The haunting story of Beatrice Cenci (1577-1599), the young Roman noblewoman who murdered her abusive father before being beheaded on a bridge in Rome, still fascinates today.
Beatrice Cenci had been executed in September 1599, aged 22, along with her mother and her brother, for the murder of her father, Count Francesco Cenci.
Lucrezia (Beatrice’s step mother ) was the first to die. She fainted on the chopping block before the sword severed her neck. Beatrice was the second, praised for her dignity and composure on the death block.
There are still relics of that day on display at the Museo Criminologico in Rome: the “sword of justice” that killed Lucrezia and Beatrice.
The sword of Justice
🔻 The Face of Beatrice Cenci :-
Charles Dickens, visiting Rome early in 1845, found himself haunted by a painting. It was, he said, ‘almost impossible to be forgotten’. It was of a young woman with a white turban, looking back over her shoulder towards the artist. Dickens saw in her eyes ‘celestial hope, and a beautiful sorrow, and a desolate earthly helplessness’.
🔺Some Interesting Facts :- 1. The famous Italian artist Caravaggio was in the crowd who witnessed the execution of Beatrice Cenci.
2. The tomb of Beatrice is in the church called San Pietro in Montorio.
3. Everything that belonged to Beatrice’s family was confiscated and given to the Pope. He was Pope Clement VIII.
4. Beatrice was only 22 years old.
5. In Rome, Beatrice is a heroine and is a symbol against violence to women.
🔻 She became immortalized by the people who saw her as a symbol of resistance to the aristocracy.
The tragic story of this young woman moved the people of Rome and inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians who consigned her to the eternal memory of Art.
After an altercation on the evening of 23 December 1888 Van Gogh returned to his room where he seemingly heard voices and either wholly or in part severed his left ear with a razor causing severe bleeding. He bandaged the wound, wrapped the ear in paper and delivered the package to a woman at a brothel Van Gogh and Gauguin both frequented. Van Gogh was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and taken to hospital, where he was treated by Félix Rey, a young doctor still in training. The ear was brought to the hospital, but Rey did not attempt to reattach it as too much time had passed.Van Gogh researcher and art historian Bernadette Murphy discovered the true identity of the woman named Gabrielle, who died in Arles at the age of 80 in 1952, and whose descendants still live just outside Arles. Gabrielle, known in her youth as “Gaby,” was a 17-year-old cleaning girl at the brothel and other local establishments at the time Van Gogh presented her with his Arles
💛 Hospital in Arles (December 1888) :-
Local newspaper report dated 30
December 1888 recording Van Gogh’s
self-mutilation.
Portrait of Félix Rey, January
1889, Pushkin Museum ; note written by
Dr Rey for novelist Irving Stone with sketches of the damage to van Gogh’s ear
💜 Vincent van Gogh :
Unrequited Loves 💙
1) The story of Vincent’s love of women is mainly one of setbacks and rejections. There was no shortage of desire or need on his part, but Vincent was never lucky in love.
😥 For my part, I still continually have the most impossible and highly unsuitable love affairs from which, as a rule, I emerge only with shame and disgrace.
(To his sister Willemien from Paris, late October 1887)
2) Early loves :-
As far as we know, the young Vincent proposed to three women: Caroline Haanebeek in 1872, Eugénie Loyer in 1873 and Kee Vos-Stricker in 1881. For a variety of reasons, all three turned him down.
3) Vincent was raised in a middle-class home and learned to distinguish between two types of women. Ladies from his own class were viewed as ‘higher beings’, while he felt pity for socially disadvantaged women such as prostitutes.
4) Sien :-
In 1882, Vincent rescued Sien Hoornik – a pregnant prostitute with a young daughter – in The Hague. He picked them up from the street and moved them into the little studio where he was living.
For a while, Vincent’s longing for a family seemed fulfilled. But things soon began to go wrong and eighteen months later Vincent moved to Drenthe on his own.
TWO UNHAPPY SOULS
5) Agostina Segatori :-
What precisely went on between Vincent and Agostina Segatori, the Italian owner of the restaurant Le Tambourin, on the Boulevard de Clichy, remains unclear. The two had a relationship from December 1886 to May 1887.
According to Paul Gauguin, Vincent was ‘very much in love’ with Agostina, but this lady friend too turned out to be a source of problems.
6) Acceptance :-
After so many failed relationships, Vincent eventually came to accept his fate. His unpredictable, maladjusted and unstable personality proved entirely unsuitable when it came to matters of the heart.
In Arles in 1888, Vincent turned to prostitutes for comfort and to his ‘requited loves’ – art, nature and his brother Theo.
Death 🔼
On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh is believed to have shot himself in the chest with a 7mm revolver.
He died in the early hours of 29 July. According to Theo, Vincent’s last words were: “The sadness will last forever”.
Van Gogh was buried on 30 July, in the municipal cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh shot himself. Here are reasons why it was suicide :-
1. Vincent’s doctor believed it was suicide
A few hours after the shooting, Vincent’s doctor, Paul Gachet, wrote to the artist’s brother, Theo van Gogh, to break the news that “he has wounded himself”. Dr Gachet had inspected the wound and spoken with Vincent. Had there been anything to suggest possible foul play, he would presumably not have let the matter rest. Two weeks after Vincent’s death, he wrote again to Theo, explicitly using the word “suicide”.
2. Theo believed it was suicide
Theo, who rushed to his brother’s bedside and conversed with him during his final 12 hours, was convinced it was suicide. Three days after Vincent’s death, he wrote an emotionally charged letter to his wife, Jo: “One of his last words was: this is how I wanted to go & it took a few moments & then it was over & he found the peace he hadn’t been able to find on earth.”
3. Friends believed it was suicide
Emile Bernard, Van Gogh’s closest friend, attended the funeral and spoke with Dr Gachet and Theo. Dr Gachet told Bernard that he had hoped to save his patient’s life, but Vincent had warned him that “then I’ll have to do it over again”. Two days after the funeral, Bernard wrote a detailed account to the critic Albert Aurier: “He killed himself. On Sunday evening he went into the countryside around Auvers, placed his easel against a haystack and went behind the château and fired a revolver shot at himself.” Vincent had “done it in complete lucidity”, with a “wish to die”.
Van Gough suicide gun
.
[ The corroded gun that is said to have killed Van Gogh was displayed and auctioned in Paris in June, fetching €162,500. ]
He was an American biologist, naturalist and writer. His specialty was myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he was called the world’s leading expert, and he was nicknamed Ant Man.
Wilson has been called “the father of sociobiology and “the father of biodiversity” for his environmental advocacy, and his secular – humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters. Among his contributions to ecological theory is the theory of island biogeography (developed in collaboration with the mathematical ecologist Robert MacArthur), which served as the foundation of the field of conservation area design, as well as the unified neutral theory of biodiversity of Stephen P. Hubbell.
Wilson was recognized as one of the most important scientists and influential people in the world by publications such as Time & Encyclopedia Britannica. He received more than 150 prestigious awards and medals around the world, and was an honorary member of more than 30 world renowned and prestigious organizations, academies, and institutions. Several animal species have been scientifically named in his honor, mostly ant species as well as one bird and one bat species.
Work :-
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 1975
Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals, including humans, thus establishing sociobiology as a new scientific field. He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences, and that free-will is an illusion. He referred to the biological basis of behavior as the “genetic leash”. The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.
On Human Nature, 1978 –
“The evolutionary epic is probably the best myth we will ever have.” Wilson’s fame prompted use of the morphed phrase epic of evolution. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1979.
Because much self-sacrificing behavior on the part of individual ants can be explained on the basis of their genetic interests in the survival of the sisters, with whom they share 75% of their genes.
Wilson argued for a sociobiological explanation for all social behavior on the model of the behavior of the social insects.
Wilson said in reference to ants Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species.
❤️ “Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.” – E. O. Wilson. ❤️
On Human Nature :- Publisher- Harvard University Press; 2nd edition (22 October 2004) Language- English. Paperback272 pagesISBN-100674016386 ISBN-13978-0674016385
The Ants :- Publisher- Liveright (5 October 2021) Language- English. Paperback288 pages ISBN-101324091096 ISBN-13978-1324091097
: Motivation : 
