Introduction: Animal combat and hunting motifs have been a prominent theme in Iranian-Islamic art and civilization from pre-Islamic times through the Qajar period. Although these motifs have been depicted similarly across various eras, their meanings have evolved in accordance with the sociocultural and religious contexts of each period. Consequently, this study seeks to examine the meanings of animal combat and hunting motifs in Qajar art, with specific attention to their spatial contexts and functional positions within architectural or artistic works. The central research question addressed herein is: What are the origins of animal combat and hunting motifs in Qajar art, considering the nature of the structure and the artistic medium, and how do they differ from similar motifs found in the Seljuk to Safavid periods?Research Method: This study adopts a developmental approach in terms of its objectives and employs a descriptive-analytical method in its execution. Data collection involved both library-based research, utilizing primary and relevant sources, and field studies examining artistic elements such as stucco work, tilework, ceramics, metalwork, wood carving, painting on wood or plaster, seal engravings, and illustrated manuscripts. The study identified 52 examples of animal combat and hunting motifs across a variety of artistic media, classifying them into 14 distinct types.Findings: Among the analyzed examples, tilework motifs (particularly polychrome «haft-rang» or under transparent glaze painting) and stucco (low or high relief) were the most frequently represented media. Beyond the type of structure or artifact, the artistic medium, visual characteristics of the motifs, and the decorative elements surrounding or adjacent to them significantly influenced their symbolic meanings.Conclusion: The findings suggest that the roots of animal combat and hunting motifs lie in a synthesis of earlier beliefs and the popular consciousness of the Qajar era. These motifs symbolically reference the repulsion of evil forces, popular narratives, and prevailing cultural beliefs. In essence, the motifs not only align with public sentiment but also emphasize the legitimacy of the king and his absolute and victorious power in triumphing over falsehood.
The photo collage "Martyrdom" by Soodi Sharifi is a manifestation of Western art in the context of Iranian art. This work is taken from the painting "Shirin’s Suicide" of Khamseh Nezami in 886 AH. In the era of post-structuralism and the era of forgetting Iranian paintings of past ages, Sharifi has created an adaptation work by choosing and changing some special symbolic systems in the pretext. The problem is the reason for changing the signs and the artist's use of them, which leads to a different meaning in the adapted work. This research tries to answer two questions: 1. In this process of extraction, what symptom systems have been changed or removed that have led to a change of meaning? 2. What are the differences between these two effects? The goal is to achieve and to recognize the type of changes in the noble text. Therefore, the study of this work along with the existing pretexts can fill the gap in studies in this field. The research method is descriptive-analytical and comparative and the two considered effects of Gerard Genette's transtexual approach have been examined. The method of collecting information relies on library (filing) and interviewing the artist. Based on the obtained results and using sign systems, the duality of meaning was observed in a noble effect. In this work, a kind of comparison between the literary subjects of the past centuries of Iran and contemporary events can be seen. In other words, the "Shirin’s suicide" of the Nezami is considered symmetrical and opposite, honoring the issue of martyrdom in the Iran-Iraq war and the statue of Pieta by Michelangelo, and the death of Christ. The changes brought about by this shift from Islam to Christianity and vice versa have changed the gender and nature of the painting. The most important change, made in the dominant type, is a permutation, because, without the replacement of some elements, the new creation would not have taken place in Sharifi’s work. In this study, with the help of the typology of transtextuality, among the five types introduced by Genette, two types of hypertextuality and intertextuality, that deal with the relationship between artistic texts, are diagnosed. Hypertext is present in both cases under investigation. Thus, the relationship between the poetic text of Khosrow and Shirin by Nezami and the visual text of Soodi Sharifi is based on hypertext, and the interdisciplinary relationship between poetry and photography is seen. Duality of meaning was observed in the Sharifi’s work due to the replacement and change of some sign systems. The artist has achieved a dual identity through his adaptation by simultaneously incorporating symbols of Christianity and Islam. By doing so, Sharifi has used Nezami’s work and created a new piece to direct the semantic path of the Khamseh’s image towards contemporary issues; this is Genette's definition of parody, which has a different meaning. He has achieved his goal by bringing several semiotic factors; including 1- Bringing the key which is the way to enter sky or heaven and to return the young man. 2- Bringing Islamic clothing for women. 3- Renaming the Nezami’s work from "Shirin’s Suicide" to "Martyrdom". Examining these cases has revealed that Sharifi intends to refer to the Iran-Iraq war and to criticize the current situation in psychological and expressive ways, but other layers of belief have been brought in his work, which may have originated from the artist's living environment. Despite spending most of his life in a Christian community, he also depends on several religious affiliations in Iranian society. Therefore, this can be one of the reasons for combining and then replacing this work with the work of Pieta by Michelangelo, and the sculpture of Pieta, as a prelude to Sharifi’s work, itself has semantic independence. Another reason is the similarity and substitution of martyrdom in Islam with the ascension of Jesus in Christianity, which exists in both ascension and entry into heaven, so among the different motives of the artist, we reach semantic diversity in Sharifi’s work. In general, Sharifi's work shows a kind of symmetry between the literary subjects of past centuries in Iran with contemporary events. In other words, the suicide of Nezami’s Shirin is considered symmetrical and opposite concerning the issue of martyrdom in the Iran-Iraq war with the statue of Pieta of Michelangelo and the death of Christ. The changes made for this turn from Islam to Christianity and vice versa have altered the gender and nature of the image, that is, there has been a shift. In between, some elements of the image are completely identical in the work of Sharifi with the picture of Nezami, and there is intertextuality of the quotation type with direct or explicit reference. Therefore, Sharifi’s work has been expanded and changed both in terms of the external structure of the work and in terms of qualitative content towards the image of Shirin’s suicide.
The text describes the post-war series of portrait sculptures by Xawery Dunikowski – which not often are a subject of substantial analysis – in which the artist refers to his pre-war Wawel Heads (1925–1928). The extended approach to the artistic merit of the work (style) has been augmented with its contextual setting (the circumstances of its creation, ideological references) to indicate the significant formal and thematic ambivalence of the cycle as well as its multifaceted quality. In his sculpted heads Dunikowski manifests his curiosity as to the human individual, artistically reinterpreting the peculiarly Olympian, deified representatives of communism. Above all, it confirms the stylistic autonomy of the Pantheon, which dominates over ideological dependencies. At the same time Dunikowski attests to his undisputed craftsmanship as the doyen of Polish sculpture – the insightful realist and muckraker.
Roger B. Dannenberg, Jorge Sastre, Stefano Scarani
et al.
Interactive computer-based music systems form a rich area for the exploration of collaborative systems where sensors play an active role and are important to the design process. The Soundcool system is a collaborative and educational system for sound and music creation as well as multimedia scenographic projects, allowing students to produce and modify sounds and images with sensors, smartphones and tablets in real time. As a real-time collaborative performance system, each performance is a unique creation. In a comprehensive educational project, Soundcool is used to extend the sounds of traditional orchestral instruments and opera singers with electronics. A multidisciplinary international team participates, resulting in different performances of the collaborative multimedia opera <i>The Mother of Fishes</i> in countries such as Spain, Romania, Mexico and the USA.
The argument starts out (section 1) from a description of the aesthetic encounter with Anish Kapoor’s installation Léviathan (Paris 2011), highlighting the importance of the body as the mediator of sense and senses. I take this sculpture to imagine the labour of polity-making. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of embodiment as the intertwinement of a self and its world or environment, i.e., as labour, I analyse three fault lines in the concept of labour, (section 2), indicating where Merleau-Ponty departs from Marx. I also indicate the relevance of these paradigm shifts for the idea of an embodied democratic polity, in particular its ecological commitment. In section 3 I return to Kapoor’s installation to establish in what respects it inspires such polity.
Francesco Trimarchi, Enio Martino, Maria Laura Tanda
et al.
Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) is an autoimmune orbital disorder which occurs most commonly in patients with Graves’ disease, less frequently in patients with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. Full-blown GO is characterized by exophthalmos, swelling and inflammation of periorbital soft tissues, extraocular muscle dysfunction (responsible for diplopia) and may evolve into relevant functional and disfiguring sequelae which impair quality of life. GO may very rarely sight-threatening due to optic neuropathy or corneal breakdown. This study reviews a series of articles dealing with figurative works of art (sculpture and painting) from the Hellenistic age up to a few years ago, that represent real-life individuals or ideal models with features of GO. Clinical evaluation and a hypothetical ideal treatment is proposed for some selected subjects who appear in the portraits, based on updated clinical and management criteria.
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Man is superior to other living beings because he uses language and expresses his views through an artistic way. Poetry is very natural among other genres of literature. Poetry is a combination of different forms of art like music, sculpture, dance and painting etc. Poetry is created through imagination and scenses. Modern urdu poetry especially modern urdu poem and other genres have been introduced under the impact and influence of English literature, Women’s contribution in poetry is a clear sign of new and different approaches in relation between women writers and literature. In this article female’s contribution in jadeed Nazm (free verse) has been highlighted especially. The well known poetess “Nigah Zahra” has been discussed, because she has been contributed creative work especially in poetry by visual images and senses and present a descriptive work in free verse by using five senses.</span></p>
Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar, Computational linguistics. Natural language processing
Dans l’histoire de la musique occidentale, le statut de l’atelier – comme lieu du faire et lieu de transmission – semble inexistant. À première vue, il n’y a pas d’équivalent en musique des ateliers de sculpture et de peinture de la Renaissance, du baroque ou du XIXe siècle qui, progressivement, deviendront à la fois des lieux d’exposition et de fabrique de l’oeuvre. Cette histoire des ateliers d’artistes ne traverse pas de façon aussi visible celle de la fabrique des oeuvres musicales. Notre hypothèse est que cette histoire invisible de l’atelier musical est en partie due à la nature même de la musique, éclatée en plusieurs lieux et points d’écoute.
Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes (2005) is a monumental exhibition catalogue showcasing the work of Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes. Together the partners established a renowned daguerreotype studio in mid-nineteenth-century Boston that catered to the city’s bourgeoisie. This paper seeks to unravel the mystery of dozens of daguerreotypes found in Young America, in which elite Boston women appear to be nearly nude. The unidentified women stand in stark contrast to the carefully concealed bodies of Southworth & Hawes’ other female subjects. Why would they expose themselves in such a manner before the camera’s lens? This paper attributes the women’s state of (un)dress to their deliberate emulation of two sculptures in the classical tradition: Clytie, a marble bust dating to antiquity, and Proserpine, a mid-nineteenth-century marble bust by American neoclassical sculptor Hiram Powers. This argument first reveals how a general “classical statue” aesthetic prevailed for women’s deportment in antebellum America, then demonstrates that the busts of Clytie and Proserpine had special significance as icons of white, elite female beauty in the period. Next, this paper makes the case that Southworth & Hawes devised a special style of photography deriving from their own daguerreotypes of the two statues, in which the women’s off-shoulder drapery was deliberately obscured allowing their female clientele to pose in the guise of these famous statues. The paper concludes by arguing that the women shown in these images could pose in this style without contravening societal norms, as these mythological figures were construed by women and men in the period to reflect the central precepts of the mid-nineteenth-century “Cult of True Womanhood.” Moreover, the busts offered sartorial models that reinforced standards of female dress as they related to class and privilege. By baring their flawless, white skin, however, the women positioned themselves at the crux of contentious beliefs about race in a deeply divided nation prior to the American Civil War.
This paper is a metaphorical extension of my practice of intertwining my conceptual/theoretical development with my personal history. Allowing the autobiographical narrative to become the driver of my practice has had a profound influence on my work. This has resulted in changes in the intention and scale of my work and new approaches to making, with a re-evaluation of the hierarchy of processes and materials. Written as a reflective case study, from a practice-led research perspective, the paper illustrates a realignment in creative methodology from a craft-based practitioner specialising in kiln-formed glass, to that of a mixed media sculptor. This transition was made in response to my desire to break free of my perceived confines as a craft practitioner, with a focus on technical excellence and the predominant language of glass, and place the concept at the forefront of my practice. This enabled me to explore the relationship of personal geographies of landscapes, to inform my prevailing concepts of corporeal vulnerabilities, in a more integral way. S-O-T Body Repairs was the title of a solo exhibition that sprang from this body of research and is discussed in this paper.
With its roots in ancient food molds and table art for Renaissance banquets, butter sculpture in the United States debuted during the centennial and flourished in the first quarter of the twentieth century. As the dairy industry moved from farm to regional cooperative creameries and eventually to national brands, butter sculpture appeared at fairs and expositions. Both amateur and professional sculptors used this unusual medium for busts and portraits, dairy‐related subjects, and models of buildings. The ephemeral nature of the medium and the novelty of food as art drew crowds to exhibits advertising butter as the natural, healthy alternative to oleomargarine.