Queen Victoria writes to King Leopold I

After reading Matterhorn’s lovely post about Queen Louise, I recalled reading a letter from Queen Victoria to King Leopold, following Louise’s death. Although Queen Victoria – the doyenne of mourners! – tends to be very over-emotional in all her letters to bereaved people, this letter shows her genuine affection, love and respect for the Queen and for King Leopold and his family:

Osborne House 18th October 1850

My dearest Uncle,
This was the day I always and for so many years wrote to her, to our adored Louise and now I write to you to thank you for that heart-breaking, touching letter of the 16th, which you so very kindly wrote to me.

What a day Tuesday must have been! Welch Einen Gang! and yesterday! My grief was so great again yesterday.

To talk of her is my greatest consolation! Let us all try to imitate her!

My poor, dear Uncle, we so wish to be with you if we can be of any use to you, to go to you for 2 or 3 days quite quietly and alone, to Laeken, without anyone and without any reception, to cry with you and to talk with you of her. It will be a great comfort to us – a silent tribute of love and respect for her – to be able to mingle our tears with yours at her tomb.

And the affection of your two devoted children [the Queen is referring to herself and Prince Albert, King Leopold’s niece and nephew] will perhaps be of some slight balm.

My first impulse was to fly at once to you but perhaps a few weeks’
delay will be better.

It will be a great and melancholy satisfaction to us. Daily you will feel more, my dearest Uncle, the poignancy of your dreadful loss; my heart breaks in thinking of you and the poor, dear children. How beautiful it must be to see that your whole country weeps and mourns with you. For the country and for your children you must try to bear up and feel that in doing so, you are doing all SHE wished.

If only we could be of use to you! If I could do anything for poor, little Charlotte. whom our blessed Louise talked of so often to me.
May I write to you on Fridays as I used to write to her, as well as on Tuesdays? You need not answer me and whenever it bores you to write to me or you have no time, let one of the dear children write to me.
May God bless and protect you ever, my beloved Uncle, is our anxious prayer. Embrace the dear children in the name of one who has almost the love of a mother for them. Ever your devoted Niece and Loving Child,
Victoria R.

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha..

Portrait by John Partridge, 1840

..to most people he is seen merely as Queen Victoria’s husband, whose death led to her years of seclusion and whom she turned into an almost too good to be true character: angel Albert, the truest, purest icon whose virtues were so many that no other human – least of all her children – could ever hope to emulate him. To others he appears as a rather dour and humourless man; a puritanical figure without passion and with a permanently solemn expression. Prince Albert is one of the most fascinating and passionate royalties of his era, and one of the most amazingly ‘good’ men who ever lived. In fact, it seems that Queen Victoria’s adulation was pretty accurate and she was one of the most fortunate women to be married to such a man.

In an age where dynastic marriages were often loveless affairs and it was taken for granted that princes and kings had mistresses, it is hardly surprising that Prince Albert’s fidelity was seen as something unusual and, unfortunately, people who do not go along with crowd, are often viewed as odd or uninteresting. Prince Albert’s horror of infidelity could be traced back to his childhood when he witnessed first hand, at only five years old, the departure of his beloved mother who, having been mistreated by his father, embarked on an affair and was banished from the household. At the same time, Albert was a man of such sincerity that dishonesty or deceit were abhorrent to him; and he was a devout man. If he made vows, he honoured them. This did not make him dispassionate – on the contrary, his devotion to his wife and family shows the depths of his passion. He and Victoria often sent each other erotic works of art as presents; she was enthralled by her intimacy with him and, at the same time, he was passionate about his children’s upbringing. Again, in an age where few fathers took a great deal of interest in their children’s education, Albert developed a most forward-thinking curriculum, including not only academic learning but also gardening, creativity, cooking and, above all, a social awareness. His children meant everything to him and he was one of the few princes who paid as much attention to his daughters’ education as to his sons’.

Victoria and Albert’s family in 1846 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter left to right: Prince Alfred and the Prince of Wales;the Queen and Prince Albert; Princesses Alice, Helena and Victoria

During his early years in England he was treated appallingly not only by various ministers but particularly by member of his and the Queen’s family. Unruffled, he sought at every opportunity to make allowance for people’s prejudices, and he succeeded in restoring the relationship between Queen Victoria and her mother, as well as doing his utmost to create harmony with the Queen’s very unpleasant uncles. It was Albert’s influence that created a model for the monarchy, which had fallen into disrepute during the reigns of the Queen’s predecessors.

His passions, however, extended far beyond his family. Totally dedicated to the idea that with privilege comes responsibility, he was tireless in his concern for the people. He visited countless factories, mines and other places of work and drew up plans for improving working conditions and housing. His Great Exhibition, one of his greatest passions, was a marvel of the age and he had the foresight to realise that many people would not be able to afford the shilling brochure, so he ensured that a penny brochure was also available. He was passionate about technological advances which would make life easier for workers.

Spiritually and politically, he was passionate. Although a devout Lutheran, who personally found Catholicism conflicted with his own spirituality, he was against any form of intolerance. In the midst of a great anti-Catholic sentiment sweeping across the country, Prince Albert was prepared to stick his neck out against bigotry and it was largely thanks to him that the laws relating to the prohibition of Roman Catholic titles and the establishment of diocese in England were repealed. The idea of him being a puritan, though, is far from the truth. His understanding and gentleness in his descriptions of the promiscuous and unhappy Queen of Spain speak volumes about the heart of this beautiful man.

Time and time again, he was prepared to stand up to Parliament without undermining the constitution. Even on his death bed, he managed to avert a possible war between Britain and the USA as a result of the Trent Affair. As Daphne Bennett writes in her biography, King Without a Crown:

“It is fitting that the last public action of a man of peace was to avert so tragic a conflict.”

Perhaps it was Prince Albert’s passion that eventually wore him out. He died at only 42 years old, utterly exhausted by his fiery commitment to life and to the well-being of others!

Napoleon as a student

Napoleon in Coronation robes c.1812 by Girodet (1767-1824)

The study was not a feature in which Napoleon Bonaparte excelled, which he was definitely brought to the military art.

The future Emperor of the French and master of half the world, he was an indifferent student, and no special skills, poor letterare both materials and life sciences.

In a more mature age, which ended the long political experience, now only and exiled to St. Helena, Napoleon decided to finally learn English, the language of the enemy that he was ashamed of not knowing; a few years ago a private museum bought, to expose them to the public, the writings that the former general worked at that time for practice, all peppered with coarse grammatical errors.

Apparently Napoleon undertook, but he had little success..

Courtship and Marriage in Regency Era

“Courtship” by Felix Friedrich Von Ende

The hunt for a husband in Regency England was a serious business and upper class families invested large sums of money to give their daughters a ‘season’ in London.

An unattached woman had no occupation other than to find a husband but on no account must she signal that this was her goal. It was the single man wanting a wife who must do the work of wooing and winning according to a strict code of conduct. The code protected the woman’s reputation but also prevented the man from becoming ensnared against his will.

The prohibitions put upon the unmarried were many.
Before an engagement, couples could not converse privately or be alone in a room, travel unchaperoned in a carriage, call one another by their Christian names, correspond with or give gifts to one another, dance more than two sets together on any evening or touch intimately – and that included handshakes.
Greeting and leave taking were acknowledged with a slight bow of the head or curtsy.

So in a period when propriety was so strictly policed, how did courtship ever progress?
Ways and means did exist for young men and women to interact and exchange smiles, sighs and becoming blushes.
Private balls and public assemblies were ideal opportunities for couples to come together.
Gloved hands could be held briefly during the dance and while walking to and from a set. Under the watchful supervision of their elders, the young and unattached could stand up with each other, demonstrate their gracefulness, their ability to converse intelligently and their compatibility.
In similar fashion interested partners might become better acquainted on chaperoned walks in the countryside, falling behind the rest of the party if they wished to speak privately.

When a gentleman was certain his feelings were reciprocated, he would ask permission of the lady’s parents to pay his addresses. A suitably private setting for the proposal could then be arranged. Most often he would be answered positively since it was very bad form for a lady to encourage an attachment she could not return. Occasionally an unwelcome proposal might be made despite her lack of encouragement, and then the lady would have to turn her suitor down but always with sensitivity to the man’s feelings.

Once a proposal was accepted and parental consent was obtained, to break off an engagement was considered very grave. An engagement was seen as a contract. A gentleman was strictly forbidden from breaking an engagement once accepted and a lady could only change her mind after careful consideration.

There were strict rules governing marriage. In order to marry legally, a couple needed a license and the reading of the banns. They also required parental consent if either of them were under the age of 21 and the ceremony had to be conducted in a church or chapel by authorised clergy. The only way round this was elopement to Gretna Green in Scotland or if you were extremely wealthy, the purchase of a ‘special license’ issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury which permitted the couple to marry at a location other than a church. Needless to say, either course of action was likely to create intense and often unpleasant gossip.

During the Regency, weddings were mostly private affairs and even fashionable weddings were sparingly attended. They were certainly not the huge affairs that we know today or that became more prevalent during the Victorian era. The bride might sometimes wear white but it was not considered mandatory. A coloured dress did not signify lack of chasteness but was simply a personal preference.

Wedding scene in winter featuring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle as Mr and Mrs Darcy from BBC Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1995).

 

February 29: Tips for women thinking of proposing this leap year

Ladies, think it’s about time you made an honest man of him? Jump on board an age-old tradition and pop the question yourself on February 29.

Every four years, there comes a day when women can take the bull by the horns and ask their man to marry them.

February 29 is traditionally the one day when women can propose marriage and, according to a survey in British Heart Foundation shops, more than a third of British women are thinking about popping the question this year. It seems London ladies are the most in control of their relationships, with almost half of them thinking about proposing.

Today’s society doesn’t frown on women who propose but this wasn’t always the case. There are several theories surrounding the advent of leap year proposals but, back in the days when the rules of courtship were a lot stricter, women were  simply not allowed to pop the question.

At that time, February 29 wasn’€™t a recognised date, so the day itself was simply leapt over an€™  hence the name. Since it had no legal standing, legend has it that people  assumed tradition had no official status on this day, either. Therefore, women had an opportunity to change the custom that only men could propose. What’€™s more, if a man rejected a women€™s proposal, he had to buy her 12 pairs of gloves, to hide the embarrassment of the lady in question not having an engagement ring.

 The leap year tradition is cultural, says relationship expert and agony aunt Susan Quilliam. €˜While it’s fun, it’€™s not really relevant to the 21st century. Now either partner can take the initiative and suggest that they move to the next stage. But the decision to marry is almost always something a couple work towards together.

So, if you think your man€™s dragging his feet, use February 29 as an excuse to ask him to make an honest woman out of you.If all else fails, you might at least get some gloves€.

History of Pizza

Here I am with a new article after a long time since the last publication.
In the following I’ll talk about the origins of one of the favorite foods (if not the only dish) in Italy and in the world: pizza.

Foods similar to pizza have been made since the neolithic age. Records of people adding other ingredients to bread to make it more flavorful can be found throughout ancient history.

• In Sardinia, French and Italian archaeologists have found bread baked over 7,000 years ago. According to Professor Philippe Marinval, the local islanders leavened this bread.
• The Ancient Greeks had a flat bread called plakous (πλακοῦς, gen. πλακοῦντος – plakountos) which was flavored with toppings like herbs, onion, and garlic.
• In the sixth century BC, the soldiers in Persian King Darius I armies baked flatbreads with cheese and dates on top of their battle shields.

Other examples of flatbreads that survive to this day from the ancient Mediterranean world are focaccia (which may date back as far as the ancient Etruscans), coca (which has sweet and savory varieties) from Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands, the Greek Pita, Lepinja in the Balkans, or Piadina in the Romagna part of Emilia-Romagna in Italy.

The innovation that led to flat bread pizza was the use of tomato as a topping. For some time after the tomato was brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, it was believed by many Europeans to be poisonous (as are some other fruits of the nightshade family). However, by the late 18th century, it was common for the poor of the area around Naples to add tomato to their yeast-based flat bread, and so the pizza began.[citation needed] The dish gained popularity, and soon pizza became a tourist attraction as visitors to Naples ventured into the poorer areas of the city to try the local specialty.

Until about 1830, pizza was sold from open-air stands and out of pizza bakeries, and pizzerias keep this old tradition alive today. It is possible to enjoy paper-wrapped pizza and a drink sold from open-air stands outside the premises. Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba in Naples is widely regarded as the city’s first pizzeria.

Purists, like the famous pizzeria “Da Michele” in Via C. Sersale (founded 1870),consider there to be only two true pizzas — the Marinara and the Margherita — and that is all they serve. These two “pure” pizzas are the ones preferred by many Italians today.

The Marinara is the older of the two and has a topping of tomato, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. It is named “marinara” because it was traditionally the food prepared by “la marinara”, the seaman’s wife, for her seafaring husband when he returned from fishing trips in the Bay of Naples.

The Margherita is topped with modest amounts of tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. It is widely attributed to baker Raffaele Esposito, who worked at “Pizzeria di Pietro,” established in 1880. Though recent research casts doubt on this legend,the tale holds that, in 1889, he baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen’s favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag — green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). According to the tale, this combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor. Although those were the most preferred, today there are many variations of pizzas.

Margherita of Savoy

Pizza is now a type of bread and tomato dish, often served with cheese. However, until the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, the dish was sweet, not savory, and earlier versions which were savory more resembled the flat breads now known as schiacciata. Pellegrino Artusi‘s classic early twentieth century cookbook, La Scienza in cucina e l’Arte di mangiar bene gives three recipes for pizza, all of which are sweet.However, by 1927, Ada Boni’s collection of regional cooking includes a recipe using tomatoes and mozzarella.

“Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” (“True Neapolitan Pizza Association”), which was founded in 1984, has set the very specific rules that must be followed for an authentic Neapolitan pizza. These include that the pizza must be baked in a wood-fired, domed oven; that the base must be hand-kneaded and must not be rolled with a pin or prepared by any mechanical means (i pizzaioli — the pizza makers — make the pizza by rolling it with their fingers) and that the pizza must not exceed 35 centimetres in diameter or be more than one-third of a centimetre thick at the centre. The association also selects pizzerias all around the world to produce and spread the verace pizza napoletana philosophy and method.

The pizza bases in Naples are soft and pliable. In Rome they prefer a thin and crispy base. Another popular form of pizza in Italy is “pizza al taglio” which is pizza baked in rectangular trays with a wide variety of toppings and sold by weight.

In December 2009, the pizza napoletana was granted Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status by the European Union.

 

Anecdotes:Ludwig van Beethoven

Something about Beethoven..

1.Ludwig van Beethoven was able to establish himself as an artist despite the flaws of character and impossible ways. He had never been a beauty: a young man called him Der Spagnol because of an olive complexion. He was short – is only one meter and sixty – stocky and broad-shouldered; He had a massive head, a mass of unruly hair, buck teeth, small nose and rounded, and he used to spit everywhere. Clumsy movements, overthrew and broke continually objects it touched. Clumsy, he never learned to dance, and he always cut himself shaving.

2.He was theater and suspicious, susceptible like a cobra misanthrope, convinced that everyone wanted to cheat him; he had no manners or ways attractive, forget everything, had tantrums senseless, and the publishers had at times reports of questionable fairness. He lived in indescribable confusion, especially since there were no servants or rulers willing to tolerate his nervousness.

3.Ludwig van Beethoven was probably born on December 16 and he was baptized the following day (17) And that’s why Google will celebrate him on that date with a doodle almost all over the world.
Provincial, since he was from Bonn, he was raised by his father, a dissolute court musician. A child prodigy, he was subjected to a rigid discipline that, as often happens to the child prodigies, he influenced his whole life.

4.It is always speculate on the many diseases of which the composer would have suffered as a young man, from asthma to irritable bowel syndrome, kidney disease to liver cirrhosis. And historians have also questioned how the physical ailments of the musician may have influenced the art. The hypothesis of 3 researchers is that the pace of some of his most famous and viscerally moving would be affected by cardiac arrhythmias in which the composer probably suffered.

5.Already in their thirties, he claims to have trouble understanding the words of one person who spoke in a low voice.
To listen to the actors in the theater, also, he was forced to get close to the orchestra. The growing deafness but threw him into a state of deep despair, which in 1802 pushed him even groped suicide.
Because of the problems of hearing Beethoven gradually became isolated from the people around him, compromising many social and affective relationships.
In 1819, eight years before his death he was completely deaf. Nevertheless, Beethoven continued to compose: the famous Ninth Symphony with Ode to Joy was written in 1824.

6.For some it was the fault of an ointment smeared after surgery. For others, a chalice from which the composer drank. What was the administration, the high concentration of lead found in the body of Ludwig van Beethoven was often mentioned as a cause of death in 56 years. Fueling the theory, the fact that lead poisoning causes irritability (the composer was known for his temper), kidney failure and liver, symptoms that the musician accused dying.
However, a search of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York has denied these assumptions. The analysis of the levels of lead in the bones of the composer has in fact found a concentration too low to cause poisoning.

Petrus Gonsalvus: the gentleman at the court of Henry II that inspired the tale of “Beauty and the Beast”

Petrus Gonsalvus, in his singularity, was successful man in life. The hypertrichosis that afflicted him and that definitely aroused great curiosity, rather than a limit eventually prove to be a “trump card.” Thanks to his intellectual gifts, he was considered one of the most well-known in the sixteenth century aristocrat. And this is his story.

 

He was born in 1537 in Tenerife, a descendant of the “Mencey”, the king of the aborigines of the Canary Islands (Guanches) overwhelmed and enslaved by the Spanish conquest at the end of ‘400. It seems that Pedro Gonzales, this is his name, was a “muchacho muy hermoso“, whose characteristic was to have his face and body covered with a fine down dark red, which, however, discovered in the faces of beautiful regular features, as reported the chronicles. At the age of ten years, it seems that he was sent as a “gift” from the Canary Islands to King Charles V in the Netherlands, but during the crossing raid of French privateers led to the capture of Pedro that was conducted instead, games of fate, in homage to King Henry II of France.

A court ruled then that the historical Catherine de ‘Medici, wife of the king, a woman with a strong personality and character policy, small in stature and not very pleasant to look at, rather selfish and often cruel, with some peculiarities such as being extremely greedy (he was the first to bring to court the use of the fork), and lover of all that was exotic. The entrance of the boy “guancho” aroused great interest in her then, ambition before courtiers to host a unique testimony of its kind. Pedro was seen as an icon by exotic store with every consideration. Was routed to the study of Latin spoken and written (at that time regarded as the highest form of culture) and the humanities, yes that grew like a true gentleman prejudice to the Court for 44 years under the name of Don Petrus Gonsalvus, a duty to its real origins.

In 1573, when Petrus was 36 years old, the queen believed it was better to give him a wife. The choice was not much chance of Catherine, the most beautiful of her bridesmaids, perhaps for the … scientific curiosity to see what would be built by the contrasting combination. It is said that the girl, at the time of coming to Petrus presented as his wife, fainted in his presence. However, beyond the hair that darkened his face and that would intimidate any girl waiting for Prince Charming, Petrus was equipped with an impressive physique, that characteristic of the Guanches of Tenerife, which would have had to basics infiltration of northern European peoples , pale skin and blond hair. Hence it is reasonable to infer the reddish hair of Petrus. And ‘to assume that the initial swoon Catherine and forced marriage are being solved in a union unexpectedly happy, because the sensitivity, kindness and culture of Petrus came to conquer. It in fact born six children, four of whom were suffering from hypertrichosis. And the Queen was satisfied.

Ulisse Aldrovandi, passionate naturalist of the 500, studied family members Gonsalvus, by posting pictures of one of his volumes entitled “De Monstris”, where the Latin word “monstrum” did not have that negative meaning we attribute to modern use, but something out of the ordinary, of portentous, exceptional. In fact, Aldrovandi showed those malformations that nature often gives surprise to all beings on this earth, human, animal and plant. In turn, the portrait painter Lavinia Fontana, a friend of the family Aldrovandi, portrayed the daughter of Petrus Antoinette called Tognina, and so also the same Petrus.

Apparently Petrus Gonsalvus and his family are the oldest documented cases of hypertrichosis in Europe. This disorder is found in the little black and Asian ethnic groups and less common in northern Europe, most frequently in the Mediterranean instead. Currently, worldwide known a hundred cases of this that is considered a real disease, manipulated by the media and now visible in all known national-popular television programs.

This unusual love story was popularly equated to that of “Beauty and the Beast” and in some ways there are clear similarities. The tale, written in 1550 by Italian Gianfrancesco Straparola and then by the French Charles Perrault at the end of’ 600, although probably inspired by the figure of Gonsalvus at that time very well known, actually has its origins in the ‘ancient classical literature greek – Latin, remembering “Metamorphoses” of Apuleius, philosopher, writer of the original Platonic school of Numidia. There will also be a plethora of interpretations of the fairy tale in the ‘700 with a social-educational, until today with film versions, literary, theater and television.

After the death of Catherine de ‘Medici in 1589, Petrus Gonsalvus with family left the French court to travel to Italy, where he stayed at the court of Parma. Later, he settled permanently in Capodimonte on Lake Bolsena (Viterbo), where he died in 1618, aged 81. The details of his life can be found in ‘Vatican Archives and the State Archives of Rome and Naples.

The Empress Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa, (born May 13, 1717, Vienna—died Nov. 29, 1780, Vienna), archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740–80), wife and empress of the Holy Roman emperor Francis I (reigned 1745–65), and mother of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II (reigned 1765–90). Upon her accession, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) erupted, challenging her inheritance of the Habsburg lands. This contest with Prussia was followed by two more, the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) and the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79), which further checked Austrian power.

Maria Teresa had big blue eyes, blond hair, a slight blush to the Goths, a wide mouth and a strong body; Moreover, thanks to the fact that parents do not have close family ties, Maria Teresa did not suffer the harmful effects of marriages between close blood relatives who had characterized many of his ancestors.

Temperamentally, Maria Theresa was extremely serious and reserved; He loved to sing, archery and wanted to learn at least the basics of riding, but his father, fearing it could hurt, prevented it; also he participated in opera productions, often conducted directly by the Emperor Charles VI.

His education was supervised by the Jesuits who, although were able to teach her a good Latin, they were unable to correct his spelling and punctuation unconventional nor transmitted the eloquence of his predecessors to the point that the same Maria Teresa became used to talk and writing in Viennese dialect. The father, who still awaited male heir, not instructed on the affairs of state nor gave to his daughter preparing a heir to the throne, although allowed to sit on the board since he was fourteen years for this reason, in fact, , Maria Teresa, like the younger sister, received only notions of drawing, painting, music and dance disciplines for a typical role of a princess or a queen consort.

Maria Theresa thus became a pawn on Europe’s political chessboard. In 1736 she married Francis Stephen of Lorraine. Because of French objections to the union of Lorraine with the Habsburg lands, Francis Stephen had to exchange his ancestral duchy for the right of succession to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The marriage was a love match, and 16 children were born to the couple, of whom 10 survived to adulthood.

In Austria, the Empress Maria Theresa was much loved by the people, and they tell many funny episodes about her. On one occasion he spank a naughty boy who climbed on scaffolding so reckless, risk breaking his neck. That boy later became the great composer Franz Joseph Haydn, and had occasion to recall that episode to the Empress, who was pleased with herself for having perhaps saved the life of a musician like him. On another occasion, already elderly, she interrupted a performance at the Burgtheater in rushing imperial stage to announce to the audience, speaking in Viennese dialect, the birth of a grandson (son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany P.Leopold).

Despite being greased, Maria Teresa was in excellent health, and even in winter he always kept the windows open. He ran personally to close them when he was to receive his minister Kaunitz, who instead was a patch hypochondriac and was always complaining of a thousand ills. The Empress was famous because she was seen in public, in a carriage, even a few hours after giving birth.

It is said that the Empress died on a sofa red morocco full of pillows.
Trying to reach the windows (always wide open) for rifrigerarsi of his room, he gets up from his chair, but he loses his balance and tumbles on the couch.
He will remain there until the time of death, fair and noble as only she could be, so that her son Joseph tries to help her get settled on the couch and says “Are you comfortable..?” and she says “..to die? Too!” ..her last words.

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Anectodes: Gustav Klimt

Today I’ll talk about the Austrian painter,Gustav Klimt.

” All art is erotic ”

Gustav Klimt was seen as an artist who was far ahead of his time, and much of the work that was produced during the Austrian born artist’s career, was seen as controversial. It was criticized due to the erotic and exotic nature. Although symbolism was used in his art forms, it was not at all subtle, and it went far beyond what the imagination during the time frame accepted. Although his work was not widely accepted during his time, some of the pieces that Gustav Klimt did create during his career, are today seen as some of the most important and influential pieces to come out of Austria.

1.”I paint a girl as I like and just do it!”
The erfectionism of Gustav Klimt was legendary, so much so that he worked for three years at the portrait of Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt, daughter of one of his major patron. Elisabeth was forced to sit for hours. Klimt took sketches of the girl in different poses, but was never satisfied with the result. Since Elisabeth meanwhile criticized both positions as well as the clothes chosen, she came soon to the clash and, during an argument, Klimt finally blurted out: “I paint a girl as I please just do it!” After three years Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt lost patience, he went to the study of Klimt, took the painting off the easel and carried it home. When Klimt later saw him exposed in the living room of the family would have said, in a bad mood: “She did not like at all.” The buyer did not totally discouraged by this statement and commissioned Klimt’s portrait of his mother, Charlotte Pulitzer.

2.Hope ..Threatened

It was most likely Mizzi Zimmermann, model and lover of Gustav Klimt, pregnant at the time, to arouse in him the inspiration for the reason of pregnant women that recurs in his work. During the making of “The Hope” that was again this theme, the son of a year just born from his relationship with Mizzi, Otto, died suddenly.
This event brought about a change in the design of the framework.
The piece of blue fabric, interwoven with gold threads, after the woman pregnant, see the hope of the title, but the background is populated now disturbing figures: next to the giant Typhon, already known from the Beethoven Frieze, faces with grimaces and grins claims, identified by the daughters of the giant, and look at the woman symbolizing sickness, death, madness, lust and sexual immorality as well as pain.

3.”There are only two painters: Velázquez and me.”
Gustav Klimt has traveled a lot, but not willingly. He felt absolutely at ease at home, in Vienna, and the Attersee in the Salzkammergut, where he spent every summer. Even in 1903 undertook a journey, this time in Italy. Klimt, who in a message of greeting to Emilie Flöge once already had left to go to the exclamation “To hell with words!”, Again was stingy with descriptions of his travel impressions. The phrase “… in Ravenna so much misery – mosaics of unprecedented splendor …” it is to be considered then one of the comments most enthusiastic about art that we know was pronounced by Klimt.

The meeting with the figures of Byzantine mosaics, which seemed to float against the force of gravity on the golden background, followed a few days later the works of the masters in medieval Florence, about which Klimt, in his letters, after a mention of the time bad, he said succinctly: “Impressions art very strong.” They should spend a few more years before Kilmt were able to express their impressions in the language that he was a force and power unequaled: his painting.

He had no need to travel to get inspired by the old masters. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna was able to study the rich collection of works by Diego Velázquez. He admired artists, it can be seen from the observation ironic that once explained this way: “There are only two painters: Velázquez and me.” In the portrait of Fritza Riedler finally he managed to merge both influences. For the first time, in a painting by Klimt, it prevailed a gold surface closed. Thus began the “golden period” of his work that he later reached its peak with “The Kiss“.

“… I am sure of one thing: that I am a poor fool.”
Throughout the city continuously they circulated rumors about relationships of Gustav Klimt with his models but also with its upper-class patrons. When Klimt made a pass at the young Alma Schindler, Alma Mahler-Werfel later, and this began to accept them, the story caused a sensation. Klimt, who had accompanied her mother Alma and Anna together with her stepfather Carl Moll on a trip to Italy, he left precipitously Venice by returning to Vienna. Against Carl Moll, Klimt proved repentant and wrote to him, something that will certainly cost in Klimt, a long letter in which he had to explain everything and which in fact did not clarify anything. “Miss,” he wrote in the letter speaking of Alma, “certainly was aware of what was said about me, about my relationships, very real, very fake, I myself do not know much about precise about my relationships and I do not mean even chiarirmelo – one thing is certain: they are a poor fool. ” In short: the situation between the two men had been clarified and Klimt had reconciled with Carl Moll. From this “reconciliation” she remained however excluded the only Alma who felt deceived by the “first great love” of his life. For this reason, Alma marked with a cross in his diary on the day of reconciliation between the stepfather and Klimt and wrote: “He gave it to me without a fight, he was betrayed.”