Masterpiece

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Masterpiece

Masterpiece (or chef d'œuvre) in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship.

Originally, the term masterpiece referred to a piece of work produced by an apprentice or journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is a male trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship....
aspiring to become a master craftsman

Master craftsman

A master craftsman was a member of a guild. In the European trade , only master craftsmen were allowed to be members of the guild.An aspiring master would have to pass through the career chain from apprentice to journeyman before he could be elected to become a master craftsman....
in the old European guild

Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
system.

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Journeyman

A journeyman is a male trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship....
aspiring to become a master craftsman

Master craftsman

Guild

File:Windsorguildhall.jpgA guild is an association of artisan in a particular trade. The earliest guilds were formed as confraternities of workers....
system. His fitness to qualify for guild membership was judged partially by the Masterpiece, and if he was successful, it was retained by the guild. Great care was therefore taken to produce a fine piece in whatever the craft was, whether confectionery, painting, goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a Goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards....
ing, knifemaking, or many other trades. The Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London, England. As an academy, it functions to encourage British art, and has a membership of practising artists....
in London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
is one institution that has acquired a fine collection of "Diploma works" as a condition of acceptance.

It probably derives from the Dutch "meesterstuk" (German: Meisterstück), and the form "masterstik" is recorded in English in 1579 (or in Scots

Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
, since this was from some Aberdeen

Aberdeen

Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous City status in the United Kingdom and one of Scotland's 32 Local government in Scotland Council areas of Scotland....
guild regulations), whereas "masterpiece" is first found in 1605, already outside a guild context, in a Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an England English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satire plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist , and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his Lyric poetry poems....
play.

Nowadays it is used for an exceptionally good piece of creative work or the best piece of work of a particular artist or craftsman.

Examples include: Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italy polymath, being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, Painting, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
's Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa is a 16th century portrait painting painted in oil painting on a poplar panel painting by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance....
, Michelangelo

Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's David
David (Michelangelo)

David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504. The 5.17 meter marble statue portrays the Bible David in the depictions of nudity....
, Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
's Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus number 125 "Choral" is the last complete symphony composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the choral symphony Ninth Symphony is one of the best known works of the Western repertoire, considered both an icon and a forefather of Romantic music, and one of Beethoven's greatest masterpieces....
, Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy's further talents as essayist, dramatist and Education reform made him the most influential member of the aristocracy Tolstoy....
's War and Peace
War and Peace

War and Peace is a novel by Leo Tolstoy, first published from 1865 to 1869 in Russkiy Vestnik , which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era....
, Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

was a Germans writer and according to George Eliot, "Germany's greatest man of letters? and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science....
's Faust
Goethe's Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragedy Play . It was published in two parts: ' and ' . The play is a closet drama, meaning that it is meant to be read rather than performed....
, and Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
's Parsifal
Parsifal

Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the medieval Epic poetry of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail....
.

Masterpiece

See also

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