Toulouse is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, 150 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea, 230 km (143 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean and 680 km (420 mi) from Paris. It is the fourth-largest city in France after Paris, Marseille and Lyon, with 500,000 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries ; its metropolitan area has a population of 1.5 million inhabitants. Toulouse is the central city of one of the 22 metropolitan councils of France. Between the 2014 and 2020 censuses, its metropolitan area was the third fastest growing among metropolitan areas larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France.
Giambologna, also known as Jean de Boulogne (French), Jehan Boulongne (Flemish) and Giovanni da Bologna (Italian), was the last significant Italian Renaissance sculptor, with a large workshop producing large and small works in bronze and marble in a late Mannerist style.
Piazza della Signoria is a w-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio. It is the main point of the origin and history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political focus of the city. It is the meeting place of Florentines as well as the numerous tourists, located near Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza del Duomo and gateway to Uffizi Gallery.
Pietro Tacca was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity.
Henri-Jean Guillaume "Henri" Martin was a French painter. Elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1917, he is known for his early 1920s work on the walls of the Salle de l'Assemblée générale, where the members of the Conseil d'État meet in the Palais-Royal in Paris. Other notable institutions that have featured his Post-Impressionist paintings in their halls through public procurement include the Élysée Palace, Sorbonne, Hôtel de Ville de Paris, Palais de Justice de Paris, as well as Capitole de Toulouse, although the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux and Musée des Augustins also have sizeable public collections.
The Parlement of Toulouse was one of the parlements of the Kingdom of France, established in the city of Toulouse. It was modelled on the Parlement of Paris. It was first created in 1420, but definitely established by edicts in 1437 and 1443 by Charles VII as an appellate court of justice on civil, criminal and ecclesiastic affairs for the Languedoc region, including Quercy, the County of Foix and Armagnac. It was the first provincial parlement, intended to administer the Occitan-speaking south of France, and it gained in prestige both by its distance from Paris and from the differences between southern France's legal system and northern France's.
The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings are from throughout France, the sculptures representing Occitan culture of the region with a particularly rich assemblage of Romanesque sculpture.
The Capitole de Toulouse, commonly known as the Capitole, is the heart of the municipal administration and the city hall of the French city of Toulouse.
The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was restored between 1988, and 1998, remaining open to visitors throughout this time despite the ongoing restoration works. Its collections range from ancient Egyptian antiquities to the Modern art period, making the museum one of the most important in Europe. It also hosts important exhibitions of art, for example the exhibitions of works by Georges Braque and Henri Laurens in the second half of 2005, and another on the work of Théodore Géricault from April to July 2006. It is one of the largest art museums in France.
The Hôtel d'Assézat in Toulouse, France, is a French Renaissance hôtel particulier of the 16th century which houses the Bemberg Foundation, a major art gallery of the city.
The Musée de la Chartreuse is an art museum in a former Carthusian monastery in Douai, France. It is the 'musée des Beaux-Arts' for the city.
Clémence Isaure is a quasi-legendary Occitan medieval figure credited with founding or restoring the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Academy of the Floral Games. She is supposed to have left a legacy to fund awards in the form of gold and silver flowers that the city of Toulouse would award annually to the best poets.
The capitouls, sometimes anglicized as capitols, were the chief magistrates of the commune of Toulouse, France, during the late Middle Ages and early Modern period. Their council and rule was known as the Capitoulate. They were suppressed in 1789 amid the French Revolution.
The Hôtel de Bagis in Toulouse, France, is a Renaissance hôtel particulier (palace) of the 16th century. It is a listed historical monument since 1889.
The Hôtel de Brucelles in Toulouse, France, is a gothic and Renaissance hôtel particulier (palace) of the 16th century. It is a listed historical monument since 1925.
The Hôtel d'Astorg et de Saint-Germain in Toulouse, France, is a Renaissance hôtel particulier (palace) of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Hotel de Boysson-Cheverry is a mansion located at N° 11 rue Malcousinat, in the historic center of Toulouse. Built in the second half of the 15th century for an enriched merchant, Huc de Boysson, it was remodeled and considerably enlarged during the following century by another merchant Jean de Cheverry. It is a listed historical monument since 1928.
French sculpture has been an original and influential component of world art since the Middle Ages. The first known French sculptures date to the Upper Paleolithic age. French sculpture originally copied ancient Roman models, then found its own original form in the decoration of Gothic architecture. French sculptors produced important works of Baroque sculpture for the decoration of the Palace of Versailles. In the 19th century, the sculptors Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas created a more personal and non-realistic style, which led the way to modernism in the 20th century, and the sculpture of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marcel Duchamp and Jean Arp.
In the 16th century, the Renaissance, which called for a return to the models of Roman antiquity, spread throughout Europe from Italy, notably through treatises and engravings referring to the treatise De architectura by Vitruvius, Roman theorist of ancient architecture. Each center of culture and creation reinterpreted these new references according to its local traditions.
The Handwritten Annals of the City of Toulouse, also known as the Annals of the Capitouls, were held from 1295 to 1787. They consist of a collection of books on which were recorded each year the administrative acts as well as the rights and privileges of the capitouls, the municipal consuls of Toulouse.
