These three famous paintings are all together in one room of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Two of these paintings are from the Middle Ages, but Giotto's painting is an Early Renaissance painting, as can be seen in the natural, solid look of the figures which seem to be "three dimensional".
Many churches contain famous statues of the "Madonna and Child", particularly old churches.
Göppingen
Göppingen (Swabian: "Gebbenga", "Gebbeng", or "Geppenge") is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In 2005, there were 57,771 people living in Göppingen. It is at the bottom of the high "Kaiserberg", or "Emperors' Mountain".
The first settlement at Göppingen was in the Hallstatt period, 800-480 BC. A Roman settlement from about 250 BC was found near the present day Oberhofen Church. An Alemannic prince by the name of "Geppo", is believed to have started the town after the sometime in the 3rd or 4th century. The town is named after him.
A fire on August 25 1782 destroyed most of the town, but it was immediately rebuilt. During the 1800s, many factories were built in the area. Companies such as Märklin and Schuler are still based in the town.
In 1930, an air field was built north of Göppingen. This was taken over by the Luftwaffe in 1935 and was called the Fliegerhorst Kaserne (barracks). From 1945 to 1949, displaced persons and refugees were housed in the buildings. In 1949, it was renamed Cooke Barracks, after Charles H. Cooke, Jr., who been killed in action and given the Silver Star and Soldier's Medal for bravery.
In late 1950, the 7th Army had been reformed in Stuttgart and U.S. Army units began to be stationed at Cooke Barracks. The barracks were made bigger for the 28th Infantry Division headquarters. The 28th Infantry was renamed as the 9th Infantry Division (United States) in 1954 and was replaced by the 8th Infantry Division in 1956. They were then replaced by the 4th Armored Division in 1957, which was renamed as the 1st Armored Division in 1971 and moved to Hindenburg Kaserne in Ansbach in 1972. The 1st Infantry Division moved from Augsburg in 1972 until 1991.
Cooke Barracks were given back to the German government in 1992. The barracks were again used to house refugees for some time, then returned to civilian use.
Frisch Auf! Göppingen currently plays in the German first handball-division (Handball-Bundesliga).
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery, London is an art gallery in London, England, which has one of the finest collections of European paintings in the world.
What makes this gallery so important is that, although there are bigger galleries, "The National Gallery" has many paintings of very high quality and also because it has paintings by famous artists whose works are very rare. These rare paintings include works by Duccio, Masaccio, Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo, Giorgione, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Chardin, Klimt, Rousseau and Redon.
"The National Gallery" is on Trafalgar Square, which is one of the busiest tourist places in London. It is a grand building of pale grey limestone, with a central dome and a large Classical style porch ("portico") like an Ancient Greek temple. To the left side, the gallery has a large new building called "The Sainsbury Wing".
In 1823 a collector called Sir George Beaumont offered to give his famous collection of paintings to the British Government to start a public art gallery. In 1824 another famous collection of paintings was on sale. The owner, John Julius Angerstein, had died. It looked as if his paintings would be sold outside England. Then there was another offer of paintings from a third collector, The Reverend Holwell Carr. The Parliament had to make a quick decision.
The Parliament voted that a national collection should be started and a gallery should be built. They gave 60,000 Pounds Sterling to buy the Angerstein paintings. They got 38 pictures and were able to display them publicly in the Angerstein House.
The collection grew quickly with the Beaumont and Holwell Carr paintings, and others, being bought or given. A new gallery was needed. In 1831 the plans of the architect William Wilkins were accepted. The site which looks over Trafalgar Square was chosen, old buildings were demolished and the magnificent new gallery was opened on April 9, 1838.
When "the National Gallery" opened, there was a strong opinion that paintings of the High Renaissance period of the late 1400s to Baroque paintings of the 1600s were the finest type of art. The word "primitive" was used to describe Italian paintings from the 1300s and early 1400s. Luckily, the director of the Gallery, Sir Charles Eastlake, thought it was important to collect some of these "primitive" paintings, as well as the more popular High Renaissance paintings. That is how the "National Gallery" came to own so many very rare works from the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance periods.
In the 1870s the Gallery was lucky to get two collections of paintings by famous Dutch artists. The building had to be made larger to house them. The Gallery was also given paintings by famous British artists; soon there were so many that most of them were moved out to a new gallery called the Tate.
By the 20th century, it was getting more difficult to buy very important paintings; there were other galleries in the United States and Germany who were trying to buy the same paintings. So the "National Gallery" began to buy works by more modern painters and soon had a collection of 19th and early 20th century paintings. This is not a large part of the "National Gallery's" collection, but it does show small works by many very important artists, particularly the Impressionists.
Unperson
In the George Orwell book Nineteen Eighty-Four, an Unperson is someone who has been vaporized. Vaporization is when a person is secretly murdered and from society, the present, the universe, and existence. Such a person would be taken out of books, photographs, and articles so that no trace of them is found in the present anywhere – no record of them would be found. This was so that a person who defied the Party would be gone from all citizens' memories, even friends and family. There is no Newspeak word for what happened to unpeople, therefore it is thoughtcrime to say an unperson's name or think of unpeople.
This is similar to the Stalinist Soviet Party erasing people from photographs after death; this is an example of "real" unpeople.
The Stalin-era Soviet Union also provided real-world examples of unpersons in its treatment of Leon Trotsky and other members of the Communist Party who became politically inconvenient. In his 1960 magazine article "Pravda means 'Truth'", reprinted in "Expanded Universe", Robert A. Heinlein argued that John Paul Jones and a mysterious May 15, 1960 cosmonaut had also received this treatment.
Düren
Düren (Ripuarian: "Düre", Low Franconian: "Dürre" or "Dure") is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is between Cologne and Aachen. About 90,000 people live there. Düren is at the river Rur.
Gütersloh
Gütersloh (Westphalian: "Gütsel", Low Franconian: "Gütersloh") is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. About 96,000 people live there.
Iserlohn
Iserlohn (Westphalian Low German: "Iserlaun", "Iserliaun", or "Iserlauhn"; Middle Low German: "Eisenwald") is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. About 93,000 people live there; it is one of the largest cities in that region.
Velbert
Velbert is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. About 87,000 people live there.
Lünen
Lünen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. 88,000 people live there. Lünen has got two important football clubs: Lüner SV and BV Brambauer. Lüner SV is playing in the "Bezirksliga (8. league), but in 1963 the club achieved his greatest aim. They got Champion of Westphalia.
Marl
Marl is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. About 91,000 people live there.
Bocholt