Great Beauty Research Articles

THE CLERICAL RECEPTION OF BERNART DE VENTADORN'S 'CAN VEI LA LAUZETA MOVER' (PC 70, 34)

IThe twelfth-century troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn's song 'Can vei la lauzeta mover' is among the most famous and most anthologized of medieval love lyrics. It is held up as one of the classic expressions of the courtly poet-lover's despair of gaining his lady's favour: the strength of his desire is so great that Bernart proposes to go into exile if his lady does not show him mercy. The success of 'Can vei', at least among modern readers, is in no small part due not only to the prominent image of the falling lark with which the song opens, but also to references to Narcissus and Tristan in subsequent strophes. The song has also been the object of much scholarly attention.1 This reflects its extensive transmission in both Occitan and French-language manuscripts and the number of times Bernart's song is quoted or referenced in romances and more scholarly works such as Matfre Ermengaud's encyclopedia, the Breviari d'amor. It makes a final appearance in the long poem with lyric insertions Lo Conhort, written by the Valencian poet Francesc Ferrer around 1450.2 The debate between Bernart, Raimbaut d'Aurenga, and Chretien de Troyes on what a love-servant can reasonably expect from his lady which grows from 'Can vei', and a probable metrical imitation by early Minnesinger Dietmar von Eist, confirm Bernart's song as the basis for a remarkably extensive poetic network crossing linguistic, generic, and formal frontiers.3Consequently it is surprising that the metrical imitations, or contrafacta, of this song in clerical contexts in Occitan, Old French, and Catalan remain unstudied.4 The poems 'Quisquis cordis et oculi' (Analecta hymnica 21, 1685) by Philip the Chancellor of Notre Dame and what seems to be his own version in Old French, 'Le cuer se vait de l'oil pleignant' (RS 349), bear eloquent witness to the rich interactions in the grey zones between the Church and the world as well as the ease with which song moved geographically in the Middle Ages. 'Quisquis cordis' is transmitted in a large number of manuscripts with a melody recognizably that of 'Can vei', as is the Old French song in both of its witnesses.6 These two poems are joined by their Occitan contrafacta, 'Sener mil gracias ti rent' (RS 718a), and a song in the Misten d'Elx (1350s), a devotional play performed to celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin. Together they place the relationship of the court and the Church in the larger context of the international movement of medieval lyric, and are an important instance of the productive interactions of these spheres.Despite the limited interest of literary scholars in contrafacta in recent decades, with the exception of John Marshall's work, this musical-poetical practice is particularly valuable for the concrete way it allows us to trace the intellectual and artistic interactions of medieval poets, often across linguistic boundaries.7 This article thus follows a section of the European poetic network mapped out by the reception of 'Can vei' in three dimensions, motz, sos, razos ('words, melody, sense'), which reveals the afterlife of Bernart's song. It is a powerful example of the formal interactions described by Jorn Gruber:Die einzelnen Lieder ('Vers', Canzone) sind virtuell Fragmente eines verschlusselten Minnedialogs zwischen 'Verstehenden', die einander an gedanklicher Subtilitat und formaler Virtuositat zu uberbieten streben, um sich dem Ideal des summum verum, summum pulchrum und summum bonum immer weiter zu nahern. Dabei kommt es darauf an, sprachlich-metrisch-musikalische Elemente bestimmter Lieder von Vorgangern und/oder Zeitgenossen dergestalt in das neue Lied einzufugen, das diese Lieder zugleich aufbewahrt, widerlegt und uberwunden, d.h. im dreifachen Wortsinn 'aufgehoben' werden.8(The individual songs ('vers' or cansos) are effectively splinters of a hidden dialogue on love between those who understand, who strive to outdo each other in intellectual subtlety and formal virtuosity in order to come ever closer to the ideal of the greatest truth, the greatest beauty, and the greatest good. …

Das invasões bárbaras à grande beleza: mídia e utopia, embates entre estética e política

Os impasses que caracterizam o contemporâneo podem ser relacionados com a perda do sentido de utopia, marca da modernidade, e afetam o regime estético da arte e da mídia, e levam também a rever o conceito de autonomia, outra potência da modernidade. Motivado pelas teorizações de Jacques Rancière, este ensaio procura testar a rentabilidade de conceitos por ele trabalhados, para pôr em questão as relações entre estética e política, mídia e (pós)utopia, que são dramatizados, por exemplo, nos filmes As invasões bárbaras (2003), do canadense Denys Arcand, e A grande beleza (2013), do italiano Paolo Sorrentino.

Identification of Benefits for the Inhabits of Somesul Rece Natura 2000 Site

Natura 2000 ROSCI0233 SomeE™ul Rece Site is a protected area of community interest; the site has natural richness and landscapes of great beauty and a big variety of important flora and fauna. An important piece to achieve the aim, consists of the local inhabits of the area. In order to help local communities identifying the benefits of living in or near Natura 2000 area, 14 meetings took place, 2 in each of Somesul Rece Site 7 villages: Valea Ierii, Caps, Cerc, Plopi, RAƒcAƒtAƒu, MAƒguri and Muntele Rece. The meetings were submitted to informative materials in the form of power-point presentations, leaflits and various posters, and after this presentation, the audience had the opportunity to ask questions. The 14 meetings were a success, and we can say that most of the inhabits of the area found many benefits compared to 2013, when 54% of the inhabits asked, sad they know no benefits of a Natura 2000 area.

The Great Beauty: Italy’s inertia and neo-baroque aestheticism

In an article published in the New York Times in the months preceding the U.S. premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, Rachel Donadio looks at the movie as a commentary on the impasse that seems to paralyze Italy. Through this viewfinder, the journalist writes, Sorrentino sets the stage to have his say on ‘a culture that is blocked, resigned, embalmed in elegant decline’, where ‘inertia overwhelms all forward momentum’. As with other movies produced in the last two decades, most notably Nanni Moretti’s Il Caimano, The Great Beauty is part lament, part critique of all that is wrong with a country that the fiction identifies with its political leadership. Italian directors criticize the country’s pervasive atmosphere of inertia and decadence. Sorrentino has often remarked that although his films are not political per se, their representation is a critique of Italy’s current state of affairs. Contemporary history, that is, lies at the core of his artistic engagement. Yet, the baroque aestheticism of The Great Beauty reworks current tensions in an ambiguous fashion. This chapter employs journalistic sources and textual analysis of the film to inquire into what kind of cultural memory of contemporary Italy emerges from the scene. It uses Sorrentino’s neo-baroque aesthetic register and filmic philosophy of civic engagement as frameworks to explore history in the making. To this end, the essay refers to Patricia Pisters’ recent work in The Neuro-Image: A Deleuzian Film-Philosophy of Digital Screen Culture (2012).

Projecting the Diva’s Voice: Anna Magnani in Visconti’s Bellissima

In the immediate post-war period of Italian cinema, Anna Magnani emerges as icon of a nation struggling with its recent past. Unlike most cinematic divas, however, Magnani is not lauded or cast for her great beauty. It is mainly her voice that directors mobilize to represent Rome, the working class, and a culture in transition. This article argues that Magnani’s skilled manipulation of her own authorial voice also outlines the struggles inherent to female identity as shaped by the cinema. Specifically addressing Magnani’s role in Bellissima (Visconti, 1951), the article identifies the diva as a disruptive force, particularly in the realm of sound, contending that Visconti employs Magnani’s powerful vocal presence to articulate his disappointment with the increasing superficiality of Italian cinema in the 1950s. More broadly, the article encourages a reinterpretation of the cinematic diva that would lead to a shift in feminist film criticism: the prioritization of female vocal presence above visual lack in order finally to project authentic representations of female identity in film.

The Great Beauty: Public Subsidies in the Italian Movie Industry

We examine the impact of public subsidies in the Italian movie industry by considering two dimensions: quantity (box-office revenues) and quality (film festival awards). Public subsidies and movie genres are employed as explanatory variables to investigate how public intervention and genre influence movie industry performance. We find that although public funding shows an overall negative influence on quantity and quality, there are some differences when considering public subsidies by genre. On balance, there is statistical evidence that dramas and thrillers are the genres that should be primarily financed by public agents.

Mieczysław Wallis w poszukiwaniu piękna - impresje z podróży

The article presents impressions from research expeditions of polish 19th century scholar - Mieczyslaw Wallis . This aesthetician, philosopher and historian of art was a great beauty lover. So, in his travels around the country and abroad he searched manifestations of the beauty in: architecture, painting, sculpture and formations of nature as well. His handwritten notes which contained his memories from these journeys are very important and intellectually atractive reading.

Los alabastros medievales ingleses y la iconografía jacobea: algunas piezas singulares

In this paper some items made in alabaster will be analyzed in order to review the iconography of the Apostle St. James the Greater. Most of these artworks have been kept in religious institutions or Spanish collections but they were made in England, during a period of splendor that took place from mid 14th century to the first decades of the 16th century. These pieces were made in a production line style, so they often repeat the same models, with very few differences. Even so, they are pieces of great beauty which were very appreciated by devotees and collectors in the past and still today.

Leonardo Network News

AFFILIATE MEMBER HIGHLIGHT The Djerassi Resident Artists Program (DRAP) is recognized internationally as one of the eminent artist residency programs. Its mission is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty. DRAP strives to provide the best possible residency experience for artists from a diverse range of backgrounds and geographical locations. As stewards of a unique and beautiful property located in Woodside, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula, DRAP also seeks to preserve the land and use its facilities wisely and efficiently for maximum benefit to the artists and with the least impact on the environment. See .

The World Before Us by Aislinn Hunter

author Marjana Gaponenko explained her authorial intentions, stating: “I am looking for my own romanticism and find it in the midst of reality, in irony.” Although initially confounding, this statement is a particularly apt distillation of her approach to the hilarious, beautiful, and compassionate portrait of ninety-six-year-old Luka Levadski . In the midst of a cynical age in which irony often serves to distance us from the outside world, Gaponenko sees great beauty within the curious, sometimes-uncomfortable juxtapositions that comprise life’s mosaic of realities. Her exploration of this beauty, far from alienating her readers, draws them closer to the world of life outside themselves. We meet Levadski just after he learns that he has cancer. Unwilling to undergo the grueling process of chemotherapy, the solitary retired ornithologist considers his financial situation on the cusp of his final days and sees, with glee, his chance to live sumptuously. He accepts this opportunity with a singular energy, dressing himself up in expensive clothing and parading about Berlin like a now-genteel, now-curmudgeonly dandy. As he reflects on certain tenderly recalled moments of his childhood and successful career, however, he comes to envision his final days, not in Berlin, but in the extraordinary luxury of the Hotel Imperial in Vienna. Despite this concern with material comfort, the unlikely relationships he develops during his stay turn out to be the most vital acquisitions of his late life. Levadski’s life is rife with irony. He is a Ukrainian Jew who spent most of his life in the nation that had put his life in grave danger. He is utterly enchanted by music and the language of birds, though he neither sings nor spent much of his life conversing. And most saliently, his life of luxury and pleasure begins as his body and mind lapse into decay. Gaponenko does not explicitly identify the tensions— between the personal and the political, life and death, inelegance and dignity, ephemerality and timelessness—underlying these ironies. Rather, their existence is revealed indirectly through the witty, quirky, and beautiful prose—exquisitely rendered in English by Arabella Spencer—with which she realizes her character’s simultaneous frustration and wonder. The novel does not allow the historical and political to overwhelm its narrative. Nor do Levadski’s memories of the distant past take center stage. Rather, the novel and its protagonist revel in the present moment. Gaponenko’s formal freedom and pure energy reveal a love of writing befitting her subject and comprise an expression of human emotion that is as nuanced as it is powerful. Levadski marvels at how quickly those around him can become “the special people” of his life. By the end of this brief novel, there is no question that he has become a special person to the readers who sojourn with him within its pages. Ethan Holaday University of Oklahoma Aislinn Hunter. The World Before Us. New York. Hogarth. 2015. isbn 9780553418521 Our imagination “takes what it knows from one set of experiences and sinks them into another to create some semblance of truth, bridge time.” This is exactly what Aislinn Hunter has done in this intricately woven novel connecting the present, the past, and the imagination. When Jane was fifteen, she took up a temporary position as caretaker of a five-year-old named Lily. One day, Jane accompanied Lily and her father, William, on one of William’s botanical expeditions. Jane’s only duty there was to watch after Lily. But an innocent game with Lily amid flowers and trees turned into a frantic search for the missing five-year-old. As Jane turned around for a moment to James Edgecombe The Art of Kozu Sandstone Press Spanning different time periods and continents, James Edgecombe’s novella about an artist and his paintings investigates whether an image can really tell the whole story and what that story might be. Steeped in the culture of Japan and written in an elegant style that doesn’t waste time with unneccessary description, this book is a fitting testament to Yuichiro Kozu’s work. Belinder Dhanoa Echoes in the Well Zubaan Books Rich language evokes intense emotion in this novel about family, sisterhood, and...

Pigeon cave: a legendary place of suicide in Lebanon.

Beirut is a geological platform 6 to 7 km long and 3 to 4 km wide. The seaside is rocky at the north and the west and forms the base of a cliff. Two rocks of great beauty loom up from the water to the west. Residents of Beirut often swim or boat over to them. We call them “Raouche,” a phonetic Arabic transformation of the French word “rocher,” meaning “rock.”Pigeons take refuge along the rock walls and in a cave, “Pigeon Cave.” Dives from the top are rare and dangerous. The 52-meter-high cliff on the shore overlooking the rocks is also known as a prime destination for desperate, suicidal people, who come to jump from it. It is simple to step over themetal railing and then go through the reeds to find oneself on the edge. It is the most common place for attempting suicide in Lebanon. Lebanese people often evoke the idea of suicide in reference to the Pigeon Cave. Clinicians commonly are told by their suicidally depressed patients, “The best way to put an end to this is to go to Raouche.” Sadly, it is thus as iconic in Lebanon as are Beachy Head on the southern coast of England and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. No active efforts to prevent suicides exist at the Pigeon Cave, unlike similar locales in other countries.

“Two Musics about the Throne of Ilúvatar”: Gnostic and Manichaean Dualism in The Silmarillion

“Two Musics about the Throne of Ilúvatar”:Gnostic and Manichaean Dualism in The Silmarillion Carrol Fry (bio) In “Ainulindalë,” the opening segment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, Eru, The One, “who in Arda is called Ilúvatar,” composes his great symphony with the participation of the Ainur, “the Holy Ones that were the offspring of his thought” (15). Ilúvatar’s music is the mighty theme of creation. “Of the theme that I have declared to you,” he tells the Ainur, “I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music” (15). Then his Ainur respond with their own individual additions to the symphony, creating “endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights” (15). The Ainur are given a vision of the symphony’s creation: Arda or Eä (Tolkien’s names for the earth and material creation); the Elves, or the First Born; and the Followers, or humanity. When many of the Ainur express their love for Arda, Ilúvatar decrees that “their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the world, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs” (20). Perhaps because they are now of this world, they become the Valar and can take on physical forms of great beauty, a choice given them by Ilúvatar. The mightiest of the Ainur, Melkor,1 had “meddled with all that was done” (20) in the ordering of Eä during the symphony, desiring to make Arda his own. Melkor “also took visible form, but because of his mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible” (21). He built his kingdom of darkness while Manwë, his brother, and the other loyal Valar created a kingdom of light in Valinor, the Blessed Realm. And so began the battle between good and evil, darkness and light in The Silmarillion, a work dear to Tolkien’s heart. Clyde S. Kilby, who spoke with Tolkien while he continued working on The Silmarillion long after The Lord of the Rings was published, reports that the author’s “main trouble with it was the lack of a commanding theme to bring the parts together” (11). I would suggest that the finished version of The Silmarillion as Christopher Tolkien arranged and edited the tales from his father’s notes and unpublished manuscripts does have a powerful central theme: an exploration of the nature and origin of evil. [End Page 77] Critical consensus has long held that J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythos is rooted in his orthodox Christian beliefs. Indeed, in creating the fictional frame for The Silmarillion the author builds on a complex mix of mythologies to create his own, with Christian, Nordic, and Celtic allusions. But a central element that drives the work’s exploration of its theme includes suggestions of ancient dualism, best remembered in the heresies of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. The Silmarillion presents two possible answers in the discourse on theodicy: the inquiry on the nature of good and evil and the question that asks why evil exists if God is good. The author’s orthodox Roman Catholic faith would suggest that his fantasy world should reflect the Church’s doctrine of a monist creation. The New Catholic Encyclopedia defines monism as a system “that reduces all of reality to some type of unity or one basic principle, where other doctrines admit of two or more” (9: 811). Monists would see God’s original creation as perfect and marred by free will: that of Satan and his minions and then of Adam and Eve, choices that brought evil to a pristine creation. In Milton’s words from Paradise Lost, humans were created “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (2: 81) in the world God had given them. From a Christian monist perspective, God permits evil as necessary to a creation that offers free will. Ralph Wood interprets The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings from a monist perspective: Tolkien’s world is not the product of a struggle between good and evil deities, as in many pagan...

On Leaving | On Staying Behind

On Leaving | On Staying Behind Diana Garcia (bio) On Leaving I can run five times around the village, my dog beside me. I have testedmyself against her speed, my younger cousins’ endurance. I win. My cousins go with me this morning, their dark hair glossy, so youngtheir shoulders. Their mothers tell me to watch over them. I have said goodbye to all who remain, grayed village elders,wooden statues of saints in our small church, my mother. I go with the blessings of my mother and her sisters. I am the youngestof the girl cousins, no great beauty, no wealth to keep me here. I wear only what I have. I carry a blouse one aunt gave me,a friend’s old sandals for days when heat persists into the night. My cousins who have made the journey send this advice: travel earlyin the morning and at night. When you reach the trains, gain a space in the middle; don’t move. Don’t let anyone steal your space. When wereach Mexico, we are to look for coyotes wearing yellow bandanas, not red or green. Those wearing yellow come from our region,they speak our language, they are known to our village. If no one waits at the border wearing yellow, we wait or takeour chances. I have waited two years for this chance. No more. [End Page 11] If the coyotes separate me from my two cousins, mis primasinstruct me to let them take what they will, but not my life, never my life. They think I don’t know what they mean. I know what a mancan take from a woman. I know my younger cousins’ pride. I will protect them from their pride, our family honor. I will screamor fight if I can. I will run if I can. I know now how fast I can run. On Staying Behind She thinks I don’t know why she runs. Not to catch the trainsor escape la migra or outrun packs of wild dogs. I listened to the advice her cousins sent, the older girl cousins, married,hard-working girls who left our village with their husbands. The journey is harsh, more than two weeks if she’s lucky.So many dangers, only two younger male cousins to protect her. My daughter has no husband. She cannot stay with me. I willnot have her stay with me to starve. She leaves with no wealth. She and her cousins are their own wealth. I see the strengthin their arms and shoulders, blood that pumps through heart and lungs. No water, no beans or corn. Today, the woman studying our village,una profe de los estados unidos, spilled our pot of beans. This woman has never known hunger. I saw her shock when I siftedbeans from dirt, placed beans, dirt, the bit of water I had planned to use for grinding the last dried corn. What is a little dirt, I thought, the same dirtin which I grew these beans. A child should not see a mother starve to death. [End Page 12] A mother should not hear that her last daughter has disappeared.I bless this last child, daughter of my heart, the one I hoped would wrap my body in a serape and lay me next to her fatherat the edge of the church yard. I bless her journey, wishing her safe passage, fleet journey. I have said my prayersto the village saints. I have eaten my small meal. I will lay myself alongside her dog tonight. Perhaps tomorrow, more foodwill come my way. Again, I stay behind. I will wait and hope. [End Page 13] Diana Garcia Diana Garcia is a professor and codirector of the Creative Writing and Social Action Program at California State University, Monterey Bay. Her collection of poetry When Living Was a Labor Camp is an American Book Award Winner. She coedited Fire and Ink: An Anthology of Social Action Writing. Copyright © 2014 University of Nebraska Press

Dynamic Control of Auxin Distribution Imposes a Bilateral-to-Radial Symmetry Switch during Gynoecium Development

SummarySymmetry formation is a remarkable feature of biological life forms associated with evolutionary advantages and often with great beauty. Several examples exist in which organisms undergo a transition in symmetry during development [1, 2, 3, 4]. Such transitions are almost exclusively in the direction from radial to bilateral symmetry [5, 6, 7, 8]. Here, we describe the dynamics of symmetry establishment during development of the Arabidopsis gynoecium. We show that the apical style region undergoes an unusual transition from a bilaterally symmetric stage ingrained in the gynoecium due to its evolutionary origin to a radially symmetric structure. We also identify two transcription factors, INDEHISCENT [9] and SPATULA [10], that are both necessary and sufficient for the radialization process. Our work furthermore shows that these two transcription factors control style symmetry by directly regulating auxin distribution. Establishment of specific auxin-signaling foci and the subsequent development of a radially symmetric auxin ring at the style are required for the transition to radial symmetry, because genetic manipulations of auxin transport can either cause loss of radialization in a wild-type background or rescue mutants with radialization defects. Whereas many examples have described how auxin provides polarity and specific identity to cells in a range of developmental contexts, our data presented here demonstrate that auxin can also be recruited to impose uniform identity to a group of cells that are otherwise differentially programmed.

Energy at the Junction of the Rivers Negro and Solimões, Contributors of the Amazon River, in the Brazilian Amazon.

The Negro and Solimoes rivers join in front of the Brazilian city of Manaus to form the Amazon River. This “meeting of the waters” is a natural phenomenon of great aesthetic beauty that has been the focus of attention of researchers all over the world in various scientific fields. The waters of the Negro are darker and warmer, while the waters of the Solimoes are lighter and cooler. These waters have very different characteristics and remain without mixing, flowing side by side for several miles. Some reports indicate a temperature gradient between the waters of the order of 6°C, which can be used in conjunction with very high flow rates delivered by the two rivers, with a heat engine operating on a thermodynamic cycle to provide electricity. This review paper identifies this energy resource and presents a preliminary assessment of the potential for power generation. A realistic assessment of the potential points to an available power of about 1 GW. It is clear that further studies are needed to accurately assess the available thermal gradient and its variation over time, to move forward in the design of the power converter, and to establish an appropriate location for a power plant.

Guest Editorial 7th Triennial Special Issue on Images in Plasma Science

The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words,” while used to the point of being trite, conveys a deep truth. Humans remain a highly visually driven species, using images to convey information in all areas of endeavour, ranging from the arts and humanities to hard science. As an added benefit, much as in the photography of natural scenes, such as mountain ranges or alpine lakes, scientific images can convey great and profound beauty. Thus, images from the Hubble Space Telescope inspire awe and admiration as well as convey scientific truths about the origin and evolution of the universe.

The Soul Craft of K’dushah B’tzibbur

The Soul Craft of K’dushah B’tzibbur Lilly Kaufman (bio) They Are So Different They are so different, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the Psalmist. Isaiah wanted to join the heavenly choir (Isaiah 6:1–6); Ezekiel wanted to locate God (Ezekiel 3:12); the Psalmist wanted to crown God who attends to the disadvantaged (Psalm 146:10). They want different things, and yet they are joined together in k’dushah b’tzibbur, the communal cantata of holiness, chanted whenever we repeat the Amidah in a minyan. The question is: why bring these three different voices together? Isaiah aspires to be one of the angels who gather around God’s throne, singing “Holy, holy, holy, Adonai of Hosts, the whole world is filled with God’s Presence” (Isaiah 6:3). The only obstacle is his unclean lips. An angel rushes over with a hot coal and purifies his lips, and he can then sing their pure song about God’s Presence on earth, with an orderly and magnificent group of devoted singers. Ezekiel is caught up in turmoil, both natural and supernatural. The wind lifts him up, and he hears behind him, “Blessed is the Presence of Adonai from God’s place.” Why mi-m’komo, “from [God’s] place’? It appears to be a milah y’teirah, a superfluous word, which emphasizes, in an atmosphere of wind and noise (powerful elements that have neither beginning nor end), that God’s place can be located. Through and despite chaos, God can be found. Isaiah and Ezekiel serve as intentional foils in the spiritual masterpiece of the Kedushah liturgy. As a corrective to Isaiah’s vision of an orderly choir where solutions are prompt and clear-cut, the inclusion of Ezekiel’s vision [End Page 135] of heaven signals that truth-seeking can at times be paradoxical, impassioned, and disorderly. Conversely, as a counterpoint to the disorder of Ezekiel’s heaven, Isaiah’s vision provides the promise of stability, of an exalted home we might wish to travel to one day and whose radiant transcendence we glimpse at rare moments in life. These two prophetic visions are about the inner life. For those whose spiritual energy is directed outward, we have the verse from Psalms. The Psalmist wants to enthrone on earth the God who lifts up the downtrodden, secures justice for those who are wronged, gives food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, restores sight to the blind, makes those who are bent stand straight, loves the righteous, watches over the stranger, gives courage to the orphan and widow, but makes the path of the wicked tortuous. It is these actions of God that the Psalmist wants to enthrone forever among the people of Israel. Three different scenarios, three different yearnings, three different aspects of k’dushah (holiness). Why? These are three different yet equally central human aspirations toward holiness and toward God. Three Central Human Aspirations Toward God Isaiah seeks to join a community that exists to serve God and which is characterized by purity. He wishes to be part of something larger than himself: something of great beauty, serenity, and power. Self-perfection is closely associated with this yearning, because heaven is an environment of purity. This religious personality is the eager servant for whom order and purity are evidence of holiness.The Isaiah text itself models succinctness, a stylistic purity, conveying its powerful vision in a mere six verses. After Isaiah sees this vision, God appoints him to be a prophet. Ezekiel seeks to locate God through heavenly turmoil, in which natural phenomena occur in magnified, supernatural proportions. He hears rather than sees God, in a setting that threatens to confuse and harm him. His redemptive hearing pierces the noise and wind, finding God in a desperate situation. Ezekiel’s chaotic heavenly vision is expressed over whole chapters, in which each word clarifies less. After Ezekiel’s visions, God appoints him to be a prophet. In Psalm 146, we find a catalog of human needs that God attends to personally and with compassion. This list of God’s acts of hashgaḥah p’ratit [End Page 136] (individualized attentiveness) forms the basis of our morning blessings. As we...

Making sense in biology: an appreciation of Julian Lewis

Making sense in biology: an appreciation of Julian Lewis

The great beauty: a neuroaesthetic study by neuroelectric imaging during the observation of the real Michelangelo's Moses sculpture.

Recent studies have been showed as the perception of real or displayed masterpieces by ancient or modern painters generate stable neuroelectrical correlates in humans. In this study, we collected the neuroelectrical brain activity correlated with the observation of the real sculpture of Michelangelo's Moses within the church where it is actually installed in a group of healthy subjects. In addition to the cerebral activity also the heart rate (HR) and the galvanic skin response (GSR) were collected simultaneously, to assess the emotional engage of the investigated population. The Moses sculpture was observed by the group from three different point of views, each one revealing different details of the sculpture. In addition, in each location the light conditions related to the specific observation of the sculpture were explicitly changed. Results showed that cerebral activity of the subjects varied significantly across the three different views and for light condition against no light condition (p<;0.04). Furthermore, the emotional engage estimated on the whole population is higher for a point of observation in which the Mose's face is directed toward the eyes of the observers (p<;0.02). Finally, the cerebral appreciation of the investigated group was found maximum from a perspective in which all the details of the sculpture could be easily grab by the eyes. Results suggested how the perception of the sculpture depends critically by the point of view of the observers and how such point of view can produce separate emotional and cerebral responses.

Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, c. Third Century B.C. to Fifth Century A.D. by Julia Shaw (review)

Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, c. Third Century B.C. to Fifth Century A.D. Julia Shaw. London: The British Association for South Asian Studies, 2007. 359 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9553924-4-3. Hardcover: $99.00. For the scholar of South Asian art history, a visit to the Buddhist site at Sanchi in central India is akin to an encounter with a movie star. As the scholar circumambulates the main stupa (a domed structure designed to hold the relics of the Buddha or other esteemed members of the Buddhist community) and wanders among the other remains within the larger complex of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, the initial pleasure of recognition mingles with marvel at the great beauty and affective presence of these material remains. Lovely stone tree goddesses dangle from the first-century B.C.E.-first-century C.E. sandstone gateways. Crisply carved relief sculptures on these gateways invite the viewer to discover familiar stories, such as the Buddha's renunciation of the comforts of courtly life. Stone images of the Buddha from the fifth century A.D. quietly sit along the base of the much earlier stupa. The star-struck visitor encounters the polished remains of the famous stone pillar erected in the third century B.C.E. by the Emperor Asoka and the fifth-century C.E. Temple 17--perhaps the earliest extant freestanding temple in India! The ubiquity of Sanchi in introductory lecture courses and textbooks on South Asian art primes the art historian for such a visual experience of delight in recognition. Although the much-studied and well-known Buddhist remains at Sanchi occupy a prominent place within multiple fields of study, Julia Shaw shifts our gaze from the beloved artistic remains of this site to the landscape surrounding Sanchi and the nearby city of Vidisha in order provide a broader perspective on how this familiar monument functioned within the religious and social life of this region over a span of more than one thousand years. Shaw states that the primary aim of her fieldwork to achieve a less fragmented picture of Buddhist by combining the methods of landscape archaeology, and art and architectural history, while drawing on debates generated within religious studies and ancient Indian history (20). Begun in 1998, Shaws Sanchi Survey Project (SSP) mapped roughly 720 sq km of countryside and in the process revealed some 35 Buddhist sites, a network of dams, and numerous habitation settlements. Featuring almost 70 maps, charts, and tables and another 231 plates--including several never-before published photographs of sculptural remains --along with extensive appendices, this publication documents and analyzes many of the findings of the SSP. Indeed, Shaw has collected an enormous amount of data and clearly wrestled with how to include as much of that data as possible in this book while still presenting her overarching conclusions in a fashion that might be accessible to scholars across multiple disciplines. In her preface, Shaw mentions plans for a web-based version of the extensive database she has created, but at the time of this review, this website was not yet available. Nevertheless, the importance of the information gleaned through Shaw's fieldwork cannot be overstated. As she notes in her introduction, Shaw's intention to evaluate the underpinnings of religious change required her to reconsider certain conventional approaches to the study of ancient South Asian religions. Most notably, Shaw rethinks the emphasis on monumental sites that has colored much of the archaeology and art of ancient South Asia. By selectively drawing on new methodologies from the broader field of landscape archaeology, Shaw charts how she employed several approaches--including systematic village-to-village surveys and the analysis of satellite imagery--to expand the lens of previous archaeological investigations in this region. In particular, Shaw considered smaller, previously ignored sites and even non-sites, such as caves or the remnants of natural shrines, which have eluded earlier scholarly notice. …