bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The World of Ostap Bender: Soviet Confidence Men in the Stalin Period
Authors: Fitzpatrick Sheila
Published: April 2006

In this article, Sheila Fitzpatrick investigates the phenomenon of Soviet conmanship in the Stalin period through the medium of conman stories, both real (as reported in newspapers and archives) and fictional. While attention is paid to the distinctive characteristics of conman stories as a discursive genre, die main emphasis is on the social. The article explores the sources and processes of the Soviet confidence trick, as well as showing how conmen and their exploits illuminate social, bureaucratic, and cultural practices. In the comparison of prewar and postwar periods, the “Jewishing” of the conman in postwar representation is discussed and related to the broader phenomenon of officially encouraged anti-Semitism in the late Stalin period.
Either German or Czech: Fixing Nationality in Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1946
Authors: Bryant Chad
Published: April 2006

In this article Chad Bryant examines how Nazi and postwar Czechoslovak officials defined and ascribed nationality in the Bohemian crownlands. Specifically, Bryant looks at how officials struggled to come to terms with so-called amphibians—people who could switch public nationality or whose nationality was unclear. Amphibians challenged officials to define what they meant by “Czech” or “German.” Although the definitions of what made a Czech or a German became increasingly absurd, confused, and contradictory from 1939 to 1946, officials continued to mark individuals as either Czechs or Germans, thus eliminating “amphibianism.” The state had now assumed the sole authority over the ascription of nationality in die Bohemian crownlands. The individual’s right to choose a public nationality—a fundamental aspect of prewar civil society—had been stripped away. The article ends with a glance at other European cases, and a suggestion for future studies of nationality politics in Europe during an era of unprecedented displacement and violence.
Beyond the Spontaneity-Consciousness Paradigm: “Class Instinct” as a Promising Category of Historical Analysis
Authors: Krylova Anna
Published: April 2006

Anna Krylova questions whether the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm, the standard interpretive approach toward Bolshevik thought in the field of Soviet studies, offers an exhaustive account of Bolshevik discourse. To do that she examines the centrality of V I. Lenin'sWhat Is to Be Done?(1902) in Bolshevik thought and points to the 1905 revolution as the formative event in the Bolshevik conception of the worker. Krylova introduces an overlooked Bolshevik notion of “class instinct”(klassovyiinstinkt, klassovoe chut'ie)and argues that the notion of “class instinct” centrally informed the Bolshevik vision of the worker, structuring her article as a dialogue between scholars of Soviet history and their historical subjects. In the conclusion, she suggests the consequences that such a broadened notion of the Bolshevik conception of proletarian identity—beyond the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm—has for interpretations of Bolshevik and Stalinist culture. In “A Paradigm Lost?” his response to Krylova's essay, Reginald E. Zelnik welcomes Krylova's “class instinct” thesis as a fresh enrichment of and supplement to the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm, but, he argues, if we place this language in its early historical context, we cannot avoid the conclusion that with or without the introduction of “instinct,” Lenin and the Bolsheviks still had to face the same kind of contradictions in their conceptualization of the role of workers in the revolutionary movement. The revolutionary value of particular consciousness or particular instinct still had to be judged in accordance with an external point of reference, the nature of which remained and remains elusive. Igal Halfin, in his response, “Between Instinct and Mind: The Bolshevik View of the Proletarian Self,” argues that the Bolshevik notion of the self indeed deserves careful scrutiny. Focusing on how the official Soviet language characterized the interaction between workers’ bodies and workers’ souls, Halfin argues that the synthesis of the affective and the cerebral was key to this construction of the New Man in the 1920s and 1930s.
Between Instinct and Mind: The Bolshevik View of the Proletarian Self
Authors: Halfin Igal
Published: April 2006

Anna Krylova questions whether the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm, the standard interpretive approach toward Bolshevik thought in the field of Soviet studies, offers an exhaustive account of Bolshevik discourse. To do that she examines the centrality of V I. Lenin'sWhat Is to BeDone?(1902) in Bolshevik thought and points to the 1905 revolution as the formative event in the Bolshevik conception of the worker. Krylova introduces an overlooked Bolshevik notion of “class instinct”(klassovyiinstinkt, klassovoe chut'ie)and argues that the notion of “class instinct” centrally informed the Bolshevik vision of the worker, structuring her article as a dialogue between scholars of Soviet history and their historical subjects. In the conclusion, she suggests the consequences that such a broadened notion of the Bolshevik conception of proletarian identity—beyond the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm—has for interpretations of Bolshevik and Stalinist culture. In “A Paradigm Lost?” his response to Krylova's essay, Reginald E. Zelnik welcomes Krylova's “class instinct” thesis as a fresh enrichment of and supplement to the spontaneity-consciousness paradigm, but, he argues, if we place this language in its early historical context, we cannot avoid the conclusion that with or without the introduction of “instinct,” Lenin and the Bolsheviks still had to face the same kind of contradictions in their conceptualization of the role of workers in the revolutionary movement. The revolutionary value of particular consciousness or particular instinct still had to be judged in accordance with an external point of reference, the nature of which remained and remains elusive. Igal Halfin, in his response, “Between Instinct and Mind: The Bolshevik View of the Proletarian Self,” argues that the Bolshevik notion of the self indeed deserves careful scrutiny. Focusing on how the official Soviet language characterized the interaction between workers’ bodies and workers’ souls, Halfin argues that the synthesis of the affective and the cerebral was key to this construction of the New Man in the 1920s and 1930s.
Oh, That! Myth, Memory, and World War I in the Russian Emigration and the Soviet Union
Authors: Cohen Aaron J.
Published: April 2006

Historians of Russia have not analyzed the roles that the memory of World War I played in Russian life, and Russia remains largely absent from comparative studies of the war and its legacy. Russian people did have “sites of memory” where they expressed myths, displayed symbols, and mobilized public opinion around the memory of World War I. Outside the Soviet Union, a non-Soviet Russian memory of the Great War flourished in the interwar years, and the war became an important memory that military émigrés used to overcome the rupture from the past (imperial Russia) and the present (Russian territory) caused by revolution and life in emigration. The war had a different expression in Soviet Russia, where journalists and publicists evoked its image, but not its historical content, to break the USSR from the Russian past and separate the first socialist society from its enemies in the present.
Who Voted Communist? Reconsidering the Social Bases of Radicalism in Interwar Poland
Authors: Kopstein Jeffrey S. , Wittenberg Jason
Published: April 2006

Research on the sources of support for the communists in interwar Poland has emphasized the role of ethnic minorities, especially the Jews. To what degree did Poland's national minorities vote for the Communist Party? Using census data and electoral returns on interwar Poland's 2*72 districts, as well as a new technique for inferring individual level behavior from aggregate level data, Jeffrey Kopstein and Jason Wittenberg generate reliable estimates of ethnic group voting behavior for the Sejm elections of 1922 and 1928. The results show that it is incorrect to speak of a unified minority vote. Communist parties received disproportionate support from Belarusans. By 1928 Ukrainians voted overwhelming for ethnonational parties. The bulk of Jews drifted into establishment politics, disproportionately supporting the pro-government bloc. Contrary to the myth of the “Jewish communist,” Jews provided only a small fraction of the electoral support for the communist parties. The evidence shows that not only were the overwhelming number of Jews not communist supporters but the vast majority of communist voters were not Jews.
Assumed Simplicity and the Critique of Nobility: Or, How Castiglione Read Cicero
Authors: Richards Jennifer
Published: April 2006

In book 1 of Castiglione'sII libro del cortegianoLodovico da Canossa'ssprezzatura— embodied in his pretended inability to teach us how to be perfect courtiers — is usually seen as consonant with the treatise's aristocratic bias, especially among its Anglophone readers. In this essay, I argue that study of Cicero's useof dissimulatio— or “assumed simplicity“— inDe oratorehelps us to understand the importance of indirection as a critical tool. I apply this insight to Canossa's apparently conservative treatment of nobility, and show how hissprezzaturademystifies (rather than mystifies) the source of noble self-expression. Canossa'ssprezzaturareveals howimitatiocan replace heredity as a means to elite status.
“There’s No Place Like Home”: Soviet Tourism in Late Stalinism
Authors: Gorsuch Anne E.
Published: April 2006

In this article, Anne E. Gorsuch explores the nature and meaning of tourism in the difficult and hungry years of late Stalinism. In this period of Cold War anxiety, tourism was seen as a means of reinforcing Soviet identity. Moscow was a particular focus of Soviet patriotic education, but tourism also contributed to the construction of Soviet identity on the larger collective level of the Soviet Union. Tourism was also offered as part of the cultured "good life" due loyal Soviet citizens. In every case, tourists were reminded that it was only within the borders of the socialist homeland that Soviet citizens could let down their guard and be confident of a warm welcome.
Richard Gough, James Wyatt, and Late 18th-Century Preservation
Authors: Frew John M.
Published: April 2006

James Wyatt's restorations of medieval churches are placed within their late 18th-century context and considered on the basis of those contemporary values, which underwent a crucial change during his lifetime. Richard Gough, Director of the London Society of Antiquaries, is a key figure in this regard. In the late 1780s, he publicly exhorted the Society to preserve and protect, as well as to study, medieval church architecture. Shortly thereafter, James Wyatt undertook restoration projects on Lichfield, Salisbury, Hereford, and Durham cathedrals, as well as on a number of other churches. Wyatt's work consisted of two types of alterations: "necessary repairs" and "improvements." He was biased toward improvements, which were not necessary structural repairs and often involved destruction of existing work. Wyatt's restorations aroused considerable controversy, and were continuously criticized by Gough and other antiquarians who advocated the preservationist viewpoint. Wyatt's 1797 election to the Society prompted Gough's resignation. In spite of these circumstances, the preservationists continued to object to Wyatt's restoration technique, and their attitudes continued to gain support.
The Palace of Sultan Mansur Shah at Malacca
Authors: Sherwin Michael D.
Published: April 2006

This article proposes a reconstruction, shown in scale drawings, of a palace built for a Malay Sultan, probably in the 1460s. The main aims of the discussion are to clarify the reconstruction, the problems surrounding it, and the reasons for arriving at this form; to place it in the context of region and epoch; and to elaborate on its salient aspects. The article begins with a brief account of Malacca in the 15th century, considers some of the cultural influences on it, and comments on the Malay Annals, a traditional history of the Malacca Sultanate and the sources for the account of the palace on which the reconstruction is based. The description of the building, remarkably lucid considering its age and circumstances, is translated. Various possibilities concerning the overall form of the palace are discussed, particularly two alternatives from the South East Asian area, and one is posited as being the basic forerunner and formgiver. The different parts of the building, particularly those mentioned specifically in the translated passage, are considered relative to the proposed reconstruction.
Roman Cities in the Province of Arabia
Authors: Segal Arthur
Published: April 2006

Each of the four cities considered in this study-Philadelphia, Gerasa, Bostra, and Philippopolis-presents its own individual urban growth and development. The specific planning of each city and the forces that formed their different urban natures are addressed. Particular stress is placed on the original planning solutions put to use within them, compared to the traditional forms then dominant. By outlining the urban architectural factors these cities had in common, it can be seen that the cities still embody architectural forms similar to one another, despite developmental, cultural, and historical differences.
What Remains of Man-Aldo Rossi's Modena Cemetery
Authors: Johnson Eugene J.
Published: April 2006

Aldo Rossi's Modena cemetery design of 1971 has been one of the most widely discussed architectural projects of the past decade. Now under construction, on the basis of a revised plan of 1976, Rossi's cemetery demonstrates his use of established architectural types, in unexpected combinations, to convey specific ideas about architecture and life. Some critics, such as Manfredo Tafuri, have taken the view that the meaning of Rossi's design cannot be verbalized. This article seeks to demonstrate that the opposite is the case. Here, Rossi's sources and writings are explored in tandem, in order to unravel the complex message contained in his cemetery design. In particular, Rossi's debts to Piranesi, Boullée. Loos, Hannes Meyer, Le Corbusier, and de Chirico are discussed. In addition, Rossi's uses of architectural types, autobiographical elements, and an anthropomorphic image are considered. Ultimately, the cemetery exemplifies Rossi's idea that architecture has a particular importance because it remains, through time, as a testament to humanity.
S. Ivo alla Sapienza and Borromini's Symbolic Language
Authors: Scott John Beldon
Published: April 2006

The symbolic content of Borromini's S. Ivo alla Sapienza is examined in the light of documents of the period, particularly the construction documents in the Archivio di Stato in Rome. This material makes a significant contribution toward resolving questions related to iconographic elements in the groundplan, spiral tower, and interior stucco decoration of the chapel. The determining factors for the symbolic meaning of the imagery of S. Ivo are shown to be the iconography of the saint, the ceremonial functions of the chapel, and the changing patronage of three popes. S. Ivo serves as a case study for Borromini's introduction of symbolic elements into the fabric and decoration of his works, demonstrating that the nature of that imagery-seen in its 17th-century context-is not esoteric and that our view of Borromini as a speculative thinker in architecture is exaggerated and anachronistic.
Jan Buijs and De Volharding, The Hague, Holland
Authors: Rehorst Chris
Published: April 2006

In 1927-1928 the Dutch architect Jan Buijs (1889-1961) built for the socialist co-operative "De Volharding" a stunning "glass house" in The Hague. The building was particularly remarkable for the revolutionary way in which Buijs interpreted his client's demand for a nighttime display of advertisements in the façades. At night De Volharding seemed transformed into a grand, luminous billboard. Although the building achieved an international reputation as a revolutionary example of the new architecture, its cubist-aesthetic appearance and its failure to conform to the tenets of the "New Objectivity" doomed it to oblivion during the 1930s. If we apply a view other than the polar, historical view of Dutch architecture, De Volharding and other buildings by Buijs appear to be, like the work of Dudok and Jan Wils, part of an independent trend that deserves to be studied in its own right. De Volharding was influenced by the art of De Stijl and by Russian constructivism, but the idea of incorporating light as Buijs did in this building originated with Paul Scheerbart and the expressionist circle around Bruno Taut, with whom Buijs was acquainted. The crystal world of his German friends fascinated Buijs; he was an ardent crystal collector who used sophisticated lighting to bring out the full beauty of his stones. In much the same way, De Volharding achieved its true significance by means of light. It became a beaconlight in the darkness, an example of an architecture of glass and light, and a symbol of the 1920s' optimistic expectations of the future society.
Inca Quarrying and Stonecutting
Authors: Protzen Jean-Pierre
Published: April 2006

Inca construction techniques have long been the subject of wild speculation. Investigations of ancient quarry sites and of numerous cut-stone walls reveal that the amazing Inca constructions were built with very simple means. Stones were selected out of rock falls or just broken out of a rock face with pry-bars. If the blocks needed to be parted, big hammerstones were used to split them. To dress the stones smaller hammerstones were used to pound them until they had the desired shape. The fitting of one stone to another was done by cutting the already laid stones to receive the next ones in a trial-and-error fashion. Experiments show that with this process stones can be mined, cut, dressed, and fit with little effort and in a short time.
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome: A Drawing and an Attribution
Authors: Plummer Ellen Annette
Published: April 2006

New visual and documentary evidence clarifies the modern history of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, one of Rome's oldest and most important churches. A previously unknown presentation drawing of the façade erected in 1741-1744 demonstrates that an evolution of stylistic concerns took place between its planning and execution and suggests that the originally intended scope of the renovation was never fully realized. Financial records from the Monte di Pietà di Roma and the Dataria Apostolica reveal that the patron, Benedict XIV, and his Cardinal Prodatarius, Pompeo Aldovrandi, drew heavily on the treasury of the Dataria for two years before its officials were aware that they were funding the renovation project. This ultimately unsuccessful practice contributed to the unfinished aspect of the façade and its flanking structures. The Monte di Pietà documents also reveal that the sole architect was Domenico Gregorini, firmly establishing that Pietro Passalacqua, who is often named as author of the façade of S. Croce or as collaborator in the design, played no major role in the commission.
Shivta-A Byzantine Town in the Negev Desert
Authors: Segal Arthur
Published: April 2006

Shivta, a Byzantine town settled in the 5th century and abandoned in the 8th or 9th century C. E., occupies an area of about 20 acres in the Negev desert 43 kilometers southwest of Beer-Sheva. Remains of terraces, dams, and other agricultural structures indicate that the town, which was far from the trade routes, existed mainly on agriculture. Examination of the town today shows that Shivta's three churches were the source of influence and authority not only in matters of religion and worship, but also apparently in the public, administrative, and economic life of the town. It appears, further, that Shivta, as it was built, offers nothing unique in comparison to other, similarly situated towns of the same period in Roman and Byzantine Palestine and the neighboring regions. Lacking an urban tradition, its inhabitants evidently were unconcerned with aesthetic values in town building. Shivta developed spontaneously, without a guiding hand or any effort to create a monumental emphasis.
Toward a Better Understanding of the Evolution of the Iron Skeleton Frame in Chicago
Authors: Larson Gerald R. , Geraniotis Roula Mouroudellis
Published: April 2006

William Le Baron Jenney and the Home Insurance Building have been given a pivotal position in many of the early histories of modern architecture, a reputation that has been consistently embroiled in controversy during the building's 100-year history. The context of the Home Insurance Building in Chicago's commercial building milieu immediately prior to Jenney's design of 1884 reveals that tall buildings constructed before the Home Insurance Building were called skyscrapers. Many of these earlier buildings, in fact, were even taller than the final height of the Home Insurance Building. A technical analysis of Jenney's final structural design reveals that it was neither conceived nor detailed as a rigid, independent iron frame. A recently discovered article on the potential of iron framing published by Chicago architect Frederick Baumann in March 1884, before Jenney even started designing the Home Insurance Building, not only disputes Jenney's reputation as the "father of the iron skeleton frame," but also exposes the antiquated nature of Jenney's actual structure and detailing.
The Geometry of Zoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara
Authors: Fonseca Rory
Published: April 2006

The Step Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara is examined from the point of view of constructive geometry and mensuration. The evidence is that it is based on geometric proportion, though this may simply be the outcome of peg-and-chord technology employed in setting out the monument. The procedure that the architect may have followed in setting out the monument is Ad Quadratum in its most elemental form.
What Brunelleschi Saw: Monument and Site at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence
Authors: Trachtenberg Marvin
Published: April 2006

Urbanistic practice in trecento Florence, although it spawned no codified theory, was more conceptually developed than we usually imagine. Buildings were forcefully presented and tautly interwoven with their sites by means of inventive, empirical procedures. Intricate webs of geometry structured architectural scenes of Giottesque three-dimensionality. Order and meaning were bestowed on urbanistic scenes that might well have become disordered and unfocused through the slow evolution and redesign of architectural projects. A pre-eminent case in point was the Piazza della Signoria. Documentary, archaeological, and historical evidence suggests that as the Palazzo Vecchio rose in 1299-1315, it underwent fundamental design changes largely inspired by the growing piazza around it and that the piazza itself, as it grew to its final form through the trecento, was guided with surprising precision by the visual demands of the palace, the medieval obsession with geometric structure, and the urbanistic patterns of the city.
The Gatehouse of the Shogun's Senior Councillor: Building Design and Status Symbolism in Japanese Architecture of the Late Edo Period
Authors: Coaldrake William H.
Published: April 2006

Gateways, or mon, have served as powerful symbols of authority throughout Japanese history. In particular the stately mon built for the Edo city residences of the regional lords expressed the dignity of high rank in the Tokugawa political and social order, but unlike their earlier counterparts in temples and palaces, they have been neglected as a subject for scholarly study. These gateways, virtually the only surviving examples of secular buildings from the great castle-city of Edo, clarify our understanding of the use of architectural style as a symbol of status in the period of Tokugawa rule (1603-1867). The Rōjūmon, or "Gatehouse of the Senior Councillor," is one of three well-preserved gatehouses dating from the last century of warrior government in Japan. Analysis of the structure of the building reveals the design principles upon which it was based and details of building practices at the time. The technical and stylistic features of the gatehouse are interpreted in the light of Tokugawa government laws and pictorial records to establish the importance of mon architecture as a status symbol in general terms and the precise meaning of this building as an example of the gatehouse type.
Optics and Mathematics in the Domed Churches of Guarino Guarini
Authors: Robison Elwin C.
Published: April 2006

The architecture of Guarini is distinguished from that of his Roman contemporaries by the complex geometries of his forms and the use of conic sections in his vaults. The use of advanced geometries in his domed churches was prompted not by numeric or structural theory but by optic considerations. The development of forced perspective in his vault shapes and use of light were influenced by theories on aesthetics and optics that were debated while Guarini was in Paris. The parallels between Guarini's architectural theory and that of Claude Perrault, as well as Guarini's unique aesthetic assessment of Gothic architecture, suggest that he developed these ideas during his four-year stay in Paris.
Scrolled Gables of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in the Low Countries
Authors: Schellekens Jona
Published: April 2006

Henry-Russell Hitchcock suggested that scrolled gables were a new element in the Low Countries introduced by Renaissance architects in the 1520s. It seems more likely, however, that the scrolled gable derived from Late Gothic Netherlandish prototypes, because of a later date for a façade that Hitchcock considered to be the oldest extant scrolled gable in the Low Countries; and because scrolled gables of a provincial character, which were not mentioned in Hitchcock's study, show more resemblance to Late Gothic prototypes.
The Houses of the Dandolo: A Family Compound in Medieval Venice
Authors: Schulz Juergen
Published: April 2006

In the present paper an attempt is made to reconstruct the residential compound in medieval Venice of doge Enrico and doge Andrea Dandolo and their kin, using early notarial drafts, charters, and inventories of documents. The history that emerges is compared with theoretical explanations for the existence in the Middle Ages of such family compounds, explanations which-at least in this one instance-are found wanting.
Re Reading the Encyclopedia: Architectural Theory and the Formation of the Public in Late-Eighteenth-Century France
Authors: Lavin Sylvia
Published: April 2006

Architecture is commonly considered the most public of the arts, as if inherently, even though the concept of the public only began to acquire its modern form in the course of the eighteenth century. Paradoxically, architecture itself promoted this assumption by helping to construct the public sphere during the same period. Architectural theory played a leading role in this negotiation-as a material product embedded in the publishing industry and in particular reading practices, and as a conceptual apparatus circulating in a new discursive realm. In the following essay, a text by Quatremère de Quincy that explicitly addressed the needs of a public in-the-making will serve as a vehicle for the examination of these larger issues.
Omar Khayyam, Mathematicians, and "Conversazioni" with Artisans
Authors: Özdural Alpay
Published: April 2006

The main purpose of this article is to substantiate the proposition that mathematicians and architect-artisans had collaborated through special meetings, called conversazioni in the text, for the application of geometry to architecture in the Islamic world. A meeting reportedly attended by Omar Khayyam furnishes convincing evidence for this proposition. The study expands on the untitled treatise written by Omar Khayyam as a response to a question raised at this meeting. The treatise is about a problem that concerns an ornamental pattern, the story of which can be traced in two other works on geometry: Abu 'l-Wafa' al-Buzajani's book, What the Artisan Requires of Geometric Constructions, and an anonymous Persian treatise on ornamental geometry, On Interlocking Similar or Corresponding Figures. While these three works are analyzed in the article, the wider implications of the collaboration between mathematicians and artisans concerning the field of architecture are discussed.
Guarino Guarini's Invention of the Passion Capitals in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Turin
Authors: Scott John Beldon
Published: April 2006

The Corinthian capital variant Guarini especially designed for the major order of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin serves as an example of the architect's concern with projecting meaning through architectural form. Employing construction documents from the Archivio di Stato in Turin, this study reconstructs the production history of the famous gilt-bronze "Passion capitals" of the chapel rotunda. The analysis contextualizes this unusual design, showing how Guarini responded inventively to the religious and political needs of the commission to provide an appropriately ornamented ambience for promoting the veneration of one of the central Passion relics of Christendom. Private devotional practices, Savoyard dynastic aspirations, and a moralized floral exotic all played significant roles in the creation of the new capital type as part of the larger program of the chapel. The view of Guarini that emerges from this investigation proves more tied to the prevalent expectations of seicento religiosity, patronage, and architectural culture than has often been allowed.
The Historical Demography of Architects
Authors: Stevens Garry
Published: April 2006

This paper presents a description and analysis of the demography of the community of notable architects from the Renaissance to the present day. The comprehensive Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects is used as the data source. As a historical description, the paper provides data on the growth in numbers and national composition of the architects included in the Encyclopedia; their activities outside architecture; their linkages, in the form of master-pupil and collegial relationships; and the pattern of their productivity through life. It shows unexpected patterns in the historical growth of this community. These are explained as the result of some simple but deep sociological properties.
Joseph Hudnut's Other Modernism at the "Harvard Bauhaus"
Authors: Pearlman Jill
Published: April 2006

Historians and critics have maintained that Walter Gropius dominated the Harvard Graduate School of Design between 1937 and 1952 and shaped it into the "Harvard Bauhaus." My essay instead argues that the GSD was far more complex and rich than this assessment would suggest. Joseph Hudnut, who founded the school in 1936 and served as its dean until 1953, played an equally significant role at the GSD as he pursued an alternative to Gropius's modernism there. While Gropius demanded that the GSD follow the Bauhaus approach, Hudnut-influenced especially by John Dewey and by the German city planner Werner Hegemann-was trying to root modern architecture and the Harvard school in the larger humanistic traditions of architecture and civic design. By the mid-1940s, Hudnut and Gropius began battling for control of the GSD. At issue was the fact that Gropius wanted to rebuild the Bauhaus at Harvard while Hudnut absolutely did not want the school to be remade in this mold. In particular, Gropius was determined to establish a preliminary course at the GSD identical to the famous Bauhaus basic course. On the defensive, Hudnut fought Gropius at every turn.
Displaying the Res Gestae of Augustus: A Monument of Imperial Image for All
Authors: Güven Suna
Published: April 2006

In the empire-building process of Augustus, visual propaganda played an important role. The public display of the celebrated inscription enumerating the Res Gestae, or achievements, of Augustus served to disseminate the imperial image simultaneously in Rome and in the remote highlands of Anatolia in the east. The message and intended meaning of the inscription derived not from content alone but architectonic placement. The article demonstrates the prevalence of mnemonic processes for ancient perception and evaluates the impact of the inscription through placement in a funerary context in Rome and in two precincts of the imperial cult in Anatolia. It is shown that all functioned to persuade and instruct different audiences in the process of creating an imperial image of unity.
An Inquiry into Thomas Jefferson's Ideas of Beauty
Authors: Hafertepe Kenneth
Published: April 2006

A careful reading of eighteenth-century aesthetics provides a view of Thomas Jefferson's thinking about art and architecture quite different from the existing scholarly paradigm. Jefferson owned, read, and quoted Enlightenment philosophy and criticism, most notably that of Henry Home, known as Lord Kames. Far from privileging reason over emotion, these philosophers held that all people are created with innate senses of beauty and morality, as well as a rational faculty. Because of the sense of beauty, certain qualities in objects can inspire the idea of beauty in the mind; other ideas of beauty are comparative, requiring use of the rational faculty. Jefferson's aesthetic theory was informed by his understanding of the human mind, which led to an architecture rooted in good proportion and to didactic paintings rooted in history ancient and modern. As with other Enlightenment thinkers, Jefferson endorsed the entire classical tradition, admiring not only the architecture of ancient Rome and modern Paris but also of Palladio and the French Baroque. Similarly, he admired the work of minor Baroque painters as well as the neoclassicism of Jacques-Louis David. Nor was Jeffersonian classicism nationalistic; rather, he endorsed the Enlightenment concept of a universal and uniform standard of taste.
From Caesarea to Athens: Greek Revival Edinburgh and the Question of Scottish Identity within the Unionist State
Authors: Lowrey John
Published: April 2006

In the early nineteenth century, the city of Edinburgh cultivated a reputation as "the Athens of the North." The paper explores the architectural aspects of this in relation to the city's sense of its own identity. It traces the idea of Edinburgh as a "modern Athens" back to the eighteenth century, when the connotations were cultural, intellectual, and topographical rather than architectural. With the emergence of the Greek revival, however, Edinburgh began actively to construct an image of classical Greece on the hilltops and in the streets of the expanding city. It is argued that the Athenian identity of Edinburgh should be viewed as the culmination of a series of developments dating back to the Act of Union between the Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707. As a result, Edinburgh lost its status as a capital city and struggled to reassert itself against the stronger economy of the south. Almost inevitably, the northern capital had to redefine itself in relation to London, the English and British capital. The major developments of Edinburgh in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including the New Town and the urban proposals of Robert Adam, are interpreted in this light. As the eighteenth century progressed, the city grew more confident and by the early nineteenth century had settled upon its role within the Union and within the empire, which was that of cultural capital as a counterbalance to London, the political capital. The architectural culmination of the process of the redefinition of Edinburgh, however, coincided with the emergence of another mythology of Scottish identity, as seen through the Romantic vision of Sir Walter Scott. It implied a quite different, indigenous architecture that later found its expression in the Scots Baronial style. It is argued here, however, that duality does not contradict the idea of Edinburgh as Athens, nor, more generally, does it sit uneasily with the Scottish predilection for Greek architecture, but rather that it encapsulates the very essence of Scottish national identity: both proudly Scots and British.
The Patronage of a Disenfranchised Nephew: Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the Restoration of San Crisogono in Rome, 1618-1628
Authors: Hill Michael
Published: April 2006

The article examines the restoration of San Crisogono in relation to the changing fortunes of its patron, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. Work began with the insertion of a ceiling, prompted by Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini's slightly earlier ceiling in the nearby Santa Maria in Trastevere. By the time the ceiling was installed, however, Paul V had died and Scipione was enduring the unsympathetic Ludovisi pontificate. The eventual upgrading of Borghese's intervention in the church to a full-scale restoration is set against Borghese's social revival following the ascension of the Barberini in 1623. In this environment, the church's extensive inscriptorial and emblematic imagery has a distinct meaning, albeit one transmitted via contemporary ideas of magnificence and cardinalate duties. Building on existing physical reconstructions and drawing mainly from archival sources, the article identifies a distinctive class of patron, peculiar to papal Rome-the disenfranchised nephew.
Afterlives of the Tour Saint-Jacques: Plotting the Perceptual History of an Urban Fragment
Authors: O'Connell Lauren M.
Published: April 2006

Appended to a medieval Parisian church in the sixteenth century and stranded by revolutionary destruction, the Gothic Tour Saint-Jacques figures prominently in the city's nineteenth- and twentieth-century architectural imagination. This study of the modern afterlives of an emblematic monument, featured in the projects of Haussmann, Le Corbusier, and the surrealists, uses the lens of "perceptual history," or a plotting of the ways in which the site has been read and inhabited over time, to argue that successive representations of a city fabric have a transformative effect on the lived reality of that fabric. To anchor this rumination within a larger speculation on the how and why of heritage making, we focus as well on the tower's emergent patrimonial status, consolidated by the physical fixes of repeated restoration and the fixing of its image by graphic and photographic representation. The traumas of the tower's particular semantic journey offer compelling evidence of the availability of symbolic redefinition as a viable and even necessary option for historic architectures under pressure in our inherited city centers. Repeatedly spared by its own mutability, the Tour Saint-Jacques would now appear inviolate, embraced as a trace of an unrecoverable past, a contact zone between contemporary Parisians and their forebears.
Expose Ignorance and Revive the "Bon Goût": Foreign Architects at Jacques-François Blondel's École des Arts
Authors: Schmidt Freek H.
Published: April 2006

This article focuses on four foreign architects who attended Blondel's school during the 1740s and 1750s: the Dutch architect Pieter de Swart, Sir William Chambers, and German architects Simon Louis du Ry and Karl Philipp Christian von Gontard. Through analysis of relatively unknown documentary evidence, the author reconstructs the actual content of Blondel's teachings. These sources underline Blondel's importance as a promoter of the study of architecture at all levels of society, a principal teacher of both theory and design, a master of spatial organization, a critic of contemporary architectural taste (Rococo and early neoclassicism), and an enthusiastic advocate of the interests of the architect as a professional in control of the entire building process. On the whole Blondel's views were heartily embraced by his foreign students. These facts suggest that, from an international perspective, Blondel should be regarded as a major propagator of the renewal and revival of the language of classicism and not merely as a traditionalist or as the last great theoretician of the Renaissance. Designs completed by his foreign students in their subsequent careers illustrate Blondel's efficacy in changing attitudes to classical architecture and theory, particularly outside France. After their schooling at Blondel's École des Arts, Chambers, de Swart, du Ry, and Gontard all rose to important positions in their homelands and, thanks to their acquired skills, used their education to redirect the practice of architecture. Moreover, their approaches to architectural education, theory, design, history, and contemporary taste clearly distinguished them as disciples of Blondel. To a large extent, they personified Blondel's new professionalism and were responsible for spreading his doctrine and renewed classicism throughout Europe during the second half of the eighteenth century and, at least in part, for carrying it well into the nineteenth century.
Accidental Affinities: American Beaux-Arts in Twentieth-Century Chinese Architectural Education and Practice
Authors: Ruan Xing
Published: April 2006

This essay looks at the adoption of American Beaux-Arts in China. China's first architecture school was established in the 1920s in Nanjing. The Nanjing School enjoyed a prosperous time in the 1940s when a group of young architects joined the faculty. Most of them had been trained in the 1920s at the University of Pennsylvania under Paul Philippe Cret. The most prominent among them was Yang Tingbao, a star pupil of Cret's. Yang became one of the most influential architects and educators in twentieth-century China, and he remained the spiritual leader of the Nanjing School until his death in 1982. The early history of Chinese architectural education and of Yang's practice shows accidental affinities that have marked the encounters between two cultural frames. Based on a selected "thick description" of Yang's teaching and architectural works between the 1920s and 1980s, this article suggests that the Beaux-Arts method, from its early contacts to its later transformations, has corresponded to Chinese artisan traditions in a series of interesting areas. They include the process of cultivation in producing and appreciating a craft, axial planning and space perception, and close collaboration between architects and builders. Instead of underlining cultural difference, I attempt to shed some light on the entangled nuances between the universal Beaux-Arts method and the traditions of one of its adopted localities, China.
Seats of Power: The Outdoor Benches of Early Modern Florence
Authors: Elet Yvonne
Published: April 2006

Outdoor public seating is an intriguing and virtually unstudied element in the history of western architecture and urbanism. This article focuses on Florence in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, tracing the numerous stone benches that once existed on piazzas, streets, loggias, and palace façades throughout the city. More than simply utilitarian appendages, the benches were carefully integrated into the design of iconic urban spaces and building fronts, both civic and private. The study draws on abundant and varied primary source material: contemporary chronicles, histories, letters, poetry, statutes, etiquette books, and architectural treatises, which provide a wealth of information on the use and form of the benches. Together with Renaissance images recording Florentine daily life, the documents reveal a rich culture and vocabulary of alfresco bench-sitting by people of all ranks, from government officials to vagrants. I examine the design, sociopolitical functions, and urban context of the benches. I propose that benches were part of the Tuscan urbanistic model for a civic piazza, and show how in Florence, the civic piazza was configured with tiered seats, exploring formal and semiotic resonances with the tribunal, theater, and council hall. I explore the appearance of stone façade benches on private palaces in fifteenth-century Florence. This was in part a monumentalization of a vernacular element, but I also suggest that for the Medici and other patrician builders, the bench was a direct reference to the civic center. The palaces valorized the stone façade bench for domestic architecture and codified it as a common element of Renaissance palace typology. References to contemporary seating provisions of other Italian towns and to precedents in Roman antiquity and late-medieval Italy provide context for the Florentine innovations. The bench emerges as a versatile element, both functionally and semiotically, which provides new insight into representations of power through the social control of outdoor space, and expressions of political ideology in urbanistic and architectural forms.
ATP‐Responsive Manganese‐Based Bacterial Materials Synergistically Activate the cGAS‐STING Pathway for Tumor Immunotherapy
Authors: Yang Huang , Yang Sisi , Guo Quanshi , Sheng Jifang , Mao Zhengwei
Published: February 2024

Stimulating the cyclic guanosine monophophate(GMP)‐adenosine monophosphate (AMP) synthase (cGAS)‐stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway is a crucial strategy by which bacteria activate the tumor immune system. However, the limited stimulation capability poses significant challenges in advancing bacterial immunotherapy. Here, an adenosine 5′‐triphosphate (ATP)‐responsive manganese (Mn)‐based bacterial material (E. coli@PDMC‐PEG (polyethylene glycol)) is engineered successfully, which exhibits an exceptional ability to synergistically activate the cGAS‐STING pathway. In the tumor microenvironment, which is characterized by elevated ATP levels, this biohybrid material degrades, resulting in the release of divalent manganese ions (Mn2+) and subsequent bacteria exposure. This combination synergistically activates the cGAS‐STING pathway, as Mn2+ enhances the sensitivity of cGAS to the extracellular DNA (eDNA) secreted by the bacteria. The results of the in vivo experiments demonstrate that the biohybrid materials E. coli@PDMC‐PEG and VNP20009@PDMC‐PEG effectively inhibit the growth of subcutaneous melanoma in mice and in situ liver cancer in rabbits. Valuable insights for the development of bacteria‐based tumor immunotherapy are provided here.
In Situ Mapping of Phase Evolutions in Rapidly Heated Zr‐Based Bulk Metallic Glass with Oxygen Impurities
Authors: Tidefelt Mattias , Löfstrand Julia , Goetz Inga K. , Donzel‐Gargand Olivier , Ericsson Anders , Han Xiaoliang , Jönsson Petra E. , Sahlberg Martin , Kaban Ivan , Fisk Martin
Published: February 2024

Metallic glasses exhibit unique mechanical properties. For metallic glass composites (MGC), composed of dispersed nanocrystalline phases in an amorphous matrix, these properties can be enhanced or deteriorated depending on the volume fraction and size distribution of the crystalline phases. Understanding the evolution of crystalline phases during devitrification of bulk metallic glasses upon heating is key to realizing the production of these composites. Here, results are presented from a combination of in situ small‐ and wide‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS) measurements during heating of Zr‐based metallic glass samples at rates ranging from 102 to 104 Ks−1 with a time resolution of 4ms. By combining a detailed analysis of scattering experiments with numerical simulations, for the first time, it is shown how the amount of oxygen impurities in the samples influences the early stages of devitrification and changes the dominant nucleation mechanism from homogeneous to heterogeneous. During melting, the oxygen rich phase becomes the dominant crystalline phase whereas the main phases dissolve. The approach used in this study is well suited for investigation of rapid phase evolution during devitrification, which is important for the development of MGC.