Peter Paul Rubens, a Flemish Baroque painter of the sixteenth and seventeenth century focused his work namely upon the nude, a typical fixation, especially with Italian-based artists during the Renaissance and Mannerism periods. Italy - particularly Florence and Rome – was at the heart of the Ren...

My initial motivation for traveling to Italy is my mother. Years ago she took a trip with her father to visit the villages that he had fought for in World War II as a part of the 10th Mountain Division. She is always telling stories about the food, landscape, and people that they encountered. The mo...

Nationalism is a popular sentiment that places the existence and well-being of the nation highest in the scale of political loyalties. In political terms, it signifies a person's willingness to work for the nation against foreign domination, whether political, economic, or cultural. Nationalism al...

Human nature leads us to be curious. Due to this we have acquired a thirst for knowledge about many aspects of life - one of these is the past. The city of Rome was founded in 753 B.C. By 275 B.C., it controlled most of the Italian Peninsula. At its peak, in the A.D. 100's, the Roman Empire covered...

Baroque Art began in Italy between the sixteen hundreds and the seventeen hundreds. Classicism of the High Renaissance has been replenished during the Baroque period. During the Baroque period of art, the exploration of the fundamental components of human nature and the realm of senses and emotions ...

There was a great crisis in traditional Roman values during the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. After the Punic Wars the traditional values of Rome fell by the wayside for a new way of life that eventually led to the Roman Empire. The Cincinnatus image, rise of violence...

The Great SchismFrom 1305 to 1416, the Catholic Church reached its lowest point in history. Corruption was widespread, the Church's authority was undermined, and its leadership was divided. The Church no longer had a strong foundation, the papacy jumped back and forth from Avignon, France to Rome,...

The Borgias were one of the most important families in Italy, during the last years of the renaissance, if not the most important one. Not because of their goodness and kindness, the exact opposite, due to the behavior of some of the members of the family the Borgia name was soon known as a synonym...

During the Medieval period (600 A.D. to 830 AD) in Europe only a few leaders showed great glory and compassion. Mythical characters usually made up these leaders. Yet Charlemagne wasn't a figment of our imagination. He is one of the world's finest leaders. Charlemagne established the t...

The book, Daily Life in Papal Rome in the Eighteenth Century, by Maurice Andrieux, is an enlightening piece of work that describes how the Romans lived; how they thought about life; and how the leadership of the Popes ruled and the different personalities toward the Church. The information and descr...

Michelangelo was pessimistic in his poetry and an optimist in his artwork. Michelangelo\'s artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in its natural state. Michelangelo\'s poetry was pessimistic in his response to Strazzi even though he was complimenting him. Michelangelo\'s ...

Raphael\'s \"School of Athens\" is considered by many art historians to be the absolute masterpiece of the Renaissance. It is the perfect pictorial counterpart to the enormous changes in thinking that came about in the 1300s as a result of economic and technological developments. Its rational perspe...

One of our progressions in the world is trying to minimize the size of our global village. The world has been made smaller with the means of the internet and air travel. Art, without a doubt, is no exception to the group of contributors of the shrinking world. In some forms, it is the most powerf...

The era known as the Renaissance began approximately around the beginning of the fifteenth century. The philosophy behind the whole movement is one of \"rebirth\" or the re-establishing of ancient classical culture. Following the collapse of the Roman civilization, much of Europe fell into decline,...

Roman Aqueducts: An Engineering Brilliance Transportation of water is a very important obstacle the world has taken on. Water is a necessity to live; therefore control of water in and out of towns has been going on for thousands of years. Many different ways of moving water from one spot to ...

In the thousands of years men have formed nations and established dominance over one another, no other event has made as much an impact on military history as the Punic Wars during the fourth and third century BC. The Punic Wars served to demonstrate to all of the known civi-lized nations at that t...

Activity 1 – Laying the Foundations (Knowledge & Understanding) Concepts Mycenaea 6500 BCE Neolithic farming starts to develop also the production bronze starts, there is trade and use of natural resources. Archaeologist called this new culture Mycenaean, after its largest political centre,...

Rise of the ancient Roman Empire by MARIOAncient Roman Empire Rome had a war god in its lineage and wolf milk in itsbelly, implying that its citizens had a knack for warfare, which they would prove againand again. Early in Rome's history, the city was conquered by the Etruscans, the mostnotable civ...

There were several long term and short term causes of the Protestant reformation.The immediate cause that started the reformation was Martin Luther's act of posting the Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in the Holy Roman Empire. Luther was a priest in the Catholic faith in ...

In the beginning of Book VI of the Aeneid, Aeneas and his men draw towards the coast of Cumae, nearing an Euboian settlement. While his men disperse into groups to various parts of the island for fuel and supplies, and to take some leave from their journey, Aeneas journeys to the temple of Apollo. T...

Of Gods and RomansThe Romans during the time of their Republic relied on their advanced technology, social structure, leadership and politics to achieve as much as they did. To these people, their gods affected all of these factors and the relationships mankind had with them. The contractual relat...

Construction of the Coliseum, or Flavian Amphitheater, was begun by Vespasiano c.72 A.D. and inaugurated by his son Titus in 80 A.D. Built on marshy land between the Esquiline and Caelian Hills, it was the first permanent amphitheater to be built in Rome. Its monumental size and grandeur as well as...