Scene Interpretation Research Articles

The Use of Objects' Faces in Interpreting Line Drawings

The two parts, which this paper is composed of, deal each with scene interpretation via gaining understanding of the faces of the objects in the scene. The first part extends the set of rules defined in a previous work regarding the assembling of all lines belonging to the same face. The set of rules, originally defined for curved object, can be extended if we confine ourselves to polyhedra. In the second part, a new concept is defined and developed, which leads to a new way of looking at polyhedral line drawings. It puts under the same roof almost all consistency checks known for polyhedra, in a natural and simple way. Geometric inconsistencies as well as interpretations inconsistencies are treated uniformly and in a straightforward manner. Through this concept a way is suggested for acquiring some understanding of back faces, and for suggesting plausible interpretation for them. The generality of this concept is demonstrated through the fact that previously known catalogs of labeled junctions can be derived directly from this concept.

The Portland Vase again

In Euripides' Iphigeneia in Aulis the chorus at lines 1036–97 compares the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (1036–79) with the fate of Iphigeneia, brought to Aulis by the deceitful promise of marriage to Achilles in order to be sacrificed to Artemis (1080–97). Of the two scenes on the Portland vase (fig. 1), one has been persuasively identified as the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, with figures A, B, C and D representing respectively Peleus, Eros, Thetis and Poseidon or Zeus. The interpretation of the second scene, however, has proved more difficult. Here J. G. F. Hind has recently stressed the importance of the lowered wedding torch held by the central reclining female figure F. He suggests Dido for this figure with Aeneas as figure E and Venus or Juno as figure G, so that the whole vase becomes ‘an early imperial essay in adapting Hellenic legend to relate to Rome's past, and specially to Rome's Augustan present’. An alternative identification of figures E, F and G with Achilles, Iphigeneia and Artemis would give a simpler thematic unity to the vase's decoration and restore its character as a private object.

Aanvullingen op: Maerten van Heemskercks Familiegroep te Kassel

AbstractFurther to an earlier article on Maerten van Heemskerck's Portrait of Pieter Jan Foppesz. and his family (PP. 13-22), two points require additioytal comment. From information kindly supplied by Mr Gerhard Fries it appears that, before being purchased under Holbein's name by Wilhelm VIII of Hesse-Kassel, the picture was in the collection of Charles Cressent, the well-known Paris cabinetmaker and sculptor. It was included in the sale announced for January 15th (but postponed to 23rd ) 1749. The author overlooked an article by Hans Ost (note 3), who challenged the current interpretation of the picture as representing a couple with three children and advanced the idea that what was thought to be the youngest child should be seen as the Christ Child. This view, hazardous though it may seem, is plausible and fits in well with an interpretation of the whole scene as even more pervaded by religious symbolism than was hitherto thought. The wine in the man's glass would seem to refer to the blood of Christ, and the idea of Passion and Redemption, already recognized in the symbolic fruits on the table, is manifest in the presence of the Christ Child holding a crucifix. What is known about the birth-dates of the two children (Jan and Cornelia; the latter stated her age to be about 50 in 1578) does not lead to any change in the date of c. 1530 already proposed for the picture.

WHO ARE THE TRIBALISTS? SOCIAL PLURALISM AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY IN GHANA

THE LITERATURE ON African politics abounds with such terms as 'communalism', 'pluralism', 'tribalism' and 'ethnicity'. The meaning as well as the terminology varies. Those who talk of the 'search for national integration in Africa' use these terms to refer either to objective socio-economic disparities and cleavages, or to subnational loyalties and prejudices. For such writers the major theoretical and empirical problem is to determine the relationship between the two. For those, however, who see Africa's main problem as the subjugation of the masses by the national bourgeoisies, communalism emerges primarily as a form of false consciousness or at least a politically expedient interpretation of the contemporary scene which provides a 'mask for class privilege' and a means for the 'ideological containment' of the masses by the governing elites.2 The problem then is one of assessing the degree of autonomy of the ideology and its actual influence and impact upon the societies. Frequently the impression is given of an antagonism between the pluralist and

Interpreting three-dimensional scenes: A model building approach

A model-building approach to three-dimensional scene interpretation is described. It is represented as a set of programs called the EYE system and its emphasis is on the integration of depth and semantic information to form a three-dimensional model of a scene. The EYE system transforms an image into a model of a scene by successively converting it into region descriptions, surface representations, and finally, three-dimensional models of the objects in a scene. Depth cues provide relative and absolute depth and orientation estimates for regions. An iterative algorithm forms a set of surface descriptions which are globally consistent using the relative depth estimates to constrain the absolute depth estimates. Surfaces are grouped into distinct instances of objects using “long-term” object models represented with a semantic net. Results are presented for near views of color outdoor scenes. The central thesis of the EYE system is that there are several different types of depth cues and that while they can be computed independently they can be meaningfully interpreted only by combining the information from different depth cues under the guidance of semantic information about the objects in a scene.

The visions system

VISIONS (for Visual Integration by Semantic Interpretation Of Natural Scenes) 3 deals with the questions posited by the technical topic for the June SIGART Newsletter. E. Riseman and A. Hanson are developing the VISIONS research project with the long-range goal of analysing a wide variety of natural scenes. The problems incurred in machine interpretation of natural scenes are manifold. The three questions, however, do summarize several of the major thrusts of our effort.

Macbeth and His Porter

century of virtually unanimous commentary has reversed & M/A~ i Coleridge's dismissal of Porter and triumphantly returned him to play.' Even though integrity of Porter Scene can no longer be questioned, however, its precise significance still remains to be understood. Broadly speaking, function of scene would seem to be rhetorical; that is, its placement immediately after murder of Duncan suggests that its primary purpose is to adjust and clarify audience's response to Macbeth's deed. scene can best be approached, then, as a truncated subplot which reflects certain concerns of main action. crucial question is how Porter Scene comments on Macbeth. traditional response to question has been to invoke principle of contrast. In its most unsophisticated form, this response appeals to comic relief to justify scene. De Quincey's famous essay On Knocking at Gate in in effect moralizes this simple conception of comic relief by stressing how the has made its reflux upon fiendish.2 Similarly, one of most thoughtful recent discussions of scene utilizes principle of contrast to assert that The simpler vices of Porter serve to establish an ethical distance between failings of humanity and evil now within castle walls . (Harcourt, p. 397). To contrast Porter with Macbeth is inevitably to juxtapose ordinary and human against monstrous and fiendish. Such lurid contrasts do not lead us far into world of play. contention of this essay is that traditional interpretation of scene is completely mistaken. A close reading of text will indicate that relationship between Macbeth and Porter is not based on contrast. Rather, Porter's significance resides in his similarities to his master; he shakily stands as a metaphor or figure for Macbeth. ultimate function of scene is to humanize murderer by forcing us to recognize him in ordinary Porter and perhaps in ourselves as well. At outset, one should note that Porter Scene is suffused with irony. Porter's entrance immediately after Macbeth's anguished cry Wake Duncan with thy knocking, I would thou could'st creates a bitterly ironic

The Boston relief and the religion of Locri Epizephyrii

The three-sided Boston relief (Plate XIIIa), which is to be dated in the second quarter of the fifth century, has been the object of a long controversy with regard both to its subject matter and to its authenticity, which has been doubted by some scholars. The authenticity of the monument will be taken for granted here, since the work of Jucker, and especially the recent exhaustive stylistic and scientific study by Ashmole and Young leave no possible room for doubting it. Another aspect of the relief which I will take for granted in this paper is the artistic milieu which created it, since it has been convincingly shown that it is of South Italian, and more specifically Epizephyrian Locrian, origin. The object of the present paper is to discuss the iconography of the monument, especially with reference to the cult and religious environment of the city in which it was produced.The interpretation of the central scene and the two side-panels of the Boston relief is still a matter of controversy, although many hypotheses have been put forward since the monument first appeared in the antiquities market. Discussions of the iconography of this relief tend more often than not to connect the problem, in some way or other, with the subject matter of the Ludovisi throne (Plate XIIIb), another three-sided relief belonging to the artistic environment of Locri Epizephyrii, but of a much higher artistic quality. The interpretation of the scenes on the Ludovisi throne has not provoked the same amount of controversy, and it would, I think, be a fair statement that the interpretation of the central representation as the birth of Aphrodite is now generally accepted—more accurately, it is the new-born Aphrodite being assisted out of the sea, and to the shore, by the Moirai or the Horai. On each of the side-panels a female figure is shown, a naked pipe-player on one, a heavily draped young matron burning incense in a thymiaterion on the other. They have been interpreted as hetaira and young bride or wife, two contrasting figures associated with Aphrodite's Locrian cult.

The Love Triangle in Joyce's 'The Dead'

James Joyce's 'The Dead,' by nearly unanimous consent, is thought to be among the greatest works of short fiction in our language. Yet, curiously, despite general agreement about its worth, anyone who has frequently discussed or taught the story discovers that readers differ radically in their interpretations of its essential elements. Key issues of controversy are the nature of Gabriel Conroy's marriage to Gretta, and the tone and implications of the story's climactic scene. These questions are, of course, interdependent: any interpretation of the hotel-room scene depends upon how one has come to understand and to judge Gabriel and his marriage, from the evidence of the preceding narrative. A sensitive reading of the Michael Furey episode is particularly important in clarifying these issues, and is an element often oversimplified in a way that distorts interpretations of the entire story. Clear resolution of these questions must precede appreciation of the work's full complexity.

Wege und Irrwege der politischen Geographie und Geopolitik

Wege und Irrwege der politischen Geographie und Geopolitik

A New Pontic Amphora

The amphora here published (Plates XLIII–XLIV) was acquired for the Reading University collection on the London market in 1947. Nothing is known of its provenance. A detailed description with full illustrations will be given in the first Reading fascicule of the Corpus Vasorum, but so notable an addition to the Pontie series (to keep this convenient and generally used name for these vases which are now universally agreed to have been made in Etruria) calls for more comment than is desirable in a Corpus publication. The vase has a triple interest: it has unique pictures of scenes from the Troilus story, it affords new material for the study of the Pontic series, and it helps to connect Etruscan vase paintings with the wall paintings of Etruscan tombs. It thus provides a new item in a group of monuments which I have long believed to have been the source of a whole series of statements about the history of the Tarquin family which were dismissed by historians of the last century as obvious inventions, but which are in all probability the only statements about them which are in fact based on contemporary sources, that is to say, the archaeological material of which we can now speak with some assurance thanks to the work of Beazley and members of his school.To begin with the pictures on our vase. When I first saw it the gaily coloured pictures at once recalled the painting of Achilles lurking behind the fountain on the wall of the Tomba dei Tori at Tarquinia. The interpretation of the actual scene I owe to Beazley, who has described it with his usual pregnant brevity in Etruscan Vase Painting2 as ‘a unique representation, in a furious style, of Achilles carrying Troilos to the altar of Apollo’ (Plates XLIII, b and XLIV, a). This final scene of the Troilus tragedy appears comparatively seldom on vase paintings, and, where it does occur, never, as far as I am aware, depicts this precise moment. Generally Achilles has reached the altar and Troilus is either being killed or has been killed already.