Considering its richness, Greek and Roman art remains distinctly under-utilized in medical-historical studies of the period. It poses, of course, substantial methodological problems, as Grmek and Gourevitch outline in the introductory sections of their welcome overview of the pathological side of this subject. There is a realist strand in ancient art (particularly marked in the Roman era, with ...

Byzantine culture and aesthetics had a significant impact on the imagery of early Rus’—and not unidirectionally, but rather in form cross-cultural dialogue. Both traditional visual arts monumental temple architecture often present symbolic diversity as consequence cultural hybridism. So, through Biblical canon aesthetics, one can clearly see subjects symbols regional pre-Christian traditions. T...

The objective of this paper aims to propose an efficient method for recognizing and retrieving information from large image databases. We first provide an overview of current research on image information systems. We then propose a similarity calculation method based on multi-source analogy. To illustrate these ideas, a case study of the Dunhuang Frescoes retrieval and analysis system is presen...

The aim of this research is to demonstrate the usefulness of speckle, a trait of an expanded laser beam, for the non-destructive testing of artwork in both the imaging of subsurface structure and the quantitative detection of physical movement of canvas Laser Speckle Contrast Method (LSCI) is a useful method for the viewing of subsurface layers and movement. By investigating the statistical pro...

Fortunately, scholarly and political conferences have nothing in common. The success of a political convention depends on the generic agreement of the majority or totality of its participants. The use of votes and vetoes, however, is alien to scholarly discussion, where disagreement generally proves to be more productive than agreement. Disagreement discloses antinomies and tensions within the ...

With advancements in materials science over the past few decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of synthetic polymers by both artists and conservators. Synthetic polymers in items representing our cultural heritage occur either as original constituents of works of art or as materials used for conservation treatment, and these polymers include adhesives, consolidants, and protect...

Architecture is one of the fine arts— despite its high technical content. It belongs with painting and sculpture. Historically—from ancient Greece through Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance—painting and sculpture were closely associated with buildings. Sculptures and mosaics decorated buildings themselves—as, for instance, the Parthenon in Athens or the Byzantine churches— or they compl...

Evaporation of saline solutions from a porous medium often leads to the precipitation of salt at the surface of the porous medium. It is commonly observed that the crystallized salt does not form everywhere at the porous medium surface but only at some specific locations. To explain this phenomenon, we consider efflorescence formation at the surface of a saturated heterogeneous porous column (f...

This book considers Jesuit architecture through the lens of ‘propaganda’ and vice versa. Fascinated by apparent connections between Nazi propaganda and Jesuit architecture, Levy asks whether we might usefully think of early modern Jesuit architecture in terms of propaganda. Conversely, she suggests that National Socialist architecture was indebted to the Baroque: ‘That Speer and Hitler self-con...