http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/ http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/ All About Arts - Art history, styles, movements, trends, schools, periods weekly 0 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/graphic_art.htm Among the technical terms used in connection with prints the more important are: edition, the number of prints issued, often numbered by contemporary artists, as for example, 3/50, 3rd of an edition of 50; impression, each print produced; proof or trial proof, impressions printed while the artist is working on the block or plate to check progress; when the artist prints a number of impressions, alters the plate and then prints others, the first group is said to be of the first state, those printed later after revision, of the second state, etc. Occasionally, when only one proof of a certain state exists, it is known as a unique impression. But there is only one graphic process which limits prints to a single copy -- the monotype, which dates from the 19th century. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/art_and_expressing_emotions.htm Medieval thinkers based their interpretation of art on the philosophy of Plato and St Augustine. For them, this meant that there should be a harmonious relationship between the part and the whole. There was no question of the imitation of Nature in either the theory or the practice of art. Such ideas did not come to the fore until the Renaissance, when art was made to reflect man's newly-awakened sensuous approach to the natural world about him. The copying of Nature -- based on the philosophy of Plato's pupil Aristotle -- has continued in favour up to the present day and prevents many people from having access to wide realms of creative art. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/art_is_as_old_as_mankind.htm Recorded history goes no farther back than the written word; everything prior to that belongs to prehistory. Civilisations that did not leave written records used to be overlooked. But the inception of writing is quite independent of the existence of art. Gradually, the art of prehistoric times has been brought to light by the spades of the archaeologists. Civilisations that were ignored by historians because they left no writings such as those of Africa and Ancient America, the South Seas and the Polar Regions -- produced their own characteristic art styles, and the study of these has contributed much to the development of art today. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/art_concept.htm Sculpture, painting and the crafts have existed since the earliest days of mankind; architecture as such dates back to the ancient civilisations, such as that of Egypt. The term 'mother of the arts', though often applied to architecture, is therefore not accurate in the sense that architecture gave birth to sculpture and painting; it is only justified to the extent that architecture, when it did finally come upon the scene, took sculpture and painting under its wing and nursed them as a mother nurses her children. Then it was that the sculptural treatment of buildings and wall painting became art forms in their own right. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/painting_historical_subjects.htm Eighteenth-century painters were chiefly drawn to history painting by the desire to excel in the 'grand mander'. Reynolds' least successful works were his historical pictures such as 'Ugolino' and 'Macbeth', and the desire to achieve fame in the heroic field prompted painters like Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley to expend their modest talent on such compositions as 'The Death of Wolfe' and 'The Death of Chatham'. David "Oath of the Horatii", despite its startling effect on the revolutionaries of the day, shows the coldness and theatricality to which history painting had sunk by the beginning of the 19th century. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/illumination_manuscript_paintings.htm The great impetus to all forms of art and scholarship received under Charlemagne also influenced the illuminator's art. Different schools, such as the Aachen Palace School, which was close to the Imperial court, and the schools connected with various abbeys, such as the Rheims, Tours, Metz, Corbie and Canterbury schools, based their work generally on earlier models; these, however, they were often able to transform in a very original manner. In the Ottonian age, which had witnessed the gradual development of a linear style, the illuminator's art reached new heights. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/jewellery_art_in_the_ancient_egypt.htm A vast store of jewellery was discovered during excavations along the shores of the Aegean, the types of ornament including diadems, ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, brooches and rings. Where metal occurs it reveals knowledge of the various methods of repoussé, twisted wire and granulated work. Ornamental motifs are based principally on the sphinx, the griffin and the bull's head. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/art_of_lace_making.htm The Venetians were the first to abandon all foundation material (c. 1530) and to rely solely on the needle to create the fabric. The chief varieties of Venetian lace are known as Rose Point, Point de Neige, Gros Point de Venise and Point Plat de Venise. The chief characteristics of Venetian lace are the raised cord outlining the design, known as the Cordonnet, the diversity of the fillings worked in button-hole stitch and the starry effect of the brides or connections between the various parts of the design. The principal designs for Venetian lace, shown in a pattern book printed in Venice in 1560, were conventionalized floral scrolls. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/town_planning.htm The gridiron was also retained and was mainly used in the cities of the newly colonized regions of eastern Germany.Otherwise, the medieval city is generally a picturesque 'natural' growth, unaffected by any geometrical principles, although it is by no means an aimless sprawl. The Renaissance planners alone tried once again to devise 'ideal cities' on strictly geometric lines, preferably circular, polygonal or square, with a radial street system. But few towns were in fact built in this manner (Palmanova, Hanau, Freudenstadt). Town planning gained a powerful new impetus during the Baroque. The Baroque city was not so much arranged round a central square as orientated towards the sovereign's residence, whose gardens either mirrored or slightly varied the lay-out of the streets. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/mosaic_artworks.htm Mosaic was a common type of decoration in Greece in the Late Hellenistic period and the name given to it, 'Opus Alexandrinum', points to Alexandria as a centre for the work. But few examples can be dated earlier than the Roman occupation. The Romans excelled in the art of floor mosaic; fragmentary examples are to be found wherever they established themselves, in France, England, Germany, Sicily and North Africa. A few wall mosaics were found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Roman mosaics were usually simple in colour and generally consisted of all-over geometric patterns or a central rectangular field surrounded by an ornamental border. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/landscape_painting.htm In Europe, landscape painting has been much more closely associated with particular localities, rendered with varying degrees of realism. The desire of the Renaissance painters to recreate actual appearances inevitably led to a realistic rendering of the background behind figures of Saints and Madonnas. The backgrounds in the large figure compositions of such painters as Pollaiuolo and Francesca are astonishingly faithful renderings of the Tuscan landscape. The study of perspective developed an understanding of the importance of space and light in the painting of landscape and these qualities are emphasised in the works of Perugino and his followers. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/lithograph_a_flat_print.htm The stone is then covered with greasy printer's ink, which will not adhere to the wet areas, but only to the drawing. This can now be be transferred to paper. That is the basic principle of lithography (it is slightly more complicated in practice), the technique invented in 1796 by Alois Senefelder, who saw in it a cheap was of reproducing his own writings. The lithograph was taken up enthusiastically by artists everywhere, since it allowed pen, brush and chalk to be used as they would be on paper. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/monastic_archlitecture.htm The normal arrangement of the various rooms in a medieval monastery is as follows: along the east walk of the cloister were: the sacristy (adjoining the church); the chapter-house, where the community met daily to hear a chapter of the monastic Rule and to transact business (there was often a chapel extending east from the chapter-house with an infirmary for old and sick monks beyond it); the parlour or auditorium for speaking, which gave access to the easterly parts of the monastery; and the workshop. Above these rooms was the dormitory with exit directly into the south transept of the church or, by stairway, to the cloister. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/aesthetic_value_of_crafts.htm The problem of distinguishing between an art and a craft presents itself in a different light today. We do not consider that function necessarily excludes or diminishes aesthetic value. Many present-day embroideries and tapestries are hung in frames and treated like paintings. But we must also ask ourselves what it is that makes a mere tool a potential work of art. The answer is that beauty should be added to utility. An article or implement does not have to be painted or covered with ornament. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/folly.htm An architectural extravaganza, a monument without functional intention, a concrete expression of the builder's private beliefs, an embodiment of his wit and a mirror to his vanity, a house abandoned incompleted, any building which is generally considered to lack utility or meaning. The folly is particularly associated with 18th-century England, when indulgence in this aberration of the art of architecture assumed the proportions of an epidemic. Yet the folly is not confined to any style, period or nationality. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/speciments_of_furniture.htm The hollowed-out tree trunks, of which the earliest chests were made, gave way to framework and panelling. Next, craftsmen learned to veneer, or to use thin layers of rare woods to face the more ordinary kinds and to decorate furniture with marquetry. Aesthetic, rather than purely utilitarian, considerations became increasingly important from the Renaissance onwards. Architectural forms were used for chests, court cupboards, sideboards and tables. This is very characteristic of English 16thand 17th-century furniture. It is heavy, solid and, with few exceptions, not particularly elegant. Motifs were widely and sometimes unsuitably copied. During the Baroque, craftsmen began to specialize in various branches. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/architecture.htm Architecture may aim to preserve bulk and monumentality, as in Romanesque art, or it may combat the solidity of the walls and make them 'dissolve', as in the Gothic cathedrals. The architect may emphasise and separate supporting and buttressing components, but he may also integrate them. As in all the arts, everything will depend on the particular cultural level attained. Unlike other works of art, buildings are monuments to an epoch rather than expressions of individual aspiration. Architecture is essentially directed towards the greater public. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/coloring_and_true_painting.htm We speak of 'pure' painting where the composition is built up entirely of colour and is not based on a pattern of lines. The dress of the child in Rembrandt's 'Family Portrait' consists only of a series of carefully nuanced colours. This presupposes a very sure sense of the quality of colour, which is quite a different thing from mere intensity. Each colour of the spectrum has a certain degree of brilliance of its own which, quite apart from its intensity, can be expressed as a shade of grey. But individual colours also produce special effects. Thus, red seems closer to the eye than blue; it belongs to what we call the warm colours (red and yellow), as opposed to the cold colours (blue and green) which are more 'distant'. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/drawing_the_art_of_the_line.htm Drawings are part of our everyday life, even if we ourselves have no artistic talent. A drawing is used to explain the plan of a house, the streets of a town. Such 'explanatory' drawings also play an important role in art, whether they are the sketches for a painting, for a statue or the plans of a building. Drawing has had this ancillary character for centuries. The drawings of the old masters are rightly called studies. The study was not recognised as a work of art in its own right until the 19th century, when sounding a genuinely original note was considered more important than conformity to the accepted pattern of the age. And, indeed, a rapid sketch has all the appearance of a spontaneous and personal expression of an artistic utterance; it often bears the same relationship to a finished painting as handwriting to copper-plate. The more rapidly the drawing is made, the livelier it appears. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/akademos_or_academy.htm The earliest official academy of art was the Academia del Disegno founded by Vasari in 1563. Its immediate offspring was the Academia di San Luca in Rome ( 1593), the organization of which became the prototype of Lebrun's and Colbert's Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, founded in Paris in 1648. The latter, in turn, with its elaborate order of precedence, its mode of training, its artistic doctrines and its affiliate institution in Rome, was the model for similar enterprises throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/alabaster.htm Retables dating from after the close of the 14th century are coarser in handling and mannered in treatment; and in the latest examples, dating from the end of the 15th century, the workmanship is careless. The whole nature of the trade at that time is shown by the record of an action brought in 1491 by Nicholas Hill, an imagemaker, against his salesman for the value of 58 heads of St John the Baptist. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/altars.htm When a church has more than one altar the principal one is called the High Altar, and it is placed against the rear of the chancel or isolated in the body of the church. In Italian churches the High Altar is placed at the crossing (at the intersection of the nave and transepts); in France towards the rear of the choir; in Spain towards the rear of the nave. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/history_of_collecting.htm The Catalogue of the King's Pictures, 1948, records the growth of the English Royal Collections. The elder son of James I, Prince Henry, left, a number of pictures and bronzes to his brother Charles which formed the basis of Charles' important collections. His greatest acquisition was the purchase of the collection of the Dukes of Mantua which included the nine 'Triumphs of Caesar' by Mantegna. On the advice of the Rubens, Charles bought the cartoons by Raphael now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/basilicas.htm Ranged round the apse were seats for the assessors with a raised seat in the centre for the praetor, and in front was the altar where sacrifice was offered before the transaction of business. The building, which was generally covered with a wooden roof, was, according to Vitruvius, sometimes open along the sides, and the exterior was extremely simple. Roman basilicas included Trajan's Basilica, the Basilica of Constantine, Rome, adjoining the Forum, the Basilica Julia and the Basilica Aemilia. Wherever Rome established her power a basilica for the administration of justice formed an important feature in her town planning and remains of basilicas have been found at Pompeii, Fano, Trier (Trèves), Tingad and at Silchester in England. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/early_illustrated_books.htm In Paris the printed book kept in closer touch with the art of the illuminator than anywhere else. Books of private prayer were printed on vellum with borders and pictures gilded in the style of manuscripts. Prominent printers and publishers of these were Philippe Pigouchet, Jean du Pré, Thielman Kerver and Antoine Vérard. The early English press is not outstanding for its illustrations. Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson all issued illustrated editions of the Canterbury Tales. In the 16th century the talents of the foremost artists found expression in the service of the printed book, among them Dürer, Hans Burgkmair, Holbein and Cranach. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/brickwork.htm The Romans often plastered or faced the façades of their brick buildings, whereas a brick structure in the fullest sense of the term should have its walls left bare. The use of brick was revived in the Lombardic architecture of the early Middle Ages and in the 12th century spread to Bavaria, northern Germany and Denmark. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/enamel.htm The cells (cloisons) formed by these strips are then filled with the enamel. This was the principal method used by Byzantine artists especially during the 10th and 11th centuries. In the cloisonné of Eastern European popular art the metal strips are replaced by silver wire. Another technique of enamelling on silver, the basse-taille process, developed in Italy from the 14th century onwards. The drawing was cut into a silver plate and everything was then covered in transparent enamels. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/calligraphy.htm The earliest of these manuals was that of Ludovico degli Arrighi, also known as Vicentino, which was issued in Rome in 1522 and gave an example of a semi-formal script, the chancery hand. In the 20th century there has been a revival of calligraphy in Europe, begun by Edward Johnston in England and continued in Germany by Rudolf Koch. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/capital.htm The Corinthian capital is still more elaborate, consisting of a bell-shaped core from which long volutes rise to support the corners and shortened ones merge into a profusion of acanthus leaves in two florid rows. Byzantine architects used a form derived from the Corinthian; they flattened it and made it a more compact type of surface decoration. To the acanthus motif they added others based on basket weaving and melon ridges. Romanesque capitals are also Corinthian in shape, but display great variety of carved decorative motifs, conventionalized birds, animals and robust foliage designs. The rich carving on Gothic capitals is more deeply cut, more naturalistic and even more fertile in invention, and the capitals themselves are diverse in shape. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/caricature.htm The earliest known portrait caricature dates from 1600; it is the work of Annibale Carracci ( Stockholm/Nat. Mus.) and depicts an Italian singer and his wife. It was Carracci who first used the word caricature to designate this kind of drawing. Bernini was a skilful caricaturist, though his work in this field is little known. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/castles.htm Such is the Château de Châteaudun. The Crusades brought about a change in the planning and building of castles. Instead of relying for defence on the keep, a system of concentric curtain walls with towers at intervals was adopted. This was the plan of the great castles such as the Crac des Chevaliers built by the Crusaders in Syria and the Holy Land. They took the plan from the Turks who had adopted it from Roman military architects. The Tower of London has a rectangular keep in the old style and concentric walls with towers added by Henry III and his successors in the new manner. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/glass_artist.htm By a variety of techniques, glass can be made colourless, given a single colour or several colours. Thin threads of glass can be used to produce the so-called 'twist stem'; this can be elaborated into the 'lace twist', the 'spiral gauze' and many other forms. If the thin threads in the stem are coloured, the result is known as a 'colour twist stem; if both opaque and coloured, a 'mixed twist stem', and so on. If glass rods of different colours are fused together, cut across and melted into plain glass, the resulting effect is called millefiore (literally 'a thousand flowers'). weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/glyptic_arts.htm Cameos and intagli are fashioned on the lapidary's wheel, or with the help of carborundurn dust. The glyptic arts were practised with great skill in Mesopotamia as long ago as during the 4th millennium B.C. Cylinder seals, for impressing on some soft material, and used for official or business purposes, were already well known. The Egyptians scarcely knew the intaglio, since most of their seals were made in pottery, often in the shape of the scarab. In the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations, the glyptic arts were much to the fore. The stone-cutters of this age used both pattern and figure decoration. Gem cutting, mostly in the form of intagli, also flourished in Ancient Greece from the 8th century B.C. onwards. As the making of intagli and cameos became an important branch of the arts, many stonecutters came to sign their work. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/copper_engraving.htm The first engravings on copper date from shortly after 1400, soon after the invention of paper in Europe. The greatest engraver of all time was Albrecht Dürer. After his day, several variants of the copper engraving were invented, such as the stipple engraving (16th cent.), for which the artist uses a small punch in place of the burin. The mezzotint is an invention of the 17th century. Here the plate is scored all over with a roulette or mezzotint rocker, a steel tool with sharp teeth along its curved edge. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/dome.htm Pendentive domes are of two types: in the one case, dome and pendentives are of the same hemisphere. The pendentive is simply the curved overhanging surface supporting the dome, each dome thus having four pendentives (cushion dome). In the second type of pendentive dome, the saucer dome, dome and pendentive consist of different hemispheres. This is an advanced form of the dome, already known in Byzantium, and rediscovered by Brunelleschi. Illustration 54 shows how the transition from a square section to an octagonal 'drum' -- to take the dome -- is effected. Often, the dome is surmounted by a small turret-like structure, the lantern (as in the dome of St Paul's, London). The horizontal segments between the pendentives are called lunettes. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/art_of_goldsmith.htm The famous Vaphio Cups illustrate the skill of Minoan goldsmiths, while Greek jewellery includes some of the finest specimens of filigree enamel and granulated work. Geometric motifs prevail but there are many representations of human and animal figures. Roman goldsmiths' and silversmiths' work (discoveries at Pompeii, Boscoreale, Hildesheim, Mildenhall) exhibits the same techniques used with heavy magnificence rather than with the grace and delicacy characteristic of Greek work. Byzantine goldsmiths perfected the art of cloisonné and excelled also in filigree and granulated work. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/famous_gardens.htm The French Renaissance châteaux of Chenonceau, Valencay, Villandry and Chambord, too, were given extensive gardens during the Baroque. There are more famous gardens near Paris and Marly-le-Roy, Chantilly, Rambouillet, St Cloud (with a remarkable cascade) and in St Germain-en-Laye, the latter also by Le Nôtre ( 1673). French garden designers also produced extensive parks in Germany. The most famous of these are at Herrenhausen near Hanover, at Schleissheim and Nymphenburg near Munich (Charbonnier, Girard). weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/incunabula.htm The immense superiority of movable type lay in the fact that while the earliest blocks could be used only for the particular work for which they had been cut, the movable type, being composed of separate letters, could be used over and over again for any book. The earliest extant piece of printing is an Indulgence printed at Mainz in 1454. Three names are connected with it: Gutenberg, Fust and Schocffer. The first printed edition of the Bible was issued before 1456 and is known as the Gutenberg Bible. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/iron.htm The quatrefoil grilles and the lanterns of city palaces indicate the use made of iron by Italian craftsmen. In Renaissance Spain wrought iron was magnificently used for monumental screens with vertical columns of hammered ornamentation and horizontal bands of arabesques, the whole crowned with elaborate crests. The iron was coloured and gilded with striking effect in the dim church interiors. The Spaniards also used iron for pulpits and lecterns. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/ornament.htm The Art Nouveau movement achieved an entirely new synthesis of plant and animal forms in its ornament. The basis of ornament is pattern, i. e. the continuous or rhythmical repetition of the same motif. Without it, a frieze would become a picture, as would a wall-paper. It would be a mistake to attribute decorative qualities only to ornament, although the word (Latin ornare -- to decorate) encourages such a conclusion. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/porcelain.htm The Chinese had always distinguished between wares made for the Imperial Court, those made for the home market and those which had become slightly defective during firing and were used for export. Whole regions, such as Swatow in southern China, made mostly export wares. Some of these have none of the 'delicacy' we normally associate with porcelain. Their decoration is vigorous, handsome and not in any way naturalistic. In Europe, imitation porcelain (Medici porcelain, French artificial pastes) was finally superseded when Johann Friedrich Böttger of Meissen discovered the secret of real porcelain in 1709. The Meissen factory was founded a year later. Employing the painter weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/portraits.htm After the advent of Christianity with its emphasis on the worthlessness of the material world, interest in portraiture disappeared almost entirely until its revival in Europe towards the beginning of the 15th century, when diminutive portraits of donors began to appear in unimportant corners of Italian altar-pieces, and when Pisanello and Jan van Eyck began to concern themselves with the representation of individual physiognomies. These portraits were very modest in scale, consisting in Pisanello's case of profile medallions and in van Eyck's of small panels. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/poster_art_history.htm In northern European churches the pulpit was originally combined with the reading pew, which was placed beyond the chancel screen in the nave as it had to be in a position from which the priest could best be heard. During the 13th century, when preaching grew increasingly popular, the pulpit became a separate piece of furniture placed towards the middle of the nave against one of the pillars or against the north or south wall. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/pottery.htm The most important forms of pottery are earthenware (Faience, or Majolica) and porcelain. Faience (named after the Italian city Faenza, where this type of ware was made at an early date) is a form of earthenware, covered with an opaque and non-porous tin glaze. The Italians call it Maiolica, after the island of Mallorca, from which Spanish 'faiences' were imported to Italy. To-day, the name 'faience' is mostly used to describe French earthenware; Italian earthenware is called majolica; Dutch and English earthenware of a similar type are known as 'delft'. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/restoring.htm A cross or crucifix generally standing on the rood screen or attached to the vaulting of the entrance to the chancel of medieval churches. A famous example is the Romsey Rood. The rood screen separated the part of a medieval church reserved for the use of the clergy from that intended for the use of the public. Rood screens were often richly decorated with sculpture. A celebrated example is the one in the West choir of Naumburg Cathedral in the Saale, Germany, dating from about 1250. A late example is that of St Etienne du Mont, Paris. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/silk_indigenous_to_china.htm The earliest surviving Chinese patterned silks were discovered in 1910 by Sir Aurel Stein in Chinese Turkestan on the route opened by the Chinese for silk trade with Western Asia in the 2nd century B.C. These fabrics reveal an intricate technique of tapestry weaving and the designs consist of fabulous birds and beasts, scrolls, wave patterns and cloud forms. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/stage_design.htm In Ancient Greece, stage design consisted of but a simple back wall with three doors. By the time of Vitruvius (1st cent. B.C.) some painted scenery was used. Vitruvius describes standardized decorations for three types of drama, architectural motifs for tragedy and comedy and pastoral designs for satyr plays. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/stained_glass.htm The origin of stained glass is obscure, but it is thought to come from the Near East and to date from no earlier than the 9th century. By the 10th century, Venice was the centre of the industry. The first record of pictorial windows is a manuscript giving an account of the various windows of Rheims Cathedral rebuilt from 969 to 988. But the history of the art is documented with existing works only from the 11th and early 12th centuries. Windows of this period were usually single and the stained-glass picture was of one monumental figure. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/still_life_painting.htm As enthusiasm for the human figure began to wane with the approaching decadence of the Italian schools, the still-life detail encroached more powerfully upon the canvas space. Caravaggio produced several examples of independent still-life -- an elaborate painting of flowers. Luca Barbieri executed a painting of a dead fish, another of dead game and one of a basketful of flowers, and Paolo Antonio Barbieri painted huge piles of animals, comestibles, fruits and flowers, which entirely overwhelm the landscapes in which they are set. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/stucco.htm The Byzantines did not employ plaster and for more than 1000 years all relics of ornamental stucco work in the Empire were gradually forgotten. But the removal of the capital to Byzantium spread the art of plaster to the Near East where it was enriched with an oriental extravagance the results of which were brought back to Europe in the early part of the 13th century by the Moors, who were responsible for the magnificent plasterwork of the Alhambra. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/tapestry_art.htm Numerous examples of Near Eastern tapestry dating from the 4th and 5th centuries A. D. have been found in Egyptian burial grounds. The bulk of these pieces are fragments from tunics, cloaks, cushion covers and wall hangings woven with wool and linen wefts. After the Islamic conquest, silk was commonly used. Pre-Islamic Near Eastern designs comprise strapwork, plant forms and human and animal figures derived from the popular eschatological cults. During the Islamic period the patterns consisted of small hexagons, lions or water birds, strap patterns and calligraphy arranged in bands or medallions. Traditional forms of tapestry are still being made in the Near and Middle East, mostly with geometric patterns or stylized plant patterns. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/decorated_tiles.htm The earliest Islamic tiles date from the 9th century A. D. and include squares with a plain green or brown glaze and decorative designs such as that of a cock within a wreath painted on squares surrounded by oblong hexagons mottled to resemble marble. Quantities of lustre ware with brown or yellow painting executed in a sketchy, broad style found at Rayy include star-shaped tiles. Another important tile-making centre was Kashan, where the tiles were painted in brownish lustre. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/etching.htm Etching, like copper engraving is an intaglio process. There is little difference between the two methods, except that the lines, in the case of an etching, are not engraved directly into the plate (often also of copper), but are produced with acid (nitric acid or sulphuric acid). The plate is coated with a thin layer of wax or asphalt, called the ground. The design is then easily drawn into the soft coating. The acid can only eat into the metal where the needle has pierced the ground, thus producing the drawing. After removing the ground, the prints are made as in copper engraving. The technique of the etching permits the most delicate lines and requires little physical effort. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/vaulting.htm The Romans excelled in the use of vaults of various kinds. The barrel or tunnel vault was borne throughout its length on the two parallel walls of a rectangular apartment. The cross vault was formed by the intersection of two semicircular vaults of equal span and used over a square apartment. When cross vaults were built over long halls or corridors the hall was divided by piers into square bays, each of which was covered with a cross vault which allowed of the insertion of windows in the upper part of the walls as in the terpidarium of the Baths of Caracalla and the Baths of Diocletian, Rome. The lines of intersection of these cross vaults are known as groins. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/european_wallpaper_art.htm In the middle of the 17th century, wallpaper design was subjected to a new influence from the East. Travellers to China brought back sheets of paper painted with designs made up into sets. By the beginning of the 18th century these became one of the most popular of all wall decorations, painted as they were with designs of landscape, birds and flowers and scenes of domestic life. Meanwhile in Germany, where wallpapers until this time had scarcely been used, a unique type of wall covering was being produced known as gaufragé paper. The design was printed in outline from a copper plate and impressed in relief. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/woodcut.htm The woodcut is a relief process, i. e. one in which the drawing stands out from the background of the block. Areas that are not meant to print off are hollowed out. This technique had already been used in connection with fabric printing, many centuries before the woodcut. The invention of paper in Europe at the end of the 14th century, in China somewhat earlier -- made possible the woodcut as we know it to-day. The first German woodcuts -- Germany led in this technique -- were devotional pictures, printed on single sheets. The blockbook, invented round 1430, consists of a series of woodcuts, printed from blocks, containing both text and illustrations. weekly 1 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/index.htm All About Arts - Art history, styles, movements, trends, schools, periods weekly 2 sitemap http://art-canyon.com/all-about-arts/more_articles.htm All About Arts - Art history, styles, movements, trends, schools, periods weekly 2 sitemap