In the first stage of this project, the areas of difficulty for students were identified, using a sample of 490 students aged between 15-17 years. The main areas of difficulty for year 10 were: chemical formula, quantum number, periodic table of elements, lanthanides and actinides and chemical equations. For year 11, the main areas of difficulty were: male calculation, chemical equation balance, homologous series, isomerism, alkyl groups and pH and pOH calculation. In the second stage, students were then asked for comments on the areas of difficulty and, later, took a short test using structural communication grids, these offering insights into areas of confusion and misconceptions. For the third stage of this project, attitudes relating to chemistry were measured using questionnaires, this being conducted with 225 students aged 15-17 years. The surveys and questionnaires revealed a clear picture of the situation in chemistry in the Emirates showing fairly negative attitudes, probably mainly as a result of an overcrowded and largely irrelevant curriculum taught by very didactic approaches which took little account of the psychology of learning. The core of the study involved the development of four units of paper-based teaching material. These were designed specifically to meet two sets of criteria. Firstly, the predictions from information processing determined the way the material was presented so that student learning was likely to be enhanced. Secondly, the evidence from attitude development informed the design with the aim that positive attitudes towards studies in chemistry would be encouraged. The way the units were used and the way they were tested is described, this work also being carried out with students in years 10 and 11 (age 16-17 approximately) in typical schools in the Emirates. For this stage, a total sample of 800 students boys and girls aged between 16-17 years in Emirates secondary schools participated. Each unit of work lasted for about 6-8 weeks. The testing involved a number of approaches including structural communication grids, open-ended questions and, with one unit, the development of a concept map. Attitudes to numerous aspects of the processes involved in learning chemistry were also explored. The performance of the students was found to be markedly better than control groups, the t-test values being significant at around p < 0.001. Numerous attitude comparisons were made using the chi-square statistic. Here, extremely high values were obtained, indicating quite massive attitude changes had taken place. The insights offered by the study are summarised and the possibilities for future work are also outlined. The whole study arose from a concern that students in the Emirates often seemed to have poor attitudes towards their studies in chemistry and that many were rejecting chemistry as a subject to pursue. This study has provided illumination on the problem and, on the basis of the evidence obtained, suggests possible ways forward to a better approach to the study of what is an important school discipline, the outcomes being widely applicable in many countries.

Social, emotional and behavioural aspects of development are key to children’s overall development. A failure to develop normally in any one of these areas can have far reaching consequences, affecting the child’s ability to learn and to develop relationships with peers, potentially leading to fewer educational qualifications, a lack of future employment, poverty and a range of other outcomes including difficulty forming relationships, mental health issues and increased criminal behaviour (Tremblay et al., 2004; Woodward & Fergusson, 2000; Ttofi, Farrington, & Lasel, 2012; Hodgins, Larm, Ellenbogen, Vitaro, C Tremblay, 2013; Pingault et al., 2013). In Glasgow City, a large proportion of children live in disadvantaged circumstances, including living in households and areas suffering from multiple deprivation, living with parental substance misuse and witnessing domestic and community violence (Glasgow Centre for Population Health, 2013; Taulbut & Walsh, 2013). These risk factors can all impact on children’s social, emotional and behavioural development (Margolin & Gordis, 2000a; Gennetian, Castells, & Morris, 2010; Chronis et al., 2003). Children also tend to be clustered in schools with other children who may share similar demographic characteristics and who have similar levels of difficulties, which may compound or ameliorate the individual’s strengths or weaknesses. This thesis aimed to explore the levels of children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at the start of Primary School (age 4-5) and at Primary 3 (age 7-8) in Glasgow city and to investigate the stability of these over time. Analysis was carried out using a brief behavioural screening questionnaire, Goodman’s Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)(Goodman, 2013b), which had been completed by nursery staff and class teachers. The thesis also aimed to examine whether Glasgow City is different in its levels of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties compared with other areas of Scotland and the UK. Clustering of difficulties within schools is analysed in order to explore the relationships between peer difficulties and demographics, individual difficulties over time and ultimately, whether schools have an effect on the development of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties during the first three years of school. The results of this study indicate that, between preschool and P3, levels of Conduct Problems, Emotional Symptoms and Hyperactivity/inattention increased, whilst levels of abnormal Pro-social Behaviours decreased and Peer Relationship Problems remained relatively static. Both means and prevalence rates for children in Glasgow City demonstrated similar patterns to UK norms, though levels of Hyperactivity/inattention problems at P3 were higher than in UK 5-10 year olds. Data from the Growing Up in Scotland study were used to investigate whether a ‘Glasgow Effect’ (i.e. an amount of variation that could not be explained solely by demographic differences in the population) existed in children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at preschool age. Children in the Glasgow sample did have higher rates of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties compared with children in the rest of Scotland. However, this difference in difficulties appeared be entirely accounted for by the difference in demographics within the populations in the different areas. There are various factors which might explain this: sampling issues, such as having to use a Greater Glasgow and Clyde sample rather than Glasgow City, may mask any Glasgow Effect, whilst it may be that differential attrition in the GUS cohort may mean that children with problems are missing from the sample. It could also be that sleeper effects are at work, which may emerge in the form of difficulties later in childhood, or that what we are seeing is a ‘Scottish Effect’ rather than a Glasgow Effect, given that most of the previous research in this area compared Glasgow with demographically similar English cities. At this stage however, it appears that results from Glasgow may be generalisable to other areas, once demographics are controlled for. Multilevel modelling of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) data from Glasgow City schools was then used to explore what factors were associated with longitudinal increases in SDQ scores between preschool and P3. Results showed significant differences between schools in the unadjusted models, accounting for 11% of variance in change scores. The adjusted model found that having worsening social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the first three years of school was associated with being male, being from a White-UK background, and having had Looked After status (been under the supervision of the state) by preschool. Being in a school with a small school roll was also associated with an increase in difficulties over this time. School effects were only reduced slightly in this final adjusted model, accounting for 9% of variance between schools, suggesting that variation in the development of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties may differ somewhat between schools during the first three years. It should be noted that numbers of pupils within schools were small in some cases, leading to wide confidence intervals and possibly reducing significance of the results. Having social, emotional or behavioural problems at P3 (above the cut-off on the SDQ for likely difficulties) was also related to a range of factors. Again in the unadjusted model, there was a statistically significant difference in levels of difficulties between schools. The strongest predictor of such problems was having had an abnormal score at preschool. Also important was being male, having been Looked After by preschool and being in a school with a higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals, which is likely to be a proxy for income deprivation. However, once these characteristics were controlled for, there was no statistically significant difference between schools. The ability to identify a group of children prior to the start of school who are at risk of continued social, emotional and behaviour difficulties raises questions about whether a preschool mental health screening test should be put in place. It would be hoped that this would allow children to access the support they need in order to optimise their development, with a suggestion that a universal screen for these types of problems could double or treble the traditionally low numbers of children receiving help (Goodman et al., 2000). However, there are also difficulties with a screening tool of this nature, including the potential for false identification of difficulties, the potentially negative impact of labelling children, the additional burden that this may place of services and finally the current lack of evidence around a potential effective intervention for children of this age (Goodman et al., 2000; Sayal et al., 2010; Wichstrom et al., 2012). In conclusion, children in Glasgow City have similar prevalence rates of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties at preschool, compared with children in the rest of the UK, but these difficulties are markedly worse in Glasgow City by the third year of school. However, the difference in these scores may just be due to Glasgow City having a more disadvantaged population, which in turn impacts on levels of difficulties. Whilst schools were found to make a difference in relation to children moving up or down the spectrum of difficulties in the first three years of school, there was no evidence that schools contributed to the likelihood of children having an ‘abnormal’ score at P3, though again, this lack of significance could be related to the small numbers of pupils within some schools, as well as the over-riding impact of having difficulties earlier in life. More research is required with larger numbers of students within schools in order to see if the lack of variance seen between schools at P3 is real or whether it is a sampling issue related to small numbers and therefore wide confidence intervals within schools. Qualitative work around the outliers and some of the unusual findings, e.g. that children in smaller schools appear to fare worse, would be beneficial in interpreting the findings. It would also be of great benefit to follow these children up to the next stage of data collection at P6, in order to explore what happens to children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties by the end of Primary school.

A partir da sua conceituação inevitavelmente relacional que a opõe ao centro, o estudo que aqui se apresenta pretende investigar as modalidades da representação da periferia na literatura brasileira contemporânea, tendo em vista ao mesmo tempo a sua projeção no mercado editorial nacional e internacional. O trabalho enfoca, em particular, a obra de quatro autores brasileiros contemporâneos (Rodrigo Ciríaco, Marcelino Freire, Ana Paula Maia e Patrícia Melo) que, pelos seus percursos pessoais e criativos, podem ser colocados em pontos diferentes de um continuum entro o polo “centro” e o polo “periferia”, ora mais próximo de um, ora de outro, mas sempre pressuppondo ambos os termos, tidos como mutuamente implicados nas várias configurações identitárias de cada autor, fora de qualquer lógica dicotómica. O percurso começa pela literatura periférica enquanto terminus a quo, não só do ponto de vista cronológico, de toda abordagem histórico-cultural do tema, chegando depois a acompanhar a progressiva reestruturação (ou desestruturação?) desse relacionamento osmótico entre a escrita e o lugar, conforme acontece, por exemplo, em uma autora como Patrícia Melo, em que a periferia não passa de um simples pano de fundo, desvencilhado de qualquer função conhecedora. Por fim, no último capítulo, a análise debruça-se sobre a presença de autores brasileiros, e em particular de representantes do movimento da literatura periférica, no mercado editorial mundial, por meio da tradução e da participação de eventos culturais internacionais como a Feira do Livro de Frankfurt e o Salão do Livro de Paris. / Starting from the concepts of the centre and the periphery, this thesis analyses their representation in Brazilian contemporary literature and their relationship in the Brazilian and international publishing market. Focusing on four Brazilian contemporary writers with different personal and creative paths – Rodrigo Ciríaco, Marcelino Freire, Ana Paula Maia e Patrícia Melo – this research aims to demonstrate that they can be placed on an imaginary line, which develops through multiple gradations. Therefore, this continuum is opposed to a binary opposition’s point of view. From this perspective, the emergence of a new literary movement from the suburbs of Brazilian big cities, the literatura periférica, is analyzed in order to try to understand how it is different, or not, from other literary discourses. Finally, the thesis observes the presence of Brazilian writers, especially exponents of literatura periférica, in the international publishing market, through their translation and participation in major international cultural events such as Frankfurt Book Fair and Paris Book Fair.

Lo studio in oggetto è volto a reperire una metodologia di ricerca sui proverbi, basata su corpora linguistici e guidata dall’approccio corpus-driven. Il primo capitolo si concentra sull’analisi linguistica del proverbio, cercando di evidenziarne le principali caratteristiche e problematiche. Anzitutto, il proverbio è una frase e non un costituente come può essere l’espressione idiomatica. In secondo luogo, la sua semantica funziona su tre piani distinti: il proverbio, infatti, ha un significato composizionale, ma anche un significato paremiologico e, quando viene enunciato, veicola un messaggio. Nel secondo capitolo, dopo aver preso in esame il rapporto tra linguistica dei corpora e paremiologia, abbiamo cercato di reperire una metodologia di ricerca automatica di proverbi in grandi corpora linguistici come itWaC e frWaC, i due corpora utilizzati nell’ambito della presente ricerca. Prendendo spunto da altri studi in ambito fraseologico, abbiamo capito l’importanza di effettuare concordanze di marcatori di proverbio per ottenere proverbi. I marcatori di proverbio utilizzati sono stati la parola proverbio per l’italiano e la parola proverbe per il francese. Nel terzo e nel quarto capitolo, abbiamo illustrato dettagliatamente le tappe della nostra ricerca. L’analisi ha mostrato il vero funzionamento dei proverbi in contesto e ha evidenziato comportamenti molto interessanti, come la modifica e la creazione del proverbio. Nel complesso, lo studio mostra chiaramente che i proverbi sono ancora utilizzati e perfino creati, ecco perché la ricerca non può fermarsi. Inoltre, l’analisi dei dati reali può fare giungere a risultati non solo più precisi, ma anche innovativi. / This research aims at giving some methodological guidance for the study of proverbs through corpora. In the first chapter, the analysis of the linguistics of proverbs highlights their main characteristics. Firstly, they are sentences – not phrases; secondly, their semantics concerns three different levels, since they have a compositional meaning, a paremiological meaning and, when uttered, they convey a message. In chapter two, after highlighting the relationship between corpus linguistics and pariemology, I have searched for a methodology to automatically find proverbs in very big corpora, such as itWaC and frWaC, the two corpora used in this research. Drawing on studies from other fields, such as phraseology, I have realised that proverbs can be found through the concordance of their marker. In this research, these markers of proverbs are the words proverbio, for Italian proverbs, and proverbe, for French proverbs. Chapters three and four practically illustrate how our research has been carried out. The analysis has focused on identifying the main features characterizing our proverbs and their functioning in real contexts. In particular, great importance has been attached to variation and creativity in proverbs, proving that we are still modifying and inventing proverbs. This study clearly shows that proverbs are still in use, on the one hand, and that research on proverbs needs further and more thorough investigation, on the other. However, in order to obtain even more satisfying results, proverbs must be investigated using real data.

La presente tesi intende indagare, da una prospettiva antropologia e psicanalitica, alcune opere dello scrittore e pittore Carlo Levi (1902-1975). In particolare, l'autore si sofferma sul nucleo centrale della poetica leviana, analizzando Paura della libertà (1946), Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945), L'Orologio e il postumo Quaderno a cancelli (1979). / The present doctoral thesis wants to explore, from an anthropologic and psychoanalytic prospective, some Carlo Levi’s literary and art works. Notably, the author is focusing on Levi’s central core poetics, analyzing Paura della Libertà (1946), Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1945), L'Orologio e il postumo Quaderno a cancelli (1979)

La riforma della musica sacra in Italia trova nella Bologna tra il 1874 e il 1907 un terreno fertile ancora non esplorato a fondo. La ricerca condotta in questo campo ha fatto emergere una visione innovativa della città ove si trovano ad operare musicisti e musicologi di fama internazionale. Accanto all'antica Accademia filarmonica si pone l'attività centrale della Diocesi e del Liceo musicale. Ad un avvio lento condotto dalla partecipazione individuale dei musicisti si giunge al momento di svolta a partire dal 1894 con Luigi Torchi e l'arcivescovo Domenico Svampa che con il loro operato fanno sì che Bologna faccia proprie le istanze ceciliane. / The reform of sacred music is most important for Bologna between 1874-1907. During this period, a lot of great musicians and musicologists slowly approach to reform's ideals. The president of Accademia filarmonica, Luigi Torchi, and Domenico Svampa archbishop, with Stefano Gamberin and Federico Parisini, are the key persons.

La ricerca tenta di analizzare la relazione ambigua tra il sacro e l’arte contemporanea alla luce di eventi recenti: la partecipazione del padiglione della Santa Sede alla 55a e alla 56a Biennale d’Arte di Venezia. Arte e sacro in passato, nella loro reciproca dipendenza, rivelavano la dimensione essenziale e originaria dell’uomo; rivelavano la condizione rituale, cultuale, individuale e collettiva, che risponde alla primaria sacralità della vita. Questo tipo di osmosi è stata sostituita da singole entità non più sovrapponibili in un’era secolarizzata. L’arte può esprimere un’aura di sacralità, considerando la prevalenza dei suoi aspetti secolari? Cos’è che definisce l’arte sacra? Possiamo parlare di arte sacra o lavoro secolare sul sacro? Alcune sezioni riguardano la negoziazione di simboli sacri nell’arte contemporanea, specialmente nel rapporto tra figurativo e a-figurativo; nella committenza ecclesiale, arte e liturgia; nella retorica della citazione del sacro, tra ironia e blasfemia. Le riflessioni aprono un campo d’indagine che considera l’arte come interazioni di prospettive plurime: storica, filosofica, antropologica e psicologica. Questo lavoro tenta di analizzare il ruolo dell’immagine sacra nel contemporaneo, nell’era del disincanto, alla luce di questo ritrovato interesse per il sacro appunto e per una ormai obsoleta storiografia dell’arte, che tenta di mutuarsi in storia delle immagini. / The research tries to analyze the ambiguous relationship between the sacred and contemporary art in the light of recent events: the pavilion of the Holy See at the 55th and 56th Venice Biennale. Art and sacred, in the past, in their mutual dependence, revealed the essential and original dimension of man; they revealed the ritual, cultish, individual and collective condition, that responds to the primary sacredness of life. This kind of osmosis has been replaced by individual entities that no longer overlap in the secularized era. Can art express an aura of sacredness, considering the prevalence of its secular aspects? What is it that defines the sacred art? Can we talk about sacred art or secular work on sacred? Some section of the thesis concerns the negotiation of sacred symbols in contemporary art, especially in: figurative and a-figurative art; religious patronage, art and liturgy; rhetoric of the sacred quote between irony and blasphemy. Reflections open up the field of investigation and consider art as a result of the interaction between plural perspectives: historical, philosophical, anthropological and psychological. So this work attempts to analyze the role of the sacred image in contemporary era, the era of disenchantment, in the light of this renewed interest in the sacred and in the obsolete historiography of art, that tries to become history of images.

Il lavoro svolto apre a una nuova prospettiva di indagine nella valutazione della funzione storiografica della categoria di ‘Stilnovismo’, mediante una ricognizione testuale che attraversa il corpus poetico di Cino da Pistoia. Nella prima parte della ricerca si offrono i risultati di un’attenta rilettura dei ben noti passi danteschi in cui nel trattato latino sull’eloquenza in volgare il nome di Cino è stretto in un binomio indissolubile all’amico ed esule fiorentino, alla luce di una riconsiderazione delle sfere di referenza della 'subtilitas' e della 'dulcedo'. La complessità e varietà dell’immagine del poeta pistoiese restituita dal trattato dantesco viene quindi rielaborata secondo un’analisi linguistica e stilematica che problematizza l’ipostatizzata identità di Cino con una vena di monocorde dolcezza, nelle tracce rilevanti di strutture formali e concrezioni lessematiche di marca pre-stilnovistica se non anche di ascendenza guittoniana. L’ultima sezione recupera il confronto con Dante in una nuova conferma del congeniale eclettismo ciniano di assimilazione di esperienze poetiche lontane e aliene da quella comune 'koinè' letteraria che nella storia della ricezione storiografica risponde al canone dantesco di 'dolce stil novo'. / The present work offers new insights for the understanding of the historiography of the notion of "Stilnovismo" by means of a fine-grained analysis of the poetry of Cino da Pistoia. In the first part of the work, I will provide a new analysis of the well-known Dante's passages of the De vulgari eloquentia - in which Cino's name is indissolubly linked with the name of his Florentine friend, by providing a new interpretation of the notions of 'subtilitas' and 'dulcedo'. In particular, I will offer a linguistic and stylematic analysis of the complex and multifaceted image of Cino as depicted in Dante's treatise. The proposed analysis aims to challenge the alleged identification of Cino with a mild ‘sweetness’ flair, by looking at his linguistic structures and lexical choices reminding of pre-stilnovismo and Guittone's poetry. The last section offers a comparison with Dante's poetry and assesses Cino's versatility and sensitivity to poetry practices outdistancing the poetry 'koinè' represented by Dante's 'dolce stile'.

La tesi si pone l'obiettivo di investigare la scena performativa contemporanea concentrandosi sull’evoluzione, durante il Novecento, di due aspetti principali, o forme: il corpo e l’abito. In primo luogo, si tratta di porre la lente d'ingrandimento su ciò che ha comportato la modificazione del concetto di presenza del corpo sulla scena, attraverso il triplice filtro della tecnologia, della moda e del movimento. Diviene utile indagare, quindi, come il modo di pensare e agire sul corpo si sia modificato negli anni attraverso la realizzazione di costumi e di strumenti scenici in cui la componente tecnologica e multimediale ha acquisito sempre maggior importanza. Declinato dal campo della moda a quello delle arti sceniche, il design, infatti, si trova oggi a essere espressione di una ricerca che esplora le possibilità nascoste dell'interazione tra sistemi tecnologici multimediali e l'ambito artistico. Diviene importante, quindi, non sottovalutare la questione del costume nella composizione complessiva dell'opera ma sfruttare, invece, le infinite risorse che la moda può apportare all'estetica e alla percezione finale dello spettacolo stesso. Rispetto alla forma abito, si prenderà, quindi, in considerazione proprio la sua evoluzione attraverso il lavoro compiuto da stilisti all'avanguardia che collaborano, in maniera diretta o indiretta, con il mondo della live art. Un rapporto che è interessante esplorare nelle reciproche influenze tecniche ed estetiche. Basti pensare alle collaborazioni tra William Forsythe e Issey Miyake; o ancora al lavoro del designer inglese Garreth Pugh, i cui abiti sono il prodotto di ispirazioni molteplici, dalle esibizioni serpentine di Loïe Fuller, così come dai costumi geometrici schlemmeriani. Procedendo attraverso un lavoro di sovrapposizioni in trasparenza rispetto ai tre domini di teatro, moda e tecnologia, l'obiettivo sarà allora quello di verificare l'apporto, in termini di sviluppo estetico e compositivo, che le loro reciproche ibridazioni possono apportare alla scena performativa contemporanea. / The dissertation investigates the evolution and the relation, along the last century, of two main aspects of the contemporary performing arts, indicated here as forms, such the body and the garment, through the implication of the new technologies. First of all, pointing out how the modification of the concept of presence worked for a re-consideration of both the two forms, through the triple filter of technology, fashion and movement. Then, analysing how the development of technological and multimedia garments and stage devices change the way of thinking and acting to the body on stage itself. As well as in the field of fashion and in the context of the performing live arts, design is today the expression of a research that explores the possible interactions and contaminations between technology and arts. The garment issue, then, becomes relevant in the whole composition of the performing artwork, and as well to consider how fashion can be a rich and important source in terms of aesthetic and perception for the theatre world. About the analysis of the form – garment, as the second main object after the form-body in the structure of this thesis, is important considering how the dress item is evolving by means of the work of avant-garde fashion designers who collaborate, directly or not, with the live art domain. Therefore, the relation between fashion and performing arts will be explored through their mutual influences, in a technical and aesthetic point of view. Along the dissertation, there will be also presented several examples of the collaborations between designers and theatre directors/choreographers. Leading the research by overlapping the three domains of theatre, fashion and technology, finally the main object will be to verify the aesthetic and the structural contribution that their interaction have on the contemporary performing arts.

La tesi ricostruisce l’attività degli artisti francesi alla corte estense durante il governo di Francesco I (1629-1658) e Alfonso IV (1658-1662) e la iscrive nel più ampio quadro dei legami politici e culturali tra Parigi e Modena per illustrare il contributo francese alla definizione dell’immagine del potere ducale. Lo spoglio del carteggio diplomatico dell’abate Ercole Manzieri, residente di Francesco I a Parigi a partire dal 1650, ha permesso di documentare gli intensi traffici di ritratti, gioielli e abiti che da Parigi giunsero a Modena, attestando una cospicua influenza francese sul gusto e sul costume estense. Come Manzieri, anche Girolamo Graziani, poeta e segretario di stato, fu impegnato come ambasciatore. La tesi indaga i panegirici da lui composti in lode di Luigi XIV e ne illustra la genesi, prima di focalizzarsi su Jean Boulanger, primo pittore di corte di Francesco I. Chiarita la sua formazione e i suoi primi incarichi a corte, l’attenzione è rivolta alle sue pitture nel Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo, privilegiando la Galleria di Bacco, di cui si definiscono l’architettura, l’allestimento e la funzione. Nell’ultima sezione la tesi ricompone la committenza ‘francese’ di Alfonso IV e si concentra sull’ultimo ciclo decorativo di Boulanger nella perduta villa ducale delle Pentetorri. Nuovi documenti hanno permesso di collocare le sale dipinte dal francese nello spazio della villa e di leggere, per la prima volta nella sua organicità, l’iconografia del ciclo. Seconda monumentale impresa di Alfonso fu la commissione delle solenni esequie in onore del padre defunto, immortalate nell’Idea di un prencipe del gesuita Domenico Gamberti (1659). Quest’opera, tra le più prestigiose imprese tipografiche del Seicento, plasma l’immagine del potere ducale anche grazie a un ricco repertorio di illustrazioni che videro il coinvolgimento di diversi artisti, anche francesi, di cui si precisano i nomi e le modalità di ingaggio. / The thesis deals with the work of French artists at the Este court during the reign of Francis I (1629-1658) and Alfonso IV (1658-1662) and the broader context of political and cultural links between Paris and Modena to illustrate the French contribution to the definition of the image of ducal power. From the study of the diplomatic correspondence of Abbot Ercole Manzieri, resident of Francesco I in Paris from 1650, it resulted that Modena was among the first courts to comply with the fashion and customs of France. The thesis investigates the panegyrics that Girolamo Graziani, secretary of state, poet and ambassador of the Este court, composed in praise of Louis XIV, before focusing on the artistic path of Jean Boulanger, who was the first court painter of Francesco I. The research first clarifies his initial formation to focus then on his paintings in the Palazzo Ducale in Sassuolo, especially on the Bacchus Gallery. In the very last section, the thesis deals with the 'French client' Alfonso IV and it focuses on the latest Boulanger decorative cycle in the lost Villa ducale of Pentetorri. Documents only partially known allowed to place the rooms painted by Boulanger in the space of the villa and to read for the first time the entire cycle iconography. Second monumental Alfonso enterprise during his short reign was the solemn commission funeral for his deceased father as immortalized in the Idea di un prencipe of the Jesuit Domenico Gamberti (1659). This work, one of the most prestigious of the seventeenth century, shapes the image of ducal power thanks to a rich repertoire of illustrations. If the original project is up to Jean Boulanger, for their engraving onto copper more French engravers were involved, whose names and modes of engagement are specified in this work as well.