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Statue of a Seated Poet (Orpheus?)
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Object Details
|Catalogue Number
|Inventory Number
|Taranto region
|Orpheus with chair, footstool, and slab (overall): H: 104 cm; W: 56.8 cm; D: 100.6 cm
|Footstool rest: H: 6.7 cm; W: 29.7 cm; D: 24 cm
|Footstool rest, flat slab: H: 3 cm; W: 44.9 cm; D: 34.1 cm
Light orange in color, slightly purified with more intense shade (Munsell 7.5 yr 8/3–8/5); the surface is covered by a white slip of calcium carbonate. Preserved pigments.
Footstool (76.AD.11.4): Upper surface, sparse orange-gold pigment. The sides of the footstool show a greater preservation of the orange-gold pigment layer as well as some black pigment. The base (76.AD.11.5) has a reddish tone.
Chair: Little pigment preservation on the sides; the legs were brightly colored in a gold-yellow pigment; the center panel of the chair back is also a gold color, similar to the legs, while the areas between the upper posts of the chair and the panel were red, indicating Orpheus's garment.
Orpheus: The head reveals traces of two colors in two layers: a red color layer partially covered with a layer of brown pigment. The drapery area is covered with a red pigment. The skin is pink.
The musical instrument and the middle finger of the left hand are missing. The figure was reassembled from a number of fragments prior to its acquisition by the J. Paul Getty Museum. The legs, the head, and several sections of the himation were reattached. Missing sections were filled in, especially on the chair in the area of the backrest and the rear portion of the torso. During this interval, for which no specific documentation exists, it is likely that invasive cleaning also damaged some of the ancient polychromy. Recent investigations have helped clarify that the obscuring encrustations were probably added at this time, especially on the body and the head, in order to conceal break lines and areas of fill and to give the figure a more uniform appearance overall. The interior of the statue was also widely consolidated and reinforced with an added material, except in several sections where the clay is still visible. As a result, there are only a few places where the original marks of the modeling and the fingerprints of the coroplast can be observed. In 1983 exploratory cleaning on a limited portion of the footstool and chair was performed by the Getty's Antiquities Conservation Department, revealing some of the original polychromy and the presence of footprints on the upper surface of the footstool.
– 1976 Bank Leu A. G. (Zurich, Switzerland), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976.
Getty 1987, pp. 48–49; Frel 1979 , pp. 25–26, nos. 99–101; Getty 1980, p. 34; C. C. Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America: Masterpieces in Public Collections in the United States and Canada (Malibu, 1982), pp. 150–51, no. 118; M. L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford and New York, 1983), p. 25, fig. 4; C. Mattusch, "Field Notes," Archaeological News 13, 1/2 (1984), pp. 34–35, illus. p. 35; Getty 1986, p. 33; Hofstetter-Dolega 1990, pp. 11, 260–61, no. W 24, pl. 36; Getty 1991, p. 41; P. G. Guzzo, "Altre note tarantine," Taras 12, no. 1 (1992), pp. 135–41; Bottini and Guzzo 1993; J. Neils, "Les Femmes Fatales: Skylla and the Sirens in Greek Art," in The Distaff Side, ed. B. Cohen (New York and Oxford, 1995), pp. 175–84. fig. 51; Getty 1997, p. 43; E. Towne Markus, Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum: Antiquities (Los Angeles, 1997), pp. 88–89; Hofstetter 1997, p. 1101, no. 97, pl. 742; Leclercq-Marx 1997, pp. 37, 38, 288, no. 23, fig. 27; M. L. Ferruzza, "Il Getty Museum e la Sicilia," Kalos, Arte in Sicilia 9, 3 (May–June 1997), pp. 4–11, fig. 8; D. Tsiafakis, He Thrake sten Attike Eikonographia tou 5ou aiona p.X. (Komotini, 1998). p. 231, pl. 74; Bottini 2000, pp. 135–37; D. Tsiafakis, "Life and Death at the Hands of a Siren," Studia Varia from the J. Paul Getty Museum 2 (2001), pp. 7–24; fig. 2; Getty 2001, pp. 42–43; Getty 2002, pp. 116–17; A. Bottini, "La religiosità salvifica in Magna Grecia fra testo e immagini," in Settis and Parra 2005, pp. 140–50, esp. pp. 141–42; F. Graf and S. Iles Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (London, 2007) p. 65; Ferrarini and Santoro 2010, pp. 47-87, esp. 70-71, fig. 16; Getty 2010 , p. 114; Ferrarini and Santoro 2011, pp. 559–69, esp. p. 565, fig. 11; C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink, eds., The Getty Hexameters: Poetry, Magic, and Mystery in Ancient Selinous (Oxford, 2013) p. 176, pl. 5; Getty 2015, p. 26.
The male figure is shown sitting on a klismos (seat). The seat, with a broad, rounded backrest, is set on a low rectangular platform composed of two distinct sections. The first section has a concave outer edge and is an integral part of the chair, serving as its base; the second section is composed of a movable element with a convex edge that fits flush and snug against the first section. The rectangular openings on either side of the chair may have been used either to lift the figure or to provide ventilation during firing.
The body is wrapped in a mantle that covers his left shoulder and part of his left arm, leaving his chest bare and showing wrinkles around the navel and the armpit. The mantle drops on either side with deep folds, covering the figure's legs to the calves. The legs are slightly spread, so that the clay of the garment forms thin, deep folds. The right foot rests on the footstool, while only the tip of the left foot touches it. The figure is wearing flat sandals with thongs that cross on the top of the feet. The footstool is made of a rectangular slab with moldings and two lateral elements with a rounded shape, terminating in four corbels.
The figure's head is erect and turned toward the right. The face is rounded; the mouth, with its fleshy, carefully modeled lips, is partially open, revealing the upper dental arch; a dimple marks the point where the lower lip meets the prominent chin. The curling of the lower lip and the half-open mouth are both signs that this character was probably portrayed in the act of singing. The nose is straight, the nostrils are rounded, and the almond-shaped eyes have distinctly portrayed eyelids, with clearly depicted tear glands. The supraorbital arch, broad and close to the eye, runs directly into the upper part of the nose. The hair must have been painted, as was determined by a careful analysis of the nape of the neck, but it is possible that the head was partially covered by a headdress, as the modeling of the upper part of the forehead seems to suggest. The ears are well modeled.
The right arm, its elbow resting against the torso, is bent, reaching forward to hold a plectrum, while the left hand was probably plucking the strings of a kithara. A trace of the instrument survives in the concavity where it must have rested on the left leg.
Group Discussion
Group of a Seated Poet (Orpheus?) and Sirens (cats. 1–3)
This discussion is reproduced on each of the individual object pages.
An investigation conducted with endoscopic instruments revealed a great deal about the execution of this sculptural group.1 The figures must have been the product of a complex process of modeling. One possible hypothesis is that some parts of the group could have been made by hand and then assembled around supports or an armature, most likely made of wood, which kept the fresh clay from collapsing.2 The system of internal supports was used to establish the overall structural integrity of the finished statue and might also have extended toward the exterior for certain parts, such as the sirens' tails, Orpheus's arms, the arms of Siren B, and the seat of the klismos. It is likely that, as was frequently done in antiquity, several parts—such as the head, arms, and legs—were molded separately, with individual components then dovetailed together or affixed by either the barbotine method, before firing, or using additional mortar. This procedure not only facilitated the working process but also reduced the risk of breakage during firing.3 Working from the bottom up, artists likely constructed the rough figure around the framework, over which the various parts were modeled. The drapery and a number of elements on the short chitons worn by the sirens—such as the sash around the waist and the shoulder straps—were made with strips of clay applied to the figure and then carefully shaped and worked with special tools. This is documented by marks left where the shoulder strap detached from the right shoulder of the pensive Siren A. A molded head was then added to the body. X-radiographs of the figures show that the head was inserted deeply into a cavity in the body and that the hands are hollow up to the point where the fingers were attached. The breasts, too, are hollow and were modeled from within. Perhaps the sirens' framework might have consisted of a vertical structure that held the figures upright while work was proceeding. The framework for Orpheus, on the other hand, was probably a support that roughly approximated the form of the chair, around which the various parts were shaped and assembled. Then the mass of the body was modeled up to the neck and shoulders, possibly continuing to follow the guide of the internal support. The legs, which were propped against the front face of the klismos, must also have been modeled by hand and, despite the fact that they were to be covered by drapery, were modeled as far up as the thighs. This manner of working made it possible to achieve a more consistent treatment of movement and a more organic relationship between the figure and the drapery, which was shaped over the structure of the body. When examining the interior of the Orpheus figure, one sees that in the area around the chair seat, where the mass of the body rested, the sculptor created a series of small cavities, probably to accommodate the structural supports. These served to reinforce a section that was evidently considered to be especially fragile. Likewise, on the interior of the rocky bases on which the sirens are perched it is possible to see evidence of reinforcements arranged around the central cavity.
A subsequent phase focused on working in the iconographic details, such as the plectrum, the kithara, the hair, and the ears, which are perforated, as is the mouth. The facial features were defined before the firing. Next came retouching with pointed tools when the clay was in a leathery state, followed by firing.4 The surfaces of the statues were covered by a white engobe slip; this strengthened and protected the surfaces and provided a uniform preparation surface for the polychromy. The white slip is well preserved at a number of points, and it renders the exterior surface very smooth and purified in appearance.
This group constitutes one of the most unusual compositions in the art of Magna Graecia. In the past, because of its uniqueness, the anomaly of its iconography, and its purchase on the antiquities market, many scholars believed it to be a forgery. Tests performed on the clay and polychromy, however, have attested to its authenticity, though before the Getty's acquisition all the figures in the group had been subjected to a substantial and in many respects inappropriate process of restoration and cleaning that altered the surface and original polychromy. Since the group had been acquired through the antiquities market, there is no information about its place of discovery. It was only through an exegetic and stylistic analysis that hypotheses could be formulated as to its intended placement, significance, function, and findspot.5
The seated figure has been identified as Orpheus, the poet son of Oeagrus (or Apollo) and the muse Kalliope. He could charm humans and subdue animals with his song. The shamanistic power of his art and its ties to mystery religions constitute a central theme in the ancient thought on and the iconography of the poet.6
In the Classical period, Orpheus was portrayed as a beardless youth playing a kithara or lyre, as in the Nekyia in the Lesche (council) of the Knidians at Delphi, where Polygnotos painted him dressed in Greek style beneath a willow tree and playing the lyre, surrounded by other mythological characters.7
In Attic red-figured vase-painting, in addition to images of the poet among the Thracians, there are also depictions of his murder at the hands of the Thracian women and the episode in which his head continues to sing and prophesy even after being severed from his body. Orpheus among the Thracians is depicted with a mantle wrapped around his hips or dressed in a rich Eastern costume, an identifying feature as well as a sign of ethnic affiliation that is found especially in the subsequent repertory of Apulian vase-painting.8
The Getty character's seated position, the presence of the klismos, and the mantle that softly envelopes his figure, leaving his torso partly uncovered, are also distinctive features of the iconography of poets and philosophers. Such figures were sometimes accompanied by a volumen (papyrus scroll), in keeping with an iconographic scheme that was formulated as early as the fifth century BC, but which was more widely adopted beginning in the second half of the fourth century BC.9
One slightly later comparison for this statue is a sculpture portraying Pindar, found in the so-called Exedra of the Philosophers in the Serapeion (Serapeum) of Memphis at Saqqara, built in the third century BC and linked to a Dionysian cult. In that statue, the poet is seated on a klismos and partly covered by his mantle as he plays the kithara.10 The same iconographic scheme is adopted for the type of the Apollo Kitharoidos, as documented in vase-paintings and statuary. In this scheme, the seated deity almost always wears a mantle draped over his left shoulder and has an elaborate hairstyle. In the case of the Getty Orpheus, the head shows traces of pigments, but that does not rule out the possibility that there was once a headdress or hairdo that extended over the hairline.11
The klismos, which is especially well represented in works of the Hellenistic period, is an element that would appear to identify the social status and intellectual gifts of the character who was being depicted in the role of Orpheus, as was also typical in the Attic repertory.12
In the context of Magna Graecia, it is difficult to establish close comparisons. Apulian red-figured vases provide extensive documentation of Orpheus's chthonic role, with painters often choosing to depict the episode of the katabasis, or descent to the Underworld, rather than other events in his mythology. This episode is featured in a group of Apulian vases decorated with scenes from the afterlife that has been extensively studied. In these vases Orpheus is the principal character, standing in the presence of Hades and Persephone, often close to or inside a naiskos (small temple), which could be interpreted as a synecdoche for the Palace of Hades. He is surrounded by inhabitants of the Underworld, such as Sisyphus, Cerberus, or the Furies, or next to a deceased person holding a scroll; the scroll may be an allusion to the religious text that accompanies him into the Underworld, as attested, for instance, on the amphora by the Ganymede Painter in Basel. With the sound of his kithara, an attribute that appears in all of these scenes, it would seem that Orpheus saves the initiate from the demons of Hades by showing him the path of salvation.13
The Getty figure, seated and in all likelihood once holding a stringed instrument (now lost), evokes other iconographies of the intellectual milieu but not specifically linked to Orpheus. In fact, this figure does not wear the elaborate Eastern costume with Phrygian cap that usually identifies the poet in Hades in Apulian vase-painting. All the same, there are some, albeit few, Apulian vases in which Orpheus or a figure very like him does appear wearing a simple mantle and holding a kithara, though the absence of any explicative inscriptions leaves a margin of doubt as to his identity.14
In light of a preliminary analysis, it is possible to propose that this statue is not a depiction of Orpheus but rather a portrayal of a deceased individual depicted with a number of elements linked to the mythical milieu of Orpheus. These elements include the stringed instrument, used to emphasize the lyrical and poetic context of the poet-intellectual; and the presence of the sirens, with their clear funerary references.
Orpheus's connection with the world of the dead would have been well known to any contemporary who viewed this group of figures. Through the shamanistic power of his art, Orpheus had succeeded in not only subduing the forces of the afterlife but also restoring souls to the world of the living. This achievement is narrated in the renowned episode in which he nearly rescues his bride, Eurydice, from the Underworld. In it he takes on the role of intermediary between the world of mortals and that of the afterlife, serving also as a guarantor of the rites of purification required in the Underworld.
The chthonic connection of this group is emphasized by the presence of the two sirens standing on bases, which, with their rocky appearance, clearly allude to the sirens' origin as demons linked to the marine world. The two figures are imagined in an outdoor setting, as suggested by the movement of the folds on the sides of their short chitons, evoking gusts of sea breeze. Of the two figures, one is characterized by a melancholy, pensive expression, while the other, her arms flexing upward, is caught in a pose that seems to allude to song.15
The archaeological and literary evidence provides for the siren a complex profile and a number of different aspects, both positive and negative, that while chiefly linked to the enchantment of music and poetry, are also tied to erotic seduction and nature's life force. Yet the funerary nature of these creatures, which are evoked in many literary sources in the context of mourning, seems to be their prevalent trait. In Euripides's Helen (169–75), for example, the sirens, companions of Persephone in Hades, are invoked and urged to accompany funerary lamentations with their lyres.16 In funerary contexts, the sirens assume expressive poses and gestures linked to lamentation, in some cases accompanying their laments with the sound of the kithara and the aulos. That is how they are presented, as early as the late fifth century BC, on a number of Attic funerary stelae. This iconography was to persist throughout the Hellenistic period in various parts of Greece, where sirens appeared, in pairs, on funerary monuments of prominent women or illustrious men endowed with intellectual virtues. One such example is the famed tomb of Sophocles; another is the tomb of the Sophist Isocrates. In both tombs the sirens' special relationship with poets and orators is emphasized.17
In many funerary stelae of the fourth and third centuries BC, sirens appear, invariably in pairs, posed symmetrically at either extremity of the slab, supporting the inscription with the name of the deceased. In some cases, they are shown with their hands on their heads or holding stringed instruments.18
The sirens also served as decorative motifs on the capitals of funerary monuments in the area of Taranto between the end of the fourth century and the first half of the third century BC; they were often depicted with one arm tucked under the breasts and a hand supporting the inclined head in a pose commonly used to indicate melancholy, like that of Siren A in the Getty group.19
Sirens were portrayed in the Archaic period with birds' bodies and women's heads; such was the case in Corinthian vase-painting, where they were a recurring motif in animal friezes. In Attic vase-painting, by contrast, they were portrayed as protagonists of the Homeric narrative, or else as musicians, as witnesses of heroic deeds, or in scenes of funerary mourning and lamentation. Beginning in the Classical period, they underwent a progressive and radical humanization, as did other mythological figures such as the gorgon. Over the course of the fourth century BC, in fact, the sirens would gradually take on a female appearance in the entire upper half of the body, as is documented with crude realism in the above-mentioned funerary stelae and, in the context of Magna Graecia, in images painted on South Italian vases and in the coroplastic art.20 In the previously mentioned Exedra of the Philosophers in the Serapeion of Saqqara, alongside figures of poets and intellectuals, there was also a pair of standing sirens, each with bird claws and a humanized bust, wearing melancholy expressions, their heads tilted to one side, and small kitharas in their arms.21
Thus the sirens are, in general terms, figures that foreshadow death and accompany the dead into the Underworld. Their role as psychopomps was already suggested in the Archaic period by askoi (wine vessels) in the form of sirens, used primarily for funerary purposes.22 In order to reconstruct the function of the sirens within the Getty group, however, a more precise interpretation of their iconography and possible semantic values must be sought.
One of the primary activities of sirens, attested by both the pose of Siren B and a copious literary tradition, is singing in an insidiously seductive manner. Their singing could prove fatal to those caught unawares, those who tended to follow their instincts and the allure of the senses. As mentioned above, the sirens' song in the Homeric tradition is linked to an ambiguous persuasive power; they are liminal creatures between the past and the future, between Earth and the gates of Hades, set in a flowering meadow scattered with human bones. They promise a broad body of knowledge but a deceptive one, as men are lured toward another world that coincides with death. In this context, only a wise man or someone who can summon the forces of reason and thought might hope to pass their terrible test, as the Homeric story makes clear. The redeeming lesson is that only the initiate who attains wisdom through concerted intellectual and ethical striving can aspire to overcome the human condition of suffering and to achieve immortality.23
The siren represents this challenge—a crucial aspect of the relationship between Orpheus and the sirens, and a necessary step in the attainment of wisdom and knowledge—and also our natural fear of death and the unknown, the otherness that extends beyond the limits of humanity.24
If the central character in the Getty group represents a deceased person who has been assimilated to the wise or skilled Orpheus, the two sirens would find a consistent placement beside him and be assimilated with him sub specie aeternitatis. With the harmonious sounds of his musical instrument, he can not only triumph over wild creatures of an ambiguous nature but also, through the wisdom or skill and harmony evoked by the sound of the kithara, he can successfully face the final voyage and achieve eternal salvation. In this context, the depiction of the sirens in an outdoor setting, perched on rocks, harks back to literary tradition and such works as the Argonautica of Apollonios of Rhodes, where in the contest between Orpheus and the sirens there is an emphasis on an opposition between harmful and beneficial music.25
The Getty group would thus seem to evoke, in a fantastic and ideological synthesis, the figure of an initiate of Orphism who, through the contest and harmony of music and philosophical thought, has controlled the emotional forces of instinct and resisted the enticing song of Siren B. Siren A, in her turn, seems to express the attainment of a new condition, identifying an eschatological prospect for the man.26 Substantial ambivalence characterizes both creatures.
It is worthwhile to consider the hypothesis that the sirens could be an expression of a positive tone, clearly present in the complex of Orphic and Pythagorean beliefs. However, one should be wary of suggesting too narrow a correlation between figures and philosophical ideas in a sculptural group that lacks all context. Nevertheless, referencing Apulian culture of the second half of the fourth century BC is essential in proposing a functional reconstruction of the group.
Music (mousike) and the study of harmony were central to Pythagorean philosophy, which partly correlates with Orphism, a doctrine that was followed in Taras (modern Taranto) by the circle of Archytas (fl. ca. 428–350 BC), but which, as is extensively documented, was also widely popular in Magna Graecia during the Hellenistic period. For instance, a series of metal lamellae found in graves in Magna Graecia, Crete, and Thessaly are generally interpreted as Orphic documents containing instructions on how to successfully complete the journey to the Underworld.27 Although the connections between Orphism and Pythagoreanism in the dynamic panorama of the Hellenistic period are complex and problematic, one should keep in mind that philosophical and religious doctrines could manifest within various cultural and geographic milieux, in a network of interactions and analogies that makes rigid classification difficult.
According to the philosophical beliefs of the Pythagoreans, the study of music was fundamental to paideia (physical and mental training) and ethos (guiding standards or ideals), the source of inspiration for political behavior in the quest for sophrosyne (temperance) and eurhythmia (harmonious bodily health). Likewise, the perfect harmony and geometry of music, amplified in the vision of the cosmos, were models for the creation of civil society. Harmony established the sense of proportion and restraint, in opposition to excess and abuse of power. Plato recognized in mousike an indispensable tool for the education of the citizenry and the harmonizing of the civic spirit, because harmony has "motions akin to the revolutions of our souls."28 The political value of musical education is a central concept in Plato's Laws as well, due to the shaping power that music has on the soul. The kithara was considered an especially effective pedagogical instrument in this context. In striving for a pure sound, the teacher was supposed to ensure that the instrument's sound was in unison with that of the voice. Musical performance, moreover, demanded a complete involvement, inasmuch as it was accompanied by recitation and bodily movement.29
During the mid-fourth century BC, Taras, under the command of Archytas, became the main center of Pythagorean philosophy and Orphism. According to Aristoxenus, a musicologist and intellectual of the fourth century BC, Archytas—philosopher, mathematician, and statesman—was an ideal representative of the bios pithagorikos, in which "good music" inspired a political practice that strove for a wise economic equilibrium among the social classes and in which philosophical reflection and political practice enjoyed an optimal synthesis. The idea of apatheia—which implies not the elimination of passions but rather their moderation through the practice of virtue—is present in the Platonic model and was later also expressed in Peri nomo kai dikaiosinas (On Law and Justice), a treatise by Pseudo-Archytas.30 It is intriguing to hypothesize that Siren A expresses the attainment of apatheia in the moment of detachment from earthly experience and the awareness acquired through the good music produced by the deceased Orpheus, and that Siren B expresses musical and singing virtue that is attained in harmony with the sound of the kithara. This interpretation can be traced more precisely to Pythagorean thought, which viewed sirens as creatures linked to the transition from life to death but also as privileged guardians of wisdom and guarantors of cosmic harmony. This concept was borrowed by Plato as well; it is expressed in the myth of Er in the tenth book of The Republic, in which he writes that the sirens coordinate the harmony of the celestial spheres. It is significant that the central theme of this myth is precisely the individual liberty of man in the choice between good and evil, the freedom to place oneself in the realm of dispersal and oblivion or else to become first a dialectical unit and then a "political being."31
While it has already been cautiously suggested that Archytas or someone from his immediate circle was the likely recipient of the Getty group, it should be considered that the work must have been commissioned by someone of great influence living in Apulia during the first half of the fourth century BC: someone who was close to the Orphic milieu (though it would not be safe to associate it with a specific context).32 As for the original purpose of the group, a funerary placement seems most likely, considering the previous iconographic analysis and the possible identification of the male character as a deceased person. One hypothesis would place the group inside a naiskos set atop a tomb. This would be in keeping with a Tarentine architectural typology after the middle of the fourth century BC, during a revival of more lavish funerary customs and a return to the use of the chamber tomb. On large vases, probably used as semata (tomb markers), there are depictions of naiskoi within which appear individual characters and groups of figures, perhaps in imitation of real statues. However, the funerary statues inside the naiskoi tended to be made of limestone or marble rather than the less impressive or durable terracotta.33 The reconstruction of naiskoi and their architectural decoration remains somewhat problematic, for though a large volume of naiskos architectural fragments have been recovered, few have been found in their original locations; no naiskos has yet been discovered on the spot where it originally fell, much less in situ. Like the figures in the naiskoi on vases, the Getty group is configured as a mise-en-scène, reflecting the status of the deceased and probably forming part of a larger group. The use of naiskoi as semata, augmented with modeled clay decorations, is also attested in Greece as far back as the Archaic period, as Pausanias informs us. Nonetheless, archaeological evidence does not allow a comparative analysis between the types of funerary monuments mentioned by Pausanias and the situation in Taras in the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. In Sparta as well there is documentation of many heroa (shrines dedicated to heroes), also in connection with leschai; funerary monuments comprising large numbers of votive statues have been found, attesting to the prestige of certain families.34
The presence in Taranto, in the area of the Fondo Giovinazzi, of a heroön dedicated to Orpheus was at one point proposed, but it has been repeatedly rebutted, in part because of the absence of literary sources.35 An alternative hypothesis would place this group in a chamber tomb, a type present in Taranto in the fourth century BC but widespread mainly in the indigenous context, during the period coinciding with the rise of an aristocratic class.36 This is also supported by a comparison with the tombs of Canosa, which in the fourth to third centuries BC featured terracotta statue groups, probably arranged around the funerary kline or dining couch, and with a chamber tomb in Cariati, in Calabria (Brettian territory), dating from the last quarter of the fourth century BC, in which the grave goods also included a life-size statue, of which only fragments have been recovered.37
It was in the indigenous population centers that Orphism and related eschatological belief systems were common, as Paolo Orsi had already suggested. This seems to be indicated by the fact that most of the Apulian vases with depictions of Orpheus were found not in Taranto but in places such as Ruvo, Armento, Altamura, and Canosa, where they were intended for an elite clientele.38 In connection with this hypothesis, Angelo Bottini has analyzed the attestations of salvation theology and has pointed out that beginning at least in the fifth century BC, a rage for re-elaborated and diversified Orphic and Pythagorean cults swept through the indigenous centers, especially among the localities that were directly involved culturally and commercially with the cities of Magna Graecia.39
A third hypothesis is that the Getty group was created for a purely religious context. The most pertinent point of reference, the Exedra of the Poets and Philosophers in the Serapeion of Memphis, is however quite difficult to imagine in Apulia or Taras, where the Orphic cults were conducted in keeping with more secluded rituals. One must keep in mind that, according to the literary sources, particularly Pausanias, there were a number of sculptural groups depicting Orpheus, now lost, in votive settings.40
Stylistically, the figures in the Getty group have some of the formal traits of late fifth-century BC Tarentine plastic arts. These are characterized by a fondness for fully rounded volumes; eyes with a well-shaped, symmetrical outline and distinctly modeled eyelids; fleshy mouths; robust necks; heavy jaws; and solid cranial structures. Such features can also be found in a number of Tarentine marble heads, mostly from funerary statues datable to the end of the fifth century through most of the fourth century BC. They are evidence of the artists' determination to preserve the most distinctive characteristics of the local production, in which the iconographic types and the formal traits of the Late Classical Attic school can be clearly identified.41
The Orpheus figure, with his distinct features and the solid plasticity of the face, seems to be reminiscent of such prototypes as the marble head of Athena in Brescia, which is a copy of a Classical original thought to have once formed part of the bronze sculptural group by Phidias at Delphi. In addition, the head of the so-called Orpheus recognizable in the basanite example at the Munich Glyptothek, an Augustan copy of a Greek original dating from 460 BC (but assigned by Paul Zanker and Brunilde Ridgway to the Late Hellenistic period), can be compared to our male head.42
The general aspect and facial features of the Getty Orpheus also recall the acrolithic marble head of Apollo from the Temple of Apollo Alaios at Cirò, datable to the same period (440–430 BC).43
The Getty figure is closely comparable with a number of terracotta pieces attributed to a coroplast or a circle of artists that has been called the circle of the Master of the Singers of Taras, so named because most of the figures seemingly produced by this workshop feature a half-open mouth, as if they were in the act of singing. This workshop is thought to have been active in the second half of the fourth century bc. The accuracy of the individual details of these sculptures suggests that they used first-generation molds inspired by works from the Classical period, perhaps in bronze; this is indicated by certain technical and iconographic traits, such as the type of finish and the shape of the eyes, with their lamellar eyelids, and the curve from the lip to the teeth. The workshop is believed to have specialized in figures of banqueters or poets associated with Orpheus. Many pieces can be linked to this group; unfortunately most of them have been sold on the antiquities market and thus dispersed. They depict male characters, often wearing bands and caps typical of banqueters, or soft, pointed caps reminiscent of the Phrygian cap of Orpheus. Though they differ in dimensions and diverse iconographic details, these figures all feature the same masculine type and physiognomic and technical details. It is debatable whether they were the work of a single workshop. In any case, they demonstrate not only the artistry of the coroplasts in Taranto, but also of their technical prowess, such as the creation of a patrix (pattern or die) or parallel patrices from which molds were produced and reused, resulting in works diversified in type and iconography but associated by a certain resemblance.44 It remains to be seen whether the numerous Tarentine heads with half-open mouths depicted poets and whether they can therefore be correlated with the figure of Orpheus or with Orphic doctrines.
Outside of Taranto, the most interesting parallels in terracotta votive busts come from Ariccia, which can probably also be traced back to Tarentine workshops and dated to the end of the fourth century. These works have affinities in formal elements: clear evidence of the circulation in an Italic context of models that were also present in Magna Graecia and Taranto.45
In the absence of a documented findspot, the group can only be generally dated to the last thirty years of the fourth century BC based on style, iconography, and the hypothetical connection with the cultural climate of Apulia in the second half of the fourth century BC. Interpretation based on style alone may well be misleading, given the persistence of Late Classical traits even into the middle of the fourth century BC.
Thermoluminescence of the clay body, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), polarized light microscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy analysis of the polychromy were performed. They all attest to the group's authenticity.
Results of the pigment analysis:
Orpheus figure
- Yellow/gold: yellow ocher, lead white, chalk
- Red: yellow ocher, burnt sienna
- White ground: chalk (or lead white)
- Pink: cinnabar, lead white, chalk
- Red/brown: iron earth red, chalk
Orpheus footstool
- Orange: yellow ocher, red ocher
- Black: lampblack
- Pink: red ocher, chalk
See the report by the Antiquities Conservation Department in the appendix to this entry. Detached curls and other fragmentary elements of the group have the inventory numbers 76.AD.11.6–76.AD.11.304. ↩
This modeling technique was also used in the Hellenistic period for statues in terracotta. See, for example, the female bust from Falerii (third century BC) in the Musée du Louvre: F. Gaultier, "L'Ariadne de Faléries: Une chef-d'oeuvre retrouvé," in Damarato 2000, pp. 288–97. The technique was also used during the Renaissance and in modern times. On this, see M. G. Vaccari, ed., La scultura in terracotta (Florence, 1996), in particular the study by G. Gentilini, "La scultura fiorentina in terracotta del Rinascimento: Tecniche e tipologie," pp. 64–103. ↩
The clearly visible line of the seam in Siren B's left hand might show where the hand was attached to the arm. On "the technique of added pieces," see Tomei 1992, pp. 176–77; this technique is well depicted in a kylix by the Foundry Painter in Berlin, q.v. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Berlin Antiquarium 1, pl. 72–73. The circular cavities found in terracotta fragments from the Palatine, thought to have been made from molds, may have been made by a support used during the assembly phase. The same procedure was identified at Olympia, for instance, in the group of Zeus and Ganymede: see A. Moustaka, Grossplastik aus Ton in Olympia, Olympia Forschungen 22 (Berlin, 1993), pp. 64–97, pls. 33–39. ↩
For the process of firing in separate parts and subsequent assembly, see also W. Deonna, Les statues de terre cuite dans l'antiquité (Paris, 1908), pp. 20–25. ↩
Suspicion of their authenticity has been heightened by the singular nature of some parts of the figures, such as the claws of the sirens, which elude criteria of standardized production, and by the absence of comparisons for the figures as a group due to the rarity of nonarchitectural terracotta sculptural groups. The improper restoration and reckless cleaning done before the Getty purchased this group—exemplified by the application of artificial incrustations on some sections—has contributed to the anomalous appearance of the figures. ↩
For the genealogy and the iconography of Orpheus in general, see Garezou 1994. ↩
Pausanias's apparent astonishment as he describes Orpheus's Greek appearance can lead us to believe that he was more commonly depicted in Eastern dress. For a reconstruction of the painting by Polygnotos (Pausanias 10.30.6), see M. D. Stansbury O'Donnell, "Polygnotos' Nekyia: A Reconstruction and Analysis," AJA 94 (1990), pp. 213–35. ↩
For the iconography of Orpheus in Attic vase-painting, see Garezou 1994, in particular nos. 7–14, 23–26 for Orpheus dressed in Greek style among the Thracians; no. 16 for Apulian vases, especially those produced between 340 and 310 BC, in which Orpheus appears dressed in Greek style; and nos. 20–21, 72–84 for Orpheus in Hades, a theme treated almost exclusively in Apulian vase-painting. ↩
On this aspect, see R. Von den Hoff, Philosophenporträts des Früh- und Hochhellenismus (Munich, 1994), pp. 23–33; P. Zanker, The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity (Berkeley, 1995), pp. 52–57, 113–22; and J. J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 63–69. For examples of philosophers or poets in Greek portraiture, including the portrait of Euripides in the Louvre, probably derived from the statue erected in Athens by Lykourgos between 340 and 336 BC, see G. M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 1 (London, 1965), pp. 137–39, figs. 760–61. ↩
Lauer and Picard 1955, pp. 48–68. For a comparison with the statue of Pindar, see also Bottini and Guzzo 1993, pp. 43–52, nn. 22 and 23. ↩
For Apollo Kitharoidos, see W. Lambrinoudakis and O. Palagia, s.v. "Apollon" LIMC 2.1 (1984), pp. 199–213; Flashar 1992, pp. 114–23; and D. Castaldo, Il pantheon musicale: Iconografia nella ceramica attica tra VI e IV secolo a.C. (Ravenna, 2000), pp. 15–22; for statuary, see M. Mertens-Horn, "La statua di Apollo citaredo della galleria delle statue nel Vaticano," in Castoldi 1999, pp. 323–42. For vase-painting, also consider the image of Apollo seated on the klismos, partly wrapped in a mantle, crowned with a laurel wreath, and playing the seven-string kithara, depicted on a vase by the Shuvalov Painter, from 435–425 BC: L. Massei, "Le ceramiche del pittore di Shuvalov rinvenute a Spina," MÉFRA 85, no. 2 (1973), pp. 437–81, fig. 10. For Apulian vases, see also the Apulian pelike (wide-mouthed jars) by the Chamay Painter, in which Apollo, seated and partly wrapped in a mantle, plucks a kithara, in D. Paquette, L'instrument de musique dans la céramique de la Grèce antique (Paris, 1984), C48 and C49. For numismatics, see the seated figure of Apollo playing the kithara on a coin from Metaponto (440–430 BC), in S. P. Noe, The Coinage of Metapontum, part 2 (New York, 1931), p. 96, no. 431. See also the head of the Apollo of Cirò in which hair, probably of metal leaf, was inserted, in Settis and Parra 2005, pp. 259–62; and M. Mertens-Horn, "Resti di due grandi statue di Apollo ritrovati nel santuario di Apollo Aleo di Cirò," in Santuari della Magna Grecia in Calabria 1996, pp. 261–65. ↩
Beschi 1991, pp. 39–55; for the klismos and the type of footstool, see G. M. A. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans (London, 1966), pp. 37–38 and 49–52. A terracotta chair with a backrest topped by two winged creatures was discovered at Taranto in a tomb in the Via Argentina: see De Juliis and Loiacono 1985, p. 387, no. 475. ↩
For the iconography of Orpheus in Apulian vases, see M. Schmidt, "Orfeo e orfismo nella pittura vascolare italiota," Orfismo in Magna Grecia 1975, pp. 105–38, pl. VIII; see also Pensa 1977, pp. 23–31, pl. V, fig. 1, and pl. X. ↩
This imagery might derive from a pictorial prototype such as the renowned Nekyia by Nikias: see G. Becatti, s.v. "Nikias," EAA 5 (1963), pp. 476–82. See the conclusions of Bottini 2000 and also Pensa 1977, pp. 46–47, no. 146, pls. VII and IX for two volute kraters, one from Armento, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, the other of an unknown findspot, now at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, in which the poet is depicted as a youth wearing a mantle and holding a kithara. ↩
For a general treatment of the iconography of the sirens in chthonic contexts, see Hofstetter 1997. For the expression of Siren A, see S. Settis, "Immagini della meditazione, del pentimento e dell'incertezza nell'arte antica," Prospettiva 2 (1975), pp. 4–17. ↩
In Andromache by Euripides (936), the expression "Sirens' words" is used pejoratively, while in Alexandra by Pseudo-Lycophron (714–27), phonosymbolic effects are also used to reproduce the allure and seductive power of their song. As early as the seventh century BC, the poet Alcman placed the Muses and the sirens on an equal plane in terms of their musical abilities: Greek Lyric, vol. 2, trans. D. A. Campbell (Cambridge and London, 1988), pp. 418–19, no. 30. ↩
On the presence of sirens on funerary monuments in general, see Hofstetter-Dolega 1990, pp. 151–83; on the funerary monuments of Sophocles and Isocrates in particular, see Hofstetter-Dolega 1990, pp. 26–28. For the Sirens in the Serapeion of Memphis at Saqqara, see Hofstetter 1997, no. 88. For funerary statues of sirens from the fourth century BC, from the Kerameikos cemetery in Athens, see S. Karouzou, National Archaeological Museum: Collection of Sculpture (Athens, 1968), p. 106, no. 2583 and p. 122, nos. 193 and 775. Sirens also appear in Attic funerary stelae; see examples in M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1976), nos. 66, 67, 72. On the presence of sirens performing music in funerary contexts, see Beschi 1991, p. 40. Also Leclercq-Marx 1997, pp. 36–40; Woysch-Méautis 1982, pp. 91–99. ↩
P. M. Fraser and T. Rönne, Boeotian and West Greek Tombstones (Lund, 1957), pp. 191–94, pl. 31, nos. 2–3 from Apollonia, pls. 7–10 from Thebes. See also pl. 25, no. 5; pls. 26–27. For the pose, see the funerary statue depicting a female figure from Taranto, datable to the third century BC, see De Juliis and Loiacono 1985, p. 104, no. 85. ↩
See the examples of capitals in Wuilleumier 1939, pls. 1–3; the weeping siren in a limestone capital datable to 300–250 BC in C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone and in Bronze: Additions to the Collections of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art, 1971–1988, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1988), p. 26, no. 15; and the siren in a capital from Taranto (inv. 96.AA.245) at the J. Paul Getty Museum, possibly originally from a naiskos and datable to about 330 BC: Grossman 2001, no. 55, pp. 146–47. ↩
On the humanized image of the siren, see, for Southern Italy, the Apulian volute-krater from 330–320 BC in Hofstetter 1997, no. 45; a Campanian hydria with siren with long bird claws in A. D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania, and Sicily (Oxford, 1967), p. 376, no. 121; and the Apulian loutrophoros at the J. Paul Getty Museum by the Painter of Louvre MNB 1148 (inv. 86.AE.680), in D. Tsiafakis, "Life and Death at the Hands of a Siren," Studia Varia from the J. Paul Getty Museum 2 (2001), pp. 7–24, fig. 4. For examples in terracotta, see the statuette of a siren dated around ca. 460 BC said to have found in the region of Taranto: K. Deppert, "Jahres-berichte Kestner Museum 1973–1976," Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 30 (1976), pp. 287–89, no. 18; see also from Myrina the statuette of a siren with a bust of a woman in Breitenstein 1941, pl. 58, nos. 463–64; and examples in Besques 1963, pl. 92, dated from the end of the third century BC. ↩
In this connection, see Lauer and Picard 1955, pp. 216–27. ↩
For the function of the psychopomp, see L. Breglia Pulci Doria, "Immagini di Sirene nella Crotoniatide," in Santuari della Magna Grecia in Calabria 1996, pp. 239–40. ↩
Breglia Pulci Doria 1987, p. 43; L. Breglia Pulci Doria, "Le Sirene, il confine, l'aldilà," in Mélanges Pierre Lévêque 4 (Paris, 1990), pp. 63–78. ↩
On this interpretation consider the review by F. Gilotta of Hofstetter-Dolega 1990 in Prospettiva 67 (1992), pp. 83–85; also Giangiulio 1986, pp. 101–54; and B. D'Agostino, "Le Sirene, il tuffatore e le porte dell'Ade," AION 4 (1982), pp. 43–56. ↩
G. Iacobacci, "Orfeo argonauta: Apollonio Rodio I," in Masaracchia 1993, pp. 77–92. Compare the analysis in M. L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford, 1983), pp. 25–26, 29–33. ↩
For this interpretation, see Bottini 2000, pp. 136–37. ↩
For Orphism in general, see the bibliography in Tra Orfeo e Pitagora 2000; for the complex issue of relations between Orphism and Pythagoreanism and for Plato's view on Orphic thought, see M. Tortorelli Ghidini, "Da Orfeo agli orfici," in Tra Orfeo e Pitagora 2000, pp. 11–41; also P. Bourgeaud, ed., Orphisme et Orphée, en l'honneur de Jean Rudhardt (Geneva, 1991); and W. K. C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion (Princeton, NJ, 1993). For the Orphic laminae, see G. Pugliese Carratelli, Le lamine d'oro orfiche (Milan, 2001); and Pugliese Carratelli, "L'orfismo in Magna Grecia," in Pugliese Carratelli 1988, pp. 159–70, with previous bibliography. ↩
Plato, Timaeus 47d; see also Republic 2.376e. ↩
Plato, Laws 7.812 and Republic 3.398–400. On the value of music in the context of Orphic and Pythagorean theories, see L. Beschi, "La prospettiva mitica della musica greca," in Religion, Mythologie, Iconographie, ed. L. Kahil, MÉFRA 103, no. 1 (1991), pp. 39–43; and L. E. Rossi, "Musica e psicologia nel mondo antico e nel mondo moderno," in Synaulia: Cultura musicale in Grecia e contatti mediterranei, ed. D. Musti, A. C. Cassio, and L. E. Rossi, AION 5 (2000), pp. 105–10. See also F. Cordano, "La città di Camarina e le corde della lira," PdP 49 (1994), pp. 418–26; L. Todisco, "Nuovi dati e osservazioni sulla tomba delle danzatrici di Ruvo," AttiMGrecia 3, n.s. (1994–95), p. 135, n. 96; G. Pugliese Carratelli, "L'orfismo in Magna Grecia," in Pugliese Carratelli 1988, pp. 159–70. ↩
Although the text itself is problematic, it contains a number of elements that can be linked to the activity of Archytas. See A. Visconti, "Musica e attività politica in Aristosseno di Taranto," in Tra Orfeo e Pitagora 2000, pp. 463–85; for the pseudo-Archytan Pythagorean treatises, see also B. Centrone, "Il perì nomo kai dikaiosinas di Pseudo Archita," Tra Orfeo e Pitagora 2000, pp. 487–505; also A. Mele, "I pitagorici e Archita," in Storia della Società Italiana 1 (Milan, 1981), pp. 269–98; A. Barker, "Archita di Taranto e l'armonia pitagorica," in Tra Sicilia e Magna Grecia: Aspetti di interazione culturale nel IV secolo a.C., Atti del Convegno, Napoli 1987, ed. A. Cassio and D. Musti (Naples, 1991), pp. 157–78; and F. Cordano, "Sui frammenti poetici attribuiti ad Archita in Stobeo," PdP 26 (1971), pp. 299–300. ↩
Plato, Republic 10.614–621; Breglia Pulci Doria 1987, p. 43; for the sirens and the cosmic music linked to them, see W. Burkert, Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism (Cambridge, MA, 1972), pp. 350–68; also Giangiulio 1986, pp. 101–54. ↩
For the group and the figure of Archytas, see P. G. Guzzo, "Altre note tarantine," Taras 12, no. 1 (1992), pp. 135–41. For the political career and the death of Archytas, see G. Urso, "La morte di Archita e l'alleanza fra Taranto e Archidamo di Sparta (345 BC)," Aevum 71 (1997), pp. 63–70. ↩
For naiskoi in the context of necropoleis of Taranto, see A. Pontrandolfo, "Semata e naiskoi nella ceramica italiota," AION 10 (1988), pp. 181–202; for the relationship between iconography in vase-painting and archaeological reality, see Lippolis 1994, pp. 109–28, and E. Lippolis, "Taranto: Forma e sviluppo della topografia urbana," pp. 119–69 in AttiTaranto 41 (2002). For an overall analysis of Tarentine necropoleis, see E. Lippolis, "Organizzazione delle necropoli e struttura sociale nell'Apulia ellenistica: Due esempi: Taranto e Canosa," in Romische Graberstrassen: Kolloquium in München vom 28. bis 30 Oktober 1985, ed. H. von Hesberg and P. Zanker (Munich, 1987), pp. 139–54. On Macedonian influence on Tarentine funerary sculpture from the end of the fourth through the third century BC, see E. Lippolis, "Ricostruzione e architettura a Taranto dopo Annibale," in Sicilia ellenistica, consuetudo italica: Atti del Convegno, Spoleto, Complesso monumentale di S. Nicolò, 5–7 novembre 2004, ed. M. Osanna and M. Torelli (Rome, 2006), pp. 211–26. ↩
Pausanias 3.12.8–9 and 3.25–27; for funerary monuments in Sparta from the Archaic period, see S. Raftopoulou, "Contributo alla topografia di Sparta durante l'età geometrica ed arcaica," in AttiTaranto 41 (2002), pp. 25–42; also Nafissi 1991, pp. 321–22, 331–34. ↩
On the supposed heroön of Orpheus, see Lippolis 1982, esp. 126–28. ↩
In this connection, see Lippolis 1994, pp. 41–66. The context of a chamber tomb might have ensured better preservation of the group than a naiskos; archaeological studies have revealed that naiskoi were already being dismantled in Roman times, with resulting dispersal and fragmentation of the material. ↩
P. G. Guzzo and S. Luppino, "Due tombe fra Thurii e Crotone," MÉFRA 92, no. 1 (1980), pp. 821–914, figs. 18–19. ↩
See Bottini 2000; also L. Todisco, "Nuovi dati e osservazioni sulla tomba delle danzatrici di Ruvo," AttiMGrecia 3 (1994–95), p. 138, n. 112, and Pensa 1977, pp. 83–88. ↩
Evidence would include materials placed in the tomb, not just signs of prestige but also objects that affirm religious or social behaviors. See, for instance, the small golden lamina found at Caudium (modern Montesarchio) in a tomb from the fourth century BC and the discovery of tombs such as the one in Ruvo del Monte that yielded a red-figured calyx krater showing the abduction of a young man by Eos, which can be interpreted as a metaphor for the hope of winning a new life after death. Similarly, the reference to Orphism, more allusive in the indigenous centers, can be viewed in the context of a theme of redemption and salvation, with reference to the myths of Boreas and Helen as well. Historical and philological studies have revealed the participation of indigenous personalities in Pythagorean life; in this connection, see A. Bottini, Archeologia della salvezza (Milan, 1992), pp. 104–15; P. Poccetti, "La diffusione di dottrine misteriche e sapienziali nelle culture indigene dell'Italia antica: Appunti per un dossier," in Tra Orfeo e Pitagora 2000, pp. 91–126; Bottini 2000; and A. Mele, "Il Pitagorismo e le popolazioni anelleniche," AION 3 (1981), pp. 61–96. ↩
See F. G. Cavarretta, "Diffusione diacronica dell'iconografia di Orfeo in ambiente occidentale," in Masaracchia 1993, pp. 399–407. Pausanias mentions a statue of Orpheus on Mount Helikon, surrounded by statues of animals (9.30.4); at Therae in Laconia in the Temple of Eleusinian Demeter, there was a xoanon (cultic image) of Orpheus (3.20.5), and at Olympia, in the donarium of Mikythos, there was a votive statue of Orpheus from 460 BC (5.26.3). ↩
For Tarentine marble sculpture, see Belli Pasqua 1995, pp. 3–8; for the connections with Attic production, see pp. 45–46; see, in particular, the head of Athena from the first half of the fourth century BC, derived from a prototype of the last third of the fifth century BC, pp. 47–48. On the cultural ties between Taras and Athens in the fifth century BC, see E. Lippolis, "Taranto e la politica di Atene in Occidente," Ostraka 6, no. 2 (1997), pp. 359–78. ↩
For the head of Athena in Brescia, see A. Giuliano, "I grandi bronzi di Riace, Fidia e la sua officina," in Due Bronzi di Riace: Rinvenimento, restauro, analisi ed ipotesi di interpretazione, BdA, ser. speciale 3 (Rome, 1984), pp. 297–306, figs. 4–5. The head of Orpheus in Munich has been identified on the basis of its very close resemblance to a small bronze statue of Orpheus with a kithara at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg: see file no. 15, by R. Wunsche, in I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale, exh. cat., ed. M. De Nuccio and L. Ungaro (Rome, Mercati di Traiano, 2002), pp. 315–16. ↩
See Settis and Parra 2005, pp. 259–62. ↩
The term "Master of the Singers of Taras" was proposed by Bonnie M. Kingsley in an unpublished study, which I was able to read. Some examples with similar features could be attributed to this workshop's production: (1) a male bust wearing a pointed cap in the Sackler Museum at Harvard University (inv. 1943 1085); (2) two heads with a band and a wreath at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, published in L. D. Caskey, "Greek Terracottas from Taranto," Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts 29, no. 17 (1931), nos. 2 and 10; (3) a bust of a banqueter from the antiquities market in Basel, cited in Münzen und Medaillen AG (Basel), sale cat., August 1962, pp. 23–24, no. 55; (4) a bust of a bearded figure from the collection of Thomas Virzì, which became part of the collection of the Antikenmuseum Basel, in Herdejürgen 1982, no. 105 (it should be noted that the distinctive curls on the heads of the sirens were also sometimes used by the Tarentine coroplasts for beards); (5) a bust in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto (inv. 20.003); and (6) a head in a Phrygian cap, in Fischer-Hansen 1992, no. 53, dated to 430–410 BC. See also the mold of the front section of a male head in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, in Deonna 1930, pp. 67–74, fig. 4, and the head of a banqueter with cap and partly finished head in D. von Bothmer, Ancient Art from New York Private Collections, exh. cat (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1959–60), no. 179, pl. 62. ↩
For the terracottas of Ariccia, see Carafa 1996, in particular the bust in fig. 2 and M. Papini, Antichi volti della Repubblica: La ritrattistica in Italia centrale tra IV e II secolo a.C. (Rome, 2004), pp. 222–24. ↩


text:
According to this report from The Korea Herald, President Park Geun-hye is seriously considering levying a tax on corporations for holding on to its profits. To be specific, if corporations do not spend "enough" of their profits on investments, salaries, and dividends, the government will levy a ten percent tax on those profits.
How much would be considered excess profits and how long a corporation has to hold on to its profits before the taxes are levied have apparently not been hammered out in detail just yet.
On top of that, the Bank of Korea cut interest rates to 2.25 percent just recently, which is the lowest that it has been since November 2010. What's more, further interest rate cuts are expected and it is feasible that interest rates could fall as low as 1 percent. And about a month ago, the Korean government expanded tax deductions for debit card users.
In other words, the Park administration wants us to spend money. And preferably a lot of it.
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The government's rationale is that if business owners come to terms that their "excess" profits will be taxed, they will choose to pay higher wages, salaries, and dividends so that people will spend more money, thereby spurring economic growth. Furthermore, assuming that businesses increase workers' wages (instead of diverting more of their profits to off-shore shell companies and tax havens), coupled with low interest rates and tax incentives for debit cards, the government hopes that the people will choose to spend their money rather than save it (instead of investing their money in riskier but higher-yielding investments).
(It is my opinion that the government is either completely ignorant of the concept of unintended consequences or it is aware of the concept but simply does not give a damn about it.)
The government's rationale behind this series of decisions is that savings is deleterious to economic growth. It is an idea that was made popular in the twentieth century by the great (which does not necessarily mean "good") John Maynard Keynes.
People who subscribe to this economic school of thought often compare money to some kind of metaphor that can be found in the natural sciences. For instance, only just recently someone mentioned to me that money is like water; that it's supposed to flow freely. But does money flow? The words "flow" and "circulate" are often used to refer to the movement of money within a given economy. It allows people to simplify money; something which is far more complicated than people actually think it is.
However, money does not actually "flow" or "circulate." In fact, I think it is misleading to say that money "flows" or "circulates." It implies that money is somehow spent independently of human will. Money does not flow or circulate. As boring as it may sound, money is transferred from one person's cash balance to anther's. And this transference depends entirely on how much people are willing to hold on to their money at any given time.
|Believe it or not, this does not happen in reality.
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The basic argument behind the government's series of policy changes is the assumption that "hoarding" money (something that more sober minded people refer to as "savings") somehow causes economic stagnation. It assumes that if far too many households and businesses save money rather than spend it, the savings will stifle demand for goods and services, thus leading to an economic contraction.
Many Keynesian economists have therefore always urged people, and especially the government, to spend. Even when there is no money to spend.
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However, these policies do more than to simply set the stage to get people to spend more money. It also tacitly makes villains out of people who wish to save money. Though the language used has thus far been benign, what has remained unsaid but expressed tacitly nonetheless was that those who do not spend their money are causing the economy to shut down. It assumes that businesses that choose to save money inevitably lead to reduced sales, which in turn leads to increased layoffs. Then as the total social income decreases, this leads to less money being made available for overall consumption. Then, as individuals begin to fear for their economic well-being, they too will begin to refuse to spend their money. The government's rationale is that hoarding begets more hoarding and that it causes the economy to sink ever deeper into a downward spiral.
In the end, what the government is actually saying is that people who save their money, these selfish hoarders, will eventually doom the economy into a permanent economic stagnation.
Image Source
But is there any truth to this viewpoint? I, for one, do not think so.
There is a question that we have to ask ourselves. Why do people even save their money in the first place?
There is only one answer to that question. People save their money so that they can insure themselves against an uncertain future. Think about it. If the future weren't uncertain, if each and every one of us had the gift of being able to accurately predict when and how much money we will need, none of us would need to save our money. We would simply spend our money and make the necessary investments so that we may receive the amount of money we need to spend on the day we need to spend it.
Fortunately or unfortunately, however, the future is uncertain. We do not know how or when or where we will face our next calamity or good fortune. And the more uncertain and fearful we are, the more money we tend to save. And considering the fact that Korea is the fastest aging society in the world, and further considering all the financial troubles that are associated with aging, Koreans have all the reason in the world to be fearful of the future.
|Image Source
There is another reason why businesses save money. If businesses expect the value of money to fall in the near future, they will spend their money now while the money is more valuable. However, if businesses expect the value of money to rise, they will wait to spend their money later when it is more valuable.
Milton Friedman once said that there are four ways to spend money. One of the ways to spend money is for an individual to spend his/her own money. When people do that, people try to get the most for their money and tend to be more careful about how they handle their money. Therefore, for the most part, people's decision to save or spend their money tends to be based on very sound reasons.
The Korean government might think that its recent policy changes is for the benefit of the public. In the short-run, the Park administration might just be vindicated. But what happens in fifteen years when Korea becomes a "super aged" society (meaning that more than one-fifth of the population will be over the age of 65), when there will be more retirees, who will have minimal income and will therefore need more government handouts, than there are working people?
|For those unaware, Korean subway cars reserve the seats at the end of each train car (where the two kids are seated) for senior citizens whereas the other seats are for everyone else. This picture asks its viewers to imagine a future when those seats will be reserved for children instead of senior citizens.
Image Source
The idea that savings somehow impedes economic growth is a popular one, especially among politicians. However, just because something is popular does not make it right. Saving for a rainy day does not cause negative economic growth or economic stagnation. That is because savings don't take money out of the economy. Savings are an insurance. Therefore, savings is really just another word for deferred consumption.
There is, however, yet another rationale behind the government's series of policy changes. It is the presumption that the more money there is, the more wealth there is. As counter-intuitive as this may sound, that is just not true. The units of money that we have in our wallets or bank accounts do not matter. If such a thing actually mattered, Zimbabweans would be the richest people in the world!
|Image Source
What people really want is not more money, but more bang for their buck. In other words, they want their money to be able to buy more things. Simply increasing the amount of money, which is all that the Korean government will be able to achieve with its policies (assuming that it is successful), will simply dilute the effectiveness of the money that people do own. It will not improve the people's standard of living.
The only thing that can make the money more valuable is for there to be a fall in prices aka deflation, which is the very thing that every government wishes to avoid. After all, although deflation is what people need, it is not what they want (whether or not deflation is a good thing is an entirely different topic that shall be dealt with on another day).
To be specific, people want the prices of all goods that they buy to fall. However, at the same time, they want the price of the goods that they sell to rise. Therefore, though nobody will actually claim to want it, what their actions often belie is that everyone actually wants inflation. And politicians are only too happy to give people what they want, rather than what they need.
It is possible that the Park administration's war on savings might lead to some short-term economic gains. After all, almost anything can be proven to be correct by resorting to clever statistics. But in the long run, I just don't see how it is anything but doomed to fail.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
On the trail rider training teaches the proper techniques to ride any trail like the PROs with confidence!
Adults $150 Youth $100 (15 and under)
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Thank You
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text: Cats are among the most adorable creatures that man knows, being for us like living toys, good interlocutors, and even friends, not to mention the fact that they catch the snakes. There are practically no people who do not love or sympathize with cats. However, they have a drawback, namely …Read More »


text:
Anna Mindess is an award-winning writer and journalist focusing on food, culture, travel and immigrants' stories. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, AFAR, Paste Magazine, Oakland Magazine, Edible East Bay Magazine, KQED Bay Area Bites and many other publications. Anna also works as an American Sign Language/English interpreter and is the author of several books and co-creator of several films about Deaf Culture that are used to train ASL students and interpreters around the world.
What I Learned Hawking Sweet Potatoes with a Street Vendor in Taiwan
I must look like a lunatic to the well-dressed people striding down a busy Taipei street at lunchtime...
Edible East Bay Magazine
Can You Really Trust An Eggplant?
Place an eggplant on a plate and the shiny purple globe freely rolls from side to side. You may have never considered the vegetable in this light, but for Hindi speakers, the phrase "thali ka baingan" (eggplant on a plate) is a disparaging put-down for someone who likewise flip-flops, shifting loyalties so easily that they cannot be trusted...
The Washington Post
All Signs Point to a Hit in San Francisco
Melody Stein's hands stay mighty busy at Mozzeria, the Neapolitan pizza and small-plates restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District. They make the dough, help create recipes and email vendors. They concoct the hoisin sauce that tops the popular roast duck pizza...
Oakland Magazine
High-rises and Hutongs Define Beijing
Like a bowl of its intensely flavored noodles, Beijing is a tangle of contradictions. For centuries, the dragons painted on its ancient temples' red and gold façades have watched the city serenely. Yet now, ultramodern high-rises spring up at the speed of light. Wander the twisting lanes in a few hutongs to feel the timeless pulse of daily life...
Tips from a Sign Language Interpreter for Overcoming Language Barriers
On a recent trip to China, I entered a modest Beijing noodle shop, but saw no English translations in evidence. Since my Chinese vocabulary consists only of ni hao (hello) and xie xie (thank you), I realized that spoken words would get me nowhere...
Mastering the Art of Eating with the Hands
We are all born with a remarkable set of eating utensils. They are versatile, impossible to misplace, and relatively unbreakable. Millions of diners around the globe swear that neither slender sticks nor pointy metal objects are better designed to ferry food to our faces than our hands. If you've eaten pizza, a burger, or...


text:
Action Charts
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Purchase a year's license of Action Charts for iOS, tvOS and macOS development with Swift and Xcode for the introductory price of $99 per developer seat.
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In today's world of ever expanding mobile devices, developers face a challenge when creating high quality, engaging and unique user experiences that not only look great but also work great across the multitude of iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch versions, this even includes the living room with Apple TV.
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Our components were designed to be quickly added to your mobile project with a minimum of code, making it easy to add high-quality, professional features and functionality to your mobile applications.
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That said, Action Charts are sold on a per developer seat license. If you have multiple developers, each one will need to purchase their own individual copy of the components.
Discounts are available on multi-seat purchase, please contact sales for more details.
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Additionally, you'll recieve any new UI control or time-saving feature added to the Action Charts suite, again, free of charge, while your subscription is valid.
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However, you will no longer receive any new bug fixes, updates or feature enhancements so an update to iOS, tvOS, watchOS, macOS, Swift or Xcode could potentially break compatibilty with your component version.


text:
JSyn V16 Release Notes
V16.8.0 - Build 463 - 10/16/2017
- Fix possible deadlock in AudioFifo. Contributed by Greg (zgeggy2k).
- Ensure upper bound for argument to Thread#setPriority is less than Thread#MAX_PRIORITY. Contributed by nmulcahey.
- Added MultiPassThrough unit. This allows you to have stereo outputs on a UnitVoice.
- Add NoteOn and NoteOff with Timestamp to the MultiChannelSynthesizer.
V16.7.8 - Build 462 - 12/1/2016
- Added com.jsyn.instruments.DualOscillatorSynthVoice. This is a classic synthesizer voice with two morphing oscillators, a four-pole resonant filter, and two DAHDSR envelopes for amplitude and filter cutoff.
- Check for frames out-of-bounds when queuing sample or envelope data to a UnitDataQueuePort.
- InstrumentTester will now use a MIDI keyboard if connected.
- Add support for Program Change, Aftertouch, and RPNs to the MIDI com.jsyn.midi.MessageParser.
- Defined lots of controllers in com.jsyn.midi.MidiConstants.
- Add MultiChannelSynthesizer that manages voices on an arbitrary number of channels. It responds to noteOn and other MIDI like commands but could be used with other music protocols.
- Added com.jsyn.midi.MidiSynthesizer that parses MIDI and drives a MultiChannelSynthesizer. See UseMidiKeyboard example that reads from a connected MIDI keyboard and sends to a MidiSynthesizer object.
- Add setValueAdded(boolean) to UnitInputPort. If set true then the value that the port is set() to will be added to the values from any other ports that are connected. If false then the value that the port is set() to will be ignored when other ports are connected. This makes it easy to set a center value using set() and then modulate around that value using a connected port.
- Add addPortAlias() to Circuit, which allows you to have more than one name for a port.
- Add soft limiting to FilterFourPoles to prevent it from blowing up due to excessive feedback.
- Improve the way LinearRamp handles time changes in the middle of a ramp.
- Add MorphingOscillatorBL. The "shape" port allows you to vary the output continuously from a sine wave at -1.0, to a sawtooth at 0.0 to a pulse wave at 1.0.
- Add PitchToFrequency unit generator that is a subclass of PowerOfTwo. The pitches are fractional MIDI pitches. A 60.5, for example, would be a quarter tone above Middle C.
- Define common port names as constants, for example, UnitGenerator.PORT_NAME_FREQUENCY = "Frequency". These can be used with getPortByName(String).
- AudioMath now supports global tuning, for example, AudioMath.setConcertAFrequency(441.0).
- Added length() to DoubleTable.
- Added evaluate() to FloatSample so it implements Function interface. Now you can use them for waveshaping or with a FunctionOscillator.
V16.7.6 Build 460 - 8/15/16
- Fix race condition when stopping and restarting JSyn. https://github.com/philburk/jsyn/issues/30
- Set range of CrossFade unit's "fade" port to -1 to +1.
- Add Synthesizer.clearCommandQueue() to clear all previously scheduled commands.
V16.7.5 Build 459 - 11/2/15
- Added BrownNoise unit generator that uses Brownian motion to produce noise.
- Fix scaling in FFT.
- Raised minimum frequency in FilterFourPole to prevent it from blowing up.
V16.7.3 - Build 457 - 12/25/14
- Added FilterFourPoles unit - resonant low-pass "Moog" style ladder filter
- Added ZeroCrossingCounter unit - for debugging and analysis
V16.7.1 - Build 455 - 11/3/14
- Fixed WaveRecorder.setMaxRecordingTime(seconds). It counted samples instead of frames for stereo.
- Added MixerMono, MixerStereo, MixerMonoRamped and MixerStereoRamped units. The Ramped mixers have internal smoothing for gain and pan to prevent zipper noise.
- Fixed bug with starting, stopping and then restarting JSyn synthesizer with a different sample rate. Some units still ran at the old rate.
- Fixed crash that could occur when using JPortAudio if synth.start() was called twice in a row.
- Improved documentation for spectral FFT units.
V16.7.0 - Build 454 - 7/18/14
- Added support for writing 24-bit WAV files. See WAVFileWriter.setBitsPerSample().
- Added method to start a unit generator using a double precision time instead of having to use a TimeStamp: ugen.start(double time)
- Fixed a rounding error in InterpolatingDelay that caused some audible distortion.
- Fixed a rounding error in the JavaSound output device and the WAVFileWriter that caused some minor non-linearity near zero. You probably never heard it but it would make a mathematicians' skin crawl.
- Fixed a bug in the SpectralFilter that prevented using FFT sizes less than 512.
- Added a brick-wall low-pass filter example to HearSpectralFilter.java.
- Added some new unit generators:
- FilterAllPass
- RangeConverter
- PhaseShifter
V16.6.4 - Build 453 - 2/2/14 Beta
- Add maxFrames to SequentialDataCommon. Used for samples and envelopes.
- Add com.jsyn.data.EnvelopePoints. Used by EnvelopeEditor.
- Add queueImmediate() method to UnitDataQueuePort. It will clear the queue as the new item is added. Used by queueOn(). This can cause notes to begin immediately even if there is old data in the queue.
- Add EnvelopeEditorPanel for editing segmented envelopes. (Note that API is not finalized and may change.)
V 16.6.3 - Build 452 - 10/30/13 Beta
- Fixed bug with units working when some ports were set() but not when driven from a connection. These include:
- LinearRamp: input and time
- ExponentialRamp: input and time
- AsymptoticRamp: halfLife
- ContinuousRamp: time
- PeakFollower: halfLife
- Set "current" port initial value to 1.0 so that ExponentialRamp will not throw an IllegalArgumentException if uninitialized..
V16.5.14 - 12/16/2012 Beta
- Added crossfading capability to the sample data queue. You can smooth the transition from one queue data block to another. This is handy if you are queuing arbitrary pieces of sample. Call the setCrossFadeIn() method of the QueueDataCommand.
- Added setImmediate(flag) method to QueueDataCommand. If true then the queue will be cleared and this item will be started immediately. It is better to use this flag than to clear the queue from the application because there could be a gap before the next item is available. This is most useful when combined with setCrossFadeIn().
- When stopping the synthesizer, the audio thread is interrupted. This should result in a quicker shutdown of the synth.
- Prevent some uninformative NullPointerExceptions that could occur if the audio device initialization failed.
V16.5.6 - 10/8/12 Beta
- IMPORTANT: SampleLoader.loadFloatSample() no longer throws a javax.sound.sampled.UnsupportedAudioFileException. That is a JavaSound exception. In order to support JSyn on Android we are eliminating references to JavaSound classes from the API. You may need to eliminate it from your catch clauses. Please do not distribute this JAR file with an existing application without testing sample file loading.
- Added custom audio file parsing to replace the JavaSound file parser. If you need to use the old JavaSound SampleLoader then call SampleLoader.setJavaSoundPreferred(true).
- Added support for 32-bit floating point WAV and AIF files.
- Read sample markers and cues and set the sustain loop accordingly.
V16.5.4 - 9/5/12 Beta
- Fix problem with default invalid input device when using JPortAudio.
V16.5.3 - 9/4/12 Beta
- Added support for JPortAudio, an alternative to JavaSound for audio I/O. JPortAudio allows you to use multi-channel devices, and also eliminates the annoying clicks on Mac caused by JavaSound.
V16.5.1 - 6/2/12 Beta
- Fixed crash in PowerOfTwo when input is -1.5308084989341915E-17. Added extra guard point.
- Added setEnabled(false) in WaveShapingVoice so it starts off not using any CPU.
- Rewired SubtractiveSynthVoice so that it does not use any CPU when the envelope finishes.
- Print a more informative error if the user forgets to add a unit to the synth.
V16.5.0 - 4/28/12 Beta
- Added PitchDetector that uses a sample based auto-correlation technique.
- Completely modified API for VoiceAllocator. There is no longer a VoiceFactory. Instead you pass an array of pre-instantiated UnitVoices to the VoiceAllocator constructor. VoiceAllocator now supports referencing of voices allocated in the future by an integer tag. Added methods noteOn(), noteOff(), allNotesOff(), setPort().
- WaveShapingVoice now has a built in Chebyshev polynomial table so it can be used for playing notes.
- Added VoiceDescription, Instrument interface, InstrumentBrowser.
- Added InstrumentTester app.
- Big changes to Ports. I removed UnitValuePort because it was a bad legacy from the old JSyn. There are now some port interfaces including ConnectableInput, ConnectableOutput, GettablePort, SettablePort. These are mostly internal changes and should not affect you. Let me know if they do.
- Add ASCIIMusicKeyboard. It is a KeyListener that makes it very easy to play notes using the ASCII keyboard of a computer. Handy for testing instruments or for Applets.
There were several code breaking API changes this time. Note that this is a beta version and we are tuning the API. We will try to reduce code breaking changes but we also don't want to get stuck with a funky API.
- UnitVoice has several new methods. Also the noteOn() parameter order changed.
- UnitSink now has a start() method.
- UnitGenerator getPorts() now returns Collection<UnitPort> instead of an old style Enumeration.
- VoiceAllocator no longer uses a factory.
- Clave is now a preset of DrumWoodFM.
V16.4.6 - 2/14/12 Beta
- Fixed SampleLoader.loadFloatSample(file). It mangled the data when loading stereo samples.
- Changed the function port of FunctionOscillator from protected to public.
- Fix race condition that could occur when circuits were nested. It would cause code to get executed multiple times resulting in distortion.
V16.4.4 - 8/29/11 Beta
- Many binary operator unit gens like Subtract now extend UnitBinaryOperator. If you are using the new JSyn API then you will need to recompile with the new JAR file!
- Added lots more JavaDocs and some online docs.
- The GrainSource method next() no longer takes the envelope parameter.
- Fixed range of PseudoRandom.random(). Was negative!
- Fixed a bug in VoiceAllocator that could cause allocate() to return a null voice.
V16.4.3 - 6/19/11 Beta
- Use higher suggested latency by default on Windows platforms to prevent glitching.
- Improved AudioScope. Added AUTO trigger mode and auto scaling.
- VariableRateMonoReader and VariableRateStereoReader are now subclasses of VariableRateDataReader.
- GrainFarm - experimental granular synthesis engine. In progress. API likely to change.
- JAR file is now a double-clickable application that shows the version and lets you play some sine waves.
V16.4.2 - 5/3/11 Beta
- Fixed NullPointerException if table not set in wave-shaper.
- Added example for ChebyshevSong.
- Changed name of FunctionLookup unit to FunctionEvaluator.
- Changed name of Function.lookup() to Function.evaluate().
V16.4.1 - 5/1/11 Beta
- Fixed problem with array index out of bounds when using audio input.
- Added JSyn.createSynthesizer() method.
- Renamed sample and envelope readers. Use VariableRateMonoReader to play envelopes or samples or both.
- Released autodocs.
- Added queueLoop() method.
- Added finite loop counts for queueLoop.
- Removed FLAG_LOOP_IF_LAST and other old fashioned bit flags. Use queueLoop instead.
- Add UnitDataQueueCallback and QueueDataCommand for notification of queue events.
V16.3 - 10/19/10 Beta
- New proposed package hierarchy to match migration document.
- Added missing connect() methods.
- Fixed disconnect(). Was connecting!
- Preparation for API release.
V16.1 - 6/23/10 Beta
- Fix problem with getDefaultOutputDevice() returning -1 and causing an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.
V16.0 - 4/5/10 Beta
- Fixed problem with oscillator frequencies that are outside the Nyquist range. They are now clipped to the Nyquist frequency, which is half the sample rate. This fixes a problem with some Rhythmicon voices.
V15.9 - 4/3/10 Beta
- Fixed problem in stereo sample players that was causing NoSuchElementException and a missing right channel.
V15.8 3/27/10 Beta
- Replaced peekLast() method that was causing a NoSuchMethodError is JSyn was used with Java 1.5. Apparently peekLast() was added for Java 1.6.
- Check for user's overindexing of port parts before sending asynchronous command to engine. Now the exception will be thrown in the user code. This makes it easier to debug.
V15.7 3/24/10 Beta
- Fixed a race condition bug that caused NullPointerException at (ThingTable.java:99). It could happen if multiple threads were creating and deleting Synth resources like units, envelopes, samples, etc.
- Implemented Synth.FLAG_SKIP_IF_OTHERS
V15.7 3/7/10 Beta
- Detect and report error if mono samples played on stereo sample players or vice versa. That could cause NoSuchElementException in UnitDataQueuePort.checkBlock().
V15.5 3/4/10 Beta
- Fixed high pitch whine that was sometimes heard when stopping a SynthCircuit.
- Added proper clipping to audio output.
- Fix bug that caused interference between multiple Applets running at the same time.
- Fixed race condition when stopping units that could cause ConcurrencyModificationException.
- There is a known problem on Mac with random clicking. This appears to be a JavaSound bug. It does not happen on Windows.
V15.4 1/6/10 Beta
- Fixed speed of LinearLag.
- Fixed spontaneous autoStop in SampleReader_16V1.
- Support loading Wire patches.
- Usage now works.
- Support getMin() and getMax() for ports by setting a port signal type. The setSignalType() method is deprecated, just a stub, no longer needed.
V15.3 12/15/09 Beta
- All unit generators have been converted from 'C' to Java.
- Should match the old JSyn except for the following:
- CPU performance will be lower because it is not native code.
- Latency will be higher because of Java and JavaSound.
- The SynthPort "signal types" are not implemented. It only made sense for old fixed-point DSP architectures.
- Applets that use audio input will need to be signed using a digital certificate!


text:
David Moncoutié (Cofidis) brought the curtain down on his Tour de France career in sorry circumstances on Friday, when a crash on stage 12 forced him to abandon the race. It was the 37-year-old's 11th and final Tour appearance, and it was the first time that he had ever abandoned a grand tour.
Moncoutié fell heavily on the descent of the Col du Grand-Cucheron, and although he sustained no broken bones, he suffered heavy contusions to his left side and required stitches to an injury on his right elbow.
"I overshot a corner on the descent and I wasn't able to change my line as there was a lot of gravel and it was fast," Moncoutié told L'Équipe. "After the crash, I thought about the fact that it was my last Tour."
13th overall in the 2002 Tour and a stage winner at Figeac in 2004 and Digne-les-Bains in 2005, Moncoutié is set to retire at the end of this season and he was disappointed to miss out on racing on the Champs-Élysées one final time.
"It's the first time I've abandoned a Grand Tour and it hurts to quit the most beautiful race in the world," he said. "I'm a bit dejected, I thought I'd get to Paris, I was getting back into good condition. It's sad, but that's cycling."
Moncoutié was optimistic about his chances of recovering from his injuries in time for the Vuelta a España, which gets underway on August 18. In the twilight of his career, Moncoutié has put together a fine sequence at the Spanish race, winning a stage and the mountains classification in each of the past four editions of the race.


text:
Does Christmas Change the World?
I had all this stuff I was going to say about Advent Conspiracy and our experience with it. However, I think this clip does a great job summarizing anything I could say. Plus, I'm not here to preach to anyone but rather to encourage anyone who wants to pursue a different kind of Christmas.
Posted by KatieO at 12:13:00 PM
4 comments:
- Betherann said...
very cool, mrs. oz. thanks for sharing!
- November 2, 2009 at 1:40 PM
- Katie Oz said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- November 2, 2009 at 9:02 PM
- katieoz said...
my pleasure, Beth!
- November 2, 2009 at 9:03 PM
- kranberrys said...
So true! It's kinda sick! 450 BILLION! We are broke this year and it's forced us to bring back the homemade more thought of gifts and gifts of time...sad that it took brokeness to bring back what we should have known all along...
- December 7, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
"When you say we're headed to the Messiah -" Rolland leaned towards the Cardinal "- you mean the same Messiah that left Earth eight hundred years ago?"
The shuttle pierced the blackness of space toward the starship Messiah. Captain Barron, Ambassador Locke, and the compliance agent Jordan Rattan now shared the shuttle with Cardinal Abidan, the Catechumen Auditor.
Abidan smiled. "That's right."
"I'm surprised it's still functioning."
"The vessel has been held in a preserved state for many centuries now," Abidan explained. "There are no humans on board, and all environmental systems have been deactivated. This was done to eliminate the aging effects of water, heat, and air."
"That would do it," Rolland said. "But it might make our visit a little less pleasant."
"Jehovah will reactivate the necessary systems for our visit."
"Right." Rolland looked out the viewscreen. "Of course."
"There it is." Abidan pointed to the front viewscreen.
In the distance they saw the small bronze speck of the Messiah against the stars.
"That ship has something to do with how you control the Robots?" Jordan asked.
"Jehovah controls them -" Abidan turned from the window "- but yes, it has everything to do with it. You see, the Catechumen left Earth with an important realization: after more than two millenia of false prophets and twisted interpretations of the Lord's word, they knew they should not walk in the footsteps of others. To truly commune with the Word of the Lord, they must forge their own path to understanding. To this end, they built the Messiah." Abidan motioned to the bronze, cross-shaped vessel that lay just ahead. A bay door drew open on the approaching vessel, pitch black within. Their shuttle glided slowly inside.
"I still don't understand -" Jordan turned from the viewscreen "- what exactly does this ship have to do with the robots?"
The shuttle settled down to the floor of the Messiah's bay. There was a loud mechanical sound, then a vibration through the shuttle. Jordan jumped at the sudden noise.
"It's just the bay door closing," Rolland explained. "Older ship. No e-field."
Kristina's voice entered the shuttle cabin. "The bay's depressurized. Looks like environmental systems are coming online now. I'll let you know when it's safe out there."
"The Messiah was where we learned how to commune with Jehovah -" Abidan turned to face Jordan "- we used our technology to come together with the Word of the Lord. To answer your question, the robots are controlled by Jehovah, who acts through those in communion."
"I'm not sure I follow you." Jordan raisd an eyebrow.
"It will help to see it." Abidan smiled.
"You might not want to go out there," Kristina spoke through the communicator.
"What's the problem?" Rolland asked.
"The EC on that ship is way under spec," Kristina replied. "You got some air. But there's a lot of particulate matter."
"Irritants. I'd advise breathers. And it's cold."
"How cold?"
"Minus five. Oh, and I hope you're all EVA trained."
"There's no grav'?"
"Nope. Zero G."
Angels and WormholesScience Fiction
A star-faring religious cult has created an army of robotic zealots designed to follow holy scripture. As the robotic menace spreads across the galaxy, it takes prisoners to be 'excommunicated': hooked into a neural simulation of eternal torment. Ca...


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April 11, 2007 -- Changes to traditional pension plans over the past five years have left U.S. employees feeling less confident with their retirement savings, a new national survey finds.
In telephone interviews with more than 1,200 workers aged 25 and older, 45 percent of respondents said they were less or much less confident about the amount of money they will receive from their employer-based pension plans, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a Washington-based, non-partisan research group.
Despite those concerns, two in five workers who experienced cutbacks in their retirement benefits have done nothing in response -- with as many as 70 percent of employees saving for retirement reporting less than $10,000 in assets, the survey found.
"We have known for decades that major changes were taking place in the U.S. retirement system," Jack VanDerhei, a Temple University researcher who co-wrote the survey, said in a statement. "This year, we found that a substantial number of workers realize that the shift from traditional pensions to 401(k) plans affects them personally."
VanDerhei said most employees now need additional savings to secure the same level of retirement funds they might have obtained under a traditional pension plan.
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