Search

The article explores the context and origin of empiricism in Giorgio Vasari's book "Lives of the Painters Sculptors and Architects," importance of portraiture within the purpose of the book, and aesthetic schema. Topics discussed include aim of the book to protect artists from being forgotten and its function as a guide to moral instruction, interpretation of portraits within neoplatonist aesthetics, and importance of virtue as the conceptual underpinning for nobility and for political power.

This article explores the leaked security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands, which has significant implications for the geopolitical landscape of the South Pacific region. China's first-known bilateral security arrangement in the area enables potential deployment of its forces near vital shipping lanes, raising concerns about a future Chinese military base. The agreement's leaked details reveal provisions for Chinese personnel to assist in maintaining social order and providing humanitarian aid. Australia, New Zealand, and the United States have expressed apprehension, with Washington reopening the US embassy in the Solomon Islands and negotiating exclusive military use rights with other nations. This move by Beijing expands China's maritime strategic presence and bolsters its hard power in the region, while also enhancing its soft power through similar agreements with other Pacific Island nations. The establishment of Chinese naval bases in the Solomon Islands would be a significant development with far-reaching implications for the Indo-Pacific. Urgent proactive measures are needed to mitigate potential conflicts and uphold regional stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the study of early silver owned by Monmouth County families, one piece stands out. It is a silver bowl with two handles and six panels that is monogrammed "VD / I M" for Jacob and Maritje Van Dorn and dated 1699. Of a form made in New York City between 1690 and 1720, a legend, first recorded in the early 20th century, accompanies the bowl. Descendants believed that it was a racing trophy awarded for winning a horse race held on King's Highway in Middletown Village. This article discusses the bowl, its form and function, descent in the Van Dorn and Conover families, early horse racing in America, an antiques dealer named Edna M. Netter who once handled it, acquisition by the Henry Ford Museum, and finally, the legend itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the development of a new role for Personified-Death that emerged in early Renaissance illustrations of the 'Triumph of Death' in Petrarch's Triumphi. Originally the figure of Death was the Reaper who gathered sinners for an apocalyptic harvest, but through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Death took on a new role presiding over peaceful deathbeds and the passage to a justified heavenly reward. The new imagery emerged from a syncretic tradition, marrying secular and devotional poetry, theology, Latin literature and devotional texts such as the ars moriendi to produce a mortality that reassured viewers of their salvation. These different Deaths were available to different audiences and featured different participants: one contemporary, collective and frightening; the other, classical, individual and comforting. Death came for all, but not all deaths were the same. The article presents examples of reflective looking that were encouraged by theological teaching and poetic traditions, and assisted viewers in rich contemplative readings. This allowed for interpretations of the images that embraced a wide semantic field with connotations well beyond the literal iconographie representations. An important aspect of the shift in the role of death at this time is the development of beliefs about the beatific vision in the early Renaissance, images of Personified-Death ushering donor-figures into the presence of the Virgin Mary suggests that, at least in some circumstances, images of donors-saints-and-Virgin-Mary, may be interpreted not as pleas for mercy (as they are often understood) but instead as representations of the successful completion of the good Christian's journey accessing the beatific vision via this new Death-figure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sander, Robert D. Invasion of Laos, 1971: Lam Son 719. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2014. 304pp. $29.95 'The only chance we have is to initiate bold moves against the [...]

This narrative describes the lives and artistic careers of William Savery Bucklin (1851-1928) and George Parker Bartle (1853-1918), both of Phalanx, a hamlet in Colts Neck, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Three of the works illustrated come from the art collection of the Monmouth County Park System. They acquired them because the paintings depict woodland scenes on the opposite side of the Swimming River Reservoir from their Thompson Park campus, the back areas of which still retain this wooded character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rise of Islamic Capitalism: Why the New Muslim Middle Class is the Key to Defeating Extremism By Vali Nasr New York: Free Press, Council on Foreign Relations Books; 2010, [...]