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The Museo Arte Gallarate or MAGA is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Gallarate , in the province of Varese in Lombardy , in northern Italy. It was founded in 1966 as the Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Gallarate to house works purchased from, and donated by, artists participating in the Premio Gallarate, a national art competition. It was renamed in 2010 and moved to a new building. The museum holds over 5000 works, and the collection includes paintings, drawings, sculptures, graphic design works, photographs, and installations by artists including Carlo Carrà , Loris Cecchini , Gianni Colombo , Lucio Fontana , Ennio Morlotti , Bruno Munari and Studio Azzurro  [ it ] . Between 2015 and 2017 Museo MAGA had a second venue in the Palazzo Leone Da Perego  [ it ] , in Legnano , some 15 km to the south-east of Gallarate.

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128-560: The Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Gallarate was founded in 1966 to house works acquired – either by donation or by purchase – from the first eight editions of the Premio Gallarate (in full, the Premio Nazionale Arti Visive Città di Gallarate ), which had been founded sixteen years earlier, in 1950. The GAM became a nationally recognized museum at the beginning of the 1980s. On 19 March 2010,

256-615: A New Christian and only spoke Portuguese at home. The marriage was childless. Spinoza's sister Rebecca, brother Gabriel, and nephew eventually migrated to Curaçao , and the remaining family joined them after Spinoza's death. Through his mother, Spinoza was related to the philosopher Uriel da Costa , who stirred controversy in Amsterdam's Portuguese Jewish community. Da Costa questioned traditional Christian and Jewish beliefs, asserting that, for example, their origins were based on human inventions instead of God's revelation. His clashes with

384-575: A dapper academician artist into a sort of prince of vagabonds. The poet and journalist Louis Latourette , upon visiting the artist's previously well-appointed studio after his transformation, discovered the place in upheaval, the Renaissance reproductions discarded from the walls, the plush drapes in disarray. Modigliani was already an alcoholic and a drug addict by this time, and his studio reflected this. Modigliani's behaviour at this time sheds some light upon his developing style as an artist, in that

512-529: A dedicated circle of followers who gathered to discuss his writings and joined him in the intellectual pursuit of truth. Spinoza published little to avoid persecution and bans on his books. In his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus , described by Steven Nadler as "one of the most important books of Western thought", Spinoza questioned the divine origin of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of God while arguing that ecclesiastic authority should have no role in

640-473: A dominant influence on Spinoza's philosophy. While boarding with Van den Enden, Spinoza studied in his school, where he learned the arts and sciences and likely taught others. Many of his friends were either secularized freethinkers or belonged to dissident Christian groups that rejected the authority of established churches and traditional dogmas. Spinoza was acquainted with members of the Collegiants ,

768-645: A family trying to maintain the appearances of its lost financial standing to present: his wardrobe was dapper without ostentation, and the studio he rented was appointed in a style appropriate to someone with a finely attuned taste in plush drapery and Renaissance reproductions. He soon made efforts to assume the guise of the bohemian artist, but, even in his brown corduroys, scarlet scarf and large black hat, he continued to appear as if he were slumming it, having fallen upon harder times. When he first arrived in Paris, he wrote home regularly to his mother, sketched his nudes at

896-616: A favor to his friend, or with an eye to their "commercial potential", rather than originating from the artist's personal circle of acquaintances. Baruch Spinoza Baruch ( de ) Spinoza (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza , was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenment , Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism , 17th-century rationalism , and Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of

1024-505: A furious pace. He was constantly sketching, making as many as a hundred drawings a day. However, many of his works were lost—destroyed by him as inferior, left behind in his frequent changes of address, or given to girlfriends who did not keep them. He was first influenced by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , but around 1907 he became fascinated with the work of Paul Cézanne . Eventually he developed his own unique style, one that cannot be adequately categorized with those of other artists. He met

1152-485: A group of disaffected Mennonites and other dissenting Reformed sects that shunned official theology and must have played some role in Spinoza's developing views on religion and directed him to Van Enden. Jonathan Israel conjectures that another possible influential figure was atheist translator Jan Hendriksz Glazemaker , a collaborator of Spinoza's friend and publisher Rieuwertsz, who could not have mentored Spinoza but

1280-400: A leading Oporto commercial family, and his maternal grandfather was a foremost merchant who drifted between Judaism and Christianity. Spinoza was raised by his grandmother from ages six to nine and probably learned much about his family history from her. Spinoza's father Michael was a prominent and wealthy merchant in Amsterdam with a business that had wide geographical reach. In 1649, he

1408-546: A lesser form of blessedness, namely, that of pure understanding of oneself as one really is, i.e., as a definite modification of Substance in a certain set of relationships with everything else in the universe. That this is what Spinoza has in mind can be seen at the end of the Ethics , in E5P24 and E5P25, where Spinoza makes two final key moves, unifying the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical propositions he has developed over

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1536-468: A painter", his mother wrote, even before beginning formal studies. Despite her misgivings that launching him on a course of studying art would impinge upon his other studies, his mother indulged the young Modigliani's passion for the subject. At the age of fourteen, while sick with typhoid fever, he raved in his delirium that he wanted, above all else, to see the paintings in the Palazzo Pitti and

1664-442: A secular, democratic state. Ethics argues for a pantheistic view of God and explores the place of human freedom in a world devoid of theological, cosmological, and political moorings. Rejecting messianism and the emphasis on the afterlife, Spinoza emphasized appreciating and valuing life for oneself and others. By advocating for individual liberty in its moral, psychological, and metaphysical dimensions, Spinoza helped establish

1792-495: A sense of Jewish identity; he argued that without adherence to Jewish law, the Jewish people lacked a sustaining source of difference and identity, rendering the notion of a secular Jew incoherent. Sometime between 1654 and 1657, Spinoza started studying Latin with political radical Franciscus van den Enden , a former Jesuit and atheist, who likely introduced Spinoza to scholastic and modern philosophy, including Descartes, who had

1920-518: A sounding board for the developing ideas brewing in Modigliani's mind. Ghiglia was seven years Modigliani's senior, and it is likely that it was he who showed the young man the limits of his horizons in Livorno. Like all precocious teenagers, Modigliani preferred the company of older companions, and Ghiglia's role in his adolescence was to be a sympathetic ear as he worked himself out, principally in

2048-518: A study of the styles and themes of 19th-century Italian art. In his earliest Parisian work, traces of this influence, and that of his studies of Renaissance art , can still be seen. His nascent work was influenced by such Parisian artists as Giovanni Boldini and Toulouse-Lautrec . Modigliani showed great promise while with Micheli, and ceased his studies only when he was forced to, by the onset of tuberculosis. In 1901, whilst in Rome, Modigliani admired

2176-712: A synagogue regulation that business matters are to be arbitrated within the community. Amsterdam was tolerant of religious diversity so long as it was practiced discreetly. The community was concerned with protecting its reputation and not associating with Spinoza lest his controversial views provide the basis for possible persecution or expulsion. Spinoza did not openly break with Jewish authorities until his father died in 1654 when he became public and defiant, resulting from lengthy and stressful religious, financial, and legal clashes involving his business and synagogue, such as when Spinoza violated synagogue regulations by going to city authorities rather than resolving his disputes within

2304-481: A taste for this style of working, sketching in cafés, but preferring to paint indoors, and especially in his own studio. Even when compelled to paint landscapes (three are known to exist), Modigliani chose a proto- Cubist palette more akin to Cézanne than to the Macchiaioli. While with Micheli, Modigliani studied not only landscape, but also portraiture, still life, and the nude. His fellow students recall that

2432-492: A teenager, he certainly heard discussions about him. Steven Nadler explains that, although da Costa died when Spinoza was eight, his ideas shaped Spinoza's intellectual development. Amsterdam's Jewish communities long remembered and discussed da Costa's skepticism about organized religion, denial of the soul's immortality, and the idea that Moses didn't write the Torah, influencing Spinoza's intellectual journey. Spinoza attended

2560-674: A thread of "attending to the highest good" (which also is the highest truth) and thereby achieving a state of peace and harmony, either metaphysically or politically. In this light, the Principles of Philosophy might be viewed as an "exercise in geometric method and philosophy", paving the way for numerous concepts and conclusions that would define his philosophy (see Cogitata Metaphysica). Spinoza's metaphysics consists of one thing, substance, and its modifications (modes). Early in The Ethics Spinoza argues that only one substance

2688-400: A vocation. When he was 11 years of age, she had noted in her diary: "The child's character is still so unformed that I cannot say what I think of it. He behaves like a spoiled child, but he does not lack intelligence. We shall have to wait and see what is inside this chrysalis. Perhaps an artist?" Modigliani is known to have drawn and painted from a very early age, and thought himself "already

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2816-468: Is "attributed" to reality by intellect. Spinoza defined God as "a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence", and since "no cause or reason" can prevent such a being from existing, it must exist. This is a form of the ontological argument , which is claimed to prove the existence of God, but Spinoza went further in stating that it showed that only God exists. Accordingly, he stated that "Whatever is,

2944-467: Is a part of God. This view was described by Charles Hartshorne as Classical Pantheism . Spinoza argues that "things could not have been produced by God in any other way or in any other order than is the case". Therefore, concepts such as 'freedom' and 'chance' have little meaning. This picture of Spinoza's determinism is illuminated in Ethics : "the infant believes that it is by free will that it seeks

3072-636: Is absolutely infinite , self-caused, and eternal. He calls this substance " God ", or " Nature ". He takes these two terms to be synonymous (in the Latin the phrase he uses is "Deus sive Natura" ). For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe consists of one substance, God, or, what is the same, Nature, and its modifications (modes). It cannot be overemphasized how the rest of Spinoza's philosophy—his philosophy of mind, his epistemology, his psychology, his moral philosophy, his political philosophy, and his philosophy of religion—flows more or less directly from

3200-478: Is by universal egoism ". Spinoza's notion of blessedness figures centrally in his ethical philosophy. Spinoza writes that blessedness (or salvation or freedom), "consists, namely, in a constant and eternal love of God, or in God's love for men. Philosopher Jonathan Bennett interprets this as Spinoza wanting "'blessedness' to stand for the most elevated and desirable state one could possibly be in." Understanding what

3328-484: Is clearly disappointed by Spinoza's only statement on women. "It is unfortunate that the very last words we have by him, at the end of the extant chapters of the Political Treatise , are a short digression … on the unsuitability of women to hold political power." Likewise Jonathan I. Israel says that Spinoza's views are "hugely disappointing to the modern reader" and that most that can be said in his defense

3456-453: Is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God". This means that God is identical with the universe, an idea which he encapsulated in the phrase " Deus sive Natura " ('God or Nature'), which some have interpreted as atheism or pantheism . Though there are many more of them, God can be known by humans either through the attribute of extension or the attribute of thought. Thought and extension represent giving complete accounts of

3584-466: Is in Venice that he first smoked hashish and, rather than studying, began to spend time frequenting disreputable parts of the city. The impact of these lifestyle choices upon his developing artistic style is open to conjecture, although these choices do seem to be more than simple teenage rebellion , or the clichéd hedonism and bohemianism that was almost expected of artists of the time; his pursuit of

3712-407: Is just the substance of the universe by first stating that substances do not share attributes or essences and then demonstrating that God is a "substance" with an infinite number of attributes, thus the attributes possessed by any other substances must also be possessed by God. Therefore, God is just the sum of all the substances of the universe. God is the only substance in the universe, and everything

3840-522: Is meant by "most elevated and desirable state" requires understanding Spinoza's notion of conatus ( striving , but not necessarily with any teleological baggage) and that "perfection" refers not to (moral) value, but to completeness. Given that individuals are identified as mere modifications of the infinite Substance, it follows that no individual can ever be fully complete, i.e., perfect, or blessed. Absolute perfection, is, in Spinoza's thought, reserved solely for Substance. Nevertheless, modes can attain

3968-425: Is that "in his age rampant tyrannizing over women was indeed universal." He goes on to say, "one may legitimately wonder why did Spinoza, if he was to be consistent, not apply his highly sceptical and innovative, for his time uniquely subversive, de-legtimizing general principle likewise to men's tyrannizing over women." One scholar has attempted to rationalize Spinoza's views excluding women from full citizenship. But

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4096-530: Is the subject of considerable speculation. From the time of his arrival in Paris, Modigliani consciously crafted a charade persona for himself and cultivated his reputation as a hopeless drunk and voracious drug user. His escalating intake of drugs and alcohol may have been a means by which Modigliani masked his tuberculosis from his acquaintances, few of whom knew of his condition. Tuberculosis—the leading cause of death in France by 1900 —was highly communicable, there

4224-557: The Académie Colarossi , and drank wine in moderation. At that time, he was considered, by those who knew him, to be a bit reserved, verging on the asocial, and is noted to have commented, upon meeting Picasso , who at the time was wearing his trademark workmen's clothes, that even though the man was a genius, that did not excuse his uncouth appearance. Within a year of arriving in Paris, however, his demeanour and reputation had changed dramatically. He transformed himself from

4352-728: The British Royal Society Henry Oldenburg . Huygens and others notably praised the quality of Spinoza's lenses. Spinoza engaged in correspondence with Willem van Blijenbergh , an amateur Calvinist theologian, who sought Spinoza's view on the nature of evil and sin. Whereas Blijenbergh deferred to the authority of scripture for theology and philosophy, Spinoza told him not solely to look at scripture for truth or anthropomorphize God. Also, Spinoza told him their views were incommensurable. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz outwardly described Spinoza's work negatively but privately wrote letters to him and desired to examine

4480-642: The Ethics , this work was published posthumously by his circle of supporters in Latin and in Dutch. The subtitle is " In quo demonstratur, quomodo Societas, ubi Imperium Monarchicum locum habet, sicut et ea, ubi Optimi imperant, debet institui, ne in Tyrannidem labatur, et ut Pax, Libertasque civium inviolata maneat ." ("In which it is demonstrated how a society, may it be a monarchy or an aristocracy , can be best governed, so as not to fall into tyranny , and so that

4608-619: The Nieuwe Kerk four days after his death, with six others in the same vault. At the time, there was no memorial plaque for Spinoza. In the 18th century, the vault was emptied, and the remnants scattered over the earth of the churchyard. The memorial plaque is outside the church, where some of his remains are part of the churchyard's soil. Spinoza's friends rescued his personal belongings, papers, and unpublished manuscripts. His supporters took them away for safekeeping from seizure by those wishing to suppress his writings, and they do not appear in

4736-907: The Salon d'Automne of 1912, by 1914 he abandoned sculpting and focused solely on his painting, a move precipitated by the difficulty in acquiring sculptural materials due to the outbreak of war , and by Modigliani's physical debilitation. In June 2010 Modigliani's Tête , a limestone carving of a woman's head, became the third most expensive sculpture ever sold . Modigliani painted a series of portraits of contemporary artists and friends in Montparnasse: Chaïm Soutine , Moïse Kisling , Pablo Picasso , Diego Rivera , Marie "Marevna" Vorobyev-Stebeslka , Juan Gris , Max Jacob , Jacques Lipchitz , Blaise Cendrars , and Jean Cocteau , all sat for stylized renditions. Modigliani painted Soutine's portrait several times, when they lived together in

4864-538: The Theologico-Political Treatise , his works appeared in print after his death. Because the reaction to his anonymously published work, Theologico-Political Treatise , was unfavorable, Spinoza told supporters not to translate his works and abstained from publishing further. Following his death, his supporters published his works posthumously in Latin and Dutch. His posthumous works– Opera Posthuma –were edited by his friends in secrecy to prevent

4992-578: The Uffizi in Florence. As Livorno's local museum housed only a sparse few paintings by the Italian Renaissance masters, the tales he had heard about the great works held in Florence intrigued him, and it was a source of considerable despair to him, in his sickened state, that he might never get the chance to view them in person. His mother promised that she would take him to Florence herself,

5120-463: The principle of sufficient reason is commonly associated with Gottfried Leibniz , Spinoza employs it in a more systematic manner. In Spinoza's philosophical framework, questions concerning why a particular phenomenon exists are always answerable, and these answers are provided in terms of the relevant cause. Spinoza's approach involves first providing an account of a phenomenon, such as goodness or consciousness, to explain it, and then further explaining

5248-483: The rationalist school of thought, which includes the assumption that ideas correspond to reality perfectly, in the same way that mathematics is supposed to be an exact representation of the world. The Ethics , a "superbly cryptic masterwork", contains many unresolved obscurities and is written with a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry. The writings of René Descartes have been described as "Spinoza's starting point". Spinoza's first publication

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5376-431: The "God-intoxicated man". Spinoza inspired the poet Shelley to write his essay " The Necessity of Atheism ". It is a widespread belief that Spinoza equated God with the material universe. He has therefore been called the "prophet" and "prince" and most eminent expounder of pantheism . More specifically, in a letter to Henry Oldenburg he states, "as to the view of certain people that I identify God with Nature (taken as

5504-649: The Catholic Church. Burgh attacked Spinoza's views as expressed in the Theological-Political Treatise and tried to persuade Spinoza to embrace Catholicism. In response, Spinoza, at the request of Burgh's family, who hoped to restore his reason, wrote an angry letter mocking the Catholic Church and condemning all religious superstition. Spinoza published little in his lifetime, and most formal writings were in Latin, reaching few readers. Apart from Descartes' Principles of Philosophy and

5632-579: The Cité Falguière around 1916. At the outset of World War I , Modigliani tried to enlist in the army but was refused because of his poor health. Known as Modì (which plays on the French word 'maudit', meaning 'cursed') by many Parisians, but as Dedo to his family and friends, Modigliani was a handsome man, and attracted much female attention. Women came and went until Beatrice Hastings entered his life. She stayed with him for almost two years,

5760-566: The Foundation of Angelo Bozzola of Galliate. In the Palazzo Leone da Perego there are more than 75 art works by the artist Angelo Bozzola, and additional works by Bruno Munari, Gianni Monnet, Gillo Dorfles, Atanasio Soldati, and Augusto Garau . Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani ( US : / ˌ m oʊ d iː l ˈ j ɑː n i / ; Italian: [ameˈdɛːo modiʎˈʎaːni] ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920)

5888-439: The Jewish community. He acted as an intermediary for Spinoza's correspondence, sending and receiving letters of the philosopher to and from third parties. They maintained their relationship until Serrarius died in 1669. Through his pursuits in lens grinding, mathematics, optics, and philosophy, Spinoza forged connections with prominent figures such as scientist Christiaan Huygens , mathematician Johannes Hudde , and Secretary of

6016-468: The Portuguese Jewish community, where his father was a prominent merchant. As a young man, Spinoza challenged rabbinic authority and questioned Jewish doctrines, leading to his permanent expulsion from the Jewish community in 1656. Following his excommunication, he distanced himself from all religious affiliations and devoted himself to philosophical inquiry and lens grinding. Spinoza attracted

6144-844: The Stoics before him, in contrast to the Epicurean belief in the probabilistic path of atoms, which is more in line with contemporary thought on quantum mechanics . One thing which seems, on the surface, to distinguish Spinoza's view of the emotions from both Descartes' and Hume's pictures of them is that he takes the emotions to be cognitive in some important respect. Jonathan Bennett claims that "Spinoza mainly saw emotions as caused by cognitions. [However] he did not say this clearly enough and sometimes lost sight of it entirely." Spinoza provides several demonstrations which purport to show truths about how human emotions work. The picture presented is, according to Bennett, "unflattering, coloured as it

6272-682: The Talmud Torah school adjoining the Bet Ya'acov synagogue, a few doors down from his home, headed by the senior Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira . Instructed in Spanish, the language of learning and literature, students in the elementary school learned to read the prayerbook and the Torah in Hebrew, translate the weekly section into Spanish, and study Rashi 's commentary. Spinoza's name does not appear on

6400-531: The age of 35, in Paris. Modigliani was born into a Sephardic Jewish family in Livorno , Italy. A port city, Livorno had long served as a refuge for those persecuted for their religion, and was home to a large Jewish community . His maternal great-great-grandfather, Solomon Garsin, had immigrated to Livorno in the 18th century as a refugee. Modigliani's mother, Eugénie Garsin, born and raised in Marseille ,

6528-631: The artist's final years, helping him financially, and also organizing his show in Paris in 1917. The several dozen nudes Modigliani painted between 1916 and 1919 constitute many of his best-known works. This series of nudes was commissioned by Modigliani's dealer and friend Léopold Zborowski, who lent the artist use of his apartment, supplied models and painting materials, and paid him between fifteen and twenty francs each day for his work. The paintings from this arrangement were thus different from his previous depictions of friends and lovers in that they were funded by Zborowski either for his own collection, as

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6656-452: The authorities, leading to his imprisonment and eventual death in prison. Anticipating the reaction to his ideas, Spinoza published his treatise in 1670 under a false publisher and a fictitious place of publication. The work did not remain anonymous for long. Samuel Maresius attacked Spinoza personally, while Thomas Hobbes and Johannes Bredenburg criticized his conception of God and saw the book as dangerous and subversive. Spinoza's work

6784-504: The belief that the only route to true creativity was through defiance and disorder. Letters that he wrote from his 'sabbatical' in Capri in 1901 clearly indicate that he is being more and more influenced by the thinking of Nietzsche. In these letters, he advised friend Oscar Ghiglia; (hold sacred all) which can exalt and excite your intelligence... (and) ... seek to provoke ... and to perpetuate ... these fertile stimuli, because they can push

6912-459: The bounds of political and religious authority while arguing for a secular, democratic state. Before the publication of the Theological-Political Treatise , Spinoza's friend Adriaan Koerbagh published a book that criticized organized religion, denied the divine authorship of the Bible, and asserted that miracles were impossible—ideas similar to those of Spinoza. His work attracted the attention of

7040-497: The bourgeois stylings of the academic genre painters. While sympathetically connected to (and actually pre-dating) the French Impressionists , the Macchiaioli did not make the same impact upon international art culture as did the contemporaries and followers of Monet , and are today largely forgotten outside Italy. Modigliani's connection with the movement was through Guglielmo Micheli, his first art teacher. Micheli

7168-512: The breast; the angry boy believes that by free will he wishes vengeance; the timid man thinks it is with free will he seeks flight; the drunkard believes that by a free command of his mind he speaks the things which when sober he wishes he had left unsaid. … All believe that they speak by a free command of the mind, whilst, in truth, they have no power to restrain the impulse which they have to speak." In his letter to G. H. Schuller (Letter 58), he wrote: "men are conscious of their desire and unaware of

7296-424: The causes by which [their desires] are determined." He also held that knowledge of true causes of passive emotion can transform it into an active emotion, thus anticipating one of the key ideas of Sigmund Freud 's psychoanalysis . According to Eric Schliesser, Spinoza was skeptical regarding the possibility of knowledge of nature and as a consequence at odds with scientists such as Galileo and Huygens. Although

7424-544: The center of Legnano, Lombardy, Italy. This structure was built in the second half of the thirteenth century by an Archiepiscopal Court. Two important buildings were built on the ruins of the castle of Cotta by the Archbishops of Milan: The Palazzo Leone da Perego and The Palace of Ottone Visconti. The Archbishop's residences surrounded both buildings. In 2016, little remains of the original building due to radical restorations since 1898. The European Photograph Festival

7552-459: The community to free himself from paying his father's debt. On 27 July, 1656, the Talmud Torah community leaders, which included Aboab de Fonseca , issued a writ of herem against the 23-year-old Spinoza. Spinoza's censure was the harshest ever pronounced in the community, carrying tremendous emotional and spiritual impact. The exact reason for expelling Spinoza is not stated, only referring to his "abominable heresies", "monstrous deeds", and

7680-479: The concept of an anthropomorphic, fatherly God who cares about humanity. In 1785, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi published a condemnation of Spinoza's pantheism, after Gotthold Lessing was thought to have confessed on his deathbed to being a "Spinozist", which was the equivalent in his time of being called an atheist . Jacobi claimed that Spinoza's doctrine was pure materialism, because all Nature and God are said to be nothing but extended substance . This, for Jacobi,

7808-615: The confiscation and destruction of manuscripts. He wore a signet ring to mark his letters, engraved with the Latin word Caute , meaning "Caution", and the image of a thorny rose. Spinoza's health began to fail in 1676, and he died in The Hague on 21 February 1677 at age 44, attended by a physician friend, Georg Herman Schuller. Spinoza had been ill with some form of lung affliction, probably tuberculosis and possibly complicated by silicosis brought on by grinding glass lenses. Although Spinoza had been becoming sicker for weeks, his death

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7936-484: The convoluted letters that he regularly sent, and which survive today. Dear friend, I write to pour myself out to you and to affirm myself to myself. I am the prey of great powers that surge forth and then disintegrate ... A bourgeois told me today–insulted me–that I or at least my brain was lazy. It did me good. I should like such a warning every morning upon awakening: but they cannot understand us nor can they understand life... In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, then

8064-493: The course of the work. In E5P24, he links the understanding of particular things to the understanding of God, or Substance; in E5P25, the conatus of the mind is linked to the third kind of knowledge ( Intuition ). From here, it is a short step to the connection of Blessedness with the amor dei intellectualis ("intellectual love of God"). This unfinished treatise in Latin expounds Spinoza's ideas about forms of government. As with

8192-523: The death of Rachel, Michael married Hannah Deborah, with whom he had five children. His second wife brought a dowry to the marriage that was absorbed into Michael's business capital instead of being set aside for her children, which may have caused a grudge between Spinoza and his father. The family lived on the artificial island on the south side of the River Amstel, known as the Vlooienburg , at

8320-467: The disastrous financial collapse of his father's business interests. Amedeo's birth saved the family from ruin; according to an ancient law, creditors could not seize the bed of a pregnant woman or a mother with a newborn child. The bailiffs entered the family's home just as Eugénie went into labour; the family protected their most valuable assets by piling them on top of her. Modigliani had a close relationship with his mother, who taught him at home until he

8448-432: The epitome of the tragic artist, creating a posthumous legend almost as well known as that of Vincent van Gogh . During the 1920s, in the wake of Modigliani's career and spurred on by comments by André Salmon crediting hashish and absinthe with the genesis of Modigliani's style, many hopefuls tried to emulate his "success" by embarking on a path of substance abuse and bohemian excess. Salmon claimed that whereas Modigliani

8576-440: The fact that Modigliani was so taken by this text in his early teens gives a good indication of his developing tastes. Baudelaire and D'Annunzio similarly appealed to the young artist, with their interest in corrupted beauty, and the expression of that insight through Symbolist imagery. Modigliani wrote to Ghiglia extensively from Capri, where his mother had taken him to assist in his recovery from tuberculosis. These letters are

8704-464: The family owned. A reversal in fortune occurred to this prosperous family in 1883. An economic downturn in the price of metal plunged the Modiglianis into bankruptcy. Ever resourceful, Modigliani's mother used her social contacts to establish a school and, along with her two sisters, made the school into a successful enterprise. Amedeo Modigliani was the fourth child, whose birth coincided with

8832-571: The fifth house along the Houtgracht canal. The Jewish quarter was not formally divided. The family lived close to the Bet Ya'acov synagogue, and nearby were Christians, including the artist Rembrandt . Miriam was their first child, followed by Isaac who was expected to take over as head of the family and the commercial enterprise but died in 1649. Baruch Espinosa, the third child, was born on 24 November 1632 and named as per tradition for his maternal grandfather. Spinoza's younger brother Gabriel

8960-509: The first serious love of his life, Russian poet Anna Akhmatova , in 1910, when he was 26. They had studios in the same building, and although 21-year-old Anna had recently married, they began an affair. Anna was tall with dark hair, pale skin and grey-green eyes: she embodied Modigliani's aesthetic ideal and the pair became engrossed in each other. After a year, however, Anna returned to her husband. In 1909, Modigliani returned home to Livorno, sickly and tired from his wild lifestyle. But soon he

9088-426: The focal point of the avant-garde . In fact, his arrival at the centre of artistic experimentation coincided with the arrival of two other foreigners who were also to leave their marks upon the art world: Gino Severini and Juan Gris . He later befriended Jacob Epstein , with whom he aimed to set up a studio or Temple of Beauty to be enjoyed by all. Modigliani himself intended to create the drawings and paintings of

9216-411: The generous contributions of his friends to support himself. In 1663, Spinoza moved to Voorburg for an unknown reason. He continued working on Ethics and corresponded with scientists and philosophers throughout Europe. In 1665, he began writing the Theological-Political Treatise , which addresses theological and political issues such as the interpretation of scripture, the origins of the state, and

9344-425: The genre of political writing called secular theology . Spinoza's philosophy spans nearly every area of philosophical discourse, including metaphysics , epistemology , political philosophy , ethics , philosophy of mind , and philosophy of science . His friends posthumously published his works, captivating philosophers for the next two centuries. Celebrated as one of the most original and influential thinkers of

9472-491: The grand opening of the current Museo MAGA began with an exhibition dedicated to Amedeo Modigliani . The newly relocated museum was given the name Museo MAGA upon moving to its newly constructed premises. The modern makeover was completed to create a relationship with younger visitors and a more contemporary approach to the appreciation of the arts. Between 2015 and 2017, the Museo MAGA expanded into Palazzo Leone da Perego in

9600-514: The intelligence to its maximum creative power. The work of Lautréamont was equally influential at this time. This doomed poet's Les Chants de Maldoror became the seminal work for the Parisian Surrealists of Modigliani's generation, and the book became Modigliani's favourite to the extent that he learnt it by heart. The poetry of Lautréamont is characterized by the juxtaposition of fantastical elements, and by sadistic imagery;

9728-677: The inventory of his possessions at death. Within a year of his death, his supporters translated his Latin manuscripts into Dutch and other languages. Secular authorities and later the Roman Catholic Church banned his works. Despite being published in Latin rather than a vernacular language, this 1670 treatise published in Spinoza's lifetime caused a huge reaction described as "one of the most significant events in European intellectual history." The Ethics has been associated with that of Leibniz and René Descartes as part of

9856-542: The last was where he displayed his greatest talent, and apparently this was not an entirely academic pursuit for the teenager: when not painting nudes, he was occupied with seducing the household maid. Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as "Superman", a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art, but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra . Fattori himself would often visit

9984-409: The latter being evident in every finite mode (he gives examples of "motion" and "rest"). The traditional understanding of an attribute in philosophy is similar to Spinoza's modes, though he uses that word differently. To him, an attribute is "that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of substance", and there are possibly an infinite number of them. It is the essential nature that

10112-638: The manuscript of the Ethics . In 1676, Leibniz traveled to The Hague to meet Spinoza, remaining with him for three days to converse about current events and philosophy. Leibniz's work bears some striking resemblances to parts of Spinoza's philosophy, like in Monadology . Leibniz was concerned when his name was not redacted in a letter printed in the Opera Posthuma . In 1675, Albert Burgh, a friend and possibly former pupil of Spinoza, wrote to him repudiating his teachings and announcing his conversion to

10240-422: The manuscript of  Ethics , reworking part Three into parts Four and Five, and composed a Hebrew grammar for proper interpretation of scripture and for clearing up confusion and problems when studying the Bible, with part One presenting etymology, the alphabet, and principles governing nouns, verbs, and more. Part Two, unfinished before he died, would have presented syntax rules. Another unfinished work from 1676

10368-543: The metaphysical underpinnings in Part I of the Ethics . Spinoza sets forth a vision of Being, illuminated by his awareness of God. They may seem strange at first sight. To the question "What is?" he replies: "Substance, its attributes, and modes". Following Maimonides , Spinoza defined substance as "that which is in itself and is conceived through itself", meaning that it can be understood without any reference to anything external. Being conceptually independent also means that

10496-537: The moment he was recovered. Not only did she fulfil this promise, but she also undertook to enroll him with the best painting master in Livorno, Guglielmo Micheli . Modigliani worked in Micheli's Art School from 1898 to 1900. Among his colleagues in that studio would have been Llewelyn Lloyd , Giulio Cesare Vinzio , Manlio Martinelli , Gino Romiti , Renato Natali , and Oscar Ghiglia . Here his earliest formal artistic instruction took place in an atmosphere steeped in

10624-575: The most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period . Influenced by Stoicism , Thomas Hobbes , René Descartes , Ibn Tufayl , and heterodox Christians, Spinoza was a leading philosopher of the Dutch Golden Age . Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Marrano family that fled Portugal for the more tolerant Dutch Republic . He received a traditional Jewish education, learning Hebrew and studying sacred texts within

10752-406: The original editors of Opera Posthuma —a collection of his works published posthumously—Lodewijk Meyer, Georg Hermann Schuller, and Johannes Bouwmeester, excluded personal matters and letters due to the political and ecclesiastical persecution of the time. Spinoza corresponded with Peter Serrarius , a radical Protestant and millenarian merchant, who was a patron of Spinoza after his expulsion from

10880-582: The peace and liberty of the citizens remain unviolated"). Although Spinoza's political and theological thought was radical on many ways, he held traditional views on the place of women. In the TP, he writes briefly on the last page of the TP that women were "naturally" subordinate to men, stating bluntly his women are "by nature" not by "institutional practice" subordinate to men. Both his major biographers in English remark on his view of women. Biographer Steven Nadler

11008-529: The phenomenon in terms of itself. For instance, he might argue that consciousness is the degree of power of a mental state. Spinoza has also been described as an " Epicurean materialist", specifically in reference to his opposition to Cartesian mind-body dualism. This view was held by Epicureans before him, as they believed that atoms with their probabilistic paths were the only substance that existed fundamentally. Spinoza, however, deviated significantly from Epicureans by adhering to strict determinism, much like

11136-485: The propositions of the Ethics while it was in draft and Spinoza's second text, Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being . Though a few prominent people in Amsterdam discussed the teachings of the secretive but marginal group, it was mainly a testing ground for Spinoza's philosophy to extend his challenge to the status quo. Their public reputation in Amsterdam was negative, with Ole Borch disparaging them as "atheists". Throughout his life, Spinoza's general approach

11264-499: The registry after age fourteen, and he likely never studied with rabbis such as Manasseh ben Israel and Morteira. Spinoza possibly went to work around fourteen and almost certainly was needed in his father's business after his brother died in 1649. During the First Anglo-Dutch War , much of the Spinoza firm's ships and cargo were captured by English ships, severely affecting the firm's financial viability. The firm

11392-407: The religious establishment led to his excommunication twice by rabbinic authorities, who imposed humiliation and social exclusion. In 1639, as part of an agreement to be readmitted, da Costa had to prostrate himself for worshippers to step over him. He died in 1640, reportedly committing suicide. During his childhood, Spinoza was likely unaware of his family connection with Uriel da Costa; still, as

11520-421: The responsibility of paying debts owed by his late father, Spinoza appealed to the city to declare him an orphan; since he was a legal minor, not understanding his father's indebtedness would remove the obligation to repay his debts and retrospectively renounce his inheritance. Though he was released of all debts and legally in the right, his reputation as a merchant was permanently damaged in addition to violating

11648-420: The same thing is ontologically independent, depending on nothing else for its existence and being the 'cause of itself' ( causa sui ). A mode is something which cannot exist independently but rather must do so as part of something else on which it depends, including properties (for example color), relations (such as size) and individual things. Modes can be further divided into 'finite' and 'infinite' ones, with

11776-427: The seedier side of life appears to have roots in his appreciation of radical philosophies, including those of Nietzsche . Having been exposed to erudite philosophical literature as a young boy under the tutelage of Isaco Garsin, his maternal grandfather, he continued to read and be influenced through his art studies by the writings of Nietzsche, Baudelaire , Carducci , Comte de Lautréamont , and others, and developed

11904-537: The seventeenth century, Rebecca Goldstein dubbed him "the renegade Jew who gave us modernity." Spinoza's ancestors, adherents of Crypto-Judaism , faced persecution during the Portuguese Inquisition , enduring torture and public displays of humiliation. In 1597, his paternal grandfather's family left Vidigueira for Nantes and lived outwardly as New Christians , eventually transferring to Holland for an unknown reason. His maternal ancestors were

12032-596: The stone caryatids for 'The Pillars of Tenderness' which would support the imagined temple. Modigliani squatted in the Bateau-Lavoir , a commune for penniless artists in Montmartre , renting himself a studio in Rue Caulaincourt. Even though this artists' quarter of Montmartre was characterized by generalized poverty, Modigliani himself presented—initially, at least—as one would expect the son of

12160-457: The studio had become almost a sacrificial effigy for all that he resented about the academic art that had marked his life and his training up to that point. Not only did he remove all the trappings of his bourgeois heritage from his studio, but he also set about destroying practically all of his own early work, which he described as "Childish baubles, done when I was a dirty bourgeois". The motivation for this violent rejection of his earlier self

12288-613: The studio, and approved of the young artist's innovations. In 1902, Modigliani continued what was to be a lifelong infatuation with life drawing , enrolling in the Scuola Libera di Nudo, or "Free School of Nude Studies", of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. A year later, while still suffering from tuberculosis, he moved to Venice, where he registered to study at the Regia Accademia ed Istituto di Belle Arti . It

12416-446: The synagogue's bans on public weddings, funeral processions, and discussing religious matters with Christians, lest such activity might "disturb the liberty we enjoy". Before the expulsion, Spinoza had not published anything or written a treatise; Steven Nadler states that if Spinoza was voicing his criticism of Judaism that later appeared through his philosophical works, such as Part I of Ethics , then there can be no wonder that he

12544-472: The testimony of witnesses "in the presence of the said Espinoza". Even though the Amsterdam municipal authorities were not directly involved in Spinoza's censure, the town council expressly ordered the Portuguese-Jewish community to regulate their conduct and ensure that the community kept strict observance of Jewish law. Other evidence indicates a concern about upsetting civil authorities, such as

12672-556: The theologians, synods, and city magistrates. The Short Treatise , a long-forgotten text that only survived in Dutch translation, was first published by Johannes van Vloten in 1862. While lodging with Herman Homan in Rijnsburg, Spinoza produced lenses and instruments to support himself and out of scientific interest. He began working on his Ethics and Descartes' Principles of Philosophy , which he completed in two weeks, communicating and interpreting Descartes' arguments and testing

12800-516: The topic has not attracted major consideration in Spinoza studies. Spinoza was considered to be an atheist because he used the word "God" [Deus] to signify a concept that was different from that of traditional Judeo–Christian monotheism. "Spinoza expressly denies personality and consciousness to God; he has neither intelligence, feeling, nor will; he does not act according to purpose, but everything follows necessarily from his nature, according to law...." Thus, Spinoza's cool, indifferent God differs from

12928-505: The water for his metaphysical and ethical ideas. Spinoza's explanations of essential elements of the Cartesian system helped many interested people study the system, enhancing his philosophical reputation. This work was published in 1663 and was one of the two works published in his lifetime under his name. Spinoza led a modest and frugal lifestyle, earning income by polishing lenses and crafting telescopes and microscopes. He also relied on

13056-458: The work of Domenico Morelli , a painter of dramatic religious and literary scenes. Morelli had served as an inspiration for a group of iconoclasts who were known by the title "the Macchiaioli " (from macchia  —"dash of colour", or, more derogatively, "stain"), and Modigliani had already been exposed to the influences of the Macchiaioli. This localized landscape movement reacted against

13184-465: The world in mental or physical terms. To this end, he says that "the mind and the body are one and the same thing, which is conceived now under the attribute of thought, now under the attribute of extension". After stating his proof for God's existence, Spinoza addresses who "God" is. Spinoza believed that God is "the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator". Spinoza attempts to prove that God

13312-482: Was Tractatus Politicus , which concerns how states can function well and intended to show that democratic states are best. Spinoza refused an offer to be the chair of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg , perhaps because of the possibility that it might curb his freedom of thought . Few of Spinoza's letters are extant, and none before 1661. Nearly all the contents are philosophical and technical because

13440-519: Was 10. Beset with health problems after an attack of pleurisy when he was about 11, a few years later he developed a case of typhoid fever . When he was 16 he was taken ill again and contracted the tuberculosis which would later claim his life. After Modigliani recovered from the second bout of pleurisy, his mother took him on a tour of southern Italy: Naples , Capri , Rome and Amalfi , then north to Florence and Venice . His mother was, in many ways, instrumental in his ability to pursue art as

13568-607: Was a member of an Italian Jewish family of successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. While not as culturally sophisticated as the Garsins, they knew how to invest in and develop thriving business endeavors. When the Garsin and Modigliani families announced the engagement of their children, Flaminio was a wealthy young mining engineer . He managed the mine in Sardinia and also managed the almost 30,000 acres (12,141 ha) of timberland

13696-516: Was a totally pedestrian artist when sober, "...from the day that he abandoned himself to certain forms of debauchery, an unexpected light came upon him, transforming his art. From that day on, he became one who must be counted among the masters of living art." Some art historians suggest that it is entirely possible that Modigliani would have achieved even greater artistic heights had he not been immured in, and destroyed by, his own self-indulgences. During his early years in Paris, Modigliani worked at

13824-705: Was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by a surreal elongation of faces, necks, and figures — works that were not received well during his lifetime, but later became much sought-after. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance . In 1906, he moved to Paris, where he came into contact with such artists as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși . By 1912, Modigliani

13952-475: Was back in Paris, this time renting a studio in Montparnasse . He originally saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, and was encouraged to continue after Paul Guillaume , an ambitious young art dealer, took an interest in his work and introduced him to sculptor Constantin Brâncuși . He was Constantin Brâncuși's disciple for one year. Although a series of Modigliani's sculptures were exhibited in

14080-524: Was born in 1634, followed by another sister Rebecca. Miriam married Samuel de Caceres but died shortly after childbirth. According to Jewish practice, Samuel had to marry his former sister-in-law Rebecca. Following his brother's death, Spinoza's place as head of the family and its business meant scholarly ambitions were pushed aside. Spinoza's mother, Hannah Deborah, died when Spinoza was six years old. Michael's third wife, Esther, raised Spinoza from age nine; she lacked formal Jewish knowledge due to growing up

14208-599: Was descended from an intellectual, scholarly family of Sephardic ancestry that for generations had lived along the Mediterranean coastline. Fluent in many languages, her ancestors were authorities on sacred Jewish texts and had founded a school of Talmudic studies. Family legend traced the family lineage to the 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza . The family business was money lending , with branches in Livorno, Marseille, Tunis, and London, though their fortunes ebbed and flowed. Modigliani's father, Flaminio,

14336-520: Was elected to serve as an administrative officer of the recently united congregation Talmud Torah . He married his cousin Rachael d'Espinosa, daughter of his uncle Abraham d'Espinosa, who was also a community leader and Michael's business partner. Marrying cousins was common in the Portuguese Jewish community then, giving Michael access to his father-in-law's commercial network and capital. Rachel's children died in infancy, and she died in 1627. After

14464-497: Was exhibiting highly stylized sculptures with Cubists of the Section d'Or group at the Salon d'Automne . Modigliani's oeuvre includes paintings and drawings. From 1909 to 1914, he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. His main subjects were portraits and full figures, both in the images and in the sculptures. Modigliani had little success while alive but after his death achieved great popularity. He died of tubercular meningitis , at

14592-580: Was held in the building in 2016, with work by Michael Akerman, Raffaele Montepaone, Giovanni Sesia, Giovanni Mereghetti and Cecile Decorniquet, among others. This project is dedicated to "The harmony of the form, Angelo Bozzola and the Concrete Art Movement (1948–1958)". The exhibition is dedicated to the CAM because the MAGA museum has the historic archive and the important collection that belongs to

14720-424: Was his 1663 geometric exposition of proofs using Euclid 's model with definitions and axioms of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy . Following Descartes, Spinoza aimed to understand truth through logical deductions from 'clear and distinct ideas', a process which always begins from the 'self-evident truths' of axioms . However, his actual project does not end there: from his first work to his last one, there runs

14848-543: Was in a unique position to introduce Spinoza to Cartesian philosophy, mathematics, and lens grinding. After learning Latin with Van Enden, Spinoza studied at Leiden University around 1658, where he audited classes in Cartesian philosophy. From 1656 to 1661, Spinoza's main discussion partners who formed his circle and played a formative part in Spinoza's life were Van den Enden, Pieter Balling , Jarig Jelles, Lodewijk Meyer , Johannes Bouwmeester and Adriaan Koerbagh . Spinoza's following, or philosophical sect, scrutinized

14976-437: Was no cure, and those who had it were feared, ostracized, and pitied. Modigliani thrived on camaraderie and would not let himself be isolated as an invalid; he used drink and drugs as palliatives to ease his physical pain, helping him to maintain a façade of vitality and allowing him to continue to create his art. Modigliani's use of drink and drugs intensified from about 1914 onward. After years of remission and recurrence, this

15104-452: Was not only a Macchiaiolo himself, but had been a pupil of the famous Giovanni Fattori , a founder of the movement. Micheli's work, however, was so fashionable and the genre so commonplace that the young Modigliani reacted against it, preferring to ignore the obsession with landscape that, as with French Impressionism, characterized the movement. Micheli also tried to encourage his pupils to paint en plein air , but Modigliani never really got

15232-441: Was praised by many, but was considered by some to be alarming and dangerously inimical. Spinoza's "God or Nature" ( Deus sive Natura ) provided a living, natural God, in contrast to Isaac Newton 's first cause argument and the dead mechanism of Julien Offray de La Mettrie 's (1709–1751) work, Man a Machine ( L'homme machine ) . Coleridge and Shelley saw in Spinoza's philosophy a religion of nature . Novalis called him

15360-413: Was saddled with debt by the war's end in 1654 due to its merchant voyages being intercepted by the English, leading to its decline. Spinoza's father died in 1654, making him the head of the family, responsible for organizing and leading the Jewish mourning rituals, and in a business partnership with his brother of their inherited firm. As Spinoza's father had poor health for some years before his death, he

15488-609: Was safer than Koerbagh's because it was written in Latin, a language not widely understood by the general public, and Spinoza explicitly forbade its translation. The secular authorities varied enforcing the Reformed Church in Amsterdam's orders to ban the distribution of the blasphemous book. In 1670, Spinoza moved to The Hague to have easier access to the city's intellectual life and to be closer to his friends and followers. As he became more famous, Spinoza spent time receiving visitors and responding to letters. He returned to

15616-584: Was severely punished. Unlike most censures issued by the Amsterdam congregation, it was never rescinded since the censure did not lead to repentance. After the censure, Spinoza may have written an Apologia in Spanish defending his views, but it is now lost. Spinoza's expulsion did not lead him to convert to Christianity or belong to a confessional religion or sect. From 1656 to 1661, Spinoza found lodgings elsewhere in Amsterdam and Leiden, supporting himself with teaching while learning lens grinding and constructing microscopes and telescopes. Spinoza did not maintain

15744-450: Was significantly involved in the business, putting his intellectual curiosity on hold. Until 1656, he continued financially supporting the synagogue and attending services in compliance with synagogue conventions and practice. By 1655, the family's wealth had evaporated and the business effectively ended. In March 1656, Spinoza went to the city authorities for protection against debts in the Portuguese Jewish community. To free himself from

15872-404: Was sudden, and he died without leaving a will. Reports circulated that he repented his philosophical stances on his deathbed, but these tales petered out in the 18th century. Lutheran preacher Johannes Colerus wrote the first biography of Spinoza for the original reason of researching his final days. By the time of his death, he had never married and had no children. Spinoza was buried inside

16000-531: Was the period during which the symptoms of his tuberculosis worsened, signaling that the disease had reached an advanced stage. He sought the company of artists such as Utrillo and Soutine , seeking acceptance and validation for his work from his colleagues. Modigliani's behavior stood out even in these Bohemian surroundings: he carried on frequent affairs, drank heavily, and used absinthe and hashish . While drunk, he would sometimes strip himself naked at social gatherings. He died in Paris, aged 35. He became

16128-532: Was the result of Enlightenment rationalism and it would finally end in absolute atheism. Moses Mendelssohn disagreed with Jacobi, saying that there is no actual difference between theism and pantheism. The issue became a major intellectual and religious concern for European civilization at the time. The attraction of Spinoza's philosophy to late 18th-century Europeans was that it provided an alternative to materialism, atheism, and deism. Three of Spinoza's ideas strongly appealed to them: By 1879, Spinoza's pantheism

16256-691: Was the subject of several of his portraits, including Madame Pompadour , and the object of much of his drunken wrath. When the British painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse in 1914, on her first evening there the smiling man at the next table in the café introduced himself as "Modigliani, painter and Jew". They became great friends. In 1916, Modigliani befriended the Polish poet and art dealer Léopold Zborowski and his wife Anna. Zborowski became Modigliani's primary art dealer and friend during

16384-472: Was to avoid intellectual battles, clashes, and public controversies, viewing them as a waste of energy that served no real purpose. Between 1660 and 1661, Spinoza moved from Amsterdam to Rijnsburg , allowing for a quiet retreat in the country and access to the university town, Leiden, where he still had many friends. Around this time, he wrote his Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being , which he never published in his lifetime, thinking it would enrage

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