Aesthetic Code Research Articles

Andrey Kryachkov. The man who created the city

Andrey Dmitrievich Kryachkov is an outstanding architect, the founder of the Siberian architectural school, whose creative path is closely connected with the foundation of the future administrative and cultural capital of Siberia. The author of most of the iconic historical architectural objects of modern Novosibirsk, Kryachkov largely predetermined the aesthetic code of the young Siberian city at that time, combining traditions and innovations in regional architecture of the first half of the 20th century. The architecture of Kryachkov in the modern appearance of Novosibirsk continues to play a significant city-forming aesthetic role.

Жанр анімалістичного оповідання у малій прозіБогданаЛепкого

The article analyzes the development of the genre of the animalistic story in the work of one of the most famous representatives of early Ukrainian modernism - Bohdan Lepkyi. It was found that the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries was an era of radical renewal of European, including Ukrainian literature, a time of changes in artistic thinking and perception of the world, when there was an active expansion of the themes and problems of short prose, and artists paid attention not only on the inner world of a person, but also made attempts to penetrate into the soul of "our little brothers". It has been observed that two main types of prose samples can be conventionally distinguished in the world animalistic literature: 1) works where completely realistic animals are depicted, their way of life, behavior and thinking are presented believably; 2) works where animals embody various forces of nature or qualities and character traits of people are mainly conventional figures and perform a certain symbolic or allegorical role (such works are close to the genre of fairy tales, legends, parables, etc.). It has been analyzed that works about animals are also found in Ukrainian literature at the turn of the century (I. Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, as well as Bohdan Lepkyi). In the short stories of Bohdan Lepkyi, two works were found where animals are the protagonists: the story "Barefoot", written in the early years of the 20th century, and "The Mouse", created during the First World War. In the analyzed stories, B. Lepkyi depicts animals from the "home" space common in the fairy-tale tradition: a dog and a mouse. It was found that in the story "Barefoot" the author tried to convey the lifestyle, behavior and preferences of the dog as accurately as possible, to reveal his way of thinking. At the same time, the finale of the work testifies to the allegorical nature of both the image of the owner of the dog, which is the personification of human cruelty in the treatment of animals, and the image of the central character (the dog), which embodies the inability of an individual who has spent his whole life in captivity, to take advantage of freedom, to find his place in the unknown and often to a hostile world. It is concluded that in the fairy tale "The Mouse" B. Lepkyi resorts to fairy tales as a feature of the poetics of the work. The manner of presentation is condensed and allegorical, built on contrast. If in "Barefoot" the reader gets to know the character of the dog through numerous small episodes, then in "The Mouse" the novelist brings one event into the spotlight. The work expresses the opinion that war is a terrible tragedy that brings pain, grief and suffering to people. The main animal character of the work has a conventional character and is the embodiment of good, which must necessarily defeat evil, punish or teach it. It was concluded that B. Lepkyi's work contains animalistic stories of various types, which indicates the development of Ukrainian prose of the modernist era in the context of world literature, where works about animals gained more and more popularity. The first type of animalistic story by B. Lepkyi (the work "Barefoot") is characterized by a reliable depiction of an animal's lifestyle, an attempt to realistically convey its behavior and way of thinking, in particular in interaction with people. The second type (the work "Mouse") is characterized by the use of fairy tales as an aesthetic code and the depiction of animals as allegorical figures. Their behavior is conditional and reflects certain qualities and traits of a person.

ЭСТЕТИЧЕСКИЕ МОДЕЛИ ВХОЖДЕНИЯ ВОССТАНАВЛИВАЕМЫХ ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫХ ОБЪЕКТОВ В СТРУКТУРУ ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ ЗАСТРОЙКИ

The article presents models of aesthetic formation of reconstructed industrial objects of the Soviet period in the surrounding development in the context of sustainability at the level of the city structure, taking into account the growth of the urban fabric. The industrial enterprises in question, as a rule, initially located on the outskirts of the city. Due to the dynamics of urbanization processes, they have become tightly integrated into the urban fabric, and are currently so-called exclusion zones, since they are large-sized relative to the surrounding development objects, including residential buildings and elements of the infrastructure of its social and domestic services. It is also necessary to note the enterprises that are city-forming and located in the structure of the historical center of the urban settlement, where it is especially important to preserve the authenticity of the historical development: to introduce reconstructed industrial facilities as delicately as possible (to select the aesthetic model of the reconstructed enterprise) into the historically established visual and aesthetic code of the city. Thus, two models of aesthetic inclusion of existing industrial enterprises being restored into the city structure have been identified: mimicry, related to objects located in the historical part of the city, and accentual – forming a visual center of attraction outside the historical part of the city, on the periphery and outside the city. The article also examines options for aesthetic inclusion of industrial objects being reconstructed depending on their urban development features: the presence of buffer zones and sanitary protection zones, the presence of external railway routes adjacent to the objects

Media Image as One of the Components for Formation of Media Aesthetic Code of the Region

The article considers the media image as one of the components of the formation of the media aesthetic code of the region. An analysis of the scientific literature devoted to this issue has shown that recently the interest of researchers from various fields and scientific schools in the study of the media image of the regions has been increasing. At the same time, we have not found any studies that consider the media image of the region in the context of its media aesthetic code. The proposed article is aimed at filling this gap, which is the relevance and novelty of the proposed study. The authors show that the image constructed in the media space of the region serves as the basis for the formation of the media aesthetic code of the region. Based on the analysis of materials published in the media (website 1obl.ru), a conclusion is made about some discrepancy between verbal and visual content. Because of this, a negative media image of the city is created, which negatively affects the formation of the media aesthetic code of the city and region. The article formulates universal recommendations for optimizing isoverbal content, which can be extrapolated to the activities of other local editorial offices.

Роль и значение музыкально-песенных компонентов в мифоэпической картине мира (на материале черкесского нартского эпоса)

The article presents a philosophical analysis of mythoepic texts and musical components of the Circassian folklore. In particular, the study explores specific epic images and related songs, as well as their cultural and philosophic implications. The role and significance of music culture in the Circassian traditional society are traced using epic narratives. Heroic cycles of the Nart epic are viewed as an art-aesthetic material, where the common plot-compositional centre of the epic culture produces a very specific worldview with a set of cosmogonic mythologies. Using the example of several heroic characters and the cycles of song folklore associated with them, the idea of the multilevel nature of the construction of the ontological foundations of myth and epic is expressed. The paper substantiates the hypothesis that an important factor in the preservation and translation of not only song folklore, but also many other forms of artistic reality is a whole complex of mnemic linguistic and extralinguistic means. It is concluded that the Nart epic in these aspects should be understood not only as an ethical, but also as an aesthetic code of Circassians, where epic texts and songs contain many pre-philosophical universals and ideas.

HERMENEUTIC MODEL OF ORIGINS OF UKRAINIAN AVANT-GARDE PAINTING ART

Based on the analysis of the provisions of the avant-garde theory of Peter Burger, art theorists José Ortega y Gasset, a hermeneutic model of forming the origins of Ukrainian avant-garde painting is proposed. It is argued that the emergence of the avant-garde is a creative reflection on changes in the economic subsystems of society and the phenomenon of self-criticism of art, a projection of the historical progress of art through the development of society. The hermeneutic model of avant-garde art is based on a structural analysis of the artistic process in its specific historical conditions of development. At the heart of the avant-garde, there is an attempt to establish a new ideal of justice through the destruction of tradition, which allows to interpret works of the avant-garde art as a narrative scheme in which the ideological ideas and social expectations do not match the real social function. In the process of development of the avantgarde, there is a change in the institutional essence of art, and the contradictions between the traditional ways of artistic reflection and the new artistic means of figurative creation constitute the basis of its aesthetics. The avant-garde appears as a new aesthetic category against the background of historical events of human development, as a tool for developing an aesthetic code. The avant-garde abolished the unified style and canon, and made the category of the artistic method a universal, universal artistic category, which opened the anthropological infinity of the world of art in its nonsocial meaning. The Ukrainian artistic avant-garde was formed on the basis of a synthesis of advanced ideas of European aesthetics with elements of national culture. Aesthetic concepts of European avant-garde trends served as a creative basis for the avant-garde trends in Ukrainian art, which include Cubo-Futurism, Suprematism, and Cubism in sculpture. The avant-garde is an integral part of the relationship in the art and society dichotomy, as a social phenomenon in the spiritual sphere, which corresponds to the logic of the development of society.

Yanka Kupala's Creed: the Christian Aesthetic Code in the Motif Paradigm of his Early Poetry

Yanka Kupala's Creed: the Christian Aesthetic Code in the Motif Paradigm of his Early Poetry

Cимволи як мовні знаки вираження світосприйняття Федора Потушняка

The article considers symbols as linguistic signs of expression of Fedor Potushnyak’s perception. The focus is on the fact that the symbol preserves a huge amount of information and is the key to understanding many mental and culturalhistorical phenomena. In fact, the symbols in a way «encode» the life of the people, forming its corresponding linguistic and cultural picture of the world. Every nation retains the richness of its traditions, which have been formed for centuries and which in today’s pragmatic world, unfortunately, are so easy to lose, especially if you seek a common cultural space. And this national and cultural code is fixed in the language; it is thanks to symbols that the cultural phenomenon is «objectified». Of course, not every cultural reality becomes a symbol, and not every token that names cultural reality has a symbolic meaning. A symbol «grows» only when reality acquires special significance in the life not only of a particular person, but also of society, religious community or cultural community, and the verbal symbol also needs traditions of word usage. A verbal symbol is a multifaceted open semantic structure that has the ability to detect several symbolic meanings in one context. The problem of determining the semantics of the symbol is due to its complex internal nature, ambiguity of interpretation, the dependence of interpretation on the individual reading of the text and the symbol in it. Each new reading of even the same or another text will evoke new associations and new interpretations, will involve other texts and symbols in this process. One of the links of Ukrainian symbolism of the 1930-s was the poetic work of F. Potushnyak, which absorbed the experience of Ukrainian and Western European modern culture. F. Potushnyak’s poetry is a holistic artistic system with produced key images-symbols, the lost aesthetic code of which must be rediscovered. Based on the symbolization of images of the sea, boats, distant, unknown pier, changes in nature, the poet models various existential situations of individual and universal existence in the infinity of living space, creates a paradigm of endless movement of humanity into the unknown , into the whirlpool of passions, impulses, dangers, dreams. Means of the latest poetic technique, contrasts of sounds and colors, polysemantism of images-symbols give the chance to recreate all the complexity of a person’s spiritual life.

Mediaesthetic Code of Journalistic Materials of a social nature (by the Example of Special Projects of the Internet Edition «Takie Dela»)

On the example of the materials of the Internet publication «Takie Dela» (These things), the author considers the formation of a media aesthetic code in the materials of a social orientation. The work is clearly structured. It consists of introduction, conclusion and four parts: multimedia journalism; special projects — to the definition of the concept; media aesthetic code and analysis of the materials of the Internet publication «Takie Dela». Each of the paragraphs can be considered as an independent unit, at the same time explaining and forming the whole text of the presented article. The main methods of research were the method of continuous sampling (at the stage of formation of the empirical base); content analysis method, case study and method of media aesthetic analysis of the text (at the stage of analysis of materials included in the research base), analysis and generalization (at the stage of preparing the conclusions of the study). The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is represented by scientific works in such areas as genres and formats of journalism, code theory, media aesthetics and media aesthetic code. The results of the performed media aesthetic analysis demonstrate that socially oriented special projects have a hybrid form of material organization, monochrome in the choice of color scheme, descriptiveness and figurativeness in the design of the content of the material.

The Meaning Of Bali Aesthetic Code In The Animated Film Si Uma

This study aims to analyze the meaning of aesthetic code in the animated film "Si Uma." The animated film "Si Uma" needs to be investigated because the reanimated film shows Balinese culture's beauty and has a unique character shape. Visualization of Balinese culture in this animated film contains a meaningful message for the life of the universe hitch conveyed through the form of code. The problem is what is the meaning of the Balinese aesthetic code represented in the animated film "Si Uma." The method used in this research is qualitative with data collection techniques through observation, interviews, and documentation. The technique of determining the source of data in this study is the Snowball sampling technique. Data sources were collected through interviews with Ida Bagus Surya Manuba, I Nyoman Suci Rasika, and Gede Pasek Putra Adnyana Yasa. Data analysis was carried out through data reduction, presentation, and conclusion drawing based on Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotic theory and Roland Barthes' postmodern aesthetic code. The results of this study indicate that the aesthetic code in the animated film "Si Uma" in the form of a semantic code is associated with a black and white patterned fabric sign (poleng) which contains the meaning of life balance in the universe; the cultural code is associated with a headband (udeng) containing meaning to concentrate thoughts or views (concentration) in every activity in Bali. In conclusion, the meaning of the aesthetic code in the animated film "Si Uma" is seen from two perspectives such as : the semantic code in the form of Poleng Cloth is ideological containing the meaning of balance in life in the universe; cultural code in the form of a headband (udeng)is connotative which means to focus attention/thought, aesthetic, and cultural identity in worship and daily activities.

Adangiyah: Philosophy of Art in Tradition and Modernization

Dewa Ruci's journal on this edition is felt so special. Since volume 15 has been eager to target a wider audience. Many scientific idiographic concepts are important and need to be known by international readers. This edition is proud to present the most widely written articles by postgraduate students and lecturers from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts Surakarta, Universities of Education from Surabaya, and Malang (East Java). What is special about this edition of this journal is the participation of the second author, who comes from various countries who are very encouraging to the first author. The participating writers from abroad are Adzrool Idzwan Ismail (Malaysia), Michiyo Yoneno Reyes (Japan), Nazima Rangwala Kalita (India), Lee Yong-Shik (South Korea), Jody Diamond (United States).We above appear to have six collaboratively written articles to publish on this occasion. The first author, Soerjo Wido Minato, wrote an article entitled “Art, Nature, and Culinary As Leverages for Village Branding at the Foot of the Mountain.” He discussed that coastal tourism and coastal villages have always been attractions, especially mountain villages that have succeeded in branding themselves as tourist villages. The Malang State University research team conducted research activities to support the preparation of Benjor Village to become a tourist village. An effective strategy for branding Benjor Village as a tourist village at the foot of the mountain is to synergize art, nature, and culinary arts in logos, songs, dances, taglines, videos, and social media.Next is Yulela Nur Imama's article entitled "Masak, Macak, Manak” at this time through challenge-based research on the creation of Nol dance," discussing 3M (cooking, preening, give birth) as cultural values for Javanese women. This study aims to determine the existence and relevance of these 3M values in dance works and how these values must be maintained. Tari Nol interprets 3M's cultural values.Hanna Medita wrote the article “Self Me: interpretation of self-injury in the context of healing,” discussing modernization that affects human needs. Self Me is a work inspired by the author's experience of self-injury which is very common among teenagers towards adulthood. Many symptoms are very likely to affect one's mental health. The work of Self Me gives a message about the importance of knowing self-injury early on and knowing what the symptoms of self-injury are.Rian Prasetya's article entitled "Color Formation of Musical Compositions of Children's Choir "Vocalista Angels" discusses the choir resulting from intensive training in various competitions in the Vocalista Angels (VA) group. The group emphasizes unique performance with sound color processing that deviates from the conventions of music theory. At the heart of quality processing at VA is building a distinctive tone of voice, trying to avoid musical tendencies based on classical vocal theory. An important element to form distinctiveness is a musical work that puts forward the method of wording, processing articulation, resonance, and intonation.Izam Ismail wrote the article "Media Adaptation of Mask Making in Malang: Study of Functional and Process for Making Fiber Masks" which discusses the adaptation made by changing the media without changing the shape and visuals that appear in Topeng Malang. The mask in the Malang Mask performance is a sacred form used by dancers by bringing the Panji character into the show. Making fiber masks begins with practice, namely making molds without changing the shape and ornaments on Malang Masks.Harmanto’s article entitled "The Concept of Tumbuk in Javanese Gamelan Tuning" discusses the phenomenon of musical mash in the Javanese karawitan tradition. Tumbuk is more than just a scale between Sléndro and Pélog. Tumbuk acts as a synchronizer in frequency and range between notes and a tone coordinator or add-on in the tuning system. Tones that have the same frequency in the tone of nêm are nêm sléndro and nêm pélog, nêm sléndro and pélog stuff, and others.The last writer is Hasbullah, with an article entitled "The Meaning Of Bali Aesthetic Code In The Animated Film Si Uma." He discusses the meaning of the Balinese aesthetic code in the animated film "Si Uma." The animated film gives a message through semantic codes such as cloth poleng, which connotes a balance of life and perfection. The meanings found from studying the Balinese aesthetic code in the animated film “Si Uma” are beauty, concentration, and cultural identity.That is the essence of the issue of Volume 16 Number 2 (December Edition), 2021. Hopefully, the knowledge that has been present in this publication can spur the growth of fine arts and performing arts in international networks, both in the arts. Creation and in the scientific research of art in general. We hope for the development of fine arts and arts.Thank you

Мемориальный музей: экзистенциальная оптика пространства

The modern museum is not only in the sphere of mass interests, but also serves as a reflection and expression of certain mass trends. While maintaining the status of a classical cultural institution, it was to a large extent precisely the museum that has become an arena of public discord on determining the strategies of cultural reproduction. This issue gains a pronouncedly contentious character due to the rapid development of information formats of traditional leisure now including interactive technologies, arbitrary historical reconstructions, elements of theatricalization. In “Escape from Amnesia” (A. Huyssen) the ‘society of total spectacle’ demands searching for new means, which often contribute to loss and substitution of values. The visitor’s interest towards the history of the quotidian greatly influences the dynamics of changing the creative potential of a museum, predominantly a memorial museum. Long-term practices of modeling the historical space reveal the internal form of the concept of ‘ex-position’. This is the natural cause of an internal conflict, when being ‘arranged in a straight line’ replaces the principles of accurate and documentally verified positioning of memorial objects. ‘Museumness’ should not supplant ‘the quotidian’, ‘the existential’; however, the functional principle of arranging the objects, their ‘pattern’ is often replaced by the composite approach, in which ‘decorative’ or ‘design’ solutions become dominant. This trend actively competes with the key theoretical foundations of museum source studies, and the traditional museum is increasingly transforming into a kind of parallel model of culture. The memorial object, as a fact of intellectual history, is significant within the material culture and spiritual heritage. At the same time, the alleged meanings and false semiotization often substitute the biographical realities, when ‘fit for exposition’ is everything that the mass museum visitor connects in his mind with his arbitrary understanding of the past. These are key aspects of the subject of modern museum criticism. This article discloses our understanding of the memorial exposition as a self-organizing system with a certain aesthetic code. Methodologically significant is the existential turn towards ‘evidence paradigm’ – giving up the impersonal demonstration of old things. This is a turn towards the model ‘things-speak’ (self-awareness, self-disclosure of things) – towards the structure that communicates ideas and life meanings. It is where the memorial object, understood as ‘message’, ‘material communication’, can disclose the fullness of its historical authenticity.

„Negative criticism” in Leopold Staff’s Early Epistolography

The article examines Leopold Staff’s early epistolography in order to show various aspects of the poet’s „negative criticism” understood as a form of discourse as well as a cognitive and artistic attitude which the poet juxtaposed with melancholy. It argues that Staff’s opinions about modernity (based on irony, derision, parody, exaggeration) and their aesthetic code can be situated across a range of contexts, e.g. the work of the Płanetnicy, the style of Nietzschean culture criticism, the work of French caricaturists.

«Poppy Field» by Ermolai Lopakhin and «Poppy Fields» by European Impressionists (based on the Play of A. P. Chekhov «The Cherry Orchard»)

In the play AP Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” is implemented receiving of ekphrasis: the text is full of associative links, symbols, culture name formed the aesthetic code of Russian and European impressionism. Chekhov recreates the cultural context in which the Russian intelligentsia lived at the turn of XIX-XX centuries. Many fragments of the “Cherry orchard” find their Parallels in the paintings of European impressionist artists. In particular, the story Lopakhin about the field of poppies is clearly reminiscent of a series of paintings by Claude Monet “Poppy Field in Giverny”. Chekhov's ekphrasis is clearly also drawn to the paintings of Van Gogh (still life with poppies and landscapes with poppy fields). Many microcircuits and details of the “Cherry Orchard” can be compared with the works of Levitan, Van Gogh, Seurat and others. Chekhov's author's position is as follows: his heroes are under the charm of European culture, their mentality has changed, they lose their national identity, become “Westerners”, want to leave Russia. They are “Russian Europeans”, they are inherent in “lackey thought” (Dostoyevsky's expression). The genre of Comedy and farce becomes a form of expression of author's condemnation of the Russian intelligentsia.

RA Code: A Robust and Aesthetic Code for Resolution-Constrained Applications

Recently, some picture-embedding schemes have been proposed to improve the aesthetic appearance of 2D barcodes. However, these aesthetic 2D barcodes are not robust to the distortions incurred by the print/display-and-capture channel under limited rendering space and resolution. In this paper, a picture-embedding 2D barcode named the Robust and Aesthetic (RA) Code is proposed to counter the channel impairments, such as downsampling error and inter-symbol interference. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed RA Code is more robust than the existing picture-embedding 2D barcodes, especially under limited printing/displaying space. The RA Code of a size as small as $1.5 \times 1.5 {\,\,\mbox {cm}}^{2}$ can be successfully decoded with a demodulated bit error probability of less than 0.1, which corresponds to more than 50% improvement over those of the state-of-the-art picture-embedding 2D barcodes. In addition, the correct decoding probability is improved significantly from as low as 0 to more than 0.8650. The decoding algorithm has been implemented on the Android platform, and the practicality of the RA Code has been successfully demonstrated.

The Visual and Material Dimensions of Legitimacy: Accounting and the Search forSocie-ties

The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times, Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries in an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.

El Novecento, Mario Sironi y la "Revolución fascista"

Las tendencias artísticas que destacaron en Italia durante el conflictivo periodo comprendido entre 1922 y 1944, fueron el Novecento, el Secondo Futurismo, los Abstractos milaneses y comascos, y los llamados "Realistas'', entre los que estaba la Escuela Romana, los Seis de Turín, los Claristas lombardos y artistas del grupo Corrente. En este contexto, los artistas del Novecento, principalmente Mario Sironi, fueron los más cercanos al régimen fascista, una posición ideológica que a nivel teórico fomentó la ruptura con la herencia de las vanguardias, pero que sin embargo, a nivel de la práctica artística demostró alcanzar un particular equilibrio entre tradición e innovación, entre clasicismo y modernidad. El objetivo del Novecento fue el dar una estética a la llamada "Revolución Fascista".

ЛІТЕРАТУРНО-ЕСТЕТИЧНІ АСПЕКТИ ПІСЕННОЇ ЛІРИКИ ЛІЛІЇ ЗОЛОТОНОШІ

The analysis of the song lyrics of Ukrainian lyricist Lilija Zolotonosha has been given. Despite of wide spectrum of interdisciplinary use of the term “aesthetic code”, we should note, that aesthetic code of lyrics remains unexplored fact in literary theory. The purpose of this article is to determine the markers of investigated phenomenon, to characterize its general motives, genres and images. Main literary and aesthetic aspects of her song lyrics have been done. Author's definite means of the lyrics expressions and aesthetic code, based on the material of the song lyrics of modern lyricist have been studied. A song is a self-expression of a poet and composer (its authors). Only those people can became real artists who can include, understand and pass ahead of their time and who stand out in memory of the contemporaries and direct their creative search to the future. It should be noted that perception, listening and reproduction of lyrics as well as creation requires that recipient has not only aesthetic feeling but also all-round erudition. It is necessary to have a certain set of aesthetic codes to understand any song; which is necessary to apply to many factors in order to understand a deep essence of its mortgaged information. Taking into consideration that the essence and structure of phenomenon “aesthetic code” has been determined first, practical importance of given results consist in the fact that theoretical statements has been proposed. Their practical illustration can be used when students of philological and musical educational institutions study the professional subjects.

How much does it cost to be stylish? Ease, effort, and energy consumption in Benvenuto Cellini's Vita

Ever since Baldassar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, sprezzatura, or the art of concealing one's effort, had become a dominant aesthetic code of comportment in Renaissance court culture. Recent scholars have noted how this same discourse about the projection of ease also came to permeate writings about science and the mechanical arts. In this article, I argue that Benvenuto Cellini's Vita offered an alternative to this aesthetic, highlighting, rather than concealing, the physical toil and energetic expenditure required to produce artistic form out of raw matter. This alternative is significant, I contend, especially when considered in the context of the writings of sixteenth‐century engineers like Georgius Agricola, who were beginning to think in terms of the tradeoffs between ore extraction, agricultural production, and human well‐being. Tradeoffs imply effort and difficult choices rather than ease, hence, writers like Cellini and Agricola, by offering an alternative manner of describing costs and energy expenditures, also allowed for a greater degree of awareness of employed resources.

Nechui’s Aesthetic Code: Repetition, Pacing, and Non-Purposeful Narration

Traditional and modernist comments on the mechanics of Nechui’s prose style are largely critical, focusing on what are assumed to be errors or infelicities in writing. This article examines these presumed errors and proceeds to focus on three central quali­ties of Nechui’s writing: repetition, pacing, and the absence of purposeful construction. The intention here is not to make judgments about the strengths and weaknesses of his writing but rather to point out its essential features. Two central features of Nechui’s writing that are explored are deliberate repetition and non-purposeful plot structure.