The paper discusses the sepulchral art produced in 1500–1650 in Bohemia, especially in Prague, analysing the iconography of secular nobles and burghers in the context of early modern funerary sculpture. It explores the changes in funerary iconography, which depended on the deceased’s social status and profession. It also pays special attention to the depiction of women and children on tombstones, which reflected not only aesthetic norms but also religious and social conventions. It shows that tomb sculpture functioned not only as a memorial artefact, but also as a medium for self-presentation and visual communication that provided legitimacy to family claims and reflected contemporary conceptions of virtue, power, and eschatology.
Modernist propositions long have been understood as atemporal—somehow outside of time—or insistently hailing the future. This temporal framework suppresses the contributions of those excluded from modernist canons, particularly Black women. In this article, visual and material analysis of sculptural works produced in the 1970s and 1980s by U.S. Black women artists Beverly Buchanan, Senga Nengudi, and Betye Saar reveal how Black feminists have engaged with modernist protocols in order to redress cultural erasures of Black women. These practices exemplify <i>Black feminist modernisms</i>, or creative practices that unsettle the racist and sexist logics of dominant cultural institutions. Each of these artists utilizes haptic surfaces as a method for defying institutional modernism’s obfuscation of the past. The analysis focuses on Buchanan’s defiance of memorial erasures, Nengudi’s reenactment of labor, including in its historical forms, and Saar’s adaptation of generational memory-making processes. Ultimately, these artists’ rejection of a “timeless” modernism demands that viewers understand the present moment in relationship to a still-evolving past. In this way, Buchanan, Nengudi, and Saar position the present as an accumulation, rather than transcendence, of historical occurrences.
Автор рассматривает концепцию и экспонаты выставки буддийского бурятского искусства из коллекции Государственного Эрмитажа» (XIII – начала XX века), призванной показать преемственность монгольской буддийской культуры начиная со времени Чингис-хана на основе богатой коллекции Государственного Эрмитажа. В экспозиции 2024 года соединились археологические артефакты и буддийские произведения скульптуры и живописи. Целью исследования является анализ концепции выставки и рассмотрение некоторых экспонатов. Выставка, впервые объединившая артефакты буддийского искусства, археологические находки и исторические фотографии, посвященные Бурятии, из Эрмитажа, значима в исследовании региональной истории и культуры. Ее новаторство заключается не только в уникальном сочетании экспонатов, но и в комплексном подходе к изучению культуры и искусства населявших эту территорию этносов. Выставка способствовала изучению круга предметов, связанных с историей, археологией и буддизмом Бурятии, помогла изучить культы, бытовавшие в XVIII – начале XX века. Материалом исследования стали экспонаты — находки С.В. Киселёва из средневековых городищ Бурятии и Забайкалья, входивших в состав Великого монгольского государства, предметы из коллекций Э.Э. Ухтомского, П.К. Козлова, А.К. Фаберже, Б.И. Панкратова. Буддийская серебряная скульптура происходит из личных комнат Николая Второго в Зимнем дворце. Фотографии нерчинского фотографа А.К. Кузнецова были поднесены цесаревичу во время его путешествия по Сибири и Забайкалью в 1891 году. Они отражали быт и культуры разных народов, населявших этот регион в конце XIX века. Исследование проведено с использованием проблемно-хронологического, историко-генетического, историко-сравнительного методов, а также метода исследования индивидуального явления в рамках поликонтекстуального подхода. В результате археологические находки и предметы буддийской традиции описаны во временной последовательности;выявлены процессы формирования иконографии и композиции. На основании анализа археологических артефактов, оригинальных текстов, предметов буддийского культа, архивных материалов, опубликованных источников и научных трудов раскрыт ряд вопросов становления и развития буддийской традиции как части духовной культуры регионов Бурятии и Забайкалья.
The incidents (in 2017) of changing the secular content of textbooks and removing a sculpture from the Supreme Court premises in Bangladesh raise a question among people who are sympathetic to secularism that Bangladesh is moving towards a theological state like Pakistan or becoming an Islamic country. They also refer to the remark that the current Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) made in 2014 that Bangladesh’s state administration would run under the rule of the Medina Charter (an Islamic constitution based on the Holy Quran and Sunnah, which aims to establish peace and unity by creating universal rules), as an indication of the religious characteristic that would remain at the centre of the state political activities in Bangladesh. By examining the historical and social context of Bangladesh since 1971 and reviewing the relevant contents of four newspapers—the Daily Inqilab (Bengali), the Prothom Alo (Bengali), the Daily Naya Diganta (Bengali) and the Daily Star (English)—from 2014 to 2017, this article rejects the claim made by the people who are sympathetic to secularism. This article, however, argues that Islam was traditionally/historically integrated in Bangladeshi society and culture as a unique (syncretistic) tradition in which political parties were forced to apply religious symbols and language in the political environments to stay in the government’s power. The article concludes by raising a question with the current integration of secular political party and Islamist force (Hefazat-e-Islam), being although there is a functional relationship remaining between secularism and Islam at the state level, is Bangladesh stepping into a “no secularism” era?
The paper discusses two eighteenth-century magnates’ residences, the architecture of which functioned as a political statement, drawing on cultural codes rooted in the ancient tradition and borrowing from the model of Versailles. The palaces of Jan Klemens Branicki (1689–1771) in Białystok and of Eustachy Potocki (1720–1768) in Radzyń were built in the mid-eighteenth century. The analysis of their forms, spatial design and sculptures sheds light on their function as a ceremonial space serving political purposes. Our study focuses on the examination of the entrance gates, façade decoration and the sculptures located in the vestibules, which play a key role in the symbolic structures of the residences, as well as the gardens with their pavilions and sculptures. Together these elements constituted the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of these magnates dreaming of being elected king.
Cohen deals with the question of the possibility for art to represent God or the divine in some of his works, throughout all his philosophical production, but obviously above all in his main aesthetic work, sthetik des reinen Gefhls (1912). We can state that in Cohen's works this problem is posed with reference to three different religious fields: Greek polytheism, Jewish monotheism and Christianity. The topic of this essay will be Cohen's thought about the artistic representation of the divine in Christianity or in Christian art through the representation of Jesus. This topic will be examined with reference both to Kants Begrndung der sthetik (1889) and to sthetik des reinen Gefhls ; whereas in Kants Begrndung der sthetik Cohen devotes to the representation of Jesus just a short consideration in the historical introduction of the book, in sthetik des reinen Gefhls the representation of Jesus is object of far more attention. Here, Cohen's answer to the question of the possibility to represent the divine through the representation of Jesus is that Jesus' divinity, in the artistic representation of his figure, can only have a metaphorical value, the real meaning of which is that Jesus' story is the ideal story of the human being; in Kants Begrndung der sthetik and in other writings of the 80s, on the contrary, the idea of incarnation and of the divinity of Jesus is object of a different appreciation by Cohen. The comparison between these different stances can be a contribution to the comprehension of the changes in Cohen's view of Christianity through the years.
Sophie Krausz, Caroline Millereux, Marion Bouchet
et al.
The oppidum of Châteaumeillant (Cher) belongs to the civitas of the Bituriges, whose boundaries correspond approximately to those of the current departments of Cher, Indre, and to which portions of Allier and Loir-et-Cher must be added. Located about 60 km from Bourges/Avaricum (Cher), the capital of this territory, the Mediolanum of the Tabula Peutingeriana occupies a privileged position at the southern end of Berry, the oppidum having been installed on the highest part of a rectangular promontory measuring 60 ha. Discovered in the 19th c. by Émile Chénon, the oppidum of Châteaumeillant was the subject of major archaeological excavations in the 1950s and 1960s under the direction of Émile Hugoniot and Jacques Gourvest. From 2001 to 2018, subsequent excavations focused on the Gallic habitat, as well as on the imposing fortification. The excavations revealed a dense and continuous occupation that began around 200 BC, through the La Tène C2 period. As early as La Tène D1, around 150 BC, shipments of Italian amphorae poured into Châteaumeillant. Then, around 100 BC, the town was equipped with a murus gallicus enclosing the 27 ha of the southern half of the promontory. The site subsequently peaked in terms of growth, though the rate of Italian wine imports remained steady. During the Gallic War, the murus gallicus was reinforced by a massive rampart preceded by a 45 m wide flat-bottomed ditch (Krausz 2007a; 2014; 2019; 2021; Krausz, Millereux 2019). Traces of fire observed in the La Tène D2 habitat suggest that Châteaumeillant is likely one of the twenty Bituriges towns to have been burnt down at the behest of Vercingetorix (Krausz 2009a). The town was rebuilt in the Augustan period and the occupation of the promontory continued through to the present day, without interruption. In the areas explored between 2008 and 2018 (A to G), several buildings, constructed on posts, were excavated. Some of them were built overtop large quadrangular pits that would have served as cellars. The archaeological material discovered in this zone argues in favour of areas B and C having served a craftworking and commercial function, rather than as exclusively residential areas. The presence of cellars and large pits, which would have been used to store foodstuffs that might be used for trading would appear to corroborate this interpretation of function. It is in this part of the oppidum that the renowned “amphorae cellars” were discovered in the 19th c. It was only possible to explore one such cellar during the recent excavations (2012 to 2016) and it is therefore the object of study of this article. The cellar contained the remains of 33 Italic amphorae. During a second phase of use, a well (St 512) was dug in the eastern half of this cellar. Its protected excavation yielded an exceptional assemblage, dated to the final La Tène period: in addition to some 1,500 ceramic sherds, an anthropomorphic stone statue, a human skull with traces of de-fleshing and an andiron protome of a horse were deposited at the bottom of the well. The body of the andiron is complete and well preserved, decorated with a combination of white paint and engravings. The object measures 0.39 m in height, from the hoof to the top of the horse’s head. An anthropomorphic statue and a human skull were discovered in the layer above. The statue was lying face down, 10 cm from the human skull. This sculpture represents a male figure, whose head and right hand were preserved; the hand is holding a ring to the centre of the chest. Below this ring, the statue was previously and intentionally broken. Following this damage, the upper portion of the statue (head and torso) was deposited in the well, while the base was found in a small pit in Zone B, located 8 m north of the well. It is sculpted in the round, in a particularly fine Châteaumeillant sandstone, finer than that of the statue from well F.II of the Kasmareck Garden discovered within the oppidum in 1960. Both are, undoubtedly, Celtic busts. In addition to this type of bust, another category of statues are seated figures, recognizable by virtue of their crossed legs (Coulon, Krausz 2013). Sitting busts present one or both hands resting on the chest and often wear a torque around the neck. In the statue’s current state, and with the upper part combined with the lower part, it measures 0.50 m in total height. Overall, the width varies little: from the head (10 cm), through the torque and the shoulders (12 cm) to the lower portion (15 cm). Thus, there is a variation of 5 cm from top to bottom, resulting in a small but constant broadening. This slight variation confirms that the statue is part of a rectangular block that widens slightly towards the bottom. Below the right hand holding the ring, the lower block presents no further figural representation. However, it has been carved in such a way as to provide an end that was likely tapered or pointed, a feature that could have allowed the sculpture to be driven into the ground. As with other Gallic bust statues, certain anatomical and ornamental features are highlighted: the facial features, the hairstyle and the ears, the torque around the neck and the representation of the right arm and hand. As for the human skull, it was deposited in the pit without its mandible or any other accompanying skeletal element. Only the molars and premolars remain from the upper dentition, while the other teeth were lost post-mortem, though not within the well. The skull belonged to a young adult, whose age was estimated between 17 and 25 years of age. The sex is undetermined, but most likely male. Several incisions visible on the calvaria (or skullcap), as well as on the zygomatic processes of the temporal bones suggest that it was de-fleshed, removing the scalp, and detaching the mandible and atlas. The polished appearance of the frontal bone, along with a small eroded area in the centre could be the result of exposure to touching or weathering, at least in this anterior portion. Similarly, the cracking and darkening of the tooth enamel could be the result of being placed in an open-air setting. The loss of the canines and incisors is further indication of the possibility that the skull was exposed, possibly showcased in an elevated manner. The Gauls’ marked interest in heads is known from ancient times, and the practice of removing skulls and subjecting them to a particular treatment, separate from the rest of the skeleton is attested to in Gaul from the 5th to the 1st c. BC. The presence of these remarkable objects in well 512 reveals the unique and ritualistic nature of the deposit, in the context of the La Tène habitat. It combines the representation of a male figure set in stone with a severed head. Well 512 and cellar 437 constitute an exceptional archaeological ensemble, unprecedented in a La Tène period habitat. Indeed, it concentrates numerous cultural and social characteristics of the La Tène D period: statuary, a ritual deposit, wells and an amphora cellar. This collaborative article proposes a detailed study of the two structures, the objects discovered therein and their chronology.
Brick elements are widely used for everything from designing toys to architectural designs. This article proposes an intelligent method to construct complex 3D brick models automatically. The proposed method is designed based on a set of core algorithms to generate a brick layout in accordance with a given 3D voxel model. In the system, each 3D model is sliced into tiers of flat vector polygons at first. Then, the vector polygons are converted to raster data for each tier. The bricks are built in a single tier until all tiers are completed. The proposed model is validated using two case studies: one is a series of solid sculpture models and the other is a building model. The results show that the proposed intelligent building system successfully builds visual models from brick assembly models. The proposed system can help engineers build large block models to improve the efficiency of constructing complex 3D building models.
The three-dimensional models of wax belonging to the scientific heritage of the Complutense University of Madrid are a rare and extraordinary material that deserves to be preserved because it has great relevance to understand how surgeons and anatomists found formulas of visual construction that made possible the diffusion of his knowledge about the human body. In the present investigation, an anatomical wax model of the 18th century, with a remarkable degree of structural deterioration and weakness, has been restored, testing a new volumetric loss reconstruction methodology based on photogrammetric digitization of the sculpture, 3D modelling of the lost pieces and 3D printing of their moulds to obtain from them the final copies in waxy material. Due to this methodology, it has been possible to reduce the handling of the figure during the restoration process and the risk of accidental deterioration has been minimized.
В статье рассматривается художественная концепция «Врат Ада», над которыми Роден работал в период с 1880 по 1917 год. «Божественная комедия» Данте явилась отправной точкой в трактовке темы, вобравшей в себя сложный интертекст из изобразительных и вербальных источников, прежде всего относящихся к XIX веку. Главное внимание в своем анализе автор статьи обращает на пластическую выразительность языка мастера и литературную сторону его замысла и приходит к выводу, что этой последней принадлежит важное место в решении целого. Подобное соотношение Образа и Слова в портале Родена свидетельствует о зарождении новых черт в европейской скульптуре, которые сближают памятник с открытиями в области психологического романа второй половины XIX века и ведут к появлению новых форм искусства.
The purpose of this article is to explore the ideological contexts of sculptural works by Northern modernists: Gustav Vigeland(1869–1943) from Norway, Bernhard Hoetger (1874–1949) from Germany, and the Icelander Einar Jónsson (1874–1954). The original iconographies of the Vigelandsanlegget in Oslo, Hoetger’s Platanenhein in Darmstadt, as well as Jónsson’s oeuvrescollected in Reykjavik, will be interpreted in relation to wider discourses—i.e.Nietzschean influence, a particular taste for the esoteric (theosophy) and, last but not least, anoticeable aversion to classical form.
Comparative study of pollen and seed morphology of three species of Rhododendron L. subsect. Rhodorastrum (Maxim.) Cullen (Rh. dauricum L., Rh. mucronolatum Turcz., Rh. sichotense Pojark.) is performed. Results of discriminant analysis of the total of morphometric characters of pollen and seeds have proved the distinctness of all three species from each other. Differences of polen are observed in the type of sculpture (granulate, rugulate, microrugulate) and in the diameter of tetrads. The coefficient of elongation of the exotesta cells is established as a valuable morphometric character
Andrea Matern, Claudia Drees, Werner Hardtle
et al.
Only very few cases have documented that an increase in connectivity after a period of fragmentation in ecological time has had an effect on the distribution, genetic structure and morphology of stenotopic species. In this study we present an example of clinal variability in a woodland ground beetle as a result of changes in the connectivity of a landscape during the last two centuries. The study area hosts both the nominate form C. violaceus s. str. and the subspecies C. v. purpurascens, which is ranked as a distinct species by some authors. We studied 12 Carabus violaceus populations from a 30 km transect of ancient and recent forests in north-western Germany. We analyzed three polymorphic enzyme loci, classified the elytron sculpture and measured the shape of the aedeagus tip of the specimens. C. violaceus showed secondary gradients both in allozyme markers and morphometric characters in our study area. A genetic differentiation of 16% between the populations is high but lies within the range of intraspecific variability in habitat specialists of the genus Carabus. Populations had no significant deficit of heterozygotes. We found many hybrid populations in terms of morphological properties. This study highlights the conservation value of ancient woodland and the consequences of landscape connectivity and defragmentation on the genetic setting of a ground beetle. Moreover, it shows that differences in the external shape of male genitalia do not prevent gene flow within the genus Carabus. Thus, the establishment of species status should not exclusively be based on this property.
The painted and coated “starched cloth” technique seems to have been used since the XVIthcentury, in Italy. Today this practice has been forgotten and there is very little research made on the subject. To create realism, lightness, and gain time and means it was used to reproduce draperies. Shaped and painted works with finished cloth were made to reproduce scenes, some of which were theatrical with painted wooden figures or mannequins playing major roles associated with these painted canvases. The subject of research is an “entombment", kept in St Marie d'Espira de Conflent’s church. It is made up of seven characters dressed in "starched cloth" and staged in a coated and painted canopy. This assemblage is subject to humidity problems in the church and due to much shipping and handling it is now in an alarming state of conservation. This is a technique that still conceals many mysteries. This study tries to clarify some of them.