Architectural perspectives in the cathedral of Palermo : image-based modeling for cultural heritage understanding and enhancement

Palermo off ers a repertoire of both artistic and architectural solid perspective of great beauty and in large quantity. This paper addresses the problem of the 3D survey of these works and their related study through the use of image-based modelling (IBM) techniques. We propose, as case studies, the use of IBM techniques inside the Cathedral of Palermo. Indeed, the church houses a huge and rich sculptural repertoire, dating back to 16th century, which constitutes a valid field of IBM techniques application. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the e ffectiveness and potentiality of these techniques for geometric analysis of sculptured works. Indeed, usually the survey of these artworks is very diffi cult due the geometric complexity, typical of sculptured elements. In this study, we analysed cylindrical and planar geometries as well as carrying out an application of perspective return.peer-reviewe

Reading the Transformations of an Urban Edge: From Liberty Era Palermo to the City of Today

To honour the battle of 27 May 1860, in 1910 the Palermo City Government decided to realise a commemorative monument. A position at the centre of a large circular plaza was of have afforded the monument a greater solemnity. The commission for the Monument was awarded to Ernesto Basile. In 1927 the City Government decided to dedicate the monument to the Fallen and asked Basile to complete the monument adding an architectural backdrop. The first version of the new project was a fence that enveloped the entire square and the ring road, interrupted only by entrances near the streets flowing into the square, and dividing it into four sectors. The final design instead called for the realisation of a semi-circular exedra of columns interrupted at the centre by a large gate that allows access to the square and to the back of the monument. The successive development of the city engulfed the square in the midst of tall and anonymous buildings realised, beginning in the 1960s, without any order of relations, stripping the surrounding fabric of its identity. Through the survey of the today‘s configuration, the analysis of Basile‘s original drawings and the representation of the modifications made over time, this text proposes an original reading of the configuration of Piazza Vittorio Veneto and the Monument to the Fallen, in relation to important moments in its history, from its design to the present day. The three-dimensional models reproduce the monument and its surroundings at the time of its construction in 1910, based on the first version for its expansion (unbuilt), with the addition of the exedra from 1930 and in its current condition. The redesign and extrapolation of different views of the digital models also provided original images of use to new readings of the perception of this space

The Baroque: Beads in a Rosary or Folds in Time

When Benedetto Croce associated the baroque with decadence he was developing a current of critical thinking which had construed the term ‘baroque’ pejoratively since the seventeenth century. This essay explores the idea of a baroque that is neither pejorative nor ‘early modern'’ by outlining the etymology and history of the term ‘baroque’, tracing its chequered history as a term of abuse in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through Benedetto Croce's characterization of the baroque as ‘decadent’, to two radically different ways of interpreting the baroque adopted by Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze. This paper asks whether we might consider the baroque not as decadent, but as antidote to decadence, of baroque as troubling the smooth waters of a linear historicism

Scultura lignea a Naro

L'articolo prende in esame le principali opere di scultura lignea presenti a Naro

From Venice to Newport: a painting by Giambettino Cignaroli lost and found

Il contributo rende noto il ritrovamento di un soffitto su tela di Giambettino Cignaroli, ora conservato nella Salve Regina University di Newport, in origine dimora della famiglia Goelet che la fece costruire alla fine dell'800. Il confronto con le fonti e con i disegni della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano ha reso possibile identificare tale soffitto con quello dipinto nel 1735 per una della sale di Palazzo Labia a Venezia e finora ritenuto perduto. Si sono ricostruite l'attivit\ue0 del pittore nella celebre dimora veneziana tra il 1735 e il 1738 e le vicende che hanno portato alla dispersione dell'arredo pittorico nell'ultimo decennio del XIX secolo. Da ultimo \ue8 stato individuato un modelletto preparatorio - passato recentemente sul mercato antiquario con errata attribuzione - per il soffitto di un'altra sala dello stesso palazzo

Scultura in pezzi: appunti sulla scultura alto medievale di Santa Prassede

Dedicato ai frammenti scultorei della basilica di Santa Prassede (817-824), il contributo propone alcune riflessioni su un episodio emblematico dell’età classica e creativa della scultura alto medievale a Roma.This paper looks into the fragments of liturgical furniture of Santa Prassede (817-824): an emblematic example of classical and creative sculpture in the early medieval Rome.Dedicato ai frammenti scultorei della basilica di Santa Prassede (817-824), il contributo propone alcune riflessioni su un episodio emblematico dell’età classica e creativa della scultura alto medievale a Roma

Il Cristo deriso della chiesa di San Calogero a Naro

L'articolo studia la scultura del Cristo deriso di manifattura trapanese attualmente custodita presso la chiesa di San Calogero a Naro

Il crocifisso ligneo di Scandolara Ravara (Cremona)

Attualmente ubicato in area periferica rispetto ai grandi centri padani il paese di Scandolara Ravara (CR) e il crocifisso medievale conservato nella chiesa parrocchiale hanno vissuto un silenzio storiografico raramente interrotto. Partendo da un quadro più ampio sulla scultura lignea di XII-XIII secolo, l’articolo intende gettare nuova luce sul crocifisso inserendolo all’interno di un sistema di relazioni culturali più ampio con il tentativo di comprendere il rapporto tra i grandi cantieri di fine XII-XIII secolo delle città vicine (Cremona, Parma, Fidenza) e modelli di immagine d’oltralpe.Actually in a fringe area towards the important cities of the Po Valley, Scandolara Ravara (CR) and the medieval crucifix preserved in the parish church have lived in a cone of historiography silence rarely broken. Starting from a reference frame concerning the 11-12th centuries wooden-carving, the article intends to shine a light about the crucifix, considering it in a cultural relations broader system and trying to understand the relationship between biggest 11-12th centuries construction sites of nearest cities (Cremona, Parma, Fidenza) and the french-mosan image models