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Talk:Gray goo

Some other colour of goo ?? Black's taken, so's green
What about Zombie Goo? This variant shows up in fiction a lot, and some zombie stuff is arguably sort of science fiction, absurd as it may be. I don't know of a goo colour name but the concept is pretty analogous and highly prevalent in Speghetti Zombie flicks, including Return of the Living Dead and Resident Evil (both where military development bred dead guys who took over the world)

Ahh, just a thought. Seems to fit in there somehow.

mathematical error
"The acceleration of gray goo is most likely to be geometric as most replicators will quickly exhaust available raw materials. Although the growth is not truly exponential, it is worth noting that geometric growth is fast enough to warrant concern."

This is plain wrong, since geometric growth is the same as exponential growth.

This page has been vandalized (not sure how to notify of this).

Why is there an advert for a computer game in this page?
Fine if a game exists, but we don't need to know which platforms it's available for and the difference prices for each. Blatant advert and undesirable.

Ganpati23 (talk) 16:57, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Grey? Gray?
Which is it? Both spellings are used throughout the article, although the US "gray" is most prevalent. --Serpinium (talk) 20:01, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Section on credibility of the concept?
Since the person, an advanced professional in the field, who coined the term is on record (a record referenced by this very wiki page) as wishing he never coined it, and since that this very wiki page also references documents referring to the "myth" of grey goo, and others celebrating the "burial" of the term itself - can we have a section which more seriously addresses this? Instead of quite a long article treating the concept seriously? A layman researching the term can easily read this page and go away with the idea that "grey goo" is a much more valid concept than it really is - the reverse of what Wikipedia is supposed to do. "Grey Goo" should be treated the same as other debunked, mythical ideas such as ancient astronauts or nuclear weapons causing runaway atmospheric reactions.178.15.151.163 (talk) 12:05, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The grey goo scenario is not debunked.
 * The article already says "In 2004 he stated, "I wish I had never used the term 'gray goo'" in the lede. But I agree that it might be a good idea to add his rationale for saying so somewhere in the article. You could add that info. --Fixuture (talk) 21:28, 28 October 2016 (UTC)
 * The grey goo scenario is not debunked.
 * The article already says "In 2004 he stated, "I wish I had never used the term 'gray goo'" in the lede. But I agree that it might be a good idea to add his rationale for saying so somewhere in the article. You could add that info. --Fixuture (talk) 21:28, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

More pop culture references
Maybe the Borg nanoprobes (Star Trek) and the Terraformers/Xenon (X Series) should be added? Although the latter are somewhat similar to Skynet Terminators. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.18.254.141 (talk) 15:30, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

greg bear & "blood music"
speculative fiction, rather than a scientific journal or paper, but GB's 1983 award-winning story (short, then novel) nails a lot of the same fears & anticipations somewhat earlier; he deserves a mention here, higher-placed than the popular culture section, for his prescience. duncanrmi (talk) 22:31, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Currently reading the novel - while the scenarios have similarities Blood Music is about bioscience/tech risks while grey goo is about nanotechnology risk. Not sure to what extent these are alike (note there could also be risk from a mixture of bio & nanotech). You may add some info on this using this reference: . I do think that info on the two scenarios' similarity and difference should be featured then. --Fixuture (talk) 21:28, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Requested move 16 June 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. The majority of editors believe the American English spelling of "gray" is most consistent with the subject's national ties (to American engineer K. Eric Drexler) and the article's cited sources. (non-admin closure) —  Newslinger  talk   01:52, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Grey goo → Gray goo – This article currently uses a rather arbitrary mix of "grey" and "gray". WP has no inherent preference for one spelling over the other, but per MOS:ARTCON we should at least be consistent within an article no matter which variety is chosen. The first spelling used in this article was "grey". However, many instances of the word are in quotes from Drexler, who (I assume, since he's American) used "gray". Standardizing on "gray" within the article would thus result in a higher degree of consistency. If consensus settles on "grey" for the title, we should instead change all instances of "gray" to "grey", except where quoting Drexler. Hairy Dude (talk) 00:03, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

 * support - "Gray goo" is both the historical spelling of the concept as originally coined, and thereafter quoted and used extensively, and represents the dominant spelling overall. The article should be harmonized to use "gray goo" throughout, but of course mentioning the other spelling prominently in the lead and wherever quoted as such. Once the move and changes are complete, I'd also add American English to the talk page to inform future editors to stick to a consistent style. (Added note: search engine hits and other counting methods from 2014 and onward are highly tainted by results from the Grey Goo (video game))  -- Netoholic @ 03:41, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose, keep the original spelling per MOS:RETAIN. ARTCON gives explicit exceptions for quotations. Timrollpickering (Talk) 12:16, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
 * MOS:RETAIN doesn't seem to apply because neither "English variety's consistent usage has been established" in the article because as indicated by the nom, usage is mixed. RETAIN also is more an instruction to not make unilateral widescale changes without showing consensus for them.  This topic seems to have WP:TIES to the American who coined the term, and since that historic spelling ("gray goo") still predominates, its appropriate for us to use this RM to form a consensus as to which usage to apply consistently.  -- Netoholic @ 05:36, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Support Per Netoholic.ZXCVBNM (TALK) 19:12, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Support As Drexler wrote it, so should the page be titled.
 * As to the wisdom of forcing American English, I note that it seems already to be in American English, vis. "color".
 * (As I am English, and live in England, and speak English, English is MINE! All derivative variations are NOT English)
 * Bizarrely, the first reference, to the CRN, with two Californians as the leaders, uses "grey". They then, even more strangely, they give a link named "The Grey Goo Problem" to a New York Times article titled "Gray-Goo Problem, The"".
 * The second reference, to Science Daily, is just as confused.  Lauwr (talk) 21:03, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Move discussion completed 6 July 2019
There was a move discussion in progress on Talk:Grey Goo (video game) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 03:02, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

How is this considered in any way feasible by anyone?
I don't understand how this scenario is being treated even a little bit seriously by anyone. It clearly violates the second law of thermodynamics, and combines all the most implausible aspects of both The Blob and the philosopher's stone — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.121.1.13 (talk) 23:23, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Gray goo


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Talk:Initiation rite

"The lack of a generic initiation rite for adolescents in contemporary Western culture may suggest an artificial, unstable and unsatisfactory aspect of that culture."

The inclusion of the word "may" doesn't render this a NPOV statement. What academics or noted figures have made this assertion? How have others responded in a public forum? Are there "generic" initiation rites in heavily industrialized, non-Western nations such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore,. . .?

To quote Jimbo Wales from NPOV, "Perhaps the easiest way to make your writing more encyclopedic, is to write about what people believe, rather than what is so." And remember to name these people! --Rethunk

And who is to say that we don't have initiation rites in "contemporary Western culture"? High school graduation serves as one. Deb balls (or proms) another. And so on. Statement should definitely go.--Robert Merkel 05:43 Jan 29, 2003 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Initiation rite


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George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie

George Kenneth Hotson Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Baron Younger of Prestwick, (22 September 1931 – 26 January 2003), was a British Conservative Party politician and banker. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayr from 1964 to 1992. During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, Younger served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1979 to 1986, and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1986 to 1989.

Early life and career
Younger's forebear, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of George Younger and Son of Alloa, the family's brewing business (not to be confused with Younger's of Edinburgh). Younger's great-grandfather, George Younger, was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. Younger was the eldest of the three sons of Edward Younger, 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie.

He was born in Stirling in 1931 and educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master's degree. Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. On 7 August 1954, he married Diana Tuck, daughter of a Royal Navy captain. They had four children, including James Younger, who succeeded his father to the Viscountcy.

Political career
He first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in North Lanarkshire in the 1959 general election. Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons. He was viewed as a one-nation conservative.

Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years. He subsequently succeeded Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for Defence in 1986 when Heseltine resigned from the cabinet over a dispute about helicopters known as the Westland affair. In the 1987 general election, as part of a considerable swing away from the Conservatives in Scotland, he retained his seat after three recounts, by a majority of just 182 votes (having been almost 8,000 votes in 1983). Incidentally, it was held by his successor Phil Gallie by an even smaller majority of 85 votes in 1992.

After parliament
Younger quit the cabinet in 1989, and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, becoming its chairman in 1992. He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick, of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick, on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy. As such, he continued to sit in the House of Lords after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 which expelled most of the hereditary peers. In 1995, the Queen appointed him a knight of the Order of the Thistle. Younger became Chancellor of Edinburgh's Napier University in 1993, and was Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2001 and 2002.

Younger died from cancer at his home in Gargunnock on 26 January 2003, at the age of 71.


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National treatment

National treatment is a principle in international law. Utilized in many treaty regimes involving trade and intellectual property, it requires equal treatment of foreigners and locals. Under national treatment, a state that grants particular rights, benefits or privileges to its own citizens must also grant those advantages to the citizens of other states while they are in that country. In the context of international agreements, a state must provide equal treatment to citizens of the other states participating in the agreement. Imported and locally produced goods should be treated equally — at least after the foreign goods have entered the market.

While this is generally viewed as a desirable principle, in custom it conversely means that a state can deprive foreigners of anything of which it deprives its own citizens. An opposing principle calls for an international minimum standard of justice (a sort of basic due process) that would provide a base floor for the protection of rights and of access to judicial process. The conflict between national treatment and minimum standards has mainly played out between industrialized and developing nations, in the context of expropriations. Many developing nations, having the power to take control over the property of their own citizens, wished to exercise it over the property of aliens as well.

Though support for national treatment was expressed in several controversial (and legally non-binding) United Nations General Assembly resolutions, the issue of expropriations is almost universally handled through treaties with other states and contracts with private entities, rather than through reliance upon international custom.

National treatment only applies once a product, service or item of intellectual property has entered the market. Therefore, charging customs duty on an import is not a violation of national treatment even if locally-produced products are not charged an equivalent tax.

GATT/WTO
National treatment is an integral part of many World Trade Organization agreements. Together with the most favoured nation principle, national treatment is one of the cornerstones of WTO trade law. It is found in all 3 of the main WTO agreements (GATT, GATS and TRIPS).

National treatment is a basic principle of GATT/WTO that prohibits discrimination between imported and domestically produced goods with respect to internal taxation or other government regulation. The principle of national treatment is formulated in Article 3 of the GATT 1947 (and incorporated by reference in GATT 1994); Article 17 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); and in Article 3 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The aim of this trade rule is to prevent internal taxes or other regulations from being used as a substitute for tariff protection.

A good summary is found in Japan-Alcohol which states; "[a] national treatment obligation is a general prohibition on the use of internal taxes and other internal regulatory measures so as to afford protection to domestic production".

title: National treatment


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Talk:George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie

Things to do list

 * Add more about his life before entering politics.
 * Flesh out his career as an MP.
 * Add details of his marriage and children.

Oliver P. 05:37 Jan 29, 2003 (UTC)

Thatcher's campaign manager
He is remembered for his half-hearted performance as Thatcher's campaign manager when she was voted out in 1990. Many felt he could have saved her career if he had not been distracted by his banking interests. Valetude (talk) 12:53, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Family brewery
This article originally directed people to the page on the William Younger brewery of Edinburgh. George Younger's family ran a different one, in Alloa. Zythophile (talk) 17:55, 16 March 2016 (UTC)


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Ayr

Ayr (Ayr; Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population of 46,982, Ayr is the 15th largest settlement in Scotland and second largest town in Ayrshire by population. The town is contiguous with the smaller town of Prestwick to the north. Ayr submitted unsuccessful bids for city status in 2000 and 2002, and as part of the wider South Ayrshire area in 2022.

Ayr was established as a Royal Burgh in 1205 and is the county town of Ayrshire. It served as Ayrshire's central marketplace and harbour throughout the medieval period and was a port during the early modern period. On the southern bank of the River Ayr sits the ramparts of a citadel constructed by Oliver Cromwell's men during the mid-17th century. Towards the south of the town is the birthplace of Scottish poet Robert Burns in the suburb of Alloway. Ayr has been a popular tourist resort since the expansion of the railway in 1840 owing to the town's fine beach and its links to golfing and Robert Burns.

Ayr is one of the largest retail centres in the south of Scotland and was recognised as the second healthiest town centre in the United Kingdom by the Royal Society for Public Health in 2014. Ayr has hosted the Scottish Grand National horseracing steeplechase annually since 1965 and the Scottish International Airshow annually since 2014. The town also accommodates the headquarters of the Ayr Advertiser and Ayrshire Post newspapers.

Etymology
The name Ayr can be traced back to a pre-Celtic word meaning "watercourse" or "strong river". This name was used before the establishment of the Julian calendar in reference to the River Ayr. The town was formerly known as "Inverair" or "Inverayr", meaning "mouth of the river Ayr"; this was later abbreviated to "Air", now spelled "Ayr". The full name remains in the Scottish Gaelic name for Ayr – Inbhir Àir.

Establishment and early settlement
The areas surrounding modern day Ayr were known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gathers more than 5,000 years ago. There is also a Neolithic standing stone at the end of Stonefield Park in Doonfoot, which is believed to have been upended as a place of sun worship by Stone Age people. In 1197, King William the Lion ordered that a new castle be built between the River Ayr and the River Doon. It is believed that the castle was a wooden structure built around Montgomerie Terrace. Ayr was later established as a royal burgh and market town on 21 May 1205 by King William the Lion. At its establishment, the burgh encompassed a single street (The Sandgate) and the Church of St John. By 1225 the town reached as far as Carrick Street and Mill Street along the south side of the River Ayr. The town grew quickly to become the main seaport, marketplace and administrative centre for Ayrshire.

The King gifted fishing rights to the burgh for the River Ayr and the River Doon in 1236. In the following year, a timber bridge was built across the River Ayr, linking the town to the north side of the River. Since 1261, annual fairs were held in the town. At this time the town had a recorded population of 1,500 and served as a major port on the west coast. The town was unsuccessfully attacked by Norwegian forces in 1263 and invaded and occupied by English forces from 1296 until 1312 as part of the Scottish Wars of Independence. In 1298 the original castle at Ayr was destroyed by Robert The Bruce's forces. On 26 April 1315, a Parliament of Scotland was held in Ayr by Robert The Bruce at St. John's Tower by the sea. As a Royal Burgh, Ayr was afforded various privileges relating to trade, tolls and fishing rights, which allowed the town to out-compete the neighbouring free burgh of Newton-on-Ayr which was established in the 14th century and situated on the north side of the River Ayr.

Early modern period
Ayr was continuously hit by a number of plagues from 1545 to 1647, resulting in the town's port being quarantined and plague victims being removed from the town on pain of death. Mary, Queen of Scots visited the town in 1552 and 1563. Ayr remained a significant port throughout the 16th century, exporting goods such as fish, hide and wool and importing salt and wine.

Ayr played a pivotal role in the Plantation of Ulster throughout the 17th century, in which a significant number of British people settled in present-day Northern Ireland. The town provided the largest share of colonists from Great Britain, with many colonists from Ayr joining the Earl of Eglinton, Hugh Montgomery's, plant in the Ards Peninsula (particularly around Newtownards), and others going on to settle around Belfast. In 1652, the town was used as a base and fortress for some of Oliver Cromwell's men. They established a large fortress along the mouth of the River Ayr and erected walls around the area just south of the River's mouth – most of these walls remain present to this day. St John's Tower, which sat around the centre of the fortress, was originally part of a large church yet this was knocked down during the construction of the fort with the tower being used for military practice; it is now protected by "Friends Of Saint Johns Tower" (FROST) residents in the "Ayr Fort Area" which sits atop the former site of the citadel.

The lands occupied by the fort were granted to the Earl of Eglinton, Alexander Montgomerie, in 1663, who established the separate Burgh of Regality named Montgomerieston around the fort, which was eventually absorbed into the Burgh of Ayr. The separate village of Alloway to the south-east of Ayr was also annexed by the town in 1691, despite numerous petitions against this to Edinburgh from residents of the village. Although the importation of French wine continued to be Ayr's most important trade during the 17th century, the port was one of the first in Scotland to establish regular trade links with the English colonies in the Americas. This commenced during the 1640s when the English Civil War disrupted established colonial trading arrangements, and during the Cromwellian occupation there was free trade between Scotland and the English colonies. Following the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy, the Navigation Acts excluded Scottish ships from this trade apart from a few exceptional cases. Several English merchants had settled in Ayr during the Cromwellian occupation, and they collaborated with local merchants in circumventing the Navigation Acts by disguising Ayr ships as English vessels. Tobacco, sugar and indigo were imported, and salted fish, meat, clothing and indentured servants were exported.

Deposits of coal were found and mined in Newton during the 17th century, resulting in the town becoming a base for the industry, with coal being exported abroad from its harbour. At this time, Ayr's population is estimated to have been at around 2,000. By the late 17th century and early 18th century, Ayr was widely regarded as a town in decline, with Daniel Defoe remarking in A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain "The capital of this country is Air, a sea-port, and as they tell us, was formerly a large city, had a good harbour, and a great trade: I must acknowledge to you, that tho' I believe it never was a city, yet it has certainly been a good town, and much bigger than it is now: At present like an old beauty, it shews the ruins of a good face; but is also apparently not only decay'd and declin'd, but decaying and declining every day, and from being the fifth town in Scotland, as the townsmen say, is now like a place so saken; the reason of its decay, is, the decay of its trade, so true is it, that commerce is the life of nations, of cities towns, harbours, and of the whole prosperity of a country: What the reason of the decay of trade here was, or when it first began to decay, is hard to determine; nor are the people free to tell, and, perhaps, do not know themselves. There is a good river here, and a handsome stone bridge of four arches."

Treaty of Union

The formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain through the Acts of Union 1707 was initially harmful to Ayr, due to the importance to its economy of the wine trade with France. The terms of the English Methuen Treaty of 1703, which favoured the importation of Portuguese and Spanish wines and was accompanied by punitive duties on French wines, were extended to Scotland. However, the Union provided Ayr with significant trading opportunities with Britain's colonies around the world and resulted in improvements to the town's infrastructure, with Ayr's textile, wool, linen and shoemaking industries thriving as a result. A small lighthouse was constructed on the River Ayr in 1712, followed by a quay in 1713. Repairs to the town's Harbour and High Tolbooth took place between 1724 and 1726, with funding provided by the Convention of Royal Burghs. Street lighting was installed around the town centre in 1747. A sugar refinery at the harbour was in operation during the 1770s.

The grounds of Alloway were sold in 1754 to help pay off Ayr burgh's public debts, resulting in the establishment of the Belleisle and Rozelle estates to the south of the town, which are now public parks. Rozelle was acquired by Robert Hamilton, who named his estate after one of his plantations in Jamaica. In 1760, Wallacetown was formed to the east of Newton by the Wallaces of Craigie House. Ayr Racecourse was established in 1777. The "New Brig" of Ayr was constructed in 1785–88 and rebuilt in 1877 after severe flooding. In 1792 and 1817, Parliament passed acts to deepen and maintain Ayr's Harbour. During this period Ayr's population was estimated to be around 4,000.

A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of Ayr Barracks (later known as Churchill Barracks) on the citadel site in 1795. Ayr Town Hall was designed by Thomas Hamilton and completed in 1832.

Population growth
In 1801, the parish of Ayr had a recorded population of just under 5,500, with the adjoining burgh of Newton to the north having a population of just under 1,700 people. By 1826 Ayr's streets were lit by gas and by 1842 Ayr had a water supply, with sewers being dug soon after. Ayr was connected to Glasgow, and thus the rest of Great Britain, by rail in 1839, with the first service operating in August 1840 to a terminus on North Harbour Street. This led to a significant expansion in Ayr's tourist industry due to its attractive, sandy beach and links to Robert Burns. In 1857 a line was built from Dalmellington to export iron from Waterside and a new station was built to replace the old station called "Ayr Townhead Station". In 1877 a line was built between Newton and Mauchline for the export of coal. By 1851 Ayr's population was 21,000 and by 1855 between 60,000 and 70,000 tonnes of coal were being exported to Ireland from Ayr's Harbour each year, with imports of hide and tallow coming into the harbour from South America and beef, butter, barley, yarn and linen being imported into the harbour from Ireland. In 1854, 84,330 tonnes of goods were exported from the town and 36,760 tonnes were imported into the town. Other prominent industries in Ayr at this time included fishing, tanning and shoemaking, with several sawmills, woollen mills and carpet weavers located in the town as well. Timber and tobacco were also traded between Ayr's Harbour and North America.

The Burgh of Ayr Act 1873 resulted in Newton and Wallacetown being absorbed into the Burgh of Ayr. Newton's more industrial character has left the town today divided into two distinct areas, with areas south of the River Ayr incorporating a mixture of affluent Victorian residential suburbs and modern suburban developments, in contrast to more deprived and industrial areas to the north of the river. When elected county councils were created in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, the burgh of Ayr was deemed capable of running its own affairs and so was excluded from the jurisdiction of Ayrshire County Council, although the county council chose to meet at County Buildings in the town. The Carnegie Library was opened in Ayr on 2 September 1893. By the turn of the century, Ayr's population was around 31,000 people. The Burns Statue Square drill hall was completed in 1901 and the Wellington Square drill hall was probably completed shortly after that.

On 26 September 1901, a tram service was opened between Prestwick Cross in Prestwick and St Leonards in Ayr. This was expanded south the following year to Alloway, and east in 1913 to the Racecourse at Whitletts. The tram service was eventually shut due to expensive repair costs, with the last tram running on New Year's Eve in 1931.

Modern history

817 men from Ayr died during the First World War. A memorial was unveiled at Wellington Square in 1924 dedicated to those who died, with other memorials being put up at Alloway Village Hall and Whitletts Cross.

Ayr's growing population following the war resulted in significant slum clearance and redevelopment around the town centre, with the development of new housing estates on the periphery of the town. The lands surrounding Woodfield House were acquired by the council in 1919 to build council housing on, with the first residents moving in 1921. Further local government reform in 1930 brought the burgh of Ayr within the area controlled by Ayrshire County Council, but classed as a large burgh, which allowed the town to continue to run many local services itself. The burgh boundaries were expanded in 1935 to include Alloway, Castlehill, Doonfoot and Whitletts. In the 1930s, council estates were also developed at Lochside and Heathfield. The mining villages of Dalmilling and Whitletts were also cleared and developed into sizeable council estates.

Following the Second World War, more council housing was developed in Ayr at Kincaidston, with the Wallacetown and Whitletts estates being expanded. Suburban housing was also developed at Alloway, Doonfoot and Holmston, and many disused industrial buildings throughout the town were redeveloped into flats.

In 2000, as part of the Millennium celebrations, Ayr submitted an unsuccessful bid for city status, losing to Stirling, and again submitted an unsuccessful bid two years later in 2002 as part of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, losing to Inverness. In 2021, South Ayrshire Council announced a South Ayrshire wider bid, which would include Ayr. This bid was part of the granting of city status to towns to honour the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Again, the bid was unsuccessful, with the region losing to Dunfermline. In 2019, GUARD Archaeology team led by Iraia Arabaolaza uncovered a marching camp dating to the 1st century AD, used by Roman legions during the invasion of Roman General Agricola. According to Arabaolaza, the fire pits were split 30 meters apart into two parallel lines. The findings also included clay-domed ovens and 26 fire pits dated to between 77- 86 AD and 90 AD loaded with burn and charcoal contents. Archaeologists suggested that this site had been chosen as a strategic location for the Roman conquest of Ayrshire.

Parliamentary representation
Ayr was represented by a Conservative MP continuously for a period of 91 years – from 1906 (as part of the Ayr Burghs constituency) until 1997, followed by Labour from 1997 to 2015, and the Scottish National Party from 2015 to 2017. The town forms part of the Ayr constituency in the Scottish Parliament, which was the first Conservative constituency seat in the Parliament, but has been represented by Scottish National Party (SNP) MSP Siobhian Brown since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. In the UK Parliament, Ayr is situated within the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency which was represented by Conservative MP Bill Grant from the 2017 general election, until he was unseated in the 2019 general election by Allan Dorans of the Scottish National Party.

Ayr forms part of the UK parliamentary constituency of Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock. This constituency includes Carrick and Coylton in South Ayrshire in addition to Doon Valley, Cumnock and New Cumnock in southern East Ayrshire. The seat was held by Conservative Bill Grant from 2017 until 2019 when Allan Dorans gained the seat for the Scottish National Party. The Central Ayrshire constituency runs north of the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency. It takes in the towns of Irvine, Kilwinning, Prestwick, Troon and rural Kyle, running into Annbank. It also incorporates the Woodfield area of Newton-on-Ayr and is represented by SNP MP Philippa Whitford.

In previous elections Ayr was represented in Westminster as part of the Ayr parliamentary constituency, the boundaries of which included elements of Prestwick, Troon and rural South Ayrshire. The seat was abolished in 2005 to be replaced by the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock and Central Ayrshire constituencies which were subsequently represented by MP's belonging to Labour, and later, the SNP. From the seat's creation in 1950 until the 1997 general election Ayr was continually represented by MP's from the Conservative Party. George Younger served as Member of Parliament for the constituency for most of this period – serving as MP for Ayr from 1964 to 1992. In 1997 the boundaries of the constituency were altered in a move which saw the Conservative areas of Alloway, Doonfoot and Masonhill alongside parts of Kincaidston and Forehill being transferred to the neighbouring Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency, benefiting the Labour Party. Prior to this Ayr formed part of the Ayr Burghs constituency which combined various towns along the Ayrshire coast such as Irvine, Troon, Prestwick, Ardrossan and Saltcoats: this seat was held by the Conservatives from 1906 until the constituency's abolishment in 1950, making Ayr the longest seat to be held by the Conservatives in Scotland at over 100 years.

In the Scottish Parliament, the Ayr constituency was represented from 2000 to 2021 by Conservative MSP John Scott until he was defeated at the 2021 election by the SNP's Siobhian Brown. It was the first constituency in the Scottish Parliament to elect a Conservative MSP. The constituency also includes the towns of Prestwick and Troon.

Ayr is also represented at Holyrood by the seven MSPs for the South Scotland electoral region.

South Ayrshire Council

Ayr is represented by 11 elected councillors on South Ayrshire Council, of which five belong to the Scottish Conservatives, four belong to the Scottish National Party and two belong to Scottish Labour. Below are a list of councillors elected to serve Ayr, sorted by ward:

Provost of the Royal Burgh of Ayr
As a former Royal Burgh, Ayr had a Provost as chief magistrate of the burgh council and the earliest recorded Provost is Nicholas de Fynvyk. The title of provost was retained by Kyle and Carrick District Council and South Ayrshire Council for their civic heads. The role of provost is now apolitical and carries a number of duties including chairing meetings of the council, acting as civic head representing South Ayrshire Council, promotion of South Ayrshire Council and networking with various organisations such as local businesses.

A chain and robes are worn by the provost while undertaking their ceremonial duties. The Provost's chain was donated in June 1897 by James McLennan who was a Glasgow wine and spirit merchant who was born in Coylton and lived in Ayr. The official provost's robes have been provided by the council since 11 June 1923. In addition, South Ayrshire Council erects lamp posts with the Royal Burgh coat of arms emblazoned on the diffusers outside the official resident of the provost – this has been undertaken since 1854.

Each newly elected provost enters their name into a Bible at the "Kirkin 'O The Council" service at Ayr Auld Kirk after each council election. The Bible in which the names are entered was acquired by the Kirk during the Provostship of Hugh Miller (1841–1855). The names of the provosts entered into the Bible are as follows:

The current provost is Labour councillor Helen Moonie. List of Provosts of Ayr from 1560 to 1692, See Annals of Ayr in the olden time, 1560–1692, By John Pagan. Ayr: Alex Fergusson, 18 High Street, 1897.

Location
Ayr is a coastal town which lies on the mouth of the River Ayr which flows into the larger Firth of Clyde estuary. From the coast, the Isle of Arran can be seen, and on a very clear day, the northern tip of Northern Ireland is also visible. Ayr is located within the region of Strathclyde, and forms part of the historic county of Ayrshire. Today, it is the largest town and administrative centre of South Ayrshire. Much of the land in and around Ayr is flat and low lying surface, used for rearing dairy cattle. Towards the south of Ayr, however, the land is higher than most areas in the county of Ayrshire, an example of this being the Brown Carrick Hill which is situated due south of Doonfoot. Ayr lies approximately 35 mi southwest of Glasgow.

The urban area which encompasses Ayr is defined by the General Register Office for Scotland as the adjoining localities of Ayr and Prestwick − this is the 12th largest urban area in Scotland.

Areas of Ayr
• Alloway:

• – Laigh Glengall

• – Rozelle

• Belmont

• Braehead

• Castlehill

• Craigie

• Dalmilling

• Doonfoot:

• – Bellisle

• – Greenan

• Forehill:

• – Glencairn

• Fort

• Hayhill

• Heathfield

• Holmston

• Kincaidston

• Lochside

• Masonhill

• Newton-On-Ayr:

• – Woodfield

• Old Belmont:

• – St Leonard's

• Seafield

• Wallacetown:

• – Hawkhill

• White City

• Whitletts

Climate
The nearest official Met Office weather station to Ayr is Auchincruive, about 3 mi to the north-east of Ayr town centre. The area experiences very cool summers and somewhat mild winters. The air is cooler during the summer due to its proximity to the sea as water has a major cooling effect on summer temperatures.

During the winter months the reverse happens and the sea air has a major warming effect on the climate. The area rarely sees extremes, owing to the effects of sea air. Rainfall is generally plentiful throughout the year due to Atlantic weather systems sweeping in from the west. Compared with the rest of Scotland, the area rarely sees much mist and fog due to the land being relatively flat and low lying, and, with the wind blowing across the flatter land, this generally hinders fog from developing widely. This has made Glasgow Prestwick International Airport particularly well known as one of the less fog-prone airports in Scotland. Snowfall is rare in this part of Scotland because of the mild sea air.

Demographics
At the 2001 United Kingdom census, Ayr had a population of 46,431, a fall of −3.2% on 1991. Mid-2008 population estimates placed the total resident population at 46,070 making Ayr the 12th largest urban area in Scotland. The 2011 census found that Ayr's population had grown by around 0.9% since the 2001 census – surpassing the total population growth of Ayr and Prestwick, which only grew by 0.63%, falling short of the national population growth of Scotland of +4.61%.

In 2001, nearly 0.36% (167) people in the town could speak Scottish Gaelic – this fell to 0.34% (161) in 2011. South Ayrshire Council provides no educational support for the language.

Economy

The north side of Ayr Harbour still operates as a commercial port, mainly exporting coal, and extensive railway sidings still lead down from the main railway line near Newton-on-Ayr station.

Ayr developed as the central retail hub in the south-west of Scotland after the opening of the town's first department store, Hourstons, in 1896. In the 1970s the opening of stores such as Marks and Spencers and Ayr's first shopping centre, the Kyle Centre (1988), encouraged an expansion in the local economy. Heathfield Retail park, an out-of-town retail park, opened in 1993 with shops such as Halfords and Homebase. Ayr Central Shopping Centre opened in March 2006, housing shops such as Debenhams and H&M and under-parking for 500 cars. In December 2014 Threesixty Architecture received planning permission to refurbish the Kyle Centre by reinventing it as a centre of leisure through the creation of a new cinema complex among other new features. As of 2014 Royal Society for Public Health found Ayr's High Street to be the second healthiest in the United Kingdom behind Shrewsbury, a measure which reflects the presence of health-promoting infrastructure such as health services, community spaces and libraries, although by 2018 it was no longer in the top ten. In 2016 research conducted by the Local Data Company suggested that Ayr had among the highest number of shops per head in the United Kingdom at one shop for every 270 people. In 2010, premium home furnishings company, The Designer Rooms, was established in the town and opened its first showroom within the town.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Ayr became a popular holiday resort. This was due to its fine sandy beach and the construction of the rail link to Glasgow which was completed in 1840.

To the north of Ayr is the adjoining town of Prestwick, which is known for its golf and aviation industries thanks to the presence of Glasgow Prestwick Airport. The airport is one of the main operational bases and focus city for budget airline Ryanair, with the airline having an aircraft maintenance hangar at the airport. The airport itself has become a Scottish hub for maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft, with key companies operating from bases at the airport including GE Caledonian, Spirit AeroSystems, Collins Aerospace, Ryanair (Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance), BAE Systems, Woodward Aircraft Engine Systems and Chevron Technical Services. Prestwick Spaceport launched a bid in partnership with South Ayrshire Council to become a spaceport focusing on small satellite launches, microgravity experiments and crewed missions for human spaceflight. It received funding via the Ayrshire Growth Deal of £80 million, with an additional £18 million from the UK Government and £5 million from the Scottish Government. The spaceport will support carrying small satellites into orbit via horizontal launch, or “air launch”, using aircraft that fly out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Only 5 mi north of Ayr is Troon, a golf and seaside resort which regularly hosts the Open Championship. Ayr has three golf courses in Bellisle, Seafield and Dalmilling, as well as a private course called St Cuthberts. The area is synonymous as a seaside resort, with the south of the town housing the Craig Tara and Haven (formerly Butlins) holiday parks. The suburban village of Alloway to the south of the town is also well established for its associations with the poet Robert Burns. Further south, the fishing village of Dunure takes in a ruined castle which was formerly owned by the Kennedy family.

In 1973, Ayr hosted the Royal National Mòd. Ayr has hosted the Scottish Grand National horse-racing steeplechase annually since 1966 and the Scottish International Airshow since 2014.

Religion
The 2022 Scottish Census found that 51% of the population of Ayr stated they had no religion. 28% stated they belonged to the Church of Scotland, 9% the Roman Catholic Church, 4% other Christian denominations and 2% other religions. 6% didn't respond to this optional question.

Of the Christian denominations present in Ayr the Church of Scotland is largest with nine churches spread throughout the town. The Roman Catholic Church has two churches, St Paul's, Belmont and the Cathedral Church of St Margaret the successor to The Good Shepherd Cathedral which has been demolished.

The Scottish Episcopal Church is represented by the very substantial Holy Trinity Church in Fullarton Street in the town centre. There is also a Free Church of Scotland, a Baptist Church and Evangelical church in John Street, a Latter-Day Saints Church at Orchard Avenue and the Southside Christian Fellowship in Ayr Town Hall.

Education

Ayr has two nursery schools: There are also several partnership centres and nursery classes held within primary schools within Ayr.
 * Cherry Tree Early Years Centre
 * Wallacetown Early Years Centre

Ayr is served by fifteen primary schools: • Alloway Primary School

• Annbank Primary School

• Braehead Primary School

• Dalmilling Primary School

• Doonfoot Primary School

• Forehill Primary School

• Grammar Primary School

• Heathfield Primary School

• Holmston Primary School

• Kincaidston Primary School

• Newton Primary School

• St. John's Primary School (denominational)

Ayr has one school which provides education for those with Additional Support Needs:
 * Southcraig Campus

Ayr is served by four secondary schools: Prestwick Academy is located within the neighbouring town of Prestwick and provides education to pupils who are resident within Ayr but fall within its catchment area. Mainholm Academy was a former secondary school located within Ayr and was closed due to safety concerns.
 * Ayr Academy
 * Belmont Academy
 * Kyle Academy
 * Queen Margaret Academy (denominational)

Ayr is served by one independent school that provides both primary and secondary education:
 * Wellington School

Ayr has four further education establishments:
 * Ayrshire College (previously known as Ayr College and prior to that, Ayr Technical College)
 * University of the West of Scotland (formerly known as the University of Paisley)
 * Scotland's Rural College
 * Adult Learning Centre

Public services and transport
The NHS Ayrshire and Arran Health Board serves South, East and North Ayrshire – a part of Ayrshire and Arran's departmental headquarters is located in Ayr. Ayr is also the regional headquarters of the Scottish Ambulance Service for south-west Scotland that is located in Heathfield, next to the site of the old Heathfield Hospital. Ayr previously had four hospitals: Heathfield Hospital (originally a fever hospital, but latterly medical and ophthalmic), Seafield Children's Hospital (a pediatric hospital), Ayr County Hospital (originally a voluntary hospital, and latterly confined to surgery) and Ailsa Hospital (a psychiatric hospital). University Hospital Ayr, completed in 1991, replaced all but Ailsa Hospital which is still open.

Currently, three hospitals lie adjacent to Ayr running along the A713 towards Hollybush in East Ayrshire, these are:
 * University Hospital Ayr (general hospital with accident and emergency)
 * Ailsa Hospital (mental health hospital)
 * The Abbey Carrick Glen Hospital (private hospital)

Hollybush House on the outskirts of Ayr is used by a charity for the mental health welfare of ex-members of the UK Armed Forces. Ayr has two community centres; Heathfield Community Centre and Lochside Community Centre.

Ayr is served by several major roads:
 * A77 – forming the Ayr bypass, part of the trunk route between Glasgow and Stranraer. The bypass was built in 1971.
 * A79 – the former A77 before the bypass was opened, now the main road running through Ayr and linking Ayr with Prestwick and its airport.
 * A70 – running east from Ayr to Cumnock, Lanark and Edinburgh.
 * A713 – running southeast to Dalmellington and Castle Douglas.
 * A719 – running northeast to Galston and southwest along the coast to Turnberry.

Eight local bus services operated by Stagecoach West Scotland serve Ayr and Prestwick. Express coaches to Glasgow Buchanan Street operate every 30–60 minutes. Ulsterbus operate bus services to Belfast via Stranraer Ferry service on Stena Line. The Ayr railway station has regular services to Glasgow Central station, Edinburgh Waverley, Stranraer, Girvan and Kilmarnock. All services are operated by ScotRail.

The railway station provides rail and sea connections via Stranraer for the connecting bus to Cairnryan for either the Stena Line ferry service to the Port of Belfast or the P&O Ferries service to Larne Harbour connecting with Northern Ireland Railways via Carrickfergus and Jordanstown to Belfast Lanyon Place and Belfast Grand Central. There is also the connection via Troon on P&O Ferries on a seasonal basis to Larne Harbour. The town is served by the Glasgow Prestwick International Airport just 2 mi north from Ayr, which offers regional and domestic air services across Europe and the British Isles. Further destinations are available from Glasgow Airport, which is accessible by train to Paisley Gilmour Street for the connecting bus to the airport. In relation to Ayr, Glasgow Airport is 35 mi away.

Although the town does not have any ferry services from its harbour, it is in close proximity to ferry services to Northern Ireland. Cairnryan, 60 mi south of Ayr, has up to eight daily departures to Belfast and up to seven daily departures to Larne.

Sport

Ayr Racecourse is a well-known racecourse in Scotland and hosts both National Hunt and flat racing. It has the largest capacity in Scotland for horse racing. Notable events include the Scottish Grand National (April) and Ayr Gold Cup (September) as well as several night meetings. It was recently put up for sale by the owners and included the Western House Hotel as part of the potential sale.

Ayr has two senior football clubs. Ayr United play at Somerset Park in the Scottish Championship. They reached the final of the 2001–02 Scottish League Cup competition. The club was formed in 1910 with the merger of Ayr F.C. (who were formed in 1879 by the merger of Ayr Thistle and Ayr Academical football clubs) and Ayr Parkhouse F.C. Whitletts Victoria are based in the Whitletts area of Ayr and compete in the West of Scotland Football League.

The town has a strong history of ice hockey, but no longer hosts a professional ice hockey team. The most recent professional team were the Ayr Scottish Eagles who played in the British Superleague between 1996 and 2002 based at the Centrum arena. Ayr's rugby union team, Ayr RFC, play at Millbrae and are reigning Scottish Cup Champions and Scottish Premiership Champions 2012/2013, and won the 2008/09 Scottish Hydro Premiership. Ayr RFC has twice competed in the British and Irish cup involving clubs from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland. A rugby league team, Ayr Knights ARLFC, play at Auchincruive.

Ayr Curling Club play at the curling rink in Limekiln Road and Ayr's cricket team plays in Cambusdoon. The town's leisure centre, Citadel Leisure Centre opened in 1997 at the mouth of the River Ayr and at the seafront at the South Harbour area. Its facilities include a main hall measuring 34 x, accommodating various sports including 5-a-side football, basketball, volleyball, netball, indoor hockey, indoor cricket practice, badminton and short tennis. As well as individual sports, sporting events and competitions, the hall has hosted exhibitions, concerts, trade fairs, election counts and awards ceremonies. The Citadel Leisure Centre is home to South Ayrshire Volleyball Club as well as being the town's only public swimming pool and diving pool. The Troon Tornadoes play their national league matches at the Citadel, despite not being an Ayr team. Additionally, Ayr has a Strathclyde league basketball team, Ayr Storm.

Speedway was staged at Dam Park in 1937, when two meetings, organised by Maurice and Roland Stobbart from Cumbria took place, featuring riders who raced in the north of England, at venues such as Workington and Hyde Road in Manchester. Ayr has a sandy beach with an esplanade. This is very popular with joggers and day-trippers. Whitletts Activity Centre also serves the town of Ayr. It has an 11-a side outdoor soccer pitch and an indoor 5-a-side football pitch. Near Whitletts Activity Centre there is also a 5-a-side football complex called "Pro Soccer".

Culture and community
Ayr is home to the Gaiety Theatre, built in 1902. The theatre was reconstructed following a fire in 1904, with its façade remodelled in 1935, and further reinstated after a fire in 1955. In 1995, an annexe was constructed, including a new café, box office, dressing rooms and studio space. After a faltering start, which saw several years as a cinema after WWI, the theatre was bought by Ben Popplewell, from Bradford, who already had a track record of success running the Pavilion theatre on Ayr seafront. For fifty years the Popplewell family ran the theatre – latterly as part of the Glasgow Pavilion business.

The radio station West FM was based in Ayr until mid-2017 and broadcasts on 96.7FM. West FM is the main broadcaster in the Ayrshire area. The Ayrshire Post, serving all parts of Ayrshire, and Ayr Advertiser, serving the towns of Ayr and Prestwick, newspapers are also based in Ayr. The Ayr Advertiser is Scotland's oldest weekly newspaper. West FM's move from Ayr marks the first time in 35 years that local radio has not been broadcast from Ayrshire.

Ayr is served by three libraries plus a mobile library. These are:
 * Alloway Library (attached to Alloway Primary school)
 * Carnegie Library (main library)
 * Forehill Library

Twin towns
Ayr is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France since 1984.

In popular culture
The Barns of Ayr features in The Scottish Chiefs.

Freedom of the Burgh
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Burgh of Ayr.

 * Sir Winston Churchill: 1947.
 * The Royal Scots Fusiliers: 15 June 1946.

Notable people

 * Alex Bell, (1882-1934), footballer
 * Samuel Aitken, (1878–1930), footballer
 * Stevie Brown, Muay thai European champion WKA
 * Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi (1930–2021), born Ian Dallas, Shaykh of Instruction, Islamic leader, author, actor
 * William D. Brackenridge, (1810–1893), botanist
 * Robert Burns, (1759–1796), Scotland's national bard, poet and writer of songs; born in Alloway
 * William Dalrymple, (1723–1814) minister and moderator
 * Noam Dar (born 1993), professional wrestler
 * Sydney Devine (1940-2021), singer
 * James Morris Gale, (1830-1903) civil engineer for Glasgow Corporation Water Works
 * Gavin Gordon, (1901–1970), composer and singer
 * William Schaw Lindsay, (1815–1877), British merchant, shipowner, Member of Parliament, military theorist
 * John Loudon McAdam, (1756–1836), inventor of Tarmacadam road surface
 * Sam McCrory (born 1965), former member of Ulster Defence Association, gay activist
 * Drew McIntyre (born 1985), professional wrestler
 * Alan McInally (born 1963), footballer, TV pundit
 * Thomas McIlwraith (1835–1900), Premier of Queensland, Australia
 * Ewan McVicar, DJ
 * William Maclure, (1763–1840), geologist, drew 1st geological map of U.S., president of American Geological Society
 * Alexander Mathie-Morton (1880–1965), cricketer
 * Stuart Murdoch (born 1968), singer-songwriter, Belle & Sebastian
 * Sir David Murray (1951), Rangers F.C. chairman
 * Simon Alexander Neil, (born 1979), Lead vocalist, guitarist, songwriter for Biffy Clyro
 * Neil Oliver (born 1967), BBC presenter of Coast and A History of Scotland
 * Alan Reid (born 1954), MP for Liberal Democrats
 * Dominic Rigby (born 1970), cricketer
 * Mike Scott (born 1958), Lead Singer/Songwriter of The Waterboys
 * Robert Shankland (1887–1968), awarded Victoria Cross for his actions at Battle of Passchendaele 1917
 * Ronald Stevenson (1938–1999), first-class cricketer

title: Ayr


text:
Judah Loew ben Bezalel

Judah Loew ben Bezalel (יהודה ליווא בן בצלאל; between 1512 and 1526 – 17 September 1609), also known as Rabbi Loew (alt. Löw, Loewe, Löwe or Levai), the Maharal of Prague (מהר״ל מפראג), or simply the Maharal (the Hebrew acronym of "Moreinu ha-Rav Loew", 'Our Teacher, Rabbi Loew'), was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who, for most of his life, served as a leading rabbi in the cities of Mikulov in Moravia and Prague in Bohemia.

Loew wrote on Jewish philosophy and Jewish mysticism. His work Gur Aryeh al HaTorah is a supercommentary on Rashi's Torah commentary. He is also the subject of a later legend that he created the Golem of Prague, an animate being fashioned from clay.

Name
His name "Löw" or "Loew" is derived from the German Löwe, "lion" (cf. the Yiddish Leib of the same origin). It is a kinnui, or substitute name, for the Hebrew name Judah or Yehuda, as the Biblical character Judah was likened to a lion in. In Jewish naming tradition, the Hebrew name and the substitute name are often combined as a pair, as in this case in which the combined name is Judah Loew. When Loew wrote his classic supercommentary on Rashi's Torah commentary, he entitled it Gur Aryeh al HaTorah in Hebrew, meaning "Young Lion [commenting] upon the Torah".

Loew's tomb in Prague is decorated with a heraldic shield with a lion with two intertwined tails (queue fourchee), alluding both to his first name and to Bohemia, the arms of which has a two-tailed lion.

Early life
Loew was probably born in Poznań, Poland, —though Perels lists the birth town mistakenly as Worms in the Holy Roman Empire—to Rabbi Bezalel (Loew), whose family originated from the Rhenish town of Worms. Perels claimed that his grandfather Chajim of Worms was the grandson of Judah Leib the Elder and thus a claimant to the Davidic line, through Sherira Gaon. However, modern scholars such as Otto Muneles have challenged this. Loew's birth year is uncertain, with different sources listing 1512, 1520 and 1526. His uncle Jakob ben Chajim was Reichsrabbiner ("Rabbi of the Empire") of the Holy Roman Empire, and his older brother Chaim of Friedberg was a famous rabbinical scholar and Rabbi of Worms and Friedberg.

Sources in the Lubavitch tradition say that at the age of 12, he went to yeshivahs in Poland and studied under Rabbi Yaakov Pollak. After Pollak left Poland, he spent 2 years wandering from place to place and then went onto the yeshivah of Rabbi Yitzchak Clover/Wormz, himself a student of Pollak. He learnt together in yeshivah with the Maharshal who was 17, 2 years his elder. He learnt together with the Maharshal and Rema for 3 years. Rav Yitzchok Clover was in fact the grandfather of the Maharshal. The Maharshal left Poland and the Maharal remained and studied with the Rema for 2 more years. He spent 20 years studying before he married.

It is not known however who he learnt nistar from as he mentions his rabbis, who are unknown to posterity, only once in his sefarim. It was common in yeshivas in Poland however to learn nigleh and nistar together

Career
He accepted a rabbinical position in 1553 as Landesrabbiner of Moravia at Mikulov (Nikolsburg), directing community affairs but also determining which tractate of the Talmud was to be studied in the communities in that province. He also revised the community statutes on the election and taxation process. Although he retired from Moravia in 1573 the communities still considered him an authority long after that.

One of his activities in Moravia was the rallying against slanderous slurs on legitimacy (Nadler) that were spread in the community against certain families and could ruin the finding of a marriage partner for the children of those families. This phenomenon even affected his own family. He used one of the two yearly grand sermons (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur 1583) to denounce the phenomenon.

He moved to Prague in 1573, where he again accepted a rabbinical position, replacing the retired Isaac Hayoth. He immediately reiterated his views on Nadler. On 23 February 1592, he had an audience with Emperor Rudolf II, which he attended together with his brother Sinai and his son-in-law Isaac Cohen; Prince Bertier was present with the emperor. The conversation seems to have been related to Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism, Hebrew: קַבָּלָה) a subject which held much fascination for the emperor.

In 1592, Loew moved to Poznań, where he had been elected as Chief Rabbi of Poland. In Poznań he composed Netivoth Olam and part of Derech Chaim (see below).

Personal life
His family consisted of his wife, Pearl, six daughters, and a son, Bezalel, who became a rabbi in Kolín, but died early in 1600. His wife was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, which allowed him to devote himself to scholarship.

His elder brother was Hayim ben Bezalel, who authored a legal work Vikuach Mayim Chaim which challenged the rulings of Krakow legalist, Moshe Isserles.

Death
Towards the end of his life he moved back to Prague, where he died in 1609. Loew is buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague in Josefov, where his grave and tombstone are intact.

Thought
Loew's numerous philosophical works have become cornerstones of Jewish thought; and he was the author of "one of the most creative and original systems of thought developed by East European Jewry."

He employed rationalist terminology and classical philosophical ideas in his writings, and supported scientific research on condition that it did not contradict divine revelation. Nevertheless, Loew's work was in many ways a reaction to the tradition of medieval rationalist Jewish thought, which prioritized a systematic analysis of philosophical concepts, and implicitly downgraded the more colorful and ad-hoc imagery of earlier rabbinic commentary. One of Loew's constant objectives was to demonstrate how such earlier commentary was in fact full of insightful commentary on humanity, nature, holiness, an other topics. According to Loew, the multitude of disconnected opinions and perspectives in classical rabbinic literature do not form a haphazard jumble, but rather exemplify the diversity of meanings that can be extracted from a single idea or concept.

Loew's writings use as sources the Biblical verses and the recorded traditions of the rabbis, but through literary and conceptual analysis he develops these into a comprehensive philosophical system in which the following terminology recurs:
 * seder and nivdal ("order" and "transcendence") - any realm has a natural "order" and nature, but may also contain exceptions which are entirely unlike the realm in nature.
 * guf, nefesh, sechel ("body", "life-force", "intellect") - different levels of a single overall reality. guf (the material) is bounded in dimension and is acted upon. Nefesh is unbounded, and both acts and is acted upon. ''Sechel" is unbounded, and tends only to be acted upon.
 * pail, nifal (active, acted upon) - describing the relationship between different levels of reality
 * yesodot, taarovot, tarkovot (bases, mixtures, combinations) - when different elements of reality are combined, they may remain as separate "bases", or else form a relationship (a "mixture"), or else generate an entirely new entity ("combinations").
 * ribui, ahadut (multiplicity, unity)

An example of this terminology is Loew's philosophical interpretation of the following midrash: "The world was created for three things: challah, maaser, and bikkurim." According to Loew, bikkurim represents yesodot (as individual fruit are given), maaser represents taarovot (as the fruit are gathered together and a fraction of them separated as a tithe), and challah represents tarkovot (as a new substance, dough, is created from the ingredients).

Loew's worldview assumes that reality consists of a single cause, as well as diverse caused phenomena whose existence is constantly sustained by their cause. There is no room for randomness in reality, as that would indicated an absence of omnipotence or omniscience in the Cause. For Loew, the uniform caused nature of reality also indicates the existence of moral order in the world. Science can describe the phenomena in the world, but it cannot create a preference for one over the other; such moral preferences must come from the higher order of the Torah, which Loew calls the "higher intellect" (שכן עליון).

Loew emphasized the value of honesty and straightforwardness. Among other things, this led him to criticize the pilpul methodology common in yeshivas of his time. He even suggested to avoid learning the commentaries of Tosafot until one has reached an advanced level of understanding.

Like Yehudah Halevi, he focused on the distinction between the physical and the spiritual, seeing the Jewish people as possessing an essentially spiritual nature which distinguishes it from all other phenomena in the world.

Lowe did not espouse kabbalah or other Jewish mystical traditions, though he was familiar with them.

Disciples
It is unknown how many Talmudic rabbinical scholars Loew taught in Moravia, but the main disciples from the Prague period include Rabbis Yom-Tov Lipmann Heller and David Gans. The former promoted his teacher's program of regular Mishnah study by the masses, and composed his Tosefoth Yom Tov (a Mishnah commentary incorporated into almost all published editions of the Mishnah over the past few hundred years) with this goal in mind. David Ganz wrote Tzemach David, a work of Jewish and general history, as well as writing on astronomy; both Loew and Ganz were in contact with Tycho Brahe, the famous astronomer.

Commemoration
Kerem Maharal, a moshav in northern Israel, was established by Czech Jewish immigrants and named in his honour.

In April 1997, Czech Republic and Israel jointly issued a set of stamps, one of which featured the tombstone of Loew. In May 2009, the Czech Post issued a stamp commemorating the 400th anniversary of Loew's death. In June 2009 the Czech Mint issued a commemorative coin marking the same milestone. The Statue of Judah Loew ben Bezalel stands in Prague.

Legend of the golem
Loew is the subject of the legend about the creation of a golem, a creature made out of clay to defend the Jews of the Prague Ghetto from antisemitic attacks, particularly the blood libel. He is said to have used mystical powers based on the esoteric knowledge of how God created Adam. The general view of historians and critics is that the legend is a German literary invention of the early 19th century. The earliest known source for the story thus far is the 1834 book Der Jüdische Gil Blas by Friedrich Korn. It has been repeated and adapted many times since.

Works
He began publishing his books at a very late age. In 1578, at the age of 66, he published his first book, Gur Aryeh ("Young Lion", Prague 1578) - an supercommentary in five volumes for Rashi's commentary on the Torah, which goes well beyond that, and four years later he published his book Gevuroth HaShem ("God's Might[y Acts]", Cracow 1582) anonymously.

 * Gur Aryeh ("Young Lion", Prague 1578), a supercommentary on Rashi's Pentateuch commentary
 * Gevuroth Hashem ("God's Mighty Acts", Cracow 1582), for the holiday of Passover - On the Exodus and the Miracles.
 * Derech Chaim ("Way of Life", Cracow 1589), a commentary on the Mishnah tractate Avoth
 * Derashot ("Sermons", Prague 1589 and 1593), collected edition by Haim Pardes, Tel Aviv 1996.
 * Netivoth Olam ("Pathways of the World", Prague 1595-1596), a work of ethics
 * Be'er ha-Golah ("The Well of Exile", Prague 1598), an explanatory work on the Talmudic and Midrashic Aggadah, mainly responding to interpretations by the Italian scholar Azariah dei Rossi (Azariah min ha-Adumim)
 * Netzach Yisrael ("The Eternity of Israel", Prague 1599; Netzach "eternity", has the same root as the word for victory), on Tisha B'Av (an annual day of mourning about the destruction of the Temples and the Jewish exile) and the final deliverance
 * Tif'ereth Yisrael ("The Glory of Israel", Venice 1599), philosophical exposition on the Torah, intended for the holiday of Shavuot
 * Or Chadash ("A New Light", Prague 1600), on Purim
 * Ner Mitzvah ("The Candle of the Commandment", Prague 1600), on Hanukkah
 * Chiddushei Aggadot ("Novellae on the Aggada", the narrative portions of the Talmud), discovered in the 20th century
 * Divrei Negidim ("Words of Rectors"), a commentary on the Seder of Pesach, published by a descendant
 * Chiddushim al Ha-Shas, a commentary on Talmud, recently published for the first time from a manuscript by Machon Yerushalayim on Bava Metzia; Shabbos, and Eruvin; others may be forthcoming.
 * Various other works, such as his responsa and works on the Jewish Sabbath and the holidays of Sukkot, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, have not been preserved.

His works on the holidays bear titles that were inspired by the Biblical verse in I Chronicles 29:11: "Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth [is Yours]; Yours is the kingdom and [You are He] Who is exalted over everything as the Leader." The book of "greatness" (gedula) on the Sabbath was not preserved, but the book of "power" (gevurah) is Gevurath Hashem, the book of glory (tif'arah) is Tif'ereth Yisrael, and the book of "eternity" or "victory" (netzach) is Netzach Yisrael.

Resources

 * Tiferet Yisrael, Hebrew full text

title: Judah Loew ben Bezalel


text:
Philipp Veit

Philipp Veit (13 February 1793 – 18 December 1877) was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco painting is due.

Biography
Veit was born in Berlin, Prussia. He was the son of a banker, Simon Veit and his wife Brendel, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn. After Veit's parents divorced in 1799, Veit initially stayed with his mother and lived with her and her new husband Friedrich Schlegel in Jena, Paris, and Cologne. In 1806, he returned to his father in Berlin and finished his schooling in the "Graues Kloster". From 1808 on, Veit received his first art education at the Royal Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he was taught by Friedrich Matthäi and Caspar David Friedrich,  later in Vienna. Although a prodigious talent when it came to drawing, Veit was not comfortable with oil painting, for which reason in Vienna he took to the medium of watercolour. In Vienna, he made the acquaintance of Schlegel, and through him came to know several Viennese Romantics, one of whom was the poet and novelist Joseph von Eichendorff. He was strongly influenced by, and joined, the Nazarene movement in Rome, where he worked for some years before moving to Frankfurt.

In 1810, Veit converted to Catholicism together with his mother and his senior brother Johannes Veit. While participating in the struggle against Napoleon in 1813–14 (the German campaign of 1813 or War of the Sixth Coalition), first as a Lützower Jäger and part of the Lützow Free Corps, subsequently as a member of the Kleistsche Armeekorps, a corps led by Friedrich Graf Kleist von Nollendorf, and returning to Berlin for a short period, Veit became closer friends with the mentioned above poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff and his own lieutenant Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué. Beginning in 1811, Veit was more teaching himself and finished a couple of portraits (Zichy-Vásonykeő, Julie Gräfin, lost; Franz Xaver von Baader and other members of Vienna's society and exponents of Romanticism). In 1815, he finished his first religious painting. Virgin with Christ and St John, a votive painting for the church of St James in Heiligenstadt, Vienna. The painting shows already close ties to the Nazarene movement and thus was inspired by the style of Pietro Perugino and Raphael.

Rome
Rome was at that time of fundamental importance not only to artists of all stripes but—as the religious centre of Christianity—especially to artists prepared to re-create a spiritually inspired art, seeking for inspiration in the art of the Middle Ages and of the early Renaissance and living a nearly monastic existence similar to the medieval artist's workshop (with almost entirely Christian patrons), a reason why the artists' group was named according to the medieval guilds of painters or Lukasbund (Brotherhood of St Luke). In 1816, Veit joined the brotherhood which inhabited—or had occupied—the abandoned monastery of Sant'Isidoro. Since 1815, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Peter von Cornelius, Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, and later Veit frescoed a room in the "Casa Bartholdy" called Palazzo Zuccari on the Pincian Hill, which at that time was owned by Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, the Prussian Consul-General. The commission was given to Schadow and his young compatriots with the selected subject of Joseph and his brethren. While The Bloody Coat and Joseph in Prison were conferred to Schadow, Veit executed Potiphar's wife and the Seven Years of Great Abundance (in 1867, the frescoes were sold by the Zuccari family to the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin). In 1817, Veit received the commission for a fresco in the Museo Chiaramonti (part of the Vatican, set out in the long loggia which joins the Palace of Belvedere with the Vatican) with the allegorical subject of The Triumph of the Religion. A simultaneous replica (executed in oil on canvas) was exhibited in 1819 in the Palazzo Caffarelli on the Capitol Hill and is today part of the collection of the National Gallery in Berlin. Among the frescoes in the Casino Massimo, the second renowned example of composite work of Nazarene art in Rome, Veit executed scenes, e.g., of the Paradiso, at the ceiling of the Dante room, after Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. At the same time, around 1824, Veit was commissioned by the canon Christian Leberecht von Ampach to execute a painting with the subject of Christ at the Mount of Olives (Christus am Ölberg, finished 1825) for the Chapel of the Three Magi (Dreikönigskapelle) at Naumburg Cathedral in Germany. In 1821, Veit had married a young girl, Carolina Pulini (1807–1890), the daughter of his landlord, the sculptor Gioacchino Pulini (1777–1857). Carolina gave birth to five children: 1822 Dorothea, 1824 Theresa, 1826 Franziska, 1828 Maria Benedetta, and 1830 Friedrich.

Still in Rome in 1824, Veit was depicted as a member of German artists' circles in Franz Ludwig Catel's famous group portrait Crown Prince Ludwig in the Spanish Wine Tavern in Rome; Veit is said to be the person sitting between the two standing figures of von Wagner and Dr. Ringseis on the right side of the table. In 1829–30, Veit executed a Maria Immaculata for the Capella Orsini (a northern chapel) of Santa Trinità dei Monti, moreover the last work of his Roman period, with clear stylistic impact of Raphael and Perugino.

Frankfurt
In October 1830, Veit arrived in Frankfurt on Main together with his wife Carolina and their five children. In Frankfurt on Main, where his most important works are preserved at the Städel, he was active from 1830 to 1843 as director of the art collections and as professor of painting. Among his most renowned pupils are Alfred Rethel and Edward von Steinle. Around 1832, Veit decided for the first time to depict subjects of ancient mythology (e.g. Shield of Achilles) on the ceiling of one of the Städel's "Antikensäle". Other decorations for the old Städel building were the frescoes Die Einführung der Künste durch das Christentum in Deutschland (The Arts Being Introduced to Germany by Christianity) with the allegories of Germania and Italia. Originally, the three-parted fresco adorned the old premises of the Institute in Neue Mainzer Straße. Actually, it displays a conversion scene (through the sermon of Saint Boniface) in the centre-panel while the allegories of Germania and Italia on the side panels represent secular and spiritual power. It was removed in 1877 and transferred into the new building. On the occasion of the national assembly of 1848, for which Saint Paul's Cathedral of Frankfurt on Main was used as an assembly hall, Veit executed a second version of the Germania-painting (oil on canvas) which hung in full view on the wall above the chair people as an appeal to all German states to create a unitary constitution during the first all-German Parliament. Between 1840 and 1852, four so-called portraits of German rulers (which were, actually, pictures of Holy Roman emperors) were painted by Veit: Friedrich II. (Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor), Heinrich VII. (Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor), Otto der Große (Otto the Great) and Karl der Große (Charlemagne) as donation for the "Kaisersaal" (Emperor's Hall) in the City Hall of Frankfurt.

From 1853 till his death in 1877 he held the post of director of the municipal gallery in Mainz. Like his fellow Nazarenes he was more draughtsman than painter, and though his sense of colour was stronger than that of Overbeck or Cornelius, his works are generally more of the nature of coloured cartoons than of paintings in the modern sense.

Among Veit's other principal works is his Assumption in the Frankfurt Cathedral, while the Alte Nationalgalerie of Berlin has his painting of The Two Marys at the Sepulchre. Veit died in Mainz.

title: Philipp Veit


text:
Ron Ely

Ronald Pierce Ely (born June 21, 1938) is an American actor and novelist born in Hereford, Texas, and raised in Amarillo.

Ely is best known for having portrayed Tarzan in the 1966–1968 NBC series Tarzan and for playing the lead role in the film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975). He hosted the Miss America pageant telecast in 1980 and 1981.

Actor
Ely won the role of Tarzan in 1966 after playing supporting roles in films such as South Pacific (1958), as an airplane navigator, The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958) and The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959).

During the filming of Tarzan, Ely did virtually all of his stunts for the series, and suffered two dozen major injuries in the process, including two broken shoulders and various lion bites.

Ely's height (6'4") and athletic build also won him the title role in the film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975), as well as various guest shots. He was in five episodes of the series Fantasy Island; in one, in 1978, Ely portrayed Mark Antony in a Roman military short tunic and breastplate. Also in 1978, Ely starred in the Wonder Woman television series two-part episode "The Deadly Sting."

Ely starred on the series The Aquanauts in 1960–1961, in the western adventure film The Night of the Grizzly (1966) opposite Clint Walker, and later appeared in Jürgen Goslar's slavery movie Slavers (1978). In the 1980s, he hosted the musical game show Face the Music, as well as the 1980 and 1981 Miss America Pageants, replacing longtime host Bert Parks. Later in the decade, Ely starred in a 1987–1988 revival of the 1960s adventure series Sea Hunt as Mike Nelson, the role played by Lloyd Bridges in the original series.

In the 1990s, Ely's roles included a retired Superman from an alternative reality in the 1991 two-part episode "The Road to Hell" of the Superboy syndicated television series, and a big game hunter named Gordon Shaw in the 1992 episode "Tarzan the Hunted" of the syndicated Tarzán TV series (starring Wolf Larson). Until about 2001, Ely made appearances on such television shows as Sheena and Renegade.

Ely had retired from acting in 2001, but he returned to acting with an appearance in the television movie Expecting Amish (2014).

Writer
Ely embarked on a professional writing career and has authored two published mystery novels featuring private eye Jake Sands: Night Shadows (1994) and East Beach (1995).

Personal life
Ely married his high school sweetheart Helen Janet Triplet in 1959. Both natives of Hereford, Texas, they stayed together until their divorce in July 1961. He later dated actresses Ursula Andress, Barbara Bouchet, Dyan Cannon, and Britt Ekland. In 1984 he married former Miss Florida USA, Valerie Lundeen, and they had three children: Kirsten, Kaitland, and Cameron.

On October 15, 2019, Valerie was found stabbed to death at the Hope Ranch residential community along the Santa Barbara coast where the couple lived; Ron was unharmed. Police were called to the scene for a "family disturbance", and a suspect identified as the couple's son Cameron was shot dead by Santa Barbara County sheriff's deputies. In October 2020, Ely challenged the Santa Barbara District Attorney after the police's actions were described as justifiable homicide by the district attorney and no charges were filed against the deputies who were involved in the shooting. An autopsy found that Cameron was suffering from the early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the time of his death.

title: Ron Ely


text:
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (, ; late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively realistic portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. He also painted two self-portraits, one in the Frick Collection portraying him in his 30s, and one in London's National Gallery portraying him about 20 years later. In 2017–18, the two museums held an exhibition of them.

Childhood
Murillo was probably born in December 1617 to Gaspar Esteban, an accomplished barber surgeon, and María Pérez Murillo. He may have been born in Seville or in Pilas, a smaller Andalusian town. It is clear that he was baptized in Santa Maria Magdalena, a parish in Seville in 1618. After his parents died in 1627 and 1628, he became a ward of his older sister Ana and her husband, Juan Agustín Lagares, who coincidentally also happened to be a barber. Murillo seemed to have remained close to the couple considering he did not leave their house until his marriage in 1645. Eleven years later, he was named the executor of Lagares' will despite his sister having already died. Murillo seldom used his father's surname, and instead took his surname from his maternal grandmother, Elvira Murillo.

Early life and formative years
There are few documents on the early years of Murillo's life or on his origins as a painter. In 1633, at 15, Murillo received a license for passage to America with his family. He probably began his artistic career, either during those years or slightly beforehand. Murillo began his art studies in Seville in the workshop of Juan del Castillo, Murillo's uncle and godfather, as well a skilled painter in his own right. Castillo was characterized by the dryness of his sketches and the loving expressions in the subjects he painted, and Murillo took much of this as inspiration in his early work. His first works were also influenced by Francisco de Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonso Cano, and he shared their strongly realist approach. The great commercial importance of Seville at the time ensured that he was subject to artistic influences from other regions. He became familiar with Flemish painting and the "Treatise on Sacred Images" of Molanus (Ian van der Meulen or Molano). As his painting developed, his more important works evolved towards the polished style that suited the bourgeois and aristocratic tastes of the time, demonstrated especially in his Roman Catholic religious works.

According to fellow painter and art historian Antonio Palomino, Murillo left Castillo's workshop after feeling he had grown sufficiently skilled in his painting. In 1642, at the age of 26, he allegedly traveled to Madrid, where he most likely became familiar with the work of Velázquez, and saw the work of Francisco de Palacios; the rich colors and softly modeled forms of his subsequent work suggest these influences. While it is likely that, like many Sevillian painters, Murillo took inspiration from religious images in an attempt to attract the lucrative American market, there is actually little evidence of Murillo traveling to Madrid. Similar claims, attributed by Joachim von Sandrart, a German historian of the time, argue that Murillo also travelled to Italy during the same period. Palomino denies these assertions, arguing that they stem from a refusal of foreigners to acknowledge that Murillo's success had come from Spain, and Spain alone.

Palomino, instead, argued that Murillo's skill came from hours spent in his room, studying the natural world. He would use these skills when painting for the public, for the Franciscan convents throughout Spain, and for his fellow painters, who until then had little knowledge of his existence or art. In either case, his style could easily have been learned without leaving Seville from its previous generation of artists, such as Francisco de Zarbara or Francisco de Herrera the Elder.

Career
In 1645, he returned to Seville and married Beatriz Cabrera y Villalobos, with whom he eventually had ten children. Of these children, only five outlived their mother, and only one, Gabriel (1655–1700) later carried on the work of Bartolome as a painter. The year of his marriage, Murillo received the first major commission of his career. This was to paint eleven canvases for the convent of San Francisco in Seville. He worked on this project from 1645 until 1648. These works depicted various stories of Franciscan saints which were not often told at the time. When selecting subjects, Murillo placed an emphasis on praising lives of contemplation and prayer as represented in paintings like Saint Francis Comforted by an Angel. His works vary between the Zurbaránesque tenebrism of the Ecstasy of St Francis and a softly luminous style (as in Death of St Clare) that became typical of Murillo's mature work. According to the art historian Manuela B. Mena Marqués, "in ... the Levitation of St Giles (usually known as The Angels' Kitchen) and the Death of St Clare (Dresden, Gemäldegal. Alte Meister), the characteristic elements of Murillo’s work are already evident: the elegance and beauty of the female figures and the angels, the realism of the still-life details and the fusion of reality with the spiritual world, which is extraordinarily well developed in some of the compositions." Similarly in Saint Diego Giving Alms, Murillo carefully places the subjects on parallel planes over black background, and its center, surrounding a boiling pot, are a group of children seemingly bathed in a heavenly glow. In doing so, Murillo managed to combine both tenebrism and luminosity to showcase the glory of aiding the needy and the innocent.

Also completed c. 1645 was the first of Murillo's many paintings of children, The Young Beggar (Musée du Louvre), in which the influence of Velázquez is apparent. Following the completion of a pair of pictures for the Seville Cathedral, he began to specialize in the themes that brought him his greatest successes: the Virgin and Child and the Immaculate Conception. After another period in Madrid, from 1658 to 1660, he returned to Seville. Here he was one of the founders of the Academia de Bellas Artes (Academy of Art), sharing its direction, in 1660, with the architect Francisco Herrera the Younger. This was his period of greatest activity, and he received numerous important commissions, among them the altarpieces for the Augustinian monastery, the paintings for Santa María la Blanca (completed in 1665), and others. He died in Seville in 1682, a few months after he fell from a scaffold while working on a fresco at the church of the Capuchines in Cádiz.

Legacy
Murillo had many pupils and followers. The prolific imitation of his paintings ensured his reputation in Spain and fame throughout Europe, and before the 19th century his work was more widely known than that of any other Spanish artist. Artists influenced by his style included Gainsborough and Greuze. Google marked the 400 years since Murillo's birth with a doodle on November 29, 2018.

Public collections
The Museo del Prado in Madrid; Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia (such as Boy with a Dog); and the Wallace Collection in London are among the museums holding works by Murillo. His painting "The Coronation in Heaven of the Mother of God" is on display at the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedralin Bardstown Kentucky. His painting Christ on the Cross is at the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego. Christ After the Flagellation is at the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois. His work is also found at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

title: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo