Time and the experience of narrative in Italian Renaissance art

For many centuries, painting and sculpture translated the written narratives into images for a host of audiences. Unlike the narratives expressed in literature, music, theater, and film, which develop over time, the static nature of painting and sculpture give them the appearance of being temporally frozen. As such, we tend to think of them as having the ability to evoke only a single moment of a given narrative. Such limitations were the product of scholarly debates of the eighteenth-century that argued that the pictorial arts should portray only a single and precise punctum temporis of any given story. Artists and art theorists of the Renaissance do not appear to have placed such stringent restrictions on visual narratives. Quite the contrary, among the art of the Italian Quattrocento and Cinquecento, one can find a variety of temporal expressions: from the split-second precision of a fixed instant, to the sequenced actions of continuous narratives, to the abridgement of collapsed narrative. Through close readings of both paintings and sculptures in relation to their source texts, this dissertation explores how narrative artwork suggested duration and the continuity of a storyline. It considers how some artists may have, wittingly or unwittingly, succeeded in lengthening the intrinsic timelines of their visual narratives through polynarrative approaches: for example, by juxtaposing multiple moments of a single narrative or by combining multiple narratives in a visually seamless manner that does not patently jeopardize the unities of space and time. This dissertation explores not only the polynarrative aspects of some works, it also investigates the importance of the role of the viewer and how the spectator’s process of reading and interaction with the image affects how the experience of narrative unfolds before them. The study presents a method of reading art that aims to serve as a critical model for future inquiries regarding the temporal natures of figurative narratives.French and Italia

M-BIM: a new tool for the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze

[EN] The paper deals with an ongoing research activity for developing a Building Information Model (BIM) for the facility and collections management of museums. The BIM success lies not only in its application for the design and construction of buildings but also because it helps the information management of a building throughout its life cycle. Compared to other activities, in museums management, the container/content relationship is essential for the preventive conservation of artworks, according to national and international guidelines. Then, an effective BIM-based museum information system linked to external databases (called M-BIM) should include also the art collections for managing information regarding both the building and artworks by 3D objects handling. This facilitates the management of the procedures prescribed by international best practices (as the facility and conservation reports set up for the loan of artworks) or by Italian regulations (as to check the compliance of a museum with the minimum standards or to archive renovations and temporary exhibitions). The proposed methodology has been tested on the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze (Florence, Italy), situated in a complex heritage building. Starting from data acquired during a laser scanner survey carried out in 2011, a HBIM of the whole building has been created. Then, the sculptures and paintings of a consistent part of the museum have been modelled with different approaches and inserted as BIM objects. Artworks instances include 3D geometry and physical data (dimensions, materials, weight, etc.), other data are obtained from links to already existing external catalogues. A database conceptual model has been formalised, according to INSPIRE Consolidated Unified Modelling Language (UML) of the INSPIRE Directive, with the aim to maintain the independence of the BIM approach but improving data connection with other databases and sources.Highlights:A holistic information management system for museums (M-BIM) is proposed, including both information on the building and the collections.International and Italian guidelines, and best practices on museums management are compared.The Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze is used as a case study for testing the application of M-BIM on a heritage building.[ES] El artículo trata una investigación en curso que aborda el desarrollo del modelado de información de la construcción (BIM) para la gestión de instalaciones y colecciones de museos. El éxito del BIM no reside sólo en su aplicación en el diseño y la construcción de edificios, sino también en que ayuda en la gestión de la información de una construcción durante todo su ciclo de vida. En comparación con otras actividades, en la gestión de los museos, la relación contenedor/contenido es esencial en la conservación preventiva de las obras de arte, de acuerdo con las directrices nacionales e internacionales. Entonces, un sistema eficaz de información museística mediante BIM y que se enlace con bases de datos externas (denominado M-BIM) debería incluir las colecciones de arte para la gestión de la información relativa tanto al edificio como a las obras de arte mediante la manipulación de objetos en 3D. Esto facilita la gestión de los procedimientos prescritos por las mejores prácticas internacionales (como los informes de instalación y conservación establecidos para el préstamo de obras de arte) o por la normativa italiana (como el control de la conformidad de un museo con los estándares mínimos o almacenar renovaciones y exposiciones temporales). La metodología propuesta se ha probado en la Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze (Italia), situada en un edificio patrimonial de gran complejidad. Se ha creado un HBIM de todo el edificio a partir de los datos capturados en 2011 en un levantamiento con escáner láser. Después, las esculturas y pinturas de una parte consistente del museo se han modelado con diferentes enfoques e insertado como objetos BIM. Los ejemplos de obras de arte incluyen geometría 3D y datos físicos (dimensiones, materiales, peso, etc.), otros datos se obtienen a partir de enlaces a catálogos externos ya existentes. Se ha formalizado un modelo conceptual de bases de datos, según el el lenguaje unificado de modelado (UML) Consolidado INSPIRE de la Directiva INSPIRE, con el objetivo de mantener la independencia del procedimiento BIM, pero mejorando la conexión de los datos con otras bases de datos y fuentes.The research has been carried out as part of the GAMHer project: Geomatics Data Acquisition and Management for Landscape and Built Heritage in a European Perspective, PRIN:–Bando 2015, Prot. 2015HJLS7E.Tucci, G.; Conti, A.; Fiorini, L.; Corongiu, M.; Valdambrini, N.; Matta, C. (2019). M-BIM: una nueva herramienta para la Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze (Florencia). Virtual Archaeology Review. 10(21):40-55. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2019.11943SWORD4055102

Michelangelo's libreria secreta

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-111).In 1525, Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to design a "libreria secreta" to be placed at the Southern end of the Laurentian library in Florence. The room was intended as a repository of the more precious manuscripts of the Medici family collection. For political and economic reasons, the small room was never built. The first half of the thesis focuses on the extant evidence. This initial historical research is a prolegomenon to the second half of the paper, in which I reconstruct the libreria secreta with several computer renderings. The reconstructions synthesize the historical evidence that I have collected into several possible visual representations of the room. The goal of this thesis is twofold: 1) To provide a more complete understanding of the Laurentian library by discussing the role of the libreria secreta within the complex. 2) To produce a series of computer reconstructions in order to visualize, and in turn, to analyze the resolved and unresolved aspects of Michelangelo's project.by Nicola M. Camerlenghi.S.M

Part decomposition of 3D surfaces

This dissertation describes a general algorithm that automatically decomposes realworld scenes and objects into visual parts. The input to the algorithm is a 3 D triangle mesh that approximates the surfaces of a scene or object. This geometric mesh completely specifies the shape of interest. The output of the algorithm is a set of boundary contours that dissect the mesh into parts where these parts agree with human perception. In this algorithm, shape alone defines the location of a bom1dary contour for a part. The algorithm leverages a human vision theory known as the minima rule that states that human visual perception tends to decompose shapes into parts along lines of negative curvature minima. Specifically, the minima rule governs the location of part boundaries, and as a result the algorithm is known as the Minima Rule Algorithm. Previous computer vision methods have attempted to implement this rule but have used pseudo measures of surface curvature. Thus, these prior methods are not true implementations of the rule. The Minima Rule Algorithm is a three step process that consists of curvature estimation, mesh segmentation, and quality evaluation. These steps have led to three novel algorithms known as Normal Vector Voting, Fast Marching Watersheds, and Part Saliency Metric, respectively. For each algorithm, this dissertation presents both the supporting theory and experimental results. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm using both synthetic and real data and include comparisons with previous methods from the research literature. Finally, the dissertation concludes with a summary of the contributions to the state of the art

From eternity to eternity\u27 : Blake\u27s last judgment, the material vision and its living form

Thematically, this thesis positions William Blake\u27s thought in relationship to a fairly orthodox Christianity—specifically, the notions of a last judgment, providence,and dualism. This thematic procedure, however, raises several methodological questions, such as how Blake is, wanted to be, and should be read; and how to reconcile diachronic reading practices with synchronic interpretations.Using Christ\u27s unique position between time and eternity and between body and spirit, Blake rejects the abstraction that results from privileging any one of these over the others. When Blake does seem to privilege spirit, he does not mean immaterial soul but imagination as the ultimate semantic precondition. Blake\u27s Visions (his specific works) reveal this precondition 1) by dialogically engaging narrative conventions—^using and critiquing them simultaneously: the plot of TheFour Zoas posits and unravels the Aristotelian unity and Christian closure it aims for and in doing this, becomes a site of perpetual narrative desire; and 2) by embracing its material existence in a manner that makes the accident of its composition an essential part of the work. A Vision of the Last Judgment and The Four Zoas seem unfinished fragments, but the play and chaos that exist in their respective notebookand manuscript states suggest a flux of meanings beyond authorial control or intention. This concept of imagination resembles contemporary notions of discourse.Hence, the figures of orthodoxy introduced in Night VIII of The Four Zoas show Blake engaging orthodox theodicy discursively and directly, and not allegorically ashe does in his earlier works, critiquing orthodoxy while using its own language

Surveying and Three-Dimensional Modeling for Preservation and Structural Analysis of Cultural Heritage

Dense point clouds can be used for three important steps in structural analysis, in the field of cultural heritage, regardless of which instrument it was used for acquisition data. Firstly, they allow deriving the geometric part of a finite element (FE) model automatically or semi-automatically. User input is mainly required to complement invisible parts and boundaries of the structure, and to assign meaningful approximate physical parameters. Secondly, FE model obtained from point clouds can be used to estimate better and more precise parameters of the structural analysis, i.e., to train the FE model. Finally, the definition of a correct Level of Detail about the three-dimensional model, deriving from the initial point cloud, can be used to define the limit beyond which the structural analysis is compromised, or anyway less precise. In this work of research, this will be demonstrated using three different case studies of buildings, consisting mainly of masonry, measured through terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetric acquisitions. This approach is not a typical study for geomatics analysis, but its challenges allow studying benefits and limitations. The results and the proposed approaches could represent a step towards a multidisciplinary approach where Geomatics can play a critical role in the monitoring and civil engineering field. Furthermore, through a geometrical reconstruction, different analyses and comparisons are possible, in order to evaluate how the numerical model is accurate. In fact, the discrepancies between the different results allow to evaluate how, from a geometric and simplified modeling, important details can be lost. This causes, for example, modifications in terms of mass and volume of the structure

Placing outer space : an earthly ethnography of other worlds

Thesis (Ph. D. in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-283).This dissertation concerns the role of place in scientific practice. Ideas of place, I argue, shape and are shaped by science. I specifically look at the community of planetary scientists who, though they cannot step foot on the objects they study, transform planets into places. This is an ethnographic work that draws on 18 months of fieldwork during which time I encountered several different communities of planetary scientists. At MIT, I worked alongside astronomers looking for planets around other stars. These "exoplanet" astronomers transformed numerical counts of photons into complex worlds with atmospheres and weather. Data visualizations characterized the work of a community learning to see unseen planets in specific, place-based ways. I also traveled with an astronomer to a Chilean observatory where she studied the night sky hoping to find a "habitable planet." Many other astronomers share this goal and have designed various ways to detect a planet like Earth. The importance of these projects signifies that exoplanet astronomers are more interested in finding planetary kin - planets that are familiar places - than exotic aliens. To determine how the planetary places created by exoplanet astronomers differ from those in our own Solar System, I spent time at the NASA Ames Research Center with a group of computer scientists who create high resolution and three-dimensional maps of Mars. These maps reflect the kind of place Mars is today: it is available to everyone to explore, it is displayed such that you can imagine standing on the surface, and it is presented as geologically dynamic in ways similar to Earth. Even though these maps help give Mars a sense of place, Martian science is still stymied by the inability to send humans to its surface. Instead, planetary scientists travel to terrestrial sites deemed to be "Mars-like" to approximate performing geologic fieldwork on Mars. I went to one of these locations to see how, during these outings, Mars and Earth become entwined as scientists forge connections between two planetary places. These diverse scientific activities, I conclude, are transforming our view of the cosmos. Outer space is becoming outer place.by Lisa Rebecca Messeri.Ph.D.in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HAST

Art, Androgyny, and the Femme Fatale in Decadent Fictions of the Nineteenth Century

This thesis offers a reappraisal of the recurring figure of the femme fatale within Decadent art and literature of the nineteenth century. Despite the ubiquity of studies concerning the femme fatale, most notably within genres such as Film Noir and Romanticism, the Decadent femme fatale has often been relegated to a single chapter or footnote within these studies. It is here the purpose of this thesis to rectify this critical disregard. Combining multiple disciplines (literature, aesthetics, history, mythology and psychology) each of the four chapters of this thesis will locate the femme fatale within nineteenth-century European Decadent texts as represented as a specific objet d’art: the haunted portrait, the corpse-doll, the fragmented sculpture, and the mutilated and/or sculpted body of the androgyne. Invoking Harold Bloom’s theory of the anxiety of influence, the influence and trajectory of each chapter’s respective femme fatale will be traced from the midnineteenth century through to the fin de siècle. By tracing the lineage of the aesthetic impression made by French Decadent writers of the mid-nineteenth century (such as Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire) upon subsequent French and British writers and artists of the latenineteenth century (such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, Rachilde, and Vernon Lee), this thesis interrogates how the re/construction and usage of the Decadent femme fatale was utilized as a means of exploring ulterior philosophies of classical beauty and a fluid range of forbidden sexualities, including androgyny and homoeroticism. Offering interdisciplinary readings of the nineteenth-century Decadent femme fatale, this thesis shows the different ways in which nineteenth-century Decadent writers and artists move beyond the femme fatale’s malevolence, though without losing sight of it, to explore the mysterious relationships between life and death, art and artifice, pleasure and pain, and the seen and unseen

Overcoming Inner and Outer Constraints To Enhance Emerging Adult College Students’ Eudaemonic Well-Being: A Mixed Methods Study

Emerging adulthood is often recognized as a time of uncertainty, confusion, pressure, and stress. This time period also coincides in the Western world with many attending a college or university. Many emerging adults arrive at this developmental stage feeling the pressure and obligation for success but lack the resources needed to make required choices (Rogers & Maytan, 2012). Increasing levels of awareness and positive emotions represent a promising strategy for increasing eudaemonic well-being. To date, no known study has brought together constructs of self and constructs of education to foster eudemonic well-being. The current study fills gaps in the existing literature by bringing together positive psychology constructs and educational constructs. The objective of this mixed methods research project was to gain an understanding of and establish a connection between self and education for emerging adult college students in relation to eudemonic well-being. The first quantitative portion of the study sought to address the issue by examining causal relationships among dispositional mindfulness, self-esteem, academic self-concept, motivation, and eudaemonic well-being in a sample of 222 emerging adult college students. The path analysis model showed strong causal relationships among dispositional mindfulness, self-esteem, academic self-concept, motivation, and eudaemonic well-being and a correlation between dispositional mindfulness and positive reappraisal. Self-esteem, academic self-concept, and motivation mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and eudaemonic well-being. Positive reappraisal within the model also predicted eudaemonic well-being as well. The second portion of the quantitative analysis consisted of experimental intervention with 102 participants (51 intervention group and 51 in the control group) and assessed the effects of mindful positive reappraisal online interventions on college students’ self-esteem, academic self-concept, motivation, and eudemonic well-being. Comparing to students receiving no interventions, students who engage in mindful positive reappraisal interventions report greater positive change from pre to post in terms of hedonic well-being., self-esteem, motivation and eudaemonic well-being. The qualitative portion of the current study consisted of interview data with 14 participants who completed the online interventions. Interview data suggested dispositional mindfulness and positive reappraisal are key in helping emerging adults overcome their limiting beliefs about their perception of themselves and about their perception of their abilities to learn and achieve. Overcoming self-limiting beliefs and subsequently self-limiting behaviors are essential to foster eudaemonic well-being