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The conventional view of Giotto is that he was a great narrative and dramatic painter. In addition his art was ideologically aligned with the Guelph party in Florence and its allies: the papacy, the Franciscan establishment and the house of Anjou. This can be traced in his paintings, especially the fresco cycles. Internal evidence suggests that in addition to his acknowledged cycle for the Scrovegni family in Padua he was the principal artistic deviser of many of the disputed frescoes in the nave of the Upper Church at Assisi, including the paintings of the life of St. Francis.There is also evidence that many of his frescoes in various parts of Italy (including cycles no longer extant) were undertaken at the behest of the Florentine commune as part of its diplomacy. He was in fact the first artist to become part of the bourgeois ruling class, and his spatial and plastic realism was in complete accord with their interests.The Scrovegni cycle is more complex than has been realised, involving a profound allegory which fulfils the needs of the patron, expresses Giotto's world view, and at the same time serves the diplomatic interest of Florence.     

元代画家李士行简论

作者通过整理元代画家李士行的传世作品及生平资料,对画家的生平经历有了一个简括的认识,并归纳出画家作品的两种风貌,即古木竹石类继承北方王庭筠和李成、郭熙传统;山水类则师承董源、巨然。李士行于不同题材师法不同大师的现象,一方面是由于元初名家赵孟(兆页)的“提醒品格”,另一方面与其生存环境的艺术传统和造化熏染密不可分。     

通景画与郎世宁遗产研究

通景画是乾隆朝中西艺术交流的顶峰,但直到近年才有人开始对其进行深入的研究。耶稣会士、意大利画家郎世宁在完善这些非同寻常的作品中起了至关重要的作用,尤其是将中国传统绘画母题、审美趣味与欧洲富有纪念性的奇幻绘画相结合。尽管郎世宁在通景画创作方面享有盛誉,但并非所有的通景画都是由其独立完成,其中许多是由他的学生创作,但这些人的生平却鲜为人知。     

NON-DESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN PAINTINGS AND ENAMELS

X-ray fluorescence analysis is a non-destructive method, very useful for qualitative and quantitative determination of chemical elements in paintings, frescoes, enamels, etc. Measurements have been carried out on ancient Persian mural painting allowing the identification of about ten different pigments. Furthermore, many oil paintings have been examined. For example, about thirty regions of different colour tonalities concerning the ‘Deposizione’by Raffaello Sanzio have been analysed; in this way it has been possible to determine the composition of several pigments used by the author and to identify some restored regions. The enamels of a ligneous Egyptian panel have also been studied; the results are in good agreement with those obtained using conventional methods.     

Leonardo Bruni and the Poetics of Sovereignty

Abstract

Leonardo Bruni’s well-known oration, the Laudatio Florentinae urbis, has long stood at the center of discussions on the emergence of the modern republican state. Recent historiographical trends have emphasized the degree to which Bruni’s oration represents a propagandistic attempt both to portray Florence as a territorial power of Northern Italy keen to impose its sovereign authority on neighboring polities and as a republic intent on fashioning an image of itself as a popular sovereignty. It is in this second element of Bruni’s oration that we can discover his rhetorical purposes: he needed to give a distorted image of Florence as enjoying “popular” rule precisely because Florence was in fact moving in the opposite direction towards a more oligarchic concentration of political authority. The essay investigates the changes contemplated in revisions to Florence’s juridical codes at precisely the time of the oration’s composition, suggesting that when these two sources are juxtaposed, Bruni’s oration appears as a strongly ideological literary work the rhetorical gestures of which camouflage the actual historical and legal developments of Florence’s political life in the early fifteenth century.     

苏曼殊和他的挚友们—刘三、陈独秀、章士钊、柳亚子

今天的中国人,特别是青年人,对于“苏曼殊”这个名字,恐怕是比较陌生的了。但是,在19世纪末到20世纪初的年代,这个名字在中国一一特别是在文化界,是很响亮很出名的。     

The Latin doctors of the Church on sexuality

The Latin doctors of the early Church, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, are well known for their advocacy of virginity or chastity. Jerome was so vociferous in his praise of the virgin life that he was accused of denigrating marriage as the Manichaeans had done. Ambrose earned the title of Doctor of Virginity for his many writings on the subject, and Augustine's well-known conversion was associated with his adoption of a celibate life. The preponderance of tracts and letters on virginity and general continence within the corpus of patristic writings suggests that their view of sex might be summarized by two words: ‘avoid it’. However, the view of sexuality that shaped their visions of chastity was more complex than that, and this paper will explore the sexual beliefs that underlie such an important part of patristic writings. While they shared an advocacy of the celibate life, the three Latin doctors did not share a single view of sexuality. In fact, they represent two distinct positions on the subject. Jerome and Ambrose present one view that was shared by many of the earlier church Fathers, including Tertullian, Gregory of Nazianzen and others. Augustine represents a change in the analysis of human sexuality.     

The cult of St Minias and the struggle for power in the diocese of Florence, 1011–1018

Foundation of churches and monasteries in the tenth and eleventh centuries often have more to do with economic and political concerns than they have to do with religious motivation. Though historians have long recognized the importance of the basilica of San Miniato al Monte in Florence for the history of the Tuscan romanesque, they have largely failed to see that its foundation stemmed from conflicts over competing interests between rival families in the northern Tuscan elite. The tenth and early eleventh centuries saw the formation of several powerful family lineages (consorterie) in northern Tuscany, which organized their regional patrimonies into proprietary monasteries. Two of those lineages — the Guidi and the Cadolingi — derived much of their wealth from the seizure of properties formerly held by the bishops of Florence. Endowing its two proprietary monasteries at Fucecchio and Settimo at the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries with a patrimony which may have included lands claimed by the bishop, the Cadolingi patronized a faction within the Florentine clergy that challenged the moral qualifications of Bishop Hildebrand to be bishop.In order to defend episcopal properties from usurpation by the Caldolingi and Guidi and to provide a cover for his own family's appropriation of ecclesiastical property, Bishop Hildebrand consciously orchestrated after 1014 the revival of the cult of the first martyr of Florence, St Minias. The core of that program was the construction of the basilica and monastery of San Miniato. Endowing the basilica with the episcopal properties he sought to protect, the bishop appointed a loyal abbot who agreed to write a new Passio of the saint. Bishop Hildebrand managed to hold on to his office in spite of the challenges to his prelacy, but shortly after his death his sons lost control of the church property bequeathed to them by their father.     

From the Grassroots: Bernard Narokobi and the Making of Papua New Guinea's Constitution

ABSTRACT

Bernard Narokobi's concept of the Melanesian Way was influenced by a variety of factors, including his own childhood in the village, his religion, and the understandings of the people around him. He also drew inspiration from his exposure to the views and opinions of the many Papua New Guineans who contributed to the work of the Constitutional Planning Committee (CPC) between 1972 and 1975 when he served as a consultant to the committee. He shared the belief in a specifically ‘Melanesian’ way of social organization and cosmological understanding with the others who took part in the CPC's work, most prominently its de facto chairman, Father John Momis. With Momis he drew on the people's contributions to formulate PNG's National Goals and Directive Principles, which, at least in part, embody Narokobi's understanding of what it is to be Melanesian.     

'Tout cela,je ne voulais pas le laisser perdre': Colonial lieux de me´moire in the comic books of Jacques Ferrandez

A comic-book series by French artist Jacques Ferrandez serves as a case study of how Pied-noir memories of Algeria are given expression in popular culture. Ferrandez recreated French Algeria as a virtual place of memory in his five-volume Carnets d'Orient , by borrowing images from colonial postcards and orientalist paintings, as well as stories from sources including his own family history and French travel writings about the 'Orient'. Although he provides a useful critical perspective on the colonial period, he is limited in this effort by his identification with the Pied-noir community, and his desire to memorialise French Algeria.     

Suburban Identity in Paul Maitland's Paintings of Cheyne Walk

The aim of this article is to consider the extent to which Paul Maitland's paintings of Cheyne Walk addressed the problem of establishing suburban identity at the end of the nineteenth century. The emergence of the modern suburb during this period presented a particular problem with regard to how this form of urban living might be defined, understood and experienced. As part of a group of artists that could loosely by described as British Impressionists, Maitland was among the first to engage in a close study of this subject. This article situates Maitland's visual project within its wider cultural context, comparing his work with that of associated artists also interested in the suburban subject and in Cheyne Walk in particular and with a range of contemporary texts that addressed the complex problem of Chelsea's place identity, including guidebooks, letters, novels and the work of local historians. Drawing on the methodology of cultural and historical geography, this article highlights the extent to which place identity changes through time and how its formulation is based upon the economic and social structures of those who ‘live’ the place. Adopting and elaborating a range of visual signifiers associated with the modern suburb, including both its rural and working aspect, Maitland's paintings of Cheyne Walk provide a valuable and subtle insight into how this new urban space was being conceptualized at the end of the nineteenth century.     

Ben Quilty: the fog of war

ABSTRACT

This essay looks at the war paintings of Ben Quilty, who in October 2011 was stationed with Australian troops fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan as part of Australia’s Official War Art Scheme. Quilty’s portraits, in fact made back at home in his studio after he returned, show soldiers naked, in pain, reliving traumatic episodes from their war experiences. They have been almost universally praised as providing a new and compelling image of war for those who have not experienced it themselves. We examine these portraits closely, arguing that they express a new post-modern ideology of “interpassivity”, allowing the spectator to exhibit signs of concern for soldiers, without actually doing anything to change their situation. In this we suggest that Quilty’s paintings contain a meaning that goes against the intentions of the artist and the understanding of their audience. Contrary to their dominant reading, they express something about our culture that our culture is unable to admit about itself.     

广西富川百柱庙建筑彩绘的保护修复研究

广西富川百柱庙为明朝修建,该建筑物建筑构件的型式、彩绘、斗拱的制作技法等保留了典型的地方民族风格,是研究古代瑶族历史的重要实物资料,但已年久失修。为了对该建筑进行维修,特别是对建筑内彩绘进行加固修复工作,应用XRD和FT-IR方法分析了彩绘颜料层的化学成分,结果表明全部为无机矿物颜料。以古建筑保存环境和彩绘层颜料化学成分为依据,通过现场实验确定用3％的Paraloid B～72丙酮溶液对彩绘层加固,结果表明该加固剂的渗透性、均匀性、加固强度都达到了对彩绘物的修复要求,加固后彩绘的颜色也较前鲜艳、明亮。     

从董其昌的题跋看他的书画鉴定

董其昌是晚明的书画大家,他借禅论书画,其书画的理论和鉴定意见,至今仍有很大影响。通过对他的一些书画题跋的分析,可以发现,这些题跋作为艺术创作的心得体会,有很多是言前人所未言的创见;但作为书画鉴定的方法和判断,则有不少是错误的。进一步剖析和考订,可以看出,董其昌的鉴定方法往往是命题式的。而支配这种方法的思想,除去禅的外表,仍是晚明占主导地位的阳明心学。     

The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Fictive Layering and Inversion in the Paintings of Ali-Akbar Sadeghi

In Iran surrealism is spoken of by artists and critics as a living element in art, long after its popularity in Europe and North America has waned. This article explores key features of the work of one of the most prolific contemporary Iranian artists, Ali-Akbar Sadeghi. While Sadeghi says that he thinks of himself as a “surrealist,” his work is distinguished from many self-professed surrealists in Iran: whereas the latter are concerned with representing metaphysical, even mystical, meanings, Sadeghi sees his art as a kind of intellectual exercise, presenting a dramatic theater in which the viewer engages in epistemological interrogation. Though Sadeghi's paintings are full of apparent references to surrealist themes and tropes from the past, here it is argued that his work is not so much a storehouse of surrealist content as a series of puzzles for the viewer to solve.     

元代汤垕生平之考证

本文主要目的为重新对元代初期之书画鉴赏家及收藏家汤生平之考证及与其同时文人往来之情形。因此,本文除了藉用地方志、文集、诗集及书画题跋等为佐证之外,同时也将汤父亲汤炳龙之背景,与其他宋末元初文人、画家之交往,及对汤仕途之影响作进一步研究。本论文之结论则定汤约生于1250年代中期,而卒于1310年代中期;乃确定汤活跃于元代初期,且旅居杭州多年,最后移居且卒于北京。汤撰有二书,现仅存《画鉴》一书。此书对了解元初绘画发展及收藏品味具有重要贡献。     

庞元济藏鼻烟壶

中国近现代著名的文物收藏家之一———庞元济以收藏古代书画闻名,而其收藏的鼻烟壶,琳琅满目,件件精品,亦堪称收藏界之“一绝”。