Search results for "aristocracy"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
Analytical studies of the Sirocco room of Villa Naselli-Ambleri: A XVI century passive cooling structure in Palermo (Sicily)
2015
Abstract This work focuses on a passive cooling architecture particularly popular from the Renaissance in Palermo area, as building sumptuous suburban villas became a real hobby for the Sicilian aristocracy. A Sirocco room is an artificial subterranean construction, built close to a water spring in order to reproduce the pleasant conditions of freshness that could be experienced in a natural cavern. In these places, nobles used to spend their time with friends to escape from the hot summer. The room of Villa Naselli-Ambleri is nowadays the best preserved in Palermo thanks to its owners’ conservation care and it is unique for its cooling operating principle. The above-mentioned consideration…
El prestigio de los objetos: mangos de marfil en el mundo ibérico
2020
El estudio se centra en una serie de mangos de marfil de características morfotécnicas similares, recuperados en espacios de hábitat y funerarios ibéricos y datados entre el s. IV y el s. II a. C. Se trata de objetos de prestigio al alcance de una élite aristocrática, que han sido elaborados con materias primas exóticas (marfil) y técnicas decorativas inusuales que indican una especialización. A través de análisis de composición por infrarrojo cercano por Transformada de Fourier (FT-NIR) y de fluorescencia de rayos X (pXRF) se ha podido documentar la presencia de incrustaciones de ámbar adheridas a la superficie de los mangos mediante el uso del estaño como soldadura blanda y el empleo de a…
I Barresi di Pietraperzia. Una corte feudale tra medioevo ed età moderna
2016
La ricerca si incentra sulla committenza artistica e in particolare sulle iniziative architettoniche promosse da una famiglia dell'alta aristocrazia feudale in Sicilia, i Barresi di Piatraperzia, un centro ubicato nell’entroterra dell’isola, attualmente in provincia di Enna. In questo luogo, dove i Barresi risiederono stabilmente, si sviluppò tra il XV e il XVI secolo una corte aristocratica colta e sofisticata, che ebbe il suo fulcro nel castello di Pietraperzia, soprattutto grazie a due membri di questa famiglia, Giovanni Antonio II e il figlio Matteo, che intrattennero rapporti con autorevoli esponenti della cultura scientifica, artistica e letteraria del tempo. Il ruolo di mecenati e fi…
Radicalisation of the British aristocracy : aristocratic decline, inter-war fascism and reactionary rhetoric
2008
The purpose of this study is to shed light on the relationship between the decline of British aristocracy and British inter-war fascism. It is argued that there was a link between the decline of aristocratic influence, achieved largely by political and legislative means, and the subsequent radicalisation of the aristocracy. Furthermore, the history and development of British fascism is examined especially in the aristocratic context, and the pre-war radical right groups are placed in the same continuum as the later actual fascist parties. The aristocratic rhetorical opposition to proposed reforms aimed at the democratisation of British politics is studied in the context of Albert Hirschman'…
From the Worship of God to the Worship of Beauty? The Reception of Italian Catholic Religious Paintings in the Private Chapels of English Country Hou…
2010
This study discusses the shifting reception of Italian Catholic religious paintings in the private chapels of English country houses. It first investigates how the practice of art collecting and patronage informs the strategies deployed by the English aristocracy to expunge from these pictures all Catholic overtones. It moves on to assess the impact of this ideological reinterpretation on works of art, whose original religious message was thus gradually displaced. The article concludes that these paintings came, effectively, to extol a religiosity of splendour, representative of a desire to glorify both the host's good taste and God's greatness.
Capitanes del Renacimiento. Ética militar en la España mediterránea, c. 1500-1550
2004
En la Europa del siglo XVI los valores caballerescos, fundamento de la ética de la aristocracia militar, se enriquecieron con los ideales cortesanos. En este artículo estudiamos la difusión de esos ideales entre los oficiales del ejército de la Monarquía hispánica en los diversos reinos de la España Mediterránea. Estimamos que esta conjunción de principios morales proporcionó la base para una incipiente disciplina de los mandos militares. In Sixteenth Century Europe, the chivalric values which were in the core of military aristocracy ethics became enriched with court-like ideals. In this paper we study the diffusion of those ideals among army officers of the Hispanic Monarchy in the various…
New archaeological discoveries through magnetic gradiometry: The early Celtic settlement on Mont Lassois, France
2006
The burial complex of the “Lady of Vix” was discovered and excavated in the 1950s at the foot of Mont Lassois (Figure 1), a mountain situated close to the town of Chatillion-sur-Seine in the Bourgogne region of France. The assemblage of the burial goods was rather extraordinary, including such items as an artfully crafted golden necklace with winged horses and a voluminous wine-mixing vessel, probably made in a Greek workshop, capable of holding 1100 liters. According to archaeological research, this member of the aristocracy must have lived during the period between 550 and 500 BCE. Several large-scale geophysical research projects were undertaken in the vicinity of the burial complex duri…
Orphaned siblings and noble families in baroque Rome
2010
The essay investigates the impact of the premature death of the father on brother and sister groups in noble Roman families of the seventeenth century. More specifically, it explores how this loss reflected on the biographical itineraries of individual members of the sibling unit; how adelphic relations between the orphans were reformulated according to order of birth and first born or cadet status, age, and sex; and what forms of solidarity and competition were engendered by the loss of a father. Since demographic historians have shown that orphanage at an early age is an important variable, the author argues that it cannot be overlooked – as historians have done so far – in studies on fam…
From Spain to Sicily after the Expulsion: Conversos between Economic Networks and the Aristocratic Elite
2018
Abstract This article focuses on a group of conversos families from Spain, who established themselves in Palermo after the Expulsion of the Jews in 1492. There they supported financial activities of the Nazione Catalana and established strong relationships with the local aristocracy. Thanks to this alliance, they managed to avoid persecution by the Spanish Inquisition, “cleanse” their “impure” blood and reach high positions within politics and society: feudal titles, political and financial offices, habits of military orders, ecclesiastical appointments and sometimes even sainthood. Firstly, the paper will give a brief sketch of the phenomenon of conversos in Sicily as well as the activitie…
Comfort, the acceptable face of luxury - an eighteenth-century cultural etymology
2014
The introduction of modern amenities into European homes has been extensively studied by sociologists and historians, who have stressed the rise in consumption during the Georgian period.1 Some objects, such as mirrors, stoves, or umbrellas, were made available by technical innovations; others, such as tea, sugar, or mahogany furniture, became accessible thanks to the expansion of global trade. Other amenities, such as carpets, curtains, or marble chimney-pieces, were no longer restricted to the aristocracy, as living standards rose.2 As the British nation became richer, the number of affluent households grew as did their capacity to spend more on material objects. This signaled a change in…