Qianlong, Emperor of China (reign 1736-1795)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Emperor Qianlong ('cheeyen-loong') ruled for sixty years (1736-1795), during China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty. His reign was longer than any other emperor in Chinese history apart from his grandfather, Kangxi. The emperor is best known to art historians as a collector who amassed the largest collection of art known up to that point in China. His passion for collecting extended to paintings, porcelain, bronzes, jades, writing implements, and rare books.
Winston Churchill and Wendy and Emery Reves
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In January 1956, after returning from public life, Winston Churchill spent his first holiday with Wendy and Emery Reves at their home, which he called Pausaland. Churchill would frequent the villa over the next four years. Though his health was failing, he loved staying at Villa La Pausa, where he relaxed and enjoyed painting, one of his lifelong pastimes.
Lady Godiva
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Lady Godiva was an 11th century noblewoman of Coventry, England who protested her husband’s excessive taxation of his subjects. He agreed to alleviate his taxation policy if she would ride a horse through the streets of Coventry naked. She willingly did so and used the ride to provocatively demonstrate the poverty and vulnerability of her subjects. While the factual basis of the story remains debatable, Godiva’s virtuous and compassionate nature would make her an appealing subject for artists and writers.
Clement Greenberg (1909-1994)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Clement Greenberg was a highly influential American formalist critic, whose responses to abstract expressionism are thought to have directly influenced the development of post-painterly abstraction. According to Greenberg, the qualities that tended to characterize successful modernist artworks included abstraction and an attention to the formal qualities of the materials.
Saint George (Christianity)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
St. George was an early Christian martyr most famed for his slaying of a dragon. In this tale of medieval gallantry and Christian morality, a Princess Aja is sacrificed to satiate the evil dragon, and the noble George, clad in a full suit of armor, comes to her rescue. By defeating the dragon, St. George symbolically conquered evil.
Saint Sebastian (Christianity)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Saint Sebastian served as a soldier in the Roman army, but when he was discovered to be a Christian, the Roman emperor ordered him shot by his own archers. He miraculously survived the arrows, however, which led to the arrow becoming his identifying attribute. Eventually he was martyred by being stoned to death.
Saint Paul (Christianity)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Saint Paul was one of the great missionaries and martyrs of the early church. His letters, or epistles, form a central part of the New Testament. He was born with the name Saul, the son of Jewish parents who were Roman citizens.
Saint Jerome (Christianity)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In Christianity, Saint Jerome is considered one of the four Latin Fathers of the Church. He divided his life between scholarship and ascetic practices. His great contribution to the Church was a new translation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin (the Vulgate).
Daruma
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Daruma is the Japanese name for Bodhidharma, the semi-legendary Indian monk credited with founding Ch'an Buddhism in China, which is known as Zen in Japan. Thought to be a Hindu or Persian prince, Daruma rejected his former life and travelled across the Silk Road from Central Asia to Northern China.