Ancient Copies Research Articles

Les peintres et verriers de Nantes au début de l’époque moderne et leurs statuts (1574)

The Loire-Atlantique departmental archive and the town archive of Nantes preserve two ancient copies of the statute of the local corporation of painters and glaziers, established in 1574, together with a few other related documents. These sources shed new light upon the inner workings of an artistic trade and make it possible to compare its rules and regulations with those of similar communities documented in other French cities during the same period. Moreover, they provide various pieces of information about the individuals involved in that professional environment, and about the immediate context of its reorganisation, a context rife with issues of power and egos. Those responsible for drafting the statute seem to have depended on that of the community of painters and glaziers of Paris as their main source of inspiration, but the resulting text also contains some peculiarities, tailored to the specific situation of Nantes.

Genome-wide Analysis of the Emigrant Family of MITEs of Arabidopsis thaliana

Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are structurally similar to defective class II elements, but their high copy number and the size and sequence conservation of most MITE families suggest that they can be amplified by a replicative mechanism. Here we present a genome-wide analysis of the Emigrant family of MITEs from Arabidopsis thaliana. In order to be able to detect divergent ancient copies, and low copy number subfamilies with a different internal sequence we have developed a computer program to look for Emigrant elements based solely on the terminal inverted-repeat sequence. We have detected 151 Emigrant elements of different subfamilies. Our results show that different bursts of amplification, probably of few active, or master, elements, have occurred at different times during Arabidopsis evolution. The analysis of the insertion sites of the Emigrant elements shows that recently inserted Emigrant elements tend to be located far from open reading frames, whereas more ancient Emigrant subfamilies are preferentially found associated to genes.

Wanda: a database of duplicated fish genes.

Comparative genomics has shown that ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) contain more copies of many genes than other vertebrates. A large number of these additional genes appear to have been produced during a genome duplication event that occurred early during the evolution of Actinopterygii (i.e. before the teleost radiation). In addition to this ancient genome duplication event, many lineages within Actinopterygii have experienced more recent genome duplications. Here we introduce a curated database named Wanda that lists groups of orthologous genes with one copy from man, mouse and chicken, one or two from tetraploid Xenopus and two or more ancient copies (i.e. paralogs) from ray-finned fish. The database also contains the sequence alignments and phylogenetic trees that were necessary for determining the correct orthologous and paralogous relationships among genes. Where available, map positions and functional data are also reported. The Wanda database should be of particular use to evolutionary and developmental biologists who are interested in the evolutionary and functional divergence of genes after duplication. Wanda is available at http://www.evolutionsbiologie.uni-konstanz.de/Wanda/.

A New Portrait by Raphael and Its Historical Context

A hitherto unknown picture on panel is presented here, and its attribution to the young Raphael, about 1507, is put for­ward, on the basis of two ancient copies of the picture and of an ancient inscription. The inscription at the back reveals the identity of the sitter, Costanza Fregoso. She is mentioned in Baldassarre Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, and was one of the leading dames at the Urbino Court at the end of the year 1506. Newly produced archival research gives some more information about her life and about the story of the picture. Costanza Fregoso had been for a while the lover of Pietro Bembo, who was at Urbino Court between the last months of 1506 and the last months of 1507. As it is well known, Bembo was a personal friend to Raphael. The portrait is identified here as a picture given to Bembo by Costanza as a token of love, in exchange for a small portrait of Bembo himself, recorded by Michiel to have been done in 1507, and now lost. When their love affair came to an end and the portraits were sent back to the respective sitters, after Costanza Fregoso's marriage in 1509, she had the background of her portrait radically changed by a North Italian painter, about 1515—1520. The original background can be clearly seen in infra-red reflectography. It is perfectly consistent with Raphael's style of about 1507, with the style of the portrait itself, as well as with the background visible on the oldest copy, datable about 1510—1515. A campaign of X-rays and infra-red reflectography has been carried out on the picture. It revealed existence of a now lost cartoon, transferred by spolvero, and of many pentimenti - which makes it clear that we are looking at an original by Raphael, from about 1507, and not at a copy. The last proposal is that a well known pen sketch by Raphael in the Louvre is rather related to this picture than to the Dame with the Unicorn in the Borghese Gallery, as it is usually stated.

Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art

Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art

Surface Studies of Ancient Gold Coins and Modern Copies by X-ray Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Scanning Auger Spectroscopy

Several gold coins and modern copies were examined by three surface analysis techniques and the results were evaluated for possible use in authenticity testing of the coins. The coins supposedly ranged in age from 241 B.C. to 1894 A.D. The scanning electron microscope with an energy-dispersive x-ray analyzer was used to analyze for elemental composition, surface irregularities, contamination introduced during production, and accumulated debris. Conventional x-ray fluorescence provided elemental composition more representative of the bulk of the coins. Auger microprobe data provided corroborative qualitative analysis and information on the presence of low atomic number species. The significance of these results for authentication of ancient artifacts and art objects is discussed.

Ancient Copies. Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art. By Margarete Bieber.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsAncient Copies. Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art. By Margarete Bieber.Carol C. MattuschCarol C. Mattusch Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 83, Number 1January 1979 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 4Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/504248 Views: 4Total views on this site Copyright © 1979 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Ancient Copies. Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art

Ancient Copies. Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art

Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art. Margarete Bieber

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSAncient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art. Margarete Bieber Christina HuemerChristina Huemer Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 5, Number 6OCTOBER 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/arlisnanews.5.6.27945909 Views: 6Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the ARLIS/NA Newsletter (1972-1981), which is continued by Art Documentation (1982-present). Copyright © 1977 ARLIS/NORTH AMERICAPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Athena Mattei

The marble statue of a youthful Athena, which was once in the Mattei collection and is now in the Louvre in Paris, has long been regarded as a work of considerable beauty and charm (Plate 66a–c). It seems to be a copy of an original of the fourth century B.C., but because no other versions of the type are known there has been some hesitation in attributing it to a particular sculptural workshop.Within the last few years the Athena Mattei has emerged as one of the most important ancient copies in existence. For in 1959 a number of bronze statues were found by chance in Piraeus, and amongst them was a magnificent bronze Athena which appears to be the original from which the statue in the Louvre was copied (Plates 67, 68a). It is the purpose of this article to investigate the relationship between the two statues and to consider the implications regarding the date and authorship both of the marble copy and of the bronze original.

Echoes from Bassae

A marble slab, built into a private chapel in a cemetery in Catania, has on it a centauromachy, carved in relief. In a recent publication the author observes that at the start of the century the chapel belonged to a Catanian antiquary, who decorated it with sculpture from various places and periods; apart from this, nothing is known about the provenience of the slab. He also comments that the whole face has been re-cut at an unknown date, but certainly in modern times, so that an exact judgement of the style is impossible, and adds that the theme was a common one in ancient art, citing in particular the metopes from the south side of the Parthenon and the frieze from the temple of Apollo at Bassae. It is possible to go somewhat further; the nine figures on the relief are all copied from the frieze from Bassae; reading from left to right, the first four figures correspond to Slab 526; the fifth one to the left-hand centaur on Slab 521; the next two to the left-hand pair on Slab 525, and the last couple to the group of a Greek and a centaur on Slab 521. It might seem impossible to decide beyond all doubt if the Catania relief is an ancient copy of the frieze, re-cut in modern times, or if it is entirely modern; the copyist has indeed taken certain liberties with his original, varying some of the details—for instance, the position of the right forearm of the right-hand centaur—and replacing the woman on Slab 521 by two figures from another slab, but these changes are perhaps not inconceivable in an ancient copy. Two other details, however, are decisive.

Goethe's Essay, Über Laokoon

During the year 1906 the four hundredth anniversary of the finding of the marble group of Laocoön and his sons in Rome—“opus omnibus et picturae et statuariae artis praeferendum”—has been duly celebrated. The most conspicuous act in this celebration was undoubtedly Dr. Ludwig Pollak's announcement at a meeting of the German Archeological Institute that he had discovered an ancient copy of the missing right arm of Laocoön, bent backward so that the hand must have been near the head, as has long been supposed. Hardly less noteworthy, however, was the effect of recent additional discoveries of inscriptions in Rhodes that seem to fix the date of the sculptors in the middle of the first century b. c., and Richard Foerster's comprehensive article in the Jahrbuch des archäologischen Instituts—the latest and most authoritative exposition of facts and expression of opinions about the statue.