THE CARAVEL

It's a light craft used in the oceanic's travels in th XV and XVI century. It's famous because it was the type of boat used for Crystobal Colon in the discover of America.

Its characteristics:

It´s light, tall and long (about 30 meters tall) narrow; It has got 3 mastiles and it can surf around 8 knots. It was a speedy craft, It allows transport a los of  goods, and this makes possible feed the crewfor many weeks.

Its history:

This model was based on the fisherman crafts. The caravels was falling on desuse when new crafts appeared, for example the galeons because they had more capacity load, resistance and maneuverability.

Colon's caravels:

-La niña: captained 26 man.
-La Pinta: Cristobal Quintero was the owner, and Martin Alonso Pinzón was in command
-La Santa Maria: Juan de la Costa rent this caravel with Colon . It was built in Galicia and its original name was La Gallega.

by: Patricia Dominguez

Sealand, the smallest country in the world

Hi guys I am Miguel Pérez and I am going to talk about The Principality of SEALAND which is the smallest country in the world. This country is consider a micro-nation. It is situated in the Nort Sea, near the united kingdom. This country is a marine platform, it was build in 1942 (and inhabited by a family in this year) by "Royal Navy", here is a photo from it:




He noted for its impressive number of inhabitants, 5!!!!! However this teritory is habitable.
Its dimensions are 500 m2.this country is not simple, it has a flag (this one):


This country has an anthem too, click this link to listen it: https://youtu.be/6qtrn8KXGCw

In 2007 the marine platform was on sale.
This country has its own football team "The Sealand soccer team"
Did you think that the vatican was the smallest country in the world? Noooo... It is Sealand!!! Thanks for reading, and if you want to know more about this curious country click this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand

Miguel Pérez Olcina 2ºB

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter who was born in 1571. Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. 

In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palaces being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. 

Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism. Chiaroscuro was practiced long before he came on the scene, but it was Caravaggio who made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a blinding shaft of light.

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally.

He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. Despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound.

Some of his paintings are:

• The incredulity of St. Thomas 
• Calling of St. Matthew
• David with the Head of Goliath
• The Conversion of St. Paul

 By: Celia Cuesta

FRANCISCO DE ZURBARAN


Contemporary and friend of Velazquez , Zurbaran excelled in religious painting , in which his art reveals a great visual strength and a deep mysticism. It was a representative artist of the Counter . Influenced in its beginnings by Caravaggio , his style evolved to approach the Italian Mannerist masters . Their performances away from the realism of Velazquez and his compositions are characterized by chiaroscuro modeling with more acid tones

Francisco de Zurbaran was born on November 7, 1598 in Fuente de Cantos (Badajoz). Their parents were Luis de Zurbaran, a wealthy Basque trader established in Extremadura since 1582.1 Marquez and Isabel, who had married in the nearby town of Monesterio on 10 January 1588. Two other important painters of the Golden Age they would be born shortly after : Velázquez (1599-1660) and Alonso Cano (1601-1667). Probably began in the pictorial art in the school of Juan de Roelas, in his hometown, before entering in 1614 in the studio of painter Pedro Diaz de Villanueva (1564-1654), in Seville, where she met Alonso Cano in 1616. he probably also became acquainted with Francisco Pacheco and his students, as well as having some influence from Sanchez Cotan as it can be seen in the Still life Zurbarán painted around 1633. His apprenticeship was completed in 1617, the year in which Zurbarán married Maria Paez. The first table is cited as the beginning of his career he is an Immaculate believed 1616 (collection of Placido Arango), but the actual date is 1656 and, in fact, reveals influences of Titian and Guido Reni, own the last stage of the artist in Madrid. In 1617 he settled in Llerena, Extremadura, where their three children were born: Mary, John (Llerena 1620-Sevilla 1649) (which was a painter, like his father, and died during the great plague occurred in Seville in 1649), and Isabel Paula. After the death of his wife, he remarried in 1625 with Beatriz de Morales, a widow with a good economic position, although ten years older than him, as his first wife. In 1622 he was already a recognized painter, so he was hired to paint an altarpiece for a church in his hometown. In 1626 and notarized, he signed a new contract with the community of preachers of the order dominica San Pablo el Real, in Seville; twenty had to paint pictures in eight months. It was then, in 1627, when he painted the Christ on the cross, the work was so admired by his contemporaries that the Municipal Council of Seville officially proposed in 1629, which establishes his residence in this Spanish city. In this picture the relief impression is surprising; Christ is nailed to a rough wooden cross. White, bright canvas, which encircles the waist, with a deft baroque--and draping style, contrasts dramatically with well formed flexible muscles and your body. His face leans over the right shoulder. Suffering, unbearable, it gives way to a last wish: Resurrection, last thought towards a promised life in which the body, tortured until the debilitation but already glorious demonstrates visually. As in the crucified Christ of Velázquez (painted towards 1630, more rigid and symmetrical), the feet are nailed separately. At that time, the works, sometimes monumental, tried to recreate morbidly at the crucifixion; hence the number of nails. For example, in the Revelations of St. Bridget is spoken of four nails. Moreover, after the Tridentine decrees, the spirit of the Counter opposed to large stagings, especially guiding the artists towards the compositions in which it is represented only Christ. Many theologians argued that both the body of Jesus like Mary had to be a perfect bodies. Zurbarán learned well these lessons, affirming, at twenty years as an undisputed master.

Uxía Pensado 2ºB

DIEGO RODRIGEZ DE SILVA VELÁZQUEZ
________________________________________
By: Yeray Carretero Álvarez 

Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velázquez ( Seville, baptized on June 6, 1599 , Madrid, August 6, 1660 ), known as Diego Velázquez , was a Baroque painter , considered one of the greatest exponents of Spanish painting and teacher of the universal painting.

He spent his early years in Seville , where he developed a naturalistic style of gloomy lighting , influenced by Caravaggio and his followers. At age 24 he moved to Madrid , where he was named as the painter of King Philip IV and four years later was promoted to court painter , the most important position among court painters . In this work he devoted the rest of his life. His job was to paint portraits of the king and his family , as well as other tables to decorate the royal mansions.

Its catalog consists of about 120 or 130 works . The main part of his paintings that made up the royal collection is preserved in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

A GALLEON

A galleon is a sailing vessel used since the early sixteenth century. The galleons were boats of powerful destruction and very slow that could be also used for trade or war. Since the mid-sixteenth century became the main trade boat of European nations, and in its design were based the later types of warships of small size.

HISTORY

Spain was the nation that widespread and retained longer the name and made this kind of vessel type chosen for trade with its overseas possessions, as its combination of size, sail and the possibility of transporting weapons and troops did ideal for long ocean voyages, giving to the Spanish crown a fleet of vessels larger than ships and sailors rattles or ships, thus combining transport capacity of cargo ships with the firepower that required the new techniques of war at sea, allowing to have transport ships strongly armed

EVOLUTION AND THE END OS THIS TYPE

Over time galleon functions are being assumed by other more specialized vessel. The galleons of war are defined as a specific type in the seventeenth century, stronger and more armed than before, and that would end up drifting ship of the line in the eighteenth century. In their functions cargo ship was replaced by boats as fluyt or Dutch flute, lightly armed but cheaper and more efficient. Other smaller boats such as brigs replaced the smaller galleons. In all these superstructures they were simplified and reduced in height and rigging is streamlined, fragmenting the aerofoil and lightening the structure. Since mid-eighteenth century lateen sails were replaced in these ships by auric candles. Also they disappeared, first the storm jib and then the cebadera. During the second half of the eighteenth century it was generalizing the use of candles knife. The galleon and other obsolete types continued to be used in Spain for certain functions longer than in other European nations that evolved quickly into new designs, the stagnation of the Spanish administration and measures such as the ban by the inquisition of books from nations Protestants, among other manuals shipbuilding, had a negative impact which led to a gradual taking advantage of the navies of England and France.

Here I leave this link, it´s in Spanish but it´s very interesting. It´s about a Spanish galleon found in Colombia. http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/sociedad/hallado-frente-las-costas-colombia-galeon-espanol-san-jose-cargado-oro-4728846

SARA MAYOR RANILLA 2ºA

CHARLES II’S HISTORY (HIS ILNESSES)

The 6^th of November in 1661, was born Charles II,  a unfortunate Spanish king and the last Hausburg monarch.

Charles II had lot illnesses because of the sanguinity oh his family. He was suckled during 4 years. He wasn’t able to stay standing until he was 6 years old because of rickets, aggravate with the lack of sunlight. He had respiratory infections, measles, chicken pox, measles and smallpox. He had epileptic attacks during all his childhood until he was 15 years old. He has an evident intellectual retardation. He didn’t learn read until when he was 10 years old and he never knew write correctly. He was addicted to chocolate too.

His education was careless, because the people thought that he will died young.

He was married with Maria Luis Orleans but the king was in love with Maria Luis, but he never was married with her because he was impotent.

When he was 28 years old, his health was worse; and the monarch get old quickly. For this reason his doctor thought that Charles could suffer progeria.

This was the life of an unfortunate King, the last Hasburg king.

  by: Patricia Dominguez