Louis XIV (1638-1715), known as the Sun King reigned from 1643 to his death in 1715. His reign began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years. The sculpture was created in 1837 by Louis / Cartelier Petitot.
Brushstroke is a huge sculpture whose theme is the painter’s profession, as can be seen by the title, connected to the painting that Lichtenstein did in 1965 which referenced Action Painting by “quoting” the gestural brushstroke that characterises Abstract Expressionism (Reina Sofia Gallery)
This cluster of figures appears caught in an impassioned exchange—three bodies huddle together. Upon closer inspection, their blank expressions betray nothing of the drama seeming to unfold. Full of uncanny contradictions, these quasi-human forms combine abstracted elements, including bag-like bodies and stylized faces, with lifelike gestures and a dramatic sense of movement.
As is typical in spanish artist Juan Muñoz’s work, the space between the figures is as crucial to the overall effect as the sculpted forms. The scene appears theatrical in its arrangement, but unlike a stage production—in which spectators remain physically separate from the actors—here visitors may enter the conversation space, even as the sculptures’ stony faces pay them no mind. (Sourced from The Contemporary Austin Gallery).
Defined as a public space in the last years of 15th century, when the city market was transferred there from the Campidoglio, Piazza Navona was transformed into a highly significant example of Baroque Roman architecture and art during the pontificate of Innocent X, who reigned from 1644 until 1655, and whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced the piazza. It features important sculptural creations: in the center stands the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, topped by the Obelisk of Domitian, brought in pieces from the Circus of Maxentius; the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Carlo Rainaldi and others; and the aforementioned Pamphili palace, also by Girolamo Rainaldi, that accommodates the long gallery designed by Borromini and frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.
The Temple of Concordia is accompanied by a contemporary statue by the late Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj. He called it Ikaro (or Icarus); it fits with his constant theme of the impermanence of human endeavor.
Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, at Batalha, Leiria
Francisco Pizarro (c. 1471 or 1476 –1541) was born in Trujillo, Spain, as the illegitimate son of an infantry colonel. Pizarro sailed from Spain to Cartagena in the New World in 1509, and accompanied Balboa in 1513 to the Pacific. He was rewarded for his role in the arrest of Balboa with the positions of mayor and magistrate in Panama City, serving there from 1519 to 1523. Pizarro founded the city of Lima, a project he considered his greatest achievement.
The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is an ancient Roman equestrian statue on the Capitoline Hill, Rome, Italy. It is made of bronze and stands 4.24 m (13.9 ft) tall.
By the standards of his time, Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180) was a lenient and humanitarian ruler, but he regarded the Christians as enemies of the state.
His statue was the only one to survive from classical times because the citizens of ancient Rome mistakenly thought it was a representation of Emperor Constantine, the first Christian emperor.
The statue was probably erected either in AD 176, as part of the honours paid to the emperor in connection with his triumph over the Germanic tribes, or immediately after his death in AD 180
Study of one of the six figures in Rodin's solemn, theatrical composition representing the leading citizens of Calais, who, in 1347, offered themselves as hostages to the King of England to end his siege of their city.
Closely arranged, they sometimes touch, and yet the burghers seem isolated from each other by their unique, often energetic poses and gestures.
Already modeled larger than life, Rodin heightened the figures' monumentality by enlarging their hands, heads, and feet. Rodin's ultimate desire for the original monument was to install it close to ground level where the bronze bodies are able to best communicate to us their tension and pathos.