Misplaced Pages

#653346

22-404: The white marble sculpture consists of a thirty foot high column topped by an eagle and mounted on an elaborate base adorned with allegorical figures representing Glory, Fame, History, and Commerce. History, on the northwest corner, is represented by a seated female figure holding a book in her proper left hand and a pen made of bronze gilt in her proper right hand. She looks up and begins to record

44-404: A bound vector instead of a free vector ). A direction is often represented as a unit vector , the result of dividing a vector by its length. A direction can alternately be represented by a point on a circle or sphere , the intersection between the sphere and a ray in that direction emanating from the sphere's center; the tips of unit vectors emanating from a common origin point lie on

66-469: A common point. The direction of a non-oriented line in a two-dimensional plane, given a Cartesian coordinate system, can be represented numerically by its slope . A direction is used to represent linear objects such as axes of rotation and normal vectors . A direction may be used as part of the representation of a more complicated object 's orientation in physical space (e.g., axis–angle representation ). Two directions are said to be opposite if

88-572: A figure is the hand that would be regarded by that figure as its right hand. In a frontal representation, that appears on the left as the viewer sees it, creating the potential for ambiguity if the hand is just described as the "right hand". The terms are mainly used in discussing images of humans, whether in art history , medical contexts such as x-ray images, or elsewhere, but they can be used in describing any object that has an unambiguous front and back (for example furniture ) or, when describing things that move or change position, with reference to

110-483: A pair of points) which can be made equal by scaling (by some positive scalar multiplier ). Two vectors sharing the same direction are said to be codirectional or equidirectional . All co directional line segments sharing the same size (length) are said to be equipollent . Two equipollent segments are not necessarily coincident; for example, a given direction can be evaluated at different starting positions , defining different unit directed line segments (as

132-617: A square base constructed with blocks of stone and adorned with an urn on each corner. The monument is made of Carrara marble with a sandstone base and measures 360 by 192 by 192 inches (9.1 m × 4.9 m × 4.9 m). It is also known as the U. S. Naval Monument , the Naval Monument , and the Peace Monument . The designer was Giovanni Charles Micali (sometimes Giovanni Carlo Micali), who signed his work as Giov. Charles Micali Invento · In Livorno 1806 . On

154-407: Is to a watercraft as "proper left" is to a sculpture, and they are used for essentially the same reason. Their use obviates the need for potentially ambiguous language such as "my right," "your left," and so on, by expressing the direction in a manner that holds true regardless of the relative orientations of the object and observer. Another example is stage right and left in the theatre, which uses

176-740: The USS ; Constitution (famous frigate "Old Ironsides"), and then shipped south to the newly laid out national capital of Washington, D.C. After awaiting funds for assembly and erection, the structure was finally placed at the Washington Navy Yard on the banks of the Eastern Branch (now the Anacostia River ) of the Potomac River , as the Naval Monument . Vandalized and damaged by the occupying British at

198-722: The burning of Washington in August 1814, during the War of 1812 , the monument was later restored. In 1831, it was moved to the United States Capitol on the west front facing the National Mall , much to the dissatisfaction of Porter, who found it had "been placed in a small circular pond of dirty fresh water—not large enough for a duck puddle—to represent the Mediterranean Sea." Resolution came in 1860 when

220-504: The unit sphere . A Cartesian coordinate system is defined in terms of several oriented reference lines, called coordinate axes ; any arbitrary direction can be represented numerically by finding the direction cosines (a list of cosines of the angles) between the given direction and the directions of the axes; the direction cosines are the coordinates of the associated unit vector. A two-dimensional direction can also be represented by its angle , measured from some reference direction,

242-436: The actor's orientation, "stage right" equating to the audience's "house left". This is from the auction catalogue description of an African wood figure: There is extensive insect loss in the proper right leg, some at the proper right elbow, and at the fronts of both feet. There is a chip off the proper right breast, and the proper right leg was broken off and reglued. Describing an Indian sculpture: The figure standing on

SECTION 10

#1732772321654

264-474: The angular component of polar coordinates (ignoring or normalizing the radial component). A three-dimensional direction can be represented using a polar angle relative to a fixed polar axis and an azimuthal angle about the polar axis: the angular components of spherical coordinates . Non-oriented straight lines can also be considered to have a direction, the common characteristic of all parallel lines , which can be made to coincide by translation to pass through

286-504: The event that she sees. Commerce, on the northeast corner, is represented by a male figure pointing to the column with his proper right hand and holding a caduceus in his proper left hand. Winged Victory stands beside the column, her proper right hand holding a laurel wreath over a sarcophagus and her proper left hand holding a bronze gilt palm branch. The column is adorned with two rows of antique " beaks of galleys " and two rows of antique anchors carved in relief . The sculpture rests on

308-487: The imaginary bearer of a coat of arms; to avoid confusion, the Latin terms dexter and sinister are often used. The alternative is to use language that makes it clear that the viewer's perspective is being used. The swords in the illustrations might be described as: "to the left as the viewer sees it", "at the view's left", "at the viewer's left", and so on. However these formulations do not work for freestanding sculpture in

330-600: The monument was completed in June 2000. There is some conjecture that the figures of Glory , History , Commerce , and Fame are not in Micali's original positions. The adjustment may have occurred in the transition to the Capitol in 1831. Proper left Proper right and proper left are conceptual terms used to unambiguously convey relative direction when describing an image or other object. The "proper right" hand of

352-615: The monument was moved to the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland . Even there, as the Academy expanded, the monument was moved and relocated several times around campus, before finally being situated in front the Academy's Officers' and Faculty Club. In August 1994, the Smithsonian American Art Museum noted that the Tripoli Monument needed treatment. The needed restoration of

374-405: The north side of the monument's base is Micali's signature as described above. On the west side of the monument's base is inscribed: On the east side of the monument's base: On the south side of the monument's base: On each face of the larger bottom base is inscribed: Near the monument is a brass historical plaque placed there after a restoration undertaken in 2000. The first two paragraphs of

396-406: The original position. However a more restricted use may be preferred, and the internal instructions for cataloguing objects in the "Inventory of American Sculpture" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum say that "The terms "proper right" and "proper left" should be used when describing figures only". In heraldry , right and left is always used in the meaning of proper right and proper left, as for

418-647: The plaque are At the conclusion of the First Barbary War (1801–1805), Captain David Porter , USN assumed the task of creating a suitable monument for the fallen officers. Working with the Bishop of Florence , Porter commissioned Micali to produce the piece for $ 3000, half of Micali's usual fee. Completed in 1806, it was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to Newport, Rhode Island on board

440-403: The round, where the viewer might be at any position around the sculpture. A British 19th-century manual for military drill contrasts "proper left" with "present left" when discussing the orientation of formations performing intricate movements on a parade ground, "proper" meaning the orientation at the start of the drill. The terms are analogous to the nautical port and starboard , where "port"

462-467: The unit vectors representing them are additive inverses , or if the points on a sphere representing them are antipodal , at the two opposite ends of a common diameter. Two directions are parallel (as in parallel lines ) if they can be brought to lie on the same straight line without rotations; parallel directions are either codirectional or opposite. Two directions are obtuse or acute if they form, respectively, an obtuse angle (greater than

SECTION 20

#1732772321654

484-400: The yakṣī's proper left, however, is not a mirror image of the other male ... Relative direction In geometry , direction , also known as spatial direction or vector direction , is the common characteristic of all rays which coincide when translated to share a common endpoint; equivalently, it is the common characteristic of vectors (such as the relative position between

#653346