’s nudity is the main aspect of the art as it adhered to the artistic conventions of the era. The cloak on the other hand, depicts him as a respectable and well-recognized citizen.^[3]

The challenge of representing man and animal together is successfully accomplished by this Archaic sculpture. The calf’s legs are held firmly, making a bold X-shaped composition. This interaction between the calf and the calf-bearer represents a strong, inseparable bond between the two. The man in the sculpture is smiling, which is a unique and new feature that started from around this time in the art than from earlier Greek statues (and those from Egypt and the Near East).^[3]

Kriophoros statues, of a man with a sheep on his shoulders in a similar manner, are more common.

Style

Moschophoros’s hair is very curly, encircling his forehead. There are three plaits on each side falling over his chest. The hair at the top is tied with a narrow ribbon. He has a thick beard that curves around his shaved upper and lower lip. The eyes are large and were made out of colored stones. The stones are absent now but it gave a more lively appeal to the statue before. His mouth is very diligently carved and outlined.

By looking at its form and style, this sculpture is typical in its composition of the early 6th century B.C., around 570 B.C.^[2]

Interpretation

The main idea of a connection between a man and an animal is strongly portrayed. The crossed legs of the calf with the arms of the calf-bearer creates unity between them. The forms are simple such as the round face, eyes and mouth are created with simple arcs. The beard represents an adult man. The body structure is well built depicting strength and power. His mouth and eyes are round in form giving the impression of a positive person, especially, as the man wears a smile on his face.^[1]

Kriophoros — “ram-bearer”.

References

^ Jump up to:^a ^b ^c “Athens, Acropolis 624 (Sculpture)”. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b “The Acropolis Museum, The Calf-Bearer, Kritios Boy”. madeinatlantis.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
^ Jump up to:^a ^b Kleiner, Fred S. (2012). Gardner’s Art through the Ages: Backpack Edition, Book 1. Cengage Learning. p. 112. ISBN 9780840030542

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moschophoros

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, JACOPO della QUERCIA: La Vierge et l’Enfant, œuvre polychrome du musée du Louvre

9 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Jacopo della Quercia (Italian pronunciation: [ˈjaːkopo della ˈkwɛrtʃa]; c. 1374 – 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Italia, La Vierge et l'Enfant, œuvre polychrome du musée du Louvre, The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (c. 1406), Cathedral of Lucca An equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini (1400 ?) (? ) Madonna on top of the Piccolomini altar in the Siena cath and tagged art, Columbia University Press 1992, giacobbe giusti, JACOPO della QUERCIA: La Vierge et l'Enfant, James - Jacopo della Quercia - 797 pp, louvre, Musée du Louvre, National Gallery of Art ^ Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-09-14. Beck, two vol., œuvre polychrome du musée du Louvre | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, JACOPO della QUERCIA: La Vierge et l’Enfant, œuvre polychrome du musée du Louvre

User:Mbzt

Jacopo della Quercia(Italian pronunciation: [ˈjaːkopo della ˈkwɛrtʃa]; c. 1374 – 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d’Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghibertiand Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.

Main works

Giacobbe Giusti, JACOPO della QUERCIA

The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (c. 1406), Cathedral of Lucca

An equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini (1400 ?)
(? ) Madonna on top of the Piccolomini altar in the Siena cathedral (1397–1400)
Virgin and Child (Silvestri Madonna) (1403) – Marble, height 210 cm, Cathedral of Ferrara
St. Maurelius (c. 1403) – Cathedral of Ferrara.
The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto (c. 1406) –Cathedral of Lucca
Fonte Gaia (1408–1419) – Siena
Virtue (1409–19) – Marble, height 135 cm, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Hope (1409–19) – Marble, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Acca Laurentia (1414–19) – Marble, height 162 cm, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Rhea Sylvia (1414–19) – Marble, height 160 cm, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
Annunciation, Virgin and Gabriel – Collegiata di San Gimignano
polyptych on the Trenta family altar (1422) – Basilica di San Frediano,Lucca
Porta Magna (1425) – Basilica di San Petronio, Bologna
Fountain, panels and statuette of John the Baptist (1427) – Baptistry of Siena’s cathedral.

References

^ in the National Gallery of Art
^ Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-09-14.

Beck, James – Jacopo della Quercia – 797 pp, two vol., Columbia University Press 1992 ISBN 0-231-07200-7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_della_Quercia

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Giovanni Francesco Toscani: Vierge à l’Enfant

6 March 2019 by GIACOBBE GIUSTI in Art, Giacobbe Giusti, Giovanni Francesco Toscani: Vierge à l'Enfant, Maestro della Crocifissione Griggest le pseudonyme attribué1 à Giovanni di Francesco Toscani (Florence, vers 1372 – Florence, 2 mai 1430), un peintrMaestro della Crocifissione Griggest le and tagged angeli (1423-1424) ; Madonna col Bambino, Angelo (1410-1420), Annunciazione, art, Édimbourg. Tableaux Madonna con Bambino (1422-1423), Cassone di Edinburgo, chiesa di Santa Maria, Cleveland, Coral Gables ; Adorazione dei Magi et Madonna col Bambino, Cristo Crocifisso, d'abord attribuée à Masolino da Panicalepuis à Toscani par Bellosi, Dolenti, florence, Florence : Madonna con Bambino, Florence ; Museo dello Spedale degli Innocenti, fond doré, giacobbe giusti, Giovanni Francesco Toscani: Vierge à l'Enfant, Kress Collection, Lowe Museum, Madonna Annunciata (1410-1420) ; Galleria dell'Accademia de Florence : Incredulità di San Tommaso Apostolo (1419-1420), Madonna con Bambino, Melbourne ; Crocifissione con scene della vita e passione di San Giovanni, Memphis Brooks Museum, Memphis ; Madone de l'humilité, Mercatale frazione de San Casciano in Val di Pesa ; Crocifissione, musée national du Bargello, National Gallery of Scotland, National Gallery of Victoria, Palazzo Vecchio, Palio di Firenze (1428) Museum of Art, Palio di Firenze (1429), Pietà ed Angeli (1410-1420), Pietà (1410-1420), San Francesco d'Assisi riceve le stimmate, San Nicola di Bari placa una tempesta marina (1423-1424), Santa Caterina d'Alessandria, Santi (1423-1424), Scene di vita di corte, sinopia, triptyque, Washington | Leave a comment

Giacobbe Giusti, Giovanni Francesco Toscani: Vierge à l’Enfant

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Giacobbe Giusti, Giovanni Francesco Toscani: Vierge à l’Enfant

Madonna col Bambino, sinopia, chiesa di Santa Maria, Mercatale Val di Pesa

Naissance	1372 Florence
Décès	2 mai 1430 Florence
Activité	Peintre
Lieu de travail	Florence

Maestro della Crocifissione Griggest le pseudonyme attribué¹ à Giovanni di Francesco Toscani (Florence, vers 1372 – Florence, 2 mai 1430), un peintre italien de la première Renaissance, principalement peintre de panneaux de cassoni.

Biographie

Fils de Francesco Toscani, Giovanni di Francesco Toscani se fixe à Florence dans le district San Giovanni, quartier du dragon, comme le précise le cadastre de 1427.

Il est inscrit à la Compagnie de San Luca des peintres de Florence en 1424. Des documents attestent le paiement en 1423 et 1424 de travaux d’ameublement réalisés à la Chapelle Ardinghelli dans la Basilique Santa Trinita.

Il est noté surtout comme décorateur de cassoni.

Il meurt à Florence le 2 mai 1430.

Panneaux decassoni

Scene di vita di corte, Kress Collection, Washington,
Palio di Firenze (1428) Museum of Art, Cleveland,
Palio di Firenze (1429), musée national du Bargello, Florence,
Cassone di Edinburgo, National Gallery of Scotland, Édimbourg.

Tableaux

Madonna con Bambino (1422-1423), fond doré, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence ;
Museo dello Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence :
- Madonna con Bambino, Annunciazione, Cristo Crocifisso, Dolenti, Pietà ed Angeli (1410-1420), triptyque,
- Angelo (1410-1420),
- Pietà (1410-1420),
- Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, Madonna Annunciata (1410-1420) ;

Galleria dell’Accademia de Florence :
- Incredulità di San Tommaso Apostolo (1419-1420),
- San Francesco d’Assisi riceve le stimmate, San Nicola di Bari placa una tempesta marina (1423-1424),
- Madonna con Bambino, Santi (1423-1424),
- Cristo crocifisso, dolenti, angeli (1423-1424) ;
Madonna col Bambino, sinopia, chiesa di Santa Maria, Mercatale frazione de San Casciano in Val di Pesa ;
Crocifissione, Lowe Museum, Coral Gables ;
Adorazione dei Magi et Madonna col Bambino, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne ;
Crocifissione con scene della vita e passione di San Giovanni, Memphis Brooks Museum, Memphis ;
Madone de l’humilité, d’abord attribuée à Masolino da Panicalepuis à Toscani par Bellosi en 1966².

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

Maestro della Crocifissione Grigg, sur Wikimedia Commons

(it) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en italien intitulé « Maestro della Crocifissione Grigg » (voir la liste des auteurs).

Bibliographie

Répertoire de la Fondation Roberto Longhi
Luciano Bellosi, Il Maestro della Crocifissione Griggs : Giovanni Toscani, in « Paragone », 1966, 193, pp. 44–58.

Notes et références

↑ pour son œuvre la plus célèbre, un crucifix conservé un temps dans la collection Griggs et puis au Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York.
↑ Notice et image [archive]

La page des maîtres anonymes, qui justifie cette appellation de Maestro della Crocifissione Grigg.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Vignaccia76

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

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