Il Voyage pittoresque in Puglia e Basilicata: i tempi, le tappe, i temi

Arriving in Puglia in April 1778, the members of the Saint-Non expedition, guided by Dominique Vivant Denon, were aware of starting the most adventurous and unpredictable part of their mission in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily in search of the testimonies of the ancient glory of the Grande Grèce. In fact, unlike what happened to Naples and Campania, for most of the other territories of the Kingdom it meant building an unprecedented iconographic repertoire, starting from Puglia and Basilicata. The drawings, made by the artists following Denon and faithfully transposed into engraving in the Voyage pittoresque, fulfilled this task.But the diary written by Denon, greatly reduced and reworked by Saint-Non, could not express its full documentary expression, until it was published by his friend Benjamin de Laborde in the form of notes to the French edition of Travels in the Two Sicilies by Henry Swinburne (1785-1787).It is this version of Denon's diary, revisited by the author and never reprinted in an autonomous form, that forms the guiding thread of the first part of this contribution dedicated to the times and stages of Voyage, while the second part mainly follows the version of Saint-Non to describe all the illustrations of the volumes, including those of the sites of Apulia and Lucania, here, for the first time, systematically reconsidered from the thematic point of view.Arrivando in Puglia nell’aprile 1778, i membri della spedizione Saint-Non guidati da Dominique Vivant Denon erano consapevoli di iniziare la parte più avventurosa e imprevedibile della loro missione nel Regno di Napoli e di Sicilia alla ricerca delle testimonianze dell’antica gloria della Grande Grèce. Infatti, a differenza di quanto era avvenuto per Napoli e la Campania, per gran parte degli altri territori del regno si sarebbe trattato di costruire un inedito repertorio iconografico, a cominciare dalla Puglia e dalla Basilicata. I disegni eseguiti dagli artisti al seguito di Denon e trasposti fedelmente in incisione nel Voyage pittoresque assolsero questo compito. Ma il diario scritto da Denon, pesantemente ridotto e rielaborato da Saint-Non, non poté esprimere la sua piena espressione documentaria, fino a quando non fu pubblicato dall’amico Benjamin de Laborde in forma di note all’edizione francese dei Travels in the Two Sicilies di Henry Swinburne (1785-1787). Proprio questa versione del diario di Denon, rivisitata dall’autore e mai ristampato in forma autonoma, costituisce il filo conduttore della prima parte di questo contributo dedicato ai tempi e alle tappe del Voyage, mentre la seconda parte segue prevalentemente la versione di Saint-Non per descrivere tutte le illustrazioni dell’opera, comprese quelle dei siti pugliesi e lucani qui per la prima volta sistematicamente riconsiderate dal punto di vista tematico

From real to virtual prism adaptation therapy: a systematic review on benefits and challenges of a new potential rehabilitation approach

Prism adaptation (PA) is a sensorimotor technique that has been shown to alleviate neglect symptoms. Due to its demonstrated functional effectiveness, PA has recently been implemented in virtual reality environments. However, research on virtual prism adaptation (VPA) is limited and it lacks a standardized methodological approach. It is crucial to investigate whether VPA can be effective in inducing traditional effect of PA and to have potential utility in a rehabilitation context. Clarifying this aspect would allow the use of VPA in a wider range of contexts and neurological disorders, with the additional opportunity to overcome PA traditional limits. The aim of the present study is to revise current literature on VPA in both healthy individuals and patients highlighting also its advantages and limitations. Studies performed between 2013 and 2023 and fulfilling the inclusion criteria were searched on three electronic databases, by combining the terms “Virtual prism adaptation” and “Virtual prism adaptation therapy. Out of 123 articles, only 16 met the inclusion criteria. The current literature review suggests that VPA may serve as a potentially useful tool for inducing visuomotor adaptation, with most studies conducted in healthy individuals. The high variability in the methodologies observed among studies suggests that more standardized approaches are needed to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying adaptation and aftereffects when PA is administered in a virtual environment. Future studies should also address practical applications and clinical efficacy of VPA, particularly in patients with spatial neglect

Group membership and racial bias modulate the temporal estimation of in-group/out-group body movements

Social group categorization has been mainly studied in relation to ownership manipulations involving highly-salient multisensory cues. Here, we propose a novel paradigm that can implicitly activate the embodiment process in the presence of group affiliation information, whilst participants complete a task irrelevant to social categorization. Ethnically White participants watched videos of White- and Black-skinned models writing a proverb. The writing was interrupted 7, 4 or 1 s before completion. Participants were tasked with estimating the residual duration following interruption. A video showing only hand kinematic traces acted as a control condition. Residual duration estimates for out-group and control videos were significantly lower than those for in-group videos only for the longest duration. Moreover, stronger implicit racial bias was negatively correlated to estimates of residual duration for out-group videos. The underestimation bias for the out-group condition might be mediated by implicit embodiment, affective and attentional processes, and finalized to a rapid out-group categorization

La Festa delle Arti. Scritti in onore di Marcello Fagiolo per cinquant'anni di studi

L'idea di coinvolgere in un'avventura editoriale un gruppo di circa 200 amici è nata in occasione del settantesimo compleanno di Marcello Fagiolo; già allora si stava tuttavia approssimando una data ben più importante di quella anagrafica: i cinquant'anni di studi, tanti sono quelli intercorsi dalla pubblicazione del primo suo libro Funzioni, simboli e valori della Reggia di Caserta (1963). Marcello Fagiolo è stato un esempio di passione per la scrittura e di amore per il libro, seguito con trepidazione nel suo farsi, fino all'esito finale; un metodo di lavoro che ha applicato anche nella organizzazione di importanti mostre, di grandi e innovativi progetti di ricerca, di convegni internazionali e di corsi di alta cultura. I due tomi a lui dedicati sono stati ripartiti nei temi a lui cari, mentre il titolo, La Festa delle Arti, riprende quello di una sua recente conferenza

Il teatro delle arti. Saggi in onore di Marcello Fagiolo per 50 anni di studi

Saggi in onore di Marcello Fagiol