Madonna (art)

A Madonna (Italian: [maˈdɔnna]) is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her Child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic & Orthodox churches. The word is from Italian ma donna, meaning "my lady". No image permeates Christian art as much as the image of the Madonna and child.

While Mary may be referred to as "the Madonna" in other contexts, in art the term is applied specifically to an artwork in which Mary, with or without the infant Jesus, is the focus, and central figure of the picture. Mary and the infant Jesus may be surrounded by adoring angels or worshiping saints. Images that have a narrative content, including those of the many scenes which make up the Life of the Virgin, are not correctly referred to as "Madonnas" but are given a title that reflects the scene such as the Annunciation to Mary.

The earliest images date from the Early Christian Church and are found in the Catacombs of Rome. Representation of Mary became more common after she was proclaimed "God-bearer" (Theotókos) at the Council of Ephesus in 431. For over a thousand years, through the Byzantine, Medieval and Early Renaissance periods the Madonna was the most often produced pictorial artwork. Many specific images of the Madonna, both painted and sculptured, have achieved fame, either as objects of religious veneration or for their intrinsic artistic qualities. Many of the most renowned painters and sculptors in the history of art have turned their skills toward the creation of Madonna images. These artists include Duccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Salvador Dalí and Henry Moore.

Madonna (studio)

Madonna (マドンナ, Madonna) is a Japanese adult video (AV) studio which specializes in the jukujo niche of Japanese pornography. By 2007, Madonna also launched the label Fitch, which has a focus on the bakunyū niche.

Company information

Madonna is an AV studio located in Tokyo, Japan which is affiliated with the large AV conglomerate Hokuto Corporation which distributes its videos through the DMM website. The General Manager of the company is Katsuhisa Aoyagi (青柳勝久).

Madonna registered its website www.madonna-av.com in October 2003 and released its first videos in December 2003. Their premier video, Man-Eating Mature Women - Semen Squeezing (JUK-001) starred Maki Tomoda, Aki Tomosaki and Mayumi Kusunoki.: The company specializes in movies in the "mature woman" (熟女, jukujo) or MILF pornography genre, sometimes with an incest theme. Such mature woman productions have been a growing trend in Japanese porn since the mid-1990s and were popularized in AV by director Goro Tameike at the end of the 1990s. In addition to Aki Tomosaki and Maki Tomoda, other mature actresses who appeared in early Madonna videos were Ayano Murasaki and Runa Akasaka.Eitaro Haga has been the company's chief director, with a listing of more than 150 videos for Madonna by late 2011.

Madonna (...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead album)

Madonna is the second studio album by the American band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. It was released on October 19, 1999 by Merge Records.

Background and production

The cover art features a Hindu goddess painting by Conrad Keely called Portrait of Kali. The back art is another painting, Tribute to Ed Wicklander by James Neslo, a nod to a Seattle-based sculptor.

Track listing

† Sometimes named "Sigh Your Relief" on international releases

Track information

"Totally Natural" is about Hollywood actors who also play in rock bands.

Personnel

District

A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions of municipalities, school district, or political district.

By country

 Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, a district (Persian / Pashto: ولسوالۍ‎ Wuleswali) is a subdivision of a province. There are almost 400 districts in the country.

 Australia

Electoral districts are used in state elections. Districts were also used in several states as cadastral units for land titles. Some were used as squatting districts. New South Wales had several different types of districts used in the 21st century.

Austria

In Austria, a district (Bezirk) is an administrative division normally encompassing several municipalities, roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft, is headed by a Bezirkshauptmann. It is in charge of the administration of all matters of federal and state administrative law and subject to orders from the higher instances, usually the Landeshauptmann (governor) in matters of federal law and the Landesregierung (state government) in state law. While there are matters of administrative law the municipalities themselves are in charge of, or where there are special bodies, the district is the basic unit of general administration in Austria. Officials on the district level are not elected, but appointed by the state government. There are also independent cities in Austria. They are called Statutarstadt in Austrian administrative law. These urban districts do have the same tasks as a normal district.

Provinces of Korea

This article describes the historical development of Korea's provinces (Do ; hangul: 도; hanja: 道).

Provinces (Do) have been the primary administrative division of Korea since the mid Goryeo dynasty in the early 11th century, and were preceded by provincial-level divisions (Ju and Mok) dating back to Unified Silla, in the late 7th century.

Historical summary

During the Unified Silla Period (AD 668–935), Korea was divided into nine Ju (주; 州), an old word for "province" that was used to name both the kingdom's provinces and its provincial capitals.

After Goryeo defeated Silla and Later Baekje in 935 and 936 respectively, the new kingdom "was divided into one royal district (Ginae; 기내; 畿內) and twelve administrative districts (Mok; 목; 牧)" (Nahm 1988), which were soon redivided into ten provinces (Do). In 1009 the country was again redivided, this time into one royal district, five provinces (Do) and two frontier districts (Gye; 계; 界?).

After the Joseon Dynasty's rise to power and the formation of Joseon in 1392, the country was redivided into eight new provinces (Do) in 1413. The provincial boundaries closely reflected major regional and dialect boundaries, and are still often referred to in Korean today simply as the Eight Provinces (Paldo). In 1895, as part of the Gabo Reform, the country was redivided into 23 districts (Bu; 부; 府), which were replaced a year later by thirteen new provinces.

Districts of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) is organized into 35 districts, 33 of which are defined along geographic lines. Each district has a president who oversees the congregations in his district, which are further subdivided into local circuits. The position of president is roughly analogous to the role of bishop in many church bodies, but LCMS doctrine supports a generally congregationalist polity as opposed to an exclusively hierarchical governance.

Districts choose their own district presidents at their triennial conventions from among the pastors in the district. In some districts the district president occupies a full-time position, while in others he continues to serve as pastor in a congregation.

The 35 district presidents plus the synod president form the Council of Presidents (COP), which places graduates from the two LCMS seminaries as pastors in congregations which have requested such a candidate. If a congregation desires an experienced pastor to fill a vacancy, the district president may suggest a list of possible candidates (gleaned from interactions with the COP as well as other sources), but the district president does not assign pastors in this case; the congregation extends a "call" directly to the pastor.