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A life‐long beacon for Lebbeus Woods was his understanding of the ideas of second‐order cybernetics and attempts to assimilate them into his architectural projects. An introduction to this discourse was provided in Urbana‐Champaign in the early 1960s by his most important intellectual mentor, cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster. Poised at the intersection of architecture and cybernetics, Ben Sweeting charts some of the lines of their interactions and friendship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Italian Studies / Rivista di Studi Italiani is the property of Rivista di Studi Italiani 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.)

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is among today's most popular musicians. Born in Nevada in 1970, Eric is a graduate of the prestigious Juilliard School of Music (New York). Charles Alan Sylvestri's poem "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine" is a dramatic story of hope and optimism that takes the listener on a great adventure into the great unknown. Leonardo functions as the agonist of the poem who is "tormented" by his need to fly and touch the sky. Leonardo da Vinci was certainly the definition of a true "Renaissance man". Da Vinci is also regarded as one of the greatest inventors to have ever lived; his notebooks are filled with sketches and notes for inventions that were far ahead of his time. What must have been going through his mind when he was coming up with these revolutionary ideas? That is the question that composer Eric Whitacre and poet Charles Anthony Silvestri attempt to answer in this piece, "Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The types of artistic mimesis are basically three: ritual, visual and cognitive. The last two are the ones that have most influenced art and correspond to the theses defended by Plato and Aristotle. The aesthetic experience of Vinciana painting is different. Such a distinction does not depend on fidelity to a supposed real model, nor on the anatomical correctness of its characters or the geometric purity of its perspectives. It seems to be related to what in the field of Aesthetics is called 'identification', 'incarnation', 'presentization' or 'representation'. In this article we propose to show that Leonardo was an artist more Aristotelian than Platonic. In his work and writings, we find enough Aristotelian traces. However, in vinciano thought and doing there is a form of inventive mimesis that allows us to reinterpret what a representation is. This article aims to notice the deep re-presentative depth, in the sense of a present doing that underlies the vinciano making. His skill is not exhausted in the likeness, nor in the knowledge of reality, but in a summoning to presence. Such a milestone allows us to venture, beyond psychoanalytic or psychological tendencies, why some works from Vinciana - unfinished- can be considered finished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Medusa (Fig. 1) is the only one of Caravaggio’s works to which the writer Giovan Battista Marino dedicated an ekphrastic poem. It is thought that Marino saw the work on a 1601 trip to Florence; by that time, the painting had been received in the armoury of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando de’ Medici. Collecting a painting in an armoury makes sense, of course, when the painting counts as arms––Caravaggio painted his Medusa on a convex shield, and Marino’s madrigal engages with just this aspect, addressing the Grand Duke: Now what enemies will there be who will not become cold marble in gazing upon, my Lord, in your shield, that Gorgon proud and cruel, in whose hair horribly voluminous vipers make foul and terrifying adornment? But yet! You will have little need for the formidable monster among your arms: for the true Medusa is your valor.

The Mona Lisa (1503–6) is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo and Newberry (2015) demonstrated that a similar ambiguity can be perceived also in La Bella Principessa (1495–6), another portrait credited to Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) by many. The paper aims to show that an ambiguous expression can be perceived in a further painting attributed (although not unanimously) to Leonardo: The Lady with Dishevelled Hair, or La Scapigliata. An experiment was conducted whereby participants rated on a 7-point Likert scale the perceived level of contentment of La Scapigliata and that of a comparable painting created by Andrea di Cione, alias Il Verrocchio. The two artworks were presented in random order to two groups of participants. One group could see the artworks from Close (0.6m) whilst the other group from Far (6m) from a Close (0.6 m) or Far (6 m) condition. Results show that the change of distance affected the perceived level of contentment of Leonardo’s figure but not that of Verrocchio’s. Specifically, whilst both artworks received similar ratings of contentment from the close-up condition, La Scapigliata was perceived to be more content from afar. It is concluded that La Scapigliata exhibits an ambiguous expression, and that this ambiguity is similar to the one observed in the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. This result can be only partially interpreted within the spatial frequency hypothesis advanced by Livingstone (2000) and shows that a phenomenological account of Leonardo’s work might be more suited to capture the full extent of the phenomenon. Specifically, it is suggested that the principles of perceptual belongingness (Wertheimer, 1923) may need to be considered to fully capture the extent of the ambiguity depicted by Leonardo.

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Entre as outras ninfas, todas estereotipadas no seu modo de serem «mais industriosas que ligeiras», há uma que é diferente e à qual Camões chamou Éfire, o nome de uma ninfa da Antiguidade que é praticamente desconhecida. No entanto, esta ninfa tem um papel importante no episódio da Ilha Namorada e o significado que esta figura tem nele afecta o conjunto do poema Os Lusíadas. Julgo que esta ninfa pode ser interpretada como elemento importante de um discurso meta-poético que o poeta constrói no poema, onde propõe um novo épico, através dos antigos caminhos da épica grega e latina.

In the present report, we offer a novel way for studying (via optical and digital means) features in Renaissance and Leonardo’s (and of course any other painter who followed this canon) paintings, based on a software that separately recognizes white, red, green, blue colors and measures the intensity of single bright spots in canvasses. After mapping the distribution of individual colors, the software proposes a trajectory considering the different geometrical and topological aspects. What we propose here is not just a variant of known methods for discovering the color distribution in a painting; on the contrary, it represents a new way to find unknown parameters in any Renaissance painting. In addition, via multispectral and hyperspectral analyses and image processing, the developed software permitted us to monitor the decay of some pigments in these canvasses at macro- and microscopic levels.

The interconnection of scientific studies and art represented by Leonardo Da Vinci's (1452–1519) portraiture accentuates his role in documenting and archiving dermatologic conditions. His anatomical dissections, sketches, and paintings, including portraits, were all a means to observe, portray, and understand the nuances of the human body. In two of his most discussed portraits, Ginevra de' Benci (1474-1478) and Elisabetta del Giocondo, the Mona Lisa (1503-1506), Leonardo's execution of the exterior anatomy is so precise that he may have illustrated manifestations of disease that allow contemporary researchers to theorize diagnoses of dermatologic as well as neurologic, endocrine and vascular conditions. These include hypochromic anemia, muscular disorders, xanthelasma, thyroid disease, lipoma, and frontal fibrosing alopecia. Leonardo's extraordinary talent in recording his observations of shades and textures of skin and his ability to capture the nuances of subtle variations in the human body have produced a historical record that allows modern dermatology practitioners to make further observations not possible in his time. Here, dermatology and art intersect serving to document and explain the human condition, permanently archived in Leonardo's masterpieces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Computational Fluid Dynamics was used to assess the effectiveness of heating the surface of the Last Supper to preserve the masterpiece from PM10 deposition as well as to investigate the consequences of increasing the number of visitors simultaneously admitted in the room. For this purpose, the flow of moist air in the Refectory of "Santa Maria delle Grazie" in Milan was numerically simulated. In addition, the trajectories of the PM10 particles emitted by visitors were traced and their concentration monitored, the latter considered one of the main parameters possibly harmful to the painting. Moreover a velocity deposition model was applied to evaluate the soiling hazard through a dose-response function. It was found that, even doubling the number of visitors, no perceptible blackening of the surface of the Last Supper can be foreseen also in the far future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1529) fue un reconocido personaje quien hizo grandes aportes a la ciencia y el arte. Demostró un gran interés por la anatomía y fisiología en su paso por el taller de Andrea del Verrocchio el cual se iría incrementando con el tiempo hasta realizar sus propias autopsias y descripciones. Gracias a sus prodigiosas manos, realizó múltiples procedimientos en cadáveres humanos y animales muertos, junto con algunos experimentos que alimentaban su interés por la fisiología. Sus primeros dibujos fueron del cráneo y del encéfalo. Propuso estudiarlo de afuera hacia adentro, por capas. Esquematizó e incluso replicó algunas estructuras, que en aquella época tenían un papel fundamental sobre el entendimiento del cuerpo humano. Con relación al encéfalo, describió el bulbo olfatorio y el recorrido de algunas ramas de los pares craneales. Demostró especial interés en detallar los ventrículos cerebrales debido a la influencia de las teorías propuestas por sus antecesores que integró con sus descubrimientos para explicar las funciones que se les atribuían en la época. Además, fue pionero en neurofisiología con sus experimentos de la médula espinal en ranas. Realizó un trabajo extenso en anatomía y fisiología, dejando grandes aportes en estos campos que desafortunadamente no fueron publicados. Hubo de pasar cerca de tres siglos para que fueran debidamente interpretados.

Copyright of Drawing Ideas Images / Disegnare Idee Immagini is the property of Gangemi Editore S.P.A. 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.)

What do we feel and understand when we look at Leonardo's Last Supper and Michelangelo's frescoes projected on the screens? The history of the production of films, critofilms, television documentaries, amateur movies on the web, devoted to these masterpieces of Renaissance art is a constantly growing world of moving imagery, coming before the era of the recent media experiences. It is difficult to say exactly when the first movie camera was introduced into S. Maria delle Grazie’s refectory in Milan, or into the Sistine Chapel in Vatican. We know however that the huge filmed material concerning these two works is unequalled by any other figurative testimony. This paper intends, on the one hand, to focus in a historical perspective on the relationship between the pictorial work and the cinematic work, that is a real technical and narrative “challenge” to the pictorial language of both these Renaissance masters; on the other hand, it intends to pose some critical questions on media practices and their possible future development. From Ėjzenštejn to Greenaway (for the Last Supper), from Oertel to the immersive show (for the Sistine frescoes); from Ragghianti to the RAI TV documentaries after the restoration by the end of the XXth century.

El texto propone una descripción sumaria de la situación de la restauración en Alemania, ilustrando temas y prioridades que emergen de una situación compleja. Una descripción de amplias pinceladas ayuda a capturar los aspectos más significativos del debate y la práctica actuales. El escenario de la restauración en Alemania es representativo del panorama europeo que asume el método y aproximación científicas, la conservación material y un cierto ‘liberalismo’ frecuentemente influido por la política y la economía. Sin embargo, la interrogación incesante sobre la relación entre la controvertida historia del siglo XX y la actualidad constituye el marco distintivo de su directriz contemporánea.

Leonardo and ice: Leonardo’s interest for the Flemish art and vice versa The aim of the article is to underscore the importance of cultural exchange: on the one hand Leonardo’s knowledge of Flemish oil painting techniques at the beginning of his career made it possible for him to improve his style; on the other hand his influence extended in an early stage to the Low Countries, and concerned thematical choices. The first part of the article focuses on the period in which Leonardo, during his apprenticeship in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, became aware of the significance of the new oil technique, which had been imported in Florence due to economic contacts with Bruges in the fifteenth century and the role of Florentine families such as the Medici, the Portinari and the Pagagnotti. The possibilities of the new oil painting technique were explored in Florence in the workshops of Verrocchio and the Pollaiolo brothers. A signature in the Codice Atlantico testifies that Leonardo himself was acquainted with members of the Portinari family, active in Bruges. Knowledge of Flemish art became essential in technical and formal aspects of his first female portrait, the Portrait of Ginevra Benci, which had been ordered by Bernardo Bembo as a pendant to his own portrait, painted by Hans Memling during his mission in Bruges as an ambassador to the Venetian Republic. The second part intends to invert the focus and to study Leonardo’s influence on Flemish art by presenting several paintings on the subject of Jesus and Saint John embracing. This iconographic subject originates from a composition, once in the royal collection in Mechelen, of Leonardo’s pupil, Marco D’Oggiono. The Flemish painter Joos van Cleve probably saw it and started to produce many paintings on this subject in his workshop in Antwerp. These works were so successful that over fifteen of them survive in different collections in Europe, and constitute a good example of Flemish artists’ interest in Leonardo’s art.

Leonardo’s mind is considered here through his exploring and transdisciplinary attitude as a point of reference for any activity of research in any field and particularly for research on creativity itself. The focus is on different philosophical views of the mind and their corresponding scientific models, for what concerns patterns of problem solving in relation to models of creativity in crossing each frame. The empowerment of visual and kinesthetic capacity is emphasized as an essential tool for education.

The development of tools for digital representation and the diffusion of media to display it offer an effective mean for the creation and dissemination of cultural contents. This article presents a research work for the exhibition "Leonardo e Vitruvio. Oltre il cerchio e il quadrato.” hosted in the city of Fano for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death. Starting from the original drawings exposed, Leonardo's crossbow, odometer and water clock were 3D modelled reproducing up to the smallest component and virtually simulating their exact functioning. Hence, two different applications were developed using these digital reconstruction to support visitors. They explain the represented machines from conception to use and compare Leonardo's models with those of the past, making possible a dynamic fruition that goes beyond the passive experience of contemplating the original work of art.

Our description and creation of space is nested tightly with our body from which we cannot escape. Our sense of space is dependent on much more than our vision. Architect, writer, editor and lecturer Sarah Robinson explains this particularly in relation to hearing, sound and music. This relationship is symbiotic – we tune our instruments and their harmonics tune us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leonardo's mind is considered here through his exploring and transdisciplinary attitude as a point of reference for any activity of research in any field and particularly for research on creativity itself. The focus is on different philosophical views of the mind and their corresponding scientific models, for what concerns patterns of problem solving in relation to models of creativity in crossing each frame. The empowerment of visual and kinesthetic capacity is emphasized as an essential tool for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of the great geniuses and artists of the Renaissance. His studies have been referenced in subsequent modem science discoveries. However, less studied are his contributions to the fields of architecture and its conservation, even when they are of no less importance. His interest in building pathology can be can be clearly seen in his manuscripts. Within this field, he studied the causes of structural wall damage, cracks, differential settlement and their possible solutions. These proposals are considered by some authors as a treatise on architecture. This article analyses Leonardo's studies on structural damages and the influence that other artists could have had in his learning process.

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death we gladly republish, with permission, one chapter from Walter Isaacson’s book “Leonardo da Vinci” by Simon & Schuster. Leonardo was born as a natural child on April 15, 1452 in Anchiano, a handful of houses near Vinci, close to Florence. He died on May 2, 1519, in the grandiose castle of Clos Lucé near Amboise, not far from Tours in the middle of France. A free spirit, a true master in inter- and multisciplinarity, indifferent to taboos and scientific dogmas, one of the fathers of what we call the “scientific method”. Obsessed by experience and observation, eager devourer of the first scientific printed books, he understood and practiced the correct balance between experiments and theories. In particular, on the role of experience and mathematics he wrote in the “Treatise on Painting”: “Nissuna umana investigazione si pò dimandare vera scienzia s’essa non passa per le matematiche dimostrazioni, e se tu dirai che le scienzie, che principiano e finiscono nella mente, abbiano verità, questo non si concede, ma si niega, per molte ragioni, e prima, che in tali discorsi mentali non accade esperienzia, sanza la quale nulla dà di sé certezza.” (No human investigation can be termed true science if it is not capable of mathematical demonstration. If you say that the sciences which begin and end in the mind are true, I do not agree, but deny it for many reasons, and foremost among these the fact that the test of experiment is absent from these exercises of the mind, and without these there is no assurance of certainty).

The development of tools for digital representation and the diffusion of media to display it offer an effective mean for the creation and dissemination of cultural contents. This article presents a research work for the exhibition "Leonardo e Vitruvio. Oltre il cerchio e il quadrato." hosted in the city of Fano for the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death. Starting from the original drawings exposed, Leonardo's crossbow, odometer and water clock were 3D modelled reproducing up to the smallest component and virtually simulating their exact functioning. Hence, two different applications were developed using these digital reconstruction to support visitors. They explain the represented machines from conception to use and compare Leonardo's models with those of the past, making possible a dynamic fruition that goes beyond the passive experience of contemplating the original work of art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El presente texto pretende dar una muestra de la copleja relación epistolar que mantuvieron durante algo más de una década Benedetto Croce y Giovanni Papini, desde 1902 hasta 1914.