Michelangelo's 'compass in the eyes' and Italy's cultural heritage challenges

Piergiorgio Odifreddi, writing in La Repubblica, discusses Michelangelo's concept of the 'compasso oculare' (compass in the eyes), where the artist claimed that intuition, not mathematics, should guide aesthetic proportions. However, Michelangelo himself learned this lesson the hard way: after the first half of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was unveiled, he realized his figures were too small and had to enlarge them in the second half. Two decades later, for the Last Judgment, he planned figures at the top to be much larger than those below. Odifreddi will deliver a lecture on Arab mathematics at the Salone del Libro di Torino on Monday, May 16. Separately, Il Corriere della Sera reports on an Italia Nostra conference in Bologna warning that art and landscape are at risk if protection is neglected, highlighting Italy's 4,000 museums needing daily care. Il Sole 24 Ore investigates the Grande Progetto Pompei, noting that General Curateli flagged concerns about the same companies bidding both individually and as part of the Research Pompei consortium, raising questions about corporate ties.