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Objective: This article analyzes the monument‐building and meaning‐making processes in the construction of the Statues of Peace erected to commemorate the Korean "Comfort Women." The tensions surrounding the erection of the Statues of Peace did not stop with their installation, as people then started to place different objects on the statues. This article uses actor‐network theory (ANT) to shed light on the formation that this has involved of a new representational and cultural politics. Methods: First, archival research was conducted to understand current issues involving both ANT and the Statues of Peace. Participant observations and semistructured interviews with NGOs were conducted. Results: I look at the afterlife of the Statues of Peace in cases involving not only destruction or restoration but also smaller acts of support or subversion. New material quality and meanings were formed by these actions. Conclusion: I show that ANT is a useful framework for understanding the representational complexity surrounding public monuments and their reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archetypal symbols of Mazu's statues and pictorial art are the mapping of a religious concept, a way of belief, and some programmed behaviours and rituals. They are also emotional imagery used to arouse the cultural awareness of international Chinese, inspire them to help and trust each other, to encourage and to comfort each other, to share weal and woe, and to always forge ahead. From the perspectives of historical memory, visual signs, and cultural identity, this paper explores the construction of archetypal symbols for the statues and images of Mazu. In addition, this paper generalizes the foundation and methods of this construction by analyzing the artistic forms and characteristics of the surviving Mazu images and statues and comparing the rules and regulations for making statues of other religions. Moreover, we consider the function of artistic signs that refer to and symbolize broader religious concepts and beliefs. The purpose of this work is to make the image of Mazu more visually present and strengthen cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently mereological hylomorphism, the theory in which form and matter are considered to be proper parts of objects, has become very important among contemporary metaphysicians. The present work aims to analyse and dismantle Bennett's criticism regarding the existence of formal proper parts. To do this, I will start by presenting Koslicki's mereological hylomorphism. Next, I will focus on Bennett's critique which seeks to deny the existence of formal proper parts. Finally, I will analyse critically the Bennett's criticism focusing on the scenario of lump of clay and statue. I will show Bennett's proposal is not explanatorily better than Koslicki's hylomorphism because she needs to accept a counter-intuitive thesis. Therefore, we should prefer Koslicki's mereological hylomorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By transcribing, punctuating, and analyzing the Statue Construction Account undertaken in 798, this article attempts a refreshed study of the construction background of the Buddhist statues and niches at Huazhi Temple 花置寺 in Qionglai. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it brings to light an eminent monk named Sengcai, who has been forgotten in both secular and monastic histories. Secondly, it tries to clarify the social network formed by various figures recorded in the Statue Construction Account by tracing their roles and relationships in the course of constructing the Buddhist niches. The analysis of this article expounds that in the process of the statue construction project, Sengcai made full use of his social network to support this project and to seek protection for Huazhi Temple. The construction activities of the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple not only brought people of different identities together through politics, Buddhism, economics or kinship, but also connected Qiongzhou (in Sichuan) and the capital of Chang'an to the formation of a multi-identity and cross-regional network of power in which emperor, officials, monks, military generals, craftsmen, literati, and so on, participated and interacted with each other. The whole social network can be divided into two sub-networks in Chang'an and Qiongzhou, with Sengcai as the central figure connecting these two sub-networks. Although the Buddhist niches of Huazhi Temple were carved in Qiongzhou, both the decisive preparatory work and the composition of the Statue Construction Account took place in Chang'an. Hence, the power of the Chang'an sub-network was greater than that of the one based in Qiongzhou. This means that the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple from Sengcai's project were not merely a local project, but one that was strongly connected with the capital Chang'an in 798. Lastly, the Statue Construction Account in 798 at Huazhi Temple indicated mutual aid and support between Sichuan Buddhism and Chang'an Buddhism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should the theatrical fantasy of a statue coming to life involve an actor performing the role of a thing, or a prop taking the place of a human? Proceeding from contests between Hong Sheng 洪昇 (1645–1704) and acting troupes over the staging of the "Crying Statue" 哭像 (Kuxiang) scene in his dramatic masterpiece Palace of Lasting Life (Changsheng dian 長生殿), this article examines how the figure of the living icon became a focal point in broader struggles to conceptualize the relationship between theater and rituals of mourning. Actors staged this complicated scene as an "auspicious sacrifice" (jiji 吉祭), one that foregrounds the transcendence of love over lifeless matter. Hong, conversely, insists on the function of the scene as an "unpropitious rite" (xiongdian 凶奠), a solemn meditation on mortality and the collective expression of grief. By redirecting focus from the object to the space and social dynamics of mourning, Hong questions the drive to bestow on things a life that is not their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American excavations of the interior of the Hephaisteion and its surroundings were published in 1941. We reexamine the findings, the evidence for the foundations, the original notebooks, and the previously unpublished context pottery, and conclude that the Temple of Hephaistos and Athena was constructed in two stages: the foundations were laid ca. 480 bce, and after a hiatus the superstructure was completed ca. 465-460 bce, with repairs after the earthquake of 426 bce. This article provides a new reconstruction of the interior space, finished without a colonnade, and with painted murals instead. The primary feature of the interior was the statue group, cult images of Athena and Hephaistos, made by Alkamenes of Lemnos and installed in 416/5 bce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the concept of multidimensional heritage to examine colonial statues in Africa since the era of independences through transnational, diachronic, and multi-thematical perspectives. Colonial statues are viewed as transnational phenomena, with a focus on the African continent, emphasising the complex and evolving connections to former colonial powers in Europe. To capture the complexity of heritage uses, which is often best comprehended over an extended period, a diachronic approach is employed, and three periods are considered: colonial statues at independence (1950s to 1980); revival of (neo)colonial statues (1990s-2000s) and renewed contestations (since the 2010s). The paper also delves into various ways in which the past is used and interpreted through colonial statues, discussing aspects such as public memory, identities, diplomacy, aid, and justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the preliminary results of an investigation on the unexplored topic of polychromy on provincial stone sculptures from the Roman provinces in Germania through the innovative application of heritage materials science techniques. A group of three life-sized statues dating to the 1st Century CE recovered from Ingelheim, near Mainz, retains remarkably well-preserved traces of pigments. These are ripe for emerging non-invasive technologies supplemented by micro-sampling to validate results and provide information relating to mixing and layering not available to the naked eye. The most strikingly visible areas of extant polychromy were retained on the sculpture of a young woman, reported on here as the first phase of this programme of research. The results suggest that the statue was originally covered in a gypsum layer before the application of complex and diverse recipes of pigment applied as mixtures and in layers to create required hues and shadowing on sculpted features. The palette includes ochres and green earth mixed with small amounts of minium (red lead), realgar and lapis lazuli (ultramarine blue) added to create skin tones, and a vibrant blue-green tunic created from Egyptian blue, bone black, ochres, cinnabar and green earth; the palla and peplos contained ochres, bone black, and orpiment, and mixes of these created the detail of coloured jewellery. Of great interest was the detection of bone black on many features, particularly as a shading agent to enhance sculpted features, such as folds in cloth, providing a more realistic and flowing articulation. This is a revolutionary observation that provides previously unexplored insights into artistic polychromic practice in Antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phasalist solution to the puzzle of the statue and the piece of clay claims that being a statue is a phase sortal property of the piece of clay, just like being a child is a phase sortal property of a human being. Some philosophers reject this solution because it cannot account for cases where the statue seems to gain and lose parts that the piece of clay does not. I rebut this objection by arguing, contrary to the prevailing view, that the piece of clay is not mereologically constant and might even be highly mereologically flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mathematical and quantitative methods were used to describe the damaged shape repair and provide the restoration results in the form of a probability distribution. • A specialized triangle mesh topology for Buddha statue head registration was designed, and a semi-automated registration strategy was developed to achieve high-quality shape registration. • Using the deformation field and interpolator, we defined the Gaussian process model, in which every shape sampling from the model is a function defined on the reference shape. • A set of kernel functions was designed to extend the flexibility of the learned model. • A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of our method, and we applied the methods to an actual damaged Buddha statue head repair project. Buddha statues are distributed worldwide, and each piece reflects the aesthetic fashion of a particular region and historical era. Therefore, these sculptures have important cultural, aesthetic, and historical value. Owing to natural or artificial destruction, several Buddha statues have been damaged, with head or facial damage being the most prominent damage type. Because Buddha statue heads exhibit intricate variations in facial expressions and proportions, restoring head or facial damage is the most challenging aspect of damaged sculpture restoration projects. This study provides a new method for the restoration of damaged statues based on a Gaussian process model. The Gaussian process model entails a type of statistical shape modeling that allows it to learn shape distribution properties from a training dataset. During the restoration process, we used the residual parts of the damaged shape for the observations and added them to a Bayesian inference system to obtain the possible restoration result in the form of a posterior distribution. Therefore, the proposed method can be regarded as a quantitative mathematical representation of the subjective deduction process. Compared to those of the traditional manual restoration method, our results were more repeatable and stable, and the restoration process was automatic and rigorous, which reduced the requirements for professional knowledge and experience. Based on the learned model information, the proposed method exhibits strong robustness and anti-noise properties. In contrast to the optimization method, our final restoration result is a probability distribution, applicable to the repair of cultural relics. As our method make the missing shape inference using residual shape information and the regularity learned from training dataset, it is suitable for the restoration of damaged parts with no direct shape evidence. Finally, our model is generative; in other words, we can generate shapes on the posterior distribution and provide the corresponding probability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, a series of experiments were conducted to restore damaged parts under different parameters and damage type settings. Subsequently, a quantitative analysis was performed. Finally, we applied this method to the virtual restoration of a damaged Buddha statue head in Xi 'an Museum. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a period when artistic endeavours, aimed at expressing a national identity, were thriving in Hungary. The Jewish minority of Budapest also found it important to be present in public spaces. A couple of years after the emancipation of Hungarian Jews, the first statues of Jewish personalities appeared on the streets of Budapest. Who were these statues dedicated to? Who were the artists commissioned, and who paid for them? What were the invisible texts beyond reading the statues as texts? What happened to the public monuments during the Second World War? This paper aims to respond to these questions as a part of a research project mapping Jewish interventions in public art in Budapest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selena Quintanilla, the Queen of Tejano Music, was gunned down by her fan club president on March 31, 1995. She was only twenty-three years old. She persists in public memory, resuscitated and resurrected in myriad ways. A short list includes the iconic film Selena (1997), the Netflix program Selena: The Series (2020), a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. In addition, fans keep the singer's memory alive through impersonation acts, T-shirts, podcasts, Instagram accounts, annual concert events, and visits to commemorative locations associated with the star. This essay examines three memorial sites in Corpus Christi, Texas: the motel where Selena was murdered, the singer's grave in Seaside Memorial Park, and the Selena Memorial on the Corpus Christi bayfront. Bridging conversations in memory studies, scholarship on public memorials, considerations of celebrity status, and performance theory, I suggest that these places have performative potential that enables diverse groups to engage in creating specific temporary "communitas." I analyze the possibility of altered temporal perception at the motel, enactments of what I refer to as Latina mother-daughter pedagogies of postmemory at Selena's grave, and the expression of queer Latinx love at the singer's commemorative statue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly visible yet poorly studied phenomenon of roadside colossi—oversized commercial buildings and statues in the shape of everyday objects, referred to in this article as Big Things—has often been dismissed as a kitschy by-product of American post-war consumerism and car culture. There are no universal definitions or typologies for this form of material culture, nor is there a sufficiently global history that explains the origin, spread and contemporary popularity of these landmarks. In this article, I address these gaps in the discourse, drawing attention to the rich yet largely untapped theoretical underpinnings of Big Things. In doing so, I highlight the potential for further study of these landmarks as material evidence of broader socio-cultural impulses, particularly in communities across North America and Australia, where Big Things can be found in their greatest numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the end of the Napoleonic wars through the First World War, London was made into a historic city that showcased it as the heart of a growing empire. Waves of urban reform produced public spaces, such as Waterloo Place, that were populated with statues of military and imperial heroes involved in Britain's territorial conquests. The result was that London came to be imagined as old, designed in a neoclassical style that could be seen across the empire in cities such as Calcutta, which had been the capital of British India through the nineteenth century. Some statues installed in Calcutta were made in London and displayed at the Royal Academy or elsewhere before they were sent abroad. In spite of the seeming permanence of statues, this essay shows that throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, statues were moved on multiple occasions to respond to changing political and aesthetic demands. • London and Calcutta (now Kolkata) share a neoclassical and imperial urban aesthetic. • Moving statues around London, from London to India, were part of urban design. • Public art in Waterloo Place showed London's visitors the history of empire. • The Maidan showcased statues of viceroys, governors-general, and military officials. • Urban planning, public art, and public history merged to make empire visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the making of heritage and the processes of sacralisation involved by investigating the heritage created after the rescue of the "Wild Boars", a Thai youth football team, from a flooded cave in July 2018. The unfolding story of this "epic rescue operation" was followed with tremendous engagement, locally, nationally and worldwide, an example of what I capture as "high-density events". Cave diver specialists and rescue equipment were flown in. Thousands of volunteers, mainly from Thailand but also from abroad, assisted. In Thailand, schools participated massively in nationwide Buddhist prayer sessions. Renowned holy monk Khruba Bunchum Yansangwaro directed his prayers to the boys and predicted they would be found alive. The massive involvement with the 18-days rescue operation generated a multiplicity of memes, photographs, books, documentaries, paintings, and statues. As religious and national heritage, this material lives on in various forms and exhibitions, including the cave, which was declared to become a "living museum" immediately upon the completion of the rescue. The analysis concerns three interrelated issues: First, I focus on the "instantaneous heritagization" of the event, asking: how to understand the processes that transform people, objects, and places into heritage overnight? Second, I bring in the role of emotions and moral imagination to shed light on the secular and religious sacralities produced and reproduced in the making of heritage. Third, I am interested in the impact of the heritage on the cave and its vicinity, bringing in issues of ownership and power over the event's legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on four silver altar statues of the Evangelists commissioned for the island of Malta.

Many have argued that certain statues or monuments are objectionable, and thus ought to be removed. Even if their arguments are compelling, a major obstacle is the apparent historical value of those commemorations. Preservation in some form seems to be the best way to respect the value of commemorations as connections to the past or opportunities to learn important historical lessons. Against this, I argue that we have exaggerated the historical value of objectionable commemorations. Sometimes commemorations connect to biased or distorted versions of history, if not mere myths. We can also learn historical lessons through what I call repudiatory honouring: the honouring of certain victims or resistors that can only make sense if the oppressor(s) or target(s) of resistance are deemed unjust, where no part of the original objectionable commemorations is preserved. This type of commemorative practice can even help to overcome some of the obstacles objectionable commemorations pose against properly connecting to the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half a century after their discovery in the Ionian Sea near Riace Marina (Italy, 1972 CE), the Riace Bronzes continue to fascinate and interest. They are a pair of statues most likely sculpted in Greece in the mid-5th century and are considered masterpieces of Classical Greek sculpture. Many studies have been conducted, yet there are no morphometric studies that delve into their facial features. The aim of this study is to determine dentofacial characteristics and the presence of golden ratios in the so-called "young-man" warrior statue, equipped with a silver foil to represent the upper teeth. The interpupillar, interalar, intercanthal distances and mesio-distal diameter of the upper central incisors were subjected to virtual photogrammetry (GIMP-GNU Image Manipulation Programme). The presence of vertical and horizontal golden ratios between different landmarks (intercanthal distance: centre of the nose; centre of pupils: base of nose: base of upper incisors; centre of pupil-base of nose: base of upper incisors-base of chin; centre of pupils- base of upper incisors: base of the chin) were analysed using a dedicated software (PhiMatrix). The face and teeth satisfy most of golden canons, as also corroborated by the one-way ANOVA-statistic test (p < 0.05) for repeated measurements by independent expert operators. The virtual golden facial grid should confirm an ovoid face, which should match the same dental shape. The statue design stems from the search for beauty as divine proportion, and a relatively small detail such as teeth seems to have been carefully programmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article uncovers a new concordance for an enigmatic dance suite titled Balletti francesi that was copied in Vienna in 1667, showing that all eight dances are arrangements of Lully's music from Hercule amoureux. This finding has permitted new insights into how and why Lully's music appeared in Vienna so early. I argue that the unusual titles of the suite, particularly the four dances for animated statues, connect it to the iconography of the opera Il pomo d'oro and to the political rivalry between Austria and France. Statue iconographies in opera and ballet differed between the imperial and French courts as part of complex strategies of monarchical representation. While much remains uncertain about the transmission and performance of the Lully Balletti francesi , the suite opens a new window on how the dominant two states of Europe engaged in strategies of cultural appropriation and political theatre, while mobilizing music within a so-called 'war of images'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the violent politics of stigmatisation and erasure of nationalist urban infrastructure. In general, urban infrastructure is a mechanism of state power. But, through the case of the imposing presence of Turkish nationalist infrastructure in the Kurdish city Diyarbakir, it demonstrates that when tied to an antagonistic nationalist political project, this infrastructure is often purposefully built to violently cleanse urban spaces of the national "other". Be it a statue, a mural or a picture of a nationalist leader – this infrastructure is incapable of inflicting physical pain. Nonetheless, its violence is symbolic and meant to have a real effect on Diyarbakir's Kurds' ability and willingness to identify as Kurds. That said, violence does not entirely inform the spatial experience of those targeted by this nationalist infrastructure. The article demonstrates that Kurdish residents also found ways of remaining unaffected, even treating the infrastructure laden with Turkish nationalist iconography as a reminder of their own Kurdish identity. This article thus expands our understanding of what nationalist infrastructure does. It may be designed to be violent. However, it also reveals itself to be a site of contestation – equally inspiring the persistence of the counter-narrative of the national "other". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term, "objectionable commemorations", refers to a broad category of public artefacts – such as, and especially, memorials, monuments and statues – that are regarded as morally problematic in virtue of what or whom they honour. In this regard, they are a special class of public artefacts that are subject to public contestation. In this paper, we survey the general ethical and political issues on this topic. First, we categorise the arguments on offer in the literature, concerning the objectionable nature of such commemorations. Second, we review common political responses to objectionable commemorations. Finally, we identify fruitful areas for further philosophical inquiry on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differences between the narratives about Augustus’ silver statues in Cassius Dio, Augustus himself, and Suetonius are better explained in the context of gift-debt and gift-exchange rather than focusing on cult alone. Whereas Suetonius and Augustus emphasize Augustus’ correction of the statues as a pious act and a statement on imperial honors, Dio overlooks honors and gods, instead revealing how the statues funded road repairs. In his history, Dio adapts the narrative to underscore the gap between the reality and the appearance of events: here, the exchange of statues for monetary gifts in Augustan Rome. Augustus, treating the statues as a gift, transforms them into something greater for the people’s benefit. The connection between the statues, the roads, and the money appears elsewhere in the two earlier narratives, but Dio alone links the gift-exchange of statues for money to Augustus’ ‘gift’ of roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's title, "Raetia resumed," is largely intended to reflect the fact that earlier research on the Raetian bronze fragments was interrupted and subsequently resumed by a project entitled Römische Großbronzen am Limes - Fragmente im raetischen Raum. Herein, we shall offer a panoramic perspective on several case studies that demonstrate the variety of the contexts and the fragments as well as aspects of their chemical and isotopical composition. Analysis of these fragments from an interdisciplinary perspective yielded archaeological and historical, iconographical, and archaeometallurgical data that encapsulate the complexity of Raetian culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Winged Victory (Vittoria Alata) of Brescia is one of the most important Roman bronzes in Italy. Discovered in 1826, it dates back to the 1st century AD. Since the 19th century the statue has undergone multiple conservation interventions. The last one started in 2018 up to 2020. The project was defined with a multidisciplinary approach which made it possible to study and compare the data obtained from the restoration with those deriving from scientific analyses, humanistic studies and other specialist research. For the first time after the discovery, it was possible to explore the internal surfaces of the statue and acquire very important data for the technological study of the work. Particular attention was paid to cleaning the surfaces; once the materials accumulated over time were removed, partly residues of past interventions, it was possible to rediscover the beauty of the face, the refinement of the modeling and the high peculiarity of the wings. New technological solutions have been studied for the internal support that replaced the one inserted in the nineteenth century to hold the arms and wings of the statue, as it was no longer suitable for guaranteeing the safe conservation of the work. Since October 2020, the Winged Victory has been exhibited in the renovated Capitoline temple in Brescia, where it was discovered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background & Statement of the problem: A tip-of-the-tongue statues is a common recall failure phenomenon. Objectives: To identify the impact of phonetically or semantically related words on the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. Methods: The semi-experimental approach was used. To reveal the effect of the state of the word and the group on the performance of the students on the tests of recalling the target words that are not connected and connected phonetically and semantically. Results: There are statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) between the arithmetic mean of the students performance on the non-connected and phonetically connected target word recall tests, due to the state of the word; There are statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) between the arithmetic means of the students’ performance on the non-connected and phonetically related target word recall tests due to the interaction of the word status and group, and the presence of apparent differences between the arithmetic means of the female students performance on the non-connected and semantically related target word recall tests resulting from a difference of The word status and group levels and the interaction between them, there are statistically significant differences (α = 0.05) between the arithmetic mean of the students performance on the non-related and semantically connected target word recall tests attributed to the word status and group interaction. Conclusions (Recommendations and contributions): Conducting more studies on the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon and the factors that may have an impact on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its form, the term damnatio memoriae was never utilized in antiquity. It is invoked in relation to the Roman world to denote a series of intricate attacks on the memory of vanquished adversaries. This encompasses various public and political actions such as the obliteration of statues and monuments, as well as the effacing of inscriptions. Numerous literary instances, however, indicate that it served not merely as a means of annulment and oblivion, but as a tool for vilifying an enemy, ensuring they were remembered in the most negative light possible. In such a process, the individual's name becomes deeply entwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 19th century, a Hungarian baron named Jósef Kémeny created a false inscription in a ‘Proto-Hungarian’ dialect supposed to have been found on a winged sphynx statuette, which was never actually seen as it only existed as a black-and-white drawing. The statuette was claimed to have been found in Potaissa (now known as Turda, Romania) dating back to the 3rd century AD, towards the end of the Roman occupation of Dacia. Several researchers in the 19th century had already proven the inscription to be a forgery. Despite this, the concept has been recently brought up again, with an article published in December 2023 by a Hungarian professor residing in the USA named Peter Z. Revesz from Nebraska University. Professor Revesz attempted to decipher the inscription, but the author of the current article has gathered evidence that the American researcher’s efforts were fruitless. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Phaethon episode emphasizes the claim to divinity and failed divinization, and so it can be read as an anti-apotheosis: there is a purification, an epitaph that mimics the titulus and the elogium of the deified characters’ statues in the Forum of Augustus, a declaration of Phaethon’s fault with the language of apotheosis, and an allusion to the constellation that he did not become. Like Caesar, Phaethon has become a stella; as in Caesar’s passage, the poet refers to his anima; like Caesar’s apotheosis, his anti-apotheosis occurs in Italian territory; in both passages, the sun ceases to appear. The contrast of the two episodes in the first and the last book, the first of which also has an echo (the Icarus episode) in the central part of the Metamorphoses, thus seems deliberately sought by the representation. Finally, while the anti-apotheosis is one further example in the first two books of the dynamics of chaos, normally triggered by a fault, the apotheosis structurally recovers the dynamics of cosmos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical reminders of Fascist rule in Italy can be found in virtually every Italian town and city. To date, though, studies of how Italians have dealt with this 'difficult heritage' have focused overwhelmingly on Rome, where Fascism's copious remains are treated and admired as aesthetic objects, unmoored from their political–historical origins. Implied, assumed or articulated in these studies is the idea of Rome as an exemplar of the nation: that what is true of the capital is true of the country. In fact, the idea that Rome's approach to its Fascist heritage is representative of Italy's has yet to be properly tested. This article argues for the need to go 'beyond Rome' in order to gain a deeper, richer, and more nuanced understanding of the ways in which Italians have negotiated the difficult heritage of Fascism. Focusing on the provincial Lombard city of Brescia, the article reveals the complex interplay between time, place, use, memory, aesthetics, and politics in shaping how bresciani have negotiated three surviving 'faces' of Fascism: Marcello Piacentini's monumental piazza della Vittoria; Arturo Dazzi's colossal statue 'L'Era Fascista', popularly known as the 'Bigio'; and Oscar Prati's monument-ossuary to the fallen of the Great War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fowan Cliff Carvings are a key part of the Dazu Grottoes. Formed in a southern and northern stretch, the 290 individual niches at Fowan were mostly sculpted from the Late Tang to the Southern Song. Previous research by archaeologists and art historians has used typological and iconographic methods to periodize these niches and debate the themes behind particular niche sculptures. This essay employs niche inscriptions in a discussion of typical Fowan niche contents, matching lay feasting activities onto the period background behind their construction. These individual case studies grant an understanding of the overall atmosphere at Fowan through the shared inclinations or connections between niches, also reflecting specific niche sculptures via holistic analysis. This method, repeatedly examining the relationship between the niches and site from the perspective of "venue", helps us restore a sense of situatedness when facing different eras of Fowan and to understand the choice in statue content, changes in niche content, and the design underlying niche form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of Organizational Communication; Communication Theory. The proposed activity utilizes a digitally interactive global positioning system–based augmented reality game to help students (a) gain a richer learning experience through immersion and engagement with their surroundings, (b) learn how to interpret culture from observable artifacts (e.g. buildings, statues, stories), and (c) reflect on organizational culture's multilayered, multifaceted, and emergent nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Werkstatt Geschichte (Transcript Verlag) is the property of Transcript Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The statues of Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) are the most controversial and affected objects of authoritarian legacy in contemporary Taiwan. The removal or retention of Chiang Kai-shek statues in public prominent spaces are emotionally charged actions that reflect the “polarisation” of Taiwanese society. My discussion uses a case study approach to analyse how one local community, the National Chengchi University (Guoli zhengzhi daxue 國立政治大學) (NCCU) in Taipei City, discussed and eventually removed only one of its two CKS statues in August 2018. This analysis of the “afterlife” of these statues is based on newspaper and social media reports, my own repeated visits to the statues, ethnographic fieldwork in 2016 and 2019 where I conducted interviews, and my own photographic documentation. Statues can have an afterlife when local communities give them new meanings and rearrange the space around them accordingly. This paper contributes a typology of how such statues become “localised” or palatable. The forms of afterlife include profanation, localisation, iconisation, aestheticisation and fortification. After years of documented protests and the promulgation of “transitional justice” as the new political framework between 2008 and 2017, these sacred “symbols commemorating authoritarian rule” were called for to be removed. The paper traces how the university administration first ignored, and then in 2017 initiated a deliberative process within the university which resulted in the different and contested afterlives for the statues. The analysis shows that it is the alumni group (rather than the protesting students) who benefit from these more open and democratic structures. They have been the most vocal in expressing their interests and as a potential source of valuable funding, have been successful in insisting on the localisation or fortification of the statues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]