Diocletian (Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, about 245 to about 312) was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 11 May 305. He was born in Dalmatia of poor parents. Diocletian ended the period known as the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284). He worked to return Rome to its former glory by making changes in key areas.

Religion: He persecuted Christians, crucifying more than any other emperor. He imposed the traditional polytheistic religion of the Romans.

Economy: Recognizing a gold drain from the western Mediterranean to the east, he tried to stop the inflation of the region by legislation. This did not work. He decreed that coins could only be made of gold or silver, stopping the trend of using lead in their creation. He made the tax system work better.

Military: Diocletian changed the army from the traditional garrison defense. He put small outposts of soldiers on the border. He got local soldiers from the border regions along the Rhine and Danube rivers. These soldiers farmed and lived with their families in a village atmosphere. They lit signal fires on signal towers to warn other outposts of possible invasion by Germans from across the border. These outpost soldiers got regular pay from Rome for their services. He allowed soldiers to move up through the ranks by "military credits" earned by years of loyal service and by actions on the field of battle.

Political structure
Diocletian established a form of government known as the tetrarchy. In this, the Empire was organised into four parts, each ruled by a co-emperor. Diocletian took charge of the eastern empire. The senior co-emperor was Maximian Augustus, a fellow officer. He took charge of the western empire. Later, two junior co-emperors were added: Galerius and Constantius Chlorus.

Finally, in 305, the two senior emperors abdicated and retired, and the two juniors rose to the rank of Augustus. They in turn were supported by two juniors: Severus II in the west under Constantius, and Maximinus in the east under Galerius. In this way, the Tetrarchy showed how it could reproduce itself.

Illyria
These men were from the Roman province of Illyria, several in the city of Sirmium, which would become one of the four capitals under this system. From the time of Domitian (81–96), when over half the Roman army was deployed in the Danubian regions, the Illyrian provinces had been the most important recruiting ground of the auxilia and later the legions.

In the 3rd century, Romanised Illyrians came to dominate the army's senior officer echelons. Ultimately, the Illyrian officer class seized control of the state itself.

Regions and capitals
The four Tetrarchs based themselves not at Rome but in other cities closer to the frontiers, mainly intended as headquarters for the defence of the empire. They faced Persia and the Germanic tribes. Also, there were many tribes from the eastern steppe which presented at the Rhine and Danube.

The four centres are known as the 'Tetrarchic capitals'. Although Rome ceased to be the operational capital, it was still the nominal capital of the entire empire. It had its own Prefect of the City, an idea later copied in Constantinople. The four Tetrarchic capitals were:

Nicomedia in northwestern Asia Minor (modern Izmit in Turkey), a base for defence against invasion from the Balkans and Persia's Sassanids was the capital of Diocletian, the eastern (and most senior) Augustus. In the final reorganisation by Constantine the Great, in 318, the domain, facing Sassanid Persia, became the pretorian prefecture Oriens 'the East', the core of later Byzantium.
Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica) in the Vojvodina region of modern Serbia, and near Belgrade, on the Danube border, was the capital of Galerius, the eastern Caesar; this was to become the Balkans-Danube prefecture Illyricum.
Mediolanum (modern Milan, near the Alps) was the capital of Maximian, the western Augustus; his domain became "Italia et Africa", with only a short exterior border.
Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier, in Germany) was the capital of Constantius Chlorus, the western Caesar, near the strategic Rhine border, it had been the capital of Gallic emperor Tetricus I; this quarter became the prefecture Galliae.

Aquileia, a port on the Adriatic coast, and Eboracum (modern York, in northern England near the Scottish tribes), were also significant centres for Maximian and Constantius respectively.

In terms of regional jurisdiction there was no precise division between the four Tetrarchs, and this period did not see the Roman state actually split up into four distinct sub-empires. Each emperor had his zone of influence within the Roman Empire, but little more, mainly high command in a 'war theatre'. Each Tetrarch was himself often in the field, while delegating most of the administration to the hierarchic bureaucracy headed by his respective Praetorian Prefect, each supervising several Vicarii, the governors-general in charge of another new administrative level, the civil diocese.
For a listing of the provinces, now known as eparchy, within each quarter (known as a praetorian prefecture), see Roman province.

In the West, the Augustus Maximian controlled the provinces west of the Adriatic Sea and the Syrtis, and within that region his Caesar, Constantius, controlled Gaul and Britain. In the East, the arrangements between the Augustus Diocletian and his Caesar, Galerius, were much more flexible.

Retirement and death
Diocletian's reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government, and stabilized the empire economically and militarily. This helped the empire to remain intact for another hundred years, despite having seemed near the brink of collapse in Diocletian's youth.

Weakened by illness, Diocletian left the imperial office on 1 May 305, and became the first Roman emperor to voluntarily abdicate the position. He lived out his retirement in his palace on the Dalmatian coast, tending to his vegetable gardens. His palace eventually became the core of the modern-day city of Split.

Maximian attempted to return to power.  Diocletian ordered him to step down permanently.  Finally, Maximian was forced to commit suicide and the tetrarchy began to unravel . Diocletian despaired and died in 311, possibly of suicide.

Other websites
 Diocletian by Ralph W. Mathisen, University of South Carolina.
 Diocletian from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
 12 Byzantine Rulers , by Lars Brownworth. 15 minute audio lecture on Diocletian.
 Diocletian Palace in Split
 Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia By Robert Adam, 1764. Wonderful plates made available worldwide by the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center. (N.B. "Spalatro" was a less used alternative form of "Spalato", the Italian name for Croatian "Split").

References

240s births
310s deaths
3rd-century Roman emperors
4th-century Roman emperors

Diocletian


A talent (Latin: talentum, from Ancient Greek:  "scale, balance") is an ancient unit of mass; it corresponded generally to the mass of water in the volume of an amphora, i.e. a one-foot cube.

The Babylonians and Sumerians had a system in which there were 60 shekels in a mina and 60 minas in a talent (in Ancient Greece one talent was 26 kg of silver). The Roman talent consisted of 100 libra (pounds) which were smaller in magnitude than the mina.

When used as a measure of money, it refers to a talent-weight of gold or of silver. The gold talent is reported as weighing roughly the same as a person, and so perhaps 50 kg (>110 lb avoirdupois). Some authorities say that the talent typically weighed about 33 kg (>72 lb) varying from 20 to 40 kg. In June, 2018, the international price of gold was about US $41,155.69 per kilogram. One gram costs about $38. At this price, a talent (33 kg) would be worth about $1,400,116.57. Similarly, in February 2016, the price of silver was about $15 per troy ounce or about 50 cents per gram, so a 33 kg silver talent would be worth about $16,500. Thus when we read that King Auletes of Egypt paid Gaius Julius Caesar the sum of 6,000 talents of gold to grant him the status of a "Friend and Ally of the Roman People," this amount would be worth about US$8,400,000,000 today! These estimates are only rough values, because they are based on modern estimates.The value of silver in comparison to gold drastically changed. This is because of the output of the Spanish silver mines in the New World. In ancient times the same amount of silver was often worth more than gold. The estimates do not account for the less technical mining ability of the time, nor that there were still native deposits available. Later in Roman history, during the medieval Byzantine period, the emperor Basil II was said to have stockpiled the legendary amount of 200,000 talents of gold which, in modern terms, would be worth approximately US$280,023,314,760. At any rate, he did save enough money that the Byzantine government was able to remit all taxes paid during the final two years of his reign.

Another way to calculate the modern equivalent to a talent is from its use in estimating military pay. During the Peloponnesian war in Ancient Greece, a talent was the amount of silver needed to pay the crew of a trireme for one month. Hellenistic mercenaries were commonly paid one drachma for every day of service, which was a good salary in the post-Alexander (III) days. 6,000 drachma made a talent.

The talent as a unit of coinage is mentioned in the New Testament in Jesus' parable of the talents. One talent was an incredible amount of money.

Old units of measurement
Units of mass

Talent (measurement)


Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He is considered as one of the greatest and most influential music artists in history. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion for over four decades, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated dance moves such as the moonwalk and the robot. He is the most awarded individual music artist in history. Because of his influence and fame, he is known as the "King of Pop".

Jackson started his professional career performing with his older brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon in The Jackson 5 in 1964. In 1971, he started a solo career while also being a member of The Jackson 5 and during that period, he released four solo studio albums Got to Be There (1972), Ben (1972), Music & Me (1973), and Forever, Michael (1975). He released the best-selling album of all time, Thriller in 1982, with estimated sales of 110 million copies worldwide. The video for "Thriller" showed him dancing like a zombie and other dancers around him were zombies as well. "Thriller" includes famous songs like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean". The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson wrote other well-known songs such as ''Bad'', "Black or White", "Heal the World", and "Earth Song". Through music videos and live performances, he is known for popularizing dance moves such as the robot and the moonwalk. He won many awards and broke records. Guinness World Records says he is the most successful entertainer of all time. Jackson is also remembered for giving money to charities and pioneering efforts in charitable fundraising in the entertainment industry. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer. He is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with worldwide sales between 400 million to one billion records.

His other studio albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995), and Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix (1997) also rank among the world's best selling albums. He released his last studio album Invincible (2001).

Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. He was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, but the case was settled out of court. In 2003, Jackson was charged with child sexual abuse by Garvin Arvizo. In 2005, Jackson was found not guilty of all charges. While preparing for his comeback concert series, This Is It, Jackson died of an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009, after having a cardiac arrest. Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. On July 7, there was a memorial service for Jackson. It was on television and 2.5-3 billion people watched it. This made it the most-watched funeral ever.

Life and career

1958-1975
Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, at St Mary's Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana to a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. He was the eighth of Katherine and Joe Jackson's ten children. Jackson's father Joseph was a steel mill worker.

On January 1, 1964, Jackson and his brother Marlon joined their older brothers Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine's band, The Jackson Brothers, in the band's first public performance. Jackson was five years old.

When Jackson was 8, he started being the band's main singer with Jermaine. The group's name then changed to The Jackson 5. The group won an important talent show in 1966. In 1968 they were signed to a famous record label called Motown Records. Their first Motown single "I Want You Back" was No.1 in the US.

In 1971, Jackson released his first song singing on his own, "Got to Be There" from his album "Got to Be There". It reached No.4 in the Billboard 100. Three more singles were released from the album.

On August 4, 1972, his second album Ben was released. The single "Ben" was his first solo No.1.

In 1974, Jackson hosted the first American Music Awards with Donny Osmond, Rodney Allen Rippy, and Ricky Segall.

In 1975, The Jackson 5 left Motown. They were signed to CBS Records in June 1975. On CBS Records they changed their name to The Jacksons.

1976-1981
In 1976, The Jacksons got their own TV show on CBS. The show was cancelled in March 1977.

On October 24, 1978, a movie called The Wiz was released. The movie was a remake of The Wizard of Oz with all black actors. Jackson acted as Scarecrow.

On December 17, 1978, The Jacksons' twelfth album was released. It was the first album they had produced. Jackson wrote the album's second single "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" with Randy Jackson. It reached No.7 in the US Hot 100.

In December 1978, Jackson started making his first solo album on Epic Records, Off the Wall with Quincy Jones. It was released on August 10, 1979. The album got good reviews and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

The Jacksons' thirteenth album Triumph was released in 1980.

1982-1983
 In 1982 Jackson made "Somewhere in the Dark" for the E.T. soundtrack. It won a Grammy for Best Recording for Children in 1984. That year Jackson won seven other Grammys for his album Thriller.

On October 18, 1982, the first single from Thriller, "The Girl Is Mine", was released. It was sung with Paul McCartney. Some people thought that the album wasn't going to be very good because of the song.

Jackson's sixth solo album Thriller was released on November 30, 1982. Jackson didn't do a tour for the album. This album went on to become the best-selling album of all time.

In 1983 Jackson made three songs with Freddie Mercury.

1984-1985

"Somebody's Watching Me", a single by Rockwell with Jackson singing on the chorus, was released January 14, 1984. It reached number one in Spain and France.

On January 27, 1984, Michael and other members of the Jacksons filmed a Pepsi Cola commercial. Michael's hair caught on fire and he was rushed to hospital. Pepsi gave Jackson $1.5 million. He gave it to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California. In May 1984 "Farewell My Summer Love", a song that Jackson made it 1973, was released as a single. It reached number seven in the UK Singles Chart.

The Jacksons' album Victory was released on July 2, 1984. Between July and December 1984 Jackson toured with his brothers. He won eight awards at the 1984 American Music Awards, the most anyone has ever won at once. He also won Best International Solo Artist and Best International Album at the BRIT Awards.

Jermaine Jackson released his tenth album, Jermaine Jackson. Michael sang on a song from the album, "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming' (Too Good to Be True)". It was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 1985 Grammy Awards.

In August 1985, Jackson bought music publisher ATV Music for $47.5 million. They owned the rights to The Beatles.

Jackson wrote "We Are the World" with Lionel Richie in 1985. The song was recorded by USA for Africa. It was released as a single around the world to make money to give to starving people in Africa. It sold over 20 million copies. It also won four Grammy Awards.

1986-1990
In August 1987, Bad was released. Jackson wanted it to sell 100 million copies. It has sold over 45 million copies. Five of the album's seven singles were No.1 in the US. They were "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana". Until Katy Perry's success with her 2010 album Teenage Dream, Jackson was the only musician to ever have had that many singles from one album be No.1. From September 1987 to January 1989, Jackson did the Bad World Tour. This was the first tour that he did on his own. In 1988 Moonwalk, a book that Jackson wrote about his life, was published. It took Jackson four years to write. The book sold 200,000 copies. Jackson then released Moonwalker, a movie he made. In 1989 some video games about the movie were released by U.S. Gold.

In 1986, Disneyland and EPCOT started showing a short film called Captain EO that had Jackson in it.
Jackson sang "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for it.

The Jacksons released their last album 2300 Jackson Street in 1989. Michael sang on the album's second single 2300 Jackson Street with his brothers and two of their sisters, Janet and Rebbie. Michael was also in the music video for the song.

Jackson won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1989 for "Leave Me Alone".

1991-1993
Jackson's eighth studio album Dangerous was released on November 26, 1991. It was produced with Teddy Riley. It is a new jack swing album. It was Jackson's first album to have a rapper on it. Nine singles were released from the album. On June 27, 1992, Jackson started the Dangerous World Tour. All of the money Jackson made from the tour was given to charities such as the Heal the World Foundation, having grossed $100 million, Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 70 concerts. The tour was supposed to last until Christmas 1992. However, Jackson ended the tour on November 11, 1993, because he was ill and needed to go to the hospital. Jackson performed at the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII in January 1993.

1994-1996
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, Jackson's ninth studio album, was released July 16 1995. The album has two discs. The first disc is a collection of some of his greatest hits. The second disc is fifteen songs recorded in late 1994 and early 1995. Thirteen of the songs are new. Two of them are cover versions. In August 1995 the album's single "You Are Not Alone" became the first single ever to go straight to No.1 in the US. HIStory won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The video for the single "Scream" went in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most expensive short film ever made. In 1996, he started his HIStory World Tour and ended in 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in five continents, 35 countries, and 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans, and grossed a total of $165 million, becoming Jackson's most successful tour in terms of audience figures. Jackson released a short film called Ghosts in 1997. He wrote it with Stephen King.

1997-1999
In 1997, Blood on the Dance Floor was released. It is the best-selling remix album ever made. There were five new songs on the album. The album's first single was a new song called "Blood on the Dancefloor". The album and its first single were No.1 in the UK.

2000-2003
Jackson won Artist of the 1980s at the American Music Awards in 2000.

On October 30, 2001 Invincible, Jackson's last studio album, was released. The album got good and bad reviews. It was No.1 in 12 countries and sold 13 million copies around the world. But compared to Jackson's earlier albums, it was unsuccessful. The album's first single "You Rock My World" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Jackson won his 22nd American Music Award for Artist of the Century in 2002.

On November 17, 2003, an album called Number Ones was released. It is a collection of Jackson's hits. There is also a new song on the album called "One More Chance". It was released as a single. It reached number one in three countries. The album was released as a DVD too.

2004-2009
In 2006, Sony released twenty of Jackson's popular singles on video.

In March 2009, Jackson told the press that he was going to do a tour called This Is It. He said that he might stop making music after this. Jackson practiced his singing and dancing for the tour in Los Angeles with Kenny Ortega. Jackson died of an overdose of Propofol on June 25, 2009, after having a cardiac arrest, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

During an Interview on YouTube during the BBC UK Show featuring "Michael Jackson's This Is It" Michael talked about the future of his career and that he "may" be retiring after his "This Is It" Tour, but he wasn't sure if he would or not. However, due to his death in 2009, the show was cancelled. Some show-goers who paid for tickets wanted refunds but the Jackson Estate did not provide any.

Voice
Jackson's voice changed from boy soprano to spinto tenor between 1971 and 1975. He sang 'come on' wrongly on purpose so that it sounded like 'shamone'. Jackson had a three-octave vocal range. He is the most well-known musician to use the 'vocal hiccup'. He first used it in 1973 on "It's Too Late to Change the Time" on The Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album.

Personal life
Jackson lived a well-publicized personal life even though he tried to stay private. He was often in celebrity and tabloid magazines. Later in his life, he was in magazines because of his personal life more than for his music.

Marriages and children
He was married to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley in 1994, before divorcing her in 1995 and marrying nurse Debbie Rowe in 1996. Three months after Rowe and Jackson's marriage she gave birth to a son, Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. The next year she gave birth to a daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson.
The couple divorced in April 2000. Prince Michael II was born on February 21, 2002. Jackson never said who the mother was. He is better known as Blanket. When Blanket was 8 months old Jackson held him over a balcony. Blanket has a towel over his head. At the time, people did not know that he was called Blanket. Jackson made a public apology after people were upset. After Jackson died, his mother Katherine was made the guardian of his children. In August 2012, Jackson's cousin TJ was made the children's co-guardian.

Bubbles
Bubbles (born 1983) is a common chimpanzee, known for being the one-time pet of American recording artist Michael Jackson. Jackson bought the animal from a Texas research facility in the 1980s. The animal was a frequent travel companion to the singer, whose attachment to the animal led to media mockery and, among other factors, to a public perception of Jackson as an eccentric. The chimp, for example, was permitted to use Jackson's personal toilet.
Their human-animal bond, as well as the entertainer's other alleged eccentricities, contributed to the media epithet "Wacko Jacko", a nickname Jackson would eventually come to despise. The media often focused on Bubbles, rather than on Jackson's music, and published many false stories regarding the animal. One such story was an allegation that Bubbles was not a single ape, but one of several.

Claims of sexual abuse
In 1993, he was accused of child molestation, but there was no trial; the case was settled out of court.

In 2003, he was accused a second time of child molestation. This happened after a documentary called Living With Michael Jackson was shown on TV. In the documentary, Jackson held hands with a 12-year-old boy called Gavin Arvizo and said that he shared his bed with children. His accuser was Gavin Arvizo. He was 13 years old when he made the allegations. This time Jackson went to court and was found not guilty of fourteen charges in 2005.

In May 2013, a dancer called Wade Robson appeared on the Today show. He alleged that Jackson sexually abused him for 7 years. Prior to this, Robson had vehemently defended Jackson, including twice under oath.

Appearance and health
Over the years, his changing facial appearance and lightening skin color attracted much attention. From childhood, Jackson had afro hair. His hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in 1984. Jackson got second-degree burns to his scalp. Jackson started taking painkillers for the very bad pain caused by the burns. Jackson always wore a hairpiece or wig in his later years that blended with his natural hair. His autopsy found that his scalp was tattooed black so that it blended in with his wigs.

He claimed to have had only a little plastic surgery to his face. He said that puberty, weight loss and his vegetarian diet had changed his face. People said that Jackson bleached his skin to make it lighter. In a television interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993 he said he had a rare skin condition called vitiligo. When Jackson died, the autopsy found that he did have vitiligo. This disease made many white spots on Jackson's skin. Jackson used makeup and medication to even out his skin color to treat his vitiligo. This made Jackson appear to have a lightening skin tone. Jackson also had an immune condition called discoid lupus. Dr. Richard Strick said that this "had destroyed part of the skin of his nose". Jackson's nose was the body part that people talked about most. Many plastic surgeons have tried to make a hypothesis on what surgery Jackson might have allegedly had but the singer repeatedly denied having extensive surgeries and admitted only to a limited number of procedures though the change in his appearance was drastic that a lot of people refused to believe it.

Jackson was allegedly addicted to prescription drugs. In 2009 he died from an overdose of an anesthetic called Propofol. He was given Propofol for his insomnia. The insomnia was a side effect of Jackson's addiction to Demerol. Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray said that Jackson took the overdose himself. Though Murray was charged with involuntary manslaughter and served a prison sentence after Michael Jackson's death was ruled a homicide by the coroner. Propofol is used as anesthesia for major surgeries and requires heavy monitoring including nurses and medical equipment, none of which were present at the time Conrad Murray administered the drug. The recommendation for a higher level of care to safely administer this drug was also noted in his autopsy, with great detail noting how dangerous the circumstance was. Michael Jackson was known to have an injury to his lung, which was cited in the autopsy report to further exacerbate his likelihood for complications with a drug like Propofol. Meaning he was at a higher risk for respiratory failure.

In his autopsy, it was found that he had an enlarged prostate and osteoarthritis. His lips were tattooed pink. He used a skin-bleaching cream called Benoquin to treat his Vitiligo.

Jackson was physically abused by his father when he was a child. He would also call Jackson "big-nose". As a teenager, Jackson had acne. In Living With Michael Jackson, Jackson told Martin Bashir how he went home and cried after a woman called him ugly because of his acne. Some medical professionals have said that they think Jackson had body dysmorphic disorder. The disorder is often triggered by appearance-related bullying. Some people think that Jackson had anorexia nervosa. In 1984, Jackson weighed 105 pounds. He was 5"9 tall. This would have made his BMI 15.5, which is very underweight. He weighed 136 lbs. when he died. This is in the healthy range. A biographer called Ian Halperin wrote that Jackson had a rare genetic disease called Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. He also wrote that Jackson's genetic disease had caused him to lose 95% of the vision in his left eye.

Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray said that he thought Jackson was "legally blind" and had phlebitis.

Death
Jackson was announced dead at age 50 on June 25, 2009 at 2:25 pm at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. It is thought that he went into cardiac arrest, which means his heart stopped. At 4:36 pm local time, the Los Angeles coroner confirmed Jackson's death. However, he was unresponsive by 12:15, even though he was not proclaimed dead at the time of hospital arrival, he already passed on by 1pm. Jackson died just two months before his 51st birthday. Rumors and news of Jackson's death broke web records causing a cyberspace traffic jam. The circumstances of his death and the outpouring of grief which was experienced around the world were on record scales never seen before. His death gave Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo the most page views they had ever encountered. Jackson arrived at the hospital not showing any signs of life.

Memorial service
A memorial service was held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. It began with a reading of a letter by Smokey Robinson of comments by Nelson Mandela, Diana Ross and other close friends of Michael Jackson who could not be at the memorial. Mariah Carey sang I'll Be There at the memorial service, followed by a speech given by Queen Latifah. Lionel Richie performed "Jesus is Love". Berry Gordy, Motown founder, spoke next, offering condolences. Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson also spoke, with Magic describing the event as a "celebration of Jackson's life and works" rather than a funeral. Jennifer Hudson sung Will You Be There accompanied by a music video. Reverend Al Sharpton then gave a speech about how Jackson kept rising and "never stopped". John Mayer played the guitar as he did in Michael Jackson's song Human Nature. This was followed by Brooke Shields speaking. Jermaine Jackson, Jackson's older brother, then performed Smile, Michael's favorite song written by comic drama legend Charlie Chaplin. This was proceeded by speeches by Martin Luther King III and Bernice King. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was the next person who spoke at the memorial service, claiming "people are innocent until proven guilty," (reminding those who accused Jackson of unproven child molestations) saying that Jackson's humanitarian efforts need to be praised. Usher then sang "Gone Too Soon," followed by a montage of old videos of Jackson himself. Shamim sang next, with Kenny Ortega introducing him afterward. Kenny Ortega explained that Michael Jackson saw the Staples Center as his home, a reason for the funeral service to be held there. This was followed by Kenny Ortega doing a tribute to him, including We Are the World and Heal the World. The service ended with speeches by members of his family, including Jermaine, Marlon and daughter Paris who broke into tears and said that "Daddy was the best father anyone could have" and also that "I will miss him" then she left the microphone and turned into Janet Jackson's arms. The memorial lasted over 2 hours.

Burial
At first, Michael Jackson's custom-made quarter-million dollar golden casket, nicknamed "The Promethean" was not expected to appear at the memorial service, however, due to a change in the family's plans the casket was taken to the memorial service.

Viewing parties were held all over the world for the broadcast, including at several movie theaters, in Times Square, the Apollo Theater, Raleigh, and Berlin. The broadcast was replayed a few times the next day. An estimated 1 billion people tuned into the farewell concert.

Over 3,000 police officers were assigned to the event, the largest amount assigned to a single event since the 1984 Summer Olympics. It cost the City of Los Angeles 1.4 million dollars.
His funeral took place in Glendale California on September 3, 2009, 9 weeks after he died. He was laid to rest at 9:45 pm in the mausoleum, above the ground. Mother Katherine decided on burial details but some family members and friends wanted him buried below ground in the mausoleum. Jermaine Jackson wanted him buried on Neverland ranch.

Legacy
Although he died in 2009, Jackson is still often in the news. His music is also still popular.

2009-2010
Jackson won Entertainer of the Year at the 2009 Soul Train Awards. That year he also won five American Music Awards.

On October 26, 2009, a two-disc album called Michael Jackson's This Is It was released. The album's only single "This Is It" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2011.
On October 28, 2009 Michael Jackson's This Is It was released. It was a documentary movie. The movie showed recordings of Jackson's rehearsals for his This Is It tour. Jackson died before he could do the tour. It made $72,091,016 in the United States. It has made $261,183,588 around the world. It got good reviews from movie critics. On 26 January 2010 the movie was released on DVD. It sold over a 1.5million copies in the US in the first week it was released. This was more than any other music DVD had sold in its first week.

Jackson won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. His children, Prince and Paris collected the award for Jackson.

A video game called Michael Jackson: The Experience was released in November 2010 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and Wii.

2011-2012
In April 2011 Mohamed Al-Fayed, who was friends with Jackson when he was alive, showed the public a 7ft 6in statue of Jackson outside Craven Cottage football stadium. A lot of people did not like the statue. In July 2013 Fayed sold his football club to Shahid Khan. In September 2013 Khan chose to have the statue was removed. It was given back to Fayed. Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson, a book written by Joseph Vogel about Jackson's life, was published in 2011.

Jackson was voted as the Greatest Singer of All Time by people who did a poll on NME.com.

In 2011 there was a criminal trial for Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray. Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter of Jackson. He was sentenced to four years in prison. On October 28, 2013, Murray was released from prison. He was interviewed by 60 Minutes. He said that he did not think that Jackson's death was his fault in any way. The journalist Liz Hayes asked Murray if he thought that Jackson was a pedophile. Murray stared at her for 13 seconds and would not give an opinion. He said that he would not answer because he did not want to make anything up.

An extinct species of hermit crab was called Mesoparapylocheles michaeljacksoni after Jackson in January 2012.

Bad 25, a documentary movie about Jackson's album Bad, was released in August 2012.

In 2012 he sold almost 8 albums in the United States. He is thought to have sold 2 albums around the world in 2012. His estate makes $1 a year.

2013-2014
Jackson made more money than any other dead celebrity in 2013.

In May 2013 Wade Robson said that Jackson sexually abused him from the age of 7 to 14. In 2005 he had been a defense witness for Jackson's child molestation trial. In June 2014 there will be a hearing where it is decided whether Robson can sue Jackson's estate over the abuse.

In November 2013 Billboard magazine's issue, 44 did a cover with Michael on it. It said 'Life After Death'. Inside the magazine there was an article about the success of Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour.

In January 2014 a judge ruled that Jackson's family could not have another trial against AEG Live. Xscape was released on May 9, 2014.

Music

Recent releases
Jackson recorded several songs before his death. He had recently released a compilation album called Michael, featuring remixed songs and new songs such as "Hold My Hand" a duet between him and popular singer Akon, and "Monster", a strong song with lots of attitudes and a hint of dislike for the paparazzi. Also "(I Like) The Way You Love Me", "Keep Your Head Up", and "Much Too Soon".

Albums
 Got to Be There (1972)
 Ben (1972)
 Music & Me (1973)
 Forever, Michael (1975)
 Off the Wall (1979)
 Thriller (1982)
 Bad (1987)
 Dangerous (1991)
 HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995)
 Invincible (2001)

Filmography
 The Wiz (1978)
 Captain EO (1986)
 Moonwalker (1988)
 Michael Jackson's Ghosts (1997)
 Men in Black II (2002)
 Miss Cast Away and the Islands Girls (2004)

Documentaries after death
 Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009)
 Bad 25 (2012)
 Michael Jackson: The Last Photo Shoot (2014)
 Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016)
 Square One: Michael Jackson (2019)

Concert tours
 Bad World Tour (1987-1989)
 Dangerous World Tour (1992-1993)
 HIStory World Tour (1996-1997)
 MJ & Friends (1999)
 This Is It (2009-2010; cancelled)

Singles

Related pages
 Janet Jackson
 The Jackson 5
 Moonwalk

References

Other websites

 Official website

1958 births
2009 deaths
African American actors
African American musicians
American autobiographers
American manslaughter victims
Philanthropists from Indiana
American drummers
American guitarists
American pianists
American R&B singers
American pop singers
American soul singers
American rock singers
American disco singers
American new jack swing singers
Jackson family
American singer-songwriters
Brit Award winners
Grammy Award winners
Deaths from cardiac arrest
Drug-related accidental deaths in the United States
New wave musicians
Michael Jackson
People acquitted of sex crimes
Musicians from Gary, Indiana
Singers from Indiana
People accused of child sexual abuse

Michael Jackson


Jan Brueghel (also Bruegel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; 1568 – 13 January 1625) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman. He was the son of the eminent Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. A close friend and frequent collaborator with Peter Paul Rubens, the two artists were the leading Flemish painters in the first three decades of the 17th century.

Brueghel worked in many genres including history paintings, flower still lifes, allegorical and mythological scenes, landscapes and seascapes, hunting pieces, village scenes, battle scenes and scenes of hellfire and the underworld. He was an important innovator who invented new types of paintings such as flower garland paintings, paradise landscapes, and gallery paintings in the first quarter of the 17th century. He further created genre paintings that were imitations, pastiches and reworkings of his father's works, in particular his father's genre scenes and landscapes with peasants. Brueghel represented the type of the pictor doctus, the erudite painter whose works are informed by the religious motifs and aspirations of the Catholic Counter-Reformation as well as the scientific revolution with its interest in accurate description and classification. He was court painter of the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and Isabella, the governors of the Habsburg Netherlands.

The artist was nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel. The first is believed to have been given him because of his mastery in the rendering of fabrics. The second nickname is a reference to his fame as a painter of (although not a specialist in) flower pieces and the last one to his invention of the genre of the paradise landscape. His brother Pieter Brueghel the Younger was traditionally nicknamed "de helse Brueghel" or "Hell Brueghel" because it was believed he was the author of a number of paintings with fantastic depictions of fire and grotesque imagery. These paintings have now been reattributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Life

Jan Brueghel the Elder was born in Brussels as the son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Maria (called 'Mayken') Coecke van Aelst. His mother was the daughter of the prominent Flemish Renaissance artists Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Mayken Verhulst. His father died about a year after Jan's birth in 1569. It is believed that after the death of his mother in 1578, Jan, together with his brother Pieter Brueghel the Younger and sister Marie, went to live with their grandmother Mayken Verhulst, who was by then widowed. Mayken Verhulst was an artist in her own right. The early Flemish biographer Karel van Mander wrote in his Schilder-boeck published in 1604 that Mayken was the first art teacher of her two grandsons. She taught them drawing and watercolor painting of miniatures. Jan and his brother may also have trained with local artists in Brussels who were active as tapestry designers.

Jan and his brother Pieter were then sent to Antwerp to study oil painting. According to Karel van Mander he studied under Peter Goetkint, an important dealer with a large collection of paintings in his shop. Goetkint died on 15 July 1583 not very long after Jan had started his training. It is possible that Jan continued his studies in this shop, which was taken over by Goetkint's widow, as no other master is recorded.

It was common for Flemish painters of that time to travel to Italy to complete their studies. Jan Brueghel left for Italy, first traveling to Cologne where his sister Marie and her family lived. He later visited Frankenthal, an important cultural centre where a number of Flemish landscape artists were active. He then went to Naples after probably spending time in Venice. In Naples he produced after June 1590 a number of drawings, which show his interest in landscapes and monumental architecture. He worked for Don Francesco Caracciolo, a prominent nobleman and priest and founder of the Clerics Regular Minor. Jan produced small-scale decorative works for Don Francesco.

Brueghel left Naples for Rome where he resided from 1592 to 1594. He befriended Paul Bril. Paul Bril was a landscape specialist from Antwerp who had moved to Rome in the late 16th century. Together with his brother Mathijs Bril, he created atmospheric landscapes for many Roman residences. Brueghel took inspiration from Bril's lively drawings and small-scale landscapes of the mid-1590s. During his time in Rome Jan Brueghel became acquainted with Hans Rottenhammer, a German painter of small highly finished cabinet paintings on copper. Rottenhammer painted religious and mythological compositions, combining German and Italian elements of style, which were highly esteemed. Brueghel collaborated with both Paul Bril and Rottenhammer. Brueghel also spent time making watercolors of Rome's antique monuments and seemed particularly fascinated by the vaulted interiors of the Colosseum.

He enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna. In Rome he also met Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who played an important role in the Counter-Reformation and was also an avid art collector. The Cardinal became Brueghel's lifelong friend and patron. Brueghel took up residence in Borromeo's Palazzo Vercelli. When Borromeo became archbishop of Milan in June 1595, Brueghel followed him and became part of the Cardinal's household. He produced many landscape and flower paintings for the Cardinal.

Brueghel stayed about a year in Milan and in 1596 he had returned to Antwerp where he remained active, save for a few interruptions, for the rest of his life. A year after his return Jan Brueghel was admitted as a Free Master in Antwerp's Guild of Saint Luke as the son of a master. The artist married on 23 January 1599 in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. The bride was Isabella de Jode, the daughter of the cartographer, engraver and publisher Gerard de Jode. Their son Jan was born on 13 September 1601. This first-born had Rubens as his godfather and later took over his father's workshop and was known as Jan Brueghel the Younger.

Brueghel was registered as a burgher of Antwerp on 4 October 1601 as 'Jan Bruegel, Peetersone, schilder, van Bruessele' ('Jan Bruegel, son of Peeter, painter, of Brussels'). Just a month before, Brueghel had been elected dean of the Guild of Saint Luke, but he had not been able to take up the position as he was not a burgher of Antwerp. Upon becoming formally registered as a burgher the same year Brueghel could finally be the dean. The next year he was re-elected as dean.

In 1603 his daughter Paschasia Brueghel was born. Rubens was also her godfather. His wife Isabella de Jode died the same year leaving him with two young children. It has been speculated that death of his wife was linked to the birth of his latest child.

In the summer of 1604 Brueghel visited Prague. Prague was the location of the court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor who promoted artistic innovation. The Emperor's court had attracted many Northern artists such as Bartholomeus Spranger and Hans von Aachen who created a new affected style, full of conceits, which became known as Mannerism.

Upon returning to Antwerp in September 1604 Brueghel bought a large house called "De Meerminne" (The Mermaid) in the Lange Nieuwstraat in Antwerp on 20 September 1604. The artist remarried in April 1605. With his second wife Catharina van Mariënburg he had 8 children of whom Ambrosius became a painter.

After his appointment as court painter of the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and Isabella in 1606, the artist was present in Brussels for periods in the years 1606, 1609, 1610 and 1613. On 28 August 1613 the court in Brussels paid Brueghel 3625 guilders for completing various works.

From October 1610 onwards Rubens started taking on the role of intermediary for his friend Jan Brueghel. By the year 1625 Rubens had written about 25 letters to Cardinal Borromeo on behalf of Brueghel. In a letter to Borromeo Brueghel referred to his friend's role as that of "mio secretario Rubens" (my secretary Rubens). In the year 1612 or 1613 Peter Paul Rubens painted a portrait of Jan Brueghel and his family (Courtauld Institute, London). In 1613 he accompanied Rubens and Hendrick van Balen the Elder on a diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic. Here they met Hendrick Goltzius and other Haarlem artists.

When Duke Johan Ernest van Saksen passed through Antwerp in 1614 he took time to pay a visit to Rubens and Brueghel in their workshops. Brueghel received many official commissions from the Antwerp city magistrate. Four of his paintings were offered by the Antwerp city magistrate to the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and Isabella on 27 August 1615. He was in 1618 one of 12 important painters from Antwerp who were commissioned by the Antwerp city magistrate to produce a series of paintings for the Archduke and Duchess Albrecht and Isabella. For this commission, Brueghel coordinated the work on a painting cycle depicting an Allegory of the Five Senses. The artists participating in the project included Rubens, Frans Snyders, Frans Francken the Younger, Joos de Momper, Hendrick van Balen the Elder and Sebastiaen Vrancx. The works were destroyed in a fire in 1713.

On 9 March 1619 Brueghel bought a third house called Den Bock (the Billy Goat) located in the Antwerp Arenbergstraat. When on 6 August 1623 his daughter Clara Eugenia was baptized, Archduchess Isabella and Cardinal Borromeo were her godparents. Jan Brueghel died on 13 January 1625 in Antwerp from complications arising from cholera.

The artist's estate was distributed on 3 June and 23 June 1627 among his surviving wife and his children from both marriages. Rubens, Hendrick van Balen the Elder, Cornelis Schut and Paulus van Halmaele were the executors of his last will. Rubens was the guardian of the surviving Brueghel children.

His students included his son Jan as well as Daniel Seghers. Brueghel's daughter Paschasia married the painter Hieronymus van Kessel the Younger, and their son Jan van Kessel the Elder studied with Jan Brueghel the Younger. Brueghel's daughter Anna married David Teniers the Younger in 1637.

Work

General

Jan Brueghel the Elder was a versatile artist who practised in many genres and introduced various new subjects into Flemish art. He was an innovator who contributed to the development of the various genres to which he put his hand such as flower still lifes, landscapes and seascapes, hunting pieces, battle scenes and scenes of hellfire and the underworld. His best-known innovations are the new types of paintings, which he introduced into the repertoire of Flemish art in the first quarter of the 17th century such as flower garland paintings, paradise landscapes and gallery paintings. Unlike contemporary Flemish Baroque artists, such as Rubens, he did not produce large altarpieces for the local churches.

Jan Brueghel the Elder achieved a superb technical mastery, which enabled him to render materials, animals and landscapes with remarkable accuracy and a high degree of finish. He had an accomplished miniaturist technique allowing him to achieve an accurate description of nature.

Little is known about the workshop practices of Brueghel. He operated a large workshop that allowed him to produce a large quantity of works, which were in turn reproduced in his workshop. After Brueghel's death in 1625, Jan Brueghel the Younger took charge of his father's workshop which he operated in the same way as his father. This is clear in the style of the surviving paintings which are in the vein of his father's and the continued collaboration with former collaborators of his father such as Rubens and Hendrick van Balen. This workshop production contributed to the wide distribution of Jan Brueghel the Elder's creations.

While his brother Pieter was engaged in the large-scale production of numerous works for the Antwerp art market, Jan Brueghel worked for a select clientele of aristocratic patrons and collectors of pictures to create more expensive and exclusive images. His works, such as his paradise landscapes, appealed to the aesthetic preferences of aristocrats who loved collecting such precious objects. His works, often painted on copper, were luxury objects intended for the simple pleasure of viewing as well as contemplation.

Collaborations

Collaboration between artists specialized in distinctive genres was a defining feature of artistic practice in 17th century Antwerp. Jan Brueghel was likewise a frequent collaborator with fellow artists. As he was an artist with a wide range of skills he worked with a number of collaborators in various genres. His collaborators included landscape artists Paul Bril and Joos de Momper, architectural painter Paul Vredeman de Vries and figure painters Frans Francken the Younger, Hendrick de Clerck, Pieter van Avont and Hendrick van Balen.

His collaborations with figure painter Hans Rottenhammer began in Rome around 1595 and ended in 1610. Rottenhammer was a gifted figure painter and known for his skill in painting nudes. Initially when the artists both lived in Venice, their collaborative works were executed on canvas, but in their later collaborations after Brueghel had returned to Antwerp they typically used copper. After Brueghel's return to Antwerp, their collaboration practice was for Brueghel to send the coppers with the landscape to Rottenhammer in Venice, who painted in the figures and then returned the coppers. In a few instances, the process was the other way around. Brueghel and Rottenhammer did not only collaborate on landscape paintings with figures. The artists jointly created one of the earliest devotional garland paintings, made for Cardinal Federico Borromeo, depicting a Virgin and Child surrounded by a flower garland (Pinacoteca Ambrosiana).

While in his collaborations with Hans Rottenhammer, the landscapes were made by Brueghel, the roles were reversed when he worked with Joos de Momper as it was Brueghel who provided the figures to the landscapes painted by de Momper. An example of their collaboration is Mountain Landscape with Pilgrims in a Grotto Chapel (, Liechtenstein Museum). There are about 59 known collaborations between Brueghel and de Momper making de Momper his most frequent collaborator. Hendrick van Balen the Elder was another regular collaborator with Jan Brueghel. Their collaboration was simplified by the fact that from 1604 onwards both painters had moved to the Lange Nieuwstraat, which made it easier to carry the panels and copper plates on which they collaborated back and forth.

Another frequent collaborator of Jan Brueghel was Rubens. The two artists executed about 25 joint works in the period from 1598 to 1625. Their first collaboration was on The Battle of the Amazons (-1600, Sanssouci Picture Gallery). The artists worked together in the development of the genre of the devotional garland painting with works such as the Madonna in a Floral Wreath (-1618, Alte Pinakothek). They further jointly made mythological scenes and an allegorical series representing the Five Senses. The collaboration between the two friends was remarkable because they worked in very different styles and specializations and were artists of equal status. They were able to preserve the individuality of their respective styles in these joint works.

Brueghel appears to have been the principal initiator of their joint works, which were made principally during the second half of the 1610s when their method of collaboration had become more systemised and included Rubens' workshop. Usually it would be Brueghel who started a painting and he would leave space for Rubens to add the figures. In their early collaborations they seem to have made major corrections to the work of the other. For instance, in the early collaborative effort The Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus Rubens overpainted most of the lower-right corner with gray paint so he could enlarge his figures. In later collaborations the artists seem to have streamlined their collaboration and agreed on the composition early on so that these later works show little underdrawing. As court painters to the archdukes their collaborations reflected the court's desire to emphasise the continuity of its reign with the previous Burgundian and Habsburg rulers as well as the rulers' piousness. While they were mindful of the prevailing tastes in courtly circles, which favoured themes such as the hunt, the two artists were creative in their response to the court's preferences by devising new iconography and genres, such as the devotional garland paintings, which were equally capable of conveying the devoutness and splendor of the archducal court. The joint artistic output of Brueghel and Rubens was highly prized by collectors all over Europe.

Ideological context

Jan Brueghel's work reflects the various ideological currents at work in the Catholic Spanish Netherlands during his lifetime. The Catholic Counter-Reformation's worldview played an important role in the artist's practice. Central in this worldview was the belief that the earth and its inhabitants were revelations of God. Artistic representation of, and scientific investigation into, that divine revelation was encouraged and valued. Breughel's friend and patron, the Counter-Reformation Cardinal Federico Borromeo, particularly emphasized the beauty and diversity of the animal world. In his I tre libri delle laudi divine (published only posthumously in 1632) Borromeo wrote: 'Looking then with attentive study at animals' construction and formation, and at their parts, members, and characters, can it not be said how excellently divine wisdom has demonstrated the value of its great works?' Jan Brueghel's realistic depictions of nature in all its various forms, in flowers, landscapes, animals, etc., was clearly in line with the view that study of the god's creation was an important source for knowing this god.

Brueghel's era also saw a growing interest in the study of nature through empirical evidence as opposed to relying on inherited tradition. The increased access to new animals and exotic plants from the newly discovered territories played an important role in this intellectual exploration. This resulted in the appearance of the first scholarly catalogues and encyclopedias, including the illustrated natural history catalogues of 16th-century naturalists Conrad Gesner and Ulisse Aldrovandi. Their major contribution to natural history was the creation of an extensive system of description of each animal. Gesner placed all the species within four general categories: quadrupeds, birds, fish and serpents. He described animals in alphabetical order and in terms of nomenclature, geographic origins, mode of living and behavior. Aldrovandi took another approach and did not order animals alphabetically. He relied on visual resemblance as the classifying factor. For example, he grouped the horse together with analogous animals, such as the donkey and mule, and separated species into categories, such as birds with webbed feet and nocturnal birds.

Brueghel's works reflect this contemporary encyclopedic interest in the classification and ordering of all of the natural world. This is evidenced in his flower pieces, landscapes, allegorical works and gallery paintings. In his paradise landscapes, for instance, Brueghel grouped most of the species according to their basic categories of biological classification, in other words, according to the main groups of related species that resemble one another, such as birds or quadrupeds. He further classified most of them into subdivisions consisting of similar morphological and behavioral characteristics. His paradise landscapes thus constituted a visual catalogue of animals and birds which fulfilled the role of micro-encyclopedia.

Brueghel's endeavor to represent the world through ordering and classifying its many elements based on empirical observation did not stop with the natural world. In Prague he had acquired knowledge of the large collections of Emperor Rudolf II, which were divided in natural, artificial and scientific objects. Brueghel's allegorical paintings of the four elements and of the five senses reveal the same classifying obsession, using each element or sense to organize natural, man-made instruments and scientific objects. In this skillful union of the areas of art, science, and nature Brueghel demonstrates his mastery of these various disciplines. His paintings serve the same purpose to that of encyclopedic collections by linking between the mundus sensibilis and the mundus intelligibilis. His approach to describing and cataloguing nature in art resembles the distinction natural historians were starting to make between perceptual experience and theoretical knowledge.

Brueghel's obsession with classifying the world was completely in line with the encyclopedic tastes of the court in Brussels as is demonstrated by their large art collection of predominantly Flemish paintings, menagerie of exotic species and extensive library.

Flower paintings
Jan Brueghel the Elder was one of the first artists in the Habsburg Netherlands who started to paint pure flower still lifes. A pure flower still life depicts flowers, typically arranged in a vase or other vessel, as the principal subject of the picture, rather than as a subordinate part of another work such as a history painting. Jan Brueghel is regarded as an important contributor to the emerging genre of the flower piece in Northern art, a contribution that was already appreciated in his time when he received the nickname 'Flower Brueghel'. While the traditional interpretation of these flower pieces was that they were vanitas symbols or allegories of transience with hidden meanings, it is now more common to interpret them as mere depictions of the natural world. Brueghel's approach to these works was informed by his desire to display his skill in giving a realistic, almost scientific rendering of nature. These works reflected the ideological concerns demonstrated in his work, which combined the worldview that nature was a revelation of a god with the interest in gaining a scientific understanding of nature.

Brueghel's flower pieces are dominated by the floral arrangements, which are placed against a neutral dark background. Minor details such as insects, butterflies, snails and separate sprays of flowers or rosemary may occasionally be added but are subordinate to the principal subject. While Brueghel sought out very rare flowers, he used certain common blooms such as tulips, irises and roses to anchor his bouquets. This may have been a response to his patrons' wishes as well as compositional considerations. His bouquets were typically composed of flowers blooming in different seasons of the year so they could never have been painted together directly from nature. Brueghel was in the habit of traveling to make drawings of flowers that were not available in Antwerp, so that he could paint them into his bouquets. Brueghel rendered the flowers with an almost scientific precision. He arranged each flower with hardly any overlap so that they are shown off to their best advantage, and many are shown at different angles. The flowers are arranged by size with smaller ones at the bottom of the bouquet, larger flowers such as tulips, cornflowers, peonies and guelder roses in the centre and large flowers, such as white lilies and blue irises, at the top of the bouquet.

This arrangement is clear in the Flowers in a Ceramic Vase (c. 1620, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp). The vase in which the flowers are arranged is decorated with motifs in relief. The two cartouches - separated by a fantastic figure - show Amphitrite, a sea goddess from Greek mythology, on the left, and Ceres, the Roman corn goddess, on the right. These two goddesses were typically used in allegorical representations of the four elements to symbolise water and earth respectively. The other two cartouches on that part of the vase that is invisible likely show Vulcan, who was associated with fire, and Apollo, who was associated with air. The occurrence of the four elements and the flowers in a single work can be interpreted as the emanation of the macrocosm in the microcosm.

Brueghel often repeated motifs in his flower pieces. Even so, he was able to give each work a remarkable freshness and vitality of its own.

Garland paintings
Jan Brueghel the Elder played a key role in the invention and development of the genre of garland paintings. Garland paintings typically show a flower garland around a devotional image or portrait. Together with Hendrick van Balen, he painted around 1607-1608 the first known garland painting for Italian cardinal Federico Borromeo, a passionate art collector and Catholic reformer. Borromeo requested the painting to respond to the destruction of images of the Virgin in the preceding century and it thus combined both the cardinal's interests in Catholic reform and the arts. Brueghel, the still life specialist, painted the flower garland, while van Balen, a specialist figure painter, was responsible for the image of the Virgin.

The genre of garland paintings was inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Habsburg Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally. The genre was initially connected to the visual imagery of the Counter-Reformation movement. Garland paintings were usually collaborations between a still life and a figure painter. Brueghel's collaborators on garland paintings included Rubens, Frans Francken the Younger and Pieter van Avont.

An example of a collaborative garland painting made by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Rubens is the Madonna in Floral Wreath (1621, Alte Pinakothek).

An example of a collaborative garland painting he made with Hendrick van Balen is the Garland of Fruit surrounding a Depiction of a Goddess Receiving Gifts from Personifications of the Four Seasons of which there are two versions, one in the Belfius collection and a second in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. Both versions are considered to be autograph paintings, but small differences between the two suggest that the panel in the Belfius collection is the original version. The medallion in the centre is traditionally believed to depict Cybele, the ancient Phrygian goddess of the earth and nature as it was described as such in 1774 when it was catalogued in the collection of William V, Prince of Orange in The Hague. More recently an identification of the goddess with Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships, has been proposed. The reason is that the goddess in the medallion has none of the attributes traditionally connected with Cybele. Around the medallion is suspended a garland of flowers, vegetables and fruit – a tribute to the goddess and an ode to plenty and fertility. Van Balen painted the medallion while Brueghel painted the abundant garland, the surrounding figures and the numerous animals.

Landscapes

Jan Brueghel's father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is regarded as an important innovator of landscape art. By introducing greater naturalism in his Alpine mountain settings, his father had expanded on the world landscape tradition that had been founded mainly by Joachim Patinir. Some of Pieter the Elder's works also foreshadowed the forest landscape that would start to dominate landscape painting around the turn of the 16th century. Pieter the Elder also developed the village and rural landscape, placing Flemish hamlets and farms in exotic prospects of mountains and river valleys.

Jan developed on the formula he learned from his father of arranging country figures traveling a road, which recedes into the distance. He emphasized the recession into space by carefully diminishing the scale of figures in the foreground, middle-ground, and far distance. To further the sense of atmospheric perspective, he used varying tones of brown, green, and blue progressively to characterize the recession of space. His landscapes with their vast depth are balanced through his attention to the peasant figures and their humble activities in the foreground.

Like his father, Jan Brueghel also painted various village landscapes. He used the surrounding landscapes as the stage for the crowds of anecdotal, colorfully dressed peasants who engage in various activities in the market, the country roads and during the rowdy kermesses. Jan Brueghel's landscape paintings with their strong narrative elements and attention to detail had a significant influence on Flemish and Dutch landscape artists in the second decade of the 17th century. His river views were certainly known to painters working in Haarlem, including Esaias van de Velde and Willem Buytewech, whom Brueghel may have met there when he accompanied Peter Paul Rubens on a diplomatic mission to the Dutch Republic in 1613.

Jan Brueghel was along with artists such as Gillis van Coninxloo one of the prime developers of the dense forest landscape in the 17th century. Jan Breughel in fact experimented with such works before Coninxloo's first dated wooded landscape of 1598. In his forest landscapes Brueghel depicted heavily wooded glades in which he captured the verdant density, and even mystery, of the forest. Although on occasion inhabited by humans and animals, these forest scenes contain dark recesses, virtually no open sky and no outlet for the eye to penetrate beyond the thick trees.

Paradise landscapes

Jan Brueghel invented the 'paradise landscape', a subgenre that involved a combination of landscape and animal painting. Works in this genre are typically crawling with numerous animals from exotic and native European species who coexist harmoniously in a lush landscape setting. These landscapes are inspired by episodes from Genesis, the chapter of the bible, which tells the story of the creation of the world and of man. The favorite themes taken from Genesis where the creation of man, Adam and Eve in paradise, the fall of man and the entry of the animals in Noah's ark.

Like his flower pieces, these landscapes were informed by the Catholic Counter-Reformation's worldview, which regarded earth and its inhabitants as revelations of their god and valued artistic representation of, and scientific investigation into, that divine revelation. As described above, Breughel's friend and patron, the Counter-Reformation Cardinal Federico Borromeo, had particularly emphasized the beauty and diversity of the animal world. Brueghel tried to render this worldview in his paradise landscapes. The novelty of Brueghel's paradise landscapes lies not only in the impressive variety of animals, which the artist studied mainly from life but also in their presentation as both figures of a religious narrative and as subjects of a scientific order.

Brueghel developed his earliest paradise landscapes during his stay in Venice in the early 1590s. His first paradise landscape known as The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man is now in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome. The reference to Genesis in the picture appears in a small vignette representing the creation of Man in the background, but the main focus is on the animals and the landscape itself. This work was the first paradise landscape in which Brueghel 'catalogued' animals and depicts common and domesticated types. Brueghel's interest in the cataloguing of animals was stimulated by his visit to the court of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor in Prague. The emperor had established an encyclopedic collection of rarities and animals. While in his early paradise landscapes Brueghel seems to have based some of his renderings of the animals on works by other artists, he later could rely on studies from life of the various species in the menagerie of the court in Brussels. Brueghel had also seen Albrecht Dürer's depiction of animals during his visit to Prague and had made a painted copy of Dürer's watercolor The Madonna with a Multitude of Animals (1503). Dürer's representations of animals play a pivotal role in Renaissance zoology, since they are the purest artistic form of nature study. The studies of animals by Flemish artists Hans Bol and Joris Hoefnagel also had an important influence on Brueghel. In particular Hoefnagel's Four Elements (1575-1582) was the first artistic work to categorize animals in a book format. Hoefnagel's approach to the representation of the animal world combined natural historical, classical, emblematic, and biblical references, which incorporated the various species into the categories of the four elements of the cosmos: earth, water, air, and fire. Brueghel's paradise landscapes also embodied the encyclopedic attitudes of his time by depicting a wide variety of species.

Brueghel continued refining his treatment of the subject of paradise landscapes throughout his career. The many renderings and variations of the paradise landscape produced by Brueghel earned him the nickname Paradise Brueghel.

Allegorical paintings

Jan Brueghel the Elder produced various sets of allegorical paintings, in particular on the themes of the Five senses and the Four Elements. These paintings were often collaborations with other painters such as is the case with the five paintings representing the Five senses on which Brueghel and Rubens collaborated and which are now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. He also collaborated with Hendrick van Balen on various allegorical compositions such as a series on the Four Elements as well as an Allegory of Public Welfare (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest).

In his allegories Jan Breughel illustrated an abstract concept, such as one of the senses or one of the four elements through a multitude of concrete objects that can be associated with it. He thus represented a concept by means of descriptive tropes. Brueghel resorted in these allegorical compositions to the encyclopedic imagery that he also displayed in his paradise landscapes. This is demonstrated in his composition Allegory of Fire; Venus in the Forge of Vulcan of which there are various versions of which one (Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome) is a collaboration with Hendrick van Balen and another (Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan) is attributed to Jan Brueghel alone. Brueghel's encyclopedic approach in this composition offers such detail that historians of science have relied on the composition as a source of information on the types of tools used in 17th century metallurgical practice.

Scenes of hell and demons

Jan was early on nicknamed 'Hell Brueghel' but by the 19th century that name had become erroneously associated with his brother Pieter the Younger. Jan Brueghel was given the nickname because of his scenes with demons and hell scenes. An example is the Temptation of St. Anthony (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), which reprises a subject first explored by Hieronymus Bosch. In this demon-plagued scene the monsters are seen attacking the small saint in the corner of a large and dense forest landscape, rather than within the expanded panoramas of Patinir.

Jan Brueghel is believed to have produced his hell scenes for a newer, elite audience of learned and sophisticated collectors. To appeal to this erudite clientele he often populated the hell scenes with mythological rather than religious subjects, in particular the Vergilian scene of Aeneas in Hades, escorted by the Cumaean Sibyl. An example is Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underworld (1619, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Other mythological themes appearing in his hell scenes included the image of Juno visiting Hades and Orpheus in the Underworld from Ovid's Metamorphoses. An example of the latter is Orpheus in the Underworld (Palazzo Pitti). In these compositions brightly colored monsters provide the 'recreational terror' of the later manifestations of Boschian design.

Brueghel's hell scenes were influential and Jacob van Swanenburg, one of Rembrandt's teachers, was inspired by them to create his own hell scenes.

Gallery paintings

Jan Brueghel the Elder and Frans Francken the Younger were the first artists to create paintings of art and curiosity collections in the 1620s. Gallery paintings depict large rooms in which many paintings and other precious items are displayed in elegant surroundings. These rooms were often referred to as Kunstkammern ("art rooms") or Wunderkammern ("wonder rooms"). The earliest works in this genre depicted art objects together with other items such as scientific instruments or peculiar natural specimens. Some gallery paintings include portraits of the owners or collectors of the art objects or artists at work. The paintings are heavy with symbolism and allegory and are a reflection of the intellectual preoccupations of the age, including the cultivation of personal virtue and the importance of connoisseurship. The genre became immediately quite popular and was followed by other artists such as Jan Brueghel the Younger, Cornelis de Baellieur, Hans Jordaens, David Teniers the Younger, Gillis van Tilborch and Hieronymus Janssens.

A famous example of a gallery painting by Jan Brueghel is The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet (now referred to as The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting the Collection of Pieter Roose) (c. 1621-1623, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore). The work is believed to be a collaboration between Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hieronymus Francken II. This gallery painting represents the early phase of the genre of collector's cabinets. During this early 'encyclopaedic' phase, the genre reflected the culture of curiosity of that time, when art works, scientific instruments, naturalia and artificialia were equally the object of study and admiration. As a result, the cabinets depicted in these compositions are populated by persons who appear to be as interested in discussing scientific instruments as in admiring paintings. Later the genre concentrated more on galleries solely containing works of art. The compositions depicted in The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet are predominantly allegories of iconoclasm and the victory of painting (art) over ignorance. They are references to the iconoclasm of the Beeldenstorm that had raged in the Low Countries in the 16th century and the victory over the iconoclasts during the reign of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella who jointly ruled the Spanish Netherlands in the beginning of the 17th century. Jan Brueghel was responsible for the large vase of flowers, which is crowned by a large sunflower. This South American flower, which could grow very tall and would turn towards the sun, was first seen by Europeans in the mid-1500s. It had been illustrated as a New World wonder in botanical treatises, but Jan Brueghel was the first to include the flower in a painting and use it as a symbol of princely patronage in this composition. By turning toward Albert and Isabella (taking the position of the sun), the sunflower symbolizes the way that the arts were able to grow and blossom in the light and warmth of princely patronage.

Singeries
Breughel contributed to the development of the genre of the 'monkey scene', also called 'singerie' (a word derived from the French for 'monkey' and meaning a 'comical grimace, behaviour or trick'). Comical scenes with monkeys appearing in human attire and a human environment are a pictorial genre that was initiated in Flemish painting in the 16th century and was subsequently further developed in the 17th century. Monkeys were regarded as shameless and impish creatures and excellent imitators of human behaviour. These depictions of monkeys enacting various human roles were a playful metaphor for all the folly in the world.

The Flemish engraver Pieter van der Borcht introduced the singerie as an independent theme around 1575 in a series of prints, which were strongly embedded in the artistic tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. These prints were widely disseminated and the theme was then picked up by other Flemish artists. The first one to do so was the Antwerp artist Frans Francken the Younger, who was quickly followed by Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Younger, Sebastiaen Vrancx and Jan van Kessel the Elder. Jan Brueghel the Elder's son-in-law David Teniers the Younger became the principal practitioner of the genre and developed it further with his younger brother Abraham Teniers. Later in the 17th century Nicolaes van Verendael started to paint these 'monkey scenes' as well.

An example of a singerie by Jan Brueghel is the Monkeys feasting, which dates from his early years as an artist (private collection, on long-term loan to the Rubenshuis, Antwerp). This painting on copper was probably one of the first examples of a singerie painting. Jan Brueghel likely drew his monkeys in the zoo of the Archdukes in Brussels. While the composition shows the monkeys engaged in all kinds of mischief, it includes a painting above the door jamb, which is a work from Rubens' studio, called "Ceres and Pan". The representation of Ceres and Pan provides a contrast been the cultivated versus the wild world of the monkeys below.

References

Sources
 Leopoldine van Hogendorp Prosperetti, 'Landscape and Philosophy in the Art of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625)', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009
 Arianne Faber Kolb, Jan Brueghel the Elder: The Entry of the Animals into Noah's Ark, Getty Publications, 2005
 Larry Silver, Peasant Scenes and Landscapes: The Rise of Pictorial Genres in the Antwerp Art Market, University of Pennsylvania Press, 4 January 2012
 Anne T. Woollett and Ariane van Suchtelen; with contributions by Tiarna Doherty, Mark Leonard, and Jørgen Wadum, Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship, 2006

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1568 births
1625 deaths
Flemish Baroque painters
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Jan Brueghel the Elder


Structural engineering is a subset of civil engineering dealing with the design and analysis of buildings and large non-building structures to withstand both the gravity and wind loads as well as natural disasters. Besides, it may also cover design of machinery, medical equipment, vehicles or any other objects where structural functionality or safety are involved. Structural engineers must ensure their designs satisfy building codes.

Major structural engineering projects go through the following four stages: research, design, testing, and construction which are featured with the images below:

Structural engineering came to existence when the humans first started to construct their own structures. It became a more defined profession with the emergence of the architecture profession during the industrial revolution in the late 19th Century.

Entry-level structural engineers may design individual structural elements of a structure, for example, beams, columns, and floors of a building. More experienced engineers would be responsible for the structural design and integrity of an entire system, such as a building.

Structural engineers often specialize in particular fields, such as bridge engineering, building engineering, pipeline engineering, earthquake engineering, industrial structures, or special mechanical structures such as vehicles or aircrafts.

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Messiah or  the Anointed One is the figure promised by God to the Jews for the salvation of the world.

Other people in real life or fiction are called messianic if they have the qualities of a messiah, or people think they will bring about a better world.

The How, Where, and Why
 Why: Jews believe the biblical prophets inspired by God to tell of his coming. During the period of the Roman rule in 1st century BC the idea of the messiah became very important in Jewish thought and teaching. According to the scriptures, the messiah would rescue the people from the Romans and restore the country.
 How: There are many of ideas about how the messiah will come: Judge, warrior, beggar, academic, Philosopher, healer or a common person.

Jesus as the Messiah
Christianity, which began in Israel with Jewish followers of Jesus (), holds that the Messiah foretold by the Jewish Scriptures is Jesus, and that in fulfillment of prophecy Jesus died for the sins of the world, rose from the dead and lives today, seated at the right hand of God until His return. Most Jews do not hold these beliefs; those who do are sometimes called Messianic Jews.  Some Messianic Jews and other Christians see the fact that a majority of Jews do not hold these beliefs as a fulfillment of prophecy. (see Epistle to the Romans chapter 10)

Muslims believe that Jesus was the son of Mary, that he was a mighty prophet of God and that he was the Messiah (though, in Islam, the Messiah has a different role than he does in Christianity or Judaism). They believe that he will come again one day in his Second Coming to fight besides the Mahdi against the Dajjal ("false messiah").

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