Over the past 5 years, there has been increasing evidence for the role of primary (9+0) cilia in renal physiology and in establishing the left-right axis. The cilia in the renal tract are immotile and thought to have a sensory function. Cilia at the murine embryonic node have a vortical movement that sets up a leftward flow. Inversin, the protein defective in the inv mouse and in patients with type-2 nephronophthisis, localizes to both renal and node primary cilia. However, we present evidence that it is also expressed before the node forms and that its subcellular localization in renal tubular cells is not confined to the cilia. Its role in both the pathway determining left-right axis and renal function remains to be elucidated.
An allegory of the power of love by Titian painted about 1543–46 was originally made as a cover for a female portrait in the collection of Gabriel Vendramin (1484–1552) in Venice. This is a rare instance of the survival of a documented canvas cover (timpano) linked to a specific image. My article considers the visual and literary contexts for such covers, and the cultural setting of the Vendramin collection, where sociable viewing involved shared aesthetic and haptic experiences. I suggest that the lost portrait depicted the Venetian patrician Elisabetta Querini Massola (d. 1559) whose virtue and beauty were celebrated in poems by Pietro Bembo, Pietro Aretino and Giovanni della Casa. I link the imagery of the cover to two sonnets by Della Casa in praise of Elisabetta. For reasons of decorum a timpano would have been appropriate for a noblewoman's portrait, but Titian's inventive allegory was designed both to evoke Vendramin's celebrated collection and to recall qualities associated with the image it concealed.
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