176 research outputs found
Stigmatics and Visual Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy
Get PDFThis book places the discourse surrounding stigmata within the visual culture of the late medieval and early modern periods, with a particular focus on Italy and on female stigmatics. Echoing, and to a certain extent recreating, the wounds and pain inflicted on Christ during his passion, stigmata stimulated controversy. Related to this were issues that were deeply rooted in contemporary visual culture such as how stigmata were described and performed and whether, or how, it was legitimate to represent stigmata in visual art. Because of the contested nature of stigmata and because stigmata did not always manifest in the same form - sometimes invisible, sometimes visible only periodically, sometimes miraculous, and sometimes self-inflicted - they provoked complex questions and reflections relating to the nature and purpose of visual representation.
Dr Cordelia Warr is Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of Manchester, UK
Discretization of continuous features by human learners:
No full textNatural features are often continuous, but many models of human learning and categorization involve discrete-valued (e.g. Boolean) features. Discretization is well-known to be beneficial in machine learning, leading to faster and sometimes more accurate learning. Yet there has been little research on how human learners discretize continuous features. This dissertation investigates human discretization, focusing on two specific areas of inquiry. First is the hypothesis that discretization of a continuous parameter depends on the shape of the probability distribution underlying it, and principally on the presence of “modes” or separable peaks in the distribution. The second hypothesis is that humans create clear distinctions between discretized feature values, rather than probabilistic boundaries.
Subjects were presented with items that had feature values drawn from a mixture of Gaussian distributions, and a free sorting task was used to assess whether subjects spontaneously discretized the feature in a way that related to the underlying mixture. The relative locations of the two component Gaussians, their separation as measured by Cohen’s d (the ratio of the distance between the components’ means to their standard deviations), and the number of items drawn from the overall mixture were varied. Each of these factors influenced the way subjects discretized the features, while further analysis showed that the estimated mixtures were more sharply separated (higher Cohen’s d) than the original probability. This study suggests that human featural discretization involves a process akin to the estimation of mixture components in the environment, but that the separation among the components is systematically overestimated to create “cleaner” divisions than are truly present—a phenomenon that might be termed hyperdiscretization.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-60)by Cordelia D. Aitki
Detailed review of the novel Cordelia Underwood: Or the Marvelous Beginnings of
No full textDetailed review of the novel Cordelia Underwood: Or the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League, set in turn-of-the-century Maine, by Maine author Van Reid
La madre di carta. Cordelia Edvardson ed Elisabeth Langgässer
No full textThe work discusses Cordelia Edvardson's memories. The author is Elisabeth Langgässer's daughter, who survived as a young girl the camps at Theresienstadt and Auschwitz and was brought to Sweden after the war. The work focusses on the complexity of her familiy life, where she was the only one to be classified by the Nazi burocracy as "a full jewess"
Raman microspectroscopy interrogating 19th and 20th century painted trades union banners
No full textWe have previously developed protocols for the application of Raman microspectroscopy to studies on painted textiles. We have further assessed the value of such microanalyses in the identification of both inorganic and organic constituents, including original components and consolidants used in conservation treatments. This paper presents the results of a recent study on a number of 19th- and 20th-century trades union banners directed at collating a spectral database of inorganic pigments used in the illustrations and at probing the preparative process prior to painting. Such information will contribute to an understanding of the manufacture of such banners and their current condition, leading to the development of optimum conservation procedures.While Raman spectroscopy has the potential to be used in situ and, with the appropriate protocol, is non-destructive, nonetheless we have found that the analysis of resin-embedded cross-sections is to be preferred with microtoming providing the cleanest sample surface. The optimum methodology for acquiring good quality Raman spectra is described including operation in the confocal mode, with consideration of fluorescence, interference from resin, laser-induced photochemistry, and so on
Proving Stigmata: Antonio Daza, Saint Francis of Assisi and Juana de la Cruz
Get PDFThe Franciscan Antonio Daza, a native of Valladolid, published his Historia de las llagas de nuestro seráfico padre San Francesco in 1617. He intended to demonstrate that the stigmata of Francis of Assisi were miraculous and unique. Daza referred to Juana de la Cruz (d. 1534), a Poor Clare, whom he identified as providing evidence of the veracity of Francis's stigmata in her sermons, which had been collected by one of the nuns in her convent in a manuscript known as El Conhorte. Juana's sermons were defended as divinely inspired and thus her defence of the miracle of Francis's stigmata was regarded as based on information received directly from God. Yet Juana herself had, according to another work by Daza, the Historia, vida y milagros, éxtasis y revelaciones de la bienaventurada virgen Santa Iuana de la Cruz (first published in 1610) received painful marks on her hands and feet in 1524. This paper will consider the tensions evidenced in Daza's work and his tactics in attempting to demonstrate the unique nature of the stigmata of Francis of Assisi whilst at the same time apparently acknowledging a similar miracle experienced by Juana de la Cruz
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