1650 – 1660s

Events in the 1650s 8

• 1572 – 1656 Thomas Tomkins English Renaissance composer Thomas Tomkins was an English composer and organist whose sacred anthems and keyboard works represent the final flowering of the English polyphonic tradition.
• 1593 – 1656 Artemisia Gentileschi Baroque · Italy Artemisia Gentileschi (July 8, 1593 – c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter and the first woman to be accepted into the Florentine Academy of the Arts. Her powerful depictions of female heroines are now among the most celebrated Baroque works.
• 1628 – 1658 Shah Jahan The emperor who built the Taj Mahal Shah Jahan presided over the golden age of Mughal architecture. In memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal he built the Taj Mahal at Agra — the supreme masterpiece of Indo-Islamic art — along with the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid. He was deposed and imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb.
• 1632 – 1653 The Taj Mahal built The supreme masterpiece of Mughal architecture Commissioned by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj Mahal at Agra took some two decades and tens of thousands of workers to complete. Its perfectly symmetrical white-marble dome and inlaid gardens are regarded as the jewel of Indo-Islamic architecture and one of the wonders of the world.
• 1642 – 1651 English Civil War Royalists versus Parliamentarians Civil war erupted between supporters of King Charles I and Parliament.
• 1653 – 1713 Arcangelo Corelli Baroque violin pioneer Italian violinist and composer who established the concerto grosso form and elevated violin technique to an art, influencing Handel and Vivaldi.
• 1655 – 1659 Huygens discovers Saturn's rings and Titan The first moon of Saturn and its ring system explained Between 1655 and 1659, Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan (Saturn's largest moon) and correctly explained that Saturn was surrounded by a solid ring inclined to the ecliptic — resolving the confusing observations of Galileo. He also invented the pendulum clock in 1656, improving timekeeping accuracy by orders of magnitude.
• 1659 – 1695 Henry Purcell English Baroque composer The greatest English composer of the Baroque era, known for his opera Dido and Aeneas and his mastery of vocal writing.