Tag: artwork

The First Person to Publish an Encyclopedia

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Naturalis Historia was the first compiled collection of writing, which during the modern day would be referred to as an “encyclopedia.” Written by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century A.D., Naturalis Historia was divided into 37 unique books and contained more than 20,000 individual facts. Naturalis Historia was comprised of a vast array of subjects including astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, medicine, and even artwork, making it one of the most ambitious attempts in history to catalog and consolidate the entirety of human knowledge. Unlike earlier publications which often focused upon a singular discipline (e.g. medicine but not science or law but not ethics etc.), Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia compilation sought to collect and streamline the entirety of the natural world and the human understanding of it into a single reference point. Pliny the Elder’s encyclopedic vision influenced scholars for centuries after his death, and his work served as one of the main pillars of Medieval and Renaissance education in the centuries which followed. Shortly after completing this compendium in 77 A.D., Pliny the Elder died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. at age 55 whilst attempting to rescue those who could not escape from the volcano’s clutch. Fortunately, the entirety of his Naturalis Historia work survived this natural disaster

The Origin of the Christian Halo

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The halo is not a Christian construct as in early depictions, Jesus Christ had a wand to perform miracles. The halo was put forth because as Christian artwork grew in its characters depicted, Christ needed to appear more divine and stand out which is why he was provided a halo. Paegan’s borrowed the halo from Apollo, and the Christians borrowed the halo from the Paegan’s. The halo started off as lines coming from the head much like the look of the Statue of Liberty during the modern day. The spikes of the halo were designed to represent Christ’s solar divinity

The Period When Classical Artwork Transitioned From 2 Dimensions (2D) to 3 Dimensions (3D)

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Art broke away from being two dimensional caricatures with the invention of the camera obscura which had the painter sit in a dark room, with the window blocked out with a small hole in it. Doing so would cause the image outside the window to be projected into the room of the painter and onto the canvas, which could then be traced. The image, as with cameras and the human brain is brought in upside down, so the painter would be forced to trace upside down. During the Tudor period, lenses were developed for the first time which allowed artists to learn to paint with realism because after tracing and creating the minute details of each face correctly, they could focus on light and shadow. The camera obscura acted as a starting point to stencil a face. Boards were put down the back of the person sitting so that they would sit perfectly still allowing the painter to sketch them in perfect render. This technology acted effectively the first camera and in that, the first glimmer of Renaissance artwork

The Reason Hindu Deities are Provided Offerings

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Within the Hindu religion it is believed that a sculpture or depiction of a god is not abstract, rather the sculpture or image is actually the deity depicted which has been manifested. This means that to view a depiction of a Hindu god as an artifact or a piece of artwork is to imprison that god in an enclosed structure like a prison. This is why Hindus feel the need to touch and provide offerings to depictions of gods, as they believe that the depiction is just as real and authentic as a human being of whom they are face to face with. It is highly common to see sculptures bedecked in finery and provided offerings like milk, yogurt, and sweets

The Craft of Venetian Mask Manufacturing for the Italian Festival of Carnival

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Masks have been part of Venetian culture since at least the 12th century A.D. as it was in 1162 that the first Carnival festival occured, a city wide celebration which marks the period prior to Lent. Up until 500 years ago, classic Venetian masks were constructed of papier-mâché, a medium that some Venetian mask artists still utilize during the modern day. Strips of papier-mâché are laid into a mold made of resin and layer by layer they are covered in glue. All materials are designed to be non-toxic. When a mask is complete, artisans use scalpel blades to cut out the eyes and any rough pieces remaining (e.g. edges etc.). Once a mask dries, it is decorated with beautiful colors and artwork (e.g. floral arrangements etc.). This is often performed freehand with a pencil. Masks are then painted using beautifully ornate colors (e.g. blue, red, yellow etc.) and finished by adding accoutrements (e.g. 24 karat gold leaf etc.). The craft was almost lost when Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice, Italy in 1797 and banned Carnival and Carnival masks as he believed the event could spark rebellion. Benito Mussolini banned the celebrations once again in the 1930’s. Until the late 1970’s, Carnival was a largely forgotten relic but it has since observed a resurgence within popular culture

The Oldest Artwork in Human History

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Near the Ardeche River (pronounced “arr-desh”) in southern France, less than 0.5 kilometers away, 3 explorers set out a few days before Christmas in 1994. While seeking drafts of air emanating from the ground which would point to the presence of caves, these explorers found a subtle airflow which was blockaded by rocks. The explorers found a narrow shaft which was cut into the cliffside, so narrow in fact that their bodies could just barely squeeze through it. Deep inside the cave the explorers stumbled upon the oldest known cave paintings in human history, twice as old as any other artistic depiction made by human hands. The cave itself had been perfectly sealed for tens of thousands of years which is why this 32,000 year old artwork was found in pristine condition. In honor of the lead discover Jean-Marie Chauvet (pronounced “zhan mah-ree sho-vee”), the cave was named “Chauvet Cave”. The French Ministry of Culture controls all access to the cave, an intervention which was rapidly implemented as this discovery was immediately understood as an enormous scientific find, perhaps one of the greatest anthropological and artistic discoveries ever made. Scientists and art historians are typically the only members of the public permitted access to Chauvet Cave, with archeologists, paleontologists, and geologists being the most common interdisciplinary teams provided entry

The First Mass Produced Items of the Ancient World

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The first mass produced pieces of artwork were the ancient Egyptians shabtis which were essentially miniature mummies that the ancient Egyptians believed had magical powers and were therefore buried with the dead. Shabtis were comprised of Egyptian faience which is a type of glass ceramic material made from sand. Egyptian faience is referred to as such in order to distinguish it from faience, which is a tin glazed pottery associated with Faenza, Italy. The idea of Egyptian faience was to replicate semiprecious stones like turquoise lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, which at the time was more expensive than gold. The recipe for Egyptian faience is 90% crushed silica, crushed fine natron salt to act as a flux, crushed limestone, and then the coloring with blue being the most popular, a color achieved through the use of pure copper oxide. Water was introduced to turn this composition from a granular mix into a dough like substance. Natron salt which is a type of baking soda, is the key ingredient to this recipe as it rises to the surface when baked and lowers the overall temperature at which sand melts and becomes glass. The statues are left to stand for 24 or more hours as this helps the salt grow on the surface through a chemical reaction process as oxygen within the ambient environment mixes with the ingredients inside the Egyptian faience

The Etymology of the Term “Baroque” and “Rococo”

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The term “Baroque” is derived from the Portuguese term “barroco” which means a “misshapen pearl” as it was thought that the baroque period was similar to the Renaissance, but not as perfect as the Renaissance, a sort of wonky replica of sorts. The term “Rococo” is derived from the French term “rocaille” (pronounced “rock-eye”) which means “shell work” and typically refers to the late Baroque period. Rococo implies an art form which is shapeless and overloaded with detail, and the term was originally meant as an insult towards the Baroque and Rococo artform, as is the case with many forms of artwork when they first emerge (e.g. graffiti etc.)

Societal Changes Within the United Kingdom Which Occurred​ After World War I

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Post World War I in the United Kingdom, many battle hardened veterans no longer viewed themselves as servants to the wealthier classes of society and demanded social equality, suddenly realizing that work in factories and within dense city populations could provide a better standard of living than within small economically cut off villages. Suddenly, without warning, aristocratic estate owners went from paying 6% on their income tax, to a much higher rate in line with what a common person would pay. Due to this massive increase in the amount of income now required to continue the running of an estate, many were demolished during the 1950’s and 1960’s and much of the artwork within these homes which initially would have been passed down throughout subsequent generations as family heirlooms, were sold to the U.S. as the U.S. was the wealthiest nation in the world during the era and had the ability to help once wealthy families avoid complete financial ruin. Most aristocratic dynasties simply gave up with the introduction of these new income tax policies as the cost of maintenance was simply too great for what an estate could reasonably generate

Pablo Picasso’s Politically Charged Guernica Painting

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On April 26, 1937, Guernica, Spain was severely bombed due to civil conflict brought on by World War II. The Basque town of Guernica was openly hostile towards General Francisco Franco’s ideologies, and because of this, Franco unleashed a 3.5 hour bombing raid upon this defenseless city, with help from German allies. In total, 1650 people were killed, 900 injured, and most of the township was destroyed, an event which sparked international outrage. Pablo Picasso created a piece of artwork as sentiment towards anti-war and anti-violence entitled “Guernica”. Picasso understood that artwork and politics rarely go together hand in hand and so he created not a piece of aircraft and bombs but rather of horses and swords, as he was determined not to create artwork which could be used as propaganda in the future. The bull depicted within the painting is designed to represent Franco and his military powers and the suffering horses and weeping woman symbolize the people of Spain. Picasso’s Guernica work became a timeless masterpiece and a copy of it is on display at the United Nations world headquarters in New York City, United States of America. The Guernica painting was covered briefly with a veil during 2003 when U.S. General Colin Powell announced the United States’ decision to invade Iraq. The Guernica image was seen as incendiary commentary and therefore intolerable during this chaotic period. The Guernica painting has become a symbol of protest to violence, war, and military regimes, not just for every country in the world, but of the 20th century and beyond