Pollak S Arm

October 16, 1943, inside the Vatican as darkness descends upon Rome. Having been alerted to the Nazi plan to round up the city's Jewish population the next day, Monsignor M dispatches an envoy to a nearby palazzo to bring Ludwig Pollak and his family to safety within the papal premises. But Pollak shows himself in no hurry to leave his home and accept the eleventh-hour offer of refuge. Pollak's visitor is obliged to take a seat and listen as he recounts his life story: how he studied archaeology in Prague, of his passion for Italy and Goethe, how he became a renowned antiquities dealer and advisor to great collectors like J.P. Morgan and the Austro-Hungarian emperor after his own Jewishness barred him from an academic career, and finally of his spectacular discovery of the missing arm from the majestic ancient sculpture of Laocoön. Torn between hearing Pollak's spellbinding tale and the urgent mission to save the archaeologist from certain annihilation, the Vatican's anxious messenger presses him to make haste and depart. This stunning novel illuminates the chasm between civilization and barbarism by spotlighting a little-known figure devoted to knowledge and the power of artistic creation.

For fans of The Passenger, this thrilling tale of an ex-Nazi surgeon hiding in plain sight in 1960s London by the celebrated filmmaker is a lost noir gem, introduced by Anthony Quinn and narrated on audio by Mark Gatiss. 'Stunning: incredibly good, thought-provoking and tense.' Ian Rankin 'This extraordinary novel had me hooked from start to finish.' Sarah Waters 'An outstanding novel: gripping, tense and darkly unsettling.' Jonathan Freedland 'A wonderfully compelling noir thriller and audacious and challenging act of imagination.' William Boyd 'One of the best London novels of the 20th century.' Benjamin Myers Nothing is more inviting to disclose your secrets than to be told by others of their own ... London, June 1965. Karl Braun arrives as a lodger in Pimlico: hatless, with a bow-tie, greying hair, slight in build. His new neighbours are intrigued by this cultured German gentleman who works as a piano tuner; many are fellow émigrés, who assume that he, like them, came to England to flee Hitler. That summer, Braun courts a woman, attends classical concerts, dances the twist. But as the newspapers fill with reports of the hunt for Nazi war criminals, his nightmares become increasingly worse . 'A haunting, remarkable novel, as startlingly original as any of Pressburger's films.' Nicola Upson 'A dark and harrowing window on the past: the ending will haunt your dreams.' Janice Hallett

The aim of this publication is to clarify the relationships between material restoration and politics in Italian Renaissance art. The focus of this research is on the question of origin as a foothold for political, patrimonial, and cultural identity. These claims were enacted within a system which, rather than restoring the initial forms and meanings of existing objects, remodeled the past according to new identity requirements: spaces were reorganized, and works of art invested with new meanings. Their material and aesthetic reality was thus transformed and redefined. The aim is therefore to analyze the potential physical modifications of these artefacts in light of their symbolic recoding. Restoration practices in Italian Renaissance art Reassessing the concept of Renaissance Recording of ancient works for political purposes

However shared the Roman inheritance may be, it hardly unifies. Which Rome is the model, the Republic or the Empire? The Rome of imperial conquest or of civil war? By whom is it ruled? By the glorious conqueror who extended universal peace, the rule of law, and infrastructure – roads and aqueducts – or by the detested tyrant who imposed domination? Or worse, the corruptor of republican liberty and source of putrefying decadence? Rome always returns, but which Rome? France presents itself as a privileged locus for Rome’s return since the beginnings of its history. The perennial recourse to ancient Rome – as model or anti-model – binds together a cohesive tradition. The logic of this gesture asserts a unity beyond modern identity politics, which depend on defining a “them” against “us,” to resist nativist assumptions about national character, French, German, Italian, American, etc. All share the same polysemous inheritance, for good or ill. All are Roman and all resist Rome without needing to agree on what exactly is shared. The unity underlying the discourse, however, no longer depends on defining Rome as an origin. Instead, Rome’s figuration persists discursively, as a translation: to be translated time and time again.

This volume originates from an international conference (Oxford University, 2007). Texts address plaster casts and related themes from antiquity to the present day, and from Egypt to America, Mexico and New Zealand. They are of interest to classical archaeologists, art historians, the history of collecting, curators, conservators, collectors and artists. Articles explore the functions, status and reception of plaster casts in artists’ workshops and in private and public collections, as well as hands-on issues, such as the making, trading, display and conservation of plaster casts. Case-studies on artists’ use of material and technique include ancient Roman copyists, Renaissance sculptors and painters, Dutch 17th-century workshops, Canova, Boccioni and others. A second theme is the role of plaster casts in the history of collecting from the Renaissance to the present day. Several papers address the dissemination of visual ideas, models and ideals through the medium. Papers on modern and contemporary art illuminate the changing uses and semantic values of plaster casts in this period. Amongst the types of casts discussed are artists’ models and final works as well as casts after antiquities, including sculpture, architecture and gems (dactyliothecae). The volume demonstrates the richness of the field, both in terms of the material itself and modern scholarship concerned with it. Conceived as a handbook for students, academics, curators and collectors, the text will form a standard work on the role of plaster casts in the history of Western sculpture.

The Shocking Secrets of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Artwork The recent cleaning of the Sistine Chapel frescoes removed layer after layer of centuries of accumulated tarnish and darkness. The Sistine Secrets endeavors to remove the centuries of prejudice, censorship, and ignorance that blind us to the truth about one of the world's most famous and beloved art treasures. Some images that appeared in the print edition of this book are unavailable in the electronic edition due to rights reasons.

Depression & Other Magic Tricks is the debut book by Sabrina Benaim, one of the most-viewed performance poets of all time, whose poem "Explaining My Depression to My Mother" has become a cultural phenomenon with over 50,000,000 views. Depression & Other Magic Tricks explores themes of mental health, love, and family. It is a documentation of struggle and triumph, a celebration of daily life and of living. Benaim's wit, empathy, and gift for language produce a work of endless wonder.

When French troops occupy the Italian port city of Ancona, freeing the city’s Jews from their repressive ghetto, it unleashes a whirlwind of progressivism and brutal backlash as two very different cultures collide. Mirelle, a young Jewish maiden, must choose between her duty—an arranged marriage to a wealthy Jewish merchant—and her love for a dashing French Catholic soldier. Meanwhile, Francesca, a devout Catholic, must decide if she will honor her marriage vows to an abusive and murderous husband when he enmeshes their family in the theft of a miracle portrait of the Madonna. Set during the turbulent days of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Italian campaign (1796–97), Beyond the Ghetto Gates is both a cautionary tale for our present moment, with its rising tide of anti-Semitism, and a story of hope—a reminder of a time in history when men and women of conflicting faiths were able to reconcile their prejudices in the face of a rapidly changing world.