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William Courtenay, 3rd Viscount Courtenay and 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835), has been most remembered for his romantic relationship with author and slave owner, William Beckford (1760–1844), which scandalized London society in 1784. However, the 9th Earl's life after this event has received little attention despite his artistic contributions to the built environment of his ancestral home of Powderham Castle in Devon. In the 1790s, he created a series of flower watercolors on paper and cabinets under the supervision of his drawing master, William Marshall Craig (c.1765–1827). These artworks complicate ideas about gendered expectations of amateur artistic subjects, with flower painting being largely understood as a feminine accomplishment. This article explores the Earl's watercolors in the context of the spaces at Powderham to argue they are evidence of his effeminate behavior and participation in female activities alongside his thirteen sisters. The association of these objects with a man attracted to those of his own sex contribute to studies of queerness, amateur art, and the country house in the late eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies have established the benefits of horticultural therapy and activities for human health and well-being. Nonetheless, limited research has been conducted on the potential restorative advantages and distinctions between different types of horticultural activities in terms of stress reduction. Methods: This study employed a quantitative research method to investigate the stress recovery benefits of five horticultural activities (flower arrangement, sowing and transplanting seeds, kokedama crafting, pressed flower card making, and decorative bottle painting with dried flowers) and one reference activity (short composition writing) for children. The experiment was conducted in a children's activity center's multi-purpose classroom with 48 elementary students aged 9-12 years. The subjects first took a stress test to induce stress and then engaged in horticultural activities for 20 min. Physiological stress was assessed using electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms as feedback indicators. Psychological and emotional changes were determined using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children and Self-Assessment Manikin scales. Results: The results demonstrated that horticultural activities greatly reduced physiological fatigue, and their recovery benefits were significantly greater than those of the reference activity. The recovery effects from different horticultural activities were similar across physiological indicators, although flower arrangement and sowing and transplanting seeds exhibited relatively robust recovery benefits. The heart rate and a-EEG-based generalized estimating equation revealed that horticultural activities offered significantly better relative recovery at each time phase of operation than the reference activity, with girls showing a 3.68% higher relative recovery value than boys. Flower arrangement and kokedama crafting offered better physiological recovery for students with prior horticultural experience, and these two activities received the highest scores in terms of positive effects and the "pleasure" dimension. Students believed that participating in horticultural activities resulted in a noteworthy increase in personal confidence and a greater sense of achievement. Conclusion: The study suggests that horticultural activities that involve real and vibrant plants or natural materials and are more attractive have more stress-relieving benefits. We conclude that horticultural activities are beneficial leisure activities that aid in stress relief for children and that it is important to consider the attributes of activities when developing horticultural programs for elementary students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around a third of Clara Schumann's vocal compositions include references to flowers, whether as passing metaphors or as the principal addressee of her chosen text. At first glance this may seem unremarkable given the central place flowers held in the symbology of Romantic literature. But the survival of documents such as the Blumenbuch für Robert (1854–56) , in which she collected flowers from her travels around Europe, demonstrate a personal and distinctly feminine engagement with nineteenth-century floral practices beyond the vegetative poetics of male-authored poetry. This article examines the ways in which Clara Schumann engages with the overlapping floral discourses and media of the nineteenth century in four of her flower-centric lieder: 'Die stille Lotosblume', 'An einem lichten Morgen', 'Was weinst du, Blümlein' and 'Das Veilchen'. In these songs, flowers are explicitly gendered through their material conflation with women's bodies and relationship to a (typically male) lyric persona. I show how Schumann often uses her piano accompaniments to undermine the male construction of passive flowers by granting flowers an emergent agency in her settings. In so doing, Schumann is able to protect the stubborn silences of flowers or reify their secret desires. Flowers in these lieder thus emerge as radically polysemic and multimodal symbols, not only hinting at a myriad of possible meanings, but also reflecting a mode of feminine authorship that can be recalcitrant, revealing and tactfully mutable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the significance of the color pink in 18th-century France, particularly in relation to masculinity and whiteness. It discusses the association between pink and femininity in Rococo art, as well as the portrayal of men wearing pink, focusing on the figure of the petit-maître. The article also examines the etymology of the word "pink" and its connection to flesh tones and whiteness. It argues that pink challenged traditional notions of masculinity and played a role in the construction of whiteness as the norm. The text also discusses specific portraits that depict men in pink clothing and their associations with social status and the slave trade. [Extracted from the article]

With the rapid development of the 3D printing technique, the concept of 4D has emerged, defining time as the fourth dimension. This concept allows for changes in the appearance, function, or other properties of 3D printed objects in response to certain controlled external stimuli over time. In this work, a new photocomposite containing fluorescein based is designed on an interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) system, this system can be generated by the simultaneous photopolymerization of acrylate and epoxide monomers under visible LED@405 nm irradiation. Unexpectedly, combining the reversible fluorometric turn‐on property of fluorescein and the deformation of the IPN in the presence of water, the 3D flower structure printed from this photocomposite would demonstrate a novel dual responsive behavior with both fluorescence and shape changes when it is exposed to water for a short time. This work would present a novel functional photocomposite material and also expand the application prospect of 4D printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three single-page drawings mounted in an album signed by Shafi `Abbasi in the style of Ink on paper is the subject of this research. This album is kept in the British Museum. The album contains twenty-eight folios with fifty-five drawings of flowers, plants, insects, and birds, attributed to Shafi` `Abbasi. Iranian artist Shafi` `Abbasi was one of the painters of the Isfahan school, who specialized in painting in the style of flowers and birds. Before the Isfahan school, color was the main element of Iranian painting but In the Isfahan school, the main element is line drawing. The Safavid capital, which was moved to Isfahan, turned this city into a trade center for all kinds of goods from east to west. The use of painting was no longer confined to the scope of court books layout. Single- page drawings had become popular for different classes; Also, at this time, designs were created for the growing industry of Safavid textile weaving and decorative boxes with lacquered covers. The visual element of line in these works has been investigated by the descriptive-survey method with the help of data from printed books. The research aims to identify the visual elements of lines in the signed drawings of Shafi `Abbasi. The classification of line features in the artist’s drawings is proof of the authenticity of other works attributed to him. The results of this research show that all the lines used in the artist’s works are curved lines. The line element is based on curved lines and no line has a static character. We have divided the lines into various curves and into five categories in terms of type. These categories include: 1. Symmetrical curved line of a single arc, 2. A curved line along the horizonal or vertical axis with several degrees of curvature, 3. Asymmetric curved line of a single arc, 4. Curved line with wavy arcs, 5. Deep curved line. For each single-page drawing, a single category of curves can be considered, which has caused the creation of various rhythms and patterns. On the edge of the leaves and some flowers, different corners are drawn with elongated or wide curves. These corners are curved in different directions depending on the position. Even the use of this category in drawing insects and other painting decorations is also considered. There is a formal connection between the curved lines of the painting and the calligraphy form in the artist’s signature. In terms of quality, the line has variable thicknesses and does not move uniformly. The starting line is thin and delicate, in the next stage, it takes a suitable thickness. This change in line thickness has created a bright shadow and volume in the painting. In the end it has a delicate finish and is separate from the connection to the other line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to analyse the scientific literature to update the problems associated with the study of the symbolism of flowers and its interpretations. The methodology of the work is based on comparative historical and comparative typological methods, which make it possible to establish the complexity and ramifications of the problem of colour symbolism; The cognitive approach made it possible to identify the dependence of the use of interpretive capabilities of colour symbolism on the formation of the emotional component for the disclosure of contents and associations. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the addition of scientific literature with new studies of colour symbolism. Conclusions. Based on the study of scientific literature, it is possible to determine the relevance of problems associated with the symbolism of flowers and its specificity. Acquaintance with the works of scientists (P. Zholtovsky, A. Kondratyuk, A. Lopukhina, L. Milyaev, F. Umantsev) made it possible to determine the directions of research of the monument and the lack of works on the symbolism of flowers in the painting of the temple. The scientific works of V. Ovsiychuk and M. Pastoureau became the basis of the theory and history of the study of flowers. The timeliness of the research is confirmed by the developments of foreign institutions and scholars, in particular, the problem of: colour psychology (H. Brem); colour theory (M. Oswald, Weingarten University of Education, German Colour Centre, University of Halle-Wittenberg); global visual communication by colour (T. Fassati). During the heyday of Baroque art, the masters of the Lavra art school used the symbolism of flowers in a new way in the ensemble of paintings of the Trinity Gate Church. Mysticism prevails in the picturesque palette of the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced Chinese ink painting also includes work-brush flower and bird paintings with brilliant colors, in contrast to traditional ink paintings that often only use water, ink, and black and white. This serves as the foundation for our investigation into a generalized transfer problem involving ink and wash, or an ink painting coloring problem. Our goal is to automatically colorize black and white ink paintings using deep neural networks. This study can serve as a guide for coloring ink paintings and broaden the range of applications for ink painting style transfer. The high-level semantic information and low-level local features of ink paintings cannot be successfully extracted using the current generalized style transfer approach (colorization algorithm). The resulting images have muddy borders and low color saturation. In order to improve the accuracy and coherence of the coloring of ink paintings, we build training by combining the global and local features of ink paintings with the achievements of generative adversarial networks already made in the field of colorization. Comparative and objective evaluations of the experimental portion are made using metrics like peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity (SSIM), colorfulness, and user studies. Additionally, our approach beats the previous comparison approaches in terms of creative expression, color richness, and color overflow management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the early modern household's importance for producing experimental knowledge through an examination of the Halifax household of Margery and Henry Power. While Henry Power has been studied as a natural philosopher within the male-dominated intellectual circles of Cambridge and London, the epistemic labour of his wife, Margery Power, has hitherto been overlooked. From the 1650s, this couple worked in tandem to enhance their understanding of the vegetable world through various paper technologies, from books, paper slips and recipe notebooks to Margery's drawing album and Henry's published Experimental Philosophy. Focusing on Margery's practice of hand-colouring flower books, her copied and original drawings of flowers and her experimental production of ink, we argue that Margery's sensibility towards colour was crucial to Henry's microscopic observations of plants. Even if Margery's sophisticated knowledge of plants never left the household, we argue that her contribution was nevertheless crucial to the observation and representation of plants within the community of experimental philosophy. In this way, our article highlights the importance of female artists within the history of scientific observation, the use of books and paperwork in the botanical disciplines, and the relationship between household science and experimental philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science) is the property of Journal of Chengdu University (Social Science Edition) Editorial Office 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.)

Copyright of Cuadernos de Estudios del Siglo XVIII is the property of Instituto Feijoo de Estudios del Siglo XVIII (Universidad de Oviedo) 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 symbol pattern of flowers is the darling of art, which is loved by the people of all ethnic groups and countries in the world, and even serves as an important pattern on the coins of different periods of different countries. The difference between Chinese and Western aesthetics is only in their characteristics, and both are a part of the world culture, have their own independent aesthetic system and rhyme direction, and also have some commonalities, collision, communication, integration, change, and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flower, which has an important place in Turks, has been frequently interpreted in our decorative arts. Rose is one of the most used flowers. 16. Since the middle of the century, semi-stylized, close to naturalistic stylization in floral motifs in book arts in Ottoman illumination began. 18I. and 19. In the centuries, single flowers or flower bouquets were given the third dimension and the "Flower Painting" movement was formed in Turkish Illumination Art with a naturalistic attitude with the shaded painting technique. With the influence of Western arts, the understanding of interpreting flowers as in nature and the birth of the flower style, the existence of a category that we can call "rose painters" has emerged within the body of flower painting. Rose painting still maintains its currency today. The collection is performed in the form of a sheet or album. The aim of this study will be to examine the rose painters from the 16th century to the present day in the Art of Illumination, to examine the rose-themed flower depictions made in the art of illumination, and to analyze them with today's practices. The attitudes of rose applications to meet the current needs of illumination art will consist of design examples that can contribute to the application areas in terms of design, pattern, technique and coloring in line with today's needs and tastes. Books, journals, theses, articles, library catalogs were used as sources, and information and visuals were accessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have identified traits associated with anther mimicry; however, the processes underlying floral deception remain poorly documented for these structures. We studied the importance of pollinator attraction and mechanical fit of anther mimics in Tritonia laxifolia (Iridaceae) and their relative contributions to reproductive success. To determine anther mimics role in attraction, we offered bees' binary choices to flowers painted with UV‐absorbent and UV‐reflecting paints. We also conducted preference experiments between flowers with excised anther mimics and unmanipulated controls, from which mechanical fit was assessed by allowing single visits. Anther mimics' effects on female reproductive success were determined using similar treatments, but on rooted plants. Bees preferred UV‐absorbent over UV‐reflecting anther mimics. Bees did not discriminate between flowers with and without three‐dimensional anther mimics. Single visits resulted in more pollen deposition on unmanipulated controls over flowers with their anther mimics excised, which was directly linked to pollen‐collecting behavior. Controls with unmanipulated anther mimics had higher seed set than those with their anther mimics excised. This study provides insights into pollinator‐mediated selection on deceptive floral signals and shows that three‐dimensional anther mimics increases reproductive success through both attraction and pollen‐collecting behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People have an ancient and strong bond to flowers, which are known to have a positive effect on the mood. During the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of ornamental plants increased, and many turned to gardening, possibly as a way to cope with ubiquitous increases in negative mood following lockdowns and social isolation. The nature of the special bond between humans and flowers requires additional elucidation. To this means, we conducted a comprehensive online mixed methods study, surveying 253 individuals (ages 18–83) from diverse ethnic backgrounds and continents, regarding their thoughts and feelings towards photos of flowers, nature scenes and flower drawings. We found that looking at pictures and drawings of flowers, as well as nature scenes induced positive emotions, and participants reported a variety of positive responses to the images. More specifically, we found associations of flowers with femininity, and connotations to particular flowers that were affected by geographical location. While nature scene photos induced positive reactions, flower photos were preferred, denying a mere substitution of nature by flowers and vice versa. Drawings of flowers elicited less positive emotions than photos, as people related more to the art than to the flower itself. Our study reveals the importance of ornamental flowers and nature in our life and well-being, and as such their cultivation and promotion are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Arte, Individuo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)