Word: medicis
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...illustrative, nowhere organized as a set of examples to prove a point. Indeed, its episodes are so independent that the integrity of its theme is seriously stretched . From the institutional oppression of the poor by the rich in modern times Griffith moves to the political intrigues of Catherine de Medici, to religious conflicts in Christ's Palestine, and to the grand movements of the political civilization of Babylon. He calls the injustices of each social system "intolerance." Consequently, the film's climax-with the four stories intercut-lacks any thematic synthesis. Griffith turns largely to the human interests...
...only trades open to the younger sons of an already partly superfluous nobility, and many of them saw fit to follow both. Friction between Huguenot and Catholic never really ceased. Conspiracies against Louis and Richelieu coagulated regularly around Gaston, Louis' vain and frustrated younger brother, and Marie de Medici, their harridan mother...
...life. After receiving a bishopric through family connections, at the age of 21, he used his clerical rank and tiny diocese as a steppingstone to power. He maneuvered for years to become First Minister of France, and in his early days was even party to Marie de Medici in her conspiracies against Louis XIII, who at that time seemed hostile as well as inadequate as a potential ruler of France...
Chase-Manhattan's example has encouraged scores of other corporations to embark on ventures into artistic patronage. As a corporate Medici, Rockefeller sincerely considers the art that he buys not only a handy way to win investors or project a good image, but also a "notable source of pleasure and inspiration." Executives can select any kind of work they want in their offices (and happy executives are presumably better executives), but all acquisitions are approved by a committee of museum experts. Generally speaking, paintings tend to be by younger lesser-knowns, graphics by elder reliables (Picasso, Albers, Currier & Ives...
...this seems unhappily reminiscent not only of the Dark Ages but of what Sir Harold Nicolson called the "wolflike habits" of the Italian Renaissance, when Niccolo Machiavelli lectured Medici princes on the judicious use of power and perfidy. In those days, diplomats were regarded as no better than spies. An envoy's status abroad, in fact, was hardly assured until the Congress of Vienna established a European balance of power in 1815. The relative stability that followed, as Henry Kissinger pointed out in his 1957 book, A World Restored, "resulted not from a quest for peace but from...