title: Reb Beach

text: Richard Earl "Reb" Beach Jr. (born August 31, 1963) is an American rock guitarist. He is a member of the bands Winger and Whitesnake.


title: Reb Beach

text: After graduating from Fox Chapel Area High School and attending Berklee College of Music in the early 1980s, he played in Fiona's backing band and became an accomplished studio musician, working with the likes of Howard Jones, Chaka Khan, The Bee Gees, Twisted Sister, and Roger Daltrey, among others, showcasing Beach's ability to adapt to various musical styles.


title: Reb Beach

text: While working with Fiona, he was introduced to Kip Winger, who was touring with Alice Cooper at the time. Eventually they formed the band Sahara along with Rod Morgenstein and Paul Taylor, which was later renamed to Winger.


title: Reb Beach

text: Winger recorded and toured in support of three albums, "Winger" (1988), "In the Heart of the Young" (1990) and "Pull" (1993). The band also released a number of hit singles, including "Seventeen", "Madalaine", "Headed for a Heartbreak" and "Miles Away".


title: Reb Beach

text: After Winger disbanded in the mid-1990s, Beach first joined Alice Cooper's band and later replaced George Lynch in the heavy metal band Dokken. With Dokken he recorded one studio album, titled "Erase the Slate", and a live DVD, titled "Live from the Sun".


title: Reb Beach

text: Since leaving Dokken, Beach has been a part of several different recording and touring projects. In addition to sporadic touring with Winger, he released a solo effort entitled "Masquerade" in 2002. Since 2002, he has been a member of David Coverdale's current incarnation of Whitesnake and has been the longest-serving guitarist/member of the band to this day, excluding Coverdale.


title: Reb Beach

text: A "supergroup" project called The Mob with King's X frontman dUg Pinnick and Night Ranger drummer Kelly Keagy resulted in a single self-titled album, released in 2005.


title: Reb Beach

text: He replaced Jeff Watson in Night Ranger for a series of dates in Japan and the US, but announced his departure in January 2008.


title: Reb Beach

text: He splits his time between Winger and Whitesnake, recording "Better Days Comin'" in 2014 with the former band, and "The Purple Album" with the latter in 2015. He continues to tour with both acts.


title: Reb Beach

text: According to bandmate Kip Winger, Reb is quite adept at coming up with multiple rock riffs at a time, though he is often unable to remember them later.


title: Reb Beach

text: Ibanez guitars produced his signature RBM models (stands for "Reb Beach Model") in the early 1990s. On the 2005 Whitesnake reunion tour, he primarily used custom models by luthier Suhr Guitars.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team won the WNBA title in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: Founded prior to the 1999 season, the team is owned by Glen Taylor, who is also the majority owner of the Lynx' NBA counterpart, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The franchise has been home to players such as Katie Smith, Seimone Augustus, native Minnesotan Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, and Sylvia Fowles.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx have qualified for the WNBA playoffs in twelve of their twenty-one years. They currently hold a WNBA record ten consecutive playoff appearances.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: On April 22, 1998, the WNBA announced they would add two expansion teams (Minnesota and the Orlando Miracle) for the 1999 season. The team was officially named the Minnesota Lynx on December 5, 1998. The Lynx started their inaugural season in 1999 with 12,122 fans in attendance to watch the first regular-season game against the Detroit Shock at Target Center. The Lynx defeated Detroit 68–51 in the franchise's first game. They finished their first season 15–17 overall and held the same record in 2000.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx' first head coach, Brian Agler, was released during the 2002 season after compiling a 47–67 record in three-plus seasons. Heidi VanDerveer became the interim head coach for the remainder of the season. The team finished the 2002 season with a 10–22 record, worst in franchise history (until 2006).


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2003, the Lynx hired Suzie McConnell-Serio as head coach. She led the team to finish with a franchise-best 18–16 record and advanced to the WNBA Playoffs for the first time. They matched both of these feats in the 2004 season.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The 2005 season was one of transition for the franchise. Leading scorer Katie Smith was dealt to Detroit in July and the team stumbled down the stretch, missing the playoffs for the first time in three years. The poor finish did pay off however, as the team won the draft lottery and selected All-American guard Seimone Augustus of Louisiana State University with the first overall pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx began the 2006 season as the youngest team in the WNBA. On May 31, the team set the WNBA single-game scoring record (at the time), routing the Los Angeles Sparks by a score of 114–71. Despite this victory and with her team floundering to an 8–15 record, head coach McConnell-Serio resigned on July 23. She was replaced by assistant Carolyn Jenkins, who piloted the squad to a 2–9 finish. The team's 24 losses set a franchise record.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: Following the season, Augustus was named the 2006 WNBA Rookie of the Year. Her 21.9 points per game is still a WNBA rookie record. The 22-year-old was the second player in team history to win the award.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In the 2007 WNBA Draft, the Lynx traded center Tangela Smith, whom they acquired in the dispersal draft from the Charlotte Sting, to the Phoenix Mercury for point guard Lindsey Harding, who had been selected first overall.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx began the 2007 season 0–7, lost ten straight in July and failed to get into the playoff race. They finished tying a league-worst 10–24 record. On November 1, 2007, assistant coach and former head coach Carolyn Jenkins was named Director of Player Personnel of the WNBA.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The 2008 season started out much different for the Lynx than in previous years. They came flying out of the gates, going 7–1 in the first five weeks of the season. The Lynx then cooled off. They managed to play competitive basketball all season, but lost many key games down the stretch. The Lynx finished with a 16–18 record in a tough Western Conference where every team was in the playoff chase until the final week of the season. The Lynx however, did not qualify. After two consecutive 10–24 seasons, the 2008 Lynx was a step in the right direction.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2009, Zierden resigned just days before the start of the season. Jennifer Gillom who replaced Teresa Edwards as an assistant coach the previous year, was promoted to head coach. Another Zierden Lynx assistant, former NBA player Jim Petersen stayed with Gillom during the season, working with post players Charde Houston and Nicky Anosike. The Lynx saw similar results in 2008. They started with a good run (7–3), but lost many key games, including a six-game losing streak, and finished 14–20, out from the playoffs for the fifth straight season.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: After five disappointing seasons, the off-season brought much more impact to the franchise. The team hired former Detroit Shock assistant coach Cheryl Reeve as their new head coach, parting ways with Jennifer Gillom, who took the head coaching job of the Los Angeles Sparks. The Lynx also made some moves in the off-season by selecting Rebekkah Brunson in the Sacramento Monarchs dispersal draft, and trading their first overall pick of the 2010 WNBA Draft and Renee Montgomery to the Connecticut Sun for former Minnesota Gopher Lindsay Whalen and the second overall pick. They added free agent Hamchétou Maïga to the lineup, and selected University of Virginia guard Monica Wright with the second pick in the 2010 Draft. With these off-season transactions, the Lynx looked forward to a much improved 2010 season, which was echoed by the eighth annual WNBA general manager poll – 45% of the general managers declared the Lynx the most-improved team as the 2010 season began.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The selection of Maya Moore during the 2011 WNBA Draft led many people to believe the Lynx to be championship contenders for the 2011 season. The team finally lived up to expectations in 2011, behind stellar play from Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Moore, and Whalen, all of whom were named to the 2011 Western Conference All-Star Team. The Lynx went into the All-Star break with a 10–4 record, good for first place in the conference. After losing to Phoenix in a 112–105 contest at Target Center on July 13, the Lynx went on a nine-game winning streak, at the time a franchise record and the longest in the league for 2011. The team finished with a 27–7 record, best in the WNBA and in team history.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx earned the top overall seed in the 2011 WNBA Playoffs. In the first round, they defeated the San Antonio Silver Stars two-games-to-one in the best of three series. The Lynx then swept the Phoenix Mercury in two games to win their first conference championship. In the Finals, the Lynx trailed at halftime in each game, but rallied each time to sweep the Atlanta Dream in three games, securing their first WNBA title, and the first professional championship for the state of Minnesota since the Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1991. Seimone Augustus was named Finals MVP.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2012, the team began the season 10–0, a franchise and league record. They clinched a playoff berth on August 19, 2012, just 21 games into the season. The team fell to the Indiana Fever in the 2012 WNBA Finals.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Lynx used both the loss in the Finals and prognosticators' pre-season focus on the Phoenix Mercury's new phenom, Brittney Griner, to motivate themselves for the 2013 season. The Lynx once again had the best record in the West. They completed their comeback, sweeping through the playoffs en route to their second championship in three years, once again defeating the Atlanta Dream. Maya Moore, showing why she's now a superstar in the WNBA, won the 2013 WNBA Finals MVP. In doing so, the Lynx became the second WNBA team and fifth major professional sports franchise to sweep through the postseason.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2014, the Lynx again had a successful regular season, claiming the second best record in the league, second only to Griner and the Mercury. However, in the playoffs, the Mercury bested them 2–1 in a three-game series, and the Lynx failed to make the finals for the first time since the 2010 season.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2015, two-time Defensive Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles of the Chicago Sky held out of her contract until her wish was granted in July to play for Minnesota. The Lynx would go on to win their third franchise title, all three of them in a five-year span dating back to 2011. Fowles proved herself to be a crucial addition, earning finals MVP honors.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: After winning the WNBA title in 2015, the Lynx qualified to the 2016 WNBA Playoffs as the top seed with a franchise record 28–6 finish, only entering in the semifinals to face the Phoenix Mercury. Due to the Target Center entering a renovation, the team moved to the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, where the Lynx played the 2017 regular season. A sweep of the Mercury qualified the Lynx for their fifth finals in six years, with the adversary being the Los Angeles Sparks. The Lynx would not repeat their title, as the Sparks edged out the Lynx in a five-game series, eventually winning game 5 by 1 point.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: On August 12, 2017, the Lynx set two WNBA records in their 111–52 defeat of the Indiana Fever: largest margin of victory (59 points) and longest unanswered scoring run (37 consecutive points). The Lynx finished as the top seed in the league, finishing 27–7. In the semi-finals, the Lynx defeated the Washington Mystics in a three-game sweep to advance to the WNBA Finals for the sixth time in seven years. The Lynx avenged 2016's Finals loss to the Sparks by defeating them in five games to win their fourth championship in seven seasons and tying the now-defunct Houston Comets for most WNBA championship titles.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2018, with back-up point guard Renee Montgomery leaving in free agency to sign with the Atlanta Dream and a now aging roster intact, the Lynx would start falling way short of championship contention. Although Moore, Fowles, Augustus and Brunson made All-Star appearances, the Lynx finished as the number 7 seed in the league with an 18–16 record. This was the first time in 8 years where the Lynx did not finish as a top 2 seed. Lindsay Whalen also announced her retirement prior to the playoffs. The Lynx started off their playoff run against the rival Los Angeles Sparks in the first round elimination game. They lost 75–68, ending their run of three consecutive Finals appearances, and it was Whalen's final career game.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The home uniforms are white with blue and silver trim. The team jerseys bear the logo of the team's jersey sponsor, the Mayo Clinic, in blue. The road uniforms are blue with silver and white trim and the sponsor logo written in silver. The Lynx previously used an Adidas uniform that was standard throughout the league, but the WNBA partnered with Nike, Inc. for eight years beginning in 2018. The Lynx are also one of 11 WNBA teams sponsored by Verizon, whose logo is also prominently featured on their uniforms.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: During the 2016 season, the white uniforms were temporarily replaced by a new silver uniform. This was part of a league-wide initiative for its 20th season, in which all games featured all-color uniform matchups.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: The Minnesota Lynx Foundation holds an annual "Catwalk for a Cure" event at the Mall of America during the WNBA's Breast Health Awareness Week to raise funds for breast cancer related charities. The 2011 event was held Aug. 5 and raised $5,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: In 2012, the Lynx hosted the Catwalk for a Cure at the Mall of America rotunda for the first time, occupying the largest staging area inside the country's biggest mall. In addition to displaying outfits, Lynx players ended the show with a dance based on the song "Background" by Lecrae and Andy Mineo. The Lynx Foundation donated a $5,000 grant to the SAGE program, run by the Minnesota Department of Health.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: During the WNBA's 2013 Breast Health Awareness Week and in partnership with the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation, the Lynx game against the Indiana Fever on August 25 was a "Pink Out" game at Target Center and on August 29, the 5th annual "Catwalk for a Cure" event was held at the Mall of America. The Lynx donated a $10,000 grant to the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation.


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: Lynx games are broadcast on either Bally Sports North or Bally Sports North Plus. Broadcasters for the Lynx television games are Marney Gellner and Lea B. Olsen. Lynx games are carried on Bob 106.1 FM; John Focke broadcasts radio games (and LiveAccess feeds).


title: Minnesota Lynx

text: All games (excluding blackout games, which are available on ESPN3.com) are broadcast to the WNBA LiveAccess game feeds on the league website. Furthermore, some Lynx games are broadcast nationally on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. The WNBA has reached an eight-year agreement with ESPN, which will pay right fees to the Lynx, as well as other teams in the league.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The 2019 Extreme Rules was the 11th annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions. The event took place on July 14, 2019, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The card comprised 13 matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. Only three of the main card's matches were contested under a hardcore stipulation. In an impromptu main event, Brock Lesnar cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Seth Rollins to win Raw's Universal Championship for a record third time, right after Rollins and Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch had retained their respective titles against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans in a Last Chance Winners Take All Extreme Rules mixed tag team match. In other prominent matches, Kofi Kingston retained SmackDown's WWE Championship against Samoa Joe, AJ Styles defeated Ricochet to win Raw's United States Championship for a third time, The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods defeated Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) and defending champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for a record-tying fourth-time, and in the opening bout, The Undertaker and Roman Reigns defeated Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred tag team match, which proved to be The Undertaker's final match in front of a live audience in the United States before his retirement in 2020.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Extreme Rules is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event produced by WWE since 2009. The concept of the show is that the event features various matches that are contested under hardcore rules and generally features one Extreme Rules match. The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term and has since used it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules". The 2019 Extreme Rules event was the 11th event under the Extreme Rules chronology and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. It took place on July 14, 2019, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was the home of the former ECW promotion from 1993 to 2001.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The show comprised thirteen matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw", "SmackDown Live", and the cruiserweight-exclusive "205 Live".


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: At Stomping Grounds, Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women's Championship against Lacey Evans, and later that night, Seth Rollins defended the Universal Championship against Baron Corbin with a special guest referee of Corbin's choice. Corbin chose Evans, who changed the ongoing match to a no countout, no disqualification match and Evans eventually attacked Rollins, prompting Lynch to come to his aid. Rollins subsequently retained his title. The following night on "Raw", Corbin and Evans brawled with Rollins and Lynch and challenged them to a mixed tag team match. Rollins and Lynch agreed as long as it would mean the end of their respective feuds, while Corbin and Evans insisted that their opponents put their respective titles on the line. As a result, a last chance winners take all mixed tag team match for both the Universal and Raw Women's championships was scheduled for Extreme Rules, with an extreme rules stipulation added the following week.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: At Super ShowDown, Shane McMahon defeated Roman Reigns thanks to interference from Drew McIntyre. This led to a match between Reigns and McIntyre at Stomping Grounds that Reigns won, despite Shane's multiple attempts to distract Reigns. On the following "Raw", Shane and McIntyre dominated wild card guest Reigns in a handicap match until The Undertaker appeared and attacked both Shane and McIntyre. A tag team match featuring Reigns and Undertaker against Shane and McIntyre was then scheduled for Extreme Rules, which was made a No Holds Barred match the following week.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: On the June 24 episode of "Raw", after WWE Champion Kofi Kingston defeated both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in consecutive singles matches (both Kingston and Owens appearing via the wild card rule), Kingston was randomly attacked by Samoa Joe, who performed an uranage on Kingston. As referees tended to Kingston, Joe returned and applied the Coquina Clutch on him. Kingston was subsequently scheduled to defend the WWE Championship against Joe at Extreme Rules. On the following "SmackDown", Dolph Ziggler, whom Kingston defeated to retain the title at Stomping Grounds, faced Kingston in a two out of three falls match in which if Ziggler won, he would have been added to the championship match, however, he was unsuccessful.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: At Stomping Grounds, Bayley retained the SmackDown Women's Championship against Raw's Alexa Bliss. Nikki Cross, who was in Bliss' corner, felt it was her fault that Bliss lost as she tried attacking Bayley during the match. On the following "SmackDown", wild card guest Cross defeated Bayley, thus earning Bliss a rematch for the title at Extreme Rules. On the July 8 episode of "Raw", Cross and wild card guest Bayley both competed in a Beat the Clock challenge with the winner deciding the stipulation of Bayley and Bliss' championship match. Cross won and decided that the championship match would be a handicap match with Cross teaming with Bliss against Bayley.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: On the Stomping Grounds Kickoff pre-show, Drew Gulak defeated former champion Tony Nese and Akira Tozawa in a triple threat match by pinning Tozawa to win the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. On the following episode of "205 Live", Nese defeated Tozawa to earn a rematch against Gulak on the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: At Stomping Grounds, Daniel Bryan and Rowan retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker). On the following "SmackDown", The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods defeated Bryan and Rowan in a non-title match, thus earning a title match at Extreme Rules. The following week, Heavy Machinery were added to the title match after defeating the team of Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler, thus changing the title match into a triple threat tag team match.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Since being drafted to SmackDown during the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up in April, Aleister Black began appearing in ominous backstage promos in a dark room, awaiting a challenger. On the June 25 episode of "SmackDown", there was a knock on Black's door, indicating that someone had accepted his challenge. The following week, however, Black stated that no one was at his door when he answered and said he would be waiting for them at Extreme Rules. On the July 9 episode, Raw's Cesaro was revealed as the mystery challenger.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: After Ricochet won the United States Championship at Stomping Grounds, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and AJ Styles interrupted a photoshoot, congratulating the new champion. The following night on "Raw", Styles defeated Ricochet in a non-title match, and following the match, Styles and Ricochet showed mutual respect to each other. In a title match the following week, Ricochet retained against Styles. After the match, Gallows and Anderson attempted to enter the ring and taunted Styles, who held them off, only to attack Ricochet himself, turning heel. Gallows and Anderson also joined in on the attack, reuniting The Club, and another title match between Ricochet and Styles was scheduled for Extreme Rules.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: At Super ShowDown, Braun Strowman defeated Bobby Lashley. On the June 17 episode of "Raw", Strowman eliminated Lashley from a fatal five-way elimination match for an opportunity at the United States Championship; Lashley in turn helped in Strowman's elimination. The following week, Lashley attacked Strowman after losing a tug of war match. A falls count anywhere match on the July 1 episode ended in a no contest after Strowman tackled Lashley through the LED video wall of the entrance and both were taken to a local medical facility. A Last Man Standing match between the two was then scheduled for Extreme Rules.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: On the Super ShowDown Kickoff pre-show, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder). On the following episode of "Raw", The Revival defeated former champions Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder and The Usos to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. After more feuding on subsequent episodes, The Revival were scheduled to defend the title against The Usos at Extreme Rules.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Two matches were contested on the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show. In the first match, Finn Bálor defended the Intercontinental Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. In the end, Bálor missed a Coup de Grace, which allowed Nakamura to performed a Kinshasa on Bálor to win the title.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: In the second and final pre-show match, Drew Gulak defended the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Tony Nese. Gulak performed an Argentine Neckbraker on Nese to retain the title.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The actual pay-per-view opened with The Undertaker and Roman Reigns facing Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred tag team match. Midway through the match, as Undertaker attempted a Last Ride on Shane, Elias intervened and attacked Undertaker. Reigns attempted to fend off Elias, only for McIntyre to perform Claymore Kicks on both Reigns and Undertaker. Shane then went to the top rope and performed a Diving Elbow Drop on Undertaker through the English announce table. Back in the ring, with a trashcan positioned on Undertaker, Shane performed a Coast-to-Coast, however, before Shane could pin Undertaker, the latter performed his signature sit-up. Undertaker then performed Chokeslams on Shane and Elias. As McIntyre attempted to perform another Claymore on Undertaker, Reigns intercepted him with a Spear. In the end, Reigns threw Shane into Undertaker, who performed a "Tombstone Piledriver" on Shane to win the match. Afterwards, Undertaker gave a nod of approval to Reigns, and told him "it's your yard."


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Next, The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). In the end, The Revival performed the Shatter Machine on Jimmy to retain the title.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: After that, SmackDown's Aleister Black faced Raw's Cesaro. In the end, as Cesaro went for a Neutralizer, Black countered and performed the Black Mass to win the match.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: In the fourth match, Bayley defended the SmackDown Women's Championship in a handicap match against Raw's Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. In the end, Bayley countered Bliss' Twisted Bliss by raising her knees and performed a Diving Elbow Drop on Cross to retain the title.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: In the following match, Bobby Lashley faced Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing match. In the end, Strowman performed a powerslam on Lashley from an elevated platform. Strowman got to his feet, but Lashley was unable to make the ten count, thus Strowman won the match.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: After that, Daniel Bryan and Rowan defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods, and Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) in a triple threat tag team match. The end came when Bryan attempted a backflip to avoid a charging Big E in the corner, who caught Bryan and tagged Woods to perform a Midnight Hour to win the title for a record-tying fourth time.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Next, Ricochet defended the United States Championship against The Club's AJ Styles (accompanied by fellow Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson). Before the match began, Ricochet was attacked by The Club. During the match, Ricochet performed a Lionsault on Styles for a nearfall. Styles performed a brainbuster on Ricochet for a nearfall. Ricochet performed a Shooting Star Press on Styles and as Ricochet attempted a pin on Styles, Gallows notified the referee that Styles’ leg was underneath the rope, thus voiding the pin. In the end, Anderson attempted to distract Ricochet, who fended him off. With the referee distracted by Anderson, Gallows attacked Ricochet and Styles performed the Styles Clash on Ricochet from the middle rope to win the title for a third time.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Kevin Owens then faced Dolph Ziggler in an unadvertised match. As soon as the match started, Owens performed a Stunner on Ziggler to win the match in about seventeen seconds.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: In the penultimate match, Kofi Kingston defended the WWE Championship against Samoa Joe. During the match, Joe crushed Kingston's hand between the steel steps. Joe performed a snap Powerslam for a nearfall. Kingston performed the S.O.S. for a nearfall. In the end, Kingston performed the "Trouble in Paradise" to retain the title.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The main event was the Last Chance Winners Take All Extreme Rules mixed tag team match in which Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch defended the Universal Championship and Raw Women's Championship against Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans. Lynch and Rollins attacked Evans and Corbin with kendo sticks.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Corbin performed a DDT on Rollins onto a steel chair for a nearfall. Evans performed a Moonsault on Lynch for a nearfall. As Rollins and Lynch were setting up tables outside the ring, Corbin and Evans attacked them and performed simultaneous chokeslams for a nearfall. Outside the ring, Lynch and Rollins positioned Corbin and Evans onto the previously set up tables. Lynch performed a Leg Drop on Evans while Rollins performed a Frog Splash on Corbin. Back in the ring, Corbin delivered an End of Days to Lynch. An irate Rollins then furiously attacked Corbin with a kendo stick and a steel chair, followed by three Stomps to retain both his and Lynch's respective titles.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Immediately after the match, Brock Lesnar (accompanied by Paul Heyman) came down to the ring and attacked Rollins with two German suplexes before cashing in his Money in the Bank contract in what would become the first successful attempt for the Universal Championship. Lesnar then performed an "F-5" on Rollins to win the championship for a record third time.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The following night on "Raw", a 10-man Cross Brand battle royal was contested to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship. Seth Rollins won the match by last eliminating Randy Orton to face Brock Lesnar in a rematch for the title at SummerSlam. Subsequently, Rollins was on the receiving end of brutal attacks from Lesnar on both the July 29 and August 5 episodes of "Raw", which resulted in a storyline rib injury.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: Following Extreme Rules, The Club (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) were renamed to "The O.C." (Original Club), and Ricochet won a gauntlet match on the July 29 episode of "Raw" to earn a rematch against Styles for the United States Championship at SummerSlam.


title: Extreme Rules (2019)

text: The Usos had another opportunity at the Raw Tag Team Championship against The Revival on the July 29 episode of "Raw", but in a triple threat match that also involved Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who won to become the new champions.


title: Slime Rancher

text: Slime Rancher is a first-person life simulation adventure video game developed and published by American indie studio Monomi Park. The game was released as an early access title in January 2016, with an official release on Windows, macOS, Linux and Xbox One on August 1, 2017. A PlayStation 4 version was released on August 21, 2018, and a Nintendo Switch version was released on August 11, 2021. A DLC known as the secret style pack was released on June 18, 2019. A sequel, "Slime Rancher 2", was released in early access on September 22, 2022, for Windows and Xbox Series X/S.


title: Slime Rancher

text: The game is played in an open world and from a first-person perspective. The player controls a character named Beatrix LeBeau, a rancher who moves to a planet far from Earth called the Far Far Range to live the life of a "slime rancher", which consists of constructing her ranch and exploring the world of the Far Far Range in order to collect, raise, feed, and breed slimes. Slimes are gelatinous living organisms of various sizes and characteristics. To progress she has notes left by the former owner of the ranch that help her on her journey through the Far Far Range.


title: Slime Rancher

text: The game's main economic aspect revolves around feeding slimes the appropriate food items so that they produce "plorts", which can then be sold in exchange for Newbucks, which are used to purchase upgrades to the rancher's equipment or farm buildings. Except for the basic pink slime, slimes will only eat one of the three types of food; fruit, veggie, and meat. Slimes have a favourite food, if they eat this food they will produce double the normal number of plorts. The player moves the character around a variety of environments and can collect slimes, food items, and plorts by sucking them up with their vacuum tool (called a "Vacpack", a portmanteau of vacuum and backpack). They can only store a limited number of items and item types at a time and must go back to their ranch to unload their collected items before being able to collect more. The player must buy and upgrade various enclosures to house their collected slimes and farms for storing their food. Upgrades can also be aesthetic upgrades to the character's home, Vacpack, and the ranch itself.


title: Slime Rancher

text: Different types of slimes can be combined and enlarged by feeding a slime a plort from another species, making them noticeably larger and able to produce two plorts (known as "Largo" in game). However, if a slime combines more than three traits by eating a third plort different from either species of slime it is combined with, it becomes an aggressive malevolent black slime called the "Tarr", which devours all other slimes around it as well as being able to damage the player. The player can pump fresh water from ponds and springs to splash and disintegrate the Tarrs.


title: Slime Rancher

text: There are different kinds of slimes in the game, which all differ from small traits like simple ears, wings, and tails, to the ability to teleport or grab a chicken via a vine that emerges from the ground. Some of the types of slimes available in game include, docile (not feral), harmful, non-farmable, and feral. Most slimes also have a Gordo version of themselves. These Gordos are extremely large and cannot move around like regular or Largo slimes. These are found across the Far Far Range. Players can shoot food items at them until they explode, to gain normal versions of the Gordo slime's species. When exploded they also produce crates containing random loot as well as either a teleporter or "slime key" which allow access to new areas or fast-travel between known areas.


title: Slime Rancher

text: Development of "Slime Rancher" started in Popovich's apartment. As Popovich was an artist and designer rather than a programmer, he relied on other people's code to create a prototype of the game. He eventually enlisted technical director Mike Thomas to help with the programming. They worked on the game for eight hours a day, a practice Popovich used with employees of Monomi Park to avoid crunch.


title: Slime Rancher

text: The Early Access version of the "Slime Rancher" received generally positive reviews. Heather Alexandra from Kotaku noticed some bugs, but gave the game a positive review, saying that "I'm not usually a fan of games with catharsis but when I return to my bright and goofy farm at the end of the day? I can't help but smile as wide as my slimy little friends." Steve Neilsen from Games Mojo awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating that ""Slime Rancher" is fun and addictive game, with a fun premise and cute creatures. The cartoon style graphics look amazing, and gameplay is clever and full of cute."


title: Slime Rancher

text: The full release of the game got a score of 81/100 on Metacritic, with reviewers saying it had the ability to keep you hooked for hours. Reviewers also said it was relaxing and cathartic, but quite repetitive, and successfully taps into the addictive nature of farming simulators.


title: Slime Rancher

text: By May 2017, the game had sold over 800,000 copies. By February 28, 2019, the game had sold 2 million copies. By January 13, 2022, the game had sold over 5 million copies.


title: Slime Rancher

text: In "Game Informer"s Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, the game tied in third place along with "Forza Motorsport 7" for "Best Microsoft Game", while it came in second place for "Best Simulation Game". The website also gave it the award for the latter category in their Best of 2017 Awards.


title: Matrikas

text: Matrikas (Sanskrit: मातृका (singular), IAST: mātṝkās, lit. "divine mothers") also called Matar or Matri, are a group of mother goddesses who are always depicted together in Hinduism. The Matrikas are often depicted in a group of seven, the Saptamatrika(s) (Seven Mothers). However, they are also depicted as a group of eight, the Ashtamatrika(s).


title: Matrikas

text: In the "Brihat Samhita", Varahamihira says that "Mothers are to be made with cognizance of (different major Hindu) gods corresponding to their names." They are associated with these gods as their spouses or their energies ("Shaktis"). Brahmani emerged from Brahma, Vaishnavi from Vishnu, Maheshvari from Shiva, Indrani from Indra, Kaumari from Skanda, Varahi from Varaha and Chamunda from Devi. and additionals are Narasimhi from Narasimha and Vinayaki from Ganesha.


title: Matrikas

text: Originally believed to be a personification of the seven stars of the star cluster the Pleiades, they became quite popular by the seventh century and a standard feature of goddess temples from the ninth century onwards. In South India, Saptamatrika worship is prevalent whereas the Ashtamatrika are venerated in Nepal, among other places.


title: Matrikas

text: The Matrikas assume paramount significance in the goddess-oriented sect of Hinduism, Tantrism. In Shaktism, they are described as "assisting the great Shakta Devi (goddess) in her fight with demons." Some scholars consider them Shaiva goddesses. They are also connected with the worship of warrior god Skanda. In most early references, the Matrikas are associated with the conception, birth, diseases and protection of children. They were seen as inauspicious and the "personification of perils", propitiated in order to avoid those ills, that carried off so many children before they reached adulthood. They come to play a protective role in later mythology, although some of their early inauspicious and wild characteristics continue in these legends. Thus, they represent the prodigiously fecund aspect of nature as well as its destructive force aspect.


title: Matrikas

text: Matris or Matrikas originated from the sweat of lord Shiva who chased the demons away from heaven when the later invaded heaven after defeating devas.


title: Matrikas

text: According to Jagdish Narain Tiwari and Dilip Chakravati, the Matrikas were existent as early as the Vedic period and the Indus Valley civilization. Seals with rows of seven feminine deities or priestesses are cited as evidence for the theory. The Rigveda (IX 102.4) speaks of a group of seven Mothers who control the preparation of Soma, but the earliest clear description appears in select chapters of the epic Mahabharata dated to 1st century CE. Madhu Wangu believes that Matrika description in Mahabharata is rooted in the group of seven females depicted on Indus valley seals.


title: Matrikas

text: By the fifth century, all these goddesses were incorporated in mainstream orthodox Hinduism as Tantric deities. David Kinsley proposes that the Matrikas may be local village goddesses, who were being assimilated in the mainstream. He cites two reasons for his assertion: their description in Mahabharata as dark in colour, speaking foreign languages and living in "peripheral areas" and their association with god Skanda and his father, Shiva, who though Vedic has attributes. Sara L. Schastok suggests that the Matrikas maybe inspired by the concept of Yakshas, who are associated with Skanda and Kubera – both are often portrayed with the Matrikas. In contrast to the Indus valley origins theory, Bhattacharyya notes:


title: Matrikas

text: The Sapta-Matrikas were earlier connected with Skanda (Kumara) and in later times, associated with the sect of Shiva himself. During the Kushana period (1st to 3rd century), the sculptural images of the matrikas first appear in stone. The Kushana images merged from the belief in "Balagraha" (lit "destroyers of children") worship related to conception, birth, diseases and protection of children. The Balagraha tradition included the worship of the infant Skanda with the Matrikas. The goddesses were considered as personifications of perils, related to children and thus, were pacified by worship. The Kushana images emphasize the maternal as well as destructive characteristics of the Matrikas through their emblems and weapons. They appear to be an undifferentiated sculptural group but develop in standard and complex iconographic representation during the following Gupta period.


title: Matrikas

text: In the Gupta period (3rd to 6th century A.D.), folk images of Matrikas became important in villages. The diverse folk goddesses of the soldiers like Matrikas were acknowledged by the Gupta rulers and their images were carved on royal monuments in order to strengthen the loyalty and adherence of the armed forces. The Gupta kings Skandagupta and Kumaragupta I (c. second half of fifth century) made Skanda (Kumara) their model and elevated the position of Skanda's foster mothers, the Matrikas from a cluster of folk goddesses to court goddesses. Since the fourth century, Parhari, Madhya Pradesh had a rock-cut shrine been solely devoted to the Sapta Matrika.


title: Matrikas

text: The Western Ganga Dynasty (350–1000 CE) kings of Karnataka built many Hindu temples along with "saptamatrika" carvings and memorials, containing sculptural details of "saptamatrikas". The evidence of Matrika sculptures is further pronounced in the Gurjara–Patiharas (8th to 10th century CE) and Chandella period (8th to 12th century CE). The Chalukyas claimed to have been nursed by the Sapta Matrikas. It was a popular practice to link South Indian royal family lineage to a Northern kingdom in ancient times. During the Chalukya period (11th to 13th century), all Matrikas continued to figure among the deity sculptures of this period.


title: Matrikas

text: The Kadambas and Early Chalukyas from the fifth century praise the Matrikas in their preambles, as giver of powers to defeat enemies. In most of the relevant texts, their exact number has not been specified, but gradually their number and names became increasingly crystallized and seven goddesses were identified as matrikas, albeit some references indicate eight or even sixteen Matrikas. Laura K. Amazzone cites:


title: Matrikas

text: The inconsistency in the number of Matrikas found in the valley [Indus] today (seven, eight, or nine) possibly reflects the localization of goddesses [.] Although the Matrikas are mostly grouped as seven goddesses over the rest of the Indian Subcontinent, an eighth Matrikas has sometimes been added in Nepal to represent the eight cardinal directions. In Bhaktapur, a city in the Kathmandu Valley, a ninth Matrika is added to the set to represent the center.


title: Matrikas

text: The iconographical features of the Matrikas have been described in Hindu scriptures such as the "Mahabharata", Puranas such as the "Varaha Purana", "Agni Purana", "Matsya Purana", "Vishnudharmottara Purana" and Devi Mahatmya (part of the "Markandeya Purana") and also in the Agamas such as the "Amsumadbhedagama", "Surabhedagama", "Purvakarnagama" and "Rupamandana".


title: Matrikas

text: Though the first six are unanimously accepted by texts, the name and features of the seventh and eighth Matrika are disputed. In Devi-Mahatmya, Chamunda is omitted after the Saptamatrika list, while in sculpture in shrines or caves and the Mahabharata, Narasimhi is omitted. The Varaha Purana names Yami – the Shakti of Yama, as the seventh and Yogishwari as the eighth Matrika, created by flames emerging from Shiva's mouth. In Nepal, the eighth Matrika is called Mahalakshmi or Lakshmi is added omitting Narasimhi. In lists of nine Matrikas, Devi-Purana mentions Gananayika or Vinayaki – the Shakti of Ganesha, characterized by her elephant head and ability to remove obstacles like Ganesha and Mahabhairavi omitting Narasimhi.


title: Matrikas

text: The Female power Shakti called as Kalyani devi of the god Matsya the first and fish avatar of Vishnu is also included sometimes in central India.


title: Matrikas

text: Devi Bhagvata Purana mentions 2 other Matrikas Varuni (shakti of Varuna), Kauberi (shakti of Kubera) and Narayani, (shakti of Narayana).


title: Matrikas

text: There are several Puranic texts related to the origin of Matrikas. Matsya Purana, Vamana Purana, Varaha Purana, Kurma Purana and the Suprabhedagama contain references to Matrikas, and this asserts their antiquity.


title: Matrikas

text: According to the Shumbha-Nishumbha story of Devi Mahatmya, Matrikas appear as Shaktis from the bodies of the gods – Brahma, Shiva, Skanda, Vishnu, Indra; having the form of each, approached Chandika (identified with Devi) with whatever form, ornaments and vehicle the god possessed. In that form, they slaughter the demon army. Thus, the Matrikas are goddesses of the battlefield. They are described as assistants of Durga having sinister as well as propitious characteristics. After the battle, the Matrikas dance drunk with their victim's blood. This description is repeated with little variation in "Devi Bhagavata Purana" and "Vamana Purana". The "Devi-Bhagavata Purana" mentions three other goddesses, Shaktis of other gods' in addition to the Saptamatrika, making a group of 10 Matrikas.


title: Matrikas

text: According to latter episode of Devi Mahatmya, Durga created Matrikas from herself and with their help slaughtered the demon army. In this version, Kali is described as a Matrika, who sucked all the blood of demon Raktabija. Kali is given the epithet Chamunda in the text. When demon Shumbha challenges Durga to a single combat, she absorbs the Matrikas in herself and says that they are her different forms.In the Vamana Purana too, the Matrikas arise from different parts of Devi and not from male gods although they are described and named after the male deities.


title: Matrikas

text: In Matsya Purana, Shiva had created seven Matrikas to combat the demon Andhaka, who had the ability to duplicate from each drop of his blood that falls from him when he is wounded. The Matrikas drink up his blood and help Shiva defeat the demon. After the battle, the Matrikas begin a rampage of destruction by starting to devour other gods, demons and peoples of the world. Narasimha, Vishnu's man-lion incarnation, creates a host of thirty-two benign goddesses who calm down the terrible, fire-breathing Matrikas. Narasimha commanded the Matrikas to protect the world, instead of destroying it and thus be worshipped by mankind. At the end of the episode, Shiva's terrible form Bhairava is enshrined with the images of the Matrikas at the place where the battle took place. This story is retold in Vishnudharmottara Purana. Vishnudharmottara Purana further relates them with vices or inauspicious emotions like envy, pride, anger etc.


title: Matrikas

text: In Varaha Purana, they are created from the distracted mind of goddess Vaishnavi, who loses her concentration while doing asceticism. They are described as lovely and act as the goddesses' attendants on the battlefield. In the "Bhagavata Purana", when beings created by Vishnu are enlisted; the Matrikas are listed with rakshasas (demons), bhutas (ghosts), pretas, dakinis and other dangerous beings. In the same text, milkmaids offer a prayer for protection of the infant-god Krishna from the Matrikas.


title: Matrikas

text: The Devi Purana (6th – 10th century) mentions a group of sixteen matrikas and six other types of Matrikas mentioned, apart from the Saptamatrikas. It introduces the "Loka-matara" (mothers of the world), a term used in the Mahabharata, in the very first chapter. Kind to all creatures, the Matrikas are said to reside in various places for the benefit of children. The text paradoxically describes the Matrikas as being created by various gods like Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Indra as well as being their mothers. Devi Purana describe a pentad of Matrikas, who help Ganesha to kill demons. Further, sage Mandavya is described as worshipping the ' (the five mothers) named Ambika (Kaumari), Rudrani, Chamunda, Brahmi and Vaishnavi and who have been established by Brahma; for saving king Harishchandra from calamities. The Matrikas direct the sage to perform worship of '(interpreted as a Yantra or Mandala or a circular shrine to the Matrikas), established by Vishnu on the Vindhya mountains, by meat and ritual sacrifice.


title: Matrikas

text: The Mahabharata narrates in different chapters the birth of warrior-god Skanda (the son of Shiva and Parvati) and his association with the Matrikas – his adopted mothers.


title: Matrikas

text: In one version, Indra (king of gods) sends the goddesses called "mothers of the world" to kill him. However, upon seeing Skanda, instead they follow their maternal instincts and raise him. In the chapter "Vana-parva" version, the Saptamatrikas are mentioned. Later in the Mahabharata; when absorption of these indigenous goddesses in the Brahmanic pantheon was initiated, a standardized group of seven goddesses – the Saptamatrikas, Shaktis or powers of Brahmanic gods are mentioned as Brahmi, Maheshvari, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani and Chamunda.


title: Matrikas

text: In other accounts of Skanda's birth in Mahabharata, eight ferocious goddesses emerge from Skanda, when struck by Indra's Vajra (thunderbolt). These are Kāki, Halimā, Mālinī, , Āryā, Palālā and Vaimitrā, which Skanda accepted as his mothers, who stole other children – a characteristic of the Matrikas.


title: Matrikas

text: Another account mentions the "Maha-matrikas" (the great mothers), a group of the wives of six of the Saptarishis (7 great sages), who were accused of being Skanda's real mothers and thus abandoned by their husbands. They request Skanda to adopt them as his mothers. Skanda agrees and grants them two boons: to be worshipped as great goddesses and permission to torment children as long as they are younger than 16 years and then act as their protectors. These six goddesses as well as the Saptamatrikas are identified or associated with Vedic Krittikas, the constellation Pleiades.


title: Matrikas

text: The Shalya Parva of the Mahabharata mentions characteristics of a host of Matrikas, who serve Skanda. Ninety-two of them are named but the text says there exist more. The Shalya Parva describes them as young, cheerful, most of them fair but having dangerous features like long nails and large teeth. They are said to fight like Indra in battles, invoking terror in minds of enemies; speak different foreign tongues and lives in inaccessible places away from human settlements like crossroads, caves, mountains, springs, forests, riverbanks and cremation grounds. Notable among these lists of Matrikas is "Putana", a goddess who tried to kill the infant Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) by suckling him with poisoned breast milk and consequently killed by Krishna.


title: Matrikas

text: The textual description of Matrikas is generally frightening and ferocious. In the Mahabharata, all the seven mothers are described as fatal or serve as threats to foetuses or infants. They are described as living in trees, crossroads, caves and funeral grounds and they are terrible as well as beautiful. But, in the sculptural portrayal, they are depicted quite differently as protectors and benevolent mothers. They are armed with the same weapons, wear the same ornaments, and ride the same vahanas and carry the same banners as their corresponding male deities.


title: Matrikas

text: The Saptamatrkas are generally carved in relief on a rectangular stone slab in the sequential order of Brahmani, Maheshvari, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani and Chamunda, being flanked


title: Matrikas

text: by two male figures – a terrible form of Shiva (Virabhadra) and his son Ganesha in both sides (first – on their right and last – on their left). Thus, the Matrikas are considered Saivite goddesses. They are often depicted on the lintel slabs of the main door of a Shiva temple – mainly in the Jaunsar-Bawar region, with their respective mounts forming the pedestal. Sometimes, they are occupied by the couple Uma-Maheshvara (Parvati and Shiva). The earliest instance of their portrayal with Uma-Maheshvara is at Desha Bhattarika, Nepal although now the Matrika images have withered away. The 12th century Sanskrit author Kalhana mentions worship of Matrikas with Shiva in Kashmir, his work Rajatarangini.


title: Matrikas

text: Three panels of Saptamatrikas appear near the Shiva cave at Udayagiri, Bhopal. They are also depicted in the Shaiva caves of Elephanta and Ellora (Caves 21, 14, 16 and 22). In sixth century Rameshvara cave (Cave 21) at Ellora, "With the terrific aspect repressed entirely, the matrikas are depicted as benign and are worshipped in adulation. Sensuous, elegant, tender, beautiful adolescents, they are yet haughty and grand, quintessentially the creatrix." Karrtikkeyi (Kumari) is depicted with a child on her lap and even Varahi is depicted with a human head, rather than the usual boar one. In Ravana-ka-kai cave (Cave 14), each of the matrikas is with a child. In eighth century Kailash Temple (cave 16) – dedicated to Shiva – of Rashtrakuta period, the Matrikas appear on the southern boundary of the temple. As the influence of Tantra rose, the fertility area and upper parts of body in the Matrika sculptures were stressed.


title: Matrikas

text: In each of the four depictions at Ellora, the matrikas are accompanied by Virabhadra, Ganesha and also on their left (besides Ganesha) by Kala (Time personified or Death). The presence of Kala in form of a skeleton, seems to indicate the darker aspect of the matrikas' nature. At Osian, the Matrikas is flanked by Ganesha and Kubera (the treasurer of the gods and a devotee of Shiva) while Virabhadra sits in the middle of the group. In Gupta and post-Gupta art, like in 6th Century caves of Shamalaji, the Matrikas are accompanied by Shiva's son Skanda.


title: Matrikas

text: The Matrikas are included among the Yoginis, a group of sixty-four or eighty-one Tantric goddesses, in a tradition which treats the Yoginis as important deities, whereas another tradition, which views the Yoginis as cruel minor deities, considers them separate entities. In Sanskrit literature the Yoginis have been represented as the attendants or various manifestations of goddess Durga engaged in fighting with the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha, and the principal Yoginis are identified with the Matrikas. Other Yoginis are described as born from one or more Matrikas. The derivation of sixty-four Yoginis from eight Matrikas became a common tradition, by mid- 11th century. The Mandala (circle) and chakra of Yoginis were used alternatively. The eighty-one Yoginis evolve from a group of nine Matrikas, instead of seven or eight. The Saptamatrika (Brahmi, Maheshvari, Kumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani and Chamunda) joined by Chandika and Mahalakshmi form the nine Matrika cluster. Each Matrika is considered to be a Yogini and is associated with eight other Yoginis resulting in the troupe of eighty-one (nine times nine); there is an 81-Yogini temple at Bhedaghat in Madhya Pradesh. Thus, Yoginis are considered as manifestations or daughters of the Matrikas.


title: Matrikas

text: The yoginis also occupy an important place in Tantra, with 64-Yogini temples across India including the well-preserved ones at Ranipur-Jharial and Hirapur in Odisha. The rise of the Yogini cult is analogous to the rise of the Matrikas' cult. Bhattacharyya sums it this way: "The growing importance of Shaktism [of the matrikas and yoginis in the first millennium CE] brought them into greater prominence and distributed their cult far and wide. [...] The primitive Yogini cult was also revived on account of the increasing influenced of the cult of the Seven Mothers."


title: Matrikas

text: Matrika (Sanskrit "mātṛkā") is also a term used to denote features of Indic scripts (also in combination with aksara, matrikaksara), though there is considerable variation in the precise interpretation of the term from one author to another. Sometimes it denotes a single character, the entire collection of characters (an "alphabet"), the alphabetic "matrix" used as a collation tool, vowels in particular (considered erroneous by Georg Bühler), or the sound of the syllable represented by the character. Various traditions identify the script matrikas with the personified divine Matrikas.


title: Matrikas

text: According to K.C. Aryan, the number of Matrikas is determined in the structure of the Devanagari alphabet. First is the (A) group which contains the vowels, then the (Ka), (Cha), (Ta), (ta), (Pa), (Ya) and (Ksha) groups. The seven mother goddesses ("Saptamatrikas") correspond to the seven consonant groups; when the vocalic (A) group is added to it, the eight mother goddesses ("Ashtamatrikas") are obtained. The Shaktas hold that the Mothers preside over impurities ("mala") and over sounds of the language. The Mothers were identified with fourteen vowels plus the "anusarva" and "visarga", making their number sixteen.


title: Matrikas

text: In Tantra, the fifty or fifty-one letters including vowels as well as consonants from A to Ksha, of the Devanagari alphabet itself, the "Varnamala" of bija, have been described as being the Matrikas themselves. It is believed that they are infused with the power of the Divine Mother herself. The Matrikas are considered to be the subtle form of the letters "(varna)". These letters combined make up syllables "(pada)" which are combined to make sentences "(vakya)" and it is of these elements that mantra is composed. It is believed that the power of mantra derives from the fact that the letters of the alphabet are in fact forms of the goddess. The 50 Matrika Kalas are given in the same account as follows: Nivritti, Pratishtha, Vidya, Shanti, Indhika, Dipika, Mochika, Para, Sukshma, Sukshmamrita, Jnanamrita, Apypayani, Vyapini, Vyomarupa, Ananta, Srishti, Riddhi, Smriti, Medha, Kanti, Lakshmi, Dyuti, Sthira, Sthiti, Siddhi, Jada, Palini, Shanti, Aishvarya, Rati, Kamika, Varada, Ahladini, Pritih, Dirgha, Tikshna, Raudri, Bhaya, Nidra, Tandra, Kshudha, Krodhini, Kriya, Utkari, Mrityurupa, Pita, Shveta, Asita, Ananta. Sometimes, the Matrikas represent a diagram written in the letter, believed to possess magical powers.


title: Matrikas

text: According to Leslie C. Orr, the Saptamatrika, who first appeared in South India in the eighth century, had once temples dedicated exclusively to them, but the ninth century onwards, they were demoted to status of "deities of the entourage" ("parivara devata") of Shiva. Their images moved from the sanctums to corners of temple complexes and now they are as guardian deities in small village shrines. The Saptamatrikas are worshipped as "Sapta kanya" (the celestial nymphs) in most South Indian Shiva temples especially in Tamil Nadu. But the Selliyamman temple at Alambakkam in Tiruchirapalli district (In 1909 called Trichonopoly district) is important in worship of the Matrikas. Here once stood a temple dedicated to the Saptamatrika, which was replaced by the present temple. In Tamil Nadu, the matrikas are called as "Kannimargal" or "Saptakannigal" and are worshipped in every nook and corner. This worship in Tamil Nadu is very ancient and still in practice for thousands of years..


title: Matrikas

text: The Saptha Kannimar Padal is one of the sub-sections of Arul Nool which was the secondary scripture of Ayyavazhi. This follows the concept of Saptha Kanya.The author of the content is unknown. This contains the event's background and reason for the birth of the seven virgins in the world. Below are the names of Saptha Kannimar:


title: Matrikas

text: Saptha kanniyar sannidhi is separately devoted and built with artistic nuances with natural sceneries and animals pictures painted on the surrounding walls. The terrace is left open unto the sky. This sannidhi is located in Melmaruvathur Aadhiparasakthi Sidhar Peedam, Melmaruvathur.


title: Matrikas

text: Kannimar Kothiram of Sengunthar Kaikola Mudaliar community and other Devotees from all over Tamil Nadu frequently visit this temple. Every new moon day there is a grand pooja which is witnessed by a large group of devotees from all over Tamil Nadu. And it is a must visit for all Kannimar devotees.


title: Matrikas

text: Arulmigu Kannimar Samy is worshiped by Sengunthar and jangam community. They have a unique way of worship. They boil rice in seven pots placed one on top of other. Kannimar is represented as locas, sapta swaram and seven energy centres in the human body.


title: Matrikas

text: In India, shrines of the Saptamatrikas are located in "the wilderness", usually near lakes or rivers, and are made of seven vermilion smeared stones. It is believed that the Matrikas kill fetuses and newborns unless pacified with bridal finery and prayers by women. A prominent Saptamatrika temple is located near Baitarani River, in Jajpur.


title: Matrikas

text: The Saptamatrika images are worshipped by women on "Pithori" – new moon day, with the 64 yoginis represented by rice flour images or supari nuts. The goddesses are worshipped by ceremonial offerings of fruit and flower and mantras.


title: Matrikas

text: The Matrikas function both as city protectors and individual protectors in both Hinduism and Buddhism. The Astha matrika are considered as Ajimas (grandmother goddesses, who are feared as bringer of disease and misfortune as well act as protectresses) in the Newar pantheon. Temples ("pithas" i.e. seats) of the ashta matrika built in and around Kathmandu are considered powerful places of worship.


title: Matrikas

text: The "pithas" are usually open-air shrines, but may be closed structures too. In these "pithas", the Matrikas are worshipped with their followers ("ganas") in form of stone statues or natural stones, while in "dyochems" (god-houses) in towns and villages, they are represented in brass images. The brass images ("utsav-murtis") are paraded around town and placed at their respective "pithas" once every year. Like Vishnudharmottara Purana (discussed in Legends), the Matrikas are considered as representing a vice and are worshipped by "pithapuja" (a pilgrimage around the "pithas") to free oneself from them. Though each "pitha" is primarily dedicated to a Matrika, the other Matrikas are also worshipped as subordinate deities. The "pithas", which are "theoretically located at the outer boundaries of the city" are said to form a protective mandala around the city and assisted to a certain compass point. In other temples like the ones dedicated to Pacali Bhairava, the Asthamatrikas are worshipped as a circle of stones. In Bhaktapur, the Ashtamatrikas are believed to the preserver goddesses of the city guarding the eight geometrical directions. Mary Sluser says "Not only do the guard the compass points but they are also regarded as regents of the sky." Sometimes, they are paired with the Ashta Bhairava (Eight aspects of Bhairava) and sculpted on temple roofs or terraces. Nepali Buddhists worship the Matrikas as described in Dharanisamgrahas.


title: Matrikas

text: The Malla king of Nepal Srinivasa Malla built the Patan durbar (court) in 1667 AD and is believed to have seen the Matrikas dance in the durbar one night. The king ordered that the Ashta-matrika be worshipped during the Ashwin Navaratri and cost is defrayed by the durbar. The custom has continued into modern times.


title: Matrikas

text: In the Kathmandu valley of Nepal, the Ashta-matrikas with a central village goddess are worshipped as protectors of the city or town. They are identified with the guardians of directions ("digpala"), places ("lokapala") or lands ("kshatrapala"), satiated by blood sacrifice. Newar Buddhists associate the Matrikas with 24 human qualities, which can mastered by visiting three sets of eight Matrika "pitha"s.


title: Matrikas

text: The 7th century Sanskrit author Banabhatta mentions the propitiation of Matrikas by a Tantric ascetic in his Harshacharita. The text mentions use of ' (mandala of the Matrikas) or "Yantra" along with a special "anusthana" (ritual) to cure the ailing king. The text describes "young nobles [..](of the king) burning themselves with lamps to propitiate the Matrikas in a temple dedicated to the Matrikas ('). Banabhatta's Kadambari, Bhasa's Cārudatta, Shudraka's Mrichakatika mention the ritual offerings of food and shrines of Matrikas at crossroads. Other offerings include flowers and clothes and meat and wine for some Matrikas. Tantric works like Tantrarāja-Tantra (unknown date, author) and discuss the worship of Matrikas as Shaktis or letters of the alphabet. A process of this worship, "Matrika-nyasa" (lit. "installation of the Mothers"), is described in Devi Gita, part of Devi Bhagavata Purana. It involves installation of powers of Matrikas – as letters of the alphabet – in one's body, by "feeling the deity worshipped in different parts of the body" like head, face, anus and legs and reciting mantras. The "Hrillekha-matrika-nyasa", a more specialized form of "Matrika-nyasa", combines the installation of "most powerful set of all letters (Matrikas)" with the seed syllable "" of Goddess Bhuvaneshvari.


title: Matrikas

text: Stone inscriptions of Tantric worship of The Matrikas are found in Gangadhar, Rajasthan(by king Vishvavarman- 423 C.E., identified as the first epigraphic evidence of Tantra worship); in Bihar (by Guptas – fifth century) and in Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh (by – sixth century). The Gangadhar inscripture deals with a construction to a shrine to Chamunda and the other Matrikas, "who are attended by Dakinis (female demons)" and rituals of daily Tantric worship ("Tantrobhuta") like the ritual of "Bali" (offering of grain).


title: Matrikas

text: The eight Matrikas are said to reside the second line of "bhupura" in Sri Chakra. They are frequently aligned with the Eight Bhairavas, as in "". The (1.33) explains that the primary function of Matrikas is to preside eight groups ("vargas") of letters of Devanagari alphabet, while Brahmayāmala states they issue originate from the vowels.


title: Matrikas

text: The Natya Shastra (13.66) recommends worship to Matrikas before setting up the stage and before dance performances. Indra declares in chapter 90 of Devi Purana that the Matrikas are the best among all deities and should be worshipped in cities, villages, towns and shields. Matrikas are generally to be worshipped on all occasions with Navagraha (the nine planets) and the Dikpala (Guardians of the directions) and at night with the Goddess.


title: Matrikas

text: The Matsya Purana and Devi Purana prescribe that Matrika shrines should be north-facing and be placed in northern part of a temple-complex. The temples of the Matrikas are found earliest dating to the fourth century and from textual evidence, it is predicated that "there must be impressive shrines all over the [Indian] subcontinent". Although circular Mandalas and Chakras are mentioned in religious texts, most existing shrines are rectangular in nature. Pal speculates that earlier circular shrines, which open to the sky or under trees of less durable material were replaced by the Guptas in stone as rectangular shrines.


title: Matrikas

text: The Devi Purana mentions the Matrikas or "Deva Shaktis" (powers of the gods) as group of seven or more, who should be worshipped for Mukti (liberation) by all, but particularly kings for powers of domination. The Saptamatrika are worshipped for "personal and spiritual renewal" with Mukti as the ultimate goal as well as for powers to control and rule and earthly desires (Bhukti).Also important are the banners of the Saptamatrikas, which are carved outside the Udayagiri caves. These banners are called "Indra's sisters" in the Devi Purana. The Purana lists them as: swan, bull, peacock, conch, discus, elephant and skeleton – attributes of the Matrikas. A king installing these banners is believed to get mukti and bhukti. As per the Nitisara, Matrikas acted as the king's tangible Shaktis and conferred the power to conquer and rule.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in London, England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters. Though admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, his work fell into disrepute after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been re-evaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century British art.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronryp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. The surname "Tadema" is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning 'son of Tade', while the names "Lourens" and "Alma" came from his godfather. He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema (1797–1840), the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer (–1863). His father had three sons from a previous marriage. His parents' first child died young, and the second was Artje (–1876), Lourens' sister, for whom he had great affection.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden, where Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative. His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Lourens, his sister, and three boys from his father's first marriage. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. Diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices, he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. During Alma-Tadema's four years as a registered student at the academy, he won several awards.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Before leaving the academy, towards the end of 1855, he became assistant to the painter and professor Louis (Lodewijk) Jan de Taeye, whose courses in history and historical costume he had greatly enjoyed at the academy. Although de Taeye was not an outstanding painter, Alma-Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant, working with him for three years. De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career. He was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema left Taeye's studio in November 1858 returning to Leeuwarden before settling in Antwerp, where he began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys, whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work: "The Education of the children of Clovis" (1861). This painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame and reputation. Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese. He collaborated with Hendrik Leys on the series of wall paintings in the Leys Hall on the second floor of Antwerp City Hall, which depict significant moments in the history of The Netherlands.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema took this criticism very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the world's foremost painter of marble and variegated granite. Despite any reproaches from his master, "The Education of the Children of Clovis" was well received by critics and artists alike and was eventually purchased and subsequently given to King Leopold of Belgium.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1860 he befriended the Anglo-Dutch Dommersen family of artists in Utrecht In 1862 he made pencil drawings of Mrs. Cornelia Dommershuizen and one of her sons Thomas Hendrik, whose brothers were the painters Pieter Cornelis Dommersen and Cornelis Christiaan Dommersen.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Merovingian themes were the painter's favourite subject up to the mid-1860s. However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt, which were more popular. In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: 1863 was to alter the course of Alma-Tadema's personal and professional life: on 3 January his invalid mother died, and on 24 September he was married, in Antwerp City Hall, to Marie-Pauline Gressin-Dumoulin de Boisgirard, the daughter of Eugène Gressin-Dumoulin, a French journalist living near Brussels. Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869. Her image appears in a number of oils, though he painted her portrait only three times, the most notable appearing in "My studio" (1867). The couple had three children. Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of smallpox. Their two daughters, Laurence (1865–1940) and Anna (1867–1943), both had artistic leanings: the former in literature, the latter in art. Neither would marry.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema and his wife spent their honeymoon in Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii. This, his first visit to Italy, developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii, which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades. There he met Geremia Discanno, an Italian painter who had been commissioned by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli to reproduce the brightly painted frescoes being uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum before they faded from exposure. He would consult Discanno a number of times before Discanno's death in 1907 to ensure his paintings of antiquity would reflect the lifestyle of residents of the Greco-Roman world accurately.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: During the summer of 1864, Tadema met Ernest Gambart, the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period. Gambart was highly impressed with the work of Tadema, who was then painting "Egyptian Chess Players" (1865). The dealer, recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter, gave him an order for twenty-four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema's paintings to be shown in London. In 1865, Tadema relocated to Brussels where he was named a knight of the Order of Leopold.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: On 28 May 1869, after years of ill health, Pauline died of smallpox at Schaerbeek in Belgium, aged 32. Her death left Tadema disconsolate and depressed. He ceased painting for nearly four months. His sister Artje, who lived with the family, helped with the two daughters then aged five and two. Artje took over the role of housekeeper and remained with the family until 1873 when she married.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: During the summer Tadema himself began to suffer from a medical problem which doctors in Brussels were unable to diagnose. Gambart eventually advised him to go to England for another medical opinion. Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869, Alma-Tadema was invited to the home of the painter Ford Madox Brown. There he met Laura Theresa Epps, who was seventeen years old, and fell in love with her at first sight.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 encouraged Alma-Tadema to leave the continent and move to London. His infatuation with Laura Epps played a great part in his relocation to England and in addition Gambart felt that the move would be advantageous to the artist's career. In stating his reasons for the move, Tadema simply said "I lost my first wife, a French lady with whom I married in 1863, in 1869. Having always had a great predilection for London, the only place where, up till then my work had met with buyers, I decided to leave the continent and go to settle in England, where I have found a true home."


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: With his small daughters and sister Atje, Alma-Tadema arrived in London at the beginning of September 1870. The painter wasted no time in contacting Laura, and it was arranged that he would give her painting lessons. During one of these, he proposed marriage. As he was then thirty-four and Laura was now only eighteen, her father was initially opposed to the idea. Dr Epps finally agreed on the condition that they should wait until they knew each other better. They married in July 1871. Laura, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist, and appears in numerous of Alma-Tadema's canvases after their marriage ("The Women of Amphissa" (1887) being a notable example). This second marriage was enduring and happy, though childless, and Laura became stepmother to Anna and Laurence. Anna became a painter and Laurence became a novelist.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In England he initially adopted the name "Laurence Alma Tadema" instead of "Lourens Alma Tadema" and later used the more English spelling "Lawrence" for his forename. He also incorporated "Alma" into his surname so that he appeared at the beginning of exhibition catalogues, under "A" rather than under "T". He did not actually hyphenate his last name, but it was done by others and this has since become the convention.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: After his arrival in England, where he was to spend the rest of his life, Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded. By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette, varied his hues, and lightened his brushwork.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1872 Alma-Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well. "Portrait of my sister, Artje", painted in 1851, is numbered opus I, while two months before his death he completed "Preparations in the Coliseum", opus CCCCVIII. Such a system made it more difficult for fakes to be passed off as originals.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1873 Queen Victoria in Council by letters patent made Alma-Tadema and his wife what are still up to the present time the last British Denizens created (the legal process has theoretically not yet been abolished in the United Kingdom), with some limited special rights otherwise only accorded to and enjoyed by British subjects (that is, those would now be called British citizens). The previous year he and his wife made a journey on the continent that lasted five and a half months and took them through Brussels, Germany, and Italy. In Italy Alma-Tadema was able to take in the ancient ruins again; this time he purchased several photographs, mostly of the ruins, which began his immense collection of folios with archival material used in the completion of future paintings. In January 1876, he rented a studio in Rome. The family returned to London in April, visiting the Parisian Salon on their way back. In London he regularly met with fellow-artist Emil Fuchs.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Among the most important of his pictures during this period was "An Audience at Agrippa's" (1876). When an admirer of the painting offered to pay a substantial sum for a painting with a similar theme, Alma-Tadema simply turned the emperor around to show him leaving, in "After the Audience".


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: On 19 June 1879, Alma-Tadema was made a Royal Academician, his most personally important award. Three years later, a major retrospective of his entire oeuvre was organised at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, including 185 of his pictures.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1883 he returned to Rome and, most notably, Pompeii, where further excavations had taken place since his last visit. He spent a significant amount of time studying the site, going there daily. These excursions gave him an ample source of subject matter as he began to further his knowledge of daily Roman life. At times, however, he integrated so many objects into his paintings that some said they resembled museum catalogues.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: One of his most famous paintings is "The Roses of Heliogabalus" (1888) – based on an episode from the life of the debauched Roman emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabalus), the painting depicts the emperor suffocating his guests at an orgy under a cascade of rose petals. The blossoms depicted were sent weekly to the artist's London studio from the French Riviera for four months during the winter of 1887–1888.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Among Alma-Tadema's works of this period are: "An Earthly Paradise" (1891), "Unconscious Rivals" (1893) "Spring" (1894), "The Coliseum" (1896) and "The Baths of Caracalla" (1899). Although Alma-Tadema's fame rests on his paintings set in antiquity, he also painted portraits, landscapes and watercolours, and made some etchings himself (although many more were made of his paintings by others).


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: For all the quiet charm and erudition of his paintings, Alma-Tadema himself preserved a youthful sense of mischief. He was childlike in his practical jokes and in his sudden bursts of bad temper, which could as suddenly subside into an engaging smile.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In his personal life, Alma-Tadema was an extrovert and had a remarkably warm personality. He had most of the characteristics of a child, coupled with the traits of a consummate professional. A perfectionist, he remained in all respects a diligent, if somewhat obsessive and pedantic worker. He was an excellent businessman, and one of the wealthiest artists of the nineteenth century. Alma-Tadema was as firm in money matters as he was with the quality of his work.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: As a man, Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a robust, fun loving and rather portly gentleman. There was not a hint of the delicate artist about him; he was a cheerful lover of wine, women, and parties.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema's output decreased with time, partly on account of health, but also because of his obsession with decorating his new home, to which he moved in 1883. Nevertheless, he continued to exhibit throughout the 1880s and into the next decade, receiving a plentiful amount of accolades along the way, including the medal of Honour at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, election to an honorary membership of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1890, and the Great Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Brussels of 1897. In 1899 he was knighted in England, only the eighth artist from the Continent to receive this honour. Not only did he assist with the organisation of the British section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, he also exhibited two works that earned him the Grand Prix Diploma. He also assisted with the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 where he was well represented and received.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: During this time, Alma-Tadema was very active with theatre design and production, designing many costumes. He also spread his artistic boundaries and began to design furniture, often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs, illustrations, textiles, and frame making. In late 1902 he visited Egypt. These other interests influenced his paintings, as he often incorporated some of his furniture designs into the composition, and he also used many of his own designs for the clothing of his female subjects. Through his last period of creativity Alma-Tadema continued to produce paintings which repeated the successful formula of women on marble terraces overlooking the sea such as in "Silver Favourites" (1903). Between 1903 and his death, Alma-Tadema painted less but still produced ambitious paintings such as "The Finding of Moses" (1904).


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: On 15 August 1909 Alma-Tadema's wife, Laura, died at the age of fifty-seven. The grief-stricken widower outlived his second wife by less than three years. His last major composition was "Preparation in the Coliseum" (1912). In the summer of 1912, Alma-Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany, where he was to undergo treatment for ulceration of the stomach. He died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery, and especially marble, are painted – indeed, his realistic depiction of marble led him to be called the 'marbellous painter'. His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: From early in his career, Alma-Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy, often including objects that he saw at museums – such as the British Museum in London – in his works. He also read many books and took many images from them. He amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used to achieve the most precise accuracy in the detail of his compositions.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist. He worked assiduously to make the most of his paintings, often repeatedly reworking parts of paintings before he found them satisfactory to his own high standards. One story relates that one of his paintings was rejected and instead of keeping it, he gave the canvas to a maid who used it as her table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line of his paintings, as well as the settings he was depicting. For many of the objects in his paintings, he would depict what was in front of him, using fresh flowers imported from across the continent and even from Africa, rushing to finish the paintings before the flowers died. It was this commitment to veracity that earned him recognition but also caused many of his critics to adopt negative attitudes towards his almost encyclopaedic works.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters. As an artist of international reputation, he can be cited as an influence on European figures such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff. Both painters incorporate classical motifs into their works and use Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas. They, like Alma-Tadema, also employ coded imagery to convey meaning in their paintings.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters. He was among the most financially successful painters of the Victorian era, though never matching Edwin Henry Landseer. For over sixty years he gave his audience exactly what they wanted: distinctive, elaborate paintings of beautiful people in classical settings. His detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome, with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight provided his audience with a glimpse of a world of the kind they might one day construct for themselves at least in theory if not in reality. As with other painters, the reproduction rights for prints were often worth more than the canvas, and a painting with its rights still attached may have been sold to Gambart for £10,000 in 1874; without rights it was sold again in 1903, when Alma-Tadema's prices were actually higher, for £2,625. Typical prices were between £2,000 and £3,000 in the 1880s, but at least three works sold for between £5,250 and £6,060 in the 1900s. Prices held well until the general collapse of Victorian prices in the early 1920s, when they fell to the hundreds, where they remained until the 1960s; by 1969 £4,600 had been reached again (although the effect of inflation must be allowed for with these figures).


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: The last years of Alma-Tadema's life saw the rise of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism, all of which he disapproved of. As his pupil John Collier wrote, 'it is impossible to reconcile the art of Alma-Tadema with that of Matisse, Gauguin and Picasso.'


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: His artistic legacy almost vanished. As attitudes of the public in general and the artists in particular became more sceptical of the possibilities of human achievement, his paintings were increasingly denounced. He had been declared "the worst painter of the 19th century" by John Ruskin, and one critic even remarked that his paintings were "about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes". After this brief period of being actively derided, he was consigned to relative obscurity for many years. Only since the 1960s has Alma-Tadema's work been re-evaluated for its importance within the nineteenth century, and more specifically, within the evolution of English art.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: He is now regarded as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema's meticulous archaeological research, including research into Roman architecture, led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in their vision of the ancient world for films such as D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916), "Ben Hur" (1926), "Cleopatra" (1934), and most notably of all, Cecil B. DeMille's epic remake of "The Ten Commandments" (1956). Indeed, Jesse Lasky Jr., the co-writer on "The Ten Commandments", described how the director would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve. The designers of the Oscar-winning Roman epic "Gladiator" used the paintings of Alma-Tadema as a central source of inspiration. Alma-Tadema's paintings were also the inspiration for the design of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in the 2005 film "".


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1962, New York art dealer Robert Isaacson mounted the first show of Alma-Tadema's work in fifty years; by the late 1960s, the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus, and a number of well-attended exhibitions were held. Allen Funt, the creator and host of the American version of the television show "Candid Camera", was a collector of Alma-Tadema paintings at a time when the artist's reputation in the 20th century was at its nadir; in a relatively few years he bought 35 works, about ten percent of Alma-Tadema's output. After Funt was robbed by his accountant (who subsequently committed suicide), he was forced to sell his collection at Sotheby's in London in November 1973. From this sale, the interest in Alma-Tadema was re-awakened.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: In 1960, the Newman Gallery firstly tried to sell, then give away (without success) one of his most celebrated works, "The Finding of Moses" (1904). The initial purchaser had paid £5,250 for it on its completion, and subsequent sales were for £861 in 1935, £265 in 1942, and it was "bought in" at £252 in 1960 (having failed to meet its reserve), but when the same picture was auctioned at Christies in New York in May 1995, it sold for £1.75 million. On 4 November 2010 it was sold for $35,922,500 to an undisclosed bidder at Sotheby's New York, a new record both for an Alma-Tadema work and for a Victorian painting. On 5 May 2011, "The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC" was sold at the same auction house for $29.2 million.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: Alma-Tadema's "The Tepidarium" (1881) is included in the 2006 book "1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die". Julian Treuherz, Keeper of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, describes it as an "exquisitely painted picture..." which "carries a strong erotic charge, rare for a Victorian painting of the nude".


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: A blue plaque unveiled in 1975 commemorates Alma-Tadema at 44 Grove End Road, St John's Wood, his home from 1886 until his death in 1912.


title: Lawrence Alma-Tadema

text: The Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham holds several archive collections relating to Alma-Tadema, including letters, artwork and photography.


title: Lancôme

text: Lancôme () is a French luxury perfumes and cosmetics house that distributes products internationally. Lancôme is part of the L'Oréal Luxury Products division, which is its parent company and offers luxury skin care, fragrances, and makeup at higher-end prices.


title: Lancôme

text: Founded in 1935 by Guillaume d'Ornano and his business partner Armand Petitjean in France, as originally a fragrance house. The name "Lancôme" was inspired by the forest of Lancosme that lies in the Indre valley in the heart of France in the region of - the name was chosen by Guillaume's wife Elisabeth d'Ornano. The roses in the area inspired the company's symbol of the single golden rose.


title: Lancôme

text: Lancôme launched its first five fragrances in 1935 at the World's Fair in Brussels: "Tendre Nuit", "Bocages", "Conquete", "Kypre" and "Tropiques". Petitjean entered into the luxury skincare market, launching Nutrix, his first "all-purpose repair cream" in 1936, followed by make-up, cosmetics, and skincare products. Lancôme was acquired by L'oreal in 1964, and quickly became part of its luxury products division.


title: Lancôme

text: The company provides fragrances, skin care, and makeup. Their most famous products include their mascaras, namely "Hypnôse", their Visionnaire Range which contains a patented ingredient, "LR 2412", aimed to improve skin texture color qualities, especially in pore reduction, fine lines and uneven skin tone.


title: Lancôme

text: Lancôme fragrances are made in association with perfumers: Alain Astori, Annick Menardo, Daniela Roche-Andrier, Christian Biecher, Jacques Cavallier, Calice Becker, Pauline Zanoni, Maurice Roucel, Thierry Wasser, Christine Nagel, Armand Petitjean, Gerard Goupy, Olivier Cresp, Harry Fremont, Alberto Morillas, Dominique Ropion, Olivier Polge, Francis Kurkdjian, Robert Gonnon, Nathalie Lorson, Sophia Grojsman, and Alienor Massenet.


title: Lancôme

text: Since 2014, the fragrance La Vie Est Belle is the best-selling fragrance in Lancôme historic market, France.


title: Lancôme

text: In 2021, the 24h long-lasting "Lash idole mascara" has become the bestselling product and received the expert's choice beauty award.


title: Lancôme

text: Despite founder Armand Petijean's assertion that Lancôme never advertise, today Lancôme is one of the top advertisers in the luxury beauty arena. Its ads can be seen in numerous publications worldwide, from "Harper's Bazaar" to French "Vogue". Lancôme's ads have been shot by the leading photographers, including Peter Lindbergh, Mario Testino, Mario Sorrenti, Nick Knight, Steven Meisel, Brigitte Lacombe, Patrick Demarchelier and Dusan Reljin.


title: Lancôme

text: A 2011 publicity video was produced in Paris and featured Emma Watson, forgetting her hat in a Parisian book store and Cyril Descours, the shop assistant, returning it to her on the banks of the Seine later that evening. In 2012 Lancôme premiered a TV advertisement featuring 1930s cartoon icon Betty Boop. Supermodel Daria Werbowy and Betty talk candidly as Betty gives Daria advice about how to find a role in her "first big film". This advertisement has been uploaded to YouTube by Sephora and has achieved more than 100000 views in 2018.


title: Lancôme

text: In 2017, Lancôme Paris partnered with the software developer Perfect Corp. to introduce new mobile app experience allowing customers to try on makeup and make direct purchases through the app.