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 (EP)

Madonna is the second mini-album by South Korean girl group Secret. It was released on August 12, 2010 through TS Entertainment, and contains five tracks. The mini-album debuted at number 5 on the Gaon Album Chart on August 12. "Madonna", the album's lead single, debuted at number 1 on South Korea's Gaon Singles Chart and sold over 1,839,869 digital copies in South Korea within the year of 2010. Kang Jiwon and Kim Kibum, the composers who wrote "Madonna" highlighted that the inspiration behind the song is about living with confidence by becoming an icon in this generation, like the American singer Madonna.

Promotion

"Madonna" was first used as a promotional track from the album. On August 5, 2010, a teaser video was released online. In the teaser, the girls were performing the album track "Empty Space". The final music video premiered on August 12, 2010 along with Madonna's release. Secret had their debut performances of "Madonna" on Mnet's M! Countdown, KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Inkigayo from August 12 to August 15.

Surprise

Surprise may refer to:

Science and mathematics

Places

Entertainment

Music

Albums

Surprise (S.E.S. album)

Surprise is a compilation in 2001 by S.E.S.. This is also considered their 4.5 album (and first special album). It sold approximately 350,000 copies. The album is composed of Korean covers of the group's Japanese songs. The only single was "꿈을 모아서 (Just In Love)", originally "Yume wo Kasanete". A bonus track, Fate World, was also included. It is the Korean cover of 'Meguriau Sekai'.

Track listing

External links

Surprise (Paul Simon album)

Surprise is the eleventh solo studio album by American musician Paul Simon, released in May 2006.

History

After the relative success of You're the One, which was released in late 2000 finding Simon back to the Top 20 of the American charts after ten years of absence and also receiving a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, Paul Simon spent most of the following two years promoting the album. In 2002 he took a year off, and during 2003 and 2004 had a widely documented reunion with Art Garfunkel, followed by a Simon & Garfunkel comeback tour. During June and July 2004, the duo extensively toured America and Europe and the concerts were registered on both a live album and video that was released by the end of the year. Also in December 2004, Paul Simon's studio albums were re-released in remastered issues, as well as re-promoted.

At this point, Simon was fully involved in the writing and recording of a new studio album. He was introduced to Brian Eno, producer of Talking Heads and U2 among others.