Beyond the Palio: urbanism and ritual in Renaissance Siena
1. Introduction: Beyond the Palio: Urbanism and Ritual in Renaissance Siena: Philippa Jackson and Fabrizio Nevola. 2. 'Sotto uno Baldachino Trionfale': the Ritual Significance of the Painted Canopy in Simone Martini's Maesta: Diana Norman. 3. Enter the Emperor: Charles IV and Siena between Politics, Diplomacy and Ritual (1355 and 1368): Gerrit Schenk. 4. Altars on the Street: The Arte della Lana, the Carmelites and the Feast of Corpus Domini in Siena 1356-1456: Machtelt Israels. 5. Ritual Geography: Housing the Papal Court of Pius II Piccolomini in Siena (1459-60): Fabrizio Nevola. 6. Peace-making Rituals in Fifteenth-Century Siena: Christine Shaw. 7. Pomp or Piety? The Funeral of Pandolfo Petrucci: Philippa Jackson. 8. The Rise of the New Civic Ritual of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin in 16th Century Siena: Mauro Mussolin.
Activating the Effigy: Donatello's Pecci Tomb in Siena Cathedral
Donatello's floor tomb for Bishop Giovanni Pecci is analyzed in light of its contemporary beholders and the rituals associated with death and postmortem commemoration. The tomb, originally in front of Siena Cathedral's high altar, depicts in illusionistic low relief Pecci's body laid on a bier. The illusionism is best appreciated by a viewer standing at the foot of the tomb. This suggests that the intended beholder of Donatello's design was a priest officiating at the high altar. Metaphorically, such a viewer would have reenacted Pecci's funeral service or, equally appropriately, would have evoked an intercessory mass of the dead.
An anionic shell shields a cationic core allowing for uptake and release of polyelectrolytes within core-shell responsive microgels.
To realize carriers for drug delivery, cationic containers are required for anionic guests. Nevertheless, the toxicity of cationic carriers limits their practical use. In this study, we investigate a model system of polyampholyte N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM)-based microgels with a cationic core and an anionic shell to study whether the presence of a negative shell allows the cationic core to be shielded while still enabling the uptake and release of the anionic guest polyelectrolytes. These microgels are loaded with polystyrene sulfonate of different molecular weights to investigate the influence of their chain length on the uptake and release process. By means of small-angle neutron scattering, we evaluate the spatial distribution of polystyrene sulfonate within the microgels. The guest molecules are located in different parts of the core-shell microgels depending on their size. By combining these scattering results with UV-vis spectroscopy, electrophoretic mobility and potentiometric titrations we gain complementary results to investigate the uptake and release process of polyelectrolytes in polyampholyte core-shell microgels. Moreover, Brownian molecular dynamic simulations are performed to compare the experimental and theoretical results of this model. Our findings demonstrate that the presence of a shell still enables efficient uptake of guest molecules into the cationic core. These anionic guest molecules can be released through an anionic shell. Furthermore, the presence of a shell enhances the stability of the microgel-polyelectrolyte complexes with respect to the cationic precursor microgel alone.