title: Mike Gundy

text: In September 2013, "Sports Illustrated" published a series of articles as part of an investigation beginning with Les Miles' tenure as head coach at Oklahoma State from 2001 and continuing through Gundy's tenure as head coach in 2011. The allegations concerning Gundy included involvement in a bonus system for players along with direct payments and no-show or sham jobs involving boosters, continuing diminished academic standards including players playing who were otherwise academically ineligible such as having players' school work done by so-called tutors and other school personnel, tolerating widespread drug abuse among the players by continuing a sham drug counseling program and selective drug enforcement, and also purportedly like Miles, personally interviewing hostess candidates for the Orange Pride hostess program and facilitating some hostesses having sex with prospective recruits. In response to the allegations, Gundy stated: "I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished here, both on and off the field. Our goal has always been to take young people from where their parents have gotten them and to make them better over a four- or five-year period. We’re very proud of that in many ways. So, until further time—and obviously the university will make that decision—there’s not any comment that we would have on the Sports Illustrated article." Les Miles generally denied any wrongdoing during his time as head coach at OSU.


title: Mike Gundy

text: Following the SI series Oklahoma State conducted an intensive review of practices policies led by Charles Smart. There were no findings of misconduct of any significance found. Many current and former players, professors, and supporters have made statements refuting the SI articles.


title: Mike Gundy

text: In June of 2020, highly prospected star running back Chuba Hubbard threatened to boycott Oklahoma State after Gundy was photographed wearing a t-shirt of One America News, which Gundy has supported in previous statements. Linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga also threatened to sit in response to the photo. Gundy subsequently issued an apology, saying he was "disgusted" by OAN's attitude towards the Black Lives Matter movement. In light of the controversy, Gundy suggested taking a $1M pay cut and agreed to other concessions concluding the incident. Hubbard eventually apologized for the way he handled the situation


title: Mike Gundy

text: Gundy and his wife, Kristen, have three children, Gavin, Gunnar and Gage. His brother, Cale Gundy, was a starting quarterback at Oklahoma in the 1990s and was OU's Assistant Head Coach, Director of Recruiting and Inside Receivers Coach. Gundy has also accrued fame for his "million-dollar mullet."


title: Michael Elphick

text: Michael John Elphick (19 September 1946 – 7 September 2002) was an English film and television actor. He played the eponymous private investigator in the ITV series "Boon" and Harry Slater in BBC's "EastEnders". He was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1983 film "Gorky Park".


title: Michael Elphick

text: In his prime, Elphick always looked older than he was, and with his gruff Sussex accent and lip-curling sneer he often played menacing hard men.


title: Michael Elphick

text: Elphick struggled with a highly publicised addiction to alcohol; at the height of his problem he admitted to consuming two litres of spirits a day, which contributed to his death from a heart attack in 2002.


title: Michael Elphick

text: Elphick grew up in Chichester, Sussex, where his family had a butcher's shop. He was educated at Lancastrian Secondary Modern Boys School in Chichester, where he took part in several school productions including "Noah" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He initially considered joining the Merchant Navy and helped out in his local boatyard during school holidays.


title: Michael Elphick

text: It has been reported that he stumbled upon acting by chance when, at the age of 15, he took a job as an apprentice electrician at the Chichester Festival Theatre while it was being built. He gained an interest in acting whilst watching stars such as Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave and Sybil Thorndike. Olivier advised Elphick to go to drama school and gave him two speeches to use at auditions. Elphick was offered a number of places but decided to train at the Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage (aged 18), because Olivier had attended there.


title: Michael Elphick

text: After graduating from drama school Elphick was offered roles primarily as menacing heavies. He made his debut in "Fraulein Doktor" (an Italian-made First World War film circa 1968). He went on to play the Captain in Tony Richardson's version of "Hamlet" (1969); landed parts in cult films such as "The First Great Train Robbery" and "The Elephant Man" and appeared in Lindsay Anderson's allegorical "O Lucky Man!" (1973). He was also seen as Phil Daniels' father in the cult film "Quadrophenia" (1979), as Pasha in "Gorky Park" (1983) and as the poacher, Jake, in "Withnail & I" (1987). In 1984 he played the lead, Fisher, a British detective recalling under hypnosis a dystopian, crumbling Europe and his hunt for a serial killer in Lars von Trier's Palme D'Or nominated debut film, "The Element of Crime".


title: Michael Elphick

text: On stage, Elphick played Marcellus and the Player King in Tony Richardson's stage version of "Hamlet" at the Roundhouse Theatre and on Broadway and he later played Claudius to Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Richard Eyre. In 1981 he appeared in the Ray Davies/Barrie Keeffe musical "Chorus Girls" at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East and he was also seen in "The Changing Room", directed by Lindsay Anderson, at the Royal Court Theatre. His last West End stage appearance was in 1997 as Doolittle in "Pygmalion" directed by Ray Cooney at the Albery Theatre.


title: Michael Elphick

text: However, it was for his television roles that Elphick became best known. He briefly appeared in "Coronation Street" (1974) as Douglas Wormold, son of the landlord Edward, who for many years owned most of the properties in the road. Douglas unsuccessfully tried to buy the newsagent shop The Kabin from Len Fairclough. He played three characters in the popular Granada Television series "Crown Court"—in 1973 as a defendant, in 1975 as a witness (Frank Hollins, private secretary to a female soprano in the episode "Songbirds out of Tune"), and from 1975 to 1983 as the barrister Neville Griffiths Q.C..


title: Michael Elphick

text: He played one of the main roles in the film "Black Island" in 1978 for the Children's Film Foundation, played a villain in "The Sweeney" episode "One of Your Own" (1978) and played a policeman in "The Professionals" episode "Backtrack" (1979) and had a minor role in "Hazell" (1979), and appeared in the Dennis Potter play "Blue Remembered Hills" (1979). Elphick took the title role in Jack Pulman's six part comedy-drama "Private Schulz" (1981). Here he played alongside Ian Richardson the German forger Gerhard Schulz, who is conscripted into SS Counter Espionage during the Second World War to destroy the British economy by flooding it with forged money.


title: Michael Elphick

text: He appeared as the Irish labourer Magowan during the first series of "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" (1983) and starred as Sidney Mundy in the ITV sitcom "Pull the Other One" (1984), before playing Sam Tyler in four series of "Three Up, Two Down" (1985–89). In 1986 Elphick landed his biggest television success, "Boon" (1986–92, 1995). He played Ken Boon, a retired fireman who opened a motorbike despatch business and later became a private investigator. Boon was very successful and ran for seven series, attracting audiences of 11 million at its peak. There was also a one-off episode screened in 1995, two years after it had been made. During breaks from Boon, Elphick continued to act in film with cameo roles in "The Krays" (1990) and "Let Him Have It" (1991), and in 1991 he played Des King in "Buddy's Song", starring Chesney Hawkes and Roger Daltrey.


title: Michael Elphick

text: In 1993 Elphick took the role of a former Fleet Street journalist running a Darlington news agency in "Harry" (1993, 1995). He played the alcoholic and ruthless Harry Salter, who frequently used exploitation and underhand tactics to get a story. This series however was less successful and it was soon cancelled. Elphick went on to play Billy Bones in Ken Russell's televised version of "Treasure Island" (1995) and Barkis in "David Copperfield" (1999).


title: Michael Elphick

text: In 2001 he joined the cast of "EastEnders", where he played Harry Slater, a romantic interest for Peggy Mitchell (Barbara Windsor). The plotline indicated that Slater had sexually abused his niece, Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), at the age of 13 and her "sister" Zoe (Michelle Ryan) was the daughter born to her when she became pregnant by him. Elphick's heavy drinking began to affect his performances, so the character promptly left the series and was killed off off-screen.


title: Michael Elphick

text: Elphick met his long-term partner, schoolteacher Julia Alexander, in 1963 and remained with her until her death from cancer in 1996. The couple had a daughter, Kate.


title: Michael Elphick

text: For many years Elphick struggled with alcoholism. He made the first of many attempts to stop drinking in 1988. He sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous in the early 1990s, although he admitted he was still drinking in 1993. In 1996, he admitted that he had begun drinking heavily again and also contemplated suicide after the death of his partner of 33 years. However he rallied and returned to the stage in "Loot".


title: Michael Elphick

text: The actor also confessed to having taken cocaine and once, while high on drugs, grabbing a shotgun and chasing a gang of thugs after he had been carjacked near his villa in Portugal.


title: Michael Elphick

text: During the late eighties and early nineties, he had a brief, but ultimately unsuccessful business interest in The White Swan public house at Henley-in-Arden.


title: Michael Elphick

text: Elphick was admitted to the Priory Hospital in Roehampton, in an attempt to beat his addictions. Reports of his alcohol abuse persisted, however, and during his brief spell on "EastEnders" during 2001, it was reported that the BBC was considering dropping his character if his drinking was not curtailed.


title: Michael Elphick

text: On 7 September 2002, Elphick died of a heart attack complicated by his drinking problem. He had collapsed at his home in Willesden Green, London, after complaining of pains. He was rushed to hospital where he died, aged 55, shortly before his 56th birthday.


title: Parking brake

text: In road vehicles, the parking brake, also known as a handbrake or emergency brake (e-brake), is a mechanism used to keep the vehicle securely motionless when parked. Parking brakes often consist of a cable connected to two wheel brakes, which is then connected to a pulling mechanism. In most vehicles, the parking brake operates only on the rear wheels, which have reduced traction while braking. The mechanism may be a hand-operated lever, a straight pull handle located near the steering column or a foot-operated pedal located with the other pedals.


title: Parking brake

text: While most automatic transmission vehicles have parking brakes, it is often not engaged by American drivers when parking. However, it is recommended to use it, as the parking pawl in the gearbox could fail due to stress or another vehicle striking the car, causing the car to roll. In manual transmission vehicles, the parking brake can be engaged to help keep the vehicle stationary. When parking on an uphill gradient, it is recommended that the front wheels face away from the curb. This would prevent the car from rolling into the roadway by using the curb to block the front passenger tire in the event of a parking brake failure. Similarly, on a downhill gradient, the front wheels should face the curb for the same reason, and the wheels should face to the right on an uncurbed road regardless of orientation. In a manual transmission, leaving the car in first gear (or in reverse if pointing downhill) is also advised, as the engine will prevent the car from rolling if the parking brake fails.


title: Parking brake

text: The parking brake in most vehicles is still completely mechanical. Traditionally engaged by pulling a lever, the cables manually engage part of the car's braking system, usually the rear disk or drum brakes. The mechanical nature allows the driver to apply the brake even if the main hydraulic brake system fails.


title: Parking brake

text: Pictograph symbols and/or lights may be used to indicate the location of a parking brake, its application or release.


title: Parking brake

text: In manual and automatic transmission vehicles, the parking brake can also be used for various driving situations which require the vehicle to be momentarily stopped. For example, the brake can be engaged when moving off an uphill slope, as this allows the driver to hold the accelerator and clutch pedals steady without the vehicle rolling backwards. Other common situations is when the vehicle is stopped at a traffic light, a pedestrian crossing, or simply waiting to turn in front of oncoming traffic. The parking brake would ensure the car is secure, should another vehicle come into physical contact from behind, causing the car to jolt forward. It is not recommended to use the parking brake when the vehicle is in-motion, unless there is a problem with the main brakes, as this can lock the back wheels and cause a skid. This is known as a handbrake turn, which is often performed in street racing and off-road rally racing to initiate rear wheel drift.


title: Parking brake

text: In the event of hydraulic brake failure, the parking brake can be used to slow a vehicle. In such cases, the lever should be slowly engaged to prevent locking up the wheels and reduce speed.


title: Parking brake

text: The position of the parking brake differs between vehicle models and manufacturers. However, a universal feature is either one or two of the warning lights which appear on the dashboard when the parking brake is engaged.


title: Parking brake

text: The most common placement of the parking brake is in the center console of the vehicle, in between the driver and front passenger seats. Operating the brake is performed by pulling the lever up (which is connected to a ratchet) until there is tension. To disengage the brake, the button is held while simultaneously pulling the lever up to disengage the ratchet and then pushed all the way down with the button still held. In older vehicle models, a stick lever may be used instead which is located under the instrument panel.


title: Parking brake

text: Some vehicles have the parking brake operated by a small foot pedal, located by the other pedals. Depressing the foot pedal would engage the brake and pressing it again will release it. A pull handle variation also exists; by pulling or releasing the handle, this engages and releases the parking brake, respectively.


title: Parking brake

text: A recent development is the electronic parking brake, also known as an electric park brake. Introduced to the mainstream market in 2001, it was first used in the 2001 BMW 7 Series (E65). Two variations are available: In the more-traditional "cable-pulling" type, an electric motor simply pulls the parking brake cable on the push or pull of a button rather than a mechanical lever or pedal in the cabin. A more complex unit (first seen on the 2003 Audi A8) uses a computer-controlled motor attached to each of the two rear brake calipers referred to as the Motor on Caliper (MoC) system.


title: Parking brake

text: Many car manufacturers such as Jaguar, Land Rover, BMW, Renault, Subaru and Volkswagen sell models whereby the parking brake automatically engages when the vehicle is stopped and is released when the gas pedal is pressed, eliminating the need for the driver to operate a button. An extension of this system, known as hill-hold or hill-assist, prevents the vehicle from rolling back when moving-off on an uphill gradient.


title: Parking brake

text: In vehicles with rear disc brakes, the parking brake either actuates the disc calipers (with much less force) or a small drum brake housed within the hub assembly (the inner circumference of the disc is often used instead of a separate drum). This secondary drum parking brake is often referred to as a banksia brake. It is usually used in conjunction with rear disc brakes employing multi-piston calipers, as mechanically actuating these calipers is more difficult than single piston calipers.


title: Parking brake

text: Another less common setup for rear discs is the use of a separate, smaller, cable actuated caliper (such as the Wilwood MC4), which is used exclusively for the parking brake. This is sometimes used as an alternative to a separate drum parking brake when multi-piston main calipers are used.


title: Parking brake

text: Hudson automobiles used an unusual hybrid hydraulic-mechanical dual-brake system which operated the rear brakes through the otherwise conventional mechanical parking brake system when a failure of the hydraulic system allowed the pedal to travel beyond its normal limit.


title: Parking brake

text: A number of production vehicles, light and medium duty trucks, and motor homes have been made with a separate drum brake on the driveline; called a transmission brake. This has an advantage of being completely independent of other braking systems. This is effective when there are multiple driving axles, all driven wheels are braked at once.


title: Parking brake

text: A line lock is a temporary parking brake that makes use of the vehicles standard hydraulic brakes. They are often used for off road conditions or when stopping on steep grades is required. By trapping hydraulic pressure in the brake lines, all four wheels can be locked.


title: Parking brake

text: Large vehicles are usually fitted with power operated or power assisted parking brakes. Power assisted parking brakes are usually found on large vans as well as some older heavy vehicles. These operate in the same way as a conventional parking brakes, but pulling the lever operates a valve that allows air or hydraulic pressure or vacuum into a cylinder which applies force to the brake shoes and makes applying the parking brake easier. When releasing the parking brake, the same mechanism also provides assistance to the driver in disengaging the ratchet. Particularly on commercial vehicles with air operated brakes, this has the added benefit of making it much harder or even impossible to release the parking brake when insufficient air pressure is available to operate the brakes. A reservoir or accumulator is usually provided so a limited amount of power assistance is available with the engine off.


title: Parking brake

text: Power operated parking brakes are fitted to heavy commercial vehicles with air brakes, such as trucks and buses. These are usually spring applied, with air pressure being used to hold the brake off and powerful springs holding the brakes on. In most cases, a small lever in the cab is connected to a valve which can admit air to the parking brake cylinders to release the parking brake, or release the air to apply the brake. On some modern vehicles the valve is operated electrically from a lever or button in the cab. The system is relatively safe since if air pressure is lost the springs will apply the brakes. Also, the system prevents the parking brake being released if there is insufficient air pressure to apply the foot brake. A disadvantage to this system is that if a vehicle requires towing and cannot provide its own air supply, an external supply must be provided to allow the parking brake to be released, or the brake shoes must be manually wound off against the springs.


title: Parking brake

text: Virtually all railroad rolling stock is equipped with manually operated mechanical hand brake devices that set and release the brakes. Most of these involve a chain linked to the brake rigging, most often at the brake cylinder, that when tightened pull the piston out against the releasing springs, thus applying the brakes on the car (if there is only one brake cylinder per car) or bogie (if there is more than one cylinder per car). Newer locomotives have electric systems that simply place an electric motor in place of the chain winding mechanism. This brake acts independently of the action of the automatic air brakes, which function collectively when coupled in a train and are under the control of the locomotive driver / engineer.


title: Parking brake

text: Manual hand brakes serve to keep a piece of rolling stock stationary after it has been spotted in a rail yard or at a customer for unloading or loading. They are also used to secure a parked train from inadvertent movement, especially while unmanned.


title: Parking brake

text: Before the development of locomotive-actuated train braking systems in the late 19th century, designated railroad employees known as brakemen would move about the tops of cars, setting hand brakes in an effort to stop the train in a timely manner. This process was imprecise and extremely dangerous. Many brakemen lost life and limb as a result of falling from a moving train, icy and wet conditions often adding to the hazards involved in negotiating the top of a swaying boxcar. In the U.S., an 1893 federal law, the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, required automatic brakes on all railroads, effective in 1900.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509–1572), second son of Alfonso I d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara and grandson of Pope Alexander VI through his mother Lucrezia Borgia. The Este family had been lords of Ferrara since 1393, and were famous as patrons of the arts and of the humanist scholars of the Renaissance. As a second son, Ippolito was destined for a career in the church; he was named archbishop of Milan when he was only ten years old. At the age of 27, he was sent to the French court, where he became an advisor to the French King, Francis I, and in 1540 became a member of the King's Private Council. At the age of thirty, at the request of the King, Pope Paul III made d'Este a cardinal. Thanks to his ecclesiastical and royal connections, he became one of the wealthiest cardinals of the time, with an annual income estimated at 120,000 "scudi". He was a lavish patron of the arts, supporting among others the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, the musician Pierluigi da Palestrina and the poet Torquato Tasso. While his income was enormous, he was always in debt. The new French King, Henry II, sent him as an envoy to Rome, where he played a major role in the social and political life of the city. He appeared destined to become Pope and used all of his money and influence toward that goal, but at the time of the Reformation and the Council of Trent, his extravagant style of life worked against him.


title: Villa d'Este

text: His first candidacy for the papal position, in 1549, with the support of the French King, was blocked by the Habsburg Emperor. D'Este promptly withdrew his own candidacy, endorsed the Habsburg candidate, and was rewarded by the College of Cardinals on December 3, 1549, with the lifetime position of Governor of Tivoli. This new title suited d'Este, because he was already a passionate collector of antiquities, and it gave him jurisdiction over the site of Hadrian's villa and other sites just being excavated. He did not give up his ambition to become Pope. He was five times a candidate for Pope, but was never selected.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Tivoli had been a popular summer residence since ancient Roman times due to its altitude, cooler temperatures and its proximity to the Villa Hadriana, the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I. The position of Governor of Tivoli came with an official residence located in a former convent of the Benedictine order, which had been built in the 9th century on the site of an old Roman villa. In 1256 it had been donated to the Franciscan order. The residence was not large enough for the enormous household of a Cardinal as prominent as d'Este, but it did have a spectacular view of the countryside below, including Hadrian's villa, and an abundant natural water supply for fountains and gardens. D'Este commissioned a prominent classical scholar, Pirro Ligorio, who had studied the Villa Hadriana and other Roman sites in the vicinity, to plan a new villa and garden which would exceed anything the Romans had built. He obtained an abundant supply of marble and statuary from the ruins of Hadrian's villa.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The land was acquired and construction was planned to begin at the end of 1550, but the Cardinal was distracted by various diplomatic missions; he was posted to northern Italy to resolve a war in Parma, then sent by Henry II on a mission to Sienna. He did not return to Tivoli until the summer of 1555. In September 1555, however, he was accused of simony by Pope Paul IV and exiled. The Pope died in 1559, and the new pontiff, Pope Pius IV, rehabilitated d'Este and restored his title as governor of Tivoli. Construction began when he returned in July 1560. More land was needed and acquired through 1569. The vast construction site required the demolition of houses, public buildings and roads. In 1568 the local residents filed twelve different lawsuits against the Cardinal, but did not deter him from his project. Between 1563 and 1565, a huge amount of earth was excavated and used to construct new terraces; arcades, grottos, niches, and nymphaeums. The nearby river Aniene was diverted to furnish water for the complex system of pools, water jets, channels, fountains, cascades and water games. The steep slope of the garden, more than from top to bottom, posed special challenges. Canals were dug and of underground pipes were laid to carry the water from the artificial mountain under the oval fountain to the rest of the garden. Following the aesthetic principles of the Renaissance, the garden was carefully divided into regular units, or compartments, each across, laid out along a longitudinal median axis, with five lateral axes.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The plans for the villa itself were carried out under the direction of the Ferrarese architect-engineer Alberto Galvani, court architect of the Este. The chief painter of the ambitious internal decoration was Livio Agresti from Forlì. In 1565 and 1566, work began on the decoration of the interior of the villa. The decoration was carried out by a team of painters under Girolamo Muziano and Federico Zuccari. In 1566, the Cardinal made his fifth effort to be elected Pope, but once again he was defeated, and he was excluded by the new pontiff, Pope Pius V, from any more official appointments. He turned more and more of his attention to the decoration of his villa. New teams of painters and stucco workers labored on the task between 1567 and 1572, under the direction of Girolamo Muziano, Livio Agresti, Cesare Nebbia, Durante Alberti, Metteo Neroni, and Federico Zuccari. The painters were joined by sculptors Giovan Battista della Porta. Pirrino del Galgliardo, Gillis van den Vliete, Giovanni Malanca, and Pierre de la Motte. They were joined by ceramists and mosaic artists, as well as fountain engineers, led by Pirro Ligorio, the original designer of the project, who returned to finish the work in 1567–68.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The frantic work on the project began to slow in 1569, probably due to the financial difficulties of the Cardinal, who had no more hope of being elected Pope and had lost his lucrative French positions. He spent more and more of his time in the villa, reading and meeting with the leading poets, artists and philosophers of the Renaissance. In the summer of 1572, he entertained one last important guest, Pope Gregory XIII. To prepare for the visit, the Cardinal redecorated the top floors of the villa and rushed completion of the dragon fountain. The reception for the Pope cost him more than five thousand "scudi" forcing him to pawn his silver and other precious objects. Soon after the reception, on December 2, 1572, the Cardinal died in Rome, and was buried in a simple tomb in the church adjoining the Villa.


title: Villa d'Este

text: With the death of Ippolito in 1572, the villa and gardens passed to his nephew, Cardinal Luigi (1538–1586), who continued work on some of the unfinished fountains and gardens, but struggled with high maintenance costs. After his death in 1586, the villa was owned by the Cardinal Deacons of the Sacred College, who did little to maintain it. In 1599 it returned to the Este family with the nomination of Cardinal Alessandro d'Este (1538–1624). Alessandro had the energy and ambition of his ancestor and carried out a major renovation of the gardens and water systems, as well as building a new system of fountains in the lower garden. He also persuaded Pope Gregory XV to formally grant ownership of the villa to the Este family. His successors, the Dukes of Modena, made further additions to the gardens. Francesco I (1629-1641) restored many of the crumbling structures and began planting trees in the previously unshaded gardens. Cardinal Rinaldo I commissioned two new fountains by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1660–61. However, after 1695, the Este family was unable to support the high cost of maintaining the villa, which they rarely used and which produced no income. The villa went into a long decline. After 1751, the furnishings were sent to Modena, and the antique sculpture was gradually removed from the gardens and sold to collectors. In 1796, the House of Habsburg took possession of the villa, after Ercole III d'Este bequeathed it to his daughter Maria Beatrice, married to Grand Duke Ferdinand of Habsburg. It was largely neglected and was twice occupied by French soldiers, who took away much of the decoration that remained.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Between 1850 and 1896, the villa was owned by Cardinal Gustav von Hohenlohe, who restored the dilapidated villa and the ruined and overgrown gardens, which now appealed to the romantic sentiments of the period. The villa once again attracted artists, musicians and writers. The composer Franz Liszt made several visits between 1865 and 1885, and wrote three pieces of piano music, two musical "threnodies" with the title "Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este" and the character piece "Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este," that depict the grounds. They were placed in the "third year" of his Années de pèlerinage. The latter includes some of the most influential evocations of the play of water ever written for piano.


title: Villa d'Este

text: After the First World War, the villa was acquired by the Italian State, which began a major restoration in 1922. The villa was refurnished with paintings from the storerooms of the Galleria Nazionale, Rome. It suffered bomb damage in 1944 during World War II, and many of the walls were degraded in postwar years by environmental pollution, but campaigns of restoration and protection have preserved intact the famous features of the villa and gardens. Jean Garrigue's volume of poems "A Water Walk by Villa d'Este" (1959) was inspired by the gardens. Kenneth Anger filmed "Eaux d'Artifice" among the water features of the garden. The water organ, which had not functioned for many years, was restored and now plays again each day for visitors.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Today the villa is entered from a doorway on the Piazza Trento, next to the entrance of the Church of Santa-Maria Maggiore. In the time of Ippolito d'Este, this entrance was rarely used; visitors arrived at the bottom of the gardens, and ascended, step by step, to the villa, viewing the fountains and statuary. The current door dates to 1521, to the period before Ippolito. The foyer inside the door has a painted vault which was once covered with paintings, which were largely destroyed by the bombing during World War II.


title: Villa d'Este

text: It was decorated with monochrome scenes from the Old Testament, a few of which, including The Sacrifice of Isaac, still can be seen. They date to the period between 1563 and 1565, and were probably designed by Girolamo Muziano. The next room, the Hall of the Stories of Solomon, shows scenes from life of King Solomon, set in frames painted to resemble marble. They also are attributed to Muziano and his craftsmen, also from about 1565. A massive head of travertine stone is on display here, which until the 18th century was in the garden.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Courtyard is placed where the original cloister of the convent was located. It was constructed in 1566–67, and is surrounded by a gallery. The centrepiece of the courtyard is the Fountain of Venus, the only fountain in the Villa which retains its original appearance and decoration. The fountain, designed by Raffaelo Sangallo in 1568–69, is framed by two doric columns, and crowned by a 4th-century marble bust of the Emperor Constantine. The central element of the fountain is a Roman statue of a sleeping Venus, made in the 4th or 5th centuries A.D. Water originally poured from a vase beside her into a Roman labrum of white marble (2nd century AD) decorated with two lion heads. The fountain is surrounded on three sides by a sixteenth-century courtyard sited on the former Benedictine cloister. The fountain on a side wall contains a grotto and a figure which follows a Hellenistic prototype most familiar in the "Sleeping Ariadne" of the Vatican. The grotto, epitomized by the high-relief stalactites, identifies her as the resident nymph, or "genius loci", though guidebooks sometimes call her a "Venus". The base of the fountain is decorated with a stucco bas relief which was once gilded, and portrays the white heraldic eagles of the D'Este. It illustrates the course of the river flowing from Mount Sant'Angelo to the Villa. The sculptural decoration around the courtyard, particularly the representation of quince trees, illustrates the 11th labor of Hercules; the theft of golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, where they were guarded by the dragon Ladone. Hercules was reputed to be a protector of the Tiburtine region where the villa is located, and also was claimed as an ancestor of the d'Este family.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Salon on the ground floor is the first room of the personal apartments of Ippolito; it was used for receptions, and features a spectacular view of the garden below and countryside beyond, including Villa of Hadrian. The walls, bare today, were covered with leather decorated with gold and green designs and the eagles of the d'Este family. The vaulted ceiling of the room is still covered with a frieze and frescoes on the theme of virtue, painted in twenty different personifications. These were designed by Livio Agresti in 1568, and created by a team of artists. and stucco-makers. Other themes include landscapes with ruined temples, inspired by the Tiburtine countryside.


title: Villa d'Este

text: A small antechamber next to the salon has a frieze and vault is decorated with more personifications of virtue, and leads to the Cardinal's Bedroom, which was constructed in 1576. The bedroom walls were originally covered with leather painted with gold and silver. The coffered wooden ceiling is the most notable feature of the room, gilded and painted with the Este crest. an eagle surrounded by quince branches, a bishop's hat and the motto of the Este family, "ab insomni non custodita dracone", a verse from Ovid referring to the dragon guarding the gardens of the Hesperides. Feminine figures representing different aspects of virtue occupy the corners of the room. The private apartment is completed by a library and by a small chapel, whose walls are decorated with frescoes of mixture of classical and Christian symbolism, Sibyls and of prophets, and whose ceiling vault features a fresco of the coronation of the Virgin Mary. The apartment also connects by doorways with Pirro Ligorio's classical Gran Loggia on the garden facade of the house, based on the terrace below and designed in the form of a great triumphal arch.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The floor below the Cardinal's personal apartments contains a series of highly decorated rooms, each decorated with a specific theme, all connected to nature, mythology, and water. The rooms are less formal than those of the apartment above; they were used for private moments in the life of the Cardinal; listening to music or poetry; conversation, reading, and religious reflection. They are reached by a large ceremonial stairway that descends from the courtyard, and are connected to each other by a long narrow corridor with a high vaulted ceiling, which receives light from a series of openings to the courtyard above. The ceiling of the corridor is decorated with mosaics from the late 16th century, representing a pergola inhabited by colorful birds, making the corridor seem a part of the garden. The corridor also features three elaborate rustic fountains, containing miniature grottos framed with columns and pediments.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of Noah, like the other rooms on the floor, has walls covered with frescoes designed to resemble tapestries, intertwined with scenes of classical landscapes, ruins, rustic farm houses, and other scenes covering inch of the ceiling and walls, This room is dated to 1571, at the end of the decoration of the villa, and is attributed to Girolamo Muziano, who was famous for similar scenes of Venetian landscapes. The major scenes portrayed are the Four Seasons, allegories of prudence and temperance, and the central scene of Noah with the ark shortly after its landing on Mount Ararat, making an agreement with God. A white eagle, the symbol of the d'Este, is prominently shown landing from the Ark.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The next room, the Hall of Moses, features a fresco in the center of the ceiling showing Moses striking a rock with his rod and bringing forth water for the people of Israel. This was an allusion to the Cardinal, who had brought water to the Villa gardens by making channels through the rock. Other panels show scenes from the life of Moses, a hydra with seven heads, the emblem of the family of Ercole I d'Este, an ancestor of Ippolito, and fantastic landscapes.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of Venus originally had as its centerpiece a large fountain, with an artificial cliff and grotto framed in stucco. The fountain featured a basin of water and a classical statue of a sleeping Venus, but in the 19th century the basin was removed and the Venus, which had been removed after the death of the Cardinal, was replaced by two new statues of Peace and Religion, representing a scene at the grotto of Lourdes. The original terra cotta floor is still in place, featuring the white eagle of the d'Este family. The only other decoration in the room is the 17th-century painting on the ceiling of angels offering flowers to Venus.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The First and Second Tiburtine Halls were created at the same time by a team of painters led by Cesare Nebia; they were made before 1569. and they both have a common plan. The walls are covered with painted architectural elements, including columns and doors and elaborate painted moldings and sculptural elements. Floral designs fill the spaces between the painted architecture, along with medals, masks, and other insignia. The decoration of the two rooms illustrates stories from mythology and the history of Tiburtine region, where the villa is located.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The main theme of the Second Tiburtine Hall is the story of the Tiburtine Sibyl: According to mythology, Queen Ida was punished by Jupiter for having raised young Bacchus to avoid the madness of her husband, Atamante; Venus and Neptune transformed her into a seer, Leucotea. She traveled to Italy where she lived in the Tiburtine forests, giving prophecies and predicting the birth of Christ. Another Tiburtine legend illustrated in the room is that of King Annius, who pursued Mercury, the kidnapper of his daughter Cloris, and was drowned in the river Aniene, which takes his name, and which provides the water for the fountains of the Villa. The Sibyl, King Annius, and the personification of the Aniene River all appear in the frescoes of the room, along with the Triumph of Apollo.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The First Tiburtine Hall illustrates the story of three legendary Greek brothers, Tiburtus, Coras, and Catillus, who defeated the Sicels, an Italic tribe, and built a new city, Tibur (now Tivoli). Their battle is illustrated in the central fresco of the ceiling, as are other events in the founding of the region. The decoration of the room also includes the Tenth Labor of Hercules, where he steals a valuable herd of cattle, and is rescued by Zeus, who showers his enemies with stones; as well as pairs of gods and goddesses in painted niches: Vulcan and Venus, Jupiter and Juno, Apollo with Diana, and Bacchus with Circe. One wall is an illustration of the oval fountain which Ippolito was building at the time the room was decorated.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of the Fountain was used by Cardinal Ippolito as a reception room for guests who had just arrived through the garden below, and for concerts and other artistic events. The room was built between 1565 and 1570, probably by Girolamo Muziano and his team of artists. The central element is a wall fountain, covered with multicolored ceramics and sculpture, encrusted with pieces of glass, seashells and precious stones, and crowned by the white eagle of the d'Este family. The fountain was finished in 1568 by Paolo Calandrino. The basin of the fountain rests on two stone dolphins. The reliefs in the central niche depict the fountain of the Tiburtine acropolis and Temple of the Sibyl. On the other walls are images of the house and unfinished garden and fountains, and a small illustration on the opposite wall from the fountain of Ippolito's villa in Rome, on the Quirinal Hill, now a residence of the Pope. The paintings on the ceiling are devoted to scenes of mythology; each corner has a portrait of a different god and goddess. Tradition says that the painting of Mercury is a self-portrait of Muziano. The central fresco on the ceiling depicts the Synod of the Gods, with Jupiter in the center surrounded by all the gods of Olympus. The fresco is modeled after a similar work by Raphael in the Loggia of Psyche in the Villa Farnesina. The hall connects with the loggia, and from there a stairway descends to the garden.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of Hercules dates to 1565–66 and is also by Muziano. The paintings on the ceiling depict eight of the labors of Hercules, surrounded by depictions of landscapes, ancient architecture, and the graces and the virtues. The central painting of the ceiling shows Hercules being welcomed into Olympus by the gods.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of Nobility was the work of a different artist, Federico Zuccari, and his team of painters. The central fresco on the ceiling depicts "Nobility on the throne between Liberality and Generosity". The decoration on the walls includes paintings of busts of Plato, Pythagoras, Diogenes, Socrates and other classical philosophers, the Graces and Virtues, and Diana of Ephesus, the goddess of Fertility, who also has a fountain dedicated to her in the garden.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of Glory was completed between 1566 and 1577 by Federico Zuccari and eight assistants. It is a masterpiece of Roman mannerist painting, with painted illusions of doors, windows, tapestries, sculptures, and of everyday objects used by the Cardinal. The central painting of the ceiling, the Allegory of Glory, has been lost, but there are allegorical depictions of the virtues, the Four Seasons, and of Religion, Magnanimity, Fortune and Time.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hall of the Hunt was created later than the other rooms, at the end of the 16th or beginning the 17th century, and is in a different style; it features hunting scenes, rural landscapes, hunting trophies, and, oddly, scenes of naval battles. A stairway of travertine stone, called the "snail stairway", descends to the garden. It was originally built to access a pallacorda court, an ancestor of tennis, which Ippolito imported into Italy from the French Court. The space where the court was located now houses the cafeteria and bookstore.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The complete construction and furnishing of Ippolito's apartments was completed in 1572 when Ippolito was on his deathbed.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The fame and glory of the Villa d'Este was above all established by its extraordinary system of fountains; fifty-one fountains and nymphaeums, 398 spouts, 364 water jets, 64 waterfalls, and 220 basins, fed by 875 metres of canals, channels and cascades, and all working entirely by the force of gravity, without pumps.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Pirro Ligorio, who was responsible for the iconographic programs worked out in the villa's frescos, was also commissioned to lay out the gardens for the villa, with the assistance of Tommaso Chiruchi of Bologna, one of the most skilled hydraulic engineers of the sixteenth century; Chiruchi had worked on the fountains at Villa Lante. At Villa d'Este he was assisted in the technical designs for the fountains by a Frenchman, Claude Venard, who was a manufacturer of hydraulic organs. The result was one of the finest gardens of the Renaissance, rivaled only by the Villa Lante, the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Villas Aldobrandini and Torlonia in Frascati. The garden and water features were admired and imitated over the next two centuries in gardens from Portugal to Saint Petersburg.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The garden plan is laid out on a central axis with subsidiary cross-axes, refreshed by some five hundred jets in fountains, pools and water troughs. The water is supplied by the Aniene, which is partly diverted through the town, a distance of a kilometer, and, originally, by the Rivellese spring, which supplied a cistern under the villa's courtyard (now supplied by the Aniene too). The garden is now part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.


title: Villa d'Este

text: A large terrace, 200 metres long, called the Vialone, lies between the Villa and the gardens, with a panoramic view of the gardens and countryside beyond. It was constructed between 1568 and 1569. The Cardinals used the space for fireworks, games, spectacles and festivities. It originally was shaded by two rows of elm trees, except for the space directly in front of the Villa, left empty to preserve the view. The terrace is enclosed at one end by the Fountain of Europa, and at the other by an immense loggia and belvedere in the form of a triumphal arch called the Cenacolo. This structure provided shade beneath in summer, as well as commanding viewpoints of the scenery. It was originally intended to be decorated in the interior with stucco decoration, gilding and frescoes, but it was never finished.


title: Villa d'Este

text: In the center of the terrace, attached to the facade of the villa, is the double loggia, made in 1566–1577 of travertine stone. Its two stairways provide access to the ceremonial salons on the lower floor, while its upper level created a terrace for the Cardinal's apartments. On the terrace level it contains a Nymphaeum, or grotto, where the Fountain of Leda is located. The original statuary of the fountain, depicting Jupiter and Leda transformed into a swan and four children, Elena, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. was sold in the 18th century and is now in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The statuary has been replaced by headless statue of Minerva found in the garden of the Palazzo Manni in Tivoli. The original fountain featured a novel hydraulic trick; water spouting from a vase held by Leda struck a metal disk, which caused flashes of light to reflect on the walls of the grotto.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of the Tripod is placed in the center of the Vialone. It has only been there since 1930; it is a copy of an ancient Roman fountain, a marble basin supported by a central column and three pilasters. The original is now in the Louvre. The original fountain on the site, the Fountain of the Sea Horses, which was moved by Ippolito from Hadrian's Villa to his garden, is now in the Vatican Museum.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of Europa is found at the northeast end at the top of the garden. It was begun by Ippolito but was not finished until 1671. Its design, a triumphal arch with two orders of columns, corinthian and doric, copying that of the Grand Loggia. The large niche in the center, now empty, held a sculpture "Europa Embracing the Bull" which is now in the VIlla Albani in Rome.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Two ramps lead down to the upper garden from Fountain of the Tripod, and there are symmetrical double flights of stairs at either end. The Cardinal's Walk is a shaded path, attached to the retaining wall of the terrace, which leads from one side of the garden to the other, passing by several grottos which are built into the retaining wall. At the southeast end of the walk, just below the Fountain of Europa, is the Grotto of Aegle and Aesculpius. The grotto is decorated with tartar flakes, mosaics and colored fragments of sea shells, and a small portion of the original fresco. It originally held two statues; that of Aesculpius, the god of medicine, now found in the Louvre, and of Aegle, the daughter of Auesculpius, the goddess of healing (now in the Vatican Museum).


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Loggia of Pandora is found in the middle of the Cardinal's Walk, just below the center of the Villa. This portion of the walk is covered, with arcades looking out at the garden. It contained a nymphaeum built into the wall, and originally was decorated with mosaics and with a statue of Pandora and two statues of Minerva. The statue of Pandora carried a vase of water, symbolizing the evils of the world. The vase was a concealed fountain, pouring out water. The statues were sold in the 18th century; Pandora and one of the Minervas are now in the Capitoline Museum. In the 19th century the nymphaeum was converted into a Christian chapel; it was a favorite place of the composer Franz Liszt, who dedicated two pieces of music to the chapel.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of the Bicchierone is one of two fountains created for the Villa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was made between 1660 and 1661 on a commission from Cardinal Rinaldo I d'Este. The basin of the fountain is in the form of a large shell, which reaches up to the level of the terrace. In the center is a toothed "Bicchierone" (cup or chalice) from which the water sprays upwards. Bernini supervised the building of the fountain, and, following its inauguration in May 1661, he had the height of the spouting water reduced, to avoid blocking the view from the Loggia of Pandora. Though not part of the original design of the garden, the fountain became a link between the architecture of the palace and the garden.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Loggetta of the Cardinal is a small balustraded terrace surrounded by high laurel hedges and stone benches, between the Fountain of the Biccherone and the garden. This was said to be the Cardinal's favorite spot for reading and discussing poetry and art, and watching the construction of the garden around him. Shortly after his death, a large statue of Hercules, with the boy Achilles in his arms, was placed there, overlooking the garden below. It was one of three statues of Hercules in central positions along the central axis. When seen from the bottom the garden, they were all visible, aligned with the Loggia of the Villa at the top. The statue is now found in the Louvre.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Grotto of Diana is located at the end of the Cardinal's Walk, below the Gran Loggia. It is a large underground vaulted chamber, decorated in 1570-72 by Paolo Caladrino, and completely covered with mosaics of mythological scenes, with images of fish, dragons, dolphins, pelicans and other animals, as well as the eagles and apples of the d'Este family. Its central feature was a rustic fountain with statue of the goddess Diana, in a large niche decorated with stuccol reliefs of landscapes, the sea and a ship. All of the statues were sold in the 18th century and are now in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. Some of the original majolica floor tiles from the 16th century can still be seen.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Below the Loggetta of the Cardinal is a walkway which traverses the garde passes by three grottos. In the center is the Grotto of Hercules, which is covered by the Loggetta of the Cardinal. Beneath this grotto was a cistern and some of the hydraulic machinery for the fountains below. The grotto once had stucco reliefs of either animals or the labors of Hercules. The statue of Hercules in repose formerly in the grotto is now in the Vatican Museum. The Grotto of Pomona is similar in design to the Grotto of Hercules. Some of the original mosaic decoration is still visible. The water poured into a fountain from a white marble mask, which was found when the fountain was restored in 2002.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Oval Fountain was one of the first fountains in the garden, and among the most famous. It was designed by Pirro Ligorio, the architect of the villa, as a water theater, spraying water in variety of forms. It was begun in 1565 and finished in 1570. It was made by fountain engineers Tomasso de Como and Curzio Maccarono, with sculpture by Raffaello Sangallo. A massive stone basin against the semicircular back wall cascades water into the fountain, and sprays it into the air, while water jets into the basin from vases in the hands of statues of Nereids, and also sprays in fan shapes from vases in niches in the semi-circular wall behind the fountain. An artificial mountain rises above the fountain, symbolizing the Tiburtine landscape; the mountain is pierced by three grottos, each pouring forth water, and is decorated with statues representing Albunea, with her son Melicerte, by Gillis van den Vliete (1568), and statues representing rivers Ercolaneo and Aniene, by Giovanni Malanca (1566), all of which pour water into the Oval Fountain. An upper walkway above the fountain leads past the ring of basins and cascades. The fountain also has its own grotto, the Grotto of Venus, designed by Pirro Ligorio, and built in 1565–68. It served as a meeting place for guests on hot summer days. The original statues of the grotto; a figure of Venus similar to the Capitoline Venus and two "putti" are no longer there, but traces of the monochrome murals of grotesque figures, tiles and sculpted grotto walls still remain.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Hundred Fountains were another celebrated marvel of the gardens in the Renaissance. They are located between the oval fountain and the Fontana di Rometta, and there are actually nearly three hundred spouts fed by three parallel canals, one above the other. Along the edge of the upper canal there are spouts in the form of lilies, the emblem of France, alternating with the d'Este eagle, boats and obelisks; all spraying water in a fan shape. The water is captured by the second canal, which feeds it into spouts in the form of masks, from which it reaches the lower canal.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The fountains were constructed between 1566 and 1577. The original alley of fountains had more decoration, including small boats alternating with terra cotta vases along the upper canal, planted with fruit trees; and the wall was decorated with sculptural plaques showing scenes from the "Metamorphosis" of Ovid. These deteriorated quickly and were largely removed or replaced. The wall is now so overgrown with vegetation that little of remaining decoration can be seen. It was restored in the 17th century, then abandoned for a long period, and finally restored again in 1930 to its present form. Like every other feature of the garden, canals and the hundred fountains had their part in the symbolic plan; they represented the aqueducts the Romans built to supply water to Rome. The Hundred Fountains have been celebrated in Italian art and literature, particularly in the "Roman Elegies" of Gabriele d'Annunzio.


title: Villa d'Este

text: To descend to the next level, there are stairs at either end – the elaborate fountain complex called the "Rometta" ("the little Rome") is at the far left – to view the full length of the "Hundred Fountains" on the next level, where the water jets fill the long rustic trough, and Pirro Ligorio's "Fontana dell'Ovato" ends the cross-vista. A visitor may walk behind the water through the rusticated arcade of the concave nymphaeum, which is peopled by marble nymphas by Giambattista della Porta. Above the nymphaeum, the sculpture of "Pegasus" recalls to the visitor the fountain of Hippocrene on Parnassus, haunt of the Muses.


title: Villa d'Este

text: This terrace is united to the next by the central Fountain of the Dragons, dominating the central perspective of the gardens, erected for a visit in 1572 of Pope Gregory XIII whose coat-of-arms features a dragon. The sound of this fountain was in contrast to a nearby "Uccellario" with artificial birds. Central stairs lead down a wooded slope to three rectangular fishponds set on the cross-axis at the lowest point of the gardens, terminated at the right by the water organ (now brought back into use) and Fountain of Neptune (belonging to the 20th century restorations).


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of Rometta is located at the opposite end of the Hundred Fountains from the Oval Fountain. It is an important piece of the symbolic story told by the upper gardens; the waters of the Tiber River emerge in the Tiburtin Mountains, symbolized by the Oval Fountain, run through the valley (The Hundred Fountains) and arrive at the gates of Rome; the Rometta Fountain is Ancient Rome in miniature; the real city was visible in the distance behind the Fountain. The fountain was designed by Pirro Ligorio and built by Curzio Maccarone between 1567 and 1570. The fountain and its architecture are built on a wide semicircular Terrace supported by pilasters connected with a double arcades. The back portion of the fountain represents the buildings the monuments if Rome; deteriorated greatly in the early 19th century, and a large part was demolished in 1850, but a portion of this architecture still stands on the left side of the fountain. The small buildings were divided into seven sections, representing the seven hills of Rome and their most famous monuments. The little city included gates and arches, and even small marble statues. In the center of the miniature city is a large statue of "Rome Victorious," made in 1568 by the Fliemish sculptor Pierre de la Motte, facing the statue of the Tiburtine Sibyl at the other end of the row of Hundred Fountains. Another statue by the same artist, "The She Wolf nurses her Twins", was placed in the garden in 1611. The water flowing through fountain basin next to the city represents the Tiber River; the boat in the fountain, with a mast in the form an obelisk, symbolizes the Tiburtina Island.


title: Villa d'Este

text: A new feature was added to the Fountain of Rometta in the early 17th century; an artificial mountain, pierced by grottos and caves, to left of the city buildings. On the top of the artificial mountain is a statue of the river god Aniene, holding in his hand a miniature of the Temple of the Sibyl. A statue of a figure representing the Apennine mountains, holding a mountain in his arms. is half-hidden in a grotto.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of the Dragons was designed by Pirro Ligorio to illustrate the story of Hercules fulfilling one of his labors by stealing the golden apples of the Garden of the Hesperides, which were guarded by the dragon Ladon. The same story is illustrated in frescoes in the interior decoration of the Villa.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The fountain is located on the central vertical axis of the gardens, aligned with the Villa, and in the center of the original garden. just below the Hundred Fountains. It is enclosed by two semi-circular ramps which lead to the level above. The walls of the ramps around it are covered with pebbly tartar and ornamented with bands of mosaic and majolica tile, and contain two large niches. Ligorio planned this fountain to illustrate the theme of war and combat against evil; he intended that one niche would be occupied by a statue of Hercules with his club, before he killed the dragon Ladon; and the second with statues of Mars, the god of War, Perseus, and gladiators. In the center of the fountain is a small "scogliera" or island, which holds four sculpted dragons, which jet water from their mouths into the fountain, while a powerful central fountain shoots a column of water vertically high in the air, visible from all around the garden This idea of a vertical jet of water as the centerpiece of the garden was copied in many baroque gardens in the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition to the dragons, two sculpted dolphins spray water across the pool. More water flows down from above, running in channels attached to the parapets of the ramps. The water emerges from the breasts of two sphinxes- half-women, half sea horses; flows down a channel, enters the mouth of a sculpted frog, and emerges again through the mouth of a carved salamander. In keeping with the theme of combat against evil, in Ippolito's time the fountains also produced dramatic sound effects heard throughout the garden; water kept under pressure was suddenly released, imitating the sound of fireworks or cannons firing. To make more noise, the flow of water from above could also be from a fine spray to a heavy downpour.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Ippolito had the fountain altered for the visit of Pope Gregory in 1572. The dragon with one hundred heads was replaced by four dragons, the family emblem of the Pope. Ippolito died three months later, and the fountain was still not completed. It was not finished until late in the 17th century with a different sculptural program; Instead of a statue of Hercules, a statue of the god Jupiter holding lightning bolts in his hands was placed in the central niche. The cannon-like sound effects from the fountain now were meant to be the sound of his thunderbolts.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of the Owl is located in the Southwest part of the garden, below the Fountain of Rometta and the Fountain of Persephone, These three fountains form a single unit of architecture, their terraces connected by stairways, with nymphaeums placed beneath the terraces. The Fountain of the Owl was built between 1565 and 1569 by Giovanni del Duca. Compared with other fountains in the garden, it is very formal, placed on a terrace surrounded by walls with niches, crowned with the white eagles and lily symbols of the d'Este. The fountain itself is a separate structure, entirely covered with polychrome tiles. At the top, above the niche, is the coat of arms of the d'Este, held by two angels. The niche is flanked by ionic columns. Originally it contained the statues of two youths holding a goatskin which poured water into a basin held by three satyrs. The sculpture in the niche, believed lost, was rediscovered during a renovation in 2001–02, hidden under mineral deposits and earth. The architectural elements were intact, but the figures of the youths and satyrs were missing or destroyed.


title: Villa d'Este

text: This fountain also produced music, thanks to an ingenious automaton made by the French fountain engineer Luc Leclerc, installed in 1566, before the Fountain of the Organ on the other side of the garden. It featured twenty painted bronze birds placed in the niche, posed on two metal olive branches. Each bird sang an individual song, produced by piped water and air. A mechanical owl appeared, and the birds stopped singing; then, at the end of the performance, all the birds sang together. This musical feature was admired and copied in other European gardens and functioned until the end of the 17th century. It needed constant repair due to the action of the water on its delicate mechanism, and by the 19th century were completely ruined. The decorative elements of the fountain were completely restored in the 1930s, and restored again in 2001–2002.


title: Villa d'Este

text: During the restoration work of 2001–02, the workers found some of the original mechanism that produced the bird songs, including the wind chamber, the tubes that moved the air and water, and the machinery that made the owl move. Using modern materials, Leonardo Lombardi was able to make a new version of the old machinery so the birds can sing and move again.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of Persephone is located just above the Fountain of the Owl; a stairway connects them. It was sometimes called the Fountain of the Emperors, because it was originally intended to display statues of four Roman Emperors who had villas in the region: Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Trajan and Hadrian. It was designed and built by Alberto Galvani in 1569–70. It was connected with the Rometta Fountain above by two stairways (only one remains today) whose parapets support channels of water pouring through shells and masks. The stairways close two sides of the small fountain courtyard. The fountain is placed in a triumphal arch between the stairways. The arch is framed by twisting columns, similar to those in Saint Peter's basilica in Rome. The central niche held a statue of the goddess of fertility Persephone being kidnapped by Pluto, placed there in about 1640. The statue of Persephone has disappeared; Pluto remains, carried on a shell supported by two sea horses. Niches on the sides hold statues of Tritons riding dolphins and blowing on their "buccina", or seashell trumpets.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountain of the Organ (‘’Fontana dell’Organo’’) is one of the most famous features of the garden; it was described and imitated throughout Europe. Work on the masonry structure began in 1566. The fountain itself was made by the French fountain engineer Luc Leclerc and his nephew Claude Venard. After the death of Leclerc, Venard invented the ingenious mechanism of the water organ, which was installed in 1571.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The fountain was the first of its kind, and astonished everyone who heard it; when Pope Gregory XIII visited the villa in 1572, accompanied by his court of cardinals and princes, he insisted on inspecting the interior of the fountain, to learn if someone wasn't concealed inside making the music.


title: Villa d'Este

text: A massive masonry arch behind the fountain, the ‘’castellum aquae’’ or water castle, conceals the water reservoir and the hydraulic machinery of the fountain. The original design featured a grotto in the niche of the arch, with a view of the twenty-two pipes of the organ. A statue of ‘’Mother Nature’’ or the ‘’Ephesian Diana’’ was placed in front of the arch in 1569; it now has its own fountain in the lower garden.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The water creating the music arrived first at the top of the ‘’Castellum aquae’. It went first through a series of whirlpools, which mixed air with the water; then it dropped down a pipe into the ‘’camera aeolia’’, or wind chamber, where the air and water were separated; the water turned a wheel, rotating a cylinder which opened the valves of the twenty-two pipes, so the air could pass through the pipes and make the music.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The original performances of the fountain began with the sound of two trumpets, held by the statue of Fame on the cornice of the fountain. Then came the music, likely madrigals played by four or five pipes; then the climax: “The Flood”, a cascade of water from the top of the fountain, and jets of water shooting up from the fountain below. This was accompanied by the sound of a horn held by a ‘’Triton’’ in the fountain; the horn blew softly, then loudly, then softly again.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The mechanism of the fountain was extremely delicate and required continual cleaning and maintenance. The fountain was restored in the early 18th century by Cardinal Alessandro d’Este, who added the white d’Este eagle to the top of the ‘’castellum aquae’’, and ornamented the facade with statues of Orpheus and Apollo; Caryatids and Winged Victories; and bas-reliefs of Orpheus entrancing the animals and a musical contest between Apollo and Marsia. The organ itself was entirely redone. It was given a keyboard with a wider range of notes and was housed in an octagonal kiosk with a cupola. The organ was restored several more times in the 17th century, but by the end of the 18th century, it had deteriorated beyond hope of repair.


title: Villa d'Este

text: In 2003, after a long and delicate restoration, the organ was able to play again. The original wind chamber and tank for creating whirlpools were retained, and the rest of the mechanism was replaced with new machinery in modern materials following the original principles. It now has 144 pipes, and is controlled by a cylinder, operated by the water, which can play four pieces of late Renaissance music for a total of four minutes.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Directly below the Fountain of the Organ, and receiving the water from the upper fountain, is the Fountain of Neptune, a work created in the 20th century to replace a garden landmark which had deteriorated.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The space was originally occupied by a rocky cascade, created in the 17th century by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was commissioned by Cardinal Rinado I d’Este as a background for the lateral axis of the garden, unfinished by Cardinal Ippolito. Bernini's plan called for a waterfall from the Fountain of the Organ which leaped over the grottoes of the Sibyls, then cascaded down a rocky slope to a lake decorated with reefs and statues. Two additional cascades entered the lake from the sides. Bernini designed the cascade to produce a thunderous sound of falling water. Bernini's cascade was reproduced in paintings and engravings, and was imitated in other gardens in Italy and as far away as England. Unfortunately, the cascade was entirely neglected for two centuries, dry, crumbling and overgrown with vegetation. In the 1930s the architect Attilio Rossi created the present fountain, using what remained of Bernini's cascade. Against the wall of the Grottoes of the Sibyls, he built rectangular pools with powerful water jets, the tallest jets in the center. The centerpiece was a grotto beneath the waterfall from the Fountain of the Organ; the grotto contained a 16th-century torso of a statue of Neptune, which had originally been intended for an unfinished fountain of the seas. Other jets of water in fan shapes rise from pools on the sides of the fountain.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The three fish ponds ("Peschiere") cross the garden from the Fountain of Neptune. They served originally to provide fresh fish, duck, and swan for the table of the Cardinal, and also, in the plan of Pirro Ligorio, were intended to connect two fountains; the Fountain of the Organ and the cascade and the Fountain of the Seas. In the center of the ponds, Ligorio had originally planned to create a central pond with monumental fountains. However, when Ippolito died in 1572 only two of the ponds had been completed. In the late 16th century the ponds were lined by sixteen tall pilasters in the form of "ermes" which jetted out fan-shaped sprays of water, creating a multitude of rainbows on a sunny day.


title: Villa d'Este

text: In 1632 the Duke of Modena, in charge of the Villa, entirely remodeled the ponds. The pilasters were removed and replaced with eight pedestals with vases which spouted water, and with twenty-four large pots containing a variety of citrus trees. The ponds now serve primarily as a picturesque foreground for cascades and fountains of the Fountain of Neptune.


title: Villa d'Este

text: In the 16th century the lower garden, below the fishponds, was originally largely a kitchen garden. The center of the lower garden was divided into sixteen large squares, with a pergola in the center of each section, surrounded by beds of medicinal herbs and flowers, and large pots of fruit trees. The main paths dividing the garden were covered with trellises on which grew grapes, heather and jasmine. In the center was a large wooden pavilion, which contained four small fountains in the form of flowers, jetting water. The pergolas and pavilion were demolished in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and replaced by the Rotonda of the Cypresses, a circular alley which originally contained sixteen cypress trees, and offered shade to visitors arriving in the gardens, as well as a dramatic view of the rest of the garden, the fountains and the Villa high above. By the 19th century the cypress trees were huge, and were among the most famous features of gardens, painted by artists and inspiring music by Franz Liszt and poetry by Gabriele d'Annunzio. Two of the original cypress trees are still there; the other cypresses and laurel hedges were planted at the end of the 20th century.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The Fountains of the d'Este eagle are a group of small rustic fountains, with water spurting up from stone bowls, with a variety of themes. One contains a group of statues of the white eagle, the emblem of the d'Este family. These fountains are a vestige the formal gardens that occupied that part of the garden before the Rotonda of Cypresses was built.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The lower garden also contains two large rustic fountains, called the Mete, located on the northwest corner of the garden near the entrance. They were designed to look like natural rock, with grottos and niches. Created in 1568–69, they were made by Tommaso da Como, and were originally intended to feature two large statues of giants, the guardians of the garden. A smaller rustic fountain, called the Fontana Rustca dell'Inverno, holds a 16th-century statue of Winter that originally was in the Gran Loggia.


title: Villa d'Este

text: The most famous fountain in the lower garden is the Fountain of Diana of Ephesus, also known as the Fountain of Mother Nature. This statue originally stood next to the Fountain of the Organ; it was moved to the lower garden by Alessandro d'Este in the 16th century. It was made by the Flemish sculptor Gillis van den Vliete in 1568, and modeled after a classical Roman statue of Diana of Ephesus from the second century, now in the National Museum of Naples. It stands in a grotto made of tartar flakes; jets of water spurt from the multiple breasts of the goddess.


title: Villa d'Este

text: Few gardens have been painted or drawn by as many notable artists than the Villa d'Este, particularly during the Renaissance and in the 19th century. As a result, features of the garden influenced and were imitated in other gardens across Europe, from England to Russia. In the Renaissance, the garden was seen as a showcase of classical art and new technology, but by the end of the 18th century, when the garden was overgrown and crumbling, it helped created the image of the picturesque romantic garden.


title: Afshan Azad

text: Afshan Noor Azad-Kazi (née Azad; born 12 February, 1988) is a British actress, model, and media personality. She is best known for playing the role of Padma Patil in the "Harry Potter" film series, beginning in 2005 with "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".


title: Afshan Azad

text: Azad was born in Longsight, Manchester, England and is of Bangladeshi descent. She attended Whalley Range High School, and took AS-levels in chemistry, biology, English and business studies at Xaverian College in Rusholme. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Design from the University of Salford.


title: Afshan Azad

text: Azad is known for her performances as Padma Patil in five of the "Harry Potter" films, starting with 2005's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". She acquired the role when casting agents visited her school and, after having attended several auditions, chose her for the part. Azad had stated that she had auditioned "just for the fun of it" and surprisingly got the part.


title: Afshan Azad

text: In 2017, Azad guest presented an episode of the CBBC series "Marrying Mum & Dad" with Ed Petrie whilst Naomi Wilkinson was away.


title: Afshan Azad

text: Azad married Nabil Kazi on 19 August 2018. They are based in Worcester. On 11 April 2021, the couple announced they were expecting their first child. On 27 July 2021, Azad revealed in an Instagram post that she has given birth to her first child, a baby girl.


title: Afshan Azad

text: When she was 22, Azad's father and brother attacked her because of her relationship with a Hindu boy.


title: Afshan Azad

text: On 29 June 2010 Azad's father, Abdul Azad, and brother, Ashraf Azad, appeared in Manchester Magistrates' Court, charged with threatening to kill her. They were released on bail. Azad's brother was charged with "assault occasioning actual bodily harm", whilst Azad stayed with friends in London. On 20 December 2010, Azad did not attend court when the prosecution accepted her brother's guilty plea to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and a judge ruled both men were not guilty of threatening to kill Azad. On 21 January 2011 Azad's brother was imprisoned for six months.


title: Morpho

text: The morpho butterflies comprise many species of Neotropical butterfly under the genus Morpho. This genus includes more than 29 accepted species and 147 accepted subspecies, found mostly in South America, Mexico, and Central America. "Morpho" wingspans range from for "M. rhodopteron" to for "M. hecuba", the imposing sunset morpho. The name "morpho", meaning "changed" or "modified", is also an epithet.


title: Morpho

text: Many names attach to the genus "Morpho". The genus has also been divided into subgenera. Hundreds of form, variety, and aberration names are used among "Morpho" species and subspecies. One lepidopterist includes all such species within a single genus, and synonymized many names in a limited number of species. Two other lepidopterists use a phylogenetic analysis with different nomenclature. Other authorities accept many more species.


title: Morpho

text: The genus name "Morpho" comes from an Ancient Greek epithet , roughly "the shapely one", for Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.


title: Morpho

text: Many morpho butterflies are colored in metallic, shimmering shades of blues and greens. These colors are not a result of pigmentation, but are an example of iridescence through structural coloration. Specifically, the microscopic scales covering the morpho's wings reflect incident light repeatedly at successive layers, leading to interference effects that depend on both wavelength and angle of incidence/observance. Thus, the colors appear to vary with viewing angle, but they are surprisingly uniform, perhaps due to the tetrahedral (diamond-like) structural arrangement of the scales or diffraction from overlying cell layers. The wide-angle blue reflection property can be explained by exploring the nanostructures in the scales of the morpho butterfly wings. These optically active structures integrate three design principles leading to the wide-angle reflection: Christmas tree-like shaped ridges, alternating lamellae layers (or "branches"), and a small height offset between neighboring ridges. The reflection spectrum is found to be broad (about 90 nm) for alternating layers and can be controlled by varying the design pattern. The Christmas tree-like pattern helps to reduce the directionality of the reflectance by creating an impedance matching for blue wavelengths. In addition, the height offset between neighboring ridges increases the intensity of reflection for a wide range of angles. This structure may be likened to a photonic crystal. The lamellate structure of their wing scales has been studied as a model in the development of biomimetic fabrics, dye-free paints, and anticounterfeit technology used in currency.


title: Morpho

text: The iridescent lamellae are only present on the dorsal sides of their wings, leaving the ventral sides brown.


title: Morpho

text: The ventral side is decorated with ocelli (eyespots). In some species, such as "M. godarti", the dorsal lamellae are so thin that ventral ocelli can peek through. While not all morphos have iridescent coloration, they all have ocelli. In most species, only the males are colorful, supporting the theory that the coloration is used for intrasexual communication between males. The lamellae reflect up to 70% of light falling on them, including any ultraviolet. The eyes of morpho butterflies are thought to be highly sensitive to UV light, so the males are able to see each other from great distances. Some South American species are reportedly visible to the human eye up to one kilometer away.


title: Morpho

text: Also, a number of other species exist which are tawny orange or dark brown (for instance "M. hecuba" and "M. telemachus"). Some species are white, principal among these being "M. catenarius" and "M. laertes". An unusual species, fundamentally white in coloration, but which exhibits a stunning pearlescent purple and teal iridescence when viewed at certain angles, is the rare "M. sulkowskyi". Some Andean species are small and delicate ("M. lympharis"). Among the metallic blue "Morpho" species, "M. rhetenor" stands out as the most iridescent of all, with "M. cypris" a close second. Indeed, "M. cypris" is notable in that specimens mounted in entomological collections exhibit color differences across the wings if they are not 'set' perfectly flat. Many species, like M. cypris and M. rhetenor helena have a white stripe pattern on their colored blue wings as well.


title: Morpho

text: Celebrated author and lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov described their appearance as "shimmering light-blue mirrors".


title: Morpho

text: The blue morpho species exhibit sexual dimorphism. In some species (for instance "M.adonis", "M. eugenia", "M. aega", "M. cypris", and "M. rhetenor"), only the males are iridescent blue; the females are disruptively colored brown and yellow. In other species (for instance "M. anaxibia", "M. godarti", "M. didius", "M. amathonte", and "M. deidamia"), the females are partially iridescent, but less blue than the males.


title: Morpho

text: "Morpho" butterflies inhabit the primary forests of the Amazon and Atlantic. They also adapted to breed in a wide variety of other forested habitats – for instance, the dry deciduous woodlands of Nicaragua and secondary forests.


title: Morpho

text: "Morpho"s have a very distinctive, slow, bouncy flight pattern due to the wing area being enormous relative to the body size.


title: Morpho

text: The larvae hatch from pale-green, dewdrop-like eggs. The caterpillars have reddish-brown bodies with bright lime-green or yellow patches on their backs. Its hairs are irritating to human skin, and when disturbed it secretes a fluid that smells like rancid butter from eversible glands on the thorax. The strong odor is a defense against predators. They feed on a variety of plants. The caterpillar molts five times before entering the pupal stage. The bulbous chrysalis is pale green or jade green and emits a repulsive, ultrasonic sound when touched. It is suspended from a stem or leaf of the food plant.


title: Morpho

text: The adults live for about two to three weeks. They feed on the fluids of fermenting fruit, decomposing animals, tree sap, fungi, and nutrient-rich mud. They are poisonous to predators due to toxins they sequestered from plants on which they fed as caterpillars.


title: Morpho

text: The more common blue morphos are reared "en masse" in commercial breeding programs. The iridescent wings are used in the manufacture of jewelry and as inlay in woodworking. Papered specimens are sold with the abdomen removed to prevent its oily contents from staining the wings. Significant numbers of live specimens are exported as pupae from several Neotropical countries for exhibition in butterfly houses. Unfortunately, due to their irregular flight pattern and size, their wings are frequently damaged when in captivity.


title: Morpho

text: "Morpho" larvae, variously according to species and region, feed on Leguminosae, Gramineae, Canellaceae, Guttiferae, Erythroxylaceae, Myrtaceae, Moraceae, Lauraceae, Sapindaceae, Rhamnaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Musaceae, Palmae, Menispermaceae, Tiliaceae, Bignoniaceae, and Menispermaceae.


title: Morpho

text: According to Penz and DeVries the ancestral diet of larval Satyrinae is Poaceae or other monocots. Many morphos have switched to dicots on several occasions during their evolutionary history, but basal species have retained the monocot diets.


title: Morpho

text: Morpho butterflies, often very expensive, have always been prized by extremely wealthy collectors. Famous collections include those of the London jeweler Dru Drury and the Dutch merchant Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, the Paris diplomat Georges Rousseau-Decelle, the financier Walter Rothschild, the Romanov Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia and the, English and German respectively, businessmen James John Joicey and Curt Eisner. In earlier years, "Morphos" graced cabinets of curiosities ""Kunstkamera"" and royal cabinets of natural history notably those of Tsar of Russia Peter the Great, the Austrian empress Maria Theresa and Ulrika Eleonora, Queen of Sweden. More famous is Maria Sibylla Merian, who was not wealthy.


title: Morpho

text: The people along the Rio Negro in Brazil once exploited the territorial habits of the blue morpho ("M. menelaus") by luring them into clearings with bright blue decoys. The collected butterfly wings were used as embellishment for ceremonial masks. Adult morpho butterflies feed on the juices of fermenting fruit with which they may also be lured. The butterflies wobble in flight and are easy to catch.


title: Holy Motors

text: Holy Motors is a 2012 fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax and starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays Mr. Oscar, a man who appears to have a job as an actor, as he is seen dressing up in different costumes and performing various roles in several locations around Paris over the course of a day, though no cameras or audiences are ever seen around him. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Holy Motors

text: A man wakes up and finds a secret door in his apartment. He opens it and wanders into a movie theater full of sleeping patrons. A naked child and several dogs wander the aisles.


title: Holy Motors

text: Meanwhile, in Paris, a rich man waves goodbye to his family and gets into a white limousine. His driver, Céline, calls him Mr. Oscar and tells him he has nine appointments that day. He reads a file, uncovers a mirror, and begins to brush a grey wig. Over the course of the day, he:


title: Holy Motors

text: Alone, Céline drives to the Holy Motors garage, which is filled with other limousines. She parks, places a white mask on her face, and leaves. The moment she is gone, the limousines begin to talk to one another, expressing fear that they are outdated and unwanted.


title: Holy Motors

text: Before the production of "Holy Motors", Carax had tried to fund a big English-language film for five years. Financiers were reluctant to invest, so Carax, whose previous feature film was "Pola X" in 1999, decided to make a smaller French-language film first, with the aim of regaining prominence in international cinema. Taking inspiration from the omnibus "Tokyo!", for which he had made a commissioned short film ("Merde", which featured the original appearance of the character Monsieur Merde), he wrote a cheap film intended for his regular collaborator Denis Lavant. Carax was able to sway potential investors concerned with the film's budget by switching to digital photography, a process of which he strongly disapproves.


title: Holy Motors

text: The spark for the film came from Carax's observation that stretch limousines were being increasingly used for weddings. He was interested in their bulkiness, saying: "They're outdated, like the old futurist toys of the past. I think they mark the end of an era, the era of large, visible machines." From that grew an idea for a film about the increasing digitalisation of society, a science-fiction scenario where organisms and visible machines share a common superfluity. The opening scene was inspired by the E. T. A. Hoffmann novella "Don Juan", about a man who discovers a secret door in his bedroom that leads to an opera house.


title: Holy Motors

text: "Holy Motors" was produced through Pierre Grise Productions for a budget of €3.9 million, which included money from the CNC, Île-de-France region, Arte France, Canal+, and Ciné+. It was a 20% German co-production through the company Pandora, and received €350,000 from the Franco-German co-production support committee.


title: Holy Motors

text: Of the lead role, Carax said: "If Denis had said no, I would have offered the part to Lon Chaney or to Chaplin. Or to Peter Lorre or Michel Simon, all of whom are dead."


title: Holy Motors

text: Édith Scob had previously worked with Carax on "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf", but was then almost entirely cut out, so Carax felt he owed her a larger role. He also thought "Holy Motors" was indebted to Georges Franju's "Eyes Without a Face", in which Scob starred, and decided to give an explicit nod to the film by casting her.


title: Holy Motors

text: The character Kay M. came from a canceled project that was supposed to star Lavant and Kate Moss and follow the Merde character from "Tokyo!" in the United States. Eva Mendes was offered the role after she and Carax met at a film festival and agreed to make a film together.


title: Holy Motors

text: Michel Piccoli's role was originally intended for Carax himself, but he decided it would be misleading to cast a filmmaker. When Piccoli was cast, the idea was to make him unrecognizable and credit him under a pseudonym, but news of his casting reached the media, so that plan was dropped.


title: Holy Motors

text: The music in the film includes Minogue performing the song "Who Were We?" by Carax and Neil Hannon, as well as Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 15 and the track "Sinking of Bingou-Maru" from "Godzilla". There are also songs by Sparks, Manset, KONGOS, and R. L. Burnside.


title: Holy Motors

text: The film premiered on 23 May 2012 in competition at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, after which "Variety" reported that the screening was met with "whooping and hollering" and "a storm of critical excitement on Twitter". It was released in France on 4 July 2012 through Les Films du Losange.


title: Holy Motors

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 196 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10; the website's critical consensus reads: "Mesmerizingly strange and willfully perverse, "Holy Motors" offers an unforgettable visual feast alongside a spellbinding – albeit unapologetically challenging – narrative." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average of score of 84/100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Holy Motors

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" rated the film five out of five and wrote: "Leos Carax's "Holy Motors" is weird and wonderful, rich and strange – barking mad, in fact. It is wayward, kaleidoscopic, black comic and bizarre; there is in it a batsqueak of genius, dishevelment and derangement; it is captivating and compelling. ... [T]his is what we have all come to Cannes for: for something different, experimental, a tilting at windmills, a great big pole-vault over the barrier of normality by someone who feels that the possibilities of cinema have not been exhausted by conventional realist drama." He later named it one of the year's 10 best films. Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" gave the film five stars, writing: "It is a film about the stuff of cinema itself, and is perhaps the strongest contender for the Palme d’Or yet." On his "Views From The Edge" blog, Spencer Hawken wrote: ""Holy Motors" is a mind-boggling movie, with oodles of character; it’s funny, emotional, and surprising. It has images that will stay in your head, most notably the accordion interlude, which comes completely out of nowhere, and really takes things up a gear." William Goss of Film.com wrote: "In terms of pure cinematic sensation, "Holy Motors" stands as one of the most delightfully enigmatic movies that I've seen in quite some time." Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" called "Holy Motors" one of 2012's 10 best films.


title: Holy Motors

text: The film placed fourth on "Sight & Sound"s critics' poll of the best films of 2012, third on "The Village Voice"s annual poll of film critics, and first on both "Film Comment"s and "Indiewire"s year-end film critics' polls. French film magazine "Cahiers du cinéma" also named "Holy Motors" the best film of the year. In 2016, it was chosen as the 16th-greatest film of the 21st century by a worldwide group of critics polled by the BBC.


title: Holy Motors

text: According to "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?", "Holy Motors" is the 11th-most critically acclaimed film of the 21st century and the 283rd-most critically acclaimed film of all time.


title: Large flying fox

text: The large flying fox (Pteropus vampyrus, formerly Pteropus giganteus), also known as the greater flying fox, Malayan flying fox, Malaysian flying fox, large fruit bat, kalang, or kalong, is a southeast Asian species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. Despite its scientific name, it feeds exclusively on fruits, nectar, and flowers, like the other flying foxes of the genus "Pteropus". It is noted for being one of the largest bats. As with nearly all other Old World fruit bats, it lacks the ability to echolocate but compensates for it with well-developed eyesight.


title: Large flying fox

text: The large flying fox was one of the many mammal species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in the landmark 1758 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae", receiving the name "Vespertilio vampyrus". The holotype was collected on Java. Its species name ""vampyrus"" is derived from Slavic "wampir" meaning "blood-sucking ghost or demon: vampire". This name was chosen in reference to its "alleged blood-sucking habits", although it is entirely vegetarian and largely frugivorous.


title: Large flying fox

text: Based on phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial DNA, the closest relative of the large flying fox is the Rodrigues flying fox ("Pteropus rodricensis"). Because the genus "Pteropus" is so speciose, it is further subdivided into species groups. The large flying fox is the namesake of the ""vampyrus"" group, which also includes the following species:


title: Large flying fox

text: The large flying fox is among the largest species of bat. It weighs and has a wingspan of up to . Its head-body length is . Its forearm length is As is common with most megabats, it has a fox-like face. It lacks a tail and has pointed ears. The hairs on much of its body are long and woolly, but are shorter and more erect on the upper back. The mantle hairs tend to be the longest. The color and texture of the coat differ between sexes and age classes. Males tend to have slightly stiffer and thicker coats than females. Immature individuals are almost all dull gray-brown. Young have a dark-colored mantle that becomes lighter in males when they mature. The head has hairs that range in color from mahogany-red and orange-ochreous to blackish. The ventral areas are brown or blackish, tinged with chocolate, gray or silver. The mantle can vary from pale dirty-buff to orange-yellow, while the chest is usually dark-golden brown or dark russet. The large flying fox has a large and robust skull. The dental formula is . It has a total of 34 teeth. The large flying fox's wings are short and somewhat rounded at the tips. This allows them to fly slowly, but with great maneuverability. The wing membranes are only haired near the body.


title: Large flying fox

text: This species primarily feeds on flowers, nectar and fruit. When all three food items are available, flowers and nectar are preferred. The pollen, nectar, and flower of coconut and durian trees, as well as the fruits of rambutan, fig and langsat trees, are consumed. Flying foxes will also eat mangoes and bananas. With fruit, the flying fox prefers the pulp, and slices open the rind to get it. With durian tree flowers, the flying fox can lick up the nectar without doing apparent damage to the flower. The large flying fox is a host of the Acanthocephalan intestinal parasite "Moniliformis convolutus".


title: Large flying fox

text: Colonies of large flying foxes fly in a scattered stream. They may fly up to to their feeding grounds in one night. Vocalizations are not made during flight. Large flocks fuse into family or feeding groups upon arrival at feeding grounds. Flying foxes may circle a fruit tree before landing, and usually land on the tips of branches in an upright position, then fall into a head-down position from which they feed. Feeding aggregations tend to be very noisy.


title: Large flying fox

text: Flowering trees form the basis of territories in this species. Territorial behavior includes growling and the spreading of wings. During antagonistic behavior, individuals maintain spacing with wrists/thumbs sparring, bites, and loud vocalizations. When moving to a suitable resting place after landing, an individual may fight with conspecifics along the way. A roosting flying fox is positioned upside down with its wings wrapped up. When it gets too warm, a flying fox fans itself with its wings. Roosting bats are restless until midmorning.


title: Large flying fox

text: Female large flying fox gestations are at their highest between November to January in Peninsular Malaysia, but some births occur in other months. In Thailand, gestation may take place during the same period with young being born in March or early April. Females apparently give birth during April and May in the Philippines, and usually give birth to only one young. For the first days, the mothers carry their young, but leave them at the roost when they go on their foraging trips. The young are weaned by two to three months.