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Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα Art influenced by Ancient Greece. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα Art influenced by Ancient Greece. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων

7.8.17

Fortune Island, a piece of Greece in the Philippines.

Fortune Island is a resort island in Batangas province in the Philippines. The 27-hectare (67-acre) island lies about 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) off the coast of Nasugbu in Batangas.
Fortune Island was once a luxury island resort, but now it is now just an abandoned island with a few crumbling structures. However, this does not diminish the natural beauty that the island offers. 
In fact, one of these structures, called the Acropolis from the Acropolis of Athens, is the island's current main attraction. 
Fortune Island's Acropolis stands on a rocky cliff that juts out into the water. Many visit the island to take photos by this crumbling structure that is an imitation of the famous ancient citadel in Greece.


Ownership and development
Fortune Island is once a private island owned by Laurentina Pestano. It was turned over to the government and the island was now owned by José Antonio Leviste, a former governor of Batangas. Leviste opened the Fortune Island Resort Club on the island in 1995. The beach resort was built along a 20-meter (66-foot) stretch of pristine white sand. Several rest houses facing the water. The resort features a salt water swimming pool, clubhouse, cabana, basketball court, helipad, desalinator for freshwater consumption, and a small serpentarium, a reptile zoo for snakes. The beach also has an acropolis with Grecian pillars and statues on the edge of the island overlooking the sea. There is also a museum dedicated to the San Diego, a Spanish warship that sank off the island (see below).
This island has since been parceled out into seven lots reportedly titled in the names of three companies: Fortune Resort Club, Inc., Meridian Pacific Hotel Corp., and Batangas Bay Development, Inc. Leviste holds either majority stocks or has interests in these companies.
Some government officials believe that Leviste’s ownership of Fortune Island underwent “scheming procedures” to acquire both judicial and administrative titles. These officials believe that these titles should never have been granted for two reasons, firstly, the island is classified as a marine reserve under Proclamation 1801, issued in 1978 by President Ferdinand Marcos and, secondly, Section 16 of Presidential Decree 705 (the Revised Forestry Code), which provides that "areas less than 250 hectares which are far from, or are not contiguous with, any certified alienable and disposable land" are "areas needed for forest purposes and may not, therefore, be classified as alienable and disposable land." Some government officials further contend that subdividing Fortune Island into lots was a "ploy" to skirt environmental and other pertinent laws.

2.8.17

Villa Kerylos

Located between Nice and Monaco, the Villa Kérylos is a stunning reconstruction of a luxurious Greek palace of the Délos Island dating from the 2nd century BC, built by Théodore Reinach during the Belle Epoque. 
An audio-guided tour recounts the story of Théodore Reinach, provides a lively presentation of the décor of the rooms and brings the everyday of the ancient world back to life.
Access Impasse Gustave Eiffel 06310 Beaulieu-sur-Mer Tel.: +33 4  93 01 47 29 Fax: +33 4 93 01 23 26 
Villa Kérylos is located 10 kilometres from Nice and Monaco, 800 metres from the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and 9 minutes from the SNCF train station in Beaulieu. 
By road: access by the lower cliff road (N98). A car-park is available near the city hall. GPS coordinates: latitude 43°7034751 - longitude 7°3336959. 
By bus: lines 81 and 100. 
By train: Beaulieu-sur-Mer station. 
By plane: Nice Airport.
Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer is a Greek-style property built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach, and his wife Fanny Kann, a daughter of Maximilien Kann and Betty Ephrussi, of the Ephrussi family.
Madame Fanny Reinach was a cousin of Maurice Ephrussi, who was married to Béatrice de Rothschild. Inspired by the beauty of the Reinach's Villa Kerylos and the area they built the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at nearby Cap Ferrat.
A Greek word, "Kerylos" means Halcyon or kingfisher which in Greek mythology was considered a bird of good omen. 

Reinach admired the architecture, interior decoration and art of the ancient world and decided to recreate the atmosphere of a luxurious Greek villa in a new building. He purchased land surrounded on three sides by the sea on the tip of the Baie des Fourmis at Beaulieu-sur-Mer which he felt offered a location similar to that of coastal Greek temples.

Reinach selected as architect Emmanuel Pontremoli, who drawing on his travels in Asia Minor designed a faithful reconstruction of the Greek noble houses built on the island of Delos in the 2nd century B.C. and laid out the building around an open peristyle courtyard.

Construction of the building began in 1902 and took 6 years to complete. The interior integrated influences from Rome, Pompeii and Egypt with the interior decoration overseen by Gustave Louis Jaulmes and Adrien Karbowsky. Stucco bas-reliefs were created by sculptor Paul Jean-Bapiste Gascq.

Reinach commissioned exact copies of ancient Grecian chairs, tabourets and klismos furniture kept in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples from the cabinetmaker Bettenfeld. Other were to original designs by Pontremoli.

The building incorporated all the latest modern early 20th century features including plumbing and underfloor heating.
Upon his death in 1928, Reinach bequeathed the property to the Institut de France, of which he had been a member. His children and grandchildren continued to live there until 1967, when the villa was classified as a Monument historique. It is now a museum open to the public.

Exterior of villa Kérylos


Interior of villa Kérylos

Thyrôreion

Balaneion

Péristyle

Bibliothéké

Triklinos
 

Andron

Oïkos

Floor,1st part

Floor,2nd part
Frescos of villa Kerylos‎ 

Source/Photography/Bibliography

Culturespaces / C. Recoura.jpg

28.2.17

The Athenaeum

This is The Athenaeum which was founded in 1824 for gentlemen of a literary or scientific turn of mind.

This was built specifically to house the Club, the frieze at the top is a reproduction of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens and the gilded statue above the portico is the Greek goddess Pallas Athene.

Famous members have included Charles Dickens, the artist J.M.W.Turner, Charles Darwin and Lewis Carroll.

The Athenæum, which Richard Saul Wurman describes "as unforgetably beautiful" (51), faces what was originally The United Service Club by John Nash and Decimus Burton (1828), which was originally founded for military officers who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars and now houses the Institute of Directors. The Athenæum, as it turns out, also had a relation to Britain's conquest of Napoleon, for as Ian Jenkins of the British Museum, points out

The Athenæum was founded in 1824 as a 'Club for Literary and Scientific men and followers of the Fine arts.' The building rose in 1829-30 as part of the new civic architecture in Greek style by which London was embellished after the battle of Waterloo. Following the defeat of Napoloneon, whose ambition was to transfer Rome to Paris, Britannia Victrix had sought a different model from Antiquity by which to shape her capital city. She found it in the democratic society of Periclean Athens. On the balcony over the porch of the Athenæum, Pallas Athena — a close replica by E. H. Baily of the Athena Belletri — was set up to preside over Waterloo Place. She was the warrior goddess of wisdom and patron deity of ancient Athens. [p. 149] Inside, on the staircase, a copy of the Apollo Belvedere, commander of the nine muses, stands watch over this modern museion. In niches of the flank walks of the entrance hall were casts of two statues then as now, in the Louvre, the so-called Venus Genetrix and the Diane de Gabies.

Past members include Joseph Conrad, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, W. Holman Hunt, Thomas Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Leighton, John Ruskin, and many members of the Anglican clergy.

Joseph Hatton's Clubland (1890) on the Athenæum

"The Athenæum is the chief literary club of the metropolis. It is built upon part of the old courtyard of Carlton House. The architecture is of the Grecian order, severe and impressive. The frieze is copied from that of the Parthenon. It was the colossal figure of Minerva over the Roman Doric portico that inspired the epigram : —


"Ye travellers who pass by, just stop and behold, 
And see, don't you think it a sin, 
That Minerva herself is left out in the cold, 
While her owls are all gorging within.

"The figure is by Bailey, and is a fine example of his art. The hall is divided by scagliola columns and pilasters, the capitals being copied from the Choragic monument of Lysicrates. In this "exchange or lounge " (to (quote Timbs), "where the members meet," there are two fire-places; " over each of them, in a niche, is a statue — the 'Diana Robing' and the 'Venus Victrix,' selected by Sir Thomas Lawrence — a very fine contrivance for sculptural display." In the library hangs Sir Thomas's last work. It is a portrait of George IV. He was engaged upon it a few hours before he died. Among the many fine busts in the various rooms is Rysbach's Pope, and a fine study of Milton, presented by Anthony Trollope. Although the revival of Gothic architecture is just now a national sentiment, and is in keeping with the exigencies of our climate, one finds, in the best features of Grecian and Italian Art, much that is noble and elevating even under our grey and unsympathetic skies. The design of the Athenæum is a help to the dignity and repose which is characteristic not only of the exterior, but of the rooms in the house itself. If the members have collected a library that is said to be the best of its kind in London, the architect and decorator, repeating classic models, have enshrined the volumes with characteristic taste. It brings the admirer of all this sadly down to the realism of the outer street when one is told that a member, desirous to refer to the Fathers on a theological point, asked one of the officials if "Justin Martyr" was in the library, and was answered, "I don't think he's a member, sir, but I will refer to the list." [27-29]

The Plaster Busts at the Athenæum

There are ten bookcases in the Drawing Room at the Athenæum; on each of them there is a portrait bust of a distinguished man. The busts are life-size, made of plaster. Every man was pre-eminent in his respective professions and thus the room becomes a kind of Pantheon, or ‘Temple of Worthies’ representing a wide range of different arts and sciences.

The list below runs clockwise from the central fireplace. With each person is given his respective métier:

William Shakespeare
John Locke
Sir Isaac Newton
David Garrick
William Harvey
John Milton
Dr. Samuel Johnson
1st Earl of Mansfield
Sir Joshua Reynolds drama
philosophy
natural science
poetry, historical romance
acting
medicine
letters, lexicography
jusrisprudence
painting
The busts, with one exception, were made in 1830, but they were not in their present places before 1920, so the tidy arrangement we have today is not the original. Moreover, in this company Walter Scott is a stranger. He was a foundation Member of the Club and died in 1832, but his plaster portrait, which was was made later than the rest, it is not recorded at the Club until 1898. . The others were made in February 1830 by P Sarti of Dean Street, Soho, who was one of the most active of many plaster casters then working in London. Sarti’s account survives in the Club’s Archive, and from it we know that he supplied three more busts (which have been lLost), viz:

Sir Francis Bacon
Alexander Pope
Sir Christopher Wren philosophy
poetry
architecture
However, the full complement of busts at the Club, according to a Committee minute of 1833, also included:

Edmund Burke
John Flaxman statesmanship
sculpture
In 1833, there were fourteen busts, of which four – Bacon, Flaxman, Pope and Wren – have been lost. The bust of Burke was presented in January 1830, by the nephew of the sitter. However, it seems that in 1920 Burke was not considered appropriate for the vacant place among the Worthies, which was given to Sir Walter Scott.

No record has been found of any Committee choosing the portraits; it this must have taken place during the winter of 1829-30, when the interior of the Clubhouse was nearing completion. Who made the choice? Again there is no record, but the five Trustees made up a strong intellectual group. . The ubiquitous John Wilson Croker combined political activity with studies of history and art; Davies Gilbert was a botanist and geologist; the Earl of Aberdeen, philhellene scholar, was at the time Foreign Secretary and a future Prime Minister; Lord Farnborough was an acknowledged connoisseur of art and adviser to the King at Windsor Castle.

The fifth Trustee was the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy, and himself a collector of drawings. Among the Members, the sculptor Francis Chantrey, who was on a sub-committee, made ‘frequent suggestions for the decoration and internal arrangements’ (Tait p.19).


The Club had apparently decided against hanging oil paintings, and was already buying plaster statues for the Hall and Staircase (Tait pp. xix-xxii). It seems likely that the plaster busts were ordered specially to furnish the Drawing Room, and were carefully chosen for a Club dedicated to literature, the arts and science. . Letter Letters and poetry may seem a little over-represented, but the purpose, clearly, was to reflect a broad range of intellectual achievement in liberal and fine arts. . However, the fourteen plaster portraits appear to have been collected without any particular plan as to their placing.

Another interesting point is that these plaster casts were readily available. The process of making plaster casts is described later. Evidently, in 1830, a range of subjects such as these could be chosen without difficulty; Sarti will have had ready to hand a good collection of the moulds required. All the original plaster busts, including Burke, appear to be of the same manufacture, i.e. from Sarti’s own workshop. Each one rests on a name-tablet or label, which is a narrow horizontal fillet 1 inches high, with a scroll at each end. This feature was taken from ancient Roman busts., and From about 1740 the name-tablet was the fashion at Rome with sculptors and restorers like Cavaceppi and Albacini, and it was used in England by classically minded sculptors like Nollekens and Banks. However, after 1790 it was going out of fashion and is rarely found in the 19th century (though it appears on the Club’s marble bust of J .W. Croker). Sarti charged for ‘painting the names’ on the busts, but the busts have been overpainted in white gloss and the letters have been obscured. The names are now written on rather intrusive pieces of gilded wood which are firmly affixed and cannot safely be removed.

Each bust will also have stood on a circular base, or socle, nearly four inches high, which was of plaster and cast integrally with the name-tablet. An inventory dated 1939 describes the busts as being twenty-eight inches high, which indicates that then they were still on socles; without the socles, their average height is more or less twenty-four inches. The brutal removal of the socles therefore probably dates from after the 1939-45 War, and the gilded name plaques perhaps from the same period.

The bust of Burke, however, survives in its original state. As we have seen, the Club possessed it some days before the others. Sarti supplied for it a ‘pedestal’, or socle, to make it uniform with the rest. Burke’s socle has survived, with the inscription ‘BURKE’ in black paint, and it may well be the original white paint that remains on the surface. The hollowed back has the same character as the other busts, i.e. rough, showing how the wet plaster had fallen into the mould.

In this last particular the bust of Walter Scott is different, in that the hollowed back has been smoothed down. This indicates a later period and style of casting.

Sarti dated his bill 3rd February 1830, but two of the busts (Reynolds and Wren) were, we know, ordered a few weeks later. From the way Sarti has set out his account (Appendix I), it looks as though the Committee ordered the first nine busts on the list a bit rather earlier than 4th February 1830. A Committee minute tells us that the busts of Reynolds and Wren were ordered on 23 February (Appendix II); that of Garrick, who was less intellectual than the others, looks on Sarti’s bill looks like an afterthought. That leaves one unrecorded bust, that of the sculptor John Flaxman. Almost certainly this was a cast of the marble bust by E .H. Baily, which belonged to Sir Thomas Lawrence.

There is curiously little information in the Committee minutes, but it seems that very early on six of the dwarf cabinets shown in Decimus Burton’s approved drawings of 1829 (Tait, Pl. XX) were replaced by bookcases: four were on the east wall, and two flanked the South Library door. In 1833, two more bookcases were erected to stand either side of the Map Room (now the North Library). A Committee minute of 7 May 1833 gives in detail the arrangement of the fourteen busts round the room:

Book Cases near the Library
Bookcases near the Map Room
Brackets on each side the Centre Glass
On the Mantel Pieces at the end of the Room
Centre Pope — Locke
Johnson – Burke
Reynolds – Wren
Bacon - Newton
Shakespeare — Milton — Garrick — Harvey — Mansfield — Flaxman
So eight ‘Worthies’ were placed on eight bookcases, and the other six stood on brackets and chimneypieces. Most of the busts were grouped by pairs, Reynolds and with Wren, Shakespeare with Milton; but the four listed above in the bottom line did not ‘mate’ so readily, and were put on the bookcases on the east wall. The Club evidently owned more busts than it had places, and the result, using the mantelpieces, was not very orderly. Observe that in 1833 the named busts included Burke, but not Walter Scott.

This 1833 arrangement can be seen in the Club’s oil painting of 1836 by James Holland (Tait, Pl. XXI). The bookcases were about eight feet high, which is three feet less than today, and the busts will have loomed larger than they do now. This point is not unimportant because the casts are of high quality and had been made from well-known original portraits by distinguished sculptors. As they now stand, however, they look well enough from the floor.

Nineteenth-century Arrangement of the Busts

By the end of 1836 the ninth and tenth bookcases had been made, to stand either side of the central fireplace where previously Reynolds and Wren had stood on brackets. An Inventory of 1838 says there were sixteen busts (which were not named) in the Drawing Room, but that is hard to account for; only fourteen are documented, and no others seem to have been received by that time. Then, in 1845 the bookcases were all rebuilt as they remain today, i.e. nearly eleven feet high, by the cabinet maker William Holland and Sons of Marylebone Road (Holland later moved to Mount Street, and he compiled the Club’s 1866 Inventory).

About the same time, most of the busts were taken downstairs. Six wall brackets were put up in the Entrance Hall, one either side of each fireplace, and two on the west wall. In 1846 the bas-reliefs by Thorvaldsen of Morning and Night were ‘placed over the false doors right & left of the Stair-case’; those false doors have since been removed). The brackets were for Milton, Newton, Bacon, Wren, Shakespeare and Reynolds. Four more brackets in the Morning Room held Johnson, ‘Dryden’ (obviously an error for Locke), Pope and (presumably) Burke. The list omits Garrick, Harvey, Mansfield and Flaxman, which will have remained on the east wall of the Drawing Room.

The busts are mentioned in subsequent inventories, which give the number and location of busts, but not again by names until 1894. In 1856 there were twelve busts on brackets in the Staircase Hall and Morning Room, and none in the Drawing Room, so two appear to have been lost. Two more were missing in 1866, when there were four busts in the Morning Room and six in the ‘Lobby and Corridor’.

The ‘Lobby and Corridor’ were in the basement. By 1894 all the other plaster busts had joined the party in the basement, and there they remained for twenty-five years. In 1920 they were taken upstairs and put on top of the bookcases: all, that is, except Burke who remained down below. The movements are described in a scholarly 1939 Inventory compiled by H. Clifford Smith (see Appendix IV). At least, Smith gives the date as 1920; but in the photograph of the Drawing Room published in Humphry Ward’s History of the Athenaeum (1925), no busts are to be seen.

It seems that after 1866 plaster busts had no real place in the Club; indeed they may have been seen as a bit of an embarrassment. Yet somehow they survived, and in good condition too. Any damage seems to have happened after 1920, namely a coat of white gloss paint; the removal of socles and the imposition of gilded name labels (except on the bust of Burke).

The present placing of the ten busts, both as decoration and as iconic symbols of esteem, seems so logical that in retrospect it’s hard to understand why it took so long to achieve. They stand on the bookcases exactly like library busts, which by a long tradition were placed on the tops of shelves in college and private libraries.

The Tradition of Library Busts

In the seventeenth century it was already common practice to put busts of authors on the tops of library bookcases. Normally the portraits were of ancient writers, i.e. classical poets and philosophers, but by the eighteenth century they would also include modern authors. The busts might be of marble or plaster.

In Britain, three great libraries of the mid-eighteenth century had series of portrait busts, which are described by Malcolm Baker in his study of the Wren Library. At Trinity College, Dublin, marble busts of twelve literary figures, ancient and modern, and two benefactors were supplied in the 1740s; six were by Roubiliac and eight by Scheemakers. The two other libraries, which we shall describe in greater detail, are the Codrington Library at All Souls’, Oxford, and the Wren Library at Trinty College, Cambridge. All the plaster busts at Oxford, and probably all those at Cambridge, were made by John Cheere (1709-1787).

John was a younger brother of the distinguished sculptor Sir Henry Cheere. He worked principally in modelling and casting sculpture in plaster and lead, and was without doubt the most active of several eighteenth-century craftsmen in these media. As well as making statues and statuettes, John Cheere specialised in portrait heads both ancient and modern, which he supplied either at life-size or reduced. His works in plaster and lead are to be seen in several country houses today.

At All Souls, Oxford, the Codrington Library has twenty-four plaster busts of eminent fellows of the college. They were modelled and cast in the years 1749-1752 by John Cheere, who evidently based them on paintings or engraved portraits. The bust of Wren, for instance, has no resemblance to the famous marble by Edward Pearce in the Ashmolean Museum, but came presumably from an oil portrait or engraving. The busts are placed on the shelves, high above floor level. Originally they were white, but at some point they were painted black with the result that the features now are scarcely recognisable from below. The College had decided on these twenty-four busts: however, they may not have been thought completely successful because, except in one instance, the sculptor is not known to have repeated any of them. John Cheere’s later and more typical works are based on well-known ancient marbles or modern portraits by famous sculptors. .

At the Wren Library, Cambridge, above the shelves there are twenty-four plaster portraits of classical and modern English authors. No documentary evidence has been found to prove Cheere’s authorship, but it seems to have been he who modelled and supplied them, though perhaps he had some outside assistance. The college had made out their list of the authors before 1753, and the busts were in place by 1763. The original sources of the portraits are not always clear; however, most of the ancients are based on well-known classical busts (but no sources are known for Cheere’s Plato and Horace). The modern authors were based on historical busts by different sculptors: Pope, for instance, on a famous bust by Roubiliac, Milton from Rysbrack maybe, and Locke from an engraving by Vertue. All these works, we may assume, were modelled or remodelled, at life-size, by John Cheere. The Shakespeare, Milton and Locke busts are typical instances of the ‘John Cheere’ style of modelling. They are competent portraits, but they have neither the rococo elegance of his brother Sir Henry, nor the baroque gravity of Rysbrack.

In addition to the plaster busts in the Wren Library, at floor level there are fifteen fine marble busts of eminent members of the College. Ten, including Newton and Bacon, are by Roubiliac, four are by Scheemakers, and one (later) bust is by John Bacon.

Four of the Athenæum busts (Shakespeare, Milton, Locke and Newton) and probably two of those missing (Pope and Bacon) were identical to those at Cambridge. It seems that the moulds for plaster casts owned by Cheere were passed down to Sarti, who was able to use them in 1830.

The Athenæum busts represent a wider range of subjects than merely literature. Their scope suggests an analogy with the Temple of British Worthies at Stowe, which contains sixteen historical busts celebrating British achievements in the arts and liberal politics. They were made in stone by Rysbrack and Scheemakers, during the 1730s; six of them are of the same subjects as the Athenæum collection; the others are mostly defenders of British liberties. Rysbrack also supplied sets of historical busts, usually in terracotta, to certain patrons, including Queen Caroline, for Richmond and St James’s Palaces, and Sir Edward Littleton of Teddesley in Staffordshire. Rysbrack often based his models on engravings by George Vertue.

The original sculptors of the Athenæum busts included Roubiliac (Newton), Scheemakers (Harvey), Nollekens (Johnson and Mansfield) and Ceracchi (Reynolds). Apart from the later inclusion of Chantrey’s Scott, the only 19th century ‘Worthy’ was Flaxman, whose portrait was almost certainly a bust by E .H. Baily. By the time the busts were set up they were all ‘historic’, i.e. images of men who were dead; but seven out of the fourteen had been modelled ad vivum, and the seven subjects, then very much alive, had sat for their portraits.

The lost bust of Wren is mysterious. In February 1823, the Committee obtained permission from the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s for Sarti to take a cast from their bust of the architect. But evidently the Club then somehow obtained an existing plaster bust which they passed to Sarti for repair. There is, moreover, no record of St Paul’s Chapter having owned a portrait bust of Wren, though they now own a plaster cast of the famous bust at Oxford attributed to Edward Pearce.

There are several points of interest in Sarti’s bill (Appendix I). One is the relative cheapness of plaster casts: he supplied them for £1. 10s. each. Evidently he already possessed most of the moulds for making the casts, and we have suggested that he had acquired a collection of them from the studio of John Cheere, which had been finally dismantled in 1812. The two exceptions are the bust of Wren (which is lost), and that of Reynolds for which Sarti’s charge of 3 three guineas included the making of a new mould and adding portions of drapery. Another interesting detail is that the Royal Academy would not allow Sarti to keep the moulds of their Reynolds, from which he would have been able to make further casts.

Collections of Plaster Busts

West Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire. Four excellent ‘bronzed’ (i.e. black) busts are in the Music Room. Milton and Locke are the same models as those in the Wren Library, and at the Athenaeum. The third is Newton, cast from a marble bust but not the same as at the Athenaeum: it is by Rysbrack, not Roubiliac. The fourth bust is of Dryden (after Scheemakers); the same is in the Wren Library, but it is not at the Athenaeum. The busts are full size, and have name-labels (not inscribed) between socle and bust. Placed in the spacious Music Room, these plaster busts have acquired an almost architectural importance. They are first listed in a house inventory of 1782, and were almost certainly supplied by John Cheere in the 1770s. Their splendid pedestals of inlaid marble, as well as the fine marble doorcases and chimneypieces at the house, are likely to have been made by Sir Henry Cheere, elder brother of John. It is curious that the names of neither John nor Henry Cheere appears in the West Wycombe archives.

Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire. There were full-size library busts, circa 1770, of Shakespeare, Milton, Locke, Newton and Pope. Apparently ‘bronzed’, they were bought in 1959 by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, to be shown at Aston Hall. (At present they are in store and not available for inspection.) The socle on Pope is of a type supplied by John Cheere (Baker, Wren Library, fig. 66).

Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire. The National Trust owns full-size plaster busts of Locke (white plaster), Milton and Dryden (both ‘bronzed’), and Pope (‘bronzed’, but a different model from that at the Wren Library). All four have the impressed signature ‘P. Sarti Dean Street, Soho’. They may originally have been at Wimpole, but are more likely to have been acquired as a job lot after 1936 by Captain George and Elsie Bambridge, who owned and refurnished the house.

The Garrick Club, London. White plasters of Shakespeare and Garrick were separately given to the Club between 1834 and 1841. Shakespeare is the same as the Athenæum bust; but it bears the stamp of Robert Shout (c1760-1843), and is thought to date from about 1808. Garrick too is the same as the Athenæum’s example, except that three buttons have been removed from his coat.

The Royal Academy, Burlington House, London. . The Ooctagonal Rroom was constructed in 1867-69, and eight plaster busts, placed high up in circular niches, represent the arts. Four are of Italians (Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Titian); and four of English artists: Reynolds, after Ceracchi; Wren, after Pearce; Flaxman, after Baily; and and one of unknown identity.

Making Plaster Casts

Casting in plaster was a normal part of the sculptor’s trade. In The London Tradesman (1747, by R. Campbell), the work of casting is described as ‘merely mechanical’. However it was laborious, and required experienced and professional craftsmen.

A cast can be made from a work in almost any material, i.e. of marble, bronze, lead, wood, clay, terracotta, wax , or another plaster,; and the resulting cast may be in plaster, lead, bronze or other metal. The process is not easy fully to understand if one has not practised it. What follows describes the simplest of various processes.


First, some oil is applied to protect the original; then the object is given a very thick covering of talc or plaster, which solidifies and becomes the mould. For a bust with simple contours the mould might be made in two pieces, forming front and back; but if the hair or drapery is complicated,, and for statues, it will be a ‘piece mould’ consisting of a number — sometimes a considerable number - of separate pieces. The limbs of a statue were often cast separately.


he moulds are then bound together, and liquid gesso (plaster of Paris) is poured into the open base or back. Plaster solidifies quite quickly; when it is quite dry, the moulds are removed. The emerging bust or figure, which is hollow, is then ‘repaired’: the limbs are assembled as necessary; defects and cavities are filled and smoothed. The features can be sharpened up with a chisel. Finally, the surface is given a finish such as lime-wash or paint. Two plaster busts by Nollekens at Castle Howard are of a pleasing blue-grey colour. John Cheere invented the process known as ‘bronzing’ with shellac, which gives an attractive black surface.

After about 1770, the normal procedure of a sculptor, whether of busts or figures, would be as follows. After he had modelled his statue or portrait bust in clay full-size, he would make from it a cast in plaster. The plaster cast was his working model; it was this that would be exactly copied in marble. The advantage of plaster over clay or terracotta was that it would not shatter, distort or shrink when drying. The sculptor normally kept the moulds from which further casts could be made; but he could readily make new moulds if and when they were needed, from the model or finished marble.

Rysbrack, in 1758, sent terracotta models of his busts for casting to Peter Vanina, a professional plaster man. For a bust, new moulds cost three guineas, and each plaster cast sixteen shillings. Vanina wrote that ‘the Mould when Made will be good to cast fifteen or twenty Casts out of it’. Dr Johnson wrote that Nollekens, in 1778, would charge one or two guineas for a plaster cast; but (according to J.T. Smith) he sold plaster casts of his bust of Pitt (1806) for six guineas each. In 1806, Nollekens charged Charles Burney junior £30, which covered making the mould of his father’s bust and supplying twelve plaster casts. By comparison with Nollekens, Sarti’s charge of £1 .10s. for each bust seems moderate. However, plaster busts were sold even more cheaply than that to the Crystal Palace in 1853; a number of them ordered from the British Museum could cost as little as 15s. each.

Plaster busts used to be more common than they are now. They are easily damaged; the cheap material, unless covered by an improving paint or wash, can be unattractive, becoming dirty or dusty. Plaster busts came to be disregarded and were often thrown away. But at certain houses, for example Castle Howard and Badminton, there are still good portraits in plaster by Nollekens, and they look very much at home on the library shelves.

The Athenæum Club's Sculpture

A Temple of British Worthies: The Historic Portrait Busts in the Athenæum
A Catalogue of the Plaster Busts at the Athenæum
Other busts the Athenæum
Athena by E. H. Baily
The Belvedere Apollo
Lord Leighton by Thomas Brock
Psyche by Thorvaldsen
The Athenæum Club's Paintings, Drawings, and Graphic Works

Charles Darwin, replica of painting by Sir John Everett Millais
F. T. Palgrave by George James Howard (drawing)
Cardinal Manning by Alphonse Legros (drawing)
The Peacock's Feather by Robert Anning Bell (watercolor)
Self-portrait, replica by William Holman Hunt of the painting in the Uffizi (painting)
G. F. Watts by Alphonse Legros (drawing)
Members of the Athenæum, a caricature by Burne-Jones (drawing)
References

Bradley, Simon, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London 6: Westminster. “The Buildings of England.” New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Hatton, Joseph. Clubland London and Provincial. London: J. S. Vertie, 1890. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of Toronto Library. Web. 29 February 2012.

Tait, Hugh, and Richard Walker with contributions by Sarah Dodgson, Ian Jenkins, and Ralph Pinder-Wilson. The Athenæum Collection. London: The Athenæum, 2000. [This volume may be ordered from the Librarian, The Athenæum, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5 ER.]

24.2.17

Athena springing from head of Zeus by Karl Donndorf

Athena springing from head of Zeus

The Athenebrunnen (also known as Pallas-Athene-Fountain) is a fountain named after the goddess Athene at the Jean-Amery-Weg at the Karlshöhe in Stuttgart-West. It was created in 1911 by the sculptor Karl Donndorf (1870-1941). The well-known fountain has been fully functional since the year 2011.



Statue know as "Pallas Athena Brunnen" by Karl Donndorf, 1911 - at the Athenebrunnen, Stuttgart

At the center of the neoclassical fountain is the antique statue of the goddess Athena at the moment of her birth. According to Greek mythology, she stepped out of the head of her father Zeus in full armor and armament. The stone Athene figure carries a metal shield and a spear next to the chest and helmets. Only the head is represented by Zeus; it serves the statue as a pedestal.

Under Athene statue and Zeus head lie two stairwells like a staircase. Beside the lower basin, the stone figure of Prometheus can be seen on the right hand of Athena. To their left is the figure of the Pandora with the famous rifle on his lap.
The fountain was formerly part of the park of the industrialist Gustav Siegle (1840-1905), built in 1870. The widow Julie had the fountain built in 1911 by the sculptor Karl Donndorf on the northern slope of the Karlshöhe in a neoclassical style, in the park above the Villa Siegle.
In the Second World War, the entire park was heavily affected. Thus the villa was destroyed in 1944 and the ruin in 1953 broken off. Also the summer house was demolished in 1961 and replaced. The Athenebrunnen also fell into disrepair. In 1989, the Beauties Association Stuttgart, a large part of the Karlshöhe, had the wells and figures restored. "On the occasion of the 150th anniversary in 2011, the Beautification Association Stuttgart has restored the figures Athene, Pandora, Prometheus and the Zeus head and restored the well system". The fountain has been fully functional since then.

The figure of the Athene offers clear references to the family Siegle. Athene, in addition to her role as the author and patroness of Athens, is the goddess of wisdom and the patron of the arts and sciences. Also Gustav and Julie Siegle were generous sponsors of cultural, social and scientific purposes. It is not only the first hospital in Feuerbach dating back to 1893, but also the Gustav-Siegle-Haus in Stuttgart from 1912, which was used for popular education.
At the same time, however, the well system also points to the duality of all human strivings for knowledge. Thus Prometheus, according to Greek mythology, brought man (besides other good ones) the fire - and was punished cruelly by Zeus. Pandora, on the other hand, brought mankind all ills - and, besides, only the hope of improvement. 
The sculptor Karl Donndorf took up the ambivalence of good and evil three times later in 1914 in another work - in the allegories of joy and suffering at the fate of the fountain in Stuttgart. 




The amazing Austrian Parliament!!!





The Austrian Parliament (German: Österreichisches Parlament) is the bicameral legislature in Austria. It consists of two chambers: the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat). In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung). The legislature meets in the Austrian Parliament Building in Vienna.
The Austrian Parliament Building (German: Parlamentsgebäude, colloquially das Parlament) in Vienna is where the two houses of the Austrian Parliament conduct their sessions. The building is located on the Ringstraße boulevard in the first district Innere Stadt, near Hofburg Palace and the Palace of Justice. It was built to house the two chambers of the Imperial Council (Reichsrat), the bicameral legislature of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Since its construction, the Parliament Building has been the seat of these two houses, and their successors—the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat)—of the Austrian legislature.
 The foundation stone was laid in 1874; the building was completed in 1883. The architect responsible for its Greek Revival style was Theophil Hansen. He designed the building holistically, aiming to have each element harmonizing with all the others. He was therefore also responsible for the interior decoration, such as statues, paintings, furniture, chandeliers, and numerous other elements. Hansen was honored by Emperor Franz Joseph with the title of Freiherr (Baron) after its completion. Following heavy damage and destruction in World War II, most of the interior has been restored to its original splendour.
The parliament building covers over 13,500 square meters, making it one of the largest structures on Ringstraße. It contains over one hundred rooms, the most important of which are the Chambers of the National Council, the Federal Council, and the former Imperial House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus). 
Parliament Building on Ringstraße, Vienna

The building also includes committee rooms, libraries, lobbies, dining rooms, bars and gymnasiums. One of the building's most famous features is the Pallas Athena fountain in front of the main entrance, built by Hansen from 1898 to 1902 and a notable Viennese tourist attraction.
The Parliament Building is the site of important state ceremonies, most notably the swearing-in ceremony of the President of Austria and the state speech on National Day each October 26. The building is closely associated with the two parliamentary bodies, as is shown by the use of the term Hohes Haus as a metonym for "Parliament". Parliamentary offices spill over into nearby buildings, such as the Palais Epstein.
The constitution known as the February Patent promulgated in 1861 created an Imperial Council as an Austrian legislature, and a new building had to be constructed to house this constitutional organ. The original plan was to construct two separate buildings, one for the House of Lords (Herrenhaus) and one for the House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus). 
Provisional House of Deputies building, view from Votive Church, 1860s

However, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich) which effectively created the Dual-Monarchy in 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary received its own separate legislative body, the re-established Diet, and the original plan for two buildings was dropped.
The precursor to the present building was the temporary House of Representatives, located on Währinger Straße, a street off the newly laid out Ringstraße boulevard. It was erected within six weeks in March and April 1861 according to plans designed by Ferdinand Fellner, a famous Austrian theatre architect. In its layout with a ramp and a lobby area, the Abgeordnetenhaus was a model for the later Parliament Building. Completed on 25 April 1861 this temporary structure was opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and soon afterwards mocked Schmerlingtheater, after Minister Anton von Schmerling. It was used by the deputies of Cisleithania until the completion of the present-day parliament building in 1883, while the House of Lords met at the Estates House of Lower Austria, then the seat of the Lower Austrian Landtag assembly.
The site for the new building was on the city’s ancient fortifications and walls. In his famous decree Es ist Mein Wille of 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I had laid down plans for the Ringstraße to replace the old city walls. 
Ringstraße and Parliament Building around 1900

The parliament building was supposed to feature prominently on the boulevard, in close proximity to Hofburg Palace and the Vienna City Hall.
 An Imperial Commission was appointed to consider a design for a Parliament building. Influenced by the industrialist and politician Nikolaus Dumba, the Commission decided that its style should be classical, the argument being that classical Greek architecture was appropriate for a Parliament because of the connection to the Ancient Greeks and the ideal of democracy. After studying rival proposals, the Imperial Commission chose the plan by Theophil Hansen, who could rely on his drafts for Zappeion Hall in Athens. In 1869 the k.k. Ministry of the Interior gave von Hansen the order to design the new Austrian parliament building.
Ground was broken in June 1874; the cornerstone has the date “2 September 1874“ etched into it. At the same time, work also commenced on the nearby Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum on Maria-Theresien-Platz, the City Hall, and the University. In November 1883 the offices of the House of Representatives were completed and put to use. On 4 December 1883 the House of Representatives held its first session under its president, Franz Smolka. On 16 December 1884 the House of Lords under its president, Count Trauttmansdorff, held its first session. Both chambers would continue to meet in the building until the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.

The official name of the building was Reichsratsgebäude (Imperial Council Building), and the street behind the building, the Reichsratsstraße, still recalls this former name. The word "Parliament" however was in use since the beginning as well.

The building saw tumultuous years during the late years of the declining multi-ethnic Austrian monarchy stretching from Dalmatia to Bukovina, as the House of Representatives was extremely fractious with tensions among liberals and conservatives, German nationalists and Young Czech deputies, as well as between the government and parliament. It became notorious for filibusters, parliamentary brawls and undisciplined deputies throwing inkwells at each other as a common feature. The joke on the Viennese streets was that Athena was so disgusted by the political infighting that she deliberately turned her back to the building. Nevertheless, the building housed the first form of a parliamentary system for many of the people of Central Europe. Some of the former deputies continued their political careers after the dissolution of the Empire and became important politicians in their home countries.

The Reichsratsgebäude continued to function until 1918, when the building was occupied by demonstrators during the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 21 October 1918 the remaining German-speaking deputies convened in a "Provisional National Assembly", first at the Palais Niederösterreich, from 12 November onwards in the Parliament Building. On this day the presidents of the assembly officially proclaimed the Republic of German-Austria from the ramp in front of the building. Upon the Austrian Constitutional Assembly election in 1919 and the establishment of the First Austrian Republic, the building itself was renamed the Parlament, with the new republican National Council (Nationalrat) and Federal Council (Bundesrat) replacing the old Imperial House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) and the House of Lords (Herrenhaus).

The parliament was incapacitated, when on 4 March 1933 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß took the occasion of a parliamentary law quarrel to cease its function, the first step to the introduction of his Austrofascist dictatorship. By the imposed "May Constitution" of 1934 the Parliament Building became the seat of the Bundestag, the formal legislature of the Federal State of Austria. It finally lost its function with the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in 1938. The Nazis used it as an administrative seat of the Vienna Reichsgau. During the Second World War, half of the building suffered heavy damage by Allied bombing and the Vienna Offensive. Parts of the interior, such as the former House of Lords Chamber and the Hall of Columns, were completely destroyed.
The parliament in session in 1930

It was in the old Abgeordnetenhaus Chamber that the new Chancellor Karl Renner on 27 April 1945 declared the rebirth of an independent Austria, backed by Soviet troops. Max Fellerer and Eugen Wörle were commissioned as architects; they chose to redesign and readapt the former Lords Chamber for the National Council, and in the process the meeting room of the National Council was rebuilt in a Modern and functional style. Work on the National Council Chamber was completed in 1956. The original appearance of the other publicly accessible premises, such as the Hall of Columns, and the building's external appearance were largely restored to von Hansen's design.

Pallas Athene Fountain
Pallas-Athena-Brunnen in front of parliament

The Athena Fountain (Pallas-Athene-Brunnen) in front of the Parliament was erected between 1893 and 1902 by Carl Kundmann, Josef Tautenhayn and Hugo Haerdtl, based on plans by Baron von Hansen. In the middle is a water basin and a richly decorated base. The four figures lying at the foot of Athena are allegorical representations of the four most important rivers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They represent at the front the Danube and Inn, in the back the Elbe and Vltava (German: Moldau) rivers. On the sides little cupids ride dolphins. The statues of the Danube, Inn, and the cupids were executed by Haerdtl, those of the Elbe and Moldau by Kundmann. The female statues above represent the legislative and executive powers of the state and were executed by Tautenhayn. They are again dominated by the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, standing on a pillar. Athena is dressed in armour with a gilded helmet, her left hand carries a spear, her right carries Nike.

The entrance
The middle axis from east to west is divided into an entrance hall, vestibule, atrium, peristyle and two large rooms at the far end. For the interior decoration Baron von Hansen used Greek architectural elements such as Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pillars, and in the two rooms Pompei-style stucco technique for the walls.

The main entrance at the portico is an exact copy of the gate of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis of Athens, fitted with a bronze portal. From the main entrance at the Ringstraße one passes into the vestibule of the building, which contains Ionic pillars. The walls are decorated with Pavonazzo marble. The niches contain statues of Greek gods. Seen from the entrance starting from the left these are Apollo, Athena, Zeus, Hera, and Hephaestus, and from the right Hermes, Demeter, Poseidon, Artemis and Ares.

Above the niches with the gods is a frieze more than 100 m long by the Viennese artist Alois Hans Schram, running along the corridor and continuing into the atrium. It is an allegorical depiction of the blessing of Peace, the civic Virtues and Patriotism.

Above the entrance that leads to the grand Hall of Pillars (Säulenhalle) is a frieze with an allegorical depiction of Austria on her throne. Representing the motto "Goods and Blood for thy country" (Gut und Blut furs Vaterland), warriors are swearing their loyalty and women are bringing offerings.



Hall of Pillars
Image of the Columned Hall of the Austrian Parliament Building

Located behind the entrance atrium is the grand Hall of Pillars (Säulenhalle) or peristyle. The hall is about 40 m long and 23 m wide. The 24 Corinthian pillars are made of Adnet marble, and all of them are monoliths weighing around 16 tons each. The pillars carry the skylighted main ceiling in the middle and the coffered side ceilings. The floor is made of polished marble resting on a concrete hull. The space below was designed as a hypocaust for a floor heating and air circulation system for the hall.

Located on the transverse axis at the end of the Hall of Pillars are the chamber of the former House of Representatives (on the left ) and the chamber of the former House of Lords (on the right). Von Hansen's idea was to have the Hall of Pillars as the main central part of the building. It was designed to act as a meeting point between the House of Lords and the House of Representatives. 

Hansen also wanted to have the hall used by the monarch for the State Opening of Parliament and the Speech from the Throne, similar to the British tradition. However, such ceremonies were never held in the building, since Emperor Franz Joseph I had a personal disdain for the parliamentary body. Speeches from the Throne in front of the parliamentarians were held in the Hofburg Palace instead.
Parliament Inside

The architect von Hansen paid particular attention to the design and construction of this hall. The marble floor was polished in a complicated process. The capitals of the pillars were gilded with 23 carat (96%) gold. Running around the wall was a frieze which was 126 m long and 2.3 m high. It was designed and painted by Eduard Lebiedzki. The monumental piece of work took decades to prepare and design, and four years, from 1907 until 1911, to paint. The frieze showed allegories depicting the duties of parliament on a golden background.
The hall was heavily damaged by aerial bombardments by Allied forces during World War II. On February 7, 1945 the hall suffered direct hits by aerial bombs. At least two pillars and the skylight were completely destroyed. The gilded coffered side ceilings under which the frieze ran on the walls were almost completely destroyed. The few surviving parts of the frieze were removed and stored. Only in the 1990s were the surviving parts restored as much as possible.

Because of its representative character, the Hall of Pillars is presently used by the President of the National Council and the Federal Council for festive functions, as well as for traditional parliamentary receptions.

Located at the back of the Hall of Pillars is the reception salon (Empfangssalon) of the President of the National Council. The room is fitted with Pompeian wall decorations in stucco and a large glass skylight. Hanging on the wall are portraits of the Presidents of the National Council since 1945.

Further behind the reception salon is the former reception hall for both chambers of the Imperial Council. It is used today for committee meetings and hearings on financial, state budget, and audit court matters by the National Council, thus its present name, Budgetsaal. The hall is richly decorated with marble, stucco, and a rich coffered ceiling in the Renaissance style. Inlaid into the ceiling are the coat of arms of the 17 Kronländer kingdoms and territories represented in the Imperial Council.

Former House of Representatives Chamber
The chamber of the former House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) is used today by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) whenever it convenes for special occasions such as National Day and the inauguration ceremony of a newly elected Federal President of Austria. The chamber is built in a semicircle of 34 m diameter and 22.5 m depth.

It originally contained 364 seats. With the introduction of various electoral reforms, the number was increased to 425 seats in 1896 and with the introduction of male universal suffrage in 1907 to 516 seats.

The chamber has viewing galleries on two levels. The first gallery has in the middle a box for the head of state. The right side of the gallery is for the diplomatic corps and the left side for the cabinet and family members of the head of state. On both far ends are seats for journalists. The gallery on the second level, which is slightly recessed from the one on the first level, is for the general public.

The chamber is architecturally based on an ancient Greek theatron. The wall behind the presidium is designed like an antique skene with marble colonnades that carry a gable.
The group of figures in the gable are made of Laas marble and depict the allegorical times of the day. The columns and pilasters of the wall are made of marble from Untersberg, the stylobates of dark marble, the decorations of the doors of red Salzburg marble. The wall space between the pillars is made of grey scagliola, with niches in between decorated with statues made of Carrara marble. The statues show historical persons such as Numa Pompilius, Cincinnatus, Quintus Fabius Maximus, Cato the Elder, Gaius Gracchus, Cicero, Manlius Torquatus, Augustus, Seneca the Younger and Constantine the Great. The friezes above were painted by August Eisenmenger and depict the history of the emergence of civic life. Starting from left to right it shows:

Kampf der Kentauren und Lapithen (Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithes)
Minos richtet nach eigenem Ermessen (Minos judges according to his own discretion)
Einsetzung der Volksvertretung in Sparta (Swearing-in of the representatives of Sparta)
Brutus verurteilt seine Söhne (Brutus condemns his sons)
Menenius Agrippa versöhnt die Stände (Menenius Agrippa reconciles the estates)
Sophokles im Wettkampf mit Aischylos (Sophokles in competition with Aischylos)
Sokrates auf dem Markte von Athen (Sokrates visiting the market of Athens)
Anordnung der Prachtbauten durch Perikles (The order of the representative buildings through Pericles. Note: the head of Pericles actually has the features of Baron Theophil von Hansen)
Herodot in Olympia
Plato lehrt die Gesetze (Plato teaches law)
Demosthenes redet zum Volke (Demosthenes addresses the people)
Decius Mus weiht sich dem Tode (Decius Mus dedicates himself to death)
Caius Gracchus auf der Rednertribüne (Caius Gracchus holds a speech from the speaker's platform)
Solon läßt die Athener auf die Gesetze schwören (Solon has the Athenians swear on the laws)
der Friede (Peace)
The chamber of the House of Representatives was important for the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many politicians started their career as deputies, such as Karl Renner, later chancellor and president of Austria, and Leopold Kunschak, later conservative leader. Other deputies from outside core Austria played important roles in their native countries after the First and Second World Wars. When Karl Renner became Federal President, he once gave a speech honouring the historic importance and function of the old chamber:

Dieser Saal, in dem wir heute versammelt sind, und die Institution, die hier getagt hat, sind trotz ... ihrer Ergebnislosigkeit denkwürdig! Es gab vor- und nachdem nichts dergleichen in der Welt! Der Reichsrat von 1911 bis 1914 war der Ratssaal von acht Nationen, die nach der staatlichen Rechtsform ihres gemeinsamen Daseins suchten ... Der Erste Weltkrieg hat diesen geschichtlich gewordenen und zu großen Hoffnungen berechtigenden Völkerbund im kleinen zersprengt und an dessen Stelle Nationalstaaten gesetzt. Vorgebliche Nationalstaaten! Denn sie beherbergten in sich selbst neben einer herrschenden mehrere dienende Nationen und boten schon dadurch allein den Anreiz und Anstoß zum Zweiten Weltkrieg ... jene Volksvertretung, zu der der Reichsrat gediehen war, löste sich auf in Nationalräte.

Important politicians who started their career and had their first democratic experience later played important roles in their native countries after the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. These include:

In Austria

Karl Renner, former deputy of Moravia, later Federal Chancellor and President of Austria
Leopold Kunschak, former deputy of Lower Austria, later Austrian conservative leader
In Czechoslovakia

Tomáš Masaryk, former delegate from Bohemia, later first President of Czechoslovakia
Karel Kramář, former delegate from Bohemia, later first Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
Vlastimil Tusar, former delegate from Bohemia, later Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia und
Bohumír Šmeral, former delegate from Bohemia, later Czechoslovak Communist leader,
in Poland

Ignacy Daszyński, former delegate from Galicia, later Sejm Marshal of the Second Polish Republic,
Wincenty Witos, former delegate from Galicia, later Prime Minister of Poland,
in Italy

Alcide De Gasperi, former delegate from the Tyrol, later Prime Minister of Italy,
in Yugoslavia

Anton Korošec, former delegate from Styria, later Prime Minister of Yugoslavia
in Ukraine

Yevhen Petrushevych, former delegate from Galicia, later President of Western Ukrainian People's Republic
Kost Levytskyi, former delegate from Galicia, later Head of the Government of Western Ukrainian People's Republic
The Austrian Imperial Council (Reichsrat) was the recruiting school for central and southeastern democracy and socialism.

Source
https://en.wikipedia.org

Ancient Hellas: New banner

Ancient Hellas: New banner

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