Tag: George Dunea
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Potpourri Bolognese
Bologna is a frequent site for meetings by nephrologists. It is a lovely northern Italian city, easily accessible by air or by train. From the railway station, an easy walk under covered arcades takes the visitor to the center of town, to the San Petronio Cathedral, the two medieval towers, and to a modern shopping…
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Caravaggio: Beauty and crime intertwined
Born in Milan in 1571 and orphaned by the plague in 1577, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio made his way to Rome in 1592, where he enrolled the lowlife of the city, its prostitutes, thieves, and other undesirables, in order to paint the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and the Apostles and saints of the New Testament and…
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Titian: The mastery of color and the perils of paint
Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/90–1576) hailed from Pieve di Cadore, near Venice. He trained first in the workshop of the mosaicist Sebastiano Zuccato and subsequently with the acclaimed Giovanni Bellini, while his close relationship and collaboration with the influential Giorgione greatly shaped his early style. Titian’s early commissions included the Scuola di San Antonio frescoes in…
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The Celts, early inhabitants of Europe
The Celts, a collection of Indo-European tribes, shared common linguistic and cultural traditions. They controlled extensive territories across Europe from 1200 BCE to 400 CE, spanning from Ireland and Scotland to Anatolia and from the Netherlands to Spain and Italy. Greek and Roman observers frequently wrote about the Celts in negative terms but also expressed their admiration for them. The main Celtic…
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Sir Edward Elgar, pioneer of English music
Sir Edward Elgar raised English music to prominence at a time when it was dominated by continental composers. Renowned for his The Dream of Gerontius oratorio (1900), Enigma Variations (1899), the Pomp and Circumstance marches (1901–1930), a Violin Concerto (1910), a Cello Concerto (1919), two symphonies, and many other compositions, he became one of the…
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Dr. David Hosack, physician to Alexander Hamilton
In the early 1800s, when Napoleon had established his hegemony over most of Europe but was utterly ignored by Jane Austen in her novels, barber-surgeons took care of most of the bodily needs of their clients. They shaved their beards, pulled their teeth, drew their blood, lanced boils, applied leeches, and amputated limbs if necessary.…
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Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Ralph Vaughan Williams is regarded as one of the most influential and beloved English musical composers, active at a time when his country’s music was heavily influenced by German and French traditions. He was born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, into a well-connected and intellectual family. His father was a barrister and vicar, while his mother…
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Antonín Dvořák of the New World Symphony
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), the celebrated musical composer, brilliantly combined Czech folk traditions with sophisticated Western classical music. Born in the small village of Nelahozeves near Prague, in what is now the Czech Republic, he was the son of an innkeeper and butcher who also played the zither. At age six, Dvořák began violin lessons, then…
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Man is a waiting animal
If you require a visa for a certain country, you should arrive at the consulate early in the morning to beat the crowd. You are told to take a number and wait in a crowded room for up to one hour before being called. You pay your money, leave your passport there, and are told…
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The Carpathian wolves of Saki
The relationship between wolves and humans is old and complex. It oscillates between hostility and cooperation and eventually results in domestication as dogs. In Norse mythology, wolves were a powerful force destined to bring about the end of the world. To scientists today, wolves offer an invaluable window into the complexities of mammalian physiology, as…