Drawing Kafka’s Castle

We investigated the effects of narrative perspective on mental imagery by comparing responses to an English translation of Franz Kafka’s Das Schloß (The Castle) in the published version (narrated in the third person) versus an earlier (first-person) draft. We analysed participants’ pencil drawings of their imaginative experience for presence/absence of specific features (K. and the castle) and for image entropy (a proxy for image unpredictability). We also used word embeddings to perform cluster analysis of participants’ verbal free-response testimony, generating thematic clusters independently of experimenter expectations. We found no effects of text version on feature presence or overall entropy, but an effect on entropy variance, which was higher in the third-person condition. There was also an effect of text version on free responses: Readers of the third-person version were more likely to use words associated with mood and atmosphere. We offer conclusions on “Kafkaesque” aesthetics, cognitive realism, and the future of experimental literary studies.

История художественного собрания Н.Е. Добычиной в послереволюционные годы: состав и проблемы бытования

Nadezhda Evseevna Dobychina, whose name is strongly associated with the Art Bureau, which operated in St. Petersburg (Petrograd) from 1911 to 1919, possessed a significant collection of works of art by her contemporaries. The central part of the collection consisted of the works of the artists of the “World of Art” (“Mir Iskusstva”) circle, as well as the associations “Blue Rose” and “Union of Russian Artists”. From the lists of the collection preserved in the Dobychina’s archive, made at the initiative of representatives of the Soviet state in 1919, 1924 and 1930, one can trace how the collection developed in the first post-revolutionary decade. Nadezhda Dobychina gave preference to figurative art, in her property there were practically no abstract works, and the leftist trends of the avant-garde were also not represented. Most of the works kept by Dobychina were graphics (watercolors, pencil drawings and charcoal sketches), however, it should be noted that a block of bright paintings, perfectly combined in style and color, stood out in her collection (“Dawn” by D.S. Stelletsky, “Heat” by M.S. Sariyan, “Portrait of Dobychina” by N.I. Altman and others). The collection changed over time, but its central part remained unchanged despite all the vicissitudes of the owner's eventful life. Надежда Евсеевна Добычина, имя которой прочно ассоциируется с Художественным бюро, функционировавшим в Санкт-Петербурге (Петрограде) с 1911 по 1919 год, обладала значительной коллекцией художественных произведений своих современников. Центральное место в собрании занимали мастера круга «Мира искусства», а также объединений «Голубая роза» и «Союз русских художников». По сохранившимся в архиве Добычиной спискам коллекции, сделанным по инициативе представителей советской власти в 1919, 1924 и 1930 годах, можно проследить, как развивалось собрание в первое послереволюционное десятилетие. Надежда Добычина отдавала предпочтение фигуративному искусству, в ее собственности практически не было абстрактных работ, а также не представлены были левые течения авангарда. Большая часть произведений, хранимых Добычиной, — это графика (акварели, карандашные рисунки и наброски углем). Однако следует отметить, что в ее собрании выделялся блок ярких живописных работ, прекрасно сочетавшихся по стилю и колориту («Заря» Д.С. Стеллецкого, «Зной» М.С. Сарьяна, «Портрет Добычиной» Н.И. Альтмана и другие). Состав коллекции менялся с течением времени, но костяк ее оставался неизменным, несмотря на все перипетии богатого событиями жизненного пути владелицы.

Dokumentacja rysunkowa sarkofagów królewskich z katedry na Wawelu ze zbiorów Muzeum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego i jej wykorzystanie podczas prac konserwatorskich

Pictorial documentation of the Royal Sarcophagi from the Wawel Cathedral in the Jagiellonian University Museum Collection and its use during conservation work In the 1870s, during renovation works in the crypts under the Wawel Cathedral, which were carried out in order to adapt them for visitors, a detailed inventory was created of the sarcophagi from the Royal Tombs. This documentation, which is now stored in the collections of the Jagiellonian University Museum, was initiated by Prof. Józef Łepkowski, a researcher of exceptional merit in the inventory and documentation of historical objects. Pencil drawings, watercolors and pencil frottages were made by Kraków painters and students of the School of Fine Arts. Each of the renovated coffins was meticulously documented in every detail and it also includes reproductions and frottages of memorial plaques. These materials constitute an invaluable base, both as an iconographic source for the art historian and for the conservator during conservation activities. They were used during the recent restoration and conservation of the metal royal sarcophagi carried out by the monument conservation workshop of Agnieszka and Tomasz Trzos. Analysis of the preserved iconographic sources collected by an art historian and of the material research performed by restorers permitted not only the reconstruction of the original color scheme of the royal sarcophagi, but also allowed the restoration of Sigismund II Augustus’ coffin to its primary form. The effects of this conservation work attest to the crucial role of a meticulously prepared documentation.

A Method for Group Decision Making Involving Subjective Perceptions of Experts’ Judgement: A Case of Art Student Placement Process

Evaluation of artistry mostly depends on subjective perceptions of experts. As a decision-making process, it involves imprecision and fuzziness, and it is difficult to justify the process. Most art programs’ admission process involves evaluation of the candidates’ pencil drawings and selecting students among competing candidates. Using a justifiable process is essential for the administrators of art programs. Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods provide convincing results for real-world problems involving imprecise and fuzzy data. In this study, a modified version of the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and TOPSIS methods are proposed for the art student placement process. Delphi technique is used for identifying the evaluation criteria and the FAHP method is used in obtaining the importance of criteria. Rankings of the candidate students are determined using the TOPSIS method. The resulting rank order of drawings is evaluated by the committee members for validating the performance of the proposed method.

The Abyssinian Art of Louis Agassiz Fuertes in the Field Museum

This book documents the paintings and drawings executed by Louis Agassiz Fuertes during the Field Museum of Natural History’s seven-month expedition to Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in 1926–27. During that time Fuertes completed 70 field watercolors that illustrate 55 species of birds and four species of mammals. He also executed 34 pencil drawings, which illustrate 13 species of mammals and 11 species of birds, plus numerous miscellaneous sketches and small watercolors. This book identifies and describes the biology of all 69 species of birds and mammals illustrated by Fuertes and includes 32 color reproductions of Fuertes’s watercolors that were published as a limited-edition album in 1930 by the Field Museum. The 60,000-word text provides brief summaries of all these species’ ecology, behavior, and reproductive biology as well as information about their current populations and conservation status. A review of Fuertes’s life, his influence on modern bird and wildlife art, and his participation in and artistic contributions to the Field Museum’s Abyssinian Expedition is also included, as well as more than 250 bibliographic citations.

New Insights into the Step Pyramid Complex: Klasens’ Unpublished Seal Impression Drawings

The Egypt Exploration Society archive contains unpublished pencil drawings by A. Klasens of seal impressions found in the Step Pyramid complex of Saqqara. Digitally inked versions of these drawings are published here for the first time. The seal impressions can be sourced to the Northern Galleries of the complex. The impressions were sealed on clay formerly plastered on a wall, and also bore the imprints of the end(s) of cylinder seals. To explain the presence of seal impressions of Khasekhemwy among the sealings drawn by Klasens, an attempt is made to trace the construction and use history of the Northern Galleries and the contemporary Western Galleries. Possible parallels between some of the Step Pyramid sealings and Beit Khallaf sealings are also discussed.

Construction of $\mathbb{AND}-\mathbb{OR}$ subgraph of a DAG

The aim of this paper is to provide some deviating approaching method to create mathematical claimswith Sharygin’s pencil drawings. Readers are encouraged to read this article with one piece of paper and a pencil tonote whatever is intuitive to understand what follows.

Breyten Breytenbach, A Monologue in Two Voices/Sandra Saayman

In A Monologue in Two Voices, Sandra Saayman argues that Breyten Breytenbach’s poetry and prose should be read alongside his paintings and drawings. The book focuses particularly on the literary and visual texts that Breytenbach produced during and about his imprisonment in the 1970s and 1980s. Saayman considers not only representations of the personal experiences of the author/artist but she also identifies instances in which Breytenbach engages with broader political issues including the death of Steve Biko, progressive Afrikaner identities, and postapartheid nationalism. Much of the book’s archival and academic value lies in its beautiful reproductions of more than 40 of Breytenbach’s drawings and paintings, including nine pencil drawings that have never before appeared in print.