We are accustomed to believe that kings erected fabulous castles for their lovers, favourites or wives. However, Neuschwanstein Castle, perhaps the most famous castle in Germany, featured on the screensaver of Disney cartoons, was dedicated by the last Bavarian King Ludwig to the great composer Richard Wagner.
Sublime Dreams of Living Machines. Part IV. One of the most interesting clocks, as well as one of the most representative of clockmaking during the transition from the late 16th to the early 17th century, is this rather spectacular automaton of Diana On Her Chariot, as it’s called.
Many great Europeans truly believed that their pens, as they composed, were guided by a divine spirit. Great musicians were quite clear in their belief that their works were the creation of a divine force, which we place under the blanket term, God.
The history of the Oberammergau Passion Play begins in 1633. In the midst of the Thirty Years’ War, after months of suffering and dying from the plague, the people of Oberammergau pledged to act out the »play of the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ« once every 10 years.
What of the origins of doll’s houses? Where does the interest come from – for our children to love to play with them, for so many adults to love to collect exquisite miniatures like this?
Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov), the 26-year-old son of Emperor Alexander III, inherited the throne on November 2, 1894, after the sudden death of his father Alexander III of Russia. In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease (nephritis) due an accident at Borki.
Sublime Dreams of Living Machines. Part III. The Silver Swan is an automaton dating from the 18th Century and is housed in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England.
Sublime Dreams of Living Machines. Part I. Not so long ago, a short video of a truly uncanny dulcimer-playing wind-up automaton made for Marie Antoinette in 1784 appeared online. The queen was no stranger to extravagance, we know, but why this machine, this wonderful human-like machine, which must have taxed the greatest artisans and mechanics of her time? What was its appeal?
From ancient times, the rise and fall of landscapes and panoramas have enchanted man. Yet none captivated him as much as the rise and fall of woman’s flowing curves.
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