Art, memory, and disappearance in contemporary Mexico: A conversation with Alfredo López Casanova

In his work, the Mexican sculptor Alfredo López Casanova pushes the boundaries of both art and politics. For Violence: An international journal, he takes a look back at his personal and collective trajectory, from his early and “natural” political and social commitment in his neighborhood to the tragic reality of contemporary Mexico. He reflects on several of his previous individual works, such as the bronze sculpture Fray Antonio Alcalde, and collective projects he is a part of, such as “Huellas de la Memoria” (Footprints of Memory). For the latter initiative, the intimate recollections of the families of disappeared persons are engraved on the soles of shoes, powerfully illustrating how the construction of memory goes hand in hand with calls for justice and truth.

Staging Gendered Authority: Donatello’s Judith, Lucrezia Tornabuoni de’Medici’s sacra storia, and the Somaesthetics of Justice

Chapter Three analyzes Donatello’s bronze sculpture of Judith, located in the garden of Palazzo Medici between the mid-1460s to the early 1490s, in relation to a sacred narrative of the Jewish heroine written by Lucrezia Tornabuoni de’Medici in the early 1470s. Considering the performative interplay between the matron’s words and the sculpture’s form, the chapter investigates the strategies by which Lucrezia’s text enlivens Donatello’s Judith as the sacred heroine of her story and somaesthetically situates her audience as “eye-witnesses” to a demonstration of justice. Ultimately, the chapter analyzes how the theatricality of viewing the sculpture in the garden simulated communal punishment rituals and contributed to a reaffirmation of Florentine values that bound the audience and author together.

HARPOCRATES WITH ROYAL ATTRIBUTES AND HARPOCRATES-EROS: EGYPTIAN TERRACOTTA FIGURINES FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, MOSCOW

This article introduces five terracotta figurines acquired in Egypt by Vladimir S. Golenishchev and N. G. Ter-Mikaelyan and currently preserved at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Three statuettes depict the child god Harpocrates with the attributes of royal power; two figurines demonstrate the identification of Harpocrates with the Greek god Eros. Most of the objects can be dated mainly to the Roman times, one is to be dated to the late Ptolemaic period. The places of finding or manufacturing of figurines are mostly unknown; however, according to a number of specific features, these could be towns of the Fayum Oasis, the Delta, and in one case — probably, Edfu. Terracotta figurines of Harpocrates with royal regalia are rare, especially in comparison with the wide-spread occurrence of terracottaе with Harpocrates holding a pot or cornucopia; all these data bring his functions as patron of fertility and defender of health to the fore. The presence of royal attributes seems to be a kind of secondary, partly decorative elements that only enhance the most popular aspects of terracotta images of Harpocrates. The type of figurines depicting Harpocrates sitting on a throne with the crown of the god Amun reproduces the iconography of small bronze sculpture. In other types of terracotta the royal attributes most frequently found are the double crown and — rarely — a nemes-headdress; the crown is usually surrounded by lotus buds, a favorite motive of Harpocrates’ iconography. The childish image of Harpocrates in the time of interaction between Eastern and Western cultures led to a natural synthesis of images of the child gods of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman worlds — Harpocrates and Eros. Apparently, such terracottaе, which had more Hellenistic than Egyptian features, were in demand by the population of different towns in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.

Buddhist collections at the Ural: history and present days

Статья посвящена музейным и частным собраниям буддийского искусства на Урале как особому феномену в истории отечественной и региональной культуры. Указаны основные музейные институции (среди них Екатеринбургский музей изобразительных искусств, Челябинский музей изобразительных искусств, Свердловский областной краеведческий музей, частные коллекции А.В. Глазырина и О.П. Малахова), проанализирован их состав и особенности формирования в ХIХ-ХХ вв. Выделены два основных источника попадания буддийской бронзы на Урал в течение последних двух веков: собрания купечества и промышленников и репрессированная бронзовая скульптура, привезенная в регион во время Великой Отечественной войны. The article is devoted to museum and private collections of Buddhist art in the Urals region, as a special phenomenon in the history of national and regional culture. The author indicates the main museum institutions, their composition and the specifics of formation in the 19th-20th centuries. In particular, the Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, the Chelyabinsk Museum of Fine Arts, the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, private collections of A.V. Glazyrin and O.P. Malakhov. Two main sources of Buddhist bronze entering the Urals during the last two centuries are distinguished: a collection of merchants and industrialists and a repressed bronze sculpture, which was bringing to that region during the Second Great World War (1941-1945).

Chinese bronze sculpture masterpieces from the beginning of the 15th century in the collection of the State Hermitage

Статья посвящена описанию редких буддийских скульптур, относящихся к тибето-китайскому стилю, из коллекции Государственного Эрмитажа. Автор отмечает черты взаимного влияния китайской скульптуры времени Юнлэ и тибетской и непальской бронзовой пластики. Подробно анализируются бронзовые скульптуры XV века: Будда Шакьямуни, Авалокитешвара Шадакшари, Бодхисаттва Майтрея, Манджушри, Амитаюс и Рактаямари периода Юнлэ и скульптура Авалокитешвары в форме Кхасарпана периода Сюаньдэ. The article describes rare Buddhist sculptures belonging to the Tibetan-Chinese style from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum. The author notes the features of the mutual influence of Chinese sculpture of the Yongle period and Tibetan and Nepalese bronze plastics. The article contains a detailed analysis of bronze sculptures of the 15th century: Buddha Shakyamuni, Avalokiteshvara Shadakshari, Bodhisattva Maitreya, Manjushri, Amitayus and Raktayamari of the Yongle period and sculptures of Avalokiteshvara in the form of Khasarpan of the Xuande period.

The Ornithomorphs of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University and the Center of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Chelyabinsk

This article publishes new archaeological materials that came to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University and the Center of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Chelyabinsk in 2015–2017. Materials of so-called “hoards” of ornithomorphs are extremely rare in the Northern areas of the Southern Trans-Urals. Therefore, the discovery of new objects of small bronze sculpture in storage facilities is of great scientific interest. The main area of distribution of “hoards” is connected with the territory of the forest–steppe zone of the Middle Urals, where the “settlements” and “sanctuary” complexes of Itkul culture of the 6th – 3rd centuries BC were located. Finding ornithomorphs in the forest-steppe zone of Chelyabinsk region extends the border of the influence of Itkul archaeological culture carriers far to the South. Ornithomorphs are traditionally associated with religious beliefs of Itkul culture carriers. As a rule, ornithomorphs are found in places where ancient “sanctuary” complexes were located: on mountain tops, in rocks or at the foot. In our case, the findings came from areas where there are no mountains or mountain outliers. These findings are from the cape hills of the South Ural lakes. The random detection of ornithomorph collection, unfortunately, does not allow to accurately determine the location of the “sanctuary” complexes. It allows to determine only the area of their approximate location. The article provides a detailed description of ornithomorphs and proposes their typology. The collection includes a variety of ornithomorphs, which can be attributed to six typological groups, and their transitional forms can be allocated. Finding a bronze arrowhead allows us to offer a conditional dating of “hoards” within the 4th century BC.

A Fragment of a Monumental Bronze Statue, Lincoln

ABSTRACTA fragment of Roman monumental bronze sculpture was discovered near Lincoln in 2015 and reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This note offers identification of the piece as an over-life-size finger, describes comparable examples and similar pieces from the local area, and makes suggestions as to the original form of the sculpture from which it may have derived. The statue's metallurgical characteristics and making, the possible context of display and the circumstances of deposition are also considered.

Casting Light on 20th-Century Parisian Artistic Bronze: Insights from Compositional Studies of Sculptures Using Hand-Held X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Paris was home to scores of bronze foundries making it the primary European center for the production of artistic bronzes, or bronzes d’art. These foundries were competitive, employing different casting methods—either lost-wax or sand casting—as well as closely guarded alloy and patina recipes. Recent studies have demonstrated that accurate measurements of the metal composition of these casts can provide art historians of early 20th-century bronze sculpture with a richer understanding of an object’s biography, and help answer questions about provenance and authenticity. In this paper, data from 171 20th-century bronzes from Parisian foundries are presented revealing diachronic aspects of foundry production, such as varying compositional ranges for sand casting and lost-wax casting. This new detailed knowledge of alloy composition is most illuminating when the interpretation of the data focuses on casts by a single artist and is embedded within a specific historical context. As a case study, compositional analyses were undertaken on a group of 20th-century posthumous bronze casts of painted, unbaked clay caricature portrait busts by Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808–1879).

Can hyperspectral imaging be used to map corrosion products on outdoor bronze sculptures?

The application of hyperspectral imaging in the field of cultural heritage investigation is growing rapidly. In this study, short wavelength infrared hyperspectral imaging (960–2500 nm) has been explored as a potential non-invasive technique for in situ mapping of corrosion products on bronze sculptures. Two corrosion products, brochantite and antlerite, commonly found on the surfaces of outdoor bronze monuments, were considered. Their spatial distribution was investigated on the surface of the bronze sculpture The Man with the Key by Auguste Rodin in Oslo. The results demonstrate that hyperspectral imaging combined with image analysis algorithms can display the distribution of the two corrosion products in different areas (unsheltered and partially sheltered) of the sculpture.